Thursday, 19th April 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Poland and Ukraine to Co-host Euro 2012

The success of Portugal at UEFA EURO 2004™ can be an inspiration to Poland and Ukraine as they begin the long process of preparing to host UEFA EURO 2012™. This was the message from Polish Football Association president Michał Listkiewicz in Cardiff following the victory of the joint Polish and Ukrainian bid. Listkiewicz recalled how Portugal was a surprise choice for many critics to stage the 2004 finals.

Listkiewicz, a former international referee, said that for Polish football, today's news was "on a par with 1974 when [striker Grzegorz] Lato won the Golden Shoe and with 1982 [when, as in 1974, Poland finished third at the FIFA World Cup]". Grigoriy Surkis, president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, said: "Ukraine and Poland now have this chance to show our best. We are approximately 85 million people, we are neighbours and there are more than 200 million people in the nations neighbouring us. It is a great audience."

Surkis added that the required logistics for a tournament that will take place in two time zones "gives us the impetus to build a new infrastructure and to come close to the European standard". UEFA EURO 2012™ will bring new stadiums to Gdansk and Warsaw in Poland and Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk in Ukraine, as well as ensuring the renovation of eight other grounds.

Speaking to uefa.com, UEFA communications and public affairs director William Gaillard praised the three 2012 bids from Poland/Ukraine, Croatia/Hungary and Italy, and added: "I think hosting EURO 2012 is a tremendous prize for any country – and for sure, what was presented reflected the importance of such an event." Source: UEFA Official, Sportcal, 18th April 2007

Related Excerpts: EURO 2012 Awarded to Poland & Ukraine

Four Ukrainian venues: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev and Lviv. Six Polish venues: Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Chorzow. Pros: Growing passion for the sport in both countries, with Poland pulling in record TV figures for FIFA World Cup 2006 and Ukraine reaching last year’s tournament for the first time; Impressive stadium construction programme planned, particularly in Ukraine. Cons: Both countries would need huge investment in infrastructure ahead of the tournament; Construction issues of stadia in Ukraine as the country has its own sports venue development legislation; Political situation in Ukraine has been unstable since the Orange Revolution of 2004-05. Source: Football Insider, 18th April 2007

Poland-Ukraine's victory to host the 2012 European Championship confirms the status of the former Olympic pole-vault champion Sergei Bubka as one of the chief powerbrokers in world sport. Bubka was key in persuading Uefa to take a high-risk strategy of shifting the tournament to the east. Bubka has established himself as a sporting politician and is an influential member of the International Olympic Committee and of the International Association of Athletics Federations council. His commitment to the Poland-Ukraine bid was demonstrated by the fact that he was in Cardiff this week for the final presentation rather than in Beijing, where he had been scheduled to be part of an IOC evaluation commission visit to host city of the 2008 Games. Along with Lord Coe, Bubka is tipped as a future IOC president. Source: Paul Kelso comments on The Guardian UK, 19th April 2007

Hosting of the 2012 European Championship went to Poland and Ukraine delivering a major surprise, awarding the tournament to an un-fancied joint bid with a two-thirds majority, signaling a shift in European football to the east. Uefa's shock decision to look east is a huge snub to Italy, whose bid was expected to win despite the country's tawdry recent history of match-fixing scandals and hooliganism. In the event Poland and Ukraine were comfortable winners, defeating the Italian bid by eight votes to four, with the third contender, a joint bid from Hungary and Croatia, attracting no support in a secret ballot. Source: The Guardian Unlimited, 19th April 2007

Polish football fans and officials burst into enthusiastic cheers and chants after the announcement from Cardiff that Poland and Ukraine will jointly host the Euro 2012 Championship. “White and reds, can’t be beat!” shouted a group of ardent fans that had gathered in the shadow of the communist-era Palace of Culture in central Warsaw to watch the announcement, broadcast live on a large television screen. Poland’s national coach, Leo Beenhakker, expressed his delight and urged government and sports officials to get down to work to prepare for the prestigious competition. Source: AFP on The Star Malaysia, 19th April 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* LeagueOne Marketing Services, will bring women’s beach volleyball to India. The property will be called Volleigirl. The company has tied with Times Group’s lifestyle channel, Zoom, to broadcast the event. This will be India’s first professional women’s volleyball league. Based on a reality show format, Volleigirl will invite entries from women across India. A panel of international players and trainers will shortlist 48 women in auditions held at four Indian cities. 48 girls will be picked to undergo 2 months of training and grooming to prepare for the finals. Source: Agencyfaqs, 19th April 2007

* An overhaul of Asia’s AFC Champions League, has been recommended by the regional body’s professional leagues committee. The Asian Football Confederation released details of committee findings on its website on Tuesday following meetings last week ahead of plans to revamp the tournament in 2009. Among suggestions put forward was inclusion of a round of 16 in the knockout phase, and playing the final as a one-off match in neutral venue. Under the current format, the final is played on a home-and-away basis. Source: Football Insider, 18th April 2007

* Reed Midem announced the launch of Amazia ,a pan-Asian, B2B exhibition and conference devoted to the creation and distribution of international entertainment content across all delivery platforms. Amazia will take place in Hong Kong in November, 2008. Amazia will host content creators and rights owners including television and film production and distribution companies, broadcasters and mobile operators among others, who are looking to associate themselves with entertainment content. Participation is expected to be 70% from Asian Pacific and 30% from outside the region. Source: Indian Television, Worldscreen, 18th April 2007

* The acquisition of English Premier League broadcast rights by Entertainment Highway Limited in Nigeria, the owners of Hi-TV, has helped increase subscribers. Just last month EHL paid up the mandatory US$28 million dollars to put to rest speculations on the broadcast right ownership of the premiership for the next three seasons. The company also paid an additional €6.9 million for the Spanish League for all Africa. Source: Vanguard Nigeria, 18th April 2007

* US companies will spend $3.2 billion in motorsports sponsorship in 2007, up 11% from $2.9 billion spent in 2006, according to IEG Sponsorship Report. Nascar tops the pile in terms of sponsorship spend with its new sponsorship strategy, targeting fewer, bigger corporate partners bringing in big, long-term deals. Sponsorship interest continues to be held back by concerns over the health of motorsport although Champ Car World Series has just signed a new deal with iRise, but the circuit has lost Ford and Bridgestone as presenting sponsors. Source: Sport Business, 18th April 2007

* The F1 calendar will include 'Grand Prix of Europe' in place of the German Grand Prix after a dispute over title-use ended in deadlock. The race is scheduled for July 22 at the Nurburgring. Nurburgring and Hockenheim have agreed to alternate hosting the race. Previously, Nurburgring and Hockenheim hosted F1 races, and the European and German Grand Prix, respectively, each year. However, the two clubs that organise the races failed to reach agreement on Nurburgring using the German Grand Prix title, meaning that this year’s race will revert to the Grand Prix of Europe. Source: Sportcal, 18th April 2007


MORE NEWS

Thailand/Broadcaster: 24-hour Local Sports Channel Debuts

Siam Sport Syndicate Plc, which publishes a daily sports tabloid, today begins broadcasting the first 24-hour local sports channel in Thailand on satellite TV. The move paves the way for the company to run a free sports channel. It still hopes that the government will reallocate frequencies for business operators as the company plans to invest at least 200 million baht in free TV.

The company had invested 50 million baht in the past two years in Siam Keela TV, including 20 million baht in an outdoor broadcast unit. With digital technology, it broadcasts content on channel NBT 19 (National Broadcast Television). NBT belongs to the Public Relations Department and is available to owners of Samart satellite dishes. Samart has sold 100,000 dishes and anticipates this to double in the next two years. Net Media, its major partner, is licensed to manage the department's frequency.

The channel would focus on locally produced talk shows and variety programmes rather that foreign programmes, such as live international sports. He said that imported programmes were too costly and that rights had already been bought by TrueVisions pay TV. He said that the channel would be free for at least one year before adjusting to subscriber-based billing or pay-per-view.

Although the station predicts a slow first year, it expects ad revenues of 120 million baht next year thanks to the Euro 2008 football tournament. Sport publishing is the flagship of Siam Sport Syndicate, accounting for 70% of the parent company's total earnings. He said that this year the company would aggressively expand into TV after operating a 24-hour sports radio programme since 1996.

It has already produced two sport programmes _ Sport Weekly and Dao Bon Din (Star on Earth) _ for TITV. Other programmes called World Soccer and Sport will be aired on MCOT's Channel 9 by July. It will start airing another programme on MCOT2, available on TrueVisons channel 27, next month. Siam Sport projects revenues of two billion baht this year, up from 1.8 billion in 2006. It missed last year's target due to the economic slowdown. But its profits doubled to 77 million baht thanks to reader interest in the World Cup. Source: Bangkok Post, 19th April 2007

Asia/Rights: Agency Obtains Manchester United Asia Tour TV Rights

IEC in Sports has been appointed to distribute the global broadcast rights for English soccer’s Manchester United on its tour of Asia this summer. Details of the tour were confirmed yesterday. Manchester United will face Urawa Reds in Saitama, Japan, on July 17 before heading to Seoul, South Korea, for the match against Seoul FC on July 20. On July 23, United face Shenzhen FC in Macau, China, and will play a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on July 27.

Promoter ProEvents is handling the arrangements for the tour, having organised four of Manchester United’s five tours of Asia since 1995. The club’s last tour of Asia was in 2005 when it visited Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. Manchester United lead the top-tier English Premiership and have qualified for the semi-final of the Champions League, European soccer’s top clubs competition, and the final of the domestic FA Cup. Source: Sportcal, 18th April 2007

Singapore/General: Looks to the World

Singapore announced MOU agreements with 4 major co-producers as the country looks to increase its media presence. The four deals (including Australian, Canadian, French, Indian and US players) are additional to a similar announcement Tuesday with Germany’s Beta movie and series powerhouse.

Seto Lok Yin, director of Media Development Authority, said there was plenty of cash available for the right media-related projects, from private equity funders and the Singaporean banking community. Mr Seto said there was increased commitment to HDTV production and the nation’s producers had wrapped about 50 hours of HD production within the past year – and there was willingness to make further investments in HD output across all genres, especially drama, documentary, kids and animation. Source: Rapid TV News, 18th April 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Cartel Fears Prompt Bundesliga Suspension on Premiere

German pay-television broadcaster, Premiere, has halted marketing of Arena channel via satellite, while awaiting decision over legitimacy of a tie-up between the two broadcasters. Arena, the channel owned by a consortium of cable operators, holds exclusive rights for live coverage of German soccer's top-tier Bundesliga.

The cartel office is still examining an agreement signed on February 8 between Premiere and Unity Media, the cable consortium that owns the Arena channel. Unity Media acquired a €250-million ($339.4-million), 16.7-per-cent stake in Premiere and in return, Arena's live Bundesliga coverage was made available via satellite through Premiere.

Unity Media last year fended off competition from incumbent broadcaster Premiere to win the exclusive live rights to the Bundesliga for three years for €240 million a year, but did not have the necessary platforms in place to make coverage available across the country. Source: Sportcal, World Soccer News, Advanced Television, 18th April 2007

Elsewhere/Programming: Liverpool to Launch TV Channel

Barclays Premiership giant Liverpool FC is to launch its own TV channel this summer. The Anfield club already produces a weekly three-hour TV show broadcast in 47 different countries outside the UK, but will now join rivals Chelsea and Manchester United, as well as Bank of Scotland (sponsor) Premier League teams Celtic and Rangers, in having its own channel.

Liverpool CEO Rick Parry told www.liverpoolfc.tv: “We are very excited about the prospect of the Club channel which could be a great addition to the coverage that we already provide for our supporters through our website, mobile services and print media. We would like to be able to say more to fans at this stage as to how they will be able to get the new channel but, at the moment, discussions with broadcasters are ongoing and there are a number of details still to be worked out. As soon as we are in a position to release further deta ils, we will do so.”

Although the club has not yet confirmed a launch date, it is already advertising for experienced directors, producers, engineers, camera operators, editors, production assistants and researchers to work on LFC TV. For more information, visit www.liverpoolfc.tv/recruitment. Source: Football Insider, Sport Business, 18th April 2007

Elsewhere/General: Champions League Offers £30 Million Jackpot

Chelsea and Manchester United may compete against each other for glory on three separate fronts; three crucial matches between them next month will determine the outcome of the Barclays Premiership, the FA Cup and - if both win their semi-finals - the Champions League. But a sports marketing expert believes that the value of being crowned kings of Europe will be more than £30 million and purely on commercial terms the UEFA Champions League is the Holy Grail.

In terms of prize money and TV cash, Chelsea and United both made around £29 million from the Premier League last season. They can expect to earn the same again this season. The FA Cup will swell their coffers by a further £2.4 million, with the winner taking home a further £1 million. In Europe, both clubs are guaranteed around £20 million, a further £4 million for making the final and another £2 million for winning it. Manchester United will play AC Milan in one Champions League semi-final while Chelsea will square off against Liverpool in the other. Source: Football Insider, EUFootball.biz, 18th April 2007