Thursday, 29th May 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

TSA to Distribute Djarum Super Indonesian Open 2008

The Djarum Super Indonesian Open 2008 Badminton Super Series event will be distributed by the Total Sports Asia (TSA) marketing company. TSA has concluded a deal with the event's promoter and owner, Mahaka Sports, for worldwide rights. The event will run from June 17-22 at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta. "This agreement further shows TSA's commitment to the sport of badminton, in which, along with the World Championships, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup, the Sudirman Cup and the Indian Open GP Gold, are testimonies to our belief of the high level that the sport deserves to be at," said TSA's senior vice-president of media, Julian Jackson. Sports Media, 28th May 2008


SPORT SHORTS

* Tata Communications signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirates Telecommunications to provide enterprise grade network services in the UAE. Under the MoU announced, Tata Communications and Etisalat would align their respective infrastructures to offer dedicated ethernet services and a comprehensive range of network and value-added services to their customers. The alliance would enable both companies to expand their connectivity services and deliver secure, scalable and flexible connectivity solutions to the customers.said in a joint statement that gave no financial details. Telecomasia.net, new.webindia123.com, 29th May 2008

* Eurosport Network has relaunched its website in French, Swedish, Chinese and Russian. The group started the roll-out of the four sites last week, with the latest offering claiming to provide a more customised and user-friendly experience for its users. The new websites offer more content, functionality and interactive features including a new contemporary look and feel, designed to attract young users. It is now also easier to navigate with a new menu bar system and a clear hierarchical order for video, article, blog and forum content. Sports Media, 28th May 2008

* NBC Universal’s Sci-Fi and Universal Channel will launch across Asia from July, starting with Singapore. The launch will be the first in the region for Universal Channel but the third for Sci-Fi. The channels will launch on StarHub’s digital cable platform and will be the first of a planned slate of launches as NBC Universal progresses its plan to increase the number of channels it broadcasts internationally. That strategy was announced over a year ago, in April 2007, but launches in Asia have been few since then. Instead, the company seems to have been focusing on acquisitions, with stakes in India’s NDTV and Japan’s JSBC2 purchased. Rapid TV News, World Screen, 28th May 2008

* UK distributor Zeal Entertainment has struck a deal with video sharing portal Sumo.TV and will make a range of user-generated-clip shows available to international broadcasters. The deal, brokered by Sumo.TV's commercial director Steve Lazarus, gives Zeal TV distribution rights to shows such Sumo.TV's flagship My Sumo; Video Zoo, a round-up of internet clips; Shockorama, featuring the most shocking clips on television; animation shorts show Animental; and Retroland, which showcases vintage TV ads, public service films and retro toys. C21media.net, 28th May 2008

* Major League Soccer franchise Chivas USA has entered into a multi-year broadcast agreement with KAZA Azteca 54, the Los Angeles affiliate of Mexican-owned Azteca América network. KAZA will broadcast 10 Chivas USA games live during the 2008 MLS season, while also airing the popular weekly show 'Somos Chivas USA' on Saturdays. The agreement gives Chivas USA one of the most comprehensive local broadcast packages in Major League Soccer, totalling more than 90 hours of local television coverage between Azteca 54 and FSN West & Prime Ticket, the club's English-language broadcast partner. Sports Media, 28th May 2008

* Buzz Technologies, Inc. has acquired a mobile content/software company that provides Live Scores, Ratings and Information on the world's most popular sport, Football. Together with the company Buzz has developed the same platform for use on Olympic Sports. The Service has 6000 subscribers generating on average $150,000 USD per month gathered during the establishment phase. Buzz expects after the global launch to reach over 150,000 subscribers by 2009 and up to 1 million during the Olympic month of August. Currently operating in Thai, English and Chinese the service is also expected to generate advertising revenue well beyond subscription income. Advertisers will be restricted to properly licensed and regulated online gambling services and Casinos. A number of such services in Australia, Europe and Macau have already shown strong interest in advertising and sponsorship. Yahoo! Biz, 28th May 2008

* The profits of International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC), the commercial rights holders of motorsport's World Rally Championships have fallen according to UK press reports. Results released this month show that a dent in the value of the sport's commercial rights has seen turnover fall by 40 per cent to £8.8m in 2006, leaving the business with a £4 million pre-tax loss, down from a £250,000 profit the previous year. ISC's turnover primarily comprises revenues from TV rights, which in recent years, has steadily declined as rallying has fallen from a top-line sport in the UK. Its contract with UK commercial broadcaster, ITV1 ceased at the end of 2006. The sport was then shown on freeview channel ITV4 for one year, before moving to its current home on digital station Dave. Total costs of £12.9 million were down 8 per cent year-on-year. Sportbusiness.com, Telegraph UK, 28th May 2008


MORE NEWS

India/Rights: Ten Sports Scores $30 million for FIFA World Cup ’10

Cricket’s poorer cousin in India, football, seems to be catching up too. If one goes by the bids submitted by broadcasters for the FIFA World Cup 2010, football properties seem to have more than tripled in its valuation. Football Media Services (FMS), the joint venture company co-owned by Dentsu and Infront Sports & Media, headquartered in Singapore, is currently in the process of conducting the FIFA World Cup bids for 2010. Ten Sports, ESPN-Star and Neo Sports are in the fray to win the rights to telecast the World Cup. Sources told ET that the Dubai-based broadcaster Ten Sports has made the most aggressive bid for the Indian subcontinent at $30 million, followed closely by Neo Sports at $28 million and ESPN at about $27 million.

The FIFA franchise has always been sought after by broadcasters, but one has never witnessed such a premium for the sport in the Indian subcontinent in the past. The FIFA World Cup 2006, for instance, fetched a measly $9 million while the world cup in 2002 went for just $3 million. The sudden rise in bids has surprised many observers as the fan-following for soccer is limited to some states in India such as West Bengal and Kerala.

A chief executive of a sports channel explained the rationale for the higher bids. “The last FIFA World Cup fared very well in terms of television rating as well as mass popularity, which was not witnessed in earlier years. The three-hour crisp format was also promoted and marketed extensively last year, which also led to huge amounts of out-of-home viewing. FMS has realised the monetising potential of the game in the subcontinent and hence has decided to up the initial bid amounts significantly.”

However, unlike cricket, football as a sport is not advertiser-friendly, as it cannot accommodate the number of spots cricket can. So, the acquisition amount paid for acquiring the FIFA World Cup has to be leveraged by a broadcaster via distribution revenues and not so much through advertising. In 2006, ESPN-Star bagged the exclusive rights to telecast the championship in the Indian subcontinent while Ten Sports has been the official broadcaster in 2002. The growing acceptance of soccer in India has also been one of the key factors that has led to the escalation of the acquisition costs. The bidding process would be concluded in the next four weeks. Indiantimes.com, 29th May 2008

Asia/Broadcast: Globo TV Cracks New Markets in Asia Pacific

Globo TV International has expanded its Asia-Pacific business, scoring a volume deal with Australia’s Dream House Entertainment and an agreement for the broadcast of The Clone in Singapore. Under its agreement with Dream House Entertainment in Australia, 1,900 hours of telenovelas from Globo TV International will be broadcast until 2010 via subscription channel La Telenovela. The channel will dedicate three of its slots to Globo’s telenovelas, kicking off with The Clone, Terra Speranza and Uga Uga. This marks Globo TV International’s first entrée into the Australian market, and is an extension of its existing agreement with Dream House Entertainment covering the North American market.

In a deal with StarHub, Globo TV International has also sold the broadcast rights to an Indonesian dub of the telenovela The Clone, marking the first time that a channel in Singapore will air programming from the Brazilian distributor. Scheduled to premiere in June, The Clone will air on subscription channel Senasí, which includes programming entirely dedicated to the Indonesians and Malays living in Singapore. World Screen, 27th May 2008

India/New Media: Broadcasters Need to Embrace UGC

User generated content (UGC) is the future of media, said Mouthshut.com CEO Faisal Farooqui while speaking at the Promax/BDA India conference in the session on 'User Generated Content - The new media'. Farooqui emphasized that the need of the hour is to reach out to the consumers. User generated content like blogs play a profound source of information in daily life. “With blogs becoming popular day by day, the virtual wall of editor between the publisher and the reader has vanished. There is much more transparency for the readers and bloggers are free to express themselves,” said Farooqui.

Farooqui urged the need of existing media houses to adapt to this new means of communication called UGC. Refering to Google’s acquisition of YouTube Farooqui said, “It is important for all the media houses to secure a supply chain of content for them. The existing players will have to assimilate new mediums to avoid their competition from taking them over.” Farooqui said that the Indian broadcasters should learn a lesson that 75,000 videos with an average duration of six minutes each are being downloaded daily on YouTube. This shows that there is more content on YouTube than what any of the big media houses have.

Citing the example of CNN iReporter, Farooqui said: “CNN cut short its man power and spent Rs 7 billion to launch iReporter, an initiative wherein the viewers can post videos and blog on the CNN website.” Embracing this medium will promote interactivity with the consumers. This will leave no room for any communication gap between the viewers and the broadcasters. Indiantelevision.com, 28th May 2008

India/New Media: FLO Forum Bullish on Mobile TV in India

The mobile TV market in India offers a strong business opportunity as the wireless segment sees strong growth and Indians have a huge appetite for video entertainment. Speaking to the press, FLO Forum President Dr. Kamil A. Grajski said, “Mobile broadcast services are a new consumer mass market medium and consumers are looking for compelling user experience at affordable prices. With FLO technology, you can cost-effectively deliver videos to millions simultaneously at a good streaming rate.” Irdeto Head South Asia Sanjiv Kainth felt that handheld devices were gaining momentum because it offers viewers privacy. He went on to add that members of the younger generation didn’t mind watching an entire 3-hour movie on handheld devices.

“The consumer behaviour is changing,” said Kainth. “Mobile TV is not only for people on the go, as it was perceived to be. In a survey we conducted recently, 60 per cent of the respondents said they would watch Mobile TV from home.” “We believe in an open market and hence, expect competition. Over time, all companies will have to look at what the market trend is and what the demands of the consumers are. With our cost-effective service, I am confident that we will make our presence felt in the Indian market,” Grajsky said. FLO is a technology designed for multicasting significant multimedia content and enables wireless operators to cost-effectively deliver various types of multimedia content to millions of mobile users at once. Indiantelevision.com, 28th May 2008

Japan/General: All-Japan Poker Championship Winner to Compete in World Series of Poker

Mitsuhiro Nakao bested a field of more than 1,000 players in the 2nd Annual All-Japan Poker Championship presented by SEGA SAMMY Group, an official satellite of the World Series of Poker(R), and will compete in the 2008 WSOP Main Event in July at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Harrah's License Company announced today. "Poker's popularity in Japan continues to increase, and we are delighted to once again support the growth of this sport through one of our premier entertainment brands," said Michael Chen, President of Asia for Harrah's Entertainment. "We supported this tournament last year, and we are proud to do it again this year as a sign of our company's ongoing commitment to expand our presence in Asian markets, particularly Japan."

"We are thrilled to have the winner of the All-Japan Poker Championship, participate in our event," said Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker and vice president of sports and entertainment for Harrah's. "This event continues to be an important step for us in Asia and we look forward to further introducing the world's most prestigious poker brand to this vibrant market." The 2008 World Series of Poker Presented by Milwaukee's Best Light, the world's richest sporting event, will begin May 30 at the Rio(R) All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Last year, players from 87 countries competed for a total prize pool exceeding $159 million. Yahoo! News, 28th May 2008

Japan/General: Japan Urges Limits on Kids' Cell Phone Use

Japanese youngsters are getting so addicted to Internet-linking cell phones that the government is warning parents and schools to set tighter limits. The government is worried that elementary and junior high school students are getting sucked into cybercrimes, spending too much time exchanging mobile e-mail and suffering other negative effects of cell phone overuse, Masaharu Kuba, a government official overseeing the initiative, said Tuesday. "Japanese parents are giving cell phones to their children without giving it enough thought," he said. "In Japan, cell phones have become an expensive toy."

The recommendations have been submitted from an education reform panel to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's administration and were approved this week. The panel is also asking Japanese makers to develop cell phones that can be used only for talk and global positioning, both of which can help ensure a child's safety. Most mobile phones in Japan offer high-speed Internet access. About one-third of Japanese sixth-graders have cell phones, while 60 percent of ninth-graders have them, according to the education ministry.

The panel said better Internet filtering is needed to protect children. Some youngsters spend hours at night on e-mail with friends - and some cliques employ a "30-minute rule," in which a child who doesn't respond to e-mail within that timeframe gets picked on. Parents find it increasingly difficult to monitor their children's use of cell phones, Kuba said. Some Japanese children commute long distances by trains and buses to school, and parents rely on cell phones to keep in touch at a cost of about $39 a month per child. Centraldaily.com, 28th May 2008

Elsewhere/Rights: Limited Interest in Euro 2008 Rights in Malta

The failure of England to qualify for soccer’s forthcoming 2008 European Championships would appear to have contributed to the reluctance of broadcasters in Malta to buy rights to the tournament. Euro 2008, to be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, kicks off in just 10 days time, but Maltese broadcasters have yet to agree a deal with Sportfive, the international sports marketing agency.

MaltaToday, the Maltese newspaper, reported today that England’s non-qualification was one of the reasons that GO Plus, the television service of the telecommunications provider GO, had not bid for exclusive rights. Malta has a large population of British expatriates, many of whom would have supported England during the tournament. Meanwhile, Melita Cable, the pay-television operator, said that it was not bidding for the rights because coverage of all 31 games by Rai, the Italian state broadcaster, would be available in Malta.

Eurosport, the pan-European cable and satellite broadcaster available on the Melita platform, also has delayed rights to the tournament. Melita Cable confirmed that ‘it has not submitted any bid for TV rights for the forthcoming Euro 2008 Championships and there are no ongoing negotiations in this regard.’ Vodafone Malta, the Maltese arm of the telecommunications giant Vodafone, also said that it had not bid for rights. The negotiation process for rights began in the middle of February. Malta’s broadcasting authorities ruled last year that the opening game, semi finals and final of Euro 2008 had to be available live or deferred on free-to-air television. Sportcal.com, 28th May 2008