Tuesday, 10th July 2007

THIS WEEK

Tue, 10th Jul 2007
Copa America 2007: SF1 - Uruguay v Brazil, Maracaibo

Wed, 11th Jul 2007
Copa America 2007: SF2 - Argentina v Mexico, Puerto Ordaz

Sat, 14th Jul 2007
Masters Football: Scottish Masters

Sun, 15th Jul 2007
DTM 2007: Race Day, Mugello, Italy
BTCC 2007: Race Day, Donington Park, UK
Copa America 2007: Final – TBC


INFO BOX

The World’s Digital Media Activities
Source: Info IQ, 9th Jul 2007

Online video activities are outpacing the growth in popularity of other digital media, while social networking is quickly becoming the dominant online behavior globally according to a new study by Ipsos. Over the past few years, the growth of digital music behaviors, particularly downloading music files online and burning CD-R’s, introduced millions of Internet users globally to the virtues of the digital medium, blazing a path for other entertainment media to follow.

At the end of 2006, it appears that online video activities seemingly have taken over as the driving force in the next stage of digital media’s growth, having a profound impact on the way consumers access and view video content around the world. Participation in online video activities is climbing quickly in many developed markets of the world. Growth in these behaviors was most prevalent within the U.S., where today well over one-third of recent Internet users (36%) have watched a TV show or other video stream online, compared to 28% at the end of 2005, while three-quarters of these adults have done so in the past 30 days.


SPORTS SHORTS

* Primera Liga champions, Real Madrid, raked in over £300 million ($604 million) from commercial activities in the four years that David Beckham was at the club. Beckham, who has left Madrid to join Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy this month, signed for Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2003. In the first six months of Beckham’s Madrid career, the club sold over 1 million replica jerseys. Jose Sanchez, the club's marketing director, said that the increase in profits from merchandising during Beckham’s four-year stint was measured at 137%. Source: Sportcal, 9th Jul 2007

* Indian pay-television channel, Neo Sports, has been made available in Japan, Korea and Taiwan after an agreement was reached with a digital media platform developer and operator. The New Media Group, K.K, a significant player in the Asia Pacific region, will include Neo Sports on its World On-Demand IPTV platform as part of packaged and tailored offerings. Neo Sports is owned by Nimbus Communications, the sports marketing and media group which holds the rights to domestic and international cricket in India. Source: Sportcal, Indian Television, 9th Jul 2007

* South African public broadcaster, SABC, has been awarded broadcast rights for the Olympic Games of 2010 and 2012. SABC would offer increased coverage of the games including 200 hours of live or same-day delayed coverage of London 2012 and daily highlights for Vancouver 2010. SABC acquired rights across all media platforms, including television, cable, satellite, internet and mobile phones. A deal was also signed for broadcast rights for the 2008, 2010 and 2012 games with Solar Entertainment in the Philippines, with similar broadcast commitment to the SABC deal. Source: Sportcal, 9th Jul 2007

* Mark Burnett Productions' Contender has slipped through the ropes into Asia, where a Thai boxing variant is being produced for Sony's AXN in Singapore. MBP has teamed with Imagine OmniMedia for Contender Asia, which will follow two camps of Muay Thai boxers competing for a cash prize. The show, which begins filming next month, has created a stir in professional circles, after Peter Manfredo - a contestant on the series' NBC debut - followed his 15 minutes of fame with a bout against the UK's super-middleweight king Joe Calzaghe. Source: C21 Media, 9th Jul 2007

* India will permit competition in the TV ratings space. Currently, only TAM Media Research supplies ratings data in India but the Minister for Information & Broadcasting said that the current Television Ratings Points system “does not reflect the real growth of channels, and is not a true representative of what audiences are watching.” He said the current measurement mix would also need to be reviewed including sample sizes and a “more transparent” system put in place. TAM is a j-v between AC Nielsen and Kantar Media Research/IMRB. Source: Rapid TV News, 9th Jul 2007

* Thaksin Shinawatra, has effectively completed his acquisition of Manchester City after increasing his stake to almost 75% and declaring his takeover offer unconditional. Shinawatra has been able to proceed with his £81.6-million ($164.1-million) deal despite concerns over his human rights record in Thailand and the freezing of his assets there in a corruption probe. Sven Goran Eriksson has been appointed as team manager at City and has been granted a three-year contract in the hope that he can guide them into the Uefa Champions League. Source: Sportcal, 9th Jul 2007

* Six cities – Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Doha in Qatar, Tokyo, Baku (Azerbaijan) and Madrid – have formally told the IOC of interest in bidding to host the Olympic Games in 2016. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fadad Al-Sabah, the president of the Olympic Council of Asia, wants just a single Asian city to bid to increase the continent’s chances of winning the right to stage the games and said that he plans to hold a meeting between representatives of Tokyo and Doha to decide which it should be. Meanwhile, St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, has said that it will bid to host the 2020 Olympics. Source: Sportcal, 9th Jul 2007

* The English Premier League is set to bow to the inevitable – and use goal-line technology to finally resolve the age-old question; did the ball cross the line? The EPL has confirmed it is to test the Hawk-Eye system – already extensively used in tennis and cricket – with successful trials likely to see it ushered in as an official tool of match officials. Paul Hawkins, who developed Hawk-Eye, told the BBC: “We have a contract with the Premier League to develop a system. It is purely for the referees and not for television. Source: Sport Business, 9th Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

Singapore/Broadcaster: HD DVB-T by End-2007

Singapore’s MediaCorp will launch a digital-terrestrial high-definition channel by the end of the year. Claiming to be the first terrestrial HD channel in South East Asia, MediaCorp said that it planned to broadcast all of its channels in HD by 2012. Prior to the launch, viewers with the requisite equipment will be able to watch HD simulcast of MediaCorp’s Channel 5 on the new channel, HD5. About half of Singapore’s homes will be able to receive the service which will also be available through IPTV.

Singapore already has one high-def service, with pay-TV operator StarHub launching HD Plus in January that encompasses Nat Geo HD and Discovery HD. However, MediaCorp’s channel will broadcast locally-produced programming and Chinese co-productions as well as US productions including CSI and Smallville. Another HD service, part of SingTel’s promised IPTV offering, is slated for launch later this year. Source: Rapid TV News, 9th Jul 2007

India/General: Advertisers’ TV Spends Gets Third-best Return in Asia

Advertisers looking for more bang for their buck can take heart that efficacy of television spends in India ranks among the top three across all Asian markets, trailing only behind Taiwan and Malaysia. For every $1,000 spent in India on national television, an advertiser delivers a purchasing power parity of 6.82%, against 9.54% in Taiwan and 6.82% in Malaysia. And for every $1,000 spent, a marketer can get over two million prime-time TV viewers in India.

Further, Internet penetration may well be the lowest in India, but spends on the Net in India are set to explode at a scorching 60% growth — the maximum across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

These are highlights of a first-of-its-kind survey done by GroupM-owned MindShare, the country's largest media buying agency. The survey, which compares media costs across 12 Asian markets, reveals that total media investment across the Asia-Pacific will reach $99 billion in 2007, growing at 8% against a worldwide average of 5%. In fact, overall media growth across Asia has been consistent for the past five years — ranging from 7% to 9%.

The survey includes television spots, magazines, newspapers, radio, bus shelters, taxi ads, cinema, event promotions, postcard ads, online display advertising and electronic direct marketing and keyword search advertising. Commenting on the findings, MindShare Asia Pacific CEO Ashutosh Srivastava said: "This research enables advertisers to convert various cost formats into a common framework."

The downside is that while emerging Asian markets offer exceptional value for money, media costs in Asia are localised, irregular and heterogenous, says MindShare. The survey adds that advertising on traditional media in India works out between 2% to 36% of China's cost. However, advertising on non-traditional media such bus shelters and taxi wraps is more expensive in India than any other country in the APAC region. Source: The Economic Times, 9th Jul 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: BSkyB Opens Premier League Coverage with Top Clubs

The top three finishers in English soccer’s Premier League last season will feature in six of the first 10 live matches to be shown by pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting in the 2007-08 campaign. Having lost its monopoly of live rights following the intervention of European competition regulators, BSkyB will share coverage with pay-TV rival Setanta for the next three seasons.

However, it retains a lion’s share of the games - 92 per season - and will showcase champions Manchester United on the first three weekends of the season, starting with their opening fixture against Reading at home and the derby at Manchester City seven days later. Manchester United do not make their first appearance on Setanta until September and the allocation of the fixtures calls into question the Premier League's pledge, made before the last tender, that it would sell six 'balanced' packages of 23 games each.

BSkyB acquired four packages of rights for £1.314 billion ($2.644 billion), enabling it to show regular games at 12.45pm on Saturdays and 1.30pm and 4pm on Sundays, as well as a selection of other matches played in midweek and on bank holidays. BSkyB previously televised 88 live games on its main sports channels and 50 others on PremPlus, a pay-per-view channel.

Setanta is paying £392 million over three years to show 46 live games per season. These include a selection of matches played at 5.15pm on Saturdays, 1.30pm on Sundays and 8pm on Mondays, when top clubs are unlikely to be available because of commitments in European competitions. Setanta's English soccer coverage will be enhanced from the start of the 2008-09 season after it teamed up with commercial broadcaster ITV to wrest the live rights to FA Cup matches and England home games from public-service broadcaster the BBC and BSkyB. Source: Sportcal, 9th Jul 2007