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NEWS Monday June 21st to Friday 25th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Continues from front page...........
Viacom
secures 75% of Germany's VIVA
From dieter Brockmeyer in Frankfurt
As part of its bid to acquire 100 per cent of German music business VIVA Media, Viacom has agreed to purchase the stakes of 14 VIVA shareholders who together hold a 75.8 per cent of the company. The deal values the company at about €308 million.
The agreement includes the two largest shareholders, Time Warner (30.6 per cent) and Universal Music (15.3 per cent). In a separate transaction, Viacom has agreed to acquire Time Warner's stake in VIVA PLUS, which is a joint venture between VIVA Fernsehen GmbH (51 per cent) and Time Warner (49 per cent).
Viacom also announced it is launching a tender offer of E12.65 per share for all other outstanding shares in VIVA – a higher value than the shares have had in the past six months.
VIVA's Management Board supports the deal, which would bring together the Germany operations of MTV, MTV2 Pop, VIVA, VIVA Plus and Brainpool.
In making the announcements in Frankfurt, Viacom Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer Tom Freston said: "The acquisition of VIVA is a significant strategic initiative that would dramatically expand our position in Germany - the biggest multichannel TV ad market internationally and a key driver of MTV's European growth plans. In bringing together MTV and VIVA as one family, our local management will create a more diverse and exciting programme offer for German TV audiences, while also tapping into the unique advantages of being part of our global network."
It is expected that MTV Networks Central Europe's Managing Director Catherine Muhlemann and Viva Chief Executive Officer Dieter Gorny will be responsible for running the combined companies.
In Germany, MTV
Networks Europe says it plans to create complementary yet distinctive positions
for each of the four MTV and VIVA channels, in order to collectively offer
a wider variety of programming to satisfy a broader range of audience demographics
and television tastes.
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According to a report in Digital Spy, the company has been working for the past year on the plan, which offers the potential to derive greater revenues from its 7.3 million existing subscribers as well as those paying the one-off £150 (E115) fee for the new free-to-air proposition.
Ian Valentine, Sky Interactive technical alliances director, stressed that the intention was not to offer Web through TV, but to provide business and consumer content based on a Web-derived programming language developed by Sky.
This Web TV mark-up language has recently been accredited by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, giving it the status of an open standard available for use by all European digital TV platform operators.
Sky will appeal
to businesses in the next few months to make the necessary modifications to
their existing Web content in order to make it accessible via the WTVML browser
on which much current interactive TV content relies.
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The plans have
been included in the British Foreign Office's 2004 Spending Review, which
goes before the British Treasury for approval. The BBC is seeking an additional
£28 million (E43.5 million) to fund the channel, according to reports
in the Financial Times. BBC World Service receives its finding direct from
government.
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The US Senate has voted to repeal rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission that make it easier for the US largest media conglomerates to expand and enter new markets.
The rules, approved June 2003 by a divided FCC, largely removed previous ownership restrictions on media companies. The Senate approved a provision to repeal the rules and restore tougher restrictions. The 2003 rules gave television networks the ability to grow to reach 45 per cent of the national audience with their local affiliate stations from the previous limit of 35 per cent. But in the compromise that was reached between the White House and the lawmakers, who were critical of the rules, the legislation lowered that cap to 39 per cent, which is the current reach of CBS, owned by Viacom, and Fox, owned by the News Corporation.
In a separate
measure, the Senate voted 99 to 1 to raise the maximum penalties for broadcasters
that violate federal decency standards. The provision includes a tenfold increase
in maximum fines for each violation, to $275,000 from $27,500. The vote came
off the back of the Janet Jackson chest revelation incident at the Super Bowl.
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Taking advantage of the expansion of broadband and third generation telephony, BBC Motion Gallery incorporates and extends BBC Worldwide's existing £10 million footage sales business. The firm is expecting to double its sales in the next five years.
For the user
interface, BBC Motion Gallery has developed a website – bbcmotiongallery.com
– with a core collection of some 10,000 moving images. The clips, which
are the result of 18 months work on selecting and cataloguing, will allow
media professionals around the world to search and license clips for a wide
variety of uses ranging including corporate videos, advertising, and feature
films.
The company emphasised that with 200 hours of new material being recorded
every week, these clips are only the beginning – it expects to add 1,000
new clips every month.
Rupert Gavin, Chief Executive, BBC Worldwide, said "It's crucial that we maximise the value of the BBC archive and by using digital technology we will open up our business to its full potential. The overall global market in archive footage is estimated to be worth around £150 million per annum and our new service will give us a bigger foothold in this very important market."
Simon Gibbs,
Managing Director BBC Motion Gallery added, "The demand for motion imagery
is forecast to grow substantially over the next decade as the expansion of
broadband and third generation telephony opens up an increasing number of
media outlets. As one of the world's leading media companies, with its access
to a vast archive and a substantial global reach, this is a natural market
for BBC Worldwide to exploit. "
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Singapore's StarHub, which recently introduced the country's first digital cable services and crossed one million subscribers-mark for its mobile services, is tipped to launch its much-delayed initial public offering as early as July. The company is expected to raise up to $400 million.
StarHub's major shareholders include Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Technologies Telemedia, Japan's NTT and British Telecom. The group, which has managed profits only in its mobile operations, is expected to be profitable overall in the latter part of this year.
On synergy between
mobile services and cable television services, StarHub President and CEO Terry
Clontz said: "During our early years, we believe that most people used
StarHub Mobile because of Free Incoming Calls, Per Second Billing and Airtime
Rollover. However, after merging with Singapore Cable Vision two years ago,
more and more people are discovering that it makes a lot of sense to get their
mobile, Cable TV, and broadband services from one company."
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UK Interactive TV advertising company Zip TV, announced a major funding round from Morgan Ventures, an international investment company. Although no figures were released, this will allow the company to expand globally, Zip says.
"In light
of the current financial climate, we have been especially pleased to have
concluded the funding round so swiftly," says Andrew Howells, Managing
Partner at Zip TV. Zip will launch their first interactive advertising channel
shortly. The channel is an initiative based on a consortium of advertisers
representing 40 per cent of the TV advertising market.
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Bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications is close to choosing UBS and Quadrangle Group, a private media and communications investment firm, as advisers on the potential sale of its assets.
Adelphia, which is reorganising under bankruptcy protection, agreed in April under pressure from its creditors and shareholders to consider a sale of the company. But it has yet to formally hire investment bankers to run the process.
"This issue
of hiring a firm has been painfully slow for everybody," one source familiar
with the selection process was reported as saying. "They're looking for
specific, definitional conflicts like whether the firms did any business with
Adelphia."
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Vivendi's former Chairman Jean-Marie Messier has been freed from French police custody but placed under formal investigation for his role in alleged illegal share dealing.
Messier was arrested
on Monday (21/6/04) as part of an investigation into suspicions that Vivendi
broke French stock market rules in 2001 by buying back 21 million of its own
shares in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 terror attacks in the United
States. He was freed on bail of E1.35 million.
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The new stations - Celtic TV and Rangers TV - will launch on Sky later this summer, broadcasting "programming designed with the dedicated fan in mind" every weekday.
A press release explains further: "Central to the programming line-up of both channels will be the screening of the club's latest Bank of Scotland Premier league game on a delayed basis, on the Monday evening of each week. Other channel content will include exclusive news and interviews, insight direct from the training grounds, coverage of the reserves and youth teams, manager access and pre-season tours and friendlies. Classic games will also feature, bringing back some of the best moments from Scottish football down the years"
Subscription
to each channel will be £6.99 (E10.4) a month, although Setanta is offering
a reduced £15.99 month bundle for customers who take up the 'SPL Live'
channel also.
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BBC's Thomson outlines reorganisation
The BBC's new Director-General Mark Thompson, started his first day with a clear message to staff of the need for real, radical change over the next few years.
Outlining a restructuring of the BBC's Executive Committee, Thompson announced reviews into its commercial businesses, production and commissioning, and how to increase efficiencies and control costs.
One of his first moves will be to make the structure of the BBC simpler, more effective and more able to adapt and change by cutting the main decision-making board in half (members would be reduced from 16 to nine) and setting up three new boards to oversee the corporation's creative output, its commercial activities and its journalism.
Thompson will chair a cross media Creative Board made up of all divisions that drive the BBC's creative work. Alan Yentob, currently Director of Drama, Entertainment and CBBC, will also become the BBC's Creative Director.
Mark Byford, who was Thompson's internal rival for the DG position, remains as deputy Director General, and he will also head two of the three new boards. Byford is brought in above the director of news, Richard Sambrook, to chair the journalism board, which brings the national, regional and World Service news organisations under the same umbrella for the first time.
The board will implement all the recommendations of the independent Neil Review, convened to identify lessons following Lord Hutton's Inquiry. However, Thompson commented that the Governors had rightly rejected splitting the role of DG and Editor-in-Chief post-Hutton.
"Nonetheless I recognise that the BBC's journalism will require more continuous and concentrated editorial leadership at the top of the organisation as we go forward. I have asked Mark Byford to make journalism the centrepiece of his role as Deputy DG," said Thompson.
Finance Director John Smith will chair the third board, covering the BBC's commercial businesses, giving greater strategic clarity and realising economic and creative potential. He will also take on the new role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), taking charge of all the BBC's commercial and resourcing subsidiaries, as well as leading its Finance and Property departments.
A fourth major
strand of work will be led by Caroline Thomson, currently Director of Policy
and Legal, who becomes Director of Charter Renewal, reporting to both the
Director-General and the BBC Chairman.
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ITV to launch third channel this year
ITV has set a 2004 launch date for a new third channel and says it aims to triple revenue from its non-terrestrial stations in three years. The UK commercial broadcaster has set a target to generate £150 million in multichannel revenue in the next three years.
ITV said its net advertising revenues had improved and were up around 4.9 per cent in the six months to June. The firm controls more than half of the UK commercial advertising market. The broadcaster, said it was on track to pocket £100 million of cost savings from the marriage and was achieving the savings faster than planned.
ITV said it would
launch its ITV3 channel, aimed at the over-35s, in the fourth quarter of this
year. It also said it would double the programming budget of its ITV2 channel,
spending the extra cash on sports rights, US series and movies.
The launch of ITV3 and the additional investment in ITV2 would amount to £36
million, the broadcaster said.
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SBC
could spend $6bn on fibre net
SBC Communications, the US telco, said it would spend as much as $6 billion
over the next five years building out the fiber-optic network if a trial this
summer proves successful and regulators issue rules favourable to the phone
industry.
SBC is working with software giant Microsoft to develop the technology for
sending TV signals over the network. In addition to video service, the network
would also be capable of delivering super-fast Internet connections and phone
calls using newer Internet-based technology.
The move was viewed a challenge to cable companies, which are encroaching
on the phone business. Cable giant Comcast plans to offer phone service to
all its customers by the end of 2006.
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BSkyB has reportedly
approached Jeremy Darroch, Finance Director of electronics retailer Dixons,
to replace Martin Stewart as CFO. Stewart announced his resignation in February
after losing out to James Murdoch, son of BSkyB Chairman Rupert Murdoch, for
the chief executive post.
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Finland's HTV starts testing HDTV
Finland's largest cable operator Helsinki Television, has started to test HDTV across their network in the capital region, one of the first European cable operators to do so. HTV''s network has approximately 270,000 connected households.
The trial is based on the demo programmes of the European HDTV channel Euro 1080. The signal is available to all homes throughout the network, and the demo programme can also be watched by consumers in HTV''s shops in Helsinki area.
There is a limited
availability of commercial HDTV set-top boxes on the European market currently,
but HTV is still planning to start commercial distribution of HDTV services
in 2004. The offering will be based on Pay TV and Basic concepts.
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For the first time the BBC will be streaming the pick of Glastonbury performances, including Muse, Orbital, and BRMC, live online. The music festival starts this Friday (25th June).
In a joint venture, PlayLouder.com will be producing the video feeds for the BBC. Video will be available online for a whole month. After the festival viewers will be able to watch highlights of the performances again on demand.
A Glastonbury
special edition of the BBC Radio Player will offer the chance to hear Glastonbury
related radio shows on demand.
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The four Spanish mobile operators, Telefonica Moviles, Amena, Vodafone and Xfera, have struck a deal with government in Spain for the rollout of UMTS networks that stipulates an investment of E11.2bn by 2014 . Telefonica Moviles and Vodafone have already launched UMTS services, Xfera is set to do so this summer, and Amena is waiting until next year.
Spain's 3G launch
has been beset by delays with operators complaining about the high costs incurred.
Spain's telecoms regulator, the Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones
(CMT) recently demanded that Xfera, a UMTS licensee, set a specific date for
the launch of its 3G services or risk revocation of its licence.
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DirecTV has filed a lawsuit against EchoStar concerning advertising and promotional materials the satellite TV competitor is circulating in rural areas where Pegasus has sold DirecTV.
The litigation has ties to the ongoing legal skirmish between DirecTV and Pegasus, in which the satellite TV giant is directly marketing its service in areas that were once the domain of Pegasus, the company that had been exclusively selling DirecTV in its rural territories. EchoStar also has been in the same rural areas promoting its DISH Network service and recruiting Pegasus customers.
In its lawsuit, DirecTV said EchoStar has created false and misleading advertising for retailers to distribute in areas serviced exclusively by Pegasus. The advertising, DirecTV said, suggests Pegasus customers will lose their DirecTV programming, and can keep satellite TV service by switching to DISH Network.
"EchoStar has distributed these untrue and advertisements to DISH Network retailers and placed them on EchoStar's retailer Web site for retailers to use, and retailers are in fact running the advertisements in Pegasus territories," DirecTV said in its lawsuit.
EchoStar said
it will fight the litigation. "We believe our advertising is factually
accurate," the company said in a statement. "It informs Pegasus
customers of the risk that they may lose service, and the great alternative
available to them by switching to DISH Network."
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Called Moving Pictures DPI, it will develop ideas for TV and radio shows as well as movies and DVDs based on content from Dennis's American magazines, including the top selling lads' mag, Maxim.
Moving Pictures
DPI will also work on projects to feed into New Line Cinema, the Time Warner
company with which Dennis has signed a ‘first-look' agreement on creative
ideas. The foray into the broadcast world comes just weeks after the publisher
announced it was launching a national radio station in America based on Maxim.
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Myrio Corporation, a leading provider of IP video software and services, today announced that Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, a multi-service communications company, has selected the Myrio IP Video Platform for the deployment of IP television services to 30 counties in Oklahoma. Myrio's platform allows Pioneer Telephone to offer advanced video services to more than 30,000 co-op subscribers.
Pioneer Telephone
is the third largest telephone cooperative in the United States providing
customers with numerous communications products and services, including cellular,
DSL, long distance, Internet, paging, security systems, key system sales/maintenance
and directory advertisement. By deploying the Myrio IP Video Platform, Pioneer
Telephone will begin offering a voice, data and video bundle, which will include
digital television and pay-per-view, by mid-summer 2004.
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LG Electronics, and LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation are bringing satellite-sourced programming in high-definition television (HDTV) to hotel guests for the first time. The end-to-end solution delivers high-definition digital video to the guest room television from both the satellite dish and the off-air antenna.
The new system is based on an LG-developed off-air platform that transcodes satellite-delivered HDTV channels (such as HDNet, HBO-HD, Showtime HD, ESPN HD and Discovery HD Theater) for delivery to hotel rooms.
"This system
builds on our first-generation, standards-based off-air HDTV solution that
today is providing guests a vastly sharper picture and smoother video compared
to analog and digital SDTV (standard-definition television) signals,"
said David Bankers, senior vice president, Product and Technology Development
for LodgeNet, one of the world's largest providers of interactive television
systems and broadband services to the lodging industry.
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SeaChange International (Nasdaq:SEAC) today introduced at SUPERCOMM 2004 its new MediaCluster EdgeNode server, enabling IP broadband operators to deploy on-demand services with a lower initial investment than ever before. With this new, standards-based server advancement, telecommunications companies and other high-speed network providers can cost-effectively deliver video-on-demand to televisions and PCs.
SeaChange says
its EdgeNode server enables broadband operators to economically initiate on-demand
television, with fast-forward, rewind and pause control, starting at less
than 1,000 viewers and scaling up to serve millions of viewers. In a compact
four rack-unit package, the EdgeNode delivers from 200 to over 800 video streams
at Standard-Definition quality, with storage capacity up to 2.5 terabytes.
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Dicas, the MPEG-4
specialist software developer, today announced the release of mpegable AVC.
This first version of mpegable AVC provides next generation video compression
quality to all applications supporting Video for Windows like VirtualDub,
FlaskMPEG and many more. Being based on the latest MPEG-standard known as
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, mpegable AVC outperforms other codecs in terms of coding
efficiency.
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Sky to unite TV assets under a single brand identity
BSkyB is to unveil a new brand identity in September, to coincide with an autumn advertising blitz for Sky+, Sky Sports and the launch of Sky Freesat, according to a report in Media Bulletin.
Sky marketing Director Charles Ponsonby said the rebranding would refresh the thought to have briefed creative agency HHCL/Red Cell about creating ad campaigns around the brand identity.
The initiative
coincides with a separate move to create a brand identity, including a possible
name change, for Sky One. The broadcaster is keen to create a new image for
the channel and reposition it as a mainstream entertainment station rivalling
ITV1 and Five.
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In ten years Europe will have 8.3 million DTT pay subscribers generating annual revenue of E1.12 billion. This is one of the key conclusions of the just-published Euromedia European Digital DTH and DTT Databook 2005.
The research concludes that by 2013 the number of multi-channel receivers in European homes will have doubled to 213.2 million and almost half, 102 million, will be DTT sets, mainly FTA IDTVs used as second or third sets in the household. Meanwhile, the European total for digital DTH will reach 30 million generating E16 billion in revenue.
Paul Robertson, Research Editor for Euromedia, said: "Our analysis shows pay-TV will continue to be dominated by digital DTH and cable, although a significant pay-lite market will develop for DTT."
The report models 10 year projections for universe, total revenue and ARPU for all analogue and digital DTH and DTT services across 16 West European and 12 Central European countries. It features a concise market summary for each country, a review of current regulation, a profile of all the pay-TV platforms – including their programme line-ups and package pricing – and comprehensive operator and regulator contacts. There's even comparative cable subscriber data taken from Euromedia's renowned Broadband Cable Databook series.
This important
study is available now at a retail price of E995, but if you place an early
bird order now you can save E100. You can order by calling +44 (0) 20
77938855 or fax +44 (0) 20 77939955 or email: info@advanced-television.com
. Or you can order online and save a further 5%!
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YooMedia
buys dating brands
YooMedia, the interactive media group, has acquired Dateline and Club Sirius,
two of the best-known brands in the UK dating marketplace. It has also acquired
Jiles Limited, which owns and operates the dating businesses, Avenues, Clicked
and Simply Love.
These acquisitions have created YooMedia Dating Ltd, the largest UK-owned
dating company in Britain - both online and offline. YooMedia Dating will
create an integrated dating experience in which consumers can access its services
either in person, over the phone, via the Internet, interactive TV or via
the mobile phone and other wireless devices.
David Docherty, chief executive of YooMedia, said: "These acquisitions
help us realise our ambition to attain a leading position in dating, which
is one of our core content sectors. These businesses give us market reach
and cross-marketing opportunities, and we can use our expertise to develop
the brands in new media including interactive television, the Internet and
wireless.
Jim Weir, currently managing director of Jiles, will become managing director
of YooMedia Dating. He said: "Having built a successful business in the
dating arena, I see a tremendous opportunity to take the concept to the next
level by leveraging both the critical mass which will be created by this transaction
and the interactive media expertise that comes with being
part of YooMedia."Dateline and Club Sirius cost Yoo £500,000 cash
and 1.5 million ordinary 1p shares in YooMedia. Meanwhile, the management
of Jiles will own a 25 per cent of the equity of YooMedia Dating.
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Telewest Communication's £3.8 billion (E5.7 billion) financial restructuring has been approved by two High Courts, paving the way for the UK cable operator to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange within a month.
The terms of the prolonged debt-for-equity swap agreed by Telewest's bondholders will leave current shareholders with 1.5 per cent of the new equity. Bondholders, including John Malone's Liberty Media, will receive 98.5 per cent of the group's equity.
Shares in Telewest,
which will be incorporated in Delaware, will commence trading on Nasdaq on
July 19. The group's US listing could ease the way for a merger with NTL,
the largest UK cable operator.
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Canada's largest telephone company, BCE's Bell Canada, has filed two applications with the Canadian Radio-television and telecommunications Commission to deliver television over phone lines.
The company has applied for cable licences to serve 11 cities in Ontario and Quebec - among them: Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Quebec City - to send TV via the various lines it uses to offer Internet services to homes in both provinces.
Bell is apparently
ready to go ahead with the service almost immediately if it wins CRTC approval.
BCE already owns Bell ExpressVu, which provides comprehensive DTH services
in Canada with over 300 digital channels and a full gamut of interactive TV
services.
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Spanish satellite
operator Hispasat has posted its seventh year of profits ending 2003 with
a gross profit of E 6.4 million.
Total revenues, of renewal and consolidation of its clients, reached E 92.98
million in a year, according to Hispasat. The EBITDA amounted to E 73.38 million.
Hispasat invested E 101.6 million, mostly in its strategic projects, Hisdesat
and Amazonas (to be launched in July), aimed at diversifying its X Band services
and targeted at the American continent.
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News Corp's Star has sold its entire stake in integrated media company UTV to the company's founder and principal shareholder Ronnie Screwvala. UTV CEO Screwvala and News Corp signed an agreement for the buy back of 4.54 million shares from Star.
Screwvala also bought Canadian pension fund CDPQ's 3.6 million shares in the company. With these two transactions Screwvala's consolidated holding in UTV will be 54 per cent pre - IPO. UTV stated that it would file a prospectus with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) within the next three weeks and will be tracking the market for a September to November IPO. UTV expects to raise more than $22 million from the IPO.
Screwvala explained that in his original shareholder's agreement with News Corp (STAR), he had an option to buy back shares pre-IPO and I have exercised that option to increase and consolidate my shareholding. "UTV and Star share a multiple strategic relationship in television content, in movie co-productions, in Vijay TV (TV channel) and more recently in the distribution alliance for our kids Channel Hungama TV and we will continue to build on these strategic relationships" he commented.
CDPQ, which had invested fresh equity of 9.6 million shares in UTV two and a half years back, had initiated a scale down of all its investments in Asia last year. The balance six million shares, that Screwvala didn't buy of CDPQ, will be offered for sale in the forthcoming IPO.
UTV's diversified
operations include broadcasting, television software content, movies production
and distribution, air-time sales and advertising film production.
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This year tennis fans will be able to catch the on and off-court action from Wimbledon on video mobile phones. Customers of video mobile network '3' will be able to watch news, interviews and match footage featuring all the stars of the 2004 championships on their handsets.
The daily service
for Wimbledon will include three news bulletins, four key interviews and an
end of play highlights package featuring the best of the day's play. Customers
will also be able to watch profiles of the leading players in this year's
tournament, including Tim Henman and Andy Roddick. The video highlights are
being provided by TWI's Interactive division in conjunction with The All England
Lawn Tennis Club.
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Cablevision is to offer an unlimited local and long-distance phone service, plus broadband Internet access and cable TV for $ 90 per month. The discount means Cablevision is effectively giving away a VoIP service to users who sign up for its other products.
Cablevision pointed
out that the promotion was only available for the month of July and that users
who signed up for the deal would only enjoy a discount for 12 months.
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Washington and Brussels have formally agreed terms for Europe's construction of the Galileo satellite navigation system - a deal set to be signed on Saturday in Ireland. The agreement marks the end of three years of tough Trans-Atlantic negotiations.
"For the first time we have agreed an arrangement for the sharing of national security classified information with the European Commission," a State Department official was reported as saying.
Under the agreement, Europe's Galileo system will co-exist with the US 'Global Positioning System' (GPS). Washington had had fears that it might interfere with their own GPS signal used for military and Nato operations. But late last year Brussels agreed to modify the modulation of the Galileo signal so that it would not disrupt encrypted GPS signals for government use.
The EU aims to have the E3.6 billion system - designed for civilian, intelligence and military uses - up and running by 2008.
Agreement was
also reached on a commitment to preserve national security capabilities and
non-discrimination in trade in satellite security services.
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European broadband provider Wanadoo is abandoning its ISP tag by merging its UK portal and Internet access businesses, setting itself up as a broadband service operator across all territories, New Media Zero reported.
"We aren't an ISP any more," said a spokeswoman. "We'll be offering many types of broadband product, such as wireless, voice-over-IP and video-on-demand, so everything on the portal and access side must be integrated."
Following its recent rebranding, the company is creating three new departments in the UK to oversee the new integrated business. Three new directors will be appointed to head these departments and will sit on the board, reporting to Eric Abensur, CEO of Wanadoo UK.
Wanadoo is to
deliver an end-to-end broadband solution based on the new Energis' ISPConnect
broadband solution. This is the first time one of the UK's major ISPs has
chosen a Datastream product as an alternative to BT's product, a move which
augurs better for competition in the UK wholesale.
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Independent UK interactive television company, the Digital Interactive Television Group, has appointed James Scott as business development manager to meet the growing demand for its broadcast services. Scott will focus on using iTV to purchase products, services and content through developing retail channels and expanding the conditional access market.
DITG's x-shop product enables teleshopping channels, broadcasters with spin-off merchandise and high-street retailers to maximise their marketing opportunities via iTV. The company's i-reg and i-sub services allow channels to offer their customers fully-automated payment facilities for pay-per-view and subscription-based content on conditional access television.
Previously, Scott
held a marketing and business development position at The New Media Group,
which incorporates EPG service company, Essential Broadcasting Solutions (EBS).
Major projects in this role included creating new media channels for the Sci
Fi Channel and retail company, JML.
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The BBC, together with Channel 4 and ITV, announced that they would be making Audio Description available via digital satellite television.
Audio Description, or AD, is a service that provides an additional audio commentary to describe what is happening on screen for visually impaired viewers.
The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have been working closely with the RNIB (Royal National Institute of the Blind) and manufacturers to develop an Audio Description system for blind and partially sighted people known as Receiver Mix, the only system that fully meets the RNIB's specifications.
This version of AD can also be decoded by receivers using a chip which can currently offer additional facilities such as a spoken EPG.
The technology
is proven and manufacturers are beginning to build it into the next generation
of set-top boxes.
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Red Fig has appointed Mark Rowland as the company's new CEO. He will spearhead a new global strategy for the company, linking advertiser, broadcaster and producer to the new revenue streams that Red Fig technology is able to access.
Red Fig creates
and delivers 'Participation TV' solutions - enhanced and interactive formats
that can run on all TV platforms without the need of a set top box or interactive
digital TV. "Red Fig's Cross Media System (XMS) technology enables the
creation of innovative applications that can deliver new revenue streams to
programmes and advertisers alike," the company claimed.
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British commercial broadcaster ITV may be looking to become a member of the consortium that runs Freeview, the UK DTT platform backed by BSkyB, the BBC and Crown Castle International.
Discussions between
Mick Desmond, ITV's head of broadcasting, and executives within the Freeview
consortium are understood to have explored the prospect of ITV becoming an
additional partner in DTV Services, the company responsible for promoting
and marketing Freeview. If the deal goes ahead it mean Freeview being promoted
across ITV as well as the BBC.
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The new agreement
covers a wide range of media categories, including multi-media and mobile
telephony, and foresees extensive sublicensing. The IOC says the EBU agreement
will help ensure the promotion of the Olympic values both during and outside
Games time, achieve the widest possible audience and protect the basic
principle of free-to-air viewing.
The deal covers
public networks in all of the EBU's 52 countries except for Italy. The reason
for the exclusion of Italy's RAI network was not immediately known.
The IOC said the EBU deal will "help ensure the promotion of the Olympic
values during and outside Games time, achieve the widest possible audience
and protect the basic principle of free-to-air viewing.'' The IOC's policy
is that 'core coverage' should be on free television.
In its tender,
the IOC required broadcasters to provide a minimum of 200 hours on free-to-air
television for the Summer Olympics and 100 hours for the Winter Games. Beyond
that, the IOC allows for various cable, pay-per-view, digital, video-on-demand
and other services.
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European satco SES Astra, in a concerted effort with more than sixty of its European broadcast customers, hardware manufacturers and other industry partners, has agreed on the technical aspects and the timetable for the introduction of HDTV services in Europe via the ASTRA Satellite System.
The move was settled at last weeks second European HDTV Forum session held at SES Astra's headquarters in Luxembourg. Astra pioneered the transmission of HDTV services in Europe with EURO 1080 which has been broadcasting via the ASTRA satellite system at 19.2° East since January 1st, 2004.
Ferdinand Kayser,
President and CEO of SES ASTRA, said: "So far, Europe has been trailing
countries like the United States with respect to the introduction of HDTV
services. At the same time, sales of flat screen displays have been booming.
Independent research institutes suggest that in a few years tens of millions
of HD enabled TV sets will be deployed in the different European countries.
By agreeing on minimal technical specifications and building on open standards,
SES ASTRA and its partners from the broadcast and hardware industry intend
to ensure that the roll-out of HDTV services in Europe kick-starts as early
as this year."
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Zone Vision has entered into a tie-up with Travel Satellite Television (TSTV) for carrying a branded block of programming of Reality TV in China. Reality is already available in Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Singapore and Indonesia in Asia.
Zone Vision Chairman Chris Wronski announced that the company had signed a five-year deal with TSTV and the block will air daily in prime time from July onwards. The block will be advertising-supported and dubbed into Mandarin on TSTV, which is available to 80 million homes throughout China.
Prior to the
deal with TSTV, Zone Vision had signed a carriage deal with Singapore's new
digital cable service, StarHub earlier this month. StarHub is currently available
to 380,000 subscribers.
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Canada's major phone companies want to be able to offer Voice over Internet Protocol services with the same freedom from regulation that cable companies and others have.
Aliant, Bell Canada, SaskTel and Telebec have asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Canada's regulatory organisation for the broadcast and telecommunications industries, to refrain from regulating prices for VoIP services offered by Canada's established phone companies.
"Allowing all VoIP service providers to compete for customers according to the same rules would result in greater choice and continued investment in innovation," Lawson Hunter, Executive Vice-President, Bell Canada Enterprises told the CRTC . "This approach is working in the delivery of wireless services, broadband access and Internet applications. It will also work for VoIP services, if given the chance."
The CRTC has indicated it supports imposing rules for some VoIP services similar to those that currently apply to traditional local phone services. This would leave incumbent carriers restricted by price regulation while cable companies and other VoIP competitors, including foreign-based service providers, would retain complete pricing flexibility.
The submission is being filed as part of the CRTC proceedings underway to examine what rules, if any, should apply to companies offering VoIP services.
The submission pointed out that the Commission has decided against regulating the Internet and that many VoIP services are applications delivered to users over the Internet.
The phone companies
do support social regulation such as access to 9-1-1 service and rights to
privacy rules to the extent that these protect customers and the public interest.
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Littlewood's Game On have launched two football-themed interactive games to run alongside Euro 2004 in the UK - including ITVi's first interactive TV game offering an instant cash prize of up to £1 million (E1.5 million).
£1Million
Hot Shot is an interactive scratchcard offering viewers the chance to win
£1 million of instant cash - simply by pressing the red button. It is
also available online A Three Lions themed trivia quiz also offers daily cash
prizes to Statos across the nation and the chance to win a trip to the city
of the Euro 04 winners. The game will be supported by an interactive TV advertising
campaign on ITV2 that takes fans straight to the Three Lions application.
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Viacom is set to receive $738 million in cash to end its 10- year investment in Blockbuster, according to Bloomberg.
Viacom said it will allow investors to exchange their shares for stock in Blockbuster, 82 per cent owned by Viacom. Blockbuster, the world's largest video-store chain, will pay its shareholders a $5 per share dividend as part of the split off, according to a statement issued by both companies.
Viacom Chief
Executive Sumner Redstone, is shedding Blockbuster after failing to find a
buyer for the company, which he bought in 1994 for $6.7 billion. Blockbuster's
sales have declined for two out of the last three quarters amid competition
from DVD rental services such as Netflix and retailers including Wal-Mart
Stores.
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Jean-Marie Messier, former CEO of Vivendi Universal, has been taken into custody. Messier is being questioned as part of an investigation into "financial misappropriation", Paris police said. The investigation centres on allegations of possible insider trading in Vivendi shares.
The arrest follows
a probe into Vivendi ex-Finance Chief Guillaume Hannezo launched earlier this
month. Under Messier, Vivendi ran up huge debts to fuel acquisitions, before
the corresponding losses persuaded shareholders to oust him in July 2002.
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Jim Hytner, ITV's Marketing Director, who was behind the rebranding of ITV in 2003 in the run-up to the £5.5 billion (E8.2 billion) merger Carlton and Granada, has resigned to join Barclays bank.
The departure
comes as the network is under increasing pressure as audience figures drop
off and a revenue shortfall as high as £100 million (E150 million) is
being talked of.
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On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission proposed an $87,500 forfeiture against DirecTV for repositioning its DirecTV 3 satellite without FCC authorisation.
FCC rules require DirecTV to get FCC approval before repositioning the satellite from its authorised orbit to a location for which it was not licensed. The FCC said in a statement that DirecTV had filed a request for special temporary authority to relocate the spacecraft, but admitted that employees began repositioning the satellite without waiting for FCC approval.
The FCC said
in a statement that satellite companies must adhere to rules governing modification
of satellite authorisations to minimise the risk of collisions between satellites.
DirecTV admitted the mistake. "When we became aware that DirecTV 3 had
been repositioned without FCC authorisation, we immediately informed the commission.
We accept full responsibility for the error and have taken steps to prevent
this type of incident from happening in the future," the company said.
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Norway's Telenor has announced that, in partnership with ARINC Incorporated,
it will soon market new technology to allow airline passengers to use mobile
phones aboard commercial flights. The companies formed an alliance in 2003
and this week revealed their plans at the Inmarsat Conference in Montreal,
Canada.
The new technology allows safe and seamless usage of GSM mobile phones on any commercial aircraft flight. The new technology will leverage the classic Inmarsat Satcom systems many airlines have already invested in. These systems are already deployed on over 3000 aircraft worldwide.
ARINC and Telenor
will offer the airlines a comprehensive, one-stop implementation package.
The technology will address the airspace as a virtual GSM country, simplifying
the mobile addressing and connectivity during flight.
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Freeview, the UK DTT service, is now available in four million homes, according to the BBC. The news comes as Freeview won two prizes at the Marketing Society 2004 awards – the Best Consumer Insight and Best New Brand.
Andy Duncan, Director of Marketing, Communications and Audiences, BBC, said: "The continued growth of digital television is very encouraging. The Freeview figures show that the free proposition has really cut through and is currently the single most important factor in driving digital take-up."
Carolyn Fairbairn, Director of Strategy and Distribution, BBC, added: "DTT was in crisis before Freeview's launch. These new figures are a considerable landmark, and consolidate DTT as the second digital platform in the UK - and the first choice for free-to-view consumers".
However, the BBC could be manipulating the figures, the Guardian newspaper warned. According to the latest Barb figures to June, seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk, the official ratings body for the television industry claims Freeview is present in only 2.9 million households. While still showing impressive growth since launching in October 2002, the figure is more than 1.1 million below the BBC's own figure.
In comparison
with BSkyB and cable companies Telewest and NTL, which have detailed information
on all the paying customers they have, it is notoriously difficult to assess
the number of Freeview boxes in circulation. Because Freeview is completely
free once a customer has bought the box from a high street retailer, customers
do not need to register their purchase and therefore there is no way of knowing
exactly how many boxes have been sold.
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French broadcaster TF1 is looking to use digital terrestrial television as the most effective means of introducing HDTV. Following comments by Patrick le Lay, President of TF1 that the service should be distributed "in the best possible way, and that means HD," TF1's Director of advanced technologies, Olivier Abecassis, revealed that HD was now a priority.
"Much depends
on the French government mandating the appropriate digital terrestrial standards,"
said Abecassis. "We're ready to launch HDTV free-to-air on digital terrestrial,
as well as on pay-TV via TPS's satellite and DSL services." Abecassis
admitted that bit-rate issues needed to be resolved for DSL.
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Spain:
ADSL beats cable
From David del Valle in Madrid
ADSL is beating cable on the broadband battle in Spain. Its fast growth is
relegating fibre optics to second place. In terms of operators, Telefonica,
owner and operator of all existing ADSL lines in Spain, is hammering its cable
competitors, ONO and AUNA in broadband Internet access.
Today, two million people (77 per cent of the total) get broadband access
to the Internet through an ADSL line – a number that's doubled in one
and a half years - against 600,000 cable users, representing 23 per cent of
the market.
Over the last six months, ADSL clients have grown by 17 per cent, with 55,000
new subscribers every month, whereas cable has only experienced an 8.6 per
cent growth. It is estimated that the ADSL market will continue to grow over
the next months at the same or even higher rate, if, as it seems likely, the
CMT (Telecommunications Market Commission) finally allows Telefonica to double
its Internet speed at the same monthly fee of E 39. Anticipating this, cable
operators are launching offers to capture subscribers and mitigate the ADSL
effect. ONO is currently offering 1 MB capacity at E 39.95.
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Finmeccanica of Italy and Alcatel of France have agreed to create an alliance in the aerospace sector that will create two companies in to which they will merge their respective space segment industrial production activities and satellite services.
The first company, Alcatel Alenia Space, of which the French group will hold 67 pct, and Finmeccanica approximately 33 pct, will combine Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio's industrial activities. This company will specialise in planning, development and production of space systems, satellites, equipment, instruments, payloads, and associated ground systems. The management team will be located in France. Sales for 2004 are estimated at E1.8 billion and it will employ around 7,200 people.
The second company,
of which Finmeccanica will hold approximately 67 pct and Alcaltel the remaining
33 pct, will combine Telespazio and Alcatel Space's operations and services
activities. The company will concentrate on operation and services for satellite
solutions, which include control and exploitation of space systems as well
as networking, high value-added services, multimedia applications, and earth
observation. Its management team will be located in Italy. Sales for 2004
are estimated at E350 million and it will employ around 1,400 people.
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Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo will start selling a handset with smart-card
electronic cash, train pass and identification card functions from next month.
The handsets will carry the "FeliCa" microchip which was developed
by Sony.
The wallet applications
will be used in combination with the DoCoMo's first four i-mode smart-card
handsets—three 2G mova 506iC series handsets and the 3G FOMA F900iC handset—which
also will be launched in early July
Users would only have to wave the phone near an electronic scanner to make
a purchase at grocery stores, pass through gates at train stations or to check-in
at airports, DoCoMo said. "We are making a mobile phone into a virtual
wallet," said Takeshi Natsuno, DoCoMo MD of the company's i-mode Internet
service planning department.
Sony's FeliCa
microchip is already used for electronic money systems, corporate identification
card numbers, or pre-paid, rechargeable smart-card train tickets in Japan,
Hong Kong and elsewhere. With the new mobile phones' Internet capability,
users can download monetary value to their FeliCa-ready phones using their
credit cards rather than having to go to deposit machines to re-charge their
smart money cards, Natsuno said.
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US cableco Comcast
will launch On Demand dating in Philadelphia this summer, in conjunction with
HurryDate. People looking for love will be able to go to three events this
summer where they can tape video profiles of themselves. Those tapes will
be available to cable customers, who can then go online to contact anyone
who piques their interest.
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US media giant Viacom is evaluating the potential for advertising in video games.
The company, which has sold off parts of its video game business, is seeking ways to make money off the $10 billion US video game industry, CFO Richard Bressler reportedly told advertising executives.
"I think
the jury is in, people are spending a lot of time in interactive," said
Bressler at the Global Digital Summit, sponsored by Ogilvy & Mather. "The
interesting thing for us is to figure out if there's a market for advertising
in video games." Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone has already been making
personal investments in games publisher Midway Games, of which he now owns
over 70 per cent. Althought the stake is not directly related to Viacom, the
move fuelled speculation Viacom planned to re-enter the gaming industry.
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Australia's Telstra and Hong Kong-based PCCW will buy back a $1.2 billion loan facility to their Reach joint venture for $311 million. Telstra said the two parties had reached agreement with bankers over the loan to Reach that was refinanced in April last year.
Telstra and PCCW
set up Reach as an international telecommunications carrier in February 2001
as part of a broader partnership. It has been hard hit by massive overcapacity
among undersea cable carriers, resulting in Telstra and PCCW writing off $2
billion of their Reach investments in 2002 and 2003.
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Cable & Wireless
is to launch an off-the-shelf Internet Protocol (IP) Voice service for UK
businesses, merging voice and data networks onto a single IP infrastructure.
It will be called C&W IP Voice and the company says it will offer a better
quality of service than is possible with VoIP connections that run over the
public Internet. C&W said the service is aimed at businesses that have
operations at multiple sites and use separate private networks for voice and
data at present, and who want to merge their traffic onto a single IP-based
network.
Cable & Wireless
UK CEO, Royston Hoggarth, said: " IP Voice expands upon our current IP
telephony solution as we deliver the integrated platform for data, IP and
voice services that our business clients are increasingly demanding."
He added: "Voice will be the killer application to drive UK businesses
towards wholesale adoption of IP. For businesses already using IP-VPN QoS,
the next step in their journey to an integrated communications infrastructure
is to migrate their voice networks to IP."
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Intelsat's IS-10-02 satellite was successfully launched aboard an ILS Proton launch vehicle. The satellite is expected to become operational this August and will provide high power Ku-band spot beam coverage for Europe and the Middle East.
Once in position
at 359ÕE, the satellite will offer capacity for video, Internet, corporate
networks, telephony and hybrid space/terrestrial solutions to customers on
its 70 C-band and 36 Ku-band transponders.
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