Friday, 13th June 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

Total Sports Asia Appoint Suvrangsu Mukherjee as MD for India

Total Sports Asia, the Malaysia-based international sports agency, has appointed Suvrangsu Mukherjee as its managing director for the Indian sub-continent, charging Mukherjee with setting up a new office in New Delhi. TSA is eyeing several potential new opportunities in India. These include plans to stage a Formula 1 race at a proposed new track in the Delhi region beginning in 2010, along with the potential for setting up academies in cricket and soccer and the possibility of extending its 'Power Play Golf ' concept, which has already been launched in south-east Asia.

Mukherjee previously worked at rival international agency IMG, as well as Turner Broadcasting and Times of India. Mukherjee was involved, while at IMG, with developing the sponsorship concept for Indian cricket's new, highly-lucrative Indian Premier League, and personally negotiated a major sponsorship deal with Citibank. He believes that opportunities still exist in the IPL for TSA, saying: 'There's room for everyone, as long as they are creative.'

Likewise, TSA will seek involvement with the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which New Delhi is hosting. Mukherjee said: 'We have no involvement in the Commonwealth Games yet - but we're in constant dialogue with the government and sports federations.' The new office is being deliberately located in the new Gurgaun business district of the city, where the agency's neighbours will be major multinational corporations such as Pepsi, General Motors and American Express - companies that the agency will hope to attract into sponsorship and other corporate deals.

Three to five staff will be based at the new office initially, according to Alex Iskandar Liew, TSA's director of group marketing, who said: 'Delhi is a key market for the Indian territory. We don't just want to be based in Mumbai [where the agency already has an office].' Addressing possible areas of expansion, Liew said: 'Cricket is definitely on the cards. We're starting to look at grass-roots academies, not just for cricket but for football as well. 'We're also looking at sponsorship and developing strategic alliances with companies. There is a middle ground where we can create opportunities.'

The cricket market in India is highly competitive, with several rival agencies and media groups already well-established in the sport, including Nimbus and World Sport Group. Liew said: 'It is difficult to get in, but we bring a lot experience, especially in sponsorship.' Meanwhile, TSA announced today that it has signed a deal with Mahak Sports, promoter and owner of badminton's Djarum Super Indonesian Open, to distribute worldwide rights for the event, which forms part of the annual top-tier Badminton Super Series. This year's event is scheduled to take place on June 17 to 22 at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.

TSA has been operating in India for four years via its wholly-owned subsidiary Total Sports & Entertainment India, with its activities involving media rights, sponsorship and events management, including the opening and closing ceremonies of the recent World Military Games in Hyderabad. Mukherjee will also oversee the existing Mumbai office and all other operations in the region.

TSA works with sports federations and rights-holders including handling media rights for tennis' US Open, the Badminton World Federation and Spain's and Italy's qualifying matches for soccer's 2010 World Cup. It also works on sponsorship rights in Asia for soccer clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United and Formula 1 motor racing teams. TSA employs over 80 people in offices in Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Dubai, Mumbai and now New Delhi. Sports Business, Sportcal, 12th Jun 2008


INFO BOX

China Will Dominate Asian Digital TV
Informa’s Survey Results published on Rapid TV News, Worldscreen, Rapid TV News, 12th June 2008

Informa’s latest Asia Pacific TV survey says Chinese homes will generate half of all digital TV connections in the region within the next five years. China has already overtaken Japan’s 19.9m digital TV connections, with growth from 12.9m in 2006 to 27.3m last year. But jump forward to 2013 and the Chinese digital numbers are forecast to rise to an impressive 123m, according to Informa, compared to Japan’s 35.7m. Factor in India’s anticipated growth in 2013 and Japan will slip to third position. India is forecast to grow from 11.7m (at end of 2007) to 40.8m in 2013.

"China's sheer size makes it the region's most eye-catching market, but there has been progress pretty much everywhere. At the end of last year, the region had 75 million homes receiving digital signals," report author Adam Thomas noted. "This is more than 10 times the 2001 figure and paves the way for even greater expansion over the next five years." The Asia-Pac region overall will approach 250m digital homes by 2013 says the study.

However, examine the overall value of pay-TV homes and the result presents a very different picture. Under this portion of the forecast Japan holds onto its number one position, worth $14.9bn in 2013, up from $10.6bn last year. India and China will be more or less equal (at $8.92bn and $8.82bn respectively) in 2013. South Korea’s pay-TV revenues are expected to grow from last year’s $2.87bn to $4.02bn by 2013. Pay-TV in the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to be worth some $45bn by 2013, still firmly in second place compared to TV advertising revenues, which Informa says will be worth some $70bn.


SPORTS SHORTS

* The bid cycle for major world badminton events has been extended from two years to four to give bidders more time to prepare their bids and to give fans more time to plan their trips to events. The new ruling means that countries can now prepare bids for events in 2013, including the world championships, which take place every year except Olympic years. The championships have already been awarded to New Delhi next year, Paris in 2010 and London in 2011. Anne Smillie, chair of the Badminton World Federation's sports committee, said of the new ruling: 'It gave bidding nations more time to submit a comprehensive business plan for staging an event and, if successful, then afforded them ample time to prepare for it in terms of planning, marketing and promoting sponsors. Sportcal.com, 12th June 2008

* Taj TV has acquired the rights to show the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, the established six-a-side competition involving star players and former stars from around the world, via its Ten Sports channel. Taj TV estimates that this year's competition, which is in its 16th year and will take place on November 8 and 9, will reach 100 million fans around the world. It will be broadcast on Ten Sports' own channels in the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, North America, continental Europe, Hong Kong and Indonesia, while Taj is also seeking to agree deals with broadacsters in other major cricketing countries, such as the UK and Australia, to televise the event. The three-year deal involves Ten Sports showing 16 hours of live action from this year's two-day tournament. Sportcal.com, Televisionpoint.com, 12th June 2008

* Zee’s DTH broadcaster Dish TV has successfully tested what it describes as Mobile MDU (Multi-Dwelling Unit) which will boost passengers’ TV choice when travelling on cross-country buses, trains and ferry routes. The basic TV system forces all passengers to watch the same single channel. Dish TV demonstrated the system on a luxury cruiser plying between Bombay and Goa last month, and which offered a 100-channel choice for passengers. Dish TV is now talking to bus operators and India’s national railway operator. RapidTVnews.com, 12th June 2008

* Anil Ambani's Big TV is all set to launch its direct-to-home (DTH) services in India by the end of June 2008. "Big TV plans to invest Rs 300 crore on marketing initiatives in the first year of the launch. The DTH service will be launched under the brand name Big TV," a source says. Big TV would face tough competition from three other operational private DTH players - Dish TV, with 3.2 million users; Tata Sky, which has a subscription of 2 million; and the regional player Sun Direct, whose subscriber base is less than 1 million. The company is believed to have selected more than 1.25 lakh retail outlets across 4,500 towns across India to give a push to its new venture. More than 700 distributors have already been signed. Televisionpoint.com, 12th June 2008

* Chunghwa Telecom expects to launch telecom services in Cambodia, as part of a plan to expand overseas. A report said the company will collaborate with Vietnam's military-run operator Viettel, which it had set up a $30 million joint venture with in May. The firm declined to give a specific timeline for when the services would be launched or any investment figures. Chunghwa Telecom had said it started investments in Vietnam and Thailand and planned to invest in every Southeast Asian country besides Myanmar. Viettel, fully owned by the Vietnam military, has become a dominant telecoms operator in Vietnam, taking up about a third of the mobile phone market. Telecomasia.net, Indiantelevision.com, 13th June 2008

* Neo Sports has hired Abhishek Verma from Sony Entertainment Television to head up marketing and communications for Neo Cricket and Neo Sports. He will be overseeing the marketing of all the business verticals for the two channels. At Sony Entertainment Television he headed the marketing division of SAB. "With Abhishek's appointment, we are in an even stronger position to deliver on our objective of becoming a leader in marketing sports across media internationally and augmenting our already proven track record of a premium media and entertainment company," Akash Khurana, director for Neo Sports, said. Marketing-interactive.com, 13th June 2008

* Eurosport is preparing to launch a bid for the foreign broadcasting rights to German Bundesliga matches, quoting Eurosport's vice-president Jacques Raynaud as declaring an interest in the rights. "We have already held initial talks with the DFL," Raynaud told a German newspaper, which added that Eurosport expects to pay between €16 million and €20 million per season from next year. However, the DFL is believed to want €30 million for the 2009-10 season and between €35 million and €40 million for following seasons. "We are very interested in the Bundesliga rights, but we also know that it will be difficult to refinance the pricey rights via advertising and fees," Raynaud said. Sports Media, 12th Jun 2008

* ESPN President George Bodenheimer said "the entire pie to sports consumption is growing and ESPN is continuing to ride that wave." Addressing the Deutsche Bank Securities Media and Telecom Conference, Bodenheimer said: "We're bullish on continued growth of the company ... we're peddling as fast as we can on every business that serves sports fans." "Ratings on ESPN are up significantly this year." ESPN has the security of contracts with all of its 96 million subscribers running until 2010, and a further 80 percent up to 2012, and the network has been "extremely successful in locking up sports rights ... long term," which helps maintain stable distribution rates, he said. Sportsbusiness.com, Sportcal, 12th June 2008

* A decision over the future of motor racing’s F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne is expected within weeks, according to reports. Organisers have been under pressure after this year’s race made an estimated A$40-million ($37.4-million) loss, bringing the combined losses since 1996 to A$160 million. Australian Grand Prix chairman Ron Walker will soon hold talks with F1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone regarding the event. The provincial government backs the race but has refused to hold it at night, despite the potential appeal for international television audiences. Major events minister Tim Holding said that the government understood the economic benefits of an event that attracted 303,000 people this year. Sportcal.com, 12th June 2008

* The UCI, cycling’s world governing body, today suspended the French Cycling Federation until the end of the year for its support of the Paris-Nice race, organised by race-owner ASO without the sanction of the UCI. Pat McQuaid, the UCI president, rebuked the FFC for a ‘lack of loyalty’ to the UCI and for ‘having breached UCI statutes and regulations by actively and openly supporting’ the organisation of the race. The UCI's action raises the stakes in a long-running struggle against ASO, which also plans to organise next month's Tour de France with the support of the FFC but without the sanction of the UCI. Under the terms of the suspension, the FFC will not be permitted to organise any cycling world championships; the federation will be banned from the next UCI Congress; and FFC representatives will not be put forward for elections and will be suspended from committees and commissions. Sportcal, 12th Jun 2008


MORE NEWS

Elsewhere/New Media: Everton FC to Launch Mobile Portal

Toffees fans will be able to fill their boots with Infomedia-powered mobile content from June 19th. InfoMedia services has won an exclusive contract to build and manage a WAP portal and SMS services for English Premier League team Everton. The company will distribute the content via UK operators T- Mobile, Orange and Tesco Mobile, with the service available off-portal too.

The portal will go live on June 19th, offering club news, ticket information, match previews and reviews. Downloadable content will include official terrace chants from Goodison Park, 3D animated players, goal clips, match imagery, club crests, match highlights from FA Premier League, UEFA Cup, classic archive content and interviews with players and the manager.

In addition, InfoMedia will launch new products such as Player Bundles, Goal of the Month WAP Voting and SMS alert season tickets as well as new revenue streams via third party advertising and search. Everton's new mobile services will be cross promoted via the club's official media channels, including evertonfc.com, display advertising inside Goodison Park, in local press and radio and also via mobile marketing.

Mark Rowan, head of communications at Everton Football Club, said: “We at Everton are always looking for new ways of optimising the experience of our fans. The Club are keen to embrace new technologies and fully believe that there is a big future for us in the mobile market." InfoMedia commercial director Michael Tomlins said: “InfoMedia continues to push what is achievable via the mobile channel. We strive to create and manage the very latest infotainment and services and deliver them via our operator partners and for the growing off-portal market.” Mobile Entertainment, 11th Jun 2008

Elsewhere/Rights: SBS Set for Record Revenue From Sports Programming

Australian public-service broadcaster, SBS, is expecting to generate record revenues from its sports programming outside FIFA World Cup years, with advertising revenue from its coverage of the Olympics, Tour de France and Euro 2008 likely to reach $12 million. Commercial affairs director, Richard Finlayson, said that sport would account for one-quarter of SBS's advertising this year, which is expected be $46 million, up 22 per cent from $38 million in 2007.

The rise is partially attributed to the growing popularity of the broadcaster’s coverage of the month-long Tour de France with both the general public and key media buyers. "We're experiencing a lot of interest in cycling at the moment," Mr Finlayson said. "It's the new golf and the new rugby. Two out of three male ABs (the top advertising demographic) watched the tour last year."

Car manufacturer, Skoda, became the first global sponsor to take a significant sponsorship package on SBS's coverage of the event. The broadcaster is expected to announce two additional tour sponsors – a telecommunications company and a financial services advisor, in the near future. Advertising revenue from the tour is expected to jump 50 per cent on the back of a 27 per cent audience boost.

Mr Finlayson also said there had been a halo effect from SBS's partnership with the Seven Network to sell its Olympics coverage. "On the commercial networks, big sporting events rate higher, but there is accordingly much more demand for space," he said. "On SBS clients get an environment highly sympathetic to their brand. This year won't match the World Cup but it's certainly the biggest year for us outside it". Sport Business, 12th Jun 2008