Monday, 28th March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  TV rights for Euro 2012 remains unsolved between SportFive (S5) and Vietnamese TV stations. As deadline looms, S5 said it had received one unnamed bid but confirmed it was not a TV station. S5’s asking price of US$5 mil for exclusive TV rights is 2.5 times higher than the $2 mil that Vietnam Television paid for Euro 2008. VTC digital TV channel’s vice director Vu Quang Huy said that most of local TV stations have collectively vowed not to join the race sparked by S5 to push up rights fee. Meanwhile, the Vietnam football fans association has also said that they are considering purchasing the right and selling it on to local TV stations.

=>  The soccer rights business in Brazil became even murkier after representing body, Clube dos 13, confirmed signing a contract with national network RedeTV! for the free-to-air rights to 15 clubs over three seasons for total US$933 million, despite some clubs having agreed to individual deals with rival broadcasters. RedeTV! was the only bidder in a collective rights auction held earlier this month by Clube dos 13. RedeTV! bid R$516 million ($311 million) per season for the free-to-air rights from 2012 to 2014. The auction was marred by a boycott by major players.

=>  French commercial broadcasters, TF1 and M6, have submitted a joint bid for rights of Euro 2012 and Euro 2016, while France Télévisions also submitted an offer ahead of deadline. TF1 and M6 offered a proposal to share matches equally after checking with UEFA that combined offers were allowed. The two shared rights in France to Euro 2008, paying €50 mil ($70.6 million) each and alternating coverage for games, including France matches. In 2009, TF1 and M6 offered a joint fee of €50 mil for the rights to Euro 2012. The new TF1-M6 offer is again €50 mil for Euro 2012 but more for Euro 2016. There will be 31 games at the 16-team European Championships in 2012, before the tournament is expanded to 24 teams and 51 games for Euro 2016.

=>  Sportfive has come under fire from African broadcasters for fees demanded to broadcast rights of qualifying matches for 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. The African Union of Broadcasting issued a statement saying: "it deplores this unjustifiable decision of the rights-holders which does not reflect the reality of the advertising markets in the individual countries." The AUB claims the amounts it paid for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations "were expected to cover the qualifiers for 2012." Sportfive holds worldwide distribution for the Africa Cup of Nations finals and is also selling rights to the qualifiers on behalf of CAF, the governing body for African soccer. Kenya’s KBC told that Sportfive rejected KBC’s offer of $10,000 for rights to Kenya’s home qualifier against Angola, saying that the asking price was $150,000.


BROADCAST

=>  India has 120 mil TV households, yet there are only 30 mil home with digital channels, showing a need to create infrastructure, said James Murdoch of News Corp. Murdoch said India's creative potential remains below expectation: "If India had a creative sector on the scale, relative to overall GDP, of Britain's, for example, instead of $15-bil, we would be talking about a $120-bil industry. Digitalisation is the key to unlocking the potential of the creative sector.” Of 550 TV channels in India, around 400 are active. There are 106 channels which still use analogue system to broadcast to 90 mil homes. Due to the dearth of digital infrastructure, broadcasters are forced to use analogue system and pay more in carriage fees.

=>  China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said it aims to digitize its entire cable TV networks by 2015. China's cable TV subs reached 187 mil by the end 2010, of which 88 mil are digital TV users. Digitized cable TV network enables larger amount of content transmission and makes it possible for TV broadcasters, telecom carriers, and Internet companies to enter each other's fields and provide services. China launched a pilot project in 12 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, for trials of the convergence last July.

=>  Australian regional and rural subscription TV provider Austar is to broadcast the 24-hour motorsport channels Speed and Speed HD from 25 March. The channels will be added to Austar’s Sports option at no extra cost and will show live footage of NASCAR, IndyCar, World Superbike, British Elite Speedway Rolex Sports Cars and the GT1 World Championship. Replays of the local V8 Supercars and Australian Superbikes as well as overseas categories such as the DTM Series, British Rally Championship, Formula Drift and various special motor racing events from around the world are also part of the line-up.

=>  European 24-hr news channel EuroNews is expanding in Asia following deals with Thailand Cable TV Association (TCTA) which allows it to reach 3.5 mil Thailand homes. This agreement is for the channel's English version but foresees some operators getting EuroNews’ Russian and Arabic version in their basic package. Recently, EuroNews presented a plan to expand internationally by opening offices in Asia and America. Also the channel premiered a new programming schedule with more contents.


NEW MEDIA

=>  Data shows the top 5 markets most active in downloading mobile motorsports games are India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam and South Africa. In Feb, these countries generated more than 1 mil downloads of racing games. Ahead of the F1 season start, global mobile company BuzzCity released stats on the rise of motorsport-themed mobile games. Data from its mobile gaming site, Djuzz shows over 1.2 mil downloads a month, compared with 630,000 per month this time last year, a 90% increase in motorsports mobile games being downloaded over the past year. Top 50 game titles include Underground Racer, 3D Street Racing and GTS World Racing. Djuzz is an ad-supported free mobile games portal that has delivered 49.5 million games in the past year.


DATA

=>  Increasing penetration of IPTV and online video services is giving global broadband subscriptions a boost, according to ABI Research. New study “Broadband Subscribers Market Data,” found that worldwide fixed broadband subscriber totaled 503 mil at the end of 2010 with nearly 48 mil subs added in the fourth quarter alone. South Korea, Hong Kong and France were among the countries and regions with the highest fixed broadband penetration. There will be an estimated 71 mil fibre broadband subs at the end of 2011. At the end of the third quarter of 2010, 7.6% of global broadband subscribers could access download speeds above 20Mbps, up from 6.4% in 2Q-2010.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  IPL has expanded the overall viewership base for sports, according to FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2011. Sports channels are doing well with ad revenues, and have a very high power ratio due to the increasing live broadcast of sport events like IPL, CWG and so on. Cricket continues to garner 80% of the ad revenue by share. CWC and IPL ad revenues are expected to make 10-15% of total TV ad revenues next year. However, the report mentioned that while India has a high number of GECs and news channels, it lags behind others on the number of sports channels. India has a mere 2% of sports channel share i.e., a total of 13 channels.

=>  A first meeting between IMG-Reliance and All India Football Federation went well, with Mukesh Ambani present throughout and the issues of popularizing soccer and a developmental programme took centrestage. Ambani insisted that grassroot efforts be intensified for soccer development, and state level football needs to be given priority. IMG’s presentation brought out some startling statistics; there are 21 mil footballers in the country, third highest in the world. Conclusion was that popularising football would mean getting the national team to do well, as also improving the profile of I’League, as had been prioritized by AIFF.

=>  Indonesian Bank Mandiri signed a US$230,000 sponsorship deal with the Indonesian Athletics Federation, giving the IAF a timly financial boost ahead of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) which are to be held in Palembang, on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra from 11th November to 22nd November. The US$230,000 will be used by the federation to boost resources and the chances of the nation’s teams during the games. The deal sees Mandiri become the second lender to support national sports, following Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s agreement to give US$424,750 to Indonesia’s Karate Federation. Telekomunikasi Indonesia also signed a deal with the Indonesian Cycling Union (ISSI), and airline, Garuda supports the Indonesian Tennis Federation.