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NEWS Monday November 15th to Friday November 19th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Ofcom is taking steps to revoke the licence of television shopping channel Auctionworld and has levied a fine of £450,000 (E680,000) on the company, after receiving hundreds of complaints about the service.
The media regulator slammed the company as having a standard of customer service that was "severely inadequate", after it continuously refused to deal with or satisfactorily explain why it was not delivering goods to customers on time. It is also accused of vastly overestimating the high-st value of the goods it auctions.
The only way
Auctionworld can escape the revocation of its licence is by adhering to an
eight-point list of directives, including reading out a statement three times
a day for 21 days saying that it has been found guilty of "extremely
serious" breaches. If Auctionworld fails to meet all eight points within
six months it will lose its licence immediately.
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But the Great
British Television Channel is set on bringing back to UK screens 'classic
variety acts' of the kind shunned by regular broadcasters.
The channel is backed by Chris Tarrant, famous as presenter of UK Millionaire,
and former Yahoo! Europe managing director Martina King, and was co-founded
by stand-up and musician Richard Digance, an ITV regular in the 80s and 90s.
Due to launch on Sky Digital in the new year, the station is also promising
to break new talent, and will include a regular nightly concert at 11pm as
well as movies and imported comedy from the US. "We wanted to use our
experience and knowledge to develop a new TV channel with the emphasis on
entertainment as the public perceives it," said Digance.
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Vivendi Universal dismissed speculation that Philips, the Dutch electronics group and its biggest shareholder, was planning to sell its three per cent stake in the French media and communications group.
According to the FT, investors were reacting to rumours that Philips was preparing to sell its 32 million shares in Vivendi, said to be worth more than E700 million. Philips has written down the value of its Vivendi stake by about E1.8 billion to account for the drop in value since it received the shares in exchange for part of its holding in the Seagram group in 2000.
The French group,
which posted its third quarter results this week, said it had benefited from
a E750 million saving due to a more favourable tax deal agreed with the French
finance ministry this year, as well as lower finance costs, reflecting its
smaller debt burden of E5.5 billion and reduced interest levels.
Vivendi's consolidated net income was E776 million, against E131 million in
the year-ago period.
Revenues fell 20 per cent to E4.7billion, while operating profits were down slightly at E866 million. Vivendi said its telecoms business, made up of Cegetel, SFR and Maroc Telecom, increased operating profits by 13 per cent to E809 million. Its media units, including pay-TV operator Canal Plus, Universal Music and its games business, increased profits by 33 per cent to E96 million.
Vivendi said
full-year net adjusted profit, excluding amortisation, exceptional items and
tax, would be higher than E1.2 billion, up from an earlier forecast for more
than E1 billion.
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Racing UK, the dedicated horseracing channel owned by 31 of the country's leading racecourses, has registered its 20,000th subscriber in under two months, claiming to have passed its' breakeven target a year early.
The channel, which was launched in May, introduced its subscription service on 1 October and signed up 10,000 subscribers within the first week. A steady growth in subscriber numbers has been reported throughout October and early November.
Racing UK represents
a significant shift in media rights management within racing, with 31 courses
opting to control their distribution nationally and internationally. Executive
Chairman Simon Bazalgette commented: "Other sports have been watching
what happens in racing and I think we have established an alternative business
model that benefits the sport and its viewing enthusiasts. A good balance
between subscription and international revenues also reduces our dependence
on betting and advertising.”
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TiVo is planning to add ways for viewers to see advertising and corporate logos even as they try to skip commercials, the company said. Starting in March 2005, most viewers who fast-forward through programs on their TiVo digital video recorder (DVR) -- a set-top box that saves shows on a built-in computer hard drive -- will see small pop-up billboards or logos related to the brands represented in some of the ads.
TiVo said it worked with more than 30 of the biggest U.S. advertisers, including auto manufacturers and Hollywood studios, in a strategic move to bolster its tiny ad unit, which generates only a fraction of the company's revenue. TiVo spokeswoman Kathryn Kelly said the move, which will allow advertisers a chance to offer viewers contest entries and giveaways, will not affect consumers' ability to fast-forward through commercials. "It is just another way for advertisers to show their brands in a less intrusive way than traditional advertising," she said.
Subscribers,
who pay up to $13 a month for the full TiVo service, will see the change automatically
through a software upgrade. Later in 2005, TiVo hopes to launch a system that
lets viewers buy merchandise and take part in surveys using the buttons on
their remote controls, Kelly said.
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Ofcom has asked BT to come up with proposals for opening up its networks to competitors to help speed the growth of telecoms services including broadband - or face a possible Competition Commission investigation.
The communications
regulator has backed off from calling for an immediate break-up of BT, noting
that most of the company's competitors in the telecoms industry felt that
this approach would be "too disruptive and expensive". The watchdog
said it instead favoured working with BT to deliver "real equality of
access" to its networks and called on the company to come up with "prompt
and clear proposals" about how this could be achieved.
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VegaStream, a
supplier of dedicated business VoIP Gateways, has partnered with Smart Networks
Solutions (SNS), a major reseller and systems integrator to the Latin American
market. Under the terms of the agreement, SNS will re-sell VegaStream's portfolio
of VoIP gateways to its customers in the region.
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Sony Pictures
Television International (SPTI) has appointed Ken Lo as Vice President, Business
Development, Asia. Based at SPTI's regional headquarters in Hong Kong, he
will work closely with SPTI's Asia team to help nurture new strategic opportunities
across the three lines of business – licensing, international production
and international channels, with a focus on China.
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One day after its rejected E2.4 billion takeover offer for ONO, Auna has reportedly been approached by a consortium of equity firms with a E 11 billion bid for the whole company. AUANA is Spain's the second largest telco and the third in mobile telephony.
The consortium, which includes the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group, Apax Capital Partners, Providence Equity Partners and CVC Capital Partners, plans to acquire the entire Auna Group (with interests in fixed mobile telephony, cable and mobile telephony) which currently has 10 million clients and a turnover of E 3.815 billion in 2003. If successful, the operation would be Europe's largest private equity transaction.
In July Auna
rejected a E8 billion bid from a Blackstone-led consortium for its mobile
business, alleging that the offer was too low. Auna's shareholders -with Bank
Santander, Endesa and Union Fenosa as the main partners- have valued the whole
group at E 14 billion. Both Endesa and Union Fenosa plan to dispose of their
shares, either through a sale or an initial public offering scheduled for
next year.
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UK broadcasters Channel 4 and Five, have called off their merger talks, ending months of speculation that the two broadcasters would push for a merger to compete against the newly merged ITV and increasingly powerful BSkyB.
According to the two broadcasters while the benefits of a merger would have been great, the complexity of the deal, which would need a change in the law, was what finally killed it. The sale of Channel 4 by the government could have raised as much as £2.5 billion (E3.5 billion).
Five and Channel
4 said they had decided to make the announcement to end the speculation that
had accompanied the talks and to allow the two companies to concentrate on
the development of their respective businesses.
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Rupert Murdoch, News Corp CEO, has said he's happy to accept John Malone's Liberty Media as a large shareholder, but this would be with the condition that Malone signed a standstill agreement that precluded further share purchases.
Earlier this
month Liberty Media revealed that it could boost its stake in News Corp. Although
Malone insisted that the move, which could lift Liberty Media's stake in News
Corp to 17 per cent from 9 per cent, was "entirely friendly", Murdoch
acknowledged that the purchase caught him off guard and spurred News Corp
to adopt a poison pill plan to thwart any potential hostile takeover of the
company by Liberty.
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UK DTT Freeview is set to break the five million homes barrier by the end of the year, with some industry experts predicting it will overtake Sky Digital by Christmas 2005.
According to reports, sales estimates from manufacturers and retailers for 2004 show that by the end of the year they expect to have shifted three million Freeview boxes, taking the total to over five million. Current sales are running at an estimated 50,000 a week for the boxes, which offer viewers 30 channels for a one-off payment of between £40 and £80 (E56 – E112).
David Chance,
the former Sky exec who runs "pay TV lite" service Top Up TV offering
Freeview customers an extra 10 channels for a monthly fee of £7.99,
told the Guardian that he predicts sales would top eight million by the end
of next year. "Freeview box sales in the calendar year will exceed three
million units. The Freeview box population will be in five million homes by
the end of the year," said Chance, who is also a board director at ITV.
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French digital satellite platform TPS has agreed a three-year deal with BT that will see the telco's Broadcast Services arm provide a media management and playout service for TPS's recently-acquired UK Premier League football coverage.
Two matches per championship day will be broadcast live on premium channel TPS Star, while a dedicated channel operated by TPS Sport - Premier League TV - will carry some live and all non-live matches from each of the 38 championship days.
BT will capture the live footage as it passes through its International Media Centre (IMC) at BT Tower in London. All non-live content will be stored in BT's digital content management system, BT Mediahive. Access to archived matches will then be made available via an IP line, directly to TPS's Paris headquarters, allowing TPS Sport to browse remotely and edit content and take control of playout and pass-through. Final playout will be handled by an automated fibre link to BT in Paris, then uplinked to TPS's satellite platform.
Nicolas Rotkoff, head of TPS Sport, said that the solution gave TPS the degree of control and access to content it needed. “Managing our service in this way has allowed us to move quickly and efficiently from rights acquisition to fully operational broadcast of UK Premier League football."
Simon Orme, director
of sales and business development, BT Broadcast Services commented that digital
storage and connectivity was creating “enormous opportunities” across
the broadcast industry, with one of the most apparent being helping rights
owners to extract maximum commercial value from their content, with minimum
effort or investment.
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MmO2 is planning its first payout since it demerged from BT three years ago. Europe's sixth largest mobile phone group said it would unveil a final dividend in May 2005 as it posted robust half year results.
Half-year core earnings rose by 37 per cent to E1.191 billion on a greater than expected 23 per cent rise in revenues to E4.599 billion. Total customers numbers rose by 15 per cent to 22 million.
O2 Ireland's
total customer base grew by 12 per cent to a total of 1.425 million during
the six month period, an increase of 150,000 customers from the figure the
same time last year. The Irish arm made profits of E105.5 million, up more
than 10 per cent on a year earlier.
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Vodafone has doubled its dividend to shareholders following the "successful" launch of its 3G services. The company is also expanding its share buyback scheme by one-third to about £4 billion (E5.6 billion) thanks to strong underlying half-year profits.
Pre-tax profits
were flat at £5.4 billion, tempered by revenue loss following the sale
of its Japanese fixed-line arm. The 100 per cent dividend rise to 1.91p was
at the top end of analysts' expectations.
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Japan Telecom claims to have succeeded in an experiment for broadband communications on a train travelling at high speed. In conjunction with Hokkaido Railway Company, Japan Telecom claims to have successfully demonstrated stable wireless broadband Internet connections on the train. A wireless local area network used in the experiment, conducted on a 10-kilometer track of a JR line in Hokkaido, and transmitted data at a speed of up to 15 megabits, comparable to the capacity of asymmetric digital subscriber line services, says the company.
The experiment
showed that the high-speed wireless LAN system is capable of offering high-quality
Internet connections on a train travelling at speeds of 120km/h or faster.
The access quality is sufficient for IP telephony and video streaming services.
Up to now Internet via cellphones or personal handy-phone systems were slow
in speed due to unstable data transmission environment.
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An eight megabit service has been launched by internet service provider UK Online. It is 16 times faster than the average broadband package on the market and will pave the way for services such as video-on-demand and broadband TV.
The service is possible due to a new regime which allows other operators to use BT's exchanges and will initially only be available in towns. The service will cost £39.99 (E60). It includes WiFi as standard, meaning users can connect multiple PCs, laptops and game consoles from any room in the house.
The service will
initially be available to users within 2km radius of 230 telephone exchanges
in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cambridge. That represents about 4.4 million
households.
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SBC Communications announced an agreement with Microsoft to provide next-generation television services using Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform.
Valued in excess
of $400 million over 10 years, the agreement with Microsoft is claimed as
the largest IPTV software deal in the world to date. It also represents a
key part of SBC's "Project Lightspeed" - an initiative to deploy
fibre closer to customer locations to provide as many as 18 million SBC households
with new IP-based services, including television, VoIP, ultra-fast Internet
access.
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Amino has introduced its first IPTV set-top box to offer compatibility with HDTV and Microsoft's Windows Media 9 (WMV9) low bit-rate codec. The AmiNET120 enables Telcos to offer TV services to homes further afield, via DSL networks, whilst also enabling a more realistic and involving viewing experience.
WMV9 extends the reach of broadband television to more homes and networks by reducing the bandwidth required to transmit high quality digital video content, the company claimed.
The AmiNET120 also supports HDTV displays to the 720p or 1080i standards, offering IPTV consumers access to high definition video content. The box also supports MPEG-2 and is available in the same compact as the AmiNET110.
The company also
announced the availability of two major middleware applications for its AmiNET500
IPTV set-top box with integral PVR. The new Minerva iTVManager 2 and Myrio
Interactive 3.5 client software have now been ported to the AmiNET500, enabling
Telcos to seamlessly upgrade subscriber offerings to include PVR functions
on live television broadcasts.
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Omneon Video Networks announced that its Omneon Spectrum media server system is being used by Tokyo-based NHK Technical Services (NTS) to operate Mobile.n channel programming on Mobaho!, the world's first multi-channel satellite service broadcasting to mobile viewing terminals.
Mobaho!, a fee-based service from Japan's Mobile Broadcasting Corp (MBCO), was launched October 20, providing individual subscribers with almost 40 channels (seven video channels and 30 audio channels), plus 60 data services.
MBCO has given
NTS responsibility for the Mobile.n channel transmission system design and
operation. Mobile.n's content is being ingested and played out via NTS's six-channel
Omneon server and distributed to viewers through MBCO's MBSAT satellite.
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Simply Media TV, operator of four shopping channels on Sky, and IPTV specialist Narrowstep have teamed up to launch TV-iStreet at www.tv-istreet.com, in what it claims is the world's first online TV shopping portal.
Using Simply Media's content and Narrowstep's TV Station in a Box technology the multi-channel Player is an online destination where users can browse and select from 8 category-specific channels, view relevant infomercials alongside product information and trigger the buying process with just one click, the company explained.
Rather than using
it to enhance Simply Media's own transactional website (www.simplyshoppingtv.co.uk),
TV-istreet.com is being marketed as a white label offering that can be featured,
linked or otherwise hosted by 3rd parties looking for media-rich content that
also generates new revenue streams.
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Conax will deliver the new Conax CAS7 system to the Romanian DTH operator Focus Sat for launch of new channels in March.
Focus Sat and
Eastern Space Systems, a Romanian satellite operator, will start transmission
of around 20 new digital channels via Telenor's satellite at 1 degree West
in December this year. The delivery from Conax includes, in addition to the
Conax CAS7 core system, components such as Conax BMS (Business Management
System), Messaging, Electronic Programme Guide, Vouchers and ordering via
the mobile phone.
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iTV specialist YooMedia has announced it is in talks to buy the Digital Interactive Television Group. YooMedia's AIM-listed shares were suspended after rumours broke about the buyout.
Apart from BSkyB, DITG is the UK's only supplier of 'red button' return path facilities, which it supplies to the BBC, Channel 4 and interactive ad specialist Zip Television. It also operates the Avago gaming channel on Sky, and is said to have an annual turnover in the £50m (E75m) region, and provides interactive services to a number of channels.
A takeover by
YooMedia, headed by former former BBC director of digital, David Docherty,
would create an iTV business second only to BSkyB in size.
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Spain:
ONO rejects AUNA takeover bid
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spaincom-controlled
ONO has rejected as 'insufficient' a E2.4 billion takeover bid by Auna. ONO
explained that Auna's offer "is not in proportion to either the invested
money or the growth forecasts of our company". The offer valued ONO's
shares at E1.05 billion and included E1.35 billion of debt.
Despite ONO's rejection, Auna has announced that its bid will be valid until
the end of the month and that it will negotiate with main ONO shareholder,
Spaincom (a consortium of GE Capital, Bank of America and Caisse des Depot
et Placement du Quebec), which has a 46 per cent stake in the company.
A merger between Auna and ONO will create a cable giant with around 1.6 million
subscribers, representing 90 per cent of the cable market and 10 per cent
of the fixed telephony business. It would allow it to compete face to face
with the dominant telco operator, Telefonica, and the leading pay-TV group,
Sogecable. The Government has backed their merger as a way to liberalise the
market.
Their possible merger has been a recurrent topic over the last years. They
have even engaged several times in merger talks but no agreement has been
reached so far.
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BT's chairman, Sir Christopher Bland, warned that the current U.K. market for interactive TV services, and the nature of the BT network, would likely limit any commercial services initially. Bland noted "DSL is not really an efficient way of getting a TV signal to the home, so we're investigating opportunities for other content services."
Bland added that any service launched wouldn't be available nationwide, due to the constraints of BT's copper plant, noting that France Telecom's network is more suited to the service.
Meanwhile, BT
is putting multiple TV-over-DSL systems through their paces in its test labs
with a view to trialing specific services in 2005. CEO Ben Verwaayen said
BT is testing "multiple systems from brand-name suppliers and from some
unexpected names, and they come from the West and the East."
While Verwaayen declined to identify any specific vendors, that deliberate
stress on suppliers from "the East" points clearly to two vendors
BT has worked with previously when assessing access technologies and content
delivery systems, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp.
ZTE has forged
a partnership with Microsoft Corp. TV to pull together an IPTV combined hardware
and software system.
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Kabel
claims digital growth
From Dieter Brockmeyer in Frankfurt
Kabel Deutschland reports 132,000 digital subscribers after the commercial launch of its digital bouquet Kabel Digital Home.
At the end of September Kabel had 111,000 digital subscribers, as legacy of earlier tests and 21,00 have been launched since the new marketing campaign from the beginning of November. The company claims a daily growth rate of up to 1,500 and projects 200,000 digital subscribers for the end of the year.
To access the Kabel bouquet subscribers have to pay E9 per month. "We know we only can succeed in the German market if we do offer high value at a price that any family can afford", says Manuel Cubero, KDG's director digital TV.
For the third quarter of this year Kabel reports its EBITDA up 3.8 percent to E107.3 million compared the same quarter of last year. Gross revenues in this quarter was up 1.3 percent to E261.5 million.
Meanwhile, Germany's
Sat 1 announced it will launch a German language channel in the USA early
in 2005. It will be available via the EchoStar Communications satellite platform
Dish Network. It targets at the about 1 million German speaking residence
in the US.
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France Telecom and Thomson partner for multimedia
France Telecom (FT) and media and entertainment giant Thomson have agreed to jointly develop multimedia products and services. In particular, the strategic partnership will address portable multimedia terminals. They aim to produce platforms allowing interconnection of multimedia applications in the home, as well as video phone products and services.
The two companies intend to create new synergies by drawing on their technological strengths in video compression, wireless communication services and home networks. The partnership plans to benefit from Thomson's ADSL modems and digital decoders market position and expertise, and FT's knowledge of customers seeking its expertise in network infrastructure and access technologies. FT and Thomson are already co-operating in these areas, with Thomson one of the main suppliers of IP video decoders for FT's MaLigne tv service.
The draft agreement
also provides for the setting up of research and development teams; joint
financing of R&D; sharing of intellectual property. Further details will
be given at a later date.
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E! launches channels in Belgium
E! Networks continues its Western Europe expansion with the signing of two long-term channel deals to launch the E! International Network with Telenet and Be TV (formerly Canal Plus) in Belgium.
"Belgium is a very important market for us, and we're pleased to expand our brand and grow our audience in the region with launches this month on Telenet and Be TV," said Brad Wald, regional director, Europe Middle East Africa, E! Networks.
E! launched on Telenet's basic cable package this month. The channel, subtitled in Dutch, will also be seen on Telenet's Canal Plus Bouquet and the new digital package which will be launched next year. E! will also be providing the subtitled feed to all current Dutch-language affiliates, including UPC, Casema, Essent, and Multikabel. Telenet is the leading cable operator in Belgium reaching 96 per cent of households.
Currently, E!
can be seen in 38 countries including UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy,
The Netherlands, Ireland, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and all the
countries of Latin America.
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UGC scoops Canal+ Dutch content business
Pan-European triple-play service provider UnitedGlobalCom, Inc (UGC) is to acquire parts of the Canal+ business in the Netherlands from Dutch investment groups Airbridge Investments and Greenfield Capital Partners. The deal sees UGC's European content and services division – chellomedia - acquire all of Canal+'s content activities in the Netherlands.
Canal+ currently packages and distributes premium sports and movie programming under the Canal+ brand name to over 215,000 customers. chellomedia will pay E24.75 million on a debt-free, cash-free basis and assume certain guaranteed output payments to the film studios.
Airbridge and Greenfield will retain CanalDigitaal, the Direct To Home (DTH) satellite TV platform serving the Dutch language market, and will continue to offer the Canal+ channels on this platform as part of a new long-term wholesale distribution agreement.
UGC group intends to grow the Canal+ business in 2005 by continuing Airbridge/Greenfield's strategy of entering into new wholesale distribution agreements with existing digital TV platforms in the Netherlands. UGC will also offer customers the option of subscribing to standalone premium sports and movie services in addition to the existing integrated package.
In a separate transaction, UGC's broadband distribution company in The Netherlands, UPC Nederland, has agreed to settle all existing litigation with Canal+. As part of this settlement, UPC Nederland has agreed to enter into a new long-term wholesale distribution agreement for the Canal+ premium movie and sports channels.
Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of UGC, said the transaction supported UGC's strategy of providing the best digital programming to UPC customers. "It also demonstrates our commitment to the expansion of digital in The Netherlands where we continue to explore new and innovative ways of expanding our consumers enjoyment of digital television."
Revenue for the
businesses to be acquired is anticipated to be E60 million for the calendar
year 2004. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected
to close in the second quarter of 2005. Existing Canal+ customers in The Netherlands
will continue to receive their current service on an uninterrupted basis.
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HKBN
to offer world's fastest broadband in 2005
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of City Telecom (HK) Limited, has decided to launch symmetric 100Mbps and 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) residential broadband services, branded BB100 and BB1000, respectively.
The company says that BB100, available for US$35/month, is Hong Kong's first and BB1000 will be the world's first residential broadband service at such high speeds. "We believe HKBN is the first operator in Hong Kong to release BB100 Internet access service providing up to 100 Mbps for both upstream and downstream bandwidth. While being 16 to 155 times faster than the most popular ADSL service currently offered in Hong Kong, HKBN intends to capture all market segments by charging only HK$268/month (US$35/month) for unlimited 100Mbps local and 20Mbps international access. In addition, for the extreme bandwidth users, HKBN will offer a BB100 unlimited option with 100 Mbps local and international access for HK$1,980/month (US$254/month)" says the company.
The company
says BB1000 1,000 Mbps service will be introduced by the second quarter of
2005. "Like BB100, the unique feature of our BB1000 service is that HKBN
will be able to deliver this service through its existing Category 5e copper-block
wiring connection inherent in its Metro Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps progression
path. Bypassing the requirement for expensive fibre-direct-to-PC will result
in substantial cost savings, which HKBN will partly share with consumers says
the company".
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Widevine announces support of OMA DRM 2.0
Widevine Technologies, t announced support for OMA DRM V2.0 in its Widevine Cypher brand of security products. The support will provide mobile service providers operators with more choices for content security.
Widevine says
Cypher is currently the widest deployed IPTV security solution and the addition
of OMA DRM 2.0 support will allow mobile video and audio service providers
access to the same premium content enjoyed by Widevine's current install base
The Widevine Cypher mobile edition leverages key Widevine technologies for
content protection, encryption, and rights management. Widevine has built
on its strengths to create one mobile DRM solution for all types of content
and for multiple delivery mechanisms - downloading, streaming, unicasting,
multicasting, and broadcasting.
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Orbis, the leading provider of interactive gambling software, announces that it will provide the privately owned bookmaker SAMVO Entertainment Ltd with its OpenBet(tm) interactive gambling platform. With an agreement to deploy OpenBet to support a new football and basketball betting site for SAMVO.
Orbis's OpenBet software will support SAMVO's UK based sports betting site aimed at servicing its international customer base. Asian bookmaker SAMVO will benefit from Orbis's single account, single solution technology platform. OpenBet will offer a multi-lingual and multi-currency option, critical for SAMVO's Far East and European customers, in addition to its sophisticated risk management, betting-in-running and Asian Handicap functionality.
David Loveday,
managing director, Orbis said, "It's good to be working with SAMVO, and
Orbis is confident that our experience in working with similar sized sports
betting sites in the Far East will prove immensely beneficial. Time to market
is critical and we know that Samvo needs to get up and running quickly and
seamlessly."
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Espial announced that Entone Technologies has licenced Espial Escape for the Hydra IP Video Gateway line . Embedded within the design, Escape serves up content ranging from Electronic Program Guides to Video On Demand to consumers in a home media centre environment.
Espial is a leading
provider of set-top box and mobile handset software, specializing in IPTV
applications. Users of the Hydra IP Video Gateway can expect intuitive interfaces
that make access to Video On Demand, Web browsing, email and chat services
quick and simple for every level of user. Espial software enables IPTV set
top box manufacturers to deliver broadcast TV content with the capability
of rolling out new applications that are responsive to market needs.
.
"The IPTV Market requires applications that are pre-integrated with middleware
and video servers," says Jaison Dolvane, President, Espial. "Espial's
market approach of easy integration, standards-compliance and built for TV
feature set allows telcos to deploy quickly and with confidence."
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Sky Active launches 'magazine' interactive TV channel
BSkyB has unveiled a radical re-design of its interactive services portal, Sky Active, which it says delivers a more televisual and engaging experience to viewers. The new format makes greater use of video and original editorial content in order to create a magazine-style channel that offers on-demand entertainment and information as an alternative to conventional television.
Sky Active is available without subscription in more than 7.4 million digital satellite households and, together with games channel Sky Gamestar, has a weekly reach of more than 1 million individuals (BARB). By creating greater visual appeal and improved usability, Sky aims to encourage more frequent visits and greater usage of Sky Active's existing wide range of services, including games, dating, betting, what's on guides and the National Lottery.
The principal
enhancements to Sky Active include the introduction of a video-based "front
page" with an entertaining schedule of short programmes produced by a
new, dedicated editorial team. Content will be updated daily and changed during
the course of the day to appeal to the differing audiences for daytime and
evening television. Examples of the programming available at launch will include
Myleene Klass talking about her new diet,
Renee Zelwegger and Hugh Grant getting the once-over from style guru Ashley
Rossiter at the premiere of Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason and Dom Joly
revealing why he such a liar.
The magazine-style
concept of the new Sky Active is based on insights gained during extensive
customer research into why consumers choose to interact with the television.
The result is intended to be an editorially led interactive destination that
is designed around the needs of the different audiences that use interactive
services, particularly during the peak usage periods of daytime and the late
evening.
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MTV set for first African channel
MTV Networks announced its first dedicated station for Africa - marking the 100th channel to be launched by the music broadcasting arm of Viacom, a US media group. MTV Base in Africa will reach only about 1.3 million homes in 48 countries, primarily in South Africa and Nigeria, when it begins broadcasting in February, but follows MTV's pattern of setting up local infrastructure before expanding.
"By tapping into Africa's rich local music scene, we plan to play a major role in supporting and exporting Africa's incredible artists and cultural heritage around the world," MTV Networks International President Bill Roedy said on Monday.
"There is
a global picture completion aspect of it, but it is a business opportunity,
as well," said Alex Okosi, general manager of the African operation,
adding that more than half of the continent's population is younger than 19.
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MTV Networks
will launch five digital pay TV channels in Brazil this month: MTV Hits, MTV
Jams, VH1 Soul, VH1 Mega Hits and GAS (Games and Sports).
The move comes in response to a growing demand for channels from the country's
top pay TV operators, which are launching digital services.
The five MTV
channels are available to cable operators affiliated to Neo TV, a programme
buying association of smaller operators. MTV Networks and Neo TV have inked
a deal under which any association member can carry the channels in their
packages. At this point, the deal will just benefit TVA, the only Neo TV member
that offers digital services.
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Ocean Blue offers wave of STB software
Independent software specialist, Ocean Blue Software, has launched a range of software products for the Digital TV and IPTV marketplace. The software products are deployed in a number of Digital TV devices already and include MHEG-5 & DSM-CC. These middleware/API software systems are embedded into set top boxes and integrated televisions.
The software, which includes technologies such as the Voyager MHEG-5/DSM-CC and Surfsoft (Personal Digital Recorder software PDR) is the basis of the latest digital TV devices, such as Freeview receivers and PDRs. The software products, which Ocean Blue claims are "years ahead of the competition", are available to third parties and Consumer Electronic companies for integration into exciting new TV products.
Ocean's "Surfsoft",
is a content management system for hard disk based Set top boxes and televisions.
Surfsoft catalogues, indexes and files televisions programmes and films stored
on a hard disk, it also offers time shift functions, pause and record, replay,
store and retrieve.
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BT is in talks with the BBC, BSkyB and Universal Studios to secure content for a new IPTV service for its broadband customers, said weekend newspapers. The paper said on Sunday BT planned to launch a pilot program by the end of 2004 to gauge consumer interest and the technology.
BT is keen to stress that it is not intending to become a broadcaster and merely wants to attract extra customers by offering a range of programmes from other content providers. BT said: "We have made no secret of our desire to develop this technology. BT has been talking to a range of companies, although we are not in a position to confirm company names yet and will reveal more details at a later date."
Last week, BT announced pre-tax profit for the three months to September 30 rose to £549 million (E830m) from £528 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 1 per cent to £4.6 billion, boosted by a 36 per cent rise in revenues from areas such as broadband.
European regulators
on Thursday approved a movies-on-demand joint venture among Sony's Columbia
Pictures and Walt Disney that could help British cable companies fight BSkyB's
dominant position in the UK pay-TV market.
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Ofcom wants to encourage "local loop unbundling" in BT's telephone exchanges so rival operators can carry more internet traffic over their own networks. Ofcom sees this as crucial to ensure competition at the wholesale broadband level. But the regulator will also emphasise the importance of new wireless technologies for providing broadband services, particularly in rural areas.
Ofcom is hoping its proposals for spectrum trading - which allows wireless capacity to be bought and sold in secondary markets - could allow certain wireless technologies to be used by new entrants to provide broadband services in competition to BT.
Ofcom will steer clear of calling for a formal break-up of BT. Some rival operators have complained that BT Retail, the group's consumer arm, has benefited from its close ties with BT Wholesale, which runs its network. Some rival operators have argued that BT Wholesale has yet to offer them a viable wholesale line rental product that would allow them to offer consumers a wide range of services.
Instead, Ofcom
will emphasise the importance of "equivalence", meaning BT Wholesale
must offer all operators the same products and services it sells to BT Retail.
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Electronic manufacturers and broadcasters have urged the new Government to take the DTT bull by its horns and clear the way for a definitive resurrection of the market. The DTT industry gathered this week at the Madrid-based multimedia fair SIMO to jointly send a clear message to the Administration: it is now time to re-launch the business once and for all, otherwise DTT may be left on the shelf. Manufacturers and broadcasters made it clear that both the technology (set-top-boxes) and TV contents are already available in the market and a sample of them were shown during the fair at the Abertis sta
RTVE claimed
to be ready to immediately launch up to 8 free-to-air digital channels: La
Primera, La 2, Canal Clasico, Grandes Documentales, Teledeporte, Canal 24
Horas and the European and the American signals of TVE Internacional. Other
channels, like EuroNews and Arte, could be included in RTVE’s proposition.
The group –which currently operates 2 digital channels- already asked
for two multiplexes to lead a free-to-air digital platform in partnership
with private broadcasters (Antena 3, Tele 5, Canal Plus, Net TV, Veo TV) and
with an offer of 25 to 30 free-to-air DTT channels.
The Administration’s role in the DTT market is key to breaking the stalemate
in the business since the collapse of pay-TV platform Quiero. Sources from
the Ministry of Industry claim that the Government is determined to unblock
the situation and pave the way for a re-launch of the market next year. It
is expected to approve a new DTT technical Plan and re-allocate Quiero’s
three and a half multiplexes. If everything goes well, the launch of a free-to-air
DTT platform could take place in the third quarter of 2005.
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As expected international media groups will be allowed to invest in Chinese television production joint ventures from the end of the month, under long-awaited rules to be announced this week by the Beijing authorities.
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced this year it would lift the ban on foreign investment in the domestic television industry. But it has held off from issuing the terms on which international companies can enter the market until this week.
Under the new rules, which will take effect on November 28, Chinese companies must hold a majority stake in joint ventures. The ventures must also have a unique logo - a provision intended to ensure they are not used to promote the brand of foreign parents.
China's television
market is growing rapidly, with advertising sales estimated at $2.7 billion
in 2003.
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Shareholders in BSkyB made their objections to the group's controversial buyback plan known last Friday when almost a fifth of the votes cast were in opposition to the proposal.
But with 82 per
cent support the plan to buy back 5 per cent of the shares was passed at the
annual meeting. As a result, Rupert Murdoch's media group News Corporation
will increase its stake in Europe's biggest pay-television firm by 2 percentage
points to 37 per cent.
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UK digital radio licensee Digital One, a joint venture backed by the GWR Group and ntl, is celebrating its fifth birthday with the news that DAB digital radio in the UK has enjoyed 10,000 per cent growth over five years, from 8,000 sets to 800,000 with sales forecast to top one million by Christmas. Research carried out jointly by Digital One and the Digital Radio Development Bureau (DRDB) predicts that 29 per cent of British homes will have a DAB digital radio by 2008 (up from 3.8 per cent in 2004).
Quentin Howard,
Digital One’s Chief Executive, described the first five years as “an
exciting rollercoaster ride. We’ve taken the risks to build the market,
and are now starting to see the benefits. The next five years will see the
landscape change again, as digital radio’s growth becomes a key driver
of stations to grow audiences and revenues."
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Optibase, a leader in advanced digital video solutions, announced today that together with leading European technology companies, research institutes and universities, it has been selected to demonstrate its achievements to-date in the TIRAMISU Consortium in which they participate. The demonstration will take place at the Information Society Technologies’ event, November 15-17 at the Netherlands Congress Center, The Hague.
The TIRAMISU Consortium aims to develop a complete end-to-end multimedia framework that will enable the creation, delivery and use of digital media content on the public network, while protecting the rights of content owners and the privacy of consumers. The project’s solution will be comprised of contributions from leaders in the areas of content management, security tools, streaming, networking and peer-to-peer solutions, as well as end user applications. The demo consists of a system for secure multi-channel media content delivery and super-distribution that includes digital broadcast, Internet and peer-to-peer delivery. The system is centered on a standards-based Digital Rights Management (DRM) system that maintains a reasonable balance between end-user expectations and the rights preservation of the content owners.
The Consortium
is made up of leading companies including Optibase, Nagravision and Orange
Personal Communications Services Limited. Research institutes include the
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, France Telecom R&D,
Industrial Technology Research Institute, Imperial College London, Ecole Nat.
Sup. des Telecommunications, University of Ljubljana and a consultancy and
management company – ARTTIC Israel.
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Latens and Amino today announce the integration of Latens Content & Revenue protection systems and Amino’s set-top box architecture.
They say the integration will provide IPTV operators with a proven and reliable system that combines next generation, software-based content protection with Amino’s cutting edge set-top box solutions. This joint solution ensures that content owners can be confident that their property is protected while the operator has the greatest possible flexibility in business models as well as reducing set-up and running costs. Initially, the integration will cover Amino’s AmiNET110 range of IPTV set-top boxes, but will expand to encompass PVR and home networking solutions.
“We’ve
integrated our technology with Amino because, as a world-class technology
provider, it’s crucial that we work with other world leaders, such as
Amino, to make it even easier for operators choose our Content & Revenue
Protection,” says Andy Mathieson, Director, Latens. “The Amino integration
has progressed quickly and easily and I’m now looking forward to our
first joint customer.”
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Viacom has invited 40 rival entertainment and broadcasting companies to the industry's first summit - under the auspices of the United Nations - to promote anti-Aids programming.
Companies including the BBC, China's CCTV and Gazprom, the Russian conglomerate with extensive media operations, are due to participate at the meeting this month to seek an international deal on sharing health-oriented documentaries and marketing initiatives. The move follows a two-year programme, led by Viacom, aimed at promoting safe sex and health testing using advertising air-time, movies and soap opera plots.
As part of the
Global HIV/ Aids Creative Meeting, scheduled later this month, the organisers
said broadcasters were expected to co-operate on programming, integrating
healthcare themes into popular shows and cross-promoting social campaigns
- particularly in developing countries.
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Pehla- Premium Asian Entertainment Television in the Middle East has launched one of India’s premium channels Sahara One TV into the Pehla family to bring premium movies, soaps and serials for its subscribers. The channel is mainly targeted at the Indian viewers in the region and it will be available to all subscribers at no additional cost.
Launched in 2000,
earlier called Sahara TV, the channel has been providing entertainment to
its viewers in India by showcasing high-profile serials like Sahib, Bibi aur
Ghulam starring Raveena Tandon, Karishma- Miracles of destiny starring Karisma
Kapoor and the hit comedy series Mrs. Malini Iyer starring Bollywood siren
Sridevi. Now rechristened as Sahara One TV, it will have live chat shows with
celebrities like Shobha De called ‘Power Trip’ and a weekly opinion
poll hosted by Siddhartha Basu. To boost programming, Sahara One TV has roped
in well-known Bollywood filmmakers like Ken Ghosh and Sooraj Barjartya who
will make serials for the channel.
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Maxistream claimed the world’s first 720p high definition IP DATACAST Video-On-Demand InstantVOD Platform will be demonstrated at TelcoTV Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida November 16 to 18.
MatrixStream Technologies, Inc., will demonstrate its patent-pending InstantVOD Platform, a fully integrated end-to-end IP Video on Demand (VOD) system that supports HD and DVD quality videos.
InstantVOD is a complete package which includes server software, subscriber and content management software, billing API management system, PC viewing clients, and IP STB TV video clients with a remote control thrown in all of which is engineered to duplicate and advance the home theater experience. Additionally, MatrixStream will offer tens of thousands videos, catering to a wide range of interests such as diverse movie genres, e-learning, adult entertainment, among other themes, via the InstantVOD platform.
According to
Jack Chung, CEO of MatrixStream, "The goal of our company from the start
has been to design a cost effective, highly secure, scalable VOD solution
that’s based on open standard technology which can expand to millions
and millions of IP subscribers; and as a result of our efforts we have we
have proudly developed the InstantVOD platform that allows Telcos or any Broadband
Provider for that matter the ability to generate revenue by instantly offering
VOD to their subscribers."
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STAR Group Limited today reaffirmed its position as the world’s dominant Chinese movie channel by securing a landmark exclusive multi-territory pay television output deal with Hong Kong’s Emperor Group.
Under the terms of this multi-million US dollar agreement, STAR CHINESE MOVIES will have exclusive access to Mandarin and Cantonese pay television rights of all films produced by Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) and Jackie Chan’s JCE Movies (JCE), for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, the Philippines and Singapore for the next three years.
The deal, along
with other existing output agreements STAR has with leading Hong Kong film
studios, including China Star, Media Asia, Teamwork and Universe, secures
for STAR CHINESE MOVIES a whopping 90 per cent of all current and upcoming
Chinese titles, reinforcing the channel's position as the world's most powerful
Chinese movie channel.
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BSkyB's bet on a high-profile marketing campaign to reverse flagging subscriber growth seems to have paid off as it announced it gained 62,000 subscribers for a total of more than 7.4 million in the three months to September 30. Although this compares with 81,000 in the previous quarter and 170,000 in the year-ago period, analysts had been predicting 50,000.
Pre-tax profits for the three months ended September 30 were 15.7 per cent up at £147m (E222m), compared to £127m in the same period last year. Sales were up 10 per cent from £850m for the period in 2003 to £940m.
CEO James Murdoch said "During the quarter we made good progress on the operational plans that will deliver the growth strategy laid out in August, with a number of initiatives now rolling out." These included entry level Sky 'starter packs' designed to lure in new customers by offering a pared down, single payment set-top box. "Our second quarter has commenced in line with expectations as we begin the important run up to Christmas," Murdoch added, reiterating that the company was confident it could add more than 100,000 subscribers in the crucial Christmas quarter.
BSkyB shares climbed 7 percent to 570p on the news, although the stock has yet to recover to the level it held in July, when investors shaved nearly 20 percent from the company's market value after Murdoch first announced his strategy.
Churn, or the
percentage of customers who left the service, was 9.8 percent. ARPU, was £377,
compared with 366 pounds a year ago. BskyB added 77,000 subscribers to its
Sky+ personal video recorder service, for a total of 474,000.
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European regulators have approved a movies-on-demand joint venture between Sony's Columbia Pictures and Walt Disney Co. The MovieCo joint venture, previously unannounced by Sony and Disney, will offer films to customers of Britain and Ireland's two biggest cable companies, Telewest and NTL.
The move is seen as opening up an alternative supplier to BSkyB for the networks and improving Hollywood's leverage with BSkyB as the satellite TV company renegotiates with individual studios over the rights to films for its stable of movie channels.
VOD "is a competitive advantage over Sky," said Telewest Chief Operating Officer Eric Tveter. In addition to the MovieCo offering, Telewest plans to offer 7-day "catch-up" programming and other content in the first half of 2005.
The Commission ruled that the venture does not raise competition issues.
It said MovieCo
"will give the UK cable network operators an alternative to procure video
content other than BSkyB, which is currently the dominant player on this market
... to the benefit of cable customers in the two countries." The JV is
set to be managed by OnDemand Group, the provider of ntl's Frontrow service.
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The German independent cable operator ewt has launched a VoIP telephone service in its Berlin cable systems. 27,000 homes in two central Berlin regions are served; from early next year an additional 30,000 in other parts of the German capital can be reached. The operator is in advanced talks to other potential cooperation partners to take the service to their clients.
For customers the basic fee will be about half of those of Deutsche Telekom which still fully controls the "last mile" in the twisted pair business. Also the fees for the individual calls will be cheaper. This attack on DT by a small independent is the first seriousentrant. The large cable operators so far concentrate on the implementation of digital TV services and fast internet access.
Ewt based in
the city of Augsburg, reached about 800,000 homes in total. Rumours suggest
the company is negotiating the acquisition of the independent cable operator
BN Breitbandnetze GmbH, the Berlin based broadband subsidiary of Bosch Group,
reaching some 1.3 million homes.
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Seeking a restriction against influence of media/entertainment from other nations, Afghanistan's Supreme Court has banned cable television channels, signalling conservative alarm at the rapid liberalisation of Afghanistan's media. A number of cable television providers in Kabul have already been shut down and the ban will last until a law on cable television is adopted, say media reports.
The Information
and Culture minister, Sayed Makhdom Raheen has called TV stations to screen
"pure Afghan and Islamic cultural films rather than vain, misleading
things."
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Time
Warner invests in Broadlogic
BroadLogic Network Technologies, a supplier of semiconductor chipsets to the
broadband industry, today announced the completion of its third funding round
totaling $20 million led by Time Warner Investments and Rho Ventures.
Also joining in the round are previous BroadLogic investors Cisco Systems and Intel Capital as well as August Capital, CDIB Venture Management, Levensohn Venture Partners, Presidio Venture Partners, and Walden International.
"We're delighted
to lead this round of financing to help BroadLogic realize its full potential,"
said Rachel Lam, Vice President and Group Managing Director of Time Warner
Investments. "Time Warner recognizes BroadLogic as a promising strategic
partner and believes BroadLogic's WideBand technologies have the potential
to provide a basis of competitive advantage, particularly for our Time Warner
Cable business, for a faster and increasingly seamless delivery of next generation
digital video and IP services."
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BLOCKBUSTER, the world's largest video/DVD rental chain, has bid $1 billion (E820 million) for its smaller US rival Hollywood Entertainment.
The company, which was last month spun out of Viacom, said that it had "expressed an interest" in buying Hollywood for $11.50 per share, or about $700 million, plus the assumption of about $350 million of debt. Blockbuster has about 9,000 stores worldwide 700 of them in the UK while Hollywood Entertainment boasts almost 2,000 Hollywood Video stores and 600 Game Crazy speciality stores, mostly in the US. Both are under siege from rivals offering films that are either ordered over the internet and delivered by post or delivered on to the home through high-speed broadband and cable connections.
Blockbuster has created a service that allows customers to order DVDs through a website and keep as many as three at a time without deadlines to return them. The service was set up to head off Netflix, which provides a similar function for more than 2.2 million Americans. Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, is also looking at the costs of setting up a similar service.
Blockbuster recently
reported a third-quarter loss of $1.4 billion because of writedowns of some
assets and the cost of setting up its internet service. Analysts believe that
its traditional store-based business needs to acquire other players to remain
viable as the entire market shrinks.
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Ofcom has published a public consultation on its proposals on the UK broadcasting transmission services market which delivers broadcast content to viewers and listeners.
As part of the EU regulatory framework, Ofcom has identified the market for terrestrial broadcasting transmission as appropriate for regulation, and has defined discrete markets in two areas: for access to masts and sites; and for managed transmission services.
Following this initial review, Ofcom has analysed the operation of these markets and is seeking views on its proposals that:
* ntl and Crown
Castle each have significant market power in providing access to their respective
masts, site networks and shared antenna systems for national, regional and
metropolitan broadcasting;
* ntl and Crown Castle jointly have significant market power in providing
managed transmission services for the purpose of delivering national analogue
and digital terrestrial television and radio broadcasts in the UK
Given the proposed positions of dominance held by Crown Castle and ntl, Ofcom is proposing that both companies are required to:
* provide network
access to their respective masts and sites and managed transmission services
on reasonable request;
* avoid discrimination in providing network access and managed transmission
services;
* provide network access to their respective masts and sites and managed transmission
services on cost-orientated terms.
* publish a Reference Offer setting out the terms on which access to the mast
and sites will be made available.
The closing date
for responses to the broadcasting transmission services consultation is 22
December 2004 .
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ITV has sold its film effects business Moving Picture Company to Technicolor, part of French technology group Thomson SA, according to the Times. ITV sold the unit for £53 million (E80m).
Chief Executive
Charles Allen has said other assets that could be on the block include Carlton
Screen Advertising, stakes in soccer clubs Liverpool and Arsenal, and Granada
Learning.
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DISH Network, has signed a package of German channels so customers will get the best of German public television for a monthly fee of $9.99.
DISH Network
offers more than 90 international channels from over 25 countries in more
than 25 languages. "DISH Network is leading the industry in bringing
international programming into customers' homes here in the United States.
We are delighted to launch GERMAN TV on DISH Network," said Tracy
Thompson, EchoStar's Vice President of International Programming.
"German
TV" is a joint undertaking of ARD, ZDF and Deutsche Welle. It offer the
best of German publicly-supported television in a single 24-hour-per-day network
presenting a diverse selection of programming in the German language.…….….
Time Warner raises rates for cable TV
Time Warner Cable is raising the rates of its standard service by an average of about 5 percent, or $2.18 a month. The company also is raising the monthly subscriber fee for its lowest-priced digital cable service from $5.55 to $6.85 in most areas.
Subscribers who receive basic service only, however, will see their bills reduced in some areas of the and unchanged in other areas. It's the first time in at least eight years that basic rates haven't gone up, said company spokesman Tom Lawrence.
Less than 10
percent of Time Warner's customers subscribe to only basic service, which
consists mostly of local broadcast stations and community access channels.
On the other hand, more than 40 percent its 480,000-plus subscribers in 16
counties get digital cable, which also encompasses basic and standard service.
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Jupiter Telecommunications (J-COM), the largest broadband and cable service provider in Japan based on the number of customers served, announced its first agreement to provide digital transmission services to another cable operator in Japan, Mediatti Communications.
As part of the
agreement J-COM will distribute terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital
broadcasting, CS digital broadcasting and pay-per-view and electronic program
guide services for Mediatti's systems: City Cable Net and City Telecom Kanagawa.
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"Europe is clearly one of the fastest growing markets worldwide, and is responding to the availability of new broadband content services very quickly," said Jeff Paine, Vice President of Strategic Marketing for UTStarcom. "In Europe, the population density is high, making it relatively straightforward to upgrade DSL plant or lay new fibre, and there's potential for a rapid payback on these services. Also, the content providers are becoming more open to new business models and delivery mechanisms."
UTStarcom's mVision TVoIP solution is architected specifically to give wireline carriers a competitive advantage over their cable and satellite competition. The company suggests that telcos can achieve a return on their investment in mVision within 12 months.
"UTStarcom
sees the European market as an early adopter of our company's innovative access
solutions," added Paine. "Starting with our early customer successes
this year with Tiscali and Versatel, we believe that we can build on this
momentum in Europe with our mVision TVoIP solution."
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Maurizio Gasparri, the Italian Minister of Communications, visited BitBand, a provider of Video-On-Demand (VOD) solutions for Telcos' broadband IP networks and supplier of the VOD infrastructure to FastWeb in Italy.
One of the highlights of the Minister's visit to BitBand was the discussion of ways to expand the cooperation between the Israeli technological "know how" and the Italian creative marketing and innovative business capabilities to other parts of the world.
A successful implementation of such cooperation is the FastWeb model, in which BitBand has developed its products based on the marketing needs of FastWeb. Through their partnership, FastWeb enjoys a solution that was developed according to their needs, and BitBand has built a solution which is best positioned in the market based on requirements from the most successful service provider.
"Based on
our experience with FastWeb we hope that other Italian and European Telcos
would adopt this successful model, creating a whole new entertainment paradigm
for subscribers worldwide," said Ervin Leibovici, BitBand CEO.
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Beko Elektronik, one of the world's largest manufacturers of television sets, has announced that it is basing its next generation of integrated digital television (iDTV) products around a system-on-chip (SoC) digital television solution from Toshiba Electronics.
The new televisions
will be the first iDTV products to use Toshiba's TC9040x 'Donau' series of
single-chip Digital video broadcasting (DVB) and MHEG-5 processors in volume
production. Beko is on target to produce around 10 million televisions in
2005, and will begin manufacturing its new range of 100Hz iDTV sets using
Toshiba's processors towards the end of 2005. Targeted at the UK market, these
TVs will initially be hybrid products offering consumers integrated analogue
and digital TV functionality. Later the iDTV product portfolio will be expanded
to other European countries in addition to implementing Multimedia Home Platform
(MHP) functionality.
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The number of Canadian households subscribing to digital TV services passed the 4 million mark in the second quarter, according to a report from Decima Research.
The number of digital cable subscribers in Canada increased by an estimated four per cent, or about 68,381 in the quarter, compared to an estimated 4 per cent, or about 48,028, in second quarter 2003, Decima said. Canada's two satellite TV providers posted better subscriber results in the second quarter, adding 36,344 net subscribers in the period, compared to 26,259 net subscribers in second quarter 2003, Decima said.
Canada's TV service
providers added about the same net digital TV subscribers in the second quarter
when compared to the same three-month period last year, stated the research.
The number of Canadian households subscribing to digital TV subscription services
increased by an estimated 3 per cent, or about 110,526 in the second quarter,
compared to an estimated 3 per cent or about 113,429 the previous year.
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Playboy TV chief Campbell leaves to start up own firm
William Campbell,
managing director at Playboy TV UK, is leaving the adult channel after eight
years at the helm to set up his own media company.
Campbell joined Playboy TV in 1997 and has overseen the adult entertainment
channel's growth from one UK channel to nine across Europe.
He will be leaving
at the end of November to set up Apex Media to create, produce and package
content across a variety of genres for television, broadband and wireless.
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