Thursday, 26th May 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  São Paulo has finally broken away from Clube dos 13 to join other clubs in signing individual media rights contracts with the Globo TV network. The club signed a deal for all its media rights in the top-flight Campeonato Brasileiro league with Globo for the 2012 to 2015 seasons. The club said that it was "fully satisfied" with the increased rights fees it will earn under the new deal. São Paulo, third most-popular club in the country after Flamengo and Corinthians, will earn close to R$65 mil ($40 mil) /season from sale of all media rights, as well as some perimeter advertising – nearly doubling what it will earn this season. It is thought that the Clube dos 13 will be dissolved as a representative body once all 20 clubs have signed individual media rights deals.

=>  The rights deal agreed with Mediaset España for Euro 2012 is said to be near €70 mil ($98.3 mil). Sogecable, now known as Prisa TV, held Spanish broadcast rights for Euro 2008 and that was thought to be worth €75 mil. Negotiations entered a second round after the first round failed to produce an offer that matched UEFA's asking price of €75 mil. All 31 matches from Euro 2012 will be carried live on Mediaset España’s Telecinco and/or Cuatro along with a magazine and highlights programme, as well as internet and mobile services.

=>  Man. Utd broke the £60-mil ($97-mil) barrier in TV income and prize money this season, earning £60.4 mil in total, with £13.5 mil coming from domestic TV appearances and £15.1 mil for finishing in top spot. Every spot on the EPL table is worth £756,000. In contrast, Blackpool earned the least, £39.8 mil, when only 10 of their league matches were carried live while West Ham Utd earned £40.25 mil, due to an extra 4 matches being shown live despite finishing the season below Blackpool. In total, the 20 EPL clubs received £952.75 mil in 2010/11, up from £830.96 mil last year. The EPL is bringing in £1.94 bil for the period 2010/11 to 12/13 through domestic live rights with BSkyB (£1.62 bil) and ESPN (£150 mil) and highlights with the BBC (£173 million).


EVENTS

=>  Arsenal announced a 2-game tour of Asia aimed at boosting the club's commercial appeal in the region. The team will take on a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on Jul 13, before heading to China to play top-tier Chinese Super League side Hangzhou Greentown on Jul 16. Arsenal last visited China for a pre-season game in Beijing 16 years ago.

=>  The Women’s International Squash Players’ Association has added the US Open to its top-tier WISPA World Series, promising the largest-ever prize fund for the tournament. Drexel University will host the 2011 US Open Squash Championships between Oct 1 to 6. The prize pot has doubled from last year to $60,000. The US Open joins the Cayman Islands Open, Australian Open, Qatar Invitational, Hong Kong Open and World Open in the WISPA World Series. In April, WISPA rebranded its top-tier championships as the World Series, bringing it into line with men’s squash’s top-tier PSA World Series. It will be only the second time in the history of the US Open that the men's and women's events have been staged simultaneously.