Monday, 22nd January 2007

HEADLINES OF THE DAY

Female Viewership is Up for Major Global Events

Around the world, the wide belief is that men watch sports and women don’t. Of course, that’s not really true, nor has it ever really been, and now it turns out it’s less true than ever. More women are watching the world’s top sporting events, according to research from Initiative Sports Futures, Initiative’s global sports consultancy division. In fact, that they’re actually behind a good part of the growth in the top events.

In some countries women can account for more than half the viewing for some major events. Just why is a curious thing. It appears to have more to do with celebrity than sports, as the world’s rich sports stars enter the realm of popular culture. Jocks are in as never before, as was seen just recently when British footballer David Beckham signed to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, amid worldwide hoopla in the celebrity press.

“Rather than just being about the pure competitive elements of it, personalities off the field are becoming as important as the skills on the field,” says Kevin Alavy, head of analytics for Initiative Sports Futures. This intriguing finding arises out of Initiative's efforts to rank the world’s top 10 TV sporting events. It found that the top five have been gaining audience, with women behind much of it, while many of the lesser events were actually losing audience.

For the top TV sports event of 2006, the FIFA World Cup Final (Italy vs. France), Initiative found that women accounted for 41 percent of the global audience, a larger share than ever before. Two years before, for the UEFA European Football Championship, women made up 40 percent of the TV audience. And during World Cup 2002, women were 39 percent of the audience. “If it continues, it won’t take that long to get to 50 percent,” says Alavy.

Alavy also looked at the 2004 Summer Olympics, in two key countries. In Britain the female TV viewing share for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was 49 percent. Just four years later, for the Summer Olympics in Athens, their audience share had grown to 54 percent. “A five percentage point jump is a very significant jump over just four years,” notes Alavy. His research came up with a similar pattern in Germany.

As much as anything, Alavy theorizes that it reflects the evolving economics of televised sports. More television outlets have led to more competition for the rights to major sporting events, which in turn has boosted the salaries of the stars of those sports. And as their salaries have grown, their lifestyles have become more aspirational. They are idolized as sports heroes but more and more they are followed after in their personal lives by celebrity magazines and TV shows alike. Source: Media Life Research, 18th January 2007

No Live Cricket on DD as Nimbus Refuses to Buckle

In a first on Indian Television, a home cricket series kicked off today without the telecast being available on national broadcaster Doordarshan and All India Radio. India's victorious start to the four-match Pepsi series One-Day International series against the West Indies at Nagpur was not available on terrestrial television as well as on cable homes that did not carry the Nimbus owned Neo Sports channel.

Talks broke down yesterday between Prasar Bharati and Nimbus Sports on sharing the live feed, the industry was waiting to see whether the government would push through an ordinance to implement the Downlinking/Uplinking Guidelines issued by the information & broadcasting ministry in November 2005 requiring live feed of important sporting events to be shared with Doordarshan and AIR by entering into a commercial agreement.

The terms provide for revenue sharing of 75:25 in favour of the rights holders. Nimbus Sports, the rights holders for the BCCI organized cricket events in India, had offered to give the feed to the pubcaster, but only under certain specific conditions, and these were not acceptable to the Prasar Bharati. Nimbus suggested a 15 minute deferred telecast on Doordarshan's terrestrial channel referred 'as live'.

Nimbus also did not agree to DD showing the matches on its DTH platform DD Direct Plus. Nimbus has said if at all it shares the feed, the signals have to be encrypted so that it reaches houses only on the terrestrial network and not those that get DD signals through cable TV. Nimbus today offered a way out of the impasse by declaring it was ready to provide the live feed if Prasar Bharati agreed to encrypt its signals in the next two to three weeks.

Till now though, Prasar Bharati officials, citing previous government orders and court rulings that they claim have gone in their favour, have been adamant that they should get live feed of the cricket series, without any conditions, and that it also be shared on DD's DTH platform.

Following the breakdown of talks DD officials have gone back to taking the cover of the Uplink-Downlink Guidelines that perforce allow DD to get the telecast feed. The ball is now really in the government's court on what its next move will be. Source: Indian Television, Business Standard, Times of India, Kolkata Newsline, 22nd January 2007


SPORTS SHORTS

* The Total Sports Asia Group owns exclusive worldwide rights to the Tour de Langkawi 2007 cycling event in Malaysia. Total Sports Asia (TSA) has sub-licensed the rights to Fox Sports International as a sub-agent for distribution outside Asia. The race starts on February 2 in Langkawi, finishing on February 11 in Kuala Lumpur - home base of TSA. The company views the Tour as a key event in its portfolio. Source: Sports Media, 19th January 2007

* A new elite cycle race, the Tour of South Africa will be held for the first time later this year. The seven-day event will start on 18 November 2007 with 20 teams of 6 riders taking part. Those participating will include teams from the UK, Germany, Japan, USA and South Africa. The race will be similar to other leading cycle races, such as the Tour of Britain and Le Tour de France. The Tour of South Africa is organised by Sweetspot. Source: Sport Business, 19th January 2007

* Sports Illustrated reports that the amount David Beckham will earn is actually "less than the salaries of a lot of U.S. sports stars." Beckham will earn USD 50 million in salary payments over a five-year period and not the USD 250 million that has been rumoured. Beckham could still possibly make $250 million over the next five years, but the majority of his income would come from endorsements and not from the Galaxy or MLS. Source: EUFootball.biz, 22nd January 2007

* Meanwhile, following the news of Beckham’s move to Major League Soccer in the USA, there was a rush for domain names connected to him and his new team, LA Galaxy. Domain name management firm NetNames described it as “some of the fastest cybersquatting” ever seen. Source: Sports Media, 19th January 2007

* Czech commercial broadcaster Prima TV is likely to win the rights to show soccer’s European Championships after outbidding public-service rival Czech Television. However, the company may find it difficult to show a majority of the 31 games live as it has only one channel. Prima submitted a bid of Kcs100 million ($4.65 million) for the rights to see off the challenge of Czech Television, which offered only Kcs60 million. Source: Sportcal, 19th January 2007


MORE NEWS

China/IPTV: Analysis of the IPTV Market

Technological innovations are rapidly redrawing the Chinese telco landscape. Operators are compelled to diversify in order to thrive in the competitive environment. The November 2006 announcement of Jiangsu Telecom's network expansion effort to meet subscribers' demand for IPTV, VOD, and other advanced IP services was just the latest in a similar series of moves to support multi-play service offerings.

According to ABI Research's broadband research, more operators are offering multiple services in an attempt to retain customers and to increase revenue. Telecom operators are venturing into the TV industry, while cable operators move into the voice business. IPTV is the Chinese government's platform of choice because it is aligned to its long-term plan of unifying broadband, Internet, and television. Hence the future of the industry continues to be viewed optimistically.

China's flourishing broadband environment paves the way for IPTV to reach out to the potentially huge addressable market. ABI Research forecasts the IPTV take-up in mainland China to pass the 23 million subscriber mark by 2012. For now, IPTV has to cope with certain bottlenecks that have been restricting growth. Lack of content may prove a short-term barrier to increasing uptake.

Current program content is strictly controlled by media authorities and the government, is not rich enough to attract paying users, and overseas content, which is restricted and difficult to get approval for, does not help alleviate the situation. Source: TV Over Net, Advanced Television, 18th January 2007

China/New Media: More Than 10 Million for Digital TV

The number of digital TV users in China exceeded 10 million at the end of 2006, industry expert has said. Wang Yan, General Manager of China DTV Media (CDM) said: “There were only 1.2 million digital TV subscribers in China in 2004 and four million in 2005. “The number is expected to reach 20 million by the end of 2007,” Mr Wang added.

China launched its digital TV industry in May 2006 and now has 92 digital pay channels. But cable TV is still a very popular and economical alternative in China, English.eastday.com reports. CDM - whose 49 digital pay channels reach 4.5 million subscribers in China - charges five (US$0.64) to 180 yuan (US$22.50) per month for each of its digital pay channels.

Viewers can get more than 30 cable-TV channels for only US$2.00 per month. Mr Wang said the quality of digital pay-TV programmes needs to be improved in order to compete with free channels. Source: Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union, 18th January 2007

Elsewhere/Business: Clubs Cash In On Massive TV Deal

Premier League club incomes will rise by between £10 million to £20 million each from next season after the agreement of a £625 million deal for overseas television rights. The 20 teams competing in the Barclays Premiership will share £2.725 billion over the next three seasons - 60% or £1 billion more than the current three-year deal. There will also be a positive spin-off with an extra £23 million, totaling £38 million a year, being put into grass-roots football.

Last season's champion Chelsea earned £30.4 million from Premier League TV money while bottom club Sunderland earned £16.8 million. From next season, the champion can expect to bring in close to £50 million and the side finishing bottom around £26 million.

The £2.725 billion is made up of £1.7 billion for domestic rights sold to Sky and Setanta, £400 million from highlights for broadcast on the Internet and mobile phones, plus the latest £625 million overseas rights deal. The overseas deal is around double that agreed for the current three-year global rights deal. Scudamore has travelled to India and is expected to announce today a number of international football projects that the Premier League is due to finance as a result of the new TV deals. Source: Football Insider, 19th January 2007

Elsewhere/Business: Sportfive Takeover Receives Regulatory Approval

French media group Lagardère can proceed with the integration of Sportfive after the takeover was approved yesterday by the European Union. The EU antitrust office concluded that the acquisition would ‘not significantly impede effective competition.’ Authorities examined the implications of the €865-million ($1.12-billion) takeover given that Lagardère also holds a non-controlling stake in French pay-television, Canal Plus.

Sportfive handles the rights to top events including soccer’s 2008 European Championships, and manages marketing rights for more than 250 clubs and around 50 federations and leagues. Lagardère is acquiring Sportfive as it seeks to expand into the sports industry, having set up its own sporting arm, Team Lagardère, in May 2005. Source: Sportcal, Total Content & Media, 19th January 2007

Elsewhere/General: A1GP Drops Race Without TV Deal

The Brazilian round of the A1GP season has been scrapped following a delay in securing a local terrestrial television partner to provide nationwide coverage of the motorsport event. The meeting was scheduled for March 18 but has been withdrawn from the calendar after organisers encountered problems when trying to arrange a free-to-air television contract.

A1GP CEO Pete da Silva said: “Every race is watched by eight million viewers in over 150 countries. Strong television coverage has proved vital when building consumer support for A1GP and drawing crowds to an event. Over past months, A1GP has worked closely with organisers in Rio de Janeiro to ensure the venue is fully equipped to host the round. But without the support of a terrestrial television partner on board, A1GP has taken the decision to withdraw Brazil from this season’s calendar.”

However, A1GP representative and seat holder of Team Brazil, Emerson Fittipaldi, is confident that a deal will be soon secured ensuring that Brazil can return to the 2008 calendar. Source: Sports Media, 19th January 2007

Elsewhere/New Media: Total Nonstop Action Wrestling goes Mobile

Professional wrestling will change this March when Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling debuts on mobile carriers, thanks to an exclusive content deal with New Motion, Inc., a digital entertainment company. The deal gives the power of New Motion to develop and promote TNA content, including wrestling match alerts, blogs written by the wrestlers, exclusive wallpapers, and ringtones of their favorite wrestler’s theme songs. TNA Mobile is available thru all major providers like Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile.

TNA fans will be able to actually help decide and dictate storylines. “You can decide which wrestlers you would like to see wrestle against each other, and predict who do you think is going to win a fight,” said Shane Maidy New Motion SR VP of Content and Marketing. There will be live fan voting during TNA PPV events and TV broadcasts.

TNA is in direct competition with wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He believes they are very different. “Competition helps grow business,” said Maidy. Source: Sports Video Group, 18th January 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Mobile Marketing Just Got Interesting

Mobile marketing has been on the verge of being a viable medium for many years now, but the implication of the Apple iPhone announcement is that the future of mobile will take a major jump forward within the next year. If iPhone meets or exceeds expectations and begins to sell at a fraction of the success rate at which the iPod itself has sold, then more people will have an interface truly capable of displaying effective, impactful mobile advertising.

Beyond iPod, we can expect other mobile handset providers to begin to radically change the interface for their products, which will add to opportunities for mobile marketing. An active touchpad interface is one of many potential updates that will transform the handset into a completely new medium. Motorola, Nokia and Samsung are all bringing their engineers back to the drawing board to create something that will respond to the unveilings from Apple. It is not an overstatement to say that the iPhone interface makes all other cell phone operating systems outdated and obsolete.

The major problems have been that mobile marketing needed to function in a clunky, stagnant environment, through outdated WAP technology. The iPhone appears to shift the interface away from WAP and focus on the existing Web infrastructure, making the mobile device a much more dynamic opportunity to convey a message in a contextually relevant environment.

A much-larger screen allows for the video interface that most advertisers thrive on. As we are witnessing the evolution of TV into Internet TV and opportunity for mobile TV and advertising formats that are successful therein. Strides made in online video will now be applicable in the mobile arena, opening the doors for mobile marketing companies that have been building for the iPod interface.

The integration of Yahoo, Google and other online properties directly into the interface is brilliant. Tools from each of them offer consumers significant value; Maps, e-mail and GPS, and not having to download and install them makes it easier. One major factor in growth of any technology is ease and comfort of use. It's obvious that Apple knows how to make things easier, assuring that we will see the point of entry lowered so that "everyday Joe" can use them, pushing towards a world where digital tools are the centerpiece by which consumers develop their days.

Of course, Apple could mess this up. Its executives should take lessons from Sony and the Playstation 3 launch. They should ensure that there are enough iPhones to go around when they launch; make sure there are no obvious bugs; make sure that critics have the opportunity to chime in; and then listen and respond to what critics have to say. In the meantime, I am counting down the days until I can get my new iPhone (or whatever it will be called once Cisco is done suing Apple). Cory Treffiletti comments on Media Post, 17th January 2007