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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 26th January
Fox demands YouTube names
Norway declares iTunes illegal
MySpace expanding coverage
Spain's Soria to subsidise DTT
PlayStation 3 in Europe in March
Gambino leaves MTV
Shenick to test Iskratel
RawFlow P2P partnership with ChinaCache
UTStarcom expands China IPTV
20th Century Fox has served YouTube with a subpoena demanding that it disclose the identity of a user who has uploaded entire new episodes of primetime series '24' and 'The Simpsons'. The subpoena was granted by a US District Judge in California on January 18. It is unclear whether YouTube has complied with the request as yet, its owner Google has traditionally resisted divulging user identities. Lesser-known video site LiveDigital was also served with a similar subpoena.
The '24' episodes appeared on YouTube prior to their premier on the Fox network. Filed on the basis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the subpoena includes testimony from Fox Entertainment Group suggesting Fox has been unable to determine the users' identities on its own and the uploaded material could cause Fox "irreparable harm". The subpoena identifies the YouTube subscriber by the username 'ECOtotal' whose site has been suspended. Prior to its acquisition by Google, YouTube had identified a user to a major studio copyright owner.
Fox parent News Corp owns MySpace.com, which has also faced criticism from content copyright holders.
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Norway declares iTunes illegalNorway’s consumer ombudsman has ruled that its iTunes, Apple’s online music store, was illegal because it did not allow downloaded songs to be played on rivals devices. The decision is the first time any jurisdiction has concluded iTunes breaks its consumer protection laws and could prompt other European countries to review the situation.
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MySpace expanding coverageNews Corp.'s MySpace, plans to more than double the number of countries it serves by the end of the year. The target expands the initial goal for MySpace to operate in 11 markets over time. News Corp. has expressed deep interest in launching MySpace in the China market through a local joint venture partner. "In every country we've launched, we've seen incredible growth ... without doing any real marketing of the site," MySpace senior vice president for international operations, Travis Katz, said in an interview.
He said MySpace has test-launched services in Mexico, in addition to Italy and Spain. Other markets it is already operating in are the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany and Japan.
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Spain's Soria to subsidise DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridThe Spanish province of Soria will subsidise the acquisition or adaptation of consumer equipment to receive DTT. Its an attempt to boost DTT and pave the way for the analogue switch-off scheduled for 2008 in first Spanish region slated to fully migrate to digital. E450 will be given for each residents' association to adapt the SMATV dishes to receive DTT; E 60 will be available for the purchase of DTT MHP-enabled boxes and E 15 for zappers.
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PlayStation 3 in Europe in MarchSony has revealed that the PlayStation 3 will be launched in EMEA on 23 March at a price of £425 (E600). Only the 60GB model will be available at first, with the 20GB model to follow later in the year. An expected one million PlayStation 3 units will be made available during the initial launch.
Angel Gambino, MTV Networks UK's digital chief, is leaving the company after just 16 months. Gambino, who joined MTV from the BBC in September 2005, was responsible for key product launches in the UK last year including video-on-demand entertainment service MTV Overdrive and UGC-driven channel MTV Flux.
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Shenick to test IskratelShenick Network System's award-winning diversifEye, the converged IP network test system, has been selected by Iskratel, a leading supplier of IP infrastructure for delivery of IPTV and Triple play.
Iskratel requires a highly granular, realistic perspective on service and performance, right down to the triple play subscriber household level and the individual users therein. With diversifEye, Shenick provides the degree of granularity required to test overall performance limitations and quality of service coupled with the ability to drill down to each IPTV, VoIP and internet user application such as web and P2P applications for true quality of experience (QoE) assessment.
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RawFlow P2P partnership with ChinaCache
RawFlow, provider of live P2P streaming technologies, has revealed a partnership agreement with ChinaCache, the largest content delivery network (CDN) in China. Under the terms of the agreement, RawFlow and ChinaCache will jointly promote Peer-To-Peer technology in the China market. ChinaCache will deploy the technology for its media delivery network and serve customers with P2P live broadcasting.
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UTStarcom has partnered with China Telecom (CTC) to deploy its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution for a new commercial IPTV network in China’s Shanxi Province.
The initial deployment, supporting 30,000 subscribers, is planned to include 14 service points covering major metropolitan areas of Xian, the capital city of Shanxi Province. The service is expected to offer up to 80 channels of live, broadcast television; 24-hour time-shifting capability; approximately 10,000 hours of video-on-demand (VOD) content; and additional services including karaoke and gaming.
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Thursday 25th January
Ofcom returns to PSP potential of digital
Ad target viewers found online
Telstra trys to force access payment
HBO chases $90m DISH payment
UTECA lobbies for relaxing DTT conditions
Italians in Switzerland protest against digital switch
China net users may surpass US
CanalPlay goes DTO and HD
Huawei MBMS mobile TV technology
Irdeto partner with Alticast, LG and Kaonto on IPTV solution
Juniper and Intelliden enhance IPTV
Ofcom returns to PSP potential of digitalA discussion document has revealed Ofcom’s initial views on the Public Service Publisher (PSP), one of its ideas for alternate use (to the BBC) of public funds in media. It suggests the PSP could offer a rich new media experience for users, allowing audiences to re-use content; place user participation at the heart of much of the content; and drive community activity, including location-sensitive content and the ability to collaborate to create new material.
Ofcom believes that there are valid arguments both for the creation of a new organisation and for the PSP to be linked to an existing media provider. It also believes it could be based outside London to help reflect the diversity of viewpoints around the UK and to encourage a wider spread of investment in digital media.
Ofcom is seeking views on the exact amount, and source, of the PSP’s funding. At present, production and distribution costs for new media content are lower than for conventional television. This suggests that the PSP could make a significant impact for an initial budget of £50-100 million (E72-145m) per annum. Larger scale, more ambitious proposals could be made as digital media enters the mainstream.
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Ad target viewers found online
US television networks draw a younger, wealthier and better educated audience when they run their shows over the Internet, according to a new study by Nielsen Analytics and Scarborough Research. Concerns that allowing consumers to view those popular programmes and others over the Internet would cut into the number of people watching them on television are unfounded, the study found.
"Video on PCs and iPods actually are expanding the audience for broadcast and cable programs," the study claimed, citing data that total TV usage was at an all-time high in US households at 8 hours, and 14 minutes a day during the 2005-2006 TV season.
Moreover, the audience watching shows over broadband is highly attractive for advertisers, who spend about $70 billion a year on TV commercials. "The broadband consumer is really the sweet spot for TV -- younger, more affluent, better educated and tech savvy," Larry Gerbrandt, general manager and senior vice president of Nielsen Analytics, said.
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Telstra trys to force access payment
Telstra, Australia‘s dominant telco, underlined its determination to force rivals to pay higher access charges by announcing that it would launch an unprecedented constitutional challenge against the country’s antitrust regulator. Telstra has been in a long-standing battle with the regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), over what it can charge rivals to access its network.
Late last year, the ACCC ruled in favour of Telstra’s competitors, demanding that Telstra cut its access charges, thereby reducing its earnings. Last August, Telstra blamed a separate dispute with the ACCC for its decision to shelve its flagship A$3.5bn broadband infrastructure project.
However, the context of the regulatory tussle has changed following the successful divestment in November of the government’s remaining 51 per cent stake in Telstra, ending state control over the former monopoly phone operator. Telstra’s legal challenge will focus on the argument that its property was "compulsorily acquired’’ at an unfair price. The ACCC last year forced the company to give access to its broadband infrastructure to competitors for a price that Telstra claims is a tenth of what its rivals then charge customers for using the network. The constitution gives the federal government the right to compulsorily acquire property, but only on so-called just terms.
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HBO chases $90m DISH paymentHBO has filed a $90 million lawsuit against DISH Network-parent EchoStar for what the it said were unpaid programming fees, improper calculation of licensing fees and accrued interest. The lawsuit is seeking $50 million from the late payment of license fees dating back to 2001 and another $40 million from underpayment and inaccurate fees.
According to reports, EchoStar believes the dispute is linked to the programme access complaint DISH filed with the FCC in November against the Time Warner-owned HBO.
HBO's lawsuit says that EchoStar breached its contract by not making timely payments on monthly license fees - actions that meant interest accrued. The net said since 2001, EchoStar's breach has totalled more than $50 million in unpaid accrued interest. The lawsuit also said that the satellite company owes HBO an additional $29 million (plus $2.6 million in interest) after EchoStar ceased participating in an incentive program designed to promote Cinemax on DISH.
"We want a fair and reasonable long-term deal with HBO, and are working hard to negotiate a fair contract. At the same time, we must protect our customers from unreasonable rates," said DISH.
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UTECA lobbies for relaxing DTT conditions
From David Del Valle in MadridSpanish private TV networks are putting pressure on the Government to relax DTT obligations and fund the market. UTECA, the private TV association, has urged the Government to reduce DTT coverage from 96 to 90 per cent of the Spanish population to be reached in April 2010, the analogue switch-off deadline. The networks are not willing to pay an estimated extra cost of E 10 million per year to reach a 96 per cent coverage. If their demand is not met, they have asked the Government to finance that amount.
Since the DTT re-launch the four private TV networks with a nation wide coverage, Antena 3, Tele 5, Cuatro and La Sexta have spent E67 million on DTT. The other 15 channels have spent another E45 to E75 million. Investments with no return according to them, as DTT has insignificant audiences so far and only 15 per cent of Spanish households (Spain has more than 15 million TV households) have a DTT box.
UTECA forecasts that the cost of TV broadcasting will triple up to E 150 million with simulcasting until 2010. So UTECA has also asked the Government to approve a plan to progressively migrate to digital over the coming years.
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Italians in Switzerland protest against digital switch
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe Italian community in Switzerland is up in arms against the decision of leading cable operator Cablecom to migrate Rai Uno and Canale 5 from analogue to digital.
The decision, announced last month, has provoked a strong reaction both from the Italian community and the Italian Embassy in Bern. During a meeting with the Cablecom management, Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Deodato proposed the postponing of the digital switchover to at least 31 December 2007, instead of the announced date of 3 April 2007. Another request is that the two channels do not end up in a "special package" which would mean that viewers would have to pay one third more on top of the existing monthly subscription fee.
A new meeting is planned for the coming weeks, but the operative director of Cablecom, Rudolf Fischer, has already promised to improve the digital offer for Italian speaking viewers, opening the door for a compromise solution.
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China net users may surpass US
China could soon overtake the US to have the world's largest number of Internet users, according to a state-controlled think-tank. "We believe it will take two years at most for China to overtake the US," an official at the China Internet Network Information Center told state media.
China had 137m internet users by the end of 2006, an increase of 23 per cent from the year before - meaning that more than 10 per cent of the population is now online. About 210 million of America's 300 million people now use the Internet, according to US government figures. China will surpass this number if it keeps up a 24 per cent annual growth rate over the next two years.
CanalPlay, Canal+ Group’s video download site, is continuing its service development by launching a new version of its website which features download-to-own (DTO) and High Definition.
Users can download a film of their choice, keep it indefinitively on their PC, and watch it as many times as they wish. Once the download is complete, users can also burn a secure copy, directly from CanalPlay onto a DVD, which can be viewed on any household DVD player. DTO films available in this way are priced from E9.99. Additionally, in February 2007 CanalPlay will be launching, via its PC version, an HD offering with titles in the format playable on any HD compatible computer.
Bruno Thibaudeau, development director at CanalPlay, said that the choice of DTO technology had been made because it seemed best to fit in with the promise of VoD, "using the content straightaway after buying it, thanks to DTO and allowing viewing on a home device thanks to burning."
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Huawei MBMS mobile TV technologyHuawei Technologies says it has successfully completed the industry's first commercial MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) mobile TV interoperability testing (IOT), a mobile TV solution based on 3GPP Release 6.
The IOT was performed on Huawei's UMTS/HSPA network with handsets. During the IOT, MBMS technology was used to transmit TV programs at 256 Kbps, which played clearly and smoothly. Users were able to quickly switch channels by pressing navigation buttons on the handset, and MBMS allowed streaming to be suspended during an incoming voice call and automatically resumed streaming when the call ended. The successful IOT demonstrates that MBMS is tentatively on-track for large-scale commercial deployments in 2007.
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Irdeto partner with Alticast, LG and Kaonto on IPTV solutionIrdeto is partnering with Alticast, interactive middleware solution provider for digital broadcasting services, as well as LG-Nortel and Kaon Media, set-top box manufacturers based in Korea, to deliver an advanced, end-to-end IPTV solution worldwide.
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Juniper and Intelliden enhance IPTVJuniper Networks and Intelliden will deliver a Dynamic Network Automation solution for high bandwidth IP services. By integrating Juniper Networks Service Deployment System (SDX-300) platform and Intelliden’s Dynamic Resource Provisioning solution, the joint DNA solution will link end-to-end policy and real-time network resource management by extending intelligence to the network core. They say the DNA solution will aid communications service providers deliver broadband services with enhanced quality of experience (QoE), greater service reliability and higher scalability whilst containing operational costs.
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Wednesday 24th January
Ofcom cool on BBC iPlayer
BBC launches kids Second Life
IPTV lacks strategy
Portuguese viewers to get ‘personalised TV’
Google expands AdSence
TVE Internacional 70 million subscribers
Wind plans IPTV launch
Gemstar, Yuen settle
Kasenna IPTV roll-out
Alcatel-Lucent down on integration woes
Membership growth for CASBAA
The BBC's plans to offer all its content on-demand have been criticised by the UK watchdog Ofcom. It warned that the service, which is due to start later this year, could have a "negative effect" on commercial rivals.
It said while the BBC's plans would potentially promote downloading (and therefore rival commercial services; the BBC’s routine defence), they would probably limit investment in the sector. Ofcom said such an outcome "would not be in the long-term public interest".
It has passed on the findings of its ‘market-impact assessment’ to the BBC Trust, the body now responsible for governing the broadcaster. The Trust is currently looking at the public-value assessment (PVA) of the BBC's on-demand plans, to access whether they would be in the wider public interest.
Under the BBC's proposals, viewers would be able to watch any BBC programme from the previous seven days via cable or the internet, using iPlayer. Channel Four has already launched a similar service of its own.
Ofcom estimates that the BBC's on-demand service could account for almost four billion viewer and listener hours by 2011. In addition to limiting investment by commercial rivals, Ofcom said it was also concerned about the impact on related markets such as DVD rentals and sales.
For this reason it has recommended that the BBC's on-demand service reduces from 13 weeks the planned amount of time that users could keep downloaded programmes.
The BBC Trust said it welcomed Ofcom's "thorough analysis", but said it formed only one part of the Trust's ongoing public value test.
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The BBC is to launch a children's version of the cult virtual world, Second Life. CBBC World is one of the keystones of BBC Children's move to become cross-platform. As in Second Life, children will be able to create virtual versions of themselves on-screen, called avatars. Their characters can then move around CBBC World.
The BBC Children's controller, Richard Deverell, said that CBBC World will have a soft launch over the summer, then roll it out in September to coincide with the planned revamp of the CBBC digital TV channel.
A Jupiter Research report claims that while media company and consumer Interest in broadband video continues to grow, strategies for building a business out of broadband video remain elusive.
Media companies are jumping to offer video on an ad-supported basis, for sale as a download, via subscriptions, and as rentals but no clearly winning strategy has emerged, and revenues from all these models will remain modest for the next few years.
JupiterResearch argues that the main benefit to Internet-delivered video lies in building the audience, or increasing audience loyalty, for traditionally delivered television programming.
"Broadband video nicely complements TV today, but this grace period won't last forever," said Joe Laszlo, Research Director with JupiterResearch. "Substitution of Internet video for traditionally delivered video will grow over the next few years, and media companies must account for this coming audience shift in their mid-to-long term plans."
Portuguese viewers to get ‘personalised TV’
From Branislav Pekic in RomePT Inovação and INESC have invented a system that learns the habits of its viewers, offering them a personalised TV schedule. The system will be presented by Portugal Telecom in March and is scheduled to be commercially available in three years time. The personalised TV solution is based on nPVR, an intelligent digital TV recorder that obeys the selection criteria of consumers and provides a schedule of content made to measure for each user. The technology consists of a virtual system of content personalisation in a network context.
Unlike TiVO, the nPVR will not be a recorder or additional ‘box’ which users will have to purchase. It will be a network service, distributed via digital TV and ADSL. "The consumer will create a profile of interests, which will then be used by the operators to understand which type of content to offer", says ílvio Macedo, INESC Porto coordinator.
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Google said it would expand testing of its video advertising system by working with Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music to embed video ads on Web sites that make money running them. Google said it would distribute advertising alongside videos over its AdSense online ad system to Web site publishers in a four-week test now underway.
"Over the past few months, we have run tests to figure out how we work with our partners and advertisers to combine high quality video content with ads and then distribute them (over) the Google AdSense network," Google said in statement. As part of the test, advertisements would be billed on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) model, the traditional billing method for mass market advertising as opposed to the pay-per-click billing model Google popularised with text ads.
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TVE Internacional 70 million subscribers
From David Del Valle in Madrid
RTVE's International TV channel, TVE Internacional, counts almost 70 million subscribers around the world, according to RTVE's figures. In Europe, the channel reaches almost 33 million subscribers, with the UK (7 million), France (5 million) and Belgium (4 million) drawing the largest audiences.
In Latin America, TVE Interancional is received by almost 19 million homes, representing a pay-TV penetration rate of 75 per cent, with Chile, Argentine, Peru and Colombia taking the lion's share. In the States, the channel reaches 2.5 million homes. In the rest of the world, the channel is present in more than 14 million homes.
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Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni will launch its IPTV service "in the next few weeks" and intends to offer a mobile pre-payment system towards year-end, according to chief executive Paolo Dal Pino.
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Gemstar, Yuen settleAfter years of legal battling and litigation, Henry Yuen will get nothing and owe more than $60 million dollars to his former employer Gemstar-TV Guide.
Yuen was terminated in April 2003 after he breached representations and warranties made to the company in 2002 during a corporate restructuring. The arbitrators found that the company was justified in the termination of Yuen, and they also found that the the former CEO is not entitled to any of the $30.9 million dollars set-aside for him by the company as restricted cash due to his role a 2002 restructuring, and instead they can use that money to start to pay off the $93.6 (plus legal fees) the arbitrators said Yuen owes the company.
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Kasenna IPTV roll-outIPTV company Kasenna says Jazztel, the Spanish telco has launched its video on demand (VOD) service across Spain using Kasenna’s PortalTV suite. The system, installed by Telindus, powers the new VOD service, Videoclub, launched by Jazztel in December 2006.
Videoclub will offer all customers of Jazztelia TV access to a catalogue of free and pre-paid content, which the subscriber would be able to choose from a catalogue of new releases.
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Alcatel-Lucent down on integration woesAlcatel-Lucent lost 10 per cent on its stock market value after forecasting a drop in fourth-quarter earnings while it works to implement its merger. It said it expected fourth-quarter revenues of around E3.87bn and a fourth-quarter operating income of around E120m. It expected fourth-quarter 2006 revenue of around E4.42bn, down from E5.25bn in the same 2005 quarter.
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Membership growth for CASBAACable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has confirmed a new Patron Member and four new Corporate Members of the Association. The Patron Member is newly-launched pay-TV network Asia Broadcast Networks, along with new CASBAA Corporate Members children’s content specialist HiT Entertainment, Singapore-based satellite services provider Globecast, conditional access supplier Viaccess and New Zealand-based broadcaster Television New Zealand.
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Tuesday 23rd January
BBC, Google deal
Music labels MySpace deal
Murdoch happy at BSkyB?
XM Inno in court
Thurman for NTL
Slow downloads could delay advance of VOD
Sky Anytime hits 1m downloads
Eutelsat 1000+ channels
SES Astra long-term with Canal+
BBC, Google deal
The BBC is in advanced negotiations with Google to make programming available via a branded channel on its video-sharing site, says the Guardian. It reports that the BBC are keen that the deal is expanded to include putting content on Google-owned YouTube. BBC Worldwide is understood to be looking at commercial options for the agreement, such as a share on contextual advertising that will run alongside BBC content.
Last summer Google rolled out eight country-specific versions of Google Video in Europe and signed up content partners including C4, ITN, IMG Media, A&E, and Buena Visa International Europe. Under the original deals the partners have used the platform for promotional purposes.
It is unclear if BBC Worldwide's deal will include access to the US version of Google Video, which has pay-per-view and pay-per-download options. Several large broadcasters in the US have similar arrangements with YouTube including CBS, which claimed 200,000 extra viewers for The Late Show with David Letterman after clips were posted on the site.
According to reports the confusion of running two brands and operations in the video-sharing sector is close to being "resolved" by Google chiefs.
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Music labels MySpace deal
International independent music labels have grouped together in a deal allowing them to sell tunes over MySpace. The global deal follows the creation of Merlin a licensing agency for independents, which represent a third of the world’s music market. The download deal, which was agreed between Merlin and Snocap (which provides technology for MySpace’s music retailing efforts) is the networking site’s first with record labels.
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Murdoch happy at BSkyB?
A report that BSkyB boss James Murdoch is to leave his job this summer and move to New York for a role at News Corporation, which has a 39 per cent stake in the satellite broadcaster, has been dismissed as false by sources the Murdoch family.
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XM Inno in court
A US federal court has denied XM's motion to dismiss the recording industry's copyright infringement lawsuit. The case alleges that XM's portable Inno device - which can store music - infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes.
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Thurman for NTL
NTL has signed Uma Thurman for its £20m (E29m) rebrand as Virgin Media.
The campaign, rumoured for launch on February 14, is to promote Virgin Media's "quad play". The new entity will be the largest Virgin-branded company in the world.
James Kydd, managing director of Virgin Media marketing, described Uma Thurman as a "perfect fit for Virgin Media".
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Slow downloads could delay advance of VOD
Video-on-demand is unlikely to take off in a major way until networks improve, according to analysts. Deloitte’s believes that video downloads are likely to "encounter some challenges in 2007", because of slow download times for most broadband customers.
Meanwhile Screen Digest expects that it will take time for it to produce substantial revenues. It expects the market in the UK to be worth £2.6 million (E3.7m) in 2007 — up from £400,000 in 2006 — £8.4 million in 2008 and £ 28.9 million in 2009.
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Sky Anytime hits 1m downloads
Sky Anytime on PC, the broadband video download service, has reached one million movie downloads after one year. The service, formerly Sky by broadband offers Sky users on-demand access to Sky Movies, Sky One entertainment and documentary series on their computer. Since launch, Sky customers have downloaded more than 500 different movie titles on Sky Anytime.
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Eutelsat 1000+ channels
Eutelsat Communications has released results of its two-year survey of satellite and cable homes. The data produced in 42 countries revealed that satellite and cable homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East have expanded twice as fast over the last 24 months as the growth of television homes. Satellite and cable penetration increased by 13 per cent to 170 million homes from 150 million, while television homes expanded by six per cent to 333 million homes from 314 million. Satellite and cable reception has consequently passed the tipping point of 50 per cent of television homes.
The survey also confirmed that Eutelsat's HOT BIRD audience was 121 million homes in 2006, of which 40 per cent (47.5 million) are equipped for Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite reception. This growth took place in parallel to a steady increase in channels broadcast which grew by 273 channels over the same period to over 1050 at end December 2006.
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SES Astra long-term with Canal+
SES Astra, announced it has signed a long-term contract with French Pay-TV operator Canal+ for the transmission of its bouquet for the French market from 19.2° East. Based on this new contract, SES Astra will transmit the full programming line up of Cabal+ from a single orbital position.
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Monday 22nd January
Mediaset, RAI to refund digital TV incentive?
Spain's pay-TV stagnates at 23%
China IPTV to exceed 23m subscribers by 2012
Powerline growth outpaces Cable and DSL
DirecTV / DISH merger on agenda
Jupiter numbers
ISPs reject music moans
Liberty Media eye Rainbow
KT and CCube complete NDS IPTV trial
Mediaset, RAI to refund digital TV incentive?
RAI, Mediaset and other broadcasters will likely have to partially refund the E220m indirectly received from the state in its 2004-2005 incentive plan to promote the use of digital television, Italian press have reported.
The EU commission is expected to rule that the incentives were a form "of illegitimate aide and incompatible with EU rules that indirectly favour RAI and Mediaset."
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Spain's pay-TV stagnates at 23%
From David Del Valle in MadridPay-TV market in Spain has plateaued at a penetration rate of 23 per cent, the same percentage as three years ago according to figures from the CMT, the Telecommunications Market Commission.
Of the 15 million TV homes in Spain, around 3.5 million receive pay-TV services. Canal Plus Digital takes the lion's share with 2 million subscribers (13.2 per cent), followed by cable operator, ONO, with 950,000 TV clients; Imagenio, with 350,000, and other cable operators and IPTV players, with more than 200,000 subscribers.
Spain's pay-TV penetration rate is very low in comparison with that in other European countries like the UK, France or Germany.
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China IPTV to exceed 23m subscribers by 2012
According to ABI Research; "The growth of IPTV will remain modest for now, and take off only after 2008. Adoption will be boosted by major events such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and then the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai."At the same time, China’s flourishing broadband environment paves the way for IPTV to reach out to the potentially huge addressable market. ABI forecasts the IPTV take-up in mainland China to pass the 23 million subscriber mark by 2012.
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Powerline growth outpaces Cable and DSL
The number of US households subscribing to broadband over power line (BPL) services will increase from 400,000 in 2007 to 2.5 million by 2011, according to Parks Associates. Consumer and competitive demands will lead to a strong growth rate in residential subscribers for BPL, outpacing other access methods such as DSL and cable over the next five years.
"Both consumer demand and business factors will drive this growth," said Chris Roden, research analyst at Parks Associates. "On the consumer side, many rural residents don’t have access to DSL or cable, but every house in the US has access to power lines. This technology is often the only option for these residents to receive broadband service. On the business side, utility companies will also drive BPL’s growth."
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DirecTV / DISH merger on agenda
Quizzed on the possibility of a satellite radio merger, a US legislator instead choose to encourage DirecTV and Dish to get together. Congressman Rick Boucher who is a member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and its subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said, "if a merger between these two was presented today... analysis at the Justice Department and the FCC could prove very different," in light of the current highly competitive multi-platform sector.
Meantime, DirecTV will implement a 5-6 percent raise in monthly bills for current subscribers of the lower-end tiers. This move follows EchoStar's recent announcement that it is increasing prices by an average of 4 per cent.
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Jupiter Telecommunications the largest MSO in Japan has announced that the total subscribing households as of December 2006 served by J:COM’s 24 managed franchises reached 2.62 million, up 485,700, or 22.7 per cent since December 2005. Combined revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable television, high-speed Internet access and telephony services reached over 4.52 million, up 840,100 or 22.8 per cent since December 31, 2005.
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Internet service providers struck back at the record industry following they were failing to prevent music piracy. Michael Bartholomew, director general of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association sai: "Taking legal action against us would be very inappropriate", referring to threats from the recording industry body IFPI.
He said that ISPs could only move to cut users off based on a court order, and that the UK data protection legislation prevented the online companies from trying to prevent copyright infringement. Tiscali, an internet service provider said that the music industry needed to take more time to develop with ISPs an approach that was practical and legally sound. It said: "Dealing with cases is time-consuming for ISPs, so we need a reasonable level of proof before taking action. It is a complex international issue and targeting the ‘industrial scale’ offenders will help to raise awareness amongst individuals that downloading from unauthorised sources is wrong."
Shares in Cablevision Systems rose on investor speculation the cable operator may sell its Rainbow Media unit to John Malone's Liberty Media. The speculation was renewed after Cablevision turned down an $8.9 billion bid from its controlling shareholder, the Dolan family, to take it private.
KT and CCube complete NDS IPTV trialKorean Telecom (KT) and the CCube consortium having selected NDS’ content protection solutions, having successfully completed one of the first IPTV trials in South Korea. The IPTV trial was concluded in December 2006, and final technical evaluation will be submitted to the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC) for consideration.
The Ministry and the KBC are conducting rigorous technical verification and stability testing of the CCube consortium’s IPTV service. The information will be used for the review of legislation that will authorise the launch of commercial IPTV services for the first time in Korea.
