Tuesday, 17th April 2007

INFO BOX

Roland Garros/French Open
Source: Infostrada Databox, April 2007

* The French Open comprises tennis championships staged annually in late May and early June in Paris.
* The first ever edition took place in 1925 with René Lacoste and Suzanne Lenglen pocketing the first singles titles.
* Roland Garros, as it is familiarly known, is the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments and is the only one played on clay.
* The defending Men’s Singles champion is Rafael Nadal. The Women’s Singles champion is Justine Henin-Hardenne.
* Björn Borg and Chris Evert-Lloyd won a singles title a record six and seven times respectively.


SPORTS SHORTS

* Pan-Asian service ESPN Star Sports will show 15 hours of live and exclusive coverage for every leg of the Guinness 9-Ball Tour which takes place between April 20-22 in Jakarta. Star Sports will show all six pool tournaments, concluding with the Grand Final in Bali in September. The arrival of Guinness as title sponsor has doubled the total prize money for the series to US$320,000. Source: Sports Media, 16th April, 2007

* The demand for encrypting Indian public broadcaster, Doordarshan’s terrestrial signals is likely to be rejected by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Ministry sources told that encryption could mean a major policy shift since Doordarshan is a public broadcaster with free-to-air signals and it would be unethical to restrict the reach of its signals in any way. The Ministry feels that since many of Doordarshan’s 1400 transmitters are unmanned, they would first have to be given manpower which can decode or encrypt the signals. Source: Indian Television, 16th April 2007

* The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries, particularly Pakistan, threw their weight behind Delhi's bid to host the 2014 Asian Games Monday, a day ahead of voting. A total of 45 countries will vote to choose between Indian capital Delhi and Incheon, the third largest city of South Korea, in what is being considered a close and tough fight as of now. Incheon's bid is said to be worth $18.2 billion. Source: India e-News, 17th April 2007

* World Squash Federation President, Jahangir Khan, has pledged to continue the sport’s campaign to join the Olympic Games, saying that he is hopeful that it could be included in 2016. Squash was one of five sports shortlisted for addition to the 2012 Olympic Games, but failed in their bid for inclusion. Khan said: ‘The discipline features in the Asian Games, Pan American Games, as well as the Commonwealth Games. It was unfortunate not to have won enough support in the IOC vote in 2005 to make its debut at the 2012 London Olympics.’ Source: Sportcal, 16th April 2007

* Following yesterday’s report, Ajax has denied it has scrapped plans for a summer visit to China despite scheduling problems. Last week, the club appeared to pull out on the trip, saying it could not be made to fit the players' holidays. Ajax chairman Maarten Fontein has now told the club’s official website that talks are continuing to find a solution. “We have not yet cancelled the trip,” he told Ajax.nl. Source: Football Insider, 16th April 2007

* Basketball’s 2007 ULEB Cup Final broke coverage records for the event around the globe. The clash in Charleroi, Belgium, on April 10, attracted a crowd of just short of 6,000 to the Spiroudome. It was seen in Australia, Myanmar, Maldives, Indonesia, Philippines and Hong Kong through Eurosport 2. NBATV aired the game in USA, Canada, Puerto Rico and Caribbean, while Al Jazeera aired it in Africa and the Middle East. In total, event coverage reached 71 countries and territories, breaking the previous record of 67 countries. Source: Sports Media, 16th April 2007

* Brazil has been confirmed as the only candidate to host the 2014 World Cup following Colombia's withdrawal. Officials from the Brazilian Football Association were in Zurich on Friday to submit the bid to FIFA. Brazil now has until July 2007 to provide FIFA with government guarantees regarding its ability to host the competition. FIFA officials will then visit the South American nation in September before the FIFA executive committee is set to confirm the host nation of the tournament in November of this year. Source: Football Insider, Sportcal, 16th April 2007

* The National Hockey League has linked with intelligent mobile search company AskMeNow Inc., to offer a service for ice hockey fans across North America. Fans can text message any score, statistic, schedule or trivia question to ASKME and receive an answer within moments on their mobile device. Fans can get team scores or find out when they play their next game. Customers can visit NHL.com to sign up for AskMeNow and receive trivia, scores, stats and schedule information. Source: Sports Media, 16th April 2007

* Jalipo, a new online distribution network for TV content that aims to be an alternative to YouTube, has launched with BBC World and Al Jazeera English. Jalipo, which has the former president of Sony Europe Chris Deering as its chairman, will offer pay-as-you-go credit service to consumers wanting to watch live events and video-on-demand online. The group says this will allow content owners more control over their footage to set the price and determine where it is available to avoid jeopardising any other distribution deals. Source: Stuff NZ, 17th April 2007


MORE NEWS

Hong Kong/Broadcaster: Disney Scores VOD Deal

Buena Vista International Television-Asia Pacific has concluded a multi-year video-on-demand movie agreement in Hong Kong with ViDeOnline Communications, a third-party provider of VOD content over broadband, mobile and IPTV. This is Disney’s first VOD agreement in Hong Kong. It brings a range of titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films to ViDeOnline’s O8Media internet platform, which launches this month.

The agreement also allows ViDeOnline to distribute Disney movies on-demand to Hutchison broadband customers on pay-per-view and subscription basis, allowing users to rewind, pause and fast-forward during the movie. Hutchison launches its broadband to PC service this month jointly with ViDeOnline’s O8Media platform. Disney movies on-demand will also be available to Hutchison TV customers when the company rolls out its digital set-top-box service later this year. Source: Worldscreen, 16th April 2007

Malaysia/Broadcaster: A&E Link with Astro

A&E Television Networks has entered into a j-v with Malaysian DTH operator, Astro. The jv is similar in nature to the agreement already in place with BSkyB in the UK where the Sky ‘hub’ feeds out A&E’s channels to Europe. Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei will get the channels, as well as Taiwan. Astro has about 1.5m subscribers currently.

A&E’s channels include The History Channel, Biography, newcomer Crime & Investigation Network, as well as History Channel in HD. Astro will initially take History and Crime & Investigation, although Steve Ronson, EVP/Enterprises at A&E says the longer-term plan is to see the complete portfolio rolled out to as wide an audience as possible, not just within Astro’s footprint but to other pay-TV operators in the region.

Astro has “expressed interest” in A&E’s HD offering, although Ronson said it was too soon to suggest when this might happen. “HD has a transformative quality about it, and someday soon everyone is going to want it. That’s our view, and we have a very concentrated view of commissioning just about everything in HD for the US service, and this quickly percolates down into our other markets.”

“The extra costs associated with HD are now lower, and while not yet matching a Standard Definition budget it represents no more than a 10-20% premium. In he short run there’s a premium, but our view is that it is a small extra cost of doing business and protecting the archive.” said Ronson. Source: Rapid TV News, 16th April 2007

China/Broadcaster: Fix8, Shanghai Media Group to Introduce Interactive TV

Fix8, which recently introduced User-Generated Reality, has unveiled AuditionsTV, a platform for broadcasting high quality, real-time media to support interactive TV. Shanghai Media Group will offer interactive TV programming based on Fix8’s platform across Shanghai cable networks. Designed for broadcast quality output, AuditionsTV allows producers to select content from users on the internet and integrate it into live or produced TV programming.

Fix8 expects the new software to integrate TV, internet and mobile technologies for audience participation across reality, talk, game and dating shows. AuditionsTV is currently being used on Shanghai Media Group's midnight talk show 'Stay with You Till Dawn'. SMG will also use AuditionsTV to offer interactive content on In Star TV, a music channel targeting high school students and youth markets across Shanghai. Fix8 will allow viewers to record funny video clips, which will be used to create a special subprogramme within the show to air every weekend.

Shanghai Interactive TV, a member of the Shanghai Media Group, will also introduce a new interactive TV programme based on AuditionsTV. Viewers will participate in real-time from the internet across various formats including talk shows, talent contests, games, shopping and auctions. Source: Digital Media Asia, Indian Television, 16th April 2007

Elsewhere/Rights: German Broadcaster Bids to Cash in on Handball Boom

German commercial broadcaster, RTL, is interested in acquiring broadcast rights for international handball on the back of record viewing figures posted by ARD and ZDF, the public-service broadcasters, during the 2007 men’s world handball championships. RTL has targeted the rights to the next men’s world handball championships in Croatia in 2009, and is also considering a bid for the rights to Germany’s international friendly fixtures.

ARD broke its own record for the highest handball viewing figures of all time when more than 16 million fans tuned in to watch hosts Germany lift the world title against Poland in February. The peak audience for the final was 20.13 million viewers, a figure only usually achieved in Germany for international soccer matches.

The impressive ratings posted by ARD and ZDF have stoked interest for rights to Germany’s games and RTL could now enter into negotiations with the DHB, the German Handball Federation, and its rights agencies. The DHB is said to be looking for €350,000 ($474,138) for the rights. Increased interest is a boost to rights owners in handball, which now command fees for rights. Germany’s domestic league previously paid money for coverage. Source: Sportcal, 16th April 2007


ARTICLES, COMMENTS & OPINIONS

Rapid Advancement in New Digital Distribution and Effects on Asian Content Providers

The following few weeks will be dedicated to summarizing the key topics and discussions that were brought up at the 2006 Asia Pacific Entertainment & Media (APEM) Summit hosted by Entertainment Asia Network (EAN). The conference brought together worldwide production and distribution decision makers for an open discussion about the rapidly developing entertainment industries of the Asia region and to discuss today’s vital issues facing the global industry.

It was an opportunity to exchange information and to learn about the entertainment needs of the fastest growing consumer population in Asia with the expertise gathered from people working directly within the industry. Representatives from major film, television, mobile and online game companies, global copyright associations and key government organizations took part in this event as speakers, presenters or attendees.

This week, industry experts that participated as speakers on the New Digital Distribution in Asia panel discussed various changes brought or even forced upon content providers with new media distribution models. From user-generated content sharing websites like Korea’s Cyworld to IPTV, video on-demand to mobile, the rapid advancement of technology has made distributing content extremely complex, especially in Asia, where broadband reach and mobile culture is far more advanced than the West. How can content providers more effectively distribute in these territories? Full discussion on Entertainment Asia, 17th April 2007