Tuesday, 12th August 2008

HEADLINE NEWS

MLJ and TSA Launch Real Madrid Mobile In Japan

Japanese new media company MLJ has reached an agreement with Real Madrid and Total Sports Asia KK (TSA) to launch the official mobile website of the 2007-08 Liga BBVA (sponsor) champion in Japan. Real Madrid Mobile will be made available to customers of Japan’s three major mobile phone networks, NTT docomo, KDDI and SoftBank. The new site will boast a substantial range of content, including goals from Real Madrid’s UEFA Champions League matches, weekly club news, exclusive interviews with players and staff, photographs of the players in action, text updates of schedules, scores and results and official Real Madrid Java games and ringtones.

Teruhisa Abe, managing director of MLJ, said: “Real Madrid brings with it a rich history and has been tremendously successful in Spain and in Europe. With its excellent stadium and passionate supporters, we hope to be able to convey the best of Real Madrid to users of mobile phones in Japan.” Managing director of TSA in Korea and Japan, Chung See Liang, added: “Real Madrid is one of the most popular clubs in Japan, and coming on the heels of Real Madrid being crowned the 2007-08 champions of La Liga, we are confident that this deal is a win-win for all parties.”

MLJ, which has expanded its operations to the USA with offices in Las Vegas and Beverly Hills, has developed a variety of mobile content for sport, music and entertainment. In January 2008, it secured the rights for the official Major League Soccer (MLS) mobile site. Begona Sanz, deputy sales and marketing managing director of Real Madrid, said: “This agreement with MLJ and TSA gives us access to a large and important market in Japan and will further expand our fan base in the region.” Sports Briefing, Sport Business, Live Soccer TV Blog, 11th Aug 2008, also appeared yesterday on Sports City, 8th Aug 2008


OLYMPIC BITS

* Ambush marketing doesn't come much more blatant than running around the rim of the National Stadium waving a lit torch at the climax of the Olympic opening ceremony - but 2008 partner adidas is playing down the fact the Olympic Cauldron was lit by Li Ning, the Olympic gymnast turned sportswear tycoon who now owns its biggest mainland-owned rival. adidas sought to play down any talk of a snub. "We're the official sportswear partner of the Olympics, not an official sponsor." Although adidas' global rival, Nike, outfitted most of the Chinese Olympic athletes, Li Ning sponsors four of China's most successful teams - table tennis, diving, gymnastics and shooting - as well as the outfits for national broadcaster CCTV. Brand Republic Asia, 11th Aug 2008

* The Confederation of Brazilian Football (CBF) has switch the men’s national team kits for the Beijing Games amid worries that the regular kit may affect Rio de Janeiro’s bid for 2016 Olympics. IOC rules state that competing teams not wear confederations’ emblems on kit during the games. Brazil’s Nike jersey has the CBF badge with the five stars representing Brazil’s World Cup successes. Rio faces competing bids from Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to stage the 2016 Games. AC Milan’s Ronaldinho, said: “The five-star shirt is a source of pride for all of us players and the Brazilian people. We wanted to continue playing in it, but if that could complicate Brazil’s chances to stage the Games in 2016, we have to understand and accept (the decision).” Sport Briefing, Sportcal, 11th Aug 2008

* Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper. The advert features two large photograph s, one of the men's basketball team, below, and one of the women's team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport's governing body. The Guardian UK, 11th Aug 2008

* Defending women's champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh shook off the rain to sail through their first match of the beach volleyball. Americans May-Treanor and Walsh, seeking to become the first team to defend an Olympic beach volleyball title, beat Japan's Chiaki Kusuhara and Mika Teru Saiki 21-12, 21-15 in 36 minutes. Yahoo! Eurosport, 11th Aug 2008

Huge Audience as Opening Grabs World's Attention

Friday’s breathtaking opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was watched by a massive audience worldwide, including at least 842 million in China. CSM Media Research, the Chinese market research group, claims that at least 842 million television viewers watched the event at home in China, representing 68.8 per cent of the total national audience.

The opening ceremony was broadcast in China by seven different channels on CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, in addition to over 30 provincial satellite broadcasters. The worldwide television audience has been estimated at 1 billion for the show, which featured 10,000 performers, including 2,008 drummers, with a total of 30,000 fireworks set off.

In USA, the opening ceremony was watched by an average of 34.2 million on national network NBC. Viewing figures were also strong in Europe’s main broadcast markets, with 5.5 million tuning in to coverage on the BBC, the UK public-service broadcaster, and a further 700,000 on the BBC website. Because of the time difference, the BBC's figures were down on the 2004 Olympic figures, though, when 8.68 million watched the opening ceremony in Athens.

In Germany, an average of 7.72 million viewers watched the opening ceremony on ARD, the public-service broadcaster, equivalent to a viewing share of 52.3 per cent. France Télévisions, the French public-service broadcaster, netted an average audience of 4.4 million (a 37-per-cent share), while Rai, the Italian public-service broadcaster, recorded a 5.5-million average, equalling a 49-per-cent viewing share. TVE, the Spanish state broadcaster, attracted an average audience of 4.08 million, a 38.8-per cent share. In Japan, an estimated 50 million watched the opening ceremony, equivalent to around 40 per cent of the population.

The first day of Olympic coverage also attracted encouraging ratings for broadcasters around the world, including NBC, which drew 13.9 per cent of US households for Saturday’s broadcast. NBC’s internet traffic for the Olympics has shown a dramatic increase on the 2004 games, with the number of page views for the opening day of competition reaching 62.7 million, close to six times the level on the equivalent day four years ago. NBC is getting a cool $175,000 for each 30 second ad-spot during its primetime Olympics coverage despite tape-delaying the key events.

A total of 4.8 million unique users visited NBCOlympics.com on Saturday, with each user spending an average time of 14 minutes on the site. The opening ceremony was heavily praised in most of the UK newspapers, which were also quick to point out the headache facing London organisers in recreating such an event for the 2012 games, which England's capital is hosting.

# It has alleged that the giant 'footprint' fireworks that formed part of the Olympic opening ceremony were created in advance by computer graphics and not filmed live. Pictures of the 29 fireworks that led to the Bird’s Nest stadium that appeared to be filmed live from a helicopter above Beijing were created artificially, the Beijing Times newspaper claimed. Although the fireworks were actually set off across the city, the pictures were not live, apart from for the last firework, which was visible from the Bird’s Nest Stadium. It had been decided in advance of the ceremony that it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprint fireworks properly from the air.

# Comments criticising the opening ceremony escaped censors and were visible on Chinese websites over the weekend. One user posted a comment on the Cat898.com website claiming that the ceremony had glorified authoritarian rule and reduced individuals to ‘cogs in a machine.’ Comments criticising the ceremony even appeared on the website of the People’s Daily, the Communist party newspaper. The ceremony remained popular with most Chinese people, however.

# Japan showed their passion for the Olympic movement this week as approximately 50 million people nationwide tuned in to the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008. The figure represents around 40% of the Japanese population. Levels of excitement around Beijing 2008 are expected to at least match those of Athens 2004 when each viewer watched a staggering 29 hours of Olympic coverage as Japan's team finished fifth in the overall standings. Olympic fever is already running high in Japan. Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games continues to gather momentum, with huge support across all sections of society. Both awareness and support for Tokyo 2016 are rapidly growing among the Japanese public, 92 million (72%) of whom currently wish to see the Games come to Tokyo.

# Over $400 million will be spent on television advertising on CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, during the 2008 Olympics, with China well on track to become the world’s second-largest advertising market by 2010, a study has predicted. Advertising is to play a key role in increasing advertising spend in China this year to $35 billion, a 22-per-cent rise year-on-year. The report, compiled by Group M, the parent group of the WPP communications agencies, forecast that China will come close to overtaking Japan in 2009 when it records $42 billion in advertising revenue, a 19.5-per-cent increase year-on-year. Sportcal, Sports City, Sport Business, Rapid TV News, Worldscreen, 11th Aug 2008


DATA BOX

Japanese Broadband Market Forecast Up 9%
Study by Yano Research Institute published in Telecompaper, 5th August 2008

The Japanese broadband market is expected to grow 9% during the current fiscal year, to JPY 1.5 trillion. According to a study from Yano Research Institute, reported in The Nikkei Daily, fibre-optic lines will be worth JPY 790 billion this year, up 32%, while DSL drops 9% to JPY 490 billion and cable broadband declines 4% to JPY 220 billion. The broadband market's rate of growth is seen dropping by four points this fiscal year, and projections are for growth of just 4-5% from fiscal 2010 on. The total number of subscribers is projected to rise 8% to 31.02 million at the end of March 2009. Subscribers to fiber-optic lines are estimated to jump 27% to 15.49 million, cable broadband users will climb 6% to 4.09 million, and DSL subscriber rolls will decline 10% to 11.43 million.

Mobile Usage in China Shows Clear Opportunity for FMC
AppTrigger Survey Results published on Ad-Hoc-News, 11th August 2008

AppTrigger, Inc., the leading provider of telecom application connectivity solutions, today unveiled the results of its first Chinese Mobile Services survey. The survey revealed strong adoption of Internet surfing and Instant Messaging on mobile handsets, and offers some insight into what new services may receive more welcome amongst China's growing population of mobile users.

The study conducted by AppTrigger polled 1,100 respondents in a field survey and an online questionnaire. Some of the services that see high adoption rates among respondents include:

* 44.6% subscribe to Color Ring Back Tones
* 41.7% surf the web from their mobile using WAP
* 37.8% use chat and presence service Fetion

However, many other mobile services, including Voice Mail, Mobile Secretary, Instant Financial Messaging Systems (FMS) and GPS-based services, report only a small percentage of adoption with less than 10% of respondents claiming to use these services.

'China just announced to restructure its telecom industry; three operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom will have full telecom services licenses offering wireless, wireline and broadband services to the Chinese consumer,' said XJ Wang, an analyst at Yankee Group. 'It's a totally new game now due to the change of the market landscape. Although China Mobile still dominates the mobile market, its market position will be challenged by new Unicom (Unicom + Netcom) and China Telecom (with CDMA network). Technologies enabling Internet-like applications and service fix-mobile-convergence will be key for Chinese operators to differentiate themselves in the next 2 to 3 years.'

Despite signing millions of new subscribers each month, mobile penetration at the end of 2007 remained below 50%. Among respondents, 56% reported paying less than RMB100 each month for their mobile services, and just under over 10.8% chalk up more than RMB300.


SPORTS SHORTS

* Malaysia’s Media Prima, has set up a new content creation and production unit which it hopes will sell programming both domestically and internationally. Called Primeworks Studios, the unit is already in talks with international studios, including NBC Universal, about co-productions and other strategic partnerships. While Media Prima already sells content within its region, including to the Philippines and Indonesia, the group is hoping the new unit can sell further afield. The studio will be a cross-platform producer and will pool resources from Media Prima’s existing broadcasters, free-to-air leader TV3, youth service 8TV, family channel NTV7 and “traditional values” broadcaster TV9. Rapid TV News, 11th Aug 2008

* Technical issues at the launch site have been blamed for the postponed launch of Measat-3a satellite, which was due to go up on August 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The delay will come as a blow to Measat’s sister company, Astro All-Asia Networks, which has been waiting for the satellite’s launch to help expand its malaysian DTH and telecoms businesses. Measat 3a has 12 high-powered C-band and 12 Ku-band transponders. Measat said in a statement on August 11 that repairs were needed and that a revised date was yet to be set. The satellite will have to be returned to its manufacturer Orbital Sciences’ facility in Dulles in the USA. Rapid TV News, 11th Aug 2008

* KT, Korea’s largest telecom company, is looking to make a major breakthrough with IPTV business. Nam Joong-soo, CEO of KT pledged that IPTV is a core business for KT’s transformation into a media entertainment company. Nam said that KT would seek collaboration with leading media groups around the world. Accordingly, the telco has decided to put 710 billion won (E4.6 billion) in network enhancement to provide real time IPTV service. Advanced-Television, 12th August 2008

* ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) has created a dedicated sales team to explore and maximize revenue opportunities within the digital space, to be led by Delilah Chan. The new digital sales team will focus on offering advertisers more ways to maximize and synergize their campaigns across platforms by offering a range of customized advertising opportunities. Chan, the director of ad sales for ESS, will oversee the development of integrated strategies and manage value-driven products and services for online and mobile. She will continue to report to Charles Less, the senior VP of ad sales. Joyce Chansingh, who has played an active role in the development of the new version of espnstar.com, will be assisting Chan. Worldscreen, Sportcal, 11th Aug 2008

* Al Jazeera’s international English channel (AJE) is keen to get DTH and cable coverage into India. AJE MD Tony Burman says meetings have taken place with India’s broadcasting and information ministry as part of its expansion plans. Burman admitted more work needed to be done. Currently India is staffed by one AJE person, and he did not rule out the possibility of linking with local news broadcasters to help cover the country. He also said the ministerial meeting was important to “clear the air” over past anxieties and concerns about editorial independence for AJE. He said he hoped to see the channel on air during 2009. Rapid TV News, 11th Aug 2008

* Japanese mobile operators added 391,500 new customers in July to reach a combined total of 104.04 million customers, according to figures from the Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA). Softbank led in net additions, signing up 215,400 new subscribers and ending the month with 19.33 million subscribers. KDDI's customer base rose by 17,000 and ended July at 30.32 million customers in total. NTT DoCoMo saw its customer base rise to 53.72 million after adding 94,200 new subscribers, which included 68,200 2in1 plan customers. Emobile won 65,000 new subscribers bringing its total to 668,100 customers. PHS provider Willcom added 2,100 subscribers to end the month with 4.62 million. Telecompaper, 7th August 2008

* SingTel combined regional mobile customer base reached 197.71 million as at June. The group’s mobile customer base in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand rose almost 45% from 136.35 million customers a year ago and 6.7% on a quarterly basis. Telecomasia, Telecompaper, 12th August 2008

* Singapore's second largest telecom operator StarHub said its second-quarter net profit fell 21% year-on-year as a result of increased marketing costs designed to retain mobile users and attract broadband internet customers. The group’s net income was SGD64.2 million (USD46.5 million) for the three months ended 30 June 2008, down from SGD80.8 million a year ago and short of the median estimate of SGD82.5 million in a Bloomberg poll of analysts. StarHub said quarterly revenue rose 8.6% year-on-year from SGD489.1 million to SGD531.4 million. Commenting on the results, chief executive officer Terry Clontz said: ‘The slow-growing pay-TV segment is seeing competition from SingTel's recent [IPTV] offer.’ Telegeography, Bloomberg, 7th August 2008

* Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia, Thailand, has brought down its subscriber growth target to half due to economic slowdown. The Thai mobile operator now expects its subscriber base to grow around 10% from the current 1.2 million, states vice president of strategic planning Phanop Kasemsarn. Wireless Federation, 11th August 2008

* According to Sri Lankan online newspaper ColomboPage, Mobitel, the wholly owned mobile subsidiary of national fixed line operator Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has been granted a licence for mobile television broadcasting by the Ministry of Mass Media & Information. The nationwide concession allows Mobitel to transmit domestic and international TV content to its subscribers over its 3.5G HSPA network, which it launched in December 2007 under the M3 brand. The operator is running TV adverts presenting M3’s mobile TV channels as an alternative to watching regular broadcast channels at home. Meanwhile, the launch of SLT’s IPTV service, previously set for this month, has reportedly been delayed due to ‘operational problems’ and will now be launched by the end of the year. Telegeography, 11th August 2008

* ESPN Star Sports is set to telecast the final of AFC Challenge Cup 2008 on 13 August from Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. ESPN Star Sports is set to telecast the final of AFC Challenge Cup 2008 on 13 August from Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi. Indiantelevision, 11th August 2008

* Thaksin Shinawatra has travelled to England on the day he was due to make a court appearance in Thailand. The owner of Manchester City and his wife Pojaman, who are on bail over corruption charges, were due to return to their homeland in time to answer court in a separate property case. Thaksin and his wife were in Beijing over the weekend after a court allowed them to attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony and then flew to England rather than returning to Thailand. The Thai court could now issue an arrest warrant for Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. Thaksin completed his purchase of Manchester City in July last year while he was in exile in Britain. He returned to Thailand in February. Sport Briefing, Sportcal, 11th Aug 2008

* The organisers of 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa has unveiled efforts to clamp down on ambush marketing. Ambush marketing is the visible presence of a brand at an event without it being an officially endorsed sponsorship partner. In order to stamp out the practice at the 2010 World Cup, the City of Johannesburg has proposed new by-laws to make it an illegal offence which could result in a R10,000 (US$1,345) fine or a six-month custodial sentence. The ambush marketing restrictions would apply to unauthorised adverts put up anywhere within a one kilometre radius of the final draw venue or stadia hosting World Cup matches, including adverts in private properties within this specified area. Sport Briefing, 11th Aug 2008

* The Indy Racing League (IRL) has confirmed Queensland will host Australia’s first ever IndyCar Series event on October 26. The Gold Coast Indy 300 will take place later this year at Surfers Paradise, with the 2.75-mile, 14-street circuit having previously hosted a number of Champ Car and CART events since 1991. Greg Hooten, general manager of the Gold Coast Indy 300, said: “The excitement of bringing the first IndyCar Series race to the Gold Coast has been building over the past few months. As part of the planning for this year's Gold Coast Indy 300, which is well underway, we will see track construction begin in two weeks.” Sport Briefing, 11th Aug 2008


MORE NEWS

India/Rights: Big TV Bowled Over By IPL Partnership

Big TV has reportedly splashed out more than US$30 million to become the official direct-to-home (DTH) partner of the DLF (sponsor) Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket competition. Reliance ADAG-owned Big TV has snapped up the rights to the next four years after out-bidding Airtel Digital TV in the tender. Reliance Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney said: “We at Big TV are excited at being chosen the DTH partner of the Indian Premier League.” Big TV has so far been picked up by 700 distributors in the country after only recently launching its services, and the company faces competition from Dish TV, Tata Sky and Sun Direct in the DTH sector.

According to the 2008 Ficci-PricewaterhouseCoopers report on India’s media industry, DTH households are expected to increase from four million in 2007 to 25 million by 2012. Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), said the tournament was happy to agree a partnership deal with “sunrise sectors like DTH”. The inaugural IPL competition was held earlier this year between April and June. In January, a consortium of Sony Entertainment Television and World Sport Group picked up a 10-year package of broadcast rights to the tournament in a deal worth more than US$1 billion. Sport Briefing, Sport Business, 11th Aug 2008

Elsewhere/General: Berlusconi Looking to Rapidly Expand TV

Silvio Berlusconi’s son, Pier Silvio, says he is looking to expand overseas – including the UK - and has highlighted Russia, India and Turkey as offering solid growth prospects. Pier Silvio also confirmed that his group is looking at ITV.

The Russian comment might come as a commercial surprise to Rupert Murdoch who said on August 6 that News Corp had no interest in developing TV interests in Russia – indeed, quite the opposite. Murdoch, speaking from Beijing, told analysts that he had gone cold on Russia. "We have a great growing business there [but] the more I read about investments in Russia, the less I like the feel of it." Murdoch is still favouring India and China.

Pier Silvio Berlusconi, on the other hand, said his family’s Mediaset operation was actively looking for partners to share the investment burden as regards Russia, India and Turkey. He also told Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore that Mediaset was looking at several possible acquisitions including UK commercial broadcaster ITV. RapidTVNews, 11th August 2008