Tuesday, 10th May 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Argentina's top-tier Primera División is facing "financial ruin," with debts of the five largest clubs exceeding total revenue from sale of media rights. The poor state of finances was outlined by local daily newspaper, Urgente 24, and is an unwelcome development for the AFA at the end of its second season of a state-backed 'Soccer for All' programme, in which 600 mil pesos ($141 mil) /year of public funds is spent acquiring the league’s media rights. The government agreed a deal with the AFA for the media rights to the league over 10 years, from 2009/10 to 2018/19, worth 600 mil pesos /season, while breaching an existing contract with incumbent, pay-TV TyC Sports, who was then paying 268 mil pesos /season. That deal ran until end of 2013/14. Debts of the five biggest clubs total 658.5 mil pesos, more than annual payment received from state broadcaster Canal 7 for the league's media rights. River Plate’s debts alone are estimated at 216 mil pesos.

=>  The Barclays Premier League will pay out record sums in TV money to its clubs this season with the bottom club guaranteed at least £37 mil. Lucrative new overseas TV deals mean top-flight clubs earn an average of nearly £5 mil more /year than last season, with title-winner pocketing more than £57 mil. The Press Association Sport calculated that BPL has doubled TV earnings from £625 mil during 2007/10 to around £1.2 bil in the next 3 seasons. The £1.2 bil is 10 times what Germany's Bundesliga receives for foreign TV rights, 5 times that of Italy and 3 times Spain's La Liga earnings. BPL distributes broadcast rights income based partly on performance and number of a team's matches screened on domestic TV on top of a basic equal share. This season, each club will receive £13.8 mil as equal share of domestic TV rights and £17.7 mil for overseas TV rights, while every place in the Premier League table is worth £752,000.

=>  French pay-TV, Canal+, is close to agreeing to French rugby union’s Top 14 exclusive rights to the next 4 seasons, including mobile rights currently held by rival Orange. Canal+ is currently paying between €31 mil and €33 mil /season. But Canal+’ new bid was originally reported as only €18 mil ($25.9 mil) /year for rights until 2015, which was rejected by the LNR. France Télévisions was also in the early running, bidding €725,000 /year to maintain coverage of the final of the top-tier Top 14, while FT and Canal+ made a joint bid of €500,000 /year for rights to the second-tier Pro D2. However, bids made in the tender process recently became null and void as candidates' offers were only valid for 120 days.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Arqiva has renewed a 3-year deal with the ATP World Tour. Arqiva will supply live global distribution of a number of ATP World Tour properties in high definition bringing live feeds and turning them around onto satellites for global distribution to Europe, Asia and the Americas. According to Steve Plasto, ATP Media chief executive, ATP Media is now the world's largest producer and distributor of high definition tennis.

=>  TV coverage of the Giro d’Italia is distributed into 167 countries, with a reach of 350 mil homes. In Europe, the race is aired by Eurosport, TV2 Norway and TV2 Denmark as a result of the 2012 start in Denmark. In the Americas, the 2011 Giro is aired by Universal Sports in USA and Canada, ESPN Sur in Latin America (exc. Brazil), ESPN Brasil in Brazil and TDN in Mexico and Central America. TV deals have been signed in Africa with Supersport and Asian rights-holders include J Sports (Japan), while Australia’s SBS network has also picked up rights. The race is being broadcast in Italy by Rai, while internet coverage is provided by Gazzetta.it. Media rights are distributed by RCS Sport, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Rai Trade.


CONTENT

=>  BCP Pte Ltd, owners of horse racing weekly magazine Winning Post, ended a 10-year association with Ten Sports by agreeing to a deal with Neo Sports for the show. Neo will start airing this week on Saturdays. The show is a magazine with 24-min of horse racing content from India along with international races from Singapore, England, Dubai, Europe. It also carries lifestyle, education on the sport and the breeding industry in India, Australia and other international venues. BCP says the deal with Neo will help grow the property and would generate as much as Rs 100 mil through sale of ad inventory. Winning Post has FlyKingfisher as title sponsor and the show is known as FlyKingfisher Winning Post. Winning Post attracted 27,000 viewers in Yr 1, rising to 45,000 in Yr 2 and reaching 1.7 mil in Yr 5.


NEW MEDIA

=>  Mobile operators in emerging Asian markets urgently need to adjust content strategies to adapt to rapid market shifts, analysts Ovum says. While telcos are dominant in emerging markets’ mobile content space, this will change with the rise of 3G coverage, resulting from competition of new distribution platforms led by device and platform vendors. 3G connections account for a tenth of all connections across emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and is expected to grow to a third of connections by 2015. 3G device are forecast to be four fifths of all devices shipped in 2015.


EVENTS

=>  Field hockey’s governing FIH said it is in talks with potential sponsors interested in backing a new high-profile league in India. Its The FIH has said it would approve the involvement of foreign players, while underscoring the need to ensure recruitment of these players does not affect major world tournaments. The launch of a new league, similar to cricket's successful Indian Premier League, will be seen as direct competition to the controversial World Hockey Series proposed by Nimbus Sports and Indian Hockey Federation. The FIH has refused to sanction the World Hockey Series but instead, backs rival Hockey India instead.

=>  Sri Lankan boxer, Manju Wanniarachchi, has been stripped of the gold medal he won at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, after failing a second dope test for a banned substance. The Commowealth Games Federation Court, meeting in Malaysia said the boxer's urine sample was found to contain 19-Norandrosterone, a banned performance-enhancing steroid. He faces a 2-year ban. The Sri Lankan National Olympic Committee had already taken away Wanniarachchi's gold, achieved in the 56kg weight division, pending the completion of inquiries.

=>  The third stage of 2011 Giro d'Italia was overshadowed by the tragic death of Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt after a crash. The Leopard-Trek rider fell at high speed on a descent 20 kilometres from the finish in Rapallo and could not be resuscitated. Weylandt is the first cyclist to be killed in one of the Grand Tours since Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died in a crash during the 1995 Tour de France.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Sepp Blatter's hopes of securing a fourth term as president of FIFA has received boost when he was endorsed by UEFA. Blatter, the Swiss who has led FIFA since 1998, is up against Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation. The endorsement comes as no surprise since Blatter already champions UEFA president, Michel Platini, as his replacement at FIFA in 2015. Blatter promised to serve just one more term if re-elected. UEFA’s support is a further blow to Bin Hammam's hopes of usurping Blatter. The Qatari is advocating wide-ranging reform, proposing expansion of the FIFA executive committee from 24 to 41 members, while handing more influence to continental federations and doubling annual grants to national associations to $500,000. Blatter is promising stability but is suggesting changes to the voting system for deciding World Cup hosts.

=>  FIFA pledged €20 mil ($28.5 mil) to Interpol to combat match-fixing in football. In the largest grant ever handed to Interpol by a private institution, a 10-year programme will be launched in which a dedicated Fifa Anti-Corruption Training Wing will operate within the Interpol Global Complex in Singapore. Training programmes will also be delivered from Interpol's regional bureaus and offices worldwide. Fifa will pay €4 mil /yr in the first two years, followed by €1.5 mil /yr for the next 8 years. Last year Interpol worked with police in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand on a programme that culminated in arrests and seizure of $10 mil across Asia in raids on illegal gambling on matches of the 2010 World Cup. Codenamed SOGA III, the raids disrupted over 800 gambling dens, which had over $155 mil in bets placed during the tournament in South Africa.

=>  FIFA has warned Indonesian football’s PSSI of "serious sanctions" if it does not stop 4 banned candidates from standing in its May 20 elections. Majority of PSSI members want chairman Nurdin Halid removed from power, but an election scheduled in March was postponed by an appeals decision, prompting protests against the PSSI. Halid was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but continued to run the organisation from prison. His nomination for re-election would violate FIFA's statutes. Meanwhile, ASEAN have said they will go ahead with a collective bid to host the 2030 World Cup. The battle to host 2030 already appears to be a fierce one, with Uruguay and Argentina preparing a joint bid to mark the centenary of the first World Cup, held in Uruguay, and China also mooted to be an interested party.