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NEWS Monday 9th May to Friday 13th May 2005
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
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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 reveals sound Q1 and digital vision
UK cable operator Telewest's first quarter results show an increase in operating income of 26 per cent compared with 2004 - £24 million compared with £18 million - with ‘triple play' penetration increasing by 11.4 percentage points over Q1 04 to 30.3 per cent.
Barry Elson, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Telewest Global said he was encouraged by the operational and financial trends in Telewest's consumer and content businesses. "In particular, we have seen increased triple play penetration and ARPU and reduced churn and our customer growth and RGU growth is higher than the corresponding quarter last year."
87 per cent of Telewest's TV subscribers now take its digital service. And the company is accelerating migration of the remaining 171,000 analogue customers to digital, anticipated by the end of 2006. "Once complete, this will free up significant amounts of bandwidth in our network, which will allow extra capacity for Video-On-Demand, (VOD), High Definition TV, broadband speed increases and other services," said the company.
Following the launch of VOD services in the western England city of Bristol in the first quarter, the next stage of the roll-out is scheduled for early July to 26,000 subscribers in Cheltenham. Completion of a national roll-out of VOD is planned for 2006.
Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest said the operator was "transforming TV as we know it by giving consumers both a superb choice of programmes and the flexibility to watch them whenever they want. We don't ever want to hear our customers say there's nothing on the box or that they have missed their favourite programme," adding that while digital TV goes from strength to strength, "analogue has finally had its day."
Telewest Broadband
is investing around £20 million in the development of TV-on-demand and
personal video recorder (PVR) services in 2005. Telewest Broadband's 160Gb
PVR service, which includes three tuners and is HDTV compatible, will be available
in the second half of 2005.
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As broadband providers focus on their earnings rather than fighting for market share by slashing prices, Hong Kong operator i-Cable Communications expects its broadband business to turn profitable this year. i-Cable's user base grew by 13 per cent in 2004, to finish at 291,000. The leader fixed-line operator PCCW had 660,000 by 2004-end.
Last year, i-Cable's broadband business ARPU rose by 9 per cent to US$17.9, the turnover increased by 18 per cent to US$61.74 million and operating loss narrowed to US$5.6 million from US$10.9 million in 2003. i-Cable said both subscriber numbers and the average fee they paid grew during the first four months of this year. The company hopes to lure new subscribers to its pay-TV service by offering more mini-packages aimed at niche markets.
i-Cable plans
to spend US$38.5 million producing about 20 films over the next two years,
with the first set for release late this year. The movies will have budgets
ranging from US$0.4 million to US$2.56 million.
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Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo, Inc is to complete the sale of its 20 per cent stake in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited (H3G UK) to Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) on June 23, 2005.
DoCoMo will record a gain on sale of affiliate shares of approximately 62 billion yen (E457 million) on a consolidated basis in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 including foreign currency translation adjustment and as a result, will amend its consolidated financial forecasts, which were announced on May 10, 2005.
DoCoMo and HWL signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement on May 27, 2004 under which DoCoMo was to sell its entire stake in H3G UK to HWL for £120 million in three instalments to be completed by February 15, 2007. However, HWL notified DoCoMo on May 9, 2005 of its intention to accelerate the final closing of the transaction to June 23, 2005.
HWL is also paying
Dutch operator KPN €132 for its 15 per cent stake. Following the buy-out,
Hutchison will own the operator outright.
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MTV Networks International has decided to exercise its right to exit the company's agreement with Craig Media Inc. due to the company being acquired by a third party - CHUM Ltd., Toronto.
As a result, MTV and MTV2 in Canada will cease to broadcast effective 30th June 2005. However, CHUM retains the licences for the two channels and is expected to rebrand them. MTV Networks International said that it remained committed to Canadian audiences and would continue its strong presence in the market via broadcast television distribution and digital media activities.
MTV Canada and MTV2 began broadcasting in late 2001. CHUM acquired the two channels, plus TVLand and five other conventional TV channels, including Toronto 1, when it purchased Craig for $166 million (Cdn$265 million) in 2004. Quebecor Media subsequently acquired Toronto 1 from CHUM for $28.8 million.
MTV Canada, available
via digital cable or direct-to-home satellite services, had 798,000 subscribers
as of February 05. MTV2 had 265,000.|
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SBS Broadcasting S.A. announced that together with certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries it had entered into a E325 million secured syndicated multicurrency revolving credit facility with ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Bank AG London and The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, as lead arrangers.
SBS also utilised
in full E210 million and other amounts due under the 300 million Bridge Facility
with ABN AMRO N.V. that was utilised to fund in part the Company's E269.6
million acquisition of Nordic premium pay television provider C More Group
on March 8, 2005.
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Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) has tied up with IBM Taiwan to provide IBM iSeries servers for setting up a multi-media home platform (MHP), a first for TTV's digital TV broadcasting. The platform, based on IBM iSeries, enables B2C commerce through digital TV.
The Taiwan Digital Television Committee (TDTC) plans to begin DVB-T (digital video broadcasting-terrestrial)/MHP broadcasting in July as well as certification of MHP users along with account management and offering of value-added data in September this year.
TTV became the
first terrestrial television station to broadcast programmes through digital
signals in 2004. TTV had recently chosen the SysMedia Plasma Magenta interactive
TV content management and production system as a core part of its interactive
DVB-MHP solution.
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Branded TV company, enteraction tv, is launching ‘Home2', a branded teleshopping channel on the Sky Digital satellite platform in September 2005.
BT is the first client brand to sign up to the channel, and the UK telco will have two hours programming broadcast every day from launch time. Home2 will be integrated into BT's digital media strategy and will be supported through BT's other marketing activity.
CEO of enteraction tv Mark Cullen likened the channel to the south-east region's giant Bluewater shopping centre on television, which would allow viewers to tune in and watch entertaining programming while finding out about special offers and information on top brands.
The channel will
also carry interactive telephony which will allow brands to respond to viewer
requests as well as being used for voting and other options. enteraction tv
is currently working with its interactive division, Red Fig, and BT, to develop
interactive response mechanisms for the channel.
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London-based broadcaster and channel distributor Zone Vision Networks' Reality TV channel is to launch on J-Com, Japan's largest digital cable platform beginning this June, adding another significant distribution agreement to those it has secured around the world for this channel.
Chris Wronski,
Chairman and President, Zone Vision Networks, said that following a co-venture
agreement with Jupiter and upcoming launch on Sky Perfect, Zone Vision was
especially pleased to have completed the deal.
"Together, these deals provide us with extensive distribution in the
Japanese market and the opportunity to be the first and only 24-hour channel
offering reality programming."
J-Com's digital TV service rolled out in April of last year and currently offers 42 channels. The platform has 300,000 subscribers and is projected to increase that figure to 550,000 by year's end.
In addition to Japan, Zone Vision recently announced its first carriage agreement for Reality TV in France on TPS. The Reality TV channel was first launched in Europe and has gained distribution in more than 125 territories in just five years. Worldwide, Reality TV is now broadcast in 18 different languages and is available to over 134 million subscribers.
Zone Vision Networks
is 87.5 per cent owned by chellomedia, a division of UnitedGlobalCom, Inc.
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Swedish video networking specialist Net Insight is to supply Canadian telco VDN with a media network that will be used to distribute cable TV programming as well as provide services to professional media companies. VDN has chosen to build its next generation network on Net Insight's Nimbra platform
Philip Gale,
CEO of VDN, observed that the Nimbra platform allowed VDN to both distribute
CATV and provide professional media services in the same infrastructure. Tomas
Duffy, CEO at Net Insight said the order brought the company into in a new
geographical market.
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Expansion of the European digital TV market saw Cabot's full-year 2004/05 turnover increase by 139 per cent, to £4m, with profits of £450,000. According to Darren Standing, business development manager of Cabot Communications, the further growth in Europe will be fuelled by demand from manufacturers to speed up the development of new digital TV devices.
"In order to realise greater profit margins, manufacturers are diversifying their product ranges to include new devices such as PVRs, integrated digital TVs and IPTV boxes," he noted, adding that in such a competitive and price-driven market, few manufacturers could afford to invest time and money in developing their own middleware. By using Cabot's Aurora middleware, he suggested that manufacturers could concentrate their efforts on differentiating features such as the design or user interface and ensure products are available ahead of the competition.
Strategic partnerships will play a key role in the company's expansion plans. It has already forged a close relationship with Alticast, allowing Cabot to integrate Alticast's Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) software into Aurora, ensuring the stack can support MHP interactivity for European digital TV as well as MHEG-5 interactivity for the UK.
Standing also
admiited that reseller agreements with semiconductor companies would be essential
if Cabot were to maintain a market leading position across Europe.
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Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) and Microsoft are teaming up to facilitate the seamless flow of digital entertainment content between Windows-based PCs and products equipped with the Philips Nexperia family of semiconductors. As part of a set of long-term nonexclusive agreements, Philips plans to support Microsoft Windows Media Audio and Video and Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 (DRM) technology in its Nexperia family of multimedia semiconductors for use in digital media receivers, personal video recorders (PVRs), portable audio players, IP set-top boxes and video phones. Support of Windows Media in Nexperia solutions for in-car entertainment as well as next-generation digital TV systems will follow later in the year.
For consumer products, Philips will add Windows Media to currently supported formats in its Mobile Infotainment and Streamium products during May 2005. With this addition, Philips’ customers around the globe will have fast and easy access – in the home or on the go – to a broad range of audio and video content.
Philips also revealed that that it is committed to obtaining ‘PlaysForSure’ verification for these products, which will ensure customers can access a broad choice of downloadable or subscription content on their devices.
"Philips’ support of Windows Media and Windows Media DRM on its Nexperia chipsets and in a range of consumer products demonstrates a strong commitment to delivering anytime, anywhere access to the best digital entertainment experiences for consumers," said Amir Majidimehr, corporate vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft.
"The Internet is becoming increasingly vital as a means of multimedia content distribution," commented Frans van Houten, president and CEO, Philips Semiconductors, who added that by supporting Windows Media technology in its designs, Philips was opening up additional opportunities for its customers to offer a seamless user experience from the Internet and the PC to consumer electronics devices at home and on the move.
Rudy Provoost,
CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics described the initiative as "a next
step in the realisation of the Connected Planet, our vision of a world where
consumers can access content anywhere, anytime."
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Channels
set for TV-to-mobile trial
From Colin Mann in London
UK mobile operator O2 and broadcast transmission specialist NTL Broadcast have revealed the first batch of channels to be part of their line-up for the forthcoming mobile TV trial in the English city of Oxford. Mainstream channels include Cartoon Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel. The six-month trial begins performance testing in July 2005 prior to roll out to 350 O2 customers early in September 2005.
BSkyB, Chart Show TV, Discovery Networks Europe, Shorts International and Turner Broadcasting will be among the organisations providing 16 television channels to be received by O2 customers in the Oxford area using the new Nokia 7710 handset. Designed to test and showcase the televisual capabilities of the next generation of mobile phones, the trial will look at how people choose to catch up on their favourite TV shows, watch the latest music videos and keep up to date with the news and sport when on the move.
Dave Williams, O2's chief technology officer, said the cellco believed that mobile broadcast TV had the potential to sit alongside O2’s existing customer services based on GPRS (2.5G) and 3G mobile data networks. "Mobile broadcast TV aims to be a cost effective method for transmitting high quality content from one source to multiple customers whereas 3G is ideal for providing bespoke content to users."
Terry Howard, head of media business development at NTL Broadcast, said that research had shown that well over half of UK mobile users were very interested in watching their favourite TV programmes on their mobiles, "which is why we are aiming to put together such a compelling channel line-up. This trial will give a useful insight into how the new technology performs, and we intend to use that information to inform the broadcasters, mobile operators and Ofcom about the consumer appeal of the service. We look forward to welcoming other channel providers and terrestrial broadcasters on board for the trial."
Mark Selby, VP
sales music and rich media business programmes, multimedia, Nokia added that
he expected mobile TV to be a hugely popular application, driving the mobile
entertainment market.
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Antena
3 doubles Q1 profits
From David del Valle in Madrid
Spanish network Antena 3 TV has revealed encouraging first quarter results, doubling its profit up to E36.8 million in comparison with E18.4 million the same period last year.
Net revenues rose by 25.3 per cent to E224.9 million, led by a good performance of the advertising market, according to the group.
The channel managed
to increase its ad revenues by 23.4 per cent, mainly because of the rise of
its audience ratings. The channel obtained an average share of 21.1 per cent
in the first quarter, becoming the second most widely watched TV channel after
Tele 5.
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Neuf
merges with Cegetel, adds TPS
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
Following the February 2005 deal between Neuf Telecom and TV platform TPS, the service is now available to subscribers. Neuf Telecom has 540,000 ADSL subscribers as of March this year, following massive investment in the network over the past year (a year ago it was number eight, with 160,000 ADSL subscribers), with an ADSL2+ offer at E14.90 a month.
Last November it began offering TV via DSL, called Neuf TV, by means of an add-on decoder box rented for E6 a month, giving access to around 40 free channels as well as incorporating a DTT adapter. With terrestrial channels TF1 and M6 still refusing to be carried on Neuf Telecom’s basic service, the DSL solution provides a means of providing seamless digital access to the channels. About 20 per cent of new Neuf subscribers take the TV option and they already have about 20,000 pay channels subscribers.
TPS CEO Emmanuel Florent told Advanced Television that the broadcaster did not have access to viewing data that enables an ISP to know precisely which household is watching which channel, and suggested that in any case, it was only of limited use because it did not indicate who and how many people are watching a TV, or even if a TV has just been left switched on to a particular channel. A Neuf spokesman added that this data is not currently used.
Meanwhile neuf Telecom and Cegetel, the fixed-line telecom operator of Vivendi Universal, confirmed that they will merge their businesses in a deal creates the country's second-largest fixed-line operator, behind incumbent France Telecom.
Terms were not
disclosed, but sources suggested that Neuf Telecom shareholders will hold
a 72 per cent stake in the new 'Neuf Telecom' company, with Vivendi's SFR
division holding the remaining 28 per cent Neuf Telecom will also be France's
third-largest ISP, behind France Telecom's Wanadoo and Free, owned by Iliad
SA.
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Nokia makes DVB-H interface publicly available
Nokia is to make the air interface specifications of its mobile TV solution publicly available for interested parties. Based on the Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld (DVB-H), standard, the end-to-end solution is designed to make it easy for operators and service providers to roll out mobile TV services. The air interface specifies how mobile TV terminals interconnect with the network end of the mobile TV solution.
"Operators and service providers want to know how the interoperability of terminals from different vendors can be ensured. By making this interface specification public, we are emphasising our commitment to open standards and interoperability as a means to enable positive market development ", commented Richard Sharp, Vice President, Rich Media, Nokia.
"Implementing
products alongside standards development helps the industry to get early feedback
from consumers and service providers. This means robust, tested standards
and that interoperable products will be available when the market demands",
continues Richard Sharp.
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Entone Pioneers IPTV and VOD Deployment
Personal video content delivery solutions provider Entone Technologies is to supply its carrier-class video on demand (VOD) and content ingest workflow solutions to support Oklahoma-based communications provider Pioneer Telephone’s IPTV service launch.
Scott Ulsaker,
Video Business Manager, Pioneer Telephone Co-operative, said that Pioneer
was looking for a server platform that was field-proven, scalable, flexible,
and cost-effective.
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OpenTV
introduces IPTV solution
From Nick Snow in Amsterdam
Digital and interactive TV solutions specialist OpenTV has unveiled OpenTV Core 2.0 for IPTV for cable, satellite and telecommunications operators. The new product, which will be commercially available from June 2005, extends the capabilities of OpenTV's scaleable middleware solutions to network operators wishing to deploy IPTV services over traditional and hybrid broadband IP networks.
"OpenTV Core 2.0 for IPTV ensures IPTV support for our worldwide customer base," said Tim Evard, OpenTV's senior vice president and general manager of products and marketing, who added that operators could now build IPTV services without compromising on advanced features such as video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR) and interactivity.
"Whether
a new entrant into the digital TV market wants to deploy IPTV, or a cable
or satellite operator wants to leverage its existing infrastructure to deploy
over IP, OpenTV Core 2.0 for IPTV enables them to deliver scalable solutions
quickly and cost-effectively to their subscribers," he claimed.
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Motors TV drives across Europe
Motors TV, the international ‘High Speed Television’ channel dedicated to motorsport, is to be broadcast in Austria on the Liwest and Telekom Austria digital platforms.
Motors TV is currently available in 50 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Hungary and Romania. Distribution contracts currently in place taking the channel to some 13 million subscriber households, which represent approximately 40 million potential viewers, with further contracts expected to top 15 million before the end of 2005.
Motors TV’s programmes are distributed via three separate digital signals, in three languages (English, French and German) via eight satellites. The channel has also developed a subtitling system that allows many of its distributors to offer alternative languages to their viewers.
Motors TV is
available in the UK on Sky Digital (Channel 413) and in France via digital
platforms from Canal Satellite, TPS, Noos, France Telecom Câble, Freebox
and Neuf TV.
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ONO:
sales up, losses widen
From
David del Valle in Madrid
Spanish cable operator ONO has declared a first-quarter loss of E24.97 million, compared with a figure of than E10.2 million last year but less than the E39.2 million in the last quarter of 2004.
The operator increased by its sales 24.7 per cent to E143.6 million, declaring an EBITDA of E54.6 million, 36 per cent greater than the same period last year.
ONO reached 836,141 subscribers at the end of March, 3.9 per cent more than the last quarter last year and 16.3 per cent more over the last year. Of the total, 813,645 are residential clients, with a penetration rate of 31 per cent and an ARPU of E54.3; and 22,496 are businesses, with an ARPU of E186.2.
As for residential
clients, telephony takes the lion's share with 718,456 customers (a penetration
of 27.3 per cent), followed by television, with 448,357 clients (a penetration
of 17.1 per cent) and the Internet, with 345,053 customers. The broadband
Internet access service experienced the most widely growth with 100,000 new
clients over the last year.
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Viaccess secures France Telecom music download service
Conditional access and digital content protection specialist Viaccess is to supply its purple-DRM solution to parent company France Telecom Group to secure its Music Download Offer to be launched later in 2005. purple-DRM combines a Content Packager and a web-based License Server that enable rights generation and management, and secures multi-format delivery including Microsoft WMA, and OMA DRM v1 and v2. purple-DRM is targeted at Digital Content Distributors and telcos wishing to deploy distinctive service strategies.
"We are
very proud and happy our purple-DRM solution could meet France Telecom demanding
requirements for the launch of their innovative on-line music service"
said Mathias Hautefort, Viaccess CEO, "Our experience in protecting rights
owners and providing solutions for digital pay-TV is now extending successfully
towards digital media content protection on all networks, fixed and mobile".
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Fixed-line
operators eye Shanghai Media IPTV agreement
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
Following the recent allocation of an IPTV licence to Shanghai Media Group in China, fixed-line phone companies China Telecom and China Netcom Group have said they are willing to work out an agreement with a licence-holding partner. Both have been working with Shanghai Media to trial IPTV services that can offer conventional TV channels as well as content such as movies and games on demand.
"We have
applied for an IPTV licence directly, but may also work with partners. Shanghai
Media also has a collaboration with us. In this model, Shanghai Media is providing
the content and we will provide the networks," explained China Netcom.
The carriers also hoped to get their own IPTV service licence.
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Vestel DVR spearheads UK digital launch
TV manufacturer Vestel, has launched a new generic DVR (digital video recorder aimed at enabling consumer electronics manufacturers significantly to speed up time-to-market to capitalise on increasing consumer demand for digital TV devices. The DVR has been developed using Cabot’s Aurora middleware stack and ST Microelectronics’ new 5100 MPEG2 decoder for consumer electronics brands to style and re-badge for the UK market. Vestel expects the first re-branded DVR to go on sale in the UK in Autumn 2005.
According to
Darren Standing, business development manager at Cabot, claimed that the imminent
digital TV switchover would drive demand for digital TV devices, and suggested
that although free DTT service Freeview had proved to be extremely popular
in the UK, consumers were now starting to look for more advanced digital TV
features.
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New Skies Satellites reveals IPO price
Satellite operator New Skies Satellites Holdings announced Tuesday May 10 that its initial public offering of 11,900,000 shares of common stock, representing 39 per cent of the share capital, was priced at $16.50 (E12.88) per share. The shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘NSE’.
To the extent that the underwriters sell more than 11,900,000 shares of common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to 1,785,000 additional shares from New Skies Satellites Holdings Ltd.
Goldman, Sachs
and Co. and Lehman Brothers Inc. are serving as joint book-running managers
of the offering. UBS Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Banc of
America Securities LLC and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC are co-managers of
the offering.
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NTL has posted a net loss in the first quarter was £62.6m (E91m), 17% down on the same period last year. Revenues were up 0.7% to £517.3m, with 75% derived from the consumer business, where revenues were up 4%. Sales at the business division slipped by 10.1% to £113.6m.
NTL’s total customer base is up to 3.19 million and the company boosted the rate at which it is signing up new subs, with net additions between January and March at 58,100, the highest quarterly figure for a year. The company also claimed 1.44 million broadband subscribers, up 133,000 from the end of last year. The number of "triple-play" customers now stands at 740,300, up from 632,400 a year ago and representing 23.2% of the base.
It was announced yesterday NTL had sold its Irish business to UGC thus clearing the way for a merger with Telewest. However, chief executive Simon Duffy, would not comment on the speculation. Of the results Duffy said: "We have started the year with continued margin expansion, improved customer churn and continued growth in our triple play penetration. Continued strong performance
in gross additions
and further improvements in churn should put us back on track for our long-term
on-net target of over 50,000 net customer additions per quarter from Q2 onwards,
resulting in over 200,000 on-net customer additions this year."
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Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of UGC said, "We added 140,100 total RGUs during the period, driven by robust broadband data and digital phone sales. At March 31, 2005, we had approximately 11.2 million consolidated RGUs and customer growth has remained strong early in the second quarter. As a result, we believe that we’re on track to meet or exceed our full year guidance for 600,000 net new RGUs."
"We have made good progress recently on a number of our key strategic initiatives. In April, we closed on the merger or our Chilean subsidiary, VTR, with Métropolis-Intercom, which will strengthen our market leading position in broadband Internet, multi-channel video and triple-play services. We also expect to generate meaningful synergies from merger of NTL Ireland’s business with our Chorus asset, if the transaction receives regulatory approval."
"In Europe,
UPC is poised for the rapid expansion of VoIP services across several new
markets. In the meantime, digital phone sales remain strong, averaging over
5,000 per week in the Netherlands and Hungary, and we recently began our commercial
VoIP launch in France. We are also aggressively increasing the speeds of our
broadband Internet products across Europe beginning with 20+ Mbps "Extreme"
products already launched in the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, and Sweden.
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Speaking at Mediacast in London Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media, revealed the Corporation will launch a full consumer trial of an interactive media player.
Building on the success of technical pilots, from September a 5,000 strong panel will have access to all BBC programmes aired for a week after broadcast. Highfield said the P2P system, seven-day DRM and GeoIP - limiting access to UK addresses - had all worked well in testing and a full consumer trial was the next step in building multimedia access to all programmes.
Highfield noted that after linear increases 03-04 in visitors and downloads – driven by ever spreading broadband access – in 05 user numbers had plateaued outside of spikes for major events like the election or the Pope’s funeral.
More content
and more compelling content are the answer, he believes, but admitted that
with a vast archive governed by arcane legacy licenses, rights and their value
were a major hurdle. "Perhaps we’ll end up with a ‘publish
and be dammed model’" he said.
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Liberty Media posted a Q1 profit profit of $254m on 14% higher revenue of $2 billion. Strong number at QVC compensated for higher cost at Starz Encore.
The company said
it aims to complete the spinoff of one of its half share in the Discovery
Networks, in the current quarter. Malone has told Wall Street he hopes to
realize higher value on the stake in the network (co-owned by Cox Communications
and Advance/Newhouse Communications), as none of Discovery's cash flow has
been consolidated at Liberty.
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The CSA, the French broadcasting regulator, has made its choice of the channels to take up the eight remaining slots available on French DTT. These became available after the Council of State cancelled six licences awarded to Canal+/Lagardere and three channels (two of which shared a frequency) withdrew last year.
Thirty five channels or planned channels had bid for the eight slots. The winning line-up comprises four free channels and four pay channels. The free channels are: BFM, a business news channel from the Nextradio group which operates a business FM radio station BFM; Gulliver, a children’s channel provided jointly by France Televisions and Lagardere; Europe 2 TV, a musical channel from Lagardere’s iMCM unit; and i-Tele, a news channel from Canal+. The pay channels are Canal-j, a children’s channel from the Lagardere group and three channels from Canal+: Canal+ Cinema, Canal+ Sport and Planete (documentaries).
Hence, Canal+
obtained four slots out of the six it had bid for. Note that in the original
licence, i-tele was to have been a pay channel. This decision will not be
well received at TF1 headquarters, which already has a DTT licence for its
competing channel LCI as a pay service. Lagardere also did well, with three
channels.
Many industry observers were surprised by the attribution of the licence to
BFM, a new entrant into TV broadcasting.
The CSA press
release states that the selection will result in a widening of the range of
thematic channels available on DTT, with the arrival of a documentary channel,
two news channels (one economic, one general), children’s channels (one
free, one pay), and a 100% music channel, plus a premium sports and movie
offering. The free channels should start as soon as possible, after the conclusion
of a convention between the channels and the CSA, expected in June. Pay DTT
is set to start in September using MPEG4, but is still awaiting the official
publication of the decree setting the broadcast standards.
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Talks between Sony and Toshiba to unify next-generation DVD formats are leaning toward the standard supported by Sony according to reports.
Sony's Blu-ray
technology is backed by a group including Dell Samsung, Philips and Matsushita
and Panasonic. Toshiba released a statement saying: "Toshiba believes
a single-format for next-generation DVD is most beneficial for consumers,
and we are actively participating in talks towards format unification. At
this point however, nothing has been decided, and absolutely no decision has
been made for unification on any basis."
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Japan’s
largest mobile operator, said that a sharp reduction in tariffs resulted in
the first fall in its annual operating profit, and projected another difficult
year ahead as competition intensified. The company revealed operating profit
for the year ended March 31 declined 28.9 per cent to Y784.2bn, while operating
revenues fell 4 per cent to Y4,844.6bn, as falling rates outweighed an enlarged
subscriber base and a lower churn rate.For the current fiscal year, the company
expects average revenue per unit among its subscribers to continue to fall,
curbing profit growth. DoCoMo has been under pressure from fierce competition
in the domestic market, where operators are forced to reduce fees and offer
flat rates for data services.
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Blinkx, the desktop search engine, has teamed up with an independent Transmission Films to create a fully searchable and accessible on-demand film service via its blinkx.tv site. Over 350 films from Transmission will be entirely searchable under the Transmission Films channel on blinkx.tv.
The service will
enable users to view short clips and then be directed to Transmission Films'
subscription service in order to view the full film. The partnership is described
by both parties as an attempt to bring indie movies closer to their fans.
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Former BSkyB CEO Sam Chisholm has been hired to arrest a ratings decline at the Nine network where he made his reputation. Chisholm was put in charge of Channel Nine, historically Australia's dominant commercial network, as it attempts to claw back lost ground from rival Channel Seven.
Publishing and
Broadcasting, the vehicle of Kerry Packer, announced that Chisholm was appointed
executive director of its television interests, which include Nine and PBL's
stake in Foxtel, the pay-TV operator it part-owns with Rupert Murdoch's News
Corporation. ?
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"The successful
integration of BitBand Client into Amino Set-Top-Box strengthens the appeal
of our joint offering to Telcos, providing them with an advantageous and differentiated
IPTV solution." Says Yuval Sovinsky, EVP Marketing & Sales, BitBand.
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NEOTION, a technology provider for the digital television market, announced the introduction of "my NEOTIONbox", a new generation of smart receivers. It combines digital TV with a selection of functionalities and services in one single receiver.
The company says the receiver is built around four principles: Always connected - Whatever the network is, Satellite, Cable, DTT, ADSL or mobile phone, "my NEOTIONbox" is always connected. Opened - The user is able to customize the viewing interface and create applications thanks to the "Basic TV" operating system. Interoperability - "my NEOTIONbox" can communicate with PC, mobile phone, MP3 player, PDA, external hard disks and other home devices. Recording television programs directly to a PC rests at users' fingertips. T Commerce - In addition to online payment and pre-paid smart cards, "my NEOTIONbox" offers the "Pay Per Phone" service which enables users to order services with their mobile phones.
"At MediaCast
we're excited to present our new label My NEOTIONBox that reflects Neotion's
commitment to bring innovative products and services on the market. We play
a key role in leading the market of digital television through a dynamic and
innovative approach." said Neotion CEO, Jean-Yves Le
Roux.
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UnitedGlobalCom (UGC) has agreed to buy, subject to regulatory approval, MS Irish Cable Holdings, an affiliate of Morgan Stanley. MS Irish Cable Holdings earlier on Monday May 9 purchased the NTL Incorporated broadband operations located in the Republic of from the NTL Group. UGC loaned the funds that MS Irish Cable Holdings used to purchase NTL Ireland.
The total purchase
price is approximately E325 million, excluding an adjustment for cash in the
business at closing, plus a E4 million arrangement fee and reimbursement of
certain expenses and costs of Morgan Stanley incurred in connection with the
initial deal
RGUs.
Mike Fries, President and CEO of UGC said, "We are pleased to announce this transaction in the Republic of Ireland, one of the fastest growing economies in Western Europe. NTL Ireland is a leading pay-TV provider in Dublin, Galway and Waterford and is well positioned to participate in the rapid growth of broadband services. The purchase price represents a multiple of approximately 8.6 times estimated 2005 operating cash flow. We also anticipate significant synergies from combining the NTL asset with our existing Chorus business. In the meantime, we look forward to working with Irish regulators to get the transaction approved as soon as possible."
The long anticipated cable merger between NTL and Telewest seems back on the cards as both sides are appointing financial advisers and Telewest is actively seeking buyers for its own ‘spare baggage’, the programme group Flextech. Some analysts say the price they are seeking could still prove a major stumbling block.
The complicated Morgan Stanley purchase arrangement was a means to prevent the deal getting bogged down in a competition inquiry. Reports say NTL has insisted on this arrangement so the sale goes through as quickly as possible and does not delay a merger with Telewest. UGC already owns the Irish cable operator Chorus.
NTL has used
Goldman Sachs to advise on the Ireland divestment and the US bank would also
handle the merger with Telewest. Telewest is set to select financial advisers
after its board gave the go-ahead for the NTL merger.
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SES announced Q1 revenues of E290 million flat against the previous year with a profit of E84 million against E75 million. Utilisation rate grow to 82 per cent at SES Astra and 86 per cent at SES Americom.
Other operating highlights were the new High Definition contracts, including iNDEMAND HD, and the appointment of Ed Horowitz as President & Chief Executive Officer, SES Americom. Romain Bausch, President & CEO of SES Global, commented: "This first quarter demonstrates the strength of our business and ability to deliver value to shareholders. Our utilisation rates continue to rise, notably supported by the strong growth delivered by SES Americom. We have recently committed to three new satellite programmes, to deliver new business in North America and secure further growth in our European operations."
The company said
it had also gained approval for a share buy back programme for up to 65 million
shares and FDRs. In order to reduce the impact of the buyout programme on
the free float and trading liquidity, A, B and C shares will be bought back
pro-rata from the respective shareholders who have agreed to participate in
the programme. "The implementation of a share buy-back and cancellation
programme is part of SES Global’s stated financial strategy to provide
cash returns to shareholders, all the while optimising the Company’s
balance sheet and achieving the medium-term financial target of a Net Debt/EBITDA
ratio of three," said Bausch.
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Liberty Media is said to be finalising a compromise deal with News Corp that would remove a potential threat to Rupert Murdoch's voting control. John Malone of Liberty is understood to have offered to assign rights over Liberty's near 19 per cent voting stake to Murdoch family interests in return for a distribution of News Corp stock to Liberty shareholders.
Last year, News Corp issued a ‘poison pill’ rights issue defence after Liberty surprised the News Corp Chairman and Chief Executive by doubling its voting stake as the company shifted its main stock market listing from Australia to the US.
According to
reports, Malone has said that his "dream outcome" at News Corp would
see Murdoch counting on Liberty's voting support, while Liberty shareholders
could receive a distribution of News Corp stock. Murdoch has recently expressed
confidence that a deal with Liberty would be made within the next three months.
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XM Satellite Radio has revealed that it is considering a move into Canada, following in the footsteps of competitor Sirius.
XM is working to establish a joint venture entity that would be authorised to provide its offerings in Canada. The entity is in the process of seeking authority from the Canadian government to provide satellite radio service throughout the country, the company said. XM said it anticipates the joint venture, once established, would be independently financed.
Sirius has partnered
with CBC/Radio-Canada, and both are working at the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications Commission for a license to deliver satellite radio
service north of the border. CBC/Radio-Canada said it secured distribution
of two of its main channels, Radio One and La Premiere Chaine, for the Sirius
service.
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Only a few days after the launch of satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) to cell phones in Korea, drivers have been banned from watching video while on the move. Mobile operator SK Telecom’s unit TU Media had started to beam the signal of DMB to cell phones for the first time in the world earlier this month.
Now the National Police Agency has decided to impose fines on the drivers who use the video-on-the-go services, as it felt this is more dangerous than just using mobile phones while driving. Drivers will not be allowed to enjoy TV broadcasting with a phone, or an in-car terminal set on a holder in front of a driver's seat or a passenger seat. The current traffic law bans drivers from handling cell phones, but allows their use through a headset or a microphone while driving.
Apart from fine
of US$60-$70, the driver will get 15 penalty points. And if a driver accumulates
a total of 121 penalty points or more within a year his or her license will
be invalidated.
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Advanced Digital Broadcast announced that it has been selected by Switzerland’s leading cable operator, Cablecom for the supply of its interactive DVRs. ADB will begin deliveries in the second half of 2005.
The 7100CX DVR
is based on the STi5100 processor from STMicroelectronics and includes a smart
card reader to support Nagravision conditional access. It integrates a return
channel modem to support interactivity over the cable network.
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Modern Times
Group announced the launch of documentary pay-TV channels in Serbia. The two
Explorer documentary channels will be made available via the country’s
largest cable operator - Serbia Broadband - to more than 200,000 subscribers
from the beginning of June. The two channels are now also being distributed
via third party cable operators in Slovenia, and Viasat’s channels will
therefore now be available in a total of 19 countries, including 15 markets
in Central and Eastern Europe|
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Tektronix has announced expanded radio frequency (RF) input options for the MTM400 MPEG Transport Stream Monitor. The MTM400 now supports RF monitoring and testing for virtually all of the globally deployed DTV RF modulation schemes.
"With the
increasingly global distribution of DTV services, accurate monitoring and
analysis of MPEG transport streams is critical in delivering optimum quality
of service," said Todd Biddle, Vice President, Video Product Line, Tektronix.
"The MTM400 now provides RF support for virtually every worldwide DTV
standard. The combination of high performance RF and MPEG monitoring allows
customers to proactively detect signal degradation caused during transmission
and distribution."
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SBC has warned its plans to offer IPTV and other services over an advanced fibre network could be stalled if the company is forced to obtain franchise contracts from individual cities. The warning came from Randall Stephenson, SBC's COO, speaking in Washington, DC. "If we have to get 2,000 franchise agreements, this will not get built in three years," he said. "We have to do something to make it go faster or we will hit a brick wall."
SBC plans to spend $4 billion (E3.11 billion) over the next three years to bring fibre access to 18 million households in direct competition with cable operators. Unlike cable operators, SBC insists that, because the services will be based on IP technology, they do not require local franchise agreements.
Verizon Communications,
which is also in the process of rolling out video and other services over
a new fibre network, also argues that it does not need franchise agreements,
but has decided to negotiate such agreements anyway, although last month Ivan
Seidenberg, Chief Executive, also complained that its efforts to sell TV services
were being hampered by the local licensing requirements.
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Cablevision said its Q1 loss has narrowed with strong demand for new digital phone and high-speed Internet subscribers. The operator posted a net loss of $118.9 million, compared with $120 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $1.21 billion from $1.15 billion.
In the quarter
ended March 31, Cablevision added 21,800 basic video customers, 139,928 digital
video customers, and 88,038 high-speed data customers to reach 1.44 million.
Advertising revenue rose 12 per cent.
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Yahoo has formally launched its first video search engine. Available in test form since last December, the online tool is designed to uncover and present video clips from many different sources when users search on a particular subject.
To draw more users, Yahoo is set to announce partnerships that would bring more TV content. MTV, CBS News, and Discovery Channel are among those that have agreed to make part of their libraries available to the Yahoo search engine. This will take a variety of forms, including promotional features, music videos and news clips. Yahoo also said it would let producers contribute material to the search engine through an Internet syndication mechanism known as an RSS "feed".
But entertainment
companies are unlikely to make greater use of search engines to reach an audience
until a money-making idea can be found that is as powerful as the advertising
tied to text-based search engines, admitted Yahoo.
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Commercial broadcasters
believe the BBC could free up space for another four Freeview channels using
the same methods employed recently by fellow multiplex controller Crown Castle,
which has leased two new slots for up to £5 million (E7.25 million)
a year each. But the BBC is reportedly refusing to lease space to commercial
users, causing frustration among those waiting to access the DTT platform.
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Tesco, UK’s biggest retailer, is considering movies as the next strand of content for its download store, following success with its music offer. The retailer is planning to build its digital entertainment offer after claiming to capture one in ten of legal music downloads in the UK.
Talking to NMA Tesco.com Chief Executive Officer Laura Wade-Gery said the retailer is waiting for the right time to launch movie downloads. "The exciting thing about digital is where you can take it in the future," she said. "As the technology grows, we'll be able to turn Tesco.com into a digital download store of all sorts, rather than just music. Clearly, film would be next."
The retailer is now the world's largest online grocer and recently announced sales of £719 million (E1 billion) for its online operation, up 24.1 per cent on the previous year.
The threat from online video was clear as Blockbuster the top U.S. movie rental chain posted a first-quarter loss as higher marketing costs reversed a year-earlier profit and the absence of late fees weighed on results. The company is pumping million of dollars into a marketing blitz for a new online DVD rental service and recently scrapped lucrative late fees.
The plan to give
up late fees is aimed at wooing customers from online rivals like Netflix
Inc. and store traffic did rise in the first quarter, but its launch cost
$50 million. Blockbuster is expected to give up as much as $300 million in
fees from this year's operating income, the company said.
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CEM Enterprises raises $700M and buys TV Nova
Central European Media Enterprises Ltd announced it has raised $709 million in debt and equity and completed its acquisition of a controlling interest in TV Nova, the television network in Central and Eastern Europe.
The acquisition of TV Nova, which reaches 10 million people in the Czech Republic, increases CME's footprint to approximately 90 million people in six Central and Eastern European countries.
CME has successfully tapped the high yield market to issue E370 million senior notes. In addition, CME has sold approximately 5.4 million shares of its Class A common stock in a public offering that closed at the same time. CME received net proceeds of approximately $232 million from this sale.
In conjunction
with the financing, CME announced it has acquired 85 per cent of PPF's interest
in the TV Nova group for approximately $630 million.
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LG
Research projects IPTV success
From Shveta Malik in New Delhi
The LG Economic Research Institute has projected that the number of subscribers to Internet protocol TV (IPTV) will surpass one million by 2007 in its report ‘IPTV Spearheads a New Broadcasting Market’. The new study says the number of subscribers will grow from 80,000 this year to 520,000 in 2006, 1.26 million in 2007 and 2.01 million in 2009.
This is despite
the recent blow to Korea's plans for web-based television trials when the
four terrestrial television broadcasters withdrew their participation. KBS,
MBC, SBS and EBS notified the state-run National Computerisation Agency of
their intentions to postpone participation and said they might consider pulling
out completely. The opt-out was related to the conflict between the country's
broadcasting and telecommunications regulators over the jurisdiction of IP-based
television. The terrestrial channels were expected to sign partnerships this
month with consortiums led by telecom operators KT Corp, SK Telecom Co. and
Dacom Corp. KT and Hanaro telecom are preparing to offer the IPTV service
as part of their triple play service.
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SeaChange International, Inc. announced estimated revenues for the first quarter ended April 30, will be $30 to $32 million, which is less than the previously announced revenue expectations of $40 million. The lower-than-expected revenue performance was principally due to unanticipated delays in the booking, shipment or acceptance of certain orders.
"Long-term
opportunities for SeaChange continue to remain strong in the worldwide market
for on-demand television and we are well positioned to succeed," said
Bill Styslinger, President and Chief Executive Officer, SeaChange International.
"There is a temporary slowdown in U.S. cable VOD spending, the impact
of which we had expected to be offset through other markets and product lines.
Worldwide, the market opportunity remains large and, given that U.S. cable
operators have started their digital simulcast deployments, we see another
wave of growth coming in the sector. With the strength of our software, systems
and support, we believe we will to continue to lead this market."
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