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Fox Pathe Europa is to launch the first high definition DVD in Europe in mid May, using Microsoft Windows Media 9. Other similar launches are planned in the coming weeks in Germany and shortly in the UK.
The HD DVD for the French launch is Taxi 3, a French film, which did particularly well (for a purely French product) when it was released as a DVD, selling 1.5 million copies. The HD DVD will be pressed in 30,000 copies, targeting people with a PC running at 3 GHz or more and using Windows XP. The market will be people with home cinema systems with suitable screens (e.g. high definition plasma or projector) coupled with a suitable PC, estimated at around 100,000 in France. Stores will also use the disc for demonstration purposes. The box will sell for E19.99 containing 3 DVDs: the standard PAL version, the HD version and the bonus.
The HD DVD format used provides a resolution of 1440 x 816, non-interlaced scan (i.e. 3.76 times the resolution of a standard PAL DVD) at 24 frames per second (true cinema projection speed). The DVD is copy protected: while the full file may be copied onto the PC's hard disc (e.g. for viewing on a laptop while travelling), it requires insertion of the original DVD after 24 hours for checking purposes.
Emanuel Montamot, Director of the video arm of Europa Corp Diffusion, said that a similar process could be used in the future for providing temporary licences to downloaded movies, whereby movies could be distributed via the Internet and then a rental fee paid to the rights owner. Montamot went on to explain that the Taxi 3 HD DVD is quite different from the Terminator 2 HD DVD released recently in the USA. Terminator requires a specific application (InterActual) to be installed on the PC and also an Internet connection for the verification of the playing rights. "Taxi 3 has learnt its lessons from the first trials in the USA. We have opted for a navigation that is completely standard [HTML] without any additional components. Furthermore, the DRM is managed completely in local mode."
Montamot admitted
that this product is very much a test, with the aim of providing content for
people who have suitable equipment, but also to try to stimulate manufacturers
to produce suitable stand-alone players.
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News Corp, the media giant controlled by Rupert Murdoch, announced it will pursue a reorganisation that would change its place of incorporation to the United States. News Corp is also transferring its primary stock listing to the New York Stock Exchange.
As part of the shift, News Corp's corporate headquarters will switch from Adelaide, Australia, to New York City. Murdoch has US citizenship and has lived in the United States since the 1970s.
Murdoch insisted
that this move was not the prelude to a major US acquisition. "We have
nothing major in sight at all. We don't want to buy Disney, God help
us. We'd love to have a crack at ABC, but that would be against the law
as we have a (US television) network already." In an interview with the
FT, Murdoch said News Corp's focus in the US was on the expansion of
its newly acquired DirecTV business.
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Telecom Italia, Telespazio and Hughes Network Systems Europe have signed a technological partnership to offer broadband internet connections via satellite to the Italian business market.
Telespazio will manage the satellite service and Telecom Italia will provide broadband internet access to companies across the Italian territory, eliminating the digital divide that disadvantages small towns and villages beyond the reach of terrestrial broadband networks.
The satellite
solution enlarges the range of Telecom Italia offerings for enterprises, allowing
them to connect to broadband internet and to create virtual private networks
over IP. The offer bundle includes satellite parabolic aerial, transceiver
devices and LAN modem.
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Modern Times Group announced that Viasat Broadcasting has signed an exclusive agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution to broadcast a range of blockbuster movies and hit TV series. The three year agreement is for the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish territories and also includes an option to extend the agreement for a fourth year.
The agreement also gives Viasat the rights to library TV titles and US Network TV movies and mini-series. TV viewers in Scandinavia will be able to watch this selection of hit movies and TV series on Scandinavia's entertainment channels TV3, TV3+ and ZTV.
Hans-Holger Albrecht,
President and CEO of MTG, commented: "Fox has a fantastic track record
of creating massively popular movies and TV series. This deal follows hot
on the heels of Viasat's acquisition of a strong portfolio of sports
rights and further strengthens our programming schedule. Viasat's TV
channels are the home of entertainment and give our viewers access to established
classic feature films, recent big screen releases and the latest high rating
TV series".
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EchoStar Communications has allegedly accused Mediacom, a New York-based cable company, of stealing its satellite television signal and re-broadcasting it to subscribers in south west Georgia.
EchoStar contended in a federal lawsuit that Mediacom. used a residential account to acquire the signal and deliver local affiliate programming from ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX to subscribers in Bainbridge, Ga.
EchoStar, which operates the Dish Network, said it discovered satellite dishes around a Mediacom transmitting tower in the area. A Mediacom spokesman declined comment.
EchoStar asked
a federal judge to bar Mediacom from accessing its signal and to award monetary
and punitive damages for violations of federal laws governing airwaves transmission
and copyrights. The satellite TV company also is seeking a jury trial.
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Kingston inmedia has teamed up with Tandberg Television to optimise the channel delivery across both its Eurobird and New Skies DTH satellite services, using Tandberg's E577O, a MPEG-2 low bit-rate encoding engine.
Kingston said
it plans to upgrade a number of its existing Tandberg E5710 encoders to the
new E5770 multi-pass solution and expects the move to enable it to increase
its bandwidth efficiency by between 10 and 15 per cent.
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SeaChange, a DTV software company, has introduced new advertising capabilities for the on-demand television market: Ad Placement System. The APS enables broadband operators to gain greater control over their current on-demand television advertising – to automatically change spots and promos to conform to changing dayparts and viewer demographics.
"Advertising has historically funded the production of television content, serving to minimise the cost burden on viewers," said James Kelso, SeaChange's General Manager of broadband systems and vice President of marketing,. "SeaChange is introducing new products that offer our cable customers the opportunity to take advantage of new advertising benefits. Through software automation, advanced digital encoding techniques, and sophisticated splicing technology, we've married the benefits of 'personal television' with the messages being delivered by networks and sponsors."
Spots, promos,
and bumpers can be regularly updated to coincide with the timing in which
on-demand programming is accessed. As a result, advertising can be updated
to fit the date and time of when the on-demand content is viewed, rather than
being tied to the time and date it was produced. Likewise, the Ad Placement
System enables different commercials to be swapped out to reach different
lifestyle demographics and viewer interests, based on cable operators' ability
to target with "zip code plus four" precision.
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Greg Dyke, former
Director-General of the BBC, is to be a guest host on comedy-quiz programme
'Have I Got News For You?' He will host the second programme in
a new BBC ONE series of the quiz on Friday 23 April at 9.30pm.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Greg is available at the moment and it's great
to see him back at the BBC."
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"Due to certain gaps in its product portfolio, mainly in the mid range, the company was not able to fully capitalise on positive market developments," Nokia said in a statement.
It said global
mobile phone volumes grew by more than 25 per cent in the first quarter while
Nokia handset volumes rose by 19 percent. Group sales by value fell two percent
to E6.6 billion versus a previous forecast of three to seven percent growth.
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Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising agency, is teaming up with leading Chinese media conglomerate Shanghai Media and Entertainment Group to distribute Japanese television content in China, the FT reported.
A planned joint
venture to be set up by the two sides will also sell advertising slots and
arrange and promote programming for SMEG's Shanghai East Movie Channel. SMEG's
Shanghai Film Group will take a 51 per cent stake in the new company with
Dentsu subsidiary Beijing Dentsu Advertising taking the remainder. The venture
marks the first time Dentsu has set up a content distribution company in Asia,
highlighting the group's confidence in the potential of the Chinese market,
which is slowly opening up to foreign investment.
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Poland's leading commercial free-to-air TV broadcaster TVN, is about to implement MediaGeniX's scheduling software suite WHATS'On.
"TVN's
interest in the WHATS'On scheduling software package was triggered by
the growing complexity of the station: its strategy of launching extra channels
and theme channels requires a scheduling system that is able to manage all
information with one scheduling backbone, with a minimal staff increase and
an optimal stock management," explained MediaGenix.
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Irdeto Access, announced that the Nokia Mediamaster 810C digital cable set top box (STB) has passed Irdeto Access' strict design verification testing criteria for STBs. This means the Mediamaster is now fully licensed by Irdeto Access.
Nokia becomes
the sixth Irdeto Access STB partner in China to pass Irdeto Access' strict
Design Verification Testing (DVT) criteria. The Mediamaster will be manufactured
and supported by Beijing based Nokia CTIC Digital Technology Company, a leading
manufacturer of cutting edge digital/cable STBs. This new model, initially
developed for the Chinese market, will also be available for the cable market
world-wide.
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The UK Office of Fair Trading has judged the collective sale of TV rights for horseracing to The Atheraces joint venture between media firms Arena Leisure, BSkyB and Channel 4 was illegal.
The consumer watchdog said the 49 race course acted anti-competitively by negotiating a television deal as a group, extracting a better price from Attheraces in the process. The ruling follows the closure of the Attheraces channel last month, after owners BSkyB, Channel 4 and Arena Leisure decided they were not making sufficiently high returns on the £307 million (E445 million), 10-year agreement.
"We need to make it clear when collective selling may breach competition law. It is important that sporting bodies and others carefully assess whether collective selling agreements may restrict competition before they enter into them," OFT Director of competition enforcement Vincent Smith said in a statement. The OFT said if the deal had not already collapsed it could have taken further measures.
Arena Leisure,
a channel partner and owner of six race courses itself, is now trying to negotiate
new deal with individual course and said it would study the OFT judgement.
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Microsoft and Time Warner have teamed up to buy a majority stake in Contentguard, which specialises in digital rights management technology.
The deal echoes a similar step by Sony and Philips Electronics, which two years ago bought control of InterTrust, a rival company which owns some of the main technology patents in the field.
Contentguard
was created by a spin-out from Xerox's renowned Parc research labs. Xerox
said it would keep a minority stake in the company.
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BT Group has launched a new software business to protect music, movies and photographs from digital piracy. The DRM offering is part of a larger digital media publishing product called BT Rich Media. The dominant fixed line carrier said it would target the consumer and small business sector with a £100 (E150) product and large media companies with an offering that costs several times that amount.
By entering DRM software market, BT will be competing with some of the world's largest software and technology companies including Microsoft, Sony and Apple Computers.
The telco said
it will work with a host of software partners, including RealNetworks, whose
Helix DRM technology is used by a variety of broadcasters from the BBC to
EMI, to resell their publishing and content management tools to consumers
and major media firms.
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Nordic telecom TeliaSonera is launching a new service for mobile operators, called TeliaSonera 64K Clear Channel. This service facilitates the high-quality delivery of international mobile video calls. Initially, the service can be delivered to 38 countries worldwide.
TeliaSonera is one of the first carriers in the world to launch a 64 Kbit/s clear channel service. The service allows mobile operators to offer their customers high quality face-to-face video calls.
"As a result
of the 3G drive, we see an increasing demand for mobile operators to offer
services like face-to-face video calling, sending video messages and similar
services", says Eva Lindqvist, President of TeliaSonera International
Carrier. "For the mobile operator it is crucial that these services are
of first-rate quality. We are now able to support this requirement with the
TeliaSonera 64K Clear Channel service."
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Zone Vision has signed a deal with Chinese state-run broadcaster China Central Television to distribute English-language satellite channel, CCTV-9. Zone Vision will act as the non-exclusive agent for CCTV-9 programming worldwide for a period of five years.
Li Jian, President of China International TV Corporation, commented: "We hope this partnership with Zone Vision will help CCTV-9 reach a wider regions and areas around the world so that more people get to know and understand China by watching CCTV-9."
The agreement includes the Chinese broadcaster's 24-hour overseas news service as well as its library of documentaries and feature programs about Chinese history, culture, government and economy. CCTV is the latest addition to Zone Vision's roster, which includes long-term distribution relationships with 28 leading channels from the likes of Discovery, Viacom, Turner, Hallmark and Eurosport among others.
From Asia's
perspective, the development follows Zone Vision's exclusive five-year
carriage agreement with Cross Current in Pakistan. The deal has been signed
to broadcast Zone Vision's flagship Reality TV channel to approximately
1.5 million cable and DTH subscribers throughout the region. In India, where
the channel is distributed by Zee Turner distribution alliance, Reality TV
has crossed a viewership of 15 million households across the country in a
short span of 13 months.
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Warner Bros Online and Vodafone have signed a distribution deal which will bring Warner Bros. Entertainment brands as well as current information on upcoming projects to Vodafone live! customers across the world.
The global agreement, covering 16 countries, brings together the world's largest mobile telecommunications company and one of the world's largest and most prolific entertainment companies. Warner Bros. Entertainment is known for such global brands as The Matrix, Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, and Friends, among many more.
Initially, Warner
will provide Vodafone with Games, Screensavers, Alerts and other mobile applications
based on its popular brands. Vodafone and Warner Bros Online will collaborate
on the development of "made for mobile" content, created exclusively
for wireless platforms, which will include video content.
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A major shareholder group at ITV gave their blessing for CEO Charles Allen controversial share incentive - worth £24 million (E33.6 million) over four years. The National Association of Pension Funds said it was content to offer its backing after talks with ITV and its advisers but pledged to monitor the level of awards. News of the backing came after reports claimed some major shareholders were planning a revolt to oust Allen.
Meanwhile top management at the newly merged company are said to be in break-up bid talks with Scottish Media Group, which owns two Scottish ITV licences valued at around £400 million. Virgin Radio-owning SMG controls the Grampian and Scottish ITV franchises plus a 25 per cent stake in morning TV station GMTV.
The talks with
ITV follows the breakdown in talks with Ulster TV, which controls the ITV
licence in Northern Ireland. The negotiations were ended because of the rise
in SMG's share price to 120p. SMG, which saw its annual pre-tax profit fall
25 per cent to £17.5 million last month, has been seen as a takeover
target ever since it was forced to sell its Herald newspaper business to reduce
its debts. SMG also sold off its interest in Scottish Radio to Emap for £90.5
million in January.
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The French stock market regulator has hit back at investigating magistrates who raided its Paris headquarters last week, saying it never gave Vivendi Universal a "blank cheque" to undertake huge share buy-backs in a closed period.
The Financial Markets Authority's (AMF) decision to confront its critics suggests concern at the possible damage to its authority and to the French marketplace by last week's raid.
In an interview with La Tribune, Gerard Rameix, secretary-general of the AMF, said: "With the information I had at the time, I wanted to bring them into line, without wanting to dramatise the situation by opening an enquiry which would not be likely to lead to any penalty given the market context. I stand by that decision."
In another twist, Vivendi announced that it had filed a lawsuit against APPAC, the small shareholders' group whose complaints led to the criminal investigation. APPAC alleged in Le Parisien newspaper that the media group had attempted to "buy" it off.
Vivendi said
the accusations were "entirely unfounded and damaging to the company's
integrity".
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Hughes Network Systems has unveiled new solutions to provide back-end broadband connectivity via satellite for the rapidly growing wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi market in India.
The announcement follows the company's earlier mid-January launch of broadband terminal, DW6000, under the brand name DirecWay. Branded as DirecWay Wi-Fi Access, it is a comprehensive Hot Spot solution for the enterprise market, including hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations and convenience stores.
The demand in
India for Wi-Fi applications has seen an upswing with the cost of laptops
and handheld devices reducing drastically. Hughes claimed that its Wi-Fi Access
solution can deliver a 99.5 per cent reliable, managed, secure and redundant
backbone to ensure an "always-on" service.
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BBC has launched
its latest digital marketing campaign targeted at analogue viewers yet to
go digital. Since the start of the BBC's digital campaign in October 2002
the digital market has grown by 32 per cent, with millions more people now
able to watch the BBC's digital channels on cable, satellite and with Freeview.
Ilse Howling, Head of BBC Digital Marketing and Communications, said: "The
last campaign had fantastic impact in cutting through consumer confusion over
digital television and motivated them to take their first step into the digital
world.
The broadcaster said that all six BBC digital channels are performing strongly
and proving to be a big hit with viewers. BBC THREE's share since launch in
February 2003 has increased by 27 per cent for all viewers and by 38 per cent
for target audience (25-34) compared with last year. Since autumn 2003, BBC
FOUR has been out-performing all comparable specialist multichannels in terms
of weekly reach and leads with Discovery in terms of share for similar channels,
the BBC said in a statement.
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BT Broadcast Services, the broadcast and media solutions arm of BT, has agreed a deal with ITV Sport to transmit the broadcaster's Euro 2004 coverage from Portugal this summer. The deal follows a decision by ITV Sport last year to engage BTBS to provide transmission services for its Rugby World Cup coverage from Australia.
BTBS will provide
a hybrid solution, comprising fibre and satellite links, with 24-hour control
and monitoring provided via its International Media Centre, based at BT Tower
in London.
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Kabel Deutschland, Germany's largest cable network operator launched its new digital TV service this week using set-top boxes from Pace Micro Technology.
Kable will use
Pace's DC220* set-top box to provide new digital pay-TV programmes, foreign
channel packages and enhanced digital TV services for the first time.
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MPCL
to invest $4.2 m in infotainment channel
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
International production firm Moving Pictures Company is to invest $4.2 million
in an interactive infotainment channel, aimed predominantly at Delhi viewers.
The channel will be free-to-air on the Thaicom satellite, MPCL MD Ramesh Sharma
announced.
"We have plans of distributing the channel through broadband services once
the technology gets implemented in the country," said Sharma, who added that
the channel will tie-up with portals, shopping malls and cinema halls in order
to act as a one-stop platform for information and entertainment.
The production company produces shows for state-run Doordarshan and satellite
channels such as Sony Entertainment Television's Max and Zee TV. It also specialises
in documentaries. MPCL has produced more than five documentaries including
The Taliban Years and Beyond and The Titanic Sinks in Kabul which have been
aired in Middle East, Europe and North America. It is also working on country's
first indigenous 3D long-format TV series, for which it is expected to finalise
a satellite channel deal later this month.
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