Wednesday, 9th January 2008

DID YOU KNOW…?

More bicycles than cars were sold in Australia last year for the eighth consecutive year, prompting calls for more government funding to improve the country’s cycling infrastructure. A record 1.47 million bicycles were sold, compared with 1.04 million cars, and Elliott Fishman, policy adviser at the Cycling Promotion Fund, said: ‘Not only are Australians buying more bicycles, they are using them in increasing numbers. Cycling has become the fourth most popular physical activity, with more than 1.6 million adults cycling in 2006, an increase of 17 per cent from 2001.’ Sportcal, 8th Jan 2008


WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Strike Claims the Golden Globe Awards Show

The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards gala ceremony, slated to take place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on Sunday, has been scrapped as a result of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike and replaced with a press conference. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and dick clark productions had been trying to seal an interim deal with the WGA in order for the ceremony to go forward. The guild refused to grant a waiver to the event and promised to picket should the ceremony proceed. The Screen Actors Guild, meanwhile, said it would boycott the awards. The 25 Golden Globe awards will instead be presented at a press conference at the Beverly Hilton at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST on Sunday. It will be covered live by NBC News.

According to reports, NBC will air the press conference after a one-hour Dateline special on the nominees. Following the awards presentation, the network is expected to feature an entertainment magazine show about the Golden Globes parties across Los Angeles. The fate of the upcoming Academy Awards, set for February 24, is now also in doubt. There are, however, a few awards shows going ahead as planned: both the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards have received waivers from the guild. Worldscreen, B&C, Advertising Age, 8th Jan 2008


INFO BOX

2007: A Record Year For Tennis In The U.S.
USTA Official, 20th Dec 2007

The USTA has announced that the sport of tennis in the United States grew on every level in 2007 - - from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. One of the strongest years in nearly two decades, tennis in the U.S. set records in event attendance, television viewership and recreational participation. Record highlights include:

* All-Time US Open Attendance Record: The 2007 US Open final attendance total of 715,587 far surpassed the previous all-time high of 659,538 set in 2005. US Open attendance has grown by more than 100,000 since 2000. Total attendance of all pro tennis events in North America topped 2.8 million.
* Record-Breaking Viewership for US Open Series: US Open Series television viewership topped 46 million for the first time, more than doubling in the four years since the Series launch. In total, 121 million viewers tuned in to the US Open and US Open Series tournaments.
* Fastest-Growing Participation of any Major Sport Since 2000: More than 25 million Americans are now playing tennis. This increase in participation has fueled the four best consecutive years of growth for industry sales since the 1970’s.
* All-Time High USTA Membership: More than 720,000 members for the first time in history.
* United States Wins Davis Cup: The U.S. captured its first Davis Cup title in 12 years.


SPORTS SHORTS

* China Digital TV, the recently-listed conditional access provider, is moving into the "value-added" television sphere. The company has set up a new subsidiary, Beijing Novel-Super Media Investment Co, to partner with Chinese cable operators and content providers to offer services such as EPG-based advertising and PC card-based services enabling PCs to function as digital video recording HDTVs. The new subsidiary is unlikely to begin producing significant revenues until 2009 and has no agreements with potential partners yet. Rapid TV News, ATV, 8th Jan 2008

* The Danish Superliga, Denmark’s top-tier soccer league, has agreed to domestic broadcast deals from 2009-10 to 2011-12 worth DKr1.06 billion ($209.5 million) after the competition authority vetoed a proposed deal with the Modern Times Group, the Scandinavian broadcast group. Viasat, the Modern Times Group’s pay-television platform, and its commercial networks TV3 and TV3+ have won the first of three live packages for the new contract period, lots 1 and 4, and will be able to show exclusive live matches on Sundays at 6pm and Mondays at 7pm. A consortium of Danmarks Radio, the public-service broadcaster, and Telenor, the Norway-based telecommunications group, has bought the second package, comprising lots 2 and 5, and including exclusive live games on Sundays at 4pm and 6pm. Sportcal, 8th Jan 2008

* Trans World Sport, the iconic, 20-year-old, weekly sports magazine programme produced by IMG Media, will continue with only relatively minor changes. The decision represents a dramatic about-turn after the agency’s initial plan to scrap the programme completely, perhaps reflecting internal uncertainty over its future, with the agency having failed to maintain a consistent line. Sources at IMG had first admitted in October that it planned to scrap the programme, before having a change of heart saying in December that it planned to continue to produce it, albeit with some changes to the format and a reduced reliance on acquiring expensive sports television rights. However, several broadcasters of the programme contacted by Sportcal.com towards the end of last month expressed surprise over the reports, saying that they had been told that there would be no significant changes. Sportcal, 8th Jan 2008

* NBC Universal has announced that it will team up with MSN and Microsoft to enhance its coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games for American viewers. NBC Universal is the owner of the exclusive media rights in the United States to this summer’s Games in Beijing, China. The new agreement will see it create ‘NBCOlympics.com on MSN’ for fans of the Olympics in the United States. The site will offer thousands of hours of competition video in both live and on-demand formats, analysis and results from NBC’s broadcast and digital media teams. NBCOlympics.com's coverage will be powered by MSN and Microsoft technology to complement NBC's broadcast programming. Sports Media, SVG, 8th Jan 2008

* Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has returned to Germany with the acquisition of a 14.6% stake in pay-television operator Premiere. The 16.4 million shares were purchased yesterday for €287 million (€422 million) from German cable consortium Unitymedia, which had picked them up last year as part of a deal which gave Premiere access to live top-flight Bundesliga soccer games. Murdoch has long sought a foothold in Germany and is taking the plunge despite heavy losses when KirchMedia, the company which previously held the Bundesliga rights, collapsed in 2002. Premiere has in excess of 10 million viewers and more than 4 million subscribers in Germany and Austria and, with the auction for Bundesliga rights forthcoming, soccer is seen as a major incentive. Sportcal, C21 Media, 8th Jan 2008

* Two former London police officers have been hired to investigate claims of corruption in international tennis. Jeffrey Rees and Ben Gunn will work with governing bodies to analyse the threats posed by betting and match fixing. The pair will report to the ITF, the men’s ATP Tour, the women’s WTA Tour and the organisers of the four Grand Slam events – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The reputation of tennis has been damaged by suspicions betting on match in Poland last July between Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arugello. Sportcal, 8th Jan 2008


MORE NEWS

Global/Broadcast: Super Bowl Heads Table of 2007's Most-watched Sports Events

American football’s Super Bowl was the most-watched sports event globally in 2007, followed by Formula 1 motor racing’s Brazilian Grand Prix, soccer’s Uefa Champions League final and the Rugby World Cup final, according to a report by Initiative Sports Futures. Surprisingly, the top 15 most-watched sports events of the year includes just two soccer matches, according to the figures, compiled from data from 54 major television markets around the world. These were the Champions League final, with an average live audience of 72 million and a headlining clash between Arsenal and Manchester United in English soccer’s top-tier Premier League, which was in 13th place with an average audience of 8 million.

The only other sport to feature more than once is cricket (World Twenty20 final and World Cup final). Otherwise, the events are spread across a wide range of sports that also includes athletics, baseball, handball, golf, tennis, cycling, basketball and ice hockey. In many cases the live viewing figures were lower than those claimed by broadcasters and by the sports themselves. Figures are often inflated by including those that tune in to highlights shows or by totalling the number of households that can tune in, instead of those that actually did, Initiative said.

Initiative has predicted that the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games could have a worldwide television reach of as many as 1 billion viewers (‘reach’ equates to the number of viewers that watch at least three minutes of the broadcast). World's most-watched sports events of 2007 (live audiences):

1. NFL Super Bowl (American football) on Feb 4, 97 million viewers
2. Brazilian Grand Prix (Formula 1) on Oct 21, 78 million viewers
3. Uefa Champions League final (Soccer) on May 23, 72 million viewers
4. Rugby World Cup final (Rugby union) on Oct 20, 33 million viewers
5=. World Championships 100m final (Athletics) on Aug 26, 24 million viewers
5=. World Series, game 4 (Baseball) on Oct 28, 24 million viewers
7. World Championships final (Handball) on Feb 4, 23 million viewers
8= US Masters, final day (Golf) on Apr 8, 21 million viewers
8= Wimbledon men's final (Tennis) on Jul 8, 21 million viewers
10. World Twenty20 final (Cricket) on Sep 24, 20 million viewers
11= Tour de France, final stage (Cycling) on Jul 29, 12 million viewers
11= NBA finals, game 4 (Basketball) on Jun 14, 12 million viewers
13. Arsenal v Man Utd (Soccer) on Nov 3, 8 million
14. Cricket World Cup final (Cricket) on Apr 28, 7 million viewers
15. World Championships final (Ice hockey) on May 13, 6 million viewers
Source: Initiative Sports Futures, published in Sportcal, 8th Jan 2008

Korea/Broadcast: Venture Pioneers TV Video-sharing

A new venture aiming to bring "the interactivity of online media and social networking to the TV and set-top box" has been launched in Seoul, South Korea. DotTV brings together a group of Korean and Asian-based companies including broadcasters Korean Broadcasting System, Educational Broadcasting System and SBS, technology providers Irdeto and video solutions group Vmark, and manufacturers Samsung and LG.

The venture will enable the broadcasters to supplement content with metadata - in other words, to "tag" programming with keywords to enable viewers to search for content of interest, rather than just by genre or star. Viewers would also be able to share content with friends over any connected viewing device, including marking individual scenes of interest using a video bookmark for sharing over the internet.

The involvement of the broadcasters in such a project is key. Broadcasters worldwide have been very sensitive about viewers being able to "share" their content over networks. But the dotTV group argues that providing viewers with a "richer, engaging entertainment experience that can be shared among friends, over multiple media channels and across heterogeneous devices" will build audience loyalty and increase overall viewing time. It will also allow advertisers to deliver relevant and targeted advertising by using metadata information.

Initially, services based on the dotTV standard will be deployed in Korea, with a target of 2009, but the group aims to expand services to other regions soon after. Korea is one of the world's most-connected countries, with high broadband penetration and fast speeds as standard. Rapid TV News, 8th Jan 2008

India/New Media: Brands Take to Mobile Advergaming

Chennai- It’s always a challenge for advertisers to get consumers not to ignore their advertising but for some, that’s taking a turn for the better with advergaming. Games built around brands have been around for a while now but according to Mr Salil Bhargava, CEO, Jump Games, mobile advergaming is gathering pace with more advertisers opting to include it in their brand campaigns. Speaking to Business Line, Mr Bhargava said the genre has begun to see some traction now, after about one-and-a-half years of existence. Jump Games, a Reliance Entertainment venture, has in its latest ventures, developed games for ITC-Foods Division’s Bingo Chips and Minto Fresh. Earlier, it made games for Coca-Cola. Its first venture, Thums Up Everest Challenge, was the first mobile advergame to be used as part of a brand promotion campaign. For advertisers, the attraction lies in the mobile advergames’ interactivity and stickiness.

Through registration and gameplay, the games are also used to collect consumer information. The consumers are also interacting with the brand for a longer time. Unlike mass marketing where the brand is pushed towards the consumer, this mode of advertising operates on pull – the consumer requests a download of the game.

Usually an advertiser tries to integrate it into a larger brand campaign that notifies consumers of its existence, Mr Bhargava explained. The number of people using the game and repeat usage statistics are the test. The attempt is to present the brand as unobtrusively as possible to ensure stickiness — it is vital that the gamers are not put off, as in the case of TV ads which interrupt a programme or a pop-up on the Internet. Business Line, 2nd Jan 2008