Thursday, 3rd March 2011

RIGHTS FEE & DISTRIBUTION

=>  [Excerpt] Australia’s Seven and Ten Networks will televise an AFL game each exclusively on Fri and Sat nights respectively to satisfy federal government anti-siphoning requirements, while possibly sharing one game each with Foxtel. Foxtel may be willing to double the $53m it pays for four AFL games, to possibly $100m for 7 games, but it is unlikely Seven/Ten will pay the same $90m they now outlay for 4 games. Sharing viewers with Foxtel would reduce audiences, affecting advertising incomes and therefore the rights fees they would be willing to pay. Seven once shared rugby union Tests with Fox Sports, leaking viewers to audiences which preferred commercial-free coverage and the pay TV network's commentary crew.

=>  [Excerpt] Media companies are bracing for a big revenue hit from a possible lockout by the National Football League but hope that college football and other prime-time shows could pick up the slack for lost ad dollars. Analysts said that while revenue is at serious risk with absence of football on TV, broadcasters' cost structure will be protected because their contracts with NFL mean they'll be 'made whole' if games are missing. ESPN currently pays the highest annual rights fee with an estimated $1.15 billion for the season followed by Fox with $780 million. CBS and NBC have paid around $650 million each.


BROADCAST

=>  A record 192 mil viewers in south-east Asia watched soccer’s biennial 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup. The larger audiences marked a 32% increase on 2008. Nielsen said an average of 15 mil Indonesians watched their national team's two-legged final against Malaysia on RCT, double the audience for the highest-rated 2010 World Cup match. The second leg was RCTI’s highest-rated programme of all time, with a market share of 82% in Indonesia. It was the largest viewing audience ever recorded in a single market in the history of the competition. Malaysian pubcaster RTM recorded market shares of 40.3% and 48.4%, respectively. Total audience reached in the territory was an 8-fold increase on 2008. Vietnam delivered second largest viewership market with total audience of 74.5 mil. Nearly 2 mil people visited the official website while 193,172 fans interacted with each other through Facebook. There were 1.7 mil views of the 35 videos featuring AFF Suzuki Cup 2010 action on YouTube.

=>  India’s Union Budget for 2011/12 was disappointing to the TV industry, which hoped in vain for tax incentives to stimulate the drive to broadcast digitisation. Anticipated removal of import duty on set top boxes (STB) and rationalising taxes in the media sector came to naught. Cable and DTH TV operations remain classed as service industries and by state governments as entertainment industries - and continue to face dual taxation. Broadcast license fees remain at about 10%, while entertainment tax can reach 25%, depending on the state. With 90-95% of STB imported for use in India, import duties are also significant.

=>  The national IPTV platform project in China is going "smoothly". The platform carry TV broadcasts, internet, data transmission and IP phone-call services via cable networks. The platform has 2 tiers - central level, providing programmes and services throughout the country, and local level, for audiences in specific regions. Traditional cable TV needs to be digitalised in order to operate IPTV services and the country has sped up updating cable TV networks over the past five years. Currently, About 50 mil households in China have access to the interactive digital cable TV services and people in 308 cities have access to digital TV programmes.

=>  Pay-TV revenues in Indonesia are forecast to grow at an 18.3% CAGR between 2010 and 2015, reaching $778 million be the end of that period, according to Pyramid Research. Forecasts expect household penetration to grow 7% by 2015, driven by improving economic situation and market competition. Indovision, Telkomvision and First Media are leading, with 95% of pay-TV subscribers in 2010. IPTV is expected to account for 6% of by year-end 2015. Pyramid also expects the Indonesian telecom market to be one of the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific and worldwide, expanding at a 10.3% CAGR over the next 5 years. Indonesia is home to the 4th largest population in the world.


DATA

=>  Research by The Diffusion Group (TDG) has found PC2TV Connectivity for Video Viewing is more widespread than perceived with around a third of broadband users connect a PC to their TV specifically to enable online video. The research revealed 4 user sub-segments: 26.2% Light (once to a few times per year); 35.6% Moderate (once and few times per month); 21.4% Regular (few times per week); 16.8% Frequent (at least once per day). However, PC2TV video viewers appear no more likely than average broadband users to cut the cord and cancel their pay-TV services.


EVENT

=>  Air Asia X has become the title sponsor of the Renault Clio Cup. The competition, a one-make racing series created and managed by Renault, will be known as the Air Asia Renault Clio Cup UK. Air Asia X logo will be displayed on all race cars, suites and podiums at Clio events for the next 3 years. The sponsorship also includes marketing initiatives and campaigns along with competitor incentives which have yet to be defined. The deal was brokered by London-based motorsport organisation, the Stephane Ratel Organisation (SRO).

=>  A row over a provisional list of sports to be included in Southeast Asian Games 2011 in Indonesia has escalated with Malaysia threatening to send second-rank athletes because of exclusion of some sports from competition. Malaysia’s National Sports Council said it has the support of Singapore and Laos, for its complaint over the exclusion; in particular – billiards/snooker and women’s soccer. Organisers have rejected appeals for inclusion of the events. Shooting, cycling and sailing have also been excluded in favour of bridge, paragliding, roller-skating, wall climbing and Vietnamese martial art vovinam. The 26th SEA Games, will take place in Jakarta and Palembang from Nov 11 to 25, will feature 43 sports and 542 medal events.


OTHER BUSINESS NEWS

=>  Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is reportedly close to submitting a proposal for the takeover of UK pay-TV, British Sky Broadcasting, after it was told that the takeover “may operate against the public interest in media plurality.” The new proposal involves BSkyB’s Sky News channel being hived off into an independent trust, albeit News Corp will continue to fund the loss-making channel. The proposal follows weeks of negotiations with the UK’s Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom, the communications regulator.