Tuesday, 29th January 2008

WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Premier League Leaders to Meet in FA Cup Showdown

Manchester United have been drawn at home to fellow Premier League giants Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup, English soccer’s leading cup competition. United and Arsenal, currently joint leaders of the league, will meet at Old Trafford on February 16 or 17. It is the only all-Premier League tie and a repeat of the 2005 final, which Arsenal won on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Of the four other Premier League clubs, cup holders Chelsea and 2006 winners Liverpool have been drawn at home to Huddersfield Town and Barnsley respectively, while Middlesbrough face a trip to Sheffield United and Portsmouth go to Preston North End. Sportcal, 28th Jan 2008


INFO BOX

The past weekend started the intense 2008 season that’s set to propel Trident Racing towards a busy schedule around Europe and Asia. The team will be committed to three different paths, starting from brand-new GP2 Asia Series, to the GP2 Main Series and the International Formula Master.

Last Friday, the long-awaited GP2 Asia Series finally kicked off at Dubai with a maiden double race. The race proved to be an event itself, putting an huge spotlight on the Series and - as a matter of fact - on Trident Racing, thanks to an outstanding worldwide TV coverage. Starting from 2008, the GP2 Main Series will be televised in a record 178 countries. As it concerns the GP2 Asia Series, the races are broadcasted LIVE on Eurosport 1, Eurosport 2, ITV1 and ITV4 (UK), TV2 (Denmark), ESPN Sport Asia, Sky New Zealand, 10 Sports (India) and Supersport TV

The GP2 Main Series will be broadcasted LIVE by Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, Sky Sport (including qualifying sessions) and Rai 2 in Italy, Art and Orf in Austria, TV3 and Telecinco in Spain, TV2 in Denmark, RTL and NTV in Germany, SBS in the Netherlands, ITV in the UK, Venevision in Venezuela, Speed in the USA, Rete Globo in Brazil and Argentina, Fuji TV in Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

During the 2007 Season, the share of the GP2 Series’ Races raised by 16%, rounding a total worldwide audience of almost 150 million viewers, with an average 11 million viewers per race. In the sole Italy, the series was covered by 40 hours of broadcasting.

Thanks to the recent expansion of Trident Racing, and the addition of a new operation in the Formula Master, the team owned by Maurizio Salvadori is set to benefit from an additional live TV coverage in 59 countries. The involvement of Eurosport and Eurosport International, paired by a number of local stations, brought a powerful increase in the audience’s figures, with an average 2 million viewers per race and a 18 million viewers overall. Paddocktalk, 28th Jan 2008

The Numbers Of Trident Racing:
TOTAL VIEWERS: 168.000.000 (GP2 Series: 150.000.000, F.Master 18.000.000)
COUNTRIES: 238 (GP2 Series: 179, F.Master: 59)
RACE COUNT: 47 (GP2 Asia Series: 10, GP2 Main Series: 11, F.Master: 16)
ON-TRACK VIEWERS: 2.242.000 (GP2 Series: 1.875.000, F.Master: 367.000)


SPORTS SHORTS

* A new Nokia-backed DVB-H mobile TV service has been promised for Indonesia before the end of July. Nokia Siemens Networks is linking with local media and telecoms group Global Mediacom for what the company called “the biggest DVB-H agreement signed by Nokia Siemens Networks globally”. Nokia Siemens Networks Indonesia will provide end-to-end systems and services, although the companies have yet to agree terms for Nokia to provide DVB-H devices and joint marketing. Global Mediacom owns stakes in companies including broadcaster RCTI and producer MNC, satellite pay-TV platform Indovision’s operator MNC Sky Vision and mobile provider Mobile-8 Telecom. Rapid TV News, 28th Jan 2008

* Malaysia's Astro All Asia Networks (AAAN) has announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Robert Odendaal, has decided to resign, citing personal and lifestyle reasons. However, Mr Odendaal has agreed to continue serving the organisation and providing leadership on several key initiatives until mid-April while succession plans are implemented. Mr Odendaal said: "I am grateful for the opportunity to have served AAAN over the past year and I believe that the company is in a strong position to grow and develop its business further. I wish the company every success in the future and have offered to assist in any possible way leading up to my departure." ABU, 25th Jan 2008

* Jump Games, a subsidiary of Indian company Reliance Entertainment, has signed a three-year deal to produce mobile phone games for Manchester United, the champions of English soccer’s top-tier Premier League. Under the arrangement, said to be worth around $100 million, Jump will design, develop and distribute games for the club. The first game, Manchester United Word It!, will be a puzzle based on the club’s history and is due out in March. A soccer action game will follow in April or May. Jump expects to release six games every year for United and generate 10 to 15 per cent of its revenues from the tie-up. Sportcal, 28th Jan 2008

* SK Telecom, South Korean mobile carrier, has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television International to provide the latest movie content to its mobile service users. Under the deal, SK Telecom will provide its 22 million customers with a wide range of TV and film offerings held by Sony's affiliates such as Columbia and Tristar. SK Telecom customers will be able to view the latest video content through its mobile multimedia service platforms, NATE and June. ATV, 29th Jan 2008

* More than 40 enterprises will join forces to create the China Terrestrial Digital HDTV IPR Protection Alliance on January 31st. The alliance will have the mandate to manage patents for the Chinese standard for terrestrial digital HDTV, and could potentially become a body like the IGRS (Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing) Working Group by setting standards for how and in what amount patent licence fees are to be paid. Reportedly, Chinese television manufacturers pay a $31 licensing fee to the US on every television set made using the American HDTV standard. ATV, 29th Jan 2008

* Los Angeles Galaxy, of US Major League Soccer, are arranging matches against teams in South Korea and China as part of the team’s pre-season tour of Asia in March. Seoul’s World Cup stadium is set to host a match between the Galaxy and FC Seoul on March 1 and there are plans for a match in Shanghai against East Asia on March 5. It is thought that the MLS outfit, whose star player is former England captain David Beckham, could organise another match in China before returning to the USA for the start of the domestic season on March 29. Sportcal, 28th Jan 2008

* The president of the Namibian Football Association (NFA) has confirmed several of the team's players were offered money to throw their match against Guinea at the MTN African Cup of Nations. John Muinjo claims players were offered US$30,000 each by a syndicate to lose their final group game in the tournament on Monday. Muinjo believes his country's players could have been targeted because Namibia is a less-fancied team in the competition. Namibia has never progressed past the first round of the Cup of Nations and lost its opening game 5-1 to Morocco. Muinjo added: "They may think we are vulnerable and we are easy targets. But the players from Namibia, a lot of them are semi-professional, so people don't realise that a lot of players are playing for pride and they won't even consider getting involved in this." Football Insider, Sportcal, 28th Jan 2008

* A Senegalese court has ordered local private commercial station, Walf-TV, to cease broadcast of the Africa Cup of Nations, presently under way in Ghana, after a complaint from RTS, the public-service broadcaster. RTS, which claims to be the exclusive rights holder in Senegal, sent a summons to Walf-TV after its rival used the live RTS signal to broadcast games from the tournament in Ghana. The court ruled that Walf-TV must stop televising the competition unless it agrees to pay around €15,250 ($22,453) for every match it broadcasts from now on. Although RTS was claiming around €1.05 million in compensation from Walf-TV, the court ruling did not take in to account matches already shown by the private broadcaster. Sportcal, 28th Jan 2008

* The Monte Carlo Rally will form part of the Intercontinental Rally (IRC) in 2009. In the deal announced by Michel Boeri, the President of the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM), and Jacques Behar, the President of Intercontinental Rally Challenge promoter Eurosport Events, the 77th Monte Carlo Rally will open the IRC series in January next year, at the start of a season that will take in between 10 and 12 rallies over three different continents. Launched in 2007, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) is an international rally series authorised by the FIA and organised by Eurosport Events. During its first full season, the IRC took in nine rallies with the participation of six registered manufacturers. Sport Business, 28th Jan 2008


MORE NEWS

Thailand/General: CDC Games Launches New Online Game `16Pounds' in Thailand

CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation and pioneer of the "free-to-play, pay for merchandise" model for online games in China, announced today the commercial launch of its new game, 16Pounds, in Thailand through its local distribution partner, Silver Coins Co. Ltd. CDC Games also announced that its upcoming new game for the U.S. market, Lunia Online, was voted by the fans of mmosite.com as one of the top five games in the "Best New Game" category.

16Pounds is a casual online bowling game with more than 40 unique characters rendered in full 3D cartoon animation. The user interface for 16Pounds is designed for broad audiences regardless of gender and age, requiring minimal learning or prior games skills. The game has been sub-licensed to Silver Coins, by CDC Games International (CGI), a subsidiary of CDC Games. Silver Coins is one of the fastest growing online games publishers in Thailand, and its first online game peaked with the second highest number of concurrent players at the time. Silver Coins also has a well established distribution channel and strong partnerships with local media.

CGI was established in 2007 to leverage the domain expertise of CDC Games to seek out licensing opportunities that are intended to help the company enter targeted global markets including Japan, North America and southeast Asia. CGI intends to launch new online MMO games in Japan and North America through its own operations. CGI has now launched Minna de Battle in Japan, and 16Pounds in Thailand.

"We have successfully launched our first two games outside of China including the launch of Minna de Battle last December in Japan, and 16Pounds this month in Thailand," said Jeff Longoria, president of CDC Games International. "We are also on track to launch Lunia Online in North America later this quarter. With the momentum we are building in China with new games such as Special Force, and our growing portfolio of games within CGI, we are establishing ourselves as one of the global leaders in online games."

Lunia Online, developed by Korea-based ALLM Co., Ltd., is based on the manga style of Japanese comics which is widely popular throughout the world. This style of Japanese comics is currently a more than $200 million industry in the U.S. according to Publishers Weekly. "We are excited that Lunia Online is receiving such impressive recognition and anticipation from the fans of one of the most popular games portals," said Ron Williams, general manager of CDC Games USA. "Not only is Lunia Online considered one of the top five best new games on mmosite.com, but it also was nominated as the 'Favorite F2P (free to play) Game,' as well." Centraldaily, 28th Jan 2008


India/General: ROK Signs Mobile Distribution Deal with China Mobile in Pakistan

ROK Entertainment Group Inc., the UK-based mobile technologies, applications and entertainment development company, today announces that through it's partners BPS, it has signed a contract with China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), to supply a portfolio of Pakistani and international content.

Under the terms of the agreement, subscribers will be able to watch the content over ROK's Live TV product - a mobile streaming service where the consumer can watch a range of live content streamed to their mobile handset - due to be launched in the first quarter of 2008, as well as ROK Talk, which enables users to make multi-person calls from their mobile. ROK and CMPak will share the revenue earned from the distribution with the charge-out to be agreed.

The move represents ROK's second deployment in Pakistan. CMPak is owned by China Mobile following an US$400 million buy-in of incumbent operator Paktel with plans of investing another US$400 million on running expenses and network expansion. BroadcastNews, 29th Jan 2008

India/General: On the Indian Premier League Cricket

Media Companies Ensure Key Role In Indian Premier League
Media organisations have secured central roles in the new Indian Premier League after becoming owners of two competing cricket teams in the tournament late last week. The competition, backed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), will have eight franchises across India battling against each other in the popular Twenty20 format of the sport. Emerging Media teamed up with Lachlan Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, to acquire the Jaipur franchise as co-owners for US$67 million, and the Deccan Chronicle, an English language newspaper published in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu in India, has taken control of the Hyderabad franchise after succeeding with a $107 million bid.

UK-based Emerging Media is already involved in cricket via its Investors in Cricket (IIC) subsidiary. Emerging Media has been a significant and long-standing investor in cricket through its subsidiary Investors in Cricket (IIC). The group has a partnership with Leicestershire County Cricket Club in England and staged the first international club Twenty20 championship in 2006. In India, the company is best known for launching the Cricket Star reality programme on Doordarshan last year. "I am delighted to be participating in such an exciting venture, and believe that the potential for Indian domestic cricket has never looked better," said Lachlan Murdoch. A number of Bollywood stars and leading business figures purchased the other franchises.

As reported in Sports Media earlier this month, a consortium comprising Sony Television and World Sports Group splashed out more than $1 billion to acquire the telecast rights to the Twenty20 cricket tournament for the next 10 years. The inaugural 44-day tournament will start on April 18 and feature eight teams of 16 players each, with the games taking place late in the afternoon to maximise TV exposure. Numerous leading stars, including Ricky Ponting, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik and Graeme Smith, will take part in the tournament. Sports Media, 28th Jan 2008

IPL title sponsorship up for grabs
The title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is open to brands from all over the world, according to a top official with the IPL and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). IPL chairman and BCCI VP Lalit Modi told the Economic Times newspaper: “We don’t want to limit the sponsorship to companies already operating in India, considering the interest level the tournament has generated and the profile of our franchisee and broadcasting partners. We want to reach out to even those companies which want to enter the Indian market.”

The BCCI has set a base price of $6 million per year for bids from potential title sponsors. The winning bid for the five-year title sponsorship will be announced on February 6. The Economic Time said that that PepsiCo, Bharti Airtel, R-ADAG, Vodafone, Emaar-MGF, LG Electronics and DLF are among potential Indian bidders for the title rights. Earlier this month, World Sports Group and Sony Entertainment Television combined to win the broadcast rights for $918m. Sport Business, 28th Jan 2008

Murdoch outbids other for Twenty20 IPL franchise
Lachlan Murdoch has emerged as the mystery figure behind a successful 67 million dollars bid for one of the eight Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchises .He has beaten a long list of celebrity bidders to emerge as the mystery buyer of an Indian Premier League cricket franchise. Murdoch teamed with the London firm Emerging Media to buy the Jaipur franchise in the Twenty20 Premier League.

Earlier, he had announced his intention to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings in partnership with James Packer. The 67 million dollars purchase price was the lowest of all the franchises. “That is my home team, and we are obviously delighted with the result,” said Lalit Modi, Chairman of the IPL.

I have been in regular email contact with Lachlan throughout the (bidding) process, and he has big plans for the Jaipur team. Some other Australians had expressed some interest, but Lachlan was the leader,” he added. The IPL made headlines recently when 11 top Australian players were attracted by the lucrative contracts offered, rumoured to be as much as one million dollar for just a few weeks of cricket. Murdoch’s bidding partner, Emerging Media, has made several moves into Indian cricket, including the reality programme Cricket Star. Thaindian, 28th Jan 2008

Elsewhere/General: Speedcar Series Secures Broad Exposure

MP & Silva (MP&S) has agreed distribution deals with several broadcasters in Asia for coverage of the inaugural Speedcar Series. ESPN Star Sports, Al Jazeera Sports Channel, Showtime, Dubai Sports Channel and Indonesian terrestrial network Trans TV have all struck deals after UK-based media group One O One, which holds the rights to the Series, appointed MP&S as the exclusive distribution agency for the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region. More than 50 territories across Middle East and Asia will be covered by the deals, including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and most countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to a press release from MP&S, a number of other terrestrial broadcasters will also be airing the first race on February 16-17 at the Sentul International Circuit in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Series will span across countries in the Middle East and Asia and will feature ex-Formula One drivers Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson, and several up-and-coming young stars from Asian countries.

"The team has been working very closely with all broadcasters from around the region and the number of countries covered through the distribution deals reflects the strong interest in the series," said MP&S CEO Andrea Radrizzani. One O One director Massimo Satta added: "Motorsports is one of the fastest growing sports in the Middle East and Asia, and it is clearly evident by the great feedback received by broadcasters in the region." Sports Media, 28th Jan 2008

New Media: Mobile Set to Surpass Online TV Delivery

Mobile delivery of TV and music will exceed online delivery by 2010, international authors group CISAC has reported. CISAC, the worldwide organisation of copyright societies, said that consumption of audiovisual content on mobile devices will grow 68 per cent per year through 2010.

Driven mainly by mobile TV, it will reach a total market value of $3 billion. By comparison, online Internet TV is expected to reach $2.7 billion by 2010. Musical content will follow a similar trend, the CISAC study said: with a projected 4.2 billion mobile subscribers worldwide by 2010 - up from 3.3 billion in 2007 - the global market value of the mobile consumption of digital music content is expected to reach $6 billion while online delivery will reach $5 billion.

The study said the mobile surge will be driven by the Asia-Pacific region, which will generate more than half of the total global income from mobile music downloads by 2010, surpassing both North America and Europe. ATV, 29th Jan 2008