Thursday, 26th July 2007

RESULTS

Source: Channel News Asia, 26th Jul 2007
Iraq stunned South Korea 4-3 on penalties on Wednesday and Saudi Arabia upset defending champions Japan 3-2 to set up an Asian Cup final few expected to see. It is Iraq's first-ever major final and sparked wild celebrations in Baghdad, while the Saudis atoned for the last tournament in China in 2004 when they failed to make the decider for the first time in 20 years. They meet in Jakarta on Sunday while Japan and South Korea face an unwanted trip to Pelambang in Indonesia on Saturday to play-off for third place.


THIS WEEK

Sun, 15th Jul 2007
DTM 2007: Race Day – Zandvoort, The Netherlands
BTCC 2007: Race Day – Snetterton, UK


DID YOU KNOW…?

Yesterday’s Stage 16 of the Tour de France is possibly the most exciting and challenging stage of the Tour. It is a grueling 218.5-kilometre course from Orthez to Gourette-Col d'Aubisque traverses five difficult climbs. Two of those climbs are rated beyond category in difficulty, the highest ranking, including the final ascent of 17 kilometres to the finish line, which is situated at an altitude of 1,709 metres. Source: Earth Times, 25th Jul 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* SK Telecom, Korea's leading wireless operator, is considering launching an Internet television service. The company has set up a task force to review a potential IPTV unit. "The team will study the feasibility of the business, set out the direction and report the results to senior company officials," SK Telecom said. Hanaro Telecom, which operates its own Internet TV business Hana TV, and other operators equipped with cable Internet networks are possible merger targets. Source: Advanced Television, 25th Jul 2007

* Taj Television has sold exclusive terrestrial rights of the Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka to terrestrial broadcaster Bangladesh Television. The deal will provide viewers in Bangladesh with live coverage of the ODI matches between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Taj TV has concluded deals worldwide, providing cricket coverage to international broadcast partners including Zee in Europe, DirecTV in North America and Astro in Malaysia. With these, in addition to Ten Sports coverage, the Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka is expected to be seen in over 70 million homes globally. Source: Indian Television, 25th Jul 2007

* myTV, the first commercial mobile TV service in the Philippines was launched Tuesday. Mobile network Smart Communications and broadcast firm 360media Corp., a subsidiary of MediaQuest Holdings, are behind this service. Using the DVB-H standard, subscribers with mobile TV-capable handsets can view several channels including news, music and sports for a monthly fee. Smart said the service is available to both paid and pre-paid subscribers. The mobile TV service will be free to subscribers until August 31. Source: Asian Journal Online, 25th Jul 2007

* China's mobile phone users reached over 500 million mobile in June, double the number in the US, and growing at a faster pace than the Ministry of Information Industry's (MII) forecast of 600 million mobile subscribers by 2010. China Mobile and China Unicom added 40.6 million users in the first six months of this year for a combined total of 501.7 million. Users grew at about eight times the pace of fixed-line customers last month as more people switched to wireless services. Demand also rose after the government allowed telecom operators to introduce billing systems that waived charges for incoming calls. Source: China Economic Review, 25th Jul 2007

* Etihad Etisalat’s Mobily subscribers In Saudi Arabia can sign up for a 3G TV service, for SR50 (about $13) a month. Channels offer CNN, Al Arabiya, CNBC Arabia, among other channels already available through Mobily’s mobile content portal, “Mobily 3alhawa.” Mobily has more than 1.8m subscribers to its ‘3.5G’ services, making it the largest Middle East telco in terms of 3G services. Mobily was the first telco to be licensed to offer 3G services to Saudi residents, back in 2005. Saudi Arabia’s main mobile telco, and incumbent, Saudi Telecom claims 15.5m subs. Source: Rapid TV News, AME Info, 25th Jul 2007

* Manbub Anam, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, has resigned as the board attempts to free itself of political influence. Anam's departure follows that of vice president Gazi Golam Dastagir, who stood down last week. BCB president Abdul Aziz told Reuters: ‘They resigned as Bangladesh's interim government is eager to depoliticise the cricket board.’ Both Anam and Dastagir had strong links with mainstream political parties in the country and is expected that other executives will leave for similar reasons. Source: Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007

* Portsmouth FC named IMG Media as its exclusive worldwide production and distribution partner for all its media content and rights. The 3-year deal includes developing and producing a weekly 3-hour programme of action, news and features on the Club, to be distributed globally from the start of the new EPL season. IMG Media will distribute match broadcast rights outside of the Premier League including pre-season games, charity matches and European competitions, as well as mobile and broadband rights. IMG Media also designed and built the Club's Online TV channel - PfcTV - launched last week. Content for programming blocks and the broadband channel will be produced by IMG Media and its production partner, ADI. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007

* Irish broadcaster, Setanta, will launch a new UK sports news channel on the Virgin Media cable platform in the latest challenge to BSkyB. BSkyB withdrew its Sky Sports News channel from the Virgin platform earlier this year when the two parties failed to agree terms for a new distribution deal for the former’s basic channels. The new Setanta channel will plug the gap left by Sky Sports News and strengthens the Virgin-Setanta links. The Setanta’s sports news channel will launch in time for the start of the new football season. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007

* US Squash and Squash Universe, a new event promotion company, have revealed that the 2007 US Open Squash Championship for men will be hosted in New York City from 27 September to 4 October. The two organisations announced a multi-year licensing agreement for the event, bringing them together in close partnership to promote squash at the professional level. The 2007 US Open - a PSA Super Series Platinum event - will be hosted at the famous Roseland Ballroom, located just blocks from Times Square, in the heart of New York City. Source: Sports e-Media, 25th Jul 2007

* The Tour de France has been left reeling by new blows after top rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, had tested positive for blood doping. Vinokourov’s Astana team has responded by withdrawing all of its riders from the race. Michael Rasmussen, the leader of the Tour de France, was also withdrawn from the race and dismissed by his sponsor, Rabobank, over his ethical credibility and doping doubts. It is the latest shock for the organisers, who had hoped that this year’s Tour would mark the start of a new clean era, but have been brought down to earth by failed drugs tests. Source: Sportcal, The Times, 26th Jul 2007

* David Beckham’s debut for the LA Galaxy helped ESPN attract its largest ever audience for a match involving a Major League Soccer team. ESPN drew a 1.0 rating for Saturday night’s exhibition game between the Galaxy and top English club Chelsea, meaning that it was watched by about 1.468 million people. Beckham has been troubled by an ankle injury and came on as a substitute in the 78th minute of the Galaxy’s 1-0 defeat by Chelsea. ESPN is also showing the team's games in the inaugural SuperLiga,. Source: Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

India/General: Stars May Be Lured to Cricket Breakaway

Some of cricket’s biggest names could play in the controversial new multi-million-dollar breakaway Twenty20 tournament. Both the Indian cricket board and the International Cricket Council refuse to sanction the tournament, being organised by the Indian Cricket League, created by Indian media company Zee Telefilms. The breakaway is in the style of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. Packer lured many top players to his breakaway World Series Cricket after his Channel 9 network failed to acquire the rights to televise Australian cricket. Zee Telefilms is fighting back after being denied the Indian TV rights.

Stars that have been linked to the breakaway include West Indian star Brian Lara and Australian bowling legends Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Tony Greig, one of the key players who helped Packer create World Series Cricket 30 years ago, is one of ICL's leading officials. The league proposes to field six teams - each featuring four international players, two Indian stars and eight up and coming players- playing Twenty20 matches across India. Source: Sport Business, 25th Jul 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: French Watchdog Thwarts LFP's Plan to Lengthen TV Contracts

French professional soccer league, The LFP, has been prevented from increasing the length of television rights contracts as a result of a ruling by the Conseil de Concurrence, the body that monitors fair competition in France. The league had been hoping to elongate deals from three to five years in an attempt to attract new bidders to the market to challenge Canal Plus, the pay-television operator, and maintain the value of the rights to the top-tier Ligue 1. However, the authority defended the current structure, saying that ‘the nature of the competition rules that ensue is an element that can only encourage applications to buy the rights.’

The LFP’s current television deal with Canal Plus is worth €600 million ($822.6 million) a year, but it expires at the end of the 2007-08 season and the league is worried that Canal Plus’ merger with rival TPS will reduce competition for the rights when the tender for the next contract is issued in November. By making the domestic contracts five years in length, the LFP was hoping to enable new operators in the market to be able to plan their long-term budgets and development, while giving the clubs a clearer guide as to how much revenue they would receive.

The Conseil de Concurrence was contacted by Canal Plus recently over the terms of a tender issued for the broadcasting rights for the second-tier Ligue 2 in a move that could have implications for the sale of the Ligue 1 rights. The Ligue 2 rights were acquired by Noos-Numéricable last month in a three-year deal worth €15 million, but Canal Plus has issues with the LFP in two areas. The broadcaster is unhappy that the LFP invited bidders to make suggestions on what would be included in the rights packages and counters the league's claim that it could set up its own channel to broadcast matches. Source: Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: TVE Sees Value in Live Premier League Coverage

Spanish public-service broadcaster TVE has closed a three-year broadcasting deal for matches from the English Premier League. The agreement, which is worth an estimated €11.4 million ($15.8 million), will include two live matches per week, one aired on La 2 and the other on Teledeporte. The agreement will see TVE pay €3.7 million for the rights to the 2007-08 season, €3.8 million for 2008-09, and €3.9 million for 2009-2010, according to Spanish media reports. The rights were bought from rights-holder Multimedia Sports.

The outlay is on top of the amount TVE will spend to televise the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the broadcaster is planning to ask for an extra state subsidy of almost €53 million to cover the costs. The Premier League deal signals a change in policy for TVE with regard to soccer. The broadcaster missed out on the rights to the domestic Liga de Futbol Española, the Uefa Champions League, the top European clubs competition, and the World Cup, despite Spanish law guaranteeing some free-to-air coverage.

The broadcaster has also extended its rights agreement with Dorna Sports, the Spanish company which holds the commercial rights to the MotoGP World Championship, until 2011, agreeing to pay a reported €25 million per year. Source: Sportcal, 25th Jul 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

"India is Under-Advertised and Under-Branded."
An interview with Sir Martin Sorrell by Sunit Arora and M Venkatesh Agencyfaqs, 25th Jul 2007

At the end of four hectic days in India, an interview was the last thing on Sir Martin Sorrell’s mind. The CEO of the world’s second-largest communications services company was more interested in catching the latest action in the Lord’s cricket Test between India and England. Fortunately for us, the TV set didn’t deliver. In the free-wheeling conversation that followed, Sir Martin pushed the big digital, made no bones about his fascination for China, and put forth an organic (and messy) growth plan for India. Excerpts from an exclusive conversation:

Q. Sir Martin, your views on digital advertising have come at a very opportune time for the Indian digital industry. How are brand managers, in general, reacting to digital?
A. The frank answer is, probably too slow. This is not just brand managers, but agencies, too, and probably media owners. We know that consumers spend 20% of their time online. We know that advertising on Internet and search is 7-9 % of worldwide advertising budgets. So, there is a disconnect here since, naturally, it should gravitate towards 20 %. The only market in the world that is close to 20% is the UK – around 18%, according to our forecast. And the reason probably is that the BBC gets $6 billion a year from the licence payer to invest in digital platforms – and it does a fantastic job. There are different models, but I think mobile is the cheap way in.

Q. This doesn’t apply to markets like India where traditional media is growing very fast. The issue we are facing here is that there is a lot of interest...
A. ...But it’s only 2% of media spends. The driver to the Internet will be mobile – we’re going to leapfrog here in China and India. With the subscriber numbers we’re looking at in these two markets, what’s driving the two is not the PC, but the mobile.

Q. So, why do you put the mobile ahead of the PC?
A. In China, it’s because of the cost issue with the PC. The leasing model used by Grameen Bank (for the telephone ladies in Bangladesh) shows there are ways of dealing with the cost issues to make the mobile more accessible. If you go to Mexico, the government is trying to stimulate Internet access through PC penetration. So, there are different models, but I think mobile is the cheap way in. And the take-up patterns have been very different. If you go to the UK, you start with newspapers, then magazines, radio, television, PCs to get to the Internet, and then you went to mobile. In China and India, mobile has leapfrogged PC. Outdoor in both India and China is becoming more and more important.

Q. There is, however, another view that the mobile will primarily be a communicational device, with Net-enabled tools…but it won’t be the primary tool to get on to the Net.
A. I disagree, actually. Look at the iPhone: I would have shown you mine, but it’s in my room. The technology enables you to look at Google Search, map search, Google Earth; it enables you to look at YouTube in a very effective way. Given the economics of it all, mobile will be cheap and people who say that the screen is not big enough to watch TV, say it because they were used to watching TV like I have. If you’re 50 or 60 (years old), your habits are formed by what you did when you were five or 10 years old…they are looking at things in a totally different way. So, things are changing.

Q. But mobile operators are too busy ramping up numbers to look for value-added services.
A. The operators have been very slow to engage. And unless they either do it singly, or even get operators in Western Europe to try together to develop a mobile advertising network – and they have not been receptive – I think that will be a missed opportunity. They have to cooperate within a group. And if they’re busy being competitive with each other, private equity groups should get together. Value-added services will come in a competitive framework – but they have to come. What operators will be seeking to do is build premium services. You want to get away from the commodity end of the market and try to develop things that have value to consumers, be they knowledge or information or services or products.

I think mobile advertising will be significant. It’s got to be, in the context of China and India. It’s just a question of us coming up with the right creative approaches, the right content. We have interesting assets in this space, including a mobile advertising network operating in Europe and the US. And it’s an opportunity. Push your traditional business to go into new media.

Q. We read with interest your own personal media mix. How do you juxtapose a media mix that exists in developed markets, and one that exists in fast-growing ones like India and China?
A. I think the fast-growth markets will be impacted in a similar way. The only question is when. Clearly, India is under-advertised, under-branded – advertising as a percentage of GNP is too low. Clients have complained about TV advertising prices rising. I don’t see that changing in the short and medium term, because India has a long way to go. We have a very big market share here, but the relative size of the Indian market has to grow. At a point, it’ll go the same way (as developed markets). The Internet is 2 % (of overall ad spends), and will go to 10 and 15%.

Ultimately, online will undermine offline. If you talk to people who are running newspapers and magazines and are trying to embrace the online opportunity, at the moment it’s very small. However, if TV continues to price itself faster than inflation, clients are certainly going to look at alternatives. If the price of labour rises faster than inflation, you try and find a machine to do the job.

Q. Is mobile the only unique factor when it comes to the media mix in India and China? What about other media?
A. Radio is important. In China, Radio Shanghai is up 20-30%. Outdoor in both markets is becoming more and more important. The things that people watch, the things they are interested in, are going to be very similar, in terms of the overall pattern of development. The nature of the beast is very different, but the overall evolution is pretty much the same. Except for that point of mobile.

In WPP, new media (including direct) is about 25 % of our business. I’d like to see it at a third. If consumers spend a third of their time online, it’ll gravitate towards that. The period of time it’ll take for that to happen will be less because younger people are coming up. If the time spent online by consumers goes up to 50 %, new media’s share will logically go to 50 %. If newspaper circulations continue to decline – not in India but in the West – it will have an impact…magazines will become more volatile…This will be true of India at some time in the future. The problem in India is that the market is growing rapidly and staff turnover is high.

Q. But it’s inevitable?
A. I think so, I think so, though nothing in life is inevitable. I think the general drift is network television comes under pressure – the definitions may change, but at the end of the day, it all becomes media. Cinema and outdoor is growing quite significantly. I think the trends are the same; it’s just the speed of take-up. Basically, traditional media will come under pressure as consumer buying habits change. You’ve got to remember that it was a year ago, or two years ago, that the first generation that lived completely with the Internet went to university. And as we progress through the next few generations, that’s going to have a big, big impact.

Q. Finally, can Indian agencies play a larger role in the Asia Pacific?
A. Yes, I think the work of Indian agencies will become more important. Asia, as a whole, becomes important. The relative voice of Asian agencies will shift. Western Europe contributes to 65 % of WPP’s business, or nearly two-thirds. The voice of the third, or more precisely 20 %, is not represented at the global level, or even at the regional level, to the extent it should be. So, Asia is going to be high. Indian ad agencies will become more significant in an Asian context. Indian management will be more important outside India. You also see these are coming together in regional pitches. Apart from India and China, there are three new tigers coming up: Pakistan, Vietnam and Indonesia.