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NEWS Monday August 23rd to Friday August 27th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Foxtel mellows on extra channels
Australia's pay-TV group Foxtel has softened its hardline stance against rival free TV networks provided on digital TV. The move, which is the first major concession in the critical digital TV debate, was outlined in Foxtel's submission to the federal Government's review of multi-channeling, according to a report on The Australian.
Free TV networks such as Seven, Nine and Ten are not allowed to offer extra channels on their digital TV signals until at least 2007. Foxtel now says it will not oppose multi-channeling in 2008 "as long as it is introduced as part of a balanced deregulation of the TV broadcasting regime". Having gone digital only last March, Foxtel wants four years to entrench its service before the free networks are permitted to multichannel.
Multi-channeling has been suggested as a way of accelerating the free TV sector's slow take-up of digital technology, but has always been opposed by the pay-TV industry due to the competitive threat. Since 2001, only 410,000 Australian homes have converted their free TVs to digital, while the pay-TV sector has converted more than 500,000 subscribers to digital in six months.
"Any regulatory
change in relation to 'free' multi-channeling must give subscription TV an
equitable opportunity to that given to the commercial TV networks to establish
their digital investments," Foxtel said. Foxtel remains opposed to any
subscription multi-channeling by the free TV networks.
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Publishing & Broadcasting, the Packer controlled Australian media giant, reported a 75 per cent jump in earnings for the fiscal year ending June 30, thanks to a rebound in advertising revenue.
The company's net profit was AU$668.2 million (E390.2 million) up from AU$380.8 million in the previous year. Revenue for the group rose 8.5 per cent to AU$3.17 billion from AU$2.92 billion last year. Net profit before one-time items rose 31 per cent to AU$438.8 million from AU$335.7 million a year ago.
PBL owns and
operates Australia's highest rating free-to-air television network, Nine.
It also has 25 per cent of Australia's leading subscription television business,
Foxtel, 50 per cent of subscription television content provider The Premier
Media Group (which incorporates Fox Sports 1 & 2, The How To Channel and
Fuel) and 33.3% of Sky News Australia.
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Vivendi Universal announced that the French government approved a change to its tax status which will allow the company to save about E3.8 billion over five to seven years. The new status, effective January 1 this year, will enable Paris-based Vivendi to save about E500 million in taxes this year.
Vivendi will
now be able to offset profit at divisions including French mobile phone unit
SFR against losses accumulated by other divisions, including Universal Music
Group. The tax system enables companies such as Vivendi to consolidate divisions
based overseas and units of which they own at least 50 per cent.
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Australia's 3G mobile phone market is set to grow after Vodafone and SingTel's Optus inked a deal to jointly build a nationwide 3G network.
The agreement between Vodafone Australia and Optus comes just three weeks after rival Telstra agreed to buy a 50 per cent stake in the country's only 3G network from the local unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa for AU$450 million (E262 million).
Optus mobile
boss Allen Lew said the company had estimated it would cost AU$435 million
to build the network by itself, but the deal with Vodafone will reduce that
cost to between AU$305 million and AU$315 million. Optus also expects operating
expenditure savings of about AU$100 million over 10 years.
Although they are building the 3G network together, Optus and Vodafone will
continue to compete in the retail mobile market and are aiming to offer 3G
services, by mid 2005, about the same time as Telstra.
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Bouygues Telecom and Vivendi Universal have launched a new mobile phone service in an attempt to boost their market share and increase revenue from younger customers.
"Universal Mobile", which uses high-speed GPRS technology, targets customers under 25 years of age, offering them services that include personalised ring tones and access to hit music singles. The agreement comes as new operators prepare to enter the French mobile market and after SFR, France's number-two mobile service provider, which is majority-owned by Vivendi, ended a similar arrangement with Universal Music in December.
Under the new
agreement with Bouygues Telecom, the operator will pay Vivendi a licence fee
for using its brand and marketing the service.
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China has rolled out its first home-grown computer chip for third-generation mobile phones, a strong sign the country is on track to issue long-awaited 3G network licenses by mid-2005.
The chip is based
on China's TD-SCDMA standard, which is one of three 3G standards being considered
by China's telecommunications industry regulators.
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Comcast Cable and The Knot, an American website specifically designed to help people planning their 'big day', have launched the first all-weddings, all-the-time video-on-demand service, "The Knot Weddings."
In addition,
Comcast customers who subscribe to Comcast's High-Speed Internet service will
have access to wedding information and planning tools from TheKnot.com on
Comcast.net's Relationships channel.
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London's Covent
Garden has become the latest Wi-Fi hotzone in the capital giving lap top or
PDA users wireless access to the internet. Broadreach Networks' ReadyToSurf
service installed a Wi-Fi access point mainly for gym users, but its central
location has the benefit of reaching out across the piazza, potentially out
to the Opera House, Rock Garden cafe, the London Transport Museum and a wide
range of other shops, bars and restaurants.
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Sprint unveiled
that it will provide an Internet telephone service to cable operator Mediacom
Communications's customer base of 2.7 million homes in 23 states. Mediacom,
the eighth-largest US cable operator, expects to launch the VoIP service in
some of its markets in the first half of 2005.
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EuroNews and RTN announced that from September 6th 2004, RTN - the leading Russian language channel in the United States - will broadcast a 60-minute daily block of programming from the European news channel in Russian.
EuroNews in Russian
will be available to the Russian-American community in major cities, via the
cable operators Time Warner, Comcast, Adelphia and Charter Communication,
as well as by satellite throughout the United States.
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Polish cops catch 100 film and music pirates
Polish police have broken up a gang of more than 100 hackers who sold pirated music and films and used academic computer systems around the world to store their wares.
"They broke into the biggest systems they could find and set up 'warehouses' to store pirated games, films and music," police spokeswoman Agata Salatka said of one of Poland's biggest piracy-related busts. "They distributed the goods through the Internet, and also supplied markets with the latest hits - even before their official premieres," she explained, adding that the group may also have copied and sold academic theses from the host computers.
Poland has won
praise from anti-piracy groups for improving copyright laws and beefing up
enforcement against the piracy that flourished in the mid-1990s. International
police and intellectual-property experts say eastern European manufacturing
centres are notorious for contributing to the estimated $29 billion in worldwide
pirate software trade in 2003.
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Microsoft Corp and Time Warner are likely to face a probe by the European Commission into their plans to jointly take control a digital rights management (DRM) firm. The companies have asked the Commission for permission to acquire joint control of US firm ContentGuard.
The deal covers technology used to protect digital files from illegal copying and use, an increasingly important priority for movie and video makers, recording companies and software firms.
The Commission found earlier this year that Microsoft abused a virtual monopoly of personal computer operating systems. Once a company has been found to abuse its dominance, anything it does receives an extra measure of scrutiny from the Commission.
Microsoft, Time
Warner and ContentGuard have purchased most of the stake held in ContentGuard
from Xerox which had provided much of the company's basic technology. Xerox
is retaining a small equity investment in ContentGuard.
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Hewlett Packard is expected to unveil the launch of a set of home entertainment products, including large-screen TVs and a digital storage console, embedded with copy protection technology, according to reports in the American press.
Shane Robison,
HP's Chief strategy and technology officer, said at a conference that the
announcement, is designed to curb copyright infringement though an unspecified
form of digital rights management (DRM) technology. Robison pointed out that
while he couldn't divulge details, the products also would include "very
cool" interfaces to personal computers, wireless links and a media hub.
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The MPAA says its members have sued two microchip makers, alleging they sold their products to makers of equipment that can be used to illegally copy DVDs.
The suits are
the latest legal action by the Motion Picture Association of America, which
claims its members loose billions of dollars annually to copyright piracy.
The MPAA said the suits against Sigma Designs and MediaTek followed testing
that it said proved the two were selling microchips to companies, whose DVD
players lack what the MPAA called "appropriate security features."
Sigma and MediaTek
make chips to decode the CSS, which is the copy-protection system used for
DVDs. Their licenses require that they sell only to other CSS-licensed companies.
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Adelphia Communications
says the Rigas family owes the company it founded more than $3.2 billion,
and the cable provider wants it back. The American cable company made the
demand in a filing with a Manhattan bankruptcy court and a hearing has been
set for October 22.
Last month John Rigas his son Timothy were convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud
and securities fraud for looting the company and lying about the corporation's
finances. Michael Rigas was acquitted and another son, James, was not charged.
Adelphia has hired advisers to manage a sale of the company's assets to generate cash for paying back creditors. The business, the fifth largest cable firm in the US, went bankrupt with more than $18 billion in debts shortly after the fraud was uncovered.
The court papers
are based on the Rigas family's defence during the criminal trial, which argued
that any funds from the company used were "borrowed" not stolen
"and they intended to fully repay the amounts".
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"With this
new deal in France, the world's only 24-hour entertainment network will now
be available in continental Europe's three largest television markets, including
Germany and Italy," Kevin MacLellan, senior vice president, international,
E! Networks commented.
Scheduled to launch in September, 2004, the French language, localised version
of the E! International Network will be carried on Channel 23 in Canal Satellite's
"Thematique," (big basic) DTH package, reaching the territories
of France, Monaco and Andorra. In addition E! will be available via Canal
Sat's new DSL service currently available in Paris and Marseille.
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Unlike i-mode-capable phones, the handset will enable access to the internet through 'mopera' or any other available internet connection service. Its browser will also be able to display standard web pages. The new handset will be compatible with public wireless LAN services.
The sets will
come in a shape similar to personal digital assistants (PDAs).
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Telstar 18 has entered commercial service over Asia. The satellite carries a total of 54 active transponders, of which sixteen are high-power Ku-band transponders and thirty-eight are C-band transponders. The footprint stretches from Central Asia, through the Indian sub-continent, China, Korea, Japan, South East Asia, Australia and Hawaii.
In addition to cable programming and direct-to-home broadcasting services, Telstar 18 is scheduled to begin hosting Skynet's SkyReach two-way IP-based networking solution in 2005.
Telstar 18's
users include regional video and data providers, such as Smart Digital Communications
of Malaysia and PSVN, which is based at the Hawaii Pacific Teleport.
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In preliminary report Kabel Deutschland, Germany's biggest cable network operator, has had its E2.7 billion purchase of three rivals blocked by the Federal Cartel authority as anticompetitive.
The planned purchase would further strengthen "the largely unchecked'' position that Kabel Deutschland already has with its ownership of regional networks, Cartel Office President Ulf Boege told reporters in Bonn. A final verdict is scheduled for October 7.
Kabel Deutschland in April agreed to buy Ish GmbH, Iesy eKabel Hessen GmbH and Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg, which would almost double the number of households it serves and give it complete coverage of the German market. The plan, aimed at expanding digital TV in Germany, met resistance from broadcasters RTL Group and ProSiebenSat.1.
"Television content providers have to reach as many viewers as possible, Kabel Deutschland would reach such a strong market position that the company could dictate the conditions on how to reach these viewers'' said Boege.
The regulator has sent Kabel Deutschland a letter saying it cannot approve the purchases in their current form. Ish Chief Executive Jim Bonsall said he expects Kabel Deutschland to find a solution that will convince the regulator to approve the acquisition. The European Commission's competition authority referred Kabel Deutschland's planned purchases to the German cartel office in June after the local regulator said the merger may lead to a strengthening of dominant positions in several markets.
The cartel office
is also investigating whether Kabel Deutschland agreed to refrain from competing
against Deutsche Telekom for broadband telephone connections. Deutsche Telekom
controls more than 50 per cent of the domestic broadband market, which is
the Internet service provider industry's most lucrative market segment.
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In September 2004, Swisscom subsidiary Bluewin will begin testing, a new generation of television via ADSL. In collaboration with Microsoft, Bluewin will initially provide 600 homes with 25 TV channels. The offering also includes five pay-TV channels, video-on-demand and an integrated video recorder, which also features a live pause function for TV broadcasts.
The tests will last for around four months, after which work will begin on the market launch of Bluewin TV in 2005. Customers will need a set-top box and an ADSL line from Bluewin are to enjoy this TV experience. The multimedia offering is fed to the Bluewin computing centre and then transmitted via ADSL to the customer's STB, where the IP signal is converted to enable it to be viewed on practically any TV. The bandwidth required lies between 1.2 and 1.5 Mbits.
'As the first
operator in Europe to trial pay-TV services powered by the Microsoft TV IPTV
platform, Bluewin is now able to offer its DSL customers competitive, next-generation
TV services, both broadcast and on-demand, combined with innovative communications
and information services," said Tim Fritzley, Vice President Sales and
Services, Microsoft TV. "The Microsoft TV IPTV platform is an ideal solution
for operators like Bluewin that want to get the most from their network investments
and offer the 'triple play' bundle of voice, video and data services to deliver
incredible value to their customers."
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Rainbow National Services, Cablevision's programming unit, raised $1.75 billion in bank and bond financing, the company announced.
Specifically, RNS closed on an offering of $300 million of senior notes due 2012 and $500 million of seniorxsubordinated notes due 2014, as well as a $950 million senior secured credit facility, $600 million of which was drawn at closing. Net proceeds were distributed by RNS to its parent company, Rainbow Media Enterprises, and used to repay about $705 million of outstanding bank debt at Rainbow Media Holdings.
Rainbow Media
Enterprises will invest the remaining proceeds of about $661 million in its
subsidiaries, primarily for Rainbow DBS, the company said. Rainbow DBS operates
the VOOM satellite TV service.
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In the ongoing broadband wars, Wanadoo UK, France Telecom's ISP unit, has cut the price of its standard package to just £17.99 a month and doubled the connection speed.
The firm has axed its standard 512k service for new customers and will offer them the faster 1Mb line instead. The move comes in preparation for the launch of new services, dubbed Wanadoo's LiveBox, which will provide its customers with wireless internet access in the home, video-on-demand and cheap voice calls over broadband.
Wanadoo, has been playing a game of catch-up against dominant fixed-line provider BT and cable companies Telewest and NTL, all offering broadband subscriptions for less than £20 a month. BT's 1-megabit service is priced at £29.99 per month.
Wanadoo said
the new £17.99 service, which has a 2Gb downloaded limit per month,
would be suitable for 85 per cent of the population. Higher priced options,
at £22.99 and £27.99, will cater for heavy users such as those
who download hundreds of music tracks or those committed to online gaming.
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Britain's ITV has started the disposal of its non core business with the sale of Carlton Books for an estimated £3 million (E4.5m).
The sale - to
a management-led buyout team - is expected to be followed shortly by the disposal
of the Moving Picture Company, a post-production business with an estimated
value of £25 million. According to the Guardian newspaper, city analysts
believe ITV has earmarked between £550 million and £600 million
of savings from the disposal of non-core assets.
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Canada's Quebecor's media unit agreed to buy the Toronto1 television station from Chum Ltd for C$46 million (E29 million) in cash and assets, clearing the way for Chum to complete its C$265 million takeover of Craig Media.
Chum needed to find a buyer for Toronto1 to satisfy competition concerns of Canada's communications regulator. Chum already operates an over-the-air station in Toronto.
Quebecor will
split the purchase between its Sun Media arm and its TVA Group television
business, the company said in a CCN Matthews release. TVA will pay C$34.5
million for a 75 per cent interest. In return for a 25 per cent stake, Sun
will pay C$3.5 million and hand over to Chum a 30 per cent stake in cable
news station CP24, which Chum runs.
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StarHub, Singapore's largest pay-television operator, is set for a listing that could raise about S$750 million (US$439 million) and provide a test of whether international investors have regained their appetite for Asian equities.
The long-awaited initial public offering was one of many to have been delayed in July after international investors switched funds from Asia to the less risky US and European markets. A successful listing could signal a return of investor confidence in Asian equity offerings and pave the way for other telecom IPOs in the region. They include the $2 billion-$3 billion IPO by China Netcom, the country's second-largest fixed-line operator, and the $2 billion listing of telecom assets owned by the Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
The initial public
offering by StarHub, which is also Singapore's third-largest mobile phone
group, will enable BT of the UK and Japan's NTT Communications to sell their
stakes as part of their exit from non- core assets.
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Pioneer Telephone,
the third-largest US telephone cooperative, has selected Amino's AmiNET110
set-top box for its deployment of Internet protocol TV (IPTV) across 30,000
subscribers in Oklahoma. Customer trials of Pioneer's tripleplay package commenced
in four communities on 1st July and will start rolling out to a further ten
areas in October 2004. The service offers fully interactive digital television,
telephone and high-speed Internet access through Pioneer's existing broadband
network.
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Conditional access
provider Viaccess, announced a new contract in the USA with Home2US Communications,
an operator of an open pay television platform using the SES Americom AMC-4
satellite's Ku-band payload. Home2US enables international broadcasters to
distribute their television channels to ethnic audiences in the US.
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Video gaming graphics technology is set to transform how BBC weather is done. A version of 3D software Weatherscape XT has been developed by New Zealand firm Metra and the BBC to give viewers a realistic-looking forecast.
Combining high-end
gaming graphics and processing power means visuals are generated instantly,
in real-time. The virtual reality technology takes constantly-updated data
and translates it into 3D images. The new forecasts will be on air from early
next year.
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BBC picks Rothschild for sell off
It is reported the BBC has picked NM Rothschild Bank to run the expected sell-off of its commercial activities in BBC Worldwide.
Although officially no decision will be made on the division's fate until the completion of a review in November, it is believed new DG and Chairman pairing of Mark Thompson and Michael Grade think the BBC should shed much of its overtly commercial activity in the run up to charter review. The previous regime of Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies, both axed over the Hutton affair, strongly encouraged Worldwide's growth – its contribution of £141million (E213 million) to BBC cashflow last year was up 15 per cent.
It is certain there will be no shortage of interest in the group, which had sales of £570m last year, mostly from magazines (approximately 60 per cent) and international sales of programmes (most of the rest). Among the potential buyers are likely to be several MBI/MBO attempts buy current or recent BBC execs.
However, valuation
of the units is often going to be difficult and potentially contentious. Particularly
with the international distribution business, the rights split and the exclusivity
on BBC product will be carefully examined. Elsewhere there are often strong
but subtle ties between commercial products and BBC programmes and it is difficult
to assess how successful the products would be shorn of these links, or if
the links merely relied on contractual commitments.
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Meanwhile, new
'upmarket' programmes are being commissioned and one of the first will be
kept in the family with the CEO's sister Elizabeth getting the nod for Sky's
debut historical documentary; a six parter on the history of Rome. Apparently,
'Rome' will use CGI-enhanced shots to recreate the famous landmarks of ancient
Rome, including the Coliseum, the Forum and Senate.
"The aim is to evoke life in ancient Rome. There are going to be dramatic
narratives built around the life of three or four credible characters. The
dramatic storylines will be based on historical evidence," a Sky One
spokesman said.
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"We want to enrich the passengers journeys with public information and entertainment," Wang Ying, spokeswoman of Beijing All Media and Culture Mobile TV Co. Ltd said. The company is planning to launch a trial scheme in the capital's light railway trains before National Day on October 1.
The in-house
television shows produced by the company, mainly lifestyle programmes and
public information, have already been shown on screens aboard some 2,000 buses
in Beijing and the company wants to double the number by the end of the year.
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In response to its recent struggles with declining market share, mobile-handset maker Nokia has signed former Coca-Cola executive Keith Pardy to head up its branding efforts. Pardy, a 17-year Coke veteran, was vice president of the company's non-cola branding efforts.
Nokia has been
struggling against the likes of Motorola and Samsung. As the purchase of a
mobile becomes a question linked to operator services and content, Nokia wants
to ensure its branding strategy is well coordinated with industry partners.
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The Department of Commerce announced that online sales jumped to $15.7 billion in Q2, up 23 per cent year on year and accounting for 1.7 per cent of all retail sales.
"We think
online sales are growing at a healthy clip and should come in line with our
forecast for $65 billion in total online sales in 2004," said Patti Freeman
Evans, analyst with Jupiter Research. The sales increase is also very encouraging
for the sector given the larger macro-economic uncertainties. Evans said the
sales growth is partly a factor of more first-time users of the Internet.
"Internet penetration is about 60 percent of the total U.S. population.
However, not all Internet users are shoppers but we're seeing more people
start to buy online."
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The five-year
deal with ntl includes offices and play-out from ntl's Broadcast Media Centre,
fibre connectivity to the company's Winchester teleport, uplinking and space
segment on the Eurobird 1 direct-to-home satellite.
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SES AMERICOM, announced it has been awarded a contract with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). The initiative involves launching a new Pentagon Channel that is broadcast to Pentagon employees, military and federal personnel, and interested consumers in the United States. AFRTS was originally created to communicate Department of Defense (DoD) policies, priorities, programs, goals and initiatives as well as U.S. television and radio news, sports, information and entertainment programming to DoD service members, civilians and their families overseas and onboard U.S. Navy ships.
Under the five-year
contract, AGS is delivering AFRTS content via the Pentagon Channel to military
personnel, federal and defence employees, and to consumers via cable head
ends across the United States. Programming is broadcast from the Pentagon
to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre where the signal is uplinked and delivered
via AGS' terrestrial SATCOM service facilities and SES AMERICOM satellite
capacity. AGS is managing the end-to-end solution including the uplink, fibre,
interconnect and space segment for the nationwide channel.
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Sogecable
under fire again on film rights
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spanish pay-TV
group Sogecable, is again at the centre of a controversy over its exclusive
TV cinema rights. The Ministry of Economy has accused the company of hindering
competition in the market as a result of its exclusive agreements with six
US majors, Twentieth Century Fox, Buena Vista Internacional, Universal Studios,
Paramount Pictures, Columbia Tristar Film and Warner Bros.
A report produced by the Competition watchdog, part of the Ministry of Economy,
concludes that each of these contracts, because of their duration and reach,
are "a restriction of competition" as "they hinder the access
from other pay TV operators to the same contents which are regarded as being
essential for the service.”
The report is the result of a claim filed on December 2002 by cable operator
ONO that accused Sogecable and US Majors of breaking competition law as a
result of their exclusive agreements.
Sogecable has already appealed and now the case will be studied by the Court
of Competition Defence. In case of a ruling against Sogecable, the pay-TV
group could be punished with a fine of 10 per cent on its total revenues (Sogecable's
revenues in 2003 were E 1.169 million).
In parallel, the Supreme Court is also studying an appeal made by ONO and
some other operators against the previous Government's approval for the creation
of Digital Plus, the result of the merger between Canal Satelite Digital and
Via Digital.
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Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings (AsiaSat) is planning to venture into DTH pay-television services in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau to boost its satellite customers.
“A low-cost regional pay-TV service will be launched by the end of this year,” CEO Peter Jackson confirmed. The rollout of pay-TV services, in which AsiaSat will introduce partners, will use four transponders on AsiaSat4, adding about eight percent to the current usage rate. The pay-TV service is likely to cost less than $12.8 a month for 20 to 40 channels and viewers would need a DTH receiver dish that sells for less than $130 to get the signals.
At the end of June, AsiaSat2's utilisation rate fell to 41 per cent from 54 per cent six months earlier, AsiaSat3's rose to 74 per cent from 59 per cent, and AsiaSat4 went to 18 per cent from 10 per cent. Overall usage increased to 44 per cent from 39 per cent.
The company's
first half net profit rose to $33 million, mainly due to a one-off compensation
of $13.3 million from one of its main clients, Tom Group's China Entertainment
Television Broadcast. Excluding the one-off gain, net profit fell 32 per cent
to $21 million.
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Senior executives from Channel 4 and RTL, the pan-European broadcaster behind Five, will meet this week to discuss a possible tie-up between the two broadcasters. Luke Johnson, Channel 4's Chairman, and CEO Andy Duncan, have scheduled talks with Gerhard Zeiler, CEO of RTL, at this month's Edinburgh international television festival.
Insiders said that Channel 4 was considering a number of strategic options, including several alternatives to a merger or joint venture with Five.
The Channel 4 board is understood to have asked UBS, the investment bank, for advice on developing a 5-to-10-year funding and market strategy enabling the broadcaster to withstand the explosion in multi-channel television and the anticipated switch-over from analogue transmissions to digital signals.
Ahead of the
latest talks with RTL, Channel 4 announced a £20 million (E30 million)
increase in its forecast programme spending this year to £469 million.
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UK mobile phone operator Orange and Endemol are teaming up to produce a network ITV series called Orange Playlist.
The Orange-funded series, which was ordered by the ITV is a television take on the long-running Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. The venture marks an attempt by ITV to step up its advertiser relationships in the funded-programming arena.
The show will
air in a late-night slot from 23 September and is scheduled to run for six
months. Endemol has also produced an Orange Playlist-branded website and WAP
service to complement the show.
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Modern Times Group announced the acquisition by companies controlled by MTG of the remaining 25 per cent of the Russian free-to-air entertainment channel DTV.
MTG also announced that it has acquired a further 1.9 per cent of the equity in StoryFirst Communications for a total of $9.6 million - valuing StoryFirst at approximately $500 million. MTG's shareholding in the Russian broadcaster now amounts to 39.9 per cent.
DTV reported a doubling of sales for the second quarter of this year. The channel reaches more than 60 million people in around 400 cities across Russia, Europe's largest television market by number of viewers.
Hans-Holger Albrecht,
President and CEO of MTG, commented: “The Russian TV audience is the
largest in Europe and the market continues to show great potential. Our expansion
into Central and Eastern Europe began more than ten years ago and we now have
free-to-air and/or pay-TV businesses in eleven countries in the region.”
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New Zealand's monopoly pay-TV operator, Sky Network Television has reached the top end of its forecast with an annual profit of $35.3 million, while its proposed merger partner, Independent Newspapers Limited (INL), has reported lower profits.
Sky TV and INL said they had reached in-principle agreement to progress talks about a merger proposal, forming a new single company. Sky TV says revenue was up more than 12.6 per cent at $440.6 million. It also unveiled that the number of subscribers reached a record 576,602, while churn of existing customers fell from 17.6 per cent to a new low of 17.1 per cent.
INL, the former New Zealand arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, has posted a net profit after tax of $70.9 million for the year to June 30. That compares with the previous year's $388 million profit which was inflated by the sale of its New Zealand publishing business to Australia's John Fairfax Holdings for $1.2 billion. Taking out the previous year's one-off gains, the profit was $77.3 million.
About the merger
proposal, INL executive Chairman Ken Cowley and INL CEO John Fellet said it
would create a single listed company for the Sky business, provide fair value
to all shareholders and ensure that there was no dilution of any shareholder's
interest in the Sky business. Under the merger proposal, a new company would
be established to acquire both Sky and INL, and would then carry the Sky Network
Television name.
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Amazon.com entered the Chinese market with the $75 million acquisition of Joyo.com, the nation's biggest retailer of books, music and videos.
Joyo.com's price tag includes $72 million cash, and Amazon will assume employee stock options. Joyo.com has headquarters in the British Virgin Islands.
Joyo.com reported
$15.7 million of revenue for first-half 2004 and expects around $35 million
for 2004, nearly double its 2003 performance. Seattle-based Amazon.com said
it doesn't expect the acquisition, expected to close in the third quarter,
to affect sales or operating profit much this fiscal year.
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Independent San Francisco television station KRON started a high-definition digital channel featuring programmes from a network co- founded by billionaire Mark Cuban.
The deal gives Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, two new gateways for his HDNet into the Bay Area, the fifth- largest television market in the country.
The new channel,
KRON-HD, carries programming from HDNet, a network that provides movies, sports
and news in high definition 24 hours a day. The new offering is on Comcast's
digital channel 704 and over the air on UHF Channel 57.
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Cable operators in India announced the suspension of their strike in view of the Olympic Games. Virendra Gaur of the All-India Cable TV Forum (AICTF), a group of major Multi Service Operators (MSOs), announced the suspension of the strike and explained that the decision was taken at a meeting of the forum in view of the Olympic Games.
He, however,
made it clear that if the Government continued with its plans to bring the
MSOs under the service tax net, they would again resort to a country-wide
strike after the Olympic Games.
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