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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 16th February
Amstrad flat, looks to HDTV
DirecTV and Nielsen monitor viewers
Abertis, Alcatel-Lucent In Mobile TV workgroup
Digital Plus Movil breaks 100,000 subs mark
IIPA attacks Canada
IGN channel for Verizon
MediaHighway for DirecTV
Asia DTH fastest growing
Inuk adds 5 to Freewire
Amstrad flat, looks to HDTVAmstrad reported a profit before tax for six months to December 2006 of £10.5m (E15.2) down from £12.5m on sales of £40.6m down from £49.6m.
The company said set top box volumes, which are normally weighted towards the first half of the financial year, are lower than a year ago. It said it had continued to focus on driving down the overall cost of manufacturing set top boxes and this has helped to mitigate the impact of the downward pressure on prices for more mature products.
Amstrad said the broadcasting industry is increasingly moving towards high definition television and it continues to work on developing HDTV set top boxes and HDTV PVRs. It started delivering HDTV boxes at the end of the last financial year and deliveries of an HDTV PVR box are due to commence in the second half of this year.
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DirecTV and Nielsen monitor viewers
DirecTV and Nielsen audience monitoring are joining forces to watch viewer behaviour. A new agreement between DIRECTV and The Nielsen Company will test the development of information that will enable the companies to understand daily viewing habits, trends and characteristics of subscribers who use the satcaster's interactive television services.
Nielsen is developing new metrics for measuring interactive usage for aggregated and anonymous clickstream data from 300,000 new TV measurement panels of DIRECTV's interactive customers. Information from the test, it is believed, will lead to an "enhanced" consumer experience and the creation of more valuable interactive opportunities for advertisers.
DIRECTV noted it "respects the privacy of its customers" and will only provide anonymous viewing data if a subscriber provides consent through an opt-in process.The companies said the agreement is a "first of its kind" since the creation of Nielsen DigitalPlus - a new service to help clients understand information opportunities available through consumer interaction via digital set-top boxes.
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Abertis, Alcatel-Lucent In Mobile TV workgroup
From Colin Mann in BarcelonaSpanish telco Abertis Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent have set up a joint workgroup to evaluate the potential of Alcatel-Lucent’s ‘Unlimited Mobile TV’ solution for Abertis Telecom’s broadcast TV business. The joint workgroup has started a technical evaluation of Alcatel-Lucent’s proposed system. These analyses will validate certain technical and cost hypotheses associated with the deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s solution in relation with new business opportunities for Abertis Telecom.
This co-operation follows the acquisition by Abertis of a significant stake in Eutelsat Communications, which invested jointly with SES Astra into an S-Band (2.2 GHz) payload onboard Eutelsat’s W2A satellite provided by Alcatel Alenia Space, allowing the delivery of mobile broadcast services over Europe.
Both companies demonstrated live mobile TV during the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona, based on the forthcoming DVB-SH broadcast mobile TV standard.
In addition, Abertis Telecom and the main Spanish mobile operators have co-operated in a trial to evaluate the various DVB-H platforms available for the implementation of Mobile TV services. The government in Spain will make one frequency available in the national multiplex for DVB-H transmission and the trial participants, including conditional access vendors such as Irdeto and Nagravision are evaluating how to offer their services on such a common network.
The Spanish trial is the first successful test of the simulcrypting of multiple mobile conditional access systems. The CA systems were connected to the Thomson broadcast platform used in the trial, aimed at proving the robustness of DVB’s Open Security Framework specification for mobile broadcasting.
Digital Plus Movil breaks 100,000 subs mark
From David Del Valle in MadridThe mobile TV version of Spain's digital DTH platform, Digital Plus Movil, claims it has more than 100,000 subscribers through Vodafone live! after two months of operations. Digital Plus Movil is currently distributing 10 channels through Vodafone live!, of which the most widely watched are Canal Plus Movil, 40 TV xpress, Cuatro and Jetix. The other channels are 40 Latino Mini, CNN +, Viajar Movil, Caza y Pesca Movil, Meto and Taquilla X Promocional.
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The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has criticised Canada for its failure to prevent piracy. The IIPA has seven members including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The groups said Canada failed to deliver on promises to change copyright law.
The coalition has asked the U.S. to put Canada on a list of the world's worst countries in terms of enforcing intellectual property rights and fighting piracy. "Canada remains far behind virtually all of its peers in the industrialised world with respect to its efforts to bring its copyright laws up to date with the realities of the global digital networked environment," the IIPA said. It accuses Canada of being a leading exporter of bootleg copies of movies and of modchips for gaming consoles.
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Interactive Media, and Verizon Wireless, announced the availability of Fox’s
IGN Mobile Video channel on Verizon Wireless' V CAST service. The channel
will be updated daily with video content from IGN’s collection of videogame, entertainment and lifestyle features,offering customers approximately 50 segments per week.
On the IGN Mobile Video channel, video segments will range from two to eight
minutes in length and cover a broad range of topics, including videogame
reviews; game and movie trailers; celebrity interviews; and game gear.
MediaHighway for DirecTV
NDS announced that its MediaHighway middleware, currently deployed on 41.6 million set-top boxes worldwide, is being downloaded to all DIRECTV Latin America L10 and L11 set-top boxes as well as the LR15 DVRs. Via this deployment, NDS provides a an upgrade to the current subscribers interface. Viewers can now use an advanced programme guide through which they can see a wide variety of channel choices on one screen - a mosaic - enabling them to choose their next program as it airs. The middleware also enables DIRECTV Latin America to offer additional advanced features to their subscribers including interactive TV applications and interactive games.
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Western Europe and North America continue to lead the digital satellite pay-TV market in subscribers and revenue, but the fastest growth over the next several years will come from other areas, especially Asia, reports In-Stat. Key satellite market trends include consolidation in established markets, interactivity, HD, launches, and bundling, the high-tech market research firm says.
Most DTH platform launches in 2006 occurred in the less mature markets, including India and Eastern Europe says In-Stat. As DTH pay-TV platforms in many American and European countries have been in operation for a number of years, their subscriber growth has slowed. Recent research by In-Stat predicts: Total DTH pay-TV subscribers are expected to reach over 117 million in 2010. Global DTH-TV revenues will exceed $88 billion by 2010.
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Inuk Networks, a supplier of triple-play services to consumers, service providers and network operators, announced that it has added new free-to-air channels Five, Five Life and Five US to its Freewire TV service. The channels have been added to Inuk’s IPTV platform as part of a series of content deals that will see further channel additions to the service in the coming weeks.
Freewire TV was launched in November last year to provide an alternative range of UK and international free-to-air television channels, initially for the student market. The agreement with Five covers channels that are central to the appeal of Freewire TV. They give students access to a range of quality programming, much of which is targeted at the youth market.
Inuk says the service allows students to watch broadcast quality digital television using their own laptop or PC and is delivered in this user-friendly format by means of special set-top-box emulation software. In this way, Freewire TV is helping to drive the penetration of digital TV to the student demographic in the run-up to national digital switchover.
Thursday 15th February
Sky film facelift and downloads
Viacom clips free for all
BskyB clear on EPG charge
Spain: Cuatro puts Sogecable in the red
FA football auction begins again
Apple adds Lionsgate films to iTunes
Envivio and GlobeCast power Orange Mobile TV
Ancier for BBC USA
Sky film facelift and downloadsBSkyB's movie channels are to be reorganised into genres including comedy, drama, indie and "modern greats", in the latest attempt to revamp the film offerings. Currently called Sky Movies 1 to 10 and Sky Cinema 1 and 2, they will also be split into two separate subscription packages along genre lines for the first time, with comedy, family classics and modern greats in one, action/thriller, sci-fi/horror, independent and drama in the other.
Sophie Turner Laing, the Deputy MD of Sky Networks, said the changes would enable viewers to enjoy "even greater control over the films they want to watch".
Sky has also given more details of its PC on-demand service, Sky Anytime, which is transferring to television. A version of Sky Anytime will be accessible on TV from March. Sky's new movie channels will re-launch on April 4. The broadcaster said Sky Anytime would feature a "selection of blockbuster titles and hidden gems made available through a dedicated section of the Sky Electronic Programme Guide. The titles available will be updated on a regular basis and pushed via the broadcast network to the hard drives of Sky HD set-top boxes and more recent Sky+ boxes, for viewing on demand".
Viacom is to begin letting people take videos from some of its websites to post on their own blogs and sites. Viacom, which is responsible for MTV and the Paramount movie studio, had reportedly been planning the move for months. The company recently demanded the removal of more than 100,000 Viacom video clips from YouTube.
"We need to open up our websites and content both for consumers and for other companies," said Mika Salmi, MTV Networks president of global digital media.
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Ofcom has cleared BSkyB of allegations that it overcharged a digital channel for a listing on its electronic programme guide (EPG). Rapture TV claimed Sky had breached its regulatory obligations by offering unfair listing terms. Rapture said its £76,800 (E111,300) EPG bill was "unduly high" given that its annual turnover was under £150,000. But in a draft decision Ofcom said Sky's charge had been "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory".
Sky says charges for EPG listings are to recover the costs associated with developing and running both the EPG and its satellite TV platform.
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Spain: Cuatro puts Sogecable in the red
From David Del Valle in MadridThe launch of commercial TV channel Cuatro has weighed down Sogecable, owner of Digital DTH platform Digital Plus. Cuatro lost E38.2 million in 2006, against a profit of E7.8 million the previous year. Total group revenues amounted to E1,659 million against those of E1,519 million the previous year, reaching an EBITDA of E209.2 million.
As of December 31, Digital Plus had 2,044,000 subscribers with 38,000 new clients in the last quarter of the year and a total of 84,000 new customers during 2006. Cuatro ended December with an audience share of 7.2 per cent and an average share in 2006 of 6.4 per cent.
It seems that, according to Sogecable, the pay-TV market is gathering momentum after a long stagnant period, although the growth in subscriptions is still very low for pay-TV satellite.
FA football auction begins again
The FA has asked broadcasters to tender for UK TV rights for the four seasons starting from 2008/09. Included in the 15 live match packages are the FA Cup and England internationals. Additional packages include match highlights, near-live services, VoD and clips for internet and mobile use. Currently the BBC and BSkyB hold the rights.
Apple adds Lionsgate films to iTunes
Apple has expanded its iTunes online movie offerings to include Lionsgate films, increasing its library to more than 400 films. Apple began selling movies at iTunes in September 2006 but its offerings were limited to those of Walt Disney and its film studios.
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Envivio and GlobeCast power Orange Mobile TV
From Colin Mann in BarcelonaIP video convergence solutions provider Envivio and content management and delivery company GlobeCast have reached a deal with mobile operator Orange to deliver high-quality MPEG-4 television broadcasts to its mobile TV subscribers in France.
By deploying the H.263/H.264 Envivio mobile TV headend, GlobeCast will be able to provide Orange with the highest quality live television and radio services to any mobile device, from GPRS to HSDPA, in its subscriber network.
For GlobeCast, this represents an essential upgrade of its Orange-dedicated headend, which will allow the 61 television and 16 radio channels currently delivered by GlobeCast, to be distributed in a very high-quality, low-bit rate format. The Envivio mobile TV headend features the world’s first and only multi-rate, multi-resolution and multi-standard encoder that outputs eight simultaneous profiles from a single video input. For Orange, this means a much greater interoperability among a wide variety of handsets, with multiple profiles generated from one input.
Envivio secured the deal in competition with a number of other major headend vendors.
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Ancier for BBC USABBC Worldwide is looking to double the scale of its US operations following the appointment of former Fox, NBC and CNN senior executive Garth Ancier as its new US chief.
His role, as president of BBC Worldwide America, will see all of the corporation's US commercial operations bought under the leadership of a single person for the first time. A key part of Mr Ancier's remit will be to use his extensive experience of the American market to help BBC Worldwide Productions' Los Angeles office secure more programme commissions from the US networks.
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Wednesday 14th February
Sky v Virgin: no prisoners
MediaFLO for AT&T
Spain paves the way for DVB-H mobile TV launch
BT to offer music VOD
HBO VOD for UK
Microsoft unveils PlayReady
Research holding back mobile TV
Sky Freeview channels force switch to MPEG-4
Brightcove for TV Guide
WiderThan powers Digiturk VOD
isporty TV channel
Sky v Virgin: no prisonersIt was no secret in the industry that bad feeling from Sky’s effective blocking of the Virgin Media (then NTL) takeover of ITV had spilled over into carriage negotiations and now the viewers have been drawn into the conflict. At the weekend Sky began running ads on its channels telling Virgin cable customers they may loose their favourite Sky channels if Virgin didn’t reach a deal on carriage prices and then gave out Virgin contact details so viewers could lobby to retain the channels.
Typical Sky ‘gloves-off’ action, then. But it may have backfired as ‘over 100’ viewers contacted the Advertising Standards Authority complaining about the ads. Because the ads only ran on Sky’s own channels (and so weren’t paid for) they are treated as editorial and therefore the complaints – and any subsequent investigations – have been handed over to Ofcom, which is yet to decide whether to instigate a probe. Sky is already waiting on a Competition Commission report on its 17.9% ITV stake purchase, which Virgin has condemned as anti-competitive.
MediaFLO for AT&T
From Colin Mann in BarcelonaQualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO USA, is to deliver mobile entertainment and information services to the telco AT&T wireless unit's subscribers. The two companies expect to make the service available to customers in late 2007.
AT&T will launch quality mobile TV services from MediaFLO USA on phones specifically designed for live mobile TV experience possible. Additionally, AT&T will have access to advanced features MediaFLO USA expects to launch in the second half of 2007. The MediaFLO USA service complements AT&T's existing voice, data and video-on-demand services.
Also at 3GSM World Congress, Qualcomm revealed that it had successfully completed a second joint technical trial of MediaFLO in conjunction with BSkyB in the UK.
The trial, in the northern England city of Manchester, followed a similar test held in Cambridge, in the summer of 2006 which corroborated performance results of the MediaFLO System, including channel switching time, the effectiveness of MediaFLO statistical multiplexing and carrier to noise performance. BSkyB and Qualcomm conducted the trial to verify MediaFLO performance and compare it with competitive technology.
"This second technical trial of MediaFLO technology in the U.K. has affirmed the results of our first trial held in Cambridge," said Robin Crossley, strategy adviser, technology for BSkyB. "The trial used lab and field test results to compare the performance of MediaFLO and DVB-H. The trial showed that the MediaFLO System has considerable technical advantages over DVB-H and confirms the financial modelling undertaken to date."
In addition to the technical trial with BSkyB and AT&T deal, Qualcomm is working with service providers around the world to explore MediaFLO services. In Japan, both KDDI and Softbank have announced their intent to explore the possibility for nationwide deployment of MediaFLO services.
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Spain paves the way for DVB-H mobile TV launch
From David Del Valle in BarcelonaThe Government is to approve new mobile TV legislation before June that will pave the way for the launch of DVB-H mobile TV services by yearend or the beginning of 2008. It is likely to call for a public tender to award a multiplex specifically dedicated to DVB-H-based mobile TV, that will allow the existence of five operators and up to 20 mobile TV channels.
The operators will only need a "simple" administrative authorisation to commence operations without obligation of a licence, a measure "to speed up and ease the development of this new technology", said the Minister of Industry Joan Clos.
Currently, all mobile operators, Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange are involved in several DVB-H trials across Spain.
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BT has secured a deal with the world's largest music company, Universal Music, for video-on-demand videos to appear on BT Vision.
Using BT's ‘V-Box’, which connects the television to a broadband line, viewers will pay 29p (E0.50) for a single music video, 99p for a library music documentary, and £2.99 for a premium concert. BT Vision has already announced content deals with companies including Channel 4, Disney, Dreamworks, BBC Worldwide and Paramount.
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US cable channel HBO is launching a subscription video-on-demand service offering shows including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Entourage in the UK. HBO's service will be available via broadband to Virgin Media, Tiscali and BT Vision customers, offering at least 50 hours of programming at the outset. Launch dates for the service are still being worked out with the three distributors.
"HBO's programming has always done very well in the UK, and the arrival of an HBO service has been long desired and anticipated," said Simon Sutton, president, programming distribution and international, HBO.
Microsoft has revealed plans for Microsoft PlayReady technology, a new multimedia content access technology optimised to meet the needs of mobile operators and handset manufacturers for digital entertainment and commerce.
Supporting multiple content types, and flexible rights, Microsoft says PlayReady enables operators to provide a range of new services tailored towards growing consumer interest in mobile digital media. Leading mobile operators worldwide, including Telefónica, O2, Verizon Wireless, Bouygues Telecom, and Cingular Wireless are indicating plans to implement Microsoft PlayReady technology.
Microsoft PlayReady technology intends to enable a broad spectrum of business models such as subscription, rental, pay-per-view, preview and super-distribution, which can be applied to many digital content types and a wide range of audio and video formats.
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Research holding back mobile TV
The lack of research data on mobile TV viewing figures and audiences is holding the medium back according to MTV Networks SVP digital media Gideon Bierer. Speaking at 3GSM he claimed MTV is already the leading mobile TV player in the world, with 40 mobile TV channels in 16 countries but providing solid viewing figures was critical to the nascent medium's success.
"We think this is bread and butter for the industry, to get standard metrics," said Bierer. "The characteristic that makes other established content media work well are generally absent in mobile." He warned that many other handheld video media - such as iTunes video - are simpler for content owners to license and easier for consumers to use than mobile TV. By contrast, Bierer said, rights for mobile TV are complicated.
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Sky Freeview channels force switch to MPEG-4
Following BSkyB’s announcement that Sky News, Sky-3 and Sky Sports News are going to be withdrawn from Freeview and be switched to the MPEG-4 standard, Sky says it expects this to prompt DTT STB makers to adopt MPEG-4.
Internet video service provider Brightcove announced that TV Guide Broadband will use the companyÅfs software to publish, manage and syndicate its online video fare to affiliate sites. As part of the deal, TV Guide BroadbandÅfs original content, including American Idol Special and TV GuideÅfs Top TV Searches, that is already available on TVGuide.com will appear on BrightcoveÅfs Website as well as other affiliates. Brightcove will also create a special TV Guide channel on its Website.
WiderThan powers Digiturk VODWiderThan, provider of integrated digital entertainment solutions has been selected by Digiturk, the largest satellite broadcast provider in Turkey, to power their video-on-demand (VOD) entertainment services. WiderThan says its video service platform enables Digiturk customers' instant access to the interactive video entertainment on multiple devices including portable video players and mobile phones. Subscribers will also be offered special bundle campaigns depending on their personal tastes and purchasing behaviours.
Sports networking site isporty.com is launching an online TV channel. The site, backed by former England football manager Terry Venables, will feature clips of amateur level sports supplied by members.
Tuesday 13th February
MySpace claims copyright filter
Google accused of pirate aid
YouTube classic TV deal
Nokia predicts mainstream mobile TV
MTV cuts 300 posts
Virgin UGC channel
EuroNews Mobile Video Alerts
MySpace claims copyright filterMySpace, News Corp’s social networking site, has started a pilot programme aimed at detecting copyrighted video content by using the audio on videos to identify and track them.
Using digital fingerprinting technology licensed from Audible Magic, the DRM provider, MySpace said it would screen video uploaded by users and block any video matching a fingerprint in MySpace’s database. "MySpace is dedicated to ensuring that content owners, whether large or small, can both promote and protect their content in our community," said Chris DeWolfe, chief executive and co-founder of MySpace.
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The WSJ reports Google is facing criticism from major media companies for cooperating with two sites accused of film pirating. The paper says that Brandon Drury and Luke Sample, who are accused of promoting film piracy in a suit brought by the major film studios, got significant support from Google between 2003 and 2005.
The two pirate sites - EasyDownloadCenter.com and TheDownloadPlace.com – attracted Google, attracted by the heavy traffic the sites were generating, and they were assigned account representatives who suggested keywords they could bid on, including "bootleg movie download," "pirated," and "download harry potter movie." Google was paid $809,000 for ads placed by the two sites over the three-year period, according to the report.
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YouTube has signed a deal with Digital Music Group to post more than 4,000 hours of video content such as classic television shows to the video-sharing site. Digital Music, an online distributor of independently owned music, TV shows and films, will receive a portion of revenue from ads that YouTube shows on the pages featuring its programming. Under the deal, YouTube will also use a filtering technology to identify songs for which Digital Music controls the rights that are being used without authorisation in videos on the site.
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Nokia predicts mainstream mobile TV
Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo opened 3GSM in Barcelona with a prediction that four billion mobile phones would be sold in 2010, a billion more than current sales figures. He said mobile Internet access and entertainment was changing business models to the extent that it was almost a new industry.
Kallasvuo said this was the year mobile TV would reach the mainstream. He said DVB-H chips would fall to E7 making devices more affordable and more widespread - he predicted 20 million such devices in use by 2009. Nokia has also confirmed a deal with YouTube to make its content available through its handsets.
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Viacom plans to cut 300 jobs at its MTV Networks division in an attempt to improve margins and free up more resources for its digital operations. The cuts will be in the US and are expected to come across the division’s youth-oriented brands.
Some Viacom executives are expecting hundreds of additional cuts in MTV’s international division, which the company has pledged to make more profitable.
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Virgin UGC channelVirgin Media is to tap into the user-content generated market in a deal to air Al Gore's Current TV, the channel made up of viewer-created clips - four months after rival Sky struck a similar partnership. Current TV, branded ‘the TV network created by the people who watch it’, is expected to launch on the Virgin Media platform in mid-March.
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EuroNews Mobile Video AlertsEuroNews is set to launch its new Mobile Video Alerts service in cooperation with Comsys. After subscribing to the service via an interactive voice response system (IVR) the subscribers receive a SMS with a link to the breaking video news.
EuroNews is starting the service at the end of February in France, soon to be followed in other languages for the different European markets. The service in France will be reviewed and any feedback from users will be used to enhance the other European services.
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Monday 12th February
Murdoch: YouTube not a threat to MySpace
Mooney blasts Sky and Ofcom, woos ITV
DRM stand-off continues
Premiere regains German football rights
Fox ‘friendly business channel’
Alcatel-Lucent to cut 12,500 posts
BBC trial MW digital radio
Tandberg Q4 2006 revenue of $85.3m
YouTube on Vodafone
Cisco acquires Five Across
Setanta Sports on Top Up TV
ESPN for MediaFLO and Verizon
Murdoch: YouTube not a threat to MySpace
Rupert Murdoch has dismissed the idea that YouTube could present serious competition to MySpace: "It's harder to monetise it. If you interrupt the flow of videos with commercials ... they will be watching someone else very quickly." YouTube also faces greater risks from the use of its service to upload copyrighted material illegally than MySpace: "There are big problems involved, mainly on copyrights," Murdoch said.
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Mooney blasts Sky and Ofcom, woos ITVJim Mooney, chairman of the rebranded Virgin Media, is set to meet Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, in an attempt to forge an alliance three months after the cable company’s aborted takeover bid.
Mooney said, "he was still interested in sitting down with ITV and discussing what we can do together, because we think there’s a win-win." The meeting will be held in "the next couple of weeks".Mooney criticised regulator Ofcom and BSkyB claiming there are "structural flaws" in the regulatory system, and accuses the satellite broadcaster of a "blatant blocking tactic" over Sky’s acquisition of a 17.9 per cent holding in ITV. "We need a system that does not suppress," Mooney said.
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Edgar Bronfman, Warner Music’s chief executive, has challenged Apple’s Steve Job’s suggestion that record companies do away with copyright protections for digital music in order to spur the market’s growth. Bronfman called Jobs’s argument (that DTO music should be distributed without DRM) "completely without logic or merit" and said his company was committed to the continued use of copyright protections in the same way that software makers and film studios safeguard their intellectual property.
Bronfman said the goal of making it easier to play music on different devices could be easily achieved if Apple would licence its own DRM software, known as FairPlay, to competitors – something that European regulators are pressing it to do.
However, it is reported EMI is in talks to release a large amount of its music in an unprotected MP3 format to various online retailers with EMI seeking large advance payments from retailers in return for the right to sell its music unprotected.
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Premiere regains German football rights
Premiere AG, Germany's largest pay-TV company, has won the broadcast rights to the country's top football matches by giving 16.7 per cent of its stock to competitor Arena. Premiere will distribute and market the Arena channel, owned by cable operator Unity Media GmbH, to all German households via satellite. Premiere lost the rights to show the matches to Unity's Arena in 2005.
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Fox ‘friendly business channel’
News Corp will launch a Fox business channel in Q4, taking a more "business-friendly" approach. Roger Ailes, the head of Fox Television, put it in the context of rival CNBC saying that CNBC’s reporters only got excited about profits "the day they negotiate their own contracts". The new Fox channel will reach 30m US homes at its launch through cable operators such as Time Warner and Comcast.
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Alcatel-Lucent to cut 12,500 posts
Newly-merged telecoms firm Alcatel-Lucent is to cut 12,500 jobs over the next three years after a collapse in profits. The firm is seeking savings of more than E1.7bn. Profits more than halved to E522m in 2006, it blamed the result on uncertainty surrounding its eventual merger. The firm's shares have been weak ever since on concerns about the disruption caused by the merger and poor trading conditions in the US.
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BBC trial MW digital radioBBC Radio and National Grid Wireless have announced a trial of DRM to assess the practicality of digital radio services in the medium-wave bands. The trial, which will last for a year, will be centred on Plymouth in the South West of the UK. It will re-use a current medium-wave frequency in the Plymouth area to broadcast a trial digital service.
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Tandberg Q4 2006 revenue of $85.3m
Tandberg Television delivered revenues of $85.3m (E64m) in Q4 2006, up nine per cent compared to $78.5m the previous year. The gross margin was 57.3 percent, compared with 58.2 per cent in the same quarter in 2005. Operating profit was $11.2m compared to $16.2m in the same quarter last year. Pre-tax profit was $14.5m (including $2.7m from the disposal of investments), compared to $18.0m in the same period in the previous year.
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YouTube on VodafoneVodafone has formed an agreement with YouTube to offer Vodafone customers YouTube on their mobile phones. Launching in the UK initially, the agreement is expected to offer Vodafone customers in key markets across Europe the chance to access a version of the popular YouTube service directly from Vodafone live!
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Cisco Systems have confirmed agreement to acquire privately held Five Across, the social networking marketplace. The Five Across platform empowers companies to augment their websites with full-featured communities and user-generated content such as audio/video/photo sharing, blogs, podcasts, and profiles.
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Setanta Sports on Top Up TVUsers of its Top Up TV Anytime service can now subscribe to Setanta Sports, which will launch on the Freeview platform on March 1st. Setanta Sports will be available to Top Up TV customers, priced at £10.99 (E15) a month. Setanta has recently won the exclusive live rights to the US PGA Golf tour and will broadcast 46 FA Premier League games from August.
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US sports broadcaster ESPN, and wireless broadband operator Verizon have confirmed a multi-year agreement to provide ESPN mobile sports content line-up to Verizon Wireless customers. Additionally, MediaFLO has confirmed the sports programming will also be available through its new mobile entertainment service.
