Monday, 11th April 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  Eurosport Events has agreed broadcast deals in Germany and China for 2011 FIA World Touring Car Championship. German commercial broadcaster, RTL, renewed its rights, while a new agreement was made with China’s CCTV. CCTV5 will air highlights of each WTCC event during its weekly 'Auto Times' programme.

=>  The French LFP will launch its tender for domestic broadcast rights to Ligue 1 from 2012-13 onwards in mid-May. Ligue 1 rights are presently shared by Canal Plus and Orange in deals worth €668 mil ($936.4 mil) /season. The LFP will launch CFoot, its own TV channel, next season and the new venture could show Ligue 1 matches from 2012-13 onwards given Orange’s stance and Canal Plus’ warning that it will not pay more than €465 mil ($669.7 mil) /season that it presently pays for rights.

=>  Supersport has acquired rights in Nigeria to soccer’s uefa Champions League for the 2011/12 season as HiTV, the incumbent, said is shifting focus away from soccer. Supersport holds Champions League and Europa League rights for the current cycle (2009/10 to 2011/12) in South Africa and also in sub-Saharan Africa (through a separate deal). HiTV originally signed a deal for the Champions League and Europa League rights from 2009/10 to 2011/12. HiTV also agreed a deal worth over $120 mil for England’s Premier League (for 2010/11 to 2012/13) but that agreement was ripped up when the Premier League re-sold the rights to Supersport in July 2010 as HiTV was understood to have failed to meet the terms of its contract.

=>  Austrian pubcaster, ORF, made an offer for Sat evening highlights from the Austrian Bundesliga. ORF already holds live rights to the Sunday afternoon match and wants to show a Saturday highlights show. It is reported that commercial rival, ProSiebenSat.1’s Puls 4, made an unsuccessful €400,000 ($576,191) offer for the Saturday highlights in the autumn. ORF and pay-TV, Sky, both retained rights to the 10-team league from 2010/11 to 2012/13, agreeing to pay total of €17 mil /season. ORF’s share is thought to be €8m /season.

=>  [Excerpt] The AFL’s $1 billion-plus TV deal with Channels Seven, Ten and Fox has demonstrated how much cash is locked in in-demand. Local Soccer, a game is currently monopolized by Fox, pays $20 mil /year for exclusive rights to all content — the A-League and the Socceroos. The onus on Ben Buckley, credited for his role as negotiator for the AFL’s earlier successes, to screw as much money as he can out of broadcasters to underwrite the sport of soccer for the Football Association of Australia, which he now heads.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Pepsi was dealt two significant blows ahead of 2011 Indian Premier League (IPL) with two franchises switching allegiances to rivals Coca Cola for the upcoming season, but have also announced a number of significant new partnerships of their own. The Mumbai Indians, captained by Coke brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar, and Kings XI Punjab, both backed last year by PepsiCo, will be sponsored by Coke for the IPL’s 4th edition. Coke will now sponsor five of the ten franchises in the IPL. Sources estimate that Coke will spend US$11 mil on advertising the brand at the tournament – an increase of about 25% on last year. Official sponsor of the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Pepsi, announced partnership with the other five IPL franchises.

=>  Prize money in F1 increased by 21% to $658 mil last year. Formula One Administration had net income of $296 mil in 2010 after turnover grew by 2% to $1.08 bil by adding races in South Korea and Canada. In 2009, payments to F1 teams went up 4% to $544 mil following renegotiation of the Concorde Agreement. After buying F1 in 2006, CVC Capital Partners agreed to up prize money to teams to prevent a breakaway series. Payout to teams in 2010 was 164% more than 2007, the last year of the previous agreement. Meanwhile, CVC also said the salary of the top-earning executive in F1 rose by 21% to £4.85 mil ($7.96 mil).