RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION
=> Even as the BCCI is yet to come to grips with IPL setbacks in court, the Bombay High Court has restrained the Indian cricket board from entering any agreement with a third party for the worldwide broadcast rights contract for the IPL till an arbitrator is appointed. World Sport Group Mauritius motioned against BCCI's decision to terminate its worldwide broadcast rights deal for IPL. However, WSGM's arbitration petition was rejected by the Bombay HC, following which WSGM appealed the order. BCCI's counsel held that the agreement between MSM and WSGM was vitiated by fraud and that the rescission of agreement is just and proper.
=> The FA will veto any deal that sees TV rights for England games sold collectively by UEFA if it means broadcast revenue being slashed. UEFA wants to centralise awarding of rights for European Championship – and possibly the World Cup – qualifiers. The TV rights to England games are currently bundled in with those for the FA Cup and were worth £425m domestically, and a further £150m in overseas contracts, when the FA signed a 4-year deal with ITV and Setanta in 2007. UEFA wants all 53 member federations to sign over their broadcast rights in time for the annual congress in Paris next month.
=> Jamaican FTA, CVM TV, will broadcast the 2012 Olympics after agreeing a deal with rights-holder International Media Content, parent channel of trans-Caribbean cable sports broadcaster SportsMax, which was awarded the multi-platform Caribbean broadcasting rights. CVM TV will show exclusive FTA coverage in Jamaica of the 2012 Olympics, a departure from previous summer games when the Caribbean Broadcasting Union held the rights. The CBU then paid $500,000 for the rights to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but the commercial value of the games has increased, largely due to performances of sprint stars like Usain Bolt. In 2007, CVM agreed a deal with IMC for the rights to soccer’s Fifa World Cup tournaments in 2010 and 2014.
BROADCAST
=> The opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup on 19 Feb between India and Bangladesh, scored an average TVR in India of 7.47 and peak of 12.2. Average TV rating rose to 7.8 in India’s six metro areas with Bangalore leading with average TVR of 9.17. 33 mil viewers in India watched the opening match from Dhaka on Star Cricket; 28 mil on Doordarshan1, 25 mil to ESPN and 17 mil to Star Sports. Of these, 12 mil watched on terrestrial TV and 76 mil on cable/satellite. 14 mil watched via digital transmission on either DTH satellite or digital cable. 14 mil viewers tuned into the opening ceremony on 17 Feb. ESS’ live streaming on its website had reached over 3 mil in the first 4 days of the tournament. Of these, 1 mil were unique viewers.
=> US cable giant ESPN, has announced extensive coverage of golf's US Masters, the first 'major' of the year, in 3D. ESPN 3D will show 10 hours of programming in 3D, 2 hours each from the four days of competition - April 7 to 10 - and two hours from the Par 3 contest, which precedes the Masters, held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. ESPN shares coverage of the US Masters with CBS, the national television network, which shows live coverage of days three and four of the tournament. Last year, the Masters became the first major sporting event in USA to be produced and delivered in 3D to televisions and computers in homes throughout North America.
NEW MEDIA
=> Liverpool FC have agreed a deal with Snow Valley to develop a mobile merchandise store which will allow fans to purchase the range of content on the full online store and offer the same functionality. Optimised for use on iPhone and iPad, it will be available across smartphone platforms and usable on some older phones. Liverpool is the first club to offer such a service and will use Snow Valley's Muse ecommerce platform. According to the European Football Marketing Report by Sport + Markt, Liverpool generated more revenue from merchandise sales than any other English club last year. The Reds finished third in the list behind Real Madrid and Barcelona but ahead of bitter rivals Manchester United.
DATA
=> The worldwide pay-TV market continues to grow, says ABI Research, with subscribers on track to top 745m this year, up from 704m at the end of 2010. While forecasts for pay-TV market are upbeat, ABI points to the struggles being experienced by cable operators; high cable penetration in regions such as North America and Western Europe, and increasing popularity of online video services, have resulted in slow growth in worldwide cable TV markets. Asia-Pac is home to 57% of global pay-TV base. Digital TV is a key growth driver in 2010, with over 50% of pay-TV subs were digital customers. ABI also reports that HDTV subs will reach 225m this year.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
=> Spanish betting firm, Codere, will begin legal proceedings against Bwin demanding that it be forced to cancel its lucrative shirt sponsorship deal with Real Madrid. Codere, which runs gambling venues across Spain, alleges unfair competition in a civil suit against Bwin and the club. Last year, Bwin extended sponsorship of RM until 2012-13 season in a deal worth €23m (US$31.6m) a year. Codere claims Bwin and RM’s advertising and promoting are not authorized by the gambling authority. Codere criticsed operators like Bwin "located in tax havens" that "do not have a permit to operate in Spain where they are taking great amounts of money from gamblers and betters and are using aggressive advertising and promotion.
=> As 2011 F1 season approaches, Swiss team Sauber F1 confirmed they will fly the flag for the Homeless World Cup. The new-look Sauber race car will be revealed in Guadalajara, Mexico this week with Sauber's new Mexican driver Sergio Pérez in attendance. The Homeless World Cup branding will appear on the backward facing rear wing of the C30 cars driven by Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi of Japan throughout the 2011 F1 season. Telco giant, Fundación Telmex, is a major backer of the Sauber F1 team. It is also the host of the Mexico 2012 Homeless World Cup.
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