Sport Rights

Definition Sports Rights are the properties owned by the Rights Holder. The rights holder is the party that holds the rights to an sport/event/team. This can either be an official body, a sporting federation or an individual person/promoter. These rights include all Commercial and Media rights.
Example Rugby World Cup Limited are the rights holders of the the IRB Rugby World Cup. They own all rights associated with the event; i.e.Television, Intellectual Property, Commercial Rights, Hospitality, Travel etc.

Sport Management
Sport Management includes event management, team and player management, as well as all elements of sport marketing, environmental analysis, market research, segmentation exercises, competitive analysis, SWOT analysis, budgeting and cash flow projections, etc.

Sport Marketing and Agents

Sport Marketing includes the marketing of sport itself (sports codes, an event, an athlete) or the marketing of a product or service (Castle Lager, Nike, MTN) that uses sport as a vehicle. It is standard practise for an agency, such as IMG, to be appointed by or purchase the rights from the rights holder on an exclusive basis for a fixed term to represent their rights in the market place. - Example GCC Purchased all ICC Rights up to and including CWC 2007 for US$550million

Sport Agents
It is the responsibility of the Agent to fulfil the requirements of the rights holder, i.e. the rights holders needs ( Event Sponsorship, Television Coverage on a Free to Air Channel) or the right holders request (sell to the highest bidder ). There are a number of variables which factor into a rights negotiation and are dependent on the rights available.

Sports Rights
Sponsorship Intellectual Property Rights Merchandising Rights Image Rights Endorsements Hospitality and Tour Operators Publishing Rights Media Rights

Sport Sponsorship
Is the provision of assistance either financial or in kind to a sport related activity by a commercial organisation for the purpose of achieving commercial objectives. Is the acquisition of rights to affiliate or associate with a product or event for the purpose of deriving benefits related to that affiliation or association. These rights may include retail opportunities, media time, entitlement (naming rights) or hospitality benefits. Any sponsorship must be leveraged across all communication channels to ensure maximisation of their investment. As a rule of thumb sponsors should look to support their sponsorship expenditure with at least as much again in marketing back-up.

Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property is property of a non-tangible or noncorporeal nature and which is effectively a new idea.
Trade Marks Patents Copyright Registered Design Names and Trading Styles

 When an owner of the Intellectual Property rights allows others to infringe these rights this is known as Licensing An agreement is reached where by the Rights Holder is remunerated by the Licensee for the right to utilise their Intellectual Property. Example : SASC is the custodian of the King Protea. IMG runs a licensing programme on behalf of the SASC which allows official licensees to manufacture and distribute merchandise bearing the King Protea, in return for a royalty fee.

Merchandising Rights
Licensing and Merchandising rights go hand in hand. This allows for rights to be conveyed to a commercial organisation or individual who then markets a range of products/services carrying the name of the individual, team, sporting organisation etc. Merchandising is the commonly known term for the process of selling programmes, novelties, T-shirts, souvenirs and products that carry the branding or the name for which the merchandising rights have been acquired or purchased.

Image Rights
Nowadays leading Sportsmen and women are recognisable superstars. It is commonly accepted that these high profile, famous people can attach a commercial value to their image rights through an endorsement. Associating a sports personalitys image or name with a product/company without their permission infringes on these rights and in most cases they are able to take legal action.

Endorsements
Are open to both individuals and organisations. This relationship is brought about through a corporations desire to lend credibility to a certain product by showing that a prominent personality or organisation thinks enough of it to use it. Example : IMGs client Tiger Woods, is the worlds top endorsee earning +- US$54 m in 2002) endorses Nike products. By wearing Nike clothing, when participating in golfing events, Tiger Woods is implying that these products are good enough for him so you too should buy them.

Hospitality & Tour Operators

Hospitality allows for the entertainment of guests at an event in a suite or marquee. An allocation of tickets is normally kept aside for use by sponsors as per their agreement. A further allocation of tickets is kept aside and sold to corporations for them to entertain their guests. At larger events such as RWC and CWC, it is common practise to appoint Official Tour Operators, who are specifically appointed to sell travel packages including tickets to the event.

Publishing Rights
Publishing Rights allow for a publishing house to print and distribute the official event publications.

Media Rights
Media Rights are all rights that apply to broadcasting such as television, radio, video, etc. New Media Rights are rights that have come about with advance technology and these include broadband, internet, mobile rights, etc. There are a number of variables ranging from the rights holders needs, market limitation and impact technology which contributes to the amount and type of Media Rights. Any given transaction has a number of permutations. To illustrate the complexity of media rights I have included a chart which maps out the various permutations available to the rights holder.

Media Rights Cont..

Media Rights are exceptionally important as often they compliment the sponsors objectives, i.e. exposure in different territories through broadcasts. Example: Pepsis sponsorship as a global partner of CWC 2003, seemed a bit odd in a country like SA, where there is no infrastructure and minimal sales of Pepsi. But this sponsorship was actually purchased to reach the Indian Market where over 30 million Pepsi cans are sold everyday. The reach was achieved through the broadcasting of the event.

Rights Protection
Anti-infringement or Ambush Marketing, is the unauthorised association by businesses of their names, brands, products or services with a sports event or competition through any range of marketing activities. The global sponsorship market is continually and rapidly expanding and rights fees for events like Olympics, World Cups, Formula 1 are measured in millions and sometimes billions of dollars. Ambush marketing devalues these rights. It is therefore imperative for the rights holder to have antiinfringement policy in place to protect the exclusive rights of their partners. The protection is applicable to all rights elements.

Valuing Sports Rights

There are a number of variables which contribute towards the value of Sports rights: Level of the Competition/Event Age of the Competition/Event Participants Cost of the running the event Venue Timings Media Coverage Television and Print

Conclusion
As you can see there are a large amount of rights available for exploitation in the world of sport. The value of these rights are dependent on numerous variables which are inter-linked and affect both the rights holder and rights purchaser. In these difficult times sports rights holders therefore need to create packages that offer real value to their partners and maximise their income earning abilities.