Tuesday, 3rd April 2007

SPORTS SHORTS

* Bangladeshi television channel Ekushey TV (ETV), which had been banned for alleged political bias, has been allowed to resume broadcasting. It won a five-year legal battle. Media reports state that ETV was taken off air in 2002 after the broadcasting authority under then-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia accused it of showing programmes that were biased towards her predecessor, Sheikh Hasina. ETV along with the state-owned Bangladesh Television will operate both terrestrial and satellite networks. Source: Indian Television, 2nd April 2007

* A committee reviewing the future of public broadcasting in Hong Kong has proposed establishing a new, fully independent public broadcaster but said it should not be a reconfigured Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), reports The Standard. Committee chairman Raymond Roy Wong said the new broadcaster, initially called the "Hong Kong Public Broadcasting Corporation," should be independent in its editorial and programming decisions, operate on a digital platform and run at least one free TV channel providing programmes in Cantonese, English and Putonghua. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union Official, 29th March 2007

* French commercial broadcaster TF1 lost the rights for French football’s Ligue 1 highlights. The broadcaster has aired the highlights in its famous Téléfoot programme since 1977 Public-service broadcaster France Télévisions’ France 2 channel scooped the rights from the 2007-08 season. TF1 offered less money for a new deal than the €13.1 million a year it had been paying in its existing deal. According to the league, France 2’s offer was better than TF1’s on a quality as well as a financial level. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 2nd April 2007

* Sail TV will broadcast the 32nd America's Cup online. Coverage will be available at www.sail.tv on a 24/7 basis. Starting from Valencia on April 3rd and through to the end of America’s Cup, Sail TV will feature daily Video News updates, and delayed, embargoed broadcasts of the official TV highlights, plus live images and specially produced exclusive content. All will be available ‘Video-on-demand’ and as scheduled programming. Due to existing arrangements, Sail TV will not be allowing broadcasts into Canada, New Zealand, Spain or Italy. Source: Sport Business, 2nd April 2007

* Milan Channel, the official club channel of AC Milan, plans to launch a branded channel on YouTube - the first Italian channel on the site. It would be accessible at youtube/milanchannel and will include AC Milan content in Italian and English, including daily news and archive video footage as well as feedback and contributions from fans. YouTube users worldwide will have the ability to comment on Milan Channel clips, rate them, recommend them to friends and post their own video responses to communicate with other viewers. Source: Sports Media, Sport Business, 2nd April 2007

* American airline JetBlue Airways said that ESPN consistently ranks among the three most-watched channels of its in-flight television offering, the New York Times reported. JetBlue offers 36 channels of DirecTV on all of its flights. In 2000, it became the first airline to offer live satellite television. Frontier Airline said ESPN was the most-watched station by far of the 24 channels available to its passengers. Source: Sports Insider, 2nd April 2007


MORE NEWS

Thailand/Rights: How ThaiBev Got Two World Cups for $7.5 Million

Thai football fans were able to watch all 64 FIFA World Cup matches uninterrupted for the first time.when DhosPaak, the Thai Beverage Plc subsidiary, bought the 2006 broadcast rights. Then Managing Director Vorawoot Rojanaparnich had been able to persuade his boss, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, to televise every match continuously with no TV commercials.

The move proved lucrative for Beer Chang, ThaiBev's flagship beer. The company drew complaints when it asked pub and restaurant operators for "co-operation" in selling Chang Beer in exchange for broadcast of the games but gripes faded when huge crowds came to see the games each night. By the final whistle, Mr Vorawoot told the Bangkok Post, sales for Chang Beer had reached 6.5 billion baht, 80% of market share in the low-priced beer segment.

After five years at DhosPaak, Vorawoot decided he wanted his own business. ''It was time for me to benefit from managing the broadcasting rights,'' he recalled. After a discussion with RS Plc CEO Surachai Chetchotisak, the two joined hands to set up RS International Broadcasting and Sports Management Co (RSbs) last November. Mr Vorawoot put up half of the initial capital of 50 million baht and became the operation's CEO.

To secure the television rights for the World Cup in 2010 and 2014, Mr Vorawoot relied on long-time connections he had made with prominent figures in sports built since he was a sports reporter more than three decades ago. It helped that he sits on the board of the Football Association of Thailand along with Secretary-General, now FAT President, Worawi Makudi.

Worawi, who holds executive positions with the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA, helped Vorawoot secure broadcasting rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups at a low fee. ''I told FIFA that I would use the games to entertain Thais via free TV, not through paid channels,'' Vorawoot said. His offer convinced FIFA and DhosPaak landed the two tournaments for just US$7.5 million.

With RSbs, Vorawoot used the same ad-free proposal to win the rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, although he did not disclose the price. Besides television, RSbs gets exclusive rights for additional media, including broadband Internet, electronic media, radio, literature and even the tournament logo. Source: Blogged by Geoffrey on Asian Football Business Review, 19th March 2007

Korea/Broadcaster: Cable-TV Firms Protest Opening Up Broadcasting

Cable-TV firms in Korea have joined anti-free trade protestors, asking the government not to open up the broadcast industry to foreigners in ongoing free trading agreement (FTA) talks with the United States. A group of cable-TV broadcasters and content providers held a street rally in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul saying they will go all out to maintain barriers on foreign shareholders in Korean media firms.

Under South Korean law, foreigners cannot hold more than 49 percent of shares in a broadcasting firm or more than 30 percent in a newspaper company, The Korea Times reports. Suh Byung-ho, leader of the group, said that once the regulation was abolished, US media giants would easily gobble up minnow Korean broadcasting firms.

He also said that US-made TV shows already account for 67.6 percent of imported programmes, and such heavy dependence on American culture content would deepen if the market were fully opened. He said that foreign firms would hike prices of broadcasting rights for popular programs, such as the English Premier League, Major League Baseball and Hollywood movies. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union Official, 28th March 2007

India/New Media: Mobile Services Market Worth $11.2bn

According to Research and Markets’ 'India Mobile Services Market' report, mobile services market was worth $11.2bn at the end of 2006, with 145 million subscribers making up 13 per cent of the total population. The report anticipates significant growth in mobile connections until 2010, as urban geographies reach saturation. Growth is expected from pre-paid connections, driven by increasing affordability of handsets and tariffs amongst lower middle classes.

Take-up of 3G connections over the period is expected to be slow, constrained by network coverage issues and affordability of handsets. SMS ARPU is expected to increase modestly due to the network effect of increasing volumes, with a more significant growth expected in data (non-SMS) ARPU driven largely by the popularity of Bollywood content such as ringtones and icons. Source: Digital Media Asia, 2nd April 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Barwick Denies TV Carve-Up

Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick has denied the BBC and Sky had been stitched up in the race to secure the television rights for England internationals and FA Cup matches. ITV and Setanta will be the FA’s new broadcast partners for the four-year period from August 2008 to July 2012 in a deal that will generate £425 million for the FA. The terms mark a 42% increase on an existing £300 million deal with the BBC and Sky, expiring next year.

It has emerged that the current rights holders only gave their presentation to the FA last Monday but Barwick denied they were the victims of behind-the-scenes political manoeuvering. ITV chief executive Michael Grade, who left the BBC for his new post in December, stressed he had no insider knowledge on how much his rivals would bid for the rights.

The deal is a major coup for Grade who joined ITV with a determination to increase ITV’s coverage of live sports. It secured exclusive rights to 18 England internationals across four years, including all home qualifiers of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012. They will also show live coverage of 16 FA Cup games per season, including one semi-final and final. Grade believes the FA Cup is still a major draw and is expecting a healthy return from ITV’s investment. Source: Football Insider, 2nd April 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Football Does Not Live By TV Alone

The Bundesliga is a rarity among football leagues; its television rights income declined year-on-year. However, the league still managed to show rising total revenue, with TV accounting for a shrinking share of the total, according to a report issued by the Deutsche Fussball Liga. This season, the Bundesliga is getting about €440 million for its media rights, up by about 35% from last season, but five years ago, things moved in the opposite direction.

Television income in 2002-03 reached €365 million, 31.7% of a total revenue of €1.149 billion, the DFL reported. The following season, as the Kirch group unraveled, TV income fell to €291 million, 26.7% of total income, which also fell, to €1.090 billion. In 2004-05, TV income bounced back to €322 million, but accounted for a smaller 25.1% share of total income, which rose to €1.284 billion.

Last season, TV income was up slightly again to €325 million, but still only 25.2% of a total of €1.287 billion – well down from 2002-03. Meanwhile, growth in other areas such as match-day sales, merchandising and player transfer income made up the difference.

During the 2005-06 season, Bundesliga clubs earned an average of €18.028 million each from television. The clubs finishing from first to sixth place earned an average of €27.219 million each from television. Teams finishing from seven to 12th earned €14.096 million on average, and those finishing from 13th to 18th earned an average of €12.770 million. Source: Sports Media, 2nd April 2007