S&T had a free copy of a major new report, Brands in Football Europe, to give away to one of you lucky readers. The book details all you need to know about who's sponsoring who and what in major league European soccer covering more than 1,300 brands associated with 130 clubs from 12 national associations including: The Bundesliga; La Liga; Ligue 1; The Premier League; The Scottish Premier League; Serie A; plus other leading European Clubs. All readers had to do was answer the following multiple choice question by 11 March 2008: "How many different kit manufacturers produce official FA Premier League kits this season? A. 5 B. 7 or C. 8 The report was won by Boyd Butler of KAM Sports International. See www.brandsinfootball.com for further information on the report.
ESPN gets digital in Europe
Global sports media company ESPN has created a new Digital Media department for Europe, Middle East and Africa. The new team will be headed by Tom Gleeson, who takes the role of vice president digital media, ESPN Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Gleeson joined the company with the recent ESPN acquisition of global cricket portal Cricinfo, where he was previously CEO/managing director. Gleeson's portfolio will consist of all EMEA-based digital sites including ESPNsoccernet, Cricinfo, Scrum.com as well as ESPNclassic.com and NASN.com. The sites boast over 15m unique users per month.
Face off for CBSSports.com
CBSSports.com has developed and will host an official NCAA March Madness Brackets application that will be offered and promoted to Facebook users for the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Located at www.facebook.com/brackets, CBSSports.com Tournament Brackets will be available to the site's more than 63m active users both online and via CBS Sports Mobile, creating a cross platform experience for all NCAA Basketball fans. The application will not only allow users to fill out brackets with their picks for each round of the tournament and enjoy comparing their picks with their friends but also have access to tournament coverage from CBS Sports, CSTV, CBSSports.com and NCAA.com, including links to watch all of the live action on the Emmy award-winning NCAA March Madness on Demand service. In 2007, more than 2.6m Facebook users joined at least one bracket group in a similar tournament brackets feature run by the site.
NBCOlympics.com’s speedy coverage
NBCOlympics.com, in conjunction with the World Championship Sports Network (WCSN), provided live coverage of the recent Samsung ISU World Cup Short Track event held in Salt Lake City at the Utah Olympic Oval. Fans were able to watch over 160 athletes from 24 countries - including two-time Olympic gold medallist Apolo Anton Ohno – compete in the skating event.
Chicago Cubs in high definition
Major League Baseball team, the Chicago Cubs (pictured right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Chris McGrath), announced their regular season television broadcast schedule at the beginning of February 2008. For the first time, all 162 games will be available in high-definition in the Chicago area. WGN will televise the Cubs' 31 March season opener versus Milwaukee whilst Comcast SportsNet will televise its first game on 2 April, the club's second game of the campaign. Chicago Cubs games have been televised by WGN since 1948 and by WCIU since 2000. This will be Comcast SportsNet's fourth season televising the Cubs.
Canal Plus and Orange win French Ligue 1 rights
According to S&T’s sister publication www.sportbusiness.com, The Ligue de Football Professionnel in France has agreed deals worth a total €668m a year over four years with French pay-broadcaster Canal Plus and mobile operator Orange for its audiovisual rights. The new deals represent a marginal rights fee increase on the soccer league’s existing deal, under which it brings in an average of €653m per year. Canal Plus acquired the rights for nine of the 12 packages on offer, including two of the three premium packages for live matches on a Sunday night, paying an overall €460m a season. Orange acquired the rights for the remaining three packages, including the third premium package, live rights for matches on Saturday nights. The deals were agreed after Canal Plus changed its initial hardball strategy, having initially bid only €250m a year in the first round of bidding. Orange had bid €300m.
Scrum.com drives a new deal
Scrum.com, the global rugby portal owned and operated by ESPN, has reached agreement with luxury car maker, Land Rover, for the brand to sponsor the website's Six Nations Fantasy League game. The agreement marks the third consecutive year that Land Rover has sponsored the Six Nations Fantasy League game on the web. In 2007, over 25,000 users took part in the game. For 2008, Land Rover has increased its involvement through a fully integrated sponsorship. As well as the branded game, the agreement includes promotion of the game across ESPN's European digital platforms, including Cricinfo.com and ESPNsoccernet.com
US confusion over DTV
There is major confusion among US consumers about the looming transition to digital television (DTV), according to a new survey from Consumer Reports National Research Centre. Seventy four percent of respondents who said they were aware of the upcoming transition had serious misconceptions over its impact. The survey also found that over one-third (36%) of Americans living in households with TVs are entirely unaware of the government-mandated transition to digital broadcasting slated for February 2009. The US federal government has allocated $5m in public education funding to the National Telecommunications and Information Association and the Federal Communications Commission has requested $1.5m for the same purpose. This is in contrast to the $400m the UK plans to spend on its public education campaign.
Skateboarders ramp up in virtual park
Makena Technologies, creator of the social virtual world There.com, and MTV Networks have unveiled a new Virtual Skatepark inside MTV Networks' virtual worlds tied to MTV's two popular on-air shows, ‘Rob and Big’ and ‘Life of Ryan’. Makena provides the exclusive technology platform for MTV's franchise-related virtual worlds, including the Emmy-winning Virtual Laguna Beach, Virtual Hills, Virtual Real World and Virtual VMAs, among others. Tied to the hit shows ‘Rob and Big’ and ‘Life of Ryan’, the new virtual outpost for the popular skate-themed shows features different ramps, halfpipes, jumps and rails. Virtual skateboarders can hang out, attend events, join teams and enter competitions. In addition, users can meet fellow fans of the shows, watch videos of the on-air episodes and talk via text or voice chat. Ongoing special events will bring users in direct contact with the skateboarding lifestyle featured on the two hit shows, as well as special appearances by cast members.
Online sports video on the up
Research company Screen Digest forecasts that US revenues from domestic online sports video (OSV) consumption will increase from $762m in 2007 to $2.3bn in 2012. In the UK, OSV revenues will treble from $43.2m to $153m. Yet it will be advertising, not subscriptions that will generate the lion’s share of the revenue from OSV. In the UK, advertising will account for 61% of revenue by 2012, up from for 46.5% five years earlier. That will be twice the value of subscriptions. By comparison in the US, advertising and subscriptions will contribute almost equal revenue by 2012 at 41% and 39% respectively, according to Screen Digest. Meanwhile, a new report from Solutions Research Group's Digital Life America has found that out of all internet users in the US, 43% (80m) have watched one of their favourite TV shows on the internet, up from 25% one year previously.
Page from ArkSports' Sport and Technology (www.sportandtechnology.com) on 2008-08-28 : News - February 2008 : http://www.sportandtechnology.com/page/0577.html
S&T had a free copy of a major new report, Brands in Football Europe, to give away to one of you lucky readers. 
CBSSports.com has developed and will host an official NCAA March Madness Brackets application that will be offered and promoted to Facebook users for the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. Located at 
Major League Baseball team, the Chicago Cubs (pictured right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/Chris McGrath), announced their regular season television broadcast schedule at the beginning of February 2008. For the first time, all 162 games will be available in high-definition in the Chicago area. WGN will televise the Cubs' 31 March season opener versus Milwaukee whilst Comcast SportsNet will televise its first game on 2 April, the club's second game of the campaign. Chicago Cubs games have been televised by WGN since 1948 and by WCIU since 2000. This will be Comcast SportsNet's fourth season televising the Cubs. 
Scrum.com, the global rugby portal owned and operated by ESPN, has reached agreement with luxury car maker, Land Rover, for the brand to sponsor the website's Six Nations Fantasy League game. The agreement marks the third consecutive year that Land Rover has sponsored the Six Nations Fantasy League game on the web. In 2007, over 25,000 users took part in the game. For 2008, Land Rover has increased its involvement through a fully integrated sponsorship. As well as the branded game, the agreement includes promotion of the game across ESPN's European digital platforms, including Cricinfo.com and ESPNsoccernet.com
Makena Technologies, creator of the social virtual world There.com, and MTV Networks have unveiled a new Virtual Skatepark inside MTV Networks' virtual worlds tied to MTV's two popular on-air shows, ‘Rob and Big’ and ‘Life of Ryan’. Makena provides the exclusive technology platform for MTV's franchise-related virtual worlds, including the Emmy-winning Virtual Laguna Beach, Virtual Hills, Virtual Real World and Virtual VMAs, among others.
