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NEWS Monday November 8th to Friday November 12th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Telewest
growth spurs VoD and PVR launches
From Colin Mann in London
Telewest Global, in its first set of results since the completion of the financial restructuring of Telewest Communications in mid-July, has revealed the company's best quarterly growth in customer net additions for two years, with strong performance continuing in the fourth quarter.
Triple-play penetration increased 9.5 percentage points to 24.4 per cent year-on-year, and broadband growth showed 70,000 net additions in the quarter.
Eric Tveter, President and Chief Operating Officer of Telewest Global, said that the company's performance reflected a focus on delivering profitable growth, enhanced marketing and a continued effort to leverage product bundles. “Customer growth during the quarter has been the best for more than two years. We expect the momentum in customer net additions to increase in the fourth quarter. The content division is also seeing increases in advertising revenues, driven by strong channel performance and the business division has been strengthened by the completion of its reorganisation.”
Tveter added that Telewest was encouraged by the progress made to date and remained confident in its ability to achieve continued profitable growth. “We continue to generate strong free cash flow and will, following completion of the recently announced refinancing of our senior secured credit facilities, have a capital structure which provides the Telewest group with a sound platform for the future.”
Telewest also
revealed that it expects to launch Video On Demand services in the first half
and Personal Video Recorder services in the second half of 2005. It intends
to increase connection speeds for its top three broadband tiers in January
2005 in an effort to differentiate the network from its DSL competitors.
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Vivendi Universal posted a strong third-quarter revenues driven by soaring music sales in Britain and North America. The group said comparable third-quarter sales were up six per cent at E4.7 billion while those for the first nine months were up five per cent at E16 billion.
Vivendi's sales have shrunk by at least a fifth, after the company sold several of its assets and restructure the group, but it said it was now enjoying revenue growth at the music and Canal+ TV and film businesses and continued growth in telephony.
Like-for-like
sales at Canal+, at E850 million, were flat in the third quarter while those
for the first nine months, were up four per cent at E2.7 billion. Film sales
have been depressed by the disposal of Working Title.
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EBITDA improved from E 83.6 million to E 209.1 million, a 150 per cent gain.
All three full-service channels showed a pre-tax profit for January through September 2004. Sat.1's pre-tax income leaped from a loss of E7.9 million to E 60.3 million profit. Pre-tax profits at ProSieben improved 41 per cent, to E115.5 million. The figure for Kabel 1, at E 13.9 million, was up 216 per cent against the prior year's first nine months. N24's earnings have improved significantly, and the station is not far from breaking even. The news station's pre-tax income for the first nine months rose from a loss of E15.2 million to a smaller loss E 1.4 million.
ProSiebenSat.1
Media's four TV stations - Sat.1, ProSieben, Kabel 1 and N24 - collectively
represent 42.8 per cent of the German TV advertising market, one of the largest
in the world.
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TU Media, 30 per cent owned by Korean mobile-phone carrier SK Telecom, has applied for a licence for satellite-based mobile television services. TU Media stated that it will pay US$12.3 million, 10 per cent of its paid-in capital, for the licence from regulatory body Korean Broadcasting Commission. Under a guideline set by the commission, TU Media will provide up to 14 video and 24 audio channels, the company said.
“The retransmission of terrestrial broadcasts is still a major issue for us. After discussions with our shareholders and equipment manufacturers, however, we decided to go on with the project and see how the situation develops,” said a company spokesman.
SK Telecom and its Japanese partner Mobile Broadcasting, backed by electronics giant Toshiba, launched the world's first satellite for mobile television use in March. The Korean Broadcasting Commission decided not to allow the retransmission of terrestrial broadcasts on satellite-based mobile television services, keeping mobile-phone operators from accessing programmes from the country's major television stations KBS, MBC and SBS. However, the broadcast regulator left open the possibility of reversing its direction.
Trial services
are expected to start early next year after the Ministry of Information and
Communication completes the licence review process.
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BT reported half year results that showed group turnover had risen one per cent, excluding the impact of mobile termination rate reductions, at £9.17 billion (E12.8 billion), at £1.03 billion, up 36 per cent.
Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive, said that the growth of new wave revenues helped BT to deliver the best underlying revenue growth in almost three years. “We now have more than 3.3 million broadband DSL customers, with the latest million connections achieved in less than six months, which is a new connection every 15 seconds,” he noted.
New wave turnover accounted for 22 per cent of the group's turnover, compared to 17 per cent in the second quarter of last year. New wave turnover is mainly generated from Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions, broadband, mobility and managed services. ICT turnover grew by 20 per cent to £699 million. Broadband turnover increased by 88 per cent to £199 million.
In contrast,
turnover from the group's traditional businesses declined by six per cent,
which BT said reflected regulatory intervention, competition, price reductions
and also technological changes being used to drive customers from traditional
services to new wave services, such as broadband and Internet Protocol Virtual
Private Networks (IPVPNs).
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Indonesia's largest telecommunications company, PT Telkom, has awarded Ericsson a contract to provide broadband technology and related services to its customers in Surabaya, East Java. Ericsson will provide an Ethernet digital subscriber line access solution for delivery of data, voice and video services.
Telkom had launched its broadband service, called Speedy, in the second quarter this year.
Telkom is targeting 40,000 connections in Jakarta, and 10,000 in Surabaya in the first phase of the project. It has allocated $15 million for the service's infrastructure, or between $290 and $300 per line.
Telkom plans
to convert its network's infrastructure broadband capacity gradually to reach
2 million lines by 2008.
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According to Guy Abbott, Business Development Director at Zip Television, the aim of the new research tool is to allow advertisers to measure precisely how many people view their interactive TV campaigns. “Up until now measuring the viewers that press red has been based on an estimate,” he advised. “The industry can tell how many people have entered a competition, or requested further information, as they submit their details through the return path.”
He noted that those viewers entering the interactive space and browsing, who maybe play a game or watch a trailer, and do not enter their details, are not recorded. “With 'Zip i-Count', we can now measure the exact number of viewers that see the interactive campaign. This is a vital measurement tool for all brand building interactive campaigns which now do not need to rely on a return path mechanism to demonstrate accountability.”
On pressing red
the viewer will see a brief screen informing them that the set-top box is
making a call. The call itself occurs in the background whilst the viewer
continues with the interactive experience. The call is logged and top-line
data such as time and the channel viewed can be recorded.
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Australian telecommunications carrier Primus Telecom and Foxtel have reached an agreement for Primus to sell the new Foxtel digital service, enabling Primus to offer subscription television services as part of a suite of bundled communications offerings to customers. As a Foxtel Digital sales agent, Primus can sell telephony, broadband and Foxtel subscription television services from Primus Telecom as a single package.
Primus Telecom MD Greg Wilson, said, “We look forward to adding subscription television to our existing suite of communications services. This will allow us to provide bundled telephone, Internet and subscription television packages at competitively attractive prices.”
Primus general manager Campbell Sallabank said the company will sell the Foxtel service “on whatever medium Foxtel happen to be selling it” and this would include the Telstra HFC cable network, but most connections were expected to be via satellite, in line with Foxtel's own subscriber trends.
The agreement did not involve Primus reselling Foxtel via its own DSL broadband network. The Primus network offers nationwide coverage through its own backbone network with facilities in 73 cities across Australia.
Australia is
estimated to have 1.3 million broadband connections.
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Europe's largest phone company said that its net income more than doubled in the third quarter from E508 million in 2003 to E1.39 billion, largely due to successes in its online and mobile businesses.
Overall group sales rose by 3.2 per cent to E14.5 billion from E14 billion in the previous year.
The group said it expected its full-year net income to be around E3.2 billion, compared with the previous target of E2.5 billion.
T-Online enjoyed an 2.4 per cent increase in third-quarter revenue compared with last year while T-Mobile was bolstered by continued subscriber growth in its US division. Despite the strength of the Euro against the dollar, international revenue for the group increased by over eight per cent.
T-Com, however, did less well. The biggest division by revenue reported a 4.2 per cent drop in third-quarter sales to E6.8 billion.
Deutsche Telekom also said it would aim to pay a dividend of E0.62 for the 2004 financial year, after cutting much of its E20 billion debt.
The company said
that it regarded the 2004 dividend as a minimum level for future years.
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UK communications regulator 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.
In the UK, broadcast transmission is largely controlled by ntl and Crown Castle. ntl took over the privatised assets of the former Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network in 1991, with Crown Castle acquiring the BBC's assets in 1997.
Following the review, Ofcom has suggested 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.
Ofcom also considers that 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, and publish a Reference Offer setting out the terms on which access to the mast and sites will be made available.
Ofcom is seeking
responses to its proposals by December 22.
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Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica missed forecasts for nine-month net profit and trimmed its guidance for 2004 as its mobile phone unit experienced tough competition in Latin America.
The largest phone company in the Spanish-speaking world said nine-month net attributable profit rose 5.1 per cent to E2.12 billion.
Profit came in below the average forecast of a Reuters poll of 10 analysts for E2.2 billion and below the lowest estimate of E2.16 billion after disappointing results from its mobile phone unit Telefonica Moviles on Wednesday.
Telefonica's EBITDA rose 5.5 per cent to E9.81 billion. Nevertheless, Telefonica said it was cutting its full-year EBITDA growth forecast to between five and seven per cent, from seven to 10 per cent, after a similar move by rival Moviles on Wednesday.
Nine-month revenues
rose 5.2 per cent to E21.93 billion, in line with analysts' forecasts.
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China's Shanghai Media Group plans to set up the country's second English-language satellite TV channel, potentially challenging national broadcaster China Central Television for foreign audiences.
A spokeswoman for the group, Tang Lijun, said it was awaiting approval for the new channel from industry regulator, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
"We are now in the active preparation stage," Tang said in a telephone interview.
An SMG executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the group was ready to launch the new channel - to be called Dragon International - and has been orally notified by the television administration that it would receive approval to broadcast within China.
However, he said SMG was still hoping for government approval to broadcast to North America, where it would compete directly for viewers with CCTV-9, the country's first English-language channel.
"We face a big barrier in going up against CCTV-9 for approval because the government is happy with having one station getting across what it wants people to know about China," said the executive. "Even if we focussed on cultural programmes rather than news, they would still see us as a competitor."
Both CCTV-9 and
Dragon International would be free-to-air, meaning they wouldn't charge subscription
fees.
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BBC director general Mark Thompson has dismissed as "preposterous" claims that up to half of the corporation's 28,000 staff will be axed as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures, according to Reuters.
Rebutting media speculation that that previous estimates of 6,000 job cuts could turn out to be “a wild underestimate,” Thompson sought to reassure staff via an e-mail. "Inevitably, staff numbers are one of the issues we are looking at in the context of (the BBC's internal review) Value for Money but the idea that anyone anywhere in the BBC is seriously suggesting making half the BBC redundant is simply preposterous," he wrote.
"I haven't seen any firm recommendations from the (Value for Money) review yet, so anything you read in the papers is pure speculation in any event," Thompson added.
Speaking for
the first time about the impact of the "self help" plan intended
to help the corporation win a new charter, Thompson said the budget review
was "not an exercise in cutting services but in enriching them and about
spending more, not less, of the licence fee on air", according to a report
in the Guardian newspaper.
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UGC has met its forecasts and delivered a 10 per cent revenue uplift for the year to date. It said “During what is typically our seasonally softest quarter and excluding the recent acquisition of Noos, we added 103,900 RGUs, including 64,000 broadband Internet subscribers. Together with the 1.7 million RGUs we acquired with the completion of the Noos transaction on July 1, 2004, our total RGU count exceeds 11.1 million. Given the increase in RGU growth we expect to deliver in the fourth quarter, which is our seasonally strongest period, we are on track to meet our full year guidance target of 500,000 net new RGUs.”
Revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2004 was $658 million, an increase of 39 per cent compared to the prior year, while on an organic basis (excluding Noos) for the nine months ended September 30, 2004, our currency adjusted revenue growth was 10 per cent, in line with forecasts.
The company claimed “We made significant progress on a number of our strategic initiatives during the quarter. We launched commercial VoIP telephony services in both The Netherlands and Hungary and have aggressive expansion plans over the next 6-9 months throughout Europe. By the middle of 2005, we expect that we'll be selling VoIP telephony services across 5.5 million homes in 9 of our 11 European markets. We are implementing significant speed upgrades to our broadband Internet products across Europe and, in The Netherlands, we have initiated a 30Mbps downstream trial in Almere to be followed by a 50Mbps trial in Amsterdam in early 2005. And finally we announced today our first "off-net" deployment of our broadband Internet and VoIP telephony products in The Netherlands using the phone company's DSL network. This "off-net" trial is only the beginning of what we believe will be a rapid and profitable expansion of our business outside of our HFC footprint in our core markets.”
The net loss
for the period was $70 million for the three months ended September 2004,
which compares with net income of $1.7 billion for the same period in 2003.
Last years' third quarter result included a $2.1 billion gain on the cancellation
of debt associated with the completion of our European restructuring.
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The European Commission has formally expressed its concern over the proposed takeover of Content Guard by Microsoft and Time Warner.
The EC announced
a review when the takeover was announced back in August and has now issued
the companies with a list of 'statements' or concerns. Brussels believes that
under the new owners, “ContentGuard may have both the incentives and
the ability to use its portfolio (patents etc) to put Microsoft's rivals in
the DRM solutions market at a competitive disadvantage”.The EC is worried
the deal “could also slow down the development of open interoperability
standards.”
The Commission is unlikely to block the deal, but will want commitments from
Microsoft and Time Warner to allow competitors reasonable and non-discriminatory
access to ContentGuard technology.
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Liberty Media has – unsurprisingly – denied it has any hostile intent towards News Corp.
Press speculation had been stirred up because Liberty raised its voting stock in News Corp which appeared to respond with a 'poison pill' defence giving small shareholders the right to buy shares cheaply if anyone builds a stake bigger than 15 per cent, this would dilute a predator thereby making a takeover more expensive.
Liberty says it merely took advantage of what it saw as value share buys and took in voting stock being sold by Australian investors not keen to follow News Corp to America.
The statements
came as Liberty announced Q3 earnings up ninefold at $372m on improved contributions
from QVC and asset sales. Revenue was up from $877m to $1.83bn, mainly on
sales proceeds.
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Voom, the US HD satellite TV service from Cablevision launched last year, lost more customers than it signed up in August and September.
The disclosure came in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is considering whether to approve the spin off of Voom and three cable channels owned by Cablevision. Voom, which competes with satellite TV giants DirecTV and EchoStar Communications, had 26,000 customers September 30, compared with 28,700 on August 31 and 25,000 on June 30, according to the SEC filing. "Through the end of September 2004, we had attracted fewer subscribers than we anticipated and have lost more subscribers than we expected," the SEC filing states.
The service, which has struggled to overcome equipment, installation and operating glitches, continues to test and alter pricing, promotion and marketing approaches and probably will continue to do so into 2005, according to the filing.
Cablevision,
the biggest cable TV operator in the New York City metro area, had hoped to
complete the spin-off by September but now is aiming for the current quarter
and has revised its filing four times. The filing says Voom is considering
scaling back its national effort to target "specific markets in the country
which we believe are most promising" - referring to those with digital
broadcast signals from local stations that Voom equipment can pick up.
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Vodafone has finally launched its UK 3G mobile services becoming a direct competitor to Hutchison's '3,' which has been the only 3G service in the UK so far. '3' launched more than a year ago and says that it has managed to sign up 1.2 million UK subscribers.
Rival mobile phone operators Orange and T-Mobile are set to launch their UK 3G services before Christmas. However, 3G services will not be available everywhere - with all networks covering just parts of the country, mainly large population centres. In areas without 3G coverage, the phones will be using the operators' network for GPRS.
Vodafone is launching
its 3G services in 13 countries and is aiming to attract 10 million 3G customers
by March 2006.
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NTT, Japan's largest phone company, said fiscal first-half profit rose three per cent following gains from the sale of shares in mobile-phone unit NTT DoCoMo.
Net income rose to 344.6 billion yen ($3.26 billion), in the six months ended September 30, compared with a revised 334.3 billion yen, a year ago, NTT said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sales fell 1.7 per cent to 5.322 trillion yen from 5.412 trillion yen. Operating profit fell to 787.8 billion yen in the April- September period from 836.6 billion yen in last year's first half, the Tokyo-based company said.
NTT raised its full-year profit forecast to 670 billion yen while lowering its sales forecast to 10.78 trillion yen. NTT estimated in August that it would report a full-year profit of 650 billion yen on sales of 10.9 trillion yen.
First-half earnings
were boosted by a 319.1 billion yen gain from the sale of shares in DoCoMo.
The sale cut NTT's ownership in DoCoMo, the world's second-largest mobile-phone
operator, to 62.4 percent by the end of the first half from 63.6 percent.
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America Online has begun a widespread corporate restructuring into four distinct operating units: AOL Audience Business, AOL Access Business, AOL Europe and AOL Digital Services Business.
AOL also revealed that three high-level executives will leave the company; vice chairman Joe Ripp, who is returning to parent company Time Warner; Michael Kelly, former CEO of AOL International and Web services; and Lisa Hook, former president of AOL's broadband , premium and developer services.
Both Hook and
Kelly are expected to remain with AOL through the spring of 2005 to help with
the transition news sources have said. Recently AOL announced it will lay
off more than 700 employees sometime next month.
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Universal HD+ will debut December 1, replacing Bravo HD+. The channel is available to about 25 million homes via DirecTV, Cablevision, Cox, Insight, Mediacom and Voom, Cablevision's high-definition sat service.
Universal HD+
is expected to carry 10-15 movies each week unedited and commercial free;
it will also carry a number of NBC U cable shows in HD. High-def net also
will offer NBC cable sports programming, along with the sort of theatre and
music fare previously seen on Bravo HD+.
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NDS announced the appointment of Luke Chen Li Chien as Chief Operating Officer of NDS China. Chen's appointment is effective immediately.
As COO, Chen
assumes responsibility for NDS China operations including account management,
support, delivery and marketing. Chen reports to Gary Zhou Yi Gang, General
Manager of NDS China, and a member of the NDS Asia Pacific senior management.
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US regulators ruled that providers of Internet-based phone services fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, exempting them from some key regulation by states.
The FCC ruling
applies to cable, phone and other companies offering an Internet phone service.
The decision does not, however, preclude states from imposing some taxes and
fees. It also does not address access charges; fees paid to local phone companies
for completing calls sent via the Internet to conventional phones.
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has reported that the country now has more mobile phone users than landlines. Mobile now has 44.51 million mobile subscribers at the end of October 2004.
In the fixed
segment, a total of 0.16 million subscribers were added during October 2004,
which were predominantly WLL. With this the total subscriber base of fixed
lines have reached 43.96 million.
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Set-top boxes software developer Espial is opening new offices in Singapore and Hong Kong and has also extended its website in the Japanese language. This continues to round-out the company's presence in Asia, adding to two existing offices in Japan and existing sales presence in Korea, Taiwan and China.
"Asia continues to be a very active region, with ever increasing focus on technical advancements and high performance in consumer electronics, set-top boxes and mobile handset designs," says Espial President, Jaison Dolvane. "Espial software is designed with this market requirements in mind - along with ensuring ease of customisation and a commitment to international standards and localisation."
On another front Espial announced a deal with Germany-based Siemens, which will use Espial Escape as the defacto browser for SURPASS Home Entertainment, its IPTV Set-top-boxes.
The SURPASS home
entertainment solution gives broadband providers the flexibility to offer
a wider array of services and content choices, including high-definition programming,
over DSL lines and provides users with a unified, end-to-end means of communication
across various devices and media in the home. The SURPASS solution also supports
advanced codecs such as MPEG-4 that help operators to maximize bandwidth capabilities.
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Israeli company ECI Telecom and US' Redback Networks have signed an agreement intended to deliver enhanced triple play services over broadband and IP networks.
Under the agreement,
the companies will offer a comprehensive IP solution that includes ECI's Multi
Service Access Gateway (MSAG) solutions together with Redback's multi service
edge and broadband portfolio. ECI and Redback will initially target joint
customers and will work together to address customer needs and requirements
for the move to triple play and other advanced services.
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TiVo, creator of and leader in digital video recording services (DVRs), received the Television Technology of the Year award announced at the first annual Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards in Los Angeles.
"While our
customers often tell us how much they love TiVo, it's always a great honour
to be recognised by industry leaders and innovators," said Matt Wisk,
chief marketing officer of TiVo. "Awards like these inspire us to continue
developing new technologies and services that will revolutionise the way the
world watches TV."
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For the third quarter of this year Premiere announced its first net profit ever of E15.4 million. The EBITDA rose from E11 million in the previous quarter to E44.2 million, the gross revenue was up five per cent to E224 million. For the nine months to September revenues rose by 7.4 per cent to E720 million based on development of subscriber figures in the third quarter going up to 3,010,405.
Premiere started
to prepare its IPO in the coming year by changing the corporate structure
and forming an advisory board. At the same time the contract of Georg Kofler,
who will be heading the executive board has been extended for another five
years. With a 20% stake Kofler is the groups second largest shareholder.
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OFCOM seems likely
to scrap its targets for the rollout of 3G. This could mean large areas of
the UK being without access to the new service for much longer than anticipated.
The technology and handsets have suffered many glitches and four years on
from the £22 billion (E33 billion), licence auction only 3 is selling
3G handsets in the UK, although Vodafone has just announced its service launch.
Under the terms of the licences the operators were meant to ensure that 80
per cent of the population could access 3G services by 2008. The stipulation
was aimed at ensuring that they would not just "hoard" the licences
but would roll out the technology quickly to ensure that consumers could reap
the benefits.
But the huge cost of investing in the necessary infrastructure, mean that
some operators, including O2, believe it is no longer commercially viable
to achieve that target.
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The European Union will press ahead with an anti-trust case against Microsoft despite the company settling its differences with Novell. According to reports Microsoft agreed to pay rival Novell $536 million to back off antitrust claims.
However the European Commission said that the settlements reached between the software giant and Novell do "not change any elements of Microsoft's conduct in the market".
In March the Commission issued fined Microsoft and ordered it to undertake changes to Windows. Last month Microsoft launched an appeal against the ruling at the Court of First Instance (CFI) of the EU's Court of Justice.
According to
Associated Press, Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres said the company's
settlements with the two rival groups do not alter the necessity for immediate
implementation of the remedies in order to restore effective competition in
the market. The fact that Novell is no longer participating in these proceedings
do not change the facts before the court, she said.
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Taiwan's government has cut by half the commodity tax on digital television as part of its effort to help the switch to digital TV by January 2008.
In a bid to encourage local manufacturers of digital TV sets, the Government said that the companies are now entitled to a 50 per cent reduction in the commodity tax until December 2010. While the current tax rate is 13 per cent, the government hopes to see the rate drop to 6.5 per cent with the implementation of the initiative.
By the end of
2010, the government hopes to take back all analogue channels and more effectively
manage the resources, he added. The project, dubbed "digital Taiwan,"
aims to develop the nation into the most digitalised nation in Asia. In addition
to providing incentives to encourage manufacturers to reduce retail prices
of digital TV sets and set-up boxes, the government will subsidise low-income
families with the purchase of STBs.
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EchoStar reported that its Dish Network satellite television service added approximately 350,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter of 2004, bringing the total to 10.475 million subscribers as of September 30, 2004.
For the quarter
ended September 30, 2004, the company reported total revenue of $1.86 billion,
compared to $1.45 billion for the corresponding period in 2003. Net income
totalled $102 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004, compared to net
income of $35 million during the corresponding period in 2003.
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Telecom New Zealand has launched its 3G Mobile Broadband (TG3) network ahead of schedule and competition. The service already covers the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch regions.
The network is based on the super-fast EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimised) technology delivered in partnership with Lucent Technologies. "Mobile Broadband is a whole new ball game. Like the step from dial-up to broadband, it will fundamentally change the way New Zealanders use mobile," commented Kevin Kenrick, general manager Mobile Telecom. The first new T3G service is called Mobile Broadband. It will enable downloading of data up to 15 times faster than the existing 027.
Vodafone New
Zealand is expected to launch its own 3G network by the middle of next year.
Vodafone is working with Nokia to deploy a 3G network based on the UMTS (WCDMA)
standard. Vodafone has argued against such claim. Vodafone business director
Russell Stanners dismissed the relevance of Telecom's optimal speed. "You
don't run a network at peak," he said.
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Bertelsmann posted a 14 percent rise in core earnings in the quarter to September and reiterated it saw better results for the full year. The group, which spans television, music, books and magazines, said EBIT was E216 million, or helped by cost cuts, up from E123m last time. Sales were flat at E3.8 billion.
After two years of cutting costs and selling assets, Bertelsmann this year started to gear up for future growth. It has a E2.5 billion war chest for projects and acquisitions, especially at its television unit RTL Group.
Bertelsmann this
year merged its music business BMG with Sony Corp.'s music business to create
the world's second largest record label.
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US cable television provider Comcast will begin deploying set-top boxes powered by Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7, from next week. The deal, which the companies announced in May, will deliver digital video recording (DVR) capabilities to pause, record and store TV shows and movies to one million Comcast subscribers in Washington State beginning November 15.
The new offering
from Comcast is targeted squarely at DirecTV Group's satellite-based digital
video recorder, which is based on Tivo's DVR system that is also sold separately
from cable- or satellite-based subscription services.
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Video content
delivery solutions provider Entone Technologies is set to release a video
service delivery device for triple play. The Entone Hydra is a multi-television
IP Video Gateway which supports up to three simultaneous television streams
and broadband Internet access over existing residential coaxial cabling. Entone
claims it will significantly reduces the costs of delivering IP television
services to the home.
Whereas previous generations of IP set-top boxes required a separate box for
each television in the home, Hydra is a single gateway device that can be
shared by up to six televisions with any three of them receiving independent,
simultaneous video streams. Video delivery within the home takes place over
existing coaxial cabling, therefore eliminating the need for extensive new
Ethernet wiring required by traditional IP set-top boxes.
Steve McKay,
CEO of Entone Technologies suggested that by supporting multiple televisions
and broadband Internet access over the same connection and using existing
home wiring, Hydra could have a profound impact on the economics of the service.
"A single device supporting up to six connected televisions brings the
capex down, and the use of existing home wiring dramatically reduces the operating
costs that come with home installations," he noted.
Entone will reveal the Hydra Gateway at the forthcoming TelcoTV exhibition
in Orlando, Florida. McKay told advanced-telvision.com that although the company
was looking to increase its presence in European markets, Hydra was unlikely
to be introduced there until the second half of 2005. "Our sense is that
the European market is more willing to accept a single set-top box at present,"
he added.
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US' Mediacom reported a loss of basic cable subscribers during the third quarter, which it blamed on the effects of the severe hurricane season and more pressure from satellite TV competition.
The MSO reported its subscriber base was at 1.461 million at the end of the three-month period ending in September. Prior to the start of the third quarter, Mediacom had 1.491 million basic cable customers. However, the company grew its broadband Internet customer base to 350,000 and digital cable subscribers to 382,000.
Mediacom reported third quarter revenues increased by 3.9 percent to $261 million when compared to the same period in 2003. The MSO also recorded a third quarter net loss of $12.8 million, compared to net income of $1.9 million for third quarter last year.
Mediacom said
it lost an estimated 8,000 subscribers to Hurricane Ivan. Excluding the impact
of the hurricane, the Company said would have generated revenues of $263.9
million in the third quarter of 2004, representing increases of 5.1 per cent
over the third quarter of 2003.
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Israeli company Infogate Online, a developer of software solutions for IPTV, and Logicalis, an international IT integration company have formed an alliance to sell IPTV solutions.
The deal has
already resulted in sales to two US telcos, Citizens Cablevision and Scott
County Telephone, the companies said. The alliance combines Infogate's OnDema
middleware platform and Logicalis' hardware and services.
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DirecTV has extended its relationship with the National Football League signing a five-year $3.5 billion agreement to extend and expand the satellite TV giant's exclusive rights to carry the sports package.
DirecTV said
it will continue to have exclusive multichannel television rights to air NFL
Sunday Ticket games through the 2010 season. In addition, DirecTV also extended
its carriage agreement with NFL Network, which is part of DirecTV's Total
Choice basic subscription package.
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GlobeCast announced that a further three channels have signed up to its global distribution network. Horse-racing channel Racing UK and TWC Re:loaded – a spin-off from The Wrestling Channel – will be available on BSkyB's platform, uplinked via Eurobird 28.5°E from GlobeCast's Brookman's Park teleport.
GlobeCast has
also struck a third deal with Discovery Networks Europe to deliver, via its
London to Paris fibre connection, the broadcaster's flagship channel in France.
Discovery Channel launched in September on Canal Satellite, France Telecom
Cable and NC Numericable in France as well as on Parabole Reunion within the
French-speaking territories in the Indian Ocean. The launch, with a potential
subscriber base of 3.2 million, completes the channel's footprint in Western
Europe.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has confirmed that digital terrestrial television (DTT) will be launched in March 2005 using the MPEG-2 standard. Raffarin announced the decision following a meeting with TV regulator Conseil Supérieur de l' Audiovisuel (CSA).
"By March 2005, I wanted us to be able to expand the free-to-air service from French channels. That decision has been taken today. As from March 2005, we are going to treble the number of free television services," he said. "Accordingly, French households, particularly the two-thirds that currently only receive five channels, will be able to receive 15 free services, across the entire country."
Leading commercial
broadcaster TF1 had lobbied for MPEG-4, which would permit higher quality
broadcasts, but would not be commercially available by Spring 2005. "It's
a question of social progress, of technological progress, but also cultural
progress. It is a significant moment for television in our country,"
claimed Raffarin, a view echoed by Dominique Baudis, president of the CSA,
who called the decision "a great victory for the vast majority of television
viewers." Baudis had lobbied for a spring 2005 launch using MPEG-2. "MPEG2
is a force everywhere in Europe, everywhere in the world, in Asia, in North
America," stressed Baudis. "It is reliable, it works everywhere
and it is cheap."
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Rupert Murdoch is expected to find some resistance from BSkyB shareholders on his plans to strengthen control over the pay TV broadcaster. One tenth of BSkyB shareholders are said to be planning to vote against the controversial share buyback this week.
Analysts are also warning that BSkyB will say subscriber growth has fallen when it reports first-quarter results this week. The City expects the company to announce around 50,000 new digital subscribers for the three months, down 70 per cent from 81,000 for the previous quarter, which would take it to just over 7.4 million subscribers.
UK shareholders Insight Investment, the asset management arm of HBOS, Standard Life and M&G, the fund manager owned by Prudential, will lead the symbolic opposition to the proposed share buyback.
Backing from BSkyB's largest US shareholders, believed to include Franklin Resources and Janus Capital, means the company will get the majority necessary from independent shareholders to press ahead with the plans. BSkyB wants to buy back five per cent of its shares to reward investors, boost its flagging share price and increase control.
News Corporation, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, father of BSkyB CEO James, already owns 35 per cent of the pay-television broadcaster. But because News Corp does not want to tender its shares, its stake would automatically rise to 37 per cent after the buyback.
To get the go-ahead,
shareholders must approve a waiver of Rule 9 of the Takeover Code, which forces
investors with more than 30 per cent of a company to launch a full offer.
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Warner Bros Online and T-Mobile International have signed a pan-European wireless distribution deal The agreement covers the UK, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, making Warner's wireless content available to an additional 64 million customers.
Warner will provide T-Mobile customers with games, wallpapers, screensavers, and other mobile applications based on its popular brands, including Catwoman, Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Harry Potter and DC Comics. Content will also be added around new releases.
Jim Noonan, SVP and General Manager of Warner Bros Online, said that T-Mobile's "extensive reach" provided another powerful wireless distribution channel for Warner's core brands and upcoming releases. Klaus Tebbe, T-Mobile's Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing, described the partnership as "another mark of T-Mobile's vision and commitment to offering its customers cutting-edge mobile multimedia services."
The content can
be accessed on the majority of handsets available across T-Mobile's nine European
markets under its multimedia services, t-zones. Customers simply select 't-movies'
or 'downloads' and scroll through to select the content of their choice.
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The Motion Picture Association of America announced its lawyers will expand the MPAA's campaign to prevent film piracy, working with its members and other film studios to file lawsuits against people who have illegally traded digital copies of movies over the Internet.
"Illegal movie trafficking represents the greatest threat to the economic basis of moviemaking in its 110-year history," said MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman, who was joined during the announcement by studio executives, union leaders, filmmakers and others.
"People who have been stealing our movies believe they are anonymous on the Internet, and wouldn't be held responsible for their actions. They are wrong. We know who they are, and we will go after them, as these suits will prove," he added.
A recent federal interagency report estimates that counterfeit and pirated goods, including those of copyrighted works, cost the American economy $250 billion a year. In response to the report, the US Justice Department and other federal agencies have committed to increased law-enforcement and prosecutorial efforts against pirated and counterfeit goods.
The MPAA estimates
hard goods movie piracy costs the film industry $3.5 billion a year. That
total does not include losses from hundreds of thousands of illegal downloads
swapped over the Internet each day.
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Vodafone will launch its third generation mobile phone services in the UK at a this week. At least £100 million will be spent on marketing and advertising in a bid to persuade Vodafone's millions of customers around the world to sign up to 3G.
When this is
added to the £14 billion the group paid to acquire spectrum during the
1999 licence auctions, and about £8 billion of capital expenditure,
it's a £22bn bet on 3G paying-off.
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News Corp has moved to ward off any potential hostile bid from US cable company Liberty Media with a plan to issue stock options to dilute the stake of any predator.
John Malone's Liberty began a transaction last week that could increase its voting stake in News Corp to about 17 per cent from nine per cent, raising speculation it could launch a takeover bid for Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
Under a defence announced on Monday, News Corp said it would give its shareholders the right to buy one News Corp share at half price for each share they own, if any party buys a 15 per cent stake in the company. Shareholders would be able to buy up to $80 worth of half-price shares. The strategy would exclude the purchaser of the 15 per cent stake, providing a "poison pill" defence against anyone plotting to take control of News Corp from Murdoch and his heirs apparent, sons Lachlan and James.
"It means
it's very much more expensive for Malone to maintain his position or extend
his position in the company and he has to make the judgement as to whether
it's worth it or not," said Michael O'Sullivan, president of the Australian
Council of Superannuation Investors, which advises pension funds on corporate
governance issues.
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BT has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US-based Infonet, a provider of international managed voice and data network services. The transaction values Infonet at $965 million. Excluding Infonet's net cash balance of $390million, the aggregate value of the deal is $575 million. The deal is subject to Infonet shareholder approval and regulatory clearances and is expected to complete in the first half of 2005.
With this acquisition of Infonet, BT is expecting to extend its global reach and address the needs of multi-site companies and organisations.
Infonet's $620 million of revenue, from the provision of cross-border services to 1,800 multinational corporate customers, significantly increases that element of BT Global Services' business, BT commented.
BT CEO Ben Verwaayen said: "This is another milestone in BT's transformation into a leading global provider of IT and networking services. It is our goal to be the first choice for multi-site organisations around the world as they address their increasingly complex communications needs."
BT expects to
realise significant cost savings from combining the two businesses. Overlapping
global network elements will be eliminated and efficiencies will be achieved,
in part through the rationalisation of country operations, back-office and
administrative functions. Already identified actions are expected to reduce
the annual cash costs of the combined businesses by $150 million in the third
year following the acquisition.
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Media and electronics giant Thomson has moved to expand its broadband services activity with the acquisition of a majority stake in London-based Corinthian Television Facilities for an unspecified sum. Broadcast television facilities specialist Corinthian provides live studios, graphics, video, audio production and post-production and transmission playout to major international broadcasters through long term contracts.
Thomson sees the addition of Corinthian as an important step in expanding its relationship with existing media and entertainment clients in new geographic areas. Thomson is targeting opportunities in key segments of the growing television broadcast management and services market, which is developing as major broadcasters and content providers increasingly tend to outsource this activity. Thomson launched its broadcast management service in November 2003 with the construction of the Tokyo Broadcast Playout centre dedicated to delivering content for Disney Channel Japan.
Corinthian currently delivers four channels to audiences in the UK, two channels to Scandinavian viewers, one digital terrestrial signal in the UK, and two channels into Central and Eastern Europe. Corinthian Television will also serve as a new service development platform (asset management, e-delivery of content, and international language versioning) and link into Thomson's existing network of post-production laboratories in London, Madrid, Montreal, New York and Los Angeles.
"The addition of the Corinthian facility in the UK further expands our content management and distribution capability and gives us a strategic location to serve media and entertainment clients throughout Continental Europe and the Middle East," commented Lanny Raimondo, Senior Executive Vice President, Thomson.
Mauricio Cimelli,
Managing Director of Corinthian, suggested that Thomson's involvement provided
"a great springboard to help both parties grow. We have new technology
that is scaleable and a management team with a deep understanding of the market."
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Continuing its
efforts to reduce debt, France Telecom has signed an agreement to sell its
entire remaining stake in Tower Participations SAS, the parent company of
TDF, representing a 36-per cent share, to investment funds managed by Charterhouse
Development and CDC Entreprises Equity Capital, and Caisse des Depots.
The deal, worth around E 390 million, will be adjusted at closing, and will
not exceed E400 million, the company said. Under the terms of agreements signed
in 2002, a portion of the capital gains realised could be returned to shareholders
when they divest their own stakes.
The ceiling on the additional amount payable to France Telecom for the sale
of its TDF shares in 2002 has been set at E175 million, revised at an annual
interest rate of seven per cent with effect from December 13, 2002.
The transaction, to be completed before March 31, 2005.
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Japan's Softbank plans to launch internet protocol (IP) telephone services over fiber-optic lines from March 2005 as it attempts to take on market leader NTT. Softbank's Japan Telecom Co. will use the state-owned NTT's lines, but charge a lower rate, thereby intensifying the downward pressures on the traditionally high costs paid for fixed line rental by Japanese consumers.
However, Softbank has yet to publish a fees structure for the service that will be launched in urban areas to both corporate and private customers as it is waiting for NTT to unveil its pricing for IP telephony, which is also due to begin operating next March. Softbank said that it will roll out IP telephony with its Yahoo!BB broadband internet offering operated by Softbank Group company Softbank BB.
NTT is in the
process of replacing copper wire telephone lines with fiber-optic lines and
it is targeting replacing 30 million lines, around half the current total
of fixed-line services in Japan, by 2010.
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Comcast has added Altitude Sports & Entertainment to its lineup more than 680,000 customers in Colorado, starting Saturday, November 6. The new 24-hour sports and entertainment channel will feature more than 70 Denver Nuggets games during the 2004-2005 NBA season.
Beginning in
early 2005, Altitude will also include high-definition television broadcasts
of select Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games. Comcast's HDTV service
in the Denver Metro area offers 13 channels, including local ABC, NBC, CBS,
FOX high-definition broadcasts, with no extra equipment to purchase or outside
antennas to install.
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Alcatel is providing
a new video solution for Dutch mobile operator KPN Mobile. Alcatel is the
end-to-end integrator for the implementation of the full video over UMTS solution,
which will allow KPN Mobile to offer advanced broadband video services bridging
mobile and fixed users. By leveraging the huge footprint
of PCs already equipped with webcams, this new service will continue to accelerate
the take up of KPN Mobile's growing 3G subscribers base, the companies explained.
With this new
video service, KPN Mobile's 3G subscribers will have the possibility to exchange
both live and recorded video images with other UMTS mobile phone users and
also with fixed PC users. Mobile UMTS phone users will be able to make a video
phone call to anyone connected to the Internet using a PC equipped with a
webcam and to surf on the Internet to receive video clips and movies. 3G phone
users will also have the possibility to receive video calls from other 3G
phone users and PC users. Video can also be exchanged with users accessing
the Internet via a PDA or a laptop.
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UK supermarket chain Tesco is launching an online music service which it hopes will rival Apple's market-leading iTunes. Tesco estimates the UK download music market is now worth £25 million (E37.5 million).
The company's
digital music store, which plans to offer more than 500,000 track, will use
Microsoft's Windows Media Player and will charge 79 pence per song.
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Vyyo, a global supplier of broadband end-to-end solutions for telephony and
high-speed data connections, announced that it has selected William Keating
to be the new CEO of its subsidiary Xtend Networks, a company that provides
advanced broadband solutions for the cable TV industry.
Keating has over 25 years of industry experience, including senior executive
roles at Moxi Digital, Microsoft, WebTV, General Magic, Rational Software
and Sun Microsystems. Keating joined Microsoft after orchestrating the sale
of WebTV to the company. While there, he was the General Manager of Microsoft
TV. Most recently, Keating has served as a General Partner at Nekei LLC, where
he worked with interactive media, cable, set-top box home media centre and
video entertainment companies.
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Switzerland-based
Micronas, a vendor of single chip decoders for hybrid TVs, unveiled the MDE
95xyD product family of DVB decoders targeting the booming DVB set-top box
(STB) market. The new MDE 95xyD single-chip DVB-compliant MPEG-2 decoder for
free-to-air, pay-TV and PVR STBs, provides a range of features that are easily
deployed thanks to the Micronas Integrated Consumer
Television Operating System (MICTOS).
A special version
with digital RGB outputs fulfils the increased picture quality requirements
of the fast growing flat panel IDTV market. Versions with security features
make this chip family ideally suited for pay-TV applications.
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US investor John Malone announced that his Liberty Media group had signed a swap deal with Merrill Lynch in which the broker bought eight per cent of News Corporation's voting shares and gave Liberty the right to buy them next year.
Liberty said the company planned to complete the purchase if it got US and Australian regulatory approval. Malone, who made $48 billion selling his cable company to AT&T in 1999, already owns 17 per cent of News Corporation and has a voting stake of 9.2 per cent. The Murdoch family own 12.6 per cent and has 29.5 per cent of the voting rights.
The transaction is likely to renew questions about Malone's intentions. According to regulatory filings, Liberty Media "has started to shift its corporate focus to exert more control over its affiliated companies".
Liberty Media
also has large stakes in Time Warner, Motorola and Sprint. In September, Malone
sold his 7.5 per cent stake in the UK's second-largest cable television operator,
Telewest, for about $200 million.
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Murdoch said
Time Warner's financial news channel CNNfn, which is being shut down in mid-December
after nine years, wasn't a factor in News Corp's decision to introduce a new
business channel, but "CNBC is."
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By 2006 TV over mobile will be a reality with Nokia phones. Within two years as many as 20 different TV channels will be made available, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's general manager of Multimedia said. Nokia says it will support the DVB-H standard for mobile phones, but transmission frequencies for mobile TV have not yet been allocated yet.
At the annual Nokia Capital Market Day in New York, Nokia senior management set out clear targets and milestones to build new competitive advantage. Nokia said it expects the mobile device industry to grow approximately 10% in volume in 2005, but to achieve this the company is recognised it needs to keep up its investment in R&D, and focus on customer satisfaction.
"Industry
dynamics have shifted, and we have been adapting our mindset, customer approach,
product portfolio and technologies to sharpen our competitive position,"
said Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO, Nokia.
"Our goal is to bring Nokia's overall R&D expenditure down to 9%
- 10% of net sales by the end of 2006 with increased focus and efficiency
gains to be achieved by reducing cycle time by approximately 50% to get the
most compelling products to market at the right time," said Ollila.
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BT and Ofcom are reported to be at loggerheads over the number of broadband customers the telecoms giant has signed up. Figures released by the regulator recently suggested that BT Retail’s share of the broadband market had fallen by as much as seven per cent, down on the 29 per cent in the last quarter.
But last week
BT countered with its own figures showing its share had risen from 29 per
cent to 30 per cent, taking its customer total to 1,283,000. In addition BT’s
wholesale division recorded a record quarter with 600,000 new connections
bringing the customer total to 3,294,000.
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Univision Communications Corp, the US largest Spanish-language television and radio network, reported a 74 per cent jump on its third-quarter net income. The net income increased to $73.4 million in 2004, from $42.2 million a year earlier. Revenue was up 49 per cent to $477.4 million, from $321.1 million a year ago.
"In a period
of challenging market conditions, Univision delivered record third quarter
operating results, with the growth of our businesses outpacing the core growth
of our English-language television and radio competitors," said Jerrold
Perenchio, Univision's Chairman and CEO in a press release. Perenchio said
the company is today a "far stronger, more broadly-based company, and
we maintain our commitment to investing in our business."
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South-East Asia's largest telecoms group, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), announced a rise on its quarterly net profit of 21 per cent, helped by strength at its Australian unit Optus and other regional associates. Sixty-five per cent owned by the government, it said it was on track to deliver double-digit growth in earnings for the full year to March 2005.
The company reported an underlying net profit of S$735 million for the quarter to September 30, excluding goodwill and exceptionals. Including exceptional items, second-quarter net profit was up 62% at S$766million.
The company
also unveiled plans to create an alliance of regional operators to invest
jointly in mobile phone services and technology. The alliance will spend US$30
million-US$40 million over the next three years to build a common platform
that will make it easier for customers to use roaming services. The alliance
appears to be part of a broader strategy by SingTel to save costs by having
its affiliated partners buy new telecoms equipment together for a mobile infrastructure
that could serve a potential customer base of more than 300 million people.
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Canal Plus Group, through its MultiThématiques subsidiary, has acquired a 66 per cent interest in the Cuisine TV theme channel.After last August’s acquisition of Comédie!, the group has now added Cuisine TV to its theme channel portfolio, which also includes: Tele Sport+, Jimmy, the Planète channels, the CinéCinéma channels and Seasons.
Launched in 2001,
Cuisine TV is broadcast exclusively via CanalSatellite and on
cable systems. Following the transaction,
