January 2008

Baseball
The Kansas City Royals announced the signing of Japanese RHP Hideo Nomo (38) to a minor league contract worth $600,000 for making the roster and a chance to earn $100,000 in performance bonuses. (MLB Press Release, 1/4/08)

The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed veteran Japanese RHP Masumi Kuwata (40) to a minor league contract in a return to the Pirates organization after he made his major league debut on 6/10/07 and finished with a 0-1 record with a 9.43 ERA in 19 relief appearances. (JapanBall.com,
1/10/08)

The Chicago Cubs announced the signing of former Yakult Swallows RHP Shingo Takatsu (39) to a minor league contract. Takatsu, the all-time saves record holder in Japan with 286, played in the majors in 2004-2005 with the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets with a combined record of 8-6 with 27 saves and a 3.38 earned run average. (JapanBall.com, 1/23/08)

EMC, a data storage and management company, announced an expansion of its partnership with the Boston Red Sox to include the team's regular season opening series in Japan. The centerpiece of the sponsorship is a commemorative sleeve patch featuring EMC's logo on the team's jerseys, the first corporate logo ever to grace the team's uniform. EMC also becomes an official sponsor of MLB in Japan, part of its fastest-growing market throughout most of 2007. (JapanBall.com, 1/23/08)

The Seattle Mariners have signed RHP Kenta Suda (18) to a minor-league contract. In 2007, Suda pitched for the Nomo Baseball Club, a nonprofit amateur team in Osaka, established by pitcher Hideo Nomo. (JapanBall.com, 1/23/08)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Basketball
Kia Motors America and the NBA have agreed to a new multi-year marketing partnership that designates Kia as the Official Automotive Partner of the NBA. It is the first ever multi-year marketing partnership deal that Kia Motors America has entered into with any sports league. Under the deal, Kia Motors will present a new series of on-court performance awards that include four of the NBA's most prestigious year-end honors, including the Most Valuable Player Award, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man Award, and Most Improved Player, which will be grouped together into a single series called "The NBA Performance Awards Presented by Kia." The deal was negotiated on behalf of Kia Motors America by IMG. (SportBusiness.com, 1/14/08)

Disney, Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-Shing and three Chinese financiers have invested $253 million in NBA China, a new sports rights body that aims to harness the huge popularity of basketball in China. The investors stake buys them 11% of NBA China and gives an initial value of $2.3 billion for NBA China. Disney is buying 5% while the Li Ka-Shing Foundation, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and Legend Holdings, parent of computer giant Lenovo, split the remaining 6%. NBA China will have the right to create teams in China, and will own all broadcasting rights and merchandising, and in an unusual move in China, it will retain some ownership in teams created in the country. In related news, Chinese New Year celebrations which begin in February will see the launch of "Kung Fu Dunk," a basketball-martial arts movie starring pop music sensation Jay Chou and is expected to be one of the biggest Chinese-language movies of the year. As for Li, who owns stakes in numerous media groups including Tom.com and Golden Harvest, he recently paid over $60 million for a slice of social networking website Facebook. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 1/15/08)

The NBA and Turner Sports are expected to announce a deal for Turner to manage the league's digital properties, including the 24-hour cable channel NBA TV. The NBA would still own the properties but hand over the day-to-day operations to Turner Sports, which has been a NBA TV partner for 20 years and also runs such digital properties as NASCAR.com and PGAtour.com. (HollywoodReporter.com, 1/17/08)

The NBA will stage its first-ever event in India with "Basketball without Borders", the league's global basketball development and community outreach program, in New Delhi from 7/3-6/08. Top young basketball players (ages 19 and under) from across Asia will come together in New Delhi to take part in basketball instruction and competition, and participate in motivational and life-skills seminars that promote education, leadership, character development and healthy living. (SportBusiness.com, 1/24/08)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other Sports
English Premier League soccer team Derby County has been acquired by General Sports and Entertainment (GSE), a Detroit-based firm which owns several minor league basketball and hockey teams, in a deal estimated at $100M. Tom Glick, a former chief marketing officer for the New Jersey Nets, will be brought in as a new president and chief executive. (ProSportsGroup.com, 1/28/08)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
China
Baidu, the most popular Chinese-language Internet search engine, has launched a Japanese service, its first local-language service outside China, which will focus on search engines for mobile phones. The search engine has double the market share of Google in China. In Japan, it will compete against Google and Yahoo's Japanese subsidiary. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 1/24/08)

China Sports Industry International (CSII) and Tickets.com, an event ticketing solutions company, have agreed to a joint-venture to provide ticketing and ticketing-related services for sports and associated markets in China. The companies intend to open an office in Beijing during the first quarter of 2008 to provide sales, support and technical services. CSII negotiates sports sponsorships, manages major sports events and provides international sports public relations services in China under the auspices of the State General Administration of Sports, the governmental agency in charge of sports in China. (SportBusiness.com, 1/30/08)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
India
Desi Hits, a South Asian entertainment portal that features celebrity interviews, music videos, podcasts and blogs, announced that it has raised $5 million in its second round of financing, from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Trident Capital and D.E. Shaw Group. San Francisco-based Desi Hits targets the world's South Asian (India), or "Desi" youth culture, and claims more than 10 million hits per month. (Digital Media Wire, 1/22/08)

NBC Universal agreed to pay $150 million for an initial 26% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) Networks, a leading Indian news broadcaster. The deal includes lifestyle channel NDTV Good Times, Hindi-language general entertainment net NDTV Imagine, channel consultancy business NDTV Emerging Markets, digital media business NDTV Convergence, media tech unit NDTV Labs and NGEN, a media processes outsourcing company. The Indian TV market is expected to grow at 16% annually moving forward. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 1/22/08)

World Sport Group and Sony Entertainment India acquired the global TV rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), a new 20/20 format, in a 10-year deal worth $1.026 billion by outbidding Network Solutions Pvt., a consortium led by NDTV and ESPN-Star Sports. Eight IPL franchises will play 59 matches in 44 days starting 4/18/08. (SportBusiness.com, 1/22/08)