MUMBAI: Glory Sports International, the owner and rights holder of the Glory World Series kickboxing championship, has agreed to acquire Dutch-based competitor, ?It?s Showtime,? led by the European fight manager and kickboxing promoter Simon Rutz.

The landmark deal will effectively place all of the world?s top kickboxers, or stand-up fighters, under the same promotional umbrella. GSI will absorb other assets from and take over management of ?It?s Showtime.?

"This is what the world of stand-up fighting has been waiting for - all the top fighters competing in the same series each time to find out who is really the very best,? said GSI MD Marcus Luer, who also owns Asian sports marketing company Total Sports Asia.

The Glory World Series is the world?s premier kickboxing league, staging events across the globe and offering up to $1,000,000 in prize money to successful fighters in the 16-man grand prix tournaments which are open to only the very best fighters in each weight class.

With television deals spanning every continent plus an online streaming system, Glory claims to be the world?s most widely-broadcast sporting organisations already.

"By adding ?It?s Showtime?, Glory has truly established itself as the No. 1 kickboxing league in the world. This is what the fans have been waiting for and we are here to deliver it. Glory will soon announce a new series of events and a modernized tournament format for the rest of the year and for 2013," continued Luer.

Owned and operated by Glory Sports International (GSI), the organisation has offices in Holland, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Its personnel include prominent hedge-fund investors, the pioneering sports marketing agency Total Sport Asia and several executives from the Golden Glory team.

MUMBAI: Malaysia has come out with new guidelines that mandates broadcast rights holders of sports events of ?national significance? to share content with free-to-air channels in order to provide widest possible coverage and enable all citizens to access the content.

The broadcaster who acquired the broadcasting rights to the sports events of national significance shall offer such rights to FTA broadcasters who will have the first right of refusal over the sports events of national significance?s broadcasting rights, the Minister of Communications and Culture said in its notification.

Whenever there are no FTA broadcasters acquiring the broadcasting rights, the broadcasters shall offer such rights to pay-TV broadcasters. The offer of the broadcasting rights shall be based on reasonable commercial terms, the notification added.

Talking to reporters after attending a launch event, IC&C Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said, "Sports that have a mass appeal like the Olympics, badminton, football and other major sporting events would not be allowed to be monopolised by any one station but such broadcast content must be shared."

Among the sporting events that have been accorded the status of national significance includes Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and South East Asian Games.

The broadcasters will also have to share final matches of Badminton events like Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, and BWF Super Series; Football events like AFC Asian Cup, Fifa World Cup and English Premier League among others.

According to analysts in the country, the biggest beneficiary of the new content sharing rules will be Telekom Malaysia while satellite television operator Astro is likely to take a big hit.

Meanwhile, new digital cable TV operator Asian Broadcasting Network has welcomed the new rules contending that the it will lead to a stronger interest in sports among Malaysians.

"We look forward to more comprehensive details on how the collaboration framework could operate in the industry as well as regular regulatory review and industry discussion on how to move this forward," a Telekom Malaysia spokesman said.

MUMBAI: Zee expects to obtain the landing rights in China soon, six years after applying for it.

Having already run a profitable syndication and sales business in China, the Subhash Chandra-promoted media company aims to cater to the audience in the Mandarin country with its entertainment content in the toughest media market in the world.

"We haven?t officially got the landing rights yet. It is work in progress. We expect to get the approval soon," a Zee spokesperson said.

Zee has been pursuing the landing rights in China ever since it applied in 2006.

According to a PTI report, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson has stated that "Zee TV has got the landing rights in China," while briefing reporters on the talks between India?s Foreign Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jeichi.

Indiantelevision.com had earlier reported that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel), India?s leading broadcasting network overseas, was looking at a 9 per cent growth from its international business this fiscal and would see income up from advertising, syndication and other operations while subscription revenue would stay almost flat.

Zeel has paced up its localisation strategy in global markets, which keeps it far ahead of its rivals. Zee Aflam, for instance, has seen reasonable growth and reached break-even status within three years. Other localisation experiments are already on in Malaysia, Russia and, to a limited extent, in France in partnership with Canal.

MUMBAI: Malaysia has stitched 16 deals worth $70 million at the recently concluded Mipcom.

The deals with foreign partners included India, India, the US, Singapore, South Africa, Australia, NZ, UK, Germany, France, Spain, China, Korea and Lebanon. Thee were in the areas of international co-productions, distributions and global product launches.

The companies who engaged with the foreign partners were Animasia Studio, Backbone Entertainment, Cartoon4Kids, Double Vision, Ed-Online Technologies, Escalade, Funcel, InfiniteMotion, Lemon Sky Animation, Payang Group, Sirius Pictures, Tulus Fikir, Vision Animation and Vision New Media. 

Sirius Pictures of Malaysia and Heart Command Films of India have agreed to co-produce a slate of films and documentaries for television and new media platforms. Sesame Workshop has appointed Vision Plus Entertainment of Malaysia to distribute and co-produce localised content for programme catalog of Sesame Street in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, comprising Play with Me Sesame, Elmo?s World, Abby?s Flying Fairy School and Jalan Sesama.

Animasia Studio of Malaysia has signed a production servicing contract with Strika Entertainment to continue the third season of the soccer series ?Supa Strikas? which aits in over 70 countries worldwide, including Disney Asia, ESPN Star Sports, Nickelodeon Asia, Orange and SABC.

Animasia Studio of Malaysia and ZN Animation of China will co-produce an animation series ?My Ugly Little Brother?. Backbone Entertainment of Malaysia, Neonpumkin of Korea and Millimages of UK will co-produce a 3D animated TV series ?Call for ChiChi?.

Cartoon4Kids of Malaysia and Baleuko of Spain will co- roduce a 3D animated TV series ?Smolitoon?. Double Vision of Malaysia and FFP New Media of Germany have agreed to co-produce a tele-movie ?Re-United in Malaysia?. This is the second successive co-production tele-movie project, after ?Rendez-vous in Malaysia?.

Escalade of Malaysia and Latin Media Corporation from the US will co-produce a telenovela drama series ?Only You?Sofea Hana? for the local and global market, promoting Malaysian cultural values and traditions through suspense and mystery, with a strong storyline.

Funcel of Malaysia and August Media of Singapore will co-finance and co-produce a slate of three animated series of 52 episodes each. Funcel will be the animation production partner for the slate of series, while August Media along with its Scottish subsidiary ? Red Kite Animation would be responsible for development, finance, executive production and distribution. The titles of the three series are expected to be announced before the end of the year.

Infinite Motion of Malaysia and DuArt Film And Video of the US will co-produce an undisclosed animation series title, inclusive of script writing and dubbing. Infinite Motion of Malaysia and Three Black Cat of UK will co-produce an animation series ?Ella Brella?.

Lemon Sky Animation of Malaysia, Lion Rock Ventures of NZ and Media Tropics will co-produce a Pre-School animation series ?Buzzy Bee and Friends? that is based on a popular NZ-brand, as seen on TVNZ. Distributed by Australia?s Beyond Distribution, the series is a finalist of this year?s Mipcom Junior?s Kids Jury Award.

Malaysia?s official contingent to Mipcom more than doubled since last year from 30 creative content companies to 75 this year.

The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia joined forces with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Multimedia Development Corporation, in association with the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation to reshape and enhance the local film and digital content industry by exposing multiple content properties to the global marketplace.

The Malaysian contingent?s objective this year was to put innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship at the forefront of the global film and multimedia content supply chain and to make this industry as an engine of growth and contributor to national GDP. Its primary aim is to capitalise on past investments in cellular and data networks, by building the vertical industries, such as the creative content and application industry, as the next engine of growth. The end-result will be to enhance Malaysia?s capacity and capability to create many original, locally produced content and develop competency in content-related services to the regional market.

In regards to strategically and effectively promoting Malaysian content to its fragmented target audience, the Government?s priority will be to allign all its plans to help the local industry create a greater presence in the local and international broadcast market with a special focus on global IP development through formalisation of international co-production deals and partnerships with international distributors.