ESPN STAR Sports will launch its first joint venture led dedicated sports cable channel in Korea on November 1.

Known as MBC-ESPN Sports, the channel will be an entirely localised sports service that delivers live and exclusive coverage of major sports events, launched in association with Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. This includes seven live and exclusive games per week of Major League Baseball (MLB) and two live and exclusive games per week each from the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Korean Football League.

MBC-ESPN will also air coverage of the Korean Open Golf Tournament, Korean Intercontinental Football and the ATP Tour. This is in addition to popular ESS programs such as the English Premier League and UEFA Champions‘ League. Transmitted entirely in Korean, MBC-ESPN‘s localized programming includes on-air presentation, commentary, graphics and dedicated promos. ESS will provide sports programming on MBC-ESPN while MBC provides the on-the-ground production facilities needed to customize and re-transmit the locally versioned feed from Seoul.

ESS officials say, "We began by launching dedicated feeds to key Asian markets, followed by versioning our programming to the local language. We‘ve now taken it a step further by working with the strongest local partners in Korea who have the resources and expertise to help us continue providing compelling sports programming to our viewers, expertly localised." MBC-ESPN is the ninth feed of ESS and the fifth feed of ESPN in Asia.

Bowing to a long-standing demand from the industry that there should only be one rating system, market research agencies AC Nielsen‘s TAM Media Research and ORG MARG‘s INTAM today set in motion the process that will see the merger of their operations through a joint venture with a single currency by the middle of next year.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year. The new venture will combine local TV ratings data from TAM Media, a 50-50 joint venture between AC Nielsen and KMR/IMRB, with data from ORG-MARG, a VNU company, in a single service across India. The combined TV ratings service will be one of the world‘s largest to use advanced people meter technology, a joint press release states.

When contacted LV Krishnan, president TAM India, confirmed he would be heading the combined service.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Gautam Mitra, general manager, INTAM, clarified that the two organisations would not be merged. What would happen was that there would be a consolidation of the databases of the two bodies so that a single consolidated rating system would be operating rather than the current two.

The new joint venture will also be the leading provider of advertising expenditure information in India, covering more than 90 per cent of the country‘s TV and press advertising spending, the release says.

Responding to worries in the industry that there could actually be a reduction in the total coverage as one system would be discontinued, Gautam Mitra, general manager, INTAM, denied any such decision had been made. He, however, admitted that a major issue that needed sorting out was how to introduce compatibility into two systems that are currently incompatible. INTAM uses picture matching technology for their people meters while TAM uses a frequency system.

Mitra added that places of coverage in the new dispensation would have to be thought through. When the people meter lists in Mumbai and Chennai were systematically leaked recently, an issue that had caused much heartburn was the selection of samples for the different socioeconomic categories. The charge was that too often there was a mismatch witnessed.

Queried as to whether this move was a prelude to the merger of the two companies, Krishnan was noncommittal. Official line notwithstanding, it does look distinctly possible that by the middle of next year, there will not only be one rating system, but one company as well.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has barred airtime sellers and production houses from becoming board members in the association. They will also not be allowed to become primary members, but will be allowed to function as associate members.

The resolution to this effect was passed by the IBF at its latest extra ordinary general meeting held last Wednesday. The board of directors will now be restricted to broadcasting companies.

One person who would have been directly affected by the ruling is Harish Thawani, chairman, Nimbus Communication, but he resigned much before the proposal to change the membership norms was put forth. When contacted, Thawani said he resigned because he was not able to devote any time as he was constantly travelling. Queried on the new ruling, Thawani said it was up to the IBF to make its own decisions.

The decision is seen as a firm move by the IBF to focus on major issues faced by the broadcasters. Recently, it had taken a strong stance to protect the broadcasters? interests against default of payment by advertising agencies.

Explaining the move, an IBF board member said when the body was formed, airtime sales agents were an intrinsic part of the negotiating process, especially as regards dealings with national broadcaster Doordarshan. This had more or less fizzled out and so changes were required which reflected the current status of the industry.

According to sources, airtime sellers and production houses feel that there is no reason for them to drop out of the IBF so long as their interests are represented in the association.