Wednesday, 9th April 2008

INFO BOX

Becks Tops Ronnie in Rich List
Source: France Football

David Beckham has overtaken Ronaldinho to regain the title of football’s highest-paid player, according to France Football magazine. Beckham's earnings from salary and endorsements soared 82 percent to €31million (US$48.9 million) following his switch to the Los Angeles Galaxy from Real Madrid, lifting him above Barcelona's Ronaldinho, whose income was unchanged at €24.1 million, the magazine's annual survey said. The 32-year-old Beckham reclaimed the position he held for three years until 2005. He has a US$5.5 million base salary that could boom to as much as US$250 million over 5 years with endorsements and profit sharing, according to the Galaxy. Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo rose to third and fourth, with income of €23 million and €19.5 million, respectively. It is the first time they have been in the top ten.

Jose Mourinho, who left Chelsea in September, remains the top-paid coach – even though he is not currently in charge of a team - with earnings of €29 million, France Football said. England coach Fabio Capello is the next, with pay of €14.2 million followed by Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who gets €7.4 million, the magazine said.

RANK PLAYER CLUB INCOME €m
1. David Beckham Los Angeles Galaxy 31
2. Ronaldinho Barcelona 24.1
3. Lionel Messi Barcelona 23
4. Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United 19.5
5. Thierry Henry Barcelona 16.8
6. John Terry Chelsea 13.9
7. Michael Ballack Chelsea 13.8
8. Ronaldo AC Milan 13.4
9. Kaka AC Milan 12.9
10. Steven Gerrard Liverpool 11.8

12m to Initially Use Mobile TV in India
telecomasia.net, 9th Apr 2008

The number of mobile TV users in India is predicted to reach 12 million on the first year that the service will be launched, a report from research firm Springboard Research. The research firm also said India's market for mobile TV services will reach $360 million in 2008. The Springboard research further said 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.

About 84% of mobile phone users in the country are interested in using mobile TV provided it is commonly available and affordable, the report added. 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, the research firm said. The mobile phone will remain the central multi-purpose device, outnumbering any other mobile devices like digital media players and pocket PCs, the report said. 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.


SPORTS SHORTS

* Malaysia's government has barred the country's sole pay-TV operator, Astro, from adding channels until the company improves its services, media reports said on Tuesday. The move could affect Astro's expansion plans and undermine its profitability, one industry analyst said. Astro, controlled by Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan, had a 40% market share of Malaysia's 5.5 million households as of end-January. Astro currently has more than 80 TV and radio channels. Its main competitor is Media Prima, which controls several free-to-air TV stations. Televisionpoint.com, News Straits Times, 8th Apr 2008

* US-based Qualcomm plans to enter the Indian mobile TV market as soon as the service is launched in the country. "We expect to roll out a mobile TV technology in India once the government draws up a policy and frees frequency for the service," Sachin Kalantri, senior staff engineer of Qualcomm India, told local newspaper The Telegraph. ATV, 9th Apr 2008

* Competition in the telecommunications industry has finally forced Indonesia's biggest player in the industry, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), to cut its long distance call rate by up to 46%, starting this week. The rate would be cut to increase landline use amid increased competition from mobile phone services. Earlier this month, the connection charge between mobile phone operators was cut by between 20% and 41% in response to a regulation issued by the Directorate General for Post and Telecommunications earlier this year. The regulation was issued on the back of a report by the Business Competition Supervisory Commission in November, which said the industry was marred by unhealthy competition as demonstrated by the fact, among others, that consumers here are paying the highest charges in Asia even though there are no entry barriers to competition. The company now has 8.7 million subscribers for landlines and 6.5 million for mobile wireless connections. telecomasia.net, 9th Apr 2008

* TT&T Subscriber Services, a subsidiary of Thailand’s provincial fixed-line operator TT&T, is preparing to provide WiMax commercial services this year through a joint venture with a foreign telecom operator. The company is spending 100 million baht ($3.1 million) on a WiMax trial with a total planned investment of 1 billion baht ($31.4 million) for commercial services nationwide. TT&T also plans to form a joint venture with a foreign operator to offer 3G mobile-phone services with a possible 50-billion-baht ($1.5 billion) investment plan. TT&T is also spending 600 million baht to double its international internet bandwidth to 3.88 gigabytes in an effort to lift its broadband subscriber base to 500,000 by the end of this year. The capacity expansion also includes a doubling of domestic bandwidth to 9 gigabytes. telecomasia.net, 9th Apr 2008

* Reacting to pressure from the media, the organisers of the Indian Premier League, the lucrative new Twenty20 cricket competition, say they have relaxed restrictions on the coverage of the inaugural tournament. The IPL had earlier caused a furore by stipulating that photographs from matches could not appear freely on news websites, but concessions have now been made, notably to the print media. The IPL said that it had restricted the use of pictures as it had to respect a $50-million new media rights contract signed with an as-yet unnamed North American company. Sportcal, 8th Apr 2008

* Mobile and online games company India games' international publishing division IG Fun has announced plans to launch Minilympics, a set of mini games capturing the athletic sporting events. Minilympics features 17 mini games based around various athletic sporting events. These include dash, hurdles, cycling, long jump, triple jump, shot put, discus throw, archery, shooting, rowing, diving, swimming, parallel bars, rings, pommel horse, vault and balancing beam. IG Fun CEO Sean Malatesta said, "With Minilympics, we aim to fill in the gap for high-quality athletic sports-based games on the mobile platform." Minilympics will be available for download with telco operators across the globe, says an official release. Indiantelevision.com, 8th Apr 2008

* Baidu.com, Inc., the leading Chinese language Internet search engine, today announced the signing of an agreement with China Netcom Group (CNC) to jointly provide a Baidu-powered Internet search page for CNC users. According to the agreement, Baidu's leading Internet search service will be leveraged to help CNC Internet users find information they need online more efficiently by powering a jointly designed search page that users will be redirected to after they attempt to visit an incorrect or nonexistent URL.Yahoo! Finance, 8th Apr 2008

* Taiwan’s prospective mobile TV operators have asked the country’s regulator that they be allowed to collaborate for mobile TV services. Reports say that the licensees which have chosen the DBH-H standard, want to implement services as a joint venture. The licensees are Chinese Television System, China Television, Public Television Service, and Chunghwa Wideband Best Network. Any joint operation would be broadcast over a combined 12MHz band, rather than the 6MHz band assigned when the companies received their licences. Out of the five prospective mobile TV operators licensed in late 2006, four chose DVB-H. Just one – Taiwan Television Enterprise – has plumped for Qualcomm’s MediaFLO. Rapid TV News, 8th Apr 2008

* UEFA has made the first award of media rights for the 2009-2012 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup seasons as well as for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 UEFA Super Cups in the Republic of Korea. CJ Media has been awarded a substantial package of media rights which includes live matches, highlights, a magazine programme and delayed coverage. The broadcaster, which operates Xports – a leading pay-TV sports channel – will be entitled to exploit the rights over the Xports, XTM and tvN channels, ensuring significant exposure for both competitions and enabling fans in South Korea to access the best of European club football. The rights will also be widely exploited across other broadcast platforms – including on the internet via xportstv.com and on mobile. UEFA.com, 8th Apr 2008

* Kroenke Sports Enterprises acquired a 50% share in Arsenal Broadband Limited, the broadband service of English Premier League club, Arsenal, for around £65 million. The stake, which was previously owned by commercial broadcaster ITV, entitles KSE UK UK to an interest in Arsenal.com, which controls the club's internet rights. As part of the agreement ITV will pay the club £1 million for certain rights and cease to be the commercial agent for Arsenal. It will also no longer represent the licensing activities at Arsenal. Sportbusiness, Sportcal, 8th Apr 2008

* The World Cup qualifying matches of the Australian national soccer team will be shown on free-to-air television after the Australian government agreed to add them to the anti-siphoning list. However, the move will not come into effect until 2014 after Communications Minister Stephen Conroy accepted Football Federation Australia's pleas that to do so now would cost them millions of dollars in penalties from their existing deal with Fox Sports. The FFA’s seven-year, A$120 million deal with Fox Sports for the exclusive rights for all Socceroos home qualifying matches and A-League matches helped secure the game's short-term future when it was signed on the eve of the 2006 World Cup. The rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups have already been sold to SBS directly by Fifa. Sport Business, 8th Apr 2008

* ESPN is making short-form online video content from ESPN.com accessible through AOL Video and AOL Sports, marking the first time the network has offered its video content through an Internet portal. Content available through ESPN’s embedded video player on AOL will include SportsCenter Right Now, a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories, highlights and breaking news; clips from ESPN programs such as Mike and Mike in the Morning, Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn; and breaking news and game clips from major professional and college teams and sporting events. The multi-sport video player will also offer links to ESPN.com content related to the video topics. Worldscreen, 8th Apr 2008

* Top-level international squash is to return to the United Arab Emirates for the first time in 15 years after it was announced that the country will stage a new men’s tournament, the Abu Dhabi Open, in December. The $125,000 Super Series Platinum event will form part of the men’s Professional Squash Association Tour. Qualifying will take place on December 4 and 5, with the event itself to follow from December 6 to 11. The last major squash tournament to take place in the UAE was the Dubai Classic back in 1993. Sportcal.com, 8th Apr 2008


MORE NEWS

Asia/Broadcast: Comcast Sells into Asia, Launches The Style Network Worldwide

The Asia-Pacific region has proven fertile ground for Comcast and its recently formed international distribution arm, Comcast International Media Group (CIMG). Yesterday, CIMG's MD for Asia-Pacific, Christine Fellowes, announced that over 900 hours of lifestyle and entertainment programming have been licensed over the past six months to channels in seven countries across the region, including Australia, China, Cambodia, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.

Among the titles licensed from across Comcast's suite of channels, E! Entertainment, The Style Network, young-male-targeted G4 and TV One, are G4's ATOS, The Block, Filter and X-Play, picked up by Australia's Premier Media Group for Fuel TV. Meanwhile, Network Ten has licensed E!'s Forbes Top 15 Supermodels, Forbes 20 Billionaire Heiresses, Forbes Young Hollywood. New Zealand's TVWorks has secured the first four seasons of Girls of the Playboy Mansion for Channel 4.

Other significant sales include CIMG's first deal in the Cambodian market with Cambodian Broadcasting System acquiring Style Star for its CTN channel. China's Happy Movie Media has licensed E!'s Behind the Scenes for CCTV, while Hong Kong's i-Cable Entertainment has licensed TV One's Turn Up the Heat with G Garvin. Pan-regional net Discovery Travel & Living has also picked up the first two seasons of The Style Network's Try My Life and Married Away for its Indian sub-continent feed.

Licence renewals include Japan's Movie Plus for Life From the Red Carpet: The 2008 Academy Awards coverage, Behind the Scenes, 101 Favorite Stars Way Back When and The E! True Hollywood Story; and Korea's On Style for E! News Weekend. In other international news for the Comcast group, female-skewed The Style Nework has rolled out on platforms in Africa (Multichoice Africa), Croatia (T-Com), Malta (Melitacable), Middle East (Showtime Arabia), Netherlands (KPN), Poland (Vectra) and Portugal (PT Telekom), boosting the network's subscriber base by a further two million.

Brad Wald, MD for CIMG EMEA, said: "We've had an overwhelming response from international broadcasters across the board since we first announced we would launch the network globally last year. These new launches mark the first wave of the network's roll-out and we expect to sign many more channel partners in 2008." Meanwhile, back in the US, E! Entertainment Television has commissioned a new half-hour ob-doc series about Pamela Anderson, from World of Wonder Productions, tentatively titled Pamela. The show is slated for airing this summer. C21 Media, 8th Apr 2008