Wednesday, 2 April 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

Total Sports & Entertainment MD Navneet Sharma Quits

Total Sports Entertainment Asia, Indian subcontinent and Middle East MD Navneet Sharma has resigned. "Sharma put in his papers today," a source in the company tells Indiantelevision.com. Before his four-year stint at Total Sports Entertainment, Sharma was CEO of 9 Yards Sports and Entertainment (CricketNext.com). He has also worked for IMG as senior GM, World Sport Nimbus as VP, ClickCricket.com as COO, Paes-En-Sport as business head and Sterling Grand as marketing manager. Sharma’s expertise extends in the area of celebrity management, sponsorship sales and marketing, rights management and implementation and business development. Earlier he has managed the commercial careers of personalities such as Leander Paes, Anil Kumble, Ajay Jadeja, and Bhaichung Bhutia. Indian Television, 2nd April 2008

TSA Japan & MBC ESPN Acquire NPB Baseball Rights

Total Sports Asia K.K. (TSA) and MBC ESS Sports Co., Ltd. (MBC ESPN) of South Korea have teamed up to acquire the exclusive media rights to a number of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) professional baseball games for broadcast in South Korea in 2008. The deal involves MBC ESPN and TSA acquiring the television rights to all the road games of the Yomiuri Giants baseball club against the Hanshin Tigers and Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball clubs as well as the road games of the Chunichi Dragons against the Hanshin Tigers.

The games acquired by TSA and MBC ESPN feature Lee Seung Yeop of the Yomiuri Giants and Lee Byung-Kyu of the Chunichi Dragons, both of whom are among South Korea's best baseball players. All games will be broadcast live on the MBC ESPN sports channel. Chung See Liang, Managing director, Total Sports Asia (Korea/Japan) said, "NPB Baseball has proven to generate consistently high TV ratings and we are very pleased to be able to team up with MBC ESPN again for the 2008 season."

"We are very happy to get another deal done with TSA and hope to have another successful season", said Jin-Yong Choi, Manager, Programming, MBC ESPN. Television Point, 1st April 2008


INFO BOX

Mobile Advertising at Make or Break Point

Mobile advertising is fast approaching a 'make or break' point and the next two years will be critical in deciding whether consumers accept ads and indeed, whether there is any real revenue to be derived from them. Industry analyst Gartner predicts that worldwide mobile advertising revenues are to surpass $2.7bn in 2008 - a $1bn increase on 2007.

However, the analyst notes that the market has developed slowly and still has some way to go. "Innovative developments, such as minimizing the number of keystrokes required to access information, using the phone's camera to improve the overall user experience and tying content or shopping location relevancy to advertisements will move the market forward," said Tole Hart, research director at Gartner. "To encourage users to accept advertisements, advertisers must improve the way search results are managed on the handset so that the experience is painless and rewarding to end users."

The mobile advertising market has generated a lot of hype for a variety of reasons, but there are still several problems to overcome going forward. Gartner identifies some of these issues as the slow adoption of multimedia, lack of consumer acceptance, lack of metric transparency, immaturity of standards, diversity of platforms, form factor issues, cross-media integration priorities and the complexity of the value chain, inventory of content, privacy, education and ease of accessing content. Hart believes that many of these issues will be resolved during the next two years, resulting in a make or break situation for mobile advertising which boils down to two questions: "Will customers accept advertisements, and can brands and advertisers drive revenue via mobile advertising?" Hart said.

At present, it's evident that some operators are more cautious than others about the prospects of mobile advertising. On Monday, 3 UK unveiled an ad supported, mobile music video service, which delivers videos to customers with no data charge, supported by short, targeted video ads. But last week, Orange UK launched a three month trial that will allow subscribers to get discounted music in exchange for eyeballing adverts.

Interestingly, Orange is the host network for ad-supported MVNO Blyk, which launched late last year, and it appears that Orange is using Blyk to test the water for ad-funded content. Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner, said that, "Advertising often runs the risk of being perceived as junk mail or a privacy violation, so advertisers must use such targeting techniques with care.

"However, sponsored content has proven successful in other media. There are several companies working on providing mobile content integrated with advertisements. In addition, location has long been thought of as a factor for relevancy, but to date precision has been limited as the capability and the cost of GPS has been too high, along with the low penetration of GPS phones." Telecoms.com, 1st April 2008

Youngsters Glued to Their Screens

Young Malaysians, reportedly the biggest media junkies in Asia Pacific, are hooked to the TV and the internet, revealed in Synovate's Young Asians study. Advertisers should take note that most hours are still spent watching TV but the internet grabs the most attention among 15 to 24 year olds, and mobile phones are considered the necessary ‘third screen'.

The results show young Malaysians (8 to 24 years old) are exposed to the media more than half a day (12.9 hours), followed by Thailand (12.8) in second place, and Hong Kong (12.2). Of these number of hours, Malaysians spend 4.5 hours watching TV and 3.6 hours on the internet. 15 to 24 year old Malaysian respondents said they paid the most attention to the internet. 31% say they pay 100% attention to the internet when they are online and another 38% give it 75% of their attention. For TV, however, 18% say they give it their full attention, and 31% give 75% attention.

The survey also shows that the highest amount of internet time is spent on instant messaging (3.8 hours) and other internet activities (3.3 hours) compared to 1.6 hours spent each on emailing and online community activities (includes blogging and online social network sites).

"When you're fighting for a young person's attention, it might be best if your message was on a screen. They are far more likely to notice it," Ben Llewellyn, research director of Synovate Malaysia, said. "But when it comes to how people feel about media, it's the internet and mobile phones that are most often rated an absolute necessity. Indeed, the mobile phone is fast making inroads as the 'third screen' in people's lives," he said. 64% of young Malaysians surveyed own a mobile phone. The Young Asians study was sponsored by Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, MTV, SingTel, Star TV and Yahoo. Marketing-Interactive, 1st April 2008


SPORTS SHORTS

* The world's first Formula One night race in Singapore will be a feast of hi-tech gadgetry, organisers say, featuring electronic flags and with around 1,500 lighting projectors illuminating the city. But the iconic chequered flag will not be lost, with organisers sticking to the black-and-white fabric symbol to signify the race end. The Sept. 28 night race will see the introduction of electronic flag displays to replace those traditionally waved by race officials, Valerio Maioli, the race's lighting designer, said in an interview. Coloured flag signals are an important part of Formula One as they are one of the few ways teams can inform drivers of circuit conditions. The new system will use electronic boards along the track to display the different flag colours. Express India, 1st April 2008

* Chunghwa Telecom has obtained exclusive rights to webcast 165 games of the 2008 Major League Baseball (MLB) season in Taiwan with the signing of an agreement between Elta Technology and MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media), the interactive media and Internet company of MLB, according to a CHT press release on March 31.The live MLB games will be delivered through three platforms of CHT – hiChannel operated by CHT's ISP unit HiNet, MOD (multimedia on demand) and emome online mobile service platform, CHT pointed out. Of the 165 games, 80 will be broadcast in HD format, CHT indicated. Digitimes, 1st April 2008

* The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) will issue a "Licence for Publication of Audio-Visual Programs through Information Network" to approximately 10 companies this April in China. Three private operators, including video-on-demand sites Joy.cn and 51tv, are expected to obtain new licences, while the remaining recipients will all be State-owned firms. Some of the licenses will be valid as of March 31. Tudou, 56.com, and other sites that focus predominately on facilitating user-generated video uploading and sharing have not appeared on the list of approved sites. Joy.cn is already engaged in content-based co-operation with 300 film and television production agencies, as well as more than 30 satellite and local television stations nationwide, including TVB, ATV, EMI, and Huayi Brothers. ATV, 2nd April 2008

* India unveiled new guidelines for telecom operators to share transmission systems and cables in a move to reduce call tariffs and increase rural connectivity, which have been welcomed by the leading operators. This would enable the operators to reduce the cost of rolling out telecom networks, especially in remote areas of the country. "The guidelines are aimed on reducing the input costs on telecom access providers which the telecom ministry hopes would facilitate in reduced tariff and increased tele-density in rural areas," said a statement issued by the communications ministry. New Webindia 123, 1st April 2008

* Japan's NTT sold its 35.2% stake in Sri Lanka Telecom to a Malaysian mobile network operator for $297 million, sending Sri Lanka Telecom shares to a record high, a Reuters report said. The Reuters report said the deal, which values Sri Lanka Telecom at $844 million, had been expected after a court last month ruled that NTT could sell its stake in Sri Lanka Telecom following a lengthy legal battle, but the price exceeded analysts' expectations. The Reuters report quoted NTT and Sri Lanka Telecom as saying that the sale of the 635 million shares to a unit of Maxis Communications' parent Usaha Tegas was completed at a 22% premium to Monday's closing price. telecomasia.net, 2nd April 2008

* China's biggest fixed line carrier, China Telecom, said Monday it is to merge with state-owned subsidiary Beijing Telecom in an RMB5.6bn (Eur510m) deal. The operator said it was seeking to capitalise on the increased demand for telecommunications services during the Beijing Olympic Games period, which takes place in August, as well as taking the opportunity to realise operating synergies. The acquisition is also significant ahead of a long anticipated shake up of the Chinese telecoms market as part of the award of 3G licenses in the country. Telecoms.com, 1st April 2008

* SingTel’s IPTV platform mioTV today launched the Taiwanese channels ETTV Asia and Asia Plus. Operated by the Eastern Broadcasting Company, ETTV Asia offers lifestyle and variety fare such as Puppy Oh My Love, The Star Chef as well as the drama serial The Spicy Family. Asia Plus is home to some of the region’s top award ceremonies, among them the Golden Melody Awards, Golden Bell Awards and Golden Horse Awards. It also delivers variety programs like Good Food, Fortune Knows It All and Enews@Azio. World Screen, 1st April 2008

* In a groundbreaking move for eSports, Championship Gaming Series, the only worldwide professional gaming league, the government of Wuhan and the Wuhan Hi Tech Group, announced the creation of the world's premiere eSports training center and professional gaming arena at the Wuhan Optical Valley Electronic Sports Stadium. In addition to serving as the training center for the CGS Wuhan Dragon team, the new facility will be the location for the upcoming CGS 2008 Pan-Asia Final from April 30 to May 3. Competing teams will include the six CGS teams from the Pan-Asia Region: Wuhan Dragon, Seoul Jinhwa, Singapore Sword, Sydney Underground, Dubai Mirage and Kuala Lumpur Taufan. The top two finishers at the Pan-Asia Final will then be invited to compete against the world’s best teams for a share of the $1,000,000 prize purse at the 2008 CGS World Final to be held later this year in Los Angeles. CGS events will be broadcast to more than 350 million viewers worldwide by DIRECTV in the U.S., BSkyB in the UK, ESPN STAR Sports in Asia. Games Industry, 1st April 2008

* Social networking, sports, shopping and classifieds sites have been highlighted as the most popular form on online activity, according to a new report. A report from Hitwise Hong Kong shows social networking sites and online forums are the dominant sub-category from a list of more than 165 sectors, representing 16.24% of all internet visits by Hong Kong users. YouTube was the leading player in the Hong Kong Social Networking & Forums industry with 12.93% share of visits, followed by Facebook with 12.43% for the week ending 15 March 2008. Sports was also a leading industry in the Hong Kong market, with Hitwise data showing a sport sites like Hong Kong Jockey Club and the HKJC Football Betting Limited taking visitation stats to 4.35%. Shopping and classified websites accounted for 3.17% market share of visits across the same time period. Marketing-Interactive, 1st April 2008


MORE NEWS

Japan/New Media: Mobile Firms May Unite on Standards

Japan's giant mobile operators look likely to adopt the same technology for their next-generation networks, local media has reported. The change is likely to benefit the country's 102 million mobile users, and may belatedly remove one of the stumbling blocks that has hindered Japanese mobile phone makers' entry into the international market. KDDI, Japan's second largest mobile phone operator, will probably move to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile standard when it rolls out its next-generation networks in the coming years. The country's largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, has already thrown its weight behind LTE and has been joined by smaller operators.

LTE is an evolutionary development of the 3G Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) which moves UMTS closer to so-called 4G mobile technology. KDDI currently uses the CDMA-2000 standard, while its local competitors use W-CDMA, which is little used elsewhere in the world. The country's adoption of unusual mobile technologies has also been seen as a burden for local mobile makers.

While Japanese mobile phone manufacturers dominate in their home market, most have had less luck overseas with the partial exception of Sony's joint venture with Sweden's Ericsson. This focus on Japan's preferred mobile technologies leaves them less prepared for competition in foreign markets, most of which rely on more popular global mobile standards such as GSM. The move to a common standard will be accompanied by new regulations that are expected to increase competition and ultimately bring down prices, as they will make it easier for users to switch operators. In related news, South Korea's telecoms regulators are also introducing rules that will make it easier for subscribers to transfer Sim cards between mobiles from different operators. Yahoo News!, PCW, Infomatics, 1st April 2008