Singapore, 22 August 2013 – The inaugural Sports Matters will be held at the St. Regis Singapore on 18th and 19th September 2013 with a view to aligning the Asian sports industry. This first-time event will see the launch of the new Asian Sponsorship Association to help fuel the growth of this dynamic sector and the conference will bring together all who matter in the business of sport in the region including broadcasters, sponsors, sports governing bodies and industry leaders from digital platforms, venues, specialist agencies and professional service firms.

Key industry leaders driving the business of sponsorship in Asia will lead an interactive open forum on the second day of Sports Matters that will define and form the basis for the Asian Sponsorship Association.

“The sponsorship sector in Asia has been relatively stagnant for the past 20 years. The Asian Sponsorship Association will inject vibrancy and sophistication to this sector to help energise event partners and sports associations in Asia to boost their appeal and gather more support for their events and activities. This Association will not just benefit the sports industry, it will also help event organisers in the entertainment, music and lifestyle industries,” said Jasper Donat, CEO of Branded Ltd. co-producer of Sports Matters and 25 year veteran of the sports and entertainment industry.

Presented by Samsung and Fox Sports, the action-packed programme will include keynote interviews, expert insights and interactive expert panels. The current sports industry landscape will be analysed and areas of growth identified during the conference. Speakers and delegates will have opportunities to network and build relationships for future collaborations.

Paving the way for a healthy and sustainable Asian sports industry, Sports Matters will cover two days with the first day focused on the conference and the second day centred around two breakout sessions: Sports TV Matters (produced in association with Lightning International) and Sponsorship Matters, along with the launch of the Asian Sponsorship Association.
The illustrious speaker faculty includes:

• Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO, WTA
• Andrew Georgiou, CEO, World Sport Group
• Prinz Mathew Pinakatt, Global Director Alliances & Ventures, The Coca-Cola Company
• Giles Morgan, Group Head of Sponsorship and Events, HSBC
• Michael Roche, Executive Director, Singapore GP
• Chris Renner, CEO, Helios Partners
• Poh Yu Khing, COO, Singapore Sports Hub
• Tan Tong Hai, CEO, StarHub
• Andres Gonzalez, Vice President, AP & MEA Sponsorships, MasterCard Worldwide
• Mike Rich, CEO, Group M ESP
• Vipul Chawla, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Asia, Yum! Brands
• Jim Small, Vice President Asia, Major League Baseball

And many more…

Sports Matters will also highlight Singapore as a key destination for sporting events.

“Over the past ten years, the Sporting Singapore Vision implemented by the Government has really taken shape. We now have world class events like the F1 night race, mass participation events like the Marathon Singapore – we even have more than 50 running events per year in our sporting calendar! The opening of Sports Hub next year in 2014 will act as another boost for Sporting Singapore – world-class infrastructure with vibrant programmes and activities for all. The Sports Matters conference could not have started at a better time – attracting and connecting sporting industry experts to power the growth of the local and regional sporting industry to the next level,” explained Poh Yu Khing, Chief Operating Officer, Singapore Sports Hub.

Jean Ng, Deputy Director (F1 & Sports), Singapore Tourism Board, agreed: “With a global line-up of speakers and delegates, Sports Matters will highlight Singapore’s appeal as a premier destination for business events and reinforce our leadership position in Asia for hosting international sporting events such as the Singapore Grand Prix and the upcoming Women’s Tennis Association Championships in 2014. Further, Sports Matters and other such business events will also complement Singapore’s existing stable of lifestyle and entertainment products.”

Sports Matters is co-produced by Branded (owners of the award winning Digital & Music Matters and Social Media Matters) and Haymarket Media (publishers of Campaign magazine, F1 Racing, FourFourTwo and producers of Spikes Asia creative festival). Sports Matters is proudly supported by the Singapore Sports Council and Singapore Tourism Board.

For more information on Sports Matters, please visit www.sportsmatters.asia and http://www.allthatmatters.asia/sportsmatters/2013/programme.html for the latest programme and speaker line-up.

– End –

About Sports Matters
Aiming to build the foundations for a healthy and sustainable Asian sports industry, Sports Matters is a co-production between Branded and Haymarket Media. Long overdue, this event will provide a forum for debate, an opportunity to build commercial relationships and a unique brand presence never before seen at a sports industry event.

Held at the prestigious St. Regis Hotel in Singapore, 18-19 September 2013, Sports Matters embraces the entire sports industry value chain from governing bodies, rights holders and sponsors, to broadcasters and agencies. A compelling and apposite programme will feature core interviews, expert panel analyses, thought leadership presentations and two, must-attend interactive forums: Sponsorship Matters and Sports TV Matters. Attracting the best and brightest, Sports Matters is the place to be to build the business of sport in Asia Pacific. Sports Matters is generously supported by the Singapore Sports Council and the Singapore Tourism Board.

About Branded Ltd.
Branded Ltd. is the organiser of the Matters series of events including Digital & Music Matters, Music Matters Live, Social Media Matters and the YouTube FanFest. Branded is a leading Asian media and entertainment marketing agency having successfully partnered brands with a number of the world’s leading entertainment attractions including: Walking with Dinosaurs, the Rolling Stones, Coco Lee, Black Eyed Peas, Jamie Cullum, We Will Rock You, James Blunt, ARTHK and Chicago the Musical.
Branded also has unique experience in the media and technology space having been the exclusive sales agent for the CASBAA Convention since 2003. Branded also created the MediaWorks event in partnership with Haymarket (the publishers of Campaign).

About Campaign Asia-Pacific
Campaign is a globally recognised brand within the advertising and marketing industries, synonymous with quality in the hearts and minds of opinion-forming agency and marketing personnel across the world. Providing insights and intelligence into the ideas, work and personalities shaping the region’s marketing communications industry, Campaign Asia-Pacific dives deeper into important subjects and presents the most compelling information that matters to businesses in the fastest-growing and most exciting communications market in the world.

Haymarket Publishing publishes Campaign Asia-Pacific, the UK’s largest independently owned publishing group.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Rachel Lo
Branded Ltd (Singapore)
E: rachel@branded.asia
T: +65 9847 8839

Eric Chiu
Fast Track Asia
E: eric.chiu@fasttrackagency.com
T: +852 2616 2707

(21 August, 2013) Covering 97 countries, the number of pay satellite TV (DBS or DTH) homes will reach 251 million by 2018, up from 178 million at end-2012 and 103 million at end-2008, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

From the 73 million pay satellite TV subscribers added between 2012 and 2018, India will provide 24.4 million, Brazil 9.2 million, Indonesia 6.8 million and Russia 5.9 million. However, the Global Satellite TV Forecasts report estimates that pay satellite TV subscriber totals will fall in 11 countries between 2012 and 2013 as subs convert to other platforms.

India will lead the pay satellite TV sector with 61.1 million subscribers in 2018, followed by the US. India overtook the US in 2012 to take top slot. Brazil and Russia will take third and fourth places respectively.

The US will remain DTH market leader by revenues generated, although its share of the total will fall from 43.5% in 2012 to 38.7% in 2018. Brazil will add the most DTH revenues ($3.5 billion) between 2012 and 2018 – nearly doubling its total in the process.

However, satellite TV revenues will decline for 20 countries between 2012 and 2018. Much of this is due to greater competition forcing satellite TV platforms to offer cheaper packages which will lead to lower ARPUs. Furthermore, low-cost DTH packages are making a significant impact in several countries.

Read more at Digital TV Research

(Aug 16, 2013) In the wake of US DTH satellite pay-TV operators DirecTV and Dish reporting subscriber numbers for the second quarter of 2013, analysis from SNL Kagan unit Multimedia Research Group suggests that subscriber declines are not necessarily hurting set-top box suppliers.

Read more at Advanced Television

(Aug 14, 2013) A novel type of wireless device sends and receives data without a battery or other conventional power source. Instead, the devices harvest the energy they need from the radio waves that are all around us from TV, radio, and Wi-Fi broadcasts.

These seemingly impossible devices could lead to a slew of new uses of computing, from better contactless payments to the spread of small, cheap sensors just about everywhere.

“Traditionally wireless communication has been about devices that generate radio frequency signals,” says Shyam Gollakota, one of the University of Washington researchers who led the project. “But you have so many radio signals around you from TV, Wi-Fi, and cellular networks. Why not use them?”

Read more at MIT Technology Review

(Aug 14, 2013) Visible World has released a white paper [pdf] that examines cable TV subscriber behavior for one (unnamed) operator. While the study is about the effectiveness of cross-channel marketing (such as whether ads for triple play are being shown to subscribers already with the bundle), the glimpse that it provides behind the curtain of a top-tier multiple system operator (MSO) results in some intriguing insights into subscriber behavior.

Read more at Marketing Chart

(Aug 12, 2013) On average, 7 percent of adults with broadband say they are would-be cord-cutters, noting that they are highly likely to cancel their pay-TV subscription in the next six months. This has a strong correlation with the use of smart TVs; 8.8 percent of connected-TV users are highly likely to cancel in the next six months, compared to only 3.5 percent of non-net-connected TV user, finds the Diffusion Group.

Read more at World Screen

(Aug 11, 2013) I’m a teen living in New York. All of my friends have social networks — Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, etc. Facebook used to be all I could talk about when I was younger. “Mom, I want a Facebook!” and other whining only a mother could put up with.

But now, at 13, I’ve been noticing something different. Facebook is losing teens lately, and I think I know why.

Part of the reason Facebook is losing my generation’s attention is the fact that there are other networks now. When I was 10, I wasn’t old enough to have a Facebook. But a magical thing called Instagram had just come out … and our parents had no idea there was an age limit. Rapidly, all my friends got Instagrams.

Read more at Mashable

(Aug 11, 2013) For decades, the TV viewing experience was much the same. Tune into your favorite show, week by patient week, all on the network’s schedule. Feedback was restricted to faceless Nielsen ratings and perhaps a plaintive letter or phone call to executives complaining about a favorite show’s cast change or cancellation.

No more. In a connected world of DVDs, DVRs, video on demand and, more recently, Web streaming, the calculus of control has shifted. Gorge on an entire season of a new show like Netflix’s “House of Cards” in one delirious 13-hour sitting the day it debuts. Tweet your delight/disbelief/fury (pick one, or all) about plot twists to your multitude of followers. Marshal an army on social media to demand a show return from the dead, perhaps even as a movie. (See “Veronica Mars.”)

Read more at The New York Times

(Aug 10, 2013) The media business is long overdue to replace the prevailing framework we use to describe consumer interaction with content with one that better reflects current devices and activities.

The current lean-forward, lean-back paradigm, conceived by Jakob Nielsen, was popularized around 2008 and yet (amazingly) it’s already showing its age. Consider that it predates the widespread use of touchscreen smartphones, the current dominance of tablets — the entire second screen phenomena — and even the widespread adoption of on-demand streaming media services like Netflix and Spotify. The world has turned in the past 5 years, and yet this framework remains a popular if not standard convention for analyzing data consumption in the media business.

Read more at paidContent

(Aug 9, 2013) BE CAREFUL what you wish for.

A cross-carriage rule that mandates a pay-TV provider to share exclusive content – if there’s a request from subscribers of a rival operator – was supposed to kick off a better cable-TV viewing experience for consumers.

Read more at Straits Times