Tuesday, 24th July 2007

THIS WEEK

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


DID YOU KNOW…?

Dubai declared on Saturday it now boasts the world's tallest building, with the Burj Dubai (Dubia Tower) scraping the sky at 512.1m (1,680ft) a year before its slated completion. The Burj Dubai, built by South Korea's Samsung, now stands at 141 storeys, outstripping Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which rises a modest 508m (1,667ft). Developer Emaar Properties is keeping tight-lipped on the $1bn structure's final vital stats, but says it will eventually be "more than" 700m (2,296ft) tall and have "more than" 160 storeys. Reluctance to divulge facts may be a response to rival developer Nakheel, which has announced it will build the equally inspirationally-titled "Al-Burj" (The Tower) - "whose projected height also remains a closely guarded secret". The Burj Dubai is the centrepiece of a $20bn complex comprising "30,000 apartments and the world's largest shopping mall" - suitably dubbed "Downtown Burj Dubai". Source: Ken Radio, 23rd Jul 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* Nissan has agreed a 4-year extension to its title sponsorship of the Copa Sudamericana. Nissan said the deal, which was agreed with broadcaster and rights holder Fox Sports and runs until 2010, will serve as a marketing platform for its brand in Latin America. Héctor Costa, Senior VP of Fox Sports Latin America, said the Copa Sudamericana has attracted increased audiences in the last few years, and Nissan’s involvement will help to ensure continued growth. The Copa Libertadores, the main South American clubs competition, is sponsored by Nissan's rival Toyota. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007

* StarHub will launch Football Channel, a channel dedicated to 24-hour Premier League programming. It will be made available to StarHub Sports’ customers when the season kicks off in August. The channel will be packaged by Goal TV, in association with Ten Sports. Live matches and magazine programmes will be produced by TWI, the Premier League's official producer and distributor of international coverage, while highlights, studio previews, half-time studio shows and match summaries will be produced by Goal TV and Ten Sports. Source: Sport Business, Rapid TV News, Worldscreen, The New Paper SG, C21 Media, 23rd Jul 2007

* Backed by a permanent injunction against piracy from the Delhi High Court, ESPN Software India is mounting its strictest ever monitoring of its channels and has warned anyone found violating with the order would face criminal charges. ESS told Indiantelevision.com that it has named 104 companies, including a leading MSO, of which some have been old offenders and some are suspected to likely pirate the signals of the ongoing India-England cricket series. It has restrained these operators from unauthorised broadcast through their cable networks. Star Cricket, a new channel from ESPN Star Sports is exclusively broadcasting the Test series between the two countries. Source: Indian Television, 23rd Jul 2007

* The value of mobile TV services in China will grow from $36 million to $98 million between now and the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Juniper Research sayss sports content will be a major driver of the market, helping lift subscribers from 3.7 million in 2007 to 9.3 million in 2008. The report, China 3G: Mobile Content Strategies & Forecasts, 2007-2012 says: ‘The wireless value added sector has significant growth potential in the forthcoming 3G arena and with the imminent launch of 3G, the value added service sector will be fuelled by factors such as development of new services and applications.’ Source: Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007

* Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed bin Hammam confirmed his plans to work with UEFA to implement a ban on teams touring the continent during the Asian Cup 2011. “Yes, it is feasible,” he said when asked if a total ban was possible on European teams touring the region during the 2011 finals. “We will be in discussions, either to ban tours in the 16 countries participating in the finals or all of Asia. I will seek understanding between the AFC and UEFA and all major leagues in Europe to protect the month of the Asian Cup in 2011. Source: Football Dynamics, 7th Jul 2007

* India will bid to stage the 2014 Youth Olympics, according to the Indian Olympic Association. The inaugural edition of the multi-sports event is scheduled for 2010, with Moscow, Hamburg and Singapore all lining up bids. With the western city of Pune due to stage the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games and New Delhi installed as the host of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, India has a good chance of attracting the Youth Olympics, which are aimed at athletes between the ages of 14 and 18. Bidding for the games will start in 2011 and the final decision will be taken in 2013. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007

* Companies in Asia-Pacific signed more than $5.4bn worth of business-process outsourcing deals in the first half of the year. The figure represented a 100% increase compared to the same period last year, indicating that outsourcing market expansion in the region is outpacing the rest of the world. The telecoms sector accounted almost half of Asia-Pacific’s outsourcing, in part due to major contracts from China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone firm by subscriber base. Outsourcing by the financial services industry fell to 9% of the total. Source: Ken Radio, 23rd Jul 2007

* Billionaire industrialist, Len Blavatnik, is set to acquire Premium TV in a deal worth an estimated £25 million. Premium TV builds and manages broadband websites for sports groups including the Premier League and 87 football league clubs in the UK. It manages the content on the sites and allows content owners maximise income and reach through creation and distribution of multi-platform digital products. It is reported Mr Blavatnik is likely to put Premium TV alongside the other media interests that form part of his Access Industries conglomerate. Source: Sport Business, Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007

* The Australian Grand Prix is losing its place as the first race of the F1 motor racing season. The 2008 schedule will start with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir with the Australian meeting to follow from March 13 to 16. Albert Park has been the first circuit on the calendar since 1996, except in 2006 when it was moved because of the Commonwealth Games held in the city. The schedule change will also allow a round of Australia’s popular V8 Supercar Championship to take place in Melbourne on the same weekend as the grand prix. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007


MORE NEWS

China/New Media: Sport to Aid Growth of Mobile TV Sector

The value of mobile television services in China will grow from $36 million to $98 million between now and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Juniper Research claims that sports related content will be a major driver of the market, helping to lift the number of subscribers from 3.7 million in 2007 to 9.3 million in 2008.

Dr Elisa Kuang, the author of ‘China 3G: Mobile Content Strategies & Forecasts, 2007-2012’, said: ‘The wireless value added sector has significant growth potential in the forthcoming 3G arena and with the imminent launch of 3G, the VAS [value added service] sector will be fuelled by a number of factors such as the development of new services and applications.’

However, she warned that there are ‘a number of major hurdles’ for foreign companies seeking access to the expanding Chinese mobile TV market as it presents a much different operating environment to those in the USA and Europe.

India/General: Chandra's cricket league to bat with Brian Lara

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) continues to expand its list of star cricketers. After roping in Kapil Dev and Tony Greig on the executive board, it has now signed in former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara as captain of one of ICL's six city teams. ICL project head Himanshu Mody said, "We are extremely honored to welcome Brian to the ICL family. I think the youngsters we are grooming for India’s future will benefit immensely from playing alongside him in the ICL."

Lara said, "It gives me great pleasure to join the Indian Cricket League. You can’t keep me too far from cricket and hence I return to the game in this exciting new avatar that the Essel Group has launched. I look forward to playing with promising youngsters from India and elsewhere along with some of my illustrious international counterparts who I’ve shared many an exciting moment with on the field."

In other appointments, ICL has roped in ex-India all-rounder Madan Lal as coach of the Delhi team and Balwinder Sandhu as Director of Academies. Lal is expected to play an active role in shaping the Delhi team and training it for the inaugural ICL Trophy to be held later this year. Sandhu will be responsible for grooming the talent identified through scouting in all the regions. Also, former cricketers Pranab Roy and Rajesh Chauhan have been appointed as talent scouts for the league. Both will be involved in identification, short-listing and channeling of talent in their respective zones. Source: Indian Television, 23rd Jul 2007

Global/Broadcast: TV Audience for Youth Event Breaks All Records

The FIFA U-20 World Cup 2007 announced a cumulative attendance of nearly 1.2 million spectators at matches in the six venues across Canada. The popularity of the FIFA U-20 World Cup has reached new global levels with the 52 matches being sold and distributed to 200 countries and territories around the world. This represents an increase of 67% compared to the previous event in 2005.

“FIFA is extremely pleased with the huge success of the global TV distribution and worldwide appeal of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. It has a long tradition of being the platform from which many great careers have been launched –Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and John Obi Mikel to name but a few. Impressive TV audiences are a reflection of the high standard of play that has been witnessed over the past few weeks,” explained a delighted FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.

Additional free live webcasts of all 52 matches in selected territories on FIFA’s official website offered fans from all over the world the most comprehensive event coverage in the history of the competition. Free two-minute highlight videos are also being made available worldwide shortly after the final whistle in each match.

In line with its change of marketing strategy in late 2004, FIFA decided to manage in-house the TV rights distribution for the post-2006 period. The progress made in terms of broadcast rights sales for the various FIFA youth, women’s and beach soccer events is a result of active and targeted work with broadcast partners around the world. The TV sales strategy focuses on content distribution across several multi-media platforms, from traditional TV to mobile phones, to offer consumers a wide choice and guarantee access to the beautiful game. Source: Sports e-Media, 23rd Jul 2007

Global/New Media: Sports Websites Set for Ad Revenues of $2bn by 2009

Sports websites worldwide could be attracting $2 billion a year in advertising revenues by 2009, if current trends for the growth of the online advertising sector and the growth of sports coverage online continue. The prediction is contained in Sport on Broadband 2007: Video Rights, the Internet and IPTV management report available now from Sportcal.com. The figures represent a huge potential market for sports federations and other rights-owners seeking to find new ways of commercialising their sports properties and content.

The figures are based on projections from ZenithOptimedia valuing the global internet advertising market at almost $43 billion in 2009. These are combined with Sportcal.com’s own prediction that sport’s share of that market (4 per cent in USA in 2006, according to Nielsen/NetRatings’ AdRelevance data) will grow to at least 5 per cent worldwide by 2009, as advertisers begin to recognise the potential of online sport.

Research undertaken during the course of the report suggests that rights-owners are already exploiting the potential of online advertising revenues associated with free-to-view content. In many cases, they are adopting this model, or offering a combination of free-to-view and paid-for content, in preference to attempting to commercialise all of their premium content through subscription and pay-per-view models.

Perhaps the most high-profile example is Fifaworldcup.com which, during soccer’s World Cup last year, more than doubled the 65.2 million average daily page views of the 2002 website, after Fifa elected to offer free-to-view video clips. Fifa had experimented with a $19.95 subscription fee during the 2002 World Cup. The growth of broadband also opens up new and attractive opportunities for advertisers to communicate with potential customers through ‘rich media’ including video which can include interactive options.

The research shows that majority of sports websites offer a mix of free content and premium subscription services. Online advertising tends to focus on the major sports web portals like ESPN and SkySports but as advertisers begin to appreciate the figures and communities being generated by major international and national sports federations, it is expected that their websites could also become the focus of advertising campaigns.

The challenge for the federations representing smaller and niche sports is how to build these communities and how to attract advertisers and sponsors who wish to interact with them. WCSN.com, the US broadband internet site focusing mainly on Olympic sports, has signed a number of deals with international federations and rights holders, and is looking to expand advertising revenues further. In 2006, the USA topped the list of countries ranked by internet advertising expenditure with $12.49 billion spent, followed by Japan, the UK, China and South Korea. Source: Sportcal, 23rd Jul 2007