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Tag: 2006 Fifa World Cup

  • Online and mobile players go for the goal

    Online and mobile players go for the goal

    MUMBAI: With the biggest event in the global sporting calendar, the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, just four days away, web sites and mobile phone platforms have beefed up their football content to attract viewers and advertisers.

    For websites, it is an opportunity to attract Indian sports buffs and for advertisers it will be a classic opportunity to get their message across. According to estimates by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, for larger portals, the incremental jump in advertising revenues will be anywhere between 8 – 15 per cent.

    Internet use in India has grown exponentially since 2002, when the last World Cup tournament was held. In 2002, the number of internet users were about eight million as compared to today’s 38.5 million. Consumption of sports infotainment online too has grown significantly in the last four years in India.

    Yahoo! India director sales Pearl Uppal is upbeat about the prospects for the event. “We see high potential in online advertising for the soccer World Cup. Yahoo! is hosting the official site of the 2006 Fifa World Cup. Further, we expect an estimated 32 million unique users to consume over four billion pages of the 2006 official Fifa World Cup site. We see high engagement of our users with Yahoo! India Sports.”

    As an official Fifa World Cup partner, Yahoo! is bringing unique World Cup experience both online and on mobile. This will provide advertisers with a proposition and consistent platform with which to tap into audiences’ passion for football and the Fifa World Cup. Yahoo! is offering opportunities to advertisers to immerse the brand within an engaged content experience and to run innovative promotions on their online and mobile platforms.

    Rediff.com India Ltd chief media revenue officer Aravindra Kanwal said, “Traffic will be strong and we should see a 50 – 100 per cent spike (visitors to the web site) for some matches.”

    Rediff.com, besides having match schedules online, also has trivia related to the World Cup, a countdown to the beginning of the activity, full coverage of past tournaments, international and national and also an online football store to enable users to purchase their favourite football memorabilia. There is a Fifa World Cup 2006 Gaming Zone, which allows a user to participate in a game to test their memory and concentration.

    “Web sites are pulling out the stops to attract viewers and advertisers. At Rediff.com, editorial teams are working on different formats and plan to offer advertisers opportunities to integrate mobile and internet mediums with print, TV and radio. HT plans to create more than 100 pages of micro-sites promoted across the site,” said HT Media Ltd head sales and alliances Salil Kumar.

    Sify.com head of consumer channels Ajay Nambiar said, “Corporates are showing a very high degree of interest in the World Cup focused websites, knowing full well that the World Cup has captured the imagination of the youth in particular. Maruti Swift is one of the sponsors on Sify. Several other corporates are talking to us and Sify’s special section will see multiple advertisers and sponsors targetting the football fan.”

    The Sify World Cup special on the web site features videos of venues, teams, players, past tournaments and preparations, apart from news reports and features, off-beat stories, contests, best of blogs, interactives, video-based quizzes, etc. During the cup, live tickers, news reports, features, image galleries, audio commentary and videos will capture the excitement of the Cup.

    The 2006 football World Cup in Germany also represents an opportunity to promote 3G. However, according to a study ‘World Cup 2006: Scoring with mobile content and services’ published by research company Visiongain, it will be established content, such as text-based services that will generate the most significant revenue.

    The study found that the one-month long tournament will generate $6.35 billion in revenue, with text-based services and downloads, such as ring tones and logos, being the most significant.

    Gaming will also contribute to profits earned by World Cup related content. The industry will also look to generate revenue through interactive video messaging, video clips and even blogging services. The key revenue generators will be tried and tested text services, ring tones and logos. The content of the World Cup lends itself well to highlights clips, which operators have been busy purchasing the rights for, as well as mobile gambling.

    Airtel in India, thanks to it being a member of the Bridge Mobile Alliance and Mobile ESPN partnership, has been providing its users with a dedicated news section on the World Cup 2006 from 23 May to 9 July 2006. For example, ESPN Here We Go will provide the latest match insights from ESPN Star Sports presenters and football pundits as they bring match previews, predictions, analysis, previous day highlights and team news from the World Cup.

    SportsCenter will enable fans to keep track of the latest sports in action, around-the-world coverage on top sports stories, with special reports on the World Cup match updates, summaries and results. Other sports content service offerings available for download include Java games, wallpapers of popular football players and player tunes to name a few.

  • Electronic album, interactive software launched by a Miami firm for Fifa World Cup

    Electronic album, interactive software launched by a Miami firm for Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: A Miami-based company Miflux has unveiled e-Album Germany ’06, an electronic album and interactive software internationally. This offers soccer fans a new way to keep track of the World Cup, which kicks off in Germany on 9 June 2006.

    e-Album Germany ’06 features tools that allow the users to interact and have fun with the World Cup before, during and after the tournament. It is designed for the users to collect and exchange information and images of the teams, players and venues, using the internet and e-mail.

    With this software, users can also perform a wide range of activities. These include entering scores to keep track of their favourite teams and speculating about results. They are also
    able to build their own scenarios and run soccer pools with their friends.

    e-Album Germany ’06 positions itself as an electronic equivalent of the old tradition of collecting and exchanging cards with friends.

  • 2006 Fifa World Cup to air live on Sky and TVNZ

    2006 Fifa World Cup to air live on Sky and TVNZ

    MUMBAI: Sky Television and Television New Zealand (TVNZ) have announced the acquisition of the live broadcast rights for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, for New Zealand.

    Under the agreement with Infront Sports & Media, FIFA’s exclusive television partner for the event, Sky will provide full live coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The coverage includes every match live, daily pre-shows during match days, a daily review show as well as special lead-up programming.

    In addition to the live coverage, every Wednesday evening Sky Sport will screen BBC Worldwide’s sensational series, More Than a Game. In India, Discovery Networks has acquired the India rights to More Than a Game.

    From 7 May, the History Channel (Sky Digital Channel 53) will present The History Of Football: The Beautiful Game, a 13 episode series that looks at the early history of the game, how it has become a global cultural obsession and reflects on the careers of players who have left their lasting mark on the game. It Includes interviews with Pele and Maradona.

  • Euro1080 acquires HDTV cinema exhibition license for 2006 Fifa World Cup

    Euro1080 acquires HDTV cinema exhibition license for 2006 Fifa World Cup

    MUMBAI: Euro1080, the first High Definition Television (HDTV) media company in Europe, has reached an agreement with football’s governing body Fifa’s marketing agency Infront Sports & Media with regard to the commercial exploitation of HDTV transmissions of the 2006 Fifa World Cup for public viewing purposes in cinema

    Infront handles the global sales of all broadcast rights for the 2006 Fifa World Cup worldwide. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Host Broadcast Services (HBS), will produce the multilateral signal for the event in the HDTV 16/9 widescreen format.

    Euro1080 has acquired the non-exclusive broadcast rights for theatrical venues or cinemas on a pay basis. It entitles the company to pick up the HDTV live feed at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Munich and to distribute it to cinemas in 23 European countries, including Belgium, Bosnia-Bulgaria, and the UK. By cooperating with Euro1080, cinemas will be able to organise live, pay HDTV exhibitions of the event..

    Furthermore, Euro 1080 has started talks with the event’s official broadcasters to bring this competition in selected markets also to home viewers in HD quality. At this stage the majority of households in Europe will receive the signal only in standard definition format.

    Infront executive director Dominik A. Schmid, said, “Infront is very happy about this initiative of Euro1080 as it supports the promotion of HDTV as the standard of the future. The agreement enables cinemas all over Europe to transmit matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in HD quality. It also provides an opportunity to showcase HD transmissions to home viewers in markets where national broadcasters are not yet ready to broadcast in HD quality.”

    Euro1080 CEO Gabriel Fehervari says, “The agreement with Infront is very important for a media company such as Euro1080. At present negotiations are under way in several countries with cinema owners and very soon we will be able to give a first overall view of the deals made. In the meantime, we work on agreements with official broadcasters to bring the World Cup also to private homes across Europe.”