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NEWS Monday 30th May to Friday 3rd June 2005
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
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IPTV is the engine of the "content everywhere" era. IPTV International is the new journal from Advanced Television Ltd. To find out more and apply for a free subscription click here |
Telewest has hired Rothschild, the investment bank to advise on merger talks with NTL that could create a E7.5 billion UK cable group.
Rothschild will advise alongside Deutsche Bank, which had been working on the sale of the Flextech content business. NTL has insisted that Telewest places a firm valuation on Flextech before talks start. Valuations have ranged all the way between E650 million and E1.4 billion.
NTL
believes cable and content businesses do not belong together. But achieving
a deal to shed Flextech is complicated; if it is sold, a change of control
clause gives the BBC the right to acquire the 50 per cent of the UKTV JV it
does not own at a market rate. The BBC has been looking for a partner to supply
UKTV with more programme rights and channels, and the chance of cross-promotion.
ITV, with its portfolio of programme rights and channels, is seen by some
media bankers as the perfect fit to partner the BBC.
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SA and Gemstar settle patent disputes
Scientific-Atlanta says it has made a series of agreements with Gemstar-TV Guide that provide licenses to intellectual property and facilitate product development and deployment between both companies. They entered into a long-term worldwide patent cross-license agreement, granting each access to the other's interactive program guide (IPG) patents. In addition, the companies entered into a porting agreement under which Scientific-Atlanta will assist Gemstar-TV Guide to port the Gemstar-TV Guide's IPGs onto the Scientific-Atlanta Explorer set-top platform.
Through the agreements,
which cover nine and-a-half years, Scientific-Atlanta will pay about $154
million to Gemstar-TV Guide, and Gemstar-TV Guide will pay about $89 million
to Scientific-Atlanta, the companies said. The agreements resolve pending
patent litigation and license Gemstar-TV Guide's IPG patents for future use
on Scientific-Atlanta products that are not covered by existing or future
network operators' Gemstar-TV Guide licenses. Scientific-Atlanta said it expects
to incur a charge estimated at $30 million to $50 million in the fourth quarter
of fiscal 2005 related to the settlement.
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Spain
green light for DTT law
David Del Valle from Madrid
The controversial Spanish DTT law has finally received the green light from Parliament after rejecting recent amendments from the conservative party in the Senate. The new legislation opens the door to the launch of new analogue TV channels, formally sets 2010 as the analogue switch-off deadline and grants 17 Spanish regions (the so-called Comunidades Autonomas) with a second multiplex (able to carry up to 4 channels).
The new law also paves the way for the Government to allow Sogecable to turn its pay-TV channel Canal Plus into a commercial TV station and grant one or two new analogue TV licences before summer. TV channels will have to switch off their analogue transmissions in 2010, two years earlier than initially expected.
The Government
is now likely to approve a new DTT Technical Plan before summer that will
picture a new DTT map. This new Plan will be followed by the re-allocation
of Quiero's three and a half multiplexes with plans to launch a free-to-air
DTT platform by the last quarter of the year.
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All of the Live8 concerts will be broadcast free online. In an exclusive deal, AOL will broadcast all five concerts through its US, UK, German and French portals, as well as on the aolmusic.com site. The concerts will be available as a live stream on the site, alongside additional content.
"It will be available globally on the Internet," confirmed an AOL spokesman. "There hasn't been a concert of this scale since broadband came along."
Tickets for the
event will be allocated through a text message lottery, operated by O2, which
is due to run on June 6. The BBC is also planning to broadcast the concerts
on big screens in major cities around the country.
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Mobile
Media signs with Chinese HTV1
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Chinese provincial TV station Hunan Movie and Television Channel (HTV1) has signed a three-year agreement with the Mobile Media Company. The agreement will result in delivery of mobile interactive TV shows and services to over 64 million people. Under the agreement, HTV1 will launch a series of interactive mobile applications from Mobile Media ranging from mobile Jukebox applications to participation TV show formats.
"Mobile phone to TV screen interaction provides new opportunities to generate revenues and relationships with audiences, and is a great use of non- prime airtime for broadcasters," says David J. Wong, Executive Vice President and Asia Pacific General Manager, Mobile Media.
The development
comes at a stage when China has already got over 300 million mobile phone
users and close to nine million new handsets coming into the market per month,
according to Karsten Hauge, Chief Executive Officer, Mobile Media.
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MGt, a leading provider of outsourced support services to the media/broadcast market, has announced details of a major new contract with Freeview, the free-to-air digital television service on the UK's Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform.
The two-year agreement will see MGt provide a comprehensive package of customer-related services as well as professional services to Freeview, which is now Europe's most successful digital terrestrial broadcast service in 4.7 million households.
MGt will take on responsibility for co-ordinating all aspects of Freeview's customer service requirements with all telephone enquiries being routed via the company's Scottish contact centre.
It will employ
its CRM system, Profile, with the vast majority of callers seeking information
on Freeview having their queries answered automatically via advanced speech
recognition (ASR) technology. Many callers require a simple postcode check
to ensure that they can receive the Freeview service, so this and other routine
enquiries can be handled automatically.
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Conax, the supplier of conditional access technology for digital TV, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the system integrator Comtech Korea Corp. to offer digital broadcasting solutions to the Korean market.
With this partnership,
Comtech has extended its offering to include Conditional Access solutions
for full protection of television or video content. The Conax CAS7 solution
is built on Conax’s security technology platform, which allows a digital
TV operator to start with a basic system supporting pay-TV, and then build
on new modules and additional components to enhance and support more complex
operations and business models. Conax CAS7 requires minimal upfront investment
for installation of the full system (Conax CAS7 Core plus all modules) or
partial system with certain key modules.
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Tandberg announced
it has commenced installation of an end-to-end IPTV delivery system for the
commercial roll-out of the Swisscom/Bluewin triple play service. Swisscom
has chosen the encoding solution for Windows Media Video 9 (Microsoft's implementation
of VC-1, the proposed SMPTE standard) following a competitive tender process.
As part of the new contract Tandberg will provide a number of its EN5920 encoders,
TT1260 MPEG-2 professional receivers and an nCompass control and monitoring
system and also support Swisscom’s engineering team with the integration
of the video head-end with the Microsoft TV IPTV platform, set-top-boxes and
other third party equipment.
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ANGA, the German private cable operators' trade association has called on public broadcasters ARD and ZDF to transmit the 2006 football World Cup in high definition TV. Speaking at the ANGA Cable Convention, ANGA president Thomas Braun noted that Germany’s host broadcasting operation would be produced in HDTV quality. "However, ARD and ZDF, who own a significant part of the Free TV rights, currently refuse to transmit in the same quality."
German pay-TV operator Premiere has already announced plans to transmit the World Cup in HDTV, and ANGA suggests that HD transmission is "a must" if the improved TV picture is to reach the German audience. "HDTV distribution is more expensive, there fore it is understandable that private free TV broadcasters are hesitant," admitted Braun, adding that public broadcasters bound to the public interest have an obligation for advanced performance.
"Those millions of licence fees which they plan to spend on the nationwide distribution of ‘TV-lite DTT would be much better invested in HDTV," he claimed. "The World Cup is a unique opportunity to help HDTV break through – we must not miss out on this opportunity."
Braun called on politicians to use their influence on the public broadcasters. "Obviously ARD and ZDF have the financial resources; they just need to be redirected from unilateral appropriation for the niche product DTT to technology-neutral HDTV."
Braun issued his demands following a high-level Convention panel during which Premiere CEO Georg Kofler questioned cable’s commitment to HDTV. "Apart from us, who else has invested in it? We’re launching three HD services, sport, movies and documentaries, and we want cable to offer them too."
He also queried
whether cable set-top boxes would work for HDTV. Braun later told advanced-television.com
that specification for an advanced STB had been drawn up, with four manufacturers
to be selected from a shortlist of 10.
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Viviane Reding, media commissioner, plans to modernise the rules covering television broadcasts laid down in the 1989 'television without frontiers' directive, as viewing spreads to mobile telephones and the internet, reports the FT.
Under plans to be presented by the European Commission in December, time limits on advertising at no more than 20 per cent of daily broadcasts could be abolished, with levels decided instead by the hour. Reding also signalled that broadcasters operating in the EU could win a relaxation from strict rules governing product placement, as they seek new ways to gain advertising. National regulators, which implement the rules set by the Commission, have also been pushing for modernisation.
Reding's reforms
are part of a five-year plan to use information technology to deliver economic
growth in the European Union, which derives a quarter of gross domestic product
growth from IT. She called for 50 per cent high-speed broadband penetration
across Europe by 2010. This year the Commission will look into reforming access
to the radio spectrum, as demand grows from wireless services.
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Freeview viewers taking the £7.99-a-month (E11.6) Top Up TV service will be able to watch British Eurosport which has agreed to join Top Up's 10-channel package.
The channel replaces E4 on the service following a decision by Channel 4 to make the service free to air. It will broadcast for nine hours a day, between 2pm and 11pm and will show a range of sports, including motorsport, athletics and women's football.
The deal comes
as Channel 4 was confirmed as the winner of a second slot on the main Freeview
service. Licence holder Crown Castle said Channel 4 had won the second slot,
two months after ITV won the auction for the first.
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UK's Ofcom says DTT coverage should reach at least the same proportion of households (98.5 per cent) after switchover as are reached by current analogue television broadcasts. This is to ensure that after switchover UK households continue to receive the nationally available public service television channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV1 and Channel 4/S4C).
It says it is
important to note that currently 1.5 per cent of UK households (around 375,000
households) are unable to receive all four of the main public service television
channels. Ofcom is undertaking research to explore the means of bringing digital
television to a higher proportion of UK households than the 98.5 per cent
presently reached by analogue.
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SBC Communications, the second-largest U.S. telco, plans to cut its price for high-speed Internet service by 25 per cent in its rivalry with cable competitors.
SBC said it would offer broadband service for $14.95 per month to new customers who sign up online, $5 per month less than its previous lowest price. The deal, which requires a one-year contract, makes SBC competitive with many dial-up Internet services and is among the lowest prices for broadband in the United States.
SBC say they
have a two- to three-year window to add as many digital subscriber lines as
possible, before cable companies complete their rollout of telephone services
and pursue SBC customers with voice, video and data packages. SBC added 504,000
DSL lines in the first quarter of this year, a record increase for the company.
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Inmarsat, the satellite operator controlled by private equity groups Apax Partners and Permira, has announced its intention to come to market to raise about $690 million. It said it expected the shares to be priced between 215p to 245p, valuing the company at between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion.
Inmarsat’s
flotation follows a number of recent satellite initial public offerings. PanAmSat
Holdings raised $900 million when it listed in New York in March and Bermuda-based
New Skies raised almost $200 million last month.
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An amazing 500,000,000 cumulative votes were cast in this season's American Idol. The final show, produced by FremantleMedia and 19 TV for the Fox network in the US, saw 30.3 million viewers tune in to watch Carrie Underwood crowned American Idol.
Audience numbers were up on last year's series, when 27.3 million watched the final results show. Series four regularly attracted an average 26.8 million per show compared with 26.1 million viewers for series three.
American viewers were able to support their favourite contestant using a variety of voting methods such as toll-free telephone, SMS, mobile phone, or via the web. The American Idol series, now in its fourth season, is widely credited with kick-starting the SMS phenomenon in the US.
In total, 1.5
billion votes have now been cast worldwide for this global format which is
now produced in 30 countries by FremantleMedia.
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Kabel
Deutschland trials VoIP with S-A
From Colin Mann in Cologne
Kabel Deutschland GmbH (KDG), Germany's largest cable operator, has begun a Voice over IP (VoIP) trial in its Leipzig service area using Scientific-Atlanta's EPX2203 cable modem with embedded media terminal adapter (EMTA). The voice service trial by KDG, which connects almost 10 million households in thirteen German federal states, will help it to test customers' interest in cable's popular triple play of video, data and voice services from a single source.
George Stromeyer,
vice president and managing director at Scientific-Atlanta Europe said that
preloading settings into its cable modem products helped the cable operator
to streamline the installation process. "By shortening the time between
an order for voice service and the beginning of this service, cable operators
can enjoy faster access to new revenue streams." We also offer extensive
pre-launch technical support to our customers during initial lab and field
trials for this service."
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DAB/DRM module from RadioScape
RadioScape, a leader in Software Defined Digital Radio solutions, has launched the RadioScape RS500 module that can receive DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) as well as DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast), FM with RDS, LW, MW and SW to form the basis of the world’s first integrated, multi-standard, digital radio receivers.
The RS500 is
based on RadioScape’s radiOS architecture, enabling re-use of existing
applications and features previously developed for the RS300L DAB/FM module.
Many of the features available on the RS300L have been directly implemented
on this module, accelerating time to market for a fully featured receiver
design. The RS500, for example, supports capabilities such as the highly popular
Pause, Rewind and Record to MMC card features as well as the ability to display
and use Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) data.
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UnitedGlobalCom has announced a number of key vendors as technology partners for its plans for accelerated rollout of digital television to UPC Broadband subscribers in the Netherlands. These partners include, among others: Thomson, Pace, Scientific-Atlanta, Philips, Kudelski (Nagravision), and OpenTV.
UGC’s UPC
Broadband division expects to begin in the fourth quarter of 2005 a large-scale
digital rollout project in The Netherlands. As a result of this initiative,
UPC Broadband expects to eventually deploy over 2 million digital set-top
boxes with related middleware and security and conditional access systems,
in order to accelerate the growth of digital television in the Dutch market.
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Alcatel announced that its FTTU (Fibre-to-the-User) solution has been selected and deployed in Japan for the network of a local cable TV operator and a municipal authority respectively to deliver high-speed Internet and video services to residential users. These projects will be completed in collaboration with Itochu Cable Systems, a leading system integrator in Japanese cable TV, broadband and broadcast media.
The two projects
enable City Cable Shunan Corporation, a cable TV operator in the Yamaguchi
prefecture and the municipal authority of the Kijimadaira town in the Nagano
prefecture, to offer one of the industry's best dual video/high speed internet
experiences available in the market today.
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The French government has finally designated the technical specifications of pay DTT, due to launch in September. The spec includes the amendments to make the use of MPEG-4 obligatory for pay DTT services and also for future HDTV services, whether pay or free to air.
For the additional
channels the CSA selected on May 9 for DTT licenses (see previous issues of
Advanced Television), the CSA is currently in discussions with the suppliers
and is planning to issue the official authorisations towards the end of June.
The two new free channels (BFM TV and Gulliver) expect to launch around November.
The other two free channels, which are already present on cable and satellite,
should launch on DTT during the summer. Dominique Baudis, President of the
CSA, said that he preferred to avoid the staggered launch of channels, but
nothing had been settled yet.
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US phone companies fell short in a controversial legislative effort that might have made it easier for them to offer television services. Legislators in Texas were unable to reach a compromise on a bill that would have allowed phone companies to negotiate a single state-wide contract with the Texas Public Utility Commission to offer television programming, rather than work city by city to acquire franchises through local governments.
The bill had been seen as critical to SBC Communications and Verizon Communications, which have plans in the works to begin offering television service to consumers this year. It was opposed by cable providers, which said the bill unfairly favoured the telephone companies.
Verizon said
that the legislative impasse will prolong a time-consuming process for allowing
more competitors into the game.
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Ether
TV breaks into the European digital TV market
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish microelectronic company Sidsa is making a full-frontal assault on the European digital TV market, following the launch of its pioneering Ether TV, a professional IP gateway for digital TV able to carry an unlimited number of (satellite, cable or terrestrial) TV channels and to an unlimited number of users.
The company has already broken into Austria and is entering other European countries like Germany, Italy, France and the UK. In Spain, Sidsa is already negotiating with broadcasters (such as RTVE), cable operators, ADSL and broadband companies.
Sidsa is also
taking positions in the Spanish DTT market, set to be re-launched by the end
of the year. It has launched Keyfly, a platform for (pay-TV and free-to-air)
digital television that allows added-value services on free-to-air channels.
In addition, it says thanks to a special Flash-embedded and RAM memories chip,
this platform does not require the use of a smart card to have access to pay
channels.
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Coalition pushes for easy switch in US
The debate on the digital TV switch in the US is growing as the Coalition for a Smart Digital TV Transition asked lawmakers to ensure that consumers who rely on over-the-air reception are not disenfranchised during the shift.
The coalition's move came in response to draft legislation that was scrutinised during a House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing last week. "It is critical that consumers relying on over-the-air reception of broadcast television, together with the 73 million owners of analogue television sets, are not disenfranchised by this transition," said Manuel Mirabal, co-chair and founder of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership, a group that is a member of the coalition.
The coalition said its members, which include consumer, minority, labour, and communications and agricultural groups, are concerned about three critical elements that are currently missing from the proposed/draft digital television plan. The organisation also outlined three primary changes for the proposed legislation:
1. The legislation must include a provision to compensate low-income Americans for the cost of set-top converter boxes;
2.The legislation should authorise multicast must-carry;
3. The legislation
needs to ensure that cable systems provide subscribers with traditional, analogue
televisions with the signal from all local broadcasters, while also providing
the full, HDTV signal to those subscribers who have invested in a digital
television set.
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Galaxy
chooses Alcatel for IPTV
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Hong Kong-based Galaxy Satellite Broadcasting Limited (GSB), which operates SuperSUN pay TV service, has chosen Alcatel’s solution to deliver IPTV service to residential broadband users in Hong Kong. Alcatel is also the integration partner for the project.
The service provider expects to launch its IPTV services in June 2005 and immediately expand its reach to two million households by leveraging the coverage of its broadband network partner. SuperSUN's satellite TV services cover 600,000 homes in Hong Kong.
"This is
not only a breakthrough business model for a pay-TV service provider, but
also a proof of the huge growth potential for IPTV service in Hong Kong,"
said Alan Mottram, president - Alcatel's fixed solutions activities.
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NDS
launch "express"
From Colin
Mann in Cologne
NDS Group have announced the availability of NDS VideoGuard Express at ANGA Cable in Cologne. The conditional access solution provides off-the-shelf, standard features to fit the needs of the smaller and mid-size platform operator at an affordable price. Network operators can now move their business to digital with a quick and simple-to-deploy-solution, while enjoying the benefits of digital.
VideoGuard Express is unique says NDS because it gives operators the freedom to choose the path to digital that is right for their budget and strategy while allowing the platform to be on air in just a few months. VideoGuard Express is available in two configurations offering operators maximum flexibility in the initial deployment stages. The standard configuration offers an operator controlled headend located on their site, whereas the hosted service comprises a headend located, maintained and operated on NDS premises which may be particularly attractive to smaller operators.
NDS VideoGuard
Express is built on the same VideoGuard conditional access technology that
drives some of the most successful pay-TV operations around the world. VideoGuard
Express, allows operators to integrate with industry leading network component
providers in areas such as compression, set-top boxes (STBs), Subscriber Management
Systems (SMS) and traffic management systems.
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Nagravision
secures German protection deals
From Colin Mann in Cologne
Content protection specialist Nagravision is to provide Germany’s first content protection solution for video-on-demand over IP. Nagravision’s solution will enable ish to offer the same VOD content on subscribers’ television sets and on their computers.
"This agreement further demonstrates Nagravision’s strength in offering end-to-end advanced solutions to cable operators," said Pierre Roy, Nagravision’s Chief Operating Officer. "We are pleased to help make video-on-demand services a reality for German cable subscribers with ish, a key Nagravision customer."
Nagravision also revealed an end-to-end push video-on-demand security solution for digital video broadcasting networks over the Premiere network in Germany. The system is claimed to be the only DVB solution using file-based content download to enable the transmission of discrete content rather than the streaming of videos.
"The addition
of ‘content-on-demand’ services which can be charged on a per-transaction
basis allows for the generation of additional revenue (ARPU) from subscribers,"
said Nagravision’s Roy, who added that the complete chain was now in
place to allow an operator to rapidly introduce business models incorporating
transaction-based services from a hard-disk drive.
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Tandberg announced that its HD MPEG-4 AVC video encoding and distribution system has been chosen by DPC Digital Playout Centre for the launch of HDTV in Germany. DPC, which is owned by SES Astra, an SES Global company, is preparing for the launch of HD services to Europe’s largest TV marketplace. In particular, DPC Playout customer Premiere AG has already announced that it will start broadcasting its first HD service in November this year. The Munich-based pay-TV operator will transmit HDTV content on three dedicated channels for sport, film and documentaries via the ASTRA satellite at 19.2° East.
To create a bandwidth
and operationally efficient HD delivery system, DPC is deploying a Tandberg
Television HD video head-end with statistical multiplexing and Tandberg EN5990
HD MPEG-4 AVC encoders. The use of Tandberg Television’s first-to-market
HD MPEG-4 AVC encoding systems will enable DPC to achieve very efficient HD
bandwidth utilisation, more than halving the bit-rate required by MPEG-2 while
at the same time achieving the high picture quality that a HDTV service demands.
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Neotion and Groupe AB, a French leading supplier of thematic channels for the digital pay-TV market in France, have struck a partnership to field test the service "Pay Per Phone" on all the Groupe AB channels.
After having
been the first operator to broadcast its TV channels over ADSL, Groupe AB
is now first to offer "Pay Per Phone", dedicated to viewers who
are not prepared to commit for a yearly subscription service.
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TiVo Inc., surprised the market with a quarterly loss narrowed significantly on sharply higher revenue and increased subscribers to its TV service. The company posted a net loss of $857,000 and reported it had added 319,000 subscriptions for its DVR service during the first quarter, pushing the total subscription base to more than 3.3 million.
TiVo said the installed base of DirecTV subscriptions, which grew by 247,000 during the quarter, was at about 2.1 million. The installed base of TiVo-owned subscriptions grew by 72,000 in the first quarter to more than 1.2 million, the company said.
CEO Mike Ramsay
said the company is excited about its developing advertising technology and
business, calling TiVo's ad potential "immense." Ramsay also pointed
out that TiVo has DirecTV and Comcast - the nation's largest satellite TV
and cable services, respectively - for its advanced advertising capabilities.
DirecTV and TiVo signed an advertising services agreement that will allow
each company to sell and distribute TiVo's advanced advertising capabilities
on DirecTV DVRs powered by TiVo. Also, TiVo announced a multi-year strategic
partnership with Comcast to develop a version of its digital recording service
for the cable operator.
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Pace Comcast deal boosts US presence
Digital set-top box technologist Pace Micro Technology has secured a new multi-year agreement with Comcast Corporation, the US’s largest provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services.
The deal supersedes an earlier agreement between the two companies, and includes a commitment for a variety of Pace set-top boxes with a total price over a three-year period of between approximately $375 million and $550 million expected to be paid, depending upon the type of boxes ordered.
In addition, there is a development agreement whereby Pace and Comcast will jointly fund non-exclusive future technology development using Pace’s development staff, as well as a licensing to Comcast of Pace’s EngineWare software platform and related set-top box technology for use in the North American cable market.
Pace expects revenues from this agreement with Comcast to impact from the end of the 2005 calendar year, and suggests that it removes the uncertainty over current year earnings referred to in Pace’s Interim Statement issued on 10th January 2005. "Overall, today’s announcement provides a solid foundation for the Company’s future US business, both with Comcast and other US cable companies, and helps underpin Pace’s existing expectations for the coming financial year," said the company in a statement to the Stock Exchange.
"This agreement
with Pace supports our ongoing aggressive development and delivery of new
digital cable products to our customers," said Mark Hess, Senior Vice
President Business and Product Development - Digital TV for Comcast, who added
that the cableco looked forward to working with Pace jointly to develop the
next generation of set-top boxes for the future of the cable industry.
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Sky's current £1bn (E1.44bn) deal for live Premiership football expires in 2007 and the FA has hired Bill Bush, who was the special adviser to the culture secretary, to take up the role of the director of public policy at the Premier League.
With a brief involving regulatory and public affairs, Bush will be closely involved in the negotiations leading up to the new TV rights contract. Tim Vine, the press officer to the sports minister, Richard Caborne, is also leaving the government department to take up a role as the Premier League's head of PR.
Meanwhile, Five
is said to have made a "substantial offer" for TV rights to Champions
League football matches from next year. Terrestrial rival ITV has covered
the tournament since its inception in 1992 and currently shares the rights
with Sky, but Five is now targeting the terrestrial rights.
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DD
targets 5m in 05
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
State broadcaster Prasar Bharati plans to increase from the current level of over three million to five million by the end of this year. Launched last year, Prasar Bharati’s DTH service DD Direct Plus claims it isn’t perturbed by recent signal that a licence will be granted to Tata-Star joint venture Space TV and Sun Direct TV.
"Even if they have their own platform, they may like to be on our platform because all others would need monthly payments. Ours doesn’t," said DD Direct.
It said DD Direct Plus is offering state-run Doordarshan’s own channels, private channels such as Sun TV, Star Utsav, BBC World, Aaj Tak among others. In a short span, the service has exceeded Prasar Bharati’s own expectations.
The other player
in the DTH segment, Essel Group’s Dishtv is targeting a base to a million
by the end of 2005. The company will launch its video-on-demand service later
this year.
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Unions at the
BBC have called off plans for a 48-hour strike this week after talks at conciliation
service ACAS. They said the strike, to protest plans to cut 20 per cent of
the BBC workforce, had been called off so that members could consider a fresh
offer from management. A 24-hour strike last week forced the BBC to cancel
or shorten most of its live radio and television news programming.
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Viacom will make a final decision about dividing itself into two companies by the end of June, its chairman and CEO, Sumner M. Redstone, said. If approved, he said the split would be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Wall Street has
generally warmed to the concept of dividing the company. The faster-growing
unit would include MTV Networks and the Paramount movie studio. The second
company would include CBS along with Infinity Broadcasting, Paramount Television
and the book publisher Simon & Schuster.
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Virgin Mobile is to launch a television service that will allow customers to watch a range of digital channels and even record programmes on their mobile phones.
Virgin Mobile says its service, provisionally named VMTV, will take the existing digital broadcast signal and adapt it so it can be viewed on a mobile phone. Virgin Mobile has also abandoned its network partner T-Mobile for the service, although it will use the company's 3G network to offer interactive elements.
Virgin refused
to name its broadcast partners but is understood to be in talks with a number
of digital TV providers, including BSkyB.
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BBC Worldwide has concluded a new agreement with Africa’s largest satellite television platform, MultiChoice, to continue provision of its international channels, BBC Prime and BBC Food, across sub Saharan Africa.
The new agreement
secures carriage for both channels in Africa for a three year period, and
builds on the success of previous agreements which saw BBC Prime launched
in Africa in 1999 and BBC Food make its international debut on the MultiChoice
platform in 2002.
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enteraction quizzes Transact for channel launch
A new Quiz channel is to launch on the Sky Digital satellite platform in June. The Great Big British Quiz is a Joint Venture between digital TV company, enteraction tv, and digital media and entertainment company, Transact Group. enteraction tv will produce and run the channel and Transact Group will provide satellite capacity, premium rate telephony and the associated web and IVR services. enteraction tv's Managing Director Mark Murphy said the British public had a huge appetite for quiz and games programmes, but claimed the new service would be the only channel which consistently gives away high returns to its viewers.
enteraction tv
currently produce and run four channels on Sky Digital and are looking to
launch two more channels onto this platform in the coming year. Transact Group
provides a variety of media applications across the four main platforms of
Internet, Voice, Mobile and TV. It is currently looking to develop its remaining
satellite capacity, offering opportunities for unique live and interactive
services.
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Real Networks 24/7 Big Brother
Real Networks and Channel 4 New Media will run a 24/7 Big Brother Live web channel as part of ‘SuperPass’, Real's premier broadband content subscription product.
To coincide with
the start of Big Brother 6, SuperPass subscribers will be able to access continuous
video streaming, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week live and direct from the Big
Brother house. In addition, archived on-demand highlights clips from previous
days will also be available throughout the day, every day.
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i-ZoneTV powers Big Brother 6 interactivity
UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 is to utilise interactive and enhanced TV specialist Tamblin’s i-ZoneTV to power its interactive TV service for Big Brother 6. i-ZoneTV will enable Channel 4 to offer a number of interactive applications for the new series, including up to date news, competitions, voting and messaging. Viewers can also use the red button to select and watch dedicated video streams from within the Big Brother House.
Stuart Waite,
Chief Executive of Tamblin, suggested that Big Brother was the biggest interactive
event each year, with the red button playing an important part in enhancing
the content and viewing experience. "By using i-ZoneTV to manage their
iTV presence, Channel 4 can concentrate their efforts on making the service
more engaging and reflective of the programme content - ensuring viewers return
time and again," he added.
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