Wednesday, 8th June 2011

RIGHTS FEES


=>  Comcast Corp-owned NBCUniversal retained broadcast rights for the Olympic Games through 2020 with a staggering US$4.38 bil bid, beating ESPN and Fox for the property. Rights include all media platforms, including free-to-air TV, subscription TV, internet and mobile. The rights cover 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, 2016 Games in Rio De Janeiro, as well as the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games, which have yet to be awarded to a host city. The IOC has enjoyed a long partnership with NBCU, and this deal will mean that by 2020, NBCU will have covered a total of 17 editions of the Games, beginning in 1964. It also holds to the 2012 summer Games in London.


BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Taiwan`s broadcast TV will be completely digitized by July 2012, 6 months ahead of schedule. The move will take place along with the digitisation of cable TV, unleashing business opportunities worth some NT$20 billion, including the procurement of set-top boxes and digital TVs. Around 5.6 mil households, or 75% of 7.5 mil households with access broadcast TV channels, will have to buy digital TVs or install set-top boxes. Meanwhile, the government has targeted boosting the penetration of digital cable TV programmes to 50% by 2015. To facilitate development of HD digital TV, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) plans to issue five digital broadcast TV licences and two mobile TV licences next year.


STATS & DATA

=>  Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast revealed the Middle East and Africa will be the fastest growing region for IP traffic. The VNI showed global Internet traffic will quadruple by 2015 with online video the key driver, with 1 mil minutes of internet video streamed per second. Traffic from the Middle East region will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52% between 2010 and 2015; an 8-fold increase in regional internet use. The VNI Forecast points to a total of 1.3 bil networked devices in the Middle East and Africa within 4 years. By then, Asia-Pacific will surpass North America to generate the most IP traffic (24.1 exabytes per month).


EVENTS

=>  The World Squash Federation will launch the WSF Under-21 World Cup on Indian soil, and it will be hosted 1st to 5th Feb 2012 in Chennai. The inaugural U21 World Cup is an entirely new biennial event introducing a new age-group category in the sport. The new championship will be for mixed teams of two men and one woman, following the highly successful format of the biennial WSF World Cup.

=>  The Netherlands has submitted a bid to host the International Softball Federation Women's World Championship in 2014. If successful, it will be the first time that a European city has held the biennial tournament. The 2012 Women's World Championship is slated to be held at Yukon, Whitehorse in Canada. In 2009, the ISF congress voted to hold the Women's World Championships every two years, as opposed to every four.