Tuesday, 13th February 2007

INFO DIGEST

Top 5 HD Markets in 2011*

- USA: 27,715 62,856
- Japan 9,623 28,917
- China 2,522 10,339
- UK 2,031 8,803
- Germany 611 7,153
* Number of homes
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media published on Rapid TV News

Asia-Pacific Mobile Video Revenues (US$)

* 2004: $40.6 million
* 2005: $107.0 million
* 2006: $329.1 million
* 2007: $884.0 million (projection)
* 2008: $1,802.0 million (projection)
* 2009: $2,534.0 million (projection)
* 2010: $3,143.2 million (projection)
Source: In-Stat published on Rapid TV News


SPORTS SHORTS

* Thailand’s only independent broadcaster iTV is facing immediate bankruptcy after the country’s Prime Minister said Friday that it had to stump up its overdue Baht 2.2 billion licence concession fee due on January 29. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont says that once iTV pays its concession fee then his office is prepared to talk about other issues later. ITV is controlled by the Shin Corporation, founded by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th January 2007

* Although the world’s first commercial DVB-H service, 3 Italia, failed to meet its 500,000-subscriber end-2006 target, the company will spread its expertise in launching DVB-H, agreeing to advise Malaysia’s Astro and Maxis for an upcoming three month mobile TV trial. The trial will start mid-2007, involving subscribers of Maxis in Kuala Lumpur. Six digital television channels will be provided by Astro, which operates an 8 million-subscriber DTH platform. Commercial launch of the service is scheduled by the end of 2007. Source: Rapid TV, 13th February 2007

* London-based ROK Entertainment launched its patent-pending 2.5G mobile television service in Thailand on the network of mobile operator AIS, claiming it as the country’s first mobile TV offering. AIS has some 16 million subscribers and is aiming to sign up one million to the TV service during the first year of operation. There are 20 channels English and Thai-language available, of which three are free. Deployment in China with China Mobile is also slated. Source: Rapid TV News, 5th February, 2007

* ESPN and Star Sports have gone off the air in mainland China after their broadcasting licences were not renewed by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television 10 days ago. The channels, which broadcast only to hotels and overseas’ residents homes, were the only western channels not to be given permission to carry on broadcasting. No reason has been given for the move. Speculation has put the move variously down to a clash with a local channel, Guangdong TV, which outbid ESPN for EPL rights, or an anti-News Corp move, or an administrative mix-up. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th January 2007

* South Korean telco KT Corp has received mixed results from a trial last November and December of broadcast TV IPTV services, with half of the 239 homes involved saying they would pay for the service but just under 19% saying they would not. The trial offered some 29 channels including rebroadcast of Korea’s terrestrial channels and HD services but VOD was deemed the most valuable offering, with the trial offering some 2,500 movies. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th January 2007

* Bahrain-based Orbit and rival Dubai-based Showtime Arabia are both known to be installing HDTV equipment in readiness for this coming autumn. The first HDTV broadcaster is Arab Radio & Television, who showcased the 2006 World Cup in HD to a few test receivers. ArabSat has also run trial transmissions. However, there is little doubt that interest in high-def is gathering pace. Source: Rapid TV News, 5th February 2007

* The board of directors at Mediaset are set to ask the association of football clubs, Lega Calcio, to re-discuss the economic terms of the free TV rights contract it signed in 2005, valued at €65 million per season for three years. According to Mediaset, the lack of interest of viewers on free TV for football is the result of the boom of digital television in Italy and of the last season scandals that penalized the two major football clubs in the country: Juventus, now playing in Serie B, and AC Milan. Source: Rapid TV News, 1st February 2007

* Foxtel has reportedly struck a deal with free-to-air Ausssie rivals Seven and Ten Networks for the sub-licensing of rights to Australian Rules Football (AFL). Foxtel and regional pay-TV provider Austar will show four matches a week for a reported A$50 million a year (A$45 million from Foxtel), plus Foxtel taking on some production costs and A$10 million-worth of contra-advertising. Source: Rapid TV News, 2nd February 2007

* 11 FIFA members have officially expressed interest in hosting the 2008 or the 2009 edition of the Beach Soccer World Cup. France, Mauritius, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have all made their interest known. Rio de Janeiro staged the event in 2005 and 2006, and will once more be the host in 2007. Source: Football Insider, 12th February, 2007

* UK-based specialist information company Electric Word, publisher of Sport Business, has bought Ark Sports, a specialist conference, research and news business in the sport and technology sector, for about $175K. Ark Sports runs Sport and Technology news and info website, among other things. Ark Sports reported a loss after tax and dividends of $23K on turnover of $153K in the year to March 31, 2006. More info in the PDF release. Source: Paid Content News, 11th February 2007

* ESPN launches its first made-for-online version of an ESPN television show with the SportsCenter Minute on ESPN.com today. The online show, using commentators from the SportCenter TV programme, will be available daily from 06:00 in the morning. A Spanish-language version also starts today at espndeportes.com. Source: Sports Media, 12th February 2007

* MediaFlo USA, a subsidiary of Qualcomm has signed a deal with US sports broadcaster ESPN. The deal will bring sports programming to MediaFlo USA’s new mobile entertainment service. The new ESPN Mobile TV channel - ESPN’s first on a wireless service - will offer a selection of live, simulcast sports events; breaking sports news, commentary and analysis; and realtime sports scores and game updates. MediaFLO USA will deliver this content directly to subscribers’ mobile phones. Source: Indian Television, 13th February 2007


MORE NEWS

India/Rights: DD Must Get Sports

India’s pay-TV and private broadcasters will be forced to share rights and revenues for sports events “for national interest” with free-to-air public network Doordashan under a new order from the government. Revenues gained from the events must be shared with Doordashan in a 75%-25% split, with the public broadcaster taking 25%.

Following a recent stand-off over the US$610 million sale of rights to all domestic international cricket to Nimbus Communications, which runs the Neo Sports channels, the government has stepped in to protect sports it considers important. These are likely to include hockey, football and tennis as well as cricket. A list of events which must be shared was first issued in April 2006 but the new move gives the rule more weight. The list is still being finalised. Source: Rapid TV News, 5th February 2007

Indonesia/New Media: Favouring DVB

A body advising the Indonesian government on the move to digital-terrestrial broadcasting has reportedly recommended adopting the European standard Digital Video Broadcasting for Terrestrial TV (DVB-T). DVB-T was recommended ahead of competing standards from Japan (ISDB-T), the USA (ATSC) and China’s home-grown Digital Mobile Broadcasting standard.

Indonesia’s National Team for Switching from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting conducted tests and studied other countries’ experiences before making the recommendation to the Information and Communications Ministry. In Asia, South Korea has adopted ATSC, the only country to have done so except the USA, Canada and Mexico. Japan is the only country to use ISDB-T, although Brazil uses a system based upon it.

An Indonesian DVB-T trial involving national broadcaster TVRI and commercial network RCTI has been underway since July 2006. Elsewhere in the region, Malaysia and Thailand are also testing DVB-T. Indonesia’s transition to DTT will take at least ten years. A public consultation is ongoing, scheduled to close on February 16. Source: Rapid TV News, 7th February 2007

India/New Media: Mobile Phone Giant Makes Indian Investment

Vodafone has seen off rivals to take control of Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth-biggest operator, in a deal worth $11.1 billion. In India’s largest investment from overseas, Vodafone has acquired a 67-per-cent stake in the company from Hutchison Whampoa, the conglomerate headed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

The deal values Hutchison Essar, which has around 23.3 million subscribers, at $18.8 billion, including debt of $2 billion, and comes after Vodafone outbid Reliance Communications, India’s second-largest mobile operator, Essar, which owns the remaining third of the company, and the Hinduja conglomerate. Vodafone is eager to break into the Indian market to offset slowing growth in Europe.

The acquisition of Hutchison Essar is the biggest since its record €180-billion ($234-billion) purchase of Germany’s Mannesmann in 2000. There are presently 150 million mobile phone subscribers in India but this number is increasing by about 6 million per month and the total is expected to hit 500 million by 2010. Source: Sportcal, 12th February 2007

Asia/New Media: Download Model Still King in Asia

Mobile video revenues in the Asia-Pacific region will reach US$3.1 billion by 2010, growing from US$329 million last year and US$884 million this year, according to new research from In-Stat. But, says the report, operators are still wary of broadcast mobile video rather than a downloadable on-demand model because of the “significant investment costs” of installing a broadcast mobile video network.

Japan and South Korea will together account for over half of the revenues by 2010, reaping US$1 billion and US$800,000 respectively. The remainder of the region will lag behind, despite rapid growth in the important emerging markets of China and India. Both Japan and South Korea have already developed and held trials of digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB).

Events such as the 2006 football World Cup prompted aggressive promotion by operators, leading to spikes in uptake. That is likely to be echoed across the region during the 2008 Beijing Olympics which the research house says will also drive HDTV adoption in the region. HDTV displays in the Asia-Pacific region are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 43.9 per cent from 2005-2011, while mobile video is projected to grow at a much higher rate, achieving a CAGR of 96.6% from 2005–2010. Source: Rapid TV News, 29th January 2007

Global/Programming: NBA All-Star Game To Receive Five-Star Coverage

The 56th National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game on February 18 will reach 215 countries and territories through NBA Entertainment’s television, Internet, film and digital technologies. The All-Star Game will be held at the Thomas & Mack Center and will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio 20:00ET. The game will also be broadcast in 43 languages, including, among others, Mandarin, Hungarian, Armenian, and Swedish.

A total of 13 new broadcasters will air the game for the first time including Canal 7 in Argentina, GDTV (Chongqing, China), Liaoning TV (China), Antena Latina (Dominican Republic), TV3 (Ghana), Guatevision (Guatemala), ET-1 (Greece), Cable Onda (Panama), CMD (Peru), Sportone (Romania), TV400 (Sweden), Videoland (Taiwan) and TVR (Venezuela).

NBA TV Broadband on NBA.com, which will offer daily video highlights throughout All-Star, will be seen by fans in more than 200 countries, and 10 different live audio broadcasts on NBA.com will allow fans to hear the All-Star Game in English, Spanish, Mandarin, French, German, Hebrew, Tagalog, Russian, Polish and Portuguese. Source: Sports Media, 12th February 2007

Global/General: 150m HDTV Homes by 2011

Informa Media paints a rosy future for the HDTV industry, predicting a global audience for high-definition TV of some 150 million by 2011, representing a three-fold increase on the number at the end of 2006. Adam Thomas, the report's author, said: "The public has really taken to high-definition but are soon disappointed with the results. First they have to subscribe to a content service and even then there can be relatively little to watch."

At end-2006, the US had 27.7 million HDTV homes, giving it a 58% global share, followed by Japan with a 20% share. With almost 80% of the market between them, the two countries represent by far the most dominant forces in the global HD market. Of the 48.2 million HD households at end-2006, just 16.4 million had the necessary set-top box (or integrated HDTV set) to enable content to be viewed, i.e. they are actually viewing HD content, rather than simply having the potential to do so. This means that only a third of homes with an HDTV set are receiving HD content.

By 2011, Informa expects HD programming to be much more readily available, and some 70% of HDTV set homes will be receiving content - or 105 million homes. There is evidence that in the US, Japan and Australia the case for HDTV has been strengthened by regulation. Broadcasters have, for example, been set targets for delivering a quota of HD programming. Source: Rapid TV, Yahoo! News, 12th February 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: FA Issues Invitation to Tender for Media Rights

The English FA today issued an invitation to tender for domestic media rights for England’s home international matches and the FA Cup knockout competition. The FA hopes to bring in more than £400 million ($776 million) over the four seasons beginning with 2008-09. The target compares with the £80 million a season it gets for its rights under the present deal with public-service broadcaster the BBC and pay-television’s BSkyB.

The FA hopes to persuade commercial broadcasters, including ITV, Five and the cable operator NTL to join the bidding, after BBC viewing figures for the FA Cup were up 26 per cent last season. The FA said today: ‘There are 15 live match packages which are complemented by additional packages for highlights, near-live services, video-on-demand and clips for both mobile and internet use.

The rights cover secondary FA club competitions such as the Community Shield, Youth Cup, The FA Trophy and The FA Vase, as well as the flagship FA Cup and England matches, along with England women’s matches and all development teams. Source: Sportcal, The Sun, 12th February 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: German Broadcasters Refuse to Budge over Euro 2008 Fee

ARD and ZDF, the German public service broadcasters, are refusing to increase their offer of around €80 million ($103.7 million) for the broadcast rights to soccer’s European Championships in 2008. With just 16 months to go until the tournament kicks off in Austria and Switzerland, a television deal has still to be struck by Sportfive, the international sports agency which is marketing the rights on behalf of Uefa, European soccer’s governing body.

ARD and ZDF are refusing to match Sportfive’s asking price of €150 million for the rights to show all 31 games. Sportfive’s asking price is equivalent to €4.8 million a match, exceeding the €3.75 million per game that ARD and ZDF paid to show 48 out of the 64 matches at the 2006 World Cup, which took place in Germany. The €80 million on the table is also €20 million more than the two broadcasters paid for the rights to the European Championships in 2004.

Sportfive has targeted around €600 million in rights sales for Euro 2008, but out of the five main television markets - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - only in Italy has a deal been agreed. Rai, the public service broadcaster, signed a contract for exclusive rights on significantly higher terms than for Euro 2004. Source: Sportcal, 12th February 2007

Elsewhere/New Media: Asian, African Nets Jump on Web Service

JumpTV, the subscription-based broadcaster of ethnic television over the internet, has added channels from Asia, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa to its portfolio of licensed channels. The webcaster has signed 11 new exclusive internet broadcast agreements with channels from Pakistan, Thailand, Lebanon, Nigeria and Benin, to expanding its network to 270 channels under license.

These include ORTB in Benin; Channels TV, Lagos TV and MiTV in Nigeria; Zam TV and Rung TV in Pakistan; Popper, Rak Thai TV, Panorama 07 and Thai Cable Channel in Thailand; and Lebanon's Mlive. The new channels are expected to be launched individually at first, with the Nigerian, Thai and Pakistani channels becoming part of country/region-specific channel bundles at later dates. Source: C21 Media, 12th February 2007

Elsewhere/General: Arsenal Teams Up With MLS Franchise

Arsenal has forged a partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS) team Colorado Rapids with the aim of bolstering the Barclays Premiership club’s brand in the United States and improving the quality of football on offer in Colorado. There is no suggestion the partnership is the first step towards another American takeover. In return, promising players from the US side will be given the chance to train with the Arsenal team.

A club tournament named the Arsenal Cup open to club teams from all over the United States will also be created. Arsenal already has a similar tie-up with Belgian side Beveren, from whom it signed Ivory Coast defender Emmanuel Eboue. A number of Arsenal players have already gone on loan to Beveren. Source: Football Insider, EUFootball.biz, 12th February 2007

Elsewhere/General: MLS Looking Overseas to Sign More Players

To attract more people in the U.S. to Major League Soccer, the organisation is looking overseas for players to sign with its clubs. David Beckham, a former captain of the English national club, signed a five-year agreement worth USD 250 million with MLS's Los Angeles Galaxy this season. Ivan Gazidis, MLS Deputy Commissioner said the MLS is especially interested in adding top-flight Hispanic players.

Beckham, 31, currently plays for Spanish Real Madrid, and said his goal is to make football more popular in the U.S. He is expected to make his MLS debut in Toronto, Canada on August 5. Brazil's 30-year-old, three-time World Player of the Year, Ronaldo, is considering a switch to the U.S. according to Spain's El Mundo newspaper. Source: EUFootball.biz, 13th February 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Soccer Richer With a Latin Spice

Imagine a top European league that didn't depend on foreign imports to make an appreciable difference in the quality of play. Would Spain's La Liga be as exciting without Ronaldinho and the scores of other Brazilians who have starred there? Hardly. Picture the English Premier League with only English players. Please no, not that. How about the German Bundesliga with no Africans or Latinos to brighten that German work ethic? In Italy's Serie A, where would the two Milan teams and Juventus be without its South American pipeline?

Only two of the top leagues can rightfully claim to sustain themselves almost entirely on their domestic player pool, and that's Brazil and Argentina. That self-sufficiency also has made those two countries the leading exporter of players to Europe. More impressive even is how each continually replenishes the talent reservoir with new prodigies each season.

Of the two leagues, Argentina stands out. Brazil, on balance, has slightly better players than Argentina, judging by recent results between the national teams. But no league anywhere can match Argentina's for the full-blooded soccer spectacle it produces each week, be it from the players who play as if their lives depended on it, or the fans whose lives do, in fact, seem to depend on it.

Like Italy, where Serie A supporters are being locked out after last week's murder of a policeman in Sicily, fans in Argentina are often too maniacal for their own good. Crowd troubles forced three games to be abandoned during the Apertura season that closed 2006. Authorities tried to quell the repeated insurrections by making Racing Club play San Lorenzo behind closed doors, but the barra brava responded by keeping the respective team buses from reaching the stadium.

The Clausura (summer) season opened this weekend and the hope (but not the expectation) is that mobs that pack the seats behind the goals won't be so unruly. More certain is that another season will begin after mini-exodus of fresh talent to Europe. Boca Juniors midfielder Fernando Gago and River Plate striker Gonzalo Higuain moved to Real Madrid for a combined $44 million. Liverpool poached defender Emiliano Insua, 18, from Boca, and midfielder Sebastian Leto, 20, from Lanus. Jeff Rusnak comments in The Sun Sentinel, 12th February 2007