MUMBAI: IMG, the global sports, fashion and media company, has entered into an exclusive three-year media rights deal with the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL)until 2015.

IMG will market and distribute the league outside Russia and has already secured contracts with more than 20 broadcasters including NHK in Japan, ESPN in Brazil and Polsat in Poland.

The new agreement will see IMG selling the rights for live and highlights coverage of all 240 League games and also includes internet streaming, mobile phones, DVD and in-flight and in-ship.

IMG is currently in discussions with a number of other broadcasters around the world and anticipates further deals being concluded in the coming months.

IMG Media Senior Vice President Michael Mellor said, "We are delighted to be working alongside the Russian Football Premier League and are working closely with them to both develop the profile of the clubs and players and the reach of the league.

"The increasing investment of the Russian clubs in top world talent has seen the quality of football and competition rise and the league is now rated the seventh best by Uefa. We are sure this will continue and enable IMG to utilise our worldwide international sales team in sixty offices in thirty countries around the world to grow exposure of the RFPL over the next three years."

Founded in 2001, the RFPL, which is run by the 16 clubs in the league, succeeded the Russian Top League which had been run by the Professional Football League of Russia. The current champions are Zenit St Petersburg. The 2012/13 season will be the first run from autumn to spring like most of the other European leagues, the season having previously started in March.

MUMBAI: Bloomberg has entered into a joint-venture partnership with IMG, the global leader in sports, fashion and media, to expand and accelerate the growth of its vertical division, Bloomberg Sports.

The new venture will still be majority owned by Bloomberg and will be located in offices in New York and London. The new venture will retain the name Bloomberg Sports, and will be funded through the partnership created by both entities.

IMG will have a strong minority equity position and will provide enhanced marketing, sales and production assistance for both the existing Bloomberg Sports analytics products as well as a new series of projects that will be rolled out this summer.

They will include new ventures in international professional soccer as well as greatly enhanced fantasy analytic products for NFL football.

This will be in addition to the work the company is already doing in Major League Baseball both on the consumer and professional level. Other products and services are currently in development with additional professional and consumer sports brands which will be announced at a later date.

?We are very excited to partner with IMG, one of the most respected global leaders in sports and entertainment, to expand a business that was the brainchild of two entrepreneurial employees and incubated through Bloomberg in just two years,? said Bloomberg CEO Dan Doctoroff.

MUMBAI: Under criticism from all quarters over lack of action to improve the condition of football in the country, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its marketing partner IMG Reliance are planning a IPL-style franchise-based league that would run parallel to I League, the national club competition.

?The franchise based league was always part of the contract with IMG Reliance, but as of now nothing has been finalised. We received a lot of suggestions on how to go about the league,? AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told Indiantelevision.

The AIFF today held a meeting at its headquarters in New Delhi attended by its members as well as representatives of IMGR.

Some members suggested keeping the league limited to six franchises while some suggested having an eight team event. ?We will be inviting franchises for the league, I League club owners can also take part in the process. However, we are yet to finalise anything,? asserted Das.

While it is true that the AIFF and IMGR faced flak from I League clubs for failing to bring about any perceptible change in Indian football, what also got the two parties working is the launch of Premier League Soccer in West Bengal which stole the limelight and grabbed international attention.

The Indian Football Association sanctioned league which saw millions of dollars being splurged on franchises and players has hit rough waters since it was announced with much fun-fare. The league which was expected to be held in March had to be postponed due to lack of proper infrastructure and support from the state government.

The AIFF is planning to create a two-month window after the conclusion of I-League. However, questions are being raised whether players will be able to participate in the competition after playing for six months of grueling football in the I League.

To accommodate the new league and to take care of player fatigue the AIFF might consider shortening the I League as well. ?There were suggestions that the I League should be shortened to accommodate the new league,? added Das.

The AIFF is confident that both Indian and international players will be part of the league. Fabio Cannavaro and Hernan Crespo, who were part of the PLS, are likely to play alongside top Indian players like Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua and Syed Rahim Nabi.

The Indian Football Association (West Bengal), the governing body of football in West Bengal, had signed a 30-year deal with Celebrity Management Group to launch the PLS on the lines of US? Major League Soccer. The PLS had earned Rs 797.5 million from the sale of six franchises.

Players like Hernan Crespo, Jay Jay Okocha, Concecao, Robert Pires and Fabio Cannavaro had signed up as icon players. The international media rights of the league were sold to sports media company MP & Silva.

MUMBAI: Neo Cricket, the dedicated cricket channel from Neo Sports broadcast stable, will begin its journey as an all sports channel starting 3 June under the new name of Neo Prime amid intense competition from ESPN Star Sports, Zee?s Ten bouquet of channels and a new entrant Sony Six.

The channel is being built after its cricket content has depleted following the loss of the marquee India cricket rights. The sports broadcasting company has been mulling converting into an all sports channel for quite some time as it is left with only one cricket property, Asia Cup, ever since its contract with BCCI got terminated in December 2011. The Bangladesh Cricket Board rights also expired in April.

Neo Sports Broadcast has a good volume of non-cricket sports which it will distribute across its two-channel network. While Neo Prime will telecast mass sports including cricket, Neo Sports will cater to more niche and special interest products. Plans are also afloat to offer Neo Prime in High Definition.

"We have been planning on the rebranding before a couple of months but it goes through a process as we need Ministry of Information & Broadcasting?s approval which we got on Friday," Neo Sports Broadcast COO Prasanna Krishnan tells Indiantelevision.com.

Neo Sports Broadcast will focus on Football, Badminton, Tennis, Hockey and Golf to drive the growth of the two Neo channels.

In football, Neo has the rights for Copa America, German Bundesliga, Serie A and the crown jewel ? Uefa Euro 2012, the rights of which it acquired after forking out $11 million.

Hockey is another sport the broadcaster is betting big on. It had recently picked up the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup rights for five years. It also airs World Series Hockey, the franchise based hockey league co-promoted by sister concern Nimbus Sport.

Its tennis lineup comprises French Open, Davis Cup and Fed Cup while in golf it owns the rights to US PGA Tour, in addition to BWF Badminton Super Series in badminton.

"We couldn?t continue with the Neo Cricket name with the properties that we had. We had a lot of other sports content," Krishnan says.

Neo Cricket was logical when it had possession of the BCCI rights (which are now with Star India). Admits Krishnan, "Earlier on with the BCCI rights we always had enough of cricket including domestic cricket. So we needed a dedicated channel because of the volumes. But now in the current situation it makes more sense for us to become an all sports channel. We are also having the problem of scheduling particularly during the weekend wherein we had more content than we can could show at a point of time."

Prasanna also points out that other networks like Ten and ESS have channels in addition to cricket that can be used to air events in case of overlapping, something that was missing in Neo since it had only one all sports channel. "We are changing this with our rebranding."

ESPN Star Sports has two channels apart from a cricket channel. Similarly, Ten has Ten Action+ and Ten Golf. "We were having enough live content but were unable to utilise it. So it seemed to be a sensible strategy going forward," he explains.

The rebranding is timely as it precedes the 2012 Uefa European Football Championship, Neo?s biggest sporting property. Uefa Euro, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, will take place between 8 June and 1 July.

"We will do marketing campaigns to announce the rebranding. But we also have an advantage as it is happening in the middle of Uefa Euro which will attract a lot of viewers," says Prasanna.

Also read

Neo Cricket set to rebrand as Neo Prime

MUMBAI: One World Sports, the Asian focused sports network in the United States, has extended its exclusive North American multi-platform rights agreement with Japan?s J. League, the Korea Professional Football League (K-League) and the Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL).

The sports network has entered into a three-year agreement with World Sport Group (WSG), which has the global media rights for the three properties.

Each weekend, One World Sports will feature three games from the J. League, two games from the CSL and one game from the K-League. This is in addition to two games from the Australian League (A-League). The combination of leagues offers a full host of top-notch soccer from Asia?s leading soccer leagues. The games are presented live whenever possible to add to the real-time excitement of the match.

"We are so pleased with the extension of our J. League, K-League and CSL football rights," said ONE World Sports Senior Vice President Programming Rick Jemison. "We are committed to bringing Asia?s best soccer matches to its fans in North America. It is a tremendous vote of confidence for Asia?s preeminent soccer leagues to choose us to continue to deliver the live and exclusive coverage of their games."

The J. League includes 18 teams and is the top division of the Japanese professional football league. Its season is played from March to December and consists of matches played in double round-robin (home and away) format of 34 games each.

The CSL is the highest and most prestigious level of professional soccer in China. The league has 16 teams. Three clubs competed in this season?s AFC Champions League, Asia?s premier soccer club competition, with Guangzhou Evergrande qualifying for the round of 16.

The K-League is South Korea?s top professional soccer league. It has a proven history of excellence, with four of the league?s 16 teams competing in the 2012 AFC Champions League and Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Ulsan Hyundai advancing to the round of 16.