Thursday, 14th April 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Germany’s DFL claimed that revenue from international broadcast rights for the Bundesliga will "clearly exceed" €50 mil ($72.4 m) for the first time in the 2011/12 season. The DFL succeeded in raising €40 mil for the 2010/11 season, 15% higher than originally projected. In comparison, revenue from Bundesliga’s international deals during the 2005/06 season was only around €12 mil. The Bundesliga has a worldwide broadcast reach today of around 2.25 bil, enjoying exposure of over 30,000 broadcast hours in 208 countries, including live coverage in 198 countries with up to five games shown per match day. The DFL has already brokered new broadcast deals for 2012/13 to 2014/15 with Eurosport, Russia’s NTV+, South Africa’s Supersport and Malaysia’s Astro.


BROADCAST & DISTRIBUTION

=>  The rate for a 30-sec spot in the May 25 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show is a cool $1 mil, making it the fourth highest unit cost for a series finale in TV history. Media buyers say the end of Oprah's 25-yr run should prove to be an indelible TV event, justifying the hefty price tag. Ratings are expected to be a blockbuster although not tied to any sort of traditional ratings guarantee; no one's truly interested in forking over a $145 CPM, which is how it weighs against Oprah's year-ago average delivery of 7 mil viewers per ep but odds are deliveries for the finale could bump the total up to as many as 25 million viewers, making the CPM much friendlier at $40. The all-time record was set by NBC on May 4, 2006, when advertisers paid $2 mil for the finale of Friends after a 236-ep run. 52.5 mil viewers watched that finale.


NEW MEDIA

=>  The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup ripped all web traffic records for ESS's website, ESPNcricinfo.com, hitting 1.9 mil visitors and 52.4 mil page views on March 30 for the India-Pakistan semifinal. This is a rise of 2,166% compared to daily average for all of 2010, already a record year for the site. Fans consumed more content from ESPNcricinfo online and on mobile devices than ever before. At its peak during India v Pakistan, ESPNcricinfo's total global audience was 36.1% online and 63.6% on the mobile Web. The Indian subcon generated the most mobile Web usage during the World Cup, logging over 377.3 mil page views and 807.2 mil minutes of content consumption on mobile devices. The free ESPNcricinfo app for iPhone and Android devices was top sports app in all major cricket markets, collectively generating 191 mil page views and 342 mil minutes through the tournament.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Global forex brokerage, FxPro Financial Services Ltd, signed on as an official partner of the Asian Football Confederation Champions League 2011. Brokered by World Sport Group, FxPro’s branding will be displayed on-screen at various stages of the "live" telecast of each of the 117 AFC Champions League matches. The AFC Champions League, annually running from Mar to Nov, is contested by the best thirty-two clubs from Asia's top ten leagues - Australia, China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Uzbekistan, and two teams from India, Indonesia, Qatar, Syria, Thailand and UAE who qualify through play-offs, for a total prize money of US$14 million and a place in the FIFA Club World Cup.

=>  Amir Khan’s world title defence will be shown on British pay-per-view platform Primetime, after Khan was unable to reach financial terms with BSkyB to broadcast the fight. The World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight champion, faces Ireland’s undefeated European champion Paul McCloskey in the fourth defence of his crown at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena later in the week. Khan, managed by Golden Boy Promotions, had his fight downgraded from BSkyB’s PPV platform to screening on one of their subscription channels, meaning Khan stood to lose US$1.6 mil due to his single-fight move to Primetime.