Tuesday, 15th February 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  IMG-Reliance has awarded TV rights of the Indian top division I-League to Bengali TV channel Mahuaa Khobor. It is the first channel in India to be awarded exclusive rights to broadcast the remaining fixtures of the 2010/2011 I-League season. The initial deal signed between IMG-Reliance and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) saw IMG-Reliance gain commercial rights to all soccer in India in a 15-year deal worth an overall US$155 million, in an effort to popularise the game in the cricket-mad nation. The I-League was founded in 2008 out of the now defunct National Football League of India.Dempo SC are current defending champions. The 2010/2011 season, which runs from December to May, consists of 14 teams. No financial details have been released.

=>  Sportfive launched an invitation to submit offers for broadcast rights in Austria to the 2014 winter Olympics and 2016 Olympic Games. Dominant pubcaster, ORF, holds Olympic rights for the 2010 winter Olympics and the 2012 Olympics as part of a deal with the European Broadcasting Union. Private network, ServusTV, owned by Dietrich Mateschitz, who also owns the Red Bull brand, will be ORF’s biggest competition. Sportfive is selling rights for 2014 and 2016 in Europe (esc. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) after agreeing a MG-plus-commission deal worth €250 mil ($336.5 mil) with the International Olympic Committee to end the body’s long-standing relationship with the EBU.

=>  Top-tier Italian basketball, Lega Societa' di Pallacanestro Serie A, has launched a tender process for its domestic broadcast rights for the next two seasons. The tender for 2011-12 and 2012-13 comprises three packages - gold, silver and highlights - with both the gold and silver packages including live rights. Pay-TV, Sky Italia, presently holds rights in an exclusive deal but there have been calls from clubs for more visibility for the league and the league has also considered the idea of launching its own television channel. StageUp, the Italian sports business consultancy, is advising the league on the rights sales process. Sky Italia’s present rights deal also covers the Coppa Italia, the annual competition featuring the league clubs, and the Supercoppa tournament, which pits the Coppa Italia winner against the league champions, and is thought to be worth around €3 million ($4.04 million).

=>  Fears about a downturn in football TV rights fees have been raised by French League president Frédéric Thiriez. He commented on the general landscape after French broadcaster Canal+ reigned in its new offer for France’s rugby Top 14. The French Ligue puts its next contracts out to tender this spring and Thiriez is trying to remain optimistic. He said: “This rugby offer is a bad signal for all sports. Sports coverage is the lifeblood of Canal+ but we cannot ignore the fact that it is the rights to our game which help keep alive amateur football and other sports to the tune of €35m-a-year.’” Ligue 1 rights are presently shared by pay-TV Canal+ and telecom Orangein deals worth €668 million ($900.5 million) per year. The LFP is to launch its own TV channel, CFoot, next season, and could carry Ligue 1 from 2012-13 given Orange’s stance and Canal+’s warning that it will not pay more than the €465 million a season that it presently pays for rights.

=>  The set of 10 Thursday fixtures is one of 10 packages for Football League and Carling Cup games that have been sent to TV companies, and the proposal follows enthusiastic feedback from broadcasters. By the end of this season, the Football League hope to complete their options for three-year deals, starting in 2012-13, and expect plenty of interest in the Thursday option - on dates that avoid clashes with the Europa League - despite the saturated coverage of live football. The FL will have completed their TV tender before the FA go to market, having embarked on a wide consultation process over revamping the competition.

=>  Meanwhile, the English FA Cup could be on the verge of a major revamp in a bid to increase TV revenues. It is believed that a major reform proposed is to delay kick-off of the Final to 5.30 pm, instead of 3pm, a slot favoured by broadcasters. ITV is in its penultimate year of a 4-year deal with the FA for FTA live rights to FA Cup games, as well as England’s home qualifying matches for the World Cup and European Championships, which is worth £275 mil ($441.8 mil). Pay-TV, ESPN, also has live rights in the UK to the FA Cup for four seasons, from 2010-11 to 2013-14, in a deal done directly with the FA, worth a reported £60 mil in total. ESPN stepped in after the collapse of Setanta, whose £150-million deal was scrapped just one year into a 4-year contract.


BROADCAST

=>  The Cricket World Cup will be beamed in high-definition through Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers. ESPN Star Sports said it has roped in three DTH providers; Tata Sky, Airtel DTH and Dish TV platforms and are currently in talks with more DTH players. To watch matches in HD, fans will need an HD-compliant TV, an HD set top box and specially made cables. The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Delhi Commonwealth Games were also shown on HD platforms. Cricket's huge following in India is expected to give a boost to the HD TV viewers in the country.


NEW MEDIA

=>  Players have been warned by the Football Association (FA) in England that it will crack down on improper comments on Twitter and other social networking sites. Ryan Babel became the first player to be punished for his comments on Twitter when he was fined £10,000 for posting a mocked-up picture of referee Howard Webb wearing a Manchester United shirt after Liverpool lost at Old Trafford in the FA Cup. Players have also been warned that although they may believe their postings are only visible to selected people, they could still end up in the public domain.

=>  Meanwhile, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has also revealed it will be issuing guidelines for Twitter usage to all 26 sports participating at the London 2012 Games. But the BOA stressed that the guidelines will not be enforced upon athletes and they will not be a set of rules or restrictions. Instead, they will simply offer advice to Olympic sports and their athletes on what the BOA deems effective and ineffective use of the social networking phenomenon.


EVENT

=>  Organisers of the National Games in India have come under fire after some major problems were reported over the first two days of the event in Ranchi. The Games got under way in the Jharkhand capital on Saturday with a spectacular opening ceremony but according to The Times of India, media facilities did not work for hours, security check points were overwhelmed by spectator numbers and there were no tables or seats for the judges at the taekwondo competition. The Games finally started on Saturday after being postponed six times due to incomplete infrastructure, but the latest news will further damage India’s event-hosting image after problems engulfed the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

=>  Indian manufacturer, JK Tyre, and event promoter, Motorsport Asia have teamed up to create the JK Racing Asia series, featuring 6 events and 18 races. The series will begin on April 8 in Malaysia, with other races scheduled in 2011 for India, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia again. The races in Singapore, Malaysia (in April) and India will coincide with the F1 grand prix taking place in those countries, and will race on the same circuits. India stages its first ever F1 race in Delhi in October. The three other events will be part of the Asian Festival of Speed in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia. The JK Racing Asia series replaces the Formula BMW Pacific, which had been running since 2003. The 30 cars on the grid will continue to have BMW engines.

=>  The French Open will stay at Roland Garros after the the French Tennis Federation (FFT) rejected plans to move the tournament to the Paris suburbs from 2016. A federation ballot on Feb 13 saw suburbs of Gonesse eliminated in the first round, Versailles in the second and Paris finally taking 70% of final-round votes. Roland Garros has held the clay court event for over 80 years, with the first tournament being hosted there in 1928.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Sri Lankan cricketer, Muttiah Muralitharan, has backed squash’s credentials to become an Olympic sport. At the opening dinner of the Asian Junior Squash Championships in Colombo, Muralitharan said that he was: "very happy to be linked with the bid by such a fine sport to gain a place as a summer Olympics medal sport.” The World Squash Federation, the sport's governing body, is lobbying for squash to be a part of the programme at the 2020 Olympics. Squash bid unsuccessfully for inclusion in the 2012 Olympics, when it was shortlisted along with karate, but no sports were added to the programme, and more recently for the 2016 Olympics, when it lost out to golf and rugby sevens.