Monday, 11th July 2011

BROADCAST & RIGHTS DISTRIBUTION

=>  Content Media Corporation is the new exclusive distributor for live and archive content from the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (BAMMA) outside of the UK. BAMMA is the largest MMA organization in Europe with TV viewing figures as high as 835,000 adults. BAMMA events have been carried live on UK’s Syfy and the new deal with CMC will bring its portfolio to international broadcast and digital marketplace.


NEW MEDIA

=>  Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo and Chinese search engine Baidu have teamed up to distribute mobile content to Chinese users. The two plan to form a joint venture next month and DoCoMo is expected to invest about 2 bil yen (£15.4m). Baidu will take an 80% stake in the JV, while DoCoMo will own the remainder. The two plan to develop and operate a site with search functions and will call on Japanese companies to supply content such as games, animation and comics for subscribers of Chinese mobile phone carriers, including China Mobile. DoCoMo has plans to form a content distribution system in Vietnam and market its services to telcos in other parts of Asia as well. It is also considering investment in local content providers, Nikkei reported.

=>  Encompass Digital Media announced plans for a US$20 mil investment into Singapore operations, boosting capacity through technology and infrastructure upgrading. The investment will also be targeted at employee upskilling and engagement with the wider community. Encompass holds over 30% share in Asia’s digital media services market, providing to media companies as Tiger Gate Ent., ESPN Star Sports, Sony Entertainment, Life Inspired and SingTel. At present it holds 260,000 hours of TV content at its facilities in east Singapore.


STATS & DATA

=>  The global online TV market is forecast to reach $81.2 bil by 2017 says Companiesandmarkets. The analyst says key drivers for this surge are mainly in the growing need for running widgets through TV, higher definition and wider spectrum of channels and entertainment options. The analyst sees Asia-Pac blazing the trail with a CAGR of 59% through 2017. US and Europe will still be at the forefront of online TV revenue, with Europe drawing from traditional online TV and IPTV power house France, Germany and the UK. The analyst also predicts that more consumers will discard traditional TV and embrace viewing video content online and online TV will become part of the mass market.


EVENTS

=>  The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has approved a proposal to organise an Indian Badminton League. Dates and format of the league will be finalised later this month. The IBL will be a major step up for the Maharashtra Badminton League that was held in May. The key ingredient of the IBL will be international player-participation. Pune’s WIE Sports Complex will likely host the IBL.

=>  Chinese telecom, Huawei, has agreed a deal to become the sole sponsor of this year’s Italian Supercoppa. The traditional pre-season match, played between the league, and cup champions, will this year feature AC and Inter Milan. For the second time in three years, it will be played in the Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest. Huawei are keen to extend international presence and have already indicated that this is the first of a series of sponsorship ventures. Huawei are currently the tenth largest mobile handset provider, recently announcing plans to release a range of tablets.

=>  The Daejeon Int. Open in S.Korea has been added to the World Tenpin Bowling Association's inaugural World Bowling Tour. Organised by the Korea Professional Bowling Association, the event will be held Aug 21 to 26 and offers a prize fund of nearly $185,000 with the winner taking home nearly $46,000. The Open will be the 6th of eight stops of the tour, with Thailand's World Bowling Tour in Sep and AMF Australian Masters in Oct concluding the series. That will be followed by the season-ending WBT Finals in which the top three men and top three women in the points list will compete for a total prize fund of $40,000. Other tour stops this year were held in Helsinki in Finland, Kuwait, Saint Maximin in France and Nevada and New Jersey in USA.