RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Even as the BCCI is yet to come to grips with IPL setbacks in court, the Bombay High Court has restrained the Indian cricket board from entering any agreement with a third party for the worldwide broadcast rights contract for the IPL till an arbitrator is appointed. World Sport Group Mauritius motioned against BCCI's decision to terminate its worldwide broadcast rights deal for IPL. However, WSGM's arbitration petition was rejected by the Bombay HC, following which WSGM appealed the order. BCCI's counsel held that the agreement between MSM and WSGM was vitiated by fraud and that the rescission of agreement is just and proper.
=> The FA will veto any deal that sees TV rights for England games sold collectively by UEFA if it means broadcast revenue being slashed. UEFA wants to centralise awarding of rights for European Championship – and possibly the World Cup – qualifiers. The TV rights to England games are currently bundled in with those for the FA Cup and were worth £425m domestically, and a further £150m in overseas contracts, when the FA signed a 4-year deal with ITV and Setanta in 2007. UEFA wants all 53 member federations to sign over their broadcast rights in time for the annual congress in Paris next month.
=> Jamaican FTA, CVM TV, will broadcast the 2012 Olympics after agreeing a deal with rights-holder International Media Content, parent channel of trans-Caribbean cable sports broadcaster SportsMax, which was awarded the multi-platform Caribbean broadcasting rights. CVM TV will show exclusive FTA coverage in Jamaica of the 2012 Olympics, a departure from previous summer games when the Caribbean Broadcasting Union held the rights. The CBU then paid $500,000 for the rights to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but the commercial value of the games has increased, largely due to performances of sprint stars like Usain Bolt. In 2007, CVM agreed a deal with IMC for the rights to soccer’s Fifa World Cup tournaments in 2010 and 2014.
BROADCAST
=> The opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup on 19 Feb between India and Bangladesh, scored an average TVR in India of 7.47 and peak of 12.2. Average TV rating rose to 7.8 in India’s six metro areas with Bangalore leading with average TVR of 9.17. 33 mil viewers in India watched the opening match from Dhaka on Star Cricket; 28 mil on Doordarshan1, 25 mil to ESPN and 17 mil to Star Sports. Of these, 12 mil watched on terrestrial TV and 76 mil on cable/satellite. 14 mil watched via digital transmission on either DTH satellite or digital cable. 14 mil viewers tuned into the opening ceremony on 17 Feb. ESS’ live streaming on its website had reached over 3 mil in the first 4 days of the tournament. Of these, 1 mil were unique viewers.
=> US cable giant ESPN, has announced extensive coverage of golf's US Masters, the first 'major' of the year, in 3D. ESPN 3D will show 10 hours of programming in 3D, 2 hours each from the four days of competition - April 7 to 10 - and two hours from the Par 3 contest, which precedes the Masters, held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. ESPN shares coverage of the US Masters with CBS, the national television network, which shows live coverage of days three and four of the tournament. Last year, the Masters became the first major sporting event in USA to be produced and delivered in 3D to televisions and computers in homes throughout North America.
NEW MEDIA
=> Liverpool FC have agreed a deal with Snow Valley to develop a mobile merchandise store which will allow fans to purchase the range of content on the full online store and offer the same functionality. Optimised for use on iPhone and iPad, it will be available across smartphone platforms and usable on some older phones. Liverpool is the first club to offer such a service and will use Snow Valley's Muse ecommerce platform. According to the European Football Marketing Report by Sport + Markt, Liverpool generated more revenue from merchandise sales than any other English club last year. The Reds finished third in the list behind Real Madrid and Barcelona but ahead of bitter rivals Manchester United.
DATA
=> The worldwide pay-TV market continues to grow, says ABI Research, with subscribers on track to top 745m this year, up from 704m at the end of 2010. While forecasts for pay-TV market are upbeat, ABI points to the struggles being experienced by cable operators; high cable penetration in regions such as North America and Western Europe, and increasing popularity of online video services, have resulted in slow growth in worldwide cable TV markets. Asia-Pac is home to 57% of global pay-TV base. Digital TV is a key growth driver in 2010, with over 50% of pay-TV subs were digital customers. ABI also reports that HDTV subs will reach 225m this year.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Spanish betting firm, Codere, will begin legal proceedings against Bwin demanding that it be forced to cancel its lucrative shirt sponsorship deal with Real Madrid. Codere, which runs gambling venues across Spain, alleges unfair competition in a civil suit against Bwin and the club. Last year, Bwin extended sponsorship of RM until 2012-13 season in a deal worth €23m (US$31.6m) a year. Codere claims Bwin and RM’s advertising and promoting are not authorized by the gambling authority. Codere criticsed operators like Bwin "located in tax havens" that "do not have a permit to operate in Spain where they are taking great amounts of money from gamblers and betters and are using aggressive advertising and promotion.
=> As 2011 F1 season approaches, Swiss team Sauber F1 confirmed they will fly the flag for the Homeless World Cup. The new-look Sauber race car will be revealed in Guadalajara, Mexico this week with Sauber's new Mexican driver Sergio Pérez in attendance. The Homeless World Cup branding will appear on the backward facing rear wing of the C30 cars driven by Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi of Japan throughout the 2011 F1 season. Telco giant, Fundación Telmex, is a major backer of the Sauber F1 team. It is also the host of the Mexico 2012 Homeless World Cup.
Thursday, 24th February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Delhi High Court has ruled in favor of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd (ESIPL), in its suit for permanent injunction filed against cable operators across the country against unauthorized broadcast of ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The HC has restrained all cable operators from unauthorised showing of the tournament through their cable networks. ESIPL argued that the defendants, approximately 144 cable operators, are taking unauthorized connections and they are illegally accessing signals of the plaintiff without taking license from the company. The HC has also permitted ESIPL to take action against all other cable operators not party to the suit but are found to be illegally utilising the feed of ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket without license.
=> Netball New Zealand (NNZ) announced a new 4-year broadcast partnership with SKY – the largest commercial deal to be signed by a women’s sport in New Zealand. International and domestic netball will now be shown exclusively live on SKY Sport until 2015. The deal extends netball’s relationship with SKY, which already broadcasts the ANZ Championship, Lion Foundation Netball Champs and College Netball. NNZ has also reviewed its free-to-air television partnership and has revealed that Prime Television will be netball’s new free-to-air partner.
=> Germany’s athletics team has demanded that ARD and ZDF re-open talks with IEC in Sport to acquire live rights to the 2011 IAAF World Championships, held in Daegu Korea. Signed by 55 top German athletes and stars of the past, the letter said they could not understand the position adopted by ARD and ZDF, that despite the IAAF World Championships being among the most significant events in the world, the broadcasters ‘‘are only prepared to absorb a small part of the previously-paid rights fee.’’ ARD and ZDF were only willing to offer €6 mil (US$8.2 mil) for rights to the IAAF World Athletics Series from 2011 to 2013, below IEC’s asking price of €15 mil. Comparatively, ARD and ZDF paid over €20 mil for previous IAAF rights package plus additional “2-digit million figure (in Euros)” for production costs at the World Championship 2009 in Berlin.
BROADCAST
=> Shenzhen has completed building an integrated broadcasting control sub-platform, which lays a foundation for IPTV services. The platform can provide more than 100 broadcast channels, 15 HD broadcast channels, 20,000 hours of on-demand programming and 7 days playback. Built by Shenzhen Radio, Film and Television Group, the platform links to the Integrated IPTV Broadcasting Control Platform of China Internet TV which forms the platform’s core. All IPTV programmes and services will first be integrated into the platform before being provided to users. Shenzhen residents will be able to enjoy a variety of IPTV services after the sub-platform integrates with the networks of telecom operators.
=> Chinese film content provider, Celestial Pictures, has signed a deal with AORA, a newly launched national satellite TV provider in Indonesia. With the addition of Celestial Movies, audiences can now access the latest Chinese and Asian blockbuster films along with AORA’s line-up of international pay-TV channels. In reaching an agreement with Celestial Pictures, AORA becomes the fourth platform in Indonesia to carry CM, following Indovision, Telkomvision and Skynindo. Celestial Movies is Celestial Pictures’ flagship channel and the most widely distributed 24-hour Chinese movie channel in the world showcasing latest Chinese movies, plus behind-the-scenes programming, interviews with movie stars and directors, and entertainment news shows.
=> YouTube announced that it is in talks with National Basketball Association and National Hockey League to show live, streaming games on its site. According to Gautam Anand, Google’s Director of Content Partnerships for Asia Pacific, Google is in talks with “most pro sports leagues” including the NBA and NHL, and European soccer leagues. Such a deal would drive viewers to YouTube and generate significant ad revenue for Google. If YouTube wins rights to stream live sports, TV networks will see erosion of the value of rights to broadcast games. In 2002, TNT signed a US$2.2 bil, 6-year contract to air NBA games and if live games were available for free over YouTube, TV networks would likely see ad revenue decrease.
NEW MEDIA
=> India’s Hello TV has registered 500,000 subscribers to its mobile broadcast service, carried by telco BSNL. Hello TV is integrated into BSNL’s WAP portal allowing subscribers to watch streamed video from their browsers. 3G and 2G users have subscribed to the service since its launch a year ago. Apalya, competitor to Hello TV, is also available on BSNL via its MiMobi TV application. Hello TV is brought to market by Percept Knorigin, who is planning to launch a targeted mobile TV Apple iPad application for Indians living abroad and is also in discussions for the roll out of 3G and GPRS mobile TV services with three major operators in the next three months.
=> Perform has acquired football website Goal.com for an undisclosed sum, significantly upping the ante as far as its presence in the direct-to-consumer market. The deal is a major development for Perform, rapidly increasing its scale and reach in the global digital sports market to over 95 mil users a month. Over the last 3 years, Goal.com used its strong brand and broad news coverage in 15 languages to build a leading position in the online football portal market. In Jan 2011, Goal.com had 19.4 mil unique users including 3.8 mil visits on the 31st Jan, the last day of the European mid-season transfer window. Comscore rates Goal.com over 250% bigger than ESPNSoccernet.com, Football365.com and Teamtalk.com - the sites that started the online football revolution more than 10 years ago.
DATA
=> Rapidly increasing number of portable devices based on Google’s Android operating system will create huge opportunities for pay-TV operators, according IMS Research. The Convergence in Home Entertainment report found that by the end 2011 there will be an installed base of 140 million Android portable devices, including smartphones and tablets. It suggests the unveiling of Google’s Android 3.0 operating system for tablets, known as Honeycomb, along with enhancements to the Android Market website, will do much to enhance growth prospects for this segment. In total, Apple OS and Android OS were present in nearly 125 million connected devices shipped in 2010 and this is only expected to increase in 2011.
EVENT
=> The Asean Football Federation has awarded Malaysia and Thailand co-hosting rights to preliminary matches at the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, the biennial competition for national teams from the region. The AFF has yet to unveil dates for the 2012 tournament, although the matches are traditionally played in December. Malaysia, first-time winners of the Cup last year, previously hosted alongside Vietnam in 2004, while Thailand co-hosted with Indonesia in 2008. The AFF was believed to be considering the Philippines as a possible host for the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup although the country's stadia would have had to meet strict criteria to stage matches; provision of security, numbered seating and satellite uplink capability for live broadcasts.
=> AIBA has opened the bidding process for the 2013 World Boxing Championships. Interested parties should submit their letter of intent to AIBA's headquarters in Lausanne by March 31, 2011. The host city will then be decided at the 2011 AIBA Executive Committee meeting to be held on July 31 and August 1. The World Boxing Championships are held every two years and this year's event will be in Baku, Azerbaijan.
=> Putting the World Series Boxing Indian franchise mess-up behind it, the Indian Boxing Federation will launch the Indian Boxing League along the lines of Indian Premier League cricket from the second half of this year. The decision to conduct a League was taken at IBF's annual general meeting. Initially, IBL will be conducted in 4 cities for men only and Mumbai-based Percept D-Mark has the mandate to sell the franchise rights. Depending on IBL's success, it will introduce a league for women boxers as well. The Federation has yet to decide on the number of foreign pugilists to be allowed in the league.
=> Meanwhile, the inaugural finals of the World Series of Boxing, the 12-team, city franchise-based competition created by AIBA in partnership with IMG, has been moved from Macau to mainland China. AIBA said staging the team and individual championships in Guiyang (Guizhou province) rather than Macau, will "guarantee greater TV coverage and public attention", in line with a "broader commitment to develop boxing in the region." The WSB team finals will be held on the weekend of May 6 and 7, with the individual championships scheduled for May 27 and 28. The five WSB individual champions will earn a place in the 2012 London Olympics and $20,000 in prize money. The WSB regular season began in November and concludes in March.
=> Hockey's FIH took a critical step in developing its next major competition after sending out letters of invitation to teams wishing to participate in the FIH World League, previously referred to as the World Series. The FIHWL is set to debut in 2012 and will give all FIH members the opportunity to play for a place in the FIH World Cup or Olympic Games. During the 2012/13 period, the World League will qualify four teams directly into the 2014 FIH World Cup in the Netherlands. The FIH World League will be played in four rounds; first two rounds will take place in the 2012 calendar year, while the third and fourth rounds will conclude the cycle in 2013. The event will include men and women’s teams.
=> FIFA will discuss next week how 31 qualification places will be allocated for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The loudest appeal for change is likely to come from CONCACAF, which was previously awarded 3 definite spots while a 4th nation going into a play-off against a country from another confederation, which for 2010, was from South America. CONCACAF is likely to argue that South America could forfeit the right to a play-off since hosts Brazil gain automatic entry. That leaves nine South American nations competing for four spots.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Former Commonwealth Games OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and CWG official VK Verma, were today summoned for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation and later remanded in custody. This is the essential prelude to the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi himself, who has been sacked as the Organising Committee chairman last month. Sources said that the arrests were delayed as the CBI wanted a “fool-proof case”. The CBI now has sufficient evidence to back up the arrests from the material produced by corroborating officials arrested by CBI last year. The CBI did not file charge sheets against the threesome as they had traded their freedom against critical information on Kalmadi and company.
=> The Indian Chambers of Commerce (Ficci) organized a round table discussion on investment opportunities in India for a soccer academy for children which will leverage expertise of French football. It emerged that countries like France and Germany are interested in India considering the massive football market that India is. Rajpal Singh, director, Sports & Youth Affairs at Ficci, said the body is to preparing a report and database on fundamental issues impacting football in India. An important thing to come out of this meeting was the need for media planning which needs to attract people and media, like they do in the case of cricket. One of the members pointed out that in every international club there is a separate media planning team.
=> Total ADEX in Japan in 2010 was down 1.3% on 2009, according to Japanese ad giant Dentsu. The report found that advertising spend last year totaled Y5.84 tri ($70.5 bil). This represents the 3rd successive year of decline in the Japanese advertising market, after falls of 11.5% in 2009 and 4.7% in 2008. Broken down by medium, expenditure on TV advertising in 2010 rose by 1.1% and internet advertising increased by 9.6%, but newspaper advertising was down 5.1%. Dentsu said factors that boosted advertising spend last year included a gradually recovering economy and improved corporate earnings, along with major international events such as the winter Olympics in Vancouver and soccer’s World Cup in South Africa.
=> Traffic has completed deals with European broadcasters for TV rights to major South American soccer matches. Traffic markets media rights for the Copa America in Europe and England's FA Cup in South America. As well as its operations in broadcast media and sponsorship activation, Traffic also manages an investment fund worth just over US$24 million to take leading soccer players to new clubs. In January, Traffic was central to a deal that brought former Fifa World Player of the Year Ronaldinho home to Brazil from AC Milan to play for Rio de Janeiro club Flamengo.
=> News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch has agreed a deal to buy TV production firm, Shine Group, owned by daughter Elizabeth, consistent with News Corp’s strategy of expanding worldwide TV ops. Shine owns 25 production companies across three continents. Shine International, the group's distribution arm, distributes over 3000 hours of broadcast content annually. The two companies reached an agreement for News Corp to acquire 100% of Shine Group for an enterprise value of £415 million. The parties signed a non-binding letter of intent and now proceeds with regulatory requirements. On its completion, Elizabeth Murdoch is expected to join the News Corp board.
=> American Wasserman Media Group has upped involvement in media rights with acquisition of UK-based Reel Enterprises, which has worked with the International Olympic Committee and some prominent soccer leagues. David Kogan and Sara Munds, Reel’s co-founders, will join Wasserman to develop "global media rights practice based in London,". Kogan and Munds reports to Casey Wasserman, chairman and chief executive of WMG. Reel’s clients across the last 13 years include the IOC (as adviser for European rights sales for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics), English Premier League and Football League, Scottish Premier League and Premier Rugby.
=> FIFA has amassed reserves of US$1.2 bil, largely because of a windfall from last year's World Cup in South Africa. FIFA began 2010 with reserves of US$1.06 bil and the increase to US$1.2 mil meant FIFA could survive financially for 18 months in the event of a cancelled World Cup. FIFA claimed to be in the red in 2003 but has steadily built up its reserves since. Research prior to 2010 World Cup suggested the tournament would reap $3.3 billion for FIFA, an increase of US$1 bil on 2006. Media rights revenue jumped 53% to US$2.15 bil - the first time it had ever breached the 2 billion mark. Marketing revenue was calculated at US$1.2 bil, up 39.5% on 2006.
=> Meanwhile, Danny Jordaan, the highly-regarded chief executive of the organising committee for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, has missed out on a seat on the executive committee of FIFA. Jordaan was one of 6 candidates for two African places on the 24-man FIFA committee, one of which was vacant following the suspension of disgraced Nigerian, Amos Adamu, found guilty of bribery in the build up to the vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups last December. Jordaan finished fourth in the election, with just 10 votes.
=> Delhi High Court has ruled in favor of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd (ESIPL), in its suit for permanent injunction filed against cable operators across the country against unauthorized broadcast of ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. The HC has restrained all cable operators from unauthorised showing of the tournament through their cable networks. ESIPL argued that the defendants, approximately 144 cable operators, are taking unauthorized connections and they are illegally accessing signals of the plaintiff without taking license from the company. The HC has also permitted ESIPL to take action against all other cable operators not party to the suit but are found to be illegally utilising the feed of ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket without license.
=> Netball New Zealand (NNZ) announced a new 4-year broadcast partnership with SKY – the largest commercial deal to be signed by a women’s sport in New Zealand. International and domestic netball will now be shown exclusively live on SKY Sport until 2015. The deal extends netball’s relationship with SKY, which already broadcasts the ANZ Championship, Lion Foundation Netball Champs and College Netball. NNZ has also reviewed its free-to-air television partnership and has revealed that Prime Television will be netball’s new free-to-air partner.
=> Germany’s athletics team has demanded that ARD and ZDF re-open talks with IEC in Sport to acquire live rights to the 2011 IAAF World Championships, held in Daegu Korea. Signed by 55 top German athletes and stars of the past, the letter said they could not understand the position adopted by ARD and ZDF, that despite the IAAF World Championships being among the most significant events in the world, the broadcasters ‘‘are only prepared to absorb a small part of the previously-paid rights fee.’’ ARD and ZDF were only willing to offer €6 mil (US$8.2 mil) for rights to the IAAF World Athletics Series from 2011 to 2013, below IEC’s asking price of €15 mil. Comparatively, ARD and ZDF paid over €20 mil for previous IAAF rights package plus additional “2-digit million figure (in Euros)” for production costs at the World Championship 2009 in Berlin.
BROADCAST
=> Shenzhen has completed building an integrated broadcasting control sub-platform, which lays a foundation for IPTV services. The platform can provide more than 100 broadcast channels, 15 HD broadcast channels, 20,000 hours of on-demand programming and 7 days playback. Built by Shenzhen Radio, Film and Television Group, the platform links to the Integrated IPTV Broadcasting Control Platform of China Internet TV which forms the platform’s core. All IPTV programmes and services will first be integrated into the platform before being provided to users. Shenzhen residents will be able to enjoy a variety of IPTV services after the sub-platform integrates with the networks of telecom operators.
=> Chinese film content provider, Celestial Pictures, has signed a deal with AORA, a newly launched national satellite TV provider in Indonesia. With the addition of Celestial Movies, audiences can now access the latest Chinese and Asian blockbuster films along with AORA’s line-up of international pay-TV channels. In reaching an agreement with Celestial Pictures, AORA becomes the fourth platform in Indonesia to carry CM, following Indovision, Telkomvision and Skynindo. Celestial Movies is Celestial Pictures’ flagship channel and the most widely distributed 24-hour Chinese movie channel in the world showcasing latest Chinese movies, plus behind-the-scenes programming, interviews with movie stars and directors, and entertainment news shows.
=> YouTube announced that it is in talks with National Basketball Association and National Hockey League to show live, streaming games on its site. According to Gautam Anand, Google’s Director of Content Partnerships for Asia Pacific, Google is in talks with “most pro sports leagues” including the NBA and NHL, and European soccer leagues. Such a deal would drive viewers to YouTube and generate significant ad revenue for Google. If YouTube wins rights to stream live sports, TV networks will see erosion of the value of rights to broadcast games. In 2002, TNT signed a US$2.2 bil, 6-year contract to air NBA games and if live games were available for free over YouTube, TV networks would likely see ad revenue decrease.
NEW MEDIA
=> India’s Hello TV has registered 500,000 subscribers to its mobile broadcast service, carried by telco BSNL. Hello TV is integrated into BSNL’s WAP portal allowing subscribers to watch streamed video from their browsers. 3G and 2G users have subscribed to the service since its launch a year ago. Apalya, competitor to Hello TV, is also available on BSNL via its MiMobi TV application. Hello TV is brought to market by Percept Knorigin, who is planning to launch a targeted mobile TV Apple iPad application for Indians living abroad and is also in discussions for the roll out of 3G and GPRS mobile TV services with three major operators in the next three months.
=> Perform has acquired football website Goal.com for an undisclosed sum, significantly upping the ante as far as its presence in the direct-to-consumer market. The deal is a major development for Perform, rapidly increasing its scale and reach in the global digital sports market to over 95 mil users a month. Over the last 3 years, Goal.com used its strong brand and broad news coverage in 15 languages to build a leading position in the online football portal market. In Jan 2011, Goal.com had 19.4 mil unique users including 3.8 mil visits on the 31st Jan, the last day of the European mid-season transfer window. Comscore rates Goal.com over 250% bigger than ESPNSoccernet.com, Football365.com and Teamtalk.com - the sites that started the online football revolution more than 10 years ago.
DATA
=> Rapidly increasing number of portable devices based on Google’s Android operating system will create huge opportunities for pay-TV operators, according IMS Research. The Convergence in Home Entertainment report found that by the end 2011 there will be an installed base of 140 million Android portable devices, including smartphones and tablets. It suggests the unveiling of Google’s Android 3.0 operating system for tablets, known as Honeycomb, along with enhancements to the Android Market website, will do much to enhance growth prospects for this segment. In total, Apple OS and Android OS were present in nearly 125 million connected devices shipped in 2010 and this is only expected to increase in 2011.
EVENT
=> The Asean Football Federation has awarded Malaysia and Thailand co-hosting rights to preliminary matches at the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup, the biennial competition for national teams from the region. The AFF has yet to unveil dates for the 2012 tournament, although the matches are traditionally played in December. Malaysia, first-time winners of the Cup last year, previously hosted alongside Vietnam in 2004, while Thailand co-hosted with Indonesia in 2008. The AFF was believed to be considering the Philippines as a possible host for the 2012 AFF Suzuki Cup although the country's stadia would have had to meet strict criteria to stage matches; provision of security, numbered seating and satellite uplink capability for live broadcasts.
=> AIBA has opened the bidding process for the 2013 World Boxing Championships. Interested parties should submit their letter of intent to AIBA's headquarters in Lausanne by March 31, 2011. The host city will then be decided at the 2011 AIBA Executive Committee meeting to be held on July 31 and August 1. The World Boxing Championships are held every two years and this year's event will be in Baku, Azerbaijan.
=> Putting the World Series Boxing Indian franchise mess-up behind it, the Indian Boxing Federation will launch the Indian Boxing League along the lines of Indian Premier League cricket from the second half of this year. The decision to conduct a League was taken at IBF's annual general meeting. Initially, IBL will be conducted in 4 cities for men only and Mumbai-based Percept D-Mark has the mandate to sell the franchise rights. Depending on IBL's success, it will introduce a league for women boxers as well. The Federation has yet to decide on the number of foreign pugilists to be allowed in the league.
=> Meanwhile, the inaugural finals of the World Series of Boxing, the 12-team, city franchise-based competition created by AIBA in partnership with IMG, has been moved from Macau to mainland China. AIBA said staging the team and individual championships in Guiyang (Guizhou province) rather than Macau, will "guarantee greater TV coverage and public attention", in line with a "broader commitment to develop boxing in the region." The WSB team finals will be held on the weekend of May 6 and 7, with the individual championships scheduled for May 27 and 28. The five WSB individual champions will earn a place in the 2012 London Olympics and $20,000 in prize money. The WSB regular season began in November and concludes in March.
=> Hockey's FIH took a critical step in developing its next major competition after sending out letters of invitation to teams wishing to participate in the FIH World League, previously referred to as the World Series. The FIHWL is set to debut in 2012 and will give all FIH members the opportunity to play for a place in the FIH World Cup or Olympic Games. During the 2012/13 period, the World League will qualify four teams directly into the 2014 FIH World Cup in the Netherlands. The FIH World League will be played in four rounds; first two rounds will take place in the 2012 calendar year, while the third and fourth rounds will conclude the cycle in 2013. The event will include men and women’s teams.
=> FIFA will discuss next week how 31 qualification places will be allocated for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The loudest appeal for change is likely to come from CONCACAF, which was previously awarded 3 definite spots while a 4th nation going into a play-off against a country from another confederation, which for 2010, was from South America. CONCACAF is likely to argue that South America could forfeit the right to a play-off since hosts Brazil gain automatic entry. That leaves nine South American nations competing for four spots.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Former Commonwealth Games OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and CWG official VK Verma, were today summoned for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation and later remanded in custody. This is the essential prelude to the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi himself, who has been sacked as the Organising Committee chairman last month. Sources said that the arrests were delayed as the CBI wanted a “fool-proof case”. The CBI now has sufficient evidence to back up the arrests from the material produced by corroborating officials arrested by CBI last year. The CBI did not file charge sheets against the threesome as they had traded their freedom against critical information on Kalmadi and company.
=> The Indian Chambers of Commerce (Ficci) organized a round table discussion on investment opportunities in India for a soccer academy for children which will leverage expertise of French football. It emerged that countries like France and Germany are interested in India considering the massive football market that India is. Rajpal Singh, director, Sports & Youth Affairs at Ficci, said the body is to preparing a report and database on fundamental issues impacting football in India. An important thing to come out of this meeting was the need for media planning which needs to attract people and media, like they do in the case of cricket. One of the members pointed out that in every international club there is a separate media planning team.
=> Total ADEX in Japan in 2010 was down 1.3% on 2009, according to Japanese ad giant Dentsu. The report found that advertising spend last year totaled Y5.84 tri ($70.5 bil). This represents the 3rd successive year of decline in the Japanese advertising market, after falls of 11.5% in 2009 and 4.7% in 2008. Broken down by medium, expenditure on TV advertising in 2010 rose by 1.1% and internet advertising increased by 9.6%, but newspaper advertising was down 5.1%. Dentsu said factors that boosted advertising spend last year included a gradually recovering economy and improved corporate earnings, along with major international events such as the winter Olympics in Vancouver and soccer’s World Cup in South Africa.
=> Traffic has completed deals with European broadcasters for TV rights to major South American soccer matches. Traffic markets media rights for the Copa America in Europe and England's FA Cup in South America. As well as its operations in broadcast media and sponsorship activation, Traffic also manages an investment fund worth just over US$24 million to take leading soccer players to new clubs. In January, Traffic was central to a deal that brought former Fifa World Player of the Year Ronaldinho home to Brazil from AC Milan to play for Rio de Janeiro club Flamengo.
=> News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch has agreed a deal to buy TV production firm, Shine Group, owned by daughter Elizabeth, consistent with News Corp’s strategy of expanding worldwide TV ops. Shine owns 25 production companies across three continents. Shine International, the group's distribution arm, distributes over 3000 hours of broadcast content annually. The two companies reached an agreement for News Corp to acquire 100% of Shine Group for an enterprise value of £415 million. The parties signed a non-binding letter of intent and now proceeds with regulatory requirements. On its completion, Elizabeth Murdoch is expected to join the News Corp board.
=> American Wasserman Media Group has upped involvement in media rights with acquisition of UK-based Reel Enterprises, which has worked with the International Olympic Committee and some prominent soccer leagues. David Kogan and Sara Munds, Reel’s co-founders, will join Wasserman to develop "global media rights practice based in London,". Kogan and Munds reports to Casey Wasserman, chairman and chief executive of WMG. Reel’s clients across the last 13 years include the IOC (as adviser for European rights sales for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics), English Premier League and Football League, Scottish Premier League and Premier Rugby.
=> FIFA has amassed reserves of US$1.2 bil, largely because of a windfall from last year's World Cup in South Africa. FIFA began 2010 with reserves of US$1.06 bil and the increase to US$1.2 mil meant FIFA could survive financially for 18 months in the event of a cancelled World Cup. FIFA claimed to be in the red in 2003 but has steadily built up its reserves since. Research prior to 2010 World Cup suggested the tournament would reap $3.3 billion for FIFA, an increase of US$1 bil on 2006. Media rights revenue jumped 53% to US$2.15 bil - the first time it had ever breached the 2 billion mark. Marketing revenue was calculated at US$1.2 bil, up 39.5% on 2006.
=> Meanwhile, Danny Jordaan, the highly-regarded chief executive of the organising committee for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, has missed out on a seat on the executive committee of FIFA. Jordaan was one of 6 candidates for two African places on the 24-man FIFA committee, one of which was vacant following the suspension of disgraced Nigerian, Amos Adamu, found guilty of bribery in the build up to the vote to decide the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups last December. Jordaan finished fourth in the election, with just 10 votes.
Tuesday, 22nd February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Spain’s TVE and TV3 have retained the Uefa Champions League after a joint bid. Both acquired rights to the remaining package of rights in Spain by defeating a rival bid by Telecinco. TVE and TV3 are believed to have paid €40 mil ($54.5 million)/season from 2012-13 to 2014-15. The deal values the rights in Spain at €130 mil/season in total, including the €90 mil paid by Digital Plus. This is a 41% increase on the present deal worth €92 mil/season (TVE €30 mil, Forta €35 mil, Gol TV €27 mil). TVE is currently paying €30 mil/season for Tue night rights, while Forta pays €35 mil for the Wed night free-to-air package under present contract period.
=> [Excerpt] In the UK, BBC and ITV jointly paid £52 mil ($82 mil) for rights to Euro 2008. Uefa had hoped to raise £90 mil from Euro 2008 TV deals in the UK but (appointed agent) Sportfive unable to persuade the BBC and ITV, both members of the EBU. In Germany, ARD and ZDF have acquired the live free-to-air television, broadband internet and mobile rights for Euro 2012 in a deal signed directly with Uefa worth €115 mil ($153 mil). For Euro 2012, Uefa is selling rights in major European territories, including UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, while the EBU paid €130 million to acquire the rights in other European territories.
=> A leading Brazilian internet portal, Terra, is expected to make an aggressive bid for internet rights to the top-flight Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A. Owned by Spanish giant Telefónica, Terra is taking advantage of a ruling by the Brazilian competition authority which says media rights for Serie A must be sold in separate packages for the new 2012-14 contract period. Presently, Globo holds internet rights, which were sold in a package together with the free-to-air rights for a base price of R$220 million ($132 million). Globo has not broadcast any live coverage of Serie A matches over the internet because it fears live streaming could cannibalise its free-to-air television coverage. Terra has previously acquired top sports rights for its Terra TV service, including the rights to the 2006 Fifa World Cup, the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games and the 2011 Pan American Games.
=> US pay-TV, Epix, will make its boxing debut when it shows Ukrainian fighter Klitschko’s world heavyweight title defence against Cuba’s Odlanier Solis. Epix, a JV between Viacom, MGM Studios and Lionsgate, is reported to have paid $150,000 for the rights for the bout in Cologne, Germany on March 19. The deal was brokered by promoter Lou DiBella and breaks the near-monopoly on top fights held by US pay-per-view outlets HBO and Showtime. Klitschko will be making his sixth defence of the WBC world title. Epix, which launched in 2009, has a library of over 15,000 movies, but has indicated that it could show more boxing.
=> Spain’s top basketball league, Asociacion de Clubes de Baloncesto (ACB), will be broadcast in Italy and Singapore for the rest of the 2011 season following deals struck by the MP & Silva. In Italy Sportitalia has acquired the rights, while Starhub will broadcast games in Singapore. Both broadcasters have previously covered Copa del Rey basketball matches and are now stepping up to take league games. In a related move, ACB has announced it will begin official English-language commentaries of games to service international broadcasters such as Starhub. One of the two weekend games made available each week to international broadcasters will feature English commentary. ACB matches are already televised in territories across Europe as well as in Mexico and Brazil; the Middle East and Africa; and, through Jiangsu TV, in China.
BROADCAST
=> A row over inflated subscription charges has broken out in India between ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and three cable networks in Chandigarh and Punjab. The networks – Siti Cable, Win Cable and Fastway – accuse ESS of hiking the subscription charges by over 35% before the start of the Cricket World Cup and switching off the signal. The companies are now seeking the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the decision, which they believe to be unjust. DTH operators Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, Dish TV, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital TV have now negotiated the feed from ESS to show all the live matches in high definition (HD).
=> Thailand's MCOT is reshuffling their new media production in preparation of liberalisation of the media industry in ASEAN by 2015. MCOT said it had a budget of THB1 bil (US$32.68 mil) this year, of which, THB400 mil ($13.06 mil) will be used to raise production efficiency of existing TV facilities. The rest will be spent on new media, including cable, satellite and mobile TV. MCOT will also invest in non-media businesses, including development of an ASEAN broadcasting hub. MCOT would start work on the THB1 bil project this year, to be completed in 5 years. The hub will have a digital broadcasting tower to facilitate conversion of Thailand's TV broadcasts from analogue to digital. MCOT expects revenues from cable and satellite TV business to exceed THB100 mil ($3.28 mil) this year. TV business contributes about 60% of MCOT's revenues, with 20% from radio and 20% from TV concessions.
DATA
=> PwC has found that price of content is the key driver for piracy. Over half of consumers surveyed said they don’t feel the need to own a physical copy of content such as a DVD. Though many said costs to buy content—especially movies—is high, most said they do not pirate. Interestingly, the growing number of ad-supported websites is contributing to increased piracy. Such sites may be causing confusion as to what is pirated content and what is legitimate, free content. However, there was general acceptance of paying for content rather than piracy but they’d be willing to pay a max of $3 per movie and $1 per TV show. 83% of those willing to pay want the content within a month of the theatrical release window. 76% said they are somewhat willing to pay a nominal fee if the content can be accessed closer to its release date.
=> TV-capable devices with networking and web capabilities are expected to grow exponentially over the next 5 years, according to In-Stat. North America and Europe will remain primary regional markets for web-enabled, stationary devices and over next 5 years, both markets will exhibit 23% CAGR and account for nearly 70% of the global market. Asia/Pacific will likely favour mobile CE devices over stationary ones and will show a 20% CAGR in web-enabled stationary devices over the same period.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> The International Cricket Council (ICC) has slammed the appointment of banned former Pakistan captain Salman Butt as a TV pundit during the ICC World Cup. The ICC has asked for clarification from the tribunal that banned Butt to determine whether his employment contravenes the terms of the opening batsman's 10-year ban. Butt and two others were banned this month following spot-fixing charges related to the Lord's Test against England last August. The World Cup, jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, runs from 19 February to 2 April.
=> Lagardère Unlimited (LU) has been appointed to sell sponsorship rights for Paris United, a franchise in the World Series of Boxing. LU has agreed a deal with Brahim Asloum Group, Paris United’s owner, to find new partners and develop the franchise’s image. Full Tilt Poker.fr, the online poker website, was recently added as Paris United’s main partner in the first deal to be brokered by Lagardère Unlimited. Meanwhile, Lagardère Unlimited has signed representation deals with two more rising tennis stars, 14-year-old Croatian Donna Vekic and Christian Lindell, a 19-year-old Swedish player ranked 369th on the men’s ATP Tour.
=> US cable giant, Comcast, the new majority owner of NBC, the network that holds Olympic Games rights in USA, stoked intrigue over a forthcoming auction of the rights for the 2014 and 2016 (and perhaps 2018 and 2020) games by suggesting that its interest in renewing NBC’s rights could only be lukewarm. Steve Burke, chief executive of NBC Universal, said NBC lost $220 million on its coverage of last year’s Vancouver winter Olympics, and Comcast is keen to avoid such losses in future. Earlier this week, IOC’s chief negotiator, Richard Carrion, predicted the value of the new deal exceeding $2 billion paid by NBC for rights to the 2010 and 2012 games.
=> Spain’s TVE and TV3 have retained the Uefa Champions League after a joint bid. Both acquired rights to the remaining package of rights in Spain by defeating a rival bid by Telecinco. TVE and TV3 are believed to have paid €40 mil ($54.5 million)/season from 2012-13 to 2014-15. The deal values the rights in Spain at €130 mil/season in total, including the €90 mil paid by Digital Plus. This is a 41% increase on the present deal worth €92 mil/season (TVE €30 mil, Forta €35 mil, Gol TV €27 mil). TVE is currently paying €30 mil/season for Tue night rights, while Forta pays €35 mil for the Wed night free-to-air package under present contract period.
=> [Excerpt] In the UK, BBC and ITV jointly paid £52 mil ($82 mil) for rights to Euro 2008. Uefa had hoped to raise £90 mil from Euro 2008 TV deals in the UK but (appointed agent) Sportfive unable to persuade the BBC and ITV, both members of the EBU. In Germany, ARD and ZDF have acquired the live free-to-air television, broadband internet and mobile rights for Euro 2012 in a deal signed directly with Uefa worth €115 mil ($153 mil). For Euro 2012, Uefa is selling rights in major European territories, including UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, while the EBU paid €130 million to acquire the rights in other European territories.
=> A leading Brazilian internet portal, Terra, is expected to make an aggressive bid for internet rights to the top-flight Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A. Owned by Spanish giant Telefónica, Terra is taking advantage of a ruling by the Brazilian competition authority which says media rights for Serie A must be sold in separate packages for the new 2012-14 contract period. Presently, Globo holds internet rights, which were sold in a package together with the free-to-air rights for a base price of R$220 million ($132 million). Globo has not broadcast any live coverage of Serie A matches over the internet because it fears live streaming could cannibalise its free-to-air television coverage. Terra has previously acquired top sports rights for its Terra TV service, including the rights to the 2006 Fifa World Cup, the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games and the 2011 Pan American Games.
=> US pay-TV, Epix, will make its boxing debut when it shows Ukrainian fighter Klitschko’s world heavyweight title defence against Cuba’s Odlanier Solis. Epix, a JV between Viacom, MGM Studios and Lionsgate, is reported to have paid $150,000 for the rights for the bout in Cologne, Germany on March 19. The deal was brokered by promoter Lou DiBella and breaks the near-monopoly on top fights held by US pay-per-view outlets HBO and Showtime. Klitschko will be making his sixth defence of the WBC world title. Epix, which launched in 2009, has a library of over 15,000 movies, but has indicated that it could show more boxing.
=> Spain’s top basketball league, Asociacion de Clubes de Baloncesto (ACB), will be broadcast in Italy and Singapore for the rest of the 2011 season following deals struck by the MP & Silva. In Italy Sportitalia has acquired the rights, while Starhub will broadcast games in Singapore. Both broadcasters have previously covered Copa del Rey basketball matches and are now stepping up to take league games. In a related move, ACB has announced it will begin official English-language commentaries of games to service international broadcasters such as Starhub. One of the two weekend games made available each week to international broadcasters will feature English commentary. ACB matches are already televised in territories across Europe as well as in Mexico and Brazil; the Middle East and Africa; and, through Jiangsu TV, in China.
BROADCAST
=> A row over inflated subscription charges has broken out in India between ESPN Star Sports (ESS) and three cable networks in Chandigarh and Punjab. The networks – Siti Cable, Win Cable and Fastway – accuse ESS of hiking the subscription charges by over 35% before the start of the Cricket World Cup and switching off the signal. The companies are now seeking the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the decision, which they believe to be unjust. DTH operators Tata Sky, Airtel Digital, Dish TV, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital TV have now negotiated the feed from ESS to show all the live matches in high definition (HD).
=> Thailand's MCOT is reshuffling their new media production in preparation of liberalisation of the media industry in ASEAN by 2015. MCOT said it had a budget of THB1 bil (US$32.68 mil) this year, of which, THB400 mil ($13.06 mil) will be used to raise production efficiency of existing TV facilities. The rest will be spent on new media, including cable, satellite and mobile TV. MCOT will also invest in non-media businesses, including development of an ASEAN broadcasting hub. MCOT would start work on the THB1 bil project this year, to be completed in 5 years. The hub will have a digital broadcasting tower to facilitate conversion of Thailand's TV broadcasts from analogue to digital. MCOT expects revenues from cable and satellite TV business to exceed THB100 mil ($3.28 mil) this year. TV business contributes about 60% of MCOT's revenues, with 20% from radio and 20% from TV concessions.
DATA
=> PwC has found that price of content is the key driver for piracy. Over half of consumers surveyed said they don’t feel the need to own a physical copy of content such as a DVD. Though many said costs to buy content—especially movies—is high, most said they do not pirate. Interestingly, the growing number of ad-supported websites is contributing to increased piracy. Such sites may be causing confusion as to what is pirated content and what is legitimate, free content. However, there was general acceptance of paying for content rather than piracy but they’d be willing to pay a max of $3 per movie and $1 per TV show. 83% of those willing to pay want the content within a month of the theatrical release window. 76% said they are somewhat willing to pay a nominal fee if the content can be accessed closer to its release date.
=> TV-capable devices with networking and web capabilities are expected to grow exponentially over the next 5 years, according to In-Stat. North America and Europe will remain primary regional markets for web-enabled, stationary devices and over next 5 years, both markets will exhibit 23% CAGR and account for nearly 70% of the global market. Asia/Pacific will likely favour mobile CE devices over stationary ones and will show a 20% CAGR in web-enabled stationary devices over the same period.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> The International Cricket Council (ICC) has slammed the appointment of banned former Pakistan captain Salman Butt as a TV pundit during the ICC World Cup. The ICC has asked for clarification from the tribunal that banned Butt to determine whether his employment contravenes the terms of the opening batsman's 10-year ban. Butt and two others were banned this month following spot-fixing charges related to the Lord's Test against England last August. The World Cup, jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, runs from 19 February to 2 April.
=> Lagardère Unlimited (LU) has been appointed to sell sponsorship rights for Paris United, a franchise in the World Series of Boxing. LU has agreed a deal with Brahim Asloum Group, Paris United’s owner, to find new partners and develop the franchise’s image. Full Tilt Poker.fr, the online poker website, was recently added as Paris United’s main partner in the first deal to be brokered by Lagardère Unlimited. Meanwhile, Lagardère Unlimited has signed representation deals with two more rising tennis stars, 14-year-old Croatian Donna Vekic and Christian Lindell, a 19-year-old Swedish player ranked 369th on the men’s ATP Tour.
=> US cable giant, Comcast, the new majority owner of NBC, the network that holds Olympic Games rights in USA, stoked intrigue over a forthcoming auction of the rights for the 2014 and 2016 (and perhaps 2018 and 2020) games by suggesting that its interest in renewing NBC’s rights could only be lukewarm. Steve Burke, chief executive of NBC Universal, said NBC lost $220 million on its coverage of last year’s Vancouver winter Olympics, and Comcast is keen to avoid such losses in future. Earlier this week, IOC’s chief negotiator, Richard Carrion, predicted the value of the new deal exceeding $2 billion paid by NBC for rights to the 2010 and 2012 games.
Wednesday, 16th February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a 20-year TV rights deal with Time Warner Cable, an agreement that will provide English and Spanish language broadcasts and will lead to the creation of two new regional sports networks in the L.A. market next year owned by TWC. The RSNs will have the rights to pre-, regular- and postseason Lakers games starting with the '12-13 season. Fox, which already operates FS West and Prime Ticket in L.A., had been negotiating to keep the Lakers’ rights on FS West, and sources indicated that Lakers were looking for a $3bil, 20-year deal, which averages out to $150mil/year. By comparison, Portland Trail Blazers signed a 10-year, $120 million contract with Comcast in 2007. However, TWC has disputed the reported $3 bil figure.
=> Poland’s top-tier pro football league, Ekstraklasa SA and UFA Sports launched a broadcast rights tender in Oct 2010, with a bid submission date of Nov 15, but low bids have led to the league considering creation of its own channel. Domestic rights are held by pay-TV Canal+ Poland and telecom, Telekomunikacja Polska, in 3-year deals worth a total of 120 million zlotys per season.
=> The award of United States' contract to broadcast the Olympic Games looks set to be concluded by the time of the IOC’s next session in July, according to Richard Carrion, the IOC’s chief negotiator for the contract. Carrion predicted the value of the new deal will exceed £2 billion being paid by NBC for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 games. NBC paid $2 billion in rights fees for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, outbidding ESPN and Fox in the process, and with General Electric, NBC Universal’s parent company, also becoming an IOC TOP sponsor as part of the deal. NBC has since been taken over by Comcast, the US cable giant, a move that recently gained regulatory approval.
BROADCAST
=> Singapore's SingTel is in talks to add more sports channels to Mio TV. In December, SingTel added 4 sports channels to Mio TV, taking over the carriage of ESPN Star Sports from rival StarHub, after StarHub lost out its bid for the EPL to Singtel. The four new channels added were: All Sports Network, the US sports channel; Ten Cricket, the Indian cricket channel; and GoalTV1 and GoalTV2, that were also previously also carried by StarHub. In addition to existing sports channels, SingTel’s four ‘mio Stadium’ channels broadcast coverage of England's Premier League, plus the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League.
EVENT
=> The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation has announced a new golf tour to be known as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Golf Tour. it will initially comprise 4 tournaments and will be open to professional and amateur golfers. A prize fund of US$75,000 will be carried in each tournament. The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation was formed by Golf in Dubai, which also promotes the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, primarily to develop young golfing talent. No details have so far been released about locations or dates for the four inaugural tour events.
=> London 2012 are still on course to come in within budget. The total budget remains £9.298bn and the anticipated final cost is £7.301bn. In 2003, Parliament was told it would cost £2.375bn. By 2007, it had risen to £5.3bn, including regeneration and infrastructure. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said that the project is now 79% finished to Games-time with the velodrome set to become the first venue on the park completed later this month. Last year the ODA accepted responsibility for the operation of the Olympic Park and its venues and facilities between 2011 and 2014. The ODA's budget for this additional work has now been finalised at £158m.
=> Meanwhile, London 2012 LOC has unveiled the competition schedule a month before tickets go on sale. The programme comprises 670 sessions at 34 venues across 26 sports with medals on offer in 302 different events. The first medal events will be the men’s 10-metre air pistol and women’s 10-metre air rifle shooting on Jul 28. Swimming finals will return to evenings after being held in the mornings in Beijing 2008 and athletics begin Aug 3. Tickets for all events will go on sale from March 15 and applicants have until April 26 to submit requests, with allocations for over-subscribed sessions to be determined by a ballot. Several events, including the marathons and the cycling road races, will be free to watch.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Manchester United looks certain to be the first EPL club to break the £100m barrier for commercial revenue. Recent quarterly accounts show revenues rising to £24m over the first quarter of the accounting year, and the second, up to December 31, will be equally strong. United's new 'territory specific' approach to commercial opportunities, agreed with the Glazer family and implemented by commercial director Richard Arnold, has allowed the club to rapidly expand that area of revenue. The last annual figures showed a 16% growth in commercial income to £81m.
=> Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a 20-year TV rights deal with Time Warner Cable, an agreement that will provide English and Spanish language broadcasts and will lead to the creation of two new regional sports networks in the L.A. market next year owned by TWC. The RSNs will have the rights to pre-, regular- and postseason Lakers games starting with the '12-13 season. Fox, which already operates FS West and Prime Ticket in L.A., had been negotiating to keep the Lakers’ rights on FS West, and sources indicated that Lakers were looking for a $3bil, 20-year deal, which averages out to $150mil/year. By comparison, Portland Trail Blazers signed a 10-year, $120 million contract with Comcast in 2007. However, TWC has disputed the reported $3 bil figure.
=> Poland’s top-tier pro football league, Ekstraklasa SA and UFA Sports launched a broadcast rights tender in Oct 2010, with a bid submission date of Nov 15, but low bids have led to the league considering creation of its own channel. Domestic rights are held by pay-TV Canal+ Poland and telecom, Telekomunikacja Polska, in 3-year deals worth a total of 120 million zlotys per season.
=> The award of United States' contract to broadcast the Olympic Games looks set to be concluded by the time of the IOC’s next session in July, according to Richard Carrion, the IOC’s chief negotiator for the contract. Carrion predicted the value of the new deal will exceed £2 billion being paid by NBC for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 games. NBC paid $2 billion in rights fees for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, outbidding ESPN and Fox in the process, and with General Electric, NBC Universal’s parent company, also becoming an IOC TOP sponsor as part of the deal. NBC has since been taken over by Comcast, the US cable giant, a move that recently gained regulatory approval.
BROADCAST
=> Singapore's SingTel is in talks to add more sports channels to Mio TV. In December, SingTel added 4 sports channels to Mio TV, taking over the carriage of ESPN Star Sports from rival StarHub, after StarHub lost out its bid for the EPL to Singtel. The four new channels added were: All Sports Network, the US sports channel; Ten Cricket, the Indian cricket channel; and GoalTV1 and GoalTV2, that were also previously also carried by StarHub. In addition to existing sports channels, SingTel’s four ‘mio Stadium’ channels broadcast coverage of England's Premier League, plus the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League.
EVENT
=> The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation has announced a new golf tour to be known as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Golf Tour. it will initially comprise 4 tournaments and will be open to professional and amateur golfers. A prize fund of US$75,000 will be carried in each tournament. The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation was formed by Golf in Dubai, which also promotes the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, primarily to develop young golfing talent. No details have so far been released about locations or dates for the four inaugural tour events.
=> London 2012 are still on course to come in within budget. The total budget remains £9.298bn and the anticipated final cost is £7.301bn. In 2003, Parliament was told it would cost £2.375bn. By 2007, it had risen to £5.3bn, including regeneration and infrastructure. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said that the project is now 79% finished to Games-time with the velodrome set to become the first venue on the park completed later this month. Last year the ODA accepted responsibility for the operation of the Olympic Park and its venues and facilities between 2011 and 2014. The ODA's budget for this additional work has now been finalised at £158m.
=> Meanwhile, London 2012 LOC has unveiled the competition schedule a month before tickets go on sale. The programme comprises 670 sessions at 34 venues across 26 sports with medals on offer in 302 different events. The first medal events will be the men’s 10-metre air pistol and women’s 10-metre air rifle shooting on Jul 28. Swimming finals will return to evenings after being held in the mornings in Beijing 2008 and athletics begin Aug 3. Tickets for all events will go on sale from March 15 and applicants have until April 26 to submit requests, with allocations for over-subscribed sessions to be determined by a ballot. Several events, including the marathons and the cycling road races, will be free to watch.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Manchester United looks certain to be the first EPL club to break the £100m barrier for commercial revenue. Recent quarterly accounts show revenues rising to £24m over the first quarter of the accounting year, and the second, up to December 31, will be equally strong. United's new 'territory specific' approach to commercial opportunities, agreed with the Glazer family and implemented by commercial director Richard Arnold, has allowed the club to rapidly expand that area of revenue. The last annual figures showed a 16% growth in commercial income to £81m.
Tuesday, 15th February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> IMG-Reliance has awarded TV rights of the Indian top division I-League to Bengali TV channel Mahuaa Khobor. It is the first channel in India to be awarded exclusive rights to broadcast the remaining fixtures of the 2010/2011 I-League season. The initial deal signed between IMG-Reliance and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) saw IMG-Reliance gain commercial rights to all soccer in India in a 15-year deal worth an overall US$155 million, in an effort to popularise the game in the cricket-mad nation. The I-League was founded in 2008 out of the now defunct National Football League of India.Dempo SC are current defending champions. The 2010/2011 season, which runs from December to May, consists of 14 teams. No financial details have been released.
=> Sportfive launched an invitation to submit offers for broadcast rights in Austria to the 2014 winter Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games. Dominant pubcaster, ORF, holds Olympic rights for the 2010 winter Olympics and the 2012 Olympics as part of a deal with the European Broadcasting Union. Private network, ServusTV, owned by Dietrich Mateschitz, who also owns the Red Bull brand, will be ORF’s biggest competition. Sportfive is selling rights for 2014 and 2016 in Europe (esc. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) after agreeing a MG-plus-commission deal worth €250 mil ($336.5 mil) with the International Olympic Committee to end the body’s long-standing relationship with the EBU.
=> Top-tier Italian basketball, Lega Societa' di Pallacanestro Serie A, has launched a tender process for its domestic broadcast rights for the next two seasons. The tender for 2011-12 and 2012-13 comprises three packages - gold, silver and highlights - with both the gold and silver packages including live rights. Pay-TV, Sky Italia, presently holds rights in an exclusive deal but there have been calls from clubs for more visibility for the league and the league has also considered the idea of launching its own television channel. StageUp, the Italian sports business consultancy, is advising the league on the rights sales process. Sky Italia’s present rights deal also covers the Coppa Italia, the annual competition featuring the league clubs, and the Supercoppa tournament, which pits the Coppa Italia winner against the league champions, and is thought to be worth around €3 million ($4.04 million).
=> Fears about a downturn in football TV rights fees have been raised by French League president Frédéric Thiriez. He commented on the general landscape after French broadcaster Canal+ reigned in its new offer for France’s rugby Top 14. The French Ligue puts its next contracts out to tender this spring and Thiriez is trying to remain optimistic. He said: “This rugby offer is a bad signal for all sports. Sports coverage is the lifeblood of Canal+ but we cannot ignore the fact that it is the rights to our game which help keep alive amateur football and other sports to the tune of €35m-a-year.’” Ligue 1 rights are presently shared by pay-TV Canal+ and telecom Orangein deals worth €668 million ($900.5 million) per year. The LFP is to launch its own TV channel, CFoot, next season, and could carry Ligue 1 from 2012-13 given Orange’s stance and Canal+’s warning that it will not pay more than the €465 million a season that it presently pays for rights.
=> The set of 10 Thursday fixtures is one of 10 packages for Football League and Carling Cup games that have been sent to TV companies, and the proposal follows enthusiastic feedback from broadcasters. By the end of this season, the Football League hope to complete their options for three-year deals, starting in 2012-13, and expect plenty of interest in the Thursday option - on dates that avoid clashes with the Europa League - despite the saturated coverage of live football. The FL will have completed their TV tender before the FA go to market, having embarked on a wide consultation process over revamping the competition.
=> Meanwhile, the English FA Cup could be on the verge of a major revamp in a bid to increase TV revenues. It is believed that a major reform proposed is to delay kick-off of the Final to 5.30 pm, instead of 3pm, a slot favoured by broadcasters. ITV is in its penultimate year of a 4-year deal with the FA for FTA live rights to FA Cup games, as well as England’s home qualifying matches for the World Cup and European Championships, which is worth £275 mil ($441.8 mil). Pay-TV, ESPN, also has live rights in the UK to the FA Cup for four seasons, from 2010-11 to 2013-14, in a deal done directly with the FA, worth a reported £60 mil in total. ESPN stepped in after the collapse of Setanta, whose £150-million deal was scrapped just one year into a 4-year contract.
BROADCAST
=> The Cricket World Cup will be beamed in high-definition through Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers. ESPN Star Sports said it has roped in three DTH providers; Tata Sky, Airtel DTH and Dish TV platforms and are currently in talks with more DTH players. To watch matches in HD, fans will need an HD-compliant TV, an HD set top box and specially made cables. The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Delhi Commonwealth Games were also shown on HD platforms. Cricket's huge following in India is expected to give a boost to the HD TV viewers in the country.
NEW MEDIA
=> Players have been warned by the Football Association (FA) in England that it will crack down on improper comments on Twitter and other social networking sites. Ryan Babel became the first player to be punished for his comments on Twitter when he was fined £10,000 for posting a mocked-up picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt after Liverpool lost at Old Trafford in the FA Cup. Players have also been warned that although they may believe their postings are only visible to selected people, they could still end up in the public domain.
=> Meanwhile, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has also revealed it will be issuing guidelines for Twitter usage to all 26 sports participating at the London 2012 Games. But the BOA stressed that the guidelines will not be enforced upon athletes and they will not be a set of rules or restrictions. Instead, they will simply offer advice to Olympic sports and their athletes on what the BOA deems effective and ineffective use of the social networking phenomenon.
EVENT
=> Organisers of the National Games in India have come under fire after some major problems were reported over the first two days of the event in Ranchi. The Games got under way in the Jharkhand capital on Saturday with a spectacular opening ceremony but according to The Times of India, media facilities did not work for hours, security check points were overwhelmed by spectator numbers and there were no tables or seats for the judges at the taekwondo competition. The Games finally started on Saturday after being postponed six times due to incomplete infrastructure, but the latest news will further damage India’s event-hosting image after problems engulfed the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
=> Indian manufacturer, JK Tyre, and event promoter, Motorsport Asia have teamed up to create the JK Racing Asia series, featuring 6 events and 18 races. The series will begin on April 8 in Malaysia, with other races scheduled in 2011 for India, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia again. The races in Singapore, Malaysia (in April) and India will coincide with the F1 grand prix taking place in those countries, and will race on the same circuits. India stages its first ever F1 race in Delhi in October. The three other events will be part of the Asian Festival of Speed in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. The JK Racing Asia series replaces the Formula BMW Pacific, which had been running since 2003. The 30 cars on the grid will continue to have BMW engines.
=> The French Open will stay at Roland Garros after the the French Tennis Federation (FFT) rejected plans to move the tournament to the Paris suburbs from 2016. A federation ballot on Feb 13 saw suburbs of Gonesse eliminated in the first round, Versailles in the second and Paris finally taking 70% of final-round votes. Roland Garros has held the clay court event for over 80 years, with the first tournament being hosted there in 1928.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Sri Lankan cricketer, Muttiah Muralitharan, has backed squash’s credentials to become an Olympic sport. At the opening dinner of the Asian Junior Squash Championships in Colombo, Muralitharan said that he was: "very happy to be linked with the bid by such a fine sport to gain a place as a summer Olympics medal sport.” The World Squash Federation, the sport's governing body, is lobbying for squash to be a part of the programme at the 2020 Olympics. Squash bid unsuccessfully for inclusion in the 2012 Olympics, when it was shortlisted along with karate, but no sports were added to the programme, and more recently for the 2016 Olympics, when it lost out to golf and rugby sevens.
=> IMG-Reliance has awarded TV rights of the Indian top division I-League to Bengali TV channel Mahuaa Khobor. It is the first channel in India to be awarded exclusive rights to broadcast the remaining fixtures of the 2010/2011 I-League season. The initial deal signed between IMG-Reliance and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) saw IMG-Reliance gain commercial rights to all soccer in India in a 15-year deal worth an overall US$155 million, in an effort to popularise the game in the cricket-mad nation. The I-League was founded in 2008 out of the now defunct National Football League of India.Dempo SC are current defending champions. The 2010/2011 season, which runs from December to May, consists of 14 teams. No financial details have been released.
=> Sportfive launched an invitation to submit offers for broadcast rights in Austria to the 2014 winter Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games. Dominant pubcaster, ORF, holds Olympic rights for the 2010 winter Olympics and the 2012 Olympics as part of a deal with the European Broadcasting Union. Private network, ServusTV, owned by Dietrich Mateschitz, who also owns the Red Bull brand, will be ORF’s biggest competition. Sportfive is selling rights for 2014 and 2016 in Europe (esc. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) after agreeing a MG-plus-commission deal worth €250 mil ($336.5 mil) with the International Olympic Committee to end the body’s long-standing relationship with the EBU.
=> Top-tier Italian basketball, Lega Societa' di Pallacanestro Serie A, has launched a tender process for its domestic broadcast rights for the next two seasons. The tender for 2011-12 and 2012-13 comprises three packages - gold, silver and highlights - with both the gold and silver packages including live rights. Pay-TV, Sky Italia, presently holds rights in an exclusive deal but there have been calls from clubs for more visibility for the league and the league has also considered the idea of launching its own television channel. StageUp, the Italian sports business consultancy, is advising the league on the rights sales process. Sky Italia’s present rights deal also covers the Coppa Italia, the annual competition featuring the league clubs, and the Supercoppa tournament, which pits the Coppa Italia winner against the league champions, and is thought to be worth around €3 million ($4.04 million).
=> Fears about a downturn in football TV rights fees have been raised by French League president Frédéric Thiriez. He commented on the general landscape after French broadcaster Canal+ reigned in its new offer for France’s rugby Top 14. The French Ligue puts its next contracts out to tender this spring and Thiriez is trying to remain optimistic. He said: “This rugby offer is a bad signal for all sports. Sports coverage is the lifeblood of Canal+ but we cannot ignore the fact that it is the rights to our game which help keep alive amateur football and other sports to the tune of €35m-a-year.’” Ligue 1 rights are presently shared by pay-TV Canal+ and telecom Orangein deals worth €668 million ($900.5 million) per year. The LFP is to launch its own TV channel, CFoot, next season, and could carry Ligue 1 from 2012-13 given Orange’s stance and Canal+’s warning that it will not pay more than the €465 million a season that it presently pays for rights.
=> The set of 10 Thursday fixtures is one of 10 packages for Football League and Carling Cup games that have been sent to TV companies, and the proposal follows enthusiastic feedback from broadcasters. By the end of this season, the Football League hope to complete their options for three-year deals, starting in 2012-13, and expect plenty of interest in the Thursday option - on dates that avoid clashes with the Europa League - despite the saturated coverage of live football. The FL will have completed their TV tender before the FA go to market, having embarked on a wide consultation process over revamping the competition.
=> Meanwhile, the English FA Cup could be on the verge of a major revamp in a bid to increase TV revenues. It is believed that a major reform proposed is to delay kick-off of the Final to 5.30 pm, instead of 3pm, a slot favoured by broadcasters. ITV is in its penultimate year of a 4-year deal with the FA for FTA live rights to FA Cup games, as well as England’s home qualifying matches for the World Cup and European Championships, which is worth £275 mil ($441.8 mil). Pay-TV, ESPN, also has live rights in the UK to the FA Cup for four seasons, from 2010-11 to 2013-14, in a deal done directly with the FA, worth a reported £60 mil in total. ESPN stepped in after the collapse of Setanta, whose £150-million deal was scrapped just one year into a 4-year contract.
BROADCAST
=> The Cricket World Cup will be beamed in high-definition through Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers. ESPN Star Sports said it has roped in three DTH providers; Tata Sky, Airtel DTH and Dish TV platforms and are currently in talks with more DTH players. To watch matches in HD, fans will need an HD-compliant TV, an HD set top box and specially made cables. The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Delhi Commonwealth Games were also shown on HD platforms. Cricket's huge following in India is expected to give a boost to the HD TV viewers in the country.
NEW MEDIA
=> Players have been warned by the Football Association (FA) in England that it will crack down on improper comments on Twitter and other social networking sites. Ryan Babel became the first player to be punished for his comments on Twitter when he was fined £10,000 for posting a mocked-up picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt after Liverpool lost at Old Trafford in the FA Cup. Players have also been warned that although they may believe their postings are only visible to selected people, they could still end up in the public domain.
=> Meanwhile, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has also revealed it will be issuing guidelines for Twitter usage to all 26 sports participating at the London 2012 Games. But the BOA stressed that the guidelines will not be enforced upon athletes and they will not be a set of rules or restrictions. Instead, they will simply offer advice to Olympic sports and their athletes on what the BOA deems effective and ineffective use of the social networking phenomenon.
EVENT
=> Organisers of the National Games in India have come under fire after some major problems were reported over the first two days of the event in Ranchi. The Games got under way in the Jharkhand capital on Saturday with a spectacular opening ceremony but according to The Times of India, media facilities did not work for hours, security check points were overwhelmed by spectator numbers and there were no tables or seats for the judges at the taekwondo competition. The Games finally started on Saturday after being postponed six times due to incomplete infrastructure, but the latest news will further damage India’s event-hosting image after problems engulfed the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
=> Indian manufacturer, JK Tyre, and event promoter, Motorsport Asia have teamed up to create the JK Racing Asia series, featuring 6 events and 18 races. The series will begin on April 8 in Malaysia, with other races scheduled in 2011 for India, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia again. The races in Singapore, Malaysia (in April) and India will coincide with the F1 grand prix taking place in those countries, and will race on the same circuits. India stages its first ever F1 race in Delhi in October. The three other events will be part of the Asian Festival of Speed in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. The JK Racing Asia series replaces the Formula BMW Pacific, which had been running since 2003. The 30 cars on the grid will continue to have BMW engines.
=> The French Open will stay at Roland Garros after the the French Tennis Federation (FFT) rejected plans to move the tournament to the Paris suburbs from 2016. A federation ballot on Feb 13 saw suburbs of Gonesse eliminated in the first round, Versailles in the second and Paris finally taking 70% of final-round votes. Roland Garros has held the clay court event for over 80 years, with the first tournament being hosted there in 1928.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Sri Lankan cricketer, Muttiah Muralitharan, has backed squash’s credentials to become an Olympic sport. At the opening dinner of the Asian Junior Squash Championships in Colombo, Muralitharan said that he was: "very happy to be linked with the bid by such a fine sport to gain a place as a summer Olympics medal sport.” The World Squash Federation, the sport's governing body, is lobbying for squash to be a part of the programme at the 2020 Olympics. Squash bid unsuccessfully for inclusion in the 2012 Olympics, when it was shortlisted along with karate, but no sports were added to the programme, and more recently for the 2016 Olympics, when it lost out to golf and rugby sevens.
Monday, 14th February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Singapore’s StarHub suffered an 11% fall in pay-TV revenue in Q4 2010 after reducing the cost of its sports package in June. This followed the loss of rights to the EPL to rival SingTel (SingTel outbid StarHub with an offer worth between S$300 and S$400 mil for rights) in 2009. Despite a full-year drop of S$4 in ARPU to S$52 per month, StarHub’s pay-television subscriber total remained stable, dipping only marginally to 538,000 from 539,000 at the end of 2009. Q4 group net profit rose by 8.4% to S$80.4 million. StarHub forecast that group operating revenue in 2011 will grow in a single-digit range. SingTel reported a 6.8% increase in revenue in Singapore and 19,000 new customers for its Mio TV IPTV service in the last three months of 2010. The addition of the new Mio TV customers in the quarter meant that the IPTV service ended 2010 with a total of 264,000 customers.
BROADCAST
=> Total Sports Asia has produced over 66 hours of live coverage from five sporting events held over 13 days in January marking an increase broadcast production output. The agency oversaw production and delivery of five live events across its core sports of Badminton, Table Tennis and Squash with the signals of these events delivered to 21 clients around the world. The next events on TSA’s Production calendar in February are the ITTF Pro Tour events in Qatar and Kuwait, the PSA North American Open from Virginia, USA and the BWF Yonex All England Open from Birmingham.
DATA
=> The 14th Deloitte Football Money League has Real Madrid and FC Barcelona retaining last year's top listing. Combined revenues of the top 20 clubs surpassed €4 bil in 2009/10. RM tops the League for the 6th year while Barcelona is 2nd in the League for a second year. Manchester City climbed to 11th position. Tottenham Hotspur is expected to vie for top honours in comingeditions. England has largest representation from any single country, with 7 clubs. VfB Stuttgart and Aston Villa return to the top 20 absences, with Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund dropping out. 14 of the top 20 clubs played in the Champions League 2009/10 and 6 clubs in the Europa League. Revenues of €438.6m cement Real’s position and is the only club to surpass €400m in revenue, doing so for a second successive season. Real Madrid were over €40m ahead of their Spanish rivals.
=> Broadcast Engineering has said the European IPTV boom has levelled off and is set to lose its position to Asia during 2011 with a surge in China and India. Big European IPTV markets, notably France, have become saturated, while emerging East European economies’ poor infrastructure and lack of investment in fibre has held back IPTV deployment. Europe was still ahead at end Q3 2010, with 46.3% of the world's 41,892,171 IPTV subscribers. Europe will soon be overtaken by Asia, while France will lose its top spot to China sometime during 2011 or 2012, the report said.
=> Singapore’s StarHub suffered an 11% fall in pay-TV revenue in Q4 2010 after reducing the cost of its sports package in June. This followed the loss of rights to the EPL to rival SingTel (SingTel outbid StarHub with an offer worth between S$300 and S$400 mil for rights) in 2009. Despite a full-year drop of S$4 in ARPU to S$52 per month, StarHub’s pay-television subscriber total remained stable, dipping only marginally to 538,000 from 539,000 at the end of 2009. Q4 group net profit rose by 8.4% to S$80.4 million. StarHub forecast that group operating revenue in 2011 will grow in a single-digit range. SingTel reported a 6.8% increase in revenue in Singapore and 19,000 new customers for its Mio TV IPTV service in the last three months of 2010. The addition of the new Mio TV customers in the quarter meant that the IPTV service ended 2010 with a total of 264,000 customers.
BROADCAST
=> Total Sports Asia has produced over 66 hours of live coverage from five sporting events held over 13 days in January marking an increase broadcast production output. The agency oversaw production and delivery of five live events across its core sports of Badminton, Table Tennis and Squash with the signals of these events delivered to 21 clients around the world. The next events on TSA’s Production calendar in February are the ITTF Pro Tour events in Qatar and Kuwait, the PSA North American Open from Virginia, USA and the BWF Yonex All England Open from Birmingham.
DATA
=> The 14th Deloitte Football Money League has Real Madrid and FC Barcelona retaining last year's top listing. Combined revenues of the top 20 clubs surpassed €4 bil in 2009/10. RM tops the League for the 6th year while Barcelona is 2nd in the League for a second year. Manchester City climbed to 11th position. Tottenham Hotspur is expected to vie for top honours in comingeditions. England has largest representation from any single country, with 7 clubs. VfB Stuttgart and Aston Villa return to the top 20 absences, with Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund dropping out. 14 of the top 20 clubs played in the Champions League 2009/10 and 6 clubs in the Europa League. Revenues of €438.6m cement Real’s position and is the only club to surpass €400m in revenue, doing so for a second successive season. Real Madrid were over €40m ahead of their Spanish rivals.
=> Broadcast Engineering has said the European IPTV boom has levelled off and is set to lose its position to Asia during 2011 with a surge in China and India. Big European IPTV markets, notably France, have become saturated, while emerging East European economies’ poor infrastructure and lack of investment in fibre has held back IPTV deployment. Europe was still ahead at end Q3 2010, with 46.3% of the world's 41,892,171 IPTV subscribers. Europe will soon be overtaken by Asia, while France will lose its top spot to China sometime during 2011 or 2012, the report said.
Friday, 11th February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> IEC in Sports has been appointed global broadcast rights distributor for Chelsea on the club's two-game tour of Asia this summer. Chelsea will face a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on July 21, before heading to Bangkok for a match against the Thai All Stars on July 24. Promoter ProEvents is handling the arrangements for the tour. Chelsea, the reigning Premier League and FA Cup holders, last toured Asia in 2008, playing matches in China and Malaysia, but have spent the last two pre-seasons in USA.
=> Japan’s J Sports has appointed MP & Silva as its adviser for international rights acquisitions in a deal that includes rights for the EPL and French Ligue 1. MP & Silva said it is already advising J Sports on the addition of more sports content ‘‘to further consolidate its market position as Japan’s leading sports broadcaster.’’ MP & Silva holds the Ligue 1 distribution rights in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, plus Premier League distribution rights in Japan and Vietnam. J Sports operates four premium sports channels in Japan and has a penetration of over 7.6 million households.
=> French soccer club Lyon, is pushing for the LFP to launch its domestic broadcast rights tender soon. The LFP is set to launch the tender for rights this year to Ligue 1 from 2012-13 onwards. Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas said that the value of Ligue 1 rights could yet rise to between €800 million ($1.09 billion) and €850 million per season, despite Orange’s stance and warning from Canal Plus that it will not offer more than the €465 million a season that it presently pays for rights. The LFP, the French professional soccer league, presently generates €668 million per season from rights deals with Canal Plus and Orange.
=> Germany’s DFL will not alter its fixture schedule for the Bundesliga by adding more kick-off times in the next domestic broadcast rights tender, covering 2013-14 onwards. As part of the television rights tender for the current period, DFL adopted 5 kick-off times (Fri: 8.30pm, Sat: 3.30pm & 6.30pm and Sun: 3.30pm & 5.30pm) in an attempt to give more exclusivity to pay-television. DFL aims to allocate the Bundesliga broadcast rights for the next contract cycle by May 2012. An average of €412 million ($564.5 million) per season was raised in the last tender for domestic broadcast rights fees through deals with Sky Deutschland, ARD and ZDF, Sport1 and Deutsche Telekom.
=> German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, said they will end live coverage of Tour de France next year because of the impact of recent doping scandals on German viewers’ acceptance of the race. The broadcasters are contracted to show live coverage from 2009 to 2011 in a deal by the EBU with ASO. ARD and ZDF confirmed that they will not enter a new rights deal for live coverage through EBU and will show news coverage of the race from next year in their sports shows. The cost of the live rights acquired by ARD and ZDF was reported to be between €3 mil ($4.15 million) and €3.5 mil each.
=> France's TF1 will share this year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand with two domestic networks after selling rights to a selection of games to France Télévisions and Canal Plus. France Télévisions and Canal Plus will pay a combined €13 million ($17.6 million) to TF1 for 28 matches. In 2004, TF1 bought rights for the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, paying €80 million and beating off a bid from France Télévisions to complete a deal with IMG. Last year, TF1 sub-licensed rights for 2010 World Cup to Canal Plus and France Télévisions for about €33 million, having spent €120 million on all the rights.
=> Richard Lewis, chairman of UK’s Rugby Football League, has said he expects an "intense and competitive" bidding process for TV rights to the Super League and Challenge Cup competitions from 2012. BSkyB holds live rights for Super League, while the BBC has rights for the Challenge Cup. The pair paid a combined £50 million ($80.8 million) for a 3-year contract, beginning in 2009, which also included international matches. The RFL said that it had secured "a significant increase" when renewing the Super League rights last time around, with each club's annual share of the pot increasing from around £750,000 to more than £1 million.
=> NFL won its battle with the NFL Players Association over TV revenue, after a special master ruled the league was entitled to receive $4 billion next season even if a labour dispute causes a lockout. The NFL hoped the ruling will encourage all parties to focus efforts on negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement before the present one expires in March. Failure to do so could result in the delay to, or cancellation of, the 2011 season beginning in September.
=> Triumph Media Group has extended its agreement to sell international broadcast rights to the fights of boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. The new deal with Klitschko Management Group covers the worldwide rights for fights in 2011, with the exception of the territories of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Canada and Puerto Rico, where KMG will sell to broadcasters. Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion, will fight Cuba’s Odlanier Solis at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on March 19, before Wladimir Klitschko, the WBO and IBF heavyweight title-holder, fights Britain’s Dereck Chisora in Mannheim on April 30.
BROADCAST
=> ESPN Star Sports is considering a launch of 3D TV channel to capitalise on growing demand for the technology in the region. ESS showed its first EPL soccer match in 3D in January and has plans to expand the offering to other sports. Last year, ESS launched ESPN HD and ESPN Player broadband service, offering live coverage and a variety of online features. ESS is also stepping up its offering on 3G mobile phones, notably in India, where there are 700 million mobile phone subscribers and the broadcaster has two-year distribution deals with mobile phone operators Vodafone and Tata DoCoMo. ESS also teamed up with SingTel to launch the Mobile ESPN service in Singapore.
=> Japan’s J Sports Broadcasting has signed a 5-year extension to its deal with wrestling’s WWE. The agreement gives J Sports exclusive pay-TV rights in Japan for WWE's weekly programming, which includes RAW, SmackDown, NXT, and, for the first time, WWE Superstars. In total, J Sports will show 6 hours of wrestling each week in HD.
=> Fox USA is in line to break audience record for any US TV programme ever after overnight figures for the recent Super Bowl showed a remarkable 47.9 overnight rating. The rating for Green Bay Packers' exciting 31-25 defeat of Pittsburgh Steelers compares with a 46.4 overnight rating for last year's contest which earned CBS a record audience of 106.5 million viewers. The 47.9 rating ties the previous high figure, for Super Bowl XXI in 1987, when there were fewer television households. The NFL remains a huge TV draw and the Super Bowl audience has grown every year since 2005. Companies use the game to launch new commercials and the rate for 30-sec spots in this year’s game was about $3 million.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> The World Squash Federation announced last week changes to how member nations are allocated hosting rights for world championships and conferences. The WSF said it is working to get the sport into the Olympics and believes that a more professional, formulaic calendar aimed at globalising the sport will stand it in good stead.
=> The International Softball Federation has been told to work closer with the IBAF if it wants softball to remain in the Asian Games. Women's softball was confirmed by the Olympic Council of Asia and the 2014 organising committee on the list of sports to be contested in Incheon, South Korea. Softball has been part of the Asian Games since 1990, but reports suggested it would be dropped from the line-up for Incheon, following its exclusion from both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Softball has disengaged itself from baseball in a bid to return to the Olympic and the ISF has twice turned down approaches from the IBAF to mount a joint campaign for the re-inclusion of a men's baseball and women's softball competition in the games.
=> Field hockey will be missing from a second successive SEA Games after the Indonesian organising committee for 2011 event did not include it on the list of sports. The 26th SEA Games will take place in Jakarta and Palembang from Nov 11 and 25 and is set to feature 43 sports and 542 medal events. Field hockey is the only Olympic and Asian Games sport to be excluded. When field hockey was left off the programme for the last SEA Games in Laos in 2009, the Asian Hockey Federation staged the inaugural SEA Cup in Bangkok, Thailand and it is considering holding the event again to make up for the latest snub.
=> Singapore’s SingTel reported a 6.8% rise in revenue in Singapore and 19,000 new customers for its Mio TV IPTV service in Q4 of 2010. Q3 revenues in Singapore had totaled S$1.63 bil ($1.27 bil), while group revenue was up 5.7% to S$4.7 bil and group net profit climbed 0.8% to S$998 mil. The addition of 19,000 new Mio TV customers in the Q3 meant the IPTV service ended 2010 with a total of 264,000 customers. Q3 revenue at Mio TV came to S$21 million with 25,000 new subscribers in Q2 as SingTel began live coverage of the Premier League. In 2009, SingTel outbid StarHub with an offer reported to be worth between S$300 mil and S$400 mil for the rights to the English Premier League for the period from 2010/11 to 2012/13.
=> Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, has admitted vote trading took place in the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but claimed it did not affect the outcome in which Russia and Qatar were awarded the tournaments. It was rumoured, a deal was in place in which Spain-Portugal and Qatar had agreed to swap votes in support of one another for 2018 and 2022. The agreement was worth seven votes, exactly the number the Iberian bid received in both rounds of 2018 voting. It also accounted for more than half of the 12 votes Qatar needed to land 2022. Blatter admitted that it was a mistake to hold the two votes at the same time because it increased the chances of collusion.
=> IEC in Sports has been appointed global broadcast rights distributor for Chelsea on the club's two-game tour of Asia this summer. Chelsea will face a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on July 21, before heading to Bangkok for a match against the Thai All Stars on July 24. Promoter ProEvents is handling the arrangements for the tour. Chelsea, the reigning Premier League and FA Cup holders, last toured Asia in 2008, playing matches in China and Malaysia, but have spent the last two pre-seasons in USA.
=> Japan’s J Sports has appointed MP & Silva as its adviser for international rights acquisitions in a deal that includes rights for the EPL and French Ligue 1. MP & Silva said it is already advising J Sports on the addition of more sports content ‘‘to further consolidate its market position as Japan’s leading sports broadcaster.’’ MP & Silva holds the Ligue 1 distribution rights in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, plus Premier League distribution rights in Japan and Vietnam. J Sports operates four premium sports channels in Japan and has a penetration of over 7.6 million households.
=> French soccer club Lyon, is pushing for the LFP to launch its domestic broadcast rights tender soon. The LFP is set to launch the tender for rights this year to Ligue 1 from 2012-13 onwards. Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas said that the value of Ligue 1 rights could yet rise to between €800 million ($1.09 billion) and €850 million per season, despite Orange’s stance and warning from Canal Plus that it will not offer more than the €465 million a season that it presently pays for rights. The LFP, the French professional soccer league, presently generates €668 million per season from rights deals with Canal Plus and Orange.
=> Germany’s DFL will not alter its fixture schedule for the Bundesliga by adding more kick-off times in the next domestic broadcast rights tender, covering 2013-14 onwards. As part of the television rights tender for the current period, DFL adopted 5 kick-off times (Fri: 8.30pm, Sat: 3.30pm & 6.30pm and Sun: 3.30pm & 5.30pm) in an attempt to give more exclusivity to pay-television. DFL aims to allocate the Bundesliga broadcast rights for the next contract cycle by May 2012. An average of €412 million ($564.5 million) per season was raised in the last tender for domestic broadcast rights fees through deals with Sky Deutschland, ARD and ZDF, Sport1 and Deutsche Telekom.
=> German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, said they will end live coverage of Tour de France next year because of the impact of recent doping scandals on German viewers’ acceptance of the race. The broadcasters are contracted to show live coverage from 2009 to 2011 in a deal by the EBU with ASO. ARD and ZDF confirmed that they will not enter a new rights deal for live coverage through EBU and will show news coverage of the race from next year in their sports shows. The cost of the live rights acquired by ARD and ZDF was reported to be between €3 mil ($4.15 million) and €3.5 mil each.
=> France's TF1 will share this year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand with two domestic networks after selling rights to a selection of games to France Télévisions and Canal Plus. France Télévisions and Canal Plus will pay a combined €13 million ($17.6 million) to TF1 for 28 matches. In 2004, TF1 bought rights for the 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, paying €80 million and beating off a bid from France Télévisions to complete a deal with IMG. Last year, TF1 sub-licensed rights for 2010 World Cup to Canal Plus and France Télévisions for about €33 million, having spent €120 million on all the rights.
=> Richard Lewis, chairman of UK’s Rugby Football League, has said he expects an "intense and competitive" bidding process for TV rights to the Super League and Challenge Cup competitions from 2012. BSkyB holds live rights for Super League, while the BBC has rights for the Challenge Cup. The pair paid a combined £50 million ($80.8 million) for a 3-year contract, beginning in 2009, which also included international matches. The RFL said that it had secured "a significant increase" when renewing the Super League rights last time around, with each club's annual share of the pot increasing from around £750,000 to more than £1 million.
=> NFL won its battle with the NFL Players Association over TV revenue, after a special master ruled the league was entitled to receive $4 billion next season even if a labour dispute causes a lockout. The NFL hoped the ruling will encourage all parties to focus efforts on negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement before the present one expires in March. Failure to do so could result in the delay to, or cancellation of, the 2011 season beginning in September.
=> Triumph Media Group has extended its agreement to sell international broadcast rights to the fights of boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. The new deal with Klitschko Management Group covers the worldwide rights for fights in 2011, with the exception of the territories of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Canada and Puerto Rico, where KMG will sell to broadcasters. Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion, will fight Cuba’s Odlanier Solis at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on March 19, before Wladimir Klitschko, the WBO and IBF heavyweight title-holder, fights Britain’s Dereck Chisora in Mannheim on April 30.
BROADCAST
=> ESPN Star Sports is considering a launch of 3D TV channel to capitalise on growing demand for the technology in the region. ESS showed its first EPL soccer match in 3D in January and has plans to expand the offering to other sports. Last year, ESS launched ESPN HD and ESPN Player broadband service, offering live coverage and a variety of online features. ESS is also stepping up its offering on 3G mobile phones, notably in India, where there are 700 million mobile phone subscribers and the broadcaster has two-year distribution deals with mobile phone operators Vodafone and Tata DoCoMo. ESS also teamed up with SingTel to launch the Mobile ESPN service in Singapore.
=> Japan’s J Sports Broadcasting has signed a 5-year extension to its deal with wrestling’s WWE. The agreement gives J Sports exclusive pay-TV rights in Japan for WWE's weekly programming, which includes RAW, SmackDown, NXT, and, for the first time, WWE Superstars. In total, J Sports will show 6 hours of wrestling each week in HD.
=> Fox USA is in line to break audience record for any US TV programme ever after overnight figures for the recent Super Bowl showed a remarkable 47.9 overnight rating. The rating for Green Bay Packers' exciting 31-25 defeat of Pittsburgh Steelers compares with a 46.4 overnight rating for last year's contest which earned CBS a record audience of 106.5 million viewers. The 47.9 rating ties the previous high figure, for Super Bowl XXI in 1987, when there were fewer television households. The NFL remains a huge TV draw and the Super Bowl audience has grown every year since 2005. Companies use the game to launch new commercials and the rate for 30-sec spots in this year’s game was about $3 million.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> The World Squash Federation announced last week changes to how member nations are allocated hosting rights for world championships and conferences. The WSF said it is working to get the sport into the Olympics and believes that a more professional, formulaic calendar aimed at globalising the sport will stand it in good stead.
=> The International Softball Federation has been told to work closer with the IBAF if it wants softball to remain in the Asian Games. Women's softball was confirmed by the Olympic Council of Asia and the 2014 organising committee on the list of sports to be contested in Incheon, South Korea. Softball has been part of the Asian Games since 1990, but reports suggested it would be dropped from the line-up for Incheon, following its exclusion from both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. Softball has disengaged itself from baseball in a bid to return to the Olympic and the ISF has twice turned down approaches from the IBAF to mount a joint campaign for the re-inclusion of a men's baseball and women's softball competition in the games.
=> Field hockey will be missing from a second successive SEA Games after the Indonesian organising committee for 2011 event did not include it on the list of sports. The 26th SEA Games will take place in Jakarta and Palembang from Nov 11 and 25 and is set to feature 43 sports and 542 medal events. Field hockey is the only Olympic and Asian Games sport to be excluded. When field hockey was left off the programme for the last SEA Games in Laos in 2009, the Asian Hockey Federation staged the inaugural SEA Cup in Bangkok, Thailand and it is considering holding the event again to make up for the latest snub.
=> Singapore’s SingTel reported a 6.8% rise in revenue in Singapore and 19,000 new customers for its Mio TV IPTV service in Q4 of 2010. Q3 revenues in Singapore had totaled S$1.63 bil ($1.27 bil), while group revenue was up 5.7% to S$4.7 bil and group net profit climbed 0.8% to S$998 mil. The addition of 19,000 new Mio TV customers in the Q3 meant the IPTV service ended 2010 with a total of 264,000 customers. Q3 revenue at Mio TV came to S$21 million with 25,000 new subscribers in Q2 as SingTel began live coverage of the Premier League. In 2009, SingTel outbid StarHub with an offer reported to be worth between S$300 mil and S$400 mil for the rights to the English Premier League for the period from 2010/11 to 2012/13.
=> Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, has admitted vote trading took place in the contest to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but claimed it did not affect the outcome in which Russia and Qatar were awarded the tournaments. It was rumoured, a deal was in place in which Spain-Portugal and Qatar had agreed to swap votes in support of one another for 2018 and 2022. The agreement was worth seven votes, exactly the number the Iberian bid received in both rounds of 2018 voting. It also accounted for more than half of the 12 votes Qatar needed to land 2022. Blatter admitted that it was a mistake to hold the two votes at the same time because it increased the chances of collusion.
Wednesday, 2nd February 2011
BROADCAST
=> The Indian DTH market is on the verge of a revolution, according to RNCOS (analyst), following an increase of 37.5% in subscriber base over 2009 with larger number of subscribers expected in the near future. RNCOS’ Indian DTH Market Forecast to 2012 says DTH subscribers is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14% in 2011-2013 to reach 35.7 mil by 2013. Growth is attributed to options that DTH service providers offer to subscribers and with entry of new players in the Indian DTH industry, competition is getting intense. Currently, the Indian DTH market is served by 6 private players – Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon D2H.
=> ESPN announced that they had withdrawn their offer to host Copa America this summer. ESPN wanted to buy English-language rights for TV and internet broadcasts in the USA but when Traffic Sports were awarded the internet rights, they withdrew their bid. Argentina will serve as the host of the tournament, beginning July 1 to 24. Traffic Sports is a controversial company that has bought contracts of players and smaller clubs in addition to media rights in a wide-ranging soccer business strategy. With the internet rights to Copa America, it is unclear whether they will develop their own way to show matches online or sell the rights.
CONTENT
=> Universal Networks International rolled out its first HD channel in Southeast Asia, with Universal Channel HD now available on Telekom Malaysia's IPTV platform HyppTV. Last year, UNI's launched its first HD channel in Asia, Universal Channel HD Japan, with further HD rollouts slated for the year ahead. Highlights for Universal Channel HD in Southeast Asia include Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced.
DATA
=> Online and mobile media were the growth engines for the entertainment content market, which is worth around $320 bil, according to Futuresource Consulting. Analyst’s data showed that growth in 2010 of consumer expenditure on online and mobile entertainment outstripped traditional packaged media, theatrical and TV. Online grew 23%, while expenditure on mobile media grew by more than 15%. Rise of digital content delivery through mobile and online is expected to continue to drive revenues, and forecasts that during the period 2009-2014 each will be post a CAGR of 16% and 24% respectively.
=> Research from Nielsen and Yahoo! showing how and when mobile devices are used has revealed a compelling opportunity for content providers and advertisers alike to complement the TV viewing experience. 86% of mobile Internet users, and 92% of 13-24 year olds, are use mobile devices simultaneously with TV, with 71% frequently/occasionally doing so. 23% search for more information related to the commercials they saw as they were watching TV and 24% used mobile to browse content on the internet related to what they were watching. 44% were watching online video, such as YouTube and Yahoo! video, on their mobile device when browsing consumer products/services.
EVENT
=> Fresh doubts were raised about Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022 after hundreds of ticket-holders were refused entry to the Asian Cup final in Doha. Organizers blamed latecomers for the events at the 40,000-capacity Khalifa Stadium in which 3,000 fans, including 700 with valid tickets, were locked out of the final between Japan and Australia amid claims of overzealous security and stewarding. The Asian Cup had run relatively smoothly up until then, albeit low crowds for some matches. Japan beat Australia 1-0 after extra time to be crowned Asian champions for the fourth time. Australia hosts the next Asian Cup in 2015 and will see the introduction of a prize purse of $10 million, to be shared between the top 3 teams.
=> South African Football Association will bid to host the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup. The pledge was made two days after securing the hosting rights to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. We are going to continue to talk to FIFA about it (2014), Jordaan told BBC Sport. It's important that these competitions come to Africa. SAFA vice-president, Danny Jordaan, confirmed this with BBC Sport., saying that it was important that these competitions come to Africa but of course, will not take that decision outside the context of further engagement with FIFA.
=> The ICC confirmed its decision to relocate the India v England match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, originally scheduled for Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 27 February, to Bangalore on the same date. The ICC outlined a schedule of works that needed to be carried out at Eden Gardens ahead of the ground’s other scheduled fixtures on 15, 18 and 20 March. As such, an inspection team will visit Kolkata again on 7 February to assess progress in line with that schedule. The BCCI responded to the ICC by nominating Bangalore as preferred alternate venue for the India v England match, a recommendation the ICC agrees to.
OTHER NEWS
=> A committee probing irregularities in awarding broadcast rights for Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi have found evidence of fraud and recommended filing criminal charges against officials of Prasar Bharati, rights-holder and parent company of Indian state broadcaster, Doordarshan. BS Lalli, PB’s chief executive, has already been suspended. Last week, UK’s high commissioner in India waded into a row over unpaid bills by organisers of the games, saying that PB was wrong to block payment of £13 mil ($21 mil) to SIS Live, the UK company that provided host broadcast TV production facilities and services for the games, and claims that it is still owed 30% of its Rs2.5-bil ($52-mil) fee.
=> Federation of International Cricketers' Associations has lashed out at India’s BCCI for non-payment of $6 mil in prize money Champions League Twenty20 competition 2010. The matter relates to a dispute between BCCI and commercial rights holder, ESPN Star Sports. But FICA member, Cricket Australia, said that player payments were the responsibility of BCCI. The 2nd edition of the Champions League saw participation from 10 club team across 6 countries. IPL team Chennai Super Kings had won the tournament. In 2008, ESS secured commercial rights for the CL T20 after paying US$975 mil for 10 years.
=> The Indian DTH market is on the verge of a revolution, according to RNCOS (analyst), following an increase of 37.5% in subscriber base over 2009 with larger number of subscribers expected in the near future. RNCOS’ Indian DTH Market Forecast to 2012 says DTH subscribers is projected to grow at a CAGR of 14% in 2011-2013 to reach 35.7 mil by 2013. Growth is attributed to options that DTH service providers offer to subscribers and with entry of new players in the Indian DTH industry, competition is getting intense. Currently, the Indian DTH market is served by 6 private players – Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Big TV, Airtel Digital TV and Videocon D2H.
=> ESPN announced that they had withdrawn their offer to host Copa America this summer. ESPN wanted to buy English-language rights for TV and internet broadcasts in the USA but when Traffic Sports were awarded the internet rights, they withdrew their bid. Argentina will serve as the host of the tournament, beginning July 1 to 24. Traffic Sports is a controversial company that has bought contracts of players and smaller clubs in addition to media rights in a wide-ranging soccer business strategy. With the internet rights to Copa America, it is unclear whether they will develop their own way to show matches online or sell the rights.
CONTENT
=> Universal Networks International rolled out its first HD channel in Southeast Asia, with Universal Channel HD now available on Telekom Malaysia's IPTV platform HyppTV. Last year, UNI's launched its first HD channel in Asia, Universal Channel HD Japan, with further HD rollouts slated for the year ahead. Highlights for Universal Channel HD in Southeast Asia include Law & Order: Los Angeles and Outsourced.
DATA
=> Online and mobile media were the growth engines for the entertainment content market, which is worth around $320 bil, according to Futuresource Consulting. Analyst’s data showed that growth in 2010 of consumer expenditure on online and mobile entertainment outstripped traditional packaged media, theatrical and TV. Online grew 23%, while expenditure on mobile media grew by more than 15%. Rise of digital content delivery through mobile and online is expected to continue to drive revenues, and forecasts that during the period 2009-2014 each will be post a CAGR of 16% and 24% respectively.
=> Research from Nielsen and Yahoo! showing how and when mobile devices are used has revealed a compelling opportunity for content providers and advertisers alike to complement the TV viewing experience. 86% of mobile Internet users, and 92% of 13-24 year olds, are use mobile devices simultaneously with TV, with 71% frequently/occasionally doing so. 23% search for more information related to the commercials they saw as they were watching TV and 24% used mobile to browse content on the internet related to what they were watching. 44% were watching online video, such as YouTube and Yahoo! video, on their mobile device when browsing consumer products/services.
EVENT
=> Fresh doubts were raised about Qatar hosting the World Cup in 2022 after hundreds of ticket-holders were refused entry to the Asian Cup final in Doha. Organizers blamed latecomers for the events at the 40,000-capacity Khalifa Stadium in which 3,000 fans, including 700 with valid tickets, were locked out of the final between Japan and Australia amid claims of overzealous security and stewarding. The Asian Cup had run relatively smoothly up until then, albeit low crowds for some matches. Japan beat Australia 1-0 after extra time to be crowned Asian champions for the fourth time. Australia hosts the next Asian Cup in 2015 and will see the introduction of a prize purse of $10 million, to be shared between the top 3 teams.
=> South African Football Association will bid to host the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup. The pledge was made two days after securing the hosting rights to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. We are going to continue to talk to FIFA about it (2014), Jordaan told BBC Sport. It's important that these competitions come to Africa. SAFA vice-president, Danny Jordaan, confirmed this with BBC Sport., saying that it was important that these competitions come to Africa but of course, will not take that decision outside the context of further engagement with FIFA.
=> The ICC confirmed its decision to relocate the India v England match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, originally scheduled for Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 27 February, to Bangalore on the same date. The ICC outlined a schedule of works that needed to be carried out at Eden Gardens ahead of the ground’s other scheduled fixtures on 15, 18 and 20 March. As such, an inspection team will visit Kolkata again on 7 February to assess progress in line with that schedule. The BCCI responded to the ICC by nominating Bangalore as preferred alternate venue for the India v England match, a recommendation the ICC agrees to.
OTHER NEWS
=> A committee probing irregularities in awarding broadcast rights for Commonwealth Games 2010 in Delhi have found evidence of fraud and recommended filing criminal charges against officials of Prasar Bharati, rights-holder and parent company of Indian state broadcaster, Doordarshan. BS Lalli, PB’s chief executive, has already been suspended. Last week, UK’s high commissioner in India waded into a row over unpaid bills by organisers of the games, saying that PB was wrong to block payment of £13 mil ($21 mil) to SIS Live, the UK company that provided host broadcast TV production facilities and services for the games, and claims that it is still owed 30% of its Rs2.5-bil ($52-mil) fee.
=> Federation of International Cricketers' Associations has lashed out at India’s BCCI for non-payment of $6 mil in prize money Champions League Twenty20 competition 2010. The matter relates to a dispute between BCCI and commercial rights holder, ESPN Star Sports. But FICA member, Cricket Australia, said that player payments were the responsibility of BCCI. The 2nd edition of the Champions League saw participation from 10 club team across 6 countries. IPL team Chennai Super Kings had won the tournament. In 2008, ESS secured commercial rights for the CL T20 after paying US$975 mil for 10 years.
Tuesday, 1st February 2011
RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Sri Lanka Cricket has lost US$125k from rescheduling a home 5-match ODI series against the West Indies in Dec 2010, but was postponed to Jan 2011 due to poor weather and lack of an international TV rights deal which cost the SLC US$25k per game. Ten Sports holds the rights to the initial matches, has decided not to televise the series as it is considered to be a separate tour and therefore not part of its long-term deal with SLC. As a result, the only television coverage is being provided within Sri Lanka by state broadcaster Rupavahini.
=> Uruguay’s soccer association, the AUF, will hold a public auction for the TV rights for the Uruguayan national team's home qualifying matches for the 2014 Fifa World Cup. The AUF president said that law firm Reyes y Rius is finalising terms of the tender documents for the domestic and international media rights and that the auction will be launched in early February. The move has caused some controversy. Rights agency, Tenfield, has held long-term media rights to the national team and first division league and had expected to retain rights through automatic renewal. The present deal was signed in 2007 and worth $7 million. However, the AUF is seeking significantly more in the new deal, after Uruguay's strong fourth-place showing in the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
=> A ‘mathematical formula’ will be used to help determine the broadcaster who will win TV rights to Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A, for the 2012-14 period. While rights fees offered will still be the primary consideration, the formula will factor in other facets of a bid, including scheduling, advertising, etc. The bidding will be ‘closed envelope’, which means that incumbent, Globo, will not know what others have offered and ensures a competitive bid. Globo’s rival, Record refused to bid for rights for 2009-11 period, willing to offer up to R$1 bil ($593 mil), but was furious that Globo would retain its matching rights. Rights fees this time, could surpass R$1 bil. At present, Globo pays R$600 million per season for all of its rights.
=> Pubcaster, France Télévisions (FTv), attracted an audience of 5.5 mil as France defeated Denmark in the final of the men’s 2011 handball world championships, broadcast live on France 2 after FTv bought rights from Canal Plus in a deal worth between €300,000 ($410,975) and €350,000. Canal Plus also broadcast the match live and registered an average audience of 1.8 million (a 36.6% share), and a peak of 2.5 million. Handball falls in as a part of regulations that require terrestrial carriage of selected sports.
=> French rugby union’s LNR has issued a warning that pay-TV Canal Plus’ bid to retain rights for the top-tier Top 14 competition to be unacceptable. The LNR said that it had received 10 bids for domestic rights from 2011-12 onwards ahead of submission deadline. Canal Plus’ offer for rights for the next four seasons was reportedly worth €18 mil ($24.6 mil) per year but is presently thought to pay around €26 mil per season for Top 14 and second-tier Pro D2 rights. Telecom, Orange, France Télévisions and Eurosport are also minor broadcast partners of LNR. Canal Plus is reportedly not seeking exclusivity for live coverage of Top 14.
BROADCAST
=> The Australian Open women’s final between Li Na and Kim Clijsters was watched by an average of 18 mil viewers on CCTV5, according to CSM Media Research-KantarSport China. The figures peaked at 24.6 mil viewers at 6.45pm local time during the match. Viewers watching coverage via four local broadcasters brought the average total up to close to 19 mil. The figures compare with the 9 mil viewers that watched Li Na’s semi-finals match in the Australian Open 2010. The programme’s reach was over 60 mil, ensuring that it will likely feature in the most-watched sports programmes of 2011, normally dominated by basketball, soccer, table tennis, athletics, snooker and volleyball.
=> Singapore’s StarHub has – finally – put the NBA TV linear channel on air. The channel was originally scheduled to go up in May 2009 but it seems the launch might have been tangled in Singapore’s cross-carriage hubbub. The channel will, among other things, offer one live game a day and up to 35 hours of original NBA content a week.
=> Malaysian IPTV platform, Telekom Malaysia’s HyppTV, has added four premium channels – Bloomberg Television, UTV Movies, UTV Bindass and Jaya Max – to its linear channel line up. All are being offered a la carte for between RM3/US$1 and RM6/US$2. TM executive vice president Jeremy Kung has promised more as the telco ramps up its broadband ambitions.
=> 8 companies have signed up to sponsor ESPN Star Sports’ coverage of the Cricket World Cup. ESS, global media and marketing rights-holder to ICC events until 2015, has signed Vodafone, Hero Honda and Sony India as presenting sponsors of its Cricket World Cup broadcasts and Airtel Digital TV, Nokia, Maruti Suzuki, Philips and Pepsi as associate sponsors. ESS is in line to generate Rs4 bil ($87.25 mil) from ad revenues for the tournament, which takes place in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from February 19 to April 2. Vodafone has also secured mobile streaming rights in a deal worth Rs550 mil after rival, Reliance, declined to take up its first right of refusal to the rights and will settle for ground sponsorship.
EVENT
=> Korea’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic winter games was last week dealt a blow when the Supreme Court stripped Lee Kwang-jae of the governorship of Gangwon Province, where PyeongChang is situated, and upholding a (suspended, pending appeal) jail term for bribery. Lee was heavily involved in PyeongChang's bid campaign. However, a poll conducted in the region revealed that 95.2% of people surveyed backed the city's bid, up from 93% when the same poll was conducted in 2009. PyeongChang also has strong private backing from a broad range of Korean industries, including broadcasting. Ki-young Uhm, vice chairman of the 2018 bid is the former president of national network, MBC Broadcasting.
=> Morocco has been named as host of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) with South Africa awarded 2017. Morocco and S Africa were the only two bidders for the tournaments after DR Congo pulled out citing economic and infrastructure problems. Morocco and S Africa battled for the 2010 World Cup, which South Africa won in a tight 14-10 vote in 2004. Morocco and S Africa have both staged the CAN once, in 1988 and 1996 respectively. The 2012 CAN finals will be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. After that, CAN will be played every odd year to avoid a World Cup clash, with 2013 already awarded to Libya.
OTHER NEWS
=> AIBA has finalized details of a new licensing program, approved by AIBA's Executive Committee Bureau. Future licensees will be the only authorized suppliers for boxing events staged under AIBA competition rules at national, confederation and international level. The aim is to make boxing equipment available at the same high standards for safety of all boxers worldwide and develop partnerships between AIBA and suppliers. Through the program, affordable boxing equipment should also be made available to developing countries. The tender process is now open to all potential bidders who are manufacturers of boxing equipment, headguards, gloves and bandages. AIBA plans to select more than 3 licensees for implementing this new program at this time.
=> 13 companies are making presentations to FIFA this week for possible introduction of goal-line technology. FIFA is considering issuing a licence to companies “in the same way that it licenses companies to provide balls, goalposts or turf.” The technology must include a “predictive element,” to enable a decision on whether the ball crossed the line even when it is obscured by a melee of players. The 13 companies include Hawk-Eye, Cairos, Goalminder, Abatec, Tag Heuer and Longines. Technology tests will take place from Feb 7-13.
=> Triumph Media Group (TMG) has begun marketing operations at Lokomotiv-Kuban (LK), home of Russian basketball’s top-tier Professional Basketball League, to create supporter awareness, raise attendances and develop revenue streams. TMG and LK signed a deal to create a club management system for marketing and other commercial areas. TMG will also develop and implement the club’s brand and awareness through developing digital and social media services and supporting sales activities for sponsorship rights.
=> Sri Lanka Cricket has lost US$125k from rescheduling a home 5-match ODI series against the West Indies in Dec 2010, but was postponed to Jan 2011 due to poor weather and lack of an international TV rights deal which cost the SLC US$25k per game. Ten Sports holds the rights to the initial matches, has decided not to televise the series as it is considered to be a separate tour and therefore not part of its long-term deal with SLC. As a result, the only television coverage is being provided within Sri Lanka by state broadcaster Rupavahini.
=> Uruguay’s soccer association, the AUF, will hold a public auction for the TV rights for the Uruguayan national team's home qualifying matches for the 2014 Fifa World Cup. The AUF president said that law firm Reyes y Rius is finalising terms of the tender documents for the domestic and international media rights and that the auction will be launched in early February. The move has caused some controversy. Rights agency, Tenfield, has held long-term media rights to the national team and first division league and had expected to retain rights through automatic renewal. The present deal was signed in 2007 and worth $7 million. However, the AUF is seeking significantly more in the new deal, after Uruguay's strong fourth-place showing in the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
=> A ‘mathematical formula’ will be used to help determine the broadcaster who will win TV rights to Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A, for the 2012-14 period. While rights fees offered will still be the primary consideration, the formula will factor in other facets of a bid, including scheduling, advertising, etc. The bidding will be ‘closed envelope’, which means that incumbent, Globo, will not know what others have offered and ensures a competitive bid. Globo’s rival, Record refused to bid for rights for 2009-11 period, willing to offer up to R$1 bil ($593 mil), but was furious that Globo would retain its matching rights. Rights fees this time, could surpass R$1 bil. At present, Globo pays R$600 million per season for all of its rights.
=> Pubcaster, France Télévisions (FTv), attracted an audience of 5.5 mil as France defeated Denmark in the final of the men’s 2011 handball world championships, broadcast live on France 2 after FTv bought rights from Canal Plus in a deal worth between €300,000 ($410,975) and €350,000. Canal Plus also broadcast the match live and registered an average audience of 1.8 million (a 36.6% share), and a peak of 2.5 million. Handball falls in as a part of regulations that require terrestrial carriage of selected sports.
=> French rugby union’s LNR has issued a warning that pay-TV Canal Plus’ bid to retain rights for the top-tier Top 14 competition to be unacceptable. The LNR said that it had received 10 bids for domestic rights from 2011-12 onwards ahead of submission deadline. Canal Plus’ offer for rights for the next four seasons was reportedly worth €18 mil ($24.6 mil) per year but is presently thought to pay around €26 mil per season for Top 14 and second-tier Pro D2 rights. Telecom, Orange, France Télévisions and Eurosport are also minor broadcast partners of LNR. Canal Plus is reportedly not seeking exclusivity for live coverage of Top 14.
BROADCAST
=> The Australian Open women’s final between Li Na and Kim Clijsters was watched by an average of 18 mil viewers on CCTV5, according to CSM Media Research-KantarSport China. The figures peaked at 24.6 mil viewers at 6.45pm local time during the match. Viewers watching coverage via four local broadcasters brought the average total up to close to 19 mil. The figures compare with the 9 mil viewers that watched Li Na’s semi-finals match in the Australian Open 2010. The programme’s reach was over 60 mil, ensuring that it will likely feature in the most-watched sports programmes of 2011, normally dominated by basketball, soccer, table tennis, athletics, snooker and volleyball.
=> Singapore’s StarHub has – finally – put the NBA TV linear channel on air. The channel was originally scheduled to go up in May 2009 but it seems the launch might have been tangled in Singapore’s cross-carriage hubbub. The channel will, among other things, offer one live game a day and up to 35 hours of original NBA content a week.
=> Malaysian IPTV platform, Telekom Malaysia’s HyppTV, has added four premium channels – Bloomberg Television, UTV Movies, UTV Bindass and Jaya Max – to its linear channel line up. All are being offered a la carte for between RM3/US$1 and RM6/US$2. TM executive vice president Jeremy Kung has promised more as the telco ramps up its broadband ambitions.
=> 8 companies have signed up to sponsor ESPN Star Sports’ coverage of the Cricket World Cup. ESS, global media and marketing rights-holder to ICC events until 2015, has signed Vodafone, Hero Honda and Sony India as presenting sponsors of its Cricket World Cup broadcasts and Airtel Digital TV, Nokia, Maruti Suzuki, Philips and Pepsi as associate sponsors. ESS is in line to generate Rs4 bil ($87.25 mil) from ad revenues for the tournament, which takes place in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from February 19 to April 2. Vodafone has also secured mobile streaming rights in a deal worth Rs550 mil after rival, Reliance, declined to take up its first right of refusal to the rights and will settle for ground sponsorship.
EVENT
=> Korea’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic winter games was last week dealt a blow when the Supreme Court stripped Lee Kwang-jae of the governorship of Gangwon Province, where PyeongChang is situated, and upholding a (suspended, pending appeal) jail term for bribery. Lee was heavily involved in PyeongChang's bid campaign. However, a poll conducted in the region revealed that 95.2% of people surveyed backed the city's bid, up from 93% when the same poll was conducted in 2009. PyeongChang also has strong private backing from a broad range of Korean industries, including broadcasting. Ki-young Uhm, vice chairman of the 2018 bid is the former president of national network, MBC Broadcasting.
=> Morocco has been named as host of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) with South Africa awarded 2017. Morocco and S Africa were the only two bidders for the tournaments after DR Congo pulled out citing economic and infrastructure problems. Morocco and S Africa battled for the 2010 World Cup, which South Africa won in a tight 14-10 vote in 2004. Morocco and S Africa have both staged the CAN once, in 1988 and 1996 respectively. The 2012 CAN finals will be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. After that, CAN will be played every odd year to avoid a World Cup clash, with 2013 already awarded to Libya.
OTHER NEWS
=> AIBA has finalized details of a new licensing program, approved by AIBA's Executive Committee Bureau. Future licensees will be the only authorized suppliers for boxing events staged under AIBA competition rules at national, confederation and international level. The aim is to make boxing equipment available at the same high standards for safety of all boxers worldwide and develop partnerships between AIBA and suppliers. Through the program, affordable boxing equipment should also be made available to developing countries. The tender process is now open to all potential bidders who are manufacturers of boxing equipment, headguards, gloves and bandages. AIBA plans to select more than 3 licensees for implementing this new program at this time.
=> 13 companies are making presentations to FIFA this week for possible introduction of goal-line technology. FIFA is considering issuing a licence to companies “in the same way that it licenses companies to provide balls, goalposts or turf.” The technology must include a “predictive element,” to enable a decision on whether the ball crossed the line even when it is obscured by a melee of players. The 13 companies include Hawk-Eye, Cairos, Goalminder, Abatec, Tag Heuer and Longines. Technology tests will take place from Feb 7-13.
=> Triumph Media Group (TMG) has begun marketing operations at Lokomotiv-Kuban (LK), home of Russian basketball’s top-tier Professional Basketball League, to create supporter awareness, raise attendances and develop revenue streams. TMG and LK signed a deal to create a club management system for marketing and other commercial areas. TMG will also develop and implement the club’s brand and awareness through developing digital and social media services and supporting sales activities for sponsorship rights.