Thursday, 28th April 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  UK’s BSkyB and ITV have renewed rights to UEFA Champions League in the UK. UEFA announced deals with BSkyB and ITV from 2012/13 to 2014/15 and the new deals will generate around £400 mil ($662.7 mil), the equal value of the existing contracts. ITV paid £53.3 mil /season for 2009/10 to 2011/12 for first pick of Wed night games, plus the CL final and UEFA Super Cup. ITV's new 3-year deal again incorporates the same rights. BSkyB paid £80 mil /season for rights from 2009/10 to 2011/12 for exclusive rights to all live matches and highlights on Tue, and all matches on Wed except the first-choice live match. ITV and BSkyB will continue to offer live internet and mobile coverage of CL games as part of the deal, in line with UEFA's platform neutral approach.

=>  Bids from French broadcasters for rights to top two divisions of French rugby union from next season are set to become null and void. Canal+ are incumbent live rights-holder, is reported to have bid €18 mil ($26.4 mil) /year until 2015, over €10 mil less than it presently pays. France Télévisions bid €725,000 /year to maintain coverage of the final of the top-tier Top 14, while FT and C+ have bid a joint €500,000 /year for rights to the second-tier Pro D2. The LNR deemed C+’s offer unacceptable. C+ is ready to pay €30 mil /season for exclusive rights (including mobile rights currently held by Orange) with the LNR having reduced its expectations but still holding out for at least €35 mil /season.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  One World Sports continued its quest to bring top Asian sport to North America by taking up rights to golf's OneAsia series for the next 3 years. The deal, struck with OneAsia's media and marketing partner World Sport Group, involves OWS broadcasting all OneAsia tournaments exclusively in English language on TV, broadband and mobile. It is the third deal struck this year between One World Sports and World Sport Group, following the 2011 Asian Football Confederation’s Asian Cup and the AFC Champions League.

=>  As the world awaits the third Clásico in ten days, Mediapro will co-produce the Real Madrid and Barcelona Champions League semifinal in 3D with Catalan pubcaster TV3. This will be the first CL semi-final produced in 3D technology in Spain. Mediapro will deploy six 3D camera positions in the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and TV3 will shoot coverage while all the technical details will belong to Mediapro including its new mobile 3D unit. The technology developed by Mediapro and Kronomav include tools enabling analysis and automatic correction of 3D video in real time. A mobile unit for shooting the 3D signal will be placed at the stadium and 3D graphics will be in real time. Output from the production will go to Turkey’s Dogan TV, Al Jazeera and Denmark TV.


BIZ & BITES

=>  England’s Football Association refused to be dragged into a war of words with UEFA and the UK government which questioned whether the institution is fit for purpose. The FA was warned by the government to reshape the way soccer is run, or face threat of legislation, after being branded the "weakest national association in Europe" by UEFA. Hugh Robertson, UK's sports minister, told a parliamentary select committee conducting a two-month inquiry into soccer governance - in response to England's failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup - that little had changed at the FA since the recommendations of a review (the Burns review) into the body 6 years ago. The committee heard from William Gaillard, adviser to UEFA president Michel Platini, that the power of English soccer's elite Premier League had weakened the FA.