Monday, 28th May 2007

DID YOU KNOW…?

Malaysian cinemas have found a powerful new weapon in their fight against movie pirates -- military-style night-vision goggles. After showing people to their seats, trained ushers are strapping on the goggles and scanning darkened cinemas around the country to spot anyone trying to make illegal copies of movies with hand-held video recorders or mobile phones.

The Motion Picture Association, which is training Malaysian ushers to catch the pirates, said cinemas had caught 17 people in the past two months, during which Hollywood studios released blockbusters like "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." "All of the cases were spotted with night-vision goggles," the association's Malaysia manager, Nor Hayati Yahaya, said on Friday. "Its very successful."

Malaysia figures on the U.S. watchlist for movie and software piracy, but local authorities have launched a major crackdown on producers and retailers of illegal DVDs since the country began free-trade talks with the United States a year ago. The association, which represents the big Hollywood studios, recently brought to Malaysia two dogs trained to sniff out DVDs -- with stunning results. The two Labradors, Lucky and Flo, have sniffed out more than a million DVDs and broken a fake DVD ring. They have been so successful that authorities believe Malaysian pirates have put a bounty on the dogs' heads. Source: Reuters, 25th May 2007


INFO BOX

Sports Plus Entertainment, the Winning Recipe for Sports Channels
Source: Full Article on Exchange4Media, 28th May 2007

Media gurus have time and again said that people watch shows, not channels. The thought is probably the most appropriate in the case of sports channels. Going by the performance of various channels in the sports genre in 2007, there rarely appears to be any channel loyalty. A sports channel is as good as its last cricket property performance. The only one to buck the cricket trend is Ten Sports -- a clear leader on any non-cricket day. However, for that channel, too, all points are coming from WWE -- which is more of entertainment than sports.

The ratings graphs show a tough fight in the genre in the first month. The reasons: India-South Africa Test series which gave Star Sports some very high numbers; then both the Hero Honda Cup between India and Sri Lanka, and the Pepsi Cup between India and West Indies gave newly launched Neo Sports a leadership position in the genre. ESPN had its share with the Commonwealth Tri-Series that gave the channel its weeks of highs in the first two months. The battle, with all these properties, was a tough one between these sports channels; channels like Zee Sports, DD Sports and Neo Sports Plus lay low.

In the following period, almost all channels were playing around the same region, ESPN and Star Sports performing a little better than the other channels, but the clear leader with some distance is Ten Sports.

Experts believe that at present, the current numbers of any channel are reflective of how mass they can get. Argued Porwal, “Ten Sports is getting numbers from something that is not even in their genre -- WWE is entertainment, not sports. We are seeing this mish-mash of genre, across genre -- you want to see what you want to see on your channel, then watching it on everyone’s channel. If you are a sports person, you want to see entertainment on your channel.”

Ratings may make the difference but the formula that seems to be working -- when a channel cannot be cricket dependent -- is to induce entertainment or sports entertainment on the channel.


SPORTS SHORTS

* Deloitte's Sports Business Group will publish the 16th Annual Review of Football Finance on May 30th. The report will seek to answer key questions concerning the future of the game. The finances of English football clubs will hit new heights with the new television rights deals bringing an additional £300m for the 20 Premier League clubs. “Where will the money go? Will we see soaring salaries? Will it translate into bigger profits? Can clubs in Italy, Spain, Germany and France keep up?” The full report is only available from Deloitte in hard copy. Source: Sport Business, 25th May 2007

* TF1 and M6 are the winners of French television rights to Euro 2008. French sports daily L’Equipe claimed yesterday that TF1 and M6 would pay €50 million ($67.1 million) each for the rights. Rights for the 2004 European Championships were shared between TF1 and France Télévisions, the public-service broadcaster, in a deal worth a reported €69 million. Source: Sportcal, ABC Money UK, 25th May 2007

* A new international motor racing series will launch in Asia next year intending to build popularity of the sport in the region. The GP2 Asia Series is an offshoot of the GP2 Series, the support series to Formula 1, with races from January to April. It will be held in league with the Speedcar Series, a stock car championship featuring 24 identical cars and ex-Formula 1 drivers including Jean Alesi, starting in November. The ‘Grand Racing’ events featuring GP2 Asia Series and Speedcar Series races is planned to support some F1 rounds in Asia. Source: Sportcal, 25th May 2007

* Flemish public broadcaster VRT has acquired the TV rights for home matches of the Belgian football team in qualifying for the 2008 Euro and the 2010 World Cup. VRT reached a deal with the Belgian Football Association, breaking a deadlock. Before the start of the 2008 Euro qualifying campaign, a bid of €240,000 per game for 15 home matches was made but the FA refused the offer saying it was insufficient and that it would sell rights for matches separately. Rights for the international against Kazakhstan in August 2006 were sold for €50,000 to commercial station VTM. Source: Flanders News, 25th May 2007


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/Business: Eurosport Events Targets Sports with ‘Room to Grow’

Eurosport Events, the recently-launched subsidiary of Eurosport, has said it will target smaller sports or those which are not professionally organised as it seeks to establish itself in the events market. Jacques Béhar, the president and chief executive of Eurosport Events, told Sportcal.com: ‘We will choose events that are not necessarily big, so we can grow together, or sports that are not necessarily very well organised.

Béhar said the venture would be of ‘reasonable size’ but that it was essentially a ‘developer’ and was not looking to take over other companies in the sector. ‘Rather than just owning the media rights, we can provide a complete platform of communication to our clients – online, on air and onsite. It’s also a way of developing Eurosport. ‘We know sport. So we can find the best platform to promote the appeal for television.’

Eurosport Events is already involved in motor sport’s FIA World Touring Car Championship and the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the International Formula Master and the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship. Eurosport Events is involved in equestrianism’s Global Champions Tour and today announced a partnership with organiser SailingOne for the development of the new SolOceans sailing event.

Eurosport Events will manage every aspect of the organisation of its events, from television production to media rights distribution, via Eurosport’s own media operations and through sublicensing. The division will be made up of experts in events organisation, television production, marketing, communication, and finance. Source: Sportcal, 25th May 2007

South Korea/Broadcaster: Digital TV Broadcasts by 2012

South Korea will discontinue analog television broadcasting by the end of 2012 at the latest and will allow only digital services thereafter, the finance ministry said Friday. The transition will cost 2.35 trillion won (US$2.5 billion; €1.86 billion), of which TV stations will need to invest 2.24 trillion won (US$2.4 billion; €1.78 billion), the ministry said in a statement.

S. Korean TV stations have offered both analog and digital TV services since October 2001 and will now be asked to phase out terrestrial analog broadcast over the next five years. "High-definition digital TVs offer better viewing quality and interactive services," it said. The digital transition will also help create 980,000 jobs and add US$38.7 billion (€28.78 billion) to the country's exports, the ministry said. The ministry will submit legislation outlining the transition in July. Source: Inquirer Technology, 26th May 2007