Reached a personal milestone today

We're thrilled to announce the birth of our daughter! Sonam was born today morning at St. Luke's Roosevelt hospital in Manhattan. Both mother and baby are doing great. As first-time parents, it's a great milestone for us, and we're looking forward to the parenthood.

Global online streaming of live IPL cricket matches on YouTube

As I discussed earlier, users prefer to watch live sports on television. They go to alternate digital platforms (Web or mobile) if they don't have access to a television, or the telecast is not available in their region, or if they want to simultaneously complement their TV experience. Sports leagues/rights owners/broadcasters also prefer television for distribution because it drives almost all of the distribution economics.

Having said that, yesterday's announcement that YouTube is partnering with the Indian Premier League (IPL), the richest cricket tournament in the world, to provide live global Webcast of all IPL matches is significant.

The partnership will allow the young IPL, which starts its third annual season on March 12th, to market its increasingly popular and novel format to a global audience. In addition, it will be a boon for global cricket fans living in countries where cricket is a niche sport and hence not available on television.

Google, which owns YouTube, gets exclusive global online rights for two years. All 60 matches in the tournament will be available for online streaming, which apparently will be free for consumers. Google will monetize the content through advertising and sponsorships, and split the revenue with IPL. The U.S. market, which has a decent size international fan base even though cricket is a niche sport here, will have re-broadcast rights. DirecTV offered the 2009 IPL season package to consumers in the U.S. last year on a pay-per-view basis for $99.

This is a great win for Google, which is playing nice with premium content owners in international markets, having learned from its mistakes in the U.S. where it started on the wrong path with content owners, and until today is fighting to counter their skepticism in its efforts to secure distribution rights for premium content. IPL content is by far the biggest prize with the maximum online commercial potential in the cricket-crazy Indian sub-continent.

The Google/IPL deal follows a similar partnership struck last year between NBC Universal and Ten Sports, one of the most popular sports cable channel in the Indian sub-continent and Middle East. The partnership provided NBCU exclusive digital rights to monetize Ten Sports content on a revenue-share basis. Full disclosure: I led the formation of the Ten Sports venture and managed the business at NBCU.

As part of that partnership, we launched tensports.com as the first, free, premier sports video portal in the Indian sub-continent and Middle East. The portal was designed to stream live cricket matches in full with a highly social and interactive experience.

Its first major live event - the Compaq Cup Tri-Series cricket tournament between India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka - beat all expectations by arguably hosting the biggest live event ever held in that market. During the four days of cricket streamed from the week-long tournament, over one million hours of live cricket was consumed by users, with an average session time of 63 minutes. More than 100,000 concurrent users were clocked on the portal during the event. U.S., a much larger Internet market in comparison, crossed the 100,000 concurrent users mark for a live online event as recently as in 2005 during the global Live Aid music concerts that were streamed by AOL while I was working there.

Our decision on the business model - ad-supported, free live streaming to consumers - also proved to a success. The Compaq Cup was sold out with premium brand advertisers like Cisco, Samsung, Airtel, Maruti, Xerox, and we witnessed record audience engagement (upto 10x of average CTR) .

I'm not sure how big a catalyst was the NBCU/Ten Sports success in paving the way for the IPL/Google deal, but we definitely proved the model for live online sport streaming in the Indian sub-continent - a nascent but high-potential market that is showing impressive growth.

Apple's App Store Economy

Applications downloaded on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch generate $550MM per month in total revenue, which is shared 70/30 between application developers and Apple respectively.

Click on the image below to see its enlarged version.

Happy new year!

From Riviera Maya in Mexico...


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Luncheon with the Prime Minister of India today

I am in Washington DC currently to be part of the state visit of the Prime Minister (PM) of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The stature of "state visits" is normally reserved for heads of states, which technically is not the case with the Prime Minister of India. That status constitutionally belongs to the President of India, which however is a nominated position and acts only as a nominal head of the country. The PM on the other hand is the elected leader of the party with majority in the Indian parliament, and is the political head of the country for all practical purposes. President Obama is therefore providing the stature of a full-fledged state visit to Dr. Manmohan Singh's visit, and he will have the honor to attend the first state dinner of Obama's Presidency tomorrow.

Today I attended the luncheon with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The luncheon, organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in coordination with the U.S.-India Business Council, is the only agenda item in the PM's itinerary reserved for a dialogue with the business community of the two countries. Dr. Manmohan Singh, a noted economist and probably the most qualified PM ever in the Indian history, was the chief architect of India's economic reforms that started in 1991, and is credited with turning around the economic fortunes of the world's biggest democracy. India has now become one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. He shared his vision of the U.S.-India business partnership and gave a clear signal that India Inc. is open for business and encouraged foreign investment in almost all major sectors of the country's economy.

The PM and his Congress party gained a comfortable majority during the national election in India this summer, and has therefore received the necessary public mandate to continue economic liberalization without relying on any external political partners, which frustratingly had been the case earlier during his previous term.

It was an honor to be part of the select group of business professionals who were invited to represent the interest of the business community of both the countries at the famous International Hall of Flags in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building in Washington DC. Our group included U.S. government officials, senior business executives and CEOs of prominent firms from both the countries including Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo), Dave Cote (Honeywell), Paul Jacobs (Qualcomm), Ellen Kullman (DuPont), Terry McGraw (McGraw-Hill Companies), Rata Tata (Tata Group), Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Group, the largest mobile carrier in India), Chanda Kochar (ICICI bank, the largest private sector bank in India), O.P. Bhatt (State Bank of India), etc.

Two speaking engagements in Europe - Monaco Media Forum & TiE UK

I just landed in London on couple of speaking engagements in Europe. The main event is the Monaco Media Forum (MMF) in Monte Carlo later this week. I'm speaking on a panel discussing "The Living Room War: Redefining Television." It should be an interesting conversation, and I'll write about it after the conference.

Here is a blurb on the conference from its site:

"Now in its fourth year, MMF brings together leaders of new and old media
for two and a half days of high-level discussions about the future of online,
broadcast and print communications. Hosted by HSH Prince Albert II, the
invitation-only event focuses on emerging opportunities in technology,
distribution and content, along with related developments in marketing and
finance."

This is my first time at MMF, so I'm looking forward to it. From what I've been told from previous attendees, unlike many open conferences where you may have a few thousand attendees, making the conference unwieldy and difficult for attendees to have a close one-on-one interaction, the invitation-only MMF provides close interaction between the few hundred invited folks.

Since I was on my way to Monaco along with a few other MMF attendees from the U.S., the U.K. chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) requested us to speak to their members and have hosted an event today evening at the CASS Business School in London. The topic is "Bridging the Pond – A Roundtable Conversation Innovation and funding in Media and state of Advertising in US and UK." I've been involved with TiE for over ten years now, and am a Charter Member with their Silicon Valley chapter, so I felt obligated to accept their invitation. In addition, I thought it will be good to get a sense of the entrepreneurship scene in London.

And finally, I'm taking a few days off for personal time after the MMF. It has been quite busy few weeks after I announced that I'm leaving NBCU in early October. I'm doing a road trip along the French and Italian rivieras. This should be the most exciting part of my trip. I did not get a chance to do much research and properly plan the road trip, but with the help of suggestions from a few friends, I settled on driving around the Mediterranean coastline and checking out quaint small towns on both the rivieras. I'll spend more time on the Italian side than the French side.

I shall post pictures during my travel diary. Not sure how much Internet connection I will have in those small towns, but I'll definitely post pictures after the trip if I can't during it.

Speaking at the Columbia Business School today

I expected a more relaxed schedule after announcing my departure from NBC Universal few weeks back. Unfortunately it has not been so thus far. I spent the week of October 19 in California - spoke at the Digital Hollywood conference in LA early part of the week, and then spent a few days at the Web 2.0 in San Francisco on my way back to NYC.

I'm off to Europe on Sunday to speak at the Monaco Media Forum, but am planning to get some personal time during that trip (more on that later).

Today I'm a guest speaker for a 2nd year MBA class at the Columbia Business School. I always love a dialogue with students. America has arguably the best higher education infrastructure in the world, including the best business schools. In fact, this has been one of the biggest competitive advantages of U.S., and will remain so at a time when questions are being raised on the country's continued dominance in the future as the #1 global economic superpower amidst much faster growing emerging economies like China, India, etc.

When it comes to business education, I believe that MBA programs need to be more steeped in real business environment than they have been in the past. There has to be a tighter cooperation/engagement between daily classroom training and actual real-world situations. In fact, there are some who argue that MBA education, as it stands today, is a total waste of time. Students graduate with theoretical frameworks and un-realistic expectations which fail miserably in the real world.

One of the hottest topics of today, after a handful of unfettered, greed-driven American financial institutions almost single handedly brought down the global economy, is whether capitalism is the best economic framework to run a country. I'm still a strong believer in capitalism, having grown up in India's government-controlled market system and seen its serious limitations (before India liberalized its economy in 1991 and invited foreign investment). However, ethics is a core component of capitalism. The U.S. economic debacle was a failure to observe rules of ethics, not the failure of capitalism itself. This requires managers to maximize value to "stakeholders" not just "shareholders." Stakeholders include shareholders plus customers & society, without which no business enterprise can make money in a sustainable manner over the long run.

The format of business case studies, which simulate real-world situations, was deployed in business schools as a step to expose business students to real world situations. However, it is very easy to discuss, say, a case on business ethics in a classroom and decide what is right and wrong in a vacuum when participants are not personally involved in that situation in an actual work setting. It is far more difficult to do that in a real-life situation, say, at your job, because the right answer usually has shades of grey, instead of black or white, and decision makers have personal stakes/interests involved.

Unlike science, where we have empirically proven laws which always stay the same, the practice of running a company and generating returns for shareholders is an art. It evolves constantly. There are several external influencing factors including market environment, regulatory laws, political and social changes, trade, technology, etc, which are constantly changing, thus requiring real-time adjustments to business practices. Real-life experience dealing with such fluidity therefore becomes a more critical determinant of success in business than a classroom training.

For someone who finished his MBA back in 1997, an interaction with current MBA students is therefore always fun. Looking forward to it.

Moving on...

After spending three enriching years with NBC Universal, I've decided to move on to pursue other opportunities externally.

It has been an amazing ride. I was brought in by the NBCU management in Aug 06 to "instill digital DNA into this traditional media firm that was looking to transform itself in the digital world." Yes, those were the exact words during my interview. Looking back, I'd say that we did move the needle in the digital direction over the past three years.

I'd admit, the ride was not always a smooth one, and I did have my share of challenges working within a big media firm and introducing change. Change is hard, especially when the future is uncertain, and you're constantly countering the fear that the new direction may cannibalize existing, more profitable, though shrinking revenue streams & business models.

But then these are turbulent times for the media industry as digital re-defines almost all existing norms, and users change their behaviors in probably the most dramatic fashion ever. I feel the bumps provided invaluable learning experiences for me and everyone involved at NBCU.

Ref: my next role, I've been exploring several options but have not yet made a decision. It'd be an entrepreneurial opportunity in all likelihood. I'll be taking some time off to travel and speak at a few conferences (Digital Hollywood and Monaco Media Forum).

That brings me to another, more exciting announcement on personal front. We're expecting our first child. We've been married for nine years, and decided to finally take the plunge.

So, exciting times for me on both personal and professional front!

Stay tuned.

Mobile: Carriers cash-in on explosive data growth; advertising & commerce revenue lag promised growth

For the quarter ending June 30, 2009, wireless data ($3.4Bn) contributed over a quarter of the total wireless revenue ($13.2Bn) for AT&T, the 2nd largest mobile carrier in the U.S. As discussed before, data revenue will be the key growth driver for mobile carriers not just in the U.S. but worldwide, as voice service increasingly gets commoditized in favor of other value-added services offered by carriers.

Continued popularity of iPhone, which has been habituating users to use their mobile phones for Internet usage, and huge growth of Internet/data friendly smartphones will further increase the share of data revenue for carriers.

While mobile data usage and the number of users going online on their cellphones continue to increase as projected, these are early days for anyone other than carriers to profit from this trend. As the eMarketer chart shows, in 2009 there will be over 70M U.S. mobile Internet users. Despite a large user base, mobile advertising and commerce revenue has not really kept pace with their earlier lofty projections.

eMarketer projects 2009 U.S. mobile advertising revenue to be $416M, much smaller than ~$24B online advertising revenue forecasted for this year. The promise of reaching very targeted audience, down to an individual cell phone user level, and "killer" location-based services/targeting that users will pay for remains un-fulfilled.



More than 2Bn iPhone applications have been downloaded, mostly free, but majority of them don't have any advertising integration (except house ads) - another example that monetization thus far severely lags usage on the mobile platform.

Nobody is denying the long-term potential of the mobile medium - given its ubiquity, reach advantage (over 4Bn mobile subs globally vs ~1Bn PCs sold), proximity to its user, and targeting ability - but it's going to take much longer than previously expected for this industry to mature. Non-standard nature of devices, user interfaces, operating systems, and metrics are signs of an industry that is still in its infancy. Privacy issues and feared regulations also require attention, and warrants proper education for regulators and users, as well as permission-based implementations of mobile experiences by advertisers and service providers.

I believe major Internet players with existing services that can be easily ported to mobile, and those with deep pockets and staying power to heavily invest in mobile for the long-term, would have significant advantage in garner a big share of the mobile value ecosystem (apart from carriers). Companies like Google, Yahoo!, Apple can build beach-heads and gain users' mind share during the current adoption phase. These firms already have the brand recognition and loyalty to engender trust amongst users - assets which can be leveraged to generate lucrative margins when the industry matures and monetization ultimately kicks in.

Food for thought

"Packaging's Life" from Silvio Giordano on Vimeo.

Donna Karan fashion show in NYC today

Donna Karan Spring show during NYC Fashion Week.

Saw some of these fashion big wigs.

US Open tennis: Djokovic vs Stepanek, 4th round

Djokovic leading 6-1, 4-2
 
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Sab Kanaujia
NBC Universal, New York
 
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld.

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