 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
16,000
industry execs receive our Daily News. |
|
|
|
|
|
Free subscription |
|
|
|
|
NEWS Monday October 11th to Friday October 15th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Sky Media, the advertising sales division of BSkyB, has agreed a deal with Zip Television that provides greater flexibility for television advertisers to add interactive enhancements to their commercials.
Advertisers on Sky's wholly owned channels will now have a choice between alternative iTV solutions from Sky Interactive and Zip Television for their interactive promotions.
Zip Television now has agreements in place with four major commercial broadcasters including Sky, Channel 4, Five and IDS (UKTV and Flextech Channels), allowing advertisers to link from linear ads to extended advertising content on the Zip Channel.
Sky has already
delivered over 500 interactive campaigns since it launched the UK's first
iTV campaign in March 2000.
Back
to top
ITV is launching a £1 million (E1.5 million) airtime ad campaign promoting its new interactive services. The official launch of the ITVi 24:7 brand comes as the operation behind it gears up to expand the use of red button, mobile and premium-rate telephony across the network.
The broadcaster has brought to its team five new people including Avago founder Debbie Mason, who leaves her role as creative director of the Digital Interactive Television Group (DITG) to become ITVi interactive commissioner. Tracy Ross, marketing manager at DITG, has also left to take up the position of ITVi head of marketing.
ITVi is also in the process of signing a range of interactive partners, which it will promote through its red button portal and look to ally with its shows. Friendsreunited and dating service Koopid are the first of these.
Jane Marshall,
ITVi controller, said the past year had been all about putting infrastructure
in place that would let the division make "bolder, more radical creative
steps" in 2005.
Back
to top
KDDI, Japan's second biggest telecoms company, is set to launch the first mobile phone service enabling full-length songs to be downloaded to handsets next month.
According to a report in the FT, the company has signed up 20 record labels and is opening the service to all interested content providers. Tadashi Onodera, KDDI president, called the service "ground-breaking", adding the group wanted to make it a "defining service" for its mobile arm. If the music download service is successful in Japan, which has led the world in adopting 3G mobile phone technology and pioneered many wireless phone applications, it could encourage carriers in other countries to follow suit.
The move is also expected to help boost revenues at many mobile phone operators which have been struggling with high debts and saturated markets, as well as bolster the growth of 3G.
KDDI will initially
release four handsets capable of accessing the music downloading service,
which will be charged at a flat rate, but it plans to ensure that all new
3G handsets are equipped with the function.
Back
to top
Vodafone CEO Aurin Sarin has instigated a company restructuring aimed at increasing the mobile operator's customer focus and coordinating the delivery of 3G services across all its markets.
From January 1, when the new structure will be introduced, current COO Sir Julian Horn-Smith will take on the role of deputy CEO. He will instead be given responsibility for "business development", a new function created by Sarin to grow Vodafone's sales through partner networks that use the Vodafone brand and product but in which Vodafone does not own an equity stake.
The mobile phone operator also announced that Andy Halford, currently CFO at Verizon Wireless, would succeed finance director Ken Hydon when he retires next July.
Sarin commented:
"We are creating an organisation that is better positioned to respond
to the high expectations of our customers. Faster execution will enable us
to extend our lead within the mobile industry and deliver the benefits to
our customers, our employees and our shareholders."
Under a management shake-up, the UK-based mobile operator simplified its regional
structure with many country heads now reporting directly to Sarin.
Back
to top
UK cableco NTL
will use SeaChange International's VOD System to support its impending on-demand
television service. Initial launch of ntl's on-demand service is slated for
the first quarter of 2005, making it Europe's first large-scale, commercial
cable on-demand service. SeaChange's strategic on-demand partner, London-based
programming and content provider On Demand Group (ODG), is also collaborating
with ntl on the initiative.
Back
to top
Following exploratory talks with media groups, John Smith, the BBC’s COO, has reportedly played down prospects of selling its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.
The BBC has invited
rival media groups to discuss the future of Worldwide as part of an internal
review of its commercial operations. Companies including Time Warner of the
US and Emap, the UK magazine and radio group, are thought to have expressed
interest in alliances or partnerships rather than acquisitions.
Back
to top
Aimed at addressing the rise of childhood obesity in the UK, the government is planning to propose that advertising of junk food with high sugar, fat or salt content should display a red warning sign. The proposals, expected to appear in a ‘White Paper’ on public health later this year, will mean all food advertising and packaging would display a "traffic light" system depending on the nutritional content of the food.
Food and advertising industries have strongly opposed calls for the ban, arguing that commercials are not the cause of Britain's so-called ‘obesity time bomb’.
Ofcom, the communications watchdog, backed the industry's claims earlier this year saying an outright ban would be ineffective in tackling childhood obesity.
Banning junk food advertising before 9pm would spell the end for some commercial television networks, advertisers said. Food producers and retailers such as McDonald's spend as much as £577 million every year on TV advertising which they claim helps keep some TV stations afloat.
"Some broadcasters
will cease to exist," said Claudia Camozzi of the food advertising unit
of the Advertising Association. "There's a bigger picture that needs
to be considered.
Back
to top
Apple Computer said fourth-quarter net income more than doubled on surging demand for iPods and forecast profit and sales this quarter that will beat analysts' estimates.
The US computer group forecast that its first-quarter sales will rise as high as $2.9 billion as holiday spending fuels a "marked increase'' in iPod shipments and customers flock to a new version of the iMac computer.
Apple shipped about 2.02 million iPods in the fourth quarter, compared with 336,000 a year earlier. Sales leaped to $537 million from $121 million.
The music players, Apple's fastest growing product, accounted for 23 per cent of total sales, compared with seven percent in the same period last year.
Fourth-quarter
net income jumped to $106 million, or 26 cents a share, from $44 million or
12 cents a year earlier, Apple said.
Back
to top
BSkyB’s free satellite TV venture, set to launch at the end of this month, is still to find its brand. According to a report in Broadcast magazine, BSkyB has rejected an offer by the BBC for it to use the Freesat name for the service.
The BBC owns
the Freesat name and has been in talks with Sky over the creation of a joint
free satellite service. Sky is understood to be ready to go it alone on a
low-key launch of its subscription free service.
Back
to top
Time Warner Cable and Comcast are to form a New York regional sports network. The new service, as yet unnamed, will broadcast the majority of New York Mets baseball games beginning in the spring of 2006.
The pay-television
giants and Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, an entity formed by the Mets'
owners, will each have an equity interest in the network. The firms said the
network will have the rights to telecast up to 125 regular-season games of
Gotham's perpetual also-ran baseball club.
Back
to top
Motorola has launched six new clamshell mobile handsets, three of which will be generally available and the other three under exclusive contracts with either Vodafone Live, T-Mobile or Orange.
The phones have a bundle of neat features including video capture and playback, MP3 players and Bluetooth.
Amer Husaini,
a Motorola VP, said the company had proven itself as a branded services sales
partner. Its next focus is to work with operators to drive customer migration
to 3G.
Back
to top
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has initiated a drive against Cable TV Operators relying obscene channels as an enforcement team conducted surprise checks of CTV operators in various areas of the country. Reports suggest that equipment and over two hundred DVDs/CDs of CTV operators violating PEMRA rules and regulation were confiscated.
"During the raids, two head ends and two loop holders were also seized .Cable Operators are warned that in future sporadic raids would be made if pornographic contents relayed on their networks. PEMRA Sindh has directed CTV operators to stop forthwith relaying obscene channels like MM, MM2, Mnet, and Series Channels etc," said a report.
Apart from seizure of equipment, PEMRA would take legal course of action against the violators, which would lead to imprisonment for the term, which may extend to four years and fine up to one million rupees or US$17500.
PEMRA recently
announced that would soon award licences for 12 new television channels. The
spokesperson said that ten licences had also been awarded to satellite TV
channels and two had been awarded to virtual universities that would air their
transmissions soon.
Back
to top
Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its Windows XP Media Centre, along with an array of new devices and services aimed at capturing consumer spending on movies, pictures and music.
The PC, which hooks up to televisions and allows users to view movies, listen to music and flip through digital pictures with a remote control, runs a modified version of Microsoft's flagship Windows software and is to be incorporated by several PC manufacturers.
The world's largest software maker said it would back up the new version of Windows Media Centre, which adds features such as instant messaging and the ability to display high-definition television, with a $100 million-plus marketing campaign. This week Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates confirmed that the company has ear marked $20 billion investment over the next six years to ensuring it has a large slice of the digital media market.
The system is designed to swap and share content with a variety of devices, such as portable music and video devices as well as the X-Box video game console and portable entertainment systems in some vehicles.
Media Centre PCs, which are mostly priced between $1,000 and $2,000, also allow users to listen to music stored on hard drives, view digital pictures and access a variety of other content.
The new Media
Centre also offers the ability to swap instant text messages while watching
TV, record and play back high-definition video, as well as a more advanced
programming guide that allows users to search for movies.
Back
to top
Telecom Italia Media, the telco's Internet and broadcast content arm, is planning to launch a 'pre-pay' premium football service on its digital terrestrial multiplex. The DTT operator is looking to capitalise on the strong growth in the sector – more than 640,000 set-top boxes have been sold since the start of the year – by adding premium content to its free-to-air channels.
Simone Cremonini, the company's DTT project co-ordinator told advanced-television.com that the unit was currently working hard at putting in place the means to broadcast selected Italian Serie A matches, and revealed that access to the service would be controlled by a pre-paid, rechargeable and supportable card. Service launch is targeted for the first quarter of 2005.
Telecom Italia is already broadcasting live matches on its Rosso Alice web portal, featuring 15 football clubs in both Serie A and Serie B. Each match cost E2.50, but users can also purchase a yearly service subscription for E48 giving access to all scheduled championship matches and other extra content (re-broadcasts, highlights etc.).
Last month, Telecom
Italia sold its 19.9 per cent stake in digital satellite platform Sky Italia
to News Corp for E88 million, netting it some E31.4 million to reduce debt
and fund rights acquisition. Telecom Italia's other broadcast interests include
100 per cent ownership of national channel La7, and 51per cent of MTV Italy.
Back
to top
Reuters has launched an interactive TV news channel over the internet, offering consumers video news stories from its news bureaus around the world. The service is one of the first video news channels to be available on Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005.
The channel,
available initially in the US market, will provide users with the latest business
and market news via packaged reports from key financial cities. The channel
will also air unedited and natural sound footage of breaking world news, offering
a broader perspective than many traditional TV news clips. Entertainment,
fashion, and human interest news stories are also covered.
Back
to top
STMicroelectronics and HDIC, a part of Shanghai Jiaotong University, have signed an agreement to form a joint venture for developing technologies for digital TV. The joint venture will develop, market, and sell middleware software for digital TV and STB. The new JV is expected to be operational by end of this year.
The joint venture, to be 65 per cent owned by ST, will be based in Shanghai, China. HDIC will contribute its existing system technology of TV Middleware for the Chinese market, which it has been developing for many years, as well as head-end software for TV operators.
Apart from the Chinese DTV market, the new company will also develop non-Chinese versions of middleware, such as OCAP (Open Cable Access Platform) for the U.S. market and MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) for European markets.
"This is
a significant agreement both for ST and HDIC. We believe that the combination
of ST's top position in digital entertainment and HDIC's leadership position
in Chinese DTV technology will allow ST to expand its influential position
in Digital Consumer and, in particular, in the booming Chinese market,"
said Jean-Yves Gomez, General Manager of ST's TV Division.
Back
to top
UK government
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has given the BBC until the end of November
to make an initial response to an independent review of its digital TV services.
The review of BBC3, BBC4, CBeebies and CBBC, led by Patrick Barwise, Professor
of Management and Marketing at London Business School, will feed into the
on-going wider review of the BBC's Royal Charter.
The report concludes that the new services have all largely met their remits
and that their market impact is limited relative to their public value. However,
it suggests that because of their low viewing figures so far, BBC3 and BBC4
are still providing poor value for money as well as doing little to connect
the BBC with viewers or drive digital take-up.
Barwises's recommendations include broadening the appeal of both BBC3 and
BBC 4 away from stereotypical target groups, dispensing with the BBC3 news
at 7pm, "which achieves nothing and attracts tiny audiences", and
redeploying resources instead towards other factual programming. The report
also recommends reclassifying BBC3 and BBC4 as mainstream mixed-genre channels,
as opposed to BBC3 as "audience-targeted" and BBC4 as "special
interest." Barwise recommends rebalancing the BBC's portfolio of channels
to ensure that all are part of regular viewing patterns; this will also mean
no further channel launches or major repositionings.
Jowell recognised
that as the major public service broadcaster, the BBC would play "a pivotal
role as we make the journey towards digital switchover. The quality and content
of its digital channels are essential – for many they are, and will continue
to be, the shop window on the all-digital future."
Barwise admitted that the services had "many strengths," but added
"there is room for improvement. BBC3 and BBC4 need to increase their
impact and value for money, while retaining their public service ethos. Key
to this is appealing to a wider constituency, including those thinking of
adopting digital TV."
Back
to top
NDS, is providing Intelsat with its Synamedia system in order to evaluate the latest IPTV technology. The NDS solution will enable Intelsat to test the operational and performance aspects of IPTV technology.
NDS Synamedia is a complete solution for the secure delivery of TV and VOD content over broadband IP networks. Based on NDS's VideoGuard encryption technology, Synamedia provides operators with a security solution that meets the high demands of content providers for high value premium content the company stated.
The system supplied
to Intelsat includes Alcatel's Open Media Suite (OMS) and set-top boxes from
Amino. Alcatel's OMS enables service providers to create, deliver and manage
broadcast TV, VOD, personal video recording, electronic program guides, web
browsing and email as part of a comprehensive triple play offering. The Amino
range of set-top box products provides a truly cost effective means for the
telco or internet service provider to deploy a broadband TV service.
Back
to top
UK media watchdog Ofcom has published the methodology it will adopt when fixing financial terms for each of the ITV regional licences, plus licences currently held by Five and Teletext Limited. Ofcom says the value of each licence will take into account projected advertising revenues, the extent and cost of licensees' public service obligations, and the licensees' participation in the digital switchover process.
ITV will be able
to begin its licence review from December 31 2004. Ofcom is also offering
the Channel 5 and Teletext licensees to bring forward the earliest date they
can apply for a financial review to the same date. Without this offer Channel
5 would have a review period beginning on 31 March 2009 and Teletext would
have its review beginning 31 December 2007.
Back
to top
Rupert Murdoch's Fox TV station could be fined the maximum penalty of $1.2 million for breaking rules on indecency after it broadcast a reality TV series that showed men licking whipped cream off topless prostitutes at a bachelor party.
The show, 'Married by America', features a group of single adults who agree to marry even though they have never met. The episode in question, broadcast in April last year, featured one of the groom's bachelor parties where events got out of hand.
The FCC is proposing that each of the 169 Fox TV stations in the US $7,000, although it could fine News Corporation the total $1.2 million instead.
The regulator
has come down heavily on broadcasters in the wake of the Nipplegate incident,
where Janet Jackson exposed her right breast during a dance routine with Justin
Timberlake at the Super Bowl, one of the most watched TV events of the year
in the States. CBS, the US television network, was slapped with a $550,000
(£306,814) fine following the incident, with 20 CBS-owned TV stations
paying $27,500 each -- the biggest fine ever levied on US broadcaster.
Back
to top
A study from Research and Markets forecasts that by 2008, the UK pay-TV market will cover 60% of viewers. The market was worth £4.41 billion in 2003. It has grown by 80.8 per cent since 1999 on the back of strong growth in subscriber numbers and a constant push by the pay-TV platform operators to raise the APRU. Freeview could account for the other 40 per cent of UK TV households by 2008.
According to the report the market will also effectively split into two halves by 2008:
- Full-strength
segment: these are customers that access the bulk of the premium services
available and pay a relatively high monthly subscription package for the privilege.
These will be mid- to high- income earners.
- The Lite segment: these are customers that access a restricted set of services
and pay a relatively low monthly subscription package as a result. These will
be high- and mid-income earners that do not want a large number of channels
and low-income earners that cannot afford the full-strength tariffs.
Back
to top
Trigenix, a Cambridge-based
developer of interfaces on mobile phones, has been bought by Qualcomm of the
US for $36 million in an all-cash deal.
Trigenix, formerly known as 3G Lab, was founded in 2000 and was backed by
venture capital company 3i in 2000 and 2001 funding rounds totalling £5
million.
Qualcomm invented
the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard for mobile phones popular
in the Americas and buying Trigenix will boost its influence in Europe where
the GSM standard prevails and Trigenix supplies 15 operators including T-Mobile
and '3.'
Back
to top
NTL is closing down its phone service in Ireland after claiming that the units Tellabs supplied to connect phones to the cable could be dangerous. The company declined to specify the nature of the threat, but regulators and politicians said NTL had informed them that the boxes could overheat and cause fires.
Tellabs, however,
rejects claims that its boxes are faulty. The US-based equipment maker says
all of its products are rigorously tested.
Back
to top
JupiterResearch unveiled that, according to its recently released report, "PC and Standalone Digital Video Recorders: Strategies to Cope with an Uncertain Market," standalone and PC-based DVR companies will experience slow adoption rates due to the advantage of cable and satellite's superior marketing campaigns.
The new report,
based in the US market, forecasts that standalone DVRs, such as TiVo and Replay
TV, and PC-based DVRs will secure only 20 per cent of the market while cable
and satellite DVR providers will secure 80 per cent of the market by 2009.
Currently 61 per cent of US online households use cable and satellite DVR
providers while only 39 per cent use standalone DVRs, which for the past seven
years have had the market all to themselves. Growth of cable and satellite
DVRs is attributed to ubiquity of service and control over television, which
sends out their marketing message emphasising exclusive DVR features.
Back
to top
DirecTV reorganises Latin America platforms
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp announced it will transfer its stake in Sky Latin America to its US satco subsidiary DirecTV Group, for $579 million in order to consolidate operations of the two satellite broadcasters.
The long-awaited move will see DirecTV Latin America, which is 86 per cent owned by DirecTV and Sky Latin America, merged into a single DTH platform in each of the major territories served in the region.
DirecTV Latin America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2003 after losing subscribers because of recessions, political unrest and currency fluctuations in Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil. It emerged from bankruptcy in February 2004.
In Brazil, Sky Brasil and DirecTV Brazil will merge, and DirecTV Brasil customers will migrate to Sky Brasil. The DirecTV Group said it will acquire the interests of News Corp and Liberty Media in Sky Brazil. The deal is subject to regulatory approval from the Brazilian government.
In Mexico, DirecTV affiliate Galaxy Mexico will close its operations and sell its subscriber base to Sky Mexico. DirecTV customers in Mexico will be given the opportunity to migrate to Sky Mexico. The DirecTV Group said it will acquire the interest of News Corp and - jointly with Televisa - the interest of Liberty Media in Sky Mexico.
In order to ensure that DirecTV customers in Mexico continue to receive uninterrupted service while they evaluate Sky, Galaxy Mexico will maintain its service for a minimum of nine months. Shortly after the end of that period, Galaxy Mexico will surrender its DTH license and cease operations, DirecTV said.
As for the rest, the DirecTV Group will acquire interests held by Globo, Televisa, News Corp and Liberty Media in Sky Multi-Country Partners, which has DTH platforms in Colombia and Chile. Sky customers in Colombia and Chile will migrate to DirecTV.
DirecTV said
it will operate in Colombia and Chile, as well as in Argentina, Venezuela,
Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America, under the newly
created "PanAmericana" platform.
Back
to top
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has said his company will spend $20 billion over the next six years ensuring it has a large slice of the digital media market.
Speaking ahead of major announcements on the latest innovations, Gates said the money will be spent on media innovations and will amount to half the company's entire R&D budget until 2010.
The massive spend
signals Gates' determination to catch up with rivals who have stolen a march
in the music download and streaming media markets.
Back
to top
PCCW, the dominant fixed line operator in Hong Kong is challenging the local regulator to ban VoIP services run by its competitors. PCCW has threatened to take the regulator, the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, to court to seek a judicial review.
The fixed line operator says that its competitors offering VoIP are in breach of their licences because they do not own the network that they are using to undercut PCCW's service. One operator, Hong Kong Broadband Network, offers VoIP at around $8.72 a month less than half what PCCW charges. Since it was launched in August of this year, HKBN has added more than 10,000 customers to its service.
The threat of
legal action comes as PCCW continues to see falls in its share of the fixed
line total: currently 70 per cent, compared to 82 percent in 2002.
Back
to top
In the first round of bids in the auction of the business, UK cableco NTL has received at least 15 offers for its transmitter unit, which is expected to fetch up to £1.2 billion (E1.8 billion).
According to a report in the FT, the ‘towers' business generated interest from a number of private equity and infrastructure companies, including Australia's Macquarie Bank, Apax Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts of the US, and Terra Firma.
Some industry observers believe Macquarie's, which bought NTL's Australian towers business in 2002 for A$850 million (E525 million), would be among the top bidders for NTL's UK towers, after the group failed to win Crown Castle's towers business earlier this year.
National Grid Transco, which paid £1.1bn for the Crown Castle towers, is understood to have expressed initial interest in the NTL business, but is expected to stay out of the bidding. This is because of regulatory concerns and the timing of the deal, only months after the completion of the Crown Castle acquisition. The number of bidders is expected to drop sharply ahead of November 22, the deadline for the second round of bids.
NTL's decision
to offload its towers business, which generated about 12 per cent of sales
in 2003, followed the cable operator's emergence out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy
last year.
Back
to top
Jupiter Telecommunications, the largest broadband and cable service provider in Japan, announced its plans to launch Star Channel's high definition movie service called "Star Channel Hi-Vision (High-Definition)" beginning in November 2004.
As the first CS high-definition broadcast in the Japanese cable industry, J-Com will continue its packaged approach by offering the "Star Hi-Vision Multiplex," which includes Star Channel BS and Star Channel Classic along with Star Channel HV.
To promote the
HD service, the company will be offering a "one month free" campaign
for the entire Star Hi-Vision Multiplex.
Back
to top
ITV announced it has completed the acquisition of Scottish Media Group's 25% stake in GMTV for £31 million (E46.5 million). ITV now owns 75 per cent of GMTV, the Walt Disney Company owns the remaining 25 per cent. Under the terms of the GMTV shareholders agreement, ITV must offer the same terms to Walt Disney for its stake.
Charles Allen,
CEO of ITV was reported as saying: "ITV plc's acquisition of an increased
stake in GMTV at a fair price has simplified the ownership structure and will
enable ITV and GMTV to work even more closely together."
Back
to top
Thompson: I want 36 more year of licence
BBC director general Mark Thompson said he wanted to ensure the BBC continues to be funded by the licence fee for another 36 years. He said it was his duty to ensure the corporation remains a publicly funded organisation and not financed by subscription.
"My legacy should be to make sure that in 2040 there is still a licence fee, even though people will still be saying in 2026 or in 2016 'of course you will get your charter this time but it will be a different story next time'," he told the Financial Times.
The government is investigating the best option for the BBC's funding as part of the review of the corporation's 10-year royal charter, which expires in 2006. Ofcom's Chairman Lord David Currie commented at the ‘Television and the Digital Future' conference this week that, although the watchdog has recommended that the BBC should be given a new 10 year Charter through to 2016 and that it should be fully-funded through a licence fee model to enable it to fulfil its responsibilities as PSB, there is also an need for an effective and rigorous mid-point review in 2011, probably the last year of analogue broadcasting.
Thompson's comments came as new BBC research shows the proportion of people who oppose the licence fee has nearly doubled in the past 14 years. The research shows that 19 per cent of households would rather see the BBC closed down than pay the annual £121 (E181.5) fee.
The BBC will
point to the fact that 81 per cent of respondents in the survey still said
they were willing to pay the fee. And some people would be willing to pay
up to £240 for the licence fee, which was recently dubbed "an incredibly
unfair poll tax" by former DG Greg Dyke.
Back
to top
Nordic telco TeliaSonera has closed a deal worth about E605.8 million to acquire Orange Denmark from France Telecom. The combined Telia Mobile and Orange will be called Telia Mobile, and Jesper Broeckner has been named President.
TeliaSonera said that with about 1.1 million subscribers, Telia Mobile is the leading contender for the number one position on the Danish market.
The acquisition
was announced on July 8 and, following approval by the European Commission
on September 24, the parties have finalised the deal.
Broeckner will head the process of integrating operations and building a common
organisational structure.
Back
to top
Channel 4's deputy CEO and MD David Scott announced he is leaving his post. After 23 years with the UK channel, beginning 18 months before its launch - making him Channel 4's longest-serving board director – Scott decided he will depart Autumn 2005.
However Scott,
a former Channel 4 Finance Director, will continue to work on projects alongside
CEO Andy Duncan, including the channel's response to the Ofcom review.
Back
to top
Hallmark Channel and Sky Media, the advertising sales division of BSkyB, have extended their exclusive advertising sales partnership for a further three years starting January 1, 2005.
Sky Media, which offers advertising, sponsorship and interactive media sales for a portfolio of channel brands including Emap, Discovery and National Geographic, has been responsible for the channel's airtime sales since Hallmark's launch in May 2000.
The Hallmark
Channel is available on Sky, NTL and Telewest Broadband. It is owned and operated
by Crown Media Holdings in more than 120 countries.
Back
to top
Motorola and Moxell Technology announced that the companies have terminated their joint development of plasma TVs, LCD TVs and related products in North America. The companies cited differences in product marketing strategies for the domestic market. Motorola-branded TV products developed by Moxell will remain available at leading retail outlets throughout Asia.
The move marks
a considerable setback to Motorola's plan to return to the TV set sector after
an absence of nearly three decades as part of efforts to widen its consumer
product focus beyond mobile phones, cable modems and TV set-top boxes.
Back
to top
Alcatel has signed a deal with tele.ring for the expansion of their 3G/UMTS network. The expansion will result in 50 per cent of Austria being covered by tele.ring's UMTS network by the end of 2005.
Simultaneously
the existing service contract was enlarged and extended for an additional
three years. The total contract value, including UMTS Radio Access Network
and a transmission solution, amounts to approximately E 60 million.
Back
to top
AMC-15 launch set for this week
SES Americom's AMC-15 satellite, which had its launch day postponed in early September to allow additional testing of one of the rocket's avionics subsystems, is set to take off this Friday, October 15.
AMC-15 is part of SES Americom's Americom2Home satellite TV platform, and EchoStar will use the spacecraft for delivery of additional services via its DISH Network DBS offering. The satellite has both a Ku-Band and Ka-Band payload.
The launch will
take place aboard a Russian-built Proton rocket.
Back
to top
Deutsche Telekom is seeking to re-take control of its internet unit T-Online, which was spun off as a separate company in 2000. DT is offering shareholders in T-Online E8.99 in cash for each share, valuing the unit at E2.9 billion, making it one of the German telecommunications company's biggest purchases in years.
The telco says it no longer makes sense to have a separate unit for internet services. The deal, which will give DT 100 per cent ownership of T-Online, will allow it to offer better bundled offerings of internet access, voice calls and TV services. T-Online, the fixed wire business under the label T-Com and the mobile operator T-Mobile are DT's core business field.
The move coincides with news that the Government is loosing its grip in the German telco. Germany is selling a E4.45 billion stake in DT, making it the fourth European government to sell state assets in the past six weeks to help reduce a deficit that exceeds European Union limits set at three per cent of gross domestic product.
The sale through
KfW Group, a German state-owned development bank, will include E3 billion
in shares and E1 billion in warrants that can be exchanged into DT shares.
Following the transaction, the German government's stake in DT will fall to
36 per cent from 43 per cent.
Back
to top
A report handed to the Minister of Industry, Patrick Devedjian, suggests that the launch of DTT should be put back until September 2005 in order to ensure MPEG-4 is widely available.
The report, ‘Digital Television: issues and perspectives for 2005,' by Jean-Michel Hubert, vice president of the CGTI (general council on information technology) states that MPEG-4 compression technology has reached maturity, saying that it is "standardised, stable and on the path of being industrialised", adding that "all of the elements are now available for the manufacture of decoders for the reception of digital television compressed in MPEG-4 to DVV standard."
The report also calls for the regulations to be made more flexible, to allow freedom of choice of compression standards. Such measures would be consistent with the possibility of manufacturers supplying dual standard (MPEG-2 and MPEG-4) decoders, the report said. It explains that the six month delay is justifiable in view of the cultural, economic and technical issues involved.
This scenario, it states, would avoid contentions by certain players on the DTT scene, since they would be free to broadcast in MPEG-2, in keeping with their undertakings. It also recommends a choice of multistandard decoders, to facilitate the introduction of HDTV, and that all TVs with a screen larger than 70 cm sold after 2007 should include a multistandard digital decoder capable of receiving both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
Patrick Devedjian had ordered this report at the launch of the HDTV Forum in June (see previous issues of Advanced Television). The final decision about DTT standards is to be taken by the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, the
competing report, by Daniel Boudet de Montplaisir, chairman of the DTT commission,
concerning compression standards, was handed to the Prime Minister last Friday.
It calls for a launch of DTT as originally scheduled in March 2005, using
MPEG-2, with the possibility of using MPEG-4 on the remaining multiplex, R5,
which has yet to be allocated.
Back
to top
A government commissioner has found in favour of TF1's challenge of DTT licences awarded to the Canal Plus group. In his conclusions, the commissioner recommended cancelling the licences to the channels Sport+, i-Tele, Planete, CineCinema, Premier, iMCM, and Canal j. The decision does not affect the premium channel Canal +.
In its complaint, TF1 pointed out that Canal + and the Lagardere Group jointly controlled two of these channels, iMCM and Canal-j and so should be counted among the licences awarded to both of the operators. At the time of the call for tenders, the upper limit was five channel licences per operator. IMCM is owned by Lagardere Thematiques, while Canal j is owned by Canal j International, which is 100 per cent owned by Lagardere Thematiques. Lagardere Thematiques is jointly owned by Lagardere Images (51 per cent) and Canal + (49 per cent).
This upper limit for licences has now been amended to seven, but the commissioner considered that the law as it was at the time should be applied. He stated that although the ceiling has been raised, it modified the conditions of the contest and so a new call for tenders would need to be issued.
The Council of
State will issue its decision in about two weeks.
Back
to top
Orange, the mobile phone arm of France Telecom, could further delay the commercial launch of high-speed, third-generation handsets until next year, Chief Executive Sanjiv Ahuja was reported as saying.
"If the overall customer experience is not right, I would feel comfortable pushing the 3G launch to next year," Ahuja told Reuters in an interview at the ETRE technology conference in Cannes.
Orange said it
still hoped to solve technical problems such as overheating handsets and sell
at least two models made by vendors such as South Korea's LG Electronics and
Sony Ericsson in time for Christmas. Ahuja said a Christmas launch looked
unlikely unless last-minute glitches from 3G phones were removed by early
November.
Back
to top
State-run direct-to-home service DD Direct Plus is being scheduled for November-end launch, India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Jaipal Reddy announced. "Doordarshan's (DD) DTH will be launched by the end of November by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh confirmed.
The service is expected to be available for a one-time US$65 charge for a set-top box and an antenna. It will initially offer 40 channels, including all DD channels and 25 private ones, including Zee TV, TV Today's news channels Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, and the BBC.
The main reason for the Doordarshan to launch DTH is to help families who could not afford cable subscription fees and to reach out to people living in remote areas. Nearly 90 per cent of people of the country were covered by Doordarshan coverage. DD Direct Plus will be the second DTH service after Zee's Dish TV, launched in October last year.
Meanwhile, broadcasting
regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has suggested a complete
review of the existing foreign direct investment (FDI) limits in the cable
and DTH services. TRAI said against 74 per cent FDI allowed for internet service
providers, it is 49 per cent for cable services. In the case of DTH, total
foreign equity up to 49 per cent is allowed, of which FDI can be only 20 per
cent. The remaining 29 per cent can be held by foreign institutional investors,
overseas corporate bodies and non-resident Indians.
Back
to top
T-Mobile, Britain's fourth-ranked mobile operator, is conducting trials of new technology which would beam television signals into handsets. It expects the first products to be available by the end of next year, according to a report in the Times. A spokesman for T-Mobile, said: "We are looking into it and trailing it in the UK at the moment. We are looking at the end of 2005 before this will be available though."
As previously reported, rival mmO2 has also announced that it is gearing up to launch phones with a television service. O2 has teamed up with NTL, the cable operator, to run a pilot in Oxford next year in which five hundred people will be given multimedia phones with a built-in digital TV receiver. They will be able to receive 16 television channels.
France Telecom,
which owns Orange, is also preparing to join the race. The company claims
that its trials in France, where consumers have been able to receive TF1 and
other channels on their handsets, over the past eight months, have been "a
big success".
Back
to top
French media company Thomson is planning a bid for ITV's cinema ad sales business Carlton Screen Advertising, valued at £120 million (E180 million).
As part of the moves to get rid of non-core assets, ITV CEO Charles Allen is reviewing the future of Carlton Screen Advertising within ITV and has welcomed the move. Last month, ITV sold its stake in Thomson for £162 million.
Carlton Screen
Advertising is headed by CEO Debbie Chalet and counts Odeon, UCI and Cineworld
among its customers, and represents a total of 2,500 screens in the UK and
Republic of Ireland. It has a joint venture with Thomson, giving the companies
50 per cent ownership of Screenvision US and Screenvision Europe, the largest
cinema advertising network in the US and Europe, which are part of the sale.
Back
to top
France Telecom and Nokia are teaming up to jointly develop new rich media solutions on mobile terminals encompassing rich media hardware, services, applications and contents by using various standards technologies such as non-proprietary end-to-end access enablers, Nokia's terminal software platforms, and the Symbian OS.
According to
the companies, the main aim of the partnership is to design, develop and deploy
products and services to solve the problem of remote-access to content stored
at home, with maximum end to end security, identification, and authentication
guarantees.
Back
to top
New Skies Satellites,
the global satellite communications company, has been awarded a Radio Station
License by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. This
license, in combination with the Telecom Business Registration granted to
New Skies in July of this year, enables New Skies to offer international and
domestic satellite services directly to both Japanese and non-Japanese companies
for links to, from and within Japan.
Back
to top
Former BBC DG Greg Dyke has been recruited as an adviser by Apax Partners, the private equity group that has been linked in recent years with a string of media deals including bids for ITV, Trinity Mirror and the Telegraph Group.
The board, chaired
by former Merrill Lynch star media analyst Neil Blackley, is expected to run
the rule over a number of big media deals in the coming year, including a
possible bid for Big Brother producer Endemol.
Back
to top
AsiaSat and Israel-based Satlink Communications announced the launch of a MCPC (Multiple Channels per Carrier) digital platform on AsiaSat 2 satellite's C-band coverage beam offering connectivity from Europe to Asia and Australasia.
The launch of
this new platform will enable European broadcasters to expand their potential
coverage to the Asia Pacific region through Satlink's turnaround and transmission
facilities in Israel. AsiaSat 2, orbiting at 100.5ÁE, offers wide C-band coverage
stretching from Turkey and Egypt to Australia and New Zealand. Satlink will
provide broadcasters with a single-hop transmission solution to distribute
their channels to cable head-ends, rebroadcasters and individual home viewers
in the region. The enormous footprint also allows European corporations to
establish connectivity with their offices in Asia and Australasia.
Back
to top
Set-top box vendor Amino Communications has expanded its presence in Eastern and Central Europe via a partnership with Slovenia-based value-added reseller Iskratel.
"The Iskratel partnership will facilitate wider and faster availability of Amino's range of low-cost IP Television (IPTV) set-top boxes in the region and enhance systems support for local ISP and Telco customers," commented Amino.
The move follows
a recent major contract with Slovenia's leading ISP, SiOL, to supply the set-top
boxes for its new IPTV service. According to Amino, Central and Eastern Europe
is an attractive market for IPTV given the relatively new telecoms infrastructure
and availability of broadband networks.
Back
to top
Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTI), the telecom arm of Hutchison Whampoa, has raised US$900 million (HK$7 billion) by setting the price of its first-time share sale at the bottom of the range after failing to attract enough retail subscribers. Hutchison had originally hoped to raise US$1.5 billion from the spin off.
It priced the shares at US$77.1 cents each for retail investors and US$77.9 cents for institutional investors. The American depository shares were priced at US$11.67 (HK$91.03) each.
"Investor confidence is weakened due to the 3G business which needs a lot of capital in the short term. Retail investors believe telecom stocks are a very high risk," Delta Asia Financial research head Conita Hung commented.
The institutional tranche of the Hutchison Telecom IPO, accounting for 90 per cent of the total shares on offer, was 2.5 times subscribed, a source said.
Hutchison hopes gains from selling its assets can help offset 3G losses to keep its profitability. Its 3G services, which it offers in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, and Sweden, lost US$5 million in the first half before tax.
It returned to a first-half net profit of US$99.2 million this year after five years of losses, but only due to a US$0.16 billion one-off gain by placing shares in its fixed-line unit Hutchison Global Communications. It does not expect positive free cashflow until 2009.
For Hutchison
Whampoa, the telecom IPO was being considered to be a way of raising funds
to offset losses from its hefty investment into 3G operations, although the
company has long insisted it has enough cash in the form of a US$17 billion
war chest. The company said it would set aside the US$1 billion in gains from
the IPO for Hutchison Telecom to use at a later date in the form of preference
shares.
Back
to top
For the first time in its 54-year history, the winner of the Miss World competition will be chosen by television viewers.
In the weeks prior to the December 4 final in Sanya, China, viewers will be invited to vote during a live show Miss World by telephone, text messaging, interactive TV or online. The show's estimated audience of 2 billion people in 160 countries could lead to the largest phone vote in television history.
Judges, who have
chosen the winner in the past, this year will give opinions but viewers will
make the final choice.
Back
to top
Charter Communications issued a profits warning amid subscriber losses and rising programming costs. Shares in the cable TV operator chaired by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, fell 2.2 per cent to $2.65 after it said it expected to lose up to 60,000 cable subscribers in the third quarter, compared with a gain of about 11,000 subscribers in the same period of last year.
Charter, which has divested cable systems with more than 250,000 subscribers, said like-for-like earnings would be virtually flat before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, and would be down 3-5 per cent against the earnings reported in the third quarter of 2003.
The company has been hit by intense competition among cable operators and aggressive marketing by satellite rivals such as DirecTV, controlled by News Corp, and EchoStar.
Industry analysts
warned that Charter had lost subscribers in seven of the past eight quarters.
They also questioned whether Allen would refinance the company or seek a merger
with bankrupt cableco Adelphia.
Back
to top
GlobeCast announced a long-term agreement with Prime TV to deliver 24-hour Pakistani family channel PTV Prime to subscribers in the UK, Ireland and Europe. The deal sees GlobeCast providing an end-to-end distribution service for the subscription channel which will be available on GlobeCast's direct-to-home platforms via Eurobird and Hot Bird. In the UK and Ireland, PTV Prime will reach 7.5m people on Sky Digital.
PTV Prime was
the first 24-hour Pakistani channel to launch in Europe and has exclusive
rights to broadcast state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) content outside
Asia. Offering a mix of family programming in English and Urdu, it features
programmes created specifically for European-based Pakistanis, Urdu and Punjabi
families as well as PTV content.
Back
to top
RDF International,
the distribution arm of UK based RDF Media, announced that after a successful
first year of it's distribution deal with US Broadcaster Court TV, which represents
over 200 hours of programming, it has now secured sale of Body of Evidence
to UK Living and 13 episodes of Crime Stories to The History channel UK.
The network is 50 per cent owned by AOL Time Warner, and 50 per cent owned
by Liberty Media Corp. The network reaches.
Back
to top
BBC Worldwide announced the creation of BBC Japan. The new BBC wholly owned entertainment channel will bring the best of BBC programming to TV audiences in Japan.
BBC Japan will
offer viewers a mix of top comedy, drama, factual entertainment, children's
and learning programming, as well as talk shows and documentaries. Set to
launch in Japan on December, 1st 2004, the channel will offer a selection
of programmes subtitled in Japanese.
Back
to top
One of Romania's leading ISPs, Romania Data System (RDS), has selected two Scientific-Atlanta Europe NV, cable voice modems for the launch of voice service over its broadband network. The small office/home office (SOHO) voice service will be supported by Scientific-Atlanta's EPX2203 and DPX2203 cable modems with embedded media terminal adapters.
In the first
few months of its voice service rollout, RDS has already deployed over 1,000
of the Scientific-Atlanta voice modems for SOHO voice service. The Scientific-Atlanta
family of voice modem products has been designed to be compatible with PacketCable
and Euro-PacketCable to help assure a high level of interoperability with
other Euro-PacketCable and PacketCable qualified and compliant devices including
Call Management Servers, Media Gateways and Cable Modem Termination Systems
(CMTS).
Back
to top
For the very latest news go to Home Page ............
