Monday, 12th May 2008

INFO BOX

Online ad spend in Hong Kong hits US$22million for Q1, 2008

Online advertising expenditure in Hong Kong reached HK$172million (US$22million) in Q1, 2008 as more than 1,000 advertisers promoted their brands online with more than 2,800 advertising campaigns which generated over 5.5billion ad impressions in the first three months of the year, according to Nielsen Online's AdRelevance report.

By category, Computers & Electrical led ad expenditure at 17% of the total online advertising pie, followed by Finance at 15%, Education & Learning with 12%, and Entertainment at 9%. In all, the four sectors made up 50% total online expenditure. Across all categories, Citicorp Group was the top advertiser in Q1 2008, with HK$10.3million (US$1.3million) invested and over 330million ad impressions with eBay which spent HK$7.9million (US$1million) and notched up 254million ad impressions. Dell spent HK$4.7million (US$603,000) and registered 150million ad impressions across 47 campaigns and was the top spender in the Computers & Electrical category. Television Asia Plus, 12th May 2008

SCTV Tops Indonesia’s Free- TV charts

Indonesia free-TV station, Indosiar, has reported an unaudited net revenue of Rp188 billion/ US$20.4 million and net income Rp15 billion for the first quarter of this year. Indosiar’s audience share for March this year was 17%, third after SCTV (19.5%) and RCTI (17/2%). Antv, in which News\ Corp’s STAR holds a stake, trailed at 3.8%. Indosiar’s audience share for February this year was 17.8%, which places it second after SCTV (19.9%). RCTI was third with 16.8% and Trans TV fourth with 11.5%, according to AGB Nielsen Media Research & Company data.


SPORT SHORTS

* The International Olympic Committee will receive $2.5 billion from broadcasters between 2005 and 2008, according Reuters. This headline amount is in addition to the $866 million the IOC is expected to receive from its TOP sponsors’ programme, plus money from tickets and licensed programmes. The committee is also set to gain an additional $1billion from local Chinese marketing contracts for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The reported figures place the Olympic Games above football’s World Cup in terms of financial success - television broadcasting rights for the 2006 World Cup were $1.6 billion and marketing rights income was $714 million. Income from broadcasting and new media rights for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and London 2012 Olympics has already risen nearly 40 per cent from the previous two-Games package of Beijing and Turin, and will be in excess of $3.0 billion, the report said. The IOC estimates this figure to reach about $3.3 billion. It has said some 15 percent of that will come from new media including the internet and mobile phones. Sportbusiness.com, 9th May 2008

* The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has opened the tender process for the sale of the broadcast and exhibition rights for all territories within Europe for the XXII Olympic Winter Games (2014) in Sochi, Russia, and the Games of the XXXI Olympiad (2016). The Invitation to Tender, issued by the IOC, provides organisations interested in acquiring the rights with specific guidelines relating to bid submissions. The IOC has asked for bids to be submitted on 1 July. The IOC will assess bids on their ability to meet the highest standards in broadcast quality, their capacity to reach the broadest possible audience across different media platforms, their commitment to promoting the Olympic Games and the values of the Olympic Movement, as well as on the financial offer. The IOC will consider bids from any organisations who can guarantee full exploitation of the rights either on a multi-territory or country-by-country basis. Indiantelevision.com, 10th May 2008.

* Hong Kong’s official Olympics new media broadcaster, i-Cable, plans to make the Olympics available for free to more than 800 public WiFi hotspots across the territory in a venture with WiFi provider Y5ZONE. i-Cable executive director Benjamin Tong said the Olympics programming would be “available to the public at every corner of Hong Kong” for the first time. www.contentasia.tv, 12th May 2008

* Singapore telco StarHub recorded a 15% increase in first-quarter earnings, with help from a rise in post-paid mobile revenue and ARPU. Mobile revenue was up 13% to S$273 million, driven by a 13% increase in the customer base to 1.8 million. Post-paid mobile services revenue increased 16% YoY to S$211 million, accounting for 77% of the mobile revenue mix. Post-paid ARPU jumped S$8 to S$79, while pre-paid ARPU dropped S$4 to S$22. The pay TV customer base increased 4% to 508,000, with digital platform customers now comprising 86% of the total. Fixed network services revenues increased 7% to S$73 million, while broadband revenue grew 6% or S$4 million to S$64 million. telecomasia.net, 9th May 2008

* Sport18 and CNBC-TV18 business news channel, have joined hands for an partnership deal with Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI). Sport18 has got the exclusive broadcasting rights for the PGTI and will be promoting professional golf through its marketing expertise. CNBC-TV18, on the other hand, will be the official broadcast partner for professional golf in India. PGTI is the new entity floated by the Indian professional golf community with a focus on developing, nurturing and maintaining the highest standards of professionalism in the sport. At the moment, PGTI manages an annual calendar of over 20 professional golf tournaments in the country, which is slated to increase from next year onwards. Television point, 9th May 2008

* India's top Hindi general entertainment channel STAR Plus' much-hyped Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hai, the local version of Mark Burnett Productions' format 'Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?' has seen its ratings impacted by the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, and has reportedly decided to air a repeat telecast of the newly-launched quiz show. The thrice-a-week one-hour show, featuring famous actor Shah Rukh Khan, was launched on April 25. Owing to the popularity of ongoing IPL cricket championship, STAR has decided to repeat telecast during weekdays as well as on Sunday, and TV commercials aired during the original show time will also be re-run without charging advertisers an additional fee. While television ratings for Panchvi Pass opened around 3.5-4.5, IPL opened with a rating of 8 or so and is consistently delivering around 5. For Shah Rukh Khan, host of Panchvi Pass, all isn't lost with the less than encouraging debut of STAR Plus' new game show, given that he owns the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the ratings rival IPL. Television Asia Plus, 12th May 2008

* A TNS Global Technology survey shows radio on mobile phones may help to sustain the radio sector in China, which has taken a battering at the hands of TV music channels and the internet. The study also finds that Chinese youngsters spend on average 14 hours a week listening to music via their mobile phones. The fact that the number of Chinese mobile music listeners is higher than the global average reflects the trend of increased usage of radio and multimedia in China. "The challenge for mobile operators is how to generate revenue from this application and encourage use of other features," Shawn Wang, director of TNS China Technology, said. "Enhanced real-time data services such as location-specific information may be better bet when it comes to increasing consumer spend." Marketing-interactive.com, 9th May 2008

* In response to the increase of mobile internet users in Hong Kong, Smartone Vodafone has launched print, outdoor, online PR campaign to support its Sharp SX82 handset. On top of the product campaign. The mobile operator has also opened an online video store on the "Vboxx". Despite decline in its handset revenue in 2007, the the campaign for its latest offering will last for about three months. More sustaining marketing programs including PR, online and media, has been launched by ZenithOptimedia. The online video store allows consumers to transfer entertainment contents to the mobile phone. The purpose of this is to educate customers to use their mobile phones to go online. It is offering new users low prices to try out its local internet browsing plan. Marketing-interactive.com, 9th May 2008

* Google is increasing its presence in Taiwan, including stronger relationships and cooperation with local IT hardware manufacturers, the company’s senior vice president of engineering Alan Eustace, said during the second anniversary celebrations in Taipei. Google is also optimistic about ad sales, following a year in which sales growth outpaced the 33.87% increase of Taiwan’s on-line advertising market as a whole. www.contentasia.tv, 12th May 2008

* Broadband Internet service provider IOL Netcom has launched India's first on-demand IPTV service in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, available to more than 250,000 subscribers, using Verimatrix's content security technologies. IOL Netcom is expecting the expansion of content delivery options to PC to help customer acquisition, reduce installation resources and fulfill the entertainment on-demand promise. Premium content including movies from IOL Netcom's on-demand movie library and 150 broadcast channels is being offered in MPEG4 format to subscribers' home PCs through Verimatrix's ViewRight PC Player, an independently-audited and secure PC player for IPTV. ViewRight is an integrated component of Video Content Authority System (VCAS) deployed by IOL Netcom to provide IPTV content security and revenue protection on a similar level as dedicated set-top box (STB) equipment. Television Asia Plus, 12th May 2008

* More than double of the survey respondents listed Airasia.com (84%) as their favourite website to book travel compared to Malaysianairlines.com (34%), in a survey by Pulse and Tourism Malaysia. Online hotel and travel agents such as Asia Travel Mart and Asia Rooms ranked much lower at 8% of respondents. Meanwhile, 62% of respondents who made travel bookings online are aged between 21-30 years old and only 27% are aged 31-40 years old. The online survey was done in Q4 of 2007 among 30,000 Malaysian respondents - mix of male and female adults with a range of personal income levels. The study will later be extended to other markets within the region including Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Marketing-interactive.com, 9th May 2008

* New analysis from Frost & Sullivan's Space & Communications Group, European Mobile Satellite TV Markets, finds that that the market earned revenues of $1.92 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $3.3 billion in 2014. "As Mobile TV services continue to grow across Europe, customers and operators require a reliable and pervasive service coverage, which can transmit high-quality, dedicated programs," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Natalie Bentz. "The distribution and transmission by satellite, through the hybrid network or backhaul, will both greatly contribute to the success of Mobile TV by providing what the industry and the customers ask for." ATV, 12th May 2008


MORE NEWS

WWE: Khali gives 15% Audience Boost on Ten Sports

The Great Khali, standing 7 feet 3 inches, has brought in new audiences for Ten Sports which telecasts the popular show World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) daily. Taj Television India MD Rukin Kizilbash admits that the local presence of Khali has helped the sports channel grow its WWE viewership by 15 per cent year-on-year. Which is why Ten Sports is on a marketing overdrive and has brought down Dalip Singh (Khali's name) to India. “We have been receiving many emails over the past year from fans who wanted to see him in person. We tied up with Pepsi, Tata Indicom, Parle and Dish TV. We decided on a two-city tour, comprising an event and a client party. In Delhi, we had a sellout crowd of 3000 people. We replicated a WWE stage,” said Kizilbash on the sidelines of a media briefing.

Spinning around the event, Ten Sports carried out a slew of interactive initiatives. Mountain Dew, for instance, got fans to send SMS, with the promise that the best one would get entries to the events in Mumbai and Delhi. Ten Sports also plans to get another star down later this year like Shawn Michaels or HHH or Batista.

WWE works as as a high tune in, second only to India cricket in the sports genre. Ten Sports uses the platform to push its other properties. For instance with Australia’s tour of the West Indies kicking off shortly, promos of the upcoming clash will air on Raw and SmackDown!. The viewership for WWE has evolved over the period. while a lot of WWE viewers used to be in the 4-14 age group, now the 14-35 age group has also become important. “45 per cent of our audience is women. This is not professional wrestling, after all. It is an entertainment sport, like a soap that the whole family can watch. The shift in viewer profile is also being reflected in the advertisers we have. Earlier there used to be a lot of kids brands like Perfetti. Now we have the likes of Levers and Pepsi on board,” said Kizilbash.

WWE director marketing and distribution Nicola Reeves said India is the main market for the company in Asia. “In fact it is our second biggest market after the US due to its size. Asia is the emerging market for us in the coming five years. It will grow the fastest and India will lead this growth. This is why five months back we set up an office in Sydney.” Reeves explained that the aim is to grow the WWE brand in India and Asia in different areas apart from television viewership. One of these is live events involving Raw, SmackDown and ECW. Right now there is a programme every year for Australia and New Zealand. The aim is to take it to Asian markets in 2009 and 2010, in conjunction with broadcast partners.

WWE, for instance, recently renewed its deal with StarHub in Singapore. "Holding live events will also depend on the infrastructure in that country. It will also depend on where gaps can be found in a hectic schedule," Reeves said. WWE is still gathering information about what Asian audiences want and what works in a certain market. Reeves explained that in the US live events are as important a revenue generator as is television. That is why there has been more focus on doing live events in Europe in recent years. In the UK, the WWE does two events each year. The other key area for growth is in the licensing and merchandising arena. This is usually led by DVD sales and is then followed by things like T-shirts. In India, though, the obstacle lies in high import duties. WWE has a deal in India with telecom content company Phoney Tunes.

WWE will be releasing both a 3-disc deluxe DVD package and the 2-disc Blu-ray version of WrestleMania XXIV later this month in the US and other markets. It has a subscription Video on Demand service (SvoD) which features classic matches. The company is talking with telecom companies to finalise deals in this regard across Asia, Reeves said. Indiantelevision.com, 10th May 2008

Global/Rights: Champions League and Uefa Cup Rights Go to Market in Germany

The tender for broadcast rights to the Uefa Champions League and the Uefa Cup, European soccer’s top two club competitions, from 2009-10 onwards was launched today in Germany. Team Marketing, the agency that is marketing the centralised rights for both competitions, has started the sales process and set a bidding deadline of June 3. Champions League rights are held in Germany by Premiere, the pay-television operator, which paid around €70 million ($108.2 million) a season for free-to-air and pay-television rights until the end of the 2008-09 season. Premiere sub-licensed free-to-air rights first to DSF, the privately-owned sports broadcaster, and later to commercial network Sat.1. Sat.1 is thought to pay around €13 million a season show 13 live matches. Team will be hoping to benefit from increased competition in the German market and it is thought that as many as four or five broadcasters could buy various packages of Champions League and Uefa Cup rights in the next three-year contract period.

Uefa Cup rights from the quarter-final stage onwards are shared in Germany by Premiere and Sat.1 until the end of the 2008-09 season. The competition has enjoyed strong audiences in Germany this season, thanks to the progress of teams such as Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen to the latter stages. Beginning with the 2009-10 season, Uefa Cup rights from the first round onwards (including the group stages) have been centralised.

By going to market now, it appears that the Champions League tender will be conducted before the tender for domestic broadcast rights to the Bundesliga, German soccer’s top-tier league, which has been delayed due to a cartel investigation into the collective sale of rights. Champions League broadcast rights from 2009-10 onwards have already been allocated in one of Europe’s five major markets after British Sky Broadcasting, the pay-television operator, and ITV, the commercial network, both secured packages in the UK. Sportcal.com, 9th May 2008

Indonesia/Broadcast: CASBAA Releases Report on Pay TV market

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has released an update on its 'Indonesia in View' report, providing a snapshot of Indonesia's pay-TV market conditions. The May 2008 CASBAA report provides data, regulatory and stakeholder analysis of the current Indonesian industry, along with key contacts and a draft of Indonesia's Broadcasting Bill 2008. The Report was released as part of CASBAA's Asian Pay TV CEO Roundtable: 'Indonesia's Pay TV Industry Embracing the Future' staged in Jakarta on 7 May.

According to CASBAA, with just 2% of approximately 40 million TV households, Indonesia's pay-TV market penetration remains low compared with other Asian markets. However, pay-TV growth in Indonesia has been brisk over the past 12 months with legitimate pay-TV subscriptions doubling to 785,000 in the first quarter of 2008. A newly competitive environment has seen operators differentiate consumer offerings through premium content, while some have secured new channels and launched additional local-language programming such as a new Muslim channel and music channels. The launch of low cost pre-paid services has also driven pay-TV take up.

Nevertheless, unauthorised redistribution remains a significant issue, although regulator KPI is attempting to curb the problem through announcements in two provinces that unauthorised distributors must become resellers for licensed pay-TV operators or face legal sanctions. According to CASBAA, competition in 2008/2009 should pick up further. In September 2007, beyond the existing operators, another five preliminary licenses for satellite subscription TV services were issued and a further 28 companies have submitted applications for subscription TV licenses. Marketing-interactive.com, 9th May 2008

India/Broadcast: India’s Dish Starts Free STBs

Zee-backed DTH operator Dish TV has started giving away set-top boxes to new subscribers, ramping up competition in the sector. Although it claims the offer is for a limited period (while “the stock lasts”) the move could spark a scramble for new subscribers among the country’s satellite DTH operators, if Dish’s competitors follow suit. Dish is the market leader with a little over 3 million subs and to date has been charging new subscribers around Rs2,500 (US$60) for set-top boxes. Rival TataSky (backed 20% by News Corp’s Star TV and 80% by the Tatas Group) which has just reached 2 million subs, also currently charges for set-top boxes, albeit also a subsidised price.

Back in February, TataSky announced it was dropping its set-top box price by 50% to Rs1499. But Big TV, the new entrant backed by the Reliance Group, recently said that it would shortly launch with a set-top box offered for just Rs1,000, undercutting the existing players. Dish TV’s free set-top offer can be seen as a competitive response to Big TV’s launch.

Dish TV is offering the free set-tops to subscribers who pay upfront either Rs2,490, Rs2,990 or Rs3,990. The packaging is complicated, but subscribers can choose from a set of options for these prices, which include a package of channels plus a number of pay-per-view movies. Subscription periods range from three months to 18 months depending on the package chosen. Rapid TV News, 11th May 2008

India/General: IPL Pitch Enters Cyber Domain as Franchisees Eye Fan Base

In a bid to build a sizeable, loyal fan base, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchisees are turning to internet in a major way. While every franchisee’s website has blogs, feedback zones, player video sections et al, some like Redchillies Entertainment (owners of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)) have gone ahead to include cricket editorials and online games. KKR online boasts of 37,000 registered users, Royal Challengers (RC) 10,000 and Delhi Daredevils (DD) 30,000.

Says Knight Riders Sports Private Limited finance head Blesson Oommen: “We have had 37,000 registered users and an average of 1-lakh page views a day since April 15 when we started the website. The website is the most prominent platform for building a loyal fan base, especially post-IPL season.” The company has tied up with Zapak Digital Entertainment and Contests2win.com for providing content on its website.

While Zapak has created dedicated cricket games on the team’s website, the quiz on Saurav Ganguly hosted by contests2win.com boasts of about 12,000 responses daily. “Websites are the easiest and fastest way to create a cult following. We have created a series of games, quizzes, polls hosted on Knight Rider’s official website that alone attract up to 15,000 responses daily,” says Contests2win.com COO Raj Menon.

Apart from displaying latest scores, the websites also host contests and registration invites, ticket sales and merchandise previews to involve internet users. Royalchallengers.com, the official website of Bangalore Royal Challengers, has a unique feature that allows users to create customised user ids within the website. “Users on our website can have their name followed by royalchallengers.com as free email id. This is one thing that is drawing in huge traffic. Currently, we have more than 10,000 different ids and 1-million page views on the website on match days,” says Krishna Prasad, executive producer, MSN India, who have made the team’s website.

United Spirits executive vice-president (marketing) Amrit Thomas says: “The website is an important tool for us. Our team’s website provides interesting cricket trivia and lesser-known personal information about players.” Franchisees also sell advertising space on their website to rake in the moolah. “We are keen on selling ad space on the website, but are choosy about who we sell it to. There are about six advertisers who have approached us for the same. We are also planning to start selling merchandise over our website,” says R Srinivasan, joint president, finance & accounts, India Cements, the company that owns Chennai Super Kings (CSK). The team’s website, ChennaiSuperkings.com, claims to have as many as 1,40,000 page views on match days. Plans are afoot to start an exclusive club for the team’s loyal fans on the website.

India Cements marketing head Rakesh Singh says: “We will have three kinds of memberships to the Chennai Superkings Fan Club that will be there on the website. There will be special enclosures for members at the home ground, apart from preferential ticket rates. We want to develop a fan base that will be the Barmy Army of Chennai Superkings.” Says Yogesh Shetty, CEO of GMR-owned Delhi Daredevils (DD): “At present, we have over 30,000 registered users on our website. After the season, we will decide how and who we need to do partnership with for selling advertising space.” India Times, 12th May 2008