Wednesday, 4th June 2008

SPORT SHORTS

* StarHub president Mike Reynolds will leave the company in July to join New Zealand Communication as CEO. "Mike has been a key member of the management team that led StarHub to its current leadership position in various fronts. We thank him for his many contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. We will be filling Mike's position and an announcement will be made in due course," Terry Clontz, CEO for StarHub, said in a statement. Reynolds joined StarHub in 2001 from BellSouth China where he was CEO and President. Last year, StarHub announced Reynolds would assume the role of president at the start of 2008, as reported by Marketing. He will relocate to Auckland next month. Marketing-interactive.com, 3rd June 2008

* ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has relaunched its website, featuring a range of real-time content as well as expanded customized advertising opportunities. The new website offers a host of sports content with insight and analysis from experts in the industry, including editorial columns, blogs and podcasts. It also offers real-time updates on the latest sports news, results, statistics, player and team updates and live scores from key sports worldwide. There is also a new embedded video player, which offers news and updates along with program highlights from ESPN STAR Sports’ original productions. The content will be tailored according to regional sports preferences. The site also offers advertisers more creative opportunities, including customized campaigns, new branding options and the means to track feedback and monitor results in real time. WorldScreen.com, Indiantelevision.com, 3rd June 2008

* Indian telco BSNL has agreed a deal for cable manufacturer Aksh Optifibre to offer an IPTV service in 20 cities in northern India. Aksh is hoping to have 10,000 aubscribers to the service in the first nine months of operation – a modest target for a reported investment of Rs5 billion. Cities to be covered by the platform will be in states including Punjab and Rajasthan. Funds will be raised on international markets to help finance the roll out. Aksh Optifibre and IOL Netcom have a deal to supply telco MTNL with IPTV services in Delhi and Mumbai but IPTV services are yet to take off in the country. For instance, while IOL Netcom said at its last results (for the quarter to the end of March) that IPTV revenues had increased “significantly”, the money coming in from the service cannot stellar. Rapid TV News, 4th June 2008

* Neo Sports Broadcast has appointed Abhishek Verma as Marketing and communications head for its two channels - Neo Sports and Neo Cricket. In his new position, Verma will oversee all the marketing business verticals for the two channels. Verma moves from Multi Screen Media, where he was the Marketing head, Sab TV. Neo Cricket has the exclusive broadcast rights for all international and domestic cricket played in India. Neo Sports holds the exclusive rights to top Football (Italian Serie A and Bundesliga), Tennis (WTA Tour & select ATP tournaments), Golf (US PGA Tour), Badminton (IBF Thomas & Uber Cup, BWF Super Series), Beach volleyball (AVP World Series), amongst others events. Televisionpoint.com, indiantelevision.com, 3rd June 2008

* The Taiwan government plans to trim its stake in Chunghwa Telecom , the island's top telecom carrier, in an overseas stock sale. The move, together with a stock sale at home and a capital-raising plan, came as the government aimed to raise a total of T$52.8 billion , the news agency quoted Transport Minister Mao Chi-kuo as saying in parliament. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications owns about 35 percent of Chunghwa and the cabinet said last week the government planned to maintain a stake of at least 30 percent in Chunghwa. The government is raising the money to fund a slew of government projects, which will help boost Taiwan's domestic consumption and economic growth. Yahoo! News SG, 3rd June 2008

* Telecom service provider Spice Communications on Tuesday said it is mulling a stake sale and is open to Telekom Malaysia raising its stake to 74% in the company. The Malaysian firm Telekom Malaysia (TM) now holds 39.2% stake in the Indian firm. Spice is also open to the UAE-based telecom firm Etisalat and others having a stake in it. Mr B K Modi Chairman, Spice Communications, said, "if they want to bring them in as part of the deal (for taking stake to 74%), we are open to that." TM partners Etisalat and NTT DoCoMo in some markets. Modi said Spice is in talks with TM and the company is yet to receive any proposal from the latter. Thehindubusinessline.com, 3rd June 2008

* One can now send e-mail from one's mobile phone without enabling GPRS/Internet facility but through short message service (SMS). This innovative service was launched by the Bangalore-based MyDuniya Networks Private Limited, a player in `beyond voice' applications for mobile consumers. With this service, all that a user has to do is send an SMS to 53695 (Airtel Service) and then can send an e-mail, save and retrieve personal information, send a file to an e-mail address, share and access contact information. One can also participate in interactive group messaging. Thehindubusinessline.com, 3rd June 2008

* Akiko Morigami, the Japanese tennis player, has denied being told by a national coach to lose a doubles match at the French Open. Morigami was quoted yesterday as saying that one of Japan’s national coaches had suggested that she should lose her first-round match with partner Aiko Nakamura last Friday to enable Nakamura to take part in a singles tournament to improve her chances of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Morigami and Nakamura went down 6-0, 6-1 to fourth seeds Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang in Paris last Friday. The French Open organisers and the Japan Tennis Association have said they will still investigate the matter, which raised new questions over the sport’s integrity at a time when concerns over match-fixing are prevalent. Sportcal.com, 3rd June 2008

* Cycling’s Tour de France will, as expected, be run under the auspices of the FFC, the French cycling federation, as opposed to the UCI, the sport’s international governing body, when it takes place next month. ASO, the organiser of the race, has been in dispute with the UCI over various issues, including the choice of teams taking part in the ProTour, the UCI’s top-tier series. Speaking at a press conference today, Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, said: ‘We have asked the FFC for the Tour to be organised under their aegis. The AFLD (French anti-doping agency) will therefore be in charge of the doping tests before and during the race.’ The Tour begins in Brest on July 5 and finishes in Paris on July 27. Sportcal.com, 3rd June 2008

* Michael Johnson, the American track and field star who won five Olympic titles in an illustrious career, is to return the gold medal he won in the 4x400 metres relay at the 2000 Sydney games following a doping confession by his team-mate Antonio Pettigrew. Pettigrew testified at last week's trial of athletics coach Trevor Graham that he began taking performance-enhancing drugs after the 1996 Olympic trials. Johnson wrote in his column in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper: ‘I know that the medal was not fairly won and that it is dirty. Sportcal.com, 3rd June 2008

* Sci Fi Channel has announced it is to team up with a gaming company to create a franchise that is both a television series and a massive multiplayer online role-playing game. The as-yet untitled series is being produced in-house, with gaming company Trion World Network creating the online element. There is so far little word about the premise of the show, save that it will be set 80 to 100 years in the future, and according to the Los Angeles Times, fans who play the online game will shape the show's story arc. The project has been given a launch target of summer 2010. C21media.net, 3rd June 2008


MORE NEWS

Hong Kong/Broadcast: Li Proposes Sale Plan for PCCW

Hong Kong's leading operator, PCCW, has announced plans to consolidate its quad play offerings into a new company called HKT Group and offload 45 per cent of the operation. The move marks tycoon Richard Li's latest attempt to sell off the company's assets after a 2006 effort was foiled by shareholders including 20 per cent stakeholder China Netcom. PCCW has turned out to be a poor investment for Li, and the story of his attempts to dispose of it has been full of twists and turns. During the proposed sale two years ago, it emerged that Li's father and Asia's richest man, Li Ka-Shing, was involved in the consortium proposing to buy the carrier, exposing a family rift and preventing Li from voting on the sale.

Under the restructuring announced this week, HKT will consolidate PCCW's fixed line, broadband, internet, TV and mobile services. The latest twist is that this time only 45 per cent of the new company is up for grabs, rather than 100 per cent. Cynthia Leung, senior analyst with Ovum reports that PCCW will keep the controlling stake, and as a result has the backing of China Netcom. Netcom itself is about to undergo major restructuring under a shake up of the Chinese telecoms market announced earlier this week.

"Since 2006, PCCW has been developing its quad-play strategy, bundling of media content and interactive services. Quad-play is part of its successful strategy to reverse fixed line access decline, maintain margins in its core fixed telecoms products and grow its broadband market share. Despite yesterday's announcement that the spin off is for tax reduction benefits, it is widely speculated that the real intention behind is to facilitate the sale of fixed line assets, which has limited growth, and the possibility of a separate listing of HKT in the future," said Leung. Telecoms.com, 30th May 2008


ARTICLES, COMMENTS, INTERVIEWS & OPINIONS

Mobile Advertising Yet to Convince Big Brands

It seems as though the mobile industry has become obsessed with advertising of late, hyping the medium up as 'the next big thing' in terms of revenue generation. But analysts warn that the market has become so consumed by short term hurdles that it is failing to focus on the longer term strategic issues required to turn mobile advertising into a multi-billion dollar industry. Industry analyst and telecoms.com parent, Informa Telecoms & Media, forecasts that the global mobile advertising market will rocket from $1.72bn in 2008 to $12.09bn by 2013.

However, the analyst reveals that the majority of early adopter big brands are yet to transfer more than 0.5 per cent of their advertising budget onto mobile. While this is in part down to the much maligned issues of non-existent measurement and premium pricing associated with early formats of mobile advertising, the analyst argues that these are short term hurdles.

Instead, the mobile advertising industry would be better served concentrating on educating the consumer and providing a visible and measurable return on investment to the brands. At present around 80 per cent of mobile advertising revenue is generated by mobile content providers. "The mobile content market is creating the mobile advertising opportunity, while the big brands remain sceptical about the return on investment that will justify the premium rate card already associated with this emerging medium," said analyst Nick Lane. "The situation will change, but the plethora of companies looking to get a slice of the revenues must remain patient. Releasing the big brands' spend is key to unlocking the potential of mobile advertising."

Lane believes there is an absence of innovation in mobile advertising that has enabled the industry to accept internet-based models devoid of the functionality and capability that mobile technology delivers. "True mobile advertising does not exist today; what we are referring to is 'advertising on mobile'. When mobile advertising combines user profiling, location and communication with unique mobile inventory, the industry can justify charging a premium rate over existing immeasurable advertising channels," Lane said.

Informa believes the adoption of true mobile advertising can be spurred by utilising unused mobile ad inventory such as banner ads to advertise mobile advertising itself, as well as encouraging consumers to visit a WAP site explaining the benefits of mobile advertising, such as subsidised or free mobile services, as pioneered by players like Blyk. Blyk makes an interesting case in the mobile advertising sector. When the firm announced its plans, more than a few eyebrows were raised, but now the company claims that teh industry is coming around to the idea, largely encouraged by average advertising response rates of 29 per cent. Compared to other forms of mass market advertising, this figure is phenomenal when compared to a 0.5 per cent response rate for online advertising and 4.5 per cent from unprofiled SMS. Something which Blyk also does and Informa encourages, is for operators to allow the consumer to control the extent of adverts being delivered to their mobile device, based on activity and location requirements. This article is based on a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media, 'Mobile Advertising: Cutting through the Hype'. Telecoms.com, 3rd June 2008