Monday, 24th January 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  Euroleague Basketball has finalised a TV rights deal with the China Sports Programs Network ensuring coverage throughout the country. The 4-year deal came into effect ahead of last night’s Top 16 clash between Regal FC Barcelona and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, which had the largest potential audience of any game in European club basketball history. CSPN is available to 245 million households in six provinces on terrestrial television and 800 million on satellite platforms across China. CSPN has committed to show 5 Euroleague games per week, at least two of which will be shown live, and all games will be simulcast by Chinese mobile phone operator CBC.

=>  (Excerpt) The ability of the English Premier League to squeeze vast sums of money out of its product is unrivalled in world sport. The league netted £1.4bn TV rights package in March 2010, providing clubs with an average annual income of £23m until 2013. Games are broadcast in 211 countries by 98 broadcast partners ensuring a potential audience of over 1bil for their multifarious commercial partners.

=>  The South Africa Football Association (Safa) are demanding Rand 1 mil (US$141 mil) from the SABC for the right to broadcast Bafana Bafana matches for the next five years. The current deal with the public broadcaster is worth a measly Rand 150 mil and ends on March 31. Safa currently pays the SABC R700 000 worth of production costs for every match Bafana plays. After being pipped by SuperSport to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) rights in 2007, SABC are frontrunners for exclusive rights to Bafana Bafana matches. SuperSport paid Rand 1.6 bil for the PSL rights in 2007.

=>  The Ugandan Super League, the top soccer league in Uganda, has signed a domestic broadcast rights deal with Smart TV, the new subscription broadcaster operated by Next Generation Broadcasting. The deal is reported to be worth US$2 mil over 4 years for exclusive rights. 33% of the fee would be spent on TV production of at least two live matches per week plus highlights. Smart TV is willing to negotiate with local broadcasters about sub-licensing rights. Smart TV is set to go live next month.

=>  Chile’s state broadcaster, TVN, has won exclusive terrestrial TV highlights to the top two soccer leagues, the Campeonato Nacional Petrobras. Valid for two years, rights kick off with the season’s 2011 Apertura. The deal is thought to be worth US$4 mil per season. Highlight rights were previously with commercial broadcaster Mega, paying US$2 million per year. The TVN deal means that the league will earn close to US$10 mil per season from domestic TV rights. The league receives a base fee of around US$5.4 mil from soccer broadcaster Canal del Fútbol for control of exclusive TV rights and shares revenues above a set threshold with the Chilean Football Federation. In 2011, CdF indicated a share at least $30mil for the 32 first and second division clubs.


BROADCAST

=>  ESPN Star Sports has got a Rs 6 billion terror and weather insurance cover for the coming ICC Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from 19 February to 2 April. State-owned General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) is providing the cover which is three times that of the 2010 Commonwealth Games which had an insurance cover of Rs 2 billion. The cover would compensate for any loss in advertising revenue from cancellation due to adverse weather conditions and terror attacks.

=>  The Indian cricket team’s 3 back-to-back series victories over Australia, South Africa and New Zealand at home has taken official broadcaster Neo Cricket to the top among the Indian sports channel. As per Tam's annual half hour cumulative ratings, Neo Cricket got 1.8 mil ratings. Following Neo Cricket was Ten Sports with rating of 1.3 mil, while ESPN and Star Sports were at fourth and sixth position with a rating of 643,000 and 130,000 respectively. DD Sports had a rating of 157,000, ahead of Star Cricket and Ten Cricket among others at fifth position. Zee Group’s newly launched cricket channel, Ten Cricket, stood at the 114,000 ratings. Clearly, cricket channels lead the pack with Only DD Sports and ESPN making it to the top five.

=>  Television New Zealand is working with Facebook to deliver New Zealand's first "social television" experience. The partnership will integrate online social networking with broadcast content for TVNZ's new channel U. TVNZ launches U, a new commercial free-to-air digital channel, on Mar 13. It features reality and factual entertainment programming, targeted at Kiwis aged 15-24. It will be a commercial operation and will replace the current advert-free TVNZ6. TVNZ's Head of Digital Media and Channels, Eric Kearley said: "It's the first true technology-driven integration of online social media with television in New Zealand."

=>  One round remains in the 2010-2011 Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, a series enjoying record TV audiences. The 8th and final round of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will take place in Hoogerheide (NED) on Jan 23rd. According to TV analysis company, IFM, the first 3 rounds of the Patrick UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup drew a cumulated worldwide audience of 17.21 million, of which 1.56 million watched one of the seven live broadcasts. Six countries broadcast the race: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland. In total, more than 83 hours of racing were broadcast during the first three rounds.

=>  Spain’s top-tier basketball league, Liga ACB, is to broadcast in sub-Saharan Africa after a deal was agreed between Setanta Africa. The deal covers 50 sub-Saharan Africa countries and includes coverage of one live game per week. Setanta has acquired the rights for the rest of the 2010-11 season with the option of further seasons. The Spanish league will now have strong exposure across Africa with the Setanta Africa deal adding to an agreement with Al Jazeera, the pay-television broadcaster in North Africa and the Middle East.


CONTENT

=>  IMG announced that Colin Montgomerie, former world #2 and the captain of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup team last year, has been appointed an ‘ambassador’ for Golfing World, the daily golf programming block offered by its IMG Media subsidiary. The daily golf magazine show will be produced 5 days per week, 48 weeks in a year and distributed to 300 mil homes, supported by a digital video player, online and mobile assets, social networking and sponsored in-flight programming. The video player is syndicated across premium golf, sports and newspaper websites, providing professional golf tour highlights. IMG has also developed a new website, www.golfingworld.tv and is set to launch mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and android platforms.


NEW MEDIA

=>  According to BuzzCity's latest Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q4, Malaysia achieved a 218% increase in mobile ad revenue compared to 2009, garnering overall growth of 103% in 2010. Compiled between Oct and Dec 2010, data revealed a quarter-on-quarter rise of 12% in mobile advertising worldwide. In Q4 of 2010, India, Indonesia, United States, South Africa, and Kenya emerged as the top five mobile advertising countries. India delivered over 4 bil ads to local audiences and outpaced Indonesia to secure top spot. The index tracks activity across BuzzCity's network including over 2,500 publishers across the globe and findings measure advertiser demand for mobile internet advertising.

=>  Japan's switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting is prompting computer manufacturers to come up with new devices that stream digital TV. Fujitsu announced 22 additions to its FMV series of computers that are "designed to meet modern lifestyles", including a number that will replace the TV set. Its Esprimo desktops are equipped with tuners for terrestrial digital TV broadcasts, some able to simultaneously tune in two digital programmes transmitted over terrestrial broadcast, broadcast satellite or 110-deg communications satellite. The new computers will hit shelves in Japan on 20 Jan.


EVENT

=>  Red Bull will be getting the Flying Bulls, which is considered the world's best aerobatic flying unit, for the first time in India. The team would be performing in India at the Aero India 2011 in Bangalore, held from 9th to 13th of Feb 2011. The aerobatic team, headed by businesswoman Radka Machova and comprising of 4 pilots, will perform in all 5 days at the Aero India. Initiated in 2001, the team has won FAI’s Nippon Grand Prix, making it officially the leading aerobatics team in the world. Based in the Czech Republic, they have flown in Europe,the Americas, the Middle East and Asia.


OTHER NEWS

=>  An AIBA commission has met to discuss all aspects of the sport of amateur boxing, from the rules to officials and the athletes themselves. Key decisions of the commission was proposed implementation of revised scoring system to make boxing events more interesting; removal of 1-second window and the running score will no longer be displayed during the bout. This according to Aiba will discourage passive defense in the closing seconds of a bout by coaches. The result will be a more exciting boxing match for fans, who will see the judges' scores at the end of each round.

=>  Sky Sports presenters, Andy Gray and Richard Keys, have apologized after mocking lineswoman during Liverpool match at Wolves. The pair thought their observations on Sian Massey and her understanding of the offside rule during the match at Molineux were being made in private, but their microphones were still on. A transcript and tape of the conversation was leaked to the media. Keys and Gray made their remarks after Massey refused to penalise Raul Meireles for being offside before he set up Liverpool’s first goal. Replays showed that she was right to allow Fernando Torres’s goal in the 36th minute.