Monday, 21st March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  IEC in Sports has been appointed to handle broadcast rights and production for Real Madrid’s friendly matches in China later this year. Real Madrid are due to play Guangzhou Evergrand on Aug 3 and Tianjin Teda 3 days later. IEC in Sports was appointed by tour promoter Centurion Group and will act as exclusive broadcast rights holder and production co-ordinator.

=>  The Brazilian top-flight auction for FTA rights was thrown into further confusion, with only RedeTV!, the smallest of 5 national FTA networks, submitting a bid. The two biggest, Globo and Record, and 12 of the 20 top-tier clubs, boycotted the auction. Globo refused to participate claiming the asking price of R$500 mil ($300 mil) per season was too high to recoup from advertising. The move was expected to pave the way for Record to sweep the coveted FTA package but Record withdrew at the last minute, saying the auction was rendered void by the fact that 12 of the 20 clubs were boycotting it. RedeTV!’s offer of R$1.54 billion over 3 seasons surpassed the minimum asking price of the Clube dos 13. However, the RedeTV!’s contract only becomes operational if all 20 clubs agree to cede their TV rights, and most are not expected to do so.

=>  Meanwhile, following the close of auction, Globo agreed new individual media rights deals with 11 of the 20 top-flight Serie A clubs, a clear sign that media rights won by rival Rede TV! is not being respected. Grêmio is the latest club to join the rebellion, confirming that it will earn R$5 mil ($3 mil) per month, or R$40 mil over the 8-month Serie A competition, for 3 seasons from 2012 to 2014. Flamengo, Corinthians, Botafogo, Fluminense, Vasco da Gama, Palmeiras, Santos, Cruzeiro, Goiás and Internacional have also signed similar deals. São Paulo and Atlético-PR are the only two clubs that have publicly said they will support the Rede TV! deal. The Globo-Grêmio deal covers all the club’s media rights except pay-per-view rights, which are negotiated based on the number of buys per match. Grêmio presently earns R$15 mil per year under the present deal.

=>  Broadcast rights for the UEFA Champions League are open for bids for 2012/13 to 2014/15 in the UK. CL rights are presently split between British Sky Broadcasting and ITV. BSkyB paid £80 mil ($128.3 mil) a season from 2009/10 to 2011/12 for a more substantial package of rights over ITV. ITV paid average £53.3 mil a season from 2009/10 to 2011/12. Meanwhile, Champions League and Europa League rights offers were invited for the territory of Hong Kong, closing on April 11. i-Cable is the rights-holder.


BROADCAST

=>  The Indian DTH market is penetrating households at a fast pace according to RNCOS in its survey, ‘Indian DTH Market Forecast to 2012’, saying growth was possible due to unmatched quality of DTH service, surpassing other broadcast methods and revolutionised the TV experience. DTH subscribers in India are expected to grow at a CAGR of 14% during 2011-13. The industry will mainly comprise of private players and involves no role of the public sector. The Indian DTH market is dominated by Dish TV, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV. Competition resulted in affordable packages offered to consumers, with the option of changing the package at any time during the subscription. The report also looks at factors that may hinder growth of the industry in future.

=>  The Shanghai Media Group (SMG) is launching new cable services as part of the group's aggressive push for audience share in domestic and international Chinese markets. SMG is a multimedia television and radio broadcasting, news, and Internet company comprising eleven analogue TV channels, 90 digital paid cable TV channels and a full broadcasting Internet TV service. Powered by a Thomson head end technology solution and distributing MPEG-2 format video, SMG says that its new channels will achieve extremely high video quality through the powerful statistical multiplexing performance of the new infrastructure.


NEW MEDIA

=>  TVNZ launched U, a channel integrating social networking with broadcast content for the first time in New Zealand. U is a commercial FTA online TV channel featuring real life and factual entertainment programming aimed at Kiwis aged 15-24. The channel kicked off with the first episode of U live, a daily interactive entertainment music show. TVNZ worked with Facebook to create an interactive show where fans were able to comment on topics, post pictures, vote in polls which were pulled into the broadcast and on to the screen. TVNZ's Head of Digital Media and Channels, Eric Kearley, said the broadcaster was delighted to bring New Zealand its first true "social television" experience through the Facebook integration.


DATA

=>  New research predicts uptake of IPTV in emerging and developed markets will drive a 23% rise in global subs to total 131.6 mil by end 2015. Pyramid Research says growth has begun with 2010 closing with 46.2 mil worldwide IPTV subs, a 38% increase over 2009. At the end of these 5-years, a boom in IPTV service revenues will grow at a CAGR of 25% to reach $36.3 bil. In context, this would represent 15% of total pay-TV revenue in 2015, compared 6% currently. Asia will be the IPTV sub hub, increasing from 35% of IPTV subs in 2010 to 51% by 2015. Sometime in 2011, China will overtake France to become the world's largest IPTV market. In 2011, China Telecom overtook Free to become the largest single IPTV provider. Despite commanding the majority of sub by 2015, Asia will likely amount for only 28% of services revenues; US and Europe will account for two thirds of the total.

=>  Meanwhile, TeleGeography’s (TG) GlobalComms Pay-TV Research has revealed a surge in IPTV services and subscribers. TG calculates over 40 telcos launching IPTV services in 2010, bringing the total to more than 200. A subsequent 38% year-on-year rise in the number of IPTV subscribers, reaching 45 mil. For Q4 alone, the growth was 9%. In TG’s analysis, Western Europe accounted 40% of global subs in 2010, 5% ahead of Asia-Pac; French subs made up 23% of global total, followed by China and US both 16%, South Korea 8% and Japan 4%. Meanwhile, fixed broadband internet subs grew 13% in 2010 to over 530 mil, with telcos accounting for 82% share, although this is just over 10% of their broadband internet customer base.

=>  Research into 3DTV by In-Stat suggests the TV industry reject the pessimism it has attracted and projects modest growth over the next 5 years. “3D TV Services: It's a Small World” predicts the costs to reproduce 3D will decline over time and in 2011, 3D content production will grow quickly, especially for live event coverage. Recognising that 3D channels that have already been launched, In-Stat pinpoints sports, movie, documentary, and music channels as the areas most conducive to 3D development. In addition to linear TV channels already launched, 3D content is made widely available on pay-TVs’ VOD systems. It expects those experimenting with 3D VOD to make linear available. In all, the number of 3D TV channels will grow to over 100 by 2014.

=>  Meanwhile, Samsung launched a 3D VOD service in Korea, with plans to roll it out across the US and Europe. The service debuts with content from DreamWorks and offers 3D films, movie trailers and music videos, along with children's and educational content accessible via Samsung Apps, the marketplace that is available on some of its HDTVs. Films such as Shrek and Megamind will be the first to be released and viewers are also set to be able to access advertisements and music videos. It has been described as the "industry's first video-on-demand service to provide high-quality 3D content".


EVENT

=>  All matches of the J-League have been suspended indefinitely, in response to disasters that devastated northern parts of the country. Fixtures in March had initially been postponed, amid hopes that the league could resume in April. 2 international friendly matches (Japan vs Montenegro and vs New Zealand) will be replaced by a charity match between Japan’s national team and a team from the J-League in aid of the disaster victims. The national team could pull out of the Copa America to which it has been invited to compete in Argentina in July. The MotoGP leg of Japan has been postponed until October 2. The final series of ice hockey’s Asia League has been cancelled until further notice.” The ISU World Figure Skating Championships were postponed and could yet be cancelled altogether.

=>  Wrestling will get an Indian Premier League after the Wrestling Federation of India said it planned to launch a series modelled on the successful and lucrative cricket series. Working with Leisure Sports, the Federation plans to stage the league in Nov and Dec this year. Wrestlers will compete in 7 weight categories in men’s and women’s competitions, with 6 city-based teams competing in the league in its first season. Sports including boxing, soccer and field hockey have all launched, or are planning to launch, city franchise-based series, either in India or internationally, modelled on the IPL.

=>  ESPN Star Sports plans to stage various street soccer competitions in the Far East this year. Tiger Street Football will kick off in Singapore on Apr 16-17 and move on to Bangkok in May, Guangzhou in Jul and Ho Chi Minh in Aug before culminating with the Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur in Sep. The series, supported by Tiger Beer, will involve 182 teams and comprise aspiring players and some of the world’s best street footballers from countries such as England, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. The competitions will be organised by ESS’ Events Management arm, offering prize money totalling $80,000 in the run-up to the Grand Finals, where the top prize will be $30,000. ESS signed up Tiger Airways as presenting sponsor and Asics as the official sports brand.

=>  Superleague Formula said that it is on course to "break even" next year and will avoid the pitfalls that caused the collapse of A1GP. The 4th season of SF begins in Estoril, Portugal in May and will feature 11 countries and 4 continents, more than before. After the season-opener in Portugal at end May, SF heads to the Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium and the UK, before the inaugural Russia race on Sep 11. Then, begin the "flyaway" races, with the season ending in New Zealand in late November. Germany and Italy have dropped off the circuit for 2011, while China, the UK and Spain will only stage one race each, as opposed to two last year.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  North Korea's gymnasts remain barred from competing at London 2012 Olympics, despite a overhaul at the Federation (NKGF) aimed at appeasing the FIG. The FIG handed the North Korean team a 2-year ban in Nov 2010, following discovery a gymnast, Hong Su Jong, registered three different years of birth under three different passports. The NKGF fired its president and international director and approved an identification and registration process for its gymnasts. It subsequently asked the FIG for leniency on the ban. But the FIG said that NKGF failed to meet a 21-day appeal deadline. As well as the 2012 Olympics, North Korea will also miss the World Championships in Tokyo, slated for Oct 12 this year.

=>  World Sport Group (WSG) have agreed a multi-year deal with the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Chinese Football Industry Development Corporation (CFIDC) to develop the Chinese national teams. WSG will produce extensive fixture schedule for ‘CFA Team China’, as well as provide support to increase commercial revenue and to raise the profile of the sport in the country. The national team is scheduled to play 3 friendlies in March against New Zealand, Costa Rica and Honduras and are hoping to secure one of the four guaranteed places for Asian teams at the 2014 Brazil World Cup when qualifying begins later this year. WSG brings experience of Asian soccer to China, having worked as exclusive marketing partner of the AFC since 1993. Infront Sports and Media was previously the marketing partner of the CFA but that deal expired last year.

=>  Chelsea FC has extended their partnership with the AFC until 2015. The Stamford Bridge club will continue to support Vision Asia, the AFC’s soccer development mission, in China and other countries in Asia. Chelsea will provide instructors for coaching clinics, management workshops, grassroots support via coaching and financial support for various ventures. In addition, the AFC Youth Player of the Year will have a chance to train with Chelsea for a month while 10 other youth players from AFC Vision Asia projects in China will be able to train with the team for two weeks. The club is due to tour Asia for the second time this summer, playing matches in Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

=>  Infront Sports and Media has extended its exclusive global marketing partnership of the Chinese Basketball Association until end 2018. The 8-year extension prolongs a relationship between Infront and the CBA that began in early 2006. Infront said that in addition to successful promotional and marketing programmes, it has organised over 100 international warm-up games for men’s and women’s Chinese national teams between 2006 and 2010. Broadcast rights deal with CCTV-5 means all national team games in China are televised across the country, and total airtime for Team China’s warm-up games has exceeded 1,400 hours over the last five years with a cumulative viewing audience of over 760 million.

=>  Mohamed Bin Hammam will stand against incumbent Sepp Blatter in elections for the presidency of FIFA. As anticipated, Bin Hammam announced his candidacy for elections, to be held at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on Jun 1. The 61-year-old Bin Hammam said that “change is necessary and needed” at FIFA, which faced allegations of corruption in the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and banned two members of the decision-making executive committee as a result. FIFA has never had a leader from Asia but Bin Hammam faces a difficult task in ousting the 75-year-old Blatter, who is seeking a fourth term in office. Bin Hammam said he believed his chances of success were "50-50."

=>  The Ultimate Fighting Championship has purchased Strikeforce, its biggest competitor in North America mixed martial arts (MMA), in a deal worth US$40 mil. UFC parent company Zuffa LLC confirmed Strikeforce will continue as a separate business, with fighter’s existing contracts and its broadcast agreement with the Showtime TV network honoured. Scott Coker will continue as Strikeforce’s chief executive after signing long-term employment with Zuffa. Strikeforce holds 16 annual events in the US and recently signed a contract extension with Showtime, taking its broadcast on the channel through until 2014. The UFC, valued at US$2 bil, in 2006 acquired World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and the World Fighting Alliance. In 2007, it brought Pride Fighting Championships, the biggest MMA organisation in Japan for just under US$70 mil.

=>  FIFA has banned Nurdin Halid, chairman of PSSI football authority in Indonesia, from standing at next month's election. Majority of PSSI members want Halid removed, but election scheduled for Mar 26 was postponed by an appeals decision, prompting protests against PSSI. FIFA stepped in and told PSSI to arrange a general assembly by Mar 26 and organise elections by Apr 30. PSSI said that the election would take place on Apr 29. Halid was jailed in 2007 for abusing funds but continued to run the organisation from prison. His nomination for re-election would violate Fifa's statutes. Failure to adhere to FIFA's requests would result in "serious suspension" for PSSI.