$250m

Qatar-based sports network beIn Sports has gone big on Thailand, paying between US$250 million and US$270 million for the next three English Premier League (EPL) seasons. The deal, which also covers Laos/Cambodia, is way lower than the rumoured US$320 million pay-TV platform CTH paid last time around. No similar drops in Australia, where Singtel-owned Optus stepped in with a knock-out market-shocker bid of about US$150 million for exclusive rights. The winning bid is said to be many times the amount paid by Foxtel in the last round and clearly enough for EPL bosses to ditch a partner of almost two decades. Elsewhere in the region, MP & Silva won rights for seven territories – Japan (said to have gone for US$80 million), South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mongolia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. Aggressive Chinese newcomer, LeTV, acquired Hong Kong rights for somewhere around US$400 million. In Singapore, Singtel managed to hold onto its rights for another three seasons. The telco is said to have paid US$300 million last time around. Rights agency MP & Silva says Asia and Oceania make up more than 38% of the total 2.7 billion EPL viewers worldwide.

24

hours a week Singaporean millennials (aged 16-30) spend on their mobile phones. The Connected Life report, a study of 60,500 internet users worldwide from research consultancy TNS, shows average millennials in Singapore spend 3.4 hours a day on their mobile devices – the equivalent of a full day a week. Singaporeans clock in as some of the world’s most mobile-addicted consumers; millennials globally spend an average 3.2 hours a day on their devices.

100%

India’s foreign investment bosses have totally lifted the foreign ownership lid on TV channel broadcasters. Provided, that is, they stay clear of news and current affairs, which retains a cap of 49% foreign direct investment (FDI). The previous cap on news/current affairs services was 26%. The change was made as part of a widely welcomed and long-awaited rework of foreign direct investment limits by India’s government, which also said in November that it was eliminating the 74% cap on investment in distribution infrastructure, including cable networks and direct-to-home (DTH) satellite platforms. The FDI road ahead is not completely clear of regulatory approvals though; permission is still needed if companies want to take their full 49% stake in news channels. Same goes for cable/DTH/HITS. Reaction has been mostly positive.

100

hours of content created specifically to celebrate Singapore’s 50th anniversary in 2015. The SG50 content (TV, films, games), was created in, by, and about Singaporeans with the support of Singapore’s Media Development Authority (MDA). The idea was to tell the story of Singapore’s culture, history and icons. No dollar value has been put on SG50 TV spend. The MDA said earlier this year that it had spent S$21.4 million/US$15 million on grants/scholarships for media companies and supported more than 1,300 projects in the year to end March 2015. Most of the money – S$14.78 million/US$10.6 million – went on film projects, with S$1.18 million/US$846,842 on animation and S$2.3 million/US$1.65 million on broadcast.

15 million

Turner Broadcasting’s Boomerang added 15 million homes to its Asia reach in a single day in November, courtesy of a slew of distribution deals with cable and IPTV platforms. The channel puts classics The Tom and Jerry Show, Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo in Korea for the first time, along with new shows Wabbit and Bunnicula, and new Korean title Beat Monsters.

US$64.4 billion

Film and TV industries contributed US$64.4 billion to China’s economy in 2014, according to the Economic Contribution of the Film and Television Industries in China Report, presented by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Los Angeles in November. The report also found that the industries supported 4,117,000 jobs and generated a tax contribution totaling US$16.9 billion. These findings indicate a 53% increase over the previous report, which referenced data from 2011.

This article first appeared in ContentAsia Issue 6, 2015, published in December 2015.