Friday, 16th November 2007

SPORTS SHORTS

* The Brazilian agency Traffic Sports Marketing has become the latest company to be awarded media rights to major matches organised by the Football Association, English soccer’s governing body. Traffic has acquired exclusive rights to England’s home games and the FA Cup knockout competition in 21 territories in Latin America and will now seek to stimulate demand for the properties in the region. The deal covers a four-year period, beginning with the 2008-09 season. Source: Sportcal, 15th Nov 2007

* Running up to Asia Television Forum (ATF), Rive Gauche Television has closed several key broadcast sales in Asia for its reality and documentary programs. AXN Asia picked up rights to season one of Video Zonkers and season two of Whacked Out Sports. Whacked Out Sports also picked up sales in Indonesia, where Lativi secured the free-TV rights for second season. In China, Phoenix Satellite TV acquired The Great Warming for cable and satellite broadcast, while Red Seal Media picked up the free-TV broadcast rights to Destination Future. Elsewhere, in Thailand, True Corp/UBC secured first two seasons of Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead and fourth season of Dog Whisperer, for C&S. Source: Worldscreen, Variety, 15th Nov 2007

* MLB’s Boston Red Sox will begin the defence of their World Series title with a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics in Japan next March. The games will be played at the Tokyo Dome on March 25 and 26 and mark the third time that MLB will begin the season in the Japanese capital. The New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs were the first regular season visitors to Tokyo in 2000 and the New York Yankees took on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays there in 2004. The visit of the Red Sox is bound to stir up considerable interest as it will mark the return of pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima to their homeland. Meanwhile, MLB is in negotiations with the Chinese authorities to stage two exhibition games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres in Beijing on March 15 and 16 as the city continues the build-up to the 2008 Olympic Games. Source: Sportcal, 15th Nov 2007

* Manchester City Football Club agreed a deal with Singha Beer as the club’s Official Premium Beer. The deal makes Singha the latest addition to Manchester City’s growing family of official partners and the three-year, seven figure agreement, brings together two organisations with ambitions to grow their respective businesses internationally. As the Official Premium Beer of Manchester City, Singha Beer will benefit from extensive stadium branding, advertising and promotional rights both in the UK and overseas. In addition, Singha Beer will be on sale at the City of Manchester Stadium providing supporters with the opportunity to sample one of Asia’s most popular beers on match days. Source: Sport Business, 15th Nov 2007

* Chelsea has been invited to join the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and his delegation of other London Ambassadors on his visit to India that starts this coming Sunday. The trip will promote closer ties between the capital and India in business, tourism, education, sport and creative industries. Chelsea CEO Peter Kenyon, who will lead the club's contingent, said: “We were in China 18 months ago with the Mayor's delegation then and we are delighted to have been asked again. Chelsea will be participating in a conference in Delhi called Host Cities: Unlocking Business Opportunities through Sporting Events, as part of Delhi's build up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Source: Football Insider, 15th Nov 2007

* Northern Ireland fans unable to travel to Gran Canaria for next Wednesday's final Euro 2008 qualifier against Spain are facing a television black out. Four thousand supporters are making the trip, but those who are staying at home are left with the nightmare of not seeing the game at all. What could be the country's biggest match in over two decades isn't scheduled to be screened in the UK. It was confirmed to the Belfast Telegraph last night that neither BBC Northern Ireland or Sky Sports have bought up the rights for the match and it is understood Spanish broadcasters want 250,000 euros for those television rights, which both companies feel is excessive as the game could end up as a dead rubber. Source: Belfast Telegraph, 15th Nov 2007

* Pan-African satellite-based pay TV service, GTV, has acquired exclusive broadcast rights for the FA Cup, England Internationals and the Community Shield for the four years from the 2008-09 season. Part of the English Football Association’s US$300 million, four-year rights deal, GTV’s package will also include all England international home games and The Community Shield. The deal covers 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and forms part of a wider multi-million dollar investment in programming from GTV, which has already secured a three-year deal starting with the current season for 80% of the Barclays Premier League and also owns rights for Italian football’s Serie A. Source: Sport Business, 15th Nov 2007

* The Netherlands and Belgium have formally indicated their intention to bid to co-host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Nominations do not have to be declared until 2009, but the two neighbouring countries met with FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Zurich to indicate they would bid. Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) president Jeu Sprengers and his Belgian counterpart Francois de Keersmaecker both met Blatter and outlined the bid from the two nations who co-hosted Euro 2000. Source: Football Insider, Sport Business, Sportcal, 15th Nov 2007

* NASCAR Digital Entertainment (NDE) and Creative Artists Entertainment Group have partnered for the new culinary reality competition TV series, NASCAR: Serving It Up, which will launch in syndication in September 2008. The 40x30-minute show is a grassroots cooking competition to find the next great culinary personality, showcasing NASCAR and its race events as well. Each episode will be taped during a NASCAR race weekend, and will narrow down the chef hopefuls each week until only two remain to battle it out in a showdown finale. The series will run from September 2008 through September 2009, with additional production partners to be announced moving forward. Source: Worldscreen, 15th Nov 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Broadcaster: Slow Growth for Indian IPTV

IPTV in India will be slow to take off, stymied by low broadband penetration and an existing base of low-fee-paying analogue cable TV users. A new study from consultancy firm Gartner says that even though the Indian government has set targets for the growth of broadband internet connections, penetration will remain low in the medium term. In 2006, there were 1.6 million broadband lines which is forecast to grow to only 6.4 million by 2011.

IPTV services will remain a minority distribution method, in under one million homes even by 2011. Operators are targeting the same wealthy segment of the market as the relatively-new digital cable and DTH platforms. These other pay-TV platforms will compete aggressively for subscribers, effectively closing off the market to new technologies. Neha Gupta, a Gartner senior research analyst, said: "Without a mass-market broadband usage in place, the Indian IPTV subscriber base will struggle to exceed 1 million in the next four years.”

While analogue cable subscribers pay around Rs150 to Rs300, IPTV is likely to be priced at Rs300 to Rs500, at a similar level as DTH and digital cable services. Currently, India Online (IOL) offers an IPTV service on the lines of telco MTNL. Other companies set to offer IPTV include major telco Bharti Airtel and Time Broadband Services. Source: Rapid TV News, 15th Nov 2007

India/General: Line-ups Confirmed for First Indian Cricket League Event

The Indian Cricket League, a body which is organising an unofficial Twenty20 competition outside the auspices of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, has unveiled the six squads who will take part in its inaugural tournament. The Mumbai Champs, Hyderabad Heroes, Chandigarh Lions, Chennai Superstars, Delhi Jets and Kolkata Tigers will be made up of local talent and overseas players and hold practice camps in their home cities before the start of the league this month.

West Indian legend Brain Lara and former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq are the biggest foreign names to have been signed up, but many current internationals have been dissuaded from joining the venture for fear of jeopardising their careers. The England and Wales Cricket Board has joined the BCCI and other national bodies in threatening sanctions against players involved in the ICL.

The players look set to be excluded from the Indian Premier League, the BCCI’s official Twenty20 competition in April and a multi-national Champions League event in the subcontinent later in the year. The ICL is backed by Essel Group, the owner of media group Zee Telefilms, and matches will take place from November 30 to December 16 at the Tau Devi Lal Cricket Stadium in Panchkula, Chandigarh. Source: Sportcal, 15th Nov 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: Competition Watchdog Supports LFP's Four-Year TV Contracts

The LFP, the French professional soccer league, is set to receive approval from the Conseil de Concurrence, the French competition authority, for its plans to lengthen television contracts from three years to four. The league is planning to launch its rights tender at the end of November or the beginning of December for the period from 2008-09 onwards and should now be able to offer four-year deals, despite a recent ruling by the Conseil de Concurrence that three-year contracts were sufficient.

By extending contracts to four years, the LFP hopes to attract new bidders and enliven a market currently dominated by Canal Plus, the pay-television broadcaster which has merged with rival TPS. The Conseil de Concurrence is set to publish a decree at the end of November backing the league’s plans, according to the AFP news agency. Having made its decision on November 9, the competition body submitted its recommendation this week to the Direction générale de la consommation et de la répression des frauds, another competition regulator, which will pass it on to the French sports ministry.

The proposal is to be submitted to the government’s Conseil d’Etat next week, but no problems are foreseen as the LFP has top-level support for longer contracts. When asked by the league to consider allowing contracts to be extended to five years, the Conseil de Concurrence said in July that ‘the length of three years is satisfactory, in that it does not close the market for too long a period, leaving the buyer enough time to recoup its investment.’

The results of the tender are expected in January or February. Canal Plus is the current holder of the live rights to the top-tier Ligue 1, but has repeatedly warned that it is not willing to match its current €600 million- ($877.7 million-) a-year deal. Consequently, the league is reported to have divided the rights into around 12 lots or packages, compared to seven for the previous tender, in an attempt to bring new bidders to the market. Source: Sportcal, 15th Nov 2007

Elsewhere/General: Shirt Sponsorships Increase Again

The prices paid by shirt sponsors within European football’s six key markets has grown to €405.3 million this season, up from €366.3 million last season according to a new report from Sport+Markt. The Sport+Markt ‘European Jersey Report’ reveals the prices paid in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands for the 2007-08 season went up a cumulative 10.6 per cent. Only in France‘s Ligue 1 was there a decline in income from jersey sponsorship.

In the UK total revenue from jersey sponsorship spend for the 2007-08 season was €97.5 million, in Germany the figure was €95.5 million, in Italy €71.8 million, in France €51.0 million, in Spain €50.2 million and in the Netherlands €39.5 million. The top six club deals in Europe were: Manchester United (AIG - €20.8 million p.a), Bayern Munich (T-Home - €20.0 million p.a), Real Madrid (Bwin - €15.0 million p.a), Chelsea (Samsung - €14.5 million p.a), AC Milan (Bwin - €12.0 million p.a) and Schalke (Gazprom - €12.0 million p.a).

Hartmut Zastrow, executive director of sport+Markt said: “With a 10.6% increase in revenue in the top six European leagues, jersey sponsorship again demonstrates its growing significance. Real Madrid CF and AC Milan are the biggest bargains in Europe! If a prize was awarded for Europe‘s most efficient sponsor, sports betting provider Bwin would currently win. It is a fantastic deal for them to pay a mere €27 million for the two top global brands. Combined, these two great champions are worth between €50 million and €70 million.”

He added that: “English Premier League clubs have improved strongly regarding the marketing of their jerseys. However, the Bundesliga still generates the highest income per team, with an average of €5.3 million per jersey deal. The gap in jersey marketing between big and small clubs is particularly extreme in Spain. The Bundesliga‘s bottom-placed club, Energie Cottbus, would be in eighth position in the Primera División with its jersey income of approx. €1.7 million.”

Of the clubs in the top six European leagues 17 have their kit supplied by Nike, 15 by Umbro, 14 by Adidas, 10 by Puma and 7 by Kappa. Hartmut Zastrow, executive director of sport+Markt said: “With its purchase of Umbro, Nike is clearly number one amongst Europe‘s kit suppliers. The Americans continue their offensive against Adidas in football. However, in my eyes, the German company‘s strategy of focusing on a few major clubs is extremely intelligent.” Source: Sport Business, 15th Nov 2007