Sports Licensing in the Inflight Market

James Durie

International Sales Manager

2

3

The Main Protagonists

• Sports Federations

• Distribution Companies

• Licensees

4

Sports Federations The organisations responsible for coordinating all issuesrelating to a Sport Event

They retain all rights relating to;• Event Organisation• Marketing• Sponsorship• Broadcasting

5

Sports Distribution Companies

Represent sports federation’s media rights

Distribute and License• Live Events• Event Highlights and

Documentaries• Independently Produced

Programmes

6

Licensees

Broadcasters

• Terrestrial

• Satellite

• Cable

New Media

• IPTV

• Broadband

• Mobile/Cell

Ancillary

• Inflight

• News Access

• Archive

• Radio

• DVD

• The sport event’s final media rights holders

• Delivering the final product to the general public/fan

• Federations most important source of revenue and exposure

7

Inflight Sports Licensing

8

Sport: International Entertainment• The Globalisation of Sport

• The perfect fit for international Inflight passengers

• Global viewing figures for single sports events in 2006

750 million

715 million

354 million

120 million

(Fifa, NFL, Uefa, F1/Renault official website)

9

Major Federations have implemented successful Inflight policies by;

• Creating an independent Inflight media territory – USA, France, Inflight

• Excluding Inflight rights from all other media agreements

• Ensuring airlines can license full international rights – Not route specific

• Establishing regional rights on the location of the airline’s airport hub

Inflight Sports Licensing: Creating the Rights

10

THE PACKAGE FOR AEROPLANES WORLDWIDE

Transmission shall be made on Designated Services by the Permitted Means for viewing only by passengers on Aircraft (whilst in-flight) within the territory…. The Territory means the airspace of any country in the world

Inflight Rights Definition

11

Issues Affecting Inflight Licensing

• The ICC excluded all Inflight rights into or over the Americas and Caribbean

• Airspace restrictions make Inflight licensing impossible

• IOC generate 50% of its broadcast revenue from the USA

• NBC protect their market by including all media rights in their domestic broadcast deal

• Only US Inflight rights excluded, non US carriers operating flights in and out of USA are not affected

12

Sports Licensing and Live Inflight Entertainment

13

Live Inflight Entertainment

• Last environment in the world without full Live TV coverage

• Driven by News, Weather and Sport

• Live Sport on IFE offers airlines a new marketing opportunity

14

Domestic Live IFE Model

Domestic flight which is scheduled to take off from an airport in Domestics Territory and is scheduled to land at an airport in the Domestic Territory

• Domestic Inflight sports rights are generally (but not exclusively) held by the domestic broadcaster

• Domestic territory benefits from same language and viewing trends

• Very successful model for domestic carriers

15

International Live IFE Model

Domestic model not feasible for International airlines as each individual flight covers multiple territories

• Coverage – Domestic rights holder do not have global satellite reach

• Rights - Held by different broadcasters across each territory

• Language - Each broadcaster will transmit feed in domestic language

16

Flight from London to Mumbai - 2 Satellites (minimum) - 10 Broadcast Territories - 8 Languages

on Live IFE Internationally

17

Workable Live IFE Sports Model

• Pan Regional Broadcaster

• Federation World Feed

18

Pan Regional BroadcasterPros

• Distribute to regional airlines – Eurosport to European airlines

• Inflight regional territory established by location of airport hub

• Channel recognised in territory

Cons

• Unlikely to have intercontinental coverage

• Limited to sports currently held by broadcaster

• Broadcaster retains control over advertising and scheduling

19

• A generic satellite feed provided by the Federation

• Global satellite coverage

• Consistent language (commentary) and graphics

• Airlines can maintain control over schedule and advertising

• Airlines can licence on an event by event basis

• Successfully employed in the Cruise Ship Market

Federation World Feed

20

Conclusion

21

Federations, Distribution Companies and Licensees must strive to;

• Simplify the process of acquiring Inflight rights

• Deliver the worlds best sport to one of the last unconnected environments - Prime Time all the Time

• Create a new marketing tool in an increasingly competitive market