ITV

Tag: Fifa World Cup

  • Sony-Discovery reach agreement with Dish TV

    Sony-Discovery reach agreement with Dish TV

    NEW DELHI / MUMBAI: It’s been a long time coming but after endless rounds of discussions, India’s first direct-to-home service Dish TV has finally reached mutually agreeable terms with the Sony-Discovery One Alliance distribution bouquet to carry their channels.

    The two parties arrived at a memorandum of understanding today and the official signing will happen anytime in the next few days, sources close to the developments tell Indiantelevision.com.

    The One Alliance channels will begin beaming off the Dish platform within the next few days and the billing cycle is effective from 1 July on. The financial terms that the two parties have agreed to were not available at the time of filing this report.

    For Dish TV, this resolves one half of the problem it has been facing ever since its launch – its inability to offer subscribers channels from the One Alliance and Star bouquets.

    With the addition of the Sony bouquet, Dish TV can look forward to a major ramp up in subscriber numbers. Two key events that are expected to drive acquisitions in the immediate term are the ongoing India-West Indies Test series and the Fifa World Cup. The Word Cup kicks off in Munich, Germany, on 9 June while the second Test in St Lucia, West Indies, will take place between 10 and 14 June. ESPN Star Sports (already on the Dish network) has exclusive rights to the World Cup while Ten Sports – part of the One Alliance bouquet – is exclusively airing the cricket in the Caribbean.

    A contentious issue that automatically gets resolved with Sony’s sign-up on Dish is the legal spat that Subhash Chandra’s DTH service has been having with Viacom channels MTV and Nick since last year. Both channels are part of the One Alliance.

    In a letter sent to the information and broadcasting ministry last month, Dish TV had petitioned that despite the sector regulator’s directive on making available content to all platforms and a favourable judgement from disputes tribunal TDSAT, the “conduct of MTV” has been “clearly in violation” of the interconnection regulation of 2004.

    Dish TV’s parent ASC Enterprises’ contention was that despite carrying on commercial negotiations with MTV Networks India for several months, the content provider and its distributors in India (One Alliance) had stalled any fruitful conclusion of such talks.

    ASC Enterprises, an Essel Group company, holds the licence for a DTH service in the country, which is marketed under the brand name Dish TV.

  • Amrita TV lines up Fifa World Cup specials

    Amrita TV lines up Fifa World Cup specials

    MUMBAI: With the countdown to the 2006 Fifa World Cup fast approaching, Amrita Television, is now running a Fifa segment in its news bulletins.

    For a duration of about six minutes, the World Cup tele-clip will include, a history of World Cup, team profiles and a general item on the warm-up matches.

    A reciepient of 15 Kerala State TV Awards, Amrita TV in preparation for the big sporting event, has already profiled participating teams including Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Holland and Portugal. 

    The channels coverage of the World Cup will also feature famous personalities and celebrities selecting their favourite team, accompanying reasons for that selection.

    With the commence of the World Cup on 9 June, Amrita TV plans to invite guests on the breakfast show to analyse the game, telecast the Goal of the Day, with pop-ups on the sidelights of the day’s game. Another segment includes, Players to Watch.

    In addition, Amrita TV has also published a leaflet containing the match schedule for the World Cup, along with additional attractions on the Channel. It has been distributed free of cost, across various centres, informs an official release.

  • News channels look at scoring goals

    Soccer mania is in the air! With the Fifa World Cup scheduled to kick off 9 June in Germany, news channels in India, both domestic and international, have lined up extensive plans to capture the soccer fever.

    At the moment, most news channels are running a countdown show and profiling the teams and players in various news segment of the day.

    The scenario was quite different four years back. Then the news space was predominantly ruled by the bi-lingual Star News and the Hindi-language Zee News, besides the two international news channels, BBC World and CNN International.

    But today, the same space has more players and is far more competitive. No surprise, therefore, that all the news channels are gung ho about the football fever.
     
    THE ECONOMICS OF COVERAGE

    Industry observers say that an event of such magnitude can cost a news channel between Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million. If the annual operating expenses of news channels are taken into account, then the expenditure on Fifa World Cup might not look big, though it’s an important part of a news channel’s life.

    For example, NDTV Ltd’s operating expenses round up to approximately RS 1.78 billion annually, while TV18’s touches RS 700 million. TV Today with its three channels — the fourth one started just a few days back — incurred an annual operating cost of about RS 1.07 billion. The operating cost primarily includes expenditure on marketing, personnel, administration and uplinking.
     

    Since all news channels have respective long term tie-ups with global wire agencies like Reuters and APTN, part coverage of events like the World Cup come at a slightly incremental cost.

    “Generally, news channels have a long term agreement with a global news agency and for events like Fifa no extra fee is charged. News channels also inks deal with the sports channel that holds the telecast rights to access various other footage,” Zee News director Laxmi Goel says.

    According to Goel, news channels are also likely to tie-up with ESPN Star Sports as it holds the rights to Fifa World Cup for this region. “At our end, the negotiations are on with ESS and we are also talking to other agencies for acquiring additional footage. Apart from that we will use extensively footage provided by Reuters and APTN,” he added.

    With the soccer fever spreading in India though the country has never qualified for playing in the tournament, ESS is literally on a high. The sports channel is charging $100,000 for 60 seconds footage per match.

    ESS’ euphoria is not shared by all the news channels though they want to provide extensive coverage of Fifa World Cup. The high cost of accessing footage from the rights holder is still an impediment in concluding deals.

    Times Now channels’ parent Times Global Broadcasting vice-president and business head Partho Das Gupta points out that the company is in the process of “closing alliances” with ESS and others.
  • ESS ropes in astrologer Bejan Daruwalla for Fifa World Cup predictions

    ESS ropes in astrologer Bejan Daruwalla for Fifa World Cup predictions

    MUMBAI: With the Fifa World Cup kicking off in Germany next week, ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has roped in noted astrologer Bejan Daruwalla who will attempt to predict the outcome of the matches.

    Daruwalla’s GaneshaSpeaks provides astro predictions regarding the outcome of World Cup matches and highlight players of the day from quarterfinal matches and phone in for key matches of the Fifa World Cup to be telecast.

    ESS marketing director Nirmal Dayani said, “It has been our utmost endeavour to provide the Indian audience an experience of a lifetime during the World Cup telecast this year.

    “All our programming and marketing initiatives have been aligned to involve our consumers in the game. Our latest initiative featuring Daruwalla will add a new dimension to our special programming during Germany 2006. Daruwalla and his GaneshaSpeaks team will be providing predictions and astro foresight as a build up for World Cup matches. The objective here is to give the telecast of the World Cup a new flavour.”

    Daruwalla said, “This is a great challenge. I know it is exceptionally difficult to come right in the unpredictable games of cricket or football or hockey or any other great sport. But that is exactly why I love to do my best and leave the rest to Ganesha. This is a tremendous opportunity for me to try out my predictions, thanks to the sports channel ESPN Star Sports.”

    Daruwalla, rated among the top 100 astrologers in the world by Harper Collins’ Prophecy, will feature on all pre match shows to give an astrological viewpoint to the World Cup matches. Not only will he assess the teams involved according to their stars, but will also give a foresight on the players to watch out for every match of the tournament.

    To build hype on the Fifa World Cup, ESS had earlier announced various initiatives to generate viewer interest. The broadcaster had earlier launched 11 Hindustani, a consumer based contest in partnership with Coke to take 11 Indians to watch the World Cup live along with a nation wide search for four Indian children to be Fifa Flag Bearers during the World Cup. The channel has also announced a special Hindi feed and an in studio panel of Gerry Armstrong, Steve McMahon and Harsha Bhogle for the Word Cup.

    GaneshaSpeaks provides astrology content and services on mobile phones and the Internet. Bejan Daruwalla’s GaneshaSpeaks team provide personalised predictions and guidance to customers via Ganeshaspeaks.com. SiddhiVinayak Astrology Services owns the brand.

  • ESS roots for subscription ramp up from cable ops ahead of soccer season

    ESS roots for subscription ramp up from cable ops ahead of soccer season

    MUMBAI: Riding on the Fifa World Cup wave, which kicks off next week in Germany, ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is asking for a substantial increase in the subscriber base from cable networks across the country.

    ESS is asking for a 20 to 30 per cent hike from the major networks. And, in smaller markets the channel is targetting an increase as high as 70 per cent from those networks which are terribly underdeclared.

    ESPN Software India VP sales and marketing Sricharan Iyengar says, “Our aim is to use the World Cup event reactivate in those networks where we are absent. We are looking for at least a 20 per cent growth in the subscription base from the major networks. In smaller markets we are looking at a raise from anything between 30 to 70 per cent.”

    Sources say that InCable has signed a deal allowing for a 20 per cent raise. On the other hand, Hathway CEO K Jayaraman, while declining to comment on any figures maintains that when the yearly contract was renewed with ESS in March, there was no undue pressure put on them by the broadcaster on acount of the Fifa World Cup.

    In addition to increasing subscription declarations ESS, this fiscal, is also targetting a 50 per cent growth in subscription revenue. That is because in addition to the Fifa World Cup, it will also air two cricket series involving India. One of them sees the Indian cricket team touring South Africa in December. Iyengar says, “We hope to achieve a 50 per cent growth in subscription revenue this fiscal. We are kicking this off with the World Cup”.

  • BBC to air Fifa World Cup matches on broadband in the UK

    BBC to air Fifa World Cup matches on broadband in the UK

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has signed a deal with Infront Sports & Media, the company responsible for the worldwide marketing and sales of the broadcast rights to the 2006 World Cup.

    This will allow internet users in the UK to watch all the games online.

    All of the BBC’s TV games will be live and free-to-air with online viewers able to access the games at bbc.co.uk/worldcup and bbc.co.uk/sport – viewing of these matches will be restricted to those that live in the UK.

    All of the BBC’s group games as well as all the subsequent games that the BBC has in the knockout stages will be available on these sites.

    The BBC will also have the exclusive rights to England’s second round and quarter-final games should they reach that stage.

    Furthermore, the BBC has non-exclusive rights to short highlights from every 2006 World Cup game. There will be four-minute clips from all of the 64 matches available on-demand whenever users want to view them.

    For the BBC’s matches, viewers will be able to stream the same coverage and commentary as on TV as will appear on terrestrial television.

    Also, in addition to watching the games, online users will be able to hear and read about the latest action – BBC Radio Five Live will have an audio stream from 2006 World Cup game and there will also be live minute-by-minute reports on every match written by BBC journalists.

    BBC director of sport Roger Mosey said, “Our audiences now expect to get BBC Sport on television, on radio and online – and the World Cup on broadband is our biggest commitment yet to bringing people major events where and when they want them.

    “You can watch the World Cup from the BBC at home on TV – or listen in the car on your radio – and now also see full live coverage on your PC. We know that a lot of online viewing is done in the office, so we suspect this will allow people both to do their job and to keep up with the very latest action from Germany.”

    BBC director of sports rights Dominic Coles says, “The BBC has great traditions in sport but we also want to be the most modern provider of content, and our move into broadband reflects this.”

    The BBC has successfully broadcast football over the internet before, but this is by far its biggest-ever single commitment.

    In 2005 the BBC showed the final of the Fifa Club World Championship Toyota Cup Japan between Liverpool and Sao Paulo online to UK internet users.

    Similarly the BBC also broadcast online all the interactive streams from Athens 2004 Olympics.

    This latest deal follows this week’s announcement that the BBC will provide UK broadband users with access to five courts of live tennis action during the 2006 Wimbledon Championships.

    The service will replicate coverage from the BBC’s live terrestrial coverage plus the remaining digital interactive feeds. The BBC already has the broadband rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

  • Gearhouse Broadcast prepares for Fifa World Cup with Tektronix equipment

    Gearhouse Broadcast prepares for Fifa World Cup with Tektronix equipment

    MUMBAI: Tektronix, which provides test, measurement and monitoring solutions, has announced that Gearhouse Broadcast, a UK rental, sales, project solutions and systems integration company, has selected an extensive range of Tektronix waveform monitors.

    The aim is to provide content verification capabilities in support of the 2006 World Cup. Gearhouse Broadcast will serve as a principal partner in providing technical production facilities to the host broadcaster in 12 cities throughout Germany for the 2006 World Cup.

    The company which provides up-to-date digital technology, experience and expertise for major events, purchased a combined total of more than 50 Tektronix WFM700M and WFM601E Waveform Monitors for use during the broadcasts.

    Gearhouse Broadcast MD Eamonn Dowdall says, “The World Cup broadcasts require an immense amount of verification and restoration, and we’re proud to rely on the gold standard technology included in the Tektronix WFM range.

    “The Tektronix WFM700 Series offers the monitoring capabilities needed in the production, post-production, distribution and transmission of high-definition (HD) and
    standard-definition (SD) digital video content. It is basically everything a broadcaster needs for these applications in one package.”

    Tektronix video sales manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa Nicki Fisher says, “Monitoring digital video and audio quality continually presents new challenges to broadcasters everywhere.

    “Ensuring high quality and high reliability is imperative for a broadcast as critical as the 2006 World Cup. Tektronix is thrilled to be chosen by a world-class broadcast operation for an equally world-class event. Gearhouse’s choice of Tektronix is a dynamic endorsement of our technology.”

    The Tektronix WFM700 Series multi-format, multi-standard waveform monitors offer the monitoring and measurement capabilities needed in the production, post-production, distribution, and transmission of high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) digital video and audio content.

    With patented Diamond and Arrowhead gamut monitoring displays, Lightning display, session and status screens, a user-configurable multi-mode display, and eye and jitter measurements configurable for full field or line select, the WFM700 Series provides users with tools to enable quick error detection.

    The WFM601A is an operational monitor useful to the graphics workstation, telecine or camera setup operator. The WFM601E extends the WFM601 platform to provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the digital transport layer and is used in digital production and master control operating centres. The WFM601M offers all of the video features of the
    WFM601A and WFM601E, and provides data analysis capabilities for the installation and maintenance engineer.

  • Fifa World Cup to kick in €1.1 billion in profits

    Fifa World Cup to kick in €1.1 billion in profits

    MUMBAI: The Fifa World Cup, which kicks off in Germany next week, is on course for profits of €1.1 billion. The estimated €1billion cost of staging the event is far outweighed by revenues from the sale of media rights, sponsorship, merchandise and tickets.

    This information is contained in Sportcal.com’s newly-published World Cup 2006: The Commercial Report. Fifa, soccer’s world governing body, told the authors of the report that the World Cup would generate €1.9 billion in marketing revenue, with the sale of television and new media rights raising €1.2 billion and the remaining €700 million deriving from other sources such as sponsorship and hospitality.

    The sponsorship figure includes €60 million raised by the local organising committee. The ticketing operation, which is also being handled by the organising committee, should bring in a further €200 million.

    The figures are a feather in the cap of Fifa Marketing, the governing body’s commercial arm responsible for marketing sponsorship of Fifa and the World Cup, and of Infront Sports and Media, the Switzerland-based sports agency that marketed the media rights for the competition. Infront stands to benefit directly from its success, with profits over and above a guaranteed figure to be shared equally with Fifa. The report estimates that the guarantee was exceeded by between €200 million and €300 million for the 2002 and 2006 competitions combined.

    Fifa’s anticipated media rights revenues of €1.2 billion for the 2006 World Cup represent a 34-per-cent increase on the media rights revenues it realised at the 2002 World Cup, held in Japan and South Korea, a less favourable time zone than Germany’s for most of soccer’s top television markets.

    The UK’s BBC and ITV are among the largest contributors to overall 2006 World Cup revenues, jointly paying £105 million for the rights for the event. The largest single contribution to 2006 World Cup revenues is coming from ARD and ZDF, the German public-service broadcasters, which jointly agreed to pay €170 million for the television rights to screen the event.

    This figure Sportcal.com states was formerly eclipsed by a fee estimated at €360 million that TV Globo, the Brazilian broadcaster, undertook to pay for the rights for both the 2002 and 2006 tournaments. However, the deal was renegotiated in 2004, after a heavy recession in Latin America, with the result that TV Globo is estimated to be paying just €65 million for the rights for this year’s tournament. Fifa expects that television sales from the European market alone for the 2010 tournament would be worth €1 billion, more than double the fees paid by European broadcasters for this year’s World Cup.

    For the first time, sales of new media rights this year are set to make a significant contribution to overall revenues for this year’s World Cup. Fifa estimates, new media to bring in revenues of €120 million for the 2006 World Cup.

    Meanwhile, sponsorship revenues for this year’s competition include payments of between €25 million and €40 million each from 15 ‘official partners,’ 11 of which had also sponsored the 2002 tournament.

    From the next World Cup onwards, Fifa is restructuring its sponsorship programme, reducing the number of official partners to just six (which will, however, each pay a considerably higher fee) in response to concerns over sponsorship ‘clutter.’

    In Sportcal.com’s report Phillips, the Dutch electronics giant, cites sponsorship ‘clutter’ as one of its reasons for ending its sponsorship after this summer’s competition after a 20-year relationship with the World Cup.

    In a conference address last month, Philips’ head of sponsorship Andy Knee had issued a warning to Fifa and soccer generally not to take sponsors for granted. He said, “Partnership is a word used regularly but we are looking for a two-way partnership and there remains a mentality in football just to take the money. I expect someone to understand my business and my products, and that would make me spend more money.”

    Six local ‘suppliers,’ signed up by the organising committee, which are paying an average of €10 million each to be associated with the event.

    Fifa points out that its profits from the World Cup go towards funding its many other activities over the four-year cycle between World Cups, including less lucrative competitions such as junior and women’s World Cups and the quadrennial Confederations Cup between continental national teams champions. Between 2007 and 2010, Fifa will stage 22 such competitions, including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

  • BSG to manage mobile call volume during Fifa World Cup

    BSG to manage mobile call volume during Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: BSG Clearing Solutions GmbH, the communications service industry’s clearing and settlement provider, today announced that its systems are well prepared to deal with the heavy increase in capacity for roaming clearing that will result from the growth in mobile call volume during the weeks of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

    “This will be the biggest sporting event in the world and mobile communications will have an unprecedented role in spectator enjoyment this year. As the exclusive roaming partner for virtually all wireless operators in Germany, BSG will be on hand to ensure there are no ‘own goals’ behind the scenes,” said BSG CEO Roland J. Bopp.

    An estimated five million fans from all continents around the globe, supporting the 32 nationalities taking part, are expected to visit Germany during the four-week World Cup competition. Mobile phones will be used to relay messages, download content, send pictures and texts to friends and family, as well as to record goals and highlights. Companies are already promoting World Cup-related content, such as player photos, historic video clips, ring tones and games, and operators are expecting intense traffic volumes in largely unpredictable spikes.

    All German wireless operators, including T-Mobile and O2, are BSG clients and will be relying on the company to process and clear all roaming transactions.

    “Our system ordinarily handles large volumes of traffic and is designed to scale accordingly so that it can easily handle the additional anticipated traffic. Nonetheless, we’ve taken the cautionary validation steps to ensure our system will continue to operate smoothly throughout this period of expected transaction spike so our customers are provided with the same high-quality level of service to which they’re accustomed,” said BSG chief technology officer Abie Reifer.

    “We’re proud to be part of this important, global event and are confident in BSG’s ability to fully support us. Knowing they’ll be handling the increase in mobile call volume allows us to focus on giving our customers the best experience possible,” said O2 Germany vice president carrier and international services Dirk Schmelzer.

  • Zee News weaves programming around Fifa World Cup

    Zee News weaves programming around Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: As the football World Cup draws nearer, the Fifa fever is spreading to the news channels as well. Zee News will be telecasting special programmes on the coverage of the 2006 Fifa World Cup, titled Duniya Hai Goal.

    Preceding the start of the World Cup on 9 June, Duniya Hai Goal will commence as a half an hour special programme from 30 May at 7:30 pm until the finale on 9 July. In keeping with the channels focus to extensively cover the event, two teams of correspondents from Zee News will cover the event in Germany.

    A segment on the day’s play will be broadcast during the 6 – 7 am, 11 – 12 noon, 12 noon – 1 pm, 5 – 6 pm and 10 – 11 pm bulletins.

    Besides coverage of the tournament, the bulletin also seeks to incorporate viewer interactivity. As part of this special, score bugs will run and trivia will cover the main information around Fifa this year. Zee News has also made way for debates, discussions and expert comments from big names in the game.

    Programs like Zee Team Player will select the best player of the day on the basis of performance, which will be announced at 7:30 pm during the bulletin. In addition, a Zee World Cup Team consisting of the Top 15 players across the contesting teams will be selected and rated as per their performance during the matches.

    Other programs such as Which Team Would Win, will choose a favourite team through the interactive involvement of viewers on the basis of the SMSs received. The channel will include a profile of top teams and players on the Countdown and will also telecast features on the stadium, encompassing every aspect of the World Cup.