The Soccerphile World Cup 2002 Archives Click here to go to the current Soccerphile.com
Kirch Media, the German company that owns the TV rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups was declared insolvent April 8 with debts estimated at US$5.7 billion, but the World Cup rights were transferred to its to a
fully-owned, Swiss-based subsidiary KirchSport before the ruling, thus
protecting the rights, valued at US$1.7 billion, from the German bankruptcy courts.
"It means we will be able to ensure that all broadcast operations
regarding
2002 will take place as planned," Andreas Herren, a FIFA spokesman
told the press.
Under Kirch's contract with FIFA, the World Cup rights would revert to
the governing body in the case of insolvency.
The rights for the 2006 World Cup in Germany may now renegotiated amongst Kirch's competitors including Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Silvio
Berlusconi's Mediaset. The future is not bright for Germany's
Bundesliga clubs who relied heavily on Kirch's money or for some 10,000 Kirch employees who face being laid off. The collapse of the Kirch media empire follows hard on the heels of the demise of ITV Digital – the UK pay for view broadcaster and news that ITV is struggling to find a major sponsor for its terrestrial World Cup coverage.
China Says ‘Yes'
China's State-run Central Television has purchased the rights to broadcast the 2002 and 2006 World Cups from the Kirch Group and anticipates huge armchair audiences as the Chinese national team makes its first appearance
at this year's tournament.
CCTV bought the rights for an undisclosed fee from the Kirch Group before
the demise of the German broadcaster and will screen all 64 matches from
Korea and Japan.
Australian TV
Australian national broadcaster SBC also secured the rights to screen 48 World Cup games from KirchMedia for a cut-price US$3m before the German media giant faced bankruptcy proceedings. Competitor Channel 9 will screen just 16 matches including the semi-finals, final and six first round games.
The first World Cup to be held in Asia guarantees a massive TV audience in Asia itself, with none of the unsocial viewing hours that armchair fans in Europe and the Americas will need to endure. However, the high cost of the coverage will mean some cash-strapped viewers without access to pay-per-view TV look likely to miss out.
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