Friday, 5th January 2007

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

World Cup Trounces All Other Sporting Events in 2006

The World Cup final between Italy and France was by far the world's most-watched sporting event on television last year, according to research published by Interpublic's Initiative Futures Group. The event held in Germany pulled a final total worldwide audience of 603 million tuning in to watch at least some part of the match, more than double the figure of any other worldwide television sporting event.

The worldwide viewing figures for the tournament were also up from the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea by 14%, showing its strongest increase in audience in the Asia Pacific region and North America. One of the most notable features of the audience profile for the tournament was that more women than ever watched the matches, making up 41% of the total global audience.

In second place, the NFL Super Bowl, which was first in the poll for 2005, drew an average live global audience of 98 million, an increase from 93 million the previous year. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Torino came third in the survey, attracting average live worldwide audience of 87 million. However, when comparing total audience numbers, 249 million people tuning in to catch a glimpse of the opening ceremony, compared with only 151 million viewers who tuned in to part of the Super Bowl.

In fourth and fifth, respectively, was Barcelona v Arsenal in the Uefa Champions League Final, which recoded average audiences of 86 million and the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix, which attracted 83 million people worldwide. The Champions League final drew an average audience 10% larger than the event did in 2005. The Brazilian GP was watched by 39% more viewers than 2005's most watched race, the Canadian Grand Prix. Source: Brand Republic, EUFootball.biz, 4th January 2007


INFO DIGEST

Info Box – Spending Statistics
* Asia-Pacific IT spending by manufacturing companies to reach $22 billion by 2010
* Asia-Pacific processing services to grow at 8% a year
* Asia-Pacific value-added managed services market to grow 18.5% in 2006
* Chinese logistics IT market to grow at 15.9% a year
* Indian SMBs to spend $500 million on servers and networking in 2006
* Media industry generated 1.3 trillion worldwide in 2005
* Public sector IT spending in China to reach $6.5 billion in 2006
* Value-added managed services in Asia-Pacific to grow 18.5% in 2006
* Asia-Pacific IT spending to reach $52 billion in 2007
Source: Info IQ, 22nd December 2006


SPORTS SHORTS

* The mobile video market in China will take off in 2008, driven by interest in the Beijing Olympics. A new study from ABI Research forecasts total mobile video users at more than 32 million in 2008; about 27 percent of these consumers will use broadcasting technology, and 73 percent will use unicast streaming technology, while a number of viewers are likely to use both. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 4th January 2006

* Taiwan Broadcasting Service (TBS) has announced that it would merge with three TV networks: Hakka TV, Indigenous TV and Taiwan Macroview TV. The grand merger would create a mega-public TV network under Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS) network. PTS Chief Executive Officer Hu Yuan Hui told the Taipei Times that the government was funding TBS this year to the tune of NT$1 billion (US$30.36 million) to see the network through the merger. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 2nd January 2007

* Vietnam’s first satellite, Vinasat-1, is due to be sent into orbit in May, 2008. The satellite will have 20 transponders with a 15-year life span. Vietnam Telecoms International (VTI) said television broadcasting options will be the satellite’s main service following world trends. Vinasat-1 will cover Japan, China, Korea, India, the ASEAN region, Australia, the East (South China) Sea and a part of Myanmar. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 3rd January 2007

* Italy’s bid to host the European Championships in 2012 has been handed a boost after the Italian government set aside €20 million for the project in its 2007 national budget. UEFA will make the decision on who will host the tournament in April, with Italy’s bid facing opposition from two combined offers. Joint bids from Croatia and Hungary, as well as Poland and Ukraine are also in the running for the event, which is being co-hosted in 2008 by Austria and Switzerland. Source: Sports Media, 4th January 2007

* CBS is asking for $2.6 million per 30-second spot during the Super Bowl on February 4, up from last year’s record-breaking $2.5 million per spot on ABC. John Bogusz, executive VP for sports sales and marketing at CBS, confirmed to CNNMoney.com that some advertisers are paying in excess of $2.6 million for the slots. In 2006, the game was watched by 90.7 million viewers, the event’s largest audience since 1996, when it was watched by an average of 94.1 million viewers. Source: Worldscreen, 4th January 2006


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/Rights: League Invites TV Bids

Austria’s football league (Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga) has opened a tender process for media rights starting next season. The rights on offer will cover three seasons from 2007-08 until 2010 for both divisions of the league as well as the rights of the clubs for their home games in the UEFA Cup (up to the quarter-finals) and UEFA Champions League qualifying. The league currently has a three-year deal with Premiere covering all media rights. The rights fee for that deal is €42 million for the period, or an average of €14 million per season.

Premiere controls rights to both the T-Mobile Bundesliga and the Red Zac 1 Liga (the second division), each containing 10 teams. The current contract obliges the pay-TV operator to sub-licence rights to free-TV. In addition to the matches on Premiere, public broadcaster ORF shows the top match of the week live on Sundays. It also carries highlights programmes showcasing both divisions.

The league's chief executive Georg Pangl said it is aiming “not only to obtain a good financial result but also to present football to the fans in Austria better and more comprehensively”. He said the availability and range of coverage would be substantial factors in the decision. The competition is open to all qualified prospective buyers, including agencies, the league confirmed. Binding offers are due by January 26. Source: Sports Media, 4th January 2007

China/New Media: 32 Million Mobile Video Users in 2008

The mobile video market in China will take off in 2008, driven by interest in the Beijing Olympics. A new study from ABI Research forecasts total mobile video users at more than 32 million in 2008; about 27 percent of these consumers will use broadcasting technology, and 73 percent will use unicast streaming technology, while a number of viewers are likely to use both.

In Hong Kong, mobile operators are active in mobile video streaming. Their international operations backgrounds allow them to provide diversified content to users. PCCW’s experience in operating its IPTV business will boost its performance in the 3G market. ABI Research forecasts approximately 715,000 mobile video users in Hong Kong in 2008, of which 99 percent will be streaming users. In Taiwan, ABI Research forecasts that there will be over 1.5 million mobile video users in 2008, with 97 percent receiving content via streaming. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 4th January 2007

China/New Media: Test IPTV Service to Launch in Tianjin

IPTV solution firm Celrun has said that it would launch a test IPTV service in league with local handset and solution vendor Chinacom Televideo in Tianjin in the first half of next year. The two companies exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a joint venture and roll out test services for some of 100,000 subscribers of the fibre-to-the-home service provided by a local carrier.

Chinacom will be responsible for winning approval from the government and securing content, while Celrun will provide set-top boxes and IPTV broadcasting solutions, reports ET News. The company is also tapping into IPTV deals in other areas in the country to provide set-top boxes and broadcasting solutions. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, 27th December 2006

Korea/New Media: S-DMB Operator to Revive Business

TU Media Corp, the sole operator of satellite mobile broadcasting services in South Korea, said it plans to raise 70 billion won (US$75.3 million) in new capital to bolster its business. TU Media said in a statement that it will sell an undisclosed number of shares to investors through a private placement, but the unlisted company gave no further details.

TU Media, subsidiary of top mobile operator SK Telecom Co, launched the satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (S-DMB) in May 2005 and recently reported that it has attracted more than 1 million subscribers for the fee-based mobile broadcasting service. But the figure fell short of its initial target of 1.2 million for this year. SK Telecom has announced that it will invest up to 32.5 billion won (US$34.9 million) to support TU Media's S-DMB business. Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcast Union, 27th December 2006

India/Broadcaster: Nimbus Chief Sees Regional Channel Growth

Nimbus Communications, owner of new channel Neo Sports, has predicted that sports channels in Asia will take a higher share of subscriber revenues as new platforms and technologies proliferate. Chairman Harish Thawani, whose company controls Indian cricket rights, forecast that the growth of regional sports channels will change the status quo of rights deals in Asia.

“The rise of the regional broadcasters and/or platform owned sports channels (from Al Jazeera in the Middle East to Neo Sports in South Asia to Astro's Super Sports in Malaysia, to PCCW in Hong Kong and Starhub's Super Sports in Singapore) have encouraged rights holders to stop doing pan-Asian deals and opt for country-wide deals,” he commented.

Thawani speculated that new patterns of buying may emerge. “Perhaps in two-three years time, we might see a consortium of regional broadcasters emerge, forming a pan-Asian footprint but retaining regional autonomy, using the benefits of consortium buying of rights, collective platform negotiation ability, exchange of best practices and technology and perhaps even cross-holdings into an Asian superstructure." Source: Sports Media, 4th January 2007

India/Broadcaster: Pay-TV Rollout a Good Signal for Broadcasters

The roll-out of a long-delayed pay-TV system in three of India's main cities in 2007 will offer some relief to broadcasters dependent on cable operators, but strict regulation will crimp near-term profits. India's fragmented US$3.6 billion TV industry has more than 20,000 cable operators who, analysts and broadcasters say, under-declare subscriber numbers, charge random tariffs and sometimes black out broadcasters.

From 1 January, viewers in parts of Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata will be able to access cable channels they choose through a set-top box rather than being limited to channels the operator beams. The three cities together account for nearly 14 percent of an estimated 65 million cable homes in India, the world's third-biggest cable television market.

JM Morgan Stanley estimates cable operators under-report subscriber numbers by as much as 50 percent, so broadcasters could see a 33 percent rise in subscription revenue on increased reporting and a bigger share of the distribution break-up. Subscriptions now make up about 45 percent of total revenue, compared to more than 50 percent in developed TV markets. Source: Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, 27th December 2006

India/New Media: Pocket Television

Nokia has announced a DVB-H broadcast mobile TV pilot with Doordarshan. The pilot is set to take off in early 2007 and will be delivered to Doordarshan by SHAF Broadcast, a Mumbai-based digital content solutions provider. During the pilot phase, Doordarshan will test reception quality of the broadcast coverage. Revenue structure or advertising opportunities will come later. It will also help Nokia and Doordarshan gauge the acceptability.

Consumers are using mobile devices for digital photos, video as well as music services. Doordarshan was chosen for the pilot since it is the national television broadcaster of India. Additionally, the network also runs the largest free to air satellite services covering the country. The network's analog broadcast territory covers over 92% of the country providing free news, sports and entertainment.

The pilot in India comes after similar pilots were completed elsewhere, including Taiwan and Malaysia. Technology used in the pilot is DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) which is the global, open standard for live MobileTV broadcast. But other parts of the world also use different platforms like DMB or Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. DMB enables streaming video on mobile while DVB-H does not require new infrastructure since India already works on a DVB-T platform, which is fixed.

The pilot will be available on the Nokia N92, the first handset dedicated to viewing and storing mobile TV broadcast content and accessing interactive mobile TV services. The technology allows simultaneous broadcast of more than 50 channels and interactive TV programmes over a single frequency network. Mobile TV complements current 2G and 3G services with a one-to-many broadcasting capability. Source: Agencyfaqs, 4th January 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Overview 2006: Cricket, Non-cricket and Some More Cricket

Talks of non-cricket in 2006 might have increased from previous years but the name of the game in sports was still cricket in terms of performance. Plus legal cases, acquisitions, bidding and new entrants kept the action high in the domain. The year belonged to Ten Sports with 2006 opening to high numbers for the Allianz Cup (India cricket), despite a dirty feed aired on DD. The next clear player was ESPN, followed by STAR Sports, Zee Sports and DD Sports.

Most sports channels were living life with business as usual in the first quarter but big movement came in the form of Nimbus winning the BCCI rights after some fierce bidding in February 2006. The player chose Hindi mass channel Sahara One to telecast the first series from the BCCI stadium and the sports channels didn’t see much benefits.

March saw a jump in the ESPN graph when the most spoken about ODI in recent times – South Africa vs Australia – aired on the channels and saw eight records tumble with one of the highest TVRs for a non-India cricket match. More of bidding was seen in April when Zee Telefilms beat Nimbus to win the global overseas media rights for international cricket matches played by India in neutral venues (non-ICC member countries).

April was an interesting month for programming with Ten Sports playing an unprecedented card by airing sports movies in April and May – not a steep hike in shares but enough numbers to keep the channel on high ground in the period with the exception of one week that skyrocketed Zee Sports’ numbers. Reason: The Indo-Pak cricket series played in Dubai which was aired on the channel.

Good news awaited Ten Sports in May when the Supreme Court ruled in the channel’s favour on the India-West Indies cricket series, restraining DD from telecasting the series. While all this was happening, Zee Sports, ESPN and STAR Sports were talking a lot of non-cricket – motor racing, tennis, hockey, UEFA Champions League and football. But the big news in the period was Nimbus announcing its intention to launch channels to house its newly acquired properties and Zee Sports getting a piece of the cricketing pie with the DLF Cup.

The May-June period saw Ten Sports raking in the numbers from the India-West Indies series but ESPN also had its moments with the FIFA World Cup 2006. In fact, the ending of the India-West Indies cricket series took a backseat to football and for once, soccer beat cricket in India. The following weeks saw life return to normal – Ten Sports led and ESPN, STAR Sports, Zee Sports and DD Sports and the order stayed that way until September, when Zee Sports took a lead, thanks to the DLF Cup.

October saw dynamics change with the entrance of a new player, a 24x7 cricket channel – Neo Sports – on October 1, 2006. By the second week, Neo Sports was the highest rated channel, thanks to the Challenger Series. The glory might have been for a week only, but it motivated Neo Sports enough to launch its second channel, Neo Sports Plus, with a focus on non-cricket sports in November 2006.

The big news in November was Zee Telefilms’ coup, acquiring 50 per cent in Ten Sports. ESPN had some ratings success with the India-South Africa series in November. Despite the terrible form of the Indian team and bad weather conditions, the channel took the lead in ratings. Media planners nonetheless did question the credibility of cricket as an investment property, but that didn’t make much of a difference to players who were bidding for the ICC rights.

The year ended with a bang with ESPN-STAR Sports “getting back into the game” bagging the broadcast rights for all ICC events for an eight-year period from 2007 to 2015. The sum of the sports genre in 2006 it was cricket, non-cricket and some more cricket. What will 2007 be like – take a guess. Noor Fathima Warsia comments on Exchange4Media, 4th January 2007