DATA BOX
Developing Markets Driving Demand For Mobile Devices
Ipsos Media CT Research results published on Info IQ
Consumers are reporting strong intentions to buy mobile devices this year. Consumers in 11 key markets around the world, especially the fast-growing economies of India, China, and Brazil, have strong demand for mobile devices—including cell phones, MP3 players, hand-held gaming devices, and laptop PCs, according to research conducted by Ipsos MediaCT which tracks digital technology ownership use and purchase intent, as well as associated online and mobile behaviors.
There is a shift in from consumer purchasing behavior in the developing world, in some countries, consumer demand is being driven by consumers who are looking to replace older models while in other countries new buyers are driving demand. In fast growing urban China, nearly half of urban Chinese households will buy a mobile phone this year, but since virtually all households (98%) already own at least one, the market for new buyers is saturated.
By contrast, in urban Brazil, 29% of households do not yet own a mobile phone. That provides a large opportunity to sell to new household buyers. In fact, of the households in urban Brazil that intend to buy a mobile phone this year, nearly one in four households (22%) will be first-time buyers. Urban Brazil is a hot spot for new buyers of mobile devices and leads the world in household demand for hand-held gaming devices, MP3 players, and mobile phones.
However with three times more people, total mobile device sales in urban China may actually exceed those sold in Brazil. A complex picture is emerging, but one thing is clear—consumer demand for mobile devices is especially strong in developing countries, particularly for mobile phones and MP3 players.
DID YOU KNOW?
Female hockey players from Britain are to wear red contact lenses to beat the smog in Beijing during next month's Olympics.The pollution is likely to be so severe at next month's Olympic Games that the women's hockey squad - dubbed the Lionesses - are trialling the bizarre-looking contacts despite the effect they have on the ladies' looks. According to The Sun, the lenses will help their eyes to focus on the fast-moving hockey ball in the haze and smog. Players are also helped by the fact that the lenses act like sun glasses, cutting out glare and reducing the amount they frown, which can cause them to tire more quickly and to suffer headaches. News.WebIndia123.com, 30th July 2008
SPORTS SHORTS
* Tickets for the Beijing Games have officially sold out, setting off "yellow bull" scalpers who want big profits for tickets to the Olympics' hottest events. Despite threats of fines and possible detentions of up to 15 days, scalpers are offering thousands of pricey tickets on scores of websites, making enforcement efforts all but a farce. But that's exactly what scalpers, known in Chinese as "huang niu" or yellow bulls, are doing. Officials did not reply to emailed requests for an interview about widespread profiteering, although a series of measures have been put in place aimed at thwarting scalpers who buy up large amounts of tickets and then resell them later at inflated prices. Sports City, 30th Jul 2008
* Dispute between Olympic rights holders and China escalated yesterday when two crews from European Broadcasting Union were thrown out of a Beijing public areas and refused the right to film. The EBU, representing 43 countries, complained to organisers about harassment and the lack of press freedom. CBC Canada also described the excessive level of security as "suffocating" and criticized the IOC, saying it was not doing enough to support global broadcasters that paid billions of dollars for the right to televise the Games, money that ends up in IOC hands. A third complaint came from Mexico’s TV-AZTECA, who said police harassed its crew and Chinese minder in a public area. Irate broadcasters said they would continue to pressure Beijing over the restrictions preventing them from televising the Games to the world. The Australian, 30th Jul 2008
* Blocks on internet sites in the Main Press Centre in Beijing and other Olympic venues have not been removed. Sites such as Amnesty International or any search for a site with Tibet in the address could not be opened at the Main Press Centre, which will house about 5,000 print journalists when the Games open on August 8. In bidding for the Games seven years ago, Chinese officials said the media would have "complete freedom to report." And in April, Hein Verbruggen and Kevan Gosper - senior IOC members overseeing the games - said they'd received assurances from Chinese officials that Internet censorship would be lifted for journalists during the Games. Gosper, however, issued a clarification Tuesday. He said the open Internet extended only to sites that related to "Olympic competitions." Sports Business, Sportcal, 30th Jul 2008
* Directors of Real Madrid want the club to end their pursuit of ace striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Fed-up board members told president Ramon Calderon on Monday that they couldn't risk missing out on signing other players while waiting for the Manchester United winger. The Spanish giants have already set the wheels in motion to get Hamburg's Rafael van der Vaart instead, The Sun reported. Some directors also openly disagreed with paying a world-record 80million pounds fee for the Portugal ace. Calderon will now also try to land Valencia idol David Villa, who will cost around 30million pounds. News.WebIndia123.com, 30th July 2008
* With the start of the new Liga BBVA season drawing ever closer it was a football friendly that topped the charts in what was a quiet week in the Spanish sports TV ratings. Real Madrid kicked off its 2008-09 preparations by taking part in Austrian club Linz LASK's centenary celebrations on Sunday and La Sexta's coverage of the clash was the most-watched sports programme for the week ending July 27. A total of 1.19 million viewers (a 9.3% share) watched on as goals from Julio Baptista, Raul and Javier Saviola wrapped up a 3-2 win for the Spanish champion. Sports Media, 30th Jul 2008
* The Media Development Authority of Singapore has granted Singapore Press Holdings a Niche TV License to launch Razor TV, an interactive web service that offers live local content and VOD programs. The technology behind Razor TV is being developed through a grant from the Interactive Digital Media Office (IDMO), hosted by MDA. The five-year Niche TV License establishes SPH as the first media company in Singapore to develop a new genre of TV with live web studio streaming and real-time audience interactivity. MDA introduced the Niche Subscription TV License in 2007 to bolster growth of IPTV services in Singapore by offering operators flexibility in rolling out services for different market segments. There are currently eight nationwide and niche commercial and trial IPTV/VOD service providers. Worldscreen, 30th Jul 2008
* Eurosport, the international cable and satellite sports broadcaster, has acquired the rights to Japanese soccer’s top-tier J.League for the rest of the 2008 season. The Eurosport 2 channel will televise the top match live every Saturday at 12 noon CET. The broadcaster said it is the first time fans in Europe will have access to live coverage of the Japanese league on a weekly basis. Eurosport 2 will also air a 30-minute highlights programme every Wednesday. Sportcal, 30th Jul 2008
* PT Excelcomindo Pratama (XL), Indonesia’s third largest mobile operator by subscribers, reported that its net profit for the first six months of this year grew 15-fold on the corresponding period of 2007, driven by a doubling of its subscriber base and foreign exchange gains. XL posted net profit of IDR631.3 billion (USD69.25 million) for the January-June period, against IDR41.04 billion a year ago, while its revenue climbed 59% to IDR5.84 trillion. The operator, whose main shareholders are Telekom Malaysia (83.79%) and Emirates Telecommunications (close to 16%), said its customer base leapt 124% year-on-year to 22.9 million by 30 June, although it said increased competition was exerting a squeeze on profit margins. Wireless Federation, 30th July 2008
* Malaysian mobile operator DiGi Telecommunications (DiGi) has announced results for the three months ending 30 June 2008, showing revenues up 13% year-on-year to MYR1.19 billion (USD366 million). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached MYR557 million. Whilst subscriber figures grew by six million over the twelve months to June 2008, results over the three months between March and June of this year were less impressive, with the cellco signing up only 84,000 new customers. DiGi attributed the slow level of customer growth in the period to a general market slowdown. The operator still remains in third place in the mobile market, and faces competition from Celcom, Maxis Mobile and new entrant UMobile. Telegeography.com, 30th July 2008
* China Netcom (CN), the cooperative partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in the fixed communications service sector, has announced plans to jointly provide high-definition Olympic programs to TVB, one of Hong Kong's biggest free television broadcast companies, with PCCW Global. China Netcom, PCCW Global and TVB have signed a strategic agreement in Hong Kong, which says that China Netcom and PCCW Global will provide high-definition multimedia service solution to TVB and the television signals will be a two-way transmission between Beijing and Hong Kong. The transmission solutions of the two companies include optical fiber and satellite transmission service and double-end high-definition video transmission equipment. In addition, a 24-hour support service in Hong Kong will be offered to TVB to ensure the quality and the stability of the video transmission during the Olympic Games. ChinaTechNews.com, 31st July 2008
* Sri Lanka Telecom's June quarter net profit jumped 168% to 1.5 billion rupees ($13.95 million), a local business website, quoted by a Reuters report, said. The website www.lbo.lk cited a Sri Lanka Telecom statement in its report published ahead of the results. An official from Sri Lanka Telecom said it had given the quarterly results to the bourse although he was unable to confirm the numbers. A stock market official confirmed it had received the results and hoped to publish them on Thursday morning. Telecomasia.com, 30th July 2008
* Tennis greats Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg are to play doubles together for the first time in a special exhibition game planned for Macau, China on November 20. And they could be going up against their respective greatest rivals Rafael Nadal and John McEnroe. The Tour of Champions event will be held at a top Macau hotel and will start with a one set showdown between old adversaries Borg and McEnroe, followed by a best-of-three-set clash between Federer and either Nadal or James Blake. The event then moves on to the “Showdown of Champions” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Nov 18 at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. The possible participation of Rafael Nadal in Malaysia will hinge on Spain’s Davis Cup fortunes. News.WebIndia123.com, The Star, 30th July 2008
* The Singapore Slingers have become the third club to withdraw from Australia’s National Basketball League in two months after financial and logistical conditions proved prohibitive. Last month the Sydney Kings and the Brisbane Bullets, two of the top teams in the league, were forced to pull out after running into financial problems. The NBL said the Slingers concluded increasing cost of air travel mitigated against competing in the league in the 2008-09 season, and is also thought to be eager to form their own league in Asia. There are now 10 teams in the NBL and only the New Zealand Breakers comes from outside Australia. Sportcal, 30th Jul 2008
* Christopher Chew has been appointed affiliate sales director for the Asia Pacific at NBC Universal’s Global Networks. Based in Singapore, Chew will help expand the distribution of NBC Universal’s entertainment channels across Asia Pacific and enhance the company’s relationships with platform operators in the region. Prior to joining NBC Universal Global Networks, Chew was the director of television and new media for Asia Pacific for the NBA, based in Hong Kong. He was responsible for sales and marketing of NBA’s content to satellite, cable and IPTV platforms throughout the region. Worldscreen, 30th Jul 2008
* German pay-television channel, Premiere, is certain that it will win the rights to show Bundesliga matches, the top-tier domestic football league in Germany, according to Reuters. German weekly, Focus, reported earlier this week that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch was sounding out the possibility of buying the entire Bundesliga TV rights package for €450 million. The article did not quote sources and a News Corp spokesman declined to comment. Sports Business, Sportcal, 30th Jul 2008
* ESPNU will kick off its fourth season of live college football games with the launch of its new high definition network, ESPNU HD. The first ESPNU event to be televised in high definition will be a NCAA basketball meeting between Vanderbilt Commodores and Miami Hurricanes in Ohio on August 28. The network will showcase more than 70 live college football games, with all of its live Thursday and Saturday fixtures available on HD. In its first year, ESPNU HD plans to air more than 200 HD events, including exclusive coverage of college football, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball, wrestling and hockey. The ESPNU service is the fourth HD service ESPN has launched within its family of networks. Sports Media, 30th Jul 2008
* When Liverpool Football Club (LFC) squared off against FC Lucerne in a pre-season match on July 16, the game was streamed live to the LFC's Web site via a ViewCast Niagara Pro streaming video encoder. A product of ViewCast Corporation, a leading global provider of audio and video encoding communication products, the Niagara Pro offers easy-to-use, professional-grade performance for the LFC to make its pre-season games available to all fans globally. Advanced-Television, 31st July 2008
* Formula One teams have agreed to create an association to safeguard their interests, according to F1 team, Ferrari. All 10 current F1 teams have agreed to join the association, which will meet with the sport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the commercial rights holders to draw up a new framework for the sport. The move comes as FIA gets ready to introduce significant rule changes from as early as 2009. The FIA said last month that it would enter a "wide-ranging consultation" with the teams to review the governance of the sport as well as future technical regulations. Sport Business, Sportcal, Sports City, 30th Jul 2008
* Freddie Prinze, Jr. is set to take a behind-the-scenes role contributing to World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) weekly TV and pay-per-view offerings. “Freddie Prinze, Jr.’s passion, energy and creativity make him an excellent fit for WWE,” said the WWE chairman, Vince McMahon. "Bringing on board an experienced Hollywood writer, actor and producer like Freddie will increase the level of entertainment to millions of viewers and passionate WWE fans," added Chris McCumber, the executive VP of marketing digital and brand strategy at USA Network, WWE’s U.S. broadcast partner. Worldscreen, 30th Jul 2008
MORE NEWS
Elsewhere/New Media: German DVB-H Verging on Collapse
The German mobile TV package in DVB-H technology, backed by publishing houses Burda and Holtzbrinck together with South African media company Naspers, appears to be on the verge of folding.
The partners, who form operating company Mobile 3.0, are about to bury their plans, reports German newspaper Bild. Former partner MFD is said to have already bailed out and it seems that it is now just a matter of finding a way to end the project for all concerned without loss of face. The partners have apparently not yet agreed on which party should cover how much of the several million euros already invested, and it also remains unclear if the licence will be sold or returned to the media authorities.
Mobile 3.0 commenced test transmissions on June 1 in large cities. On board the package are nine TV channels and three radio stations, including public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and commercial channels RTL, Sat.1 and ProSieben. Distribution to further cities and towns was envisioned for autumn, before the bouquet was to be introduced on a large-scale commercial basis in time for the Christmas sales period. According to industry sources, transmissions will now cease in the near future.
The reason for Mobile 3.0’s failure to penetrate the market is believed to be mainly due to the lack of marketing cooperation with Germany’s large mobile phone companies, which also applied for the DVB-H licence. After Mobile 3.0 was granted the licence, the companies decided to introduce their own TV mobile phones to the market which can receive conventional digital terrestrial television via DVB-T completely free of charge, thereby torpedoing Mobile 3.0’s business model to charge monthly fees of between €5 and €10.
If the speculation proves to be true, this would mean that, after the DMB package Watcha, which MFD closed in May due to limited customer acceptance and a lack of economic perspectives, the second attempt to establish broadcast-based mobile TV in Germany has failed. Mobile 3.0 declined to comment. RapidTVnews.com, 30th July 2008
Elsewhere/General: UEFA Reports Successful Euro 2008
Euro 2008 organisers have claimed they hosted the best European Championships to date after UEFA on Tuesday announced that the tournament generated record net profits of Eur250 million. Austria and Switzerland's co-hosting of the tournament was widely declared to be a success with entertaining football on the pitch allied to strong organisation off it. "We set ourselves the challenge of organising the best European Championship final round," read a joint statement from Austrian Football Association president Friedrich Stickler, his Swiss counterpart Ralph M. Zloczower and Euro 2008 chief operating officer Martin Kallen. "The results of studies and surveys show that we succeeded."
Income in all areas increased significantly to Eur1.3 billion in comparison to the Eur852 million raised from Portugal's staging of Euro 2004. Some of the income will be used to fund youth and women's tournaments and the rest will be distributed among UEFA's 53 member associations in the form of lump-sum payments and project sponsorship. Organising committee chief Kallen, who held the same position for the previous tournament, added: "It would be fair to say that, from an organisational perspective, we have greatly progressed and improved in almost all areas."
It was in the media area that the tournament proved to be a particular success as UEFA appeared to reap the rewards of concentrating its efforts on this aspect. For the first time in the history of the European Championships, UEFA produced the television signal for the tournament itself through its UEFA Media Technologies subsidiary and a particular emphasis was placed on the tournament's online offerings. No fewer than 62 million visitors and 1.3 billion page views were registered on the official website, www.euro2008.com, and at least 155 million TV viewers followed each of the 31 matches live. With 2.1 million viewers, the Austria versus Germany group-stage match attracted a larger audience than any other in the history of Austrian national broadcaster ORF. A new TV record was also set in Spain, where 14.5 million watched the national team's 1-0 win against Germany in the final live.
The tournament's host cities also gained huge exposure as the perimeter boards bearing the host city names were visible for more than seven hours during live broadcasts, equating to an advertising value of about Eur90 million. Finally, Euro 2008 set new sustainability standards in the public transport sector thanks to the special combi-ticket. Match tickets could be used to travel to and from the match on public transport, at a cost to Euro 2008 SA of Eur5 million. Football Insider, Sport Business, Sports City, 30th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/General: Beijing Guoan Rolls Up To Superleague Formula Grid
Superleague Formula has furthered its global reach by adding Chinese club Beijing Guoan to its roster of competing teams as the clock ticks down to its inaugural race. The Chinese Super League club is set to move into the Beijing Olympic stadium following next month's Olympic Games and becomes the Championship's first Asian club following representation from Europe, the Middle East and South America.
Founded in 1992, Beijing Guoan is the only Chinese club based in the Olympic city. The club finished runner-up in the Super League in 1995 and 2007, but has earned three Chinese FA Cup crowns in 1996, 1997 and 2003. "Superleague Formula is a good platform for us to communicate with all the top teams in the world and play together with them," said Li Xiaoming, the general manager of Guoan.
The inaugural Superleague Formula Championship will kick off at Donington Park in the UK - recently announced as the new home for the British Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2010. The first Superleague Formula round will be staged on August 30-31 followed by the Nurburgring in Germany on September 20-21, Zolder (Belgium) on October 4-5, Estoril (Portugal) on October 18-19, Vallelunga (Italy) on November 1-2 and Jerez (Spain) on November 22-23. All Superleague Formula teams will fight it out for Eur1 million prize money at each championship round.
"Our first race is less than two months away and we are delighted to start announcing our final teams for the championship," said Superleague Formula president and CEO Alex Andreu. "We are completing contracts with the final clubs and are looking forward to seeing all the cars on the grid for our group test in Barcelona from July 29 to 31. Football is biggest game in the world and we are thrilled to add another club, another country and another continent in welcoming Beijing Guoan. China has a population of more than 1.3 billion and the popularity of football is enormous. We have no doubt the Beijing Guoan is going to be one of the most wildly popular in the Superleague Formula championship."
Beijing Guoan joins AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, FC Porto, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund, RSC Anderlecht, FC Basel, Flamengo, Galatasaray, Sevilla, Corinthians, Rangers and Al Ain on the Superleague Formula grid. Last month, Superleague Formula co-founder Robin Webb disclosed to Football Insider that a Chinese team was on the verge of signing up to the championship, along with two representatives from the Barclays Premier League and one from Russia. Beijing Guoan's addition means that there are now six teams left to announce. Football Insider, Sportcal, 30th Jul 2008
ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS
FIFA 'Misled' Detectives on Missing £45m Paid for World Cup TV rights
Commentary by Andrew Jennings for the Telegraph UK, 30th Jul 2008
A Swiss court has ruled that football’s world governing body, Fifa, misled detectives investigating the disappearance of £45 million paid for World Cup television rights. The disturbing revelations highlight the dilemma confronting the Football Association as they seek an honest way to persuade Fifa to award them the right to stage the World Cup in 2018. In an extraordinary decision, three judges in Zug hearing a fraud trial into the collapse of Fifa’s former marketing partner, ISL, ruled earlier this month that football’s governing body “knew more than they told investigators”, that their behaviour “was not always in good faith”, and some of their claims “were not credible”.
Fifa were even ordered to pay £57,000 in costs, despite claiming they had not misled the authorities. The Daily Telegraph has seen the written submission from Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s lawyer, Peter Nobel, claiming that Fifa did act in good faith. “All the facts show and prove that Fifa did not act frivolously,” he said. The court rejected this, ordering Fifa to pay up. Fifa have declined to comment on the court’s costs decision, saying only that they have “taken note of the verdict” and adding that they will appeal against the ruling. During the case earlier this year it was also disclosed that Fifa officials pocketed kickbacks from the agency they employed to sell billion-dollar World Cup television and marketing contracts.
With the FA fine-tuning preparations for the bid company who will run the £15 million 2018 campaign, details from the Zug court case may alarm senior figures at Soho Square who are plotting what is likely to be a fiercely contested World Cup contest.
The latest controversy to rock Fifa is rooted in the collapse of the Swiss-based ISL company, Fifa’s marketing agency of two decades, in the spring of 2001. After a seven-year investigation, six directors came to trial in March this year, accused of embezzling £45 million that should have been paid to Fifa. But the case collapsed on the final day when a defence lawyer flourished a secret memo purporting to reveal that Fifa leaders always knew the money was missing.
The memo, written by Fifa’s former finance director, Urs Linsi, claimed: “It was a higher-level decision within Fifa not to put too much pressure on ISL.” There was only one level higher than Linsi – president Blatter. The 228-page criminal indictment revealed that ISL paid £9 million in secret kickbacks in the company’s final 18 months. Two in 2000, totalling $130,000 – then worth £89,000 – allegedly went to Nicolas Leoz, the 79-year-old Paraguayan president of South American football and a member of Fifa’s ruling executive, who awarded the contracts to ISL. He denies wrongdoing.
Five of the defendants claimed they had no idea who got bribes. They claimed fellow director Jean-Marie Weber, a close friend of Blatter, organised the payments. He allegedly laundered them through the 'Nunca’ foundation (Spanish for never) in Liechtenstein and onwards to a British Virgin Islands company, which distributed the money to front companies and individuals. A total of £3 million was diverted to the 'Sicuretta’ account managed by Swiss lawyer Guido Renggli, who allowed Weber to remove large sums in cash to distribute to officials. Weber admitted to investigators the money was for “the acquisition of rights”. Weber refused to identify recipients, repeatedly telling the court “these payments were confidential and I must respect that confidentiality”.
Judge Marc Siegwart appeared irritated by Weber’s stonewalling and in the most electrifying moment of the trial said, out of the blue, there was evidence that between 1991 and 1999 ISL paid an additional, staggering £60 million in bribes. He asked the defendants if that was true. One by one, they admitted it was. One defendant gave devastating testimony. Former chief executive Christoph Malms said that after joining ISL in the 1990s he was shocked to discover the business was built on bribes. “I was told the company would not have existed if it had not made such payments,” Malms testified. “I was always told they went to well-known decision-makers in the world of sports politics.”
Malms said kickbacks were usual in the sports marketing and sports political business worldwide. It was the style of the business. Former ISL finance head Hans-Juerg Schmid backed Malms, telling the court: “If we hadn’t made the payments, the other parties wouldn’t have signed the contracts. The other side don’t want to be named, that is the very sensitive aspect of this business.” Two more officials were named. Malms’ lawyer, Werner Wurgler, claimed Blatter had approached his client and told him that if ISL wanted to keep Fifa’s business, Weber had to keep his job at the company. If not, “it would be bad for ISL”. Wurgler also claimed that during the World Cup in France in 1998, then Fifa president Joao Havelange made the same demand.
Anybody at Fifa who knew about the bribes – and who was getting them – could exercise great power over fellow officials, Wurgler said. ISL became a private source of money for Fifa, virtually their private bank. Weber was fined £41,000 for embezzling cash that he refused to account for. Two others were given small fines for false accounting. Three more men were cleared.
How did Fifa end up being dragged into the ISL collapse?
ISL were the governing body’s marketing and commercial partners, with exclusive rights to negotiate their multi-million pound, worldwide TV deals. When they went bust in May 2001 liquidators began to investigate what had happened to the money.
How did £45m go missing?
The money was given to ISL by Brazilian TV company Globo in part-payment for future World Cup rights. ISL were supposed to pass it to Fifa but, needing the cash to keep the company afloat, executives withheld it. When ISL went broke, the money was lost.
When did Fifa know about the payment being withheld?
Fifa president Sepp Blatter claims he first knew about it on April 21, 2001, just before ISL collapsed a month later. Confidential letters seen by The Daily Telegraph purport to show that Blatter had known for three years. Michel Zen-Ruffinen, the former Fifa general-secretary, has claimed Blatter was aware of a letter he sent to ISL’s Jean-Marie Weber mentioning the Globo deal and an expected $22m payment for World Cup rights. Two years later Fifa’s lawyers wrote to them calling ISL’s behaviour “totally unacceptable”. Even when they wrote again, in September 2000, flagging up the missing £45m, Fifa’s executives did not act. ISL then went bust.
Why does any of this matter to England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup?
As ISL liquidator Thomas Bauer delved into the company finances, he discovered evidence of kickbacks being paid to senior Fifa executives, including Nicolas Leoz (below), by ISL in return for their exclusive contract to sell TV rights for Fifa. One Zug defendant claimed the payments were so regular they were “like salaries”. In 2003 Bauer went to court to force ISL executives to repay them.
Separate to that inquiry, magistrate Thomas Hildbrand began an investigation to try to unearth who got the ISL bribes. That investigation is ongoing. And should any more powerful Fifa figures be linked to the scandal over the next two years, it will undoubtedly impact on England’s campaign.
Wednesday, 30th July 2008
DATA BOX
India & China’s Prospects Still Robust
Media Research Asia Report published on Rapid TV News, 29th Jul 2008
While the prospects for media expansion in both India and China “remain robust”, the situation in India has “some downside risks” according to a report from Media Research Asia (MRA). In China, new estimates from leading media buyer GroupM indicate that total advertising expenditure will climb by 22% in 2008 and by 19% in 2009, with TV, online and OOH media benefiting. Even without the Olympics, organic growth is strong for a number of media owners, especially those operating in online and OOH media as MPA analysis indicates.
In India, leading broadcasters Star and Zee are expected to grow at around 20-30% per annum but have warned about macro conditions eating into growth in 2H 2008 and 2009, says MRA. Growing macro concerns are adversely impacting the outlook for advertising growth in India this year. The economy is expected to grow by 7.5% this year and by 6.9% in 2009, below 8–9% trend-line growth over the past three years, says MDA.
SPORTS SHORTS
* Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has announced that the football club would soon be launching its own radio station. On the club's official website Monday, Calderon said radio would be on air in September. "This radio will be a vehicle to transmit information and will form a point of union between all of Real Madrid's club members and supporters," he said. The club already has its own TV station, Realmadrid TV, which broadcasts in Spanish for Spain and parts of Latin America and also in English for the rest of the world. News.WebIndia123.com, 29th July 2008
* Germany's Nürburgring motor racing circuit will continue to host races from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) until at least 2011. The venue has negotiated an extension to its contract with Internationale Tourenwagenrennen (ITR), the DTM’s commercial rights holder and marketing arm. Hans Werner Aufrecht, ITR's chairman, said that the Nürburgring 'belongs to professional motorsport and to the DTM like hardly any other circuit. Therefore, the extension of the contract is an important step in the planning of the DTM.' Since DTM started in 1984, the Germany-based series has had at least one race at the Nürburgring every year. Sportcal, 29th Jul 2008
* The Arab Volleyball Federation (AVA) has signed an agreement with ART worth US$1 million which grants the broadcaster the television rights to all Arab volleyball competitions for the next five years. AVA president Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa and ART general supervisor Mohi El Deen bin Saleh Kamel confirmed the deal at a press conference in Manama along with other officials. The sport of volleyball has grown significantly in the region over recent years. The United Arab Emirates is set to host the 2009 intercontinental women's clubs volleyball championship, which features clubs from Europe, Asia, Africa and North, South and Central America. Sports Media 29th Jul 2008
* Indosat, Indonesia’s second largest mobile operator by subscribers, signed up 7.9 million subscribers in the first six months of this year, increasing it’s customer base by 32% from the end of 2007 to 32.4 million at the end of June 2008, reports Reuters. Whereas, the cellco had previously targeted eight million new additions in full-year 2008. Wireless Federation, 29th July 2008
* Mobile operators in The Philippines are preparing themselves for the already highest per person in the world, SMS traffic, after government ordered a 50% cut in prices. The price cuts are temporary and will last for just 90 days. The average price for SMSs in The Philippines is $0.02 (one pesos), but will now cost $0.01 (50 centavos). President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made the announcement at the state of the nation address. The lower prices will be effective from July 28 until October 28 - and the regulator has noted that the operators may be willing to extend the offer, so long as their infrastructure can cope with the traffic. Wireless Federation, 29th July 2008
* China Telecom Corporation, the Hong Kong listed arm of the state-owned China Telecom Group, has set an aggressive target of doubling the subscriber base of the country’s CDMA network following the acquisition of the assets from China Unicom. Under the terms of the deal announced earlier, China Telecom Group is buying the CDMA network assets from China Unicom for 66.2 billion yuan, while the listed unit will pay 43.8 billion yuan for the CDMA business and operations. Following the completion of the deal - expected before the end of this year - the listed unit will leased network capacity from the parent company. Web20.TelecomTV.com, 29th July 2008
* Toshiba Corporation has decided to cease the mobile digital satellite broadcasting services at the end of March next year. Toshiba has been offering the services for specialised mobile equipment via its Mobile Broadcasting Corp. unit since October 2004. However, the paid services have not gained sufficient subscribers in part because of growing demand for free broadcasting services targeting mobile handsets. “The number of subscribers has not reached a sufficient level to sustain operations and, following a thorough review of operations, the company has decided to cease broadcasting,” says a company release. Toshiba expects the termination to leave the company with a loss of $233 million for the year ending next March. Indiantelevision.com, 29th July 2008
* The Emirates Cup will take place this weekend at the Emirates Stadium in London and is the highlight of Kentaro's portfolio of football pre-season events this summer. The Emirates Cup will feature Arsenal, Real Madrid, Juventus and Hamburger SV and the matches will be broadcast in virtually every TV territory around the globe. The action will be produced by BSkyB. "As the official marketing partner of the Emirates Cup, we are very proud to have played an integral role in creating a strong product which rewards the fans and the teams in equal measures," said Kentaro CEO Philipp Grothe. Kentaro also marketed Chelsea's tour of Asia this summer, Arsenal's trip to VfB Stuttgart for the grand opening of the Mercedes-Benz Arena and friendlies involving Liverpool, Manchester City, Everton, Celtic and Rangers. Sports Media 29th Jul 2008
* Sportfive Italia has struck a deal with, Serie A TIM club, Sampdoria for the forthcoming 2008-09 season. Sportfive will market a range of the Genoa-based club's advertising spaces and sponsorship packages plus hospitality activities, including business seats at its Stadio Luigi Ferraris. Giuseppe Marotta, CEO and COO of Sampdoria, said: "The partnership with Sportfive has been running for several years to our mutual satisfaction in the field of TV rights and the sale of advertising space. Intensification of this partnership is simply the natural consequence of mutual professional esteem." The agreement with Sampdoria strengthens Sportfive's presence in Serie A, with the company already enjoying relationships with the likes of Juventus, Fiorentina and Atalanta. Football Insider, Sportcal, Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
* Arsenal TV is set to increase its broadcasting time ahead of the new football season, so it can screen first team matches as soon after the final whistle as the domestic TV rights deals allow. The channel is currently in the middle of a busy pre-season programme, with live coverage of Arsenal's fixtures against Stuttgart and Huddersfield to be shown in the coming weeks, along with exclusive footage from the team's training camp in Austria. Arsenal TV is committed to adding a variety of programming to Arsenal TV's extensive pre and post-match analysis shows, which will now cover all midweek fixtures. Football Insider, 29th Jul 2008
* The German Tennis Federation has filed an antitrust lawsuit in US District Court against the ATP Tour for unfairly manipulating the control of star players to steer money to favoured tournaments at the expense of promoters in Hamburg, according to the New York Times. The case is expected to reveal the financial arrangements of a plan known as Brave New World - an effort by the ATP Tour to reinvigorate the sport. The outcome of the trial, expected to last two weeks, is likely to affect individual sports such as golf and skiing that do not feature organised teams and collective bargaining agreements. Sport Business, 29th Jul 2008
* Football Federation Australia, is set launch a new national competition for women, the W-League, in October. The eight team competition will feature sides from all seven men's A-League clubs, plus an ACT-based side to be known as Canberra United. The tournament will be sponsored by Westfield and is expected to feature a 10-round regular season and finals series. The W-League is expected to cost between $3 million and $4 million a year to run and the early focus will be on building the profile of the sport. There are currently 100,000 registered female football players in the country. Sport Business, Commentary on The Age AU, 29th Jul 2008
* CSI, the media rights business owned by international sports agency IMG, has extended its worldwide distribution deal with Cricket South Africa by four years. The deal, which comes into effect in the 2008-09 season, covers the rights outside Africa to test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty20 games played in the country and takes the partnership into a 20th year. In addition to representing Cricket South Africa, CSI has distributed media rights of Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket for more than 15 years. South Africa are currently ranked second in the world in both test match and one-day international cricket and CSI said it was glad to extend the association. Sportcal, Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
MORE NEWS
Asia/Broadcast: FIBA Diamond Ball Broadcast in Record Number of Countries
The 2008 FIBA Diamond Ball for Men begins in Nanjing, China, tomorrow and will be broadcast in over a record 80 territories. This event is the final FIBA preparation tournament for the men’s national teams before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Basketball Tournament and the six teams feature the Yao Ming led China team; the reigning Olympic Champions Argentina; three current Continental Champions, Angola (Africa), Australia (Oceania) and Iran (Asia); and the 2002 FIBA World Champions, Serbia. The four-day tournament ends on the 1st of August and each team will play three games.
In addition to watching on television, basketball fans can also log on to www.olympicbasketball.fiba.com for the game schedule, live scoring, interviews and reports. Asian territories and broadcasters are China (CCTV), Indonesia (First Media and The Philippines (Solar Entertainment). Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/General: ECB Twenty20 Talks Continue
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive, David Collier, has confirmed that the board had received a firm and lucrative offer, believed to be from the Abu Dhabi royal family, to stage its own Champions League in the Middle East - distinct from the one mooted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
However, English involvement in India's Champions League, to be held in Jaipur, Mohali and Delhi from September 29 to October 8 has not yet been ruled out.
Officials from the Australian and South African cricket boards are scheduled to meet their Indian counterparts in Bombay tomorrow to discuss the league, which was to feature the top two teams from the Indian, English, Australian and South African domestic Twenty20 competitions. Collier said that the ECB had not ruled out attending the meeting.
The ECB announced last week that it secured a £750 million 10-year deal for its rival Twenty20 Champions League, which will accommodate both the English finalists. The finalists of the English tournament had originally been lined up to take part in the proposed Twenty20 Champions League this autumn, organised by the Indian board.
The ECB's event, backed by Middle Eastern investors, is scheduled to take place in Dubai or Sharjah in October and would guarantee a slot for both English finalists as well as teams from every senior Test-playing country. India would not be able to send any team over because of their Test series against Australia this year, but would be expected to take part in 2009. Sport Business, 29th Jul 2008
India & China’s Prospects Still Robust
Media Research Asia Report published on Rapid TV News, 29th Jul 2008
While the prospects for media expansion in both India and China “remain robust”, the situation in India has “some downside risks” according to a report from Media Research Asia (MRA). In China, new estimates from leading media buyer GroupM indicate that total advertising expenditure will climb by 22% in 2008 and by 19% in 2009, with TV, online and OOH media benefiting. Even without the Olympics, organic growth is strong for a number of media owners, especially those operating in online and OOH media as MPA analysis indicates.
In India, leading broadcasters Star and Zee are expected to grow at around 20-30% per annum but have warned about macro conditions eating into growth in 2H 2008 and 2009, says MRA. Growing macro concerns are adversely impacting the outlook for advertising growth in India this year. The economy is expected to grow by 7.5% this year and by 6.9% in 2009, below 8–9% trend-line growth over the past three years, says MDA.
SPORTS SHORTS
* Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has announced that the football club would soon be launching its own radio station. On the club's official website Monday, Calderon said radio would be on air in September. "This radio will be a vehicle to transmit information and will form a point of union between all of Real Madrid's club members and supporters," he said. The club already has its own TV station, Realmadrid TV, which broadcasts in Spanish for Spain and parts of Latin America and also in English for the rest of the world. News.WebIndia123.com, 29th July 2008
* Germany's Nürburgring motor racing circuit will continue to host races from the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) until at least 2011. The venue has negotiated an extension to its contract with Internationale Tourenwagenrennen (ITR), the DTM’s commercial rights holder and marketing arm. Hans Werner Aufrecht, ITR's chairman, said that the Nürburgring 'belongs to professional motorsport and to the DTM like hardly any other circuit. Therefore, the extension of the contract is an important step in the planning of the DTM.' Since DTM started in 1984, the Germany-based series has had at least one race at the Nürburgring every year. Sportcal, 29th Jul 2008
* The Arab Volleyball Federation (AVA) has signed an agreement with ART worth US$1 million which grants the broadcaster the television rights to all Arab volleyball competitions for the next five years. AVA president Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa and ART general supervisor Mohi El Deen bin Saleh Kamel confirmed the deal at a press conference in Manama along with other officials. The sport of volleyball has grown significantly in the region over recent years. The United Arab Emirates is set to host the 2009 intercontinental women's clubs volleyball championship, which features clubs from Europe, Asia, Africa and North, South and Central America. Sports Media 29th Jul 2008
* Indosat, Indonesia’s second largest mobile operator by subscribers, signed up 7.9 million subscribers in the first six months of this year, increasing it’s customer base by 32% from the end of 2007 to 32.4 million at the end of June 2008, reports Reuters. Whereas, the cellco had previously targeted eight million new additions in full-year 2008. Wireless Federation, 29th July 2008
* Mobile operators in The Philippines are preparing themselves for the already highest per person in the world, SMS traffic, after government ordered a 50% cut in prices. The price cuts are temporary and will last for just 90 days. The average price for SMSs in The Philippines is $0.02 (one pesos), but will now cost $0.01 (50 centavos). President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made the announcement at the state of the nation address. The lower prices will be effective from July 28 until October 28 - and the regulator has noted that the operators may be willing to extend the offer, so long as their infrastructure can cope with the traffic. Wireless Federation, 29th July 2008
* China Telecom Corporation, the Hong Kong listed arm of the state-owned China Telecom Group, has set an aggressive target of doubling the subscriber base of the country’s CDMA network following the acquisition of the assets from China Unicom. Under the terms of the deal announced earlier, China Telecom Group is buying the CDMA network assets from China Unicom for 66.2 billion yuan, while the listed unit will pay 43.8 billion yuan for the CDMA business and operations. Following the completion of the deal - expected before the end of this year - the listed unit will leased network capacity from the parent company. Web20.TelecomTV.com, 29th July 2008
* Toshiba Corporation has decided to cease the mobile digital satellite broadcasting services at the end of March next year. Toshiba has been offering the services for specialised mobile equipment via its Mobile Broadcasting Corp. unit since October 2004. However, the paid services have not gained sufficient subscribers in part because of growing demand for free broadcasting services targeting mobile handsets. “The number of subscribers has not reached a sufficient level to sustain operations and, following a thorough review of operations, the company has decided to cease broadcasting,” says a company release. Toshiba expects the termination to leave the company with a loss of $233 million for the year ending next March. Indiantelevision.com, 29th July 2008
* The Emirates Cup will take place this weekend at the Emirates Stadium in London and is the highlight of Kentaro's portfolio of football pre-season events this summer. The Emirates Cup will feature Arsenal, Real Madrid, Juventus and Hamburger SV and the matches will be broadcast in virtually every TV territory around the globe. The action will be produced by BSkyB. "As the official marketing partner of the Emirates Cup, we are very proud to have played an integral role in creating a strong product which rewards the fans and the teams in equal measures," said Kentaro CEO Philipp Grothe. Kentaro also marketed Chelsea's tour of Asia this summer, Arsenal's trip to VfB Stuttgart for the grand opening of the Mercedes-Benz Arena and friendlies involving Liverpool, Manchester City, Everton, Celtic and Rangers. Sports Media 29th Jul 2008
* Sportfive Italia has struck a deal with, Serie A TIM club, Sampdoria for the forthcoming 2008-09 season. Sportfive will market a range of the Genoa-based club's advertising spaces and sponsorship packages plus hospitality activities, including business seats at its Stadio Luigi Ferraris. Giuseppe Marotta, CEO and COO of Sampdoria, said: "The partnership with Sportfive has been running for several years to our mutual satisfaction in the field of TV rights and the sale of advertising space. Intensification of this partnership is simply the natural consequence of mutual professional esteem." The agreement with Sampdoria strengthens Sportfive's presence in Serie A, with the company already enjoying relationships with the likes of Juventus, Fiorentina and Atalanta. Football Insider, Sportcal, Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
* Arsenal TV is set to increase its broadcasting time ahead of the new football season, so it can screen first team matches as soon after the final whistle as the domestic TV rights deals allow. The channel is currently in the middle of a busy pre-season programme, with live coverage of Arsenal's fixtures against Stuttgart and Huddersfield to be shown in the coming weeks, along with exclusive footage from the team's training camp in Austria. Arsenal TV is committed to adding a variety of programming to Arsenal TV's extensive pre and post-match analysis shows, which will now cover all midweek fixtures. Football Insider, 29th Jul 2008
* The German Tennis Federation has filed an antitrust lawsuit in US District Court against the ATP Tour for unfairly manipulating the control of star players to steer money to favoured tournaments at the expense of promoters in Hamburg, according to the New York Times. The case is expected to reveal the financial arrangements of a plan known as Brave New World - an effort by the ATP Tour to reinvigorate the sport. The outcome of the trial, expected to last two weeks, is likely to affect individual sports such as golf and skiing that do not feature organised teams and collective bargaining agreements. Sport Business, 29th Jul 2008
* Football Federation Australia, is set launch a new national competition for women, the W-League, in October. The eight team competition will feature sides from all seven men's A-League clubs, plus an ACT-based side to be known as Canberra United. The tournament will be sponsored by Westfield and is expected to feature a 10-round regular season and finals series. The W-League is expected to cost between $3 million and $4 million a year to run and the early focus will be on building the profile of the sport. There are currently 100,000 registered female football players in the country. Sport Business, Commentary on The Age AU, 29th Jul 2008
* CSI, the media rights business owned by international sports agency IMG, has extended its worldwide distribution deal with Cricket South Africa by four years. The deal, which comes into effect in the 2008-09 season, covers the rights outside Africa to test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty20 games played in the country and takes the partnership into a 20th year. In addition to representing Cricket South Africa, CSI has distributed media rights of Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket for more than 15 years. South Africa are currently ranked second in the world in both test match and one-day international cricket and CSI said it was glad to extend the association. Sportcal, Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
MORE NEWS
Asia/Broadcast: FIBA Diamond Ball Broadcast in Record Number of Countries
The 2008 FIBA Diamond Ball for Men begins in Nanjing, China, tomorrow and will be broadcast in over a record 80 territories. This event is the final FIBA preparation tournament for the men’s national teams before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Basketball Tournament and the six teams feature the Yao Ming led China team; the reigning Olympic Champions Argentina; three current Continental Champions, Angola (Africa), Australia (Oceania) and Iran (Asia); and the 2002 FIBA World Champions, Serbia. The four-day tournament ends on the 1st of August and each team will play three games.
In addition to watching on television, basketball fans can also log on to www.olympicbasketball.fiba.com for the game schedule, live scoring, interviews and reports. Asian territories and broadcasters are China (CCTV), Indonesia (First Media and The Philippines (Solar Entertainment). Sports City, 29th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/General: ECB Twenty20 Talks Continue
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive, David Collier, has confirmed that the board had received a firm and lucrative offer, believed to be from the Abu Dhabi royal family, to stage its own Champions League in the Middle East - distinct from the one mooted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
However, English involvement in India's Champions League, to be held in Jaipur, Mohali and Delhi from September 29 to October 8 has not yet been ruled out.
Officials from the Australian and South African cricket boards are scheduled to meet their Indian counterparts in Bombay tomorrow to discuss the league, which was to feature the top two teams from the Indian, English, Australian and South African domestic Twenty20 competitions. Collier said that the ECB had not ruled out attending the meeting.
The ECB announced last week that it secured a £750 million 10-year deal for its rival Twenty20 Champions League, which will accommodate both the English finalists. The finalists of the English tournament had originally been lined up to take part in the proposed Twenty20 Champions League this autumn, organised by the Indian board.
The ECB's event, backed by Middle Eastern investors, is scheduled to take place in Dubai or Sharjah in October and would guarantee a slot for both English finalists as well as teams from every senior Test-playing country. India would not be able to send any team over because of their Test series against Australia this year, but would be expected to take part in 2009. Sport Business, 29th Jul 2008
Tuesday, 29th July 2008
DATA BOX
The World's Population Connecting to the Internet in New Ways
Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast published on Info IQ, 28th Jul 2008
Nearly a quarter of the world's population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30% of the world's population, in 2012. The Internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight years, a testament to both its universal appeal and its availability. By the end of 2008, the Internet will be more deeply integrated into the fabric of many users' personal and professional lives, enabling them to work, play, and socialize anytime from anywhere.
These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the Internet becomes truly ubiquitous. While the PC is currently the dominant means of gaining access to the Internet, the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet will surpass the number of online PCs by 2012. Once on the Internet, users will continue to spend time on Web 1.0 activities like searching, shopping, and sending email.
But Web 2.0 activities, such as watching user-generated videos (Youtube, MetaCafe), streaming media / VOD (Hulu, ABC.com), posting blogs (Blogger, Typepad), and participating in social networks(Facebook, Myspace), are quickly capturing the attention and time online of more and more Internet users. The latter will create new opportunities and challenges for online advertisers seeking to monetize the Internet experience, DC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast:
* Users will access the Internet through more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 billion, half of which will be mobile devices.
* China passed the United States in 2007 to become the country with the largest number of Internet users. China's online population is forecast to grow from 275 million users in 2008 to 375 million users in 2012.
* Nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2008. By 2012, there will be more than 1 billion online buyers worldwide making business to consumer (B2C) transactions worth $1.2 trillion. Business to business (B2B) eCommerce will be ten times larger, totalling $12.4 trillion worldwide in 2012.
* Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total $65.2 billion in 2008, which is nearly 10% of all ad spending across all media. This share is expected to reach 13.6% by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 billion worldwide.
* Roughly 40% of all Internet users worldwide currently have mobile Internet access. The number of mobile Internet users will reach 546 million in 2008, nearly twice as many as in 2006, and is forecast to surpass 1.5 billion worldwide in 2012.
* The most popular online activities today are searching the Web, finding information for personal use, using Internet email, accessing news and sports information, and accessing financial or credit information. In addition to these activities, more than 50% of online users worldwide are using instant messaging and playing online games. The fastest growing online activities include accessing business applications, creating blogs, online gambling, accessing work-related email, and participating in online communities.
* Among mobile Internet users, the most popular online activities are searching the Web, accessing news and sports information, downloading music, videos, and ringtones, using instant messaging, and using Internet email. By 2012, downloading music, videos, and ringtones will become the number one activity among mobile Internet users worldwide.
SPORTS SHORTS
* China's leading fixed-line phone company, China Telecom said it will spend 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) in the next several years to expand the network of its new mobile phone business. The money will go toward base stations and other upgrades to its wireless infrastructure as the company pushes to bring on more customers, CEO Wang Xiaochu told reporters in Hong Kong. China Telecom should inherit about 43 million wireless subscribers, but it hopes to boost that to 100 million in the next two to three years with the help of a larger network, the company said. Telecomasia.net, 29th July 2008
* Korean telco KT reached 700,000 subscribers for its "MegaTV" IPTV service at the end of the second quarter of this year, up from 567,230 at the end of March, with 30% of this customer base bundled with broadband and 70% paying separately. The company also reported a 30% year-on-year fall in net profits for the three months to June 2008 to reach KRW160.5bn (US$158.9mn) and attributed the fall to dwindling fixed-line calls and losses connected to foreign currency debt. Revenues for the second quarter of this year reached KRW3.03bn, compared to KRW3bn in the first quarter of this year. IPTV-News.com, 28th July 2008
* Indian telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will launch IPTV services in the city of Lucknow (capital of Uttar Pradesh state) "soon", according to reports in local daily The Times of India. The company's Managing Director, Kuldeep Goel, said that the service will be available by the end of the current financial year. "We are already in the process of having an agreement with various franchisee for providing the facility in Lucknow," said Mr. Goel. IPTV has already been introduced by BSNL in cities such as Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. In total, around 98 Indian cities have been identified as future locations for the service. Mr. Goel also said that the company is continuing to increase its number of broadband customers and that over 50% of all broadband connections in the country are now provided by BSNL. IPTV-News.com, 28th July 2008
* Wong Swee Teng has been named the new managing director and chief representative of ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) China. Wong will be responsible for the strategic direction and growth of ESS’s operations in China as well as managing business relationships with partners and affiliates in the country. Prior to joining ESS, Wong served as a consultant for Bertelsmann China, where he helped expand the organization’s book publishing business and also oversaw the restructuring of Bertelsmann’s 14 companies in China. Marketing-Interactive.com, Worldscreen, Sportcal, Sports City, 28th Jul 2008
* The German Cartel Office ruled that a TV deal between the German Football League (DFL) and Leo Kirsch’s company Sirius was unfair and has all but ended a deal which would have potentially been worth around €3 billion over the next six seasons. The Kartelamt claimed that fans would be seriously disadvantaged due to having to wait until after 8pm for Bundesliga highlights. Those subscribing to the pay-TV channels would foot the bill for such a lucrative deal. The Kartelamt ruling will make the Sirius deal unattractive and Bundesliga clubs would in fact receive less that the €420 million is currently gets via the present TV deal. Compared to the Premiership for example, that is a paltry figure with the rights to the Premier League worth around €1.2 billion. Goal.com, 27th Jul 2008
* Australian network SBS has reported impressive viewing figures for its coverage of the Tour de France, which was won yesterday by Team CSC rider Carlos Sastre after a gruelling three-week race. Audiences increased steadily to an average of around 250,000 viewers, with peaks of more than 300,000 for the programmes, which ran from around 22:00 to 02:00. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Matt Campbell, SBS director of television and online content, estimates that 70% of viewers in Australia watch the Tour mainly for the race action while 30% tune in to look at the spectacular scenery that provides the backdrop for the event. Sports Media, 28th July 2008
* Eurosport has maintained its position at the top of the European Media and Marketing (EMS) Summer Survey after a year of strong growth. The group's flagship channel has topped the EMS poll for the past 13 years and its weekly and monthly reach figures increased to 47.7% (+3%) and 32% (+2%) respectively, which meant it enjoyed its highest year-on-year (YOY) progression since the survey began. Eurosport 2 recorded an impressive 12% growth YOY in weekly reach. Sports Media, 28th July 2008
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcast: Dish’s Free STB Boost Take-up by Half
Indian DTH operation Dish TV’s free set-top box offer has had an “immediate” effect, according to the company, producing a 50% growth in the platform’s acquisition rate. Internal research had indicated that awareness levels for the Dish TV brand were high but the large one-off cost of the box was a “restraining factor” keeping potential subscribers from adoption. Zee now offers a free set-top box for those signing up to its maxi package for a year.
The Zee-backed operation added 400,000 new subscribers in the three months to the end of June to reach 2.9 million net subs (3.4 million gross). That addition figure represents a 41% increase on the 285,000 added in the previous quarter. Revenues at Dish TV rose sharply in the quarter, but so too did the platform’s costs. Gross revenues stood at Rs1.64 billion, up 21% on the previous quarter as expenditure rose to Rs2.31 billion, up 18% from Rs1.95 billion in the previous quarter.
Cost of goods and expenses was up from Rs1.12 billion to Rs1.37 billion, while advertising expenses rose from Rs203 million to Rs261 million. EBIT loss stood at Rs1.11 billion while the company’s net loss rose from Rs1.15 billion to Rs1.25 billion. Rapid TV News, 28th Jul 2008
ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS
Cut Transmission Energy Costs by 50%
Broadcasters can save millions of dollars in digital broadcast transmission electricity costs by adopting new power modulator modules from Nujira, claims the company.
“The broadcast transmission network typically accounts for 75% of the total electricity used by a broadcaster and over half of this is used by the transmitter output power amplifier,” Nujira said. “The new Nujira solution will potentially double the efficiency of this circuit. For a typical European broadcast transmitter network with 50 transmitter sites, yearly energy consumption can be reduced from an estimated 105GWh to 51GWh, saving $6.2m per year at today’s energy prices, and reducing carbon emissions by 22,000 tonnes.”
Julian Hildersley, VP/Strategy & marketing, said: “The first product we are bringing to market is actually aimed at cellular base station transmitters, and we are now making a derivative product for broadcast applications. There’s very much a relationship between the two applications. Our new modules cut significantly the amount of wasted energy. In transmitting a signal over the air we encode the information to the video signal onto both the amplitude and the frequency of the radio frequency signal so the instantaneous power that is transmitted varies significantly with time. In a conventional transmitter the power going into the transmitter is basically constant. The voltage and amount of current going into the transmitter remain the same throughout the transmission even though the radio frequency power which is being transmitted at any instant is varying significantly.”
Hildersley claimed Nujira’s technology is unique and recognised as such by the world’s leading transmitter amplification companies, many of which Nujira is in contact with. “Our technique, which enables us to modify the power input, is new and is difficult because very fast control is needed. Our technology also has a relevance to those players coming into Europe with satellite radio services who are seeking terrestrial repeater technologies. Our technology can apply to almost any radio transmission.”
“We are in fairly advanced discussions with a number of broadcast transmitter manufacturers. We have signed non-binding MOUs with a couple of well-known names and we are in contract negotiation with others. I am not permitted to say who these potential clients are but the number of manufacturers in this sector is quite small. I can tell you that the response from the industry has been very positive and enthusiastic. For example we have already had significant interest from UK broadcasters and both Arqiva and National Grid Wireless have been extremely supportive of the technology and it is very likely that they will be early adopters of the technology.”
“There is a very major opportunity here for the broadcast industry to take on the challenge of improving energy consumption and yet maintaining the exact same kind of service. The opportunity that’s provided by digital switchover we see as being a global event, not just for a couple of nations.” RapidTVnews.com, 28th July 2008
The World's Population Connecting to the Internet in New Ways
Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast published on Info IQ, 28th Jul 2008
Nearly a quarter of the world's population – roughly 1.4 billion people – will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30% of the world's population, in 2012. The Internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight years, a testament to both its universal appeal and its availability. By the end of 2008, the Internet will be more deeply integrated into the fabric of many users' personal and professional lives, enabling them to work, play, and socialize anytime from anywhere.
These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the Internet becomes truly ubiquitous. While the PC is currently the dominant means of gaining access to the Internet, the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet will surpass the number of online PCs by 2012. Once on the Internet, users will continue to spend time on Web 1.0 activities like searching, shopping, and sending email.
But Web 2.0 activities, such as watching user-generated videos (Youtube, MetaCafe), streaming media / VOD (Hulu, ABC.com), posting blogs (Blogger, Typepad), and participating in social networks(Facebook, Myspace), are quickly capturing the attention and time online of more and more Internet users. The latter will create new opportunities and challenges for online advertisers seeking to monetize the Internet experience, DC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast:
* Users will access the Internet through more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 billion, half of which will be mobile devices.
* China passed the United States in 2007 to become the country with the largest number of Internet users. China's online population is forecast to grow from 275 million users in 2008 to 375 million users in 2012.
* Nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2008. By 2012, there will be more than 1 billion online buyers worldwide making business to consumer (B2C) transactions worth $1.2 trillion. Business to business (B2B) eCommerce will be ten times larger, totalling $12.4 trillion worldwide in 2012.
* Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total $65.2 billion in 2008, which is nearly 10% of all ad spending across all media. This share is expected to reach 13.6% by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 billion worldwide.
* Roughly 40% of all Internet users worldwide currently have mobile Internet access. The number of mobile Internet users will reach 546 million in 2008, nearly twice as many as in 2006, and is forecast to surpass 1.5 billion worldwide in 2012.
* The most popular online activities today are searching the Web, finding information for personal use, using Internet email, accessing news and sports information, and accessing financial or credit information. In addition to these activities, more than 50% of online users worldwide are using instant messaging and playing online games. The fastest growing online activities include accessing business applications, creating blogs, online gambling, accessing work-related email, and participating in online communities.
* Among mobile Internet users, the most popular online activities are searching the Web, accessing news and sports information, downloading music, videos, and ringtones, using instant messaging, and using Internet email. By 2012, downloading music, videos, and ringtones will become the number one activity among mobile Internet users worldwide.
SPORTS SHORTS
* China's leading fixed-line phone company, China Telecom said it will spend 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) in the next several years to expand the network of its new mobile phone business. The money will go toward base stations and other upgrades to its wireless infrastructure as the company pushes to bring on more customers, CEO Wang Xiaochu told reporters in Hong Kong. China Telecom should inherit about 43 million wireless subscribers, but it hopes to boost that to 100 million in the next two to three years with the help of a larger network, the company said. Telecomasia.net, 29th July 2008
* Korean telco KT reached 700,000 subscribers for its "MegaTV" IPTV service at the end of the second quarter of this year, up from 567,230 at the end of March, with 30% of this customer base bundled with broadband and 70% paying separately. The company also reported a 30% year-on-year fall in net profits for the three months to June 2008 to reach KRW160.5bn (US$158.9mn) and attributed the fall to dwindling fixed-line calls and losses connected to foreign currency debt. Revenues for the second quarter of this year reached KRW3.03bn, compared to KRW3bn in the first quarter of this year. IPTV-News.com, 28th July 2008
* Indian telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will launch IPTV services in the city of Lucknow (capital of Uttar Pradesh state) "soon", according to reports in local daily The Times of India. The company's Managing Director, Kuldeep Goel, said that the service will be available by the end of the current financial year. "We are already in the process of having an agreement with various franchisee for providing the facility in Lucknow," said Mr. Goel. IPTV has already been introduced by BSNL in cities such as Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. In total, around 98 Indian cities have been identified as future locations for the service. Mr. Goel also said that the company is continuing to increase its number of broadband customers and that over 50% of all broadband connections in the country are now provided by BSNL. IPTV-News.com, 28th July 2008
* Wong Swee Teng has been named the new managing director and chief representative of ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) China. Wong will be responsible for the strategic direction and growth of ESS’s operations in China as well as managing business relationships with partners and affiliates in the country. Prior to joining ESS, Wong served as a consultant for Bertelsmann China, where he helped expand the organization’s book publishing business and also oversaw the restructuring of Bertelsmann’s 14 companies in China. Marketing-Interactive.com, Worldscreen, Sportcal, Sports City, 28th Jul 2008
* The German Cartel Office ruled that a TV deal between the German Football League (DFL) and Leo Kirsch’s company Sirius was unfair and has all but ended a deal which would have potentially been worth around €3 billion over the next six seasons. The Kartelamt claimed that fans would be seriously disadvantaged due to having to wait until after 8pm for Bundesliga highlights. Those subscribing to the pay-TV channels would foot the bill for such a lucrative deal. The Kartelamt ruling will make the Sirius deal unattractive and Bundesliga clubs would in fact receive less that the €420 million is currently gets via the present TV deal. Compared to the Premiership for example, that is a paltry figure with the rights to the Premier League worth around €1.2 billion. Goal.com, 27th Jul 2008
* Australian network SBS has reported impressive viewing figures for its coverage of the Tour de France, which was won yesterday by Team CSC rider Carlos Sastre after a gruelling three-week race. Audiences increased steadily to an average of around 250,000 viewers, with peaks of more than 300,000 for the programmes, which ran from around 22:00 to 02:00. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Matt Campbell, SBS director of television and online content, estimates that 70% of viewers in Australia watch the Tour mainly for the race action while 30% tune in to look at the spectacular scenery that provides the backdrop for the event. Sports Media, 28th July 2008
* Eurosport has maintained its position at the top of the European Media and Marketing (EMS) Summer Survey after a year of strong growth. The group's flagship channel has topped the EMS poll for the past 13 years and its weekly and monthly reach figures increased to 47.7% (+3%) and 32% (+2%) respectively, which meant it enjoyed its highest year-on-year (YOY) progression since the survey began. Eurosport 2 recorded an impressive 12% growth YOY in weekly reach. Sports Media, 28th July 2008
MORE NEWS
India/Broadcast: Dish’s Free STB Boost Take-up by Half
Indian DTH operation Dish TV’s free set-top box offer has had an “immediate” effect, according to the company, producing a 50% growth in the platform’s acquisition rate. Internal research had indicated that awareness levels for the Dish TV brand were high but the large one-off cost of the box was a “restraining factor” keeping potential subscribers from adoption. Zee now offers a free set-top box for those signing up to its maxi package for a year.
The Zee-backed operation added 400,000 new subscribers in the three months to the end of June to reach 2.9 million net subs (3.4 million gross). That addition figure represents a 41% increase on the 285,000 added in the previous quarter. Revenues at Dish TV rose sharply in the quarter, but so too did the platform’s costs. Gross revenues stood at Rs1.64 billion, up 21% on the previous quarter as expenditure rose to Rs2.31 billion, up 18% from Rs1.95 billion in the previous quarter.
Cost of goods and expenses was up from Rs1.12 billion to Rs1.37 billion, while advertising expenses rose from Rs203 million to Rs261 million. EBIT loss stood at Rs1.11 billion while the company’s net loss rose from Rs1.15 billion to Rs1.25 billion. Rapid TV News, 28th Jul 2008
ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS
Cut Transmission Energy Costs by 50%
Broadcasters can save millions of dollars in digital broadcast transmission electricity costs by adopting new power modulator modules from Nujira, claims the company.
“The broadcast transmission network typically accounts for 75% of the total electricity used by a broadcaster and over half of this is used by the transmitter output power amplifier,” Nujira said. “The new Nujira solution will potentially double the efficiency of this circuit. For a typical European broadcast transmitter network with 50 transmitter sites, yearly energy consumption can be reduced from an estimated 105GWh to 51GWh, saving $6.2m per year at today’s energy prices, and reducing carbon emissions by 22,000 tonnes.”
Julian Hildersley, VP/Strategy & marketing, said: “The first product we are bringing to market is actually aimed at cellular base station transmitters, and we are now making a derivative product for broadcast applications. There’s very much a relationship between the two applications. Our new modules cut significantly the amount of wasted energy. In transmitting a signal over the air we encode the information to the video signal onto both the amplitude and the frequency of the radio frequency signal so the instantaneous power that is transmitted varies significantly with time. In a conventional transmitter the power going into the transmitter is basically constant. The voltage and amount of current going into the transmitter remain the same throughout the transmission even though the radio frequency power which is being transmitted at any instant is varying significantly.”
Hildersley claimed Nujira’s technology is unique and recognised as such by the world’s leading transmitter amplification companies, many of which Nujira is in contact with. “Our technique, which enables us to modify the power input, is new and is difficult because very fast control is needed. Our technology also has a relevance to those players coming into Europe with satellite radio services who are seeking terrestrial repeater technologies. Our technology can apply to almost any radio transmission.”
“We are in fairly advanced discussions with a number of broadcast transmitter manufacturers. We have signed non-binding MOUs with a couple of well-known names and we are in contract negotiation with others. I am not permitted to say who these potential clients are but the number of manufacturers in this sector is quite small. I can tell you that the response from the industry has been very positive and enthusiastic. For example we have already had significant interest from UK broadcasters and both Arqiva and National Grid Wireless have been extremely supportive of the technology and it is very likely that they will be early adopters of the technology.”
“There is a very major opportunity here for the broadcast industry to take on the challenge of improving energy consumption and yet maintaining the exact same kind of service. The opportunity that’s provided by digital switchover we see as being a global event, not just for a couple of nations.” RapidTVnews.com, 28th July 2008
Monday, 28th July 2008
DID YOU KNOW…?
FC Barcelona has fallen in love with Scotland so much that it has commissioned its own tartan . The official Barca tartan was presented by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to club directors on Thursday ahead of the opening game of its summer tour. The tartan was inspired by the colours on the Liga BBVA club's strip and is now officially registered by the Scottish Tartans Authority. Tourism body VisitScotland is keen to tap into the Spanish tourism market - believed to be worth £78 million to the Scottish economy - and it is hoping to attract more Spaniards to Scotland on the back of the Catalan club's visit. Denise Hill, head of international marketing for VisitScotland, said: "In Spain, football has such an enormous following and the Barcelona team's fan base provides a huge audience for us to target on the back of them training in Scotland this summer." Football Insider, 25th Jul 2008
DATA BOX
India, China to See Fastest Growth in Pay-TV
Futuresource Consulting survey published on Indiantelevision.com, 26th July 2008
India and China will be the fastest-growing pay TV markets even as a UK-based market research and consultancy firm predicts a 40% growth by 2012, representing an increase of 38 million units. The Asian region will account to nearly 50% of the global demand, according to Futuresource Consulting.
"India and China will account for the majority of this, though both have witnessed slow uptake of multi-channel TV to date, due to price and technology limitations. As costs reduce, both countries will generate phenomenal growth,” says the report.
Pay-TV operators around the world would, however, continue to use STBs to drive digital services, increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and reduce subscriber churn with innovations such as HD, PVR, VoD and home networking, according to Futuresource Consulting’s Carl Hibbert.
Asia Among World's Highest Broadband Penetration
Gartner study published on Bangkokpost.com, 25th July 2008
South Korea and Hong Kong are two of the top three markets in the world with the highest household broadband penetration. Korea topped the Gartner study with 93% penetration in 2007, with this figure expected to hit 97 percent in 2012. Next on the list are the Netherlands and Hong Kong, trailing Korea with rates of 74 and 76%, respectively last year. Although the Netherlands had a lower score last year, it was placed above Hong Kong in the list because it is projected to surpass Hong Kong in 2012 by a slim margin at 82% -- Gartner predicts Hong Kong to hit 81% in the year.
SPORTS SHORTS
* Experts say India’s mobile advertising market is expected to cross Rs 120 crore in 2010 from Rs 30 crore at present. Advertisers, after targeting the television and internet medium, are now hoping to cash in on the mobile revolution. The planners have realised that personalised, permissive and contextual advertising is the right strategy to reach out to the target audience and guarantee a better return on investment. At the moment, most mobile advertising takes the form of text messages. But telecoms firms are also beginning to deliver ads to handsets in addition to video clips, web pages, music and game downloads, through mobiles, which enable such features. With big players entering this domain, the market is set to create more buzz. Televisionpoint.com, 25th July 2008
* Filipino mobile operator Digitel Philippines, which trades under the banner Sun Cellular, said it reached the 6.5 million mark for subscribers at the end of June, with monthly net additions totalling around 500,00 per month in 2008. The company has set itself a target of ten million subscribers by the end of the year and aims to improve its range of services in order to reach this goal. James Go, chairman of JG Summit Holdings, estimates Sun Cellular had a ‘close to 10%’ market share by the end of June having carved a niche in the country’s highly-competitive telecoms industry. Sun Cellular has reportedly allocated PHP12 billion (USD271 million) to expand and upgrade its networks this year, increasing the number of cellsites from 2,300 in December 2007 to 4,000 by end of this year. Telegeography.com, 25th July 2008
* Red Bull Energy Drink has launched a branding initiative which will see an all-female Red Bull team take part at the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race. The team, called the Red Bull Rookies, was selected from the Red Bull Female Driver Search 2007 which saw over 600 applicants. In keeping with its commitment towards motorsports, Red Bull has also launched a Female Driver Search for 2008. The current crop of Red Bull Rookies will race in the 12-hour endurance race at the Sepang F1 International Circuit this August. Marketing Malaysia, 25th Jul 2008
* Richard Brooke, corporate development director at Setanta, has revealed the pay-TV platform has set a target of attracting 1.5 million direct subscribers to its sports channels by April 2009. Setanta, which has rights to 46 live Barclays Premier League games per season for the next two campaigns, currently has more than one million premium subscribers, and nearly two million more use its services on other platforms such as Virgin Media. Setanta splashed out £392 million for two Premier League rights packages in a three-year deal starting with the 2007-08 season, with Sky picking up the other four packages in a £1.3 billion agreement to show 92 matches per campaign. Setanta also airs a range of other sporting content, including boxing, golf, cricket and horse racing. Sports Media, 25th Jul 2008
* When Erfurt kicks off its first league fixture of the 2008-09 season this evening, the team, and opponent Dynamo Dresden will be making German football history. For the first time ever, professional football in Germany will span three divisions with the birth of the Dritte Bundesliga. This weekend 20 clubs kick off the new third tier of the German game, which used to be regionalised in a north-south divide, starting with Erfurt's clash with Dresden, a game which will also be screened live on MDR television. Each club can expect to earn €590,000 from TV revenue with highlights of Dritte Bundesliga games preceding those of the 1.Bundesliga on a Saturday evening. That amount will rise to €825,000 next year, which is still eclipsed by the €5 million on offer to 2.Bundesliga sides, but should be enough to make a success of the new division. Football Insider, 25th Jul 2008
* M6, the French commercial network, has announced a drop in half-year profits after shelling out a €50 million ($78.5 million) rights fee to broadcast soccer’s Euro 2008. The broadcaster’s net profit for the first half of 2008 fell by 26.7 per cent to €79.2 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped by nearly 30 per cent to €106.5 million and revenues totalled €709.1 million. Advertising revenue was up 4 per cent to €414 million, with non-advertising revenue down 5.1 per cent to €295.1 million. M6 has blamed the drop in core profits on investments such as the outlay on the European Championships held i Austria and Switzerland. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
* Traffic Sports USA, announced the results of the International Friendly soccer match between the Salvadoran and Guatemalan national teams held on July 20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Over 37,000 fans poured into the Coliseum to cheer their respective national sides in the "Clasico Centroamericano" leading several media to dub the match as the top exhibition match held inthe United States in the last 20 years. The Central American population among the largest in the USA at over 5m people. Traffic Sports also owns the Closed Circuit television rights for the majority of the CONCACAF 2010 World Cup Qualifying in the United States which presents a great opportunity for sponsors targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. News Blaze, 25th Jul 2008
* The Chicago Cubs may sell for more than $1 billion, which would be a record for a U.S. professional sports franchise, based on bids from five groups that Tribune Co. accepted in the first stage of negotiations. Tribune, the newspaper publisher taken private by Sam Zell, narrowed the number of bidders for the Major League Baseball franchise to 5 from 10, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing people it didn't identify. The Cubs, whose history dates back to 1876, play at historic Wrigley Field and have drawn more than 3 million fans in each of the past four seasons. It is one of the most popular teams in baseball even though they haven't played in a World Series since 1945 and haven't won a championship in 100 years. Sports City, 25th Jul 2008
* Wimbledon champion Venus Williams has withdrawn from next week's Rogers Cup women's tennis tournament with a knee injury. Tournament director Eugene Lapierre said yesterday Williams did not want to risk aggravating the tendinitis in her knee ahead of the Beijing Olympics. She was the lone late withdrawal from the tier-1 event before the draw yesterday. This year's tournament boasts seven of the world's top-10 players. The Record, 26th July 2008
MORE NEWS
Singapore/New Media: More Join DVB-H Trial
Pay-TV and mobile operator Starhub and telco SingTel have joined an upcoming DVB-H mobile TV trial in Singapore planned by broadcaster Mediacorp and mobile telco M1. Initially announced back in January, the trial has been expanded to include SingTel and Starhub and will involve some 300 customers of the three telcos. The project will span three months.
Participants will be using the Samsung P-960 handsets and the trial is also supported by technology partners, Alcatel-Lucent and Gemalto. Involvement of four of the territory’s most powerful media and telecoms firms could spell trouble for a rival DVB-H trial, TV2Go. That project is now managed by Broadcast Australia, which came on board in June when TV2Go operator PGK Media formed a new joint venture with the Macquarie-backed broadcast services company.
Trialists of the Mediacorp project will be able to view six dedicated channels with a range of programming include the Beijing Olympics, plus English Premier League football from a Starhub Football Channel.
Chinese-speaking viewers will have access to Cantonese movies from a mobile version of SingTel’s mio TV’s Mei Ah Movies Channel, as well as a simulcast of StarHub’s TVBS News in August and CTI in September. More news will come from a simulcast of the Channel News Asia service and CNBC. Also available, although just in October, will be The History Channel. Selected programmes from Kids Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Channel 8 and Channel U will make up two further composite channels. Rapid TV News, 25th Jul 2008
Malaysia/Broadcaster: Astro Expansion to Continue
Malaysian pay-TV operator Astro All Asia Networks will continue to expand internationally, off the back of similar expansion at home, the group said. Chairman Dato’ Haji Badri Haji Masri said: "We are focused on driving our Malaysian businesses to higher levels of customer service. In the current uncertain economic environment, we recognise that consumer sentiment may be affected. Nevertheless, we remain positive that the investments we have put into technology, local programming, premium sports and other content will continue to pay off.”
Dato’ Badri added: "Our experience and achievements at home mean we are also well-equipped to meet the strong demand in the region for high-quality entertainment and information adapted to the respective languages and cultures." Astro has a 20% stake in south Indian DTH operator Sun Direct TV which earlier this month announced it had signed up 1 million subs in just 200 days of operation.
But Astro’s less-successful foreign involvement, with Indonesia’s PT Direct Vision, remains a cloud, despite Astro’s talking-up of the operation. Astro CEO Ralph Marshall said: "There has been no progress in negotiations on the proposed take-up by the Group of an equity stake in PT Direct Vision and the discussions remain inconclusive. The primary terms of the trademark and the licensing agreement under which PTDV is able to provide the Astro service to its customers expires on 1 Sept 2008 and we are evaluating our options in this context. However, the Group is optimistic about the potential of the Indonesian market where pay-TV penetration is just 2% compared with over 40% in Malaysia." Rapid TV News, 25th Jul 2008
India/Broadcast: Upgrade to Digital Transmission in 5 Years
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set a five year time-frame for cable TV operators to upgrade their current analogue network to digital transmission mode to compete with new distribution platforms like IPTV, HITS, besides improving their revenue earning prospects.
Pointing out that cable TV transmission in the country is predominantly analog and is limited to provisioning of TV channels only; it said due to technological developments, existing cable operators are likely to face stiff competition from operators employing advance distribution technologies.
"The spectacular growth of Indian Cable TV industry during the past two decades has been largely due to entrepreneurial skills of Cable TV operators. Cable TV penetration has risen to 78 million homes at the end of year 2007 and still has a lot of potential to grow. However, the present mode of Cable TV transmission which is predominantly analogue, has certain limitations as it lacks scope for technological up-gradation, appropriate addressability and efficient resource utilization." TRAI said in its final recommendations on Restructuring of Cable TV Services.
The sector is marred with disputes relating to actual subscriber base, poor quality of service and inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism. The non-availability of authenticated data, lack of supervisory guidance and unorganized development of cable TV industry are some of the roadblocks in exploring the sector's full potential. TRAI has recommended a well defined and supportive licensing framework to restructure the Cable TV sector and improve services to customers. Televisionpoint.com, 25th July 2008
India/General: Man. United Plan Indian Expansion
English Premier League club, Manchester United, is seeking to expand its commercial interests in India, according to UK press reports. The country, which represents one of the last significant untapped markets for football in the world, has the fastest-growing economy after China and could create a wealth of opportunities for the club, according to United’s Chief Executive, David Gill.
Speaking at United’s pre-season tour of South Africa, Gill said that gaining a commercial foothold in India was a priority as they seek to retain their position as the richest club in England and that as a first step United are likely to play a friendly in India, perhaps as soon as next summer.
Gill said: "India is interesting. We have been approached to go there and we are looking at some soccer school opportunities there. We would not rule out going there," he said. "They do have ambitions and have a key goal to make it to the World Cup. Whether they can make it or not I do not know, but it's a huge, huge country." Of United's estimated 333million followers worldwide, 20million live in India's urban population, more than half of whom are said to be `core` fans. Sportcal, Sports City, Guardian UK, 25th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/Rights: DFL Considers Legal Action
German soccer association Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) is considering legal action against the federal cartel office’s decision regarding the allocation of the Bundesliga TV rights. There are now also rumours that News Corp or a News Corp-backed entity could jump in and snap up all available rights. “We have commissioned numerous legal reviews,” said the soccer league’s president Reinhard Rauball in Frankfurt am Main. The Bonn-based authority recently approved the centralised marketing of the rights through DFL and media entrepreneur Leo Kirch only under the condition that the highlights of Saturday matches would be screened before 8pm on free-to-air television.
According to DFL’s managing director Christian Seifert, the contract with Kirch - which guarantees a total income of €3 billion for the seasons 2009 until 2015 - is still valid, although a plan C will now have to be developed as the cartel office’s decision would lift the contract’s foundation.
According to the competition watchdogs, the centralised marketing constituted an inadmissible cartel of the Bundesliga clubs which, as an exception, could only be permitted if some of the advantages were passed on to consumers. This would be the case if coverage of Saturday’s matches was screened before 8pm by public or commercial broadcasters. Later broadcasts would deny large sections of the public an opportunity to keep abreast of developments. With this regulation, says the cartel office, viewers would be given an attractive alternative to the live games screened on pay-TV while at the same time pay-TV broadcasters would be prevented from charging inflated subscription prices.
According to German news magazine Focus, DFL is considering various new marketing concepts, including the idea to offer cable and satellite operators such as Kabel Deutschland, Unitymedia or SES Astra soccer packages with free-to-air highlights of the Saturday matches to attract new customers. The report also claims that media mogul Rupert Murdoch is considering an offer of €450 million per season for the complete rights package comprising free-to-air and pay-TV coverage. This would be less than the €500 million per season guaranteed in the original DFL/Kirch contract, but €30 million more per season than the league’s current income from TV contracts.
The rights would be an ideal lure to encourage Murdoch, who is already the largest single shareholder in pay-TV operator Premiere, to buy into a German free-to-air TV channel such as Sat.1, which could then screen the highlights on Saturday before 8pm. The media entrepreneur could thereby establish a strong foothold in both Germany’s free-TV and pay-TV markets. Sports Media, Rapid TV News, Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/Rights: FIBA Europe Targets Major TV Deal for Women’s Basketball
FIBA Europe, basketball’s governing body in the region, is looking to secure a pan-European broadcasting deal for the EuroLeague Women, Europe’s top women’s club competition, but admits that ‘the product is untested in the market.’ FIBA Europe secretary general Nar Zanolin said the federation was very keen to find a single main television partner for the competition for the 2008-09 season, which gets under way in October.
He told Sportcal.com ‘Yes, if it’s possible, I would love to. If an offer is made, we would convene all the clubs and present the proposal and then they would make a decision.’ At present, the media and marketing rights to the EuroLeague Women and the second-tier Women's EuroCup are held by individual clubs. However, FIBA Europe retains the right to conclude an overall deal for the EuroLeague Women, which will be dependent on support from the clubs.
Zanolin said that so far only deals with individual clubs had been agreed for the upcoming season, mostly with local and national television stations. The draws for the Euroleague Women and Women's EuroCup, both of which comprise 24 teams, were made two weeks ago and Zanolin said that the EuroLeague Women structure, with six balanced groups of four teams would make for a ‘high-level’ competition.
Zanolin said: ‘This is a product that broadcasters should seriously look at. We have the best players in the world. It is as yet untested from a television point a view – we have never had a pan-European contract – but we want to give it a chance.’
He said he hopes Eurosport, the pan-European sports broadcaster, would be interested in the rights, but admitted that a deal could complicated by the fact that it airs the ULEB Cup, which, like the men's Euroleague, is organised by a separate body, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball (ULEB), based in Barcelona. FIBA Europe holds the rights to the climax of the EuroLeague Women, known as the Final Four.
It is expected that broadcasters in the nations represented in the Final Four, plus two or three other countries, will register an interest, when the line-up is decided. Zanolin accepts that the demand for the women's competitions is an unknown quantity but believes that the players deserve a platform to show their skills.
He said: ‘Women’s basketball has always been neglected but deserves some attention. It is a spectacle of a different dimension to the men’s game, but very exciting too. We want to give the world at large the opportunity to see this, and then either admire it or discard it. I like this product, but people may not like it.’ The EuroLeague Women competition will take place from October 15, 2008 to February 25, 2009, with the Final Four to held from April 3 to 5, 2009. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
THE 2008 OLYMPICS
Olympic Trivia
* During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.
* The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.
Tickets Sold-Out
Tickets for the Beijing Olympics have nearly been sold out as the opening ceremony of the game draws near. By Saturday evening, 16 of the 19 ticket booths, which started the fourth, or the final, phase of Olympic ticket sale to individuals on Friday, hung out sign boards reading "sold out". According to The News, tickets for popular sports like tennis and archery were sold out within hours of their first day in the ticket counter, said Wu Xiaonan, an official with a ticket booth near the Beijing Olympic Green Hockey Stadium. However, Wu said, tickets for hockey, boxing and handball are still available; adding most tickets for hockey will probably be sold out by late Sunday. According to official sources at a booth of the Olympic Sports Center, tickets for the handball match are expected to be sold out by Monday. News.WebIndia123.com, 27th July 2008
ABU Olympic Deal Could Have Excluded India as Well as China
The Olympic Games broadcasting deal for 2010 and 2012 with the Asian Broadcasting Union announced on Monday did not include the territory of China but could also have excluded India as the International Olympic Committee was contemplating securing a separate deal in that growing market.
It is thought that the IOC was prompted to consider selling the rights separately in India by the market share and revenue opportunities in the country, where the Olympics seem to be increasing in popularity and a bid to host the games is in the pipeline. Nonetheless, India was ultimately included in the ABU deal, along with 21 other countries from the sub-continent and south-east Asia, and the ground-breaking deal with ESPN Star Sports, the cable and satellite broadcaster, for a similar list of territories.
Delhi is considering a bid for the 2020 Olympics, depending on the success of the city’s hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, having lost out to Incheon in South Korea in the race to host the 2014 Asian Games. A total of 57 Indian athletes across 13 sports are expected to compete in the Beijing Olympics next month. Some 78 athletes in 14 sports were involved in Athens in 2004, but those figures included the men’s hockey team, which has failed to qualify this time round. The 2008 Olympics will be broadcast in India by Doordarshan, the Indian state broadcaster and an ABU member.
The IOC chose to exclude China from the ABU deal for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics in order to maximise the value of the Chinese television and new media market after generating between $7 million and $8 million alone from CCTV.com, the internet arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, for the new media rights to the Beijing games. The IOC was unable to sign a lucrative television deal in China for the 2008 Olympics as CCTV acquired the rights relatively inexpensively as a member of the ABU through a deal agreed in 1998, when the games had yet to be awarded.
The ABU contribution for the 2008 Olympics is $17.5 million, a significant portion of which is attributable to China, and it is thought that the share of media revenues from Asia will increase as a result of individual deals negotiated by the IOC in that country. Japan and Korea are not included in the ABU deal as the IOC agrees deals in both countries separately.
The territories covered by the new ABU deal are; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The deals with the ABU and ESPN Star Sports include simultaneous live retransmission rights on the internet and mobile devices, but because the coverage has to be the same as the television pictures the IOC will be able to negotiate further new media deals in Asia.
The deal with ESPN Star Sports for the Indian sub-continent and south-east Asia marked the first time the IOC has awarded pay-television rights in the region. ESPN Star Sports, which has a reach of over 310 million in Asia, has committed to broadcasting over 200 hours of coverage from the summer Olympics in London in 2012 and over 60 hours of coverage from the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.
ESPN Star Sports will not have to sell on rights to terrestrial broadcasters as it has not been handed ‘gatekeeper’ free-to-air and pay-television rights as was the case in Italy with pay-television operator Sky Italia. Despite the acquisition of rights by ESPN Star Sports, the free-to-air commitment in the ABU deal is the same as it was for Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006.
The ABU has pledged a minimum of 200 hours of Olympic coverage in 2012 and accepted the minimum requirement of a daily 52-minute highlights programme in prime time for the winter Olympics in 2010, when some broadcasters may also choose to provide live coverage, as was the case for the 2006 Turin games. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
Olympics/Rights: Beijing Lays Down the Law for Army of Global Media
America's biggest media organisations are engaged in a massive expedition to Beijing to provide round-the-clock coverage of the Summer Olympics, and they promise a truly Olympian affair. Thousands of journalists, producers, presenters, runners, technicians and gofers are being shipped out from the US to giant media cities-within-cities to bring the folks back home a view of the games the likes of which they have never seen.
But China has strict rules governing journalists' movements and the topics about which they report, so if any member of this media legion decides to stray too far outside of the realms of simple sports coverage, they may get more - or rather less - than they bargained for. NBC Universal, owner of the NBC TV Network, is America's official Olympics broadcaster and is sending the biggest contingent to the games. It paid $894m (£449m) for the exclusive rights to broadcast 3,600 hours of coverage.
The deal with the International Olympic Committee was part of a record-breaking $2.3bn package to give NBC the exclusive US media rights to the 2004 Summer Olympics ($793m), the 2006 Winter Games ($613m) and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The network has since paid a further $2bn for the exclusive US media rights to cover the 2010 Winter Games ($820m) and the 2012 Olympics in London ($1.18bn).
NBC promises to broadcast around the clock, using TV, internet and mobile phone technology to give viewers 'three-screen' access to the games for the first time. Of the 3,600 hours of coverage, more than 2,900 will be live - more than all the live US coverage of all prior televised Summer Olympics.
With two weeks to go until the games begin, NBC has already sold about $900m of its $1bn advertising target, while its parent GE has spent many millions more as one of the top-tier official sponsors. NBC - as official US broadcaster - has had a relatively hassle-free time in China but a common series of complaints is emerging among those who work for non-rights-owning organisations.
Vital equipment is being delayed at customs. Access to politically sensitive venues like Tiananmen Square is being restricted, despite assurances from the government that such obstructions would be lifted for the Olympics. Even something as simple as parking a satellite broadcast truck on the street is proving almost impossible for many outlets, while in the smaller cities officials have been actively hostile to journalists.
China has tried to give the impression that it has relaxed many of its despotic media restrictions for the Olympics. It was with great fanfare that a new set of rules for foreign journalists was established more than 18 months ago. The rules sought to lift the requirement for journalists to apply to officialdom when they wanted to travel or set up an interview. Even though the harsh rules were rarely enforced, lifting them was seen as a leap forward.
But little has changed, according to Anthony Kuhn, a veteran reporter on China for America's National Public Radio. 'I was arrested while reporting a story just weeks after the rules were changed,' he said from his Beijing office. 'I was reporting on farmland being taken away by government in Shanxi province and all of a sudden I was detained and told I was trespassing in a military zone, which was not the case.'
Kuhn has been arrested on similarly trumped-up charges six or seven times since the rules were supposedly relaxed in December 2007. 'The Chinese government makes all the right noises and promises to modernise things for foreign media but in practice the new rules are almost unenforceable when you get out in the provinces,' he says.
CNN, which boasts one of the longest-standing Western media presences in Beijing, has tried to sidestep many of the problems its competitors face by teaming up with BMC, an arm of the official Beijing TV company. But still, the network has hit serious impediments.
'We faced daunting political and logistic hurdles preparing for the coverage of the Beijing Olympics,' says Jaime FlorCruz, CNN's Beijing bureau chief. 'We still face frequent push-backs. Some of our requests for interviews and shoots are turned down. Logistics have been difficult too, but after some hiccups they seem to have fallen into place.'
China promised back in 2001 that 'there will be no restrictions on journalists reporting on the Olympic Games'. But it is clear this is not the case. 'I have spoken to journalists who say they have been denied press credentials to cover the Olympics because they have spoken or written about China's human rights record, and issues like Darfur or Tibet,' says Richard Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies and a fellow of the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think-tank.
Indeed, reports also suggest that the government has ramped up visa restrictions and has clamped down on allowances for protests in and around Olympic events after the turmoil that surrounded the Olympic torch relay earlier this year.
Internet censorship has also been addressed, in part, for the duration of the games, as foreigners will be able to access much of what is available to them outside China but only from their designated internet access points in the various media locations and their hotels. 'The real question,' Kuhn says, 'is how many restrictions Chinese journalists face, and what kind of internet censorship ordinary Chinese have to put up with?'
It must not be forgotten, though, that China invited a media operation of a previously unimagined scale into the country, and is trying to meet its demands. And the regime is trying to balance the needs of journalists with the real threat of a security breach. In Beijing, model plane flights have been banned for the duration of the games, while unessential medical operations have been stopped to make sure there is an adequate supply of blood in case of a terrorist attack.
'Hopefully foreign journalists visiting China for the first time will take the time to look beyond the propaganda,' says Kuhn, adding that he believes the games have brought a modicum of hope to those wanting media reform. The fact is that the rules for foreign journalists have been changed. And I think to some extent you can't put the genie back in the bottle.' The Guardian UK, 27th Jul 2008
Olympics/General: Everything's Supersized in Beijing
The Beijing games will set records in the number of nations competing (205, compared to 201 in 2004) and the amount spent for U.S. TV rights ($894 million, compared to $793 million in 2004). When it comes to the total number of U.S. TV hours (3,600 on NBC and cable), it will top all previous games combined.
So new phrases are grafted. Bob Costas, NBC's anchor, says the Chinese response to the games will be "mega-big," the opening ceremony will be "uber-spectacular." Then again, that fits the math of China. Costas tells of a conversation between producer David Neal and a Chinese official. Neal marveled at the opening ceremony plans that call for 15,000 performers. "The official reminded him, 'David, we have the people.' "
They do, more than a billion of them. That blends with Americans' tendency to supersize. NBC says it will have 274 desktop computers, 396 laptop computers and 2,500 monitors. It will consume 44,600 donuts and pastries and 78,000 energy bars.
The games and the coverage will be big, but will they be good? Those qualities can co-exist, Neal said. That opening ceremony, for instance, is being molded by Yimou Zhang, director of "House of the Flying Daggers" and other films.
And the NBC telecast? It has great technical advantages, Neal said. "These will be the first-ever Olympics broadcast 100% in high definition," he said. Four years ago, only five venues had high-def set-ups; this time, all 37 will. "Even the smallest lipstick camera, the camera that's embedded in the target at archery ... is in HD," Neal said.
And storytelling? That's where tastes vary. A few Olympics ago, NBC prided itself on its vignettes about athletes. It would film more than 100 of them, some fairly long.
And now? "We still have 60 or 70 features over 17 days," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports. "Little profiles ... now they're almost uniformly 2 minutes or less." Instead, he wants the announcers to tell the stories, just before the action begins. And much of that will be live. Ebersol said he talked with the International Olympic Committee chairman, even before the site was chosen. "I told him that it would be almost impossible for an American network bidding on the games in the future ... not to have some way to have 'live' happen.
Then Beijing -- 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone in the United States -- was chosen. To be live in prime time (8-11 p.m. ET), an event has to be between 8 and 11 a.m. Officials hesitated, then agreed. Ebersol said the American TV deal "generates considerably more than half of all the money that they get."
So athletes will wake up early. About half of NBC's prime time and 80% of the overall coverage will be live, Ebersol said. On the first night after the ceremonies, Aug. 9, there will be four live, gold-medal swimming events. NBC will focus its prime time coverage on swimming, gymnastics and track-and-field, with nods to other sports.
Still, Costas said there will be plenty of attention paid to other countries. "When Liu Xiang takes to the track in the 110-meter hurdles, when Yao Ming leads the Chinese basketball team against the Americans in their very first game in the second day ... this is going to be like a Super Bowl atmosphere," Costas said. It will be ... well, mega-uber-big. Freep.com, 26th Jul 2008
FC Barcelona has fallen in love with Scotland so much that it has commissioned its own tartan . The official Barca tartan was presented by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to club directors on Thursday ahead of the opening game of its summer tour. The tartan was inspired by the colours on the Liga BBVA club's strip and is now officially registered by the Scottish Tartans Authority. Tourism body VisitScotland is keen to tap into the Spanish tourism market - believed to be worth £78 million to the Scottish economy - and it is hoping to attract more Spaniards to Scotland on the back of the Catalan club's visit. Denise Hill, head of international marketing for VisitScotland, said: "In Spain, football has such an enormous following and the Barcelona team's fan base provides a huge audience for us to target on the back of them training in Scotland this summer." Football Insider, 25th Jul 2008
DATA BOX
India, China to See Fastest Growth in Pay-TV
Futuresource Consulting survey published on Indiantelevision.com, 26th July 2008
India and China will be the fastest-growing pay TV markets even as a UK-based market research and consultancy firm predicts a 40% growth by 2012, representing an increase of 38 million units. The Asian region will account to nearly 50% of the global demand, according to Futuresource Consulting.
"India and China will account for the majority of this, though both have witnessed slow uptake of multi-channel TV to date, due to price and technology limitations. As costs reduce, both countries will generate phenomenal growth,” says the report.
Pay-TV operators around the world would, however, continue to use STBs to drive digital services, increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and reduce subscriber churn with innovations such as HD, PVR, VoD and home networking, according to Futuresource Consulting’s Carl Hibbert.
Asia Among World's Highest Broadband Penetration
Gartner study published on Bangkokpost.com, 25th July 2008
South Korea and Hong Kong are two of the top three markets in the world with the highest household broadband penetration. Korea topped the Gartner study with 93% penetration in 2007, with this figure expected to hit 97 percent in 2012. Next on the list are the Netherlands and Hong Kong, trailing Korea with rates of 74 and 76%, respectively last year. Although the Netherlands had a lower score last year, it was placed above Hong Kong in the list because it is projected to surpass Hong Kong in 2012 by a slim margin at 82% -- Gartner predicts Hong Kong to hit 81% in the year.
SPORTS SHORTS
* Experts say India’s mobile advertising market is expected to cross Rs 120 crore in 2010 from Rs 30 crore at present. Advertisers, after targeting the television and internet medium, are now hoping to cash in on the mobile revolution. The planners have realised that personalised, permissive and contextual advertising is the right strategy to reach out to the target audience and guarantee a better return on investment. At the moment, most mobile advertising takes the form of text messages. But telecoms firms are also beginning to deliver ads to handsets in addition to video clips, web pages, music and game downloads, through mobiles, which enable such features. With big players entering this domain, the market is set to create more buzz. Televisionpoint.com, 25th July 2008
* Filipino mobile operator Digitel Philippines, which trades under the banner Sun Cellular, said it reached the 6.5 million mark for subscribers at the end of June, with monthly net additions totalling around 500,00 per month in 2008. The company has set itself a target of ten million subscribers by the end of the year and aims to improve its range of services in order to reach this goal. James Go, chairman of JG Summit Holdings, estimates Sun Cellular had a ‘close to 10%’ market share by the end of June having carved a niche in the country’s highly-competitive telecoms industry. Sun Cellular has reportedly allocated PHP12 billion (USD271 million) to expand and upgrade its networks this year, increasing the number of cellsites from 2,300 in December 2007 to 4,000 by end of this year. Telegeography.com, 25th July 2008
* Red Bull Energy Drink has launched a branding initiative which will see an all-female Red Bull team take part at the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race. The team, called the Red Bull Rookies, was selected from the Red Bull Female Driver Search 2007 which saw over 600 applicants. In keeping with its commitment towards motorsports, Red Bull has also launched a Female Driver Search for 2008. The current crop of Red Bull Rookies will race in the 12-hour endurance race at the Sepang F1 International Circuit this August. Marketing Malaysia, 25th Jul 2008
* Richard Brooke, corporate development director at Setanta, has revealed the pay-TV platform has set a target of attracting 1.5 million direct subscribers to its sports channels by April 2009. Setanta, which has rights to 46 live Barclays Premier League games per season for the next two campaigns, currently has more than one million premium subscribers, and nearly two million more use its services on other platforms such as Virgin Media. Setanta splashed out £392 million for two Premier League rights packages in a three-year deal starting with the 2007-08 season, with Sky picking up the other four packages in a £1.3 billion agreement to show 92 matches per campaign. Setanta also airs a range of other sporting content, including boxing, golf, cricket and horse racing. Sports Media, 25th Jul 2008
* When Erfurt kicks off its first league fixture of the 2008-09 season this evening, the team, and opponent Dynamo Dresden will be making German football history. For the first time ever, professional football in Germany will span three divisions with the birth of the Dritte Bundesliga. This weekend 20 clubs kick off the new third tier of the German game, which used to be regionalised in a north-south divide, starting with Erfurt's clash with Dresden, a game which will also be screened live on MDR television. Each club can expect to earn €590,000 from TV revenue with highlights of Dritte Bundesliga games preceding those of the 1.Bundesliga on a Saturday evening. That amount will rise to €825,000 next year, which is still eclipsed by the €5 million on offer to 2.Bundesliga sides, but should be enough to make a success of the new division. Football Insider, 25th Jul 2008
* M6, the French commercial network, has announced a drop in half-year profits after shelling out a €50 million ($78.5 million) rights fee to broadcast soccer’s Euro 2008. The broadcaster’s net profit for the first half of 2008 fell by 26.7 per cent to €79.2 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped by nearly 30 per cent to €106.5 million and revenues totalled €709.1 million. Advertising revenue was up 4 per cent to €414 million, with non-advertising revenue down 5.1 per cent to €295.1 million. M6 has blamed the drop in core profits on investments such as the outlay on the European Championships held i Austria and Switzerland. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
* Traffic Sports USA, announced the results of the International Friendly soccer match between the Salvadoran and Guatemalan national teams held on July 20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Over 37,000 fans poured into the Coliseum to cheer their respective national sides in the "Clasico Centroamericano" leading several media to dub the match as the top exhibition match held inthe United States in the last 20 years. The Central American population among the largest in the USA at over 5m people. Traffic Sports also owns the Closed Circuit television rights for the majority of the CONCACAF 2010 World Cup Qualifying in the United States which presents a great opportunity for sponsors targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. News Blaze, 25th Jul 2008
* The Chicago Cubs may sell for more than $1 billion, which would be a record for a U.S. professional sports franchise, based on bids from five groups that Tribune Co. accepted in the first stage of negotiations. Tribune, the newspaper publisher taken private by Sam Zell, narrowed the number of bidders for the Major League Baseball franchise to 5 from 10, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing people it didn't identify. The Cubs, whose history dates back to 1876, play at historic Wrigley Field and have drawn more than 3 million fans in each of the past four seasons. It is one of the most popular teams in baseball even though they haven't played in a World Series since 1945 and haven't won a championship in 100 years. Sports City, 25th Jul 2008
* Wimbledon champion Venus Williams has withdrawn from next week's Rogers Cup women's tennis tournament with a knee injury. Tournament director Eugene Lapierre said yesterday Williams did not want to risk aggravating the tendinitis in her knee ahead of the Beijing Olympics. She was the lone late withdrawal from the tier-1 event before the draw yesterday. This year's tournament boasts seven of the world's top-10 players. The Record, 26th July 2008
MORE NEWS
Singapore/New Media: More Join DVB-H Trial
Pay-TV and mobile operator Starhub and telco SingTel have joined an upcoming DVB-H mobile TV trial in Singapore planned by broadcaster Mediacorp and mobile telco M1. Initially announced back in January, the trial has been expanded to include SingTel and Starhub and will involve some 300 customers of the three telcos. The project will span three months.
Participants will be using the Samsung P-960 handsets and the trial is also supported by technology partners, Alcatel-Lucent and Gemalto. Involvement of four of the territory’s most powerful media and telecoms firms could spell trouble for a rival DVB-H trial, TV2Go. That project is now managed by Broadcast Australia, which came on board in June when TV2Go operator PGK Media formed a new joint venture with the Macquarie-backed broadcast services company.
Trialists of the Mediacorp project will be able to view six dedicated channels with a range of programming include the Beijing Olympics, plus English Premier League football from a Starhub Football Channel.
Chinese-speaking viewers will have access to Cantonese movies from a mobile version of SingTel’s mio TV’s Mei Ah Movies Channel, as well as a simulcast of StarHub’s TVBS News in August and CTI in September. More news will come from a simulcast of the Channel News Asia service and CNBC. Also available, although just in October, will be The History Channel. Selected programmes from Kids Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Channel 8 and Channel U will make up two further composite channels. Rapid TV News, 25th Jul 2008
Malaysia/Broadcaster: Astro Expansion to Continue
Malaysian pay-TV operator Astro All Asia Networks will continue to expand internationally, off the back of similar expansion at home, the group said. Chairman Dato’ Haji Badri Haji Masri said: "We are focused on driving our Malaysian businesses to higher levels of customer service. In the current uncertain economic environment, we recognise that consumer sentiment may be affected. Nevertheless, we remain positive that the investments we have put into technology, local programming, premium sports and other content will continue to pay off.”
Dato’ Badri added: "Our experience and achievements at home mean we are also well-equipped to meet the strong demand in the region for high-quality entertainment and information adapted to the respective languages and cultures." Astro has a 20% stake in south Indian DTH operator Sun Direct TV which earlier this month announced it had signed up 1 million subs in just 200 days of operation.
But Astro’s less-successful foreign involvement, with Indonesia’s PT Direct Vision, remains a cloud, despite Astro’s talking-up of the operation. Astro CEO Ralph Marshall said: "There has been no progress in negotiations on the proposed take-up by the Group of an equity stake in PT Direct Vision and the discussions remain inconclusive. The primary terms of the trademark and the licensing agreement under which PTDV is able to provide the Astro service to its customers expires on 1 Sept 2008 and we are evaluating our options in this context. However, the Group is optimistic about the potential of the Indonesian market where pay-TV penetration is just 2% compared with over 40% in Malaysia." Rapid TV News, 25th Jul 2008
India/Broadcast: Upgrade to Digital Transmission in 5 Years
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set a five year time-frame for cable TV operators to upgrade their current analogue network to digital transmission mode to compete with new distribution platforms like IPTV, HITS, besides improving their revenue earning prospects.
Pointing out that cable TV transmission in the country is predominantly analog and is limited to provisioning of TV channels only; it said due to technological developments, existing cable operators are likely to face stiff competition from operators employing advance distribution technologies.
"The spectacular growth of Indian Cable TV industry during the past two decades has been largely due to entrepreneurial skills of Cable TV operators. Cable TV penetration has risen to 78 million homes at the end of year 2007 and still has a lot of potential to grow. However, the present mode of Cable TV transmission which is predominantly analogue, has certain limitations as it lacks scope for technological up-gradation, appropriate addressability and efficient resource utilization." TRAI said in its final recommendations on Restructuring of Cable TV Services.
The sector is marred with disputes relating to actual subscriber base, poor quality of service and inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism. The non-availability of authenticated data, lack of supervisory guidance and unorganized development of cable TV industry are some of the roadblocks in exploring the sector's full potential. TRAI has recommended a well defined and supportive licensing framework to restructure the Cable TV sector and improve services to customers. Televisionpoint.com, 25th July 2008
India/General: Man. United Plan Indian Expansion
English Premier League club, Manchester United, is seeking to expand its commercial interests in India, according to UK press reports. The country, which represents one of the last significant untapped markets for football in the world, has the fastest-growing economy after China and could create a wealth of opportunities for the club, according to United’s Chief Executive, David Gill.
Speaking at United’s pre-season tour of South Africa, Gill said that gaining a commercial foothold in India was a priority as they seek to retain their position as the richest club in England and that as a first step United are likely to play a friendly in India, perhaps as soon as next summer.
Gill said: "India is interesting. We have been approached to go there and we are looking at some soccer school opportunities there. We would not rule out going there," he said. "They do have ambitions and have a key goal to make it to the World Cup. Whether they can make it or not I do not know, but it's a huge, huge country." Of United's estimated 333million followers worldwide, 20million live in India's urban population, more than half of whom are said to be `core` fans. Sportcal, Sports City, Guardian UK, 25th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/Rights: DFL Considers Legal Action
German soccer association Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) is considering legal action against the federal cartel office’s decision regarding the allocation of the Bundesliga TV rights. There are now also rumours that News Corp or a News Corp-backed entity could jump in and snap up all available rights. “We have commissioned numerous legal reviews,” said the soccer league’s president Reinhard Rauball in Frankfurt am Main. The Bonn-based authority recently approved the centralised marketing of the rights through DFL and media entrepreneur Leo Kirch only under the condition that the highlights of Saturday matches would be screened before 8pm on free-to-air television.
According to DFL’s managing director Christian Seifert, the contract with Kirch - which guarantees a total income of €3 billion for the seasons 2009 until 2015 - is still valid, although a plan C will now have to be developed as the cartel office’s decision would lift the contract’s foundation.
According to the competition watchdogs, the centralised marketing constituted an inadmissible cartel of the Bundesliga clubs which, as an exception, could only be permitted if some of the advantages were passed on to consumers. This would be the case if coverage of Saturday’s matches was screened before 8pm by public or commercial broadcasters. Later broadcasts would deny large sections of the public an opportunity to keep abreast of developments. With this regulation, says the cartel office, viewers would be given an attractive alternative to the live games screened on pay-TV while at the same time pay-TV broadcasters would be prevented from charging inflated subscription prices.
According to German news magazine Focus, DFL is considering various new marketing concepts, including the idea to offer cable and satellite operators such as Kabel Deutschland, Unitymedia or SES Astra soccer packages with free-to-air highlights of the Saturday matches to attract new customers. The report also claims that media mogul Rupert Murdoch is considering an offer of €450 million per season for the complete rights package comprising free-to-air and pay-TV coverage. This would be less than the €500 million per season guaranteed in the original DFL/Kirch contract, but €30 million more per season than the league’s current income from TV contracts.
The rights would be an ideal lure to encourage Murdoch, who is already the largest single shareholder in pay-TV operator Premiere, to buy into a German free-to-air TV channel such as Sat.1, which could then screen the highlights on Saturday before 8pm. The media entrepreneur could thereby establish a strong foothold in both Germany’s free-TV and pay-TV markets. Sports Media, Rapid TV News, Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
Elsewhere/Rights: FIBA Europe Targets Major TV Deal for Women’s Basketball
FIBA Europe, basketball’s governing body in the region, is looking to secure a pan-European broadcasting deal for the EuroLeague Women, Europe’s top women’s club competition, but admits that ‘the product is untested in the market.’ FIBA Europe secretary general Nar Zanolin said the federation was very keen to find a single main television partner for the competition for the 2008-09 season, which gets under way in October.
He told Sportcal.com ‘Yes, if it’s possible, I would love to. If an offer is made, we would convene all the clubs and present the proposal and then they would make a decision.’ At present, the media and marketing rights to the EuroLeague Women and the second-tier Women's EuroCup are held by individual clubs. However, FIBA Europe retains the right to conclude an overall deal for the EuroLeague Women, which will be dependent on support from the clubs.
Zanolin said that so far only deals with individual clubs had been agreed for the upcoming season, mostly with local and national television stations. The draws for the Euroleague Women and Women's EuroCup, both of which comprise 24 teams, were made two weeks ago and Zanolin said that the EuroLeague Women structure, with six balanced groups of four teams would make for a ‘high-level’ competition.
Zanolin said: ‘This is a product that broadcasters should seriously look at. We have the best players in the world. It is as yet untested from a television point a view – we have never had a pan-European contract – but we want to give it a chance.’
He said he hopes Eurosport, the pan-European sports broadcaster, would be interested in the rights, but admitted that a deal could complicated by the fact that it airs the ULEB Cup, which, like the men's Euroleague, is organised by a separate body, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball (ULEB), based in Barcelona. FIBA Europe holds the rights to the climax of the EuroLeague Women, known as the Final Four.
It is expected that broadcasters in the nations represented in the Final Four, plus two or three other countries, will register an interest, when the line-up is decided. Zanolin accepts that the demand for the women's competitions is an unknown quantity but believes that the players deserve a platform to show their skills.
He said: ‘Women’s basketball has always been neglected but deserves some attention. It is a spectacle of a different dimension to the men’s game, but very exciting too. We want to give the world at large the opportunity to see this, and then either admire it or discard it. I like this product, but people may not like it.’ The EuroLeague Women competition will take place from October 15, 2008 to February 25, 2009, with the Final Four to held from April 3 to 5, 2009. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
THE 2008 OLYMPICS
Olympic Trivia
* During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.
* The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.
Tickets Sold-Out
Tickets for the Beijing Olympics have nearly been sold out as the opening ceremony of the game draws near. By Saturday evening, 16 of the 19 ticket booths, which started the fourth, or the final, phase of Olympic ticket sale to individuals on Friday, hung out sign boards reading "sold out". According to The News, tickets for popular sports like tennis and archery were sold out within hours of their first day in the ticket counter, said Wu Xiaonan, an official with a ticket booth near the Beijing Olympic Green Hockey Stadium. However, Wu said, tickets for hockey, boxing and handball are still available; adding most tickets for hockey will probably be sold out by late Sunday. According to official sources at a booth of the Olympic Sports Center, tickets for the handball match are expected to be sold out by Monday. News.WebIndia123.com, 27th July 2008
ABU Olympic Deal Could Have Excluded India as Well as China
The Olympic Games broadcasting deal for 2010 and 2012 with the Asian Broadcasting Union announced on Monday did not include the territory of China but could also have excluded India as the International Olympic Committee was contemplating securing a separate deal in that growing market.
It is thought that the IOC was prompted to consider selling the rights separately in India by the market share and revenue opportunities in the country, where the Olympics seem to be increasing in popularity and a bid to host the games is in the pipeline. Nonetheless, India was ultimately included in the ABU deal, along with 21 other countries from the sub-continent and south-east Asia, and the ground-breaking deal with ESPN Star Sports, the cable and satellite broadcaster, for a similar list of territories.
Delhi is considering a bid for the 2020 Olympics, depending on the success of the city’s hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, having lost out to Incheon in South Korea in the race to host the 2014 Asian Games. A total of 57 Indian athletes across 13 sports are expected to compete in the Beijing Olympics next month. Some 78 athletes in 14 sports were involved in Athens in 2004, but those figures included the men’s hockey team, which has failed to qualify this time round. The 2008 Olympics will be broadcast in India by Doordarshan, the Indian state broadcaster and an ABU member.
The IOC chose to exclude China from the ABU deal for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics in order to maximise the value of the Chinese television and new media market after generating between $7 million and $8 million alone from CCTV.com, the internet arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, for the new media rights to the Beijing games. The IOC was unable to sign a lucrative television deal in China for the 2008 Olympics as CCTV acquired the rights relatively inexpensively as a member of the ABU through a deal agreed in 1998, when the games had yet to be awarded.
The ABU contribution for the 2008 Olympics is $17.5 million, a significant portion of which is attributable to China, and it is thought that the share of media revenues from Asia will increase as a result of individual deals negotiated by the IOC in that country. Japan and Korea are not included in the ABU deal as the IOC agrees deals in both countries separately.
The territories covered by the new ABU deal are; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The deals with the ABU and ESPN Star Sports include simultaneous live retransmission rights on the internet and mobile devices, but because the coverage has to be the same as the television pictures the IOC will be able to negotiate further new media deals in Asia.
The deal with ESPN Star Sports for the Indian sub-continent and south-east Asia marked the first time the IOC has awarded pay-television rights in the region. ESPN Star Sports, which has a reach of over 310 million in Asia, has committed to broadcasting over 200 hours of coverage from the summer Olympics in London in 2012 and over 60 hours of coverage from the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.
ESPN Star Sports will not have to sell on rights to terrestrial broadcasters as it has not been handed ‘gatekeeper’ free-to-air and pay-television rights as was the case in Italy with pay-television operator Sky Italia. Despite the acquisition of rights by ESPN Star Sports, the free-to-air commitment in the ABU deal is the same as it was for Athens in 2004 and Turin in 2006.
The ABU has pledged a minimum of 200 hours of Olympic coverage in 2012 and accepted the minimum requirement of a daily 52-minute highlights programme in prime time for the winter Olympics in 2010, when some broadcasters may also choose to provide live coverage, as was the case for the 2006 Turin games. Sportcal, 25th Jul 2008
Olympics/Rights: Beijing Lays Down the Law for Army of Global Media
America's biggest media organisations are engaged in a massive expedition to Beijing to provide round-the-clock coverage of the Summer Olympics, and they promise a truly Olympian affair. Thousands of journalists, producers, presenters, runners, technicians and gofers are being shipped out from the US to giant media cities-within-cities to bring the folks back home a view of the games the likes of which they have never seen.
But China has strict rules governing journalists' movements and the topics about which they report, so if any member of this media legion decides to stray too far outside of the realms of simple sports coverage, they may get more - or rather less - than they bargained for. NBC Universal, owner of the NBC TV Network, is America's official Olympics broadcaster and is sending the biggest contingent to the games. It paid $894m (£449m) for the exclusive rights to broadcast 3,600 hours of coverage.
The deal with the International Olympic Committee was part of a record-breaking $2.3bn package to give NBC the exclusive US media rights to the 2004 Summer Olympics ($793m), the 2006 Winter Games ($613m) and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The network has since paid a further $2bn for the exclusive US media rights to cover the 2010 Winter Games ($820m) and the 2012 Olympics in London ($1.18bn).
NBC promises to broadcast around the clock, using TV, internet and mobile phone technology to give viewers 'three-screen' access to the games for the first time. Of the 3,600 hours of coverage, more than 2,900 will be live - more than all the live US coverage of all prior televised Summer Olympics.
With two weeks to go until the games begin, NBC has already sold about $900m of its $1bn advertising target, while its parent GE has spent many millions more as one of the top-tier official sponsors. NBC - as official US broadcaster - has had a relatively hassle-free time in China but a common series of complaints is emerging among those who work for non-rights-owning organisations.
Vital equipment is being delayed at customs. Access to politically sensitive venues like Tiananmen Square is being restricted, despite assurances from the government that such obstructions would be lifted for the Olympics. Even something as simple as parking a satellite broadcast truck on the street is proving almost impossible for many outlets, while in the smaller cities officials have been actively hostile to journalists.
China has tried to give the impression that it has relaxed many of its despotic media restrictions for the Olympics. It was with great fanfare that a new set of rules for foreign journalists was established more than 18 months ago. The rules sought to lift the requirement for journalists to apply to officialdom when they wanted to travel or set up an interview. Even though the harsh rules were rarely enforced, lifting them was seen as a leap forward.
But little has changed, according to Anthony Kuhn, a veteran reporter on China for America's National Public Radio. 'I was arrested while reporting a story just weeks after the rules were changed,' he said from his Beijing office. 'I was reporting on farmland being taken away by government in Shanxi province and all of a sudden I was detained and told I was trespassing in a military zone, which was not the case.'
Kuhn has been arrested on similarly trumped-up charges six or seven times since the rules were supposedly relaxed in December 2007. 'The Chinese government makes all the right noises and promises to modernise things for foreign media but in practice the new rules are almost unenforceable when you get out in the provinces,' he says.
CNN, which boasts one of the longest-standing Western media presences in Beijing, has tried to sidestep many of the problems its competitors face by teaming up with BMC, an arm of the official Beijing TV company. But still, the network has hit serious impediments.
'We faced daunting political and logistic hurdles preparing for the coverage of the Beijing Olympics,' says Jaime FlorCruz, CNN's Beijing bureau chief. 'We still face frequent push-backs. Some of our requests for interviews and shoots are turned down. Logistics have been difficult too, but after some hiccups they seem to have fallen into place.'
China promised back in 2001 that 'there will be no restrictions on journalists reporting on the Olympic Games'. But it is clear this is not the case. 'I have spoken to journalists who say they have been denied press credentials to cover the Olympics because they have spoken or written about China's human rights record, and issues like Darfur or Tibet,' says Richard Bush, director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies and a fellow of the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think-tank.
Indeed, reports also suggest that the government has ramped up visa restrictions and has clamped down on allowances for protests in and around Olympic events after the turmoil that surrounded the Olympic torch relay earlier this year.
Internet censorship has also been addressed, in part, for the duration of the games, as foreigners will be able to access much of what is available to them outside China but only from their designated internet access points in the various media locations and their hotels. 'The real question,' Kuhn says, 'is how many restrictions Chinese journalists face, and what kind of internet censorship ordinary Chinese have to put up with?'
It must not be forgotten, though, that China invited a media operation of a previously unimagined scale into the country, and is trying to meet its demands. And the regime is trying to balance the needs of journalists with the real threat of a security breach. In Beijing, model plane flights have been banned for the duration of the games, while unessential medical operations have been stopped to make sure there is an adequate supply of blood in case of a terrorist attack.
'Hopefully foreign journalists visiting China for the first time will take the time to look beyond the propaganda,' says Kuhn, adding that he believes the games have brought a modicum of hope to those wanting media reform. The fact is that the rules for foreign journalists have been changed. And I think to some extent you can't put the genie back in the bottle.' The Guardian UK, 27th Jul 2008
Olympics/General: Everything's Supersized in Beijing
The Beijing games will set records in the number of nations competing (205, compared to 201 in 2004) and the amount spent for U.S. TV rights ($894 million, compared to $793 million in 2004). When it comes to the total number of U.S. TV hours (3,600 on NBC and cable), it will top all previous games combined.
So new phrases are grafted. Bob Costas, NBC's anchor, says the Chinese response to the games will be "mega-big," the opening ceremony will be "uber-spectacular." Then again, that fits the math of China. Costas tells of a conversation between producer David Neal and a Chinese official. Neal marveled at the opening ceremony plans that call for 15,000 performers. "The official reminded him, 'David, we have the people.' "
They do, more than a billion of them. That blends with Americans' tendency to supersize. NBC says it will have 274 desktop computers, 396 laptop computers and 2,500 monitors. It will consume 44,600 donuts and pastries and 78,000 energy bars.
The games and the coverage will be big, but will they be good? Those qualities can co-exist, Neal said. That opening ceremony, for instance, is being molded by Yimou Zhang, director of "House of the Flying Daggers" and other films.
And the NBC telecast? It has great technical advantages, Neal said. "These will be the first-ever Olympics broadcast 100% in high definition," he said. Four years ago, only five venues had high-def set-ups; this time, all 37 will. "Even the smallest lipstick camera, the camera that's embedded in the target at archery ... is in HD," Neal said.
And storytelling? That's where tastes vary. A few Olympics ago, NBC prided itself on its vignettes about athletes. It would film more than 100 of them, some fairly long.
And now? "We still have 60 or 70 features over 17 days," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports. "Little profiles ... now they're almost uniformly 2 minutes or less." Instead, he wants the announcers to tell the stories, just before the action begins. And much of that will be live. Ebersol said he talked with the International Olympic Committee chairman, even before the site was chosen. "I told him that it would be almost impossible for an American network bidding on the games in the future ... not to have some way to have 'live' happen.
Then Beijing -- 12 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone in the United States -- was chosen. To be live in prime time (8-11 p.m. ET), an event has to be between 8 and 11 a.m. Officials hesitated, then agreed. Ebersol said the American TV deal "generates considerably more than half of all the money that they get."
So athletes will wake up early. About half of NBC's prime time and 80% of the overall coverage will be live, Ebersol said. On the first night after the ceremonies, Aug. 9, there will be four live, gold-medal swimming events. NBC will focus its prime time coverage on swimming, gymnastics and track-and-field, with nods to other sports.
Still, Costas said there will be plenty of attention paid to other countries. "When Liu Xiang takes to the track in the 110-meter hurdles, when Yao Ming leads the Chinese basketball team against the Americans in their very first game in the second day ... this is going to be like a Super Bowl atmosphere," Costas said. It will be ... well, mega-uber-big. Freep.com, 26th Jul 2008