Friday, 25th March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  Chinese Taipei’s privately-owned digital media company, ELTA Technology Co, has struck a deal with the International Olympic Committee for broadcast and exhibition rights for the London 2012 Olympic Games. ELTA acquired rights across all broadcast platforms, including FTA TV, pay-TV, radio, internet and mobile. ELTA also acquired broadcast rights for 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver and the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August last year. Richard Carrión, the IOC’s chief negotiator for the new contract, added: "ELTA have proved they are an excellent broadcast partner for the Olympic Games, using cutting-edge technology to provide the best possible broadcast experience across a variety of platforms."

=>  Brazilian club, Corinthians, has signed a media rights deal with Globo for close to R$80 mil ($48 mil) per season for 4 seasons from 2012 to 2015. The fee compares with the annual R$100 mil for 5 seasons offered to Corinthians and Flamengo by rival broadcaster Record. The Globo deal covers FTA TV, pay-TV, pay-per-view and internet rights to the Corinthians' home games in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A league over four years. Despite comparison, the fee is still more than what Corinthians earned in previous seasons, the most recent being R$67 mil in 2007. Corinthians is the 6th club to sign a media rights deal with Globo. The first was Grêmio, followed by Goiás, Coritiba, Cruzeiro and Vitória. Fluminense and Palmeiras are expected to be next.

=>  The Irish FA welcomed a UEFA’s initiative of centralizing the sale of rights that will guarantee the association substantial revenue from TV rights money. The FAI could earn up to €40m over a four-year period from 2014-18 when the new arrangement kicks in. Ireland have profited recently from drawing Germany in Euro 2008 and France in the World Cup 2010 play-off. The real winners of UEFA’s move are the associations further down the food chain and FAI’s money will significantly contribute towards wiping out the Aviva Stadium debt by 2020. The FAI borrowed extensively to fund the building of the stadium.

=>  Infront Sports and Media will sell all commercial rights for next year’s soccer friendly match between Bayern Munich and the Dutch national team on May 22, 2012 in a friendly match to compensate for an injury sustained by Bayern's Dutch winger Arjen Robben at last year's World Cup, and Infront has acquired the rights for the game. Infront has been mandated by Bayern to exclusively handle stadium advertising, ticketing, hospitality, and worldwide broadcast rights for the game. Broadcast rights include TV, internet and mobile with a "major HD quality broadcast already planned,". The friendly will take place 3 days after the final of the 2011/12 Uefa Champions League at Allianz Arena and two and half weeks before start of the 2012 European Championships.


CONTENT

=>  Dominique Curchod and Pro-Active Television have teamed to create a new, weekly, half hour magazine sports show which will be offered free of license fee to broadcasters worldwide, with the first programme due to air on April 19. Titled ‘Emotions,’ it will be available via the World Feed and World Link of Eurovision. The focus would be on Olympic sports, including basketball, archery, shooting, wrestling and taekwondo, along with Pro-Active’s content of sailing, powerboating, water skiing, motor sport and extreme sports. Programmes will be 26 minutes and broadcast 52 weeks a year.


DATA

=>  Research from Point Topic revealed broadband subs has driven global IPTV usage to a record level of over 45 mil users, with over 11.5 million new subs. The results showed all IPTV usage climbed by 34.6%; in the July, the half bil broadband lines mark was passed and the year ended with 523 mil lines, a net addition of over 55 million lines. Q4 2010 was the strongest quarter for IPTV growth, at 8% delivering 3.4 million additions. China (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) spearheaded the surge in Asia surpassing 10 mil subs and Asia on the whole, showed particularly strong growth (50%) for the year and is set fair to overtake Europe as the largest IPTV subscriber base by the end of the year.


EVENT

=>  The ICC has reopened the debate on its plans to restrict the 2015 World Cup to a 10-team affair. ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: "We are still having a debate on the 10-team World Cup and qualification process. The second tier teams, especially Ireland, have done exceptionally well and we want more such teams and a higher level of competition.” Another reason to reduce the number of teams was to strike a balance between the length of the tournament and the number of teams.

=>  Pune, often referred as the birth place of roll ball - a game that fuses basketball, handball and skating - is all set to host the first edition of the Roll ball World Cup 2011. The Roll Ball World Cup 2011 will see 20 Nations, 200 players, 100 officials and 100 volunteers and the event is managed by Lets Play, Sports Management Company a division of Sphinx Adonis Events. Roll Ball is a game where players in teams of 12 each (six playing, and six substitutes), move swiftly on skates without stoppers, dribbling the ball and trying to shoot it into hockey like goal posts with their hands.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Charles Less, SVP of advertising sales at ESPN STAR Sports has left the company to head advertising sales at AETN All Asia Networks. ESPN confirmed the development adding that a replacement will be made soon. Less had been with the STAR Group for over a decade and a half. AETN confirmed the appointment but could not offer more details. It is known that Less in his new role will report directly to Louis Boswell, general manager of AAAN. AAAN has channels like History, Bio and Crime & Investigation in its stable.