Friday, 24th June 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  French pay-TV Canal Plus was awarded 4 packages of domestic broadcast rights to French Ligue 1 from 2012/13 to 15/16, but will share coverage with Al Jazeera which picked up a package of rights to show 2 live games per round. The deals for 5 packages have raised €510 mil ($725.6 mil) /season, with 4 packages still unsold. Canal Plus is thought to be paying €420 mil /season and Al Jazeera €90 mil /season. Remaining packages (lots 6 through 9), did not meet LFP's reserve price and second round of bids will be called for if deals are not reached. The 7th package is for mobile and tablet rights, which Orange bid €10 mil /season for, a dramatic drop on the €60 mil /season it currently pays. Packages 8 and 9 cover magazine shows and video on-demand rights.


STATS & DATA

=>  China's pay-TV revenues will reach $7.5 bil this year, according to SNL Kagan, surpassing Japan for the first time and making it Asia's top pay-TV market. Video service revenues in China were up by 31.1% 2010, reaching $5.8 bil, driven by cable digitization and a 9% increase in pay-TV homes. SNL Kagan is forecasting a 5.8% CAGR in multichannel subs between 2010 and 2015 to reach 259.5 mil. In that time, SNL Kagan expects a 20.5 % CAGR in revenues to reach $14.7 bil. The research also indicates that cable is the dominant platform, accounting for 96% of subscribers and 91.2% of revenues in 2010. By end 2010, 47% of subs had migrated to digital services. This base is forecast to grow by 22.5 mil homes in 2011 with gains seen in HD base, expected to reach 17.2 mil by 2015.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Aston Villa have secured a 2-year shirt sponsorship with Genting, UK's largest operator of casinos, and becomes AV's principal partner from Jul 1 in a deal that initially runs to the end of the 2012/13 season. Genting replace FXPro on Villa shirts. Sources claim the deal is worth £16 mil (US$25 mil) over the next 2 years. Genting has its offices at Star City in Birmingham and operates over 40 casinos throughout the UK. It is part of the Genting Group, one of Malaysia's largest multi-national corporations.