New TV deal delights Scudamore - Football
Published: 14 Jun 2012 - 09:17:12
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore believes England's top-flight clubs will be better able to compete in Europe following the announcement of a recession-busting live television rights deal.
The Premier League have sold the TV rights for the seasons 2013/14-2015/16 to Sky and new broadcast partner BT for the combined total of £3.018billion. The staggering new deal represents an increase of £1.245billion on the current partnership with Sky and ESPN and destroys any suggestion that the Premier League's bubble has burst.
"This will take our clubs up a notch closer to those clubs who benefit from the individual selling model, say in Spain," Scudamore said. "I hope this will keep our league as competitive as it can be, under a collective selling model, with the other leagues."
Under the new deal, the team that finishes bottom of the league will earn roughly the same as title winners Manchester City earned this season.
After two rounds of sealed bids, Sky paid £2.28billion for the rights to five of the seven available packages, which translates to 116 live matches a season.
BT acquired two packages for a total of £738million and will broadcast 38 matches in each of the three seasons covered by the deal, including 18 of the first-choice games.
Scudamore, with tongue firmly in cheek, described the new deals as "a decent commercial increase" and he admitted to being surprised by the final total.
But Scudamore believes the thrilling climax to last season, when Manchester City won the title on a dramatic final day, was a significant factor in the 70% increase.
"We have just come off the back of a fantastic season and, yes, it has been good for us that we are in the market and selling something at the time when what we are displaying on the field, and therefore able to broadcast, is an attractive proposition," Scudamore said.
"We couldn't have gone to market at a better time. The competition has continued to wow audiences. It is a compelling product. People want to watch it and therefore broadcasters want to broadcast it."
Related Manchester United News
Nokia to cut 10,000 jobs after weak second quarter - Reuters
PARIS |
PARIS (Reuters) - Loss-making Finnish cellphone maker Nokia plans to cut another 10,000 jobs globally in its biggest revamp in recent history, while it warned the second-quarter loss from its cellphone business would be larger than expected.
The cuts, which include the closure of Nokia's only plant in Finland, bring total planned job cuts at the group since Stephen Elop took over as chief executive in 2010 to more than 40,000.
Nokia said on Thursday that it would book additional restructuring charges of around 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by the end of 2013.
The company, whose cash position is increasingly scrutinized by investors, also said restructuring-related cash outflows would be around 650 million euros in the remaining three quarters of 2012 and around 600 million in 2013.
Shares in Nokia fell 9 percent in early trading and were down 6.9 percent at 0711 GMT.
Nokia stock has crashed more than 70 percent since it announced in February 2011 that it was dropping its own Symbian smartphone operating software and switching to Microsoft's largely untried Windows Phone system.
"These changes underline the seriousness of the challenges Nokia is facing, particularly in light of the eye-watering competition from Apple and Samsung," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.
Nokia also said it would sell luxury phone business Vertu to venture firm EQT. ($1 = 0.7953 euros)
(Editing by David Holmes and James Regan)
Thousands in need of food, shelter after Myanmar clashes - Reuters UK
SITTWE |
SITTWE (Reuters) - Thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists were in need of food, water and shelter in northwestern Myanmar on Thursday after fleeing the country's worst sectarian clashes in years.
Houses were burnt down late on Wednesday in two villages near the Bangladesh border, but there were no reports of further deaths. Scores of people are feared to have died in the rioting that broke out in Rakhine state on June 8.
Violence has largely subsided in after days of arson attacks and killing that have presented reformist President Thein Sein with one of his biggest challenges since taking office last year.
Places that had been flashpoints earlier in the week, including state capital Sittwe, were quiet, said Caw Tun, a member of a development group, the Wan Latt Foundation.
"Tensions between the two groups have eased. There are around 20,000 refugees in Sittwe. Most of them are from the villages where people fled in fear of the violence," Aung Myat Kyaw, a senator for Rakhine state, told Reuters.
"They are in need of food and, because of the heavy rain, there are concerns about the refugees' health and whether they have enough shelter," he added.
The violence had killed 21 people as of Monday, state media said, but activists fear the death toll could be much higher. At least 1,600 houses have been burnt down.
The army has taken hundreds of Rohingyas to Muslim villages outside Sittwe to ensure their safety.
"They are worried for their lives. The army is there so their life is secure," said Shwe Maung, a Muslim member of parliament for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party. "There are still so many Rohingyas in downtown Sittwe and they are afraid of being attacked."
The United Nations and a medical aid group said this week they were pulling staff out of the area because of the violence. U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, travelled to the area on Wednesday.
It is unclear what sparked the rioting. Relations between the two communities have been uneasy for generations and tension flared last month after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman that was blamed on Muslims.
That led to the killing of 10 Muslims in reprisal on June 3, when a Buddhist mob stopped a bus they were travelling on. The passengers had no connection to the murdered woman. State media said three Muslims are on trial for the woman's death.
POLITICAL REFORM
The violence follows a year of dramatic political change after nearly 50 years of repressive military rule.
Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, truces struck with ethnic minority rebel groups and the opposition party of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi swept by-elections.
The government has also allowed trade unions and promised to get rid of forced labour. Recognising this progress, the International Labour Organization lifted restrictions on Myanmar on Wednesday.
That announcement in Geneva came just before Suu Kyi arrived in the city for her first trip to Europe in a quarter of a century.
That is another sign of the transformation of the former Burma: under the junta, she refused to leave the country, afraid the generals would not let her back in to pursue the fight for democracy.
The communal violence in Rakhine state and the international reaction may prompt further change: the Rohingyas are not included among the officially recognised ethnic groups of Myanmar but Thein Sein may be forced to improve their plight.
Up to 800,000 Rohingyas live along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in abject conditions. Neither country recognises them as citizens and the Bangladeshi authorities have turned away boats of Rohingyas fleeing the violence this week.
(Reporting by Reuters staff reporters; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Westlife singer Shane Filan is declared bankrupt - BBC News
Westlife singer Shane Filan has been declared bankrupt in the UK.
The Irish band have sold millions of records but Mr Filan suffered enormous losses in his country's property crash.
In a statement, the 32-year-old said he had "worked long and hard" to tackle his debts and was devastated that his problems have come to this conclusion.
The pop star filed for bankruptcy in the UK which has a less onerous bankruptcy regime than the Republic of Ireland.
In the UK the period of bankruptcy typically lasts for a year but in the Republic of Ireland it is at least three years and more commonly 12 years.
Mr Filan owns a property company, Shafin Developments Limited, with his brother Finbarr.
It was established in 2004 and had been involved in developments in Counties Leitrim and Sligo in the west of Ireland.
Last month, the company was placed in receivership.
EscapeEarlier this week, the singer was declared bankrupt at Kingston-upon-Thames County Court and his name has been placed on the UK insolvency register.
The father-of-three is the latest in a steady stream of highly indebted Irish property developers who have filed for bankruptcy in the UK.
Ireland has agreed to liberalise its bankruptcy regime as one of the conditions of its EU/ IMF bailout.
However the country's banks are concerned that the reforms could lead to a flood of mortgage defaults as ordinary homeowners use bankruptcy to escape from negative equity.
Westlife is one of the most successful boy bands of the last decade, selling more than 44m records.
Last October, they announced they were splitting up.
The band is currently in the middle of a farewell tour and continues to fill major concert venues.
Analysis: Spain faces uphill battle to avoid sovereign bailout - Reuters
MADRID |
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will have to play the right cards at the right time to shore up confidence and avoid sliding towards a full-scale sovereign bailout despite negotiating European financial assistance of up to 100 billion euros for its banks.
The country's struggle to meet its deficit goal for 2012, the risk that the banking sector clean-up moves too slowly and the need to tap the debt market for another 100 billion euros ($125 billion) this year puts Spain just a few steps away from needing more external help, sources and analysts say.
Centre-right Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has some room for maneuver even as he calls on the euro zone for immediate and medium-term measures to help restore credibility.
Despite its treasury minister declaring the bond market was closing to it, Spain has a strong liquidity position which will enable it to meet its debt obligations for at least another few months, and it has room to boost revenues by raising value-added tax or energy taxes.
But investors would have to believe in the program in order for Spain to regain affordable access to debt markets after borrowing costs spiraled to euro era highs on fears the country's debt pile would soon reach unsustainable levels.
Investors have also been spooked by the prospect of the banking bailout relegating private creditors to the bottom of the repayment pecking order should Spain ever default, since the euro zone's ESM rescue fund would be paid out first.
"The large share of effectively senior debt, a likely deterioration of macroeconomic conditions and fiscal overshoots do raise the specter that the sovereign itself may yet need to request a bailout of its own at a later stage," Citigroup wrote in an analyst note.
Megan Greene, senior economist at Roubini Global Economics, which has been consistently bearish on southern Europe, sees a sovereign bailout as inevitable.
She argues that Spain's external debt position is unsustainable and off-balance sheet liabilities such as local corporations' debts will push public debt much higher than official forecasts of 79.8 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2012.
"It could happen this year, but I would say it will happen by the end of the first quarter of next year," she said, referring to a rescue that could total as much as 700 billion euros and would stretch the currency bloc's rescue funds to breaking point.
A Reuters poll found 35 out of 59 analysts across Europe and the United States said it was "likely" or "very likely" Spain would need international help for its state funding within the next 12 months.
Spanish officials had anticipated the lukewarm market reaction to the bank bailout, saying it would do nothing to solve the country's risk premium without urgent European Central Bank measures and a roadmap toward euro zone fiscal union.
Rajoy, who is committed to austerity but concerned that higher taxes will prolong the economic contraction in Spain, renewed his call on Wednesday for joint euro zone action although there is no sign yet of the ECB being prepared to revive its bond-buying program to give Madrid some respite.
SPEED OF THE ESSENCE
Some analysts, and European Union officials in Brussels, see the banking bailout as a positive step, rather than the start of a negative chain reaction.
"Spain's sovereign debt will remain below 100 percent of gross domestic product and below the level of several other major economies in the euro zone, so we see no cause for concern," said one EU official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Interest payments on the rescue funds will likely accrue to Spain's public deficit, but that would be the case anyway if the country borrowed on the market to recapitalize its banks, and the market rate would be several percentage points higher.
With the country mired in its second recession in three years, one in four Spaniards unemployed and business bankruptcies rising, the government needs urgently to prop up lenders hit by a property crash and get credit flowing into the economy.
However, many details of the rescue remain unclear and will likely not be decided until an EU summit on June 28-29.
The final bill to clean up Spain's banking sector will also not be fully known until a comprehensive audit of the banks due July 31, while lenders will have until the end of the year to align their capital with the new requirements.
"To be quick is of paramount importance but I don't see it happening here," said a financial source working for one of the eight banks rescued by the state in the last two years.
"The restructuring plans have just been sent to the Bank of Spain, then we'll wait for the audit and then it's August so basically nothing is happening until September. The uncertainty will remain for some months," he said.
Meanwhile pressure mounts inexorably on Spanish debt - its 10-year yield hit seven percent for the first time on Thursday.
The 100 billion euros loans agreed on Saturday will push Spain's debt-to-GDP ratio higher than 90 percent, a level seen as dangerous even if lower than other euro zone countries.
At the same time, high bond yields will increase interest payments, weighing on annual spending and making it more difficult for Madrid to access funds on the market.
While the Spanish Treasury has about 44 billion euros in cash in its coffers thanks to better market conditions earlier in the year, the country still needs to tap around 100 billion euros to meet its funding needs for 2012.
About 52 billion euros will go to deficits at central government and regional level, and the rest will be used to repay debt maturing this year - 82 billion euros for the central administration and 15 billion euros in the regions.
A hump of 27.5 billion euros maturing in the last 10 days of October looks especially challenging.
HIKING TAXES?
To add to the country's headaches, data from the first four months of 2012 show the deficit target will be hard to reach.
Revenues from consumer taxes dropped by 8.2 percent over the period, compared with the first four months of 2011, while unemployment benefits payments soared by 6.57 percent.
The central government deficit to April emerged at 1.43 percent versus an objective of 3.5 percent for the full year and the autonomous communities reported a deficit of 0.45 percent on the same period, compared to an annual goal of 1.5 percent.
Although income and spending vary over the year, this would put Spain on track to miss its targets by one percentage point.
Fitch, which slashed Spain's credit rating by three notches last week, said on Tuesday it saw the country missing both the 2012 and 2013 deficit targets.
"As of today and looking at the deficit data available, the possibility of complying with the public deficit target this year is rather small," said Cesar Cantalapiedra, partner at Analistas Financieros Internacionales research firm in Madrid.
Although the European Commission and Germany have said Spain could take an extra year, until 2014, to bring its deficit under the 3 percent-of-GDP limit allowed by EU rules Madrid is and will remain under close watch from its EU partners.
With a troika of international inspectors about to arrive in the country to monitor the banking sector restructuring, any slippage is likely to trigger increased scrutiny over Spain's fiscal policy from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
That would put Rajoy under severe pressure to implement EU policy recommendations he has so far resisted.
In its annual assessment of the Spanish economy, released in May the European Commission recommended an increase in the value-added tax rate - one of the lowest in Europe - tax hikes on energy, an acceleration of last year's pension reform and deeper labor market reforms.
(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott in Brussels and Manuel Ruiz in Madrid. Editing by Fiona Ortiz/Mike Peacock)




0 Responses to "New TV deal delights Scudamore - Football"
Post a Comment