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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 16th December 2005
New management for NTL/Telewest combo
HD guidelines on way
Germany will regulate new network
Microsoft media reorganised
Ofcom has published its 06-07 Plan
Spain: Broadband connections break the 5 million mark
Canal+ claims high five
VoIP tax from FCC
MTV stakes mobile clip company
DTH pay for Belgium
Kamera to sell Mobile TV in Arabia
New management for NTL/Telewest comboStephen Burch has been appointed NTL Inc's President and Chief Executive Officer and will serve in those same capacities in the combined company, succeeding Simon Duffy, who becomes NTL's (and the combined company's) Executive Vice Chairman.
Burch is clearly seen as an operations and integration specialist and has spent the past 17 years with Comcast Corporation where he most recently served as President of Comcast's Atlantic Division and was a key player in Comcast's integration of AT&T Broadband where his Division integrated approximately 2 million subscribers within 18 months.
As Executive Vice Chairman, Duffy will focus on external management issues. James Mooney, NTL Inc's Chairman, said, "We will look to Stephen to lead NTL through our merger with Telewest. Stephen brings a wealth of leadership and direction to our company in this pivotal time as we now begin in earnest to integrate Telewest to create the premier UK communications company."
Duffy’s external management role will presumably include progressing the proposed Virgin deal. However, Burch’s appointment implies NTL shared some City worries that NTL/Telewest was enough integration to be getting on with.
Meanwhile, NTL Incorporated also announced exercise of the option to amend the merger agreement between the parties. Under the terms of the original merger agreement, NTL Incorporated was to acquire Telewest Global with NTL surviving the merger as the parent corporation. However, the merger agreement provided that the transaction could be restructured as a reverse acquisition, so that the surviving parent corporation would be Telewest Global, Inc. rather than NTL Incorporated. This is described a technical change that does not affect either the economics of the transaction or the proposed management of the combined company.
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Several media and electronics companies say they are developing technology guidelines that will make it easier for people to enjoy high- definition television across their home- entertainment systems. The guidelines would allow transfer of HD between TVs, computers and other devices without multiple connecting wires and remote controls, the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance said.
The group's founders include Samsung and NBC Universal television network. Other participants include cable operator Charter Communications electronics manufacturer Mitsubishi America, JVC and server maker Sun Microsystems.
The first compatible products will go on sale around the 2006 holiday season, said Heemin Kwon, the group's president and a vice president and general manager at Samsung Electronics Co. They also are expected to be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January. One of the group's goals is to let people simultaneously watch, pause and record up to five video channels on high- definition televisions. It also is developing a way to let people use a single remote to control all entertainment devices on a home network.
They say they plan to work with industry organisations such as the Consumer Electronics Association, CableLabs and the Motion Picture Association of America on the guidelines. To prevent piracy home networks using the standard will be fitted with DRM that would still let people shift content between devices, the group said.
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Germany will regulate new network
Germany and the European Commission have reached a compromise in their dispute over plans to exempt new high-speed networks from regulation. The move could hamper government efforts to give Deutsche Telekom a regulatory exclusion for a network that the company plans to build over the next few years at a cost of E3 billion.
Matthias Kurth, German telecoms regulator told the European Commission that he planned to regulate parts of the VDSL network after Brussels threatened to veto the exemptions. The regulator argued in October that VDSL was a new product that should be free from regulation, as it was impossible to tell what services it might spawn. The EU executive called on Kurth to explain his plans after it argued that VDSL was not a new product and must be regulated under EU telecoms rules.
Viviane Reding, European telecoms commissioner, said: "We insist that the development of the VDSL market in Germany follows the EU rules and that the dominant player will not be given a head start in a monopoly." Other EU countries had agreed to regulate their VDSL markets, the Commission added.
Under the compromise, Kurth would regulate parts of the high-speed network if services mirrored those available on existing lines. Services such as web-based television would for now be exempt from scrutiny.
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Robbie Bach, the new head of Microsoft’s digital media and entertainment businesses, has reshuffled management of the division, putting control of the "digital home" strategy in the hands of a group of executives who masterminded the creation of the Xbox video games business.
The move was intended to cut across the company’s previously disparate product groups and speed up its push into new markets, such as digital media. A senior Xbox executive, J Allard, has been handed responsibility for the platform technology across the digital entertainment group. Allard is famous for a memo he wrote to Bill Gates warning of the threat to the software company posed by the rise of the internet – a memo that helped prompt Gates to revise Microsoft’s strategy.
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Ofcom has published its 06-07 Plan
Ofcom published its draft Annual Plan for April 2006 to March 2007. The plan is subject to consultation until 10 February. The plan identifies nine priorities:
1. Spectrum release: auction and liberalisation – releasing and liberalising spectrum.
2. Telecoms strategic review implementation – ensuring effective implementation of the Undertakings made by BT Group plc; and by ensuring an effective and swift transition to an appropriate regulatory approach for new networks and IP services.
3. Continued deregulation –to explore opportunities to reduce and better target regulation.
4. Next generation deployment – understanding how the next generation of telecoms networks and services are evolving and considering the implications for regulation.
5. PSB: future developments – continuing work to combine consumer choice in a digital world with benefits for viewers arising from more focused and enduring public service broadcasting. Work will include a financial review of Channel 4, the development of proposals for the Public Service Publisher and input into the BBC Charter Review.
6. Content delivery – understanding how new methods of delivering content are creating opportunities for innovation and examining the potential public benefits.
7. Consumer protection – taking enforcement action to protect the public, handling complaints effectively and promoting media literacy.
8. Availability and access – identifying areas where market failures may make intervention necessary to offer people access to services such as broadband and digital television.
9. International engagement – seeking to influence the way that regulatory policy evolves; in particular, the new EU Directive on television and other audio-visual content, the revised EU Framework for electronic communications and international negotiations on spectrum, including the Regional Radio Conference 2006.Financials: Ofcom’s operating budget for 2006/7 will be £129.5million (E187.6 million); this is 5 per cent lower in real terms than the 2005/6 budget.
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Spain: Broadband connections break the 5 million mark
From David Del Valle in MadridBroadband connections in Spain will surpass five million by the end of the year, with a rise of more than 45 per cent in comparison with last year's 3.5 million, according to forecasts by Fundacion Telefonica in its annual report La Sociedad de la Informacion en España.
In 2006, it predicts the number of broadband connections will amount to 7.5 million reaching 18 million by the end of the decade. Currently, around 86 per cent of all broadband connections are made through ADSL technology and the rest (more than 1 million) using cable modem, according to the Spanish Association of Internet users (AEI). By the end of November, there were 4,780,485 broadband connections, 15 per cent more than the previous month. Spain has more than 15 million Internet users, with an Internet penetration of 41.1 per cent among the Spanish population aged more than 15 years.
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Canal+ claims high five
Canal+ has broken through the 5 million subscriber level. The pay-TV broadcaster notes that the landmark has been achieved during a year marked by editorial relaunches across movies, drama and sport, as well as the launch of 'Canal+ Le Bouquet', France's first multi-platform premium offering, which accounts for nearly one out of two subscribers.
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Imposing new taxes on more VoIP users is likely to be one of the Federal Communications Commission's top priorities next year, Chairman Kevin Martin said.
The policy at issue is the thorny question of which phone service providers are forced to contribute to the Universal Service Fund, a multibillion-dollar pool of money that's used to subsidise telecommunications services in rural and other high-cost areas, schools and libraries. Now, long-distance, wireless, pay-phone and telephone services are required to contribute a fixed percentage of their revenues to the fund, which they do by surcharging their customers' bills.
But it remains unclear how those taxes apply to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. Some of those companies--particularly larger ones--already contribute to the fund, either directly or via the telephone companies whose wires they use to provide their services. Vonage, which has more than a million subscribers, imposes a "regulatory recovery fee" of $1.50 on each customer phone number.
But without a mandate in place, government regulators and politicians say they fear that as technology like VoIP becomes more widespread as a traditional telephone replacement, the fund will shrink.
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MTV stakes mobile clip company
MTV Networks has agreed to become an investor in Amp'd Mobile and will provide video clips and other content for a wireless service that Amp'd plans to launch. MTV, which is also putting an executive on Amp'd's board, is investing $50 million in the mobile venture.
Amp'd is renting space on the Verizon Wireless network to sell a mobile phone service aimed at young adults. Several companies, including Walt Disney are setting up similar ventures with the hope of carving out their own space. Amp'd hopes to win customers by undercutting pricing on Sprint's existing wireless music service. It plans to sell full song downloads for 99 cents each from a selection of hundreds of thousands of songs, Adderton said.
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SES GLOBAL has concluded an agreement with TV Vlaanderen for the launch of Belgium's first satellite platform in January 2006. TV Vlaanderen is a bouquet of Flemish and international channels which will be broadcast via the ASTRA satellite system.
Kurt Pauwels, Managing Director of TV Vlaanderen, explains: "Flanders was so far one of the few regions in Europe without a dedicated satellite TV offering. In view of the growing interest for digital TV, it is therefore the right time to provide the Flemish audience with their own satellite TV package via ASTRA."
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Kamera to sell Mobile TV in Arabia
The mobile TV Company Kamera has launched a joint venture in Egypt. Together with the leading production company in the Middle East, Video Cairo Sat, Kamera will produce video content for mobile and internet distribution in the pan-Arabic region. The offering will include international and local news, entertainment and sport.
Called Swegypt the JV combines Kamera's international content and technical platform with Video Cairo Sat's regional content, Swegypt will create a unique offering for Arab-speaking mobile operators and online portals.
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Thursday 15th December 2005
SES buys New Skies
VoIP from MSN
MTV, Microsoft downloads
Malone boosts Austar stake
PLDT gears up for IPTV service
Shepherd quits Sky
DirecTV fined $5m for bad calls
ITV shuts news channel
CANALPLAY on FREEBOX TV
Liberty completes on NTL Ireland
TI next generation gateway chip
New DVB-T test centre
GoldPocket award
SES buys New SkiesSES GLOBAL is to acquire 100% of New Skies Satellites for $1.16bn in cash; $760m for equity and $400m of debt assumption.
New Skies, a Bermudian company operating out of The Netherlands, is the world's fifth largest satellite operator based on transponder capacity, with five spacecraft and an additional satellite due for launch in 2006. For the twelve months ended September 30, 2005, New Skies generated revenues of $ 232.9 million.
SES says that with its complementary satellite fleet, New Skies offers a compelling strategic fit. The integration of New Skies' satellite assets will notably extend SES' presence in India, the Middle East and Africa as well as in Latin America. New Skies' existing business mix also enhances SES' TV based core business by strengthening its video, data and government segments.
Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES GLOBAL, stated: "New Skies is poised to become SES' third satellite infrastructure pillar, alongside ASTRA in Europe and AMERICOM in North America and complementing SES' existing participations in Asia and Latin America."
Dan Goldberg, chief executive officer of New Skies, said: " As the leader in the commercial satellite sector, SES has a global satellite fleet and other financial and strategic resources that can be leveraged for the benefit of New Skies' diverse and growing customer base. "
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VoIP from MSNMicrosoft is to offer Internet-based telephony services announcing a cut price pre-paid PC-to-phone service in conjunction with MCI, the US telecommunications group that is being acquired by Verizon Communications.
The service, which combines MCI's existing VoIP network service with Microsoft's software, is expected to launch in the first half of 2006 and will be called MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call. Users will access it the service through Windows Live Messenger - the upcoming successor to the MSN Messenger instant messaging service which has more than 185 million active users around the world.
Microsoft's move follows similar initiatives from Google, Yahoo! and Skype (ebay). 30 other countries would cost about 2 cents per minute with the Yahoo service.
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MTV, Microsoft downloadsMTV Networks and Microsoft said they would join forces to design and develop a new digital music service. Called Urge, it is due to launch in 2006, the companies said in a joint release, and will be integrated into a new version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Plans call for the service to offer more than two million songs for download from major labels and independents, as well as original content and MTV Networks programs.
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Malone boosts Austar stake
By Rose Major in MelbourneJohn Malone has increased his interest in Austar, the Australian regional pay-TV platform, with an affiliate of Liberty Global paying A$224 million to a private equity firm for another 14 per cent of the company.
The purchase raises Liberty's interest from 37 per cent to 51 per cent of the platform. Previously, 19.5 per cent of shares were publicly traded, with Liberty and Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP) owning 80.5 per cent through a company called United Austar Partners. CHAMP is selling the remainder of its interest to institutional investors at A$1.15.
Austar has 525,000 pay-TV subscribers in rural and regional Australia, of whom over 80 per cent are digital. The platform has committed to switching its analogue service off by March 2007.
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PLDT gears up for IPTV service
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is planning to venture into IPTV. The company said it would install an all-internet protocol next generation network (NGN) over the next two to three years, in a bid to expand its product offerings.
"One of the key benefits of upgrading to NGN is the ability to enhance our voice and data service offerings as well as expand our product range to potentially include video the company said in a statement.
Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said that PLDT was planning to venture into Internet-based TV after it failed to acquire a satellite-based pay TV company, Dream Satellite. This, he said, was the reason behind the shelving of the plan to go into direct-to-home TV business with American content provider Echostar. "As talks with Dream and Bayantel are not proceeding, we have to reassess our approach on the video business," he said. "The question is, does it make sense to go into DTH right now when IPTV is proving to be more versatile and less expensive?" PLDT, he said, would evaluate whether it would be wiser to adopt a new technology like IPTV as what Hong Kong-based telephone firm PCCW had done or stick with the existing system.
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Shepherd quits SkySky Interactive MD Ian Shepherd has quit to join Vodafone as director of commercial operations with responsibility for managing sales and customer retention in the UK. His role will be temporarily filled by Sky Interactive commercial director Will Harding and head of betting/gambling Nick Rust. Both will report to chief marketing director Jon Florsheim while a permanent replacement is found.
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DirecTV fined $5m for bad callsThe Federal Trade Commission announced a $5.34 million settlement DirecTV over alleged violations of the Do Not Call rule, this is the largest civil penalty ever obtained by the in a consumer protection enforcement case.
The FTC's action "demonstrates that the registry is a program consumers can continue to believe in," said FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras. "Sellers are on the hook for calls placed on their behalf and for their benefit," she added. "It is not named the Do Not Call Registry for nothing." DirecTV independent retailers had continued to make sales calls to individuals who had specifically registered not to receive such calls.
DirecTV issued a statement that said, "DIRECTV wholly supports the national Do-Not-Call Registry and our agreement with the FTC reflects our commitment to prevent unwanted and unlawful telemarketing calls to existing and potential DIRECTV customers."
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ITV shuts news channelITV is closing its 24-hour news channel, according to reports. The channel airs on Freeview and Sky but struggles against BBC News 24, Sky News and CNN.
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CANALPLAY on FREEBOX TVFree and the CANAL+ Group have further strengthened their ties, in a promotional launch offer, Free is offering 100,000 films for E1.99each. Free is taking its strategic partnership with the CANAL+ Group a stage further and is now
able to offer the largest catalogue of films currently available on video-on-demand.
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Liberty completes on NTL IrelandLiberty Global announced that UPC Ireland "following the approval by the Minister of Enterprise Trade and Employment last week, has completed the acquisition of NTL Ireland through its acquisition of MS Irish Cable Holdings. NTL Ireland was subsequently contributed to UPC Broadband, our primary European borrower group. NTL Ireland is the largest cable operator in the Republic of Ireland, offering cable television and broadband services to residential customers and managed network services to corporate customers. At September 30, 2005, NTL Ireland had approximately 375,100 revenue generating units including 358,700 video RGUs and 16,400 broadband Internet RGUs. In the Republic of Ireland Liberty Global also owns cable operator Chorus, which served 201,100 RGUs at September 30, 2005."
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TI next generation gateway chipTexas Instruments has announced the architecture for its next generation of residential gateway solutions. The UR8 architecture, which will serve as the foundation for a full family of residential gateway solutions, features an open platform, exceptional voice
capabilities and advanced multimedia processing over all DSL standards.The UR8 architecture comprises an advanced multimedia processor, a
programmable DSL PHY, a high-performance DSP-based voice sub-system and a
rich set of standard interfaces.TI says a well-defined API reduces time to market
by allowing maximum hardware and software reuse across all DSL platforms.
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New DVB-T test centreIndustry veterans have founded the first pan-European DVB-T conformance and testing organisation called Digital TV Labs based in Bristol, UK.
Digital TV Labs was founded by former executives from DVB-T middleware leader Cabot Communications, where they recognized the growing problem for OEMs and the lack of an independent, full service test partner covering all of Europe. The company provides a one-stop-shop for any company introducing DVB-T receivers into Europe. Keith Potter, CEO commented, "We are working with OEMs through the whole development and deployment cycle, reducing the time to introduce products into each country whilst lowering their testing costs"
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GoldPocket awardGoldPocket Interactive, a TANDBERG Television company, received the Television Technology of the Year Award at the Digital Entertainment and Media Excellence Awards, held earlier this month at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. GoldPocket was honored for its EventMatrix interactive television (ITV) system, the market-leading solution for the creation, management, and delivery of cross-platform ITV programming.
"We are extremely honored that our technology has been recognized as a force for innovation in the digital media industry," said Scott Newnam, president of GoldPocket Interactive. "Consumers are increasingly demanding interactivity, personalization, and community features from their media. Our technology enables media companies to provide this new entertainment experience across all distribution platforms."
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Wednesday 14th December 2005
US cable will go family friendly
EC will allow product placement
Spanish broadcasters beg Government money for DTT
Russia Today, back tomorrow…?
Toshiba delays HD DVD
News exec admits to lying
Latens, UST for Mid East
US cable will go family friendlyAfter brief resistance US cablcos are yielding to regulator pressure and now say they expect to introduce packages of family-friendly channels as early as the first quarter of 2006.
Kyle McSlarrow, the head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which represents cable companies and programmers, said that at least six cable companies, including the two largest, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, were developing packages of channels that would appeal to parents who want to shield their children from offensive shows.
McSlarrow said each cable company would come up with its own family-oriented packages and that they would be purchased like other bundles. He admitted several operators will first have to solve contractual problems with programmers.
The move is intended to head off pending legislation that might obligate them to block certain programming or sell channels to consumers on an à la carte basis.
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EC will allow product placementThe European Commission is launching a plan to liberalise television advertising. For the first time it will let TV producers, advertisers and broadcasters tap into product placement as well as allowing greater flexibility on timing commercial breaks.
Viviane Reding, the media commissioner leading the review of the 1989 "television without frontiers" directive, believes the changes will help broadcasters compete in the new media era. However, the legislation faces criticism both from some other commissioners and also broadband media - which are covered by the directive for the first time and are seeking to avoid being regulated at all.
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Spanish broadcasters beg Government money for DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridAll the Spanish broadcasters have asked the Administration to inject more money into the market to finance the development of DTT. So far, the Government has invested E10 million. The broadcasters are against direct subsidies for set-top-boxes, as they believe they would be overruled by the EC, but for financial injection into content and advertising campaigns.
At the presentation of the new DTT platform, Joan Majo, the president of Pro DTT Association, formed by all the channels and Abertis, warned of two serious threats to the new DTT platform: the bet on quantity (more channels) instead of quality and the massive acquisition by Spaniards of zappers, cheap set-top-boxes with no interactive capacity.
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Russia Today, back tomorrow…?A Russian hacker has brought down the country's first English-language news station just days after its launch. Russia Today, the state-funded news channel, was forced off air on Monday.
Margarita Simonyan, the channel's editor in chief, said, "There was an attempted invasion of the computer system from outside, which gave rise to viruses, which in turn led to a breakdown in transmission. We apologise to the audience but the channel has had to cease broadcasting until the technical malfunctions are mended." Simonyan could not confirm when programming would resume but said technicians were working to fix the problems.
The Kremlin has already spent around E29m launching Russia Today.
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Toshiba delays HD DVDToshiba will delay the year-end Japan launch of its next-generation HD DVD players to address copy protection issues. Toshiba said it would continue to push for a U.S. launch in the first quarter of 2006, most likely some time between February and March. It said it would not launch the products until the last details on copy protection management systems, called AACS, or advanced access content system, were finalized.
The rival Sony Blu-ray group said in November it planned to roll out its HD disc format in spring 2006.
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News exec admits to lying
From Rose Major in MelbourneA News Limited executive has admitted in an Australian court to lying in order to get a fellow shareholder in pay-TV platform Foxtel to stump up more cash for a bid for rugby league television rights.
News Ltd chief general counsel Ian Philip said that a fax to Telstra chief executive Bruce Akhurst, since destroyed, had asked the telco to contribute as much as A$14 million to a bid for NRL rights, in order to block a bid from C7, a rival pay-TV channel owned by the Seven Network. But Philip said that he had already decided, as a News appointee to the NRL committee, to block C7's bid.
Telstra did contribute to the bid, however, lifting the joint Fox Sports/Foxtel bid to above that of C7. Philip said that he had wanted to avoid both criticism that the NRL had accepted a lower bid than C7's for the rights, but also News Ltd having to shell out another A$10 million itself.
The case, in which Seven is suing 22 parties over the 2002 collapse of C7, is continuing.
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Latens, UST for Mid EastLatens Systems and US Telecommunication (UST), a specialist systems integrator and distributor for the Middle East, announced that UST has joined the Latens Partner Program. UST is a systems integrator for the Middle East and GCC (Arab Gulf Cooperative Countries), with particular expertise in security and will offer operators the full Latens CAS product portfolio.
"I see security for IPTV networks through Latens solutions as a natural extension of our specialisation in IT security and in IP networks," says Rodrick Abdallah, Multimedia Director of US Telecommunication.
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Tuesday 13th December 2005
French pay-TV consolidates at last?
Branson will subsidise NTL deal
Paramount wins SKG
Case aligns with Ichan
Fast food pod loads
'BBC licence bid too high, tax payer should fund digital'
China Telecom and Reliance direct link
EuroNews for blinkx
Amino selected for Galaxy IPTV
French pay-TV consolidates at last?French press reports that three of France's leading television companies intend to pool their pay-TV channels in order to consolidate one of Europe's last fragmented satellite TV markets. Vivendi, owner of Canal Plus, said it was looking to strengthen its market position to respond more effectively to increasing competition from telecoms and internet operators and had therefore opened negotiations about possible collaboration with two rival TV groups, TF1 and M6, which jointly own the TPS pay-TV company.
"These negotiations relate to a possible combination of TPS and Canal Plus Group, which would be in the best interest of current and future subscribers and which would preserve the identities of the two companies," Vivendi said. Vivendi has long argued for consolidation, however, until now, TF1 has resisted approaches arguing that TPS could flourish independently. TF1 owns 66 per cent of TPS, the remainder are held by M6. There has been recent speculation in the French media that TF1 and M6 could be prepared to sell TPS for E4bn.
However, any possible tie-up between the two pay-TV companies would be closely scrutinised by France's competition authorities. Last year, Canal Plus paid E600m for the rights to broadcast France's top soccer matches for three years, offering almost twice as much as TPS.
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Branson will subsidise NTL dealSir Richard Branson is prepared to do a deal with NTL that values his 72 per cent stake in Virgin Mobile at a significant discount to the price offered to minority shareholders. According to reports he had been willing to accept an offer of 300p a share, while minorities have balked at NTL's offer of 323p.
His willingness to accept a lower offer partly reflects the lucrative royalty payments that Virgin Group will receive from NTL for use of the Virgin Mobile name, believed to be £15-20m a year for 10 years. Virgin Mobile shares closed last week at 355p, giving the company a market capitalisation of more than £917m (E1.32bn). Indeed, sources have suggested Sir Richard could seek to increase the licence fee payments from NTL for use of the Virgin brand. This could allow Sir Richard to receive less for his stake, potentially allowing NTL to increase its offer for minority shareholders, without increasing its overall bid valuation for Virgin Mobile.
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Paramount wins SKGParamount Pictures has bought rival studio Dreamworks SKG. Viacom, which owns Paramount, has agreed to pay $1.6bn: $1bn in cash, plus taking over Dreamworks' debt.
Dreamworks was established 11 years ago to combine three talents in the world of film, animation and music - Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Paramount reportedly plans to sell off the library, expecting it to fetch $850m to $1bn. The deal does not include Dreamworks' animation studios - the creators of hits such as Shrek - but it does include the right to distribute already-made animated Dreamworks films. Paramount will also take over a television division with long-running popular shows like Spin City.
Paramount beat off NBC Universal, which offered $900m.
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Case aligns with IchanAs Time Warner nears a decision on an alliance with Google or Microsoft for AOL, Stephen Case, the co-founder of AOL, has spoken out against the plan, aligning himself with Carl C. Icahn, who has pushed for a breakup of Time Warner.
Case, who recently resigned as a Time Warner director, wrote in The Washington Post that "although I played a key role in bringing AOL and Time Warner together six years ago, it's now my view that it would be best to 'undo' the merger by splitting Time Warner into several independent companies and allowing AOL to set off on its own path."
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Fast food pod loadsWalt Disney Company is working on replacing Happy Meal toys with portable media players that hold Disney movies, music, games or photos, according to a patent application. Users could add files to the devices by earning points with food purchases.
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'BBC licence bid too high, tax payer should fund digital'A government review of BBC funding is planning to recommend that the corporation could survive on a lower licence fee settlement says the Guardian. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has hired accountants PKF to examine the BBC's above-inflation licence fee bid.
PKF last reviewed the BBC's finances in 2000 with the result that the corporation's request for £700m (E1.014bn) in extra funding was cut back to £200m in the last licence fee settlement.
Meanwhile former cabinet minister Norman Fowler told a House of Lords committee the taxpayer should pay for the switchover to digital so planned rises in the BBC licence fee can be scrapped. He said demands by BBC bosses for the fee to rise to more than £180 over the next eight years were unacceptable.
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China Telecom and Reliance direct linkIndia's Reliance Infocomm and China Telecommunications Corporation have
made an agreement to provide direct telecommunication services, including a global hubbing service, between subscribers in the two countries.The agreement will lead the way to the first direct telecommunications
connectivity between Asia's two largest economies. Currently, there is no direct connectivity and calls between the two countries are routed via the United
States or Europe. In providing for global hubbing, the companies say the agreement will assist both companies in developing their relationships with other telecom carriers and also enhance profitability.
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EuroNews for blinkxEuroNews has announced a partnership deal with blinkx with EuroNews being added to blinkx's news and information line-up, which already features Reuters, Business Week and the New York Times. Under the terms of the agreement, users in Europe and around the world will be able to search over 4,000 thousand international TV news segments, including in-depth coverage of the day's top stories, business, science and culture.
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Amino selected for Galaxy IPTVAmino announced that its market-leading consumer premises
technology for internet protocol TV services, has been selected by
Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Ltd for its Hong Kong IPTV deployment. The company ordered a significant volume of AmiNET110 set-top boxes and launched
the SUPERSUN service to deliver up to 40 channels of broadcast programming
and movies to subscribers in Hong Kong.
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Monday 12th December 2005
BT: cheapest VoIP
UK: 66% now digital
Seven and Yahoo Oz team up
TF1 waits on Springer decision
Coke: mobile ads will be big
Gates pushes India IPTV
Pakistan: 16 sat channels
Paramount eyes DreamWorks
Ocean Blue for Freesat and HDTV
Amino enables Portugal's first IPTV
BT: cheapest VoIPBT has insisted it will undercut other VoIP operators like Skype when it launches services next February. Skype, which was acquired this year by eBay for $4.1 billion (E3.5 billion), offers free calls between users who have downloaded its software but charges for connections with landlines and mobiles. BT offers a similar model with free calls between users who have downloaded its software on a PC and rates that undercut its normal tariffs for calls to fixed lines and mobiles. BT has so far held off from a sustained marketing drive out of fear of eating further into traditional call revenues but has finally given in to competitive pressures and followed a number of other incumbents around the world in deploying VoIP products in the mainstream.
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Latest Ofcom figures (September 30) estimate that 65.9 per cent of UK households receive digital TV services, up from 63.per cent at 30 June 2005. The number of households receiving digital TV services rose by over 760,000 to almost 16.5 million during Q3, increasing digital penetration by 2.9 percentage points.
Digital Terrestrial Television had another strong quarter with over one million sales of Freeview set top boxes and IDTVs. The number of BSkyB subscribers increased by 48,000 to reach 7,472,000 at the end of Q3 2005. The total number of subscribers to cable television decreased slightly during the quarter and is now just below 3.3 million. This was a result of a fall in analogue cable subscribers which outweighed the increase in digital cable subscriptions. Digital cable subscribers increased by over 43,300 and now account for over 2.6 million of the total.
The number of households with Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television) as the only digital platform is estimated to have grown to around 5,775,000 by the end of September 2005, up by almost 600,000 over the quarter. Latest estimates suggest there are also around 545,000 free-to-view digital satellite homes. This figure includes viewers who are no longer Sky subscribers but still receive the public service channels through their set-top box.
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Seven and Yahoo Oz team up
From Rose Major in MelbourneAustralia's Seven Network has formed a far-reaching joint venture with internet company Yahoo which the companies said would lead eventually to some form of IPTV services.
Under the terms of the deal, Seven and Yahoo Inc. have formed a new 50-50 company that will own Yahoo Australia and New Zealand's online and mobile assets. Seven will contribute access to its media properties, including its terrestrial channel and magazines, plus A$10 million (E6.4 million), to match Yahoo's existing development capital. It will also integrate Yahoo Aus & NZ's advertising sales with its own.
Yahoo's current Australian and New Zealand sites will relaunch in January to reflect the deal. The new company would have a "commitment" to develop and roll out new products including IPTV and streaming video, Seven said. Such services would be likely, but not exclusively, to use Seven's content.
Today's deal has echoes of that formed between Seven rival Nine Network and Microsoft, to form ninemsn.com.au, eight years ago.
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TF1 waits on Springer decision
TF1, France’s main commercial broadcaster, has signalled it could bid for Germany’s Pro-SiebenSat.1 if the German cartel office blocks a takeover by Axel Springer.
The monopoly watchdog has indicated it could veto the E4.2 billion ($4.9 billion) deal, arguing that it gives Springer too much dominance in TV and print. If the agency does stop the deal, Springer could ask the government for special permission to go ahead – a difficult decision if alternative bidders had come forward.
The French TV company said: "It is a prospect that we studied in detail in 2002. As there is a possibility of movement now, we are continuing to follow it closely." TF1 made a bid for the broadcaster in 2002 when it was sold out of the failing empire of Leo Kirch. Haim Saban, the US investor, bought the broadcaster.
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Coca-Cola UK has stated that it views mobile as being a potentially more powerful medium than TV. According to NMA the brand believes the growing importance of mobile as an advertising medium means it could be spending 50 per cent of its marketing budget on mobile within decades.
"Mobile marketing could be phenomenally important, when you look at the penetration of handsets and the passion the audience has for mobile," said Coca-Cola marketing manager James Eadie. "As a way of connection, it ought to be phenomenally powerful and more important than TV."
The endorsement comes as Coke launches a global campaign to revive sales with the new slogan, "Welcome to the Coke side of life."
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Microsoft’s Bill Gates met with Reliance Infocomm chief Anil Ambani and discussed co-operation between the two companies on next-generation IP-based television services in India.
"I had a chance to meet Anil Ambani. We will now help them in rolling out broadband services... he has a strategy in place and we will play a key role in helping them," Gates said. "We are putting renewed energy into the IPTV tie-up."
Reliance Infocomm and Microsoft had agreed three years ago to work together to jointly create, test and deliver IPTV services based on an upcoming IPTV solution being developed by Microsoft TV.
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The Pakistan government has issued licences for setting up 16 satellite television channels, Information and Broadcasting State Minister Anisazeb Tahirkaili told the lower house of Parliament.
She explained that the government believed in an open media policy and would continue to encourage electronic media growth in the country. There are about a dozen private television channels operating in the field and some are in the pipeline.
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The Wall Street Journal reported that Viacom's board approved a bid if outside investors put up most of the money for the offer. Paramount has been in talks with investors since November to raise about $800 million.
DreamWorks, formed in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, is looking for a price of about $1 billion plus the assumption of debt, the newspaper said.
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Ocean Blue for Freesat and HDTV
Ocean Blue Software, the specialist digital TV software developer, has released its platform for the upcoming DVB-S Freesat satellite service. The software includes support for High Definition Television and for a possible back channel via modem. set top box.
Ocean Blue's product platform for Freesat includes Sunrise, a foundation suite of software products for digital TV receiver products, and Voyager, the middleware system to provide interactivity based on MHEG-5 and DSM-CC. Ocean Blue will support MHEG-5 V1.06 is a current development, which will be available in 2006, in line with the BBC's proposed interactive services, to be launched in time for the World Cup next summer. Ocean Blue is already working with a number of leading consumer electronics manufacturers, who are bringing Freesat products to market.
Ocean Blue software includes support for HD television broadcasts. UK broadcasters will start to roll out HDTV channels in 2006 in a move that will transform the way we watch TV. The current grainy TV image will be surpassed by something that looks like 70mm film.
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Amino enables Portugal's first IPTV
Amino announced it has been selected by Novis, a major Portuguese Telco, for a residential service to be branded as 'Clix Smartv'. A commercial test launch with AmiNET110 set-top boxes is scheduled for December 2005 in Lisbon and Porto, with full commercial deployment planned for 2006 in all major cities. The service will include an electronic programme guide (EPG), Video on Demand (VOD), and a personalised choice of channels.
The service will offer 50 channels for the test launch, increasing to 100 when the commercial deployment commences.
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