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NEWS Monday 8th August to Friday 12th August 2005
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Rupert Murdoch, speaking as News Corporation results were announced, said it would to invest heavily in the internet with another $1bn at least earmarked. Murdoch said they were close to a deal for buying a significant search engine business which will be the linchpin of an internet portal that would exploit the assets owned by the media conglomerate.
Murdoch said "there is no greater priority for the company today than to meaningfully and profitably position itself for the explosion of the internet coming through wider broadband penetration."
News Corporation reported a 67% rise in quarterly profits, led by higher earnings at its Fox movie and TV networks. For its fourth quarter it made net profits of $717m compared with $429m a year earlier, beating market expectations. Its turnover rose by 12% to $6.1bn, compared to $5.5bn a year previously. News Corp has a cash pile of more than $6bn to buy back shares and make investments.
For the full-year profits $2.1bn were up from $1.5bn in the previous year. Revenues increased by 15% from $20.8bn to $23.9bn.
Meantime, facing a stalemate in its efforts to buy back a chunk of its shares held by Liberty Media, News Corp extended its poison-pill takeover defence for two more years.
In an explicit
statement highlighting continuing tensions between the two companies, News
Corp. said that extension of the poison pill was aimed at stopping "potential
future acquisitions of significant amounts of News Corp. voting stock by Liberty
without consultation with the board."
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Telewest posted a strong set of Q2 figures claiming operating income increased 140% over Q2 04 to £48m (E69.5m) on revenue of £381m. RGUs grew 89,000 in the quarter although ARPU at £44.86 dipped slightly on seasonal factors. Net broadband additions were 66,000 and triple play penetration advanced to 32.8%.
Churn at 1.2%, was higher than the previous quarter. The company said non-pay churn is up as a result of higher acquisition levels in recent periods together with the impact of a tightened credit policy and it warned there would be further effects in Q3.
Overall revenue
at content division Flextech was £32 million in the quarter, up 14%
on the second quarter of 2004, and up £1 million on the previous quarter.
Advertising revenue was up 14% on the same quarter last year at £16
million, resulting primarily from an increase in market share, driven by improved
viewing share of Flextech’s channels.
Advertising revenue
was down £1 million from the previous quarter after an exceptionally
strong first quarter in the UK television advertising market. Subscription
revenue remained flat at £11 million compared to both the previous quarter
and the same quarter last year. During the quarter we signed a new carriage
agreement with NTL for Flextech and UKTV channels to be carried on its platform
for three years. Telewest is holding an auction for Flextech with a view to
selling or at least establishing a value before the merger with NTL.
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ITV has withdrawn its formal complaint to Ofcom about the charges it pays to BSkyB for ensuring that satellite viewers receive the correct regional version of ITV1.
The company had alleged that Sky's proposed "unfair, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory charges" that were in breach of BSkyB's obligations under EU and UK law. It withdrew its complaint after resuming negotiations on a new contract with Sky, and the regulator.
ITV said it might choose to make the complaint again if negotiations didn’t work out. Since contract talks with Sky broke down last year, ITV has been paying Sky under the terms of its previous deal, which expired in November. ITV wants a big reduction on the £17m (E24.6m) it pays Sky each year to encrypt and regionalise its channel.
Meanwhile, BSkyB
is reported to be in talks about buying six UGC cinemas that are being sold
by private equity firm Blackstone Group to comply with competition concerns
following its purchase of the chain last year. The report in Broadcast magazine
said Sky could pay about £30m for the theatres and suggested it could
use them to help promote Sky Digital.
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Liberty International the global cableco holding company has reported 35% growth in revenue to $1.28 billion and 596,500 RGUs. Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Global, said, "We are pleased to report excellent second quarter results for Liberty Global’s first earnings release. Following the completion of our recent merger, we are demonstrating strong operating momentum through aggressive marketing and new product launches across all three of our core broadband businesses – UPC in Europe, J:COM in Japan, and VTR in Chile."
"We have
made excellent progress on a number of strategic objectives. Most importantly,
in June the business combination of Liberty Media International and UnitedGlobalCom
("UGC") was completed. This transaction positions Liberty Global
as the premier international broadband cable operator with unparalleled scale
and a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity to pursue organic growth opportunities
in our existing operations and strategic growth through acquisitions."
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Intelsat and its subsidiaries reported revenue of $289.8 million and a net loss of $53.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2005 compared to net income of $18.5m a year ago. The net loss for the 2005 period was primarily due to higher operating expenses and higher interest expense resulting from recent financings in connection with the Acquisition and the repurchase by Intelsat Holdings, Ltd. of a portion of its preferred shares in March 2005.
Intelsat says it generated strong free cash flow from operations of $62.2 million for the second quarter. Free cash flow from operations is defined as net cash provided by operating activities, less payments for satellites and other property and equipment and a payment for a deposit on a future satellite.
The Company made a $58 million cash payment for launch and in-orbit insurance on the recently launched Intelsat America-8 (IA-8) satellite, which is reflected in the free cash flow from operations figure.
For the first
half of 2005, Intelsat reported revenue of $583.0 million and a net loss of
$205.1 million. "Intelsat generated solid revenue growth and free cash
flow from operations in the second quarter, led by continued year-over-year
growth in managed solutions and lease revenues and a favorable capital expense
profile," said Intelsat Chief Executive Officer, David McGlade.
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Blockbuster has suffered a slump in profits after it scrapped charges for US customers returning films late in an attempt to keep custom in the face of the online rental boom. It made a $57m loss in the second quarter, against a $48.6m profit in the corresponding period last year.
The world's largest
video rental chain is revising its full-year financial targets while its creditors
have agreed to waive certain debt agreements for the remainder of 2005. It
has acknowledged it may have to close some of its 9,000 stores worldwide as
more customers order videos online.
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Yahoo! confirmed
it is to take a 40% stake in Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.com. Yahoo! will
pay $1bn in cash for the stake and will hand over control of its operations
in China – including Chinese language search engine 3721.com – to
Alibaba. The deal gives Yahoo! 35% of voting rights in the Chinese firm.
The Chinese firm, in which Yahoo is now the biggest single investor - as well
as the biggest investor in the sector in China to date - employs some 2,000
people in the eastern city of Hangzhou. It is best known for its online auction
site Taobao.com, as well as flagship trading site Alibaba.com which helps
small and medium-sized companies find customers at home and abroad. Its business
model puts it in direct competition with eBay.
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Deutsche Telekom said that pre-tax profits rose 93.6 per cent to E3.4bn on a 3 per cent rise in revenue to E28.1bn. Net profits rose from E1.21bn to E1.95bn in the same period last year. The rise in group revenues was driven by the strong recovery of the mobile division which grew 7.9 per cent to E13.9bn.
Despite strong
growth in mobile communications, the doubling of pre-tax profits was mostly
as a result of a E1.4bn impairment charge a year ago. Deutsche Telekom said
revenues from broadband and the fixed network fell 4.5 per cent to E13.1bn
as business and call revenues fell. The company had been suffering from declining
market share, but price cuts have stabilised this.
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The BBC spent
almost £3m (E4.34m) on management consultants last year. Corporation
figures show that in the year 2004/05, external advisors were paid £2.89m
to give guidance to the corporation's governors and executives about the structure
and finances of the BBC.
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NDS the world's biggest supplier of pay television CA systems, reported a sharp increase in earnings and revenue for the year to June mainly because of contracts with DirecTV and Sky Italia The company said earnings doubled to $74m on a 56 per cent rise in revenues to $556m.
NDS, based in
the UK, said the figures were boosted by a new six-year contract for smart
cards with DirecTV. Revenues for conditional access jumped 90 per cent to
$339m as the number of smart cards delivered almost quadrupled. The company
said it had signed new contracts with Viasat of Sweden, SuperSun in Hong Kong
and Auna in Spain for content protection for IP television and VOD services.
NDS said revenue from licence fees and royalties rose 38 per cent to $71m,
while revenues from new technologies, including PVR, interactive television,
gaming applications and IPTV rose 11 per cent $86m.
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Walt Disney has reported a 41% increase in profits and has it won its long-running court case brought by disgruntled shareholders over Micheal Ovitz pay-off back in 1996.
Disney had 50th Birthday attractions at its theme parks and the success of its ABC network with shows like Desperate Housewives to thank for the big rise in quarterly profits. In the court case, a judge ruled Disney was right to award a $140m severance package to a former director. The shareholders had claimed Ovitz had not deserved the money and wanted Disney to repay them the full amount.
Disney's net profits for its third quarter ending 30 June were $851m, compared with $604m for the same period a year ago. Profits at its TV station subsidiaries ABC and sports cable channel ESPN were up 48%. Overall Disney revenues increased to $7.7bn from $7.5bn a year earlier, slightly below market expectations.
Disney's movie
studo group did not perform well with a $34m loss, mainly due to fewer video
sales than a year earlier.
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Cablevision the number three US cable group made a profit in the second quarter on the back of growth in digital telephony and high-speed internet customers. It made a net profit of $221m in the second quarter, up from a net loss of $187.1m in the same quarter a year earlier. Net income included a $265.5m gain from taking full ownership of the Madison Square Garden arena from News Corp in February.
The company, whose founding Dolan family have made a $9.8bn offer to take the cable systems private, has experienced strong demand for its phone services. "We are extremely pleased with the continued enthusiastic response to our voice product, which added nearly 114,000 customers in just the last three months," said James Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Cablevision.
James Dolan and
his father Charles, who founded the group, have clashed over the future direction
of the company. Following disappointment over the Cablevision board's lack
of support for the Voom high-definition satellite service, Charles "Chuck"
Dolan decided to take the group private. The Dolan family owns 24 per cent
of Cablevision's equity, but 76 per cent of the voting shares.
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Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt warned US LBOs getting into IPTV they would be foolish to start a programme price war with cable. Speaking at the Reuters Telecommunications, Cable and Satellite Summit, he said that after spending billions of dollars to upgrade their lines, telephone companies would stand to lose money on television if they priced those services too aggressively. "Rather than their cost being lower than ours, they're going to enter the business probably with higher costs," Britt said. "The question is, are they going to behave on an economically rational basis, meaning to make money, or are they going to behave in a way where they want to drive people out of business, which is what they're saying," he added.
Britt also acknowledged
that SBC and Verizon are far larger than most cable companies and have balance
sheets that could withstand a price war. But he added that such a strategy
would hurt the "Baby Bells" in the long run. A price war "wouldn't
be a smart strategy on their part, because one of the wonderful things about
our business is that physical assets don't go away," Britt said. "If
you made every cable company instantly bankrupt ... the next thing is some
new company would buy those assets for 10 cents on the dollar, and that's
the phone companies' very worst nightmare."
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Carl Icahn, the leveraged buy-out specialist whose fund is a major shareholder in Time Warner, is reported in the US press to be lobbying other shareholders to press for a break up and share buy back. Specifically he wants to see TW Cable spun off.
Icahn's possible strike comes amid increasing unrest among investors, whose share price has been hobbled in recent years. The stock, now at c.$18.50, traded at $64 immediately after the combination with America Online closed in January 2001 and reached a high of $94 in late 1999, just before the deal was announced. Icahn believes that Time Warner's stock could be worth about $27 a share if it spun off the cable unit and bought back shares.
Reports say it
is not impossible Ichan's plans may chime with the company; it has been rumoured
to be considering spinning off AOL and has definite plans to float up to 20%
of its cable interests after the purchase of Adelphia is completed.
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BellSouth Corp the No. 3 U.S. local telephone company, plans a limited launch of a new television service in 2006, BellSouth's CTO Bill Smith said at the Reuters Telecommunications, Cable and Satellite Summit.
BellSouth has been testing an IPTV system from Microsoft for television service in trials, but has not committed to a broad roll-out to customers. "We intend to move to a field trial of probably 300 to 500 customers later this year, and assuming everything goes according to plan ... we're targeting an initial market for the middle part of next year," said Smith.
BellSouth's fellow LBOs Verizon and SBC Communications plan to launch their own television services next year, eventually targeting tens of millions of households.
"I think
the hold up on video is ... we're a company that probably is a little more
prone to get our plans flushed out and detailed, then go public about what
we're doing, rather than getting too far out in front of our headlights,"
Smith said.
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SCM Microsystems Inc., announced results for its second quarter ended June 30. Revenues were $10.2 million, against $11.5 million in the second quarter of 2004. By product segment, second quarter 2005 revenues included $4.5 million from sales of Digital TV security modules, $3.6 million from sales of smart card readers and other products for PC and network security, and $2.1 million from sales of OEM flash media reader technology.
Operating expenses were $7.3 million in the second quarter, this represents a decrease of 18% from expenses of $8.9 million in the second quarter of 2004. Operating loss for the quarter was $4.1 million, compared with $7.2 million in the year ago quarter.
Robert Schneider,
chief executive officer of SCM Microsystems commented, "Our hard work
produced positive results in the second quarter, as we added another major
cable operator, achieved the first certification in the South Korean digital
TV industry for our CableCARD modules and recognized our first significant
revenue from this market."
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chellomedia interactive services announced that Sky Interactive has accredited its chello mistral enhanced television as the first (eTV) solution for the latest release of Interactive Advertising (IA) templates, which include Enhanced Impulse Response, Microsite and Mini-DAL.
With this accreditation, advertisers have a range of new features to choose from including the ability to select different call tariffs for campaigns. Additionally, the new templates enhance the ability of advertisers to conduct transactions within interactive applications and to extend their campaigns to viewers in the Republic of Ireland.
Neil Meadows,
chellomedia's Interactive Services Commercial Development Director, says,
"Delivering these latest versions reinforces our commitment to interactive
advertising and enabling advertisers to produce creative and effective interactive
ads."
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SportsHD Productions claims to be the first sports-based high definition television production companyin the US. SportsHD will specialize in "docu-sports" projects that take the viewer inside the game and capture the drama, competitor interaction, and physical, mental and emotional ups and downs of athletic competition. The company's first production will be the Summer World University Games from Turkey.
"In the
next six-to-twelve months, high definition (HD) television will transition
from a novelty for early adopters to a major factor in the broadcast marketplace,"
said Matt Bortz, SportsHD's President. "There is a dearth of HD programming
in general and high definition sports programming in particular. As the number
of available channels in HD grows, so too does the exponential demand for
HD-native programming. We believe we're ideally positioned to capitalize on
that demand."
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ESPN STAR Sports
announced the appointment of Jamie Davis as
Managing Director with effect from September 2005. Davis, who was most recently
President of STAR China succeeds Rik Dovey who is leaving the company after
nine years and five years at the helm.
Davis has 14
years of Asian and international broadcast experience, including key appointments
at CBS Sports and Fox Sports as well as STAR in Hong Kong and China.
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Bidders for Flextech have been given a deadline of the first week of September to put in their bids to parent Telewest. Reports say a prospectus has now gone to interested parties.
Among them are understood to be BskyB, RTL, ITV and Sparrowhawk, which owns the international operations of Hallmark TV. Flextech reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £60m (E87m) for 2004 and is predicting £70m this year.
The sale of Flextech
comes as Telewest and NTL are negotiating a merger. The bulk of Flextech's
value is believed to come from UKTV, a joint venture with the BBC. The sale
of Flextech is not said to be a prerequisite to a merger, but an auction process
will put a valuation on the content business, something NTL has demanded.
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NTL has reported a record quarter of 205,500 gross additions with net additions of 66,600. RGUs are up 6 per cent to 6.2m. Triple play sales were up 17% with triple play penetration now at 23.8%.
Total revenue was down 2% at £482.5m (E699m) while operating income was £6.4m compared to a loss of £22.6m.
Commenting on
the results, Simon Duffy, Chief Executive Officer of ntl, said: "During
the second quarter we focused on driving strong operating performance. Further
improvements in sales productivity led to another record quarter of gross
customer additions. Net customer additions were bolstered by our continued
improvement in customer churn. Broadband continued to grow strongly, reinforcing
our position as the UK’s largest residential broadband supplier. "
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EchoStar Communications reported that its DISH Network satellite service added approximately 225,000 net new subscribers during the second quarter of 2005. DISH Network had approximately 11.46 million subscribers as of June 30, 2005.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2005, EchoStar reported total revenue of $2.1
billion, an 18 percent increase compared with $1.78 billion for the corresponding
period in 2004. Net income totalled $856 million for the quarter, compared
with $85 million during the corresponding period in 2004. This includes $593m
of tax benefit from previously reported tax losses.
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The regional
Government of Galicia (north west of Spain) and the local Administration in
Madrid, have just awarded regional and local DTT licences.
In Madrid, 40 local DTT channels have been allocated; 30 to different private
groups - among them Canal 7, Unedisa, Libertad Digital, Cope, Intereconomia-
and the other 10 to be operated and managed by town Councils. Digital transmissions
must commence by the beginning of next year. In Galicia, two regional DTT
licences have been awarded to La Voz de Galicia and Cadena Cope. Other Spanish
regions, like Baleares, have already awarded DTT licences.
By law, all the planned 1,150 local DTT licences across Spain should be awarded
before the end of the year. Local TV stations are obliged to start transmissions
from January 2006 and switch off analogue broadcasts in 2008.
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SES GLOBAL announced group consolidated results for the six months to 30 June 2005. Revenues increased 9.7% to E609.2 million (2004: EUR 555.3 m). EBITDA of E437.6 million rose 7.4%, driving Operating Profit to E 241.3 million. Net Profit was E168.5 million (2004: E220.7m) including a one time tax provision release of E59.9 million)
Romain Bausch,
President & CEO, said, "The SES team has continued to grow the business
during this eventful first half of 2005. A solid foundation has been laid
for our future growth, with the development of HDTV, IPTV, interactive services
and mobile applications making good progress. We remain completely focused
on delivering shareholder value, continuing to grow organically and investing
in suitable opportunities, as well as returning cash to shareholders via our
progressive dividend policy and delivering on our share buyback and cancellation
programme."
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America Online has purchased Wildseed, a privately held wireless technology company as part of its initiative to move quickly into phones and other wireless devices.
The deal marks AOL's second purchase in as many weeks to find ways to expand its services ahead of the official launch of AOL.com, which will offer more of its services for free. Last week, AOL purchased online storage company Xdrive for an undisclosed sum.
AOL, whose AOL
Instant Messenger software is offered on top U.S. wireless carriers and also
built into phones, has begun to expand beyond the desktop computer, where
it has watched millions of users flee its paid service over the past few years.
In the second quarter, the service lost 917,000 paying subscribers.
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National Geographic Channel and Fox Networks Group today announced the creation of a new NGC HD network, expected to roll out in early 2006 to commemorate National Geographic Channel's fifth anniversary.
National Geographic Channel, a joint venture between producers National Geographic Television & Film and Fox Cable Networks, ranks as the fastest-growing network in primetime ratings for the past year and has 55m subscribers.
Virtually all
of National Geographic Channel's current programme production is being captured
in HD in preparation for the new network. National Geographic Channel has
also spent the better part of the past year acquiring programming in HD. At
launch, more than 90 percent of NGC's primetime programs will be seen in HD
on the new network.
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The parent company of ish and iesy, the recently combined cable network operators in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, will now be named Unity Media GmbH.
Parm Sandhu, CEO of Unity Media, commented: "The name Unity Media reflects both the combination of iesy and ish and also highlights our ability to deliver a full range of entertainment and multi-media services into the home – TV, internet and telephony – from one source."
The brands of
the two subsidiary companies ish and iesy will remain unchanged in our communications
with customers. The name Unity Media, which was found internally in an employee
competition, will soon be entered in the appropriate register.
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The UK Press
Association has signed a deal with internet service provider Tiscali giving
users access to digital video bulletins. Any internet users, not just Tiscali
broadband customers, can access the reports on the Tiscali homepage. PA's
multimedia team is providing four tailor-made news bulletins a day, each lasting
about 90 seconds, as well as single bulletins covering entertainment and sport.
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BigBand Networks, Inc., announced that Cable One, one of the ten largest U.S. cable operators, has selected the BigBand BMR (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) to manage digital television offerings. BMR platforms are being deployed at 43 Cable One systems to control channel line-up, video quality and bandwidth efficiency of SDTV and HDTV programs.
"Cable One
is working with BigBand Networks as part of our commitment to deploying technologies
that achieve excellent services for our subscribers," said Stephen Fox,
Cable One vice president digital services and technology. "The BigBand
BMR enables rich digital television experiences by greatly increasing the
quantity, quality and functionality of Cable One's standard and high definition
digital programming; and the platform's scalability and programmability assure
further advances in the services we provide."
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Scopus Network
Technologies, a leading supplier of digital TV networking to the broadcasting
industry, announced the opening of a Tokyo office. The office will serve the
Japanese market and assume overall responsibility for Scopus Japanese activities.
"The decision to open an additional Asian office coincides with the rapid
growth that the Japanese market is undergoing", remarked Scopus’
VP Sales, Eitan Koter.
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NTL ups basic speeds to 10Mbps
NTL subscribers are to get a minimum 10Mbps connection speed, without paying extra. NTL said it was a "major step" for the UK's digital future.
"Many more customers have more home networks, " Bill Goodland, NTL's director of Internet said. " Goodland said that part of NTL's mission was to break the "vicious circle" between content providers and consumers. "The content industry needs to step up and deliver content and applications to make it worth delivering these sorts of speeds …… the content industry has tended to say we would create high-bandwidth content if there were enough people to download and enjoy it, but then that is a vicious circle." People are not willing to shell out for higher speed broadband unless there is content that takes advantage of it.
He
added that it was time the content industry "geared up" to start
delivering more high bandwidth services. "What happened in the music
industry illustrated the dangers of hanging back."
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Germany's competition watchdog has said a speedy a speedy approval for publisher Axel Springer's agreed E4.2bn takeover of ProSiebenSat.1 is unlikely.
Ulf
Böge, chairman of the Federal Cartel Office, said he did not believe
the deal would get clearance after an initial four-week review and would warrant
an extended three-month investigation.
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Shares
in Baidu.com - "China's Google" - soared more than 350 per cent
in New York on its flotation debut. Baidu shares were offered at 540 times
historical earnings, but by the close the price-to-earnings multiple had risen
to 2,450. Google, which owns a 2.6 per cent stake in Baidu, trades at about
74 times earnings. The company's market capitalisation rose to almost $4bn,
up from about $872m.
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News
Corp. is reported to have held talks with Skype the VoiP provider for around
$3 billion. Neither party has commented. Run out of London, Skype was founded
by Niklas Zennstrom, a Swedish businessman who also co-founded Kazaa, the
file-sharing software provider.
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As expected the FCC has said that Internet services provided by Verizon Communications and other local telephone companies will no longer have to follow traditional telephone rules. The Commission unanimously agreed to treat the high-speed Internet service, as an "information service," which insulates it from many traditional telephone rules, such as requirements to lease network access to competitors.
The designation would allow the big local telephone companies, called the Baby Bells, to cut off or potentially negotiate new terms for Internet service providers such as to use their networks for broadband.
The
FCC's decision came after several days of intense negotiations among commissioners.
The ruling provides a one-year transition period for independent Internet
service providers and the Bells to negotiate access agreements for existing
customers.
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The
BBC is reported to have agreed "in principle" to set up a fund to
help vulnerable groups make the transition to digital TV before analogue signals
are switched off. Up to £400m (E579m) of licence fee funds could be
set aside under the plan. In return, the BBC will apparently receive extra
funding for taking a leading role in the switchover process.
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Former
BSkyB commercial director Martin Goswami is to launch Aggregator TV which
will aim to challenge Sky's dominance of UK pay-television. Goswami has teamed
with former ITV director of channels Chris Griffin to launch a new business
with the backing of a an undisclosed investment company.
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Telewest
has revealed that its Flextech programme business made an ebitda profit of
about £60m (E87m) in the past year. It is trying to sell the unit to
clear the way for its anticipated merger with rival NTL.
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Gilat Satcom, the Israel-based broadband satellite service provider starts trading on Aim this week. The company has raised £4.6m (E6.6m) by placing 3.8m new shares at a price of 120p. The total number of shares in issue after the placing is 17.7m.
After
the placing, Satcom Systems, its controlling shareholder, will hold about
78 cent of the company. Erez Gissin, vice-chairman, said: "Gilat Satcom
is well-positioned to grow rapidly and profitably as a major provider of satellite
broadband services in the developing world. We now have the funds to implement
our strategy for achieving this objective."
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Astra has secured a long-term contract to provide British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) with three additional 28.2° East transponders.
Sky will take advantage of the increased capacity to transmit its forthcoming package of HD television services, which is due to be launched in the UK in the first half of 2006.
Richard
Freudenstein, BskyB's Chief Operating Officer, said: "The launch of HD
is a significant development in broadcasting, offering a step change in quality
that will strengthen Sky's appeal to existing and future customers."
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RR Satellite announced the beginning of transmissions of a third transponder on Hot Bird fleet of satellites. The new MCPC platform is HotBird-6 satellite - transponder 123.
The
company says "This is an additional platform to our "RRSAT Global
Network" which serves our customers for distribution of their Television
and Radio channels to any point all over the globe. (250 channels)
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DirecTV Group has swung to a net profit as it added subscribers and achieved higher ARPU. The satellite television operator posted a second-quarter profit of $162 million, compared with a net loss of $13 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 21 percent to $3.19 billion from $2.64 billion.
DirecTV said its net subscriber additions of 225,000 were down from 409,000 in the same quarter last year, due to higher churn which rose to 1.69 percent from 1.49 percent due to more stringent credit checks of the company's subscribers, and competition from other satellite and cable services. Total subscribers rose to 14.7 million from 13 million a year ago.
Average revenue per user climbed to $67.79, fuelled by higher prices for DirecTV programming, an increase in users installing additional set-top boxes in their homes and a rise in subscribers purchasing local channels.
RBOC
partners continue to add DirecTV customers to their respective bundles, amounting
to about 15 percent of gross customer adds for the quarter.
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According to the FT, Axel Springer has agreed to buy ProSiebenSat.1 for E2.47bn. Springer already owns 12 per cent of Sat.1 and said it would buy the remainder for cash and stock at E23.37 a share from the consortium of US investors led by Haim Saban which secured majority control of the broadcaster two years ago. Saban will take a stake in the enlarged Springer group, and will remain involved in the business.
The
two sides have been talking for months; "It is the right transaction
at the right time," said Dr. Mathias Döpfner, Chairman and CEO of
Axel Springer. Saban's investment group is expected to quadruple its initial
investment in the sale to Springer.
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Viacom has posted higher revenue, but its quarterly profit was flat due to discontinued operations. Its second-quarter net profit was $753.8 million, or 47 cents a share, compared with $753.8 million, or 44 cents a share a year earlier. Net profit from continuing operations rose 6 percent to $762 million, up from $717 million. Revenue rose 10 percent to $5.9 billion.
Viacom
earlier this year said it planned to spin off its high-growth cable networks
and film studio from its more mature CBS television and radio networks by
early next year. Sumner Redstone, 82, confirmed he planned to step down as
chief executive by next year, but remain as chairman. Co-presidents Les Moonves
and Tom Freston are expected to take the top executive roles at CBS and Viacom,
respectively.
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The Federal Communications Commission is close to setting new rules that could lift the requirement that local phone companies open their DSL lines to competing ISPs, such as Earthlink.
Earlier
this year, the Supreme Court decided that cable companies did not have to
open their cable lines to competing high-speed Internet offerings. The so-called
Baby Bells, such as Verizon Communications and SBC Communications which control
the DSL lines, seem to have successfully argued that they would make more
investment in DSL, making broadband more widely available, if they did not
have to share the service with competitors.
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Baidu.com, the Chinese web search engine, has been valued at more than $850m ahead of its flotation on the Nasdaq. The five year old company, in which US rival Google owns a share, is banking on strong growth in its domestic market for its future expansion. Chinese internet search users are forecast to nearly double by 2007.
The
company will raise $108m through the flotation, which will be used to develop
new technology and explore new product areas. China's web search market was
worth about $150m last year, according to research by new media consultant
Shanghai iResearch.
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Internet
retailer Amazon.com is moving to offer a digital-music service, joining a
crowded field that includes Apple Napster and RealNetworks. people Amazon
has discussed a music offering that would include options such as song-by-song
downloads and a monthly subscription service. Amazon indicated that it is
interested in launching a digital-music service in the fourth quarter of this
year.
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Deutsche Telekom is expected to announce it is to buy Telering, the Austrian mobile phone operator, for about E1.3bn. The deal will boost the number two position of T-Mobile, in Austria from 2m to about 3m subscribers, behind the 3.3m customers of Telekom Austria.
Telering
was put up for sale by Western Wireless of the US, along with a number of
its other overseas operations, after the US operator agreed to a takeover
by rival Alltel.
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