Wednesday, 7th November 2007

SPORTS SHORTS

* The Board of Control for Cricket in India has issued a tender seeking a company to design and host its website for a four-year period. Despite representing one of the foremost cricket countries, the BCCI has not had a significant online presence, leaving it lagging behind the other nine test-playing countries. The board owns the domain bcci.tv, but this has only been used to advertise online tickets. Bid documents can be obtained from the BCCI for a non-refundable fee of Rs500,000 ($12,762) and offers must be submitted by the deadline of November 17 for consideration by the board’s marketing sub committee. The BCCI said that the winner bidder would design, develop, host and operate the ‘best breed of web portal.’ Source: Sportcal, 6th Nov 2007

* Three consortia bidding to build a new multi-sports development on the site of Singapore’s National Stadium unveiled their proposals yesterday. The Singapore Sports Hub Consortium is proposing a dome structure that would be home to a planned new ASEAN soccer super league, a new international soccer event, the Singapore International Football Trophy, and cricket events including international Twenty20 matches. The sports programme is being planned by World Sport Group, the Singapore-based sports agency that is part of the consortium. IMG is also part of the consortium. The winning bid is due to be selected by Singapore Sports Council in late January next year. Source: Sportcal, 6th Nov 2007

* Live second-tier soccer is returning to UK terrestrial TV for the first time since the collapse of ITV Digital in April 2002, partly under the weight of the £315 million deal which its operators, Carlton and Granada, had signed with the Football League. But in a three-year deal worth £264 million, the BBC and BSkyB will share rights to the three Football League divisions. However, the BBC will show just 10 league matches per year, plus the final of the Carling Cup tournament and some of the play-off semi-finals from the League. A weekly highlights show will also air. The Corporation has also agreed broadband rights which it will promote across its regional website network. Sky will show 65 matches per year, plus all the League play-offs, and the first five rounds of the Carling Cup. Source: Rapid TV News, Sportcal, 6th Nov 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Rights: Doordarshan 'Prepared to Lose Money' on Olympics

Doordarshan, the Indian state broadcaster, is reported to have acquired television rights to next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing in a deal worth around $3 million. The rights were acquired from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and, as multi-sports events do not have a large following in India, Doordarshan is expected to be the only Olympic broadcaster in the country. A source from its parent company Prasar Bharati told the Economic Times newspaper: ‘It’s not a big money churner for us. We bid for the rights since this is an event of national importance.’ The broadcaster could actually lose money from Olympic action being shown on its main channel DD1.

The source said: ‘DD1 has its own set of programmes and ad slots which are sold in advance. If this is interrupted by sporting events, it results in the loss of ad revenues.’ India, a country of more than one billion people, won just one medal, a silver in shooting, at the last Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Cricket is the dominant sport in the country and Doordarshan is hoping to make large profits from the current tour by Pakistan, having won the right to sell advertising accompanying its live coverage of the one-day internationals and test matches. Source: Sportcal, 6th Nov 2007

India/Broadcaster: Reliance - IPTV Over DTH?

The fuss with which Reliance Communications announced its forthcoming IPTV Indian service would seem to be a sign that it may favour its fixed-line service over a planned DTH platform. On the other hand, the company has linked with Microsoft, which seemed to put great store by the deal – sending CEO Steve Ballmer to Mumbai to help make the announcement. The US$500 million strategic partnership will see Reliance’s IPTV service exclusively use the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV software platform in India. The service will offer both high and standard-definition TV, personal media sharing, VOD and PVR capabilities. It will launch by the end of March 2008. Infrastructure costs are likely to amount to another US$500 million.

Reliance is also backing the Bluemagic DTH platform which was scheduled to launch by the end of 2007, but has slipped to first quarter 2008. But much less noise has been made about that service. It will use the Measat-3 satellite to beam MPEG4-compressed programming into the sub-Continent. Reliance Communications holds 20% of Bluemagic at the moment, with the rest held by subsidiaries, but is moving towards making the DTH service a 100% subsidiary. However, Reliance is coming to the DTH party late, with TataSky, DishTV and Sun Direct already operating pay-DTH services. Reports are that Bluemagic will attempt to gain market share by undercutting its competitors. Source: Rapid TV News, 6th Nov 2007

Malaysia/General: FAM Looks Forward To Sponsorship Increase

Khairy Jamaluddin, the deputy president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), has announced that the country’s domestic league is set for a sponsorship boom for its 2007-08 season. Last season, sponsorship for the Malaysian Super League (MSL) stood at US$5.6 million, but this is set to increase to over $7.8 million ahead of the new campaign. This represents an increase of 40%, with Telekom Malaysia, the MSL’s main sponsor, chipping in $2.8 million alone. RTM, which pumped in $1.3 million last year, will give $1.8 million this time around, while Nike Malaysia will continue its relationship by offering $600,000.

Other sponsors on board include Sime Darby, Air Asia, Inai Kiara, YTL and 100PLUS, but further deals could yet be announced with FAM’s marketing arm, MSL Berhad, continuing discussions with other parties. “We will make an official announcement (regarding the sponsorship value) in two weeks,” said Khairy, speaking at the official launch of the 2007-08 season on Saturday. “We have managed to increase cash sponsorship to 40% for the 2007-08 season. We will be getting more financial assistance from several other companies who have agreed in principle to support the game. We have a lot of ideas to gain more sponsorship, but we need time to put things in order. However, at the same time we also have to ensure that our product is good enough to convince the sponsors to come forward.” Source: Football Insider, 6th Nov 2007

Asia/New Media: CASBAA Convention Says TV is Still Hot

Some interesting stats emerged at last week’s Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association Convention of Asia (Casbaa) convention. Themed “It’s All About Content”, the emerging mobile TV market in the region received some attention. According to Jason Rubenstein, Senior Director Entertainment Mobile Devices Business of Motorola, research shows that China is attracting huge interest with 90% of the consumers surveyed expressing their desire for mobile television content. Subscriptions to digital cable, satellite, broadband and mobile TV are increasing at a rate of about 12% a year across the whole Asia region.

Even technologically advanced countries such as Korea are still experiencing high rates of growth. Speaking of the prospects for pay-TV and online media services in Korea, Joong Soo Nam of KT Corporation said: “Media represents the fastest-growing industry in Korea, expanding at the rate of 10% each year. . . . We are seeing content globalisation, which is happening in Asia, where a common culture is overcoming language barriers.” Offers such as Korea Telecom’s recently-announced flat-panel TV offer, under which Samsung will offer 42-inch plasmas and 40-inch LCD TVs at discount prices to new subscribers to KT’s Mega TV VOD service are sure to help growth.

New technologies are boosting growth rates, but both consumers and programmers are still learning to adapt to the demands of these new distribution forms. Jason Krikorian, Co-Founder of Sling Media, said: "Consumers still like old media and we allow them to bring it to new platforms and extend the content value system. Distributors are thrilled. They are good at going to the living room but not to new media platforms." Source: Rapid TV News, 6th Nov 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: BBC Secures Live Soccer Via New Football League Deal

Live second-tier soccer is returning to UK terrestrial TV for the first time since the collapse of ITV Digital in April 2002, partly under the weight of the £315 million deal which its operators, Carlton and Granada, had signed with the Football League. But in a three-year deal worth £264 million, the BBC and BSkyB will share rights to the three Football League divisions. However, the BBC will show just 10 league matches per year, plus the final of the Carling Cup tournament and some of the play-off semi-finals from the League. A weekly highlights show will also air. The Corporation has also agreed broadband rights which it will promote across its regional website network. Sky will show 65 matches per year, plus all the League play-offs, and the first five rounds of the Carling Cup.

At present, the Football League receives £37.5 million per season from its television deals with BSkyB and commercial broadcaster ITV, which shows match highlights, and the new agreement reflects the popularity of the lower leagues in England. Football League chairman Lord Brian Mawhinney said: ‘Over the last few years, the League’s standing has been enhanced, both commercially and competitively, as we have delivered real football for real fans. This deal recognises that fact. ‘£88 million a year coupled with unparalleled coverage on Sky and the BBC will provide a fantastic boost to Football League clubs and their supporters.’

The BBC had money and room in its schedules to spare after losing the rights England’s home matches and the FA Cup competition to commercial rival ITV and pay-television broadcaster Setanta and without today’s deal, its only soccer coverage beyond next season would have been highlights from the top-tier Premier League and live matches from World Cups and European Championships.

ITV and Setanta have picked up rights currently held by the BBC and BSkyB after signing a four-year deal worth £425 million, which comes into effect next season. Setanta, which shares the live rights to the top-tier Premier League with BSkyB, was also reported to have bid for Football League games, but will now seek to expand its portfolio elsewhere. The broadcaster announced today that its Setanta Sports News channel will hit the screens on November 29. The channel will be available 24 hours a day on the Virgin Media and BSkyB platforms. Source: Rapid TV News, Sportcal, 6th Nov 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Premier League is Turning on TV Audiences Around the World
Des Kelly comments on The Daily Mail UK, 4th Nov 2007

The world was said to be watching and the numbers being bandied around the Arsenal- Manchester United clash were simply mind boggling. A billion, they said, which not only turned out to be the supposed audience for the match, but also the number of times Sky Sports told us about this supposed audience. Naturally, a juicy round figure is beloved by television companies with a product to hype and headline writers with a paper to sell. But it still didn't add up.

With Sky averaging somewhere around 1.1 million viewers per live match in the UK, and even allowing for a doubling of the live audience, extraordinarily generous pub viewing figures and a bumper BBC Match of the Day return, it still left nearly 990 million viewers unaccounted for. Past examination of these claims for Olympic and NFL Super Bowl global audiences reveal the true figure usually comes in at around 60 to 75% lower. Even so, that means 300 million tuned in to watch an inconclusive, early season League encounter. So where is this huge audience of devotees to be found?

In the Far East, we are told, and this is where the exaggeration and reality finally edge within touching distance. In fact, it is more common to underestimate the potential for football's growth in Asia than to over-hype it.

During the next half dozen years, sport will explode as a global phenomenon and Asia is where the Big Bang will be heard loudest. In a piece for BBC1's Inside Sport on the first regular-season NFL game played outside the Americas, between Miami and the New York Giants, I argued the Wembley event would provide a marker for Premier League bosses to take their game out of England to New York and beyond. It is only a matter of time before someone tries it. But Britain was only a stepping stone for the NFL and, for all the fuss about David Beckham's emigration, America has never been the real commercial prize for football, either. That lies in the opposite direction.

America realises this, too. One of the original plans was for the NFL game to take place in the Chinese capital Beijing, with London being preferred only because of its relatively bearable flying time from the USA. Every sport regards Asia as the unconquered market. Everyone is looking east. Why else do you think Arsenal and United were kicking off at Saturday lunchtime? It was to suit TV audiences in China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. Forget the idea that the clubs' midweek Champions League commitments had much to do with it. Neither Arsene Wenger's nor Sir Alex Ferguson's sides play until Wednesday night while Chelsea and Liverpool, who play 24 hours earlier on Tuesday night, kicked off on Saturday at 3pm and 5.15pm respectively.

But this is how football scheduling will be increasingly skewed and it is not such an extraordinary leap to assume that the 12.45pm kick-off time will soon be one of the later starts as the Premier League chase global returns. For fans of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in this country, the customary start will be noon, however inconvenient that may be (as Sunderland followers asked to reach the Emirates Stadium in north London last month can testify).

But, although fans in England might hate the inconvenience of the early whistle, they are no longer the priority. The audience football is hunting lies elsewhere. For a snapshot of their interest, Sportsmail sent correspondents to some other key cities in the Far East to assess whether the fanaticism is as real as the game hopes.

There were no complaints about the Emirates Stadium kick-off time in Bangkok, where a seething mass gathered outside Thailand's World Trade Centre for their 7.45pm start. Two thousand watched the match on a giant screen. 'It beats the Champions League, because those games are on too late for us to watch,' said 35-year-old hotel worker and Manchester United fan Suntorn Wandeerak.

In Hong Kong it is 8.45pm and Arsenal devotees pack into the Icy Bar. Tommy Lo, chairman of the city's Gunners' supporters club, says his members are lapping up the early starts: 'If they continue to start early we are going to have to find a bigger place to watch.' The whistle sounds at 9.45pm in Tokyo and with a transport system that shuts down around midnight, revellers crammed into the standing room-only space of sports bar Footnik would prefer UK matches to start even earlier.

But China is the real battleground. Even conservative estimates predict football earnings here could increase by 300% in the next half dozen years. The Premier League recently struck a three-year deal for overseas rights worth £625million, with more than half of that coming from Asia. Yet that overall figure underwhelmed some of the clubs' foreign owners. They are agitating to strike their own individual broadband deals because most Chinese fans watch games streamed via computer and the country is set to be the biggest online market by 2009.

Those rights would provide an unprecedented jackpot. United, Chelsea and Arsenal already have club websites translated into Mandarin and are gearing up to collect. Pre-season tours arouse interest, but they are nothing compared to the impact of a real game, hosted live in one of the key markets. The effect here would be revolutionary.

As club football grows as a global entity and boundaries and time zones are criss-crossed, international football can only become less relevant. The already huge gap between the Premier League's top four and the rest will grow exponentially as their popularity feeds itself — and we'll all be forced to endure more early starts when a premium match is not only beamed out to the east, but back to the UK from places like Shanghai.

Will this 'progress' be good for the game? Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan once said that arguing against globalisation was like arguing against gravity. But Reading boss Steve Coppell had another view, observing somewhat acidly this weekend: 'a billion people watching — and not one of them give a s*** about my club'.