Tuesday, 14th June 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  The Philippine Basketball Association will discuss a new offer by ABC Sport 5 of P800 mil to assume TV rights for the next 5years. TV5’s new offer represents a P100-million cut from its original offer of P917 mil made last week. The emerging TV power initially offered P917 mil to nail broadcast rights of the league until 2016, but reduced it by P117 million after the PBA met last week, with only P650 million in cash and the rest to be charged as marketing expense in promoting the league’s games. TV5’s reduced offer is still heavy considering that incumbent Solar pays the PBA a total of P170 mil for the last 3 seasons on their current contract.

=>  French rugby union’s LNR secured an 11-fold value increase of annual media rights for its second-tier Pro D2. Eurosport, France Télévisions and incumbent Canal Plus have agreed to pay a combined €1.1 mil ($1.6 mil) /season for the next 4 years for live Pro D2 matches. For the period 2007-11, Canal Plus and France Télévisions paid a combined €100,000 /year and both were reported to have offered a joint bid of €500,000 /year for rights to the 16-team Pro D2 until the end of the 2014-15 season. All three will show the final live. Eurosport France already broadcasts ‘Au Contact,’ a rugby union magazine programme, and also shows live games from the Amlin Challenge Cup, Europe’s second-tier clubs competition.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Zee will launch its golf channel in August, its fourth sports channel. Ten Golf will be available in digital high definition (HD) across DTH (direct-to-home) platforms. Taj Television also owns Ten Cricket, soccer-dedicated Ten Action+ and its flagship sports channel Ten Sports. The channel was earlier expected to be launched by March-April this year. However, the delay in approvals from the information & broadcasting ministry caused it to revise the launch plan.

=>  Pay-TV ESPN Brazil will show HD coverage of the FIM Superbike World Championship, after it reached agreement with Infront Motor Sports. The non-exclusive agreement began with this weekend’s San Marino round in Misano, Italy and is due to run for two seasons. Infront said that the number of broadcasters of the series has grown by 40% since it took control of TV distribution in 2007, with the series shown in 173 countries last year, reaching a cumulative audience of 498 mil viewers, a 33% increase on the previous year.

=>  The UEFA Euro U-21 Championship in Denmark is receiving TV coverage in over 130 territories. UEFA said the tournament is receiving coverage in countries of the eight participating teams: Belarus (Belarus TV); Czech Republic (Czech TV); Denmark (TV2); Iceland (RUV); Spain (Cuatro); SSR SRG (Switzerland); England (British Sky Broadcasting); and Ukraine (TRK Football channel). The tournament is also being shown in other European countries, North Africa, Middle East, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, USA, Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia. Free live stream of the matches is available on Uefa.com in selected territories without television coverage.


STATS & DATA

=>  Analyst, Digital TV Research calculated a strong growth in 2010 resulted in over half a bil digital TV homes supporting a pay-TV market worth of$155 billion. The Digital TV World Databook shows about 338 mil digital homes were added globally between 2006 and 2010, driving digital TV household penetration to 576 million or 42.5% at end 2010. Of the 338 mil, 169 mil were in the Asia Pacific, bringing its total to 218 mil. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010. However, only Finland was 100% digital. China had the most pay- TV subs at195 mil. USA and India also had more than 100 mil pay-TV subs. DTVR observed cable revenues flattening and IPTV revenues reached US$6 bil in 2010, up from under US$1 bil in 2006.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Wuhan in China will stage commercial horse racing meetings from August, ending a 60-year ban on the activity in the country. The General Administration of Sports has approved the races, which will be organised by the Hubei provincial government and held at the Orient Lucky City racecourse. Betting will not be allowed although there will be small prizes for people who correctly guess the winning horse in each race. Races will be held on Saturday and comprise four to six races, with live TV coverage in China. Some 200 horse owners have already expressed an interest in participating but prize money has yet to be determined. Horse racing had been banned in China since 1949, although former colonies Hong Kong and Macau have well-developed industries.

=>  The owners of Manchester United are considering floating the club on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The Glazers, who bought the club for £790 million in 2005, had talks with banks about listing in Asia as part of an exit strategy and been told that it could value the club at £1.7 bil ($2.8 bil). MU recently won a record 19th league title, generated £231.7 mil turnover in 9 months ending March 2011, up from £219.3 mil in the previous year. The club continued to post losses because of interest payments on the Glazers’ loans to fund the acquisition 6 years ago and despite on-field success, the family remained unpopular with the fans. There were also reports of a Middle East takeover although the club has repeatedly denied that it is for sale.