Tuesday, 9th August 2011

RIGHTS FEES

=>  The South African FA is looking for between R130 mil ($18.7 mil) and R150 mil /year from a new domestic broadcast rights deal. The figure was based on analysis of audience potential and that it is looking to strike a deal with a free-to-air network, likely pubcaster, SABC. A deal between R130 to R150 mil would include 60 matches /year and a magazine show called Safa TV.

=>  The Bulgarian A League finally agreed to a new domestic broadcast deal ahead of the 2011/12 season as pubcaster BNT and cable TV7, secured coverage. The deals with BNT and TV7 are worth Lv6 mil ($4.4 mil) /season, with TV7 paying about two thirds of the total, although BNT will have the first choice live game each week. The annual value of the previous deal was initially Lv6.4 mil /season but dropped last year when BTV Media Group’s Pro.BG and Ring.BG channels renegotiated their contracts. The 2011/12 Bulgarian A League season has planned for a TV blackout of foreign matches in Bulgaria in weekend timeslots to boost interest, attendances and commercial income for the domestic league.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  The TRACE Sports HD channel is now available on AsiaSat 5 in the Asia Pacific. The channel launched Aug 1 on Hong Kong Broadband Network's bbtv, with more carriage agreements in Asia coming soon. TRACE Sports HD features factual and lifestyle entertainment content about sports celebrities. The channel will feature behind the scenes interviews with teams for the 2012 London Olympics. The channel is broadcast in English with subtitles in Mandarin and Korean. It is available on cable, DTH, broadband and mobile platforms.

=>  HBO has won rights to produce and broadcast the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas on Nov 12. HBO lost Pacquiao's last fight in May against Shane Mosley to rival pay-TV Showtime but HBO has now secured a deal with promoters Top Rank for the WBO welterweight champion to return to its network for his next fight. The Pacquiao-Marquez fight is to be publicised by the different broadcast platforms of HBO’s parent company Time Warner, including TBS, TNT and CNN. Showtime drew 1.4 mil pay-per-views for the Pacquiao-Mosley fight in May.


BIZ & BITES

=>  Singapore’s StarHub reported a 34% rise in Q2 net profit although pay-TV revenue fell by close to 16%. The company reported net profit of S$78 mil ($64 mil) from Apr to Jun, compared to S$58.1 mil the same period in 2010. Operating revenue was S$569 mil for Q2 2011, around the same 12 months ago. Net profit for the first half of the year was up 46% to S$147 mil. StarHub’s pay-TV revenue fell 15.7% to S$92.3 mil, the result of price reduction on the sports package last year from S$25 /month to S$12 /month after losing rights to the English Premier League to rival SingTel. StarHub’s average revenue per user for pay-TV fell to S$49 /month but the customer base increased to 544,000.