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NEWS Monday 4th July to Friday 8th July 2005
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BT
will subsidise IPTV next summer
BT has confirmed it is aiming for a full-scale trial of its IPTV proposition
next March followed by a late summer retail launch “in plenty of time
for Christmas.”
Andrew Burke, CEO BT Entertainment, told advanced-television the service –
its brand is still under wraps – will feature all the freeview channels,
a 14 day forward and seven day back EPG and a comprehensive VOD service. A
basic service will be available via a standard freeview box with the addition
of an Ethernet connection, with the fully-loaded STB including a PVR available
for around £70 (E103). BT will subsidise manufacturers to make sure
this price point is hit. The hard disc PVR – expected to be about 80Gb,
and the network PVR will interact “seamlessly” with the viewer unaware
which is providing the chosen service or archiving.
Burke revealed the service has already tested well with consumers, particularly
“the killer app” of the seven-day back full VOD capability. He said
license deals to cover all previous programmes for seven days were in place
with the BBC and in hand with the other freeview channels. He said he had
complete confidence in their IPTV partner Microsoft and that all functionality
had proved out well in tests.
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In February 2004,
EchoStar filed an application for authority to construct, launch, and operate
a geostationary satellite in the Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS) using extended
Ku-Band frequencies. Last month, Mobile Satellite Ventures was granted FCC
authority to construct, launch and operate a second-generation Mobile Satellite
Service (MSS) satellite at the same orbital slot.
In denying EchoStar's request, the FCC bureau said the company's proposed
operations at the 101-degree location would cause harmful interference to
Mobile Satellite's previously licensed efforts.
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Kleeneze doesn’t clean up on TV
The home shopping company Kleeneze suffered a 15% slump in underlying profits last year after launching its shopping television channel. It reported a £7m (E10.2m) profit yesterday from existing operations for the year to April 28, down from £8.2m in 2004. Excluding acquisitions, turnover rose by 7% to £170.6m.
Kleeneze said
it racked up an £800,000 operating loss in relation to eeZee TV, its
joint venture shopping channel, which has been broadcasting on a Sky channel
since March. It incurred a further £300,000 in start-up costs. The shopping
channel is part of Kleeneze's strategy to become a "home shopping specialist",
selling through catalogues, the Internet and television. To reflect the changes,
Kleeneze intends to rename itself European Home Retail.
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Consumer demand for mobile downloads is set to triple in the next 12 months creating a E7.6 billion global market for mobile content by this time next year, according to research by LogicaCMG.
The research says one fifth of mobile phone owners worldwide have already downloaded content to their handsets, a percentage expected to rise to 60 per cent in the next 12 months. The survey - covering Europe, Asia Pacific, North and South America - also revealed that average monthly download spend per subscriber is currently E6.32, with more than 40 per cent of respondents expressing an expectation for it to rise next year.
Ring tones, games and music are the three most popular downloads, a trend set to continue with news and sports also gaining a keen audience in Europe. The market for downloading video and movie clips also showed promise, with more than 10 per cent of mobile phone users worldwide expecting to download such content within 12 months. This number rises to 25 per cent in Asia Pacific, with one in ten also expecting to be downloading full feature films to their mobiles by this time next year.
Paul Gleeson,
chief operating officer at LogicaCMG commented: "This survey proves that
a substantial market for mobile content exists, with great opportunities for
mobile operators worldwide. To secure a share in this booming industry, mobile
operators need to look at the bigger picture, building strong relationships
with customers and content partners alike to deliver high-quality services
that meet the markets' needs."
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DirecTV Latin America good prospects
DirecTV expects to reap significant profits from its Latin American satellite television operations as their integration into the business nears completion
Bruce Churchill, president of DirecTV Latin America, said he saw strong subscriber growth in Brazil, with Argentina and Mexico also important markets. The group expects 5 million subscribers within four or five years, he said, up from 3.5 million now. Analysts estimate the value of each subscriber at $700-$800, potentially valuing the Latin American business at $3.5 billion-$4 billion if subscriber numbers increase.
DirecTV and News
Corp's Sky competed head-on for years in the main Latin American markets,
both making significant losses. Churchill said News Corp's experience in the
UK and Italy had shown most markets were profitable only if there was one
satellite operator. "When there are two satellite operators in any country
other than the US, customers get confused about what is on offer," Churchill
told the FT. He said News Corp had not placed any value on Latin American
operations when it bought a 34 per cent DirecTV stake for $6.6 billion in
April 2003. This reflected the region's history of unprofitability and the
complexity of the structures.
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Amdocs, the leading provider of telecommunications customer care and billing system software and services has acquired DST Systems' cable and satellite billing unit for about $238 million in cash.
DST Innovis, based in Kansas City, already provides billing and customer care solutions to some of the largest cable broadband and satellite companies, including DirecTV, Comcast and Cablevision. Overall, it supports about 37 million subscribers worldwide.
The company, which had revenues of about $233 million in 2004 and has about 700 employees. Amdocs said it expected the transaction to be neutral to earnings per share, excluding acquisition-related items, in the fourth quarter of this year and to add to earnings, excluding acquisition costs, in 2006.
"The broadband
media industry - which is undergoing tremendous change and dealing with increased
complexity as it continues to converge with the telecommunications industry
- represents a considerable opportunity for Amdocs," said Dov Baharav,
chief executive officer of Amdocs Management.
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Verizon announced a programming-distribution agreement with Turner Broadcasting System to carry TBS, TNT, CNN, Headline News, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), CNN International, CNN en Español and Boomerang on its FTTP network FIOS TV. Verizon is constructing FTTP networks in half the states where it offers landline communications service.
Under the agreement,
Verizon will carry the Turner Broadcasting networks on Verizon Fios TV when
it launches later this year. Also included is TNT in HD, providing a broad
range of dramatic programming in HDTV format, such as series, sports, movies
and TNT Originals. "We are delighted to add Turner Broadcasting to the
list of major programmers for Fios TV," said Terry Denson, vice president
of programming and marketing for Fios TV. "Our customers will enjoy the
quality programming from Turner Broadcasting that appeals to so many different
types of viewers and continues to sustain top-of-the-charts ratings with TNT,
TBS and CNN."
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A major piracy case for DirecTV and sister company NDS Group, has ended with the sentencing of two defendants to several years in prison. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida said Gilberto Felix and Julio Felix were sentenced in U.S. District Court to 14 and 10 years in prison, respectively, ordered to pay mandatory restitution to victims, and spend five years in supervised release. The sentence was the maximum under the federal sentencing guidelines.
The Felix brothers
had both pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit check fraud, wire fraud, and
the pirating of DirecTV satellite programming, as well as substantive check
fraud and wire fraud charges. Gilberto Felix also pleaded guilty to Social
Security fraud.
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Demand for podcasts
is expected to soar over next five years, with three-quarters of all digital
music owners in the US downloading podcasts by 2010, according to new research.
The report, from The Diffusion Group, predicts that demand for podcasts will
grow from less than 15 per cent of portable digital music player owners in
2004 to 75 per cent by 2010. This growth would put podcasting users at close
to 60 million US consumers.
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The Disney brand is entering the cellular business, targeting families with a wireless service that will seek to sell cellphones to children and their parents. Disney Mobile will use the Sprint cell network the country's third-largest cellphone operator in terms of subscribers. But the phones and service will carry the Disney brand and be sold by Disney.
The move is part
of a bigger push by Disney into the mobile industry. In December, ESPN, majority-owned
by Disney, announced a similar deal with Sprint, targeting sports fans. Disney's
latest plan is to tap into its loyal family audience and reputation for delivering
children's entertainment to capture a big slice of what it sees as an underserved
market for family-focused services. "There is a strong business opportunity
here," said Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group.
"We bring a lot of unique understanding of this market."
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Sky names partners for TV portal
Sky Interactive announced the initial group of technical partners supporting the development of its new interactive TV portal. Scheduled to launch later this year, the portal will allow website owners to deliver their services to a potential audience of 20 million users via the television.
The technical partners unveiled - Azoth, Demon, Microsoft, and Tamblin - will offer a range of services to facilitate the end-to-end process of developing and hosting content on the portal.
Azoth: Sky has collaborated with software development company Azoth to bring to market a full desktop development suite and editor for sites in WTVML, the technology that was developed by Sky and subsequently made available as a public standard. The new product, WTVStudio will be available in "Lite" and "Professional" versions.
Demon: Demon will provide flexible and secure hosting services on the Sky portal from as little as £11.75 (E17.5) per month including VAT. The Demon Web Hosting platform has been enhanced to automatically enable interoperability with interactive TV and support sites that will be available via the Sky portal.
Microsoft: Microsoft has partnered with Sky and ArtemisCorp to enable organisations to quickly and efficiently build, deploy, and maintain content-rich internet services delivered over the Sky interactive TV platform using WTVML. The ArtemisCorp CMS.RAPID solution is based on the popular Microsoft Content Management Server which provides easy-to-use authoring tools and streamlines the publishing process.
Tamblin: Tamblin is to launch a new software tool for developing and publishing content on the portal. i-ZoneTV On-Demand for e-business offers pre-tested templates and an on-demand pricing model, enabling website operators to launch services quickly and at low cost.
Following significant
interest in the new portal from the web community, Sky is creating a beta
programme for website owners interested in developing a presence in interactive
TV.
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City Channel
has signed a contract with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI), clearing
the path for their launch in September. The service will broadcast 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. It will provide information and entertainment specifically
of interest to the Dublin area. The service will be carried on the NTL digital
platform in Dublin and will form part of NTL’s digital standard television
subscription package.
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GMTV the UK’s
breakfast TV show is to make its lifestyle content available and searchable
through blinkx.tv. Blinkx.tv users will be able to 'step inside' segments
of the show and watch the exact clip they're looking for, whether it be newspaper
reviews, the weather or the latest showbiz gossip/interviews.
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Latens Systems
and SATCAB (Satélite e Cabo TV, Lda.), Portugal’s leading systems
integrator for advanced TV projects, announced that SATCAB has joined the
Latens Partner Program. This will ensure that SATCAB customers can deploy
Latens Content & Revenue Protection solutions. As a business partner with
high technical ability, SATCAB will be able to offer frontline support for
Latens CAS (Conditional Access Systems) and will also offer joint Latens and
SATCAB clients a simplified process for the installation of Latens solutions
within SATCAB systems integration projects.
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Spain is the latest country to introduce a mobile TV trial. The first DVB-H-based mobile TV transmissions will be trialed from September to February next year.
Around 500 people in Madrid and Barcelona will be the first to experience mobile TV in Spain with content and programmes from the main Spanish broadcasters: TVE, Antena 3 TV, Sogecable, Telecinco, Telemadrid and TV3. The test is the result of an agreement between Nokia, the broadcasting agency Abertis and MNO Telefonica Moviles.
The selected
users will have Nokia 7710 mobile phones, specially equipped to receive TV
signals. This initiative has received the green light from the Government
that has included in the new DTT Technical Plan a channel specifically dedicated
to mobile TV.
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AOL has quietly launched its new video-on-demand search service, with music videos, news segments and other content from parent company Time Warner. The service, called AOL Video, offers free access to search and playback for more than 15,000 licensed and original products from Time Warner. AOL is also expected to announce it is developing a video hub, a specialised page for watching the latest multimedia content.
Though still a test, AOL Video is the company's biggest, most comprehensive effort to court web surfers with a free pass to Time Warner entertainment and media video assets, which have been available only to AOL members. As the company has faced subscriber losses for dial-up and broadband service, it has retrenched with plans to migrate content and services to the web in order to boost traffic and sell video advertisements.
The technology
for AOL Video includes speech-to-text processing that searches for keywords
within the body of the video. The technology combines internal software developed
by AOL.
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Latest
French audience measurement
From
Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
The Mediametrie institute has just published the results of its 'Mediacabsat' study, measuring the audience of French cable and satellite channels for the six months to June 2005. Fifty-five million people in France have a TV receiver and 15 million of them have access to cable or satellite channels.
Mediametrie only releases the detailed results to the channels subscribing to the study. The results show that the main terrestrial channels still have by far the biggest audience share while the audience share of cable/satellite channels is growing albeit very slowly. The number of channels getting more than a one per cent audience share is still very small. The survey is based on a panel of 1,007 homes, with 3,193 individuals aged four and above.
Here are the figures for audience share, for the period concerned, in percent. The figure in brackets gives the audience share in the previous Mediacabsat study, covering December 2003 to June 2004. 'Audience share' refers to the proportion of viewing time of the channel in homes subscribing to cable or satellite, compared to the total TV viewing time in the home. Only channels getting more than one per cent are listed:
| TF1
25.3 (26.1) France 2 14.0 (14.3) France 3 8.9 (9.5) M6 8.9 (8.9) Canal+ 4.6 (4.5) TPS Star 2.8 (2.6) TF6 2.7 (2.6) 13e Rue 2.4 (2.2) RTL9 2.1 (2.4) Eurosport 2.1 (1.8) Disney Channel 2.0 (2.3) Canal+ Decale (formerly Canal+ Confort) 1.9 (1.8) Tiji 1.8 (2.1) Canal J 1.8 (2.0) Canal+ Sport 1.8 (1.4) Canal+ Cinema 1.7 (1.7) TV Breizh 1.7 (1.2) |
TMC
Monte Carlo 1.6 (1.6) Jetix (formerly Fox Kids) 1.5 (-) Serie Club 1.4 (1.5) Cartoon Network 1.4 (1.1) France 5 1.3 (1.3) Piwi 1.3 (1.4) TPS Cinefamily 1.2 (1.2) LCI 1.2 (1.2) TPS Cinestar 1.1 (1.3) Sport+ 1.1 (1.0) Cine Cinema Frisson 1.1 (1.1) Cine Cinema Premier 1.1 (1.0) Boomerang 1.1 (2.4) TPS Home Cinema 1.0 (1.0) Teletoon 1.0 (1.0 Toon Disney 1.0 (1.0) Ushuaia TV (period 14 March – 12 June 2005) 1.0 (-) |
UK may relax cross promo rules
Media groups could be allowed to cross-promote to help commercial stations win audience back from the BBC, Ofcom's chief executive has suggested.
Stephen Carter said groups such as Ulster Television, owner of talkSPORT, and SMG, owner of Virgin Radio as well as the Scottish ITV franchises, could be given the same opportunities as the BBC to advertise their services across several platforms. "If commercial TV wants to cross-promote commercial radio that is part of the same group, then that too can be building public value and we will review the rules we inherited to see whether there are unnecessary obstacles to reasonable cross-promotion," he said.
Speaking at the
Guardian's Radio Festival, Carter described the BBC as a "great content
aggregator" that should be allowed to cross-promote if it is of genuine
value to licence fee payers but, he said, restrictions on commercial players
"do not seem fair".
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CASBAA welcomes Oz pirate move
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has welcomed a decision by the Australian government to criminalise dishonestly accessing pay-TV services.
"Australia has made a forward-looking decision on this important question," said CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston Davies. "The pay-TV industry can only thrive if people who enjoy our content pay a fair price for it. This ensures that everyone across the value chain – from the cable-TV installer to the actors, athletes, musicians and news reporters who create our content – earns a fair return on their labours." CASBAA hopes Australia's decision will be replicated by other governments in the region which do not already treat pay-TV signal theft as a crime.
The Association
notes that while A$50 million (US$37.5 million) is estimated to be lost on
an annual basis to pay-TV piracy in Australia, the figures for the rest of
the region are much higher, it estimates: in Hong Kong it was US$25 million
in 2004; in Thailand it was US$141 million; in the Philippines it was US$70;
and in Taiwan it was US$114 million.
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ESPN is said to be close to signing a deal to launch a UK version of its Classic Sport channel - and remains in talks to launch a 24-hour live European sports channel. ESPN International already broadcasts French and Italian versions of its 'greatest moments in sport' channel, which replays footage from past events including the Olympics. With 7 million Classic Sport subscribers in France and Italy, it is looking to establish British, German and Spanish versions of the channel.
ESPN is likely
to strike a deal for a Classic Sport UK channel before the end of the year.
"We're very focused on launching in the UK," said Russell Wolff,
managing director of ESPN International, adding that ESPN International was
also in "active" discussions with potential partners to launch a
24-hour live European channel. "Nothing is imminent," he said. "We're
in the business of building the ESPN brand and making money."
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Deutsche Telekom has been debating whether to sell off U.S. mobile operator T-Mobile USA or spend billions of dollars to expand the business, according to WSJ. One option that Eick presented to investors was to sell the fast-growing business, bought for $40 billion during the peak of the telecoms bubble. Many investors are sceptical a buyer will emerge and question whether there was a sensible way to spend the $30 billion Deutsche Telekom could raise in a sale, and hope T-Mobile USA might need less investment if it goes on its own.
The alternative
is to buy permits for third-generation (3G) mobile phone services in auctions
next year and build a 3G network for such services as streaming music and
video calls, with costs of up to $10 billion.
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TiVo has launched a new service division to look after cable and satellite partners such as Comcast and DirecTV and expand other business relationships.
More than three
million customers pay a $12.95 monthly fee to use TiVo's digital video recording
service, which lets users pause live TV and, in some cases, move recorded
programmes to a home computer or portable device. TiVo's service works with
all the major broadcast, cable and satellite providers.
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Arabsat and Arab Commercial Group have concluded an agreement for Al-Sham Satellite Channel to join Arabsat. Al-Sham is the first Syrian private channel and says it will cover Arab family affairs through serious programmes that foster community ties.
Meanwhile, Arabsat
and the BBC's international news and information channel, BBC World, announce
a five-year agreement to broadcast BBC World on Arabsat 2D and on Arabsat's
renewed fourth-generation satellite Arabsat 4A, set for launch in late 2005.
The digital distribution platform in Ku-band will allow BBC World direct access
to the Middle Eastern and North African markets via Arabsat's satellite fleet.
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Sweden has outlawed the downloading of copyrighted movies, games and music in an attempt to curb piracy. Previously, Sweden was the only European nation that let people download copyrighted material for personal use. About 10 per cent of Swedes, about 900,000, freely swap music, games and films on their computers, one of the highest rates in the world.
The law was drawn up to bring Sweden into line with EU directives. But, say observers, the habit of downloading is likely to be hard to break. "There is nothing that indicates that (the pirates) would change their behaviour," Henrik Ponten, a spokesman for Antipiratbyran, a Swedish anti-piracy agency funded by film studios and game makers, told the BBC.
Antipiratbyran
estimates that one in every 2,000 Swedes has received a letter telling them
that they are making pirated material available from their computer. In other
nations the ratio is one in every 7,000. But the nation's Justice Minister
said that chasing pirates would only be a priority for the police if files
were being downloaded in massive quantities.
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Iliad
introduces Freeplayer media centre
From
Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
French triple play ISP Free (Iliad group) has introduced the 'Freeplayer media centre' for its 'Freebox' terminal. The Freebox is an ADSL modem with built in IPTV player and VoIP phone. It will enable the user to play multimedia content that is stored on his computer (or streamed from the Internet) on the TV, stereo or Dolby sound system, controlled using the Freebox remote control via an interface on the TV.
The Freeplayer uses VLC technology and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It involves installing client software on the PC and upgrading the firmware in the Freebox. The computer may be linked to the Freebox via a wi-fi link, and so be in a different room.
Free now has 1.24 million broadband subscribers, about 1 million of which use a Freebox terminal. The launch of the Freeplayer had been leaked a week ago and when it was finally launched, the firmware upgrade was controversially made subject to accepting the updated terms and conditions (such as a price increase for calls to mobile phones etc).
Advanced Television
tested the Freeplayer over the weekend. We found its features potentially
very useful, but it was complex to set up and use. Our verdict: This may be
the path to convergence between the PC and the TV, it still has a long way
to go before my mother-in-law will be able to use it.
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Freeview gains most from switch
Freeview will benefit most from government plans to switch off analogue by 2012, a new study has revealed. The YouGov poll of hundreds of industry executives, channel operators and producers who will attend the Edinburgh International TV festival in August found that 62 per cent thought that Freeview was best placed to benefit, while just 22 per cent opted for the satellite pay TV service Sky Digital.
The results mark
a radical shift from two years ago when a similar exercise was conducted at
the Royal Television Society's biennial convention in Cambridge. Then, when
Freeview was still in its infancy, 56 per cent of executives thought that
Sky would triumph and become the dominant commercial force in UK broadcasting.
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US sat radio firm XM said it added more than 640,000 net subscribers in the second quarter of 2005, bringing its subscriber total to more than 4.4 million. That's 53 per cent better than the number of sign-ups in the second quarter of last year, when XM (XMSR) added 418,000 new customers.
The latest figure
also represents an 18 per cent improvement over the gain in the first quarter
of 2005, when XM added 540,000 subscribers.
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ITV stock jumped
yesterday after weekend press speculation of a bid from Time Warner. The rumour
is a consortium of TW, Goldman Sachs and Apax is preparing a £6.6bn
(E9.7bn) bid. However analysts were unconvinced, ITV has been the target of
many unfounded bid rumours since the Carlton / Granada merger.
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Samsung Electronics has signed an agreement with rival Motorola to share mobile technology. The cross-licence agreement is the latest move by global tech firms to try and avoid costly legal disputes over intellectual property. Motorola and Samsung are the second- and third-largest mobile global phone makers respectively.
The firm also
signed a cross-licence agreement with Japan's Sony Corp late last year to
share patents on basic technologies such as those associated with chips and
industry standard technologies.
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News International, the publishing arm News Corp is inviting bids for the Times Educational Supplement and other specialist titles in an auction expected to value the education business at £250m (E367m).
The publisher
of The Sun, The Times, News of the World and Sunday Times is selling the titles
in order to focus investment on its flagship national newspapers. The TES
is the leading UK publication covering primary, secondary and further education.
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TPS will launch
TPS FOOT in August the first thematic channel entirely devoted to football.
Exclusive matches, behind-the-scenes stories from the leading European clubs,
the best goals of the season, and more. A range of competitions will be broadcast
live or with a slight delay, including the UEFA Cup with the matches between
the leading clubs, the qualifying matches for The Champion's League, the qualifying
matches for the next FIFA World Cup, and the friendly matches of the national
teams.
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Motors TV, the international 'High Speed Television' channel dedicated to motorsport, announced its arrival in Poland on the new digital offer from cable operator Aster City.
The channel is
now present in several East European countries: Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Macedonia, Rumania, Serbia and The Ukraine.
Other countries should join this list in the near future. Motors TV says it
is aired in more than 50 countries and is accessible by more than 13 million
subscriber households.
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Channel 5 the UK television channel and emuse technologies have joined forces with a long term, exclusive relationship to create and deploy all of the channel's interactive sponsorship.
Peugeot are set
to be the first brand to benefit; they are to launch interactive applications
from their sponsorship of Five's movies. "The sponsored spots are a particularly
good mechanism for access to the viewer as they top and tail programmes, so
with Five we are about to offer brands a real opportunity to reach a very
large audience in a comprehensive way," said Patrick Rainsford, CEO emuse
technologies.
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US House and Senate lawmakers have unveiled two measures designed to make it easier for telephone companies to launch video service to compete with cable and satellite services, reports Reuters. The measures would eliminate the need for telcos such as Verizon Communications and SBC Communications to seek authority from towns and cities to offer their video service. The operators have previously complained that such a process is cumbersome.
The bills would also bar providers from denying service to potential customers based on their income. Cable operators and some lawmakers had suggested that SBC and Verizon would target wealthier customers and ignore poorer areas.
Cities and towns would be authorised to seek so-called ‘franchise fees' from the new entrants. SBC has said it does not need franchise authority and is willing to make some limited payments to cities, while Verizon has been trying to negotiate agreements and has expressed a willingness to pay the necessary fees.
"SBC is committed to bringing video competition to consumers, and these bills clearly reflect Congress' intent to promote competition for consumers," commented Tim McKone, SBC senior vice president for federal relations.
Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy suggested that the FCC could also become involved in the fight between cable and telephone companies over franchise requirements for video services.
"Today,
all of the debates are taking place at the states," Abernathy said. "There
are some legal arguments that under the statutes we may have the ability to
pre-empt the states. But no one has filed a request asking us to do that."
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Vendor strategies critical to IPTV roll-out
New research has indicated that preliminary vendor selection will have lasting impact on the efficacy of IPTV systems. The Diffusion Group suggests that as the IPTV market heats up, and as solutions vendors position themselves to leverage market expansion, service operators must evaluate the long-term implications of initial vendor selection.
According to TDG's latest report, ‘Evaluating IPTV Vendor Strategies', early vendor decisions will have substantial impact on the scalability and openness of systems well beyond initial deployment. Whether selecting an end-to-end solution that promises to cover all the bases, or using components from multiple vendors, service operators looking to IPTV to complete triple-play offering should think long-term when selecting vendor partners for initial IPTV service deployments, suggests TDG.
"A number of recent announcements have served to illustrate the importance of initial vendor selection in rolling out IPTV services in a seamless fashion," said Hervé Utheza, director of IPTV research at The Diffusion Group. "Telstra, Swisscom, and SBC have all delayed their IPTV service rollouts due to technical difficulties with their chosen vendor solutions. In each of these cases, system stability, while making great strides, still has much room for improvement."
"A key reason for these difficulties is the early stage of IPTV system development. Unlike cable or satellite TV solutions, IPTV uses technology that hasn't been in the field for years," said Michael Greeson, president of The Diffusion Group. "In fact, many of the technologies used in today's IPTV solutions are being tested during real-time deployments. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that initial deployments are encountering such difficulties."
"Given the nascent stage of the IPTV market, service operators should select vendor strategies that allow for maximum flexibility," continued Utheza. "Vendors should avoid buying into an end-to-end solution only to find out in two or three years that it doesn't allow for open application program interfaces or that locks the operator into a single vendor for equipment and software."
Conversely, Utheza
suggested, using ten different solutions vendors to patch together an IPTV
solution could lead to system fragmentation and lack of interoperability.
"In either case, service operators must carefully consider the advantages
and disadvantages of the various approaches to system implementation,"
he advised.
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M6-Metropole TV has asked Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for its 34 per cent stake in French pay-TV venture TPS, according to reports in Les Echos. Leading commercial broadcaster TF1 holds the remaining 66 per cent.
M6 CEO Nicolas
de Tavernost declined to comment on the possibility of a sale as recently
as June 10. Rumours of an imminent sale appear regularly in the specialist
French media, but no likely buyers have been identified.
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ADB integrates with STMicroelectronics
Digital TV systems and software specialist ADB has successfully integrated STMicroelectronics' STi5100 processor. Shipments of ADB's first unit incorporating the STi5100, the digital satellite STB 3100S developed for DBS Satellite Services in Israel, are set to commence early July.
The 3100 platform aims to provide operators with a more cost effective solution in addition to more advanced functionality. The product is equipped with an Ethernet connection providing operators with the opportunity to enhance their service offering through the delivery of IP based content using an external broadband modem.
Armando Caltabiano, ST's Group Vice President Retail and Satellite Division, said the new processor would provide operators with an advanced feature-set facilitating the launch of new services in addition to providing their customers with benefits of more technically advanced silicon.
ADB will follow
this initial launch with subsequent next-generation STi5100-based products
for both the digital cable and digital terrestrial markets.
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Canada
reveals broadcast stats
From
Gail Chiasson in Montreal
For the first time in Canadian broadcast history, total 2004 revenues of English-language speciality, pay and pay-per-view services of close to $1.7 billion (more than E1.1 billion) equalled those of English-language private conventional stations.
In the French-language sector, private conventional stations had revenues of $422 million (E284 million), while those for French-language pay, pay-per-view and speciality services totalled $363 million (E244 million) in 2004.
The information was announced in the 6th annual Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
In 2004, Canadians watched television for 25.8 hours every week on average according to Nielsen Media Research, or for 21.4 hours according to BBM Bureau of Measurement. Either way, it's 20 minutes less than in 2003. (Canada uses two measuring systems.)
Audience share
for Canadian stations compared with non-Canadian stations increased between
1993 and 2004. In Quebec, this audience share rose from 88.3 per cent in 1993
to 90.1 per cent in 2004, and in the other Canadian provinces, it went from
67.3 per cent to 71.9 per cent.
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Anil
Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises eyes entertainment sector
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises has filed an application with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry for a licence to offer DTH satellite service. The move anticipates a major expansion of newly-acquired Reliance Infocomm in the entertainment sector, with the group proposing to acquire a majority stake in Mumbai-based motion picture processing laboratory and movie production company Adlabs Films Limited for US$82 million.
The new developments follow the recent settlement of ownership of Reliance group, following which younger brother Anil acquired Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital. The stake in Adlabs Films was picked by Reliance Capital subsidiary Reliance Land and is the first major acquisition by Anil Ambani after the settlement.
Infocomm has
an underground optical fibre network of about 75,000 Kms and has plans to
offer broadband services. Reports suggest that the company is planning to
make cable operators franchisees for broadband and DTH services.
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French Deputy supports EuroNews DTT candidacy
French parliamentary Deputy Michel Herbillon has proposed that multi-lingual international news channel be authorised to broadcast on France's DTT platform. Herbillion's recommendation was contained in a report to French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on French information policies concerning European issues.
According to
Herbillon, European issues are neglected in media coverage, especially in
the audiovisual domain. To compensate, he suggested support EuroNews's development,
by authorising its inclusion on DTT. In the meantime, he recommended that
the channel reach agreements with France 5, LCP-AN and Public Sénat,
all of which have slots on DTT multiplexes.
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