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