CBC to broadcast Commonwealth Games in Canada

CBC Sports will be the broadcast home of the XIX Commonwealth Games, beginning Oct. 3.

CBC, CBCSports.ca and Bold will bring Canadians comprehensive coverage of the 12-day event, which takes place for the first time in Delhi, India.

It's the second time that the Games are making their way to Asia. They were in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

"We're excited to once again be Canada's broadcaster for the Commonwealth Games," said Scott Moore, executive director, CBC Sports and general manager, CBC media sales and marketing.

"CBC has a long and proud history of providing Canadians with the best in amateur sports from around the world. The Games began a rich tradition of world-class competition in Canada in 1930, and there is no better place for coverage of this tremendous event than on CBC."

CBC has been home to every Commonwealth Games since the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver.

Canada has a storied record at these Games, dating back to the original event when the legendary Percy Williams brought home gold in the 100-yard dash.

Since then, several Canadians stars have had an impact: including two-time high jump gold medallist Mark Boswell (track and field), gold and silver medallist Clara Hughes (cycling) and multiple medallist Alexandre Despatie (diving).

Commonwealth Games TV rights fetch $60 million

The 2010 Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee on Friday said they have sure commitment of US $60 million revenue from television rights.

The Commonwealth Organizing Committee in a statement mentioned that they had predicted a revenue of $40 million from selling television rights, but they have already managed $60 million.

"We have crossed our target and we are going to touch $60 million by selling television rights. We have struck a good deal with broadcasters in Australia and Britain by sorting out the timing of the disciplines which are popular in these countries," Kalmadi said.

Earlier in a report, government of India indicated that Commonwealth Games will be revenue-neutral event and may make slight profit as well. The 2010 Commmonwealth Games Organizing committee is confident that they can repay $2.6 billion aide that it has got from the government.

Four major revenue streams for 2010 CWG will be through sponsorship, TV rights, merchandising and ticket sales.

Global Television gets TV rights

Australia's Global Television has won a world wide tender to design, install and operate the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. This will be the first time in Commonwealth Games history that the event has been broadcast in High Definition digital, also marking a critical milestone for Indian television.

Global was selected from a tough international field after an intensive three-month evaluation period. Global delivered the IBC technical build for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Global will also work with an on-the-ground Indian partner.

The IBC is the hub for all Commonwealth Games broadcasting activity, handling incoming television pictures and sound from the host broadcaster, distributing that footage to international rights holders and managing rights holders’ outgoing transmissions.

Global’s track record in providing complex technical broadcast requirements for major international events is well established. In addition to the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Global Television has delivered IBC requirements for the 2007 FINA World Championships (swimming), World Youth Day in 2008 and the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.

The Delhi Commonwealth Games IBC will house studio and reporting facilities for broadcasters and journalists from around the world. Occupying 8,000 square meters, up to 1,500 broadcast professionals will be based at the IBC.

Global Television begins work on the contract immediately, with a technical team en route to Delhi for briefings this week and to attend the first World Broadcasters Meeting for rights holders.

Commonwealth Games rights to go to UK company

Britain's Satellite Information Services (SIS) is set to win the production rights to broadcast next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi for India's public broadcaster Doordarshan. The London-based company has been chosen out of the five shortlisted for production and coverage facilities in high definition television (HDTV). The matter has been referred to India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry to be formally confirmed.

SIS Live, formed in 1986 when bookmakers took the opportunity to broadcast live racing in their shops for the first time. The company is owned jointly by Ladbrokes, Thales (Racal), United News & Media, William Hill Organisation, the Racecourse Association and the Tote.

Now received in virtually all British and Irish betting shops, together with 300 outlets in Western Europe - a total of 9,500 shops - it is also broadcasts to betting outlets in the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, Italy and countries in the former Soviet Union.

The company has since expanded in other areas and now has the largest satellite uplink fleet in Europe and covers 100,000 hours of live events worldwide each year, including Formula One, Wimbledon, UEFA Champions League football and European Tour Golf,

Experts estimate the winning company will charge up to $500 million (£306 million) to cover the 11-day event which opens on October 3, 2010, and which is expected to attract 8,500 competitors from 71 countries.

The other shortlisted group was Indian company Nimbus Communications which had come in a consortium with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as lead partner.

The others who had initially filed an Expression of Interest were Big Productions in consortium with the Beijing branch of Interpublic Marketing Services (Shanghai) Ltd. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. as the lead partners; Nimbus Sports International Pte Ltd of Singapore in consortium with International Sports Broadcasting of the United States as the lead partner; and International Games Broadcast Services of Switzerland.

Industry calls for launch of Mobile TV before CWG

It happened in China during the Beijing Olympics where the country used effectively the event to introduce some new services and thereby increasing consumer awareness about the services. With the hope to replicate the same in India, IPTV Forum at its Annual General Meeting made a pitch to introduce mobile TV services during the next year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

Echoing the intentions, lobbies, such as AUSPI, COAI, ASSOCHAM and the I&B Ministry came together and made a unanimous call on this proposal. The theme of the meet titled ‘Mobile TV-Enhancement of Choice’ itself jelled with the intentions.

Addressing a select group of media, Dr. DPS Seth, President of IPTV India Forum kicked off an interesting discussion thread by identifying the key issues confronting the launch of Mobile TV in India.

While reasserting the significance of Mobile TV, Parag Kar, Senior Director GA, Qualcomm drew attention towards the relevance of Mobile TV in India. “Mobile TV as a service holds high relevance for India as Indians in general are known to have strong appetite for entertainment and with a strong affinity for events such as cricket and bollywood, Mobile TV packs immense potential in the country.”

“However, many consumers take an apprehensive stance over the new service, owing to the fear of having to change their mobile handsets to access Mobile TV. But, there is a new dongle from Qualcomm available in the market that can enable an ordinary mobile phone access Mobile TV”.

Adding further, “But the government needs to take immediate move on Mobile TV as the Commonwealth game is fast approaching and the service will take time to deploy once the policy is released.”

Raghu Menon, IAS, Secretary I&B differed from other co-speakers as he noted the readiness of people for Mobile TV as the primary factor for Mobile TV launch and not the coming Common Wealth Games.

“The policy for the Mobile TV should not target the Common wealth games but see how prepared people are for the service. If the government and the industry work hand in hand then the Mobile TV is not a distant dream for us.”

The panelists rang in an exciting session as the issue of whether to go for technology neutral or technology specific largely occupied the centre stage of the discussion. A consensus was reached on technology neutral as a better choice than technology specific. “Technology neutrality will ensure the empowerment of consumers by offering multiple choices,” voiced Mr. Kar.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mahesh Uppal, a telecom consultant described the adoption of technology neutrality not just important but critical as well.

The round table provided the opportunity to decode the concept of Mobile TV. Further, it sent a clear message regarding the need to continue to build momentum on the launch of Mobile TV in India.

NZ to watch CWG at pay-per-view

New Zealanders' decades-long tradition of watching their top athletes compete at the Commonwealth Games on free-to-air television may be over. It was reported today that TVNZ had lost its 40-year grip on broadcasting the Games, to be held in India next year.

Pay television network Sky has apparently secured the rights to the Delhi Games after TVNZ had "thrown in the towel". However, both Sky and TVNZ staying mum this morning.

Sky Television director of communications Tony O'Brien would not field any questions on the broadcasting rights today. "We don't comment on media speculation," he said.

TVNZ corporate affairs spokeswoman Megan Richards could not be reached for comment.

New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary-general Barry Maister is in Ireland, but communications manager Ashley Abbott said the organisation "was not aware of any sale of rights".

MP Jim Anderton, who last year tried and failed to bring in a law to keep "iconic events" free-to-air, said it would be a "sad day" if the Games went to a pay TV network. "There are a lot of people the young, the old and those who can't afford it who are missing out on these iconic cultural events already." Mr Anderton said other countries had so-called "anti-siphoning laws" in place to protect events like the Commonwealth Games.

He said his bid to bring the same law to New Zealand last year, mainly for rugby and cricket tests, failed to get the numbers.

Former Commonwealth Games squash gold medallist Leilani Rorani, of Hamilton, was concerned that the event would be taken away from the public. "Not everyone will be able to watch the Commonwealth Games now. Lots of kids grew up in my generation being able to watch the Games. (They were) inspired because it wasn't pay TV."

Women's hockey team manager Debbie Balme said it would be disheartening to see the Games taken off free-to-air TV. "We're a sport that's trying to get ourselves out there."

Balme said the fact that next year's Games were in India meant that supporters would be hard pushed to make the journey and would be reliant on television coverage.

Commonwealth Games broadcasting rights by 10-Oct

With Commonwealth Games just a year away, the organizers will finalise a broadcaster within 15 days which will telecast the event for it on High Definition (HD) mode.

Prasar Bharati, the host broadcaster for the 2010 Games, had called for bids from international broadcasters to telecast the event earlier this year.

From these, it had shortlisted five companies in July, that had the experience of telecasting sporting events of such magnitude.

These were Swiss-based International Games Broadcast Services, Satellite Information Service Live (UK), Nimbus Sports International Pvt Ltd (Singapore), Nimbus Communications Ltd (Mumbai) in collaboration with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Big Productions of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group.

Doordarshan sources said that with the World Broadcasters Summit scheduled to be held in Delhi on October 26, Prasar Bharati wants to finalise one broadcaster from the shortlisted five within 15 days, which would telecast the games in HD format for it.