Wednesday, 23rd March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  UEFA declared that all 53 member associations have now signed up for plans to centralise broadcast rights for qualifying matches of the Euro and World Cup. England was one of the last signatories to the new system, which comes into effect in 2014. England was placated by a guarantee that it will receive no less than £20 mil ($33 million) and £25 mil per year for their rights.

=>  Malaysian pay-TV, Astro, has signed a new 3-year deal to broadcast German Bundesliga in Malaysia and Brunei, beginning with the 2012-13 season. Negotiated with DFL Sports Enterprises, the deal covers all broadcast channels: television, internet and mobile phones. Astro, which has held Bundesliga rights since the 2006-07 season, broadcasts via satellite to over three million subscribers. It also holds rights to other top soccer, including England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, the Spanish Liga, France’s Ligue 1 and the Uefa Champions League, Europe's elite clubs competition.

=>  Infront Sports & Media has extended its agreement with China Basketball Association (CBA) as exclusive global marketing partner for another eight years. Infront is also marketing of the CBA Professional League, via a joint-venture with CBA, formed in 2005. An agreement with CCTV-5 means all national team games in China are now broadcast across China. Total airtime for Team China's warm-up games exceed 1,400 hours in 5 years, with cumulative viewing audience of over 760 mil. The next 8 years will see Team China take part in two Olympic Games, two FIBA World Championships, another edition of the Asian Games and two Asian FIBA Championships.

=>  US ESPN has reached 2 multi-year agreements for exclusive live coverage of matches from Champions League Twenty20 and International Cricket Council (ICC) events, including the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. The deals, signed with rights holder ESPN Star Sports, will dedicate more than 1,000 additional hours of exclusive live cricket in the U.S. to ESPN3.com’s programming lineup. The ICC presents the most prestigious cricket events in the world and this deal marks the first time the Cricket World Cup will be made available at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or cable TV video subscription from an affiliated service provider.

=>  Meanwhile, Nimbus, who newly won global IPL broadcast rights till 2014, is eyeing US, Canada, UK, Europe, Japan and Malaysia as potential markets to sub-license the rights. Nimbus though, has not yet decided whether their own Neo Cricket will telecast the IPL or not. Nimbus is scouting for tie-up with global partners in over 60 countries. Nimbus COO Yannick Colaco said that they wanted to take IPL into uncharted waters where cricket is not popular. He also said there is interest among broadcasters for the UK market. The IPL had licensed UK rights to ITV 4 on a revenue sharing basis, the broadcaster earned £ 60,000 from IPL 3.

=>  ASO has agreed a new broadcast deal with the European Broadcasting Union covering the years 2012 to 2015 for a host of European cycling events including the Tour de France. The deal guarantees continued free-to-air coverage by EBU member broadcaster members across Europe as well as by Eurosport. The EBU and ASO said that they would "also be working together to ensure that cycling events are broadcast on other major general-interest channels in Europe."


BROADCAST

=>  Spain's Competition National Commission has fined Mediapro €500,000 for abusing its dominant position to obstruct competitors in the market of reselling of sporting rights of the La Liga and Copa del Rey. In May 2009, the Commission accused Mediapro of configuring packages of TV rights for broadcasting of football matches for the League and the King's Cup in Spain for the seasons 2009/2010 and 2011/2012 because CNC claims that Mediapro "artificially" forced the creation of competition advantage for its football pay-TV channel Gol TV.


DATA

=>  India’s TV industry expanded 15.5% in 2010 and is expected to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% to touch Rs 630 bil by 2015, according to FICCI-KPMG. Research on India’s media and entertainment industry showed the sector recording growth of 11% in 2010 (from 2009), becoming worth Rs 652 bil. Increase in the DTH TV subscriber base, which reached 28 mil by end 2010, helped boost the sector. TV households are expected to surge to156 mil by 2015 with the progress of digitization, during which TV will account for half of the industry’s revenues. Advertising spends, meanwhile, grew by 17% to Rs 266 bil.


EVENT

=>  The Snooker World Cup will return to the pro calendar for the first time in 15 years, as World Snooker continues to broaden the game's appeal. The WC will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from July 11 to 17, co-sponsored by PTT and EGAT. 20 two-man teams from around the world will participate, with eight teams seeded into the event based on the position of players in the world rankings. As hosts, Thailand will have two teams. World Snooker said that it will confirm the remaining 10 teams in the next few weeks. Thailand has four snooker players ranked in the top 97 in the world, with James Wattana the highest-ranked at 76.