Monday, 10th March 2008

SPORTS SHORTS

* The second edition of the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) will have much stronger viewership with Geo Super Sports channel airing the matches in Pakistan. ICL’s second tournament, which kicked off on Sunday in India, will be shown live on three different TV networks, including Zee Sports of the Essel group, which floated the parallel league in India last year. The first edition of the ICL was only covered live on Zee network which does not have a big viewership here but the gap seems set to be bridged this time. Thehindu.com, 10th Mar 2008

* India ended the second South Asian archery championship with a blaze of glory winning 37 gold medals, 21 silvers and four bronze medals on the concluding day of the three-day meet at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here on Sunday. Nepal came a distant second with a haul of one gold, six silvers and eight bronze medals. Bhutan was third with ten silvers and eight bronze medals. Thehindu.com, 10th Mar 2008

* The golf associations of China and South Korea have agreed to join in plans for a new Asian ‘Super Tour’, announced by the Japanese and Australasian tours last October, despite resistance from the existing Asian Tour. The Korea Golf Association and the China Golf Association have signed a memorandum proposed by the Japan Golf Tour Organisation and the PGA Tour of Australia to create a so-called OneAsia Tour of elite events. The national governing bodies in Thailand and India are also believed to be considering joining. Sportcal.com, 7th Mar 2008

* ESPN Star Sports, the pan-Asian sports broadcaster, has signed a three-year extension to its contract for golf’s US Masters, one of the sport’s four ‘majors.’ The broadcaster will continue to air the famous tournament until 2010, offering live coverage of each of the four days' play, in addition to daily 30-minute highlight shows. ESPN Star Sports has broadcast the US Masters since 2003 and also has rights to two more of the sport’s majors, the British Open and the US Open. The 2008 US Masters will take place on April 10 to 13 at the Augusta National Golf Club. Sportcal.com, Sportbusiness, 7th Mar 2008

* UEFA Euro 2008 and the Olympic Games later this year will result in massive TV audiences for Asia and Europe, according to Eurodata TV Worldwide. The summer of sport will kick off in June (7-29) with the European Championships and a month later the Olympics in China will start (8 -24 August ). Jacques Braun, Eurodata TV Worldwide Vice President, claimed both events should generate record audiences in the respective continents. The FIFA World Cup’s average audience - whose profile viewer is similar to that of the Euro 2008 viewer - tends to be higher than the Olympic Games but the latter offers 30 times more hours of coverage. www.sol-sports.net, 7th Mar 2008

* Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) announced new membership growth for Q1 2008 of one new Patron Member and seven new Corporate Members of the Association. The new Patron Member is Voom HD Networks Asia, a high-definition channel operator based in the US. The seven Corporate Members are multilingual, pan-European television news channel EuroNews; India-based communications, media and entertainment services provider Reliance Big Entertainment, Taipei-based cable TV MSO Kbro; UK-based broadcasting network solutions and services provider Arqiva; India-based channel operator INX Network; global media and telecoms strategy consultancy Spectrum Value Partners and US-based wireless entertainment device manufacturer Universal Electronics. ATV, 10th Mar 2008


MORE NEWS

China/New Media: CT Plans Wireless Network Rollout in 21 Provinces

China's largest fixed telecom service operator China Telecom is accelerating Wi-Fi deployment and plans to launch a new round of bidding for procuring wireless network equipment in 21 provinces, Shanghai Securities News reported. The large-scale deployment indicates the business focus of China Telecom is moving to the wireless network sector, which further indicates the company may abandon PHS service in 2009, said an industry insider.

Reports said China Telecom will take over the CDMA network of China Unicom in China's telecom industry reshuffle. After that, it will transfer its PHS users into CDMA users smoothly through marketing tactics, the insider predicted. The source added that deployment of wireless network will lift the customer loyalty for China Telecom, which will sharpen the competitive edge of its mobile service. telecomasia.net, 10th Mar 2008

Japan/Broadcaster: Fuji TV commits to full IPTV

Fuji Television Network is to install a new infrastructure at its recently-opened operations centre in the Odaiba district of Tokyo. The technology will, it is claimed, make the Japanese broadcaster the first TV service in the world to work on a full IP video routing system.

An order has been placed with manufacturer and developer Media Global Links for a massive IP video router based on its MD10000 chassis. This will be used not only to route signals in and out of the network operations centre but also around the building itself. Material will be carried around the studio complex and to Fuji TV's affiliates over 10 Gigabit a second circuits. This will give a capacity of 3.2 Terabits a second, which will be able to accommodate up to 800 uncompressed streams of high-definition programming at the same time.

The router will be able to work with both standard video feeds and new media files, including those in the MXF format, which is now more common in video production. The chief executive of Media Global Links, Eiichi Hayashi, commented, "Through the use of IP technology and Perfect Non-Blocking Switching, high-volume uncompressed HD signals can be freely exchanged in either a stream or file format among all the connected locations without the loss of a single bit. This high quality and efficient system will drastically enhance the productivity and flexibility for TV programme production, both today and well into the future." Rapid TV News, 9th Mar 2008