Business Intelligence Middle East, Apr 27, 2009 (http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=35306&t=1&c=33&cg=4&mset)
INTERNATIONAL. The English language has dominated the Internet since it began, and until recently has had very little competition for its number one position. With China now rising to become one of the fastest growing world powers, and experiencing the highest rate of Internet user growth ever seen, is this the decade we will see the Internet turn red?
bab.la has recently completed a research project aiming to show the gap between spoken languages and languages used on the Internet. Not surprisingly, the research confirms that Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. Despite this, it currently lags dramatically behind English on the Internet and is only the second-most used language on this all-important global resource.
English is 'spoken' on the web by around 450 million people, but Internet user growth in the English-speaking world is slowing. In contrast, the CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Centre) announced that the number of Chinese Internet users increased by 42% in 2008 to a total of 298 million, and has surpassed the US with its approximately 225 million users for the first time.
This high rate of growth is expected to have a significant impact on the Internet in the near future, but exactly how long will it take for these new users to start making a dent in the 'English-ness' of the web?
According to Erin Gallagher, part of the research team from bab.la, this may be sooner than we thought. "Based on the current levels of growth, we expect to see Chinese overtake English on the web within the next two to three years," says Gallagher.
Research from bab.la shows that Chinese is not the only language with the potential to overtake English on the web. India, Bangladesh and Indonesia all have the populations and user growth figures to impact web language statistics. In fact, many now see India as the 'new China', with even more potential for growth and development over the next generation.
The bab.la World Languages Map shows that Hindustani is in fact the next most-commonly spoken language after Chinese in Asia, giving further weight to this argument. Hindustani (the term for the associated dialects of Hindi and Urdu) is spoken by more than 900 million people, and yet it currently has a very small Internet presence. India's widespread potential for infrastructural development and rising purchasing power will positively affect the Internet penetration as it has done in China.
Gallagher said she believes India is in fact a "sleeping giant in the world of languages" and that it has the potential to be as big as China in terms of users and language presence on the net.
The first two decades of the World Wide Web have been the 'English years', the next decade will be Chinese. What is clear is that English is losing its stronghold, and a more worldwide, more accessible, more red web is on the way.
The bab.la World Languages Map can be accessed at en.bab.la/news/world-languages.html
Note: bab.la is an interactive language portal offering bilingual dictionaries, vocabulary lessons, language games, and topical quizzes all free. Currently available in 13 different languages (English, Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Turkish), the site operates on a wiki-style model, allowing users to contribute content and feedback.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Chinese media revenue rose 20% (Chinese)
aaaadvertising, May 29, 2009 (http://www.aaaad.cn/html/59/n-23059.html)
（北京）根据一份由国家广电总局公布的报告，2008年中国广播，电影和电视产业的总收入强势增长，达到了人民币1,660亿元，比上一年同期增加了20％以上。
2009年的广播电影电视发展报告显示，广播和电视总收入比2008年同期增长了19.5％， 为人民币1,350亿元。
这两个行业的广告收入高达人民币702亿元 ，比上一年同期增加了近17％，很大部分的原因是由于围绕着奥运会为主题广告。
仅仅是广播广告收入就上升了超过10％，电视上升了17％。
与此同时，电影达到了人民币84亿元的毛收入，比上一年增加了25％。
（北京）根据一份由国家广电总局公布的报告，2008年中国广播，电影和电视产业的总收入强势增长，达到了人民币1,660亿元，比上一年同期增加了20％以上。
2009年的广播电影电视发展报告显示，广播和电视总收入比2008年同期增长了19.5％， 为人民币1,350亿元。
这两个行业的广告收入高达人民币702亿元 ，比上一年同期增加了近17％，很大部分的原因是由于围绕着奥运会为主题广告。
仅仅是广播广告收入就上升了超过10％，电视上升了17％。
与此同时，电影达到了人民币84亿元的毛收入，比上一年增加了25％。
Road Less Travelled -Interview with Fredy Bush
Originally published in The Peak magazine, Hong Kong, December 2008
"As the older and wiser person I am today, I look back and realise I took a risk for my family and it brought me to China," says Fredy Bush, eyes wide with excitement. "In thinking I was sacrificing for them, it actually gave me my life."
Download PDF (1.56 MB)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is quite an extraordinary statement for the founder and CEO of China’s leading financial news and data analysis company. But then Fredy Bush is no ordinary person. The head of Xinhua Finance and its subsidiary Xinhua Finance Media, she started life as what could be described as a second-class citizen in American’s most tightly religious state. In Utah, as a Mormon in a restricted, male-dominated society, the map of her life, like those of most women, was determined at birth-her primary role would be as wife and mother. And so, at the tender age of 19, Fredy Bush was married with two small children.
Perhaps if her husband had not died in a motorcycle accident when she was in her first year of college, she would still be an obedient housewife in Utah and Xinhua Finance would have been a distant possibility. The accident left her with few opportunities as an uneducated teenage mother. Poverty was her most daunting obstacle-she recalls being unable to the point of being homeless,” she says, in a way that suggests the wounds may not have healed completely. “You just don’t have any room.” Yet now she considers challenge a privilege and says that conquering the uphill battle added depth and understanding to her life.
It took an apparently inconsequential event to change her direction. While marking time in a doctor’s waiting room when one of her children became sick, she picked up a Reader’s Digest and happened to open it to an article on single undereducated teenage mothers.
The statistics stressed the likelihood that her offspring would not attend college but become blue-collar workers involved in drugs or alcohol: Then and there, Fredy Bush vowed never to let that happen.
Moving herself and her children out of Utah and its belief system, she found a job in California with a Taiwanese woman who mentioned lucrative positions for English-speakers working for government officials in Taiwan. In 1985, Fredy Bush and her children moved to Taipei.
FOREIGN FIELDS
It was a culture shock to say the least. Apart from the foreign customs and language, she hadn’t realized Taiwan was still under Chiang kai Shek’s martial law, impose in May 1949- the restrictions especially on free speech and the press were a stark contrast to what she had been used to in her native land. Still, her resolve held, and after finding work as an assistant to the secretary general of Taiwan, she started learning about trading in commodities.
In 1998, martial law was lifted, state-owned enterprises were privatized and the markets liberalized. It was the opportunity Fredy Bush needed. Having learnt Mandarin and having understood the world’s securities markets, she set up a consulting business helping multinational companies identify business opportunities in China, particularly offering advice on the creation of Taipei’s commodities futures market. Then, as China followed Taiwan’s example, in the mid-1990s Fredy Bush’s company linked up with Xinhua News, the official voice of China’s government, providing it with the financial information and analysis that would attract foreign firms to the rapidly expanding Chinese economy.
That led in 1999, to a proposal that the news agency invest in an international financial news and analysis services to which it would also license its name- although she realized( and ensured through links with foreign financial houses) that the business had to be seen as independent of any government control or manipulation.
Fredy Bush literally created indices, ratings, financial news, investor relations services and distribution in a time when none existed: She brought transparency to the Chinese market with disclosure and analysis of the performance of China’s major companies. She went on to found subsidiary Xinhua Finance Media, which distributes financial data, analysis and news through a television, radio, newspaper, magazine and online network.
In less than 10 years, she managed to list the companies on two major international markets: Mothers Board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a global lattice of 11 countries and the Nasdaq stock market.
A MAN’ S WORLD
Ironically, the blue-eyed blonde has found herself going from one male-dominated world to another-she is often the only woman in the boardroom. In the past, even though she was the CEO, negotiation dialogue was often directed to male counterparts rather than herself. It has taken a long process to prove herself, but, in the end, there was no denying shareholders were raking in profits. “You finally gain their respect where inevitably they say. “She makes us money so we kind of have to let her in.” she laughs.
The secret to making it, Bush says, is having a dream that excites, the courage to take a risk and , finally, persistence to never give up-particularly if you are an undervalued business woman. Amongst her many accolades, the most meaningful was the Wall Street Journal’s Top 50 Women to Watch award in 2004, because women’s contributions to business, society, charity and global corporate culture are so poorly recognized.
“There’s definitely a glass ceiling. As much as we’ve progressed, it’s still there.” She says. “My belief is that people don’t fail-they quit. I would encourage them not to.” Her kids, after all, represented all the motivation she needed to persevere. They were the catalyst that propelled Bush into one of the most dynamic emerging markets in the world and her involvement in China’s changing regulatory structure presented an undreamed of career opportunity. “It’s pretty historic in a lot of ways.” She smiles. “Our company plays a tiny role in all of that but it’s what makes me want to get out of bed every single day. It’s such an incredible place to do business.”
Asked if she would change any aspect of her past, Fredy Bush answers immediately that she would have enrolled in college had she been able to afford it. She still managed to beat the statistics by putting both her children through university and any future grandchildren will have the same advantages.
FULL CIRCLE
In fact, education remains so close to Bush’s heart she founded the Chazara Foundation to provide girls in poverty-stricken Chinese provinces like Ningxia with schooling. Annual high-school fees account for more than half an average household’s yearly income and boys usually have priority- if the chance ever even arises.
The next step was creating the Xinhua Finance Library Foundation to build libraries in poor villages, further giving children with no formal education a head start. So far, three libraries have been built in Ningxia and another in Inner Mongolia, with a total of 7,000 donated books. Bush has every intention of immersing herself fully in charity work when she retires.
The main dilemma she face now is how to raise the visibility and encourage involvement in the tow foundations without making them overly large and impersonal. She is intent on avoiding overheads that result in a small percentage of every dollar reaching those in need. At present, only one member of staff oversees the charities, allowing the majority of the funds to go directly to students and books.
Yet she remains personally fully involved. Every Friday night, she takes home a stack of folders and the following morning, writes letters to pupils sponsored by the Chazara Foundation. With more than 1,000 students to date, keeping abreast of correspondence is no mean feat. However, she wouldn’t have it any other way and takes the same approach with the Library Foundation.
“Rather than just writing a cheque and feeling like we’ve done our charitable deed, we actually dig the people in the village,” Fredy Bush divulges, with the hope that the tight-knit bond with her students will continue well after they complete there studies. She is keen to know when they marry or reach other turning points in life, much as if they were her own. Many wonder how they can repay Bush but she asks only in return that they pass on the goodwill.
She also hopes those supported by the Chazara Foundation may one day return to volunteer themselves. With so much time dedicated to her family, biological and other, it’s no wonder that, several years ago, Fredy Bush wondered if the trade-offs she was making for her nearest and dearest meant giving up a life she never had. But, as she says, she now realizes it was precisely that sacrifice that has made her life such a success.
"As the older and wiser person I am today, I look back and realise I took a risk for my family and it brought me to China," says Fredy Bush, eyes wide with excitement. "In thinking I was sacrificing for them, it actually gave me my life."
Download PDF (1.56 MB)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is quite an extraordinary statement for the founder and CEO of China’s leading financial news and data analysis company. But then Fredy Bush is no ordinary person. The head of Xinhua Finance and its subsidiary Xinhua Finance Media, she started life as what could be described as a second-class citizen in American’s most tightly religious state. In Utah, as a Mormon in a restricted, male-dominated society, the map of her life, like those of most women, was determined at birth-her primary role would be as wife and mother. And so, at the tender age of 19, Fredy Bush was married with two small children.
Perhaps if her husband had not died in a motorcycle accident when she was in her first year of college, she would still be an obedient housewife in Utah and Xinhua Finance would have been a distant possibility. The accident left her with few opportunities as an uneducated teenage mother. Poverty was her most daunting obstacle-she recalls being unable to the point of being homeless,” she says, in a way that suggests the wounds may not have healed completely. “You just don’t have any room.” Yet now she considers challenge a privilege and says that conquering the uphill battle added depth and understanding to her life.
It took an apparently inconsequential event to change her direction. While marking time in a doctor’s waiting room when one of her children became sick, she picked up a Reader’s Digest and happened to open it to an article on single undereducated teenage mothers.
The statistics stressed the likelihood that her offspring would not attend college but become blue-collar workers involved in drugs or alcohol: Then and there, Fredy Bush vowed never to let that happen.
Moving herself and her children out of Utah and its belief system, she found a job in California with a Taiwanese woman who mentioned lucrative positions for English-speakers working for government officials in Taiwan. In 1985, Fredy Bush and her children moved to Taipei.
FOREIGN FIELDS
It was a culture shock to say the least. Apart from the foreign customs and language, she hadn’t realized Taiwan was still under Chiang kai Shek’s martial law, impose in May 1949- the restrictions especially on free speech and the press were a stark contrast to what she had been used to in her native land. Still, her resolve held, and after finding work as an assistant to the secretary general of Taiwan, she started learning about trading in commodities.
In 1998, martial law was lifted, state-owned enterprises were privatized and the markets liberalized. It was the opportunity Fredy Bush needed. Having learnt Mandarin and having understood the world’s securities markets, she set up a consulting business helping multinational companies identify business opportunities in China, particularly offering advice on the creation of Taipei’s commodities futures market. Then, as China followed Taiwan’s example, in the mid-1990s Fredy Bush’s company linked up with Xinhua News, the official voice of China’s government, providing it with the financial information and analysis that would attract foreign firms to the rapidly expanding Chinese economy.
That led in 1999, to a proposal that the news agency invest in an international financial news and analysis services to which it would also license its name- although she realized( and ensured through links with foreign financial houses) that the business had to be seen as independent of any government control or manipulation.
Fredy Bush literally created indices, ratings, financial news, investor relations services and distribution in a time when none existed: She brought transparency to the Chinese market with disclosure and analysis of the performance of China’s major companies. She went on to found subsidiary Xinhua Finance Media, which distributes financial data, analysis and news through a television, radio, newspaper, magazine and online network.
In less than 10 years, she managed to list the companies on two major international markets: Mothers Board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a global lattice of 11 countries and the Nasdaq stock market.
A MAN’ S WORLD
Ironically, the blue-eyed blonde has found herself going from one male-dominated world to another-she is often the only woman in the boardroom. In the past, even though she was the CEO, negotiation dialogue was often directed to male counterparts rather than herself. It has taken a long process to prove herself, but, in the end, there was no denying shareholders were raking in profits. “You finally gain their respect where inevitably they say. “She makes us money so we kind of have to let her in.” she laughs.
The secret to making it, Bush says, is having a dream that excites, the courage to take a risk and , finally, persistence to never give up-particularly if you are an undervalued business woman. Amongst her many accolades, the most meaningful was the Wall Street Journal’s Top 50 Women to Watch award in 2004, because women’s contributions to business, society, charity and global corporate culture are so poorly recognized.
“There’s definitely a glass ceiling. As much as we’ve progressed, it’s still there.” She says. “My belief is that people don’t fail-they quit. I would encourage them not to.” Her kids, after all, represented all the motivation she needed to persevere. They were the catalyst that propelled Bush into one of the most dynamic emerging markets in the world and her involvement in China’s changing regulatory structure presented an undreamed of career opportunity. “It’s pretty historic in a lot of ways.” She smiles. “Our company plays a tiny role in all of that but it’s what makes me want to get out of bed every single day. It’s such an incredible place to do business.”
Asked if she would change any aspect of her past, Fredy Bush answers immediately that she would have enrolled in college had she been able to afford it. She still managed to beat the statistics by putting both her children through university and any future grandchildren will have the same advantages.
FULL CIRCLE
In fact, education remains so close to Bush’s heart she founded the Chazara Foundation to provide girls in poverty-stricken Chinese provinces like Ningxia with schooling. Annual high-school fees account for more than half an average household’s yearly income and boys usually have priority- if the chance ever even arises.
The next step was creating the Xinhua Finance Library Foundation to build libraries in poor villages, further giving children with no formal education a head start. So far, three libraries have been built in Ningxia and another in Inner Mongolia, with a total of 7,000 donated books. Bush has every intention of immersing herself fully in charity work when she retires.
The main dilemma she face now is how to raise the visibility and encourage involvement in the tow foundations without making them overly large and impersonal. She is intent on avoiding overheads that result in a small percentage of every dollar reaching those in need. At present, only one member of staff oversees the charities, allowing the majority of the funds to go directly to students and books.
Yet she remains personally fully involved. Every Friday night, she takes home a stack of folders and the following morning, writes letters to pupils sponsored by the Chazara Foundation. With more than 1,000 students to date, keeping abreast of correspondence is no mean feat. However, she wouldn’t have it any other way and takes the same approach with the Library Foundation.
“Rather than just writing a cheque and feeling like we’ve done our charitable deed, we actually dig the people in the village,” Fredy Bush divulges, with the hope that the tight-knit bond with her students will continue well after they complete there studies. She is keen to know when they marry or reach other turning points in life, much as if they were her own. Many wonder how they can repay Bush but she asks only in return that they pass on the goodwill.
She also hopes those supported by the Chazara Foundation may one day return to volunteer themselves. With so much time dedicated to her family, biological and other, it’s no wonder that, several years ago, Fredy Bush wondered if the trade-offs she was making for her nearest and dearest meant giving up a life she never had. But, as she says, she now realizes it was precisely that sacrifice that has made her life such a success.
Mobile Internet going strong; advertisers pay attention
Los Angeles Times, Mar 16, 2009 (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/03/mobile-internet.html)
Remember the days when you rolled out of bed, turned on your computer and checked the news, weather and your Facebook account? That's so 2008. An increasing number of people are going straight to their mobile phones for all that information, according to a ComScore study released today. The number of U.S. cellphone users who accessed the mobile Internet daily in January reached 22 million, double that of a year earlier.
"Consumers have more and more choices, and they're finding a pretty good experience using the mobile Web," said Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at ComScore.
The number of people using the mobile Web to access a social networking site quadrupled to 9 million, Donovan said, while the number of people who used the mobile Web to trade stocks or access a financial account nearly tripled to 3 million. (Phones might be useful for panic trading.)
Usage is increasing as more smartphones land in people's hands, Donovan said. The number of people with smartphones increased 81% over the past year, to 24.8 million from 13.7 million.
That trend is likely to continue as phones drop in price. ISuppli, an El Segundo research firm, predicts 11% growth in global smartphone sales in 2009, even as.
... the overall mobile handset market slogs along. And Juniper Research predicts that smartphones will account for 23% of all new mobile phones by 2013, as demand for complicated applications draw consumers to more technically savvy handsets.
Popular content also is driving the on-the-go Internet numbers, Donovan said, as media properties such as CNN and Google perfect their mobile sites. That's motivated phone users without smartphones to start using the mobile Web too, he said.
This is all good news for advertisers, who are struggling to find an effective place to reach people in a year in which their budgets are significantly smaller than last. Donovan says internal ComScore studies have found that ads viewed on mobile phones can have higher click-through rates than those viewed on computers. Some mobile ads are viewed by users who are otherwise difficult to reach, such as those who don't use computers as much and mostly check the Web on their phones, he said.
Half of males 18 to 34 access news and information via the mobile Web, according to ComScore.
"Mobile marketing seems recession-proof due to the well-known fact that the number of mobile users is still growing and will continue to grow," Alexandre Mars, head of Mobile Publicis Groupe, said in a recent white paper.
His proof? There are 30 countries where the mobile penetration rate is above 100%, India boasts 9 million new users each month and China adds as many users as the population of Miami each month.
"Mobile marketing will give the advertising industry a complete face-lift," he said.
Remember the days when you rolled out of bed, turned on your computer and checked the news, weather and your Facebook account? That's so 2008. An increasing number of people are going straight to their mobile phones for all that information, according to a ComScore study released today. The number of U.S. cellphone users who accessed the mobile Internet daily in January reached 22 million, double that of a year earlier.
"Consumers have more and more choices, and they're finding a pretty good experience using the mobile Web," said Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at ComScore.
The number of people using the mobile Web to access a social networking site quadrupled to 9 million, Donovan said, while the number of people who used the mobile Web to trade stocks or access a financial account nearly tripled to 3 million. (Phones might be useful for panic trading.)
Usage is increasing as more smartphones land in people's hands, Donovan said. The number of people with smartphones increased 81% over the past year, to 24.8 million from 13.7 million.
That trend is likely to continue as phones drop in price. ISuppli, an El Segundo research firm, predicts 11% growth in global smartphone sales in 2009, even as.
... the overall mobile handset market slogs along. And Juniper Research predicts that smartphones will account for 23% of all new mobile phones by 2013, as demand for complicated applications draw consumers to more technically savvy handsets.
Popular content also is driving the on-the-go Internet numbers, Donovan said, as media properties such as CNN and Google perfect their mobile sites. That's motivated phone users without smartphones to start using the mobile Web too, he said.
This is all good news for advertisers, who are struggling to find an effective place to reach people in a year in which their budgets are significantly smaller than last. Donovan says internal ComScore studies have found that ads viewed on mobile phones can have higher click-through rates than those viewed on computers. Some mobile ads are viewed by users who are otherwise difficult to reach, such as those who don't use computers as much and mostly check the Web on their phones, he said.
Half of males 18 to 34 access news and information via the mobile Web, according to ComScore.
"Mobile marketing seems recession-proof due to the well-known fact that the number of mobile users is still growing and will continue to grow," Alexandre Mars, head of Mobile Publicis Groupe, said in a recent white paper.
His proof? There are 30 countries where the mobile penetration rate is above 100%, India boasts 9 million new users each month and China adds as many users as the population of Miami each month.
"Mobile marketing will give the advertising industry a complete face-lift," he said.
What will the sports world look like in 2025?
ctv.ca, Mar 15, 2009 (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090313/future_of_sports_090315/20090315?hub=World)
An NFL running back with 3.8 speed in the 40-yard dash collides with a safety that bench-presses 400 pounds. Two centres tip off an NBA game in Spain, while a backcourt press causes a turnover and an easy two points in China, and none of the players had to cross any oceans to get to the arena. And all of it is viewed in real time by subscription-paying fans plugging a Web connection into a big-screen TV.
Welcome to the sports world of 2025, where stronger, faster athletes compete at a breakneck pace on the field while their owners and sponsors do the same off of it. Sports training and medicine are making enormous leaps, as is media convergence.
The sports fan of 2025 will be able to view any number of games on a dizzying array of platforms. "Leagues are building out their own networks," says David Card, a vice president and media analyst with Forrester Research who figures that initiatives like NBA TV and the MLB Network, along with team-controlled operations like the New York Yankees' YES Network, will control increasing amounts of coverage in the future. That will include the ability to view live games over the Internet, an initiative the NBA is already planning for next season.
As leagues and teams take total control, traditional outlets like CBS and Disney's ABC and ESPN may be left scrambling to find a niche beyond live programming. This could mean settling for the secondary role of supplying things like statistics, analysis and fantasy-league access.
But the casual viewer shouldn't panic -- yet. "Advertisers will still pay a lot of bills. ... It's a disinterested third party that best delivers to those who really care about the content," says Card. So even as media coverage of sports becomes increasingly fragmented, networks and pay-per-view services won't disappear altogether. Major, advertising-heavy events like the Super Bowl and World Series will continue to have their homes on the broadcast airwaves.
And what of the recent trend for building billion-dollar sports palaces? As the new Yankee stadium, the as-yet unnamed Dallas Cowboys' new home and the Mets' Citigroup- (and taxpayer-) funded Citi Field are receiving their finishing touches, the tanking economy has many fans rethinking the value of super seats and super stadiums.
Sure, the economic slump will only last so long, but some experts think the shock and suddenness of the global financial crisis may have shifted consumer attitudes permanently. For all but the wealthiest, the luxury sports experience could be out for a long time. That means a lot of $1,000 tickets and personal seat licenses could go unsold and unpopulated for a very long time.
To make up for the lost revenue, teams will turn to in-game sponsorship dollars, thinks Ketchum Sports vice president Shawn McBride. So prepare for an increase in technologically injected product placements in sports telecasts and for uniform patches to turn players into walking billboards for the likes of Gatorade and Toyota.
"The question will be how fans respond to that," says McBride. His guess: Just fine, once the novelty wears off. People have a way of getting used to things; in due time, their attention will revert back to following the action on the field
Other changes he foresees: Municipal politicians driving tougher bargains to help fund stadiums. And, by 2025, a true global presence for some major U.S. sports leagues. The popularity of hockey and basketball in many overseas locations have the NHL and NBA best positioned to develop true European or Asian branches over the next decade or so.
"The NBA is already a global brand," McBride says. "It's just a matter of the competition catching up with the interest."
But none of this can happen without the true stars of the game: the athletes. And fans can expect future stars to be bigger, faster and more durable. According to sports fitness experts, advances in training will allow athletes to safely strengthen traditional trouble spots, reducing rehab time for common maladies like high ankle sprains and torn ACLs to half what they were in the mid 1990s.
Meantime, the first NFL speedster to run a sub-four-second 40 yard dash isn't far off, nor is the first running back or safety to bench press 400 pounds -- two decades after a 300 pound lift was considered an impressive feat. Such will be the fans' reward for forking over so much money to see the games.
And wealthy players won't need to worry about off-season jobs. "Now, (the athletes') job is to get better," says Patrick Ward, a strength and conditioning coach who runs Optimum Sports Performance in Chandler, Ariz. "It's not unusual for 20 different guys on a team to have their own trainer. They're really focused on taking care of their bodies."
In the age of high-definition television and high-priced seats, they should be.
An NFL running back with 3.8 speed in the 40-yard dash collides with a safety that bench-presses 400 pounds. Two centres tip off an NBA game in Spain, while a backcourt press causes a turnover and an easy two points in China, and none of the players had to cross any oceans to get to the arena. And all of it is viewed in real time by subscription-paying fans plugging a Web connection into a big-screen TV.
Welcome to the sports world of 2025, where stronger, faster athletes compete at a breakneck pace on the field while their owners and sponsors do the same off of it. Sports training and medicine are making enormous leaps, as is media convergence.
The sports fan of 2025 will be able to view any number of games on a dizzying array of platforms. "Leagues are building out their own networks," says David Card, a vice president and media analyst with Forrester Research who figures that initiatives like NBA TV and the MLB Network, along with team-controlled operations like the New York Yankees' YES Network, will control increasing amounts of coverage in the future. That will include the ability to view live games over the Internet, an initiative the NBA is already planning for next season.
As leagues and teams take total control, traditional outlets like CBS and Disney's ABC and ESPN may be left scrambling to find a niche beyond live programming. This could mean settling for the secondary role of supplying things like statistics, analysis and fantasy-league access.
But the casual viewer shouldn't panic -- yet. "Advertisers will still pay a lot of bills. ... It's a disinterested third party that best delivers to those who really care about the content," says Card. So even as media coverage of sports becomes increasingly fragmented, networks and pay-per-view services won't disappear altogether. Major, advertising-heavy events like the Super Bowl and World Series will continue to have their homes on the broadcast airwaves.
And what of the recent trend for building billion-dollar sports palaces? As the new Yankee stadium, the as-yet unnamed Dallas Cowboys' new home and the Mets' Citigroup- (and taxpayer-) funded Citi Field are receiving their finishing touches, the tanking economy has many fans rethinking the value of super seats and super stadiums.
Sure, the economic slump will only last so long, but some experts think the shock and suddenness of the global financial crisis may have shifted consumer attitudes permanently. For all but the wealthiest, the luxury sports experience could be out for a long time. That means a lot of $1,000 tickets and personal seat licenses could go unsold and unpopulated for a very long time.
To make up for the lost revenue, teams will turn to in-game sponsorship dollars, thinks Ketchum Sports vice president Shawn McBride. So prepare for an increase in technologically injected product placements in sports telecasts and for uniform patches to turn players into walking billboards for the likes of Gatorade and Toyota.
"The question will be how fans respond to that," says McBride. His guess: Just fine, once the novelty wears off. People have a way of getting used to things; in due time, their attention will revert back to following the action on the field
Other changes he foresees: Municipal politicians driving tougher bargains to help fund stadiums. And, by 2025, a true global presence for some major U.S. sports leagues. The popularity of hockey and basketball in many overseas locations have the NHL and NBA best positioned to develop true European or Asian branches over the next decade or so.
"The NBA is already a global brand," McBride says. "It's just a matter of the competition catching up with the interest."
But none of this can happen without the true stars of the game: the athletes. And fans can expect future stars to be bigger, faster and more durable. According to sports fitness experts, advances in training will allow athletes to safely strengthen traditional trouble spots, reducing rehab time for common maladies like high ankle sprains and torn ACLs to half what they were in the mid 1990s.
Meantime, the first NFL speedster to run a sub-four-second 40 yard dash isn't far off, nor is the first running back or safety to bench press 400 pounds -- two decades after a 300 pound lift was considered an impressive feat. Such will be the fans' reward for forking over so much money to see the games.
And wealthy players won't need to worry about off-season jobs. "Now, (the athletes') job is to get better," says Patrick Ward, a strength and conditioning coach who runs Optimum Sports Performance in Chandler, Ariz. "It's not unusual for 20 different guys on a team to have their own trainer. They're really focused on taking care of their bodies."
In the age of high-definition television and high-priced seats, they should be.
Territory Report: China/Hong Kong; Different platforms grow at different paces
Daily Variety, Feb 6, 2009
China is forecast to continue to see expansion of its digital cable, mobile phone and theatrical film markets for several years. Satellite TV and IPTV are growing at a slower pace because government, having invested hundreds of millions of dollars in cable, has sought to protect it from directly competing technologies.
Another factor holding back IPTV has been the relatively low penetration of broadband Internet and computers in the home. By a recent count, China had 298 million Web users (up 48% in 2008), but many of those use Internet cafes, which receive content from intermediary aggregators and are increasingly finding the legality of that content questioned by regulators cracking down on vulgarity.
Meanwhile the theatrical market is thriving as cinema screens come onstream at the rate of 10 a week. Box office receipts grew by 27% in 2008 to $622 million.
Hong Kong, which is a "Special Administrative Region" of China with its own laws, currency and economic trends, is home to arguably the most successful deployment of IPTV in the world.
NowTV, launched there in 2003 by telco PCCW, last year became the territory's leading pay TV platform, overtaking its cable rival in 2008. But on-demand movie offerings remain small.
The territory is pushing ahead with digital terrestrial television, which now reaches 25% of households in its coverage zone. It is free but require modifications to receiving equipment.
China is forecast to continue to see expansion of its digital cable, mobile phone and theatrical film markets for several years. Satellite TV and IPTV are growing at a slower pace because government, having invested hundreds of millions of dollars in cable, has sought to protect it from directly competing technologies.
Another factor holding back IPTV has been the relatively low penetration of broadband Internet and computers in the home. By a recent count, China had 298 million Web users (up 48% in 2008), but many of those use Internet cafes, which receive content from intermediary aggregators and are increasingly finding the legality of that content questioned by regulators cracking down on vulgarity.
Meanwhile the theatrical market is thriving as cinema screens come onstream at the rate of 10 a week. Box office receipts grew by 27% in 2008 to $622 million.
Hong Kong, which is a "Special Administrative Region" of China with its own laws, currency and economic trends, is home to arguably the most successful deployment of IPTV in the world.
NowTV, launched there in 2003 by telco PCCW, last year became the territory's leading pay TV platform, overtaking its cable rival in 2008. But on-demand movie offerings remain small.
The territory is pushing ahead with digital terrestrial television, which now reaches 25% of households in its coverage zone. It is free but require modifications to receiving equipment.
Chinese internet users on the rise; Number grows to 298 million
Daily Variety, Jan 14, 2009
The number of Internet users in China rose 42% in 2008 to 298 million, with its 22.6% penetration beating the 21.9% world average for the first time, a government-sanctioned research group said in a report.
Around 91% of China’s webizens had broadband connections, the China Internet Network Information Center said, quoted by the Xinhua news agency.
China overtook the U.S. for the number of Internet users in June, to become the world’s leader. But U.S. online penetration is more than 70% against China’s 22.6%, leaving plenty of room for expansion in a population of 1.3 billion.
The number of people using cell phones to surf the Internet doubled to 117 million, a reflection of cheaper costs and an expanded wireless network.
The number of Internet users in China rose 42% in 2008 to 298 million, with its 22.6% penetration beating the 21.9% world average for the first time, a government-sanctioned research group said in a report.
Around 91% of China’s webizens had broadband connections, the China Internet Network Information Center said, quoted by the Xinhua news agency.
China overtook the U.S. for the number of Internet users in June, to become the world’s leader. But U.S. online penetration is more than 70% against China’s 22.6%, leaving plenty of room for expansion in a population of 1.3 billion.
The number of people using cell phones to surf the Internet doubled to 117 million, a reflection of cheaper costs and an expanded wireless network.
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