Category: Software

As part of this relationship, TWC has also entered into a multi-year first look deal with The Gotham Group a management firm representing animation and family entertainment talent and content.

The projects produced by the venture will be based on work from The Gotham Group‘s clients, in addition to outside sources. The Weinstein Company, the Media Center of Chungcheongnam-do, and The Gotham Group will serve as producers on all films in the venture.

The animated features will be principally co-produced in the Chungcheongnam-do Province of South Korea, including at the state-of-the-art animation facilities at The Media Center of Chungcheongnam-do. TWC will handle worldwide distribution on all titles produced pursuant to this relationship, with the Chungcheongnam-do government of South Korea providing support in certain Asian markets.

TWC co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein says, “This is an innovative and exciting deal to be a part of and we are glad to be working with some of the best animators and animation companies in the business. The beauty of animated film is that it speaks to all audiences around the world and transcends language, age and cultural barriers.”

Chungcheongnam-do chief manager of media center Hee Sup Kim said, “Korea and its animation production companies have been at the center of the television animation business for years but have outsourced jobs only to this point. Now we want to extend further to the animated theatrical film business by being co-producer with prominent partners in the US. Ensuring our access to the best content and talent from the East and West, as well as the best marketing and distribution will provide a solid foundation to make Chungcheongnam-do‘s animation studios a world class source of animated content.”

Clemensen Capital CEO, Mariel Clemensen says, “We believe this deal is a milestone for Korean animation studios. We are thrilled to extend our expertise to support cross-border feature animation through this partnership with The Gotham Group, The Weinstein Company, and the Chungcheongnam-do government.”

The firm launches later this year.

IEL president Shahid Khan says, “We are very excited to lead the Series A investment in TinselVision (TV). TV is an early and differentiated mover in this segment. With a battle-tested management team and seasoned financial talents, this investment is poised to be one of the big winners in the shifting contests for South Asian viewing audiences globally. We plan to be there with the growth capital required to make it happen.”

In conjunction with Series A funding, Tinsel has assembled world-class boards of directors and advisors which include a who‘s who in television, film, distribution, finance and production. The company will announce final appointments to these boards in June.

Tinsel Cinema chairman and CEO Chase Weir says, “When you combine deep pockets with broad experience and relationships in the right place at the right time, you have good reason to be excited.

“We have a $1 billion plus, un-served and underserved, addressable market. Now, we have premium content licenses in place. And, we have and continue to attract the talent who‘s been here and done this before. This confluence of resources and timing offers our stakeholders a growing confidence which underpins our excitement, and good reasons for positive expectations in the marketplace.”

Tinsel Cinema will launch services as TinselVision – delivering Bollywood and South Asian television, film, sports and lifestyle content – Everywhere, All the Time. As South Asian immigrant and expatriate consumers demand more and more entertainment choice, quality, affordability and control, TinselVision says that it will be there providing alternatives to home video rentals and cable and satellite programming.

This transaction will accelerate Nielsen‘s strategy of providing clients worldwide with the most accurate measurement and analysis of consumer behaviour and media use across all platforms.

Telephia serves over 100 clients in the US, Canada and Europe from all sectors of the telecom and mobile media markets, including mobile operators, device manufacturers, retailers, infrastructure vendors, investment analysts and content providers. The company provides independent, technology-based measurements of consumer behavior, product quality, and consumer attitudes, and is the mobile industry‘s standard for subscriber market share, network quality, consumer satisfaction, and mobile media consumption.

Through its Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) Nielsen is committed to measuring consumer use of video and online activity on any platform on which consumers can access that content. Nielsen also recently announced that its Nielsen Wireless service will begin measuring how many people use content services such as mobile Internet and mobile video and what impact this has on established media behaviour.

Telephia‘s patented technology, industry expertise and analytic strengths will enhance and accelerate Nielsen‘s activities in these areas. At the same time, Nielsen expects to invest in and grow Telephia‘s core measurement products while creating opportunities to expand these businesses into media measurement.

Nielsen executive VP Susan D. Whiting said, “As media content increasingly moves from television to the personal computer to the ‘third screen‘ of the mobile device, it is essential that we measure all platforms. Combining Nielsen‘s worldwide strengths and measurement expertise with Telephia‘s cutting edge research and measurement capabilities in the mobile content arena expands our capabilities in the vital, high-growth telecom and mobile media markets. Building on the compatible strengths of both companies enables us to provide more complete consumer insights to clients around the world.

“Telephia‘s strong management team has built a company with a powerful base of clients, leading measurement technology and sought after research that complements our own. This is a strategic, high growth opportunity that enhances Nielsen‘s existing capabilities, strengthens our business and delivers even more of the intelligence our global customers need to succeed.”

Telephia president and CEO Sid Gorham says, “The Telephia team is very excited to be joining The Nielsen Company. With access to all the expertise, complementary products, and global resources of The Nielsen Company, Telephia will be able to better serve clients in the rapidly evolving telecom and mobile media markets.”

In research that explores how passionate young urban Asians are about music, what music-related activities they engage in and their attitudes towards a digital music future, Synovate surveyed 3,857 respondents aged 15 to 34 years in India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Synovate director Media Research Asia Pacific, Craig Harvey, said that the Music Matters survey shows Asian consumers are as passionate about the digital technology they use to access and play music as they are about the music itself.

“Asian consumers are widely embracing digital music technology, using computers, MP3 players and mobile phones to make their music more convenient and accessible, ensuring they can listen to their preferred music choices when and where they want.

“Significantly, 51 per cent of consumers said that they would listen to music more if they owned an MP3 player or music-playing mobile phone, emphasising the importance of digital technology in making music more convenient and driving consumer demand.”

Across the region, 56 per cent of consumers had played music on a computer in the past month while 53 per cent had played music on an MP3 player in the past month. However, despite the strong emergence of digital convenience, MTV Networks Asia VP research and planning, Ian Stewart said traditional methods of music delivery should not be discounted, with digital technology living side-by-side with traditional forms of music in some Asian countries.

“Digital music may equate to more convenient music, but one third of all consumers across Asia still watch music videos on television almost every day, with a further 25% watching music videos on television two to three times a week.

“In countries such as India and Indonesia, where internet penetration can pose a problem, television is a particularly important medium for consumers to access music, with 67 per cent of Indians and 35 per cent of Indonesians watching music videos on television almost every day, the highest rates regionally.”

As digital technology becomes increasingly prevalent, consumers are now demanding that their computers and mobile phones also serve as one-stop music shops. Convergence is a significant trend in the Asian music industry, with 57 per cent of consumers regionally indicating that they are ready to replace their MP3 player or iPod with a music-playing mobile phone.

The importance of the mobile phone for playing music is also seen in music download figures, with more than one quarter of consumers regionally (27 per cent) having downloaded and saved a song to their mobile phone in the past month and 63 per cent agreeing that the music industry should be working with telecommunications companies to deliver music via mobile phone.

Males aged 15 to 24 (32 per cent) are most likely to download songs to their mobile, with consumers in China (39 per cent), India (33 per cent) and Malaysia (33 per cent) more likely than consumers in other countries to have downloaded songs to their phones.

Harvey noted that the most enthusiastic demand for converged devices came from the emerging economies in Southeast Asia, with Malays (75 per cent), Thais (66 per cent), Filipinos (65 per cent) and Chinese (65 per cent) the most likely to demand such convergence.

“In developing economies, consumers’ limited incomes mean choices are usually not just between brands, but between purchasing one product or another. With mobile phones such an important means of communication in many of these countries, a phone that also plays music removes the need to choose between products and effectively provides these consumers with more ‘bang for their buck’” Harvey added.

Harvey said the Music Matters survey ultimately revealed great opportunities for savvy, consumer-driven music marketers to take the initiative and interact with Asian consumers on a more regular basis. “While Asian consumers engage in many music-related activities and use the internet and computers to listen to and access music, there are big gaps in their use of the internet to read and learn about music and the frequency with which they experience live music.

“Music industry organisations hoping to have a more personal, ongoing relationship with their Asian consumers should be looking to take advantage of these gaps by providing access to engaging, relevant, local music content on the internet that helps shape consumer music tastes and develop strong brand loyalty.”

60 per cent of consumers regionally said that they never read about music online with consumers in many internet savvy countries including Korea (64 per cent), Singapore (57 per cent) and Taiwan (46 per cent) never using the internet to read about music. A further 57 per cent of respondents regionally said they had not visited a website for music related activities in the past month.

“The Asian music market holds great potential. With the right approach to engaging Asian consumers via the mediums they use most – the internet and television – the music industry can help shape and direct consumer choices and develop a loyal, enthusiastic market that presently remains relatively untapped,” Harvey said.

The substantial and growing membership of television station groups in the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) shows the strong commitment of broadcasters to participate in the development of mobile digital broadcast TV, using broadcasters’ over-the-air licensed spectrum. At its recent meeting, the NAB Television Board of Directors unanimously passed a motion to actively support the efforts of the Open Mobile Video Coalition.

Nsb president and CEO David K. Rehr says, “Accelerating the development of mobile digital broadcast TV is consistent with Nab’s technology advocacy goals and the activities of Nab’s recently announced technology advocacy programme, Fastroad”.

NAB also pledged its support to ATSC in its development of an ATSC-M/H standard, a backward compatible mobile and handheld standard for TV broadcasters. The ten submissions received responding on the June 21 deadline to the ATSC’s Request for Proposal demonstrate the wide interest level and advanced state of technology development for enabling mobile DTV service.

“Rapid development of a technical standard for mobile DTV reception is critical to ultimately achieving success for broadcaster participation in the competitive marketplace of mobile media services. Nab will proactively work with ATSC at all levels to expedite the completion of the standards process” adds Rehr.

The music event takes place on 7 July 2007, Live Earth will use Intelsat to beam global entertainment headliners such as Madonna, Akon, Missy Higgins, Kumi Koda, UB40, The Police, Shakira, Joss Stone and Snoop Dogg to an estimated two billion viewers worldwide in an effort to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

As the official satellite capacity sponsor, Intelsat will use its industry-leading network of satellite and terrestrial facilities for the collection and distribution of the Live Earth concerts in standard and high definition video formats. The worldwide series of concerts will boast 24 hours of music across seven continents from eight cities, and will feature performances by more than 150 of the world‘s top musical artists.

Live Earth founder and producer Kevin Wall says, “Live Earth has the potential to be the world‘s largest high definition event, so our production standard requirements are obviously going to be complex and widespread. Intelsat‘s turnkey transmission services provide us the capacity we need to successfully broadcast this event around the world. The high definition experience that will be delivered during the event will ultimately engage a global audience and hopefully create a movement of change.”

Intelsat CEO David McGlade says, “Intelsat‘s mission is to connect the planet Earth, and we believe our involvement with the Live Earth concert is consistent with that mission. Our role also showcases the high definition experience and the power of our global fleet.

“With globalisation of content and high definition being among the top trends in our industry, customers choose Intelsat for worldwide transmissions of programs and special events.”

During the 24-hour event, Intelsat will deliver the standard and high definition programme feeds from the eight international venues (New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg) to the Live Earth production center in London, England.

The content contribution process will utilise satellites, fiber and teleport facilities throughout Intelsat‘s global network. From London, the post-production world feed for the Live Earth concert will be transmitted across Intelsat‘s GlobalConnex network to three of Intelsat‘s teleports. Intelsat‘s teleports then will distribute the Live Earth global feed to the world‘s leading video neighborhoods which reside on Intelsat‘s satellite fleet and to points-of-presence for Internet distribution.

As a result, worldwide music fans and technology aficionados will be witness to one of the largest entertainment events in history. Furthermore, viewers in Europe and North America will enjoy 24 hours of live high definition programming of unprecedented scope and scale.

Intelsat‘s portfolio of GlobalConnex services provides customers with a single-sourced global distribution network optimized for seamless delivery of such large-scale events. Intelsat is the only global satellite operator to provide coverage of the Olympic Games since 1968. From the World Cup soccer championships to the NBA Finals, Intelsat supports broadcasters of major events by providing the most powerful ground and space infrastructure, specifically optimised to meet their needs.

In research that explores the music habits and attitudes of young urban Asians, Synovate surveyed 3,857 respondents aged 15 to 34 years in India, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Synovate director Media Research Asia Pacific, Craig Harvey, said the Music Matters survey provides music executives and marketers with comprehensive insights into the unique music market in China, as well as Asia as a whole.

Harvey says, “In the past month, 84 per cent of Chinese consumers have played music on a computer, 72 per cent played music on an MP3 player, 39 per cent have downloaded and saved a song to their phone and a whopping 63 per cent have downloaded a song from the internet without paying for it, by far the highest numbers regionally for all these activities.

“Chinese music consumers are also the least likely to use a radio or television to access music in Asia, with only six per cent ever listening to music on the radio compared to a regional average of 20 per cent and only eight per cent watching music videos on television compared to 19 per cent regionally.

“With 45 per cent of consumers believing that all their music will be in a digital format in five years, digital music is fast becoming the norm for the entire Chinese music industry, presenting unique opportunities, as well as piracy challenges, for industry executives looking to target this exciting, dynamic market.

WIn the past month, of the young Chinese urban consumers surveyed:

• 84 per cent had played music on a computer – the highest regionally

• 72 per cent had played music on an MP3 player – the highest regionally

• 39 per cent downloaded and saved a song to their phone – the highest regionally

• 37 per cent had purchased music in a physical store

• 14 per cent had paid to download music online – the same as the regional average

• 15 per cent purchased a counterfeit music CD – below the regional average (19 per cent)

• 63 per cent downloaded a song without paying for it – the highest regionally

• 38 per cent used a file-sharing program to share music with others – the highest regionally

• 28 per cent copied music from a CD

• 65 per cent are ready to replace their mobile digital music player with a music-playing mobile phone

• 22 per cent watch music videos on television almost every day

• 32 per cent two to three times a week and 13 per cent once every week or so

• 88 per cent nominated Mandarin pop as their preferred type of music to listen to regularly, followed by western pop (66 per cent), local pop (64 per cent) and Cantonese pop (52 per cent)

With this agreement, video highlights of Copa America 2007 will be made available on World Goal Movie”, an official mobile website operated by Softbank and other official mobile sites in Japan.

Copa America is one of the world’s oldest national team competitions and this partnership with Softbank Creative will enable fans in Japan to access video highlights of the tournament at any time of the day on their mobile phones.

All these and more are results Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions online travel survey which closed in on responses to about 7,000 people across MSN and Windows Live networks between 20 November 2006 and 9 April 2007 in 10 Asia Pacific countries including India.

Microsoft online services group country manager Jaspreet Bindra said, “The explosion of Internet connectivity in Asia has had a dramatic effect on how people conduct day to day business, communicate with friends and family, and on how they plan for their holidays and make travel purchases. The results of this survey demonstrate the power of online advertising to reach consumers where they are making key purchase decisions.”

The survey also found out that online users are active purchasers and they spend a considerable amount doing so. Over the past year, air tickets (48 per cent) and hotel reservations (22 per cent) ranked as the most purchased items online for users in India.

The findings on travel planning reveal that leisure travellers in Asia plan their trips two months in advance, making reservations and purchases as much as five to six weeks ahead of a trip. In India, trips are planned six weeks in advance and purchases made four weeks ahead of a trip.

As media consumption patterns continue to change in India, the importance of the Internet as a channel to reach travellers will continue to grow. According to the survey, eight out of every ten users in Asia is considering taking a holiday in the next 12 months.

“Innovative travel marketers from across the region are already tapping into the rich media opportunities available and by bringing the sights and sounds of the travel experience directly onto the desktop, advertisers can make that all important emotional connection,” said Windows Live and MSN India head of digital marketing revenue and strategic business head Rajnish.

Of all survey respondents who plan their travels online, 73% in India do so from home at a time during when they are also checking email, chatting or sharing photos. The survey found that users in India enjoy sharing their travel experience online through photo albums, e-mail, instant messaging and blogs.

According to the findings of the study, consumers aged 12 years and older were asked to choose the ‘most essential‘ medium in their life; 33 per cent chose the internet, just behind television (36 per cent), but above radio (17 per cent) and newspapers (10 per cent); in 2002, the internet trailed TV on this perception by a significant margin (20 per cent vs. 39 per cent), and also trailed radio‘s 26 per cent.

“It is not a stretch to say that the Internet has become just as important as television as a primary source of information and entertainment in the lives of Americans,” said Edison Media Research president Larry Rosin. “It is entirely possible that the Internet will lead in all positive categories five years from now. Edison Media Research and Arbitron will continue to track these items, and of course report to the public on the changes.”

Edison Media Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to radio stations, television stations, newspapers, cable networks, record labels, Internet companies and other media organizations. Edison Media Research works with many of the largest American radio ownership groups, including Entercom, ABC Radio, CBS Radio, Bonneville and Westwood One; and also conducts strategic and perceptual research for a broad array of companies including Time Warner, Google, Yahoo!, Sony Music, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Universal Music Group, Time Life Music and the Voice of America.

Edison Media Research also conducts research for radio stations in South America, Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe. Edison Media Research also conducts all exit polls and election projections for the six major news organizations: ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, and the Associated Press.