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NEWS Monday August 31st to Friday September 3rd 2004
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Spain
delays switchover for local TV
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The socialist Government is giving more time to local TV stations to fully
migrate to digital. The Minister of Industry, Josep Montilla, has announced
that the digital TV legislation will be changed to postpone for two years,
until January 2008, the analogue switchover for local TV stations, initially
scheduled for January 1 2006.
This decision meets the demands of TV operators and the whole industry which
had asked the Government for a moratorium on what they regarded as "unrealistic"
initial deadlines.
Regional Authorities now will have until June 2005 to grant the digital TV
licences through public tenders, instead of the initial deadline of December
2004. The Government is also likely to increase the number of local DTT channels
and change some demarcations of the DTT map across Spain.
Meantime, the
Government has announced a crackdown on TV piracy in an attempt to put an
end to those (many) local TV stations currently operating without a licence.
"Even though the closure of illegal television stations are already taking
place, we will intensify it (the crackdown) from 2006, when those which have
not gained a digital licence will have to cease broadcasting", said the
minister.
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Business channel
CNBC Europe has resigned from ratings body Barb because the measurement group
does not measure ratings outside the home.
CNBC, a joint venture between NBC and Dow Jones, has withdrawn from the official
measurement system because it believes that Barb - the Broadcasters' Audience
Research Board - underreports its figures. Because Barb doesn't measure out
of home viewing, CNBC argues that it disadvantages smaller niche channels,
particularly those serving a business audience. It believes most of the channel's
viewing takes place in hotel rooms, on trading floors and in offices.
According to Barb, CNBC reaches just 0.1per cent of the viewing public in
a week but figures from GFK, the rival body that has developed an electronic
wristwatch that measures radio listening and TV viewing automatically, claim
the channel reaches up to 3.8 million viewers a week. In an average week,
GFK was recording 2.5 million viewers, and up to 3.8 million for big news
events, while Barb was measuring 200,000.
Barb, which is funded by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BSkyB and the Institute
of Practitioners in Advertising measures the viewing of a panel of around
5,000 viewers automatically via a black box under their TV. When a viewer
enters a room with the television on, they are required to press a button
on a special remote control handset to register their presence.
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The Kudelski
Group achieved best ever revenues of CHF 275.2 million, up by 55 epr cent
from the first half of last year, an operating profit of CHF 35.1 million
and a net profit of CHF 22.8 million.
Building on these achievements, Kudelski expects the positive momentum in
the first half of 2004 to continue for the whole of 2004 and for 2005. In
the first half of 2004, the Kudelski Group realised best ever revenues of
CHF 275.2 million up by 55 per cent, an operating profit of CHF 35.1 million
and a net profit of CHF 22.8 million.
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Based on a recent
study, IMS Research forecasts that the number of broadband powerline home
networks will reach over 8 million by 2009.
The HomePlug AV standard, currently in development by the HomePlug Powerline
Alliance, has been designed to handle higher bandwidth requirements of video
networking, which IMS Research identifies as a key stimulus to establishing
a home network.
"Powerline networking is an excellent method of accessing areas within a home where other networking technologies cannot easily reach," asserts Jack Mayo, market analyst at IMS Research. "Due to the structural layout of a home, so-called 'dead zones' can exist in which a wireless network cannot be accessed. As long as there is a power outlet available in the 'dead zone,' which is likely needed and used to plug in a laptop, a powerline network connection can be established. Therefore, out of the total number of powerline networks forecast for 2009, 55 per cent are expected to be hybrid broadband powerline and wireless."
In the second
edition of the study, The Worldwide Market for Home Networks and Residential
Gateways, IMS Research provides detailed analyses of the home networks market.
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ABC Australia has announced it is planning to launch a second digital television channel in March next year. ABC MD Russell Balding says the second channel represents the corporation's "ongoing commitment" to digital broadcasting. "It is vital that the ABC continues to be a part of the changing media landscape," Balding said.
The new channel is the corporation's second venture into digital broadcasting. Last year, the ABC shut down the ABCKids and Fly channels after making an unsuccessful bid for additional federal funding to support the services.
The new channel
will include a mix of programming, including children's, documentary, arts
and entertainment. It will also offer international and regional news programs.
It will be available to those with digital television receivers or as a free
channel through subscription television.
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The Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences has announced Sony and Panavision are to jointly
receive a 2004 Primetime Emmy Engineering award.
Sony and Panavision will each receive an Emmy Statuette for the HDW-F900,
High Definition HDCAM based camcorder. The camera is the first digital 24p
imaging system that gives the appearance of film shot in 35mm but with a video
camera. This system is considered the new standard for the way most multi-camera
television shows, sitcoms and dramas are shot today.
The HDW-F900 camera has a second generation HD progressive scan CCD,
offering full High Definition Common Image Format - 1920 pixels by 1080
lines resolution. Features of the camcorder include multiple frame rate
capability, European standards compatibility and full integration with the
world-wide 24 frames per second film standard. The HDW-F900 options
include an HDCA-901 adapter that adds HD-SDI output, and individual audio
channel 3 and 4 recording.
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Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) announced that former BSkyB CEO Sam Chisholm will be joining the board of PBL, with effect immediately.
At the same time
Chisholm, announced that he will stand down as a member of the Telstra board,
of which he has been a member since November 2000.
Chisholm was the CEO of the Nine Network for 15 years before becoming Chief
Executive of British Sky Broadcasting in the UK in 1990, where he led the
company through the merger with its competitor British Satellite Broadcasting.
In 2000 he returned to Australia and in 2002 as the Chairman of Foxtel, he
was responsible for the merger of Foxtel and Optus.
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Amino Communications
will debut the smallest IPTV (Internet Protocol television) set-top box with
integral Personal Video Recorder (PVR) at IBC in Amsterdam on 10th September.
The AmiNET500 is the latest addition to Amino's award winning range of small,
low-cost, high performance set-top boxes and contains an 80Gbyte hard disk
drive which is capable of storing around 40 hours of programme material. The
product has been developed in response to requests from telcos experiencing
consumer demand for PVRs as part of their IPTV services.
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Sydney service provider Multiemedia has launched VoIP over satellite broadband for customers in Australia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, parts of New Zealand and eventually even further afield.
Nigel Peterson,
product manager for converged services at Multiemedia's satellite broadband
operation NewSat, said no other companies so far were offering ways to connect
far-flung Australian DSL users to "true" VoIP over two-way satellite
broadband.
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JETIX (formerly
Fox Kids) is launching a monthly magazine for 6-11 year-olds in the UK. It
will be produced under license by Future Publishing. Each issue will have
a cover mounted DVD with programme and interactive games from the channel.
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nCUBE, the leading
provider of On Demand for telecommunications providers in
Europe, today announced that its On Demand platform has been selected in an
interactive digital television pilot of the Siemens' SURPASS Home
Entertainment solution with Belgacom, the largest carrier in Belgium. The
trial is expected to begin this fall.
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Taiwan Cellular Corporation has selected Nokia to complete the next phase of its WCDMA 3G network roll-out under an agreement for the sole supply of full range of core and radio network equipment. The expansion contract, which follows a 2002 agreement for the first deployment phase. Deliveries have already begun to support a preliminary service launch in the first quarter 2005.
TCC Group is
Taiwan's largest mobile operator, with over eight million 2G subscribers and
three portfolio operators: Taiwan Cellular Corporation, TransAsia Telecommunications
and the newly acquired Mobitai Communications.
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BT will be a
gateway to European broadcasters on Dish TV, which has about 150,000 subscribers
in India. BT will receive a carriage fee for channels it brings to the platform,
which could be extended to a revenue-sharing agreement. Foreign direct investment
in DTH is capped at 20 per cent.
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France Telecom: State reduces stake
In a bid to reduce public debt the French government announced plans to sell a further 9.6 per cent stake in France Telecom via a placement to institutions, raising at least E4.5 billion, in what could be the biggest European telecoms placing this year.
The government, which backed the company's E15 billion rescue rights issue last year, said it planned to remain a substantial shareholder in FT for the medium term but would raise the stake being sold to 12.1 per cent if there was adequate demand. This would leave it with a 41-43.5 per cent share of the telecoms group.
The Finance Ministry
added FT would raise up to E1.15 billion through the issue of a convertible
bond to preserve its capital structure.
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RTL Group posted a 57 per cent rise in first-half earnings amid improved advertising conditions. The broadcaster, controlled by Germany’s Bertelsmann, said it had enjoyed strong growth at affiliates including M6 of France, Five in the UK and Antena 3 of Spain. RTL reported an EBIT of E397m in the six months to June, up from E253m last time on sales ahead 11.1 per cent at E2.46bn.
CEO Gerhard Zeiler, confirmed that RTL was considering strategic options for Five that could involve an alliance or acquisition. To many people’s disappointment, he fail to turn up at the Edinburg TV festival, where he was expected to talk about the possible merger between Five, where RTL has a 65 per cent stake, the UK's Channel 4.
Despite the company’s positive results, Zeiler warned conditions remained difficult in its core German market, where sales declined slightly amid intense competition for audience and advertising shares from commercial rival broadcaster ProSiebenSat1. Sluggish conditions in Germany at RTL, where first-half revenues fell 4.8 per cent to E912m, were offset by improvements elsewhere.
Zeiler's caution
contrasted with recent optimistic forecasts by rival ProSieben about the timing
and extent of any pick-up in the German market. ProSieben, under new management
following its sale to US investors a year ago, said last month that it expected
the TV advertising market to grow slightly in the second half.
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French DTH operator Canal Satellite announced that it would add ten new channels during the coming months, at a press presentation. The platform's president Isabelle Parize stated that the bouquet is in "Olympic form" and has regained its growth and economic strength.
The number of subscribers at the end of June was 2.8m, and it expects to top 2.9m during the autumn. It gained 250,000 new subscribers between July 2003 and June 2004. Churn is low and stable, added Parize, at between 8 and 9 per cent, and it expects total sales in 2004 to be around E 960 million. Operating profit is expected to increase by 20 per cent, to around E 145 m at the end of 2004.
All of the subscription packages will increase in price, by E1 a month. The increases will begin from 1 October, and will apply to each subscriber from the date when the subscription is renewed.
New channels will be added, although three of them in fact consist of transformations of existing channels. Planete Choc replaces Planete Future; Cinecinema Famiz will replace Cinecinema Succes and aim at a more family public. Finally, Fox Kids will change to Jetix.
The new channels
will be a French version of Discovery Channel from 1 September, Filles TV
(for girls aged 11 to 17) produced by the Lagardere group. BBC Prime, which
is already on TPS. Later in September will come E! Entertainment, in a version
with French subtitles. October will see the arrival of Telif, a local news
channel formed jointly by four local channels from the Paris region. The first
French gay channel Pink TV will arrive at the end of October.
Other channels will be the Star Academy 4 (continuous viewing of the participants
in a reality TV show) and Montagne. Two of the channels from the AB group,
Cine FX and Cine Polar, will disappear. A number of new interactive services
are also to be launched.
Parize has been
appointed to CEO of the group in charge of International Development and Guy
Lafarge to CEO of the group in charge of distribution. In her new function
Parize will oversee the development and international activity of the group,
notably Media Overseas, as well as the group's cable interests. Guy Lafarge
will direct the group's activities in distribution, notably Canal+ Distribution
and Canal Satellite.
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Modern Times Group, announced that it will encrypt the broadcasts of its television channels on the DTT network in Sweden. The encryption has been necessitated by a rival operator’s move to offer Viasat’s TV3, ZTV and TV8 channels in its own package by including Viasat’s unencrypted signal, without seeking or reaching an agreement with Viasat. Subscribers to the rival operator’s platform will now not be able to watch Viasat’s entertainment channels.
Viewers will continue to be able to watch TV3, ZTV and TV8 without paying a subscription fee but they will need to acquire a card from Boxer, which operates the DTT pay-TV service. Existing Boxer pay-TV customers will not be affected by the encryption of the signal.
Viewers with a DTT set-top box receiver with no card slot will be offered subscription to Viasat’s pay-TV services in the inexpensive way ever. Viasat is offering a free dish, a free digital decoder and free installation for all new subscribers signing up to Viasat’s premium pay-TV package – ‘Viasat Gold’.
Hans-Holger Albrecht,
President and CEO of MTG, commented: “Our new offer to television viewers
is the most competitive yet. We have been forced to encrypt our DTT signal
but have done so in such a way that those viewers who watch our channels on
digital terrestrial television can continue to do so without paying a monthly
subscription fee”.
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British racing
fans will have to pay up to £240 (E360) a year to watch comprehensive
live coverage from courses under plans from Racing UK.
According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, the satellite and cable channel,
launched in June following the collapse of British racing's deal with AttheRaces,
plans to start charging subscribers from October 1.
The announcement means that viewers, who until earlier this year where able to watch round the clock coverage for nothing on AttheRaces, will have to subscribe if they want to follow the form of jockeys and horses on all the UK's major courses.
Racing UK has signed deals with around half of all the courses in the UK, including those that host many of the major meetings in the racing calendar, while AttheRaces has re-signed the other half. The two sides are also locked in a bitter row over money that AttheRaces believes it is still owed under the terms of the original deal.
Simon Bazalgette, the former Music Choice chief executive who was recently appointed chairman of the new venture, insisted that committed punters would be persuaded to pay £20 a month to follow racing from the 29 courses that have signed rights deals lasting three years or more.
AttheRaces, which relaunched earlier this year as a joint venture between BSkyB and Arena Leisure after its original deal collapsed due to a row over betting revenues, has agreements with 30 courses and will remain free to air.
But Bazalgette
was confident of hitting a target of 20,000 paying subscribers and break even
within two years. Meetings from South Africa will fill any gaps in the schedule
and Racing UK is also in negotiations to secure rights to French racing.
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As part of its strategy to speed up digital broadcasting, Chinese authorities have decided to offer free set-top converter boxes to promote pay-TV, reports local media. Zhang Haitao, vice-minister of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), said the move would connect millions of households to interactive government, education and shopping services, along with providing entertaining and informative programming.
The announcement of the free set-top boxes comes after the landmark decision to allow satellite broadcasting of pay-TV programming from August 1. Sun Yusheng, president of China Central Digital Television, told local media that this was a major break for pay-TV operators as it would make it easier to connect far-flung areas.
The Chinese government has already issued digital television broadcasting licenses to four state-owned companies, encouraging increased competition and innovation in China’s nascent digital broadcasting industry. The companies are CHC Home Cinema, China Broadcast Network Company, Shanghai TV, and a five-company consortium including China National Radio.
The new pay-TV
service will be officially rolled out on September 1 and CCTV is offering
a six-channel package.
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Amsterdam is set to become the first wholly WiFi European city. Start-up company, HotSpot Amsterdam, launched a wireless computer network with a supercharged version of the Wi-Fi technology that is used to turn homes, airports, hotels and cafés into web-connected hotspots.
The first seven
base stations are up and running and the entire city centre will be covered
by 40 to 60 antennas within three months, HotSpot Amsterdam founder Carl Harper
said. The network would be able to support several thousand users,
"We'll go on to cover all of Amsterdam with 125 base stations. The idea
is to prove to the big boys that it can be done and that consumers can live
with a mobile phone and mobile internet. The landline is dead," he said.
HotSpot Amsterdam
charges E4.95 a day or E14.95 a month for a connection of 256Kbps - equivalent
in price and speed to a low-end home broadband connection - while E24.95 a
month will buy a connection twice that fast.
That undercuts fees charged by bigger suppliers such as Dutch telecommunications
carrier KPN, which sells one hour of Wi-Fi access for E5 and one month for
E30. In addition, the dozen or so hotspots offered by KPN in Amsterdam have
a range of just a few hundred meters each.
The company's
founders said their service was cheap enough that residents could choose a
Wi-Fi subscription in place of a fixed-line broadband connection from a cable
TV company or from a provider of DSL services.
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UK supermarket giant Tesco has unveiled a new broadband package which it claims is the "cheapest full 512k speed, unlimited service on offer in the UK from any major service provider".
Tesco broadband
will launch online and in 700 stores at £19.97 (E29.9) a month. For
an extra 50p a month, Tesco is also throwing in a security package including
anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall and parental controls.
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Dr. Wolfgang
Ziebart took over as CEO of Infineon Technologies on September 1. Accordingly,
Max Dietrich Kley, who held the position temporarily for the semiconductor
manufacturer, will immediately reassume the role he left in the interim as
Infineon Supervisory Board Chairman.
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SES Astra and satellite services provider GlobeCast announce an agreement to offer access to the Astra Satellite System at 19.2° East to multicultural TV channels, targeting Spain and France. The deal will provide more than 10 million European households, access to DTV - 1.34 million in Spain, and 2.99 million in France.
This agreement
will enable additional ethnic channels to join the roster of digital free-to-air
channels on Astra – which currently broadcasts over 130 digital TV channels
plus another 100 digital radio stations. GlobeCast will deliver channels to
the platform over its global transmission network that includes 15 teleports
and technical operations centres on five continents, as well as via a global
ATM fibre ring that interconnects GlobeCast’s facilities worldwide to
the multiplex gateway in Spain.
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ITV chief executive Charles Allen is thought to have opened talks with the BBC over acquiring the ‘UKTV' branded digital channels that are a JV between Telewest subsidiary Flextech and BBC Worldwide.
The ten digital channels such as UKTV Gold and UKTV History are presumed to
be effectively under the hammer along with the rest of Worldwide, although
no official decision will be made until later in the year.
Acquiring the BBC's stake in UKTV would boost ITV's limited digital channels.
It has ITV2 and is preparing to launch ITV3 shortly, but the growth in multi-channel
television is one of the key reasons it is struggling to maintain audience
share.
Several venture capital groups are known to be looking at BBC Worldwide. Former chief executive Rupert Gavin, who will leave in October, has also made it clear he would be interested in leading a bid.
Meantime, Allen said at last weekend's Edinburgh TV Festival that ITV is to launch up to five new digital channels. He refused to say what the new channels would be but hinted that one could be a children's service in conjunction with a US broadcaster.
It is not clear if two of the five new channels - which will be launched over the next five years - will be re-branded versions of Granada's joint venture channels with BSkyB, Men & Motors and golden oldie station Granada Plus. Allen said that, as well as launching more ITV branded channels, the broadcaster would continue to run GSB, its joint venture with BSkyB that broadcasts channels such as Granada Plus and Men & Motors. "GSB has been successful and we will continue to run it," he insisted.
The broadcaster
announced earlier this year it would pour an extra £36m a year into
its digital strategy and set a new target of making £150m a year from
advertising on the channels by 2005. Any new investments in digital are unlikely
until a sell-off programme to help reduce ITV's £700m of debt is complete.
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Spanish telco group Telefonica is making a full frontal assault on the ADSL broadband market. President, Cesar Alierta, has announced that the company will invest E3 billion in ADSL through 2008 in order to improve and widen its contents, services and connectivity.
This investment is added to the E 2 billion made between 2001 and 2003. Besides, the group will spend another E 1 billion though 2006 to deploy UMTS throughout the country.
By improving
its ADSL services, Telefonica hopes to raise its ARPU (E 49.7 in the first
quarter of the year). Analysts estimate that by 2008 there will be 7.7 million
broadbandhomes. Today in Spain there are two million broadband clients with
Telefonica taking most of them. Telefonica claims to be in the fifth position
in broadband in the world after NTT, Deutsche Telecom, BT and France Telecom
Telefonica will also extend its ADSL business to other countries. It will
launch ADSL services in Mexico before the end of the year. And to consolidate
the business in Brazil, it will raise up to 10 per cent its stake in Portugal
Telecom. Other ADSL operations are already available in Argentine, Peru and
Chile.
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ITV experienced
a 5 per cent growth in advertising revenue for the first half of the year,
despite fears of weakened ad demand and falling audience share.
ITV has seen the rate in advertising revenues increase by 5 per cent for the
first half of the year, compared with a year earlier, and 7 per cent for September,
based on advance bookings.
Charles Allen,
ITV chief executive, said: "More recently, we have seen all top-10 categories
growing. September is moving forwards so well because telecoms is coming back."
Allen said that all ad categories were up apart from food retailers.
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French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told ambassadors at a conference this week that plans for a 24-hour international news network from France are still on track, despite recent reports indicating that the government hadn't included the project in its 2005 budget.
President Jacques
Chirac called for the need for such a network earlier this year, following
the start of the Iraq war. "The objective set in this area by the president
must be respected," Barnier is quoted as saying. "In the battle
of images of today–just look at Iraq–our country must be present."
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Hong Kong's PCCW is planning to offer a package of Internet, pay-TV and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) or triple play services for less than it charges for conventional voice service alone. The service is expected to launch early next year. PCCW launched its pay-TV service Now Broadband TV late last year.
Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) and Hutchison Global Communications offer VoIP in Hong Kong. Dominant pay-TV operator i-Cable, is likely to launch VoIP in partnership with its sister company, Wharf T&T, later this year.
PCCW chief financial officer Alex Arena said that with profit margins for traditional voice service declining, the company hopes to transform itself as an all-round telecom service offering a range of options to customers. “We know the margin on voice is dissipating. Data is where the future lies and that's where we are repositioning the company. We are no longer just a voice operator. What we've already done on the data and video side places us in a very good position to introduce the triple play. When we do that, we would look at a different way to charge for voice,” he told local media.
PCCW charges
residential customers US$13.75 a month for a landline, the most expensive
rate in the market. The media reports say that company has already has applied
to the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) to have its dominant
status revoked so that it can compete on price with rivals. The industry says
that PCCW's new pricing model for triple play, is likely to be below US$13.75
in order to compete with rivals.
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Hong Kong's free-to-air broadcaster, Asia Television (ATV), is selling a 10 per cent stake to a Guangdong government-backed company for US$24 million. In what is investment in a local broadcaster by a mainland company, ATV will receive a cash injection from Southern Broadcasting Media Group, which is controlled by Guangdong's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
A 10 percent stake is the maximum a foreign investor is allowed to take in a local free-to-air broadcaster. The deal would see an executive from the Guangdong government media unit play an active role in ATV's operations. The development is being seen as a foundation for ATV to tap the lucrative Guangdong advertising market, which is estimated to be over US$350 million.
Another terrestrial
broadcaster Television Broadcasts (TVB) Limited is expecting to gain landing
rights in Guangdong province and sign a revenue-sharing agreement with mainland
China media. The move would legalize its broadcasts in one of China's richest
media markets and open up an important new revenue stream. According to local
media, under the arrangement, TVB will establish an advertising sales joint
venture with Guangdong's Southern Broadcasting Media Group (SBMG), allowing
it to distribute and collect revenues from its Cantonese Jade and English
Pearl channels on 10 networks in nine Pearl River Delta cities. The final
decision is still awaited.
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Taiwan will have 30 digital television channels by the end of next year, the Government Information Office's Director Lin Chia-lung said. Lin said the government seek to ensure diversification of the content by the channels, the first of which is expected to open for business in December 2005.
According to
Lin, the 30 channels will offer programs ranging from news, entertainment,
movie, drama, music, sports, foreign language, education, children. The current
five terrestrial channels must integrate among themselves, said Lin. This
is to make sure their programs do not overlap, he added. If they fail, the
government will seek to mediate and will probably have to make the decision
for them, said Lin. In any case, they are required to submit their proposals
on how they plan to operate the digital channels before the end of June next
year.
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The long awaited trial of the breach of contract and fraud claim against Liberty Media by London banker Gary Klesch has got underway in Denver.
Klesch is claiming
up to $1bn because, he alleges, he was effectively carved out of the Liberty
Media bid for DT's cable systems in 2001. The deal fell foul of German ant-trust
regulators in 2002. Klesch says he had a contract involving him as an equity
partner in the deal and he had secured the right to bid from DT. He says Liberty
reneged at the last minute offering finder fee arrangements or nothing. Liberty
is defending the action, stating it never had a contractual obligation to
go forward with Klesch. John Malone, Liberty chairman, is expected to take
the witness stand next week and the trial is expected to last three weeks.
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IN a bid to improve the quality of television signals and to enable transmission of more channels, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is considering to digitalise the entire cable TV system.
But the regulator has sought to de-link the Conditional Access System (CAS) and digitalisation since it feels that the two are independent and needs to be studied separately. At present, only the broadcasters are digitalised at their end while most MSOs (multi system operators) and the local cable networks still transmit analogue signals to the TV sets at home.
But while TRAI
has brought in consultants for advising it on digitalisation of cable TV,
it has sought to steer clear of the contentious CAS, saying the two should
be delinked.
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UK 3G service 3 says 400,000 customers out of 1.2m used its results and videoclips service on the first weekend Premiereship football earlier this month.
The success is important symbolically for the whole 3G enterprise implying users will pay for attractive content. The amount 3 paid for soccer rights at a time when it had few customers and even fewer handsets was symptomatic of the very troubled start to 3G services in Europe.
However, even allowing for the breakthrough on soccer, only 16% of 3's revenues are from data services and most of that is text messages. The overall turn around in 3's fortunes is founded on price competition in the regular voice tariff market.
3 is about to
launch another range of media services which it hopes will up the data traffic,
including video voicemail, a Ladbrooke's gambling service and live traffic
updates.
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TiVo, the maker of digital TV recorders, posted a wider net loss in its latest quarter despite a 49 per cent jump in revenue, as it increased spending aimed at boosting subscriptions.
For the second
quarter ended July 31, TiVo reported a net loss of $10.8 million, compared
with a last year's net loss of $4.4 million in the same quarter.
Revenue climbed to $39.8 million from $26.7 million a year earlier. Service
revenues surged to $24.3 million, while revenue from hardware more than doubled
to $18.6 million.
Subscriptions grew by 288,000 in the latest quarter to about 1.9 million, more than triple the number it added during the same period last year. Of the new subscriptions added, about 63,000 were with TiVo, while 225,000 came through the DirecTV home-satellite system.
Company executives also acknowledge that DirecTV plan to launch a DVR product from NDS Group will present some competition for its top customer. Chairman and CEO Mike Ramsay said that while no DirecTV DVR product has shown up yet from NDS, "we assume they will enter the market, and we are prepared to compete aggressively."
NDS Group said it's working on a DVR product for DirecTV, possibly for launch in first quarter 2005. NDS and DirecTV are both controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
In March, TiVo unveiled a plan to invest up to an additional $50 million in "subscription-acquisition activities" focused on accelerating growth of TiVo subscriptions. "Everything we've done in the first half of the year is setting us up for the significant growth we expect in both our TiVo-owned and DirecTV with TiVo subscriptions in the second half," TiVo said.
For the third
quarter, TiVo anticipates subscriptions will increase by 340,000 to 400,000.
For the full fiscal year ending in January 2005, the company reiterated its
March expectation for doubling TiVo's subscription base to nearly three million.
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David Elstein, the former Five CEO, is reported to be well-place in the $300 million race to buy Hallmark International, which is up for auction. Elstein is leading a bid backed by 3i and Providence Equity.
The other main contender to make it to the shortlist is John Lack, the founder of MTV. Other possible bidders include BSkyB, Sony Pictures Television International and Time Warner.
It is thought not all of the offers are for all of Hallmark's business, which operates in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Final bids for
Hallmark International, whose assets include the Hallmark Channel in the UK,
were handed in earlier this month. Investment bank UBS is handling the auction
on behalf of Crown Media, itself a subsidiary of Hallmark Inc.
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Supreme Court will rule on US broadband
The US Supreme Court will decide how broadband will be classed – and therefore how it will be regulated.
An Appeals Courts in San Francisco had rejected submissions from the US government and the FCC that broadband be classed an information service and not a more tightly controlled telecommunications service.
The key difference
is whether rival operators should be mandated access to others' networks –
usually cable networks – which would be automatic of the broadband is
a telecoms service. DSL connections via telcos have recently outstripped cable
broadband connections for the first time but the FCC argues treating broadband
as an information service will ultimately lead to a greater of number of connections.
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Britain's broadband access charges are still too high and need cutting further to bring them in line with other nations, Ofcom said. The regulator's decision puts pressure on BT, still the dominant fixed-line provider, to reduce the price it charges rival telecom companies and internet service providers for access to its local exchanges.
Ofcom said it was examining the market in May, prompting BT to announce a package of wholesale price cuts. But Ofcom's latest proposals mean BT will have to cut charges further. Where BT has the most room to lower rates is with "fully unbundled access", in which rivals install their equipment in BT's exchanges, Ofcom said. BT has proposed cutting these rates by 15% from the current £88 E133, whereas Ofcom has suggested a 42% cut.
BT said it had
not finished reviewing its pricing structure and further reductions could
be announced this autumn.
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OpenTV announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, interactive TV channel PlayJam, will manage a new interactive games service for ITV to be launched on the Sky digital platform in the UK.
PlayJam will be developing all games and managing all aspects of the new GTV service. ITV will be the first UK terrestrial broadcaster to offer its audience a tailor made games service.
The games will
be 'pay per play' and will comprise games themed around ITV programme brands,
as well as non-ITV branded games. GTV will include quizzes, puzzles, pub,
sport and arcade style games and will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. Viewers will be able to access all content by pressing the red button
from within ITV channels.
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US citizens who missed some important speech from their presidential candidates will need not worry, they can get it on demand. Approximately 20 major speeches from the Republican National Convention as well as the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates carried by the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network C-SPAN will be made available to viewers on Comcast On Demand, Comcast's VOD service.
"We are
partnering with C-SPAN to give our customers a revolutionary way to tune in
to the important issues before voters in the 2004 presidential election,"
said Comcast Corporation Executive Vice President David Cohen. "Our Video
on Demand service lets viewers watch major convention speeches and the national
debates if they missed them live, or if they want to view them at their convenience.
Our viewers are able to see the full story behind the news of the day at a
time when other news organisations are scaling back on their convention coverage."
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Olympics footage broadcast on the web
Akamai Technologies, a computing solutions and services provider, announced that its global streaming network is being used by broadcasters throughout Europe for the delivery of live and archived footage of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, to be made available on their respective Web sites.
The agreement
between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the EBU marks the first
time in Olympics history that live Internet streaming of the Games to European
end users has been authorised by the IOC.
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The Dallas Cowboys Channel, a 24-hour cable network will launch September 8 and be available to more than 1.3 Comcast subscribers in Texas and adjoining states.
The network will offer original programming, including broadcasts of coach Bill Parcells' news conferences, a nightly news show from practice and interviews. There will also be call-in shows and "Owners Desk," a weekly report from team owner Jerry Jones.
The Cowboys aren't
the first NFL team with their own channel. The Atlanta Falcons last year began
Falconvision, which repeats a four-hour loop of original programming.
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US telco CenturyTel
and EchoStar have teamed up to provide CenturyTel | DISH Network satellite
television to households in 22 states served by CenturyTel. The relationship
allows CenturyTel to offer customers multi-channel digital TV as part of its
full suite of bundled product and service offerings. CenturyTel expects to
begin offering its co-branded satellite TV services by the end of the year
in a one-bill, one-point-of-contact service.
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The Maine bankruptcy court handling Pegasus Satellite's Chapter 11 proceeding approved a settlement between the company and DirecTV and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, and dismissed all claims Pegasus brought against the two entities.
The approval
is a final step in finalising the agreement between NRTC and DirecTV that
was announced in June and settles all litigation among the parties, NRTC said.
The settlement approval also allows DirecTV to proceed with its plan to acquire
the DBS assets of Pegasus and eliminates the litigation liability NRTC had
faced pertaining to the June 1 deal, the cooperative said.
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