Friday, 4th March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  The AFL’s TV broadcast rights deal will soon be sealed before the start of the season but the question is, can the AFL get a billion-dollar return for the rights to broadcast footy from 2012-2016? Since the last agreement, worth A$780 mil five years ago, it has been a billion dollar dream. Two positives are the added extra games and anti-siphoning laws. Simplistically, 21.6% increase in the number of games on the previous TV deal value would give the AFL a total of $948 million. Anti-siphoning has enabled AFL to deal directly with Foxtel for the first time, who are keen buy more games and pay for it too. But there are many factors that can affect the final outcome and while evidence suggests that $1 bil is gettable, it’s far from guaranteed.


BROADCAST

=>  Neo Sport will be telecasting the first set of India's matches in the Davis Cup World Group against Serbia from 4-6 March at Spens Sports Center, Novi Sad, Serbia. Matches will be shown live in India by Neo Sports. India boasts experience in the doubles department, with Grand Slam winners Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, with Somdev Devbarman and Rohan Bopanna playing in singles. Hosts will be led by Australian open champion and world number 3 Novak Djokovic. The Serbian team will comprise of players like Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic. Winners of this tie go through to quarter finals of the World group, held in July. Losers will play a World Group play off to secure their spot in the 2012 World Group. India entered the World Group by beating Brazil 3 -2 in a thrilling contest and will be facing the defending champions for the first time in Davis Cup history.

=>  New pay-TV sports channel, Setanta Sports Asia, is focusing on rugby to tap into growing interest in the sport in that part of the world and believes that this offers it the opportunity to build a large and loyal following. Launched in Jan, the channel is initially available on TV platforms in 4 countries - Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Singapore (subject to regulatory approval) but is to be a pan-Asian offering as Setanta has acquired premium rugby rights in all territories except Japan and made internet service Setanta-i available to Asian customers. Setanta Sports Asia is an offshoot of the established channel Setanta Sports Australia, with 90% of its content being rugby union league.

=>  The 31st Euro Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris will get 150 hours of live TV cover, with 28 European channels intending to televise the biggest indoor athletics event of the year. At least 173 hours of free-to-air TV coverage in Europe of the 4-6 March championships, 150 of which will be live. Outside Europe, the event will be broadcast by Eurosport Asia, ESPN Star Sports, TBS Japan, Supersport South in S. America, Dubai Sports Channel and Sportsmax Jamaica. A record 593 athletes from 46 member Federations will be at the biggest event of the 2011 European Athletics’ calendar, held in Paris.


NEW MEDIA

=>  The continued demand for smartphone adoption and the uptake of consumer-oriented applications will continue to make mobile entertainment (ME) hugely profitable. According to Juniper Research, such drivers will ensure that ME market will rise from $33 bil by in 2010 to $54 bil by 2015. The Mobile Entertainment report observed that the combination of app stores and smartphones had created an unprecedented level of awareness and usage of services, principally social media, games and video. Furthermore, the analyst predicted that the market transition from a walled-garden business model to an open mobile Internet had created greater opportunities for players in niche areas.


DATA

=>  Asia-Pacific is set to take the IPTV market by storm, according to RNCOS. The report, Global IPTV Market Forecast to 2014, shows promising IPTV subscriber growth in China, S. Korea, Taiwan, and Japan; Asia-Pac is emerging as the 2nd largest IPTV market in the world. By 2014 Asia-Pac will account for around 45% of global IPTV subs. Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Japan have witnessed significant improvements in IPTV penetration during the past two years, and show immense potential for IPTV to become a comparable pay-TV platform. Other markets like India, Malaysia, and Thailand are also fueling growth in Asia-Pac. Additionally, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand are all expected to roll out IPTV services in near future.