Tuesday, 29th March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  The International Sepak Takraw Federation signed a major broadcast deal for its newly-launched international calendar, with Eurosport. UFA Sports Asia and Wharf House said full-match and highlights coverage will be aired across Eurosport, the first time sepak takraw will be aired outside of its traditional South East Asian footprint. The men's and women's semi-finals and finals of the inaugural 2011 ISTAF Sepaktakraw World Cup in Kuala Lumpur will be carried across 15 countries in Asia on Eurosport Asia-Pacific, and across 47 European countries on Eurosport 2. ISTAF and UFA Sports Asia have already signed a deal with Thailand's Channel 3 and the agreement guaranteed live prime-time coverage across Thailand and Myanmar for the next three seasons of the international sepak takraw calendar.

=>  MP & Silva continued its interest in men's tennis by taking up the exclusive, multi-year international media rights to the Austrian Bet-at-home.com Cup Kitzbühel, a third-tier ATP World Tour 250 series. The agreement covers worldwide rights, excluding Austria and Germany, and existing and future media and broadcasting technologies. The deal , which this year takes place between July 31 and August 6, takes to eight the number of ATP World Tour events represented by MP & Silva. In the past 15 months, MPS signed media rights deals with six ATP 250 events: Copa Telmex (Argentina); Movistar Open (Chile); Studena Croatia Open Umag and PBZ Zagreb Indoors (Croatia); Serbia Open; and the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships (Florida, USA).


EVENT

=>  Eurosport will show live coverage of a charity soccer match between the Japanese national team and the J. League All-Stars, a fundraising game to support the affected Japanese population following the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The match at the Osaka Nagai Stadium will be broadcast on Eurosport 2. All proceeds from the game are to be donated to the Japanese Red Cross. The J. League has been postponed and is expected to resume on April 23, and Eurosport, broadcaster of the league in Europe since 2008, said that all matches will continue to be broadcast on Eurosport 2 this season.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  The Professional Squash Association elected James Willstrop as its new president. The Englishman, ranked 4th in the world, replaces Egypt's Amr Shabana, who stood down after 2 years in the role. PSA chairman, Ziad Al-Turki, said: "The players were all eager to be heard at the AGM, and this is their vote. The board have made significant strides in the right direction over the last couple of years, but James has been very vocal of further changes needed - and has added insight from a player's perspective in all meetings we have." Willstrop said that he was "excited to be in a position to help the association and its players."

=>  The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has warned associations and players under its jurisdiction against unsanctioned events. Under new FIH regulations, ‘sanctioned event’ means events organised or sanctioned by relevant federation or association or the FIH. This could impact the franchise-based World Series Hockey, property of Nimbus Sport, unless Nimbus, which has signed up 160 international players, is able to secure clearance from FIH-recognized Hockey India and players get similar clearances from their respective national hockey bodies. FIH says these clearances will come into prospective, not retrospective effect, but is a must for any event that has cross-border aspects.

=>  China's importance to development of snooker has been highlighted after World Snooker launched a Chinese version of its snooker.tom.com.The collaboration with Tom.com was unveiled in Beijing, where the Bank of Beijing China Open is taking place. World Snooker has always been keen to develop the sport around the world and tap into the commercial opportunities on offer in Asia, particularly in China, which has 6 players in the world rankings, including Masters champion Ding Junhui. China provided the vast majority of the 100 mil viewers who tuned in to watch Ding win the 2009 UK Open final, the most-watched snooker match of all time. The China Open is one of 3 World Snooker events held in China; others are Shanghai Masters and the Wuxi Classic.