Thursday, 2nd June 2011

BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  In a deal with Endemol Sport, FOX Soccer becomes the exclusive home of the Dublin Super Cup in the U.S., Canada and across the Caribbean, starting with the inaugural 2011 tournament through 2013. This new pre-season tournament debuts in July, with squads of Manchester City, Inter Milan, Celtic and a League of Ireland XI. The deal follows on Endemol Sport striking a 3-year partnership with Sky Sports for the Dublin Super Cup for the U.K. and Ireland. Further deals are to be announced in due course, to bring the tournament into more than 100 territories across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

=>  Broadcast rights for the Southeast Asian Games 2011 are offered free to broadcasters in participating countries, as host Indonesia bids to gain exposure for the country to offset the loss of potential TV rights revenue. Laos had also offered the rights free of charge to participating countries for the last edition of the games in 2009. This year’s games, which are scheduled to be held in Jakarta and Palembang on November 11 to 25, will feature 542 events in 44 sports.


NEW MEDIA

=>  The National Basketball Association (NBA) has formed a digital partnership with India’s Times Group in a measured effort to ramp up its fan connect. A dedicated NBA section on timesofindia.com will offer updates, latest news and scores. The announcement comes just ahead of the NBA Finals on Tuesday night with a marquee matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat, led by superstar Lebron James and for which Times Group journalists are being flown to the US to cover the action. The NBA section will offer daily video highlights, photo galleries and articles from NBA analysts which will reach over 12 million users per month.


BIZ & BITES

=>  FIFA’s Newly re-elected president, Sepp Blatter, has proposed an overhaul of award process for the World Cup competition by deciding the venue through a poll of the 208 member associations, as opposed to the existing system of a vote by the 24 exco members. Blatter said the exco would provide a shortlist of candidates to host the World Cup to be voted on by the member associations. The move follows fierce criticism of the simultaneous bidding procedures for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments, which were awarded in December to Russia and Qatar respectively, which Blatter had already admitted was a mistake because it increased the chances of collusion.