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NEWS Monday 5th September to Friday 9th September 2005
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Eutelsat Communications has confirmed plans for an IPO on Euronext Paris and is expected to value the group at E2.5 billion-E3 billion.
The IPO will allow Eutelsat’s main shareholders to realise substantial profits. The group, established as an intergovernmental organisation, was taken private in 2001 and is now controlled by Eurazeo, Spectrum Equity Investors, Texas Pacific Group, Cinven and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners after a recapitalisation this year. Private equity groups have spent an estimated $9 billion (E7.2 billion) on satellite acquisitions in recent years, attracted by strong cashflows, cost-cutting potential and growth in demand for high-definition television and broadband services.
Figures released by Eutelsat showed that the listed company should be able to provide investors with a high dividend but will offer relatively low growth and carry substantial debt. For the year to June 30, it reported revenues of E750 million, up just 0.5 per cent after adjusting for late delivery payments, and a fall in EBITDA from E599 million to E587 million. Net debt was E3.16 billion.
The decision to float the company is the latest in a series of moves that have transformed the market for satellite services. Last month Intelsat announced a $3.2 billion bid for PanAmSat to create the world’s largest satellite operator, ahead of SES Global.
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News Corp is to pay $650 million to acquire IGN Entertainment Inc., an internet business for videogame enthusiasts. IGN's Web sites include GameSpy.com, IGN.com and TeamXbox.com, frequented mostly by young males seeking tips and chatting about videogames. It also owns a couple of entertainment sites, including Rottentomatoes.com, which is popular with movie fans.
Rupert Murdoch said last month in a conference call with analysts that "there is no greater priority for the company today than to meaningfully and profitably expand its internet presence." In July News Corp. agreed to pay $580 million for Intermix Media.
Last year IGN’s GameSpy.com had 5.3 million unique visitors, placing it among the top five destination game Web sites, alongside game-related areas of Yahoo, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and MSN.
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Imagenio targets 200,000 subs by year end
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Telefonica's ADSL pay-TV service, Imagenio, is making a full-frontal assault on the market in its attempt to reach the planned 200,000 subs mark by the end of the year.
The company is launching a massive marketing campaign to promote its new triple play offer with a monthly fee of E38 (connection free, and the first two months decoder rental free), including 48 TV channels, a flat fee for national telephone calls and up to 1 Gb internet download.
This is the first time the group has marketed triple play following the approval of the CMT (The Telecommunications Market Commission) which had imposed limits on the company to guarantee competition in the market. With this new offer, Imagenio hopes to substantially increase the number of subscriptions from 70,000 at the present time to 200,000 by the end of the year. Imagenio's triple play service will now directly compete with similar services offered by cable operators.
President of Telefonica, Julio Linares, forecast that by 2010 more than 60 per cent of Spanish homes should have a broadband connection of up to 50Mb, this will require an estimated investment of around E 4 billion.
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UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has set the price caps on what BT can charge its rivals for local unbundling. It has proposed a maximum annual rental for BT's phone lines of £81.85 per line (E119), but last month the company itself reduced its price to £80 from £105.09.
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SES Americom has launched IP-Prime, a centralised, satellite delivered IPTV distribution solution enabling telcos to bundle traditional standard and HD programming with voice and broadband services.
The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, which serves rural and independent telephone operators in a market of more than 10 million homes, has signed a preliminary agreement to initiate trials of the service early next year.
IP-Prime will play out from the SES Americom IPTV Broadcast Centre in New Jersey.
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Packet Vision says its PV1000 - could well be the saviour of TV advertising because it screens different adverts to different TV viewers during the same ad break, showing commercials relevant to viewers. The device works with IPTV. TV companies would programme the PV1000 with demographic information about their subscribers: where they live, what they watch, and any other marketing information available.
"IPTV has enormous potential for targeted advertising," says Packet Vision managing director, Patrick Christian. "Because IP is addressable, targeting can be much more granular than is possible with terrestrial, satellite or cable television – down to individual households or even specific TV sets. One ad slot can be used to deliver hundreds of ads with each targeting the relevant audience.
"The bi-directional nature of IP is also a great asset: viewers’ responses can be identified, enabling advertisers to see whether an ad was watched and to explore new, interactive forms of advertising like narratives, telescoping and web-based commercials."
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Time Warner Inc. could see the value of its America Online division rise to $50 billion if it pulls off a successful Internet strategy, a key shareholder believes.
Mario Gabelli, a large and influential media investor, said TW was doing "a very good job" in reducing the company's debt and working to resolve a regulatory probe into accounting at AOL. But AOL "is a big wildcard here -- can they make it a search engine and can it work?" he said at a Reuters Summit. "If they can pull that off, that business alone could be worth $50 billion."
Gabelli's Gabelli Asset Management owns more than 15 million shares of Time Warner, which has a market capitalisation close to $85 billion. Analysts estimate AOL's value at about $15 billion.
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OpenTV Corp the provider of enabling technology for advanced digital television services, announced that the latest generation of its personal video recording solution, OpenTV PVR 2.0, is now in general release for network operators and set-top box manufactures worldwide.
OpenTV PVR 2.0 is a complete platform for personal video recording with support for standard and advanced features including push VOD and remote event booking. OpenTV PVR 2.0 also includes the OpenTV streaming file system, designed for PVR based usage, aimed at increasing the reliability and life span of disk drives.
Network operators UPC Broadband, StarHub and AUSTAR have recently selected OpenTV PVR 2.0 to integrate into their advanced digital platforms for the launch of their first PVR solutions.
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BBC Navigation Services at IBC
BBC Broadcast is demonstrating recent developments in its navigation services at IBC in hall three. The services allow content owners to build a customised tool enabling users to find, retrieve, download and play content on various devices making it possible for content owners to generate more revenue from their media.
The service can be tailored for any brand and allows user profiling for targeted market content. Content is ingested once and can be downloaded by a user many times on various platforms – on a mobile, windows media player and via a broadband connection. Users are also able to search EPG listings and book downloads remotely using their mobile phone.
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The BBC and ITV have confirmed the launch a free-to-view satellite TV service to complement Freeview DTT coverage.
Freesat, to be launched early in 2006, will carry all BBC and ITV digital TV, interactive and radio services plus other channels. BBC director general Mark Thompson said the announcement "paved the way" for nationwide free digital television.
ITV's Chief Executive Charles Allen also confirmed the company would also start broadcasting its channels on the Sky digital platform "in the clear" in the next few months. ITV currently encrypts its transmissions via satellite, using the service provided by Sky.
The official announcement of Freesat was made at ITV’s results conference: profits rose sharply despite ITV1 suffering a fall in advertising revenue, as ITV benefited from higher overall revenues - including from its DTT channels - and a large reduction in its licence fee.
The group said profits before tax for the first six months of the year were £205 million (E297 million), 60 per cent higher than the same period in 2004, on revenues that were 8.4 per cent higher at £1.04 billion. Ofcom, the communications regulator, in June reduced ITV’s licence fees by £135 million to about £80 million.
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Mobile phone users will be able to watch "mobisodes" of ITV's Coronation Street - made exclusively for mobiles.
The broadcaster said it aimed to become "the UK's No 1 non-operator entertainment portal". It said the service would work with all WAP-enabled phones. Some services, such as downloads and "mobisodes", will have to be paid for.
ITV also intends to test a local television service, ITV Local, which will operate as a broadband internet application. Viewers in the Brighton area will be able to watch local news and weather and get information about local services.
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Pace Micro Technology yesterday warned on profits again, due to delays in shipping products to new customers in the US. The company also announced the retirement of CEO John Dyson.
Shares in the company, which has a record of profit warnings over the years, dropped more than 10 per cent. "Given our shipments will now be more concentrated in the second half than previously expected, the first-half result, which was expected to be below break-even, will be commensurately affected," chairman Sir Michael Bett told shareholders at the group's annual meeting.
Dyson, who took over the helm when previous chief executive Malcolm Miller resigned in 2002, will remain with the company as a part-time executive in charge of business development.
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According to some press reports Channel 4 has joined the bidders for Flextech further expanding a field that is now thought to include ITV, RTL, Sky and Liberty. It is unlikely, though that C4 could manage a bid for the whole business.
There is also still speculation that the real motivation is a valuation exercise to overcome NTL’s scepticism over taking Flextech into the proposed NTL/Telewest JV.
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Murdoch still seeks right web way
Rupert Murdoch has summoned his most senior executives for the second web summit in seven months. The broadcasting and publishing group’s executive committee will gather this weekend near Murdoch’s ranch in California
The summit will include outside speakers. Since the gathering in February, Murdoch has spent $580 million on buying Intermix, which operates social networking site My-Space.com, and bought Scout Media, a sports website company. He is reported to have held talks to buy Blinkx, a video search engine.
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French Fox Life
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
Fox International Channels France is to launch a French version on 5 October, called Fox Life. Satellite carriage will be exclusively on CanalSat. The channel is licensed from Italy, so is automatically authorized in France under EU regulations. This comes one year after the group created Fox Life Italia on the Sky Italia platform.
Fox Life France will be a general entertainment channel for a mixed audience, with its mainstay as women aged over 35. The annual budget is E12 million. The daytime programmes will be mainly series; prime time programmes films and drama, followed by docu-soaps for the late evening. The onscreen branding is adapted from the Italian channel and its theme will be life changes, crossroads and personal engagements, with a motto of la vie, intensement or life, intensely. The moto of the Italian version is "cosi e la vita", or such is life.
The Fox Life brand is already present in Portugal and is soon to launch in central Europe, Spain and Japan.
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TiVo Inc. said Tuesday is slashing prices for its DVRs in a rebate promotion to to stave off competition. TiVo is offering a $150 mail-in rebate bringing the cost of the device down to $49.99 for purchases made until late November, not including activation costs.
The company has seen its ability to sign on new subscribers drop with distribution challenges and rising competition from cable operators that offer DVR capabilities with their subscription packages. TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers said the new rebate deal means "there's no reason not to bring the TiVo experience into your life."
Last month the company posted a narrow second-quarter net profit amid concerns over its growth prospects.
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Samsung will bring out a DVD machine next year capable of playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD if backers of the rival standards fail to agree on a unified format, say reports.
Samsung's head of consumer electronics, Choi Gee-sung, told the Financial Times: "We would welcome a unified standard but if this doesn't come, which looks likely, we'll bring a unified solution to market. It won't be simple but you'll see our solution in the coming year. Consumers will be too confused otherwise."
Samsung is a backer of blu-ray, which promises higher capacity than HD DVD and better interactivity and security.
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NBC Universal's Universal Pictures and Viacom 's Paramount Pictures announced the break up of United International Pictures, the overseas movie-distribution network they jointly own.
Seeking to build their own distribution networks, they said they were dividing up the main overseas territories between them. The changes will become effective January 2007.
The rising importance of the overseas market for Hollywood movies has put increasing pressure on the studios to build their own distribution systems in crucial markets. Studios such as Warner Bros. and Walt Disney have reaped big dividends from building their own international networks.
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Sky Television of New Zealand is upgrading their digital broadcasting system using the latest versions of NDS end-to-end solutions and has selected NDS XTV to launch an integrated personal video recorder service.
NDS solutions have supported Sky Television since launch over 15 years ago. John Fellet, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Television commented, "Sky Television
decided to undertake a systems upgrade to offer an integrated personal video recorder service."
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mPhase and Latens Development Agreement
mPhase Technologies announced jointly with Latens Systems a cooperative development and marketing agreement to integrate Latens’ conditional access solutions with the mPhase TV+ System.
mPhase will incorporate Latens’ latest generation dynamic Conditional Access System as a part of its mPhase TV+ System IPTV offering. Latens CAS is a pure software security solution which protects operators content and revenues.
"Our open systems platform allows us to offer an end-to-end pre-engineered IPTV system to alleviate trial and error by the operator," said Phil Thompson, mPhase Technologies executive Vice President, Product Management. "Latens adds content and revenue protection as part of the total value proposition we bring to market.
"mPhase shares our open systems philosophy and we are pleased to be part of their progressive, carrier-grade IPTV ecosystem," said Andy Mathieson, Director, Latens.
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Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has raised his stake in News Corp. to 5.46 percent of voting shares and repeated support for chairman Rupert Murdoch. The prince's new holding of Class B voting shares replaces the 3 percent stake in Class A non-voting shares previously held by his investment company, Kingdom.
Alwaleed said he could buy more News Corp stock to support Murdoch in the face of a possible hostile takeover bid by Liberty Media Corp. "Last November I said that I had the utmost confidence in Mr. Murdoch, his management team and his succession planning, and that if necessary, the Kingdom companies would replace their non-voting shares with voting shares," he said The Kingdom companies now own a significant interest in News Corporation voting shares and may purchase more if the situation warrants," he said.
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Eutelsat and a New York based channel owned by Chinese-American businessmen have renewed for six years a transponder-leasing agreement that will allow the channel to continue beaming politically controversial programs into parts of China.
The companies' previous one-year agreement expired in April, raising the specter that independent programming by the fledgling station, New Tang Dynasty Television, might be silenced.
NTDTV, is a privately held New York station started four years ago to offer Western-style news and information throughout many areas of Asia, including parts of China. But Chinese authorities say the station is a front for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, which the government considers a threat to its authority.
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Spanish regional pubcasters, financed by a mix of ad revenues and state subsidies, are increasingly burdened with debts. 2004 figures show that the existing eight regional TV companies (TV3, ETB, TVG, Canal Sur, Telemadrid, Canal Nou, Canal Castilla-La Mancha, TV Canaria) have an accumulated debt of around E 1.6 billion. Every year, the regional Administrations spend around E 400 million to finance the regional TV channels.
In 2004, the regional stations lost a total of E124 million, with the Catalonian TV channel TV3 taking the lion's share with a loss of E 81 million, followed by the Andalucian RTVA with E 22.4 million, and the Madrid-based TV channel Telemadrid with a loss of E 16.12 million.
Despite the fact that all these networks are in the red, new regional channels -in Aragon, Extremadura, Baleares and Asturias- are breaking into the TV market.
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NDS, TANDBERG Television, Pace Micro Technology and MGt, four leading names in the broadcasting industry announced the launch of an end-to-end digital pay-TV solution specifically designed for smaller and mid-size cable and pay-TV operators.
The companies say this new fully integrated and ready to operate solution is designed to meet the requirements of smaller operators wishing to transition from analogue to digital.
The Standard Configuration Option, which will be fully integrated with NDS’s new VideoGuard Express can be installed, commissioned and operational within three months from contract, says NDS.
It comprises: The entire CA system based on NDS’s new VideoGuard Express managed remotely by NDS if required, TANDBERG’s Television's digital television headend that provides an easy to use platform that is fully integrated with VideoGuard Express, Pace’s entry level STB (DC235) integrated with NDS EPG and NDS MediaHighway middleware allowing the addition of further advanced digital TV functionality as the operator’s business grows, and MGt’s Profile CRM system offered as a managed service up to complete end–to-end call centre operation.
Each of the above solutions offer different levels of multi-channel access, automation and integration to the client’s existing systems as well as different levels of local and remote support. The solutions also provide a roadmap for growth and advanced functionality including interactive TV, impulse pay-per-view, near video-on-demand and personal video recorder (PVR) technology.
Alan Dishington, NDS Head of Marketing Europe commented: "NDS and our partners, TANDBERG Television, Pace Micro Technology and MGt, recognized that there was a gap within the small to mid-sized operator market. The joint offering provides a low cost, easy to deploy solution for operators wanting to transition from analogue to digital. We offer all of the elements, fully integrated and ready to operate."
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Monstermob reported a more than four-fold increase in first-half profit, following a series of acquisitions and growing consumer enthusiasm for downloading songs Pre-tax profit was £3.52m (E5.1m) in the six months to the end of June, compared with £793,000 for the same period last year. The company has made four large acquisitions since August last year, including the purchase of 9 Squared in the US and a deal last month to buy ATOP Century in China.
These helped lift six-month turnover from £8.7m to £21.7m. In the US, real-music ringtones – snippets of songs, mainly from music chart hits – have turned into a bestseller for the company since their launch last November and make up about 65 per cent of material downloaded by its US users.
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The Latvian triple-play operator Baltkom TV is boosting its digital
television offering by licensing an EPG management system. The PSI/SI
and event management system delivered by Ortikon Interactiveenables Baltkom TV to offer dynamic programme information for EPGs automatically.
Riga based Baltkom TV offers digital television, voice and internet services over its cable and MMDS networks. The cable network reaches around 180,000 households in metropolitan Riga, while the MMDS signal reaches up to 360,000 households.
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TANDBERG announced it has signed a contract with Siemens to provide Dutch telco KPN with a EN5930 encoding system which can simultaneously transmit both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC standard definition television. KPN is adding IPTV to its existing communication services and plans to introduce digital television over its DSL network for the first time this year.
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MTV Networks has announced that Frank Brown has decided to leave his post as president, MTV Networks Asia Pacific. Brown, associated with the company for 18 years, has decided to relocate to Australia and join his family’s business, the International investment and consultancy company, The Laura Group.
Brown had moved to Singapore to create MTV Networks Asia Pacific in 1994. During his tenure, he launched 20 MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon channels and has forged important partnerships for the company across the Asia-Pacific region.
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EuroNews has launched on the Orange mobile network in Switzerland over UMTS/3G mobile phone devices. The Swiss telecom operator Orange Communications SA launches its UMTS/3G service with the widest live TV offer over mobile phone devices in Switzerland, including EuroNews in 4 languages.
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Harmonic introduced the one rack unit (1-RU) DiviCom Electra 5000 multi-service encoding platform, the first to enable the simultaneous encoding of multiple channels in multiple formats using multiple video/audio compression standards.
Now, from a single 1-RU encoder,operators can deliver broadcast video services to a variety of devices, from a standard definition television in a home to a
mobile phone, enhancing scalability while, at the same time, dramatically simplifying the entire service infrastructure.
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Video-on-demand content aggregator Jupiter VOD Co., Ltd, has reached a licensing agreement with CBS Paramount International Television, for a package of current and library feature film titles for its VOD service in Japan.
Jupiter VOD's first affiliate is Japan's largest multiple service operator, Jupiter Telecommunications Co., Ltd., better known as J:COM. The Paramount titles from CBS Paramount International Television will be added to the service from September 9, 2005 (Fri.) with other cable operators in Japan expected to sign up in the future.
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ITV is reported to have held advanced talks with the BBC about a partnership for a free satellite television service. Plans for a new service could be announced within two months.
A Freesat service driven by the BBC has been mooted for some time, and there have been extensive discussions with Sky. Now the BBC believes that BBC channels plus those from ITV and others from the Freeview package would make an attractive enough proposition. The plan would be to ultimately offer more than channels than on the bandwidth constrained DTT service.
Getting involved would give ITV some leverage in its carriage dispute with Sky. At the moment ITV channels are broadcast on Sky, but ITV pays about £17m (E246m) a year to have its channels encrypted, a figure ITV wants substantially reduced.
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WB signs for T-Online IPTV VOD
Warner Bros. has signed a multi-year deal to provide content to T-Online for its broadband VOD service in Germany.
A range of titles will be available to T-Online’s broadband video-on-demand users, including the Harry Potter films, and The Matrix trilogy. New Releases will become available to T-Online concurrent with their pay-per-view window. T-Online also plans to add at least 100 library titles each year to the service.
"We’re excited to be in business with T-Online, a leader in the VOD arena in Germany, and especially pleased with the level of copyright protection this deal includes, said Jeffrey Schlesinger, the president of Warner Bros. International Television Distribution. This agreement incorporates a number of anti-piracy measures and procedures that reflect Warner Bros. and T-Online’s co-operation in and commitment to actively deal with online piracy while offering consumers an attractive, affordable and legitimate alternative to illegal p2p file sharing."
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An Australian court has ruled that users of Kazaa breached music copyright and ordered its owners to modify the software. "The respondents authorised users to infringe the applicants' copyright in their sound recordings," Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox said in his ruling.
Australia's major record companies sued Kazaa's Australian owners and developers, Sharman Networks, claiming Kazaa had cost them millions of dollars in lost sales. The music industry told the court that Sharman Network licensed users to access a network it knew was being used for piracy and hence it was authorising people to infringe copyright.
Sharman Networks defended the use of the internet to download music tracks, but said it could not control the actions of estimated 100 million world-wide users. Although the ruling is only enforceable in Australia, the record industry has hailed it as a victory that would resonate around the world.
"Today's judgement shows that Kazaa, one of the biggest engines of copyright theft and the biggest brand in music piracy worldwide, is illegal," said John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries.
The lawsuit was brought by five record labels - Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Festival Mushroom - who said that Kazaa technology helped copyright infringement on a huge scale. The defendants in the case argued they had no control over how people used their technology, comparing it to a photocopier or tape recorder.
Kazaa's owners were ordered to modify the software within two months to include filters designed to stop the sharing of copyright material.
A fresh round of hearings will now be held to determine the level of damages, which could run into the millions of dollars. Lawyers for Kazaa said they would appeal against the decision.
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Spain says No to Net and Veo TV's analogue pleas
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Government has refused requests made by digital TV operators Net TV and Veo TV to broadcast in analogue.
Both channels had asked the Administration for permission to temporarily broadcast in analogue -so that they could increase their potential audience and capture ad revenues- until the digital TV market was a reality. (So far they have been broadcasting for an ‘invisible’ audience for lack of set-top-boxes available in the market and incurring heavy losses).
The Government has taken this decision on the grounds that their licences are exclusive for digital and that there is not enough spectrum for two new analogue TV transmissions. Both Veo TV and Net TV should operate two digital channels each one from next November. They will form part of the planned free-to-air DTT platform that in all it will offer up to 21 channels.
The Government has also decided to refuse regional channel Telemadrid's request to turn its second regional channel, the digital La Otra, into an analogue TV channel for similar reasons.
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Goldman Sachs sees Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) as an "exaggerated threat" to existing European pay television operators.
It believes IPTV is likely to limit roll-out to those areas where cable triple play threat is most acute. It tends towards reselling satellite and pay terrestrial sports and movie channels and is unlikely to outbid them on content.
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Free buys into Wimax
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris
The Iliad group, parent of the ISP Free, has agreed to acquire Altitude Telecom. According to Iliad, it will not have a significant impact on the group's results. Altitude Telecom is the only company in France to have a national Wimax (large area broadband internet distribution via microwaves in the 3.5 GHz band), license from the telecoms regulator ARCEP (formerly ART).
Under the terms of the transaction, Iliad will obtain Altitude's consumer and Wimax activities. Jean-Paul Riviere, who until this deal was Altitude's CEO and majority shareholder, has agreed to buy the services for businesses and local governments operated by Altitude Telecom, to form a company Altitude Developpement.
The Iliad group becomes the only French telecoms operator active in Wimax technology for the consumer market. Xavier Niel, Iliad's director of strategy, said Wimax is a pertinent option for the development of the group's activities over for the next three to five years.
Free is the leading ADSL operator after the incumbent FT, with 1.316 million broadband subscribers at the end of June this year.
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Skype has formed a joint venture with Chinese internet portal Tom Online, in a bid to boost its subscriber base in the fast-growing Asian market. The joint venture, Skype's first move into China, will be controlled by Tom Online, with its 51 per cent holding.
The new business will develop and distribute a simplified Chinese version of Skype software, which allows users to make free Internet-based phone calls around the world using a broadband connection. "China is one of our absolutely top markets; it is a big growth market for broadband," Skype co-founder and Chief Executive Niklas Zennstrom said. Tom Online, which also provides mobile Internet services, is controlled by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
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At the end of October, Sky will start switching 7.8m households, some 16m people, to a new EPG format, with roll-out complete by December. In changes made necessary by the overwhelming number of channels, the familiar system of seven content categories is being doubled to 15. The genre menu will have to be split into two pages.
The changes, just confirmed to channel operators, include two new genres. The first is lifestyle and culture, which has been introduced to reflect the rise of channels such as UK Style and Sky Travel, and will become the second genre, below entertainment. This category will also accommodate Artsworld, which moves from entertainment. The second is gaming and dating, which will be placed on the second page of options, and which will accommodate the ever-increasing number of channels in this booming category.
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Controversy over the Australian government’s planned A$30bn-plus sale of its remaining 52 per cent stake in Telstra, escalated into a public brawl when a senior Telstra executive said the outlook was so grim he would not recommend its shares to his 86-year-old mother.
It also emerged that Sol Trujillo, Telstra’s combative new American chief executive, had gained board support to write to the company’s 1.6m shareholders and warn them that new regulations proposed by the government would hurt their investment. The dispute comes days before the government’s planned introduction to parliament of legislation to enable the sale of its Telstra stake. It is expected to be one of the world’s largest public offerings next year.
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ITV’s merchandise, licensing and publishing division, today launched its first UMD (Universal Media Disc) for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Shawshank Redemption, the Hollywood hit movie can now be watched in the palm of your hand, says ITV putting an end to those boring journeys or soul destroying queues.
Gerry Donohoe, Managing Director, Granada Ventures commented, "To bring out such a legendary movie as the PSP is launched is fantastic. The PSP is a breakthrough in handheld entertainment and Granada Ventures wants to provide more content for this fantastic piece of hardware as it goes from strength to strength."
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EuroNews, the European news channel has been included on Berlin DTT from 31st August 2005. Initially the channel will be broadcast in German, English, and French in the Berlin-Brandenburg region to around 300,000 households and eventually the service will be expanded to include additional languages as EuroNews also broadcasts simultaneously in Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
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Envivio announced that its 4Caster Mobile Series encoders have been selected by Canal+ Group for its DVB-H trial of video services to handheld devices. The optimised Envivio encoders compress content to very low bit rates that are ideal for mobile operators wanting to enrich their services beyond voice to offer digital television and on-demand video, and for broadcasters such as Canal+ wanting to re-purpose content to address these new markets.
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NDS, Bitband, Blockbuster VOD solutions
NDS, Blockbuster Digital Entertainment, and Bitband will be showcasing xSpace at IBC. xSpace is a comprehensive VOD solution designed for broadcast operators deploying hybrid STBs with broadband connectivity say the companies.
Built upon NDS’s VideoGuard conditional access system, xSpace provides the security and the business packaging of on-demand content and, utilising XTV-based STBs, enables the recording of IP content to disk. xSpace enables the introduction of new business models and creates bundles that tie together the broadcast channels with new on-demand content.
YES, Israel’s pay-TV satellite operator will be the first operator to deploy a VOD solution based on the xSpace system, anticipated during 2006.
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News Corp Intermix deal blocked?
A lawsuit threatens to halt News Corporation's $580m deal to buy Intermix Media, owner of MySpace.com. A group of shareholders have filed a class action alleging that executives, directors and controlling shareholders of Intermix benefited themselves at the expense of the company and investors when they agreed to sell the company to News Corp. They want an injunction to stop the sale as well as damages.
MySpace.com, the two-year-old website that allows friends to share blogs, photos, instant messages and music online, is the jewel in the crown of Intermix, which owns more than 30 entertainment and community sites. It is also the second most popular on the web in terms of page views.
"The complaint alleges that in a flawed process tainted by conflicts of interest, the defendants arranged a sale of Intermix to News Corporation at a glaringly inadequate and unfair price that virtually guaranteed Intermix shareholders would receive far less than optimal value for their shares," Kreindler & Kreindler, the Los Angeles law firm acting for the shareholders, said in a statement.
Company management failed to maximise stockholder value because they did not institute a bidding an auction of the company to the highest bidder and gave "the cold shoulder" to News Corp rivals that were interested in buying Intermix, the law firm said. It also criticised the terms of sale because they severely limit rival companies offering a competing bid and includes an "unreasonable" a $25m termination fee.
Meanwhile News Corporation has been thwarted in its bid to enter the Russian television market. News Corp held talks last month about buying a 35 per cent stake in Ren-TV, the only remaining major television channel in Russia that is not under state control. But it has emerged that oil group Surgutneftegas, which has strong ties with the Russian government, had agreed to buy the stake.
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Mobile content: E32bn by 2012 but not from TV
The mobile content and entertainment services market will grow to around E32bn in Western Europe by 2012, according to new research. The growth is expected from games, sport, music, multi-media downloads and content messaging, says the report from analysts Berg Insight. Adult content is also expected to provide an important revenue stream in many European markets.
But Berg believes that mobile TV services will not be a major contributor to the surge in mobile content revenue. It says subscribers will be reluctant to sign up for monthly payments to access TV services until transmission reaches broadcast quality which is not expected by 2012. TV properties and brands are expected to contribute to revenue growth in the interim with selected streamed and downloaded clips, games tie-ins, interactive TV and branded content services. "Most TV rights owners stand to receive just insignificant amounts per download through their revenue share deals with the mobile network operators so only those properties with mass market appeal stand to earn any real money," said Julie Robson author of the report.
Meanwhile a report from Parks Associates in the US says small but dedicated segment of consumers will drive the early market for video content and live TV services on mobile platforms. The majority of these consumers belong to a consumer segment dubbed Mobile Aficionados, which consists of more than 40 million Internet users.
The study, based on a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users, found 13 per cent of those who own one or more portable devices would like to see capabilities for live TV integrated into these devices. In addition, 12 per cent perceive the portable functionality of watching videos such as movie trailers and full-length movies as important.
"The percentages of consumers interested in mobile video/TV services are smaller than those for other functions such as taking photos and listening to music," said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, senior analyst at Parks Associates.
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Deutsche Telekom will spend E3bn over the next two years upgrading large parts of its network to deliver ultra-high speed broadband capable of delivering a range of multi-media services including high-definition television.
The upgrade will involve stripping out large parts of the old copper wire network, which runs between the local exchange and the junction box, and replacing it with high-capacity fibre-optic cable. The new technology will provide speeds of up to 50Mb, which DT claims will give Germany the fastest access in Europe. Two pilot schemes will start shortly in Hamburg and Stuttgart but the roll-out aims to cover 10, as yet unidentified, cities by mid-2006 before being extended to cover Germany’s 50 biggest cities by 2007.
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Harris Corporation is to acquire 100 per cent of Leitch Technology Corporation for approximately $450 million.
Leitch is a global provider of video systems for the television broadcast industry, including routers and distribution equipment, signal processing, signal management and monitoring, servers and storage area networks, branding software and post-production editing systems. Harris is a leader in providing digital broadcast technology solutions for global broadcast media markets, including television and radio transmission systems, networking solutions and enterprise-wide software and media management systems.
"The acquisition further positions our company to lead the broadcast industry's transition to high-definition digital services," said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Harris. "Their broad product portfolio provides an excellent complement to our current products and software, and significantly expands our presence in these fast-growing market segments. Our combined products and systems serve every segment of the increasingly complex supply chain that brings digital audio, video, and data content to consumers."
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Intel, Philips entertainment chips
Intel the world's biggest chipmaker, and Philips are setting up a joint initiative to market home entertainment systems with Intel chips. The U.S. chipmaker will supply a processor, chipset and software for a Philips media centre that will allow customers to store and share photos, music and video in a single system, as they promote digital products for the home.
The PC-based Philips Showline Media Centre will include a card that allows users to watch two TV channels at once, as well as a 250-gigabyte hard disk drive for storing music and photo collections and a recorder for DVDs and CDs.
Intel, which last month launched a new type of personal computer called Viiv based on Microsoft's Windows Media Centre Edition operating system and aimed at the digital living room, has been trying to break into the cut-throat consumer electronics business for years.
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UK independent producers’ body Pact has expressed concerns over the BBC’s plans to offer programming online, saying it has not been told enough about the measures in place to prevent piracy. MyBBCPlayer will use digital rights management technology to prevent downloads of shows being misused, but Pact chief executive John McVay said: "Nobody’s explained how it’s going to work. It’s a case of ‘trust us, it’ll be fine’."
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The Digital Radio Development Bureau's five- year forecast suggests that there will be more than a fifteen-fold increase in the number of digital radios in the UK over the next five years, rising from 1.2m at the beginning of 2005. The figures update the last DRDB five-year forecast from October last year, which predicted 13m digital radio sets by the end of 2008.
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RTL Group reported a small rise in revenues over the first half of the year, while earnings stayed flat. Underlying revenues, which take the account of acquisitions and disposals were up 1.1 per cent to E2.4bn in the first six months of 2005. EBITDA remained steady at E407m.
RTL recently bought the 35 per cent of Five it did not already own. RTL said advertising conditions across Europe continued to be "mixed", with low visibility, but it remained confident about its prospects in the second half of the year. As well as Five, RTL owns channels including France's M6 and Antena 3 in Spain.
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Thomson Debuts Mobile STB for DTT and Radio
Thomson has unveiled the world's first mobile set-top box with integrated antennas and LCD screen, the DTI0601, designed to receive digital terrestrial broadcast channels in multiple environments.
The system functions as a standard set-top box, but also operates as a portable system for use in the home or elsewhere and as a crystal-clear, personal picture and sound system in cars, city buses and other mobile situations.
For operators, this new mobile set-top box creates new revenue opportunities through its appeal both to existing and potential viewers. Support for integrated Conditional Access, will also enable operators to offer Pay-TV services via a SIM card slot in the future.
"Leveraged from our number one position in digital set-top boxes worldwide, the development of this new mobile set-top box technology validates Thomson's strategy to provide our network operator partners and consumers with innovative products," said Koen van Driel, Senior Vice President, Satellite and Terrestrial Worldwide, of Thomson's Access Platforms.
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Music stores join download rush
UK music stores are to launch download services, to compete in a market dominated by PC and software firms. Virgin and its rival HMV will both rely on a subscription model where users can listen to any music - as long as they keep paying a monthly fee. HMV and Virgin hope that by leveraging their brands, the new services will tempt older music lovers away from CDs and into the digital age of downloading. Both are planning to charge £14.99 ( E22) a month for access to their libraries of more than a million tunes apiece.
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Toshiba has said that it might delay the US launch of its next generation DVD player until after the peak Christmas period for consumer electronic sales as it continues discussions with Hollywood studios. "We are discussing with Hollywood studios when would be the best time to launch" said a Toshiba representative.
The company is on track to manufacture the hardware for the roll-out in Japan this year, but Toshiba believes that to start selling the HD-DVD players in the US now may not be the best strategy since production would initially be limited.
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Video Networks Ltd provider of HomeChoice, announced it was to move to ADSL2+ for the delivery of its digital TV, video on-demand, broadband internet and telephony service across London and Stevenage. The move will make HomeChoice the first UK operator to switch to ADSL2+ to deliver triple play services and is a significant step forward in the development of the HomeChoice service. Potential new services will include faster internet speeds of up to 24 Mbps.
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Modern Times Group MTG AB, announced it has signed an exclusive agreement with Formula One Management to acquire the broadcasting rights to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The agreement provides MTG with the exclusive rights for the event in both Sweden and Norway for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons. The coverage from each race weekend will be aired on the TV3, ZTV and Viasat Sport channels.
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Conax has signed an agreement with TVT Broadcasting Co. Ltd. for securing their digital terrestrial transmissions to the Thai market. The new digital network will be managed by TVT Broadcasting Co. Ltd (TVT), a newly company that comprises of Thai TV Broadcasting Co. Ltd. (TTV), Nation Broadcasting Corporation Co. Ltd. (Nation) and Media Cast Co. Ltd., whereas TTV is providing the digital DVB-T network, Nation is providing the content, and Media Cast is the technology company responsible for the network upgrade from analogue to digital.
TVT will offer 16 channels of various entertainments such as news (Nation Channel), sport, movies, series, music and variety. TVT will use the Conax CAS7 including the BMS and Data playout manager for secure transmission and handling of its subscriber base.
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Cavalier Telephone, a US CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) with 180,000 residential subscribers has chosen Amino's AmiNET124 set-top box as part of its IPTV (IP Television) services development. The AmiNET124 is Amino's first single-chip IP set-top box that supports the new MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video compression standard. The contract is part of a substantial multi-year agreement and deployment will commence in October 2005.
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GlobeCast 50 channels for Orange
GlobeCast has announced that it is now the world’s largest provider of live television-to-mobile delivery services, delivering 50 television and 11 radio channels on the mobile television bouquet that it operates in France on behalf of Orange. GlobeCast, are subsidiaries of France Telecom. Orange France launched its direct-to-mobile television and radio service at the end of 2004.
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emuse technologies has announced a three-year deal with S4C, the Welsh National Broadcaster, and emuse have signed a deal. The deal includes the supply of the full Modelstream software suite, the creation of interactive applications from digital text, subtitles, a content management system to enable complex synchronised voting applications, and a full support structure. Viewers will be able to launch such services through an emuse developed Interactive Service Menu.
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Kreatel Communications announced a new Research and Development office in Shanghai. The establishment of the Asian site is a strategic step to gain force in Kreatel’s international expansion within the area of broadband-based solutions for TV and home entertainment. The Chinese market is evolving rapidly, says Lars Bengtsson CEO of Kreatel. The summer Olympics push for technology innovation, and we believe that China will soon become the biggest market for broadband TV.
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