Tuesday, 12th April 2011

RIGHTS FEE

=>  As the IPL season IV got off to a great start, Australians will not get to see it after Ten Network pulled the plug on a 5-year deal it had originally signed with World Sport Group, after the deal fell into limbo when BCCI cancelled WSG's rights. Ten, which paid between US$10 and US$15 mil for rights when it signed with WSG in 2008, had telecast matches on FTA TV, followed by repeats on Ten's HD channel. When Ten first signed on to the IPL deal it was seen as giving the network a beach head with which to challenge the dominance that Channel Nine has had vis-a-vis cricket broadcasting in Australia for the last 30 years.

=>  The Italian Serie A will discuss guidelines for domestic broadcast rights tender later this year. The league is keen to seal new agreements before the 2011/12 season begins in Aug, making a tender launch in May or July a possibility. Pay-TV Sky Italia has the ‘platinum live’ package of domestic rights worth €1.16 bil ($1.67 bil), or €580 mil /season. Mediaset Premium paid €437 mil (€211 mil for 2010/11 and €226 mil for 2011/12) for terrestrial rights. In 2009, pubcaster RAI, bought Serie A highlights rights for €30 mil /season, meaning the league raised €852.5 mil from domestic rights sales for 2010/11, with another €89.5 mil generated from international rights to MP & Silva. 2011/12 yielded more overall because of increased payments by Mediaset Premium and MP & Silva, with domestic and international rights going for a total of €957.5 mil.

BROADCAST & DISTRIBUTION

=>  Pan-European Motors TV has secured live TV rights to Superleague Formula in 2011. Motors TV will screen full live coverage of all 12 races; 2.5 hours of live action on Sunday from the 40-min feature races and its 6-car 5-lap Super Finals, both on race day. Superleague Formula is currently broadcast in Europe by ESPN in the UK and Ireland, Sportstv and Galatasaray TV (GSTV) in Turkey, Cytavision in Cyprus and Sport TV in Portugal, a network also serving Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique. The 2011 Superleague Formula season begins in Portugal at the Circuito de Estoril over the weekend of the 28th and 29th May.

=>  Outdoor Channel has secured 21 carriage agreements in the Philippines, including with Destiny Cable, Cablelink Holdings and Angeles City Cable TV Network. Over the coming months, Outdoor Channel will also launch on Kalibo Cable, Satellite Cable Network, Parasat Cable TV (CDO), Cotabato Cable, Barbaza Multi-Purpose Co-op, Blackstone Cable and others. The agreements were negotiated by Outdoor Channel’s exclusive Philippine distributor, Cable Boss.

=>  Major League Baseball has signed new or extended broadcast deals with 12 worldwide networks. New deals were agreed with VTC3 (Vietnam), Tiajin TV and Xiamen Satellite TV (China ) to carry MLB programming and games, while renewals were signed with ESPN, Fox Sports and DirecTV. MLB also extended agreements with OBS (Korea), One HD (Australia), TV Marti (Cuba) and Colombian duo Mejia Group and IASN. Renewals with ESPN International and ESPN America will run through the 2013 season covering Latin America, Europe, Caribbean, Pacific Rim, Africa and the Middle East. The league's matches are already aired in Asia on ESPN Star Sports.

=>  Golf’s Asian Tour agreed a new deal for distribution via the Golf Channel in N. America, Latin America and Japan, negotiated by Asian Tour Media. The tour claimed that the new deal, taken together with other recent rights agreements with Sky Deutschland, OSN in the Middle East, Group AB in France and My TV in Vietnam, means that the Asian Tour “now boasts a truly worldwide TV platform.” Others include: Fox (Australia); BSkyB (UK); Guangdong Golf Channel and CCTV (China); ESPN (India); Fox Int. (Mid East); JGolf (Japan) and Viasat (Scandinavia).


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  The value of Brand IPL declined from $4.13 bil in 2010 to $3.67 bil in 2011, representing an erosion of $460 mil of value, according to Brand Finance India. However, value of individual franchises have risen with Mumbai Indians pipping Chennai Super Kings as the most-valued franchise. Brand value of Mumbai Indians is $57.13 mil followed by Chennai Super Kings $55.37 mil and Royal Challengers Bangalore $47.58 mil. IPL franchises were valued based on performances in cricketing, marketing excellence and corporate governance.

=>  The PetroVietnam Low Pressure Gas Distribution Joint Stock Company (PVGD) has committed US$45,000 to Vietnamese beach volleyball. The deal will throughout 2011 and was agreed with the Vietnam Volleyball Federation. The deal will see PVGD back the Vietnamese team's training and competition costs, including a major contribution to the salary of each player. Vietnam will be participating in qualifying rounds for London 2012 and in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia this Nov as part of six key tournaments across 2011.

=>  Stan Kroenke has upped his majority stake in Arsenal, and will now make a bid to complete a full takeover of the club. Kroenke, already owned over 29% of Arsenal when he upped his stake to over 60% when he bought shares held by Danny Fiszman and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith for a total of £234 mil (US$382 mil). Passing the 30% mark obliges Kroenke to make an offer for all remaining shares in Arsenal at the level of the highest amount he has paid for shares in the last 12 months. Kroenke's offer is £11,750 (US$19,190) per share, valuing the entire issued share capital of Arsenal at just over £730 mil (US$1.192 bil).

=>  Tennis’ Champions Series has signed 3 new multi-year sponsorship agreements. Donnay, insurer Geico and HSBC have agreed to be corporate sponsors of the newly-revamped tennis circuit for champion players over the age of 30. Expanded and reformatted, the Champions Series will now feature the likes of Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. They will compete in one-night tournaments taking place in 12 cities across the United States over the course of five weeks this autumn. The Champions Series, created in 2005 by InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, has players competing for ranking points and a bonus pool worth US$1 mil that will be shared between the top-3 finishers at the conclusion of the event.