01 cover sbi 152.indd - FIFA/CIES International University Network

MEDIA
SHORTSTOP
Al Jazeera: Pan-Arabian broadcasters
ART and Al Jazeera signed a
preliminary agreement for ART’s
six sports channels to become a
part of Al Jazeera Sports, according
to Rapid TV News. A Memorandum
of Understanding was signed and
although terms have not been
disclosed the payment is believed to
be well in excess of $1 billion. Under
the deal, Al Jazeera Sport will take
over ART’s existing sports contracts,
becoming the exclusive provider of
sports content for ART’s Arab Digital
Distribution platform.
IOC: The International Olympic
Committee awarded South American
TV rights for the 2010 Winter Games
in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer
Games in London to ESPN. Under the
deal, ESPN will have free-to-air rights
in Argentina, pay-television rights in
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay
and satellite-only rights in Venezuela.
Asia meets England in the Premier League - Getty Images Sport
EPL STILL SCORING IN ASIA
Pay-television competition in key Asian markets continues to fuel the rise of
the English Premier League’s Asian television rights fees. James Pickles of
TV Sports Markets reports on the league’s latest round of deals.
Serie A: International sports media
company MP & Silva acquired the
international media rights for Italian
football’s Serie A for the 2010-11 and
2011-12 seasons. The rights were
awarded by the Italian Football League
(Lega Calcio) after a competitive
tender process, and cover all
platforms including television, internet
and mobile.
Euro 2012: Portuguese paybroadcaster
Sport TV acquired the pay-
TV rights in Portugal for Euro 2012 in
a deal with UEFA. Sport TV has rights
for all 31 matches in the tournament,
including exclusive rights for 12 group
stage matches. Free-to-air rights in
Portugal will be sold at a later stage.
Serie A: An Italian court blocked
pay-broadcaster Sky Italia’s deal for
a package of rights for Italian league
football for the 2010-11 and 2011/12
seasons. Conto TV had challenged
the deal, which was for the ‘Platinum’
package of rights covering all Serie
A matches. Sky Italia said it would
challenge the decision.
FIFA: Chinese state-broadcaster China
Central Television (CCTV) acquired
the rights to all FIFA tournaments,
including the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World
Cups. Under the deal, CCTV will also
show matches from the FIFA Women’s
World Cup and FIFA youth football.
THE ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE extended its
enviable record of television-rights-fee increases
in Asia under the latest raft of deals that were
agreed in October, covering the 2010-11 to 2012-
13 period. Sports rights specialists TV Sports
Markets estimate that the league enjoyed around a
40-per-cent fee increase in deals signed in the 22
territories covered by its main Asian tender.
There were not uniform increases across the
board, however. The overall rise was principally
driven by big jumps in the big markets of
Singapore and Malaysia, with India also seeing
spectacular growth. In other territories increases
were more modest and fees even fell in a couple
of markets, including South Korea.
The Premier League stoked up what interest
there was by tweaking its rights offering to
make it even more attractive for broadcasters.
It liberalised internet rights, removing the
stipulation in existing contracts that matches
shown on the internet must be simulcast on
television. It also offered broadcasters the
possibility of buying a centrally-produced Premier
League channel - the so-called Premier League
content service - providing winning bidders with
what is effectively a “plug-and-play” solution.
This is thought to have been aimed
specifically at helping new telecoms companies
come into the market, such as Singapore’s
SingTel, which stunned incumbent rights-holder
Starhub with a knockout first round offer.
Singapore proved to be the only territory
where the gap between the highest and nexthighest
bids was big enough for the league to
award the rights in the opening round. Starhub
was hit by a double whammy in that within
hours of SingTel announcing its Premier League
win, pan-regional broadcaster ESPN Star Sports
said that it was shifting its sports channels from
Starhub to SingTel as well.
In an attempt to stem the expected subscriber
churn, Starhub has since radically overhauled its
sports offer. It has promised to cut the price of its
premium sports bouquet by over 50 per cent when
its Premier League deal expires next summer. In
addition it is offering all its existing cable television
customers two new sports channels for free,
including the Eurosport News channel.
ESPN Star Sports held on to Premier League
rights in 18 territories, although it lost Vietnam
to the MP & Silva agency and retained the rights
in Malaysia through a joint-bid with its longterm
partner Astro. The threat from Telekom
Malaysia, which is gearing up to launch an
IPTV service, played a key role in driving up the
Malaysian price by an estimated 70 per cent.
That threat took bidding into a second round but
it soon became clear that Telekom Malaysia was
not ready to commit yet to major investments in
sports content. That battle now looks likely to be
deferred until the next three-year cycle.
Elsewhere, it is thought ESS will use the
Premier League rights to drive carriage of a slew
of new sports channels, including its recentlylaunched
ESPNews channel and a high-definition
offering. ESS’s new Premier League deals cover
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Indian sub-continent,
South Korea and other smaller territories.
The Premier League will sell the rights in
China and Hong Kong in a separate auctions
which were about to commence as this article
went to press.
18 SportBusiness International • No. 152 • 12.09