Wednesday, 27th July 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  France Télévisions signed a 2-yr extension to its Tour de France deal up to the 2015 event. FT's present 5-yr deal with ASO was signed in 2008 and was worth about €23 mil ($33.1 mil) /yr. The new deal also includes other cycling events organised by ASO and the Dakar Rally. Earlier, ASO agreed a new deal for various races (including the Tour de France) with the European Broadcasting Union from 2012 to 2015. The 2011 Tour de France finished over the weekend and was won by Australia’s Cadel Evans.

=>  Australia’s National Rugby League has provoked incredulity over an estimate that its rights could be worth up to A$1.4 bil ($1.5 bil) over five years, as they bid to match the total $1.25-billion value of deals that the Australian Football League recently agreed with pay-TV Fox Sports, Telstra and Seven Network. NRL rights negotiations are due to start soon, following the formation of an independent commission that is being set up to run the game. The league is jointly owned by News Corporation media group, and the Australian Rugby League, which presently runs the competition. The NRL’s rights are presently shared by Nine and Fox Sports, the pay-television channel carried by Foxtel, in deals worth A$500 million that expire at the end of next season.

=>  The Italian Serie A and Serie B could be close to starting a TV channel of their own as they bid to break the stranglehold on their live rights by pay-TV Sky Italia and commercial broadcaster, Mediaset. The Leagues to increase the capital of Lega Calcio Service, their jointly-owned service company, from €550,000 ($790,900) to €6.2 mil and to expand its activities to include media services. Under the present 2-yr deals with Sky and Mediaset, the League receives over €900 mil /season for rights, but clubs are concerned with a reduction in competition in the Italian pay TV market which could cause a drop in fees for the next rights contract. They have stated they will not accept less than €1 bil /season for the new contract period beginning with the 2012-13 season.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  NHK Japan Broadcasting Corporation has made the move to digital, switching off analogue broadcasts in all areas of Japan except for those hit hardest by the recent earthquake and tsunami. After 58 years on the air, analogue broadcast has ended in Japan. In Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, the three prefectures impacted most by March's devastating earthquake and tsunami, analogue signals will remain until March 31, 2012.


STATS & DATA

=>  Revenues from global sales of on-demand movies and TV programs will reach $5.7 bil in 2016, up from $3.6 bil in 2010, according to Digital TV Research. The On-demand TV Forecasts predicts digital cable will generate $2.6 bil in 2016, double the $1.5 bil for 2010. DTH is expected to rake in $1.7 bil in revenues in 2016, remaining the second largest contributor to on-demand revenues and by 2012, IPTV will overtake DTT as the third largest platform. Revenues are expected to triple in Asia Pacific over the same period, reaching $1.2 bil, with China leading the growth.


EVENTS

=>  Team triathlon, in which a 4-person mixed team each completes all three disciplines, was accepted onto the 2014 Asian Games calendar in Incheon, a move which the Int. Triathlon Union hopes is a step towards being accepted into the Olympics. Team Triathlon was included in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last year. The IOC’s executive board will decide in 2013 whether to include team triathlon in the programme for the 2016 Olympics. The 2014 Asian Games are scheduled for Sep 14 to Oct 4.


BIZ & BITES


=>  Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg leads the MediaGuardian 100 annual list of the most powerful media people, while Rupert Murdoch fell from 4th to sixth and son James dropped off the top ten. Zuckerberg bumps Steve Jobs off number one down to fifth. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is second, in third is Google’s Larry Page and BBC’s Mark Thompson in fourth. The top ten also includes WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell (8) and X-Factor’s Simon Cowell (9). The top ten people in TV; BBC’s Thompson tops the list again with Cowell in second. New entry Danny Cohen, controller of BBC One, is in at third and Elisabeth Murdoch at ninth, with George Entwistle, the director of BBC Vision, capping off the top ten.

=>  The warring bodies that both purport to run field hockey in India have reached a temporary truce, but insisted the interim settlement does not amount to the full merger that was being sought. The two bodies, Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation have formed a joint executive and working committees to work jointly to organise the national championships, prepare and select the national teams and participation in international tournaments. However, both teams will go ahead with their plans for apparently competing, Indian Premier League-style, city franchise-based professional hockey leagues.

=> The 2010/11 NFL season will kick off as scheduled in Sep after players approved a new 10-yr collective agreement, ending a lockout which threatened to disrupt the campaign. The NFL Players’ Association accepted a deal approved by team owners and the 32 teams will now begin preparation ahead of the first pre-season games on Aug 11. The 4-month lockout had sparked fears of a cancellation of the 2010/11 season but teams and players finally agreed on respective shares of the league’s $9-bil annual turnover, the main stumbling block in the dispute. Teams will now receive 53%, while players get 47%, and the salary cap per team for the next 3 seasons is $120.4 mil /campaign (plus $22 mil in benefits) with teams committed to spend 89% of the limit.