SPORTS SHORTS
* MP & Silva and ONE O ONE secured key broadcast deals for the inaugural Speedcar Series in over 50 countries in Middle East and Asia with several key regional broadcasters, STAR Sports, Al Jazeera Sports Channel, Showtime, Dubai Sports Channel, and Indonesian terrestrial, TRANS TV. Over 50 territories across Middle East and Asia will be covered by the concluded deals, including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and most countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The series, which will span across countries in the Middle East and Asia, will feature ex-F1 drivers, Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, Stefan Johansson and Narain Karthikeyan. Sport Business, 29th Jan 2008
* In cooperation with the Sumo Association, bid committee, TOKYO 2016 has recently been engaged in several promotional activities at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament from 13 to 27 January at Tokyo’s Kokugikan Arena, the proposed venue for the Olympic boxing matches in TOKYO 2016's novel Olympic Games proposal. As part of a unique approach to promoting awareness and support of its bid, TOKYO 2016 set up an information booth at the lobby and also sponsored a tour to bring 15 winning families to view sumo at the tournament on 20 January. Sports e-Media, 29th Jan 2008
* Kia Motors Corporation has extended its sponsorship of the Australian Open in a multi-year deal that will include broadcasting the tournament to fans at public locations in China and Australia. The five-year agreement includes plans to install three big screens at 'Kia Live Sites' in Shanghai at Century Square, outside Melbourne Park and at the Overseas Passenger Terminal located near the Sydney Opera House during future tournaments. This year's Australian Open concluded at the weekend, with Novak Djokovic lifting the men's trophy and Maria Sharapova winning in the women's event. Sports Media, 29th Jan 2008
* The Board of Control for Cricket in India has set a base price of $6 million per year for bids from companies looking to sponsor the Indian Premier League, its new Twenty20 competition. The winner will be announced on February 6 and the BCCI has said it is interested in hearing from firms outside India, as well as domestic companies. With the television rights having been awarded to a group including Indian broadcaster Sony Entertainment Television and sports agency World Sport Group and the competing teams having been snapped up by eight eager bidders, the IPL is now taking shape and the BCCI believes it will have international appeal. Sportcal, 29th Jan 2008
* Digvijay Singh, chief executive of Nimbus Sport International, has been promoted to chief executive of its parent company, Nimbus Communications, headquartered in Mumbai. Singh’s new job means that he will oversee all of the groups’ activities in sport, entertainment, new media, home video and related activities. The appointment is part of a reorganisation of the group’s leadership structure, according to Singh, in which the present managing director Akash Khurana will continue in the position, but with special responsibility for human resources, evolution of best practices, corporate governance and guiding the company’s ‘strategic think tank.’ Sportcal, 29th Jan 2008
* South Africa’s Premier Soccer League believes that their legal battle with broadcaster SABC is "now history" following the conclusion of arbitration proceedings. The PSL was forced to respond on two SABC applications for urgent interdicts attempting to prevent the League from going to market with its broadcast rights. The PSL announced in June that pay-TV platform Supersport had won exclusive TV rights to air matches from the League. SABC was also in the running for the contract, which covers domestic competition before and after the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The 5-year agreement between Supersport and PSL was reportedly worth over R1 billion (US$140 million). Football Insider, Sport Business, Sportcal, 29th Jan 2008
* Global Sportnet is exclusively marketing the international TV rights to the 'Cristiano Ronaldo documentary' - produced by Portuguese broadcaster SIC. Global Sportnet has a two-year deal with SIC to distribute the inside story of the Portugal and Manchester United forward. So far, broadcaster agreements outside of Portugal have been reached with ITV in the UK, TVE in Spain and many other countries such as the Netherlands, Iceland, Romania, Brazil, South Korea, China and Malaysia. "A number of deals are expected to be signed in the first quarter of 2008," reported a statement from Global Sportnet. Football Insider, 29th Jan 2008
* Five new continental cup competitions are to be introduced to existing series in the international triathlon calendar this season, says the International Triathlon Union. Two of the new events will take place in Europe, two in Africa and one in Asia. The new Asian event in Seoul, the first ITU-sanctioned event to be held in the South Korean capital, brings to 13 the number of Asian Cup events. The event, which will offer prize money of $50,000, will help to prepare the city for its bid to stage the ITU Triathlon World Championships in 2012. The continental cup events are important for athletes aiming to gain points to compete in the top-tier annual World Cup series. Sportcal, 29th Jan 2008
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcaster: Ads and Not Subs Good Business for Zee
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee), operator of the Zee group of channels in india, has seen advertising revenues rise by a quarter over the last year. Ad revenues for the three months to December 31 2007 rose 25.3% to Rs2,638 million (US$67 million) compared with the same quarter 2006. However, revenues from subscriptions to Zee’s channels fell 0.3% to Rs1,950 million. Zee said that the increase in advertising was a reflection of the success of its channels, highlighting the growth of its flagship service Zee TV. Over the quarter the channel grew its audience share from 30% to 31% (although as the figures are rounded, the growth could actually be under one percentage point).
Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Zee (pictured, left), said: “We have recorded a robust 24.1% growth in operating revenue which is led by advertising revenues growth of 25.3%. Our television broadcasting business continues to lead industry in converting rating success into strong revenue growth. The performance reflects our ability to deliver sustained growth despite lower traction in subscription revenues. We look forward to a strong finish to this year and we are confident of our growth prospects for FY2009.”
Total operating revenues at the group rose 24.1% on the corresponding period 2006 to Rs5,182 million, although expenditure rose also, up 28.2% at Rs3,613 million. Both were affected by Ten Sports’ (Zee’s sports network) coverage of the new I-League cricket competition, with syndicated sales good, but higher costs due to broadcasting of events. Expenses increases were also partly due to the launch of new youth-oriented channel Zee Next during the quarter. Operating income rose 15.6% to Rs1,569 million, also impacted by the launch of Zee Next, with profit after tax at Rs1,135 million, a rise of 18.4%. Rapid TV News, 29th Jan 2008
China/New Media: China's mobile phone penetration rate reaches 41.6%
Thanks to the sharp reduction in mobile call charge in the recent years, the number of mobile phone users has entered a high growth period in China. According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Information, the mobile phone penetration rate reached 41.6% at the end of 2007, with the number of mobile phone users hitting 547 million, an increase of 86.228 million over the end of the previous year and increasing nearly 7.19 million monthly on average.
The volume of mobile phone text message sent last year also witnessed a year on year rise of 37.8%. The sustained high growth of mobile phone users protrudes the predicament of fixed-line telecom operators. Data shows that the number of fixed-line phone users of China Telecom decreased 1.48 million in December to 220.3 million and it has declined for five consecutive months; and that of China Netcom had a net reduction of 2.53 million in December to be 111 million and it has scored a net loss of users for six months running.
China's two major mobile telecom operators, China Mobile and China Unicom, chalk up a steady growth in new users. According to the published data, China Mobile recruited additional 6.556 million users in December, a little bigger than November's figure of 6.517 million, raising the base of its total users to 369 million; and China Unicom enrolled 1.361 million new mobile phone users, including 1.035 million GSM mobile phone users and 327,000 CDMA mobile phone users, to bring its total mobile phone users to 160 million. telecomasia.net, 30th Jan 2008
China/New Media: China Mobile seeking more acquisitions overseas
China Mobile, the country's top wireless operator, plans to take advantage of the global stock market downturn to acquire overseas telecom firms that have now become cheaper, an AFP report said. "(China Mobile) would like to acquire high-quality and profit-making telecommunications enterprises overseas," Lei Yu, a spokeswoman of China Mobile's Hong Kong-listed unit, was quoted by the AFP report as saying. She declined to provide any timetable for the expansion, the AFP report said.
The official China Securities Journal reported that the company was eyeing some relatively small telecom companies in other Asian markets as declining stock market had resulted in lower prices, the report said. So far China Mobile has made only one overseas takeover, buying an 88.86% stake in Pakistan's fifth-largest mobile operator Paktel for $284 million in January 2007, the AFP report further said. telecomasia.net, 30th Jan 2008
Hong Kong/New Media: Views sought on Hong Kong mobile TV
The Office of the Telecommunications Authority has launched its second consultation on the development of mobile television services in Hong Kong. It proposes to allocate one multiplex in the UHF Band and two multiplexes in Band III for deployment of broadcast-type mobile TV services.
For the allocation of the multiplexes in UHF Band and Band III, it proposes to adopt a pro-mobile TV approach. At least 50% of the transmission capacity should be used to carry mobile TV content, while the remainder can be used to provide other ancillary services. To give operators flexibility the 50 per cent mandatory percentage of transmission capacity dedicated for mobile TV content will be subject to review five years after the service launch. ATV, 30th Jan 2008
Korea/New Media: Hollywood goes to South Korea
Two new content deals show that South Korea has become a neat territory for global content providers pushing into new technologies. Sony Pictures Television International has become the first Hollywood major to offer full-length movies and TV shows on SK Telecom’s mobile TV platform. SK Telecom, one of South Korea’s mobile operators, offers on-demand mobile platforms, Nate and June. The operator has some 22 million subscribers. Under the agreement, a selection of Sony’s TV series plus movies from Columbia and TriStar will be available on demand to SK Telecom’s mobile TV platform customers at between Won1,000 and Won2,000 a time, plus data fees.
Content includes at launch Spider-Man, Kung Fu Hustle and series The Tudors. Soo Hyeok Lee, VP of music business office at SK Telecom promised more content would follow. “We will continue to expand our partnership with media companies to enrich mobile-based video content services,” he said. The platform already offers series from HBO but has now become the first South Korean operator to offer feature-length content on mobiles.
SK Telecom is ramping up its TV activities, having agreed last year to buy Hanarotelecom, which operates the Hana TV IPTV service. Hana TV said today it had signed another major up to its on-demand IPTV platform, with Walt Disney agreeing to provide its movies such as Finding Nemo and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to the platform. Disney becomes the seventh international movie producer to offer its fare on Hana TV, with others including Warner Bros, Universal Pictures and Sony.
Hana TV is also developing its “real-time” IPTV channel service, to launch later in 2008. The Korean Parliament passed legislation allowing IPTV operators to branch out from on-demand offerings at the end of last year. Rapid TV News, 29th Jan 2008
Korea/New Media: Korea's Encoder Deployed
Harmonic Inc. today announced that C&M Co., Ltd., a leading cable TV operator in Korea with more than two million subscribers, has deployed Harmonic's DiviCom(R) Electra(TM) 7000 encoder for Asia's first live high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video service in a cable environment. Introduced in September 2006, the industry-leading Electra 7000 has been selected by top tier satellite, telco and cable operators in North America, Europe and Asia to provide the highest quality, ultra-low bit-rate compression for more than 1,500 HD H.264 channels.
The increasing availability of HD content, affordable HDTV sets and set-top boxes is strengthening consumer demand for HD services in Korea, as in many countries around the world. This trend, combined with intensifying competition from satellite direct-to-home providers and the expansion of video-over-DSL services, necessitates the addition of more HD programming by cable operators such as C&M. BroadcastNewsRoom, Harmonic, 29th Jan 2008
Elsewhere/General: Concacaf Prepares for Launch of Own Champions League
Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has revealed the format for its new Champions League, which will get under way in August. The 24-team tournament is modelled on the Uefa Champions League, the top European clubs competition, and will replace the Concacaf Champions Cup, which has determined the top team in the region since 1962.
The Concacaf Champions League will be more representative than the eight-team Champions Cup, which currently involves two teams from each of Mexico and the USA, three from Central America and one from the Caribbean. Mexico and the USA will each be represented by four teams in the new competition, which will also feature three from the Caribbean and two each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama and one from each of Canada, Belize and Nicaragua.
Eight teams will be seeded, including two each from Mexico and the USA and one from each of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and progress directly to the first round of the Concacaf Champions League. The remaining 16 teams will play home and away ties in the preliminary round in late August and early September.
The group stage will comprise 16 teams divided into four groups of four. Two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter finals and the tournament culminates with the final, held over two legs, next April. The winning team earns a place at the Fifa Club World Cup held at the end of the calendar year. Sportcal, 29th Jan 2008
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