Tuesday, 24th May 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Malaysia’s Astro has been awarded exclusive media rights to the UEFA Champions League from 2012/13 to 2014/15, marking the end of coverage by ESPN Star Sports in the country. In the present 3-yr contract period, expiring at the end of next season, Astro shares rights to the Champions League in Malaysia and Brunei with ESS. Meanwhile, Ten Sports retained exclusive rights to the CL in the Indian sub-continent for a further 3 years and media group S Media acquired rights to the CL and Europa League in Myanmar from 2012/13 to 2014/15, The deal is rumoured to double what Ten paid from $1.4 mil /year to $ 3.5 mil for the new deal, beating out ESPN Star Sports and Neo Sports in the bidding. The new deals with Astro, Ten Sports and S Media comprise TV, internet and mobile rights in synch with UEFA's platform neutral approach.

=>  IPL broadcast rights holder, Nimbus, is talking to 2 Kiwi broadcasters - Sky and TVNZ - for a 3-year deal. Season 4 of IPL had a strong presence from New Zealand with 9 players but there was no live, pay-TV coverage apparently because the price demanded by Nimbus was too rich. Nimbus is looking at a rights fee of $1.5 / year. The IPL does not have a broadcaster in Australia either since Ten Network pulled the plug on a 5-year deal it originally signed with World Sport Group, with which the BCCI rescinded its agreement. Ten reportedly paid between A$10 and A$15 mil for rights when it signed with WSG in 2008 and till last year, used to telecast the matches on free-to-air TV, followed by repeats on Ten's HD digital channel.

=>  German pubcasters, ARD and ZDF, retained broadcast rights for Germany's home international matches from 2012/13 on. The 4-year deal runs until 2016 and covers German women’s home games, the third-tier 3.Liga and the Frauen Bundesliga. The deal is worth €175 mil ($245 mil) but excludes the Greman home qualifiers for Euro 2016, which will be marketed centrally by UEFA. ARD and ZDF’s current contract with the DFB runs until end 2011/12 season and covers home games (including all qualifiers), DFB Pokal, the 3. Liga and the Frauen Bundesliga. It is worth €80 mil /season.

=>  Meanwhile, a separate tender for DFB Pokal from 2012/13 onwards will be issued later, with DFB expecting to award domestic rights by Sep. Pay-TV Sky Deutschland currently pays €18 mil /season average for all 63 DFB Pokal matches in a 4-year deal running to 2012. DFB had stated that the matches must be shown on free-to-air television on a channel with appropriate reach. The DFB Pokal finals for the 2010/11 season was played last week and watched by an average of 7.05 mil viewers on ARD, equal to a viewing share of 28.2%, which was considerably lower than the 10.09 mil recorded by ZDF for last year’s final and the lowest audience for the finals since 2004.

=>  Bayern Munich received the highest share of TV revenue of the 18 Bundesliga clubs this season, with €3 mil ($4.27 mil) more than new champions, Borussia Dortmund. Bayern were awarded €29.96 mil in TV rights money for 2010/11. Despite finishing third, Bayern still emerged as the biggest earner because results for last four seasons were taken into consideration when dividing TV rights revenue of €368 million for the 2010-11 campaign. Dortmund were second in revenue earnings with €26.89 mil, ahead of Bayer Leverkusen with €26.57 mil. Bayern’s share of TV revenue was €24.69 mil (domestic) and €5.27 mil (international). Relegated St. Pauli finished bottom of the revenue table with €12.35 mil (domestic) and €850,000 (international) for their brief one year stint in the top-tier.

=>  MP & Silva has submitted the highest offer in a tender process for broadcasting in Europe of the French Open, the French Tennis Federation said. The bid threatens to dislodge rights from the incumbent, European Broadcasting Union. In March, the FFT launched an invitation to tender for rights in Europe from 2012 to 2016. IMG Media and Lagardère Unlimited had also made offers but were rejected. FFT’s present 4-year, €56 mil ($80.2 mil) deal with EBU from 2008 to 2011 and that deal was already a 69% jump on the previous deal, thanks to increased interest in Spain. Outside of Europe, Sportfive is the FFT’s consultant for broadcast rights sales in Asia and Oceania (exc. Australia and Japan). Meanwhile, the FFT said is its French domestic broadcast partner France Télévisions, is not a foregone conclusion and raised possibilities of a deal in the future with other broadcasters. France Télévisions holds rights until 2013 in a €15.5-mil /year deal.

=>  Ukraine’s top-tier Premier League launched a tender process for domestic broadcast rights for 3 seasons, from 2011/12. The full package carries a minimum purchase price of $6 mil for 180 live matches /season (6 per round). Delayed rights are also available separately. A deadline of June 6 has been set for applications and bids will be reviewed and announced by June 17. The UPL incumbent rights holder is national broadcaster, Inter+. The 2011/12 season starts July and runs through May, with a 3-month break beginning Dec during severe winters in Ukraine.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  China Digital TV announced strong demand for its conditional access (CA) systems in financial results for the first quarter of 2011 ended 31 Mar. Net revenues in Q1 2011 were US$19.3 mil, a 37.7% jump from Q1 2010 but a 41.2% decrease from Q4 2010. The company shipped 3.63 mil smart cards during Q1 2011, compared with 2.57 mil and 6.10 mil cards in Q1 & Q4 2010, respectively. Gross margin in Q1 was 79.5%, compared with 77.5% in the same period in 2010 and 80.8% in Q4 of 2010.

=>  The men's singles final of the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships in Rotterdam was the most-watched sporting event in China this year. The all-Chinese final was televised by CCTV and drew an average audience of 27 mil, with a reach of just under 100 mil. The figures surpassed those for the final of the women's singles final between China's Li Na and Belgium's Kim Clijsters at tennis' Australian Open in Jan, which attracted an average of 18 mil viewers to CCTV. This year's WTTC were sponsored by GAC Group, the Guangzhou-based automobile company.

=>  Taj TV, which owns and operates 3 sports channels, is awaiting official clearance to launch its Golf-dedicated channel, Ten Golf, which will be fully owned by Taj TV (unlike a jv with Comcast Corp as was being planned by former partner Bukhatir Group). Ten Golf would build a subscription-based business model around the channel with Golf viewers in India estimated to be in the range of 6 to 7 mil. With the launch of Ten Golf, Taj TV will have four channel bouquet including - Ten Sports, Ten Action+ and Ten Cricket.

=>  Sportfive have been appointed by Klitschko Management Group (KMG) to handle global media rights for the upcoming world heavyweight championship unification between Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye which takes place at the Imtech Arena in Hamburg, Germany on Sat 2 Jul 2011. TV rights have already been sold in KMG’s home market of Germany, plus Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the homeland’s of the two boxers, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Sportfive replaces Triumph Media Group, who have marketed a number of previous fights on behalf of KMG. Between 2001 and 2007, Sportfive worked as the agency for the Klitschko brothers, holding personal rights to both before KMG took over. The multi-year collaboration between the brothers and KMG to handle their TV rights, signed in 2009, recently come to its conclusion.


STATS & DATA

=>  SNL Kagan forecasts strong growth for IPTV, with subs growing from 40 mil, as at the end of 2010, to over 70 mil by 2014. Kagan analyzed the top 75 media economies across N. America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pac and found that IPTV adoption increased at a 92.4% compound annual growth rate over the past 6 years. Analysis indicates Western Europe will continue to lead the world in IPTV subs in the next 4 years, reaching 26.7 mil households by 2014. China will become the second largest IPTV market, reaching 12.4 mil subs by 2014, with the U.S. in third. Latin America will grow 114%, while Eastern Europe grows 24.4%. IPTV revenues will grow from $12.9 bil in 2010 to $27 bil in 2014, or 11% of global pay-TV revenues.


EVENTS

=>  India Yamaha Motor has set eyes on football, as it exclusively organises the Yamaha Asean Cup, U-13 Football 2011 for the first time in India which started 15 till 28 May with 120 players & 8 teams from Pune, Nagpur, Kerala, Kolkata and Assam. The winner will represent India at the third Yamaha Asean Cup U-13 Football Finals in Thailand from 15 to 17 July, comprising six teams from five Asian countries, namely, India, Thailand (2 teams), Indonesia, Vietnam & Malaysia.

=>  Some women shuttlers are voluntarily donning skirts, although the Badminton World Federation’s controversial but binding regulation on attire comes into effect only in June. However, a majority of players are still angry, but BWF officials say that is the best way to earn money. What tennis witnessed two decades ago has come into play in badminton: show more leg is the new marketing mantra for BWF. The new rule requiring women to wear skirts has prompted fierce criticism from players of several countries, including China and Indonesia. The issue is likely to come up for more heated discussion at the BWF annual general meeting later next week.

=>  ESPN will expand the X-Games on a global basis. Beginning in 2013, ESPN will stage 6 world-class X-Games events around the world - 2 in the US and 4 outside. ESPN is investing resources and focus behind this push for expansion outside the US market and will bring this action sports competition to cities around the world. The X-Games will continue to showcase action sports while showcasing artistic and social elements inherent in the action sports lifestyle and youth culture. Along with a commitment to distribute 130 hours of live TV of 6 X-Games events throughout ESPN networks in the US and international, a year-round action sports website will also help support the appetite for premier action sports content.


BIZ & BITES

=>  3D content remains low priority for broadcasters, according to Ovum, although Asia-Pacific seems to have a higher degree of interest in the medium. In its report The State of 3D (Strategic Focus), which analyses state of the 3D market, Ovum points to a clear lack of enthusiasm for 3D in the broadcast industry. Some 53% of respondents globally said 3D content production was “not an important business consideration”. However, production of 3D content was rated as a slightly higher priority by executives in Asia-Pacific companies. High cost of in infrastructure and personnel are major factors in the reluctance to invest in 3D production.

=>  Tiger Woods will drop out of the top 10 in golf's world ranking next week, the first time he'll be 11th or lower since 1997, not winning a tournament since his marital scandal in 2009. But Tiger remains the world's most influential and highest earning athlete at 6th in Forbes' 'Celebrity 100 List'. At $75 mil, Woods is down $30 mil from last year's $105 mil (No. 5 in 2010), despite major sponsor pull-outs but still made $22 mil more Kobe Bryant. Woods still commands $3 mil per overseas appearance, and still collects from Nike and Electronic Arts. Behind Woods is LeBron James with $48 mil, up $5 mil from 2010 and ahead of Bryant in the power stakes. Roger Federer was 25th, placing him fourth among athletes. All told, the 19 athletes on the list this year earned a combined $647 mil. Forbes has been publishing the list annually since 1999.

=>  Members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee introduced legislation that would classify illicit online streaming of copyrighted content a felony, bringing it in line with other forms of content theft. An industry coalition praised the bill for reconciling current legal disparity between the unlawful distribution of content through streaming and peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading. Under current federal law, a distinction exists between illegal streaming and downloading - two methods of distributing the same stolen, digital content. This legislation would make the illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony, thereby standardizing its criminal classification with that of illegal P2P downloading, already a felony.

=>  Disney is considering positioning itself as a major Olympics sponsor in order to boost its bid for rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games. The company's ESPN network said during a presentation to advertisers that it is very serious about making a bid for the games. Disney's main competitor, NBCU, has aired all Summer Olympics Games since 1988, and every Winter Olympics since 2002. ABC last aired the games in the winter of '88. NBC added a $200 mil sponsorship to its $2 bil bid for the 2010 and 2012 games, and sold $700 mil in GE products as a result. Disney and NBCU are expected to present their bids to the IOC next month.