Monday, 18th July 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Bolivia TV has acquired rights to 72 South American qualifiers leading-up to the 2014 World Cup. The deal was made with The Game, the soccer rights arm of Argentina’s Full Play agency. Full Play acquires the international rights to the S. American qualifiers and sells them on to broadcasters throughout the region. The deal with Bolivia TV means that all national team’s qualifiers and friendlies are available on free-to-air television across the country for the first time in 26 years. Commercial broadcasters Unitel and ATB previously held free-to-air rights to the WC qualifiers, but both were only available on cable. The national association, FBF, is believed to be earning $50,000 per friendly match and up to $250,000 for each WC qualifier.

=>  Clubs of the Danish Superliga are considering launching a league TV channel as they pressure broadcasters to submit higher bids in a second round tender for media rights from 2012/13 onwards. The Superliga rights were first up for sale earlier this year but the reserve price of over DKr1.1 bil ($208.4 mil) for the next 3-yr rights cycle was not met. Superliga clubs now express support to set up a league TV channel if broadcasters do not submit acceptable bids. The current Danish Superliga domestic broadcast deals from 2009/10 to 11/12 are worth DKr1.06 bil.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  SingTel's IPTV’ mio TV has expanded its lineup with Travel Channel, the all-rugby Setanta Sports and the Indian news network TIMES Now. Travel Channel offers up content on luxury getaways, eco-friendly holidays and backpacking adventures, with a slate that includes Trabant Trek, Planet Sports and Distant Shores. Setanta Sports is will deliver rugby action from across the globe and is the channel’s 6th distribution agreement in Asia, following on from a deal in with SingTel’s rival StarHub, in Hong Kong (with Now TV), Malaysia and Brunei (with Astro) and in Sri Lanka (with LBN and Carlton Sports Network). Setanta now reaches over 3.5 mil TV households in Asia.

=>  WinTV is launching Taiwan`s first HD general TV channel in a bid to help elevate the digital cable TV industry. WinTV plans to spend NT$1.2 bil (£25.6 mil) over 5 years to finance production of locally-produced programmes for its channel. The company will spend around NT$66 mil on recreation and leisure, sports, business, news and children's programmes. The Taiwan government, in light of low digital TV penetration in Taiwan, has vowed extensive promotion of digital TV next year. Currently, digital TV subs account for only 10% of the island`s 5 mil cable TV subscribers. Taiwan`s cable TV penetration rate is among the highest in Asia but digital TV penetration is still low. Comparatively, mainland China has 87 mil subs of digital cable TV service, nearly half of the mainland`s 180 mil cable TV subscribers.

=>  Meanwhile, the lack of converged media such as IPTV in China and lack of single regulatory body are preventing telecom and media diversity. According to analyst, Ovum, insufficient liberalisation and market privatisation has led to lack of competition between broadcasters and telcos; key players in telecom and media markets (including cable companies and 3 biggest telcos) are state-owned entities. China earlier announced plans to digitalise all of its cable TV networks above the county level by 2015 to spur the convergence of cable TV, telecommunications and the Internet. Meanwhile, the SARFT was to have submitted a proposal to the government to set up a national cable television network company.


EVENTS

=>  The Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) has signed its biggest sponsorship deal with menswear apparel manufacturer Crocodile Int. Ltd. The agreement is worth S$1 mil (US$820,000) over 10 years and will help the STTA support and develop young talent in Singapore, and will include staging of the inaugural Crocodile Challenge Cup, held from 10th-13th Nov, involving primary school students of Singaporean citizenship, and features a prize fund of S$18,000 (US$14,790).