News

The decision will be anxiously awaited by numerous sports rights-holders hoping for a decision in Orange’s favour. If the court rejects the appeal, Orange’s recent investment in sports rights – providing competition to dominant pay-operator Canal Plus – is likely to be swiftly curtailed.

The audience on Sky Sports 2 peaked at 487,000 viewers (4.1-per-cent share) at the climax of the shoot-out. The next highest peak of the season was 373,000 for the match between the Ospreys and Leicester Tigers on 24th January.

Solar said that the fight had surpassed the P120 million ($2.5 million) generated by Pacquiao’s encounter against the now retired Oscar De La Hoya, with sources estimating final ad revenue of between P125 million and P135 million. The broadcaster gives Pacquiao P60 million a fight in a five-year deal from May 2007 to 2011.

The first option would see the broadcaster’s scheduled payments, of £153 million over the next five years, cut to £133 million.

The second option would see the deal shortened to finish at the end of 2011-12, two years early.

Citing projections from GEZ, the national organisation responsible for collecting the licence fee, the Spiegel magazine reported that ARD could be worse off to the tune of €200 million and ZDF by €100 million.

Unemployed people are exempt from paying the television licence fee and more people are likely to default on payments in the present economic climate.

Sogecable is paying increases of between 15 and 20 per cent in the new deals, which run for the British Open for three years from 2009 to 2011 and for the two US events from 2010 to 2012.

The broadcaster will also be looking to renew deals for the US Masters – which expired after this year’s event – and the US PGA Tour, which also runs out at the end of this year.

The channel, Digi Sport, will carry coverage of Spanish football’s La Liga, German Bundesliga and some Romanian league matches.

Despite launching what is essentially a rival to GSPTV, the joint-venture sports channel owned by RCS and commercial broadcaster Antena 1, RCS confirmed that its partnership with Antena will continue.

South African-based Supersport, which holds the rights in South Africa and Nigeria, showed coverage in sub-Sahara of the FA Cup semi-finals in an interim arrangement.

With Supersport the only realistic bidder for the rights, the FA looks certain to take a hit.

Japan is Uefa’s most lucrative market in Asia, with SkyPerfecTV paying some $17 million a year in its existing Champions League deal.

The new deal includes the Uefa Super Cups in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the rights for the second-tier Europa League.

Eclat is asking for Won1.4 bn (€790,000/$1m), but the broadcasters, including SBS Sports, KBSN, MBC ESPN and Xports, are only willing to pay Won1bn. They also want a discount if the KBO goes ahead with plans to also sell rights to IPTV operators.

Some advertisers are said to be trying to renegotiate with Indian broadcaster Sony for reduced rates, after top six metro ratings for the first six matches (the seventh was washed out) averaged 3.75, down from an average rating of 4.0 for the same six matches last year. Sony’s advertising and sponsorship rates are up about a third on last year.

GSP TV officials are understood to have been taken by surprise by RCS’s Spanish league deal, in which the cable operator outbid offers from a number of sports channels, including the present incumbent Boom, Telesport, SportKlub and Pro TV’s Sports.ro.

The fight will be shown live on a pay-per-view basis on the Perform Group agency’s www.omnisport.tv website. The fight will be the biggest-ever UK-focused event shown on the site, which also carries exclusive coverage of Italian Serie A football.

The new deals will cover the three-year period from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

 

Broadcasters now have until Friday lunchtime to register their interest. The Lega was obliged by the new Melandri Law to conduct an official tender process.

Its rights are presently held by pay-broadcaster Sky Italia.

TV2 Sport has agreed a new three-year, NKr20 million (€2.3 million/$3 million) deal running from 2009-10 to 2011-12.

It is paying about Nkr1 million a year in rights fees and the rest in production costs, the same as Sport N, owned by pan-regional media conglomerate Modern Times Group, are paying at present.

The growth rate will slow further to 10 per cent in the next five years and seven per cent from now until 2018. The 26.6 million new subscribers in the region is forecast to drop to below 24 million next year, with an average of 15-20 million new additions each year thereafter.

The deal, starting next season, covers the rights in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. There is presently no coverage in these territories at present. Hong-Kong based broadcaster Goal TV had pan-regional rights previously.