Thursday, 27th March 2008

INFO BOX

Global Net TV Advertising
Info IQ, 25th Mar 2008

Global net TV advertising revenues will reach US$123 billion in 2008, up 5.8% on 2007, most of the improvements partly based on the positive impact of the Olympics, from the 3.5% global rise in 2007, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. From this 2008 total, net pay TV advertising will bring in US$18 billion, a figure which has doubled over the last five years. Pay TV will represent 15% of total TV advertising in 2008.

By 2012, forecasts show that global net TV advertising will equate to US$148 billion, up 21% on the 2008 figure. However, Net pay TV advertising will grow at a much faster rate - up 39% over the same period - to reach US$25 billion by 2012, or 17% of total TV advertising. This is the first time that TV advertising forecasts for this many countries have been homogenised and reflect only the revenues received by the channels and networks. The US still has considerable influence over the global market, bringing in US$43.2 billion in 2007 - or 35% of the world's total. Japan, the world's second largest market but home to a sluggish economy, is more or less stagnant, with net TV advertising growing only 12% between 2007 and 2012. The fastest growing territories are Russia and Romania, which are forecast to double their totals. More rapid growth is expected in India and Indonesia, which will both rise by about 70%. The global average for net television advertising per TV household is running at more than US$100. The US will be highest at US$380 in 2008 and the lowest China, only US$10, and India, US$11.

It is sometimes easy to forget just how large a market total TV advertising is. Pay TV, albeit a new sector in many countries, only accounts for 15% of the total. It is only expected to grow to 17% of the 2012 total, even though pay TV advertising will increase by US$7 billion. The UK will boast the highest proportion of pay TV advertising as a proportion of total TV advertising, at about a third in 2008. Korea and Canada will follow at 30%. Korean pay TV advertising will grow quickly, given the weak FTA sector, to half the total by 2012. The proportions in China (heavy government control) and Japan (competitive FTA environment) will be low.


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) will stage the 15th CASBAA Convention in Hong Kong from October 28 to 30 with the theme Subscribe to the Future—All Eyes are on Asia. The three-day confab will spotlight digital cable, high-speed broadband and mobile-TV services. It will also provide in-depth looks at Japan, Korea and Australia, as well as examine developments in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. In addition, there are sessions scheduled on the new face of China pay TV after the Beijing Olympics and the latest developments in the India market. World Screen, 26th Mar 2008

* Around April 10, India will officially push the USA down one place in the mobile league table, and achieve second position after China. India’s telecom regulator TRAI said on March 25 that India now has more than 250m active mobile subscribers, having added 8.53m subs in February. January’s number was 8.77m. The end-February overall mobile subs base was 250.93m. The US has 256m subs (according to the CTIA) and adds about 2-3m subs a month, while China adds around 6-7m subs a month. India’s monthly subscriber growth is already the largest in the world, and the statisticians predict that India will pass the USA’s total early in April to become the world’s second-largest cellular community. Rapid TV, telecomasia.net, 27th Mar 2008

* The International Skating Union (ISU) has teamed up with the Japan Skating Federation (JSF) and TV Asahi Corporation to hold an international Team Figure Skating Competition in the Japanese capital of Tokyo for the first time. The first ISU World Team Trophy in Japan will take place from April 16-19, 2009, and a second such event will be held in the same country during the 2010-11 season. The competition will involve representative teams from the six highest-ranked ISU members, including the host ISU Member. Each team will include two men single skaters, two lady single skaters, one skating couple and one ice dance couple. TV Asahi has acquired the television broadcast rights covering Japan for both events. Sport Insider, 26th Mar 2008

* The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has ruled out bidding for footballers in the same way that the Indian Premier League will bid for cricketers in the soon-to-be-launched star-studded league. "I wouldn't like to auction footballers as was done in cricket," AIFF president Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said yesterday. Dasmunsi said that while football was a world game, cricket was less powerful globally. "Cricket is driven by market forces. But football will develop on its own." Dasmunsi said corporate bodies were already coming in good numbers to sponsor the game, highlighting Bharti Telecom which is sponsoring the AIFF's proposed academy in Goa. Soccer Investor, 26th Mar 2008

* Argentinian giant Boca Juniors will relaunch its official club television channel Boca TV in May, with Endemol Sudamericana taking responsibility for its production and content. Boca TV's return marks the Buenos Aires football club's second attempt to enter the now burgeoning world of club TV channels. The platform originally launched in 2003, but had to be cancelled two years later amid financial problems and poor audience figures. The new cable television channel will feature different kinds of programmes related to the club's activities and Boca officials are also in negotiations to broadcast the club's domestic matches and games in international tournaments. Sports Media, 26th Mar 2008

* The BBC has secured the rights to broadcast the Wimbledon tennis championship until 2014, in a five-year extension that incorporates TV, broadband and for the first time, BBC's iPlayer online catch-up player. Commenting on the deal, BBC's director of sport Roger Mosey, said: "The BBC is deeply proud of its historic ties with Wimbledon, but this new agreement is focused on delivering state-of-the-art digital services. This year the matches on Centre and Number One Courts will be shown on the BBC HD channel but the big innovation is in new media. Important games will be available on BBC iPlayer, allowing viewers to watch using their computers for up to a week after the original transmission. This expanded coverage also extends to mobile services, while broadband viewers will be able to watch extra programmes produced during the tournament using the red button. C21 Media, Rapid TV, 26th Mar 2008


MORE NEWS

BTCC: ITV Turns to O21 Television For Touring Car Championship

ITV Sport has handed a three-year British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) contract to outside broadcast company O21 Television. The deal will see O21 Television, which also provides ITV Sport with OB facilities for boxing, the UEFA Champions League and the Coca Cola (sponsor) Championship, supply Unit 6, the latest addition to its high definition fleet. The unit will operate as the presentation unit for ITV Sport, supported by Unit 3 which will produce the world feed.

ITV's director of news and sport, Mark Sharman, said: "The British Touring Car Championship is a significant undertaking for ITV Sport and I'm very pleased that we can rely on the expertise and resources of O21 Television as we expand our coverage of the event on ITV4." Ewen Hamilton, O21's managing director, added: "We are confident that our new units, equipped with the latest broadcast technology, will capture all of the excitement of this long standing ITV Sport tournament." The BTCC season starts this coming Saturday at Brands Hatch with ITV4 broadcasting up to five hours of coverage on Sunday afternoons throughout the season. Sports Media, 26th Mar 2008

China/Broadcast: Beijing Olympics Boosts China’s Cable Market

A major report says the upcoming Beijing Olympics will drive Chinese digital cable growth. Screen Digest, in a joint report with China’s media regulator SARFT, says the Olympic Games is driving China’s cable operators towards digital, and forecasts that this year will see domestic take up for digital TV grow from 18% at the end of last year to 24% by the end of 2008.

“China is the world’s biggest TV market,” says the study. “With 378m TV households and 152m cable TV households at the end of 2007, China is the world’s largest TV market. Its cable TV industry generated €3.4bn in revenue in 2007 and is expected to grow at over seven per cent year-on-year to be worth €4.8bn by 2012. Cable dominates the multi-channel industry as satellite reception is banned and IPTV is in its infancy. As a result 40% of all homes have cable TV, and it accounts for 99% of the pay TV market.”

“With significant investment in the technological infrastructure across the country, the cable industry is rapidly converting to digital in time for the planned analogue switch-off in 2015. The Olympics is acting as a catalyst for this – as the Beijing Olympics will be the first all-HD Olympic Games. Digitisation and a raft of interactive TV services will drive average revenue per subscriber up,” suggests Screen Digest.

As to the companies directly involved in the Chinese digital expansion, the report says “Leading international technology providers like Thomson, Tandberg, Kudelski, Harmonic, NDS, Scientific Atlanta, Miranda, Arris and Irdeto are among foreign companies already finding success in China. Others like European cable giant Liberty Global are seeking to enter the market.”

“Despite the restrictions on foreign investment in the media industry, ample opportunities exist for overseas technology providers. In particular, those that supply head-end and studio equipment, video-on-demand systems, last-mile components and conditional access should be examining the marketplace closely. Although local competition is tough, foreign companies that take the time to understand the intricacies of the market have the potential to reap substantial rewards from such a huge marketplace.”

Lingjie Wang, Screen Digest’s TV and Video Analyst and author of the report says: “The opportunities in China for those that understand the market are huge. But China operates like no other territory in the world. Media is central to government policy and as the primary form of multi-channel television distribution cable holds a key place within that policy. With the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, the rate of change currently being witnessed by cable operators is unprecedented. Digital and HD roll out are firmly on the policy agenda and the changes set in motion throughout 2007 and 2008 will continue to impact business for many years to come.” Rapid TV, 26th Mar 2008

India/Broadcast: Neo to Reap Rs70 Crore from India-South Africa Test Series

With Doordarshan opting out of the simultaneous coverage of the India-South Africa three-test match series, sports channel Neo Sports � the exclusive telecast rights holder for the series � hopes to rake in Rs 70 crore in advertising revenue. Neo Sports has eight on-air sponsors (two co-sponsors and six associate sponsors). Coca-Cola, Airtel, Hero Honda, Pidilite and Asian Paints [Get Quote] are putting about Rs 26-28 crore, while the remaining amount will come from spot selling.

Neo Sports is aiming to rake in around Rs 24 crore from each test match (about Rs 4.8 crore from each of the five days), roughly about the same as that earned by STAR Cricket, the cricket channel of ESPN Star Sports, from the recently concluded three-test series between India and Australia. According to industry sources, STAR Cricket generated about Rs 70-75 crore from the three-test matches. Nimbus (owner of Neo Sports) executives are upbeat about the exclusivity of the India-South Africa series now that Doordarshan has backed out of the mandatory sharing deal. This has helped the sports channel to demand higher rates from the advertisers.

According to Sunil Manocha, executive vice-president (ad sales), Neo Sports, a 10-second spot is now being sold for Rs 65,000-80,000 and companies such as Pepsi, Barcklays Bank, IBM and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] have already booked spots. "We have about 4,500 seconds to sell on each of the 15 playing days. With a bulk of the inventory already booked between the fixed sponsors and other advertisers, only about 60-odd spots remain to be sold for each of the 15 playing days. All spots for the first test match beginning on Wednesday are sold," Manocha told Business Standard. "These rates are along the expected lines," he added.

Nimbus Communications, the parent company of Neo Sports and Neo Sports Plus, bagged the five-year telecast rights from BCCI in 2006 for all matches to be played in India. However, the downlinking guidelines issued by the ministry of information and broadcasting in November 2005 made it mandatory for all sports channels to share cricket matches involving India with Doordarshan on a 75:25 revenue sharing arrangement due to mass viewer interest.

The downlinking guidelines were supported by the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act 2007, which made it mandatory for all sports broadcasters to share any sporting event of national interest with Doordarshan. Under this Act, the government has to declare a sporting event to be of national interest. The I&B ministry has not classified the India-South Africa cricket series to be of national interest. Therefore, Neo Sports automatically gets the exclusive telecast rights for the three-test match series, generating interest among the advertisers. Rediff, 26th Mar 2008