Friday, 8th June 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Copa America to Be Seen in Record 186 Territories

Television coverage of South American soccer’s Copa America, the national teams competition due to begin in Venezuela later this month, will be seen in a record number of territories, 186, bringing in revenues worth 50% more than the last edition in Peru, according to Traffic, the Brazil-based sports agency distributing the television rights. The 2003 edition was seen in 159 countries.

This year’s competition is due to be seen in every country on the American continent, with English-language commentary available on Goal TV for the first time, meaning that it will be seen beyond the Hispanic communities in the Americas. In Europe, Germany will broadcast the event for the first time, while in countries like Italy and the Netherlands, matches will be shown with a one-hour delay to assure them of a better time slot. The Czech Republic is said to be the only European country that has so far not agreed a deal to show the tournament. Source: Sportcal, 6th Jun 2007

Badminton World Federation Chief Suspended Ahead of AGM

P Ganga Rao has been suspended as the chief operating officer of the Badminton World Federation and his responsibilities passed to the deputy president Datuk Punch Gunalan in a shock move before this year's annual general meeting. Ganga, who is also the secretary of the Badminton Association of Malaysia, is reported to have been barred from the BWF secretariat in Kuala Lumpur and will not attend the AGM in Scotland next week.

The suspension was confirmed in a letter from BWF administration committee chairman Eraj Wijesinghe but the reasons remain unclear. Ganga told the New Straits Times newspaper: ‘I’ve received the letter and the suspension is with immediate effect. There will be a domestic inquiry on June 29. This involves some legal matters and I do not wish to comment further.’

Ganga only joined the BWF in January, when he was appointed general manager by his countryman Punch. He was promoted to chief operating officer in March. It is thought that his future will be discussed at the AGM, which is due to take place in Glasgow on June 16, coinciding with the Sudirman Cup Mixed Team Championship. Source: Sportcal, The New Straits Times, 7th Jun 2007

WWE Expands Marketing Team

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has hired marketing veterans Lou D’Angeli, Melissa Seffens and Stephan Moore to support its expanding marketing efforts. They will report to senior director of marketing Monty Ross. D’Angeli joined WWE as director of live events promotions and booking last year before moving to his current position as director of promotions and event marketing. In addition to spearheading WWE’s annual WrestleMania Fan Axxess Tour, D’Angeli will seek out partnership opportunities to promote WWE and its roster of Superstars. D’Angeli brings more than 10 years of promotion and marketing experience to WWE.

Seffens has been hired as director of network affiliate marketing. Bringing more than 10 years of television promotions and marketing experience to WWE, Seffens will serve as liaison with all WWE network programming partners to ensure seamless brand integration. Moore has been hired as retail development manager. Moore will assist in the marketing and promotion of licensed products and key marketing initiatives in WWE’s growing field of retailers. Source: Indian Television, 5th June 2007


INFO BOX

International NBA
Source: Sport Business, 7th June 2007

* A record nine international players will be competing in The NBA Finals and there will be TV coverage in all of the players home countries.
* The San Antonio Spurs have 6 international players: Tim Duncan (US Virgin Islands), Francisco Elson (Netherlands), Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Fabricio Oberto (Argentina), Tony Parker (France) and Beno Udrih (Slovenia).
* The Cleveland Cavaliers have 3 international players: Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Lithuania), Aleksandar Pavlovic (Montenegro) and Anderson Varejo (Brazil).
* NBA team rosters featured a record 85 international players, approximately 20% of the NBA, from 37 countries and territories at the end of the 2006-07 season.
* When the 2007 NBA Playoffs tipped-off, a record 60 international players from 28 countries and territories were on Playoff rosters.
* NBA.com continues to reach more fans around the world with more than 50% of traffic to the site coming from outside the US.
* For the Finals, fans can log on to NBA.com and listen to live audio of games in 15 languages: English, Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog.


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Wrestling Observer reported that in his MySpace.com blog, Steve O of MTV Jackass would be at WWE SummerSlam in some capacity and filmed a commercial for his appearance last night at RAW in Tampa, Florida. The "Jackass" star will be at the pay-per-view in a wrestling capacity. Last night, Steve O was at RAW as he teased in his blog this entire match was nearly called off, that is completely true. However, today it looks as if plans are for Steve O to be involved in a wrestling capacity at SummerSlam. Source: Wrestling Observer on TWNP News, 5th Jun 2007

* Vietnamese broadcaster VTV will stop screening the English Premier League next season because it believes rights fees are overpriced. VTV has been in negotiations for the past few months with ESPN Star Sports, who owns the rights in the region, but the two parties could not agree a deal for the next three seasons. And to prevent any third parties from jumping in as intermediary, VTV publicly confirmed it and its subsidiary Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) – two largest TV stations in Vietnam – have agreed not to work with any go-between in the affair. Source: Sportcal, Thanh Nien, EUFootball.biz, 7th Jun 2007

* Hong Kong’s planned DTT platform was a factor in the government approval for the sale of second broadcaster, Asia Television, this week. The annoucement came shortly after the government also approved the country’s digital-terrestrial TV standard. ATV has been sold to a consortium of investors, including some backed by ABN-Amro and the Cha family. ATV has in recent years catered for the mainland Chinese as well as the Hong Kong viewership. It broadcasts into Guangdong province in China as well as Hong Kong. Source: Rapid TV News, 7th Jun 2007

* China Netcom is said to have agreed to provide the European Broadcasting Union with services during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Under the terms of the deal, the company will provide international fiber connectivity from the International Broadcasting Centre in the Chinese capital to Moscow, Stockholm, Frankfurt, London, Paris and Geneva. From these cities, content transmitted from the IBC can be broadcast as television signals throughout Europe and surrounding areas. Source: Sportcal, 6th Jun 2007

* Dubai will host the 2009 beach soccer World Cup. Dubai was chosen by soccer’s world governing body Fifa following a recommendation by the Fifa Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee. The contract was signed by Fifa and Dubai Sports City, Dubai’s multi-use purpose-built sports complex, and announced at the Dubai International Sports Conference. Dubai will also host the Asian beach soccer finals in 2007 and 2008, the qualifiers for the World Cup, as part of the deal. This year's beach soccer World Cup will be held in Brazil in November. Source: Sportcal, 7th Jun 2007

* Taiwan could boycott the Beijing Olympic Games if China continues to claim the island of Taiwan as part of its territory, its ruling party chairman warned. You Si-kun said that any action by China that treated Taiwan as part of China could trigger a boycott. Taiwan participates in the Olympics as ‘Chinese Taipei,’ the result of a compromise reached in the late 1970s enabling China to return to the Olympic movement. China does not accept the separate status of Taiwan, following a split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Source: Sportcal, 5th Jun 2007

* The University of South Florida Department of Athletics announced Wednesday a new 10-year multimedia contract with ISP Sports that aligns it with a previous long-term agreement the Bulls have with ESPN Regional Television. The deal, worth a minimum of $22 million, allows ISP to fully manage USF's athletic sales and marketing while ESPN, which previously held marketing rights, will continue to support various areas such as local and regional TV distribution. Source: Tampa Bay Business Journal, State of Rutgers, 7th Jun 2007

* The NBA Finals will reach 205 countries and territories in 46 languages via a record 128 TV broadcasters. More than 250 international media from 23 countries will converge in San Antonio and Cleveland to bring the action to fans around the world. For the first time, a TV station from the Middle East (ART - based in Jordan) is covering the NBA Finals live in Arabic. Other partners coming on-site to provide live coverage for the first time are Albania (Telesport), Argentina (Canal 7), Bosnia (OBN) and Brazil (TV Esporte Interativo). Source: Sport Business, 7th Jun 2007

* Input Media and Pitch International have been honoured with best Digital Channel Sports Programme at the RTS Sports Awards, for the documentary Steven Gerrard 'A Year In My Life'. The 52-min film was produced by Input for Pitch, and shown on Sky One. It also had a special 2-hr version distributed internationally by Pitch and a DVD edition. Input Media were also nominated for an award in the Digital Content category, for their programme Highbury - The Final Salute, commissioned by Arsenal Broadband. Source: Sport Business, 7th Jun 2007

* Brazilian distributor, Globo TV Sports signed a partnership deal with Sky Sports, to broadcast Footbrazil, across the UK and Ireland. Already being presented in more than 90 countries, Footbrazil is a weekly television magazine, transmitted via satellite, with material in English prepared especially for the international market. It covers behind-the-scenes, training, standings and player profiles for the Brazilian Championship. Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 7th Jun 2007

* FL Interactive, a subsidiary of The Football League, will launch the next generation of official websites for 78 participating clubs over coming months. The company manages and develops internet and mobile rights for 78 official UK football club websites, including 65 Football League clubs, 7 Premier League clubs and 6 Football Conference clubs, with sites being viewed by over 4.1 million unique users monthly. Each of the new websites will offer a range of free video, including daily news and goal clips, plus enhancements to subscription video services. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, EUFootball.biz, 6th Jun 2007

* Organisers of the Rugby World Cup are said to have agreed to broadband coverage of the tournament with MediaZone, a USA-based global internet broadcaster, which will distribute the 'RWC Plus' service. RWC Plus will offer highlights and full-length re-runs of games at the tournament in France, as well as match previews, interviews and live audio commentary. MediaZone already holds rights to show the Tri Nations and the Super 14 outside key markets until 2011. Source: Sportcal, 5th Jun 2007

* Cycling.tv has partnered with Amaury Sports Organisation, the organisers and rights holders of cycling’s Tour de France, to produce daily online highlights shows. Cycling.tv and ASO will produce two 3-min ‘magazine’ shows daily during the 2007 Tour de France, for distribution to media, sport and entertainment based websites worldwide. Edits of the shows will also appear on Cycling.tv for free to internet users. Cycling.tv acquired rights to broadcast the Opening Ceremony online across most territories, live from Trafalgar Square for Le Grand Depart on Friday July 6. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 7th Jun 2007

* The Federation Française de Tennis, and the Ligue de Football Professionnel have joined the Premier League’s class action lawsuit against YouTube and Google. The FFT and the LFP said they strongly support the copyright infringement class action claims against YouTube and Google. The lead plaintiffs in the case, The Football Association Premier League Limited and Bourne Co. said that since the filing of the suit, they have been contacted by a large number of copyright holders. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, Brand Republic, 7th Jun 2007

* Super middleweight boxing champions Joe Calzaghe and Michael Kessler are set to meet in the ring for the first time later this year. Calzaghe’s promoter Frank Warren has accepted an offer for the Welshman, the holder of the WBO for the last 10 years, to take on Kessler, the undefeated WBC and WBA champion in his homeland of Denmark in September. The fight is likely to take place in the Danish capital Copenhagen and Calzaghe said that he is looking forward to the contest. Source: Sportcal, 6th Jun 2007

* BBC has announced that Martina Navratilova and Greg Rusedski are the latest recruits to the BBC's television commentary team for this year's Wimbledon Championships. Navratilova and Rusedski join John McEnroe, who returns this year, alongside Boris Becker and Jimmy Connors, who will be combining his TV work with coaching Andy Roddick. Also back this year are Tracy Austin and Virginia Wade, who celebrates 30 years of her win over Betty Stove in the 1977 Wimbledon Women's Singles Final during the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Source: Indian Television, 7th Jun 2007


MORE NEWS

India/General: 2010 Men’s Hockey World Cup Shows Major Progress

The International Hockey Federation had appointed India in March 2007 as possible organizer of the 2010 Men’s Hockey World Cup and the Indian Hockey Confederation has since agreed in principle to host the event in New Delhi in February 2010. The organization of the 2010 Men’s Hockey World Cup will be a joint venture between the FIH and the IHC.

A Governing Board of 6-8 persons will have overall responsibility for the organization of the event while an organizing committee will be responsible for the ‘day to day’ organization and conduct of the event. The chairperson of the organizing committee will also be member of the Governing Board.

The success of the project ‘Promoting Indian Hockey‘, a project of the FIH in cooperation with the Indian Hockey Confederation, the Indian Olympic Association and Olympic Solidarity (IOC), also had its positive influence on awarding the 2010 Hockey World Cup to India. There will also be an excellent exposure opportunity for a commercial title sponsor of this event and discussions with potential candidates are already underway.

Many other organizations in India showed their support to the IHC. The Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India, the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the organizing committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (to be held in New Delhi, India in October 2010) all expressed their contribution. The FIH is excited at the prospect of an outstanding World Cup and looks forward to working closely with the IHC to achieve the greatest possible success for all interested parties especially with the new structure of organizing this major event.

The FIH Executive Board will meet in New Delhi, India in November 2007. One of the major agenda points of the second meeting of the FIH Executive Board in 2007 will be the progress report of the organization of the 2010 Men’s Hockey World Cup. It will be the first time in hockey history that the FIH Executive Board meets in India. Source: Sports e-Media, Sportcal, 7th Jun 2007

India/Broadcaster: DTH ‘Revolution’ Taking Place

DTH pay-TV is at last making progress in India. The story of DTH broadcasting in India has been one of delay, bureaucratic muddle and government obfuscation. First, government is limiting the number of “external” channels that can beam signals over India. Second, there’s the on-again, off-again Conditional Access Rules to be negotiated, and third was the powerful cable incumbents reluctant to see professional competition in the market.

But the problems are dwindling, and in some Indian states DTH is making real progress. Despite the challenges, it was reported recently that in Punjab province alone 300,000 DTH receivers have been sold in the past half-year, while in Chandigarh area 25,000 dishes have been sold. TataSky, Zee TV’s Dish Network and Doordarshan are the main satellite players, although there are plenty of other would-be operators awaiting either government licences or satellite capacity in order to start transmissions.

The third pay-TV platform is likely to be Sun Direct TV, which Malaysia’s Astro recently bought into. That platform is scheduled to launch over the next few months. Dish TV has around 1.9 million subscribers, with Star-backed TataSky lagging behind, at half a million subscribers. Source: Rapid TV News, 7th Jun 2007

Elsewhere/New Media: MLS ties in with YouTube

Major League Soccer has struck a deal with Internet site YouTube, following in the footsteps of North American leagues such as the National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Officials said revenue is less the issue. It is more expanding the fanbase. MLS will have its own channel through the site, and subscribers will get automatic updates uploaded to their accounts.

The NHL and MLB have attracted between 12,000 and 16,000 subscribers on their channels, and MLS executives are wishing for numbers in that range. MLS will oversee and manage its channel, and all content on the site will be the property of MLS, even videos submitted by fans. MLS also is planning on player blogs and user-generated-video contests. Advertising will be reserved exclusively for corporate sponsors. Source: EUFootball.biz, 6th Jun 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

IPTV for Beginners
Source: Howard Greenfield comments on Silicon.com, 4th Jun 2007

Though we may be nearing what Rupert Murdoch calls "the golden age of media", there's a hurdle ahead. Between today's cacophony of web-video services and the promised land of seamless interactive programming is the maturing of a little thing called IPTV. In an industry just beginning to understand how to slam video down broadband pipes to achieve new, improved television experiences, there's still advertising and revenue requirements to meet, still a few speed bumps before reaching the new media ecosystem.

In fact, the last time I checked, we're all still beginners here, only a short way along from the black-and-white I Love Lucy days inception of the medium.
We're all IPTV beginners here. Huge growth is anticipated. IPTV households are expected to grow worldwide from around seven million to 48 million between now and 2019 - a 60 per cent annual growth rate over five years, according to market researcher Infonetics.

Yet between central office and broadband network to set-top and living room lurk quality issues. Scalability challenges still stand between what we have today and a smooth service reaching millions that can meet or beat the existing broadcast experience and deliver true web/TV 2.0 personalisation and interactivity. Widespread trials and launches are underway in Asia, Europe and the US. Yet IPTV remains a zigzag of trial-and-error with broadcast, telecom and internet sectors calculating disruption versus return on investment.

The traditional business model for broadcasters, which has worked reasonably well for the past few decades, is starting to break down and consumers are demanding (and starting to receive) their video content in ways that were impractical even a few years ago. So when will the revolution be televised? What are the technical, programming and business forces needed for escape velocity? These are the questions Wes Simpson and I set out to address in our new book IPTV and Internet Video. The forces behind the change that we focus on are:

Television has moved to the web
Viewers around the world tuned in to watch the 2006 Fifa World Cup in record numbers using their PCs and other internet-connected devices. InFront Sports reported more than 125 million downloads from the FifaWorldCup.com website of two-minute video clips with game summaries. While this number pales in comparison with the estimated 32 billion viewers of live broadcast coverage, the number of clip downloads increased by a huge factor between 2002 and 2006.

It's all personal: PVR timeshifting and ad-zapping
The use of personal video recorders (PVR) in the US has skyrocketed over the past few years, with a variety of standalone solutions as well as those integrated into set-top boxes from satellite and cable television providers. Worldwide sales in 2005 totalled 19 million units, and 11 per cent of US households have units. Broadcast advertisers have grown increasingly upset by the practice of commercial skipping and the loss of their ability to control the timing when viewers watch ads for specific events, such as movie openings or store sales.

Media has gone mobile
In Asia, mobile phones are just beginning to be used to deliver both broadcast and on-demand video services. Reports show that by 2010, there will be 68 million mobile TV users in Asia, or 55 per cent of the worldwide total of 120 million. Also, new standards for mobile file and stream delivery are often based on IP technology, indicating an increase in market penetration in coming years.

Everyone wants to be a producer
Meanwhile a wide range of user-generated video content continues to drive viewers to sites such as YouTube, which generated more than 100 million downloads per day in 2006. Clearly, at least for certain types of content, viewers are perfectly happy to watch video on normal PC displays.

Podcasting is official
More than 500,000 listeners downloaded podcasts of Ricky Gervais' free weekly show in early 2006, and the term 'podcasting' has officially become part of the language.

You are now free to placeshift
Devices from Apple, Sling Media and many others are now allowing consumers to move content among several different viewing devices, such as PCs, home television sets and portable media players. [From IPTV and Internet Video, Focal Press, 2007]

Global IPTV subscriber revenues are expected to reach $12.8bn by 2010, according to the Multimedia Research Group. But getting there and beyond, developing socially connected models that straddle 20th century TV and web 2.0 is a new sport. As I said, we're all IPTV beginners here.

Stay tuned for my next column in which I'll introduce you to my co-author Wes Simpson, tech geek extraordinaire. I'll ask him the hard-hitting questions on getting the basics right: what technical, media and business acumen is required to build out the IPTV systems that will exploit the opportunities ahead.