INFO BOX
State of the Internet' Report Highlights Growth in Emerging Internet Markets
StreetInsider.com, 18th Mar 2008
comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released several key findings from its "Digital World: State of the Internet" report. The study highlights the changing dynamics of worldwide Internet usage, as it has grown from a U.S.-centric medium to its currently global landscape.
In January 2008, the Asia Pacific region had more than 300 million Internet users at least 15 years of age accessing the Internet from work and home computers. This represents an increase of 14 percent versus year ago and makes Asia Pacific the largest of the five worldwide regions. Latin America and Middle East-Africa have also experienced above average audience growth during the past year, while North America and Europe have grown at more modest rates.
The "Digital World" report covers a broad array of topics illustrating the key global trends that underlie how the Internet is used around the world today. Some of the key findings include:
-- The U.S. now accounts for 21 percent of Internet users worldwide.While growth in the number of Internet users in the U.S. has slowed, several Asian and Eastern European countries continue to add new users at a rapid rate.
-- Google is the dominant search brand in most countries, including most of Europe and Latin America, with a few significant exceptions -- countries where Chinese, Korean, and Russian languages dominate.
-- Chinese language search engine Baidu currently ranks #3 in worldwide search market share, behind Google and Yahoo!
-- The number of worldwide visitors to social networking sites has grow 34 percent in the past year to 530 million, representing approximately 2 out of every 3 Internet users. MySpace and Facebook are in a tight battle for the global leadership position, each attracting more than 100 million visitors per month.
-- Online video has become the dominant online entertainment format, led by the global popularity of YouTube with more than 250 million visitors
in January.
-- The Internet has become an important source of news for most Web users. The top 10 global news brands show great diversity between country of origin, including the U.S., U.K., China and South Korea.
SPORTS SHORTS
* Commercial-free toddlers channel BabyFirst has secured a carriage deal in Taiwan, which adds to a recent deal putting it on IPTV in Korea and continues the channel's recent drive into Asia. Partnering with BabyFirst in Taiwan is Chunghwa, the country’s leading IPTV provider. The feed, which will come from the Telstar 10 satellite, will carry audio feeds in both Mandarin and English. Elsewhere on the international front, BabyFirst has also recently closed carriage deals in Canada (Rogers Cable and Bell ExpressVu) and France (CanalSat). It is also available in the UK (BSkyB), as well as Central America and the Caribbean. C21Media, World Screen, 18th Mar 2008
* In the run-up to the Malaysian F1, Bernie Ecclestone together with various sponsors and the Malaysian Ministry of Education are backing a three-day event to reach out to students 11 to 18 years old with the intent of stimulating interest in science and technology. The F1 in Schools programme has over seven million school children participating in the competition. This year's event will see 25 teams from 16 countries compete to win the Bernie Ecclestone World Championships Trophy as well as a scholarship to The City University. Teams will be competing for awards in the following categories - World Champions, Fastest Car, Best Engineered Car, Innovative Thinking, Best New Comer, Best Team Sponsorship/Marketing and Best Collaborative Teams. Marketing-Interactive, 19th Mar 2008
* Indonesia’s sports minister has threatened to take senior members of the country's football association to court if their decision to keep their corrupt chief at the helm leads to a FIFA ban, a spokesman said yesterday, writes The Straits Times. FIFA in October last year called for fresh elections to replace Nurdin Halid as president of Indonesia's football association, PSSI, after he was convicted of graft earlier in the year. However, PSSI officials have remained steadfast in refusing to get rid of Halid - despite the disgraced chief heading the organisation from inside a prison cell - leading to a deadlock with the sports ministry. The minister will sue PSSI if FIFA bans the association due to its decision to let Nurdin Halid.
* Sky scooped the majority of the TV rights to Champions League football until 2012, after tabling a blockbuster bid estimated at more than £240m (E333m). UEFA made the announcement after the broadcaster comprehensively outbid three rivals in order to secure exclusive rights to all but one match per round of games from the start of the 2009-10 season. The live rights to the most attractive match on a Wednesday night remain up for grabs, with ITV and the BBC expected to fight it out. The terrestrial broadcasters, together with Five, will face further competition from Sky when the second round of bids are opened later this week. The pay TV operator was determined to retain the rights, partly to make up for the loss of the FA Cup and England internationals, previously shared with the BBC but now snatched by ITV and Setanta, from this August. ATV, C21Media, Sports Media, 19th Mar 2008
* The Belgian First Division is set to be reduced from 18 to 16 teams from the 2009-2010 season onwards, according to a new format approved by the country’s Football Federation. Matches will be played in the traditional home-and-away format. When 30 matches have been played six will qualify for a play-off league to determine the champion and teams eligible for European competition. The reforms are designed to improve the competition and generate further income through TV rights. Soccer Investor, 18th Mar 2008
* Barclays Premier League club Arsenal has won its battle to air its TV channel on Virgin Media's television platform. The digital channel, Arsenal TV, was launched in January with pay-TV sports broadcaster Setanta, but was not available on Virgin Media because of "capacity constraints". It prompted the club to encourage its fans in February to lobby the broadcaster, which will now make the channel available free of charge for all Virgin Media's XL TV customers from March 18. The channel, which will air five days a week, six hours a day, includes 'Arsenal Today', 'Bob Wilson Meets', and 'Fans Forum', a live phone-in show hosted by Tom Watt. Sports Media, 18th Mar 2008
* World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has named George Barrios as its new chief financial officer, effective March 24. Barrios was most recently the VP and treasurer of The New York Times. He replaces Frank Serpe, who is retiring as the chief financial officer after 21 years with WWE. Said Linda McMahon, WWE’s CEO, “At a time when we are focused on growth initiatives around the world, we are confident that George’s experience will be a tremendous asset for WWE’s future.” Worldscreen, 18th Mar 2008
* LA Galaxy general manager Alexei Lalas has hailed the club’s pre-season tour of Hawaii and Asia a success despite three losses and low attendance in some games (only about 11,000 saw the matches against Shanghai and South China). Lalas outlined the goals of the tour. One, the opportunity to get away from everything in-market and insulate the team a little bit. We play these games and are able to then pay for all the interesting and innovative things that we do. And we've tried to expand the brand internationally. Soccer Investor, 18th Mar 2008
* Fanz-TV, a newly-launched 24-7 sports television network, has reached a one-year broadcast agreement with the Arenafootball2 League (AF2) for the 2008 season that includes the option of a two-year extension. The network announced plans to carry play-off games, conference championships as well as the 2008 ArenaCup Championship live in their entirety. A special season-in-review show will be produced as a lead-in to the post-season AF2 action, while a weekly series is currently being considered. Sports Media, 18th Mar 2008
* Multi-media communications company Epic Corporation has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Carol Angela Davis, Inc., and Global Broadcasting & Syndication Inc., to broadcast combat sports in Europe. The deal will see mixed martial arts (MMA), professional boxing and wrestling broadcast in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Denmark, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Turkey. Sports Media, 18th Mar 2008
* The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has launched a new lifestyle website in an effort to convince New York State to lift its ban on the sport. Mixed martial arts (MMA) has been outlawed in New York since 1997, but the new mmafacts.com site attempts to dispel what it considers to be "misconceptions" about a sport associated with no-holds-barred brutality. The site, whose homepage draws attention to the "PhD's, Olympians and family men that make up the pros", declares one of its intentions is to bring a UFC event to Madison Square Garden in 2009. The siteomits fighter nicknames such as "Natural Born Killer" and highlights that UFC shows on average take gates of $2.8 million. Sports Media, 18th Mar 2008
* A1GP World Cup of Motorsport appointed Octagon Worldwide to provide strategic advice around A1GP’s current and future commercial strategy. Under the partnership, Octagon will also co-ordinate and execute the global sales process that will drive commercial value on behalf of A1GP across the globe. The appointment is for three years. Sport Business, 18th Mar 2008
* Imtiaz Patel, the chief executive of South African pay-television broadcaster SuperSport, has been selected as the preferred candidate to take over as the chief executive of the International Cricket Council. Patel has been approached to succeed Australia’s Malcolm Speed, who will step down in June, after seven years in office. ICC president, Ray Mali, said: "We are delighted Imtiaz is the board's choice for the post of next ICC chief executive. I have no doubt that if he accepts the position he will do a great job." Patel was among six candidates shortlisted for the job from a list of 15 chosen by the ICC’s consultants. His initial contract will be for a term of three years. Sport Business, 18th Mar 2008
* The European Commission has endorsed the Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) standard in a bid to accelerate the rollout of mobile TV services across the region. DVB-H has been added to the EU List of Standards as the Commission works toward establishing a single market for mobile TV in Europe. DVB-H is currently the most widely used standard for mobile TV in the EU. It is between trials and a commercial launch in 16 countries. Commercial DVB-H services are already available in Italy, with further launches expected later this year in Finland, Austria, France, Switzerland and Spain. Worldscreen, 18th Mar 2008
* Qatar will host volleyball’s Club World Championships in 2009, with the United Arab Emirates staging the 2010 edition. The decisions, taken last week by the board of the FIVB, the sport’s world governing body, confirm the rising profile of the sport in the Middle East. Dubai will host a Swatch FIVB beach volleyball world tour event from this season, it emerged last week, while the FIVB has also discussed the possibility of staging a World Tour Open event in United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi from 2009. Dubai is also planning to create a permanent beach volleyball centre for foreign teams wanting to train during winter. Sportcal.com, 18th Mar 2008
* Even before a single ball has been bowled, the game has begun. By the look of things, it could end up becoming the humdinger of all matches. The ad rates for the soon-to-debut Indian Premier League (IPL) is equalling the rates prevalent for the World Cup. Sony Max, the official broadcaster, has managed to close 75% of its advertising inventory at rates commensurate with the World Cup. A commitment of Rs 220 crore from sponsors has already come in with six sponsors booked for the series beginning April 18. Economic Times, 19th Mar 2008
MORE NEWS
Beach Soccer Worldwide: Superpowers Set to Dominate
The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2008 Qualifier in Durban next week has a vastly different feel to the previous two qualifying tournaments, as the sport goes into its third year of organised competition in Africa. t the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Rio, Senegal and Nigeria shocked the world by topping their respective groups with some massive giant-killing victories before bowing out in the quarterfinals. Both teams have signalled their intentions of dominating next weeks action, and have sent their national beach soccer squads away on month-long camps to prepare for the event.
The two African representatives may have fallen short of winning any medals in Brazil, but they showed the world beach soccer community that Africa can produce world class tournaments and players — something that will hopefully not be lost on FIFA when the decision on the venue for Beach Soccer World Cup 2011 is announced. Next week the third chapter in the story of African beach soccer will be written when the third qualifier to be held in Durban gets underway at the new, enlarged 4300-seater stadium on New Beach.
Senegal and Nigeria will be the two marked teams and they may just find it tough shouldering the pressure of being the favourites every time they step onto the sandy pitch, but there is no way they can be anything but favourites. At the World Cup finals in Rio, Senegal opened their account with a low-key 4-1 thrashing of Japan, and followed that up with an emphatic 5-2 win over the highly regarded Uruguay. Things got tougher in the final pool game when the West Africans needed extra time to get past the skilful Italians after the teams were level at 5-5 at the end of full time.
Nigeria also started strongly with a shock 5-3 win over powerhouse Argentina. It got even better in their next match when the Africans produced the upset of the tournament. They scraped home on penalties over defending champions France, before, surprisingly, needing extra time to win their final match against the United Arab Emirates. Ngeria lost to Uruguay in the quarterfinals and Senegal were beaten by France. But the two teams had made the world sit up and take notice. The key to Nigeria’s success was the fact that they never had one standout star. Their gameplan was built around a team effort with defenders Ogbonnaya Okemmiri and Uga Okpara sharing the goalscoring duties with frontrunner Isiaka Olawale. Their multi-pronged attack meant they were a difficult side to defend against and the top teams struggled to contain the African onslaught.
Senegal, on the other hand, used Pape Koupaki as their target man up front and he was hugely effective with seven goals from his four matches on the beaches of Rio. ext week Senegal are the favourites to top Group A. For South Africa, who have gone into the previous two tournaments as group favourites, the tag of underdog may give the home side a chance to prepare quietly and without fanfare. The final group match between Egypt and South Africa will probably decide who grabs the second playoff spot from the group, although Mocambique will have other ideas. In Group B Nigeria will have to be at their best to overcome Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon while Cape Verde should find the going too tough. The top two teams from each pool qualify for the semifinals, with the two semifinal winners qualifying for the World Cup finals in Marseilles in July. Sport iAfrica, 18th Mar 2008
Global/New Media: Satellite TV To Grow to 180m Subs
Euroconsult says that there are now a record 92 satellite-based pay-TV platforms operating around the world, and reaching 95m households. They forecast that the audience for DTH will expand to 180m by 2017. A new study* from Euroconsult says that despite the competitive threat from the likes of IPTV and convergence, satellite-delivered DTH is more healthy than ever and proving to be a growth driver.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented increase in the number of satellite TV platforms worldwide since the early days of the industry, with 35 platforms launched in the last three years,” said Pacôme Revillon, MD at Euroconsult. “Over 1,000 TV channels are added per year by satellite TV platforms worldwide,” he added “which in turn creates more interest among consumers and drives subscriptions.”
“Despite greater economic uncertainty in the short term, market drivers for satellite TV are going in the right direction, and close to 180 million subscribers to satellite pay-TV are expected by 2017 according to our research,” Euroconsult notes.The EuroConsult analysis throws up some other interesting facts, not least that of the 92 platforms included in its survey, 22 of them are now offering PVR/DVR technology.
*“Satellite TV Platforms, World Survey & Prospects to 2017”, Euroconsult. Rapid TV, 18th Mar 2008
ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS
Asia Navigates New Digital Terrain
New digital distribution platforms offer golden opportunities for content delivery in Asia, but there are going to have to be some changes first in how content providers and channels do business, say leading biz figures. The TV and film biz is currently wrestling with ways to adjust their focus on TV, DVD and cinema and incorporate new ways of delivering video content across multiple devices, such as by Internet Protocal TV or by cell phone. A group of panelists at a seminar at FilMart were all agreed that the new platforms are the future of how entertainment is distributed in Asia, and the world.
Ross Pollack, senior veep for distribution in Asia at Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) said he believed that various opportunities existed side by side.
"We strongly believe that all these opportunities exist in parallel. It's a time of experimentation. Some offerings will be prove to be more successful, but it you don't try you don't know what the consumer wants," said Pollack.
SPTI has been proactive in introduced new platforms. Earlier this month, SPTI closed a video-on-demand (VoD) licensing deal with South Korea's largest mobile operator, SK Telecom which sees a selection of SPTI's features and skeins offered on-demand and in full-length to SK Telecom's mobile customers through its mobile platforms, NATE and June.
Richard Yelen, veep and managing director of Kylin TV, an Internet Protocol-TV service that provides broadcast Chinese channels and thousands of hours of video on demand, said a key change in society was instant gratification syndrome. "Consumers don't really care about technology. They want it now when they want it. The consumer has changed our business whether we want it or not," said Yelen.
Gaurav Dhillon, CEO of Jaman.com , a download service for independent films from around the world, said that new media meant new ways of making money. "I feel good that at a micro level we were right – people are enjoying content on the internet. If that is the transformation, what does it mean for you as a film maker? Additional revenues. People license the rights. We create whole markets in the properties," said Dhillon.
The problem with new digital forms of distribution, as with many traditional forms, is piracy. IP issues abound in this area with many users simply illegally downloading pics from the internet.Fang Li, president and CEO of Netmovies, said many users in China, which has the world's largest population of webizens, believed content was free when downloaded, so there needed to be more awareness. But there were terrific opportunities in China nonetheless, especially in the cellphone side of the business with more than 600 million users. "The opportunity in China is unlimited. Content providers need to pay more attention and provide more paid services," said Fang.
David Chung, head of IT operations at Cyberport, a landmark IT cluster project which describes itself as Hong Kong's IT flagship and is owned by the Hong Kong government, said the authorities in the territory were providing platforms for schools to teach students how to respect copyright. "Rights management is becoming part of daily life. It's a tough job and that's why the government has to step forward to do it," he told the seminar. "In Hong Kong, we put pirates in jail," he said. Variety Asia Online, 18th Mar 2008
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