Wednesday, 18th May 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Pay-TV, Canal Plus Poland retained the Polish broadcast rights for the Ekstraklasa football top-tier, with an extended agreement. The new deal runs for the next three seasons from 2011/12, with Canal Plus receiving live broadcast rights to all of the league’s matches in HD, as well as exclusivity of best three matches per gameweek. Free-TV Polsat Digital and Eurosport replaced Orange Sport as sub-licensees to show selected matches over the next 3 years. Polsat. At US$40 mil /year, the deal is believed to be worth less than the current contract, valued at US$44 mil /annum.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Endemol Sport signed a 3-year deal with Sky Sports to become exclusive broadcaster of the Dublin Super Cup in the U.K. and Ireland. The DSC is a new pre-season tournament with the first team squads of Manchester City, Inter Milan, Celtic and a League of Ireland XI competing at the Aviva Stadium. The deal guarantees participation of a BPL team, a top Spanish or Italian club and one other European club competing with the Irish domestic league selection, Airtricity League XI. Sky Sports will air starting from the inaugural 2011 tournament through to 2013 in HD coverage and through a World Feed for viewers internationally. Endemol Sport is finalizing agreements with other broadcasters around the world for coverage of the 2011 Dublin Super Cup, to air in more than 100 territories across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

=>  Athletics’ IAAF has sold all TV rights across the Middle East for World Athletics Series events from 2011 to 2013 in a deal with IBA, state broadcaster of Israel. IEC in Sports inked the deal with IBA to include the next two World Championships in Daegu, South Korea in August and Moscow in 2013. The IBA deal ensures that coverage of athletics in the Middle East region for the period 2011 to 2013 is completed as it complements the deal with Al Jazeera Sport signed in July 2008. The IAAF, through Dentsu, has also concluded a rights deal with SBS for Daegu 2011, where it will carry 35 hours of live broadcast.

=>  Virgin Media has signed up to carry Eurosport’s 3D coverage of the 2011 French Open. Live action will be aired on a Virgin Media digital channel, as well other dedicated HD channels). Selected 3D matches will also be available on demand as part of Virgin's XL TV pack. It will be the first time the tournament has been shown in 3D in the UK. In 2010, 3D French Open coverage was not available on domestic TV sets outside France as the deal between Eurosport, Panasonic and the French Tennis Federation only applied to retail stores in Europe.


STATS & DATA

=>  Despite the amount of free content available, Infonetics Research reports the enduring strength of pay-TV, finding that people will not hesitate in paying for content that is compelling and offers true value. Worldwide revenue from IPTV, cable TV and satellite TV services providers grew to $240 bil in 2010, an 11% increase over 2009. IPTV grew 45%, followed by satellite on 13%. In spite of accounting for the largest revenues, cable revenues slowed noticeably. Asia-Pac and Central and Latin America were the fastest growing video services markets in 2010, driven by analogue-to-digital conversion and new subscriber growth in markets such as Brazil, India, Malaysia, and Mexico.

=>  The 3D TV market is poised to grow 500% this year, rising to over 300 mil in 2015, In-Stat reports. In-Stat expects 100% of all 40-inch and above DTV sets will eventually be 3D-enabled, causing shipments of 3D TV sets to increase and the the number of 3D TV households worldwide to grow. In 2011, Europe will be home to most 3D TV unit shipments, at just over 7 mil but by 2015, Asia Pacific will dominate with a 32% share of worldwide 3D TV shipments.

=>  iPad users are more likely to download free branded apps than paid-for non-branded equivalent. 73% of respondents to UK's Association of Publishing Agencies (APA) stated preference for free branded content. A further 67% wanted brands to provide more exclusive content for the device with lifestyle (38%), games (27%) and entertainment (23%) highlighted as the most popular areas. User preference for branded content also made them more open to brand engagement with 81% seeking further interaction with a brand after using an app, with 19% buying a product or service, and 29% expressing an interest in a product or service. Almost 1,000 iPad users were consulted during the survey.


EVENTS

=>  Japan has confirmed pulling out of July's Copa America as an invited team, because of issues over player availability. The Japan Football Association failed to secure guarantees that European clubs would be willing to release players for the tournament in Argentina. Japan's involvement in the Copa America was initially thrown into doubt by the devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit the country in March, although the JFA subsequently decided to take part, albeit without players from the delayed domestic J-League. Costa Rica is expected to replace Japan as one of two invitational teams at the tournament, with Mexico being the other.

=>  France will host the Ryder Cup in 2018 for the first time, after seeing off four other European bidders. France was favourite to win, albeit facing a potentially strong sympathy vote for Spain following the death of, Severiano Ballesteros. France was selected ahead of Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain and plans to stage the event at Le Golf National, home of the French Open, near Paris. Spain hosted the Ryder Cup on the only occasion it was held in continental Europe, at Valderrama in 1997.

=>  WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown are set to take place in Mexico at the Palacio de los Deportes Arena in Mexico City on October 15 and October 16, respectively. The impending broadcasts will make Mexico one of only four countries outside of the U.S. and Canada to have ever hosted Raw and SmackDown televised live events. The other countries include the U.K., Japan and Italy.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Wigan Athletic chariman, Dave Whelan and David Beckham remain the wealthiest sportspeople in the UK, according to The Sunday Times Sport Rich List, which is restricted to current and former sports stars. Whelan, founder of retail giant JJB Sports and former player, continues to lead with a fortune of £190 mil ($308 mil). Beckham, who now plays for LA Galaxy, is second with £135 mil, ahead of ex-Irish rugby union player, Tony O’Reilly with £120 mil in assets. Eight of the top 12 in the rich list are current or former racing drivers, including 2008 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and 2009 champion Jenson Button.

=>  FIFA exco, Worawi Makudi, intends legal action against former FA chief, Lord David Triesman, who has made bribery allegations against the Thai official. Worawi, also the head of Football Association of Thailand, denied Triesman’s claim that he asked for control of TV rights to a proposed Thailand-England friendly match in return for his support for England’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to host the 2018 World Cup. In the event, Russia was awarded the tournament and the proposed friendly match was called off. Triesman alleged last week that four FIFA exco members asked for, but were refused, incentives to support the bid. FIFA has asked the FA to provide evidence to support the claims, which have been denied by those implicated, namely Worawi, Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz and Ricardo Teixeira.

=>  Indonesian soccer’s PSSI, have avoided sanctions from FIFA after they banned 2 candidates from coming elections. Arifin Panigoro, an oil tycoon who launched a breakaway Indonesian Premier League, and army general George Toisutta have been removed from the presidential shortlist ahead of the May 20 election in Jakarta. The PSSI electoral appeal committee had previously argued that both men could stand as candidates as they had no criminal records, but FIFA intervened, calling for their immediate removal. FIFA has already stopped PSSI chairman Nurdin Halid from standing for re-election; he was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but continued to run the organisation from prison. His nomination would have violated FIFA statutes.

=>  Sergio Rodriguez Jaramillo, president of the PanAmerican Squash Federation was attacked and killed in a drive-by shooting in his home city of Medellin in Colombia. Jamarillo had been president of the federation since 1997, and treasurer of the Colombian Olympic Committee. N Ramachandran, president of the World Squash Federation, said in a statement: “"The untimely death of Sergio Rodriguez is a great shock and a terrible tragedy. First and foremost for his loved ones, but squash and sport in general has lost a great friend whose contribution has been enduring. He will be greatly missed."

=>  Gymnastics’ FIG suspended 11 national federations for failure to pay fees and financial obligations, bringing to 14 the total number of its member federations that are suspended. Newly-suspended federations are Cyprus, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Macau, Macedonia, Paraguay, Seychelles, Syria, Tajikistan and Yemen. Suspension means that the federations affected will not be able to participate in, or right to organise any official events of the FIG, amongst the sanctions. Previously suspended federations are those of Comores, Lesotho and North Korea.