Thursday, 14th December 2006

INFO DIGEST

Info Box – NASCAR
* NASCAR was formed by racer Bill France in 1948 and stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing
* Several NASCAR pioneers were admitted ‘moonshiners’, producing bootleg alcohol in the Prohibition era
* Cell phone giant Nextel took over from tobacco company Winston in sponsoring the Champions’ Cup in 2003
* A 1990 motion picture about stock car racing, “Days Of Thunder”, grossed $82m dollars domestically
* ‘NASCAR dad’ is a recent typification of a caucasian working-class father likely to support the Republican Party
Source: Infostrada, December 2006

Info Box – Productivity on the Move
* A recent survey by Sprint of wireless phone users found that Monday is the most productive day of the week, as selected by 27% of respondents
* Productivity decreases as the week progresses: Tuesday (18%), Wednesday (17%), Thursday (12%), Friday (11%), Saturday (10%) and Sunday (5%)
* 93% of wireless phone subscribers bring work-related mobile phones on vacation, 73% have achieved work-life balance (a meaningful daily achievement and enjoyment in one's home and working lives), and 67% are more productive today than two years ago
* 84% or respondents say technology is vital to their productivity, with 35% saying they could not accomplish what they do without technology, all according to. 82% of respondents report using technology to make their downtime more enjoyable
* 36% of respondents said that productivity was maximizing their life by making the most of their time in and out of work, while 25% felt it was completing tasks in a timely manner
* 14% of respondents report already giving up their landline to exclusively use their mobile phone, and an additional 32% say they are likely to give up their landline in favor of their mobile phone
* Of those respondents with both a landline and mobile phone, 51% would like one voice mailbox for both phone lines.
Source: Info IQ, 13th December 2006


SPORTS SHORTS

* The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has extended its agreement with IMG to market and distribute the IAAF’s television magazine, Athletix, through to 2009. In 2007, Athletix will grow to 24 programmes of 26 minutes each (from 20 this year). The new season will begin next May. In 2006, Athletix was distributed in more than 80 countries and territories. Source: Sports Media, 13th December 2006

* Brazil will officially launch its bid to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup today. The Brazil Football Confederation (CBF) has confirmed they will notify FIFA of their intentions. Courtesy of the rotation policy means South America is assured of the event after South Africa hosts 2010. CBF president Ricardo Teixeira will meet FIFA officials during the Club World Cup in Japan. If no other South American candidate puts forward a bid by the Monday deadline, Brazil will be the sole candidate to host the tournament. Brazil last hosted the event in 1950. Source: Sport Business, Sport Media, United Press International, 13th December 2006

* The Canadian Football League (CFL) is close to reaching a TV deal with TSN and perhaps also CTV, both of which are owned by Bell Globemedia. Phil King, the president of TSN, refused to comment on a new rights deal, believed to be worth about $15-million annually. In 2003, TSN became CFL's master licensee by acquiring broadcast rights in a five-year deal worth about $10-million annually Getting shut out of the CFL rights is a blow to the CBC, which is also competing against Globemedia for National Hockey League rights. Source: Globe & Mail, 13th December 2006

* Under terms of four new network deals this year, each National Football League (NFL) team will annually earn more than $120 million in shared TV money. The league negotiated various deals with CBS, NBC, FOX, and Disney and ended up with a six-year, $24 billion broadcast and cable rights contract. The television deals end in 2011. Additionally, DirecTV will pay $700 million every year through 2010 for its Sunday Ticket package. Source: The New York Sun, 13th December 2006


MORE NEWS

Don King: Eyes Promotion of Pacman-Barrera II

IF negotiations for a Marco Antoino Barrera-Manny Pacquiao II fight between the warring Top Rank Promotions (TPR) and the Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) fail, one of boxing’s most controversial figure could step in - Don King. The World Boxing Council earlier ordered the camp of Barrera (GBP) and Pacquiao (TPR) to start negotiating for the fight and if no agreement is reached, the WBC will order a purse bidding on Jan. 12.

The two camps, led by Bob Arum and Oscar “Golden Boy” dela Hoya are at odds over the flip-flopping of Pacquiao, who demolished Erik “El Terrible” Morales in just three rounds last Nov. If both camps are to be believed, Pacquiao has signed a seven-fight contract with GBP and a four-year contract with TPR. As for King, the controversial boxing figure is reportedly keen on winning the right for the Pacquiao fight.

Boxingconfidential.com reported yesterday that “A source close to Don King informed Boxing Confidential that King will make a major push to win the Jan. 12 bid and promote the event between Barrera and Pacquiao.” The report cited a confidential source reportedly close to Don King’s camp. Source: Sun Star Cebu, 14th December 2006

India/Broadcaster: Bharti Likely to Enter DTH Arena

The direct-to-home (DTH) space is set to get more crowded in India with the telecom majors planning to join the fray in addition to their IPTV gameplan. Bharti Group is the latest player to show interest in an arena which will be occupied by Kalanithi Maran's Sun Direct and Anil Ambani's Reliance Group next year along with existing DTH operators Dish TV, Tata Sky and Doordarshan's DD Direct Plus. Bharati, however, has not yet applied for a DTH licence.

Bharti had preliminary discussions with Indian Space Research Orgainsation (ISRO) officials. With several players interested to kick off DTH operations, ISRO is finding it a challenge to meet the growing demand for Ku-band transponders. Meanwhile, Reliance is launching DTH under the Bluemagic brand and has roped in former Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna to head the operations.

A formula now being worked upon by telcos to have a DTH footprint as well as IPTV which would give them access to homes for delivering video content. However, while telecom companies in India have chalked out ambitious triple play plans, they have not yet managed to sort out the technical issues. Last mile access to customer homes has remained a big hurdle and private telcos, who have built a strong mobile phone business, have even looked at striking alliances with local cable operators. On the content front, there is no regulatory clarity yet for IPTV rights. Source: Indian Television, 13th December 2006

Elsewhere/Rights: Austar Splits on AFL Deal

Pay-television provider Austar is close to reaching a deal with the AFL rights holders, the Seven and Ten networks, to provide a regional AFL coverage next year. The move, expected to be confirmed in the next few days, will increase pressure on the dominant pay-TV operator, Foxtel, to reach a similar agreement covering the nation's capital cities.

Foxtel is already under heavy pressure from the AFL to lift its offer of $45million for four live games a week in the 2007 season. Reports have been circulating for the past two weeks that new negotiations were under way after a year of fruitless discussions and a last-minute agreement was possible. It now has emerged that the new negotiations involved Austar, which services all regions outside the capital cities and the Gold Coast.

In January this year the Seven-Ten consortium matched a bid of $780million made by Nine Network owner Publishing and Broadcasting Limited to snare the rights from 2007 to 2011. It offered to sell pay-TV rights to Foxtel for $60 million a year but Foxtel has refused to budge beyond $45 million a year. Foxtel has already closed its dedicated Footy Channel, saying AFL would be shown on Fox Sports 3 if any deal were made. Source: The Australian, 14th December 2006


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Wenger Worried About the Future of Football

English Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is concerned about the future of English football if the Premier League clubs continue to sell to foreign owners. "At the moment the point is the love of the game," Wenger told a news conference at the club's training ground. "Once it becomes investment only, then you have some different ingredients that are not necessarily for the love of the game, or the good of the game."

"It looks as if we have gone from one period to a new one with more people who look at it as an investment -- where they want to be paid back quickly." Wenger said the days of Englishmen buying clubs for the love of the game is gone and he is troubled about the future. "What was traditionally true in England is that the people who were the owners were the supporters.

The biggest example was at Blackburn where a guy called Jack Walker, who was a passionate supporter of the club, was in charge. "Walker ploughed the wealth he made from the steel industry into Rovers and they won the Premier League title in 1995. "What happened, chronologically, was he was a supporter, he became wealthy and he fulfilled his dream by buying the club of his dreams," said Wenger.

English Liverpool may be the next Premier League club that would be taken over by foreign backers. Dubai International Capital is in talks about investing what British newspapers report could be up to GBP 450 million. Wenger is afraid the Premier League could lose its competitive streak if too many clubs take up the lead set by champions English Chelsea, which is owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

"Once the financial potential of the club goes above their natural resources we will be in trouble. At the moment, we can do it because only Chelsea has those resources. But once three or four have that, are you dead? If today you go into football and think 'I have 100 million pounds available and could put that into Arsenal Football Club to make 200 million', it looks very dangerous -- both for football and for the club. To find people who put millions into a club and are prepared to lose their money, you must be lucky." Source: EUFootball.biz, 14th December 2006

How In-Stat Looked Out at Technology in 2007

General
* Wireless USB becomes a reality on PCs—even on the motherboard—by the end of 2007. UWB is the underlying technology.
* Macintosh will gain market share as people realize that Intel-based Macs can make better Windows PCs than many Windows PCs.

Mobile
* Mobile carriers will make several attempts at providing advertising due largely to eagerness by large national advertisers. Revenues will remain very small as carriers, advertisers, and users try to determine the best format as well as pricing schemes that aren't based on traditional "cost per thousand" formulas.

Asia
* High Definition TV programming will become available via broadband internet. Countries that provide very high speed broadband services, such as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, can deliver 10GB HDTV files quickly and technology advancements will be able to begin delivering HDTV files over their ultra-high-speed Internet services.
* The advanced mobile markets like Japan and South Korea will see a lot more dual-mode handsets as wireless broadband offerings increase, from both incumbent and emerging operators. Carriers will launch faster yet cheaper Internet access on the go.
* The first few WiMAX business cases will emerge in Asia beside Wibro in Korea. By 2007, we should be able to identify how operators price their services and how customers react to wireless broadband.
* HDTV services will receive wide interest in 2007 in regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and China. These services will be mainly initiated and driven by regulatory pushes.
* IPTV will continue to gain momentum in South East Asian emerging markets, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even India in South Asia.
* iTunes and Real Networks may expand their online music shop services into one or two more countries in the Asia/Pacific region, aside from their current operations in Japan and Korea respectively.
* India and Vietnam continue to be the hot investment target counties in the electronics and semiconductor industries.

China
* 3G Licenses will finally be released as the Minister of the MII, Mr. Wang Xudong, has claimed that 3G service will be used at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It is estimated that it will take from six months to one year to ready the 3G infrastructure so it will be able to provide services at that time.
* Major Telecom operators are going to be re-organized: possibly China Unicom will be split into two parts and merge with China Telecom and China Netcom, respectively.
* Final commercial trial of TD-SCDMA is currently ongoing in China. China Mobile, China Telecom and China Netcom will be issued 3G licenses: for TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, and CDMA2000. This is the most likely scenario to date, but there are still possible surprises ahead. Estimated total capital expenditure may hit US$15–20 billion in the next three years.
* Reorganization among the China Telcos will take place. Only three 3G licenses, instead of the originally announced four, will be issued to avoid resource waste in the 3G infrastructure. Additionally, as China Unicom currently owns two 2G networks, it is felt that infrastructure should be instead assigned to two separate carriers to realize cost benefits.
* China's GSM Network will upgrade to "edge." China Mobile's GPRS network is lower than CDMA 1X on the data transmission. Edge will provide a stopgap alternative before 3G infrastructure achieves national coverage. China Mobile will undertake the establishment of TD-SCDMA; enhancing the data capability of GSM is an effective way to decrease the demand on TD.
* Cable Carriers' 2-way DTV network reconstruction will impact the IPTV market. The 2-way DTV can provide VoIP, data, VoD and other interactive services. There are 600,000 IPTV subscribers in China at present; however 2-way DTV subscribers number more than 300,000.
* Handheld GPS devices boom in 2007. GPS is a new application on smartphones and PDAs in China and the industry is ready. Participating carriers include China Mobile and China Unicom. Additionally, there is a large subscriber base of 300 million mobile users and more than 50 million cars. Rapid urbanization and more and more complex traffic situations are also adding to the adoption of GPS devices. Excerpts from In-Stat Predictions 2007 White Paper, 12th December 2006