Djani
21-03-2014, 16:22
SINGAPORE — When Patrick Murphy took charge of the sale of media rights for UEFA’s Champions League in 2001, revenues per year were just over €100 million (S$176 million).
After exactly 12 years at the helm, he had boosted the European football governing body’s coffers to more than €1.8 billion a season.
Armed with a global contact list of key broadcast decision-makers, Murphy is looking for new challenges and has picked One FC as his next target.
The mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter came into his sights after he left Zurich last year and moved to Hong Kong, which his wife Rebecca Ngan calls home, to start the Catalyst Media Group.
Speaking from the Chinese territory, Murphy told TODAY that he decided on the Singapore-based property after carefully consulting authoritative data on their sport.
He said it has the right Asian content that he wants to sell to the world’s television networks and, as a result, deals are being negotiated.
“The reality is Asians are very good at some sports such as table tennis, badminton and gymnastics, but does anybody really care about those sports outside of Asia?” the Irishman asked.
“If you look from a business point of view that I want to bring Asian content to the world, and if you look at the fact that Asia is really the home of martial arts, all those things made One FC an attractive proposition for me.”
Even more compelling, said Murphy, is the data on global interest in MMA.
In a survey across 23 countries conducted by leading sports research firm Repucom, football still leads with 41 per cent followed by Formula One, among 22 per cent of the 23,023 respondents.
Close behind with 18 per cent is MMA and the Catalyst boss said it is a sport that is catching up fast among global fans.
According to him, global TV rights for MMA in Asia will be worth at least US$1 billion (S$1.2 billion) within three years and he wants to carve out a handsome slice for One FC.
“If you look at Formula One, it is valued between US$8 billion and US$10 billion, and the level of interest in it across all the countries surveyed is pretty similar to MMA,” he said.
“That is why I am convinced MMA is a multi-billion business. Question is, how is that shared out?”
With UFC, the world’s top MMA property, muscling into the continent with events staged already in Japan, Macau and Singapore, One FC — which started operations only in 2011 — faces a stiff challenge for the Asian market. This is especially because pundits predict it will not be long before the longer-established UFC conquers the continent the way they have done in the Americas and Europe.
But that does not deter Murphy, who said UFC emerged from the US and from a different kind of culture, and the majority of their fighters are Caucasians, although local fighters are increasingly featured in their regional events.
Still, he is betting on One FC’s Asian origins and stable of some of the continent’s best fighters to be key selling points in the broadcast rights battle. “While there may be less interest outside of Asia in watching Asians playing football or driving an F1 car, there is a lot of natural interest in them when it comes to martial arts,” said Murphy.
“So the reception that we got from the international broadcasting community has been extremely good. We are in the middle of negotiating a lot of deals from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Australasia, and all the signs are that we are going to be a very successful TV property.”
While the big pull for One FC is that Catalyst is pitching authentic Asian content to TV broadcasters, their calling card is Murphy and the invaluable contacts his team cultivated while raising the Champions League’s value.
“In selling those rights, we worked with the leading broadcasters in the world and established good relationships, and we have the experience.”
http://www.todayonline.com/sports/murphy-makes-case-one-fc?page=1
After exactly 12 years at the helm, he had boosted the European football governing body’s coffers to more than €1.8 billion a season.
Armed with a global contact list of key broadcast decision-makers, Murphy is looking for new challenges and has picked One FC as his next target.
The mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter came into his sights after he left Zurich last year and moved to Hong Kong, which his wife Rebecca Ngan calls home, to start the Catalyst Media Group.
Speaking from the Chinese territory, Murphy told TODAY that he decided on the Singapore-based property after carefully consulting authoritative data on their sport.
He said it has the right Asian content that he wants to sell to the world’s television networks and, as a result, deals are being negotiated.
“The reality is Asians are very good at some sports such as table tennis, badminton and gymnastics, but does anybody really care about those sports outside of Asia?” the Irishman asked.
“If you look from a business point of view that I want to bring Asian content to the world, and if you look at the fact that Asia is really the home of martial arts, all those things made One FC an attractive proposition for me.”
Even more compelling, said Murphy, is the data on global interest in MMA.
In a survey across 23 countries conducted by leading sports research firm Repucom, football still leads with 41 per cent followed by Formula One, among 22 per cent of the 23,023 respondents.
Close behind with 18 per cent is MMA and the Catalyst boss said it is a sport that is catching up fast among global fans.
According to him, global TV rights for MMA in Asia will be worth at least US$1 billion (S$1.2 billion) within three years and he wants to carve out a handsome slice for One FC.
“If you look at Formula One, it is valued between US$8 billion and US$10 billion, and the level of interest in it across all the countries surveyed is pretty similar to MMA,” he said.
“That is why I am convinced MMA is a multi-billion business. Question is, how is that shared out?”
With UFC, the world’s top MMA property, muscling into the continent with events staged already in Japan, Macau and Singapore, One FC — which started operations only in 2011 — faces a stiff challenge for the Asian market. This is especially because pundits predict it will not be long before the longer-established UFC conquers the continent the way they have done in the Americas and Europe.
But that does not deter Murphy, who said UFC emerged from the US and from a different kind of culture, and the majority of their fighters are Caucasians, although local fighters are increasingly featured in their regional events.
Still, he is betting on One FC’s Asian origins and stable of some of the continent’s best fighters to be key selling points in the broadcast rights battle. “While there may be less interest outside of Asia in watching Asians playing football or driving an F1 car, there is a lot of natural interest in them when it comes to martial arts,” said Murphy.
“So the reception that we got from the international broadcasting community has been extremely good. We are in the middle of negotiating a lot of deals from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Australasia, and all the signs are that we are going to be a very successful TV property.”
While the big pull for One FC is that Catalyst is pitching authentic Asian content to TV broadcasters, their calling card is Murphy and the invaluable contacts his team cultivated while raising the Champions League’s value.
“In selling those rights, we worked with the leading broadcasters in the world and established good relationships, and we have the experience.”
http://www.todayonline.com/sports/murphy-makes-case-one-fc?page=1