Friday, 23rd November 2007

WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

More Repercussions of England’s Loss in Euro 2008

* More than 11 million UK viewers watched the England soccer team fail to qualify for next year’s European Championships last night. The defeat means that England will miss their first major tournament since the 1994 World Cup and it is estimated that their absence could cost commercial broadcaster ITV between £10 million ($20.6 million) and £12 million in lost advertising. ITV is sharing the rights to Euro 2008 with the BBC, which does not carry advertising. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

* Sportswear makers and retailers in the UK expect a slowdown in business after the England soccer team failed to qualify for next year’s European Championships. Umbro, which supplies kit to the team, issued a trading statement today in which it warned that revenues would be hit by a ‘substantial reduction’ in expected sales of the new away shirt. Umbro is endeavouring to reduce its reliance on the domestic market and is likely to broaden its international activities if acquired by Nike, the US sportswear giant. Nike has made an offer of £285 million ($587 million), but this could be blocked by UK retailers Sports Direct and JJB Sports, which together own 38 per cent of Umbro. The country’s Takeover Panel is examining whether the two companies are acting in ‘concert’ to thwart Nike. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007


DID YOU KNOW…?

UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying action proved popular in the Netherlands, but the national team’s latest match was kept off the top spot in the television ratings for the week ending November 18 by an unusual annual event. The hugely popular Domino Day is a world record attempt for the highest number of falling domino stones, and this year the event was held in Leeuwarde. A total number of 4.5 million dominoes were placed for the attempt, which ultimately proved fruitless as only 81.6% of stones fell. SBS 6 carried coverage of the event and the action peaked at 21:00 with 2.66 million viewers, giving the network a 36.8% share. By contrast, Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifier between the Netherlands and Luxembourg attracted 2.57 million viewers at 20:25 for a 36.2% share. Source: Sports Media, 22nd Nov 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Singapore’s StarHub is to screen selected 2007/2008 Premier League matches ‘live’ in full high-definition on a new HD channel - HD Showcase. “Based on the very positive feedback we received regarding our trial HD broadcast of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, we are confident that HD SHOWCASE will be popular among soccer buffs who want an even more immersive experience of the Barclays Premier League,” said Patrick Lim, StarHub’s VP of Cable TV Services.Subscribers will be offered at least two ‘live’ Premier League matches per match-week, and up to 92 matches for the current Premier League season. Source: Sport Business, 22nd Nov 2007

* Indian soccer’s Indian Professional League, or I-League, launched yesterday with 10 teams set to play each other on a home-and-away basis, as the sport bids for a foothold in what is regarded as one of the world’s great untapped soccer markets. The aim is to expand the league to 16 teams within the next three years. The league replaces a semi-professional league which began in 1996 and is backed by Zee Television, whose channels will market and broadcast its matches. PR Dasmunsi, president of the All India Football Federation, said: ‘It is the beginning of a new journey we have undertaken to recapture the lost glory of football in India.’ Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

* Two events originally dropped from next month’s Southeast Asian Games in Thailand have been reinstated. The equestrian discipline of eventing has been reinstated when Indonesia confirmed entry to join Thailand and Malaysia. Vietnam is to join Thailand and Malaysia in contesting the women’s downhill mountain biking event. The addition of the two events takes to 475 the number of gold medals on offer. Only gold and silver medals are to be awarded in events featuring just three competitors. The games will be held in Korat and Bangkokfrom December 6 to 16. Thailand took over from Singapore as host of the games after Singapore pulled out in 2003. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

* A Dubai company will start satellite-to-mobile TV transmissions next year. S2M says the transmissions will cover the whole of the Middle East and North Africa and carry TV and radio services in S-Band. Wejdi Harzallah, S2M’s VP commercial operations said. “Users can roam from one country to another seamlessly and they have a wide range of channels because of the bandwidth on S-band, which allows a far wider band than on a terrestrial network." It has not been revealed which satellite operator S2M will use. Source: Rapid TV News, 22nd Nov 2007

* The World Volleyball Federation, the rebel body that has set itself up in opposition to the established FIVB, claimed today that it expects to finalise its biggest-ever sponsorship deal ‘in the next week,’ worth at least SFr1 million ($910,000). Geneviève Mendoza, the federation’s vice president, told Sportcal.com that the new worldwide partner is a multi-national company but refused to reveal its identity or sector. She said that the WVBF already has ‘about 10’ worldwide backers, as well as specific sponsors for the WVFB ProSeries, a beach volleyball league launched in Europe this year. Its biggest deal at present is with Arte e Parquet, the Italian-based flooring company. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

* A company has released a tool designed to streamline the process of arranging friendlies for professional football clubs. Sportrade’s system works by providing each club with an online calendar where they can enter in preferred dates for their friendly fixtures. Other clubs can then search dates in their calendars to find fixtures that meet their requirements. Otherwise the user can select to publish the dates to any user-defined clubs and even if the defined club is not a Sportrade subscriber it will receive an email informing them that a club is looking to arrange a friendly fixture on the required date. Source: Football Insider, 22nd Nov 2007

* FC Barcelona will put pen to paper on another agreement with a United Nations body on Friday, with the conclusion of a collaboration partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The Primera División giant already enjoys an innovative shirt sponsorship deal with Unicef, and club president Joan Laporta will conclude the latest agreement with UNESCO general manager Koichiro Matsuura in Paris. The agreement will mark the first time that a sports club has signed a global agreement with UNESCO to promote universal education, one which will be especially aimed at children and the use of sport as an educational tool. Source: Football Insider, 22nd Nov 2007

* US PGA Tour CEO Tim Finchem says the European Tour's new £4.88m ($10m) Dubai World Championship will help end complaints that high prize money in America is harming golf. He described the he season-ending event, which launches in 2009, as “great for professional golf globally.” "It reduces the clamour that, because purses on the PGA Tour are high somehow the quality of golf is suffering,” he said. The European Tour hopes the big jump in prize money will stop talented young Europeans moving to the US Tour, where the financial rewards have traditionally been greater. Finchem believe the cash injection shows it is possible for golf to match the money available in international team sports. Source: Sport Business, 22nd Nov 2007

* The organisers of the America’s Cup, sailing’s blue riband event, have today confirmed that, due to an ongoing legal dispute, the 33rd edition cannot take place as planned in 2009. Alinghi, the Swiss team which successfully defended the trophy in Valencia this year had hoped to invite challengers back to the Spanish port in two years’ time. However, a court case initiated in New York by US syndicate BMW Oracle has complicated matters and forced a delay. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

* VfB Stuttgart, the reigning German Bundesliga champions, look set to be forced to rip up their sponsorship contract with Bwin, the Austria-based betting firm, over government restrictions on advertising designed to protect Germany's state gambling monopoly. Erwin Staudt, Stuttgart’s president, said that the partnership would be hard to fulfill given the expected signature of a new inter-state betting treaty in January designed to protect the state gambling monopoly until at least 2011. Bwin is one of Stuttgart’s exclusive club partners, paying around €1 million ($1.48 million) a year for the privilege, but is in negotiations with the club to end the deal, Staudt confirmed. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007


MORE NEWS

Japan/Rights: Terrestrial Deals Augment Serie A Coverage

A trio of commercial broadcasters in Japan have signed deals to broadcast Italian soccer’s top-tier Serie A with the sports agency MP & Silva and Dentsu, the Japanese advertising giant. The three networks – Fuji Television Network, Nippon Television Network and Tokyo Broadcasting System – agreed contracts to supplement the existing deal with SkyPerfecTV, the pay-television broadcaster, and make Serie A matches available to a wider audience in Japan, thanks to their collective reach of over 144 million households.

Fuji TV is to offer live and delayed coverage of Serie A games, while Nippon Television has live and delayed rights to three AC Milan matches before the club visits Japan for the Fifa Club World Cup, the top inter-continental soccer clubs competition, in December. Tokyo Broadcasting System’s rights are for news access and footage clips alone, to be broadcast during Super Soccer, its weekly soccer programme, and on news and sports programmes across its 28 different stations.

Rights sold in Japan by MP & Silva and Dentsu are for the home matches of AC Milan, Cagliari, Catania, Fiorentina, Genoa, Internazionale, Juventus, Lazio, Roma and Torino. Dentsu and MP & Silva formed a partnership in 2006 to distribute live and delayed rights to Serie A matches in Asia for three years, beginning with the 2007-08 season. SkyPerfecTV has a deal to show the majority of Serie A games but the broadcaster’s reach is restricted to 150,000 subscribers. Additional Serie A coverage is available in Japan on livesport.jp, the newly-launched sports streaming internet portal. Source: Sportcal, 22nd Nov 2007

Singapore/New Media: Mobile TV Means Rules for 3G

Singapore’s Media Development Authority is proposing to bring content on existing third-generation mobile networks under the same rules as any future mobile TV operations. And both sectors may now have to meet existing broadcasting content requirements. The regulator has outlined its proposals for how mobile TV will be overseen. One of its proposals is “to require both [mobile TV service] operators and cellular mobile TV operators to obtain broadcast services licenses before transmitting TV services over their networks.

To date, 3G operators have not been required to have their channels approved by the regulator. StarHub, SingTel and M1 all offer 3G TV channels. But the MDA said that it was taken a “platform-neutral” approach to all mobile TV services, so would need to “regulate mobile TV services equally regardless of the technology platform (e.g. 3G, DVB-H, DMB)”.

Up for grabs are four 10-year multiplex licences which the MDA is putting out to tender. Each can support three to 20 TV channels. The MDA confirmed it would not mandate any particular standard, although DVB-H trials are underway. Multiplex operators would have to have minimum network coverage of 95% of the island state. MDA also proposes requiring all multiplex licensees to offer capacity to third parties on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions”. Source: Sport Business, Rapid TV News, 22nd Nov 2007

Global/New Media: Euroleague Basketball Gets Mobile

Euroleague Basketball (EB) has announced the launch of its new official mobile service, Devotion Mobile. EB said in a statement it is keen to bring the action closer to the fans by using “all interactive platforms and new technologies". EB trialled the service during the Final Four tournament in May, which saw Greek team Panathinaikos beat defending champion CSKA Moscow from Russia 93-91 in the final. The service, which has been developed in collaboration with technical provider FullSix, allows fans to receive the latest information about their favourite teams direct to their mobile phones.

Devotion Mobile is now available for fans in 69 countries, with pictures, game reports and up-to-date information available. The four subscription packages to the service also allow fans to get the latest ULEB Cup information. The Platinum Pack, which provides three SMS text messages and two MMS (picture) messages per week, is available for €44.90. The Devotion Pack costs €29.90 and provides two SMS messages and one MMS message per week, while the €24.90 Challenge Pack gives subscribers one SMS text message and one MMS message per week. There is also a basic Team Pack package available for €14.90. Source: Sports Media, 22nd Nov 2007

Elsewhere/General: Superleague Formula Ready To Tour Europe

Superleague Formula has confirmed its inaugural 2008 calendar, with the series set to visit top circuits in six different European countries. Five of the six circuits have been confirmed for the new motorsport championship with races at Donington in the UK, Nürburgring in Germany, Zolder in Belgium, Estoril in Portugal and Jerez in Spain. The fourth round will be staged in Italy at a circuit to be determined. The schedule for the Barcelona-headquartered championship has been approved by the Spanish Motorsport Federation for inclusion in the official 2008 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) calendar. This will be finally approved at the World Motor Sport Council in early December.

Each round of the championship will feature two races with the world’s leading football clubs displaying their colours on 750 horsepower, V-12 powered single seaters. Already, nine of the 20 clubs have been confirmed for the Superleague Formula including AC Milan (Italy), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), FC Porto (Portugal), Olympiacos (Greece), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Flamengo (Brazil), RSC Anderlecht (Belgium), FC Basel (Switzerland) and Galatasaray SK (Turkey). Negotiations with other clubs from the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, China, Korea and the United States are continuing to complete the grid for the August kick-off.

Superleague Formula 2008 Calendar:
August 30-31: Donington, United Kingdom
September 20-21: Nürburgring, Germany
October 4-5: Zolder, Belgium
October 18-19: TBA, Italy
November 1-2: Estoril, Portugal
November 22-23: Jerez
Source: Football Insider, Sport Business, 22nd Nov 2007