Monday, 7th April 2008

SPORTS SHORTS

* Bharti Airtel has hit the 60 million mobile subscriber mark at the end of March, making it one of the world's largest mobile companies. Its mobile subscribers are now double the entire population of India's fixed line subscribers. The only difference is that while Bharti took roughly 14 years to build this market, building the country's fixed line base took over 100 years. But far from resting on its laurels, Bharti is quietly reinventing itself and its brand proposition to ride the next wave of growth and reach new benchmarks. The mobile giant is now targeting volume growth from a 700-million strong rural population and revenue growth from data and value-added services, while attempting to get leaner, still more agile and productive by leveraging huge economies of scale as it doubles its market. India Times, 7th April 2008

* Zee Turner Ltd, a joint venture of Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Turner International, have announced the inclusion of Ten Sports in its bouquet of channels. Ten Sports has moved after the expiry of its three-year contract with Sony Entertainment Television (SET) India. The addition would make Zee Turner offer a wide variety of sports, including 53 days of international cricket in 2008, WE, football and other sports. Zee Turner also projects its subscriber base would increase to over 5 million, while the total business would grow by over 25 per cent. In 2006, Zee has acquired 50 per cent stake in Ten Sports for $57.15 million. Television Point, Sportcal.com, 4th April 2008

* Direct-To-Home television service provider Dish TV India added 86,000 new subscribers in March 2008. The new subscribers added 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, the net subscriber base of the company stands at 2.5 million. This compares very favorably with international norms wherein annual churn is in the 15-20 per cent range. Television Point, 4th April 2008

* Goldstone Technologies, an IT services company, has joined hands with BSNL, television channels and production houses to launch Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services to all BSNL customers in India. Aditionally, a similar tieup is on the cards with MTNL, said Goldstone president Rajesh Kalidindi. IPTV is television content delivered to viewers over computer networks by telecom companies and internet service providers. The home appliance can be a TV with a set-top box or a computer. The subscriber takes a connection the way he does for internet. It also provides interactivity that is not available on TV. Indiantelevision.com, 5th April 2008

* Both StarHub and SingTel have upped their channel offerings from April this month - the former with Eurosport and the latter with ETTV Asia channel and Asia Plus. Free to current StarHub Sports Group subscribers Singapore, Eurosport is a 24-hour channel that features content from over 60 sports genres. Coverage includes the Olympics summer and winter events, WTA Tour, ATP Tour Events, ULEB Cup, Cycling Tour of Spain and Italy, Rugby Heineken Cup, FIA World Touring Car Championships as well as extreme sports. Patrick Lim, StarHub's VP of cable TV services reveals in past eight months, StarHub has more than doubled the number of channels in the Sports Group. This will increase the providers sports offering to nine. Marketing-Interactive, 7th April 2008

* This December, Japan’s largest MSO, Jupiter Telecommunications, will provide users of its J:COM On Demand service content from public broadcaster NHK. NHK on Demand is a paid service that includes NHK Archives Selection and Catch-up Programs. NHK Archives Selection will offer selected past programs from NHK’s library of some 516,000 titles across drama, entertainment, documentary, animation and other genres. Some 1,000 titles will be on offer at launch, with a further 1,000 to be added on a yearly basis. Catch-up Programs will provide shows that have been broadcast within the past week on five NHK terrestrial and satellite channels. Ten to 15 daily programs and major news shows will be available for a week after they were broadcast. J:COM On Demand, capable of reaching approximately 1.2 million households out of 2.3 million J:COM TV subscribers, is Japan’s largest television VOD service with some 13,000 titles. World Screen, 6th April 2008

* Standard Chartered Bank presented the Vietnam men’s team with a 40,000 USD cheque, awarded for their top placing in the Southeast Asia region in the Greatest Race on Earth 2007/08 series. The prize was awarded to the Vietnam team, who repeated their best results in the GROE’s debut season in 2004/05, in a celebratory party in Hanoi on April 3. The team this year was comprised of the best athletes at the National Sport Games’ Athletics Championship 2007. The team completed the four cumulative courses in Nairobi , Singapore , Mumbai and Hong Kong in a total time of 10:46:43, giving Vietnam the first regional prize while beating their closest regional rivals, Thailand , by 1min 9sec and leaving third placed Indonesia 40min 32sec behind. The Vietnamese team finished third in Southeast Asia in the last two series. Standard Chartered is expected to send a women’s team, along with their male counterparts, to the next series. Vietnam.net, 5th April 2008

* The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed there will be no delay in the feed from Beijing to broadcasters around the world during the Games later this year. Beijing Olympic Broadcasting (BOB), a Sino-foreign joint venture funded by the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), will organise the broadcasts for the Games. Chinese authorities regularly delay television signals and censor the Internet, but Hein Verbruggen, co-ordination commission chairman of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee, yesterday told a press conference that the media attending the event would no be affected. Sports Media, 4th Apr 2008

* Malaysians' perennial love affair with online gaming offers an avenue for marketers to engage consumers, a recent online survey by OMG shows. 86% of Malaysian techsetters are gamers, second only to China (97%). Online computer role-playing games is also found to be gaining traction in Malaysia. Although there are only 19% of active MMORPG players, 80% of Malaysia gamers have already been exposed to the popular genre. 66% of Malaysian gamers play games on their PCs, while 17% others are on PS2. Gaming on mobile phones, however, is not huge at the moment. Only 7% of the techsetters in Malaysia do so compared to 16% in India, according to the survey. Marketing Interactive, 4th Apr 2008

* The 7th Asian Billiards and 9th U-21 Asian Snooker Championships kicked off at Kandawgyi Palace Hotel in Myanmar Saturday, with the participation of 55 players, including defending and four other former world billiards champions, from 14 countries. A total of 55 players, including 25 billiards players and 30 snooker players, from 14 countries -- China, India, Iraq, Iran, Malaysia, host Myanmar, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam -- will takepart in the continental championships, scheduled on April 5-12. Myanmar is one of the billiards powerhouses of Asia, having a long history of good results in international billiards tournaments. Chinaview, 5th April 2008

* Fox Sports has paid a reported A$10 million (US$9.1 million) for the exclusive broadcast rights to the Australia versus India Test rematch in India in October. The acquisition continued its long tradition of broadcasting the Australian cricket team on tour. Media buyers predict that the Test will attract strong viewer interest after the controversy over a first series that included allegations of racism and a number of other unsavoury incidents. Barry O'Brien, chief executive of media buying agency Total Advertising & Communications, added: "This is going to be cliff-hanger viewing. India are very tough to beat over there. It will be a pressure-cooker environment and the interest in it will be sky high." The Indian Test was not on the Australian Government's anti-siphoning list, but neither Nine nor SBS, which has previously broadcast the Ashes series against England, bought the rights. Sports Media, 4th Apr 2008


MORE NEWS

Asia/General: More Games and Macau Praise from Asian Olympic Council

The Olympic Council of Asia's (OCA) executive board meeting which was held last week saw the announcement of more multi-sport events and praise for Macau's hosting of last year's Indoor Games. During the meeting held in Thailand, the council announced Singapore will host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010. The recent announcement of the inclusion of the Asian Martial Arts Games in the council's multi-sport events takes the number of events up to six events including the Asian Games, Asian Winter Games, Asian Indoor Games, Asian Beach Games, Asian Martial Arts Games, and Asian Youth Games.

At the meeting, the chairman of the Macau Asian Indoor Games Organising Committee (MAIGOC), Manuel Silvério reported the successful hosting of the Macau 2007, 2nd Asian Indoor Games. "Macau is grateful to have had these opportunities to contribute our part towards the promotion of the Olympic Movement and the ongoing development of sport in the region!" said Manuel Silvério.

During the nine days of the Macau 2007, 2nd Asian Indoor Games new Asian and World records were set in several sports events such as 4x 400m women relay in Indoor Athletics (Asia) and Speed Climbing in Extreme Sports (Asia and World). The Game's generated some USD8.86 million in revenue and returned approximately USD25.7 million cash to the main shareholder, the Macau Government, along with fixed assets at a total value of approximately USD100,000.

President of the OCA Sheihk Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah said that the Second Asian Indoor Games was “one of the best Asian Games held” and left “everyone (with) wonderful memories of Macau.” In October Bali, Indonesia will host the inaugural Asian Beach Games. In 2010 Guangzhou, China will host the 16th Asian Games. Macau Daily Times News, 5th April 2008

Asia/General: AFC Boss to Tackle Match-fixing “Scourge”

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed Bin Hammam has claimed that bribery and matchfixing are scourges which are destroying soccer. Bin Hammam praised Singapore's swift action in reporting a case of attempted match-fixing of an AFC Cup match this week and vowed to get to the bottom of the matter. "Bribery and match-fixing by illegal betting syndicates are scourges. The AFC will take all possible measures to fight against such elements who are corrupting the game."

Singapore's Football Association alerted the AFC and Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau late on Tuesday after an unidentified man approached two players from Maldives side Victory SC and offered them bribes to throw their match against Home United. Victory lost the match to their Singaporean hosts 2-1 on Wednesday and an investigation has already been launched into the incident by AFC. "AFC welcomes the initiative and urgency shown by FAS in this matter," said Bin Hammam in a statement. "The FAS and AFC share the same view that match-fixing is a cancer which damages the integrity of football, the teams and ultimately the players. We will pursue this matter to its logical end and concentrate our energies on finding out the truth."

Asian soccer has long been blighted by corruption scandals. Last year, a Vietnamese court sentenced four referees to jail for bribery and match-fixing. In November, Interpol uncovered US$680 million worth of illegal soccer betting across Asia after a series of raids. Planning for the raids took place from June and was timed to match the start of major regional seasons, with illegal betting found in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Soccer Investor, 4th Apr 2008