Thursday, 14th July 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  Thailand’s RS Company is set to launch a new pay-TV soccer channel next year with live coverage of Spanish Liga. RS picked up rights with a "huge" bid, according to Mediapro, Liga’s appointed agency. The acquisition is a blow to TrueVisions, which holds rights in a present contract period, expiring end 2011/12 season. Dominant pay-TV, TrueVisions, has over 9 mil subs to its satellite services who on the same day also announced a 3-year deal to broadcast UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues, in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos from 2012/13 to 14/15. TrueVisions had been paying close to $2 mil /year in its 3-yr Liga deal and the bid from RS is believed to be worth at least three times as much. Mediapro has carved Thailand out of the Asian rights package it sold to ESPN Star Sports, who is paying $6 mil /year for cross-platform rights in 18 Asian territories, including Malaysia and Indonesia.

=>  Mediapro also recently agreed a renewal of Liga BBVA media rights with Sweden’s TV4, which acquired rights for the Nordic region of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The deal is thought to be valued at about €5.5 mil ($7.7 mil) /season in the present 3-yr deal to about €7 mil /season in the new cycle. Mediapro brought in close to €150 mil from international Liga rights for the present 3-yr period, and is expected to close in on €200 mil in new deals, thanks to large increases in territories like Thailand, where new player, RS, is believed to have agreed to pay $6 mil over 3 seasons from 2012/13.

=>  Paraguayan soccer’s APF doubled TV rights revenues when it sealed a 7-yr renewal of an existing deal with agency, Teledeportes, for media rights to the top-tier domestic Primera División. APF will receive a base fee of $8.5 mil /season, for a total of close to $60 mil over 7 seasons from 2013/14 to 19/20. Teledeportes is controlled by Argentina's Clarín media group and will pay additional fees to cover payments to the lower divisions. Teledeportes' total revenue, it is believed, will reach $88 million over 7 years. The deal is a vast improvement over the present deal, in which APF earned a base fee of just over $3 mil /season.

=>  The BBC is on the verge of agreeing a lucrative new deal to continue broadcasting rugby union’s Six Nations Championship. The deal will be for 4 years beginning in 2014, following the expiry in 2013 of the present deal. The present deal is estimated to be worth £40 mil ($63.3 mil) /season and the proposed renewal comes despite the fact that the BBC is facing cuts of up to 25% to its £300-mil sports rights budget.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  ESPN Star Sports has inked a 5-yr deal with Dorna Sports for exclusive broadcast of the MotoGP World Championship across 24 Asian countries. ESS has been broadcasting MotoGP for the past16 years and the new deal includes exclusive pay-TV coverage in addition to live broadcasts of all qualifying practices and GP races through its channels on television (ESPN, STAR Sports, and ESPN HD), online (ESPN Player), and mobile (Mobile ESPN). The current season covers 18 races held over four continents.

=>  CFA Team China will return to CCTV after the state broadcaster signed a 3-and-half year deal with the Chinese Football Assoc.’s commercial partner China Football Industry Development Company/World Sport Group to broadcast games of the National Teams at all levels. The deal begins with the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying match against Laos in Kunming on 23 July on CCTV 5 until the end of 2014. The deal with CCTV follows a 4-yr deal between WSG and the CFIDC to develop new commercial and media opportunities for CFA Team China in June.

=>  Neo Sports has won broadcast rights for the French Open for the next 5 years over incumbent holder ESPN Star Sports. The deal covers 2012 to 2016 for the Indian Sub Continent. Terms were not disclosed. The French Open is a marquee Grand Slam event held in May and is regarded as one of the most physically demanding tennis tournaments in the world since it is the only Grand Slam played on clay.

=>  MP & Silva has agreed an extension to its existing deal with DFL Sports Enterprises to widen distribution rights to the German Bundesliga to include France, becoming the 4th territory covered by the partnership, following a recent agreement for the rights in Japan, Vietnam and Belgium. Under the new deal, MP & Silva will be the exclusive distributor of the rights across all platforms, including cable, satellite, terrestrial, Web TV, IPTV and mobile, for the next three seasons.


STATS & DATA

=>  In-home TV coverage of 2010 Fifa World Cup has broken viewership records by reaching over 3.2 bil people the world over, or 46.4% of the global population, based on a minimum of one minute of viewing. The figure is 8% over the previous edition in Germany. Based on viewers watching at least 20 consecutive minutes of coverage, WC2010 reached nearly a third of the world with 2.2 bil viewers, or 3% higher than 2006. Average in-home global audience for each match was 188.4 million, up 6% on 2006, while highest average audience was for the final between Spain and the Netherlands at 530.9 mil, up 5% on 2006. About 909.6 mil viewers watched at least one minute of the finals and is likely to have surpassed 1 bil if out-of-home viewers were included.


EVENTS

=>  Motor racing’s GP2 Series and GP2 Asia Series are to be merged from next year. The two series, which were launched in 2005 and 2008 respectively, are a support series for drivers that hope to progress to Formula 1, and this year, the series have featured, for the first time, the same 13 teams and the same car, the third-generation GP2/11. The decision follows the cancellation of two of GP2 Asia's three rounds, which were due to be held in Bahrain this year, because of the political situation there.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Tony Fernandes is set to play Donald Trump's role in the Asian edition of The Apprentice, says the show's producer, RGM. Like the US version where winners go on to be Trump's apprentice, the Asian-edition winner will become a paid apprentice to Tony, who is one of Asia's youngest and most celebrated business leaders. He heads Malaysian conglomerate, Tune Group, the parent of airline AirAsia and the Formula One team Lotus Racing. He is expected to spice the 'ultimate job interview' with his trademark wit, daring decisions, and entrepreneurial grit.

=>  The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) agreed a sponsorship deal with Telekom Malaysia that sees the telco continue its support of the Malaysian national team. The deal is worth RM24 mil (US$8 mil) over 4 years and sees TM becoming the official partner of the national football team, while the TM logo appear on national squad apparel during training and tournaments, as well as on sports goods and equipment. TM will also send two Malaysian footballers accompanied by a coach to attend training sessions abroad.