Will online video ever make any real money in Asia?

1. 8 Media 27 November 2008
NEWSINBRIEF
“In-store space should primarily
be about driving transactions”
G Retail marketing examined, page 12
ESS secures UEFA rights
MEDIA
iQ
Gillette shifts planning in China -
Starcom Guangzhou has taken
over the Gillette tactical planning
business from MediaCom without
a pitch, effective from January
2009. The move is described as a
THE INTERNET QUESTION
non-revenue transfer of responsi-
bility agreed between the agencies
Will online video ever
and the client, according to a
source close to the client.The shift
make any real money
also includes Taiwan and Hong
in Asia?
Kong. MediaCom has handled
Gillette’s China account for more
than two years, since P&G ac-
quired Gillette.
Yes. At least, we do make
TVB revamps online money in China. However
TVB has expanded the range of TV the ones who would like to
programming available on its web-
make money should
site, tvb.com. The revamped site
understand where the
now provides more than 100 hours
of full TVB content focusing on money is coming from. No
food, travel, news and entertain-
one is paying you for the
ment, and lifestyle programming.
stuff that you steal from
The site, launched in April with
limited video content, also pro- others.
vides catch-up services running for
Allen Law
24 hours after the programme has
aired. The minimum cost for run- SINGAPORE ESPN Star Sports has 2009-2012 seasons. English-language pay TV rights for
ning commercials on TVB.com is renewed a multi-year agreement In Malaysia and Brunei,the the Champions League and,for the Within Asia, interactive
HK$10,000 (US$1,283) for a basic with UEFA to broadcast the broadcaster will maintain exclusive first time,the UEFA Europa
accounts for less than five
package. Champions League in Malaysia and pay TV,broadband and mobile League to broadcast over 350
per cent of most ad
Brunei as well as securing rights to broadcast rights for a total of 146 games.In Singapore,SingTel’s mio
SPE broadens Korea offer the Champions League and UEFA games.In China,ESPN has secured TV has bagged the Champions budgets. Its low relevance
SPE Networks has broadened its Europa League in China for the a landmark deal for the exclusive League rights from ESPN.
means most ad agencies
footprint in Korea by partnering
have little interactive
with KT’s Mega TV to launch its
AXN and Animax channels on experience and this will
Star expands in South India
KT’s IPTV service.SPE Networks, campaign optimisation across all
SOUNDBITE hamper rolling out
which also operates Sony Enter- Satellite broadcaster Star has en- search engines in China from a sin-
anything as advanced as
tainment Television, will be one of tered into a joint venture with gle online platform. Anthony Yu,
“My base has just
the six foreign re-transmission Jupiter Entertainment to launch a the firm’s search director, ex- ads on online video sites,
channels to broadcast in the coun- general entertainment service for plained that the service would em-
whether that is display,
been driven into
try on the IPTV platform. South Indian audiences. Star ploy an ‘intelligent’ system to
interactive video,
AXN has had a presence in Jupiter Entertainment Television recognise online consumer behav-
insignificance”
Korea since July 2005 when it will reportedly become a majority iour and make adjustments ac- contextual or text.
rolled out on SkyLife DTH. Ani- shareholder in Asianet Communi- cordingly within the parameters of
Peter Burton
Chinese blogger Roland
cations,which broadcasts channels a capped rate specified by clients.
in a range of languages including
Soong notes the decreasing Alibaba profits increase
Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam. Not big money. People are
influence of Western media
It will also take charge of Star’s Chinese e-commerce giant Aliba-
used to free content for a
in China
Tamil channel,Vijay. ba Group has posted a 49 per cent
long time already. Unless
increase on year-on-year net in-
DIGITAL come to Rmb 308.6 million those video sites can
(US$45.20 million) in its third
provide unique content to
Funded content to offset piracy quarter of 2008, although the eco-
attract a large amount of
A report by the Mobile Entertain- nomic slowdown means that the
max launched on the same plat- ment Forum shows that revenue figure represents a 22 per cent drop people to pay fees.
form in 2006.The content firm airs garnered through mobile enter- from its second-quarter earnings.
Otherwise, they still need to
shows including CSI, 24, Numb3rs tainment products supported by Alibaba Group, whose operations
rely on small advertising
and The Amazing Race Asia. advertising will help offset lost rev- include business-to-business plat-
enues due to piracy on mobile con- form Alibaba.com and auction site spend as the major revenue.
Beiersdorf retains Carat tent such as games, music and ring- Taobao.com, posted its sluggish
Gerry Tam
German pharmaceutical company tones. According to the Forum, growth results after its profits
Beiersdorf has retained Carat as ad-funded mobile entertainment surged 159 per cent from its first to
the incumbent for its Nivea and C- will be worth US$2.6 million in second quarter of this year. I think the Asian online
Bons Hair Care units, after a re- Indonesia, Malaysia and Thai-
video operators have done
view that also included OMD and land by 2013, a figure PUBLIC RELATIONS
a great job to attract
MEC. As the company’s media that amounts to 52
Akamai selects Upstream
agency-of-record of seven years in million click-throughs traffic, especially in China.
China, Carat also handles plan- on mobile entertain- Upstream Asia has been retained
However, they have not yet
ning and buying duties for the Eu- ment products. by Akamai Technologies, a service
developed a strong
cerin medical skincare range and provider for accelerating content
Isobar allies with Baidu
for the Slek and Maestro haircare and business processes online, to advertising model which
brands. Isobar, Aegis Media’s digi- provide strategic counsel and
can convince advertisers
tal network, is growing its communications support on a re-
PGI selects OMD in China to be part of it.
search marketing facility in gional basis.
Stewart Li
OMD China has been appointed China with the launch of its In Asia the key markets for Aka-
media agency of Platinum Guild search engine optimisation mai are Singapore, Hong Kong,
International (PGI) starting Janu- service iProspect.The initiative Australia,Korea and Taiwan.Mike
MEDIA i-Qs
ary 2009, after a pitch involving will incorporate Baidu’s appli- Liew, managing director of Up-
three agencies including incum- cation programming interface stream Southeast Asia said:“Aka-
bent Carat.PGI is hoping to inspire into Isobar’s global search engine mai should be a household name, What was the defining industry
a passion for platinum among con- tool Iseba (iProspect search en- because it provides essential tech- development of 2008? Have
sumers, ensuring the precious gine bidding agent). The integra- nology to powering up the online your say on next issue’s i-Q at
metal remains the jewellery of tion,which will be implemented by world to meet the expectations of internetquestion.media.asia
choice. wwwins Consulting, will enable the wired consumer.”