Friday, 4th April 2008

INFO BOX

12 Million Subscribers to Use Mobile TV Service in the First Year of Launch in India

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Mobile TV in India to their offering. This report examines factors that will determine the adoption, popularity and success of mobile TV services in India. In order to gain in-depth insight into the Indian users’ mind, our report further analyzes current mobile usage patterns, mobile services expenditures and users’ inclinations to adopt new content-based services. In addition, Springboard has analyzed mobile services’ association with various media, such as the Internet and television. Each factor examined in this report will be instrumental in determining how closely Indians embrace mobile TV. To gain a complete understanding of the mobile market in India, our analysis is based on the responses of 1,215 mobile users in six leading Indian cities, extensive interviews with senior industry executives and in-depth secondary research.

India’s Market for Mobile TV Services to Reach US$360 Million in 2008
- Predicts 12 million subscribers to use Mobile TV service in the first year of launch
- 84% of mobile phone users interested in using Mobile TV Service provided it is commonly available and affordable
- Mobile phone to remain the central multi-purpose device, outnumbering any other mobile devices like digital media players and pocket PCs
- Indian mobile phone users are ready for Mobile TV services with the potential market size estimated to be US$360 million in 2008, according to the latest report by Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry, titled ‘Mobile TV in India: Understanding the Mobile Entertainment Needs of Indian Users.’
- Mobile TV is a technology that allows people to view regular live television content on their mobile phones or other mobile devices that they get through traditional cable or pay TV subscriptions at home. The Springboard Research report says that in the first year of operation, mobile TV could reach a penetration level of 5 to 6% of the total mobile subscriber base in India.
- “Mobile TV marries the two dominant consumption trends of entertainment and mobile telephony in India,” said Ravi Shekhar Pandey, Manager, Syndicated Research at Springboard Research.
- “The market is ripe for the launch of Mobile TV Services and we believe that India will have around 12 million mobile TV subscribers within the first year of launch of service,” added Mr. Pandey.

Demand from Mobile Users
According to the report, 84% of mobile phone users are interested in using Mobile TV service provided the service is commonly available and affordable. Close to 60% of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV at home. News, sports, music videos and game shows were the four dominant types of content that the surveyed users will prefer watching on mobile TV. These findings are based on a survey conducted among 1,215 mobile users in six major Indian cities by Springboard Research. “A majority of mobile users in India are interested in trying out mobile TV and would invest in new handsets for using the service. This willingness is definitely a positive sign for those considering offering mobile TV in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing mobile services market,” said Ravi Shekhar Pandey.

Operator scenario
Public service broadcaster Doordarshan is the only company currently offering limited mobile TV service. The report adds that in the recent months, the market has seen increased activities from various stakeholders including technology providers, network equipment vendors and mobile service providers. Nokia, Spice Telecom, Qualcomm and Samsung are few of the stakeholders actively promoting the adoption of Mobile TV in India. “Mobile telephone operators will have an advantage over standalone mobile TV operators in that the former already have users subscribing to their value-added services. However, the success of either operator will be dependent on content offered and price charged for the service,” added Mr. Pandey.

Among the recommendations as part of the report, service providers should offer on-demand, pay-per-view option that does not tie a user to a monthly subscription for Mobile TV. Springboard also recommends close cooperation between mobile operators and broadcasters for a profitable business model for Mobile TV service in India. Yahoo Biz!, 2nd April 2008

Yahoo! Targets Online, Mobile Ad Market in Asia

Citing figures from a survey conducted last year by research firm Synovate, a Yahoo! executive said a growing number of Asians are spending more time using the Internet than any other medium. Singapore and Taiwan are currently leading the pack, followed by Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. Television remains the main information source for Filipinos but the Internet has outranked newspapers, magazines and radio.

Though traditional advertisers dictate that marketing budgets go to traditional media, such as TV, radio and print, the gap is closing for online advertising, particularly with the rise of new content such as online video.

"Rich media will become premium content," said Yahoo! Southeast Asia managing director Ken Mandel in his opening remarks at the Yahoo! Southeast Asia Advertising Summit here. Yahoo! is upping the ante in the advertising space, specifically in Southeast Asia, as it sees more users in the region shifting toward the Internet for services and information. Beyond the Web, however, the company is also plans to cash in on the potential revenue it could generate from advertising on different platforms.

Mandel noted that the first that should be targeted are the consumers. While the company is said to already enjoy a 53-million-user figure in Southeast Asia, Yahoo! is still aiming to be the "starting point" for most consumers, where they could check their e-mail, chat via Yahoo! messenger, and access news and information, among other services. Users have also embraced rich media, such as online video and podcasts, to create and distribute content. As the number of users grows, Mandel said Yahoo! will then turn into a "must-buy" platform for advertisers who would have the capability to target users for their advertising campaigns.

At the summit here, Yahoo! executives showcased some of the services that the company hopes will entice new users and advertisers. Some of the services also delve into the mobile space, wherein mobile phones will be the next stage for content aggregation, distribution and revenue generation.
Yahoo! sees the mobile phone as a ubiquitous platform for information sharing and distribution, as well as a possible market for advertising.

Mandel said the company has been introducing new mobile services, including Yahoo! Go 2.0, but has set its sights on mobile advertising as well. Though he said that this will be small at first, he expects this segment to eventually grow as mobile phones become more powerful and enable users to access different online services. Last year, Yahoo! acquired Blue Lithium, a startup firm that is able to do demographics analysis to better determine the advertising and marketing campaigns for companies.

Prashant Mehta, Yahoo! vice president for Advertiser and Publisher Group for Emerging Markets, said that by analyzing the online behavior of users, advertisers can create better marketing campaigns and get higher gains. As such, Yahoo! can also focus on creating values according to the requirements of the user, then measure what kind of information can be delivered to them. Advertisers will be able to see where they can fit their marketing strategies.

"We're investing in common hosted platforms to connect the advertiser and publisher to ad networks where they could easily measure their gains," Mehta said. Mehta said he is optimistic that online advertising will continue to grow tremendously, stating that it is currently worth 43 billion US dollars but could grow up to 78 billion US dollars by 2010. "User behaviors are changing very fast and so we need to adapt to them," Mehta said. Inquirer.net, 4th April 2008


SPORTS SHORTS

* Eurosport Asia, the Asian subsidiary of the pan-European sports broadcaster, has today acquired the rights to show all 10 races in the 2008 Red Bull Air Race Series. As a result of the deal with IMG, the international sports agency, Eurosport Asia will televise the events throughout Asia, except in Japan and China. IMG said that the series can now be seen in more than 625 million households worldwide, with 70 television channels on board. Existing broadcasters of the Red Bull Air Race Series include RTL in Germany, Channel 4 in the UK and CCTV-5 in China. The first event of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on April 10. Sportcal.com, 4th April 2008

* Media will have access to uncensored Internet and there will be no delay of the television signal at the Beijing Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday. China routinely censors the Internet and delays or censors television signals but the IOC's chief inspector said Beijing organizers had assured his team that the 30,000 media expected to cover the August 8-24 Games would not be effected. Yahoo News, 3rd April 2008

* Korea's KT and Japan's SoftBank agreed Thursday to establish a 40 billion won joint fund to buy movie, TV drama and animation contents for their Internet-protocol TV (IPTV) service. The project-financing fund will be KT's window to media access and the "soft" sector, allowing it to plan, finance, produce and obtain the exclusive rights to various TV programs and movies. KT and SoftBank will invest 20 billion won each in the fund, while SoftBank Ventures Korea will be in charge of its daily management. The two firms plan to expand it to 100 billion won this year. KT is the largest telephone and Internet service provider in Korea, and is hoping that the Internet TV service will be its new growth engine. The company allocated 1.3 trillion won this year in improving its IPTV infrastructure and buying its contents. It has some 580,000 Mega TV users, of which about 200,000 signed up in the past two months. Hanarotelecom is leading the sector with some 900,000 users. The Korea Times, 3rd April 2008

* Direct to home television service provider DishTV India Ltd on Thursday said it added 86,000 new subscribers in March. The company said the new subscribers added in March helped it cross the three million mark in terms of gross registered subscribers but after making adjustments for churned subscribers since the launch of the company 3 years back, the net subscriber base of the company stands at 2.5 million. The DTH market today is estimated to be about five million subscribers and the other major player is TataSky. Meanwhile, players like Sun and new entrants - Big TV from Reliance ADAG and Bharti group - are set to hot up competition. The Economic Times, 3rd April 2008

* This month, BBC Worldwide’s Global Channels business will launch its first SVOD service, BBC HD, in Taiwan through Chunghwa Telecom, a regional operator of broadband multimedia services. BBC HD SVOD viewers will be able to choose from 10 three-hour multiple genre blocks of programs at any one time. The blocks will feature drama, comedy, documentary, natural history, music and arts programming. BBC HD is the sixth channel brand in BBC Worldwide’s new Global Channels portfolio to launch. The other five channels are BBC Entertainment, BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies, along with the BBC’s 24-hour international news channel, BBC World—which are already available across Asia and EMEA territories. WorldScreen.com, 4th April 2008

* The Macquarie Group of Companies and the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) have signed a global partnership agreement, reportedly worth $1 million. "Macquarie Group of Companies in Korea will be a global Partner for five years in a demonstration of its long-term commitment to Korea," said Dr Choue Cheong-Won, president of the Korea-based WTF. “Macquarie's involvement with the WTF will be a huge boost for taekwondo, as it will enable us to promote the sport better in Korea and overseas." As part of the sponsorship, Macquarie will launch a community programme to provide equipment and other benefits for children from poorer families who normally wouldn't be able to participate in taekwondo. Sportbusiness, 3rd April 2008

* World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) will show a global webcast of the 112th Boston Marathon via its broadband network. The race, which is being run on April 21, will be shown on the network's WCSN.com site. WCSN is the home of the 2008 World Marathon Majors with complete coverage of the London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York City races. Users, who are required to pay a monthly subscription charge, will also have access to complete live and on-demand video footage plus free access to news, race results, photo galleries, and behind-the-scenes features. Broadcast schedules of all live and on-demand events can be found at WCSN.com. Sports Media, 3rd Apr 2008

* Fifa has denied that reserve capital of $800 million has been set aside solely to cover the possible cancellation of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In its financial review for 2007, Fifa said that it was targeting reserve capital of over $800 million by the end of 2010. Some reports claimed that the fund had been built up because of fears over insurance support for the tournament. However, a statement from Fifa stressed that it was the world federation’s ‘statutory obligation’ to build reserves, and that they were not only designed to cater for a cancellation. The statement read: 'Fifa has gone on record on a number of occasions that it is a statutory obligation to build reserves and that these reserves are built among other reasons so as to be able to cope with a World Cup cancellation. We have never made any reference to 2010 in particular.' Sportcal.com, 4th April 2008

* Formula One team bosses have backed plans to expand the calendar to 20 races year, but say that should be the maximum number of Grands Prix allowed. The current season has 18 races, after 17 last year and a record 19 in 2005. Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, said: "I think 20 races is a big number but a sensible number. It's a huge logistical challenge, but the way the teams are working with each other to self-regulate testing it is possible." Formula One has two new venues this year, with a European Grand Prix in Valencia and the first night-time race in Singapore. The US Grand Prix at Indianapolis was dropped from this year’s calendar. Sportbusiness, Sportcal.com, 3rd April 2008

* ProPlayerConnect.com , the unique website that attempts to connect professional athletes with businesses for commercial partnership opportunities, has announced the launch of its beta site. ProPlayerConnect.com was created by Carolina Panthers player Jason Kyle in collaboration with Arizona Bay, which builds and funds information technology applications. The site has more than 150 athletes registered and has documented over 2,000 offers between businesses and athletes. "Offers have ranged from endorsements, free products and discounts to requests for celebrity appearances," according to a statement from the website. ProPlayerConnect.com is available to active and retired athletes, and companies can either view profiles posted by the athletes themselves and contact the individuals, or alternatively post requests. Sports Media, 3rd Apr 2008


MORE NEWS

Global/General: TV Viewing Time Wins Two Minutes

Worldwide TV viewing time went up two minutes in 2007 to reach three hours and seven minutes a day, and viewers favoured sports programming. According to Eurodata’s annual survey presented by Jacques Braun, VP TV, Eurodata TV Worldwide, there are still big contrasts between the 2.9 bn viewers from the 82 studied countries. For instance last year, the US viewer spent four hours and 32 minutes watching TV on average each day, while Asia-Pacific area viewing time was just two hours and 39 minutes.

In many countries such as France, new channels like DTT, mobile and IPTV channels, performed well and put strains on major networks. “Other” forms of TV (ie non-traditional neworks) saw their own ratings going up over the last ten years, passing from 11.8% in 1997 to 36.5% audience share in UK, and 72.9% audience share in the US compared to 54% in 2000. In Germany, where about thirty free channels are available, new forms of TV channels have progressed from only 4.7% to reach 31.7% audience share.

In terms of content, sport programming still generated the strongest ratings , even though 2007 had no worldwide sports events compared to the 2008 competition schedules. Last year, sport, with soccer at the head, topped ratings in one third of the countries while it was part of the Top Ten ratings in a second third. After sport, drama represented 46% of the programming offer worldwide, compared to 36% for entertainment and 18% for factual programming. Rapid TV News, 3rd Apr 2008