Thursday, 24th April 2008

INFO BOX

Asia Pacific Leads in Sports Sponsorship
Source: Marketing-interactive.com, 24th Apr 2008

When it comes to experiential media, Asia Pacific leads the world in leveraging sports sponsorship and celebrity endorsement, according to ZenithOptimedia's Touchpoints ROI Tracker study. The project identifies the power of individual consumer contact points and how they deliver brand communication ROI from over 300, 000 consumer interviews across 34 countries and more than 4,000 brands.

The study revealed in traditional media, TV advertising is still important at 18% more influential in Asia Pacific than in USA. In digital for internet advertising, Asia Pacific is 26% more influential than Europe and 54% more influential in mobile promotions than in North America. The touchpoints report also revealed word of mouth is more influential than traditional media at 12% more than TV in Asia Pacific. In China, product placement is 39% more influential than global norm with advertorials and infomercials 15% more influential in China than globally. Event sponsorship is 21% more influential in China versus the global norm with sports sponsorship at 17% and TV program sponsorship at 24% respectively.

ZenithOptimedia's Touchpoints ROI Tracker identifies and quantifies the value of every customer point of contact for a category and its brands, examining the role of each contact point in building brand preference and purchase intent.


SPORT SHORTS

* Muaythai is set to get global exposure after Mark Burnett produced a reality show offering the highest prize money ever given out in the history of the sport. Burnett has now produced 'The Contender Asia', an unscripted drama about the lives, fears, triumphs, dreams, and hopes of the 16 muaythai fighters from 12 countries. Singapore hosted the two-month reality show. The series took on the format of weekly elimination fights until a best fighter emerged as the champion of The Contender Asia. The series offered a total prize pool of S$500,000 (US$370,000). Programmes are being shown in 27 Asian countries and will be aired to more than 50 countries to an estimated audience of over 400 million people. Sport Insider, 23rd Apr 2008

* The opening match of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament attracted twice as many Indian television viewers as expected. Played in Bangalore between the local Royal Challenger and the Kolkata Knight Riders, 12.5 million viewers tuned in, giving the broadcast 8.21 ‘Television Rating Points’. By comparison, coverage of last summer's Indian cricket tour of Australia scored 4-6 Television Rating Points. In Australia, viewing figures were good, but not exceptional, and were probably impacted by late-night scheduling. After the first match, rating points for IPL coverage dropped to between 4.97 and 5.58. Sport Business, 23rd Apr 2008

* The Saudi Arabia Basketball Federation and the Qatar Basketball Federation have become the fifth and sixth candidates to express an interest in bidding to host the 2014 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Championship. FIBA opened the bidding process for the 2014 event back in January, and has given interested Federations a deadline of late next week to deliver their letters of intent. Saudi Arabia and Qatar join Spain, France, Denmark and Russia in the group of candidates interested in staging the tournament. FIBA's flagship championship was staged in Japan in 2006 and will take place in Turkey in 2010. Sport Insider, 23rd Apr 2008

* SingTel, as title sponsor for the upcoming Singapore F1, has unveiled its integrated marketing effort for the race which includes launching two custom-built F1 race car simulators which replicate the experience of being in the driver's seat of an F1 car racing through the much-hyped street circuit. The experience is named the SingTel Ultimate Race which has also been turned into a downloadable online game on the telco's new official F1 website. The site features user-generated content and celebrity blogging from Jaymee Ong and Glenn Ong as well as information on F1 races. SingTel will also launch a F1 mobile game that its customers can download for free as well as a 4-ep 30-min reality TV show on MediaCorp's CH 5 which pits forty-eight young girls against each other to become one of the twenty chosen SingTel Grid Girls for the race. The winner also walks away with $20,000. Marketing-interactive.com, 23rd Apr 2008

* Motorstv.co.uk has been relaunched . The new site promises "hundreds of videos" of action from the V8 Supercars, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), Le Mans Series, American Le Mans Series, F3 Euroseries, World Motocross Championship and World Superbikes, while also featuring on-board camera footage and car and bike tests from the channel's editorial staff. Each of the covered events have their own specific sections complete with series information, a race calendar, news from each of the respective circuits, videos and screening times of the broadcasts. Additionally, the site includes surveys and competitions, while the discussion forum has been retained. Sports Media, 23rd Apr 2008

* Tennis' French Open at Roland Garros will this year offer prize money of over €15.5 million ($24.7 million), a 2% increase on last year. Women and men will get equal prize money, with the winners of both singles championships receiving €1 million at the tournament, which begins on May 25. Sportcal, 23rd Apr 2008

* Barcelona are already on their way to distributing the 21,000 tickets they will receive if they reach the UEFA Champions League final in Moscow on 21 May by defeating English Premier League club Manchester United in the semi-finals. The tickets have been distributed between members, fans and organisations with whom the Catalan club has commitments. Each member can request four tickets and must reserve the ticket with a credit card payment. The money will be charged if and when Barca beat United. "UEFA are the ones who oblige the four clubs in the semi-finals to acquire the places before the club knows if they’re going to be in the final in order to minimise bureaucratic problems,” a statement read. Barça will offer a special travel package for fans travelling to the game. Soccer Investor, 23rd Apr 2008

* FC Barcelona has agreed a deal that makes it the first football club to partner with video search engine Blinkx. The agreement will see content from the Primera División giant's official television station, Barca TV, broadcast on the club's official channel on Blinkx, www.blinkx.com/videos/channel:FCBarcelona . Fans will be able to search for videos and official content from the club, with some content limited to users in Spain. The content will include summaries of press conferences, exclusive interviews with players, news concerning every section of the club and Barca Toons videos, all available for free. Football Insider, 23rd Apr 2008

* FIFA president Sepp Blatter is convinced that the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup will act as a catalyst for the further growth of the game and believes that television coverage will play an important part. Germany's leading women players will defend the crown they won last year in China, with the event marking the first time that the country has hosted the tournament. While women's football is already high profile in countries such as Germany, Blatter feels FIFA's decision to incorporate World Cup 2011 television rights into the package for the men's event in 2014 will ensure that the tournament gains worldwide exposure. Football Insider, 23rd Apr 2008


MORE NEWS

Thailand/New Media: GSM Group Urges Thailand to Speed up 3G Licenses

The GSMA, the global trade association for the mobile industry, urged the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Thailand to license the 2100MHz spectrum band for 3G services by August. The introduction of 3G, enhanced by HSPA (high speed packet access), is intended to greatly improve the availability of broadband services in Thailand. Only 2.2 of households now have broadband and the country lags many of its neighbours in this respect.

Laying new fixed-line connections is expensive and inefficient so high-speed mobile networks are Thailand's best bet to realise the many social and economic benefits of widespread access to broadband services, said Ricardo Tavares, senior vice-president for public policy of the GSMA.

All three GSM mobile operators in Thailand, AIS, DTAC, and True Move, believe the market is ready for 3G. Thailand has a mature 2G market with 56.2 million subscribers or 88.3% of the population. HSPA is an upgrade to 3G networks that use the W-CDMA air interface. The GSMA represents more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators in 218 markets with 2.5 billion customers, or 85% of the world's mobile phone users. telecomasia.net, 24th Apr 2008

China/New Media: China Netcom Launches Broadband Video Platform

China Netcom has launched its broadband video platform, which will allow users to watch certain TV programs over the Internet, the company announced yesterday. "The broadband video content platform is an important start in our strategy to develop Internet video. We signed content cooperation agreements with eight partners [on Tuesday]. This strategy will be our focus in 2008, and more and more partners, both content and hardware suppliers, will take part," Zuo Feng, the deputy chief engineer at China Netcom, told Interfax today.

Zuo said the eight initial partners include the Guizhou TV Station, the Qinghai TV Station, CCID Media, the Hubei Film and Television Arts Center, the Interactive TV Commission of the China Television Artists Association, and other media and content suppliers. Zuo said China Netcom's broadband subscribers will be able to install a free software platform called an "Internet TV set" on their PCs to choose the programs they like from these partners.

China Netcom is in charge of the operating system of the broadband video content platform, including program distribution, broadcasting, billing, bandwidth distribution and server maintenance. The partners are responsible for generating content and for property protection. The programs on the platform are currently all free of charge. Zuo said that China Netcom plans to collect service fees from media and content suppliers in the future, while media and content suppliers will be able to charge subscribers for watching their programming, as well as charge for advertisements. Interfax.com, 23rd Apr 2008


ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS

World players find burgeoning India too hard to resist

An Indian media revenue pie that is likely to reach $30 billion by 2012 is luring a raft of international entrants keen for a share of one of the world's fastest-growing media markets. Overseas investors in Indian media include merchant banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, the Singapore Government's Temasek Holdings, astute individuals such as George Soros, and media groups Pearson, Time Warner, Independent News & Media, Daily Mail & General Trust, and News Corp (owner of The Australian). Joining this list next could be Fairfax Media, which last week was reported to be eyeing a stake in The Hindu, one of India's leading English-language newspapers. If the deal eventuates, Fairfax will enter a crowded Indian media environment that is undergoing both massive growth and technological change.

There are more than 40 non-stop TV news channels, broadcasting in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and a host of other languages; another 200-plus entertainment channels available on cable and satellite; scores of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines with readerships in the millions; hundreds of new radio stations, a fast-moving online sector and a film industry that is already the world's largest in terms of titles produced.

Over the next five years, media distribution over digital and mobile platforms is seen as a key driver of the sector, setting the scene for new alliances and cross-media ownership. India currently restricts overseas investors to 26 per cent of print and broadcast news media. Pearson Group, Britain-based owner of the Financial Times, for example, has just sold its existing 14 per cent stake in Mumbai's Business Standard newspaper, to clear the decks for FT's launch later this year of a new financial daily in partnership with one of the most vibrant of the new Indian media players, the Network 18 television group.

Singapore's Temasek Holdings outlayed almost $300 million last year for a stake in TV broadcaster INX Media, while George Soros paid $106 million in February this year for 3 per cent of Reliance Entertainment, a media and entertainment company controlled by Anil Ambani, India's second richest man.

Media is undoubtedly among the hottest sectors of the Indian economy, with a growth outlook of 18 per cent a year between 2007 and 2012, according to a report released last month by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. That means the sector is expanding at twice the pace of the overall Indian economy. Turnover for print media companies in 2007 was $4 billion, a figure likely to rise to $7.5 billion by 2012. Revenue for TV broadcasters was $6 billion and is expected to grow to almost $16billion by 2012. Radio and online revenues, though much smaller, are showing even higher growth rates.

The reason for the bullish media outlook is not hard to find. India is on track to become one of the world's five largest consumer markets within 15 years, and its media output is finding fresh audiences in the Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia. It already has the world's largest population aged under 25: 600million people, many of whom are technologically literate, upwardly mobile and primed to spend. They are joining a burgeoning middle class that wants more of the good things in life, rather than just the basics of roti, kapda aur makaan (food, clothing and shelter). Entertainment options are springing up to serve the leisure-time needs of these consumers: niche magazines, cinema multiplexes, videogame arcades, and online activities such as sports programs, gaming and social networking.

In cricket-mad India, the advent of high-powered televised events such as the Indian Premier League has quickly drawn the interest of big business groups and heavyweight advertisers looking for the right media outlets. Many of India's richest tycoons have made their money in media. They include Subhash Chandra, founder of the country's first cable and satellite network, Zee TV, and Chennai-based Kalanithi Maran, who runs the country's single most valuable network, Sun TV.

Another wealthy media family is led by Indu Jain, who with her sons Samir and Vineet, controls the unlisted Bennett, Coleman Company Ltd. This group runs The Times of India and The Economic Times newspapers, plus a host of smaller media enterprises. A great rival to BCCL is the listed HT Media, controlled by industrialist K.K. Birla. HT Media publishes the Hindustan Times, and launched a business daily, Mint, in 2007 with the backing of The Wall Street Journal. Another aggressive competitor is T. Venkattram Reddy, publisher of the Deccan Chronicle and owner of the Hyderabad-based IPL franchise, the Deccan Chargers.

That pits him against Sydney-based media player Lachlan Murdoch, who has a stake in the IPL's Jaipur-based franchise, the Rajasthan Royals team led by captain-coach Shane Warne. Murdoch also has a share in an Indian talent management agency that is part of the Percept group. Theaustraliannews.com.au, 23rd Apr 2008