MUMBAI: Asia?s leading sports content provider ESPN Star Sports has extended its agreement to broadcast the FIM Superbike World Championship across Asia until 2018.

The broadcast agreement includes pay-TV rights for live and delayed races as well as race highlights, in addition to rights for free-to-air broadcast in most markets.

The deal also includes rights for online and mobile coverage via ESPN Player and Mobile ESPN. The broadcast rights cover ESPN Star Sports? footprint including India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

In the future, the World Superbike calendar will feature two new races - India from 2013 and possibly Indonesia from 2014 onwards - that will be sure to bolster interest in Asia.

ESS VP Programming Nick Wilkinson said, "We are delighted to continue our partnership with World Superbike to continue showcasing the best of motorsport to fans in Asia. ESPN Star Sports is Asia?s home for motorsports and with our stellar line-up of leading sports events, this new partnership underscores our commitment to serve our viewers with top quality sport programming."

MUMBAI: Maria Sharapova has emerged as the top most earning female athlete for the eighth year in a row, according to Forbes list of World?s Highest-Paid Female Athletes.

Incidentally, the top 10 list is dominated by Tennis players with as many as seven of them making it to the top 10.

The 25-year-old French Open champion earned an estimated $27.1 million from July 2011-July 2012. A large chunk of that revenue comes from brand endorsements followed by prize money.

China?s Li Na doubled her earnings to $18.4 million from $8 million in last year?s survey due to her victory in 2011 French Open. Li Na had moved to world number 11 due to her French Open win.

Third on the list is Serena Williams with earnings of $16.3 million followed by Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark with $13.7 million.

Other Tennis players in the top 10 are current world number one tennis player Victoria Azarenka ($9.7 million) of Belarus, Ana Ivanovic ($7.2 million) of Serbia and Poland?s Agnieszka Radwanska ($6.9 million).

Only three non-tennis players figure in top 10 which includes NASCAR?s Danica Patrick at fifth spot with $13 million earnings. South Korea?s women?s Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na was at seventh with $9 million of earnings while Taiwanese world number one golfer Yani Tseng was 10th with $6.1 million.

Top five women earners:

1. Maria Sharapova, tennis, $27.1 million.
2. Li Na, tennis, $18.4 million.
3. Serena Williams, tennis, 16.3 million.
4. Caroline Wozniacki, tennis, $13.7 million.
5. Danica Patrick, motor racing, $13 million.

MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enteprises Ltd (Zeel) expects its advertising revenue to improve this fiscal despite trends of a softening due to market share gains of its channels, including flagship channel Zee TV.

The Subhash Chandra-promoted company forecasts industry to grow at 8-10 per cent due to a weakness in overall ad spends while its own progress this fiscal would be faster. Since there is an uptick in ratings, this should get reflected in more ad revenues this year.

Zeel?s ad revenues in FY?12 degrew 6.8 per cent to Rs 15.84 billion compared to Rs 17.01 billion a year ago.

The company?s subscription revenue will continue to see strong growth, aided by Media Pro, the joint venture channel distribution company between Zee-Turner and Star Den. Zeel is looking at subscription income growth in the mid-tweens without factoring in digitisation in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

After the formation of Media Pro, most of the distribution deals with cable TV operators and DTH service providers will come up for renewal this year.

Domestic subscription for FY?12 was Rs 9.22 billion, up 28.4 per cent up from Rs Rs 7.18 billion a year ago.This is, however, not comparable because Q4 FY?12 numbers include an amount of Rs 506 million representing 50 per cent share of net revenues of MediaPro when consolidated under joint venture accounting. This amount of Rs 506 million considered in this quarter pertains to nine month period from July 2011 to March 2012.

Zeel is planning to launch a new Arabic language channel so that it can tap advertising revenues in that market. It already runs Zee Aflam in the Middle East.

The company has got landing rights in China. It will continue to follow a localisation of content strategy in many geographies across the world so that it can monetise ad revenues. Earlier, Zeel had a subscription revenue model in international markets.

Zee TV plans to increase its original hours of programming to 35 hours within six months, even if the ad market doesn?t improve. The content and marketing costs will, thus, continue to show an upward trend.

Zeel sees an opportunity to ramp up investments in Tamil Nadu after Sun Group has lost its stranglehold with the Jayalalithaa-government floating the state-owned Arasu Cable. The company plans to relaunch its Tamil channel, Zee Tamizh.

Zeel does not plan to launch a second Hindi movie channel, like rival Star has done. After a period of lull, the company was aggressive in movie acquisitions in FY?12. As there are not many current year new releases available for purchase, it will continue to invest in acquiring future movie projects.

MUMBAI: IMG Worldwide and Dogus, Group, one of Turkey?s largest private sector conglomerates, are forming an equal joint venture company in Turkey.

The purpose of the JV between Dogus, and IMG will be to create and develop a broad range of sports, fashion and entertainment projects to be implemented in Turkey and the Turkic Republics including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In India, Reliance Industries Ltd. has a 50:50 JV with IMG, a global sports, fashion and entertainment company. The JV has 30-year rights for basketball and 15-year rights for football.

The joint venture in Turkey is part of the continuing transformation of IMG as a global presence in high-growth geographic areas with high profile, successful partners in each of the countries where they have established relationships. The company now has joint ventures in Brazil with EBX Group and in China with CCTV.

Initial plans for the JV in Turkey include the creation of sports academies, camps and clinics; the building, construction, ownership and operation of stadiums, sports and entertainment venues; staging, representing, managing, owning and selling fashion related events; representation for sale of sports media and sponsorship rights; and staging, representation, management, ownership and sale of sports and events including football, tennis, sailing regattas, golf, motor racing, action sports, beach games, mass participation events, cycling, triathlons among others.

The JV has been agreed to and signed by Dogus chairman Ferit Sahenk, one of the country?s most successful businessmen, and IMG chairman and CEO Mike Dolan.

Says Dolan, "Turkey is now playing a significantly greater role in the world of sports and entertainment. We believe that we have a number of outstanding opportunities ahead of us here in Turkey. We have a vision ? to bring together IMG?s global reach and proven expertise in high profile sporting events, stadia management, fashion events and media rights, with the impressive reach of one of Turkey?s most successful conglomerates, Dogus, Group."

Adds Dogus Holding chairman S,ahenk, "As part of this joint venture agreement we signed with IMG, we aim to establish a fully equipped sports school with a professional team, in order to raise world class athletes. Thanks to our venture with IMG, we are setting our sights on forming a brand-new structure, where young athletes coming from all over Turkey will be trained and raised as world-class athletes. The athletes will be able to compete and successfully represent Turkey in the global arena. The athletic training will be accompanied with foreign language and academic education."