Active Rights Management Limited : ARM in Action

With 25 years' experience across all sports around the world.. 12 metres Yachting World Championships – 5 Nations Rugby – All England Netball Association – Alpine Ski World Cup – Amateur Boxing Association of England – Americas Cup – Ascot Racecourse – Asian Basketball – Asian Football – Asian PGA – Australian Rules Football – Australian Soccer Federation – Australian Tennis Federation – Beijing Construction Company - Basketball Venue – Berlin Marathon – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Bislett Track and Field Events – British American Racing – British Basketball League – British Equestrian Federation – British Grand Prix – British Horseracing Board – British Lions – British Supercross – Caltex Cup – Celtic Unions – Cricket World Cup – Davis Cup/Federation Cup/Youth Cup – DWA Motorsports – England and Wales Cricket Board – England National Football Team – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. European Athletic Championships – European Rugby Cup – European Tennis Association – FA Premier League – Federation Internatinale de Bobsleigh and Toboganning – Federation Internationale Automobiles – FIFA – FIM – Football Association – Football Association of Ireland – Football DataCo – Football Expo – Football League – Formula 1 Administration – German National Tennis Team – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Hong Kong FA – IAAF World Series – Ice Skating Union – International Association of Professional Football Players' Unions – International Cricket Council – International Federation of Netball Association – International Hockey Federation – International Ice Hockey Federation – International Motor Sports Association – International Mountaineering Federation – International Roller-skating Federation – International Rowing Federation – International Sailing Federation – International Tennis Federation – International Water-ski Federation – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. International Weightlifting Federation – Irish Rugby Football Union – Judo World Championships – London Marathon – PGA Tour of Australiasia – Professional Footballers' Association – RFU – Richemont - Dunhill Cup – Roller Skating World Champions – Rome Marathon – Rugby World Cup – Rugby World Cup Sevens – Saracens – Scottish Open Golf Championships – Scottish Rugby Union – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. Six Nations – Soccer World Cup – South African Premier League – Super 12 Consortium – The Boat Race – Tour de France – UEFA – Volvo Around the World Race – Welsh Rugby Union – World Amateur Boxing Association – World Championship Athletics – World Cup Golf – World Cup Hockey – World Cycling Championships – World Derby – With 25 years experience across all sports around the world.. World Handball Championships – World Kick Boxing Championships – World Rally Championships – World Rowing Championships – World Snooker – World Squash Federation – World Table Tennis Championships

arm was employed in the spring of 2000 to help the Football League obtain offers for the re-negotiation of their television contract which was coming to an end and to look at their new media rights. In particular, the Football League had identified that it really wanted to be more directly involved. It didn’t just want to grant these rights away. The ideal scenario they were seeking was a share in the future upside of the new media opportunity.

The structure of the deal was a 50/50 joint venture with NTL. They provided significant rights fees upfront. The working capital of the business was covered by NTL and under-written by the parent company. We structured the deal so that the Football League could be actively involved in the way the rights were to develop.

The main areas of interest were the live radio rights and the delayed audiovisual rights. Then, the clubs themselves signed participation agreements to put in their own club content: interviews with the managers and players, photos, club news. Across all the Football League clubs there’s a base of 7 million fans and the idea was to harness the potential of the clubs who were, in their own way, the biggest brands in their communities.

Then in 2002, we began to see the problems with NTL. It went into Chapter 11 in The States. That put at risk the funding to the subsidiary in the UK. So the next part of the process was trying to re-structure the deal to secure the biggest amount of money we could from NTL. We were able to secure a further 5 million for the League and to put into an escrow account sufficient money to run the joint venture for a further two seasons. It secured an important source of revenue and made sure the clubs could continue to build the business at no risk.

We fully accepted that at the end of the two year period, we needed to look at an alternative arrangement. So we re-negotiated, again on behalf of the Football League and the clubs, a final stage of the deal. The Football League took over complete ownership of the company. The Football League retained Premium TV to provide them with technical services and they now run the operation. This business now produces the third most significant commercial deal that the League has negotiated in terms of income and that’s a growing source of income.

It relies on the Football League’s central rights in terms of the coverage of the matches, competitions it organises, the fan base and the club news. As we’ve seen with most media, football is a groundbreaking arena. The mobile sector is now becoming a significant area of growth. In the next two seasons, we’ll see an increased focus on developing the mobile marketplace. We are currently helping the League negotiate with the networks for the mobile rights and looking at ways we can capitalise on what is one of the few new media businesses that is making real money.

Part of the vision when we first looked at setting up this vehicle was that the merging of media – television and the new media – would give us a potential platform for harnessing the power of the fans. It would give us a direct medium of communicating with our own customers and being our own digital publisher for the Football League. We’ve got a real chance, if necessary, to extend that into television. So it’s prepared the League as well as it could be for all of these changes in traditional media as well as the new media. It’s given it a real alternative as to how it could go forward.