Tuesday, 26th April 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Malaysian pay-TV Astro signed a 4-yr deal, from 2011 to 2014, worth RM120 mil (€28 mil/$40 mil), for broadcasting rights to the country’s first, second and third divisions, with the Football Association of Malaysia. Rights include the Malaysia Cup, the FA Cup and the President Cup and coverage will be on local sports channel, Astro Arena. The amount is an increase of over 200% on the previous deal, with Telekom Malaysia, which ran from 2002 to January 2011, worth RM9 mil /year. The association could generate more revenues through a revenue-sharing plan if Astro sub-licenses rights to a free-to-air broadcaster and from advertising revenues. Astro has similar agreements with the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress, the Badminton Association of Malaysia and the Malaysian Hockey Federation.

=>  Korean pubcaster KBS and IB Sports agency are at loggerheads in their negotiations for the IAAF World Championship rights. IB Sports is negotiating a multi-year deal at a steep increase on previous contract by using the 2011 IAAF WC in Daegu as a bargaining tool. KBS previously acquired WC rights from 2007 to 2009 from IB Sports, providing coverage on KBSN. KBS wants a one-off contract in the low millions for the Daegu WC, as athletics is not popular in Korea since it has already committed to invest in the event as host broadcaster and will bear production costs of between $7 mil (€5 mil) to 8 mil for supplying the world feed. IB Sports acquired broadcasting and sponsorship rights to the IAAF WC until 2020 from the Dentsu agency.

=>  [Excerpt] The income of F1 teams is heavily dependent on sponsorship and FOM is contractually obliged to provide widest TV exposure possible. That means doing deals with FTA broadcasters and while competition for the rights remain strong but has never been able to tap into the kind of competition between European pay-TV operators which led to huge increases for football properties. F1’s media rights revenue in 2009 from its top 10 territories (Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Scandinavia, Brazil, Japan and Pan-Asia) was $435 mil (€315 mil). On the back of this, a new deal was signed in Belgium-Flanders when commercial FTA, SBS outbid incumbent pubcaster VRT to acquire a 3-yr deal (2011 to 2013). VRT was paying €500,000 /year in the previous deal, from 2008 to 2010.

=>  ESPN has acquired exclusive live US rights to a package of International Cricket Council events (inc. 2015 Cricket World Cup) in a 4-yr deal from 2012 to 2015, worth $25m (€18m) with ESPN Star Sports (ESS), which holds global rights. ESPN also did a 4-yr deal with ESS for exclusive live US rights for Champions League Twenty20, organised by the Indian, Australian and South African cricket boards. Coverage will be shown on ESPN’s broadband service ESPN3.com.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Malaysia’s Astro B.yond IPTV service is expected to expand into 167,000 homes in 730 high-rise residences in Kuala Lumpur and Penang by year-end. Astro’s collaboration with TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME) to deliver IPTV kicked off in December 2010, bringing a multiplay of Astro channels in HD with Personal Video Recording (PVR) and VOD services delivered via TIME’s 100% fibre broadband offering.

=>  Indonesian commercial broadcaster Trans TV is looking to acquire the ASEAN Football Federation Cup rights after the tournament proved a big hit with Indonesian audiences at the end of 2010. Rival RCTI showed live coverage of the 2010 edition and recorded its highest rated programme of all time with a market share of 82% for the second leg semi-final between Indonesia and Philippines. The two final matches between Indonesia and Malaysia drew an average of 15 mil viewers each, double the number of the highest-rated 2010 Fifa World Cup match, according to Nielsen.

=>  AXN is the most watched international channel year-to-date in 2011, reaching over 14 mil viewers in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Compared to the programme before, CSI: NY S7 delivered a lead-in growth of 51% in Singapore, 103% in Malaysia and 1325% in the Philippines. Leverage S3 drew new pay-TV viewers, with current season-to-date rating surpassing last season’s performance by 150% in Singapore, 6% in Malaysia and 33% in the Philippines. It also had a lead-in growth of 181% in Singapore, 83% in Malaysia and 100% in the Philippines. Ratings for CSI:NY and Leverage has helped AXN maintain the #1 English channel spot on platforms StarHub and Astro during their broadcasts in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively.



=>  Elta Technology, Taiwan’s largest digital media content distributor, has acquired free-to-air television, pay-television, radio, internet and mobile rights to the London 2012 Olympic Games within Chinese Taipei from the International Olympic Commitee.


EVENTS

=>  Nimbus’ World Series Hockey collaboration with the Indian Hockey Ferderation received a setback when the Pakistan Hockey Federation issued show-causes to three top stars for signing contracts with WSH. PHF has asked the players to clarify their position on participation in an unsanctioned event by the FIH/PFA. Rehan Butt will reportedly be the highest paid Pakistani player if he decides to stay with WSH. He has signed a contract of $25,000, Abbasi’s contract is worth $22,000 while Waseem will get $20,000. WSH claims to have signed up 160 top international players from India and abroad but is not recognised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).


BIZ & BITES

=>  Sacked Commonwealth Games OC chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, has been arrested on charges of cheating, fraud and conspiracy. The CBI charged Kalmadi and two others, Surjeet Lal and ASV Prasad in the case of Swiss Timing deal of Rs1.41 bil. The sports ministry has also written to the Indian Olympic Association to sack him from the post of IOA president and has been removed from the Congress parliamentary party. The games, which cost $ 6 bil, was dogged by alleged corruption in purchase of equipment and issuing of contracts. Whether Kalmadi goes quietly or adopts a scorched earth policy is the question; the heavyweight Congress politician from Pune has accused party colleagues like Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and former urban development minister Jaipal Reddy as also being culpable and openly accused the government of making him a scapegoat in the affair.