INFO BOX
Embracing Mobile Phone Commerce
Info IQ, 7th Apr 2008
25% of cellular phone users with mobile internet access now use their devices to buy goods and services online with a credit card, and nearly one in five saying they would like to someday use cell phones as a "mobile wallet," where charges would be billed directly to their mobile accounts. In addition, 10% of the survey participants said they would consider wire transfers and stock trading via their mobile phones, according to a new study by Harris Interactive.
Mobile phone users are increasingly comfortable making banking and purchase transactions while on-the-go, a virtual taboo until now. 16% of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, with 60% of these people using the services at least once a week. Many others presently not banking and buying on-the-go expressed interest in mobile banking, with 35% open to checking bank account balances and transferring funds via their mobile devices. A third of those surveyed also said they would like to receive text message alerts from their financial institutions. 25% of Smartphone or iPhone users are more likely to "occasionally" use their device to make purchases, compared with 17% of mobile or cellular phone users. 77% of mobile users have "never" made a purchase with their device, compared with 65% of those with smartphones or iPhones.
Some 16% of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, and 60% of them use the services at least once a week. Consumers not currently banking or buying on-the-go expressed interest in having such applications on their mobile phones:
Today's mobile devices are the springboard for… services, with huge pent-up demand for mobile commerce capabilities. If security concerns can be quelled, the sky's the limit with consumer acceptance of mobile banking and purchase transactions. Anxiety about sharing personal data is the biggest barrier to consumer acceptance of mobile banking and commerce, with two-thirds (66%) of respondents saying so. 17% are "extremely concerned" about the current cost of non-commercial transactions (e.g., sending an SMS, MMS, viewing a web page).
SPORTS SHORTS
* Local agencies will control Vietnamese television rights for the third Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi next year, a senior official of the Vietnam Olympic Committee (VOC) has told the Thanh Nien Daily. "The Olympic Council of Asia will be in charge of overseas TV rights...and has agreed to let Vietnam control local rights," said VOC vice-chairman and general secretary Hoang Vinh Giang. The VOC will hold talks with the government over the coming weeks to decide which channels will air the action. Sports Media, 7th Apr 2008
* AETN International has signed its first Asian high-definition VoD partnership, joining up with Korea Telecom (KT) to launch a branded HD VoD service drawing on its History network's programming. From summer 2008, the History HD VoD service will be available as part of KT's new IPTV platform, Korea Telecom MegaTV. The platform has attracted around 550,000 users since its launch last July. AETN has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy in Asia over the past year, including the launch of a suite of channels, digital services and programme syndication, said Fabienne Fourquet, director of international digital media at AETN. C21 Media, World Screen, 7th Apr 2008
* Indonesian media firm PT Media Nusantara Citra Tbk (MNC) has taken a 57.1% shareholding in Chinese wireless interactive entertainment and advertising service provider Linktone Ltd. The deal saw MNC take a majority of Linktone's outstanding shares using a combination of a tender for 6million existing American Depositary Shares (ADSs) and ordinary shares and a subscription for 180million newly-issued ordinary shares at a purchase price of US$0.38 per ordinary share. The deal was sealed following Linktone shareholders’ approval at its extraordinary general meeting held January 30, 2008. MNC nominees including MNC president director Hary Tanoesoedibjo have been elected to Linktone's board of directors. Television Asia, 7th April 2008
* Bertelsmann-owned RTL will not bid for the broadcast rights to the Bundesliga. A tender process for the rights to the top flight of German football for six seasons from 2009 will be concluded in the summer and as reported in Sports Media last week, UnityMedia admitted the cable TV operator would be interested in acquiring the Bundesliga TV rights. However, the rights would be too expensive for the European broadcast and production company. UnityMedia beat rival Premiere for the Bundesliga rights in December 2005, but the two companies eventually reached a deal for the games to be aired on Premiere after UnityMedia struggled with subscription numbers. The Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) is hoping to generate more than Eur550 million per year from the new tender. Sports Media, Sportcal, 7th Apr 2008
* The LNH, French handball's top-tier men’s league, is considering bids from four companies for broadcast rights for the next three seasons, including from incumbent rights holder Eurosport. The three others are: Orange Sport, pay-television service of Orange; Dailymotion, video-sharing website; and Sport+, the broadcaster that forms part of Canal Plus, pay-television giant. Rights are set to be allocated by the LNH by the middle of this month. Three rights packages are on offer – the first for live coverage of the top league match each matchday, the second for other games and the third for a magazine show. The LNH signed a single deal with Eurosport for the present contract period that runs from 2005-06 to 2007-08. The LNH is hoping to generate a ‘significant increase’ on the value of the present deal, worth in the region of €600,000 ($943,438) a year. Sportcal, 7th Apr 2008
* Telecommunications group, Belgacom, is reported to be negotiating directly with Standard Liege, the leading Belgian soccer club, instead of the Belgian league, for future broadcast rights for the club's home matches. Despite broadcast rights being sold collectively in Belgium, Belgacom has approached Standard about their broadcast rights from the 2008-09 season onwards, and is ready to pay between €8 million ($12.6 million) and €9 million a season, reports Le Soir, the French-language newspaper in Belgium. Belgacom’s reported offer for Standard’s rights would represent around a quarter of the €36 million a season that it it pays at present for the rights for the whole league. Sportcal, 7th Apr 2008
* Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira has insisted football and not politics played the major role in the organisation's decision to ally itself with FIFA rather than the South America Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) in the ongoing altitude debate. The CBF has decided not to support a request submitted by CONMEBOL to FIFA to allow matches to be staged at an altitude of more than 2,750 metres above sea level. CONMEBOL sent a new petition to FIFA asking that World Cup qualifiers be allowed to take place in cities such as La Paz (Bolivia) and Quito (Ecuador) while reaffirming its commitment to playing Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana matches in the Andes. Football Insider, 7th Apr 2008
* hellosports.com - a business-to-business web portal – is the matchmaker between worldwide TV journalists and content providers in sports. Via hellosports.com sport associations, rights-holders, TV producers, distributors, event organizers, host cities and sponsors can offer their TV content to TV channels worldwide for broadcasting purposes. Thousands of TV journalists are already registered. License free programmes can be watched online 24/7 and downloaded in broadcast quality. hellosports.com is the global screening room for heads of acquisitions. hellosports.com, a subsidiary of setONE GmbH offers an open platform to simplify the international content distribution. Sports e-Media, 7th Apr 2008
* Barcelona forward Thierry Henry heads the list of the best-paid French sportsmen with earnings of €17.4 million in 2007, according to a survey published on Saturday by L'Equipe Magazine. Henry succeeds Zinedine Zidane, who retired from competitive sport after the FIFA 2006 World Cup. San Antonio Spurs basketball player Tony Parker is second on €9.6 million with Inter Milan midfielder Patrick Vieira third on €8 million. Forty-three of the 50 people listed are footballers and 37 play outside France. The list contains just two women - tennis player Amelie Mauresmo and swimmer Laure Manaudou, joint 29th on €2.8 million. Soccer Investor, 7th Apr 2008
* The FIVB, volleyball’s world governing body, has announced the match schedule for this year’s World Grand Prix, the annual international volleyball competition for the world’s top women players, with Vietnam to host a round of the competition for the first time. Twelve national teams will play a total of 69 matches over four consecutive weekends in 10 cities, with the preliminary rounds scheduled to begin on the weekend of June 20 to 22 and the final round scheduled for July 9 to 13. The hosts for Preliminary rounds: Kobe, Japan; Ningbo, China; Alassio, Italy; Vinh Phuc, Vietnam; Wroclaw, Poland; Hong Kong; Bangkok, Thailand; Taipei, Chinese Taipei; and Macau.
Final round: Yokohama, Japan. Sportcal.com, 7th Apr 2008
MORE NEWS
Cambodia/Broadcast: Gets First DTH Service
Shin Satellite subsidiary Cambodian DTV Network Limited (CDN) and National Television of Kampuchea (TVK) have signed a contract to launch the country’s first DTH service. The TECHO-DTV service provides DTH television programming to every household in the country. All local Khmer channels will be offered for free, while additional programming such as some foreign channels and the capability to subscribe to locally produced Pay TV content is planned for the near future. However, while the service may be available nationwide, the CPE may be prohibitively expensive for many. The DTV set – which includes a 60-cm Ku-band satellite dish (with LNB & Mounting) and set-top-box with remote control – costs $75.
An October 2007 report from Cambodia's Ministry's of Planning and the U.N. Development Program said that Cambodia’s average per capita income was $513 in 2006. While that’s double from figures in 2000, the report said, economic growth is widening the income gap between urban and rural populations. Poverty in rural areas was estimated at almost 40% of the population, compared to 5% of urban populations, the report said. Two-thirds of Cambodia’s 3 million households have no TV sets at home, according to CDN general manager Nuthapong Temsiripong.
The new service aimed to “build the nationwide information infrastructure that benefits all Cambodians in accordance to the government policy direction to evenly develop and educate its citizen,” Temsiripong said in a statement. That includes the “potential capability” to develop new programs for long-distance education to rural areas,” he said. CDN was established in February 2008 as a subsidiary company of Shin Satellite, which also runs Cambodian mobile operator CamShin. telecomasia.net, 7th Apr 2008
Japan/Broadcast: The Sun Rises for Fremantle
Reality giant FremantleMedia has signed a landmark format-sharing partnership deal with TV Man Union, one of Japan's largest independent producers, in what it claims is the first such alliance between companies representing the Western and Japanese markets. "This alliance will help build opportunities for us to make our shows really work for Japanese audiences, because in TV Man Union we will be working with such an outstanding and hugely creative producer," said Tony Cohen, FremantleMedia's CEO. "The deal also means we can take more Japanese content across our global content network," he added. Currently, according to Yutaka Shigenobu, chairman and CEO of TV Man Union, "Japanese programming is not looking internationally."
That would need to change, however, as Japan looked ahead to its shift to digital terrestrial programming in 2011, he said. "The way we produce and broadcast programming will diversify more than ever before. Relations between foreign and Japanese programmers and producers will become even more important. "This alliance now creates opportunities to combine our creative energies and exchange innovative ideas, enabling us to begin creating and producing shows, then exploit our format rights worldwide." Fremantle has several new formats available here at MipTV, including gameshows Crystal Clear, Family Links, Password and Your Price or Mine?, alongside competition-reality show Natural Born Sellers, in which the nation's top sales reps compete to make the most money.
In related news, FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) and the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore have signed a multi-year production agreement to invest in multimedia TV projects, which the companies say will generate US$12m over two years. The deal builds on the partnership that led to the production of Kylie Kwong: My China, which launched at last year's Mipcom. FME and MDA will jointly select projects to invest in from Singapore-based producers, and FME will be the distribution rights holder across all platforms around the world.
FME CEO David Ellender said of the new agreement: "It represents a critical part of our regional hub strategy that sees us extending not only our ability to sell seamlessly across multiple platforms around the world, but also our relationships with local production companies and organisations that we are confident will come up with innovative and successful shows." C21 Media, 7th Apr 2008
Singapore/New Media: Government to Kick in S$250m to NBN Operator
The Singapore government has offered a $250 million ($181 million) sweetener to operator of the planned next-gen broadband network (NGN). The IDA called for proposals from would-be operators of the NBN on Monday. The network is expected to start operating in 2010 and be available nationwide by 2015.
IDA said in its RFP that it was looking for a single operator, or OpCo, to run the NBN’s “active infrastructure”. Under the planned structure of the new high-speed network, the operating company will wholesale services to retail service providers on a non-discriminatory basis. To do this the OpCo would need to be operationally separated from other carriers and be subject to price control and universal service obligations, the IDA said. Eleven companies have pre-qualified to bids for the OpCo contract, although others are welcome to apply for pre-qualification, IDA said.
IDA chairman Yong Ying-I said the government was actively seeking private sector participation in the NBN project. OpCo RFP submissions will close on August 20, 2008 and a decision is likely by the first quarter of 2009. The IDA has already committed S$750 million to the winner of the tender to build the network, launched last December. The network tender will close in May and is expected to be announced in the third quarter of 2008. telecomasia.net, 8th Apr 2008
Elsewhere/Rights: IOC to Launch Tender for 2014 and 2016 European TV Rights
The International Olympic Committee will launch a tender for the sale of European broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, but has not ruled out selling some or all of the rights itself, a move that would represent a blow to its traditional partner the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters. Timo Lumme, the managing director of IOC Television and Marketing Services, told Sportcal that the structure of the tender was being discussed. The IOC has enlisted the help of IMG Media as consultant during its strategic review of future European broadcast rights sales, after it was chosen ahead of six other agencies and strategic consultants in the broadcasting field.
In 2004, the IOC contemplated agreeing deals with broadcasters and/or agencies in Europe on a country-by-country basis for the 2010 and 2012 games, but eventually returned to the EBU and signed a deal worth €614 million ($964.7 million), plus €125 million in additional programming and promotional efforts to support the Olympic brand outside the games, for 51 European countries excluding Italy.
Lumme told Sportcal.com that the IOC would once again issue a tender and added that it was possible that the IOC could choose to sell the rights itself if there was not a satisfactory response from the market. The EBU deal allowed its members to exploit new media rights as part of the overall contract, but the growth of new media coverage and the dramatic rise in their value has led to a strategic re-think by the IOC. Lumme said that the sale of new media rights and maximising their value was ‘one of the things we will consider and are looking at very carefully.’
Lumme added that IMG Media's role would be ‘contacting broadcasters to supply information, elicit interest and so forth.’ The crucial factors in IMG Media winning the contract ahead of theother bidders, Lumme said, were its ‘extensive knowledge and experience of working with rights holders and properties in the key markets,’ and its coverage and number of offices across these markets and developing regions.
The advent of new media coverage and the rise in the number of subscription-based broadcasters, among them several telecommunications groups, has prompted the IOC to conduct widespread research ahead of the next European rights tender. The IOC this year agreed a deal with Sky Italia, the pay-television operator, to act as a gatekeeper in Italy for the rights to the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 summer Olympics in London, sub-licensing rights to free-to-air television. Regarding the sale of European broadcast rights for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2016 summer Olympics, Lumme said in January that the IOC was ‘not ruling anything out’ and that the sales process ‘would not exclude anybody.’ Sportcal, 7th Apr 2008
Elsewhere/Broadcast: ESPN Enjoys Viewer Boom
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS have all reported record viewing figures for the first quarter of the year. ESPN averaged 647,000 homes, up by 15% from 2007, for January to March. ESPN2 averaged 263,000 homes for the quarter, which represented its best first quarter performance ever and amounted to a 4% increase on the corresponding period last year. The March 29 IndyCar season opener was the most-watched event in the history of ESPN2 with an average of 815,000 homes. For ESPNEWS, the first quarter brought the network's most-watched January, February and March, and subsequently its best first quarter ever with an average of 62,000 households tuning in. The average represented an increase of 10% on the 2007 figures of 56,000 for the period.
ESPNEWS' figures were helped by increased audiences for the NCAA women's basketball tournament, along with two ESPN records for 'Black Magic' - the network's most-watched documentary with 1.2 million homes - and the network's most-watched Major League Baseball (MLB) opening night telecast, which drew 2.7 million homes. The company also attributed the increase to the growth of women's college basketball and the continuing success of the weekday morning line-up, which was consumed by an average of 214,000 homes. Sports Media, 7th Apr 2008
Elsewhere/General: MLS Aim to Copy Premier League Example
The aim of MLS is to follow the Premier League's lead but slowly enough so that the transition is as smooth as possible, according to Ivan Gazidis, the league's deputy commissioner . On a global scale, the Premier League is behind only the National Football League (NFL) Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association (NBA) financially but outdistances those three leagues in terms of worldwide visibility and popularity, writes The Los Angeles Times.
"I think what we've seen in England is a dramatic development from a game that was really in the doldrums in the 1980s and now is the world's dominant sports league," Gazidis said. In the Premier League players from 89 countries have participated and this season 64 nationalities are represented among its 20 clubs. The MLS will boast 16 teams by 2010 and 18 soon after.
The obstacle is that the U.S. lacks talented footballers coming up through the youth ranks. So far in 2008, 21 new foreign players have been brought into the MLS. Of those, 18 are from Latin America, including seven from Argentina, four from Brazil and four from Colombia. Last season, the arrival of such players as Cuauhtemoc Blanco from Mexico, Juan Pablo Angel and Juan Toja from Colombia and Luciano Emilio from Brazil had a significant impact - plus David Beckham joined the Los Angeles Galaxy.
"In 2007, the standard of play in the league took a big leap forward based on our new imported players and on some young U.S. talents that came through," Gazidis said. "It wasn't about David Beckham, although Beckham clearly was a huge story for us and has been a terrific ambassador for the league. But it was also about all the players that accompanied him. But this league's growth and development is going to [depend on] the kind of players we're able to develop domestically. That's an absolute priority for us," Gazidis said. Soccer Investor, 7th Apr 2008
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