Monday, 30th May 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  South Africa’s Supersport has become the official broadcaster of domestic cricket in Kenya, and said that it is interested in one day buying the rights to Ghana's top soccer league. The Ghana Premier League rights are presently held by Metro TV. The two-and-a-half year deal, signed in April 2009, was worth 1.7 million cedis ($1.13 million). Metro replaced rights-holder Gateway Broadcast Services, which went into liquidation in early 2009.



BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Star India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises confirmed joining forces to market a bouquet of 68 channels in India. The formation of a joint broadcast distribution company by the rival entertainment giants could potentially change India’s broadcast landscape. The respective distribution arms, Zee Turner and Star Den, have formed a 50:50 joint venture; Zee Turner is a 74:26 JV between Zee Entertainment and Turner International and Star Den Media is an equal JV between Star India and Den Networks . The Competition Commission of India is planning to look into the alliance. Both Zee and Star maintained that the venture would not be a threat to competition. The JV is expected to increase pressure on ESPN Star Sports to review its longstanding status as the only independently distributed sports channels in this market.

=>  IEC in Sports has entered a deal with European volleyball’s CEV to distribute TV rights for this year's Beach Volleyball European Championship. IEC has guaranteed the coverage of 24 games (minimum) from the 3-tournament championship, including all semi-finals, third-fourth play-off and finals.


STATS & DATA

=>  A report from DisplaySearch found TV consumption habits across the world vary greatly by country and new viewing patterns are taking hold. The Global TV Replacement Study found that the US ranked 4th when it came to percentage of consumers using pay-TV. India boasted the highest part of pay-TV customers, in the high 90% region. The US lagged behind with 11% of consumers using mobile phones or smart phones to view mobile TV and mobile video content. Mobile device use in Japan, Indonesia, India, Brazil and China was significantly higher, especially in the case of China. This may be due to the fact that aside from Japan, other regions may more developed mobile infrastructure than TV broadcast system.


EVENTS

=>  The ASBC Asian Men’s Boxing Championship that was scheduled to be held in June at Amman, Jordan from the 17-27 June has been postponed and will not be hosted by Jordan Amateur Boxing Association. The championship is now scheduled to take place in August and will be held in the city of Incheon, Korea. Exact dates will be intimated as and when finalized by Aiba.


BIZ & BITES

=>  FIFA will open a "full-blown" investigation into allegations that Mohd bin Hammam and Jack Warner offered financial incentives to members of the Caribbean Football Union and has provisionally suspended them from all football activity. Howewver, Sepp Blatter will not face investigation into the allegations that he knew about those payments. He will be free to stand for re-election unopposed at this week’s presidential vote after Bin Hammam withdrew from the race. The ethics committee said there was sufficient evidence to further investigate allegations that bribes of $40,000 were offered to delegates at a Caribbean football association meeting in May. Payments were allegedly made to secure votes for Bin Hammam in his campaign to unseat Blatter as the head of FIFA. The evidence was submitted to Fifa by the American executive committee member Chuck Blazer.

=>  The UEFA Champions League finals will be worth a record €126 mil (£109m; $178m) to the winner and €73 mil (£63m) to the loser, a MasterCard-commissioned study shows. Man Utd and FC Barca will collectively scoop €200 mil, making it the most lucrative final in European club football’s history. The record windfall comprises of prize money, a boost for the club's brand, enhanced media rights and increased value of the squad. The final is worth £45m to the host city, London, and the winning club’s city is likely to receive a boost of £15m through increased tourism and local expenditure. Other UCL Final earning numbers - expected boost to European economy: €100m, total economic impact: €369m.

=>  Meanwhile, it is estimated that ITV made in over £8m in TV ad revenue during the UCL Final, dubbed Europe's biggest football night of the year, as some late spots in key breaks went for up to £300,000 for 30-secs. The game was shown simultaneously on BSkyB’s Sky Sports and it is believed that Sky Media could have raked in £2m in ad revenue, as clients looked to book simultaneous spots on both broadcasts.