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NEWS Monday October 25th to Friday October 29th 2004
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Media, telco giants silent on Endemol bid rumour
Sources at Spanish telco Telefonica and its TV production subsidiary Endemol have declined to comment on a report that Time Warner had tabled an E2 billion offer for the Big Brother. According to Spanish newspaper La Gaceta, the world's largest media group made the offer in a letter to Telefonica, saying it was interesting in buying the unit. The report suggested that Time Warner executives met Telefonica representatives in New York a few weeks ago to discuss the acquisition.
Any eventual
deal would be in line with Telefonica's strategy of off-loading the non-core
assets acquired during the dotcom era by its former chairman, Juan Villalonga.
In September, Telefonica sold its five per cent stake in the Financial Times
publisher, Pearson, for £236 million as part of its focus on its core
telecoms business. In August, Telefonica subsidiary Terra Networks sold online
search company Lycos in a debt reduction exercise.
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MGM Networks has launched The MGM Channel in Taiwan and signed an agreement to launch the service in Malaysia. The new services join a customised MGM-branded channel created a year ago in Hong Kong for the Greater China and Southeast Asia market, and mean that the network has extended its reach into seven of the region's most important countries and territories. The MGM Channel is produced and distributed in the region by MGM Networks through a strategic alliance with CNBC Asia Pacific.
"Distributors
across Greater China and Southeast Asia have greeted The MGM Channel with
a level of enthusiasm far beyond our original expectations," said Bruce
Tuchman, executive vice president of MGM Networks. "We are so pleased
to add the key markets of Taiwan and Malaysia to the channel's current reach
in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Macau and Thailand."
In Taiwan, The MGM Channel will be carried by Taiwan Broadband Communications,
one of the market's leading cable operators. In Malaysia, The MGM Channel
is set for launch on the country's newest Pay-TV platform, MiTV.
"The MGM
Channel's first year of operations is a great story about reaching out to
our viewers and distributors," said Shawn Galey, CNBC Asia Pacific's
vice president, business and legal affairs.
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Canadian device software provider Espial has licensed Espial Escape browser and Espial Espresso lightweight GUI toolkit to Korean solutions specialist C&S Technology for the company's series of Video and Multimedia Internet Protocol phones.
Adding browser capabilities to their phones ensures they can deliver the latest Internet video and walled garden content to the enterprise and home environment.
In addition to traditional telephony features, the series of phones connects users to the value of visual Internet and walled garden content on the phone, with easy to use, intuitive graphical user interfaces. Every level of user will be capable of browsing the Internet, sending email or using traditional Web chat programs.
"Getting to market fast, with minimal risk and a commitment to enhancing cost-effectiveness of the product are key drivers for C&S Technology," commented Shin Cha, C&S Technology.
Branded Vizufon,
C&S predicts that the phone will make an important role in Next Generation
Network that is preparing the service for near future.
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Jean Grenier, president of AEPOC (European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services), has expressed the concern of the industry about the work schedule of the EU Commission with regard to the necessary reform of the Conditional Access Directive. "We urge the Commission to seriously reconsider the priority it assigns to the fight against piracy of audiovisual services. AEPOC is ready to continue the constructive dialogue with the Commission," Grenier told delegates at AEPOC's second European Anti-Piracy Symposium.
The meeting concluded that the further development of customer-orientated business models for audiovisual services was a key factor in the fight against piracy by making legal offers more attractive than pirating. It was also agreed that in order to be successfully implemented, investments in new offerings, and also in effective conditional access technologies for these offerings, needed adequate protection by anti-piracy legislation.
Davide Rossi, Secretary General of AEPOC said that the was "far from coming to grips with piracy of audiovisual services," but felt that there were promising perspectives which could be developed in a common effort of all parties involved.
AEPOC also announced
the admission of two members: Korean hardware developer Hutro and pay -TV,
interactive and digital service provider ADD Europe.
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National Geographic Film Library and GignoSystem America have agreed a mobile phone distribution agreement that will deliver National Geographic's video clips and images to mobile phone subscribers around the world. The new service will be available to subscribers through select mobile operators in the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and France by the end of the year. Adventurers, animal lovers and anyone with a thirst for knowledge will be able to download and/or stream imagery and research from National Geographic Television & Film onto their mobile phones.
The National Geographic Film Library content for mobile subscribers will include weekly video features, maps, articles and images on a variety of topics and geographic locations. Mobile subscribers also will be offered a new weekly adventure series, with new chapters of the adventure delivered daily to mobile screens.
"The mobile platform is well suited for sharing National Geographic's vast resources and rich content, and we anticipate our agreement with GignoSystem America will open the door to even greater opportunities in the mobile platform arena," said Matthew White, vice president, Film Library, for National Geographic Television & Film. "GignoSystem's expertise in mobile media, creates another significant delivery channel from which to offer our content to millions of mobile phone subscribers."
Patrick Stanton,
director of business development, GignoSystem America, said that the opportunity
to distribute National Geographic content meant that mobile subscribers who
are passionate about these topics would be able to receive the information
they desire instantly.
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Nokia has launched
Preminet, which offers mobile carriers a platform to distribute content and
applications to their subscribers. Operators can select from a catalogue of
certified content to pass along to their customers.
Preminet uses Java and Symbian OS software from developers and content aggregators
to give wireless telephony operators a catalogue of applications, games and
other mobile content. According to Nokia Preminet offers operators a platform
for delivery, billing and revenue distribution, providing an end-to-end, operator-brandable
platform for launching applications and services to consumers.
"Until now, each operator has been responsible for maintaining hundreds of relationships with individual Java and Symbian OS developers, and for sourcing and testing each application before bringing them to the end-user," commented Lee Epting, vice president, Forum Nokia. "With Preminet, we now provide a single source for operators to acquire industry-certified content, applications and services, and a platform for managing distribution to their customers."
The first content
provider for Preminet is mobile media publisher Starcut, which is to provide
entertainment, lifestyle and sports content on the platform.
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US service provider
Verizon Communications has agreed a multi-year deal to use Motorola technology
to serve video to its fibre-to-the-home customers.
Paul Lacouture, president-Network Services Group for Verizon said that the
new network infrastructure would lead to "a true convergence of voice,
data and video services on one network. We currently deliver voice and high-speed
data over this new network, and the available bandwidth that fibre provides
makes the addition of video services the next logical step."
Verizon intends to pass some 1 million homes and businesses with the new FTTP
network this year, in parts of nine states. In 2005, the company expects to
double its FTTP deployment and launch its first video services over the new
network.
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According to News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, its US satellite broadcaster DirecTV will break even within a year and is increasing its subscriber base at double the rate expected. Murdoch said DirecTV was on course to reach 14 million subscribers by Christmas, an increase of two million in just 12 months and double the one million the company had anticipated when it bought a 34 per cent stake in the group late in 2003.
"We've been
very surprised by DirecTV," Murdoch told News Corp's annual meeting in
Adelaide, noting the growth had come about with only a small increase in marketing
spending since the acquisition.
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Australian service provider Optus is hoping that its home subscriber bundles will prove profitable enough to allow it to give away several months worth of broadband access per year for free.
Optus intends to offer customers subscribing to most of its home phone; post-paid mobile and broadband services four months broadband access per year free. Subscribers bundling either home phone or post-paid mobile with broadband would receive three months access free. Optus plans to build its own DSL infrastructure, and hopes the new deals will help win it enough new customers to provide the scale needed to justify the investment.
"Success in the Australian telecommunications market is dependent on achieving scale and owning infrastructure," acting managing director of Optus Consumer and Multimedia Scott Lorson said. "Today's announcement is a critical step in achieving the former."
Optus has 190,000
of its 250,000 broadband subscribers on its own HFC cable network, the cable
for which goes past 1.3 million homes. Remaining broadband subscribers are
on ADSL connections bought wholesale from Telstra.
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Arabic satellite TV broadcaster Al Jazeera will launch a global 24-hour English-language news service as an alternative to rival networks such as BBC and CNN. Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are competing to be the regional hub for Al-Jazeera International.
No timeframe has been announced for the new channel. The Al-Jazeera Arabic news network, which is based in Qatar as well as funded by its government, will initially finance the operation. Revenue will come from selling television advertising space.
"We will be a broad-based international channel in English. We have to make a decision in the next week or so (on where to locate the newsroom, the station's head of news)," said Steve Clark, head of news at the channel, which aims to be up and running by the end of 2005.
Al Jazeera International will stand alone from the Arabic-language channel, with a different editorial team and a news agenda that will focus less on the Middle East and more on issues from the developing world, said Al Jazeera International managing director Nigel Parsons, who expressed a wish to be at break even in "three to five years".
The broadcaster said that the target group for the new channel would English-speaking audience, adding that the nations of Southeast Asia with large Muslim populations would be a particular target audience. The channel will be headquartered in the company's Doha base but have regional offices in Washington, London and another in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, Clark said. Hong Kong's Broadcasting Authority said Al-Jazeera International has not yet contacted it to apply for a programme distribution licence.
The company hopes
to follow the satellite footprint of its Arabic language sister channel.
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Israeli software
solutions provider Infogate Online has introduced enhanced content download
capabilities for its OnDema IPTV and VOD middleware platform. The new features
include Progressive Download as well as full content download, which complement
OnDema's streaming. These new download features enable broadband service operators
to improve bandwidth utilisation for VOD services. OnDema also enables the
on-demand service operator to offer a complete download of movies prior to
viewing.This
provides service operators with another option for generating revenues from
new services. With both features, OnDema maintains security and protects the
content from copying or unauthorised use.
"Not all broadband networks have the quality of service to enable video
on demand services. With OnDema's Progressive Download option, more broadband
service operators can leverage their networks to offer high quality viewing
experiences to their subscribers. Service operators will be able to benefit
from new revenue-generating VOD services," claimed Eran Levin, Infogate
Online's Chief Technology Officer. "And because the video start-up time
is reduced to minimum, the subscriber can begin to enjoy the entertainment
almost immediately, reinforcing the value of the service."
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Discovery
Travel & Living unveiled in India
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Discovery Communications, Inc. has unveiled its new 24-hour international
lifestyle channel, Discovery Travel and Living in India.
The channel will target an upscale, urban audience of men and women aged 18-45.
Discovery Travel & Living will be distributed in India by the One Alliance
along with the company's two existing channels, Discovery Channel and Animal
Planet. The channel will reach a subscriber base of 15 million households
by the end of the year. Deepak Shourie, Managing Director of Discovery Networks
India, claimed that the new service would be "a trendsetter," suggesting
that it offered "the best lifestyle programming, a genre that is set
to be the next big thing in Indian television. This is also the first global
network in India to offer stylish, premium television to viewers attuned to
the latest global trends."
The programming
mix includes travel, cuisine, design, décor and fashion. The launch
of Discovery Travel & Living in India marks the debut of Discovery Lifestyle
Networks, a global business initiative announced by the company earlier this
year.
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TeliaSonera, the Nordic region's largest telecommunications operator has reported stronger than expected quarterly profits and revealed that it plans to repurchase SKr10 billion worth of its own shares next year.
The three months to September 30 saw a pre-tax profit of SKr5.985 billion, up 78 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) excluding non-recurring items rose to SKr8.212 billion, up four per cent.
Anders Igel, chief executive said: "In a very competitive market we show the strongest quarterly result in the history of the company."
In fixed line voice services sales continued to fall due to migration to mobile and IP-based services and price erosion. Broadband sales grew across all markets.
In July the Swedish-Finnish group announced that it would spend SKr30bn on share buybacks between 2005-07, but gave no details of exact timings. The group has amassed cash with the aim of expanding through acquisitions but has so far failed to find many suitable targets.
1 Skr = E0.110585
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Comcast, the largest US cable operator, posted a third quarter profit boosted by high-speed Internet customer gains that offset slower growth in basic TV subscribers.
For the quarter ended September 30, 2004, Comcast Cable reported revenue of $4.8 billion, a 10.6 per cent increase from the third quarter of 2003. Video revenue increased 6.6 per cent from the third quarter of 2003, driven by a 5.5 per cent increase in average monthly revenue per basic subscriber and an increase in digital revenue.
During the quarter Comcast added 341,000 digital cable subscribers to end the period with over 8.4 million subscribers, or 39.1 per cent of basic subscribers. Basic subscribers of 21.5 million remained essentially unchanged from a year ago but increased 8,500 from the prior quarter. Included in the basic subscriber results for the quarter was the loss of an estimated 10,000 subscribers as a result of the severe hurricane season experienced in parts of Florida and other Southeastern states.
Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts noted: "We reached record levels of new video and high-speed Internet service additions this quarter, confirming that we have successfully transformed Comcast into a new products company. Our high-speed Internet service led the way, adding over 549,000 subscribers - the highest level of quarterly high-speed Internet additions in the Company's history. We also posted strong growth in Digital Cable as we continue to extend our video offering to include ON DEMAND, HDTV and DVRs. We added 341,000 new digital subscribers this quarter and installed more than 200,000 HDTV set-top boxes in customers' homes. Interest in our ‘On Demand' service continues to grow. Customers are selecting on-demand content more than 50 million times each month and early indications suggest strong demand for our DVR product. “
Growth in video revenue also reflects increasing consumer demand for new digital features, including Comcast ‘On Demand', HDTV programming and DVRs, the company said. During the third quarter, pay-per-view revenues increased nearly 32 per cent to more than $100 million, driven by more movie and event purchases through the ‘On Demand' service. Increasing demand for HDTV and the accelerating rollout of DVRs is also contributing to digital growth. At the end of the third quarter, Comcast had nearly 870,000 set-top boxes in customers' homes offering HDTV and/or DVR service.
During the third quarter of 2004 Comcast Cable added 549,100 High-Speed Internet subscribers to end the quarter with more than 6.5 million subscribers. Revenues for this service increased 37.9 per cent from the third quarter of 2003 to $808 million reflecting strong subscriber growth and stable average monthly revenue per subscriber of $42.91. Comcast High-Speed Internet service is now available to 94 per cent of the company's footprint, or 38 million homes.
Advertising revenue
increased 15.5 per cent from the third quarter of 2003 to $319 million. Cable
phone revenue declined 8.6 per cent from the third quarter of 2003 to $173
million, the result of a 7.5 per cent decrease in subscribers to 1.2 million
and stable average monthly revenue per subscriber of $47.18.
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The BBC's commercial arm is launching its mainstream English-language entertainment channel across Asia. The subscription channel, BBC Prime, will be launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines from December 1, Wayne Dunsford, BBC Worldwide director of channels, announced at CASBAA, the Asian cable and satellite television conference in Hong Kong.
The channel, which will be a direct competitor to Rupert Murdoch's Star World TV channel, will complement BBC Worldwide's news channel, BBC World, which is already offered in the region. Versions of BBC Prime are already offered in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, repackaging British shows with subtitles in local languages.
Earlier this
month BBC Worldwide launched BBC Japan, a commercial channel it hopes will
attract 100,000 subscribers in one year. It is considering a similar channel
in China.
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Norwegian telco Telenor posted a 16 per cent increase in revenues to NOK 15.6 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2004 compared to the 3rd quarter of the previous year.
Operating profit
increased by NOK 300 million to NOK 2,600 million, while profit before tax
and increased by NOK 659 million to NOK 2,664 million in the same period.
EBITDA amounted to NOK 5,605 million. This is NOK 713 million more than in
the third quarter of last year.
By the end of the third quarter Broadcast's number of satellite subscribers
in the Nordic region exceeded 800,000. "We are extremely happy with customer
growth in our mobile operations, both in the domestic market and outside Norway,
and we expect the customer growth and the positive development in Broadcast
to continue," says Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO.
(1 EUR = 8.15
NOK )
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Star India has called for a raise in foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the direct-to-home (DTH) ventures in India. The Rupert Murdoch-owned subsidiary, which is in the course of setting up a DTH venture with Indian conglomerate Tata group, will accept a 20 per cent stake in the company in keeping with the current Indian government policy, but said the FDI cap in the venture should be raised to 49 per cent to ensure a steady flow of funds.
"We will go ahead with a 20 per cent stake because that is the current policy. But there should be an equitable shareholding in the business. While we are happy with the Tatas, but what happens if tomorrow, the funds are not available on an ongoing basis? I think, capping the FDI at 49 per cent is sensible," said Peter Mukerjea, Star India CEO.
Star says it
would have no objection to supplying content to other DTH platforms if there
was a general agreement on piracy prevention. "Until the problem of piracy
is overcome we will remain nervous of supplying content," said Mukerjea.
He also said that Star might soon be on Zee's DTH platform Dish TV. "There
are commercial issues between us and Zee. Once these are sorted out our channels
can join the platform," he concluded.
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TiVo and the NFL have reached an agreement on a potential new technology that the league feared would endanger its regional schemes and multibillion-dollar TV contracts.
TiVo had run afoul of the NFL and other content providers when it asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve TiVoGuard technology, which would let subscribers access over-the-air digital content between their TiVos without wireless and regardless of location.
The NFL expressed concern that TiVoGuard would harm its copyright and could lead to users transferring digital games to viewers outside the market. The FCC voted 5-0 in the summer to reject the NFL and the Motion Picture Assn. of America's concerns that TiVoGuard would violate "broadcast flag" copyright-protection regulations.
TiVoGuard is still in development, with no release date in sight. TiVo president Marty Yudkovitz said that the company assured the NFL that it will protect the league's copyrights, when and if the service is available, only recorded and completed games can be sent among TiVos attached to the same account.
Yudkovitz said
the content will be encrypted and authenticated to keep it from being shared
via the Internet, and TiVo will be able to tell if the device has been tampered
with.
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France's mobile penetration rate rose to 71 per cent in the third quarter of 2003, the French telecommunications watchdog unveiled.
The Autorite de Regulation des Telecommunications also said 626,800 new customers were added over the quarter, bringing the total number to 42.9 million. It said multimedia services are now used by more than 8 million customers.
French cellular
carriers are France Telecom's Orange, Vivendi Universal's SFR and Bouygues
Telecom.
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"We think music plus photos is the next big thing," said Apple boss Steve Jobs. Apple simultaneously launched a 'digital box set' compiling all of the albums by top-selling Irish rock band U2, which fans will be able to download for $149 from the company's online iTunes music store next month.
To promote the
U2 box set, Apple is also issuing a special edition iPod, which comes in black
with a bright red click wheel, and bears copies of the four band members'
signatures.
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Weather-related reception problems were ranked as the top reason satellite TV users would consider switching from the dish to cable in a new survey from Lyra Research's DTV View group.
Steve Hoffenberg, principal analyst for the Lyra DTV View report, "Our survey respondents told us that foremost, they just wanted to be able to watch TV, rain or shine. During stormy weather is precisely when viewers are most likely to want to stay indoors and watch TV."
Despite rain fade issues, Hoffenberg said the majority of survey respondents said they were not likely to switch from satellite TV to cable in the next 12 months. "While the satellite industry has not adequately addressed the rain-fade problem, cable providers' ads mentioning the issue haven't convinced satellite users to convert en masse," he said.
In response to the report, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association said in a statement, "Hundreds of industries, including cable, rely on satellite delivered technology to serve the needs of their consumers. Although there is some potential for rain delay, these problems typically come from a bad installation rather than satellite technology itself. DBS dishes properly installed by a NSTP certified technician should have very few problems."
In a separate
statement, EchoStar pointed out that DISH Network continues to outrank - by
a wide margin - all cable companies in overall customer satisfaction, as evidenced
by the 2004 J.D. Power and Associates study.
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Responding to increasing market demand for mass-market 3G handsets, PacketVideo Corporation, a supplier of embedded multimedia software for mobile phones, announced the availability of two-way video software for the Nokia Series 60 smartphone platform. PacketVideo's software enables users to make person-to-person calls showing live video images of both callers on the screens of their phones.
"Person-to-person communication has always been the number one use for mobile phones," said Dr. James Brailean, Ph.D., PacketVideo CEO. "Now we're combining the increased effectiveness and emotional impact of video communication with the utility and convenience consumers enjoy with their Nokia mobile phones. Handsets featuring PacketVideo software should provide a huge boost to 3G video telephony services for operators everywhere."
Brailean went
on to say, "Video telephony is a defining service for 3G networks. The
increased traffic and revenues from videophone users is a major reason why
mobile operators invested in 3G licenses and infrastructure. Our two-way solution
shows that video is no longer just for entertainment. Now it's a core part
of communications."
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E! Networks has signed a licensing deal with The Times of India to create branded programming blocks to air on Zoom Television, Kevin MacLellan, senior vice president, international, E! Networks announced.
The company is
also set to sign a deal in Japan with Jupiter Entertainment's Movie Plus,
delivering E!'s signature live red carpet coverage and topline celebrity and
fashion-themed series to the region.
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WIPphone, a provider of Voice over Broadband services for residential and SME customers, announced that it is expanding its distribution network throughout the UK and Europe through a partnership agreement with Datafirst.
The WIPphone VoIP service is based on the Internet access infrastructure of its parent company WorldWide Telco (WWT) and WIPphone products to enable the service to be used with the PSTN and others access the VoIP services without the use of a computer. It is therefore possible to call from a PC or telephone with or without an ADSL line and to any phone (both landlines and mobiles) throughout the world.
The service reduces
communication costs in general and also delivers free unlimited calls between
WIPphone users.
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UK cableco Telewest Broadband has launched a new base-level digital TV package to compete with the BBC's Freeview and the Sky Starter Pack launched last week.
Essential TV will offer 70 digital channels for a £30 (E45) installation fee and £13.50 a month, as well as the option for viewers to upgrade to Sky premium channels. Freeview does not allow premium channels to be bolted on to its service.
The pack includes a range of more than 70 popular digital channels including the 15 most popular, including Sky One, E4, LIVINGtv, BBC News 24, Cartoon Network and Discovery. Free interactive services include TV email, shopping and games plus Front Row, the movies-on-demand service.
Available only
to viewers with access to Telewest cable, Essential TV will be sold through
Dixons stores following a deal between Telewest Broadband and the chain.
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Adelphia Communications, the US bankrupt cable company, will accept a joint bid from cable giants Time Warner and Comcast. Adelphia's board had considered keeping the two companies apart seeking to get a higher bid if they compete with each other for the cable operator, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a massive financial scandal.
But after receiving preliminary expressions of interest from bidders last week, Adelphia reached a confidential agreement with Comcast and Time Warner allowing them to submit a joint bid should they choose to work together. The decision puts Time Warner and Comcast in the early lead in what is expected to be a long, complicated auction process. Adelphia has said it would consider selling itself in one piece, or breaking up into seven separate "clusters" of cable systems around the country.
More than 40
prospective bidders have requested offering material and signed confidentiality
agreements for examining the country's fifth-largest cable company, which
could fetch more than $17 billion.
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Pink TV, the first gay channel in Europe, launched on Monday evening with a huge party at the Paris national Chaillot theatre, across the river from the Eiffel Tower. The channel is aimed at gay and "gay-friendly" community. A number of well known presenters will participate on the channel. Programming will be a mixture of soaps, discussion and magazine programmes. Hard core porn will feature after midnight four times a week.
The channel's
executives are believed to have worked hard to convince the CSA to allow porn
content, which they believe will be one of the prime drivers for subscriptions,
as the CSA's chairman Dominque Baudis has been trying to reduce porn on TV.
The channel has an annual budget of E12.5 million, just over half (E 6.5 million)
of which is for programming. The channel is available on both of the French
DTH platforms (Canal Satellite and TPS), the main cable networks, and ADSL
services (Canal Satellite DSL, TPS-L and Free), as an optional subscription
of E9 a month.
According to studies carried out on behalf of the channel, the potential viewership could reach around 3.5 million in France, and 84 per cent of the people questioned for the research are said to be prepared to subscribe to a channel which is specially for them.
Its shareholders
include the main media groups: TF1 Digital (11.44 percent), the Lagardere
group (10 per cent), the Canal Plus group (17.5 per cent) and M6 (9.2 per
cent). The channel's president, Pascal Houzelot, is reported to hold 30 per
cent. The channel hopes to get 180,000 subscribers.
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US satco DirecTV
said it may take up to $1.6 billion in charges to write down the value of
satellites it would use for broadcasting instead of high-speed data services,
according to Sky Report.
In September, the company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, said
it would use two satellites currently under construction to expand its programming
capacity, particularly for high-definition television. The Spaceway satellites
originally had been earmarked for high-speed Internet services. The change
in strategy required the company to review the book value of the satellites.
As a result,
the company expects to record a pre-tax charge of about $1.4 billion to $1.6
billion in the third quarter, according to a filing with the US Securities
and Exchange Commission.
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The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) and brokerage and investment banking services company CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets (CLSA) have revealed that piracy across all sectors of the Asia-Pacific pay-TV industry, from platform operators to independent suppliers of programming, is predicted to rise 11 per cent from US$874 million, as estimated in 2003, to US$970 million as estimated in 2004.
The second annual Asia-Pacific Cost of Pay-TV Piracy Report, covering all forms of cable and satellite pay-TV piracy and spanning Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, highlights the impact of unlicensed pay television operators and illegal system subscribers on regional economies. The cost to governments in lost taxes, licence fees and other revenues is estimated to be at least US$152 million, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, who contributed to the report.
Hong Kong – with a US$25 million loss - has suffered a 66 per cent increase in revenues lost to pirated cable subscribers, but the piracy cost associated with satellite overspill has fallen by 16 per cent, in part because of industry de-liberalisation and in part through the success of anti-piracy measures undertaken by CASBAA on behalf of its members during the past 12 months.
Early indications suggest that efforts to counter a breach in the systems designed to counteract piracy in Malaysia during the third quarter of 2004 have been successful, providing a standout example for other regional markets. South Korea is the only market with no material piracy reported. Australia and China are not covered by the survey in 2004.
"Yet again the results are alarming," said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. "Pay-TV piracy in Asia-Pacific is not a matter of small-time individuals who make a part-time living from trading in pay-TV decoders and smart cards. The culprits have direct links to, and funding from, organised-crime syndicates investing large sums of money in breaking encryption systems and collecting illicit cable subscriptions.
"These characters are often involved in drug running and prostitution. In some markets these guys have relationships with terrorists. The offenders are far from nice people and the perception that pay-TV theft – and the theft of other types of intellectual property rights – is a victimless crime must be clearly rebutted," added Twiston Davies.
"The report clearly demonstrates the severity of the cost of piracy around the region," said Simon Dewhurst, Director and Head of Media & Entertainment Investment Banking at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
CLSA noted that
the global pay-TV industry is larger than the global recording and filmed
entertainment industries combined in terms of revenue and suggested that it
was vital that all industry participants in Asia join forces to address the
problems and overcome the challenges of piracy.
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Cable Partners Europe (CPE) the privately-held European broadband communications, investment and operations group, has successfully concluded its restructure negotiations with Liberty Media International.
CPE will exchange notes with Liberty Media for preferred and common equity in a subsidiary of CPE, Callahan Associates Holdings Belgium (CAHB). As a result of the exchange, LMI will be the control shareholder of CAHB, which will hold an approximate 14 per cent indirect interest in Telenet.
Telenet is the largest cable operator in Belgium with 2.5 million RGUs located primarily in the Dutch speaking Flanders region of Belgium. The transaction is expected to close this week.
CAHB owns its interest in Telenet through a holding company with approximately 21 per cent of the shares of Telenet. Other shareholders of the holding company include Evercore, CDPQ Capital and Merrill Lynch Capital Partners.
Comments Richard
Callahan, CEO of CPE, "These have been long negotiations but their successful
conclusion provides for the well-funded future of both Telenet and of CPE.
We continue to firmly believe in the Broadband market and our success in both
Belgium and with the creation of Ono in Spain, attests to the quality of our
management team. Where regulators have a positive attitude to cable and triple
play, the customer benefits. We will be exploring a number of telecoms deals
with the aim of replicating our European successes."
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Akimbo Systems rolled out its Internet-to-TV video-on-demand (VOD) service to consumers in the US, and announced an alliance with Amazon.com to sell its Akimbo Player.
The Akimbo Service provides access to thousands of programs, allowing consumers to choose content and view it on-demand. Consumers select programs that are downloaded to the Akimbo Player through a broadband-Internet connection, and view them on their televisions using an easy 'Queue and View' format.
Akimbo has agreed
to make Amazon.com its exclusive retailer for the 2004 holiday season. The
player is available in the Amazon.com Electronics store at for $229.99.
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp announced that its shareholders have given approval to its plan to move its corporate base from Australia to the US. Investors voted more than 90 per cent in favour of Murdoch's plan to reincorporate News Corp in the United States, where it generates more than 75 per cent of its earnings. The vote followed months of wrangling over the deal, which will see Australia's biggest company leave the benchmark stock exchange index.
Murdoch said
the company will be in a "much stronger financial position" once
the shift has been completed, and it will provide shareholders "the promise
of a new and more prosperous era."
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Irdeto Access announced that ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation (ABS-CBN), the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines with operations worldwide, has selected Irdeto PIsys, to secure Pay TV content to over 150,000 set top boxes in North America and Australia.
Designed for large operators, Irdeto PIsys is a large-scale modular content security system that will allow ABS-CBN to deliver its Pay TV offering to customers securely by satellite. ABS-CBN will receive delivery of the first shipment of 50,000 smart cards before the end of 2004.
In addition to
using Irdeto PIsys to secure its distribution in North America, ABS-CBN has
transitioned its Northern California uplink to become its international satellite
platform. As a result, it has migrated its direct-to-home platform in Australia
across to Irdeto Access, meaning Irdeto PIsys will also protect content for
over 20,000 of ABS-CBN's subscribers in
Australia.
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MGM Networks, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and NTV-PLUS, Russia's Satellite Digital Television System, announced an agreement to localize and distribute a Russian-language version of the MGM channel to NTV-PLUS direct-to-home satellite subscribers.
This agreement
follows up the debut into countries of the former Soviet Union by The MGM
Channel, which launched into the market on a number of cable and MMDS systems
in 2002 in its original English language. By adding a Russian-language track
to the channel, MGM Networks and NTV-PLUS will greatly expand channel's subscriber
base and presence across this market.
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A&E Television Networks (AETN) unveiled the launch of a new television network, Crime & Investigation Network, on what the company claims in the first and only channel in the international market dedicated to crime, investigation and mystery programming.
AETN has reached
an agreement with Australia's Foxtel, to launch Crime & Investigation
Network in the country on its digital service on January 1, 2005.
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ANT, a UK-based provider of user interface software for TV and consumer electronics, announced a software extension for the ANT Fresco browser that allows an Electronic Programme Guides (EPG) to run more efficiently than current alternative offerings, the company claims. The software was initially developed for Alcatel, following requests from its customers for a memory-enhanced EPG solution for its IPTV middleware solution
"The transmission,
storage and use of important data, such as EPG information, is critical to
the success of both a good set-top box design and the interactive services
being deployed," commented Stephen Reeder, Executive Director of Sales
and Marketing at ANT .
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ITV/BBC to partner on free satellite?
ITV is considering joining the BBC in a new non-subscription venture which will seek to break BSkyB's monopoly on satellite broadcasting and could lead to the end of ITV's payments for having its services included on the Sky platform, according to a report on the Independent.
In what could amount to a double blow for James Murdoch, the CEO of Sky, the development of FreeSat comes at a time when ITV is renegotiating the £17 million (E25.5 million) annual payment to have its satellite broadcasts encrypted by Sky. Encryption gives Sky the ability to stop the ITV signal bleeding over into other countries and ensures the right regional programmes reach the right homes.
The BBC went unencrypted two years ago and it believes other public service broadcasters should follow. The channels are still available to Sky users. It is understood that ITV is carefully examining this possibility, attracted by the prospect of a £17 million saving which would boost profits by 5 per cent.
The BBC-backed
satellite offer would seek to undercut Sky on price as it would back cheaper
STBs that don't include a card slot for upgrading to pay-TV.
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Canal Plus and Free, “the leading French alternative ADLS operator” have signed a carriage deal. Free uses ADSL technology to provide access to some hundred channels as well as fast Internet and VoIP telephony, through it's single terminal “Freebox”. Free estimates that around 200,000 of its ADSL subscribers (which total almost 800,000) use the Freebox to watch television.
The operator has been hampered by a number of channels refusing to be carried by the service, even though it offered to carry them free of charge. The company has filed suit against terrestrial channels TF1 and M6, which have refused to be carried, claming that Free would be in competition to their own TPS-L service. Free claims its an ISP not a channel supplier.
The new deal will mean that all of the channels in the Canal Satellite platform and also Canal Plus premium channels will be available on the Free ADSL platform, from November 24.
Free subscribers
(who have been dubbed ‘freenauts') will be able to subscribe to the channels
via the Free web site, but the invoicing and payment will all be handled directly
by Canal Plus/Satellite. Canal started its own ADSL service earlier this year.
It is used to provide access to the channels and is seen as an alternative
to installing a dish, but does not include Internet access. However, take-up
has been very poor, believed to be just a few thousand.
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The leading French cable operator Noos was found guilty by a French court of having unilaterally downgraded its broadband service. This results from a complaint filed by Luccas, the association of users. The order from the court asked Noos to reinstate the bandwidth it previously offered and pay damages of E3,000 to Luccas plus E500 to each user, plus a penalty of E1,000 a day for each day late. Noos will also have to pay all of Luccas' expenses.
The case has
dragged on for a long time. Luccas filed the complaint back in 1999, against
Cybercable, which changed its name to Noos in 2000. Cybercable's advertising
at the time promised download speed of 2MB/s.
However, the company quickly found that it did not have the capacity to keep
up with demand, so changed the speed to 500kb/s in September 1999 by modifying
the software in the users' modems to limit the speed. It did this without
notice and without informing the users of the change. In December 1999 the
court asked for an expert report. This was carried out and financed by Luccas.
Noos has not
issued a comment. Although the case opens the possibility of compensation
for around 20,000 users from 1999, many of them have cancelled their subscription
in the meantime.
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Verizon Communications, the largest US telephone company, won a government ruling that may speed up construction of its fibre-optic network to carry video, phone calls and Internet traffic.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to grant Verizon's request to deny competitors access to new fibre installations at home. Verizon Vice Chairman Lawrence Babbio said in August that such rulings may lead the company to install fibre-optic cable to as many as four million homes next year, up from a planned two million. Although the FCC ruled last year that New York-based Verizon and other local carriers wouldn't have to lease new fibre networks to competitors such as AT&T, the companies asked for clarification that older sharing rules didn't apply.
The company and
other regional phone providers SBC Communications and BellSouth are installing
networks in their territories to offer video and faster Internet services
and to compete better against cable-television providers including Comcast.
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Mark Thompson, the BBC DG, who is studying ways to show the government that the corporation is taking the necessary "self-help" measures to earn a new charter, is said to be planning to axe up to 6,000 jobs.
The drastic job cuts are being described officially as "speculative" by the corporation but the unions fear thousands are at risk.
Thompson announced
four major reviews on his first day as director general back in June, looking
at the BBC's commercial activities, plans to move significant numbers of staff
to an enlarged broadcasting and production base in Manchester, production
and commissioning at TV Centre in London and a separate move to cut costs
across the organisation. All four reviews are likely to result in job cuts.
Under Greg Dyke's Directorship the number of staff at the BBC swelled by 4,000.
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From January next year on, the German version of the Multithematique channel Planete will be owned by @Media, a company owned by the German media consultant Alexander Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg.
The documentary
channel will be part of the recently launched digital bouquet of Kabel Deutschland
from the new year. Currently Planet is part of the digital pay bouquet of
Premiere with whom the contract expires end of this year. Under the new ownership
Planet will be expanded to a full 24 hour service from currently eight hours.
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ITV is to sell the Moving Picture Company, its special effects subsidiary, to French technology company Thomson in a deal believed to be worth over £50 million (E75 million).
The move is part
of the UK's broadcaster plan to sell off its non core assets after the Carlton
and Granada merger. Thomson is believed to have outbid five others, including
film company Kodak, WPP Group, US-based private equity firm Carlyle Group
and former Carlton boss Michael Green.
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Telenor Interactive, a provider of mobile applications and messaging services in North America, has been acquired by The Mobile Media Company. Both companies have Telenor Ventures as a major investor, and the new consolidated company will be operating under the Mobile Media brand.
Karsten Hauge,
CEO of The Mobile Media Company commented: "We are delighted to add Telenor
Interactive to our portfolio. They have become a recognised leader in the
provision of reliable and creative mobile services to North American media
and entertainment groups, enterprise companies, and consumer brands. “
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GlobeCast has extended its global fibre network to Japan as a result of a deal struck with Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI.
The Tokyo point-of-presence
(PoP) is linked via a fully redundant fibre optic link from Tokyo directly
to GlobeCast's Los Angeles teleport, the West Coast access to GlobeCast's
global fibre network. In addition to Tokyo and Los Angeles, GlobeCast's fibre
network includes 9 other points-of-presence: New York, Washington D.C., Miami,
London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Singapore and Sydney. The interconnection between
the points-of-presence and GlobeCast's 15 teleports and technical operations
centres allows the operator to offer customers hybrid satellite/fibre solutions
satisfying all possible video or multimedia transmission requirements
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T-Mobile UK and BT Openzone have teamed up to give customers access to 1,900 new hotspots.
T-Mobile and BT's partnership is part of a trend to open up Wi-Fi networks. US-based Boingo aggregates hotspots run by different operators, while Airpath and Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Systems provide roaming services between unconnected networks.
Brian McBride, the managing director of T-Mobile UK said that, although it was too soon to detail the revenue impact of Wi-Fi, it was growing "exponentially".
"The number of customers has doubled over the last 6 to 8 months and the usage of the customers is up fivefold," he said. T-Mobile has been integrating its second-generation (2G), newer and faster third-generation (3G) and Wi-Fi area networks and has been rolling out a range of integrated data cards and handsets designed for broadband mobile data services.
The company also announced the launch of its 3G service in time for Christmas but that, unlike Vodafone, does not expect to make a "splash". O2 and Orange both recently went cool on the idea of Christmas launches of a consumer 3G service. Vodafone has announced a range of nine handsets and promised to offer a service in time for Christmas.
McBride, said:
"We are not going to do a Vodafone, we are not going to do a big splash.
We will be out there is time for Christmas with a couple of devices."
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BT
boosts satellite bandwidth
From Colin Mann in London
BT has developed
new satellite modulation technology that can triple the capacity of the ground
stations, making the upgrading of existing systems more straightforward and
efficient. By putting more data over the same amount of bandwidth, the new
modulation technique ensures a two to three times greater efficiency, thus
enabling more information to be delivered at the same cost.
According to Credit Lyonnais Securities, satellite communication now accounts
for around 10 per cent of global telecommunications revenues and with BT forecasting
that global demand for satellite-based Internet circuits is predicted to double
between 2005 to 2010, the technology is likely to enable significant cost
reductions.
The new modulation scheme draws on similar principles to those used in the signal transmitted by GSM phones and has been designed for use over large-scale satellite links operating from earth stations, which typically carry high bandwidth data. These include ISP backbone connections, satellite newsgathering, video links and corporate use, military satellite communications and international trunk traffic being transmitted across continents.
Mike Carr, director, research and venturing, BT said that the growth in ISP backbone connection by satellite some two years ago, especially from the UK and USA to Middle and Far Eastern countries, prompted the telco into developing a technology that would help maximise the use of bandwidth, and so reduce cost. "Satellite is a particularly useful delivery method for asymmetrically delivered data, whereby more data is needed to be delivered than received from a given destination. As such, the new modulation scheme has a particularly significant role to play in this market."
Further development
of the technology for delivering data to 'small dish' services, such as home-based
satellite TV is under consideration.
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ONO, one of Spain's
largest cable operators, has taken full control of local Castilla-Leon-based
operator, Retecal, by acquiring an extra 35 per cent in the company from the
electric utility Hidrocantabrico.
With this latest acquisition, ONO completes the take over of Retecal, now
100 per cent owned by the company presided by Eugenio Galdon.
With the acquisition of Retecal, ONO has gained more strength in the market
reaching over 700,000 clients. New concentration moves are expected in the
market, with Telecable, based in Asturias, being as the most likely candidate
to become part of ONO in the future.
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Korea
hopes to attract US$58 billion investment for BcN
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
The broadband convergence network (BcN) is being planned in Korea. There is no exact picture of what the future network will look like, since the Korean mobile and broadband networks evolved separately and are different in architecture. The concept is a massive Internet protocol network to which people can connect from a wide range of terminals nearly everywhere.
The government hopes to attract $58 billion in investment for BcN, which officials say by 2010, while cover more than 20 million domestic households. "The difference between current broadband Internet services and broadband convergence network is similar to the difference between a crowded beach and a purpose built ocean park. The outdoor beach is crowded, has poor security and may not be accessible depending on weather conditions. If you build an indoor facility over it, you could access the beach at anytime, anyplace while having better security measures", said Kang Jun-hyub of the Communication Ministry's Internet Policy Division.
The local media
says that the plan is seen as Korea's most significant attempt to create an
integrated service environment that converges wired and wireless communication,
broadcasting and data transmission. The new network infrastructure is expected
to provide the base for future communications and information services, such
as Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), next-generation mobile telephony, sensor-based
network computing and radio-frequency identification technology.
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Web search engine leader Google has posted quarterly net income and revenue that more than doubled on strong Web search advertising. On its first earnings report since it went public, the company posted net income of $52 million in the third quarter, up from $20.4 million a year earlier.
Revenue jumped 105 per cent to $805.9 million from $393.9 million a year earlier. It was up 15 per cent from the second-quarter -- strong growth that some analysts said could have been fuelled in part by the frenzy over its $1.67 billion IPO.
Excluding a $201
million charge related to the settlement of a patent dispute with rival Yahoo
and other items, Google's profit was $125 million.
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Microsoft posted higher quarterly earnings as revenue rose 12 per cent to $9.19 billion from $8.22 billion. Net profit rose to $2.9 billion for Microsoft's first fiscal quarter ended September 30, from a profit of $2.6 billion, a year earlier.
However its shares
fell after the world's largest software company said current quarter sales
would fall below Wall Street expectations. The company said it expected to
record revenue of $10.3 billion to $10.5 billion, short of the average Wall
Street estimate of $10.63 billion, as tracked by Reuters Estimates.
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Spain's largest media company Prisa said its nine-month net profit rose 60 per cent on strong advertising revenue and cost control. The company’s profit rose to $96 million, compared with $60 million for the same period last year.
Prisa owns newspaper El Pais, which has the largest circulation in Spain. The company said its nine-month revenue rose 11 percent to $1.4 billion. The group also said it is consolidating its position in the local television market with ‘Localia TV’. In the first nine months of 2004, this line of business grew 60 per cent, Prisa said.
The contribution
of the company's Latin America business to revenue rose 9.2 per cent to $49.1
million, continuing a recovery that began earlier this year.
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The number of Canadian households subscribing to digital television services surpassed the 4 million mark in the second quarter of 2004, according to new research from Decima Research's quarterly digital report, The Digital Domain. Tracking the Growth and Development of the Canadian Digital TV Distribution Market.
Among households that subscribe to a TV service, about four in ten now receive a digital TV service such as digital cable or satellite TV as opposed to analogue cable.
The number of Canadian households subscribing to digital TV subscription services increased by an estimated three per cent in the second quarter (February-March/04 to May-June/04), compared to an estimated three per cent during the same period of 2003.
By sector, cable companies continued to post strong digital subscriber growth in Q2. The number of digital cable subscribers increased by 68,381, compared to 48,028 in Q2 2003. Canada's two satellite TV providers posted better subscriber results in the second quarter, adding 36,344 net subscribers in the period compared to 26,259 net subscribers in Q2 2003.
Wireless cablecos posted another quarter of subscriber losses, but telephone companies offering digital TV subscription services over their phone lines continued to gain momentum in adding digital TV subscribers.
The strong digital cable subscriber growth and better satellite TV customer growth in the second quarter, traditionally a seasonally slow period, confirms that the Canadian TV service market is firmly in transition from analogue to digital, says Mario Mota, vice-president, broadcast/media research, Decima Research.
"Competition
for customers appears to be intensifying as the various TV service providers
fight it out trying to convince consumers about the merits of their technology,
services, and packages over those of competitors," says Mota. "Bell
ExpressVu's recent move to lower pricing on certain packages, simplify its
offering, and other initiatives, coupled with several cable companies' launch
of lower-cost digital cable boxes, has elevated the battle for digital TV
subscribers to new heights."
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Thomson is seeking to ensure that its displays assets participate swiftly in the consolidation of the display industry. The consolidation is a response to the rapid evolution of this industry, as TV manufacturers respond to end-customer and technology changes with varied strategies by geographic region.
The strategy
was set out as Frank Dangeard, chairman and CEO, revealed consolidated net
sales for the third quarter 2004 of E1.849 billion, down from comparable 2003
figures of E1.988 billion. The company’s Video Network Solutions third
quarter 2004 revenues grew strongly to E520 million (third quarter 2003, E345
million). Excluding currency movements, sales increased by 59%, or grew by
51% including currency movements.
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Viacom, Disney settle with FCC over kids' ads
US media regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, confirmed that Children's cable TV channels owned by Viacom and Disney have agreed to settle allegations they violated federal advertising restrictions for children's programming.
Viacom's Nickelodeon Channel will pay $1 million and the Disney's ABC Family Channel will turn over $500,000 to resolve "potential violations" found during FCC audits conducted in the last quarter of 2003.
The FCC raised concerns that Nickelodeon had exceeded limits on the duration of advertising during children's programs, and by running advertisements that were tied to characters or products in the same programmes. The agency said Disney may have violated the tying rule.
A spokeswoman
for ABC Family reportedly said that the network had accidentally violated
the ban on running program-related commercials because of a problem with its
computer system which has since been modified.
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