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NEWS Monday 22nd August to Friday 26th August 2005
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
After more than a year of fruitless negotiations the German cable operators association has hit out at the private TV broadcasters RTL and ProSieben Sat.1.
The cable operators state that any further boycott of digital cable by the broadcasters would be illegal. They believe that RTL and Sat 1's only purpose in not entering into digital cable is to maintain their dominant position in analogue cable. A switch to digital cable would mean they face more competition due to a much wider choice of programmes.
It is also claimed RTL and SAT.1 have blocked establishing any royalty fee scale for digital TV programmes in Germany and the operators say this underlines their intention to keep German TV viewers watching analogue programmes and thus protect their dominant market position.
The German Cable Association says it is now going to examine all technical, political and legal options to broadcast the programmes of RTL and SAT.1, with or without their permission. The Association points out that the analogue programmes of Sat.1 and RTL have a guaranteed "must-carry" status and therefore viewers have a right to watch those programmes on digital cable that are mandatory on analogue cable.
The Association's
President Rüttger Keienburg said the broadcasters are abusing their position
and damaging Germany's economic future as well as fundamental citizen's rights.
He said: "We won't let German Cable be ruined by this blockade".
Back to top
Charter restructure staves off bankruptcy
Paul Allen's cable company Charter Communications has announced an $8.4 billion (E6.8 billion) debt restructure that could save the group from bankruptcy. Shares and bonds of Charter rose sharply in response to the plan, reflecting investor confidence that the cable group would be more viable if it could cut debt by up to $1.65 billion and repay remaining debt at a later date.
Charter, which has about $19 billion in debt, plans to exchange notes maturing from 2009 to 2012 for debt securities due in 2015. UBS estimates the exchange would reduce its outstanding bonds by up to $1.65 billion. Shares in Charter, the fourth-biggest US cable company, have fallen nearly 50 per cent this year on concerns about its debt.
Allen, who was
a co-founder of Microsoft, owns 58 per cent of the company's stock and 93
per cent of its voting shares. Earlier this month, Charter appointed Neil
Smit as Chief Executive Officer, a position that had been vacant since January.
The group still has a vacancy for Chief Financial Officer.
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TiVo Inc. posted a narrow second-quarter net profit but its stock has fallen 12 per cent in the past month amid concerns over its limited growth prospects.
Subscribers to its fee-based TV recording service fell to 254,000 subscribers from 288,000 in the same quarter one year ago, a key cause of which has been a 5 per cent decline in new customers from TiVo's biggest source DirecTV who plan to stop marketing the product.
The company reported
a net profit of $249,000, for the quarter ended in July, from a net loss of
$10.8 million. And service and technology revenues for the quarter increased
46 per cent to $40.7 million. Factoring in the cost of hardware sales, net
revenue slipped to $39.3 million from $39.8 million.
Back to top
Private
DTT in Mauritius
From
Sotires Eleftheriou in Port Louis
Maxime King, head of London Satellite Systems which pioneered multichanel TV in Mauritius, is working flat out to launch a DTT service in the first half of 2006. For the last few months the public sector has been hesitating about moving into digital TV, now the private sector could beat it to it.
King recently disclosed the plans and installation is under way. Rs50 million (E1.5 million) have already been invested and a further Rs20 million (E1.5 million) is earmarked for the next two years. The aim is to reach 30,000 homes within two months.
LSS intends to provide three free and a bouquet of 15 pay channels comprising a mix of French, English and Asian channels. The subscription cost has not been set.
The state broadcaster, MultiCarrier Mauritius Ltd (MCML) has been promising DTT since 2003 and has been waiting for authorisation. King feels that he doesn't need such authorisation, as he is simply digitising the analogue frequencies he is already using for his pay TV service.
In the longer
term, King has his sights on launching a private sector TV channel, King TV.
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Vonage Holdings Corp., the largest VoIP company in the US, is said to be planning to file for an initial public offering to raise as much as $600 million.
VoIP is currently taking off in the US market with four million households expected to sign up by year's end, and Vonage has experienced rapid growth since launching its service in 2002, currently providing the discounted local and long-distance phone service to approximately 800,000 households with high-speed Internet connections.
Vonage has raised
more than $400 million in venture capital from firms that including Bain Capital,
3i Group PLC and Institutional Venture Partners.
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Ofcom, the UK telecoms watchdog, is to launch an examination of the internet calls market focusing on consumers, usage, the potential size of the market and the type of service and consumer protection on offer.
Although web-based phone services have been slow to catch on in Britain, the regulator believes they will make "significant inroads" over the next few years and says "the need for accurate and timely information is increasingly important". The report is also likely to look at the impact that such services will have on traditional fixed-line players, such as British Telecom.
Ofcom's inquiry
comes as Google, the internet search giant, launched its web-based telephone
service, Google Talk, for which users will only need a broadband connection
and Google's Gmail service.
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Merger talks between NTL and Telewest, have hit wrangles over pricing and tax issues according to some press reports.
Apparently the way in which both companies were completely restructured to escape bankruptcy throws up some fairly intractable tax issues. There are also still "difficult" issues with the value of Flextech and "sensitive" issues around management.
An announcement
is now expected in "early September" and the consensus view is the
logic of merger and the consequences of failure mean the deal will happen.
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As part of DISH Network's re-branding efforts, parent company EchoStar is offering the service to a town free of charge for 10 years. But to qualify the town must legally, and permanently, rename itself DISH.
Under the new advertising campaign, 'Better TV for All', Echostar's corporate sponsorship of the winning town or city would provide every household with a free DISH Network satellite TV receiver, free standard installation and programming.
EchoStar will
accept submissions up until November 1, and estimate it would cost approximately
$4 million (E3.2 million) to set up equipment and provide free programming
for a town with 1,000 households. "If an entire town changed its name
to DISH, you can't buy that publicity," said company spokesman Mark Cicero.
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Chip giant Intel has revealed their latest PCs designed to act as the media hubs for the "digital home".
Operated via a remote control, the Viiv technology computers will include an integrated media server "engine" to reformat digital content files so they can be used on a selection of devices verified by Intel, and will come in various styles, including small units similar to a stereo or DVD player, and more traditional desktop designs.
"Intel Viiv technology is our first platform designed from the ground up for the digital home, where consumers are passionate about the idea of accessing their content anytime, anywhere in their home on a number of devices," said Don MacDonald, Vice President and general manager of Intel's Digital Home Group.
According to
Intel it will be possible for different people or devices in the home to simultaneously
access different functions and media, while specially-designed software in
the PCs will make it easier for people to set up their home networks so they
can connect to portable media players, DVD players, TVs and stereos.
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Intel, Motorola and Cisco Systems are the new sponsor members of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a group which develops standards and specifications for providers offering broadband over power line (BPL) services, and which is to be headed by Intel marketing manager Matt Theall.
Although BSL technology would in theory enable electric companies to become realistic alternatives to cable and telephone companies as providers of high-speed access to the Internet, progress has been hampered by technical limitations and problems with interference.
Intel and Motorola
have also been named as two investors in Intellon, a start-up that makes integrated
circuits based on HomePlug's specifications. The company said it has raised
$24.5 million (E19.9 million) in new funding, with BCE Capital and Goldman
Sachs among the contributors.
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Hitachi has unveiled the world's first hard disk drive/DVD recorder capable of storing one terabyte of data – about 128 hours of high-definition digital broadcasting.
Hitachi say the
new model will be the first on the market capable of simultaneously recording
two high-definition programs, a key selling point for Japanese consumers who
account for more than half of the global DVD recorder market.
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to top
The Swiss MSO, Cablecom is reported to be in advanced discussions over a flotation later this year in what would be one of Switzerland’s biggest IPOs with the company valued at up to SFr5.5 billion (E3.52 billion).
The group, controlled by three private equity investors, has a dominant position in cable television, and increasing penetration in internet access and telephony.
Cablecom was bought from NTL in a debt-for-equity swap in 2003. About 53 per cent of Glacier, the Luxembourg-based holding company is owned by Apollo Investors and Tower Brook Capital, two US buyout companies, along with Goldman Sachs. The remainder is owned by former creditor banks.
Although it remains unclear how much would be listed in the IPO, speculation has suggested a minimum free float of 50 per cent. Sales amounted to SFr723 million in 2004, and SFr198 million in the first quarter of this year.
The company ran
into difficulties after being saddled with high debts and the cost of building
its fibre-optic network. However, the company has subsequently performed strongly
as interest in Switzerland in high-speed internet access has boomed.
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to top
Google is to launch an instant messaging and online voice calling service that takes it into greater competition with established telecommunications companies around the world as well as a growing list of rival online services.
The new service,
Google Talk, also marks an attempt to create an open platform on the web for
voice calls and instant messaging, a move that could challenge the "closed"
instant messaging networks run by rivals Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft’s MSN.
Last week’s announcement that Google planned to raise about $4 billion
(E3.2 billion) by selling shares fed speculation that it would use the cash
to branch out into new services, perhaps by acquiring a company such as Skype,
an early leader in internet telephony. Now it appears instead that the company
intends to build a network from the ground up, using a different approach
to that taken by better-established rivals.
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Time Warner Inc. had made a $7.5 million investment in the privately held mobile gaming company Glu. Andy Heller, President of domestic distribution for Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting Inc., has joined Glu's board of directors. Heller also heads Turner's GameTap broadband video game network, due to launch in October.
Glu, which will use the money to continue its global expansion, already publishes video games based on characters from Turner's Cartoon Network. "It is an opportunity for us to have a window into the space," Heller said. He added Time Warner is looking at expanding into the gaming business as well as expanding its mobile offerings.
Glu, which also
produces ring tones and "wallpaper" for mobile phones, in May received
about $20 million in follow-on venture capital in a funding round led by Granite
Global Ventures. Also participating were existing investors BA Venture Partners,
New Enterprise Associates, Globespan Capital Partners and Sienna Ventures.
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Sun Microsystems said it wants to create an open and free digital rights management technology. The company's President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz unveiled the new project called Dream (DRM everywhere available) at the Progress and Freedom Foundation Aspen Summit in Colorado.
Many companies have developed their own DRM technologies, including Apple, Microsoft and RealNetworks. Such an abundance of DRM technologies and incompatibilities is holding back the adoption of digital media, claimed Schwartz. "We must not allow progress to be stifled by clumsy, self-defeating Internet tollgates in the form of a monolithic, closed digital rights management system".
Schwartz expects that by creating an open source DRM technology, he can set a standard that is used across the industry. "We fundamentally believe that a federated DRM solution must be built by the community, for the community."
Dream had been
under development by researchers in Sun Labs since 2002. Sun has made the
software available under the common development and distribution license (CDDL),
an open source license governed by the enterprise computing vendor.
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Japan and China co-operate in 4G
Japan and China will join forces to develop a fourth-generation cellular telephone, combining Japan's skill in technology with China's huge potential market, an official of the Japanese Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.
Fourth-generation
cellular phones, expected to come into use around 2010, will be able to transmit
data as quickly as optical fibre, dramatically improving the streaming of
high-quality images.
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to top
China has introduced an "anti-online game addiction system" intended to protect players from the mental and physical perils of spending too much time in front of computers. The system, which will encourage players to play less by cutting the benefits they gain in online games, is to be implemented by local internet companies that have signed a code of conduct drawn up by China's press and publications administration.
The move reflects fears about the social impact of popular "multiplayer online role-playing games" which have been blamed for encouraging sloth, truancy and even murder. An estimated 25 million Chinese play online role-playing games. Under the new standard, up to three hours of play is considered "healthy" - and more than five to be "unhealthy".
After five hours online, players will be subjected every 15 minutes to the warning: "You have entered unhealthy game time, please go offline immediately to rest. If you do not your health will be damaged and the benefits you can win will be cut to zero."
Leading games
companies have agreed to the system to head off the threat of stricter regulation.
China's online games market is expected to grow 65 per cent to $633 million
this year.
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to top
FX+, a time-delay mirror channel to Fox International’s cable and satellite offering, FX, will launch on the Sky platform in September. The station will run two hours behind the existing FX brand and will carry identical programming, promos and advertising.
Fox said: "FX
opted for a two-hour time shift as currently FX’s prime time schedule
revolves around two hour blocks of their flagship programming between 9 and
11pm on weeknights."
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to top
SeaChange International, Inc. announced preliminary financial results for its second quarter of 2006 ended July 31, 2005. Revenues were $26.2 million compared to revenues of $43.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2005, a 39 per cent decrease. The Company recorded a net loss of $6.6 million, versus net income of $3.3 million, for the second quarter of fiscal 2005.
"In spite of the timing challenges in predicting business in the potentially large, emerging on-demand television market, SeaChange is one of the top choices for broadband television operators, cable and telco alike. We have more broadband deployments streaming more video than any other supplier," said Bill Styslinger, President and CEO, SeaChange International.
"In the
U.S., cable operators’ VOD system spending has slowed, however we do
expect that demand will increase as they extend their digital simulcast installations,"
said Styslinger.
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to top
Jacobs replacement to NDS board
Following Lachlan
Murdoch’s resignation as a Director of NDS Group, Lawrence A. Jacobs
was appointed as a Director by News Corporation, the controlling shareholder.
Jacobs is the Senior Executive Vice President and Group General Counsel of
News Corporation.
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to top
Mark Chippendale,
former Sky Media director of sales, has joined Yahoo! Europe in a new role
to boost advertising sales across the region. Chippendale, who left Sky last
September after 14 years, has joined the web portal in the new pan-European
role of regional vice-president of media sales.
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to top
Viacom is said to have joined the list of potential bidders for Flextech, the content division that Telewest is trying to sell as a precursor to its merger with NTL.
Other companies
believed to be considering a bid for Flextech are RTL Group; Sparrowhawk,
which owns the international operations of Hallmark TV; ITV; BSkyB; Discovery
Communications; and Time Warner’s European operations. The fact this
is possibly the last opportunity to acquire a block of channels in the UK
has attracted the suitors and if an auction results Telewest may achieve its
target £800-£1bn (E1.16-1.45bn)price. However the fact many of
the most prized channels reside in a JV with the BBC has proved problematic
in establishing value. The bids for Flextech are due in by the first week
of September, executives said this month.
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Subscribers to the BskyB HD service will be able to watch Premiership football on Sky Sports, entertainment on Sky One, culture programming on Artsworld, and films on the Sky Box Office pay-per-view service and two Sky Movies screens.
Other non BSkyB-owned channels are likely to be available by the time of the launch, which is expected early in 2006. BSkyB said it was in "advanced discussions" with other channel operators interested in launching HD services on digital satellite. The BBC also has plans to launch HDTV next year and has upped its satellite capacity to prepare.
BSkyB said subscribers
would be able to pre-register for its HD service from this week. The company
estimates that 2m HD television sets will have been sold in the UK by the
end of 2006.
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Efforts to come up with a compromise on the next generation of DVD format appear to have stalled. Toshiba and Sony had been in talks about bringing together rival DVD technologies but the two are planning to go ahead with their own formats after talks on a single format failed, reported Yomiuri newspaper.
Toshiba, with
NEC and Sanyo, is pushing HD-DVD, while backers of Sony's Blu-ray include
Dell and Samsung. The groups backing the rival next generation DVD formats
had been keen to avoid a repeat of the format wars of video.
Back to top
Inmarsat the global mobile satellite company said first half profit had jumped 11 per cent helped by higher demand following the Asian tsunami and from data revenue to customers at sea. Announcing its first results as a listed company since its flotation in June, Inmarsat said margins would stay under pressure as a result of discounting until the end of the calendar year and would be affected by the launch of its broadband global area network service (BGAN), scheduled for the end of the year, it said.
The launch of BGAN in the fourth quarter will give mobile users voice and high-speed data capability and will use smaller terminals. Analysts also believe that Inmarsat could be in a position to be part of a coast-to-coast mobile service in the United States, following the launch of its second Inmarsat-4 satellite later this year.
EBITDA for the
half-year ended June 30, rose 11 per cent to $171.8m on total revenues which
rose 4 per cent to $253.6m. Pre-tax profits more than doubled to $65.5m.
Back to top
Japan is to invest in developing the world's first 3D virtual reality TV. Working with leading hi-tech firms, the government hopes that the system will use a series of projectors to beam a 3D image which may also have thousands of different odours.
The communications industry says it plans to make virtual reality TV a reality by 2020 with the help of academia. "Can you imagine hovering over your TV to watch Japan versus Brazil in the finals of the World Cup as if you are really there?" Yoshiaki Takeuchi, director of research and development at the communications ministry, said to Reuters.
The government's
universal communications study group, which includes staff from Sony, Matsushita
and other top firms, said in an interim report that, 3D imagery apart, it
hoped to produce a TV capable of emitting thousands of different smells.
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A survey by the
London Business School found that 60% of TV execs interviewed were in the
dark about switchover plans. A further 41% believed that not enough was being
done to educate industry executives about the process, despite SwitchCo. The
report, commissioned by video-on-demand broadcaster Video Networks, gathered
opinions from executives at broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, BSkyB, Channel
Four and Viacom, owner of the MTV network.
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CTV Inc. has become the first national conventional television broadcaster in Canada transmitting over-the-air in High Definition.
CTV recently completed installation of two over-the-air High Definition transmitters - now fully operational - in Canada's two largest English-language markets, Toronto and Vancouver. CTV's HD signals (CTV HD East and CTV HD West), are being transmitted from Toronto's CN Tower and B.C.'s Mount Seymour respectively.
Almost every hour in CTV prime-time in the 2005-06 season will be broadcast in HD on CTV HD East and CTV HD West. This represents the latest development in the multi-stage rollout of CTV Inc.'s Canadian High Definition strategy.
In addition to
CTV's conventional High Definition line-up, TSN and Discovery Channel, Canada's
two leading specialty services, are also leaders in HD. TSN is in the midst
of a broadcast schedule that features 645 hours of HD programming from more
than 200 national and international events, and Discovery Channel has aired
more than 500 hours of HD programming since its Aug./03 launch. Discovery
Channel's EPI production arm is a leader in Canada in producing HD content
for Discovery and other Canadian broadcasters.
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Sports website Sportal has relaunched as a 24-hour, live online television channel.
Sportal.com was emblematic of the dotcom bubble - once valued at more than £250m (E362m) before being sold off for £1 after the crash. UKBetting, the company that picked up the brand and several others in 2001, last year bought In The Box Media, a fledgling broadband content provider, to develop on-demand sports video content. As well as live football coverage from the Nationwide Conference, the company produces live sports news updates and betting tips, golf coverage and horseracing.
Sportal will
not compete for premium sports rights, but will instead rely on its own news
operation, its links with the Nationwide Conference and the PGA European Tour,
an archive of classic sporting moments and coverage of offbeat sports including
backgammon and poker.
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Philips CryptoWorks C A technology has been selected by Germany’s new digital satellite pay-TV operator easy.TV. easy.TV is intended to become Germany’s most flexible and easy-to-use pay-TV service. Users can purchase by programme content, by specifying channels or individual programmes, or even order a specific number of viewing hours. There is no regular subscription charge.
Partnerships
have been created with set-top box vendors so that free-to-air set-top boxes
will come with easy.TV’s smart card already installed, ready for activation.
Existing digital free-to-air viewers can benefit from CryptoWorks common interface
modules, bundled with easy.TV subscriber cards.
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Online broadcaster
Akimbo announced that Major League Baseball's interactive media and Internet
company, MLB Advanced
Media (MLBAM), will provide premium programming to Akimbo for its Internet-delivered
video-on-demand TV service.
Akimbo's programming from MLBAM will include on-demand baseball action including condensed games and a selection of MLB highlight clips.
"We're thrilled
that Major League Baseball Advanced Media has chosen Akimbo as a partner and
that we are able to add them to Akimbo's great line-up of programming,"
said Joshua Goldman, chief executive officer of Akimbo.
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to top
ROK Player, the
mobile content chip company, has signed an innovative licensing deal with
BBC Worldwide, to release a selection of its major properties for full-length
full-screen play on mobile phones.
On sale shortly and priced at around £17.00, (E25) the co-branded Digital
Video Chips (DVC) will be available from Nokia stores, Choices Video, and
direct via www.rokplayer.com. The initial BBC offering includes the classic
Doctor Who special The Five Doctors and three episodes from Red Dwarf.
ROK Player technology
allows multimedia handset users to enjoy full screen entertainment including
feature films on their handsets, even without network coverage. "With
ROK Player, the mobile phone is now an affordable portable media player,"
said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK Entertainment.
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Cartoon Network
is using Two Way TV’s Simcast technology for the first ever live SMS-to-TV
chat on the channel, providing another interactive avenue for advertisers
to reach their audiences. The technology will enable children to send text
messages from their mobile phones to Cartoon Network during 'Funny 5 Weekend'
and those broadcast will be shown on a ticker at the bottom of the screen.
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to top
SBS, the Scandinavia-based pan-European broadcasting group, has agreed a sale to private equity groups Permira and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
SBS said Permira and KKR would pay about E1.9 billion for all of SBS's debt and equity, excluding minority interests. The deal gives SBS an equivalent enterprise value of E2.09 billion. Shareholders will vote on the deal in October and will be paid about E46 per share if it goes through, which will require a two-thirds majority. Shareholders representing 22 per cent, including executives and the biggest single shareholder, Liberty Global, have pledged their support.
"This transaction caps a tremendous period of growth and value creation for SBS," said Harry Evans Sloan, SBS Chairman. "Since its founding 15 years ago, SBS has grown dramatically from three start-up Scandinavian television stations into one of Europe's largest broadcasting companies, reaching over 100 million people across nine countries."
Markus Tellenbach, Chief Executive Officer of SBS, stated, "Permira and KKR have exceptional track records in building businesses, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with them in building on SBS's position as one of the leading media groups in Europe."
SBS was founded
by Harry Evans Sloan in 1989 when he purchased interests in television channels
in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In 1993, the company listed on the Nasdaq raising
E46 million which was used to expand further into television and radio throughout
Europe. SBS now includes 16 television stations, 21 premium pay channels and
11 radio networks.
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China probes News Corp affiliate
Chinese authorities, which are tightening regulation of the media industry, are investigating a company connected to News Corp. over its leasing of satellite-television channels in China.
The investigation of Beijing Rejian Hulian Advertisement Co., also known as Beijing Hotkey Internet, began in June, according to Chinese officials and News Corp. executives. It is looking into arrangements between the unit and local cable operators that aren't allowed to broadcast foreign programming without state permission.
Under Chinese
regulations, only high-end hotels and residence compounds can air foreign
channels such as CNN and HBO. And under a 2002 rule foreign channels must
sell and transmit signals only through a Chinese state-run company, China
International Television Corp.
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China's four stages to digital
China is to digitise cable TV in four stages, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The first stage will last to the end of 2005, when all major cities in the eastern part of the country and provincial capitals in the middle and western parts complete the transition to digital cable TV.
The second stage will last into 2008, when all other cities in the eastern part and part of the cities in the west will be able to view digital cable TV. The third stage, to last into 2010, will cover all cities above the county level and most counties in the middle and western parts.
The four stages
will end in 2015, when the whole western part of the country will realise
digitisation of cable TV. According to the plan, China will start direct digital
satellite TV services from 2006, spread to ground digital TV by 2008 and stop
analogue TV broadcasts in 2015, when digital TV will cover the whole country.
China has committed to start to transmit high definition TV programs about
the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
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Intel, the world's largest chip maker, says it expects to work with more than 100 cities around the world to improve public services using WiMax.
City authorities
are seen as some of the primary users of WiMax technologies, the next generation
beyond Wi-Fi systems, which transmit wireless data over short distances. Anand
Chandrasekher, Vice President of sales marketing group, said Intel was already
helping 13 communities in the United States and internationally on wireless
projects using technologies like Wi-Fi and could expand its work in the coming
months. Cities outside of the United States that are working on the wireless
initiative include Taipei and Jerusalem, both of which have plans to test
WiMax within a year, added Chandrasekher.
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to top
Global mobile
entertainment company Monstermob is to acquire ATOP Century Limited, a leading
provider of value-added mobile content services in China. Based on ATOP's
current growth rates, Monstermob expects the deal to be worth circa $100 million
(E81.7 million). ATOP is the third largest independent provider of mobile
content on China Mobile's information and entertainment portal, Monternet.
Monstermob hails the deal, saying it will "enable Monstermob to expand
substantially its international mobile content activities and to take advantage
of the rapid growth in one of the world's largest mobile phone markets."
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to top
ESPN STAR Sports announced a new appointment with His Shen Lin taking on the role of Managing Director of its operations in Taiwan with effect from August 22, 2005. Hsi will take direct responsibility for all Taiwan activities including advertising sales, marketing and distribution. In addition, he will be responsible for creating new business opportunities for the network.
He brings with
him a decade of management and media industry experience with particular expertise
in network operations and strategy. His began his career in front of the camera
as a news anchor at Taiwan's Chinese Television System, rising quickly to
the rank of Deputy Managing Director of the network's domestic news service.
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News
Corp poison pill leaves sour taste
Freeview
primes pay-TV
New
net targets for News
Hallmark
out of TV?
3
destiny ichannel
Chunghwa
MOD launch
Sky
NZ trebles profit
Bankrupt
pirate must pay
Now
UMG back Blur Ray
SBC
orders its STBs
The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), America’s leading corporate governance specialist, has told News Corp it is opposed in principle to the group’s continued use of a poison-pill takeover defence and that it would not normally support the appointment of company directors "if they adopt a new rights plan [poison pill] with a term of more than 12 months without shareholder approval".
Last week News Corp announced plans to extend its existing poison pill by a further two years without putting the decision to a shareholder vote. The pill is designed to prevent shareholders with a stake of more than 15 per cent from increasing their holding.
The poison pill
was introduced last year after John Malone suddenly raised his voting stake
to 18 per cent, making him the second largest shareholder in the media group
after Rupert Murdoch.
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Viewers of FTA digital television are less satisfied with what they watch than pay-TV customers and could switch to pay in the future, according to new research. Around a sixth of the country's five million-plus Freeview homes say they are likely to progress to pay-TV, analysts at the investment bank UBS found.
It suggests there are three million more pay-TV homes to add to the 7.8 million already subscribing to the satellite service Sky Digital and the 2.5 million cable TV customers. Sky has set a target of 10 million customers by 2010.
"While Freeview is rated highly for value for money, it scores poorly on choice of content, reflecting the narrow choice of channels available," the UBS analysts reported.
Former pay-TV
customers could return to the fold too, UBS said: "The desire to upgrade
is greatest among homes that have had pay-TV in the past, with 40 per cent
of former subscribers likely to re-subscribe."
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News Corp is now always in the frame for internet companies and IGN Entertainment, the online games specialist, has joined Blinkx on the shopping list, according to reports.
IGN has been considering an initial public offering or a sale, and could be valued at up to $800 million (E658.5 million). Rupert Murdoch identified the internet as a priority and said the group could spend up to $2 billion on acquisitions. "We have tens of billions of dollars of asset value in our news, sports and general entertainment businesses," Murdoch said last week. "While we monetise this value daily in the form of our TV shows, channels, films, books [and] newspapers, our priority now in truth our mandate is to perfect a plan that will monetise them across the world on the internet."
Murdoch has made it clear that he plans to move fast. In less than a month, the acquisitions of Scout Media and Intermix have increased News Corp's overall online audience from 16 million unique users a month to close to 50 million.
IGN would offer
News Corp online possibilities through its games network and businesses targeted
at men aged 18-34. The IGN and GameSpy websites provide news on the video
games industry, while Rotten Tomatoes and Filmforce do the same for movies.
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Hallmark Channel, the general entertainment cable network that is 67 per cent-owned by Hallmark Cards is up for sale. Crown Media Holdings Inc., which operates the channel and is majority-owned by the greeting-card giant, said it will explore strategic alternatives including the sale of the entire company. Crown Media, which also owns a movie channel, has a market capitalisation of $928 million and is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Although Hallmark Channel has increased its subscriber base impressively in the past several years, the number of independent cable networks has dwindled as the industry has been consolidated by a handful of media giants. Crown Chief Executive David Evans said in a statement that "prevailing current economic realities of being a one-channel business in our industry" led to the decision to explore its options. Crown Media sold its international television operations this year for about $250 million to a private equity consortium headed by former 5 Chief Executive Officer David Elstein.
Currently in
about 70 million homes, the cable network airs programming from Hallmark's
vast library of made-for-TV movies, plus original movies and reruns such as
"M A S H."
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UK 3G operator 3 is launching one of the first interactive two-way mobile TV channels. Sky TV channel Your Destiny is being relaunched over 3G as Psychic Interactive, and will enable viewers and presenters of the show to have full two-way video interaction. The move demonstrates the potential of fully interactive mobile TV channels for more mainstream branded content, such as quiz shows.
The Psychic Interactive
service, developed by Requestec, makes use of video shortcodes, which enable
users to access content by simply making a video call on a 3G phone to have
it streamed to them. The nature of the video call means the content can be
fully interactive, enabling the caller to be seen by the TV presenter.
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Chunghwa Telecom Co has launched the nationwide broadcast of its so-called multimedia-on-demand (MOD) services covering 13 cities, highlighting the various entertainment functions integrated in one set-top box.
MOD refers to the firm's television service delivered over its high-speed Internet links. To make it easily recognisable, Chunghwa also formally renamed its MOD services to "Big TV," hoping to boost the competitiveness of the advanced technology.
The company began offering the service to Taipei City and Taipei County households in March last year but only secured just over 50,000 users because of a limited supply of set-top boxes.
With a large
batch of 400,000 boxes to be delivered by the end of this month, the company
expects to boost the number of MOD users to 200,000 by the year-end.
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Sky TV New Zealand has nearly tripled its annual profit posting $103.4 million, significantly more than the $98.6 million forecast by analysts and up from $35.3 million a year ago.
Sky says subscriber
numbers rose around seven percent to nearly 620,000. Earnings before interest,
tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by 23.1 per cent to $230.5 million.
Sky is now in 39.7 per cent of New Zealand homes. News Corp owns 44 per cent
of the company.
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A U.S. bankruptcy court awarded DirecTV $202,000 in statutory damages in a signal theft case filed against an alleged satellite TV hacker. In awarding the damages, the bankruptcy court stated that the defendant's "intentional misappropriation of DirecTV's satellite signals constitutes larceny ... and a willful and malicious injury to plaintiff." In a statement, DirecTV said the court also found that the damage award is "nondischargeable," meaning that the defendant cannot avoid paying the award despite filing for bankruptcy on the eve of his first trial date in 2003.
"The bankruptcy judge's opinion is solid and well-reasoned and is an important win for DirecTV," said Dan Fawcett, Executive Vice President, legal and business affairs at DirecTV. "The court's ruling means that pirates cannot avoid responsibility for their actions by filing for bankruptcy."
DirecTV said
that since fall 2002 it has filed thousands of civil lawsuits in federal court
against individuals it believes purchased signal theft devices to steal its
programming.
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Universal Music Group, said it planned to back Sony Corp.'s next generation DVDs. Blu-ray, developed by Sony, is challenging rival HD DVD to be the main technology used in new DVDs that delivers sharper pictures and more features. HD DVD was developed by Toshiba.
The formal backing
by Universal Music, is of little surprise. The company is listed as a member
of the Blu-ray Disc Association on its Web site.
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SBC Communications, that earlier this week said IPTV was an affordable bet even if it went wrong, has ordered its STBs from US makers Scientific Atlanta and Motorola.
Both vendors
will develop and supply IPTV set-top boxes that will help SBC companies offer
consumers more TV choice and a much-needed alternative to cable companies.
The contracts, awarded by SBC Services Inc., give equal market opportunity
to both vendors and continue through the end of 2008. Project Lightspeed is
the SBC initiative to expand its fibre-optics network deeper into neighbourhoods
to deliver SBC U-verse TV, voice and high-speed Internet access services.
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