Wednesday, 16th February 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a 20-year TV rights deal with Time Warner Cable, an agreement that will provide English and Spanish language broadcasts and will lead to the creation of two new regional sports networks in the L.A. market next year owned by TWC. The RSNs will have the rights to pre-, regular- and postseason Lakers games starting with the '12-13 season. Fox, which already operates FS West and Prime Ticket in L.A., had been negotiating to keep the Lakers’ rights on FS West, and sources indicated that Lakers were looking for a $3bil, 20-year deal, which averages out to $150mil/year. By comparison, Portland Trail Blazers signed a 10-year, $120 million contract with Comcast in 2007. However, TWC has disputed the reported $3 bil figure.

=>  Poland’s top-tier pro football league, Ekstraklasa SA and UFA Sports launched a broadcast rights tender in Oct 2010, with a bid submission date of Nov 15, but low bids have led to the league considering creation of its own channel. Domestic rights are held by pay-TV Canal+ Poland and telecom, Telekomunikacja Polska, in 3-year deals worth a total of 120 million zlotys per season.

=>  The award of United States' contract to broadcast the Olympic Games looks set to be concluded by the time of the IOC’s next session in July, according to Richard Carrion, the IOC’s chief negotiator for the contract. Carrion predicted the value of the new deal will exceed £2 billion being paid by NBC for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 games. NBC paid $2 billion in rights fees for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics, outbidding ESPN and Fox in the process, and with General Electric, NBC Universal’s parent company, also becoming an IOC TOP sponsor as part of the deal. NBC has since been taken over by Comcast, the US cable giant, a move that recently gained regulatory approval.


BROADCAST

=>  Singapore's SingTel is in talks to add more sports channels to Mio TV. In December, SingTel added 4 sports channels to Mio TV, taking over the carriage of ESPN Star Sports from rival StarHub, after StarHub lost out its bid for the EPL to Singtel. The four new channels added were: All Sports Network, the US sports channel; Ten Cricket, the Indian cricket channel; and GoalTV1 and GoalTV2, that were also previously also carried by StarHub. In addition to existing sports channels, SingTel’s four ‘mio Stadium’ channels broadcast coverage of England's Premier League, plus the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Europa League.


EVENT

=>  The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation has announced a new golf tour to be known as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Golf Tour. it will initially comprise 4 tournaments and will be open to professional and amateur golfers. A prize fund of US$75,000 will be carried in each tournament. The Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation was formed by Golf in Dubai, which also promotes the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, primarily to develop young golfing talent. No details have so far been released about locations or dates for the four inaugural tour events.

=>  London 2012 are still on course to come in within budget. The total budget remains £9.298bn and the anticipated final cost is £7.301bn. In 2003, Parliament was told it would cost £2.375bn. By 2007, it had risen to £5.3bn, including regeneration and infrastructure. The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) said that the project is now 79% finished to Games-time with the velodrome set to become the first venue on the park completed later this month. Last year the ODA accepted responsibility for the operation of the Olympic Park and its venues and facilities between 2011 and 2014. The ODA's budget for this additional work has now been finalised at £158m.

=>  Meanwhile, London 2012 LOC has unveiled the competition schedule a month before tickets go on sale. The programme comprises 670 sessions at 34 venues across 26 sports with medals on offer in 302 different events. The first medal events will be the men’s 10-metre air pistol and women’s 10-metre air rifle shooting on Jul 28. Swimming finals will return to evenings after being held in the mornings in Beijing 2008 and athletics begin Aug 3. Tickets for all events will go on sale from March 15 and applicants have until April 26 to submit requests, with allocations for over-subscribed sessions to be determined by a ballot. Several events, including the marathons and the cycling road races, will be free to watch.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Manchester United looks certain to be the first EPL club to break the £100m barrier for commercial revenue. Recent quarterly accounts show revenues rising to £24m over the first quarter of the accounting year, and the second, up to December 31, will be equally strong. United's new 'territory specific' approach to commercial opportunities, agreed with the Glazer family and implemented by commercial director Richard Arnold, has allowed the club to rapidly expand that area of revenue. The last annual figures showed a 16% growth in commercial income to £81m.