Leo Kirch, who holds the German rights to broadcast the
2002 and 2006 World Cups and "has stakes in" German pay TV
nets DF1 and Premiere, "will be required" to broadcast the
World Cup matches on free TV, according to Miriam Hils of
DAILY VARIETY. The leaders of Germany's 16 states have
approved a list of "protected" sporting events which must be
shown "live on free TV," which include the international
soccer championships. Kirch paid $1.87M for rights to the
World Cup (Miriam Hils, DAILY VARIETY, 3/19).
SPORTEL IN MIAMI: In only its second year, TV market
Sportel America "can already lay claim to being an essential
port of call on the itinerary of global sports rights
traders," according to Andrew Paxman of DAILY VARIETY. The
three-day Miami event, a "baby sister" to Sportel Monaco,
saw attendance rise 40% over last year's debut, drawing 700
participants and 57 exhibitors. Last year, Sportel America
had 34 exhibitors. Co-organizer William Vitale said
"[w]ithin two or three years" the event would be "as big as
the one in Monaco." Paxman writes that with this summer's
World Cup approaching, "business was brisk for programmers
hawking formats to complement" World Cup games, with Prisma
striking "big" with its "Champions of the World" docu-series
on soccer-playing nations. Soccer also gave the event its
"one major announcement: the Torneo Copa Merconorte." That
event, which features top clubs from the Americas, including
two U.S. squads, and consists of 54 games between September
and December of this year, is a coproduction between the
South American Soccer Confederation and Teledeportes, a
branch of Argentina's media group Clarin (VARIETY, 3/19).
