Wednesday, 7th May 2008

SPORT SHORTS

* Vince McMahon, the founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), will receive the Promax/BDA Lifetime Achievement Award during its upcoming 53rd annual conference, taking place June 17 to 19 at the Hilton New York Hotel. In addition to receiving the award, McMahon will participate in a special Q&A session, where he will be interviewed by TelevisionWeek’s deputy editor, Chris Pursell. Additionally, WWE’s executive VP of marketing, Geof Rochester, will participate in a case study on the marketing strategy and achievements of WWE’s WrestleMania pay-per-view events. World Screen, 6th May 2008

* CAT Telecom says it is willing to buy the 42% holding of TOT in Thai Mobile for 2.4 billion baht ($75.6 million) in order to jump-start 3G services. The two state telecom enterprises have been haggling for three years over a price for their six-year-old Thai Mobile joint venture, which has 6 billion baht ($189 million) in debts and 50,000 customers in a market of 54 million. TOT had offered 2.4 billion baht for CAT's 58% stake but the latter wanted a better price. Now TOT is wavering as its financial position is deteriorating. CAT board chairman Sathit Limpongpan said CAT wanted to buy the remaining shares in the venture so that it could start providing 3G service. He said the Information and Communications Technology and Finance ministers had made clear their policy on 3G. Both believe Thailand has fallen behind Laos and Cambodia, which have alredy introduced the high-speed mobile broadband service. telecomasia.net, 7th May 2008

* According to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), mobile CMMB TV will soon be launched in commercial test networks in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. During the testing, seven free channels (CCTV-1, CCTV-3, CCTV-Olympic Channel, CCTV-News, CCTV-Kids Channel, and the English-language CCTV-9) will be available, as well as one channel local to the region in which testing is taking place. The first CMMB terminals will come to the market this weekend in the form of USB dongles that can be used to enable TV-watching on notebook computers. In the future, such terminals will integrate mobile file storage and other capabilities. Under the SARFT roadmap, PMPs, mobile phones, SD card dongles, and Bluetooth receiver devices for CMMB should be on the market by the time the Olympics starts this summer. ATV, 7th May 2008

* Granada International, part of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster ITV, has sold more than 300 hours of high definition programming to Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan. The programming will be available through the company’s Multimedia On-Demand (MOD) IPTV-VOD service. Chunghwa Telecom has acquired the Granada content to feed its IPTV/VoD service, which is currently available to nearly 450,000 subscribers and goes under the brand Multimedia On-Demand. "Granada's programming is so diverse and has strong appeal across all age groups. We are sure that its HD programming will appeal to our subscribers throughout Taiwan," said Chao Min, director of digital content development at Chunghwa. ATV, C21 Media, World Screen, 7th May 2008

* The Super Aguri team withdrew from the Formula One World Championship with immediate effect because of a lack of funding. The survival of the team had been reported to be in doubt after mooted buyers the Dubai-based Magma Group pulled out at the last minute. The team has wound up its racing activities and will not compete at this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix. Team founder Aguri Suzuki, said: "Regretfully I must inform you that the team will be ceasing racing activities. "The loss of financial backing put the team into financial difficulties. "With the help of Honda, we somehow managed to keep the team going, but we find it difficult to establish a way to continue the activities in the future so I have concluded to withdraw. Sportbusiness.com, 6th May 2008

* Australian broadcasters, Fox Sports and the Nine Network, agreed a four year deal with ESPN STAR Sports for TV rights for International Cricket Council cricket events from 2008 until 2011. Under the agreement with ESS, the Nine Network and Fox Sports will broadcast coverage from the ICC Cricket World Cup and the ICC World Twenty20 while Fox Sports will broadcast all matches from the ICC Champions Trophy tournaments in 2008 and 2010. Fox Sports will also broadcast live and exclusive coverage of Australia’s overseas cricket tours to the West Indies and India later this year. Sportbusiness.com, 6th May 2008

* Malaysia's 112-year-old newspaper, The Malay Mail, is shifting its focus from lifestyle and entertainment back to its original focus of breaking news in Klang Valley, to salvage its declining circulation. The newspaper will be distributed in the afternoon, like it used to be, so that it does not compete with the other dailies. The move to change it to a morning paper was part of the earlier owner, NSTP's cost-cutting exercise a few years ago. According to Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) results, The Malay Mail's daily circulation dropped from 33,496 to 20,816 to June 2007. It was at one point the fastest growing English daily newspaper, most profitable unit within the earlier owner, NSTP group, and had a daily circulation of over 60,000 when it was an afternoon newspaper sold nationwide. Its masthead has been changed to a bold red and a new editor, Tony Francis, has also been hired. Marketing-interactive.com, 7th May 2008

* The number of households worldwide using IPTV services grew from 4.7 million in 2006, to more than 14 million last year, according to a report by analysts Parks Associates and demand for IPTV services grew by 250 per cent in Europe last year. Europe experienced a growth rate of 250 per cent between 2006 and 2007 for IPTV services, defined as landline-based multichannel and on-demand video services provided by a telephone operator. The highest growth in was in Europe with France Telecom, Free and Neuf Cegetal experienced the largest surge in subscriber numbers. UK service, BT Vision, accounted for 150,000 customers at end 2007. Sportbusiness.com, 6th May 2008

* Almost 6 million French users now download content to their mobile phone every month. A few days before the opening on May 8 in Cannes of the Mobile Entertainment Forum, research company GfK m2’s latest study, shows that in terms of mobile entertainment, downloading is steadily progressing in France. In 2007, the market saw almost 80 million purchases for a turnover of €200 million. The most dynamic segments came from music with 15.9 million titles downloaded, and games. The game growth amounted to 18% and totaled 13.3 million games downloaded for a total revenue of €56.7 million. \According to GfK m2, if the market for content downloading is developing significantly in France, the main reason is due to the steady growth of the mobile phone market. In 2007, it registered the second-best growth in Europe after Germany. Rapid TV News, 6th May 2008

* BBC World News has inked content deal with six mobile service providers in India. The list includes BPL, MTNL, Airtel, Vodafone, Spice Telecom and Idea Cellular. “BBC world News has tied up for content with six mobile service providers in India. It is part of BBC World News’ positioning as a tri-media news service, delivering international news and information across multiple platforms - TV, online and mobile. We are no longer a linear media,” BBC World MD Anne Barnard said while addressing the press here today. BBC World News content is already on testing mode in three service providers - MTNL, Spice Telecom and Airtel. The news content for mobile will not be updated as frequently as the TV channel. In the days to come, the pubcaster will also deliver news video clip on the mobile platform. Across the globe, BBC World News has a content tie-up with 34 mobile platforms. "Mobile is the fastest growing out-of-home platform for us," Barnard said. Indiantelevision.com, 6th May 2008