|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 23rd March
News, NBC and majors confirm Internet video
Virgin looks for sport partner
BBC responds to Digital Dividend Review
Ascent Media launches European Transmission Centre
Ofcom Inquiry into PRS
Spain's DTT industry in a deal to boost DTT
Jupiter seeks new media revenues
Hutch narrows 3G losses
GlobeCast and Setanta sign deal
Envivio Encoder for China IPTV
India deploys Irdeto security solution
News, NBC and majors confirm Internet videoNews Corporation and NBC Universal have confirmed the launch of what they claim as the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film.
The site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios.
AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site’s initial distribution partners. Their users, who represent 96 per cent of the monthly US unique users on the Internet, will have unlimited access to the site's library of content. The media alliance will offer consumers free long- and short-form video and create a platform for advertisers, targeting online video consumers. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors.
"This is a game changer for Internet video," said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation, who said the players were the looking forward to working with any content provider or distributor who wanted to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity. "This new venture is further proof that the Internet is now a full-fledged entertainment medium, " said Randy Falco, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AOL. Kevin Johnson, President, Platform and Services Division, Microsoft, suggested the alliance proved that you could deliver quality online video entertainment and protect intellectual property and copyright at the same time.
The companies had been in talks to create an advertising-friendly YouTube-competitor for months.
Virgin looks for sport partner
Virgin Media is looking for partners to run a sports news channel after Sky Sports News was dropped in a dispute with BSkyB. Any partnership between Virgin Media and another group could potentially result in the companies putting in a joint bid for content rights.
BSkyB owns the rights to broadcast two-thirds of 138 live top-flight matches for the next three years, including the coveted "A" package of matches.
Back to top
BBC responds to Digital Dividend Review
The BBC has submitted its response to Ofcom's public consultation on the Digital Dividend Review. Ofcom has proposed a technology neutral auction of the radio spectrum released by the switch to all-digital television broadcasting between 2008 and 2012.
The BBC argued for the allocation of spectrum to public service broadcasters to develop free-to-air, universally available high definition (HD) channels on the Digital Terrestrial Television platform (DTT).
The BBC says independent consultants found that the loss to the UK in private and social value, if public service broadcasters are not able to develop HD services on DTT spectrum is likely to range from £4.1billion (E6bn) to £15.6 billion.Mark Thompson, the BBC's Director General, said: " If pure market mechanisms are applied to the whole Digital Dividend, our fear is that it will jeopardise the success of universal access to high quality public service broadcasting, free-to-air on all main platforms and also lead to an erosion of the digital terrestrial platform and its ability to compete."
Back to top
Ascent Media launches European Transmission Centre
From Colin Mann in LondonContent distribution specialist Ascent Media has launched a new European Transmission Centre (ETC) in London. Built to fulfil the latest broadcast playout requirements, the new ETC has been designed to provide a world-class playout proposition for channels looking for high reliability, and is designed to offer a capacity of up to 32 channels with in excess of 99.98 per cent on-air availability as standard.
Initial clients include UK and European broadcasters such as Information TV, Teachers TV and leading global content brand Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) which is using the new facility as its European transmission hub.
The launch of the new ETC is the first phase of a tiered investment by Ascent Media which will see the scaled development of state-of-the-art ingest and output facilities for clients looking for a turnkey broadcast solution.
Roger Henderson, Managing Director of Ascent Media’s content distribution business in Europe, would focus on server and file-based tapeless operation now being applied to many areas of production including playout and digital archiving.
Back to top
Ofcom Inquiry into PRSOfcom has launched an inquiry into the use of premium rate telecoms services (PRS) in television programmes. The inquiry will include extensive input from the premium rate services regulator, ICSTIS, who are already investigating a number of individual cases. The findings are expected to be presented by early summer.
Back to top
Spain's DTT industry in a deal to boost DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridBroadcasters, electronic manufacturers and network operator Abertis have reached an agreement to jointly foster the development of the DTT market and lay the groundwork for the digital migration to be completed in 2010.
Broadcasters Association Impulsa TDT, Electronic Industry Association AETIC and Abertis have undertaken to make the necessary moves to speed up the transition to digital by launching promotional campaigns, developing new DTT services and improving networks in Abertis' case.
The Associations have called on the Government to join them to give a real boost to DTT that currently covers 80 per cent of Spain with a penetration of 16 per cent. Today, there are 3.8 million DTT boxes in the market, of which nearly 2.8 million are external set-top-boxes and around 800 DTT integrated TV sets.
Back to top
Jupiter seeks new media revenues
J:COM announced the creation of a new Media Business Department within its Marketing & Sales Division. This new department is expected to diversify revenue streams and broaden the scope of operations. To support continued growth, J:COM plans to increase the strength of its group media advertising, with the goal of turning it into a major revenue source. The total advertising expenditures in Japan has increased 0.6 percent year-over-year to 5,995.4 billion yen.
Hutchison Whampoa reported a 45 per cent reduction in losses at its global 3G businesses and predicted the unit would break even next year. The conglomerate said its 3G losses narrowed to $2.6bn (E1.9bn) last year. The unit, whose anchor operations are in Italy and the UK, lost more than $4.6bn both in 2004 and in 2005.
For last year, it booked a one-off gain from disposals of $3bn, arising principally from the sale of a 20 per cent interest in its global port operations to the Port of Singapore Authority. This year, Hutchison stands to receive as much as $6.7bn from the sale of Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth largest mobile operator. Significantly lower 3G losses and the PSA transaction helped Hutchison Whampoa post a 40 per cent increase in net profit to $2.6bn. The company’s full year dividend remained unchanged at 22 cents.
Back to top
GlobeCast and Setanta sign dealGlobeCast has signed a five-year deal with international sports broadcaster Setanta to distribute six channels to the Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision and DTT platforms. The deal with GlobeCast comes as Setanta breaks Sky Sports’ Premier League monopoly by winning the rights to two packages that will be broadcast on Setanta Sports 1 when the new football season begins in August 2007.
Back to top
Envivio Encoder for China IPTVTechnology provider Envivio has revealed details of its telco-grade encoder that supports AVS for Broadcast and IPTV deployments. The Envivio 4Caster B3 professional encoder supports AVS alongside with MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and enables upgradeable deployments, through the use of up-datable firmware.
Back to top
India deploys Irdeto security solutionIntermedia Cable Communication, an Indian cable television provider, has confirmed that digital security specialists Irdeto will secure the deployment of a digital cable TV network across the city of Pune. ICC will use Irdeto’s content security solutions as it switches from an analogue to a digital cable network in Pune, near India’s west coast.
Back to top
Thursday 22nd March
EU piracy proposal worries media
Virgin prepare Pipex bid
RAI launches hybrid DTT/IPTV trials
Sogecable, obliged to open pay-TV football
Bertelsmann E1bn war chest
CBS buys broadband TV MaxPreps
Cable v Telco war of words
DTH growth continues in US
TVs with removable hard disk
Rainbow Media and PCCW launch VOOM HD
EU piracy proposal worries media
Media companies could face criminal sanctions, including prison time for employees, if their networks, software programs or online services are used to carry illegally copied TV, music or film, according to a draft law from the European Commission.
The proposed directive switches the onus from end users to the technological conduits, which could include ISPs, mobile phone operators, instant-messaging services, video- and music-sharing Web sites such as YouTube, as well as open-source software producers.
The clause that criminalizes aiding and abetting or incitement to infringe an intellectual property such as copyright-protected music, software or film is worrying media and distribution groups who fear it will be impossible for them to effectively police their users.
Virgin Media has emerged as the frontrunner to purchase broadband provider Pipex, one of Britain's largest independent operations. Bids for Pipex, valued at £335m (E225m), are understood to have come from Virgin Media and BT Group.
Meantime, Virgin Media has been confirmed as the sponsor of Big Brother 8 with the company's mobile arm to be the main service promoted. Virgin Media has signed on for the main summer series, but, as of yet, not next year's Celebrity Big Brother version.
RAI launches hybrid DTT/IPTV trials
From Branislav Pekic in RomeRai Nuovi Media and RaiNet have launched a trial TV offer capable of integrating content broadcast in digital terrestrial and via the IP. According to the broadcaster, a special feature of this project is its interoperability and open form on various devices, independent of the user’s broadband connectivity provider.
A p2p platform has been developed together with several partners, including Simple, a company specialising in innovative content and technology; LabOne italia, a provider of Digital Media Business platforms; and MCLink, an Italian-based ISP. Reception of the new package will be possible using hybrid DTT/IPTV set-top-boxes, compatible with the Voipex standard, developed in cooperation with Visionee, a provider of NGN and IPTV systems.
As well as enabling RAI to exploit its own content on various distribution platforms, the project will also enable the introduction of new services, including time-shifting, video on demand, personalisation, new forms of advertising.
Sogecable, obliged to open pay-TV football
From David Del Valle in MadridThe Spanish Government is to force Sogecable to open up its exclusive pay-TV football rights to other competitors as a condition for the go-ahead to the group's takeover of Audiovisual Sport, the company responsible for managing those rights.
The condition was already in force, as a condition imposed by the Government in 2002 to approve the digital merger between Canal Satelite and Via Digital to create Digital Plus, but it will expire next November. With this new decision, the Administration guarantees that all operators can offer football matches on pay-per-view indefinitely.
The present condition states that Sogecable must guarantee third parties "the access (to content) without any exclusivity and under transparent and non discriminatory conditions". Currently Sogecable broadcasts one weekly football match on pay TV, through Canal Plus, and eight pay-per-view matches through Digital Plus. The company will have to share those pay-per-view matches with other operators.CEO of Sogecable, Javier Diez de Polanco, said that the pay-TV group is negotiating with "three Internet operators" over possible distribution of Digital Plus' content and even the distribution of Canal Plus.
Back to top
Bertelsmann is joining forces with private equity groups, to establish a E1bn investment partnership.The family-controlled group will contribute up to E500m to the new fund over three to four years, with the remaining equity provided equally by Citigroup Private Equity and Morgan Stanley Principal Investments. The initiative is unusual in setting up a long-term partnership to look for what Bertelsmann described as "opportunities of significant scale" in media-related businesses.
Bertelsmann said the initiative would allow it to take minority stakes in businesses and decide after three to five years, when its partners are seeking an exit, whether to take full control. About 10 per cent of its acquisition budget will go to the private equity partnership, which would provide additional "financial leeway" beyond these plans, the group said. The extra debt taken on by the vehicle will be kept off Bertelsmann’s balance sheet.
News of the partnership came as Bertelsmann reported record revenues and earnings for 2006, with a 16 per cent increase in EBITDA to E1.87bn on sales of E19.3bn, up 7.9 per cent. Net income more than doubled, from E1.04bn to E2.42bn.
Back to top
CBS buys broadband TV MaxPreps
CBS has purchased high school sports online network MaxPreps to expand its local sports coverage. MaxPreps, which offers information to nearly 80,000 high school football and 500,000 boys and girls basketball games played each year, will become a part of CBS-owned College Sports Television, or CSTV. About 1 million high school athletes are registered to use MaxPreps, the company said.
Back to top
Cablevision Systems and Verizon Communications are each boasting it has the best network in advertising campaigns. The cable operator and phone company are going head-to-head in New York where Verizon is building out a fiber-optic network.
Cablevision says in recent television advertisements that it has the "nation's most advanced fiber-optic network." But Verizon, which started making the same claim a year ago, said Cablevision's statement was unsubstantiated. "It's hogwash," Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said. "We looked at this as something that we might charge as an unfair or unsustainable claim," he said, but added Verizon has decided against legal action for now.
Back to top
DIRECTV and EchoStar's DISH Network - which collectively own about 30 percent of pay-TV subscriptions - continue to erode the cable industry's dominance for paying television viewers. A new study by the Television Bureau of Advertising said the nation's top DBS companies had 29.2 percent of the pay-TV market in February 2007, compared to just 9.5 percent in February 2000. At the same time, cable's market share has decreased from 89 percent to 71 percent during the same seven-year stretch.
Back to top
TVs with removable hard diskHitachi plans to sell the world's first high-definition televisions with removable hard drives.Users can expand high-definition recording capacity with the new hard drives. Hitachi hopes the feature will boost sales and keep steep price falls at bay, executives said.
Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate will equip plasma televisions and LCD televisions with 250-gigabyte internal hard drives and removable 80-GB or 160-GB drives starting April 20 in Japan.
Back to top
Rainbow Media and PCCW launch VOOM HDProducer of multi-platform programming Rainbow HD and communications provider PCCW have signed a carriage agreement to launch the VOOM HD channel in Hong Kong. The channel will be available on a 24/7 feed and offer a diverse collection of high-definition programming globally.
Back to top
Wednesday 21st March
Ofcom to investigate UK pay-TV
Ministers 'open minded' on spectrum calls
LG prices first switchover device
Simply TV for minorities
UK trails US in paid online video use
Optibase takes on IPTV in Texas
T-VIPS supports Premier League
Anytime Broadband TV for APAC
Arqiva powers Top Up TV Anytime
Presidential hopefuls use MySpace
VTR GlobalCom detects SeaChange
CacheLogic names Illsley as Chairman
Ofcom to investigate UK pay-TV
From Colin Mann in LondonAt the urging of a number of UK pay-TV operators, UK communications watchdog Ofcom has confirmed that it will investigate the pay TV market, including obtaining information from market participants. Following this assessment Ofcom will decide whether to make a market reference to the Competition Commission.
Ofcom had received a submission from BT, Setanta, Top Up TV, and Virgin Media, which asked the regulator to investigate the pay TV industry and to consider whether to make such a market reference.
A number of consumer groups, including the Ofcom Consumer Panel and the National Consumer Council had also expressed concerns regarding the loss of BSkyB channels on Virgin Media’s pay TV platform.Separately, BSkyB has announced a proposal to launch a new pay TV service on the DTT platform, based on new set-top box specifications. Ofcom confirmed that on receipt of a licence application, it would consult on whether to approve the licence variations needed for such a service. In the meantime, the implications of the possible entry of BSkyB into pay DTT will form part of the market investigation.
A BSkyB spokesman suggested that BT, Top Up TV and Setanta all had a commercial interest in preventing Sky from increasing customer choice by developing a new pay-TV service on the DTT platform. BSkyB drew attention to the fact that recent events have also drawn attention to the fact that cable is a closed network with substantial protections.
"In any market investigation, we’d expect Ofcom to look at the physical and legal barriers and business practices that shield Virgin Media from true competition and prevent consumers from enjoying lower prices in broadband and telephony and greater innovation and choice in television," he concluded.
Back to top
Ministers 'open minded' on spectrum callsBroadcasting minister Shaun Woodward says ministers are keeping an "open mind" on calls for spectrum use after digital switchover. An alliance of public service broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers is lobbying the Government over an Ofcom recommendation that all the spectrum liberated by analogue switch-off should be auctioned in 2008.
The HD for All alliance wants a third of the spectrum to be set aside, so that five high-definition television channels could be launched on Freeview. Without the ring-fencing of spectrum for HD, the alliance fears it will all be sold to telecommunications groups for services such as mobile broadcast television.
Back to top
LG prices first switchover deviceLG Electronics has said it expects US retailers to charge about $60 (E45) for equipment that will enable consumers to make the analogue-to-digital switch on their televisions.
LG is one of three companies that have developed converter boxes to prevent analogue television sets from going dark on February 17, 2009, when US television switches to digital.
If US owners of analogue televisions do not subscribe to satellite or digital cable, or replace their TV with a digital television by February 17, 2009, purchasing a converter box is their only other option to receive television broadcasts.
Back to top
Simply Media, the digital entertainment company co-founded by former Carlton director Mike Luckwell, is set to launch a broadband TV service with channels targeting ethnic minority audiences.
The service, branded Simply TV, will be aimed at ethnic minority viewers in the UK who want to see channels and programming they watched in their country of birth.
Simply TV will first be targeting the ex-pat Russian community with its service, which requires the purchase of a set-top box for between £49 (E73) and £99 depending on the chosen contract.
Back to top
UK trails US in paid online video usePioneer Online, an Internet TV company created by UK independent producer Pioneer Productions, has revealed initial user data which showed that North America is currently leading video download sales from FirstScience.com, leaving UK users - who account for nearly a fifth of the website’s audience - trailing behind with negligible sales.
Research shows that 63 per cent of approximately half a million visits to Firstscience.com each month come from the US and Canada, and over two-thirds of the video download sales have been made there. Plus more sales of the English-language popular science TV programmes have also been made to non-English speaking territories than to the UK since the TV download trial began in December 2006.
Gideon Summerfield, Managing Director for Pioneer Online, suggested the lower UK uptake was because people in the US have been exposed for much longer to paid online video services.
Optibase takes on IPTV in Texas
Texas telco W.T. Services has selected Optibase, provider of advanced digital video solutions, as the prime integrator for a new IPTV solution, including encoding platforms, video on-demand (VOD), middleware and conditional access.
Working closely with CHR Solutions, a telecommunications consulting firm, Optibase will deliver a system that will allow W.T. Services to offer customers on-demand services via FTTP.
Back to top
T-VIPS supports Premier LeagueT-VIPS, a Norwegian company that supplies solutions for contribution and distribution of video signals over IP networks, has revealed that its solutions have been selected by Norwegian telco Telenor to transport English FA Premier League football in HD from London to Sweden.
Telenor is distributing the football action for Canal+ using T-VIPS’ TVG430 video gateways to enable the distribution of live English FA Premier League football action in HD to Canal+ subscribers in Scandinavia.
Back to top
Anytime Broadband TV for APACVideo on-Demand channel Anytime has announced ‘Anytime Absolute’, an end-to-end Broadband TV technical solution to be used for Anytime-TV across Asia Pacific.
The Anytime Absolute solution is designed to deliver and manage Anytime-TV’s content using applications from the world’s leading VoD, technology, network infrastructure and e-commerce providers including Akamai, Entriq, WebSideStory and WorldPay.
The Anytime-TV experience will be enhanced by the Intel Viiv technology digital entertainment platform, powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
Anytime-TV will be rolled-out in phases during 2007. Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Korea, and Taiwan will be among the first markets to get the Anytime-TV service, followed by other markets across Asia Pacific.
Back to top
Arqiva powers Top Up TV Anytime
Broadcast transmission services provider Arqiva has secured a contract to provide content integration, playout and distribution services for pay-DTT service Top Up TV to facilitate overnight delivery of selected programming to set-top boxes.
The deal will see Arqiva providing Top Up TV Anytime with three playout channels to Arqiva’s switching centre in London. The integrated content will then be delivered to the SDN digital terrestrial television multiplex system ready for transmission.
Back to top
Presidential hopefuls use MySpace
MySpace, the popular social networking site, has launched a section dedicated to the 2008 US presidential election.
Named the ‘Impact Channel’, it's the latest attempt by an Internet company to educate voters by serving as an information hub for political candidates and the public. By clicking onto impact.myspace.com, the site's users can link to the profiles of presidential hopefuls.
VTR GlobalCom detects SeaChange
South American broadband cable television operators, VTR GlobalCom, S.A., has launched Chile's first on-demand service with an end-to-end solution from SeaChange International, including on-demand software, video servers, middleware and network QAMs. VTR, a Liberty Global subsidiary, debuted its "VTR On Demand" Hollywood movies, music videos, karaoke and broadcast programmes in December.
The operator relies on the SeaChange VOD System, which garners the Axiom on-demand infrastructure software. Axiom automatically manages growing content libraries, streaming resources and other critical operations aspects to ensure ‘always-on’ service to television subscribers.
Back to top
CacheLogic names Illsley as ChairmanOnline content delivery services provider CacheLogic has appointed Tony Illsley as Chairman. Illsley was an Executive of Telewest from 1998 until it merged with Flextech in 2000, managing its transformation from a cable company to a leading provider of broadband products and services.
Back to top
Tuesday 20th March
Open IPTV Forum launched
Sky plea for advertisers to stay
Broadcasters want Sky off Freeview
Portugal delays DTT tender
India broadband lags
Google looks to in-game ads
Kamera signs with SPORTFIVE
Open IPTV Forum launchedAT&T, Ericsson, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Siemens, Sony, and Telecom Italia have confirmed the founding of the Open IPTV Forum - an industry consortium that will work to define an interoperable end-to-end specification for delivery of IPTV services.
Initially the Forum will consist of the founding member companies, but will be open for other companies at a later date. The Open IPTV industry forum will focus on development of open standards that could help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies. By aggregating the current diverse standards into a complete delivery solution.
The Open IPTV Forum plans to establish requirements and architecture specifications as well as protocol specifications later in 2007.
Sky plea for advertisers to stay
Sky is calling on advertisers and agencies not to renegotiate £20m (E29m) in ad deals affected by the pulling of its channels from Virgin, until after its financial year ends in June.
Sky Media's managing director Nick Milligan has been trying to persuade media agencies not to make any "knee jerk reactions" to the withdrawal, they want agencies to hold off until June to see how the situation plays out.
Not all are sympathetic "Sky has taken a strategic business decision to land grab Virgin Media's customers and that has resulted in a loss of audience, which is unacceptable to us on behalf of our clients," Starcom UK's trading director Chris Locke told the Sunday Telegraph. "For the second half of this year we will review where those viewers have gone and move our money accordingly."
Viewing figures show that the loss of the basic channels from the Virgin cable service will see around a 12 per cent dip in audience, based on year-to-date viewing figures.
In terms of advertising revenue the loss of the 3.3m homes is predicted to impact Sky's total sales by around 8 per cent, according to media agency figures. However, on a channel-by-channel basis this impact is more pronounced. For example, Sky One has lost close to 30 per cent of its share of advertising; Sky News 18 per cent; Sky Travel 30 per cent and Sky Two 13 per cent.
Sky is said to be considering a strategies to boost viewing figures - and appease agencies and clients - including the possibility of airing live football and quality film - premieres on Sky One.
Broadcasters want Sky off Freeview
Sky's plans to withdraw its free channels from Freeview has seen the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 planning to call on Ofcom to strip Sky of its share in the Freeview venture over the decision.
According to the Independent, the Sky is expected submit an application to Ofcom for it to approve its plans to change its Freeview licence within the next few weeks. However, if Ofcom believes the alterations will "unacceptably diminish" the channels offered on Freeview it could refuse permission for Sky's plans.
Portugal delays DTT tender
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe Portuguese Government has yet again postponed the tender for awarding digital terrestrial television (DTT) frequencies, this time for the end of the year. According to the Minister for Public Works, Transport and Communications, Mário Lino, the tender was delayed due to Sonaecom’s unsuccessful IPO.
Lino guaranteed that the Government will not wait for the spin-off of PT Multimédia from PT. As part of a remuneration package for shareholders, PT is planning the separation of PT Multimedia, which owns cable operator TV Cabo.
Meanwhile, Portuguese media groups Impresa and Media Capital have initiated talks with the goal of reaching a common position on DTT. However, they plan to make their stance public only when the Government pronounces itself on the DTT model to be implemented in Portugal. The president of the Impresa group (which owns national broadcaster SIC), Pinto Balsemão, said he is in favour of existing TV channels being given priority when licenses are issued, as the Portuguese TV market "is already in a bad shape".
Back to top
India broadband lagsA group of international cable television industry operators and investors have warned that the Indian market needs to be deregulated or the country's already lagging broadband penetration rates will fall further behind rivals such as China.
The group, which includes Star Group, News Corp's Asian arm, US-based Liberty Global and Australia's Macquarie Media Group, warned that price caps and other measures were deterring investors from committing the billions of dollars needed to upgrade India's cable network to provide broadband.
Back to top
Google looks to in-game adsGoogle has purchased video game advertising firm Adscape to expand into in-game advertising. "As more and more people spend time playing video games, we think we can create opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences while maintaining a high quality, engaging user experience," Google said.
Microsoft last year paid $200 million to buy in-game ad company Massive Inc., which has secured deals with game publishers UbiSoft Entertainment THQ and Take-Two Interactive Software.
Back to top
Kamera signs with SPORTFIVEMobile and online video content specialists Kamera, has teamed up with sports rights marketing company SPORTFIVE to distribute its portfolio of sports programming to mobile operators and online portals. The deal includes the upcoming Qualifications for the EURO2008 football championship. Kamera will operate and distribute the online video content to over 25 mobile operators, in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
Back to top
Monday 19th March
CBS basketball on YouTube
"What to do about YouTube?" US cable
TV Guide web video search
Mediaset suffers most from Sky Italia
Documentary consolidation deal
Virgin Media in Big Brother talks
Avanti to demerge satellite business
NDS appoints chief for SiVenture
CBS has unveiled an agreement with YouTube to form a special web channel featuring clips and highlights from the annual "March Madness" college basketball tournament. The clips will be accompanied by Pontiac advertising
The deal comes just two days after Viacom, CBS’s former sister company, filed a suit against YouTube for copyright infringement. It is an indication of traditional media companies’ mixed feelings for YouTube at a time when they are trying to reach young viewers who are increasingly consuming video online.
With the new YouTube channel, CBS believes it will be able to offer Pontiac a large online audience to complement advertising on the CBS television network and on a series of more targeted webcasts of specific games. Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, said basketball fans would be posting tournament footage on YouTube in any case, and that the agreement reflected the media group’s strategy to reach out to them rather than trying to discourage them.
Back to top
"What to do about YouTube?" US cable
"I admit I truly have no clue," Ted Harbert, president and CEO of the Comcast Entertainment Group, told the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. "I want to get paid, but getting the content out there is fabulous. What would you rather have? [The big audience] or the legal department sending out eight billion cease and desist letters? I don’t know," reported Broadcasting & Cable.
Abbe Raven, president and CEO of A&E TV Networks, agreed that taking a hard line stance against YouTube right now is a tough decision and that some experimentation in the constantly-evolving online world is necessary. "We have to play a little loose here," she said.
Viacom (which is suing YouTube for $1bn) representatives also had their say Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matt Blank says the business cycle is still in its nascent stages. "There is a certain inevitability that You Tube is just scratching the surface," he says. Doug Herzog, president of Viacom’s MTV Entertainment Group, said: "The genie is now out of the bottle in terms of the audience being in control."
Back to top
TV Guide is joining the list of those developing search engines for video on the web. The project is codenamed Stingray and will be available as a private beta site starting on March 21, and then open up to a more public beta on April 16. It will be known as the "TV Guide Online Video Guide." Paul Greenberg, general manager of TV Guide Online said "It makes sense that we should do this, given who we are. Online video is the area we believe needs the most guidance."
News Corp’s TV Guide has indexed about 50 sites, ranging from ABC.com and NBC.com to iFilm and iTunes, and will add about 15 more by the end of the month. "It's all about professional entertainment," says Greenberg, although he does plan to eventually include the top videos from YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Greenberg's whole philosophy is that less is more. If you type in "The Office" on Blinkx you get nearly one million results. On Project Stingray, you get 222 results, most of them pointing to NBC.com.
Back to top
Mediaset suffers most from Sky Italia
From Branislav Pekic in RomeAccording to a study by ITMedia Consulting, Mediaset has lost more viewers to Sky Italia than rival RAI.
The study showed that, between 2003 and 2006, the Rupert Murdoch-owned digital satellite platform snatched away 3.5 per cent of the daily audience share from Mediaset, while the public broadcaster lost only 1.3 per cent. However, ITMedia forecasts that its revenue intake from the Italian TV market will drop from the current 35 per cent to 33 per cent in 2008. At the same time, Sky Italia’s revenues would grow three percentage points to 30 per cent. By 2008, the Italian TV market will be worth E9.2 billion in 2008, including DVB-H and IPTV.
Another study by Studio Frasi based on Auditel data, reveals that terrestrial TV channels saw their average daily audience share drop from 92.64 per cent in 2000 to 87.02 per cent in 2006, while Sky Italia’s audience peaked from 2.43 per cent in 2003 to 6.66 per cent in 2006.
In a damage control attempt, Mediaset has formulated a strategy based on three major points: to improve its digital terrestrial offering with the "Project Eight Channels" (8 channels for E8 a month, offering movies, cartoons and women’s programs); acquire content producers (Endemol, etc); and diversify its activities, starting with the mobile telephony sector.
Back to top
Documentary consolidation deal
From David Del Valle in MadridSogecable, and one of the country's largest content providers, Multicanal, have reached an agreement to merge their respective documentary channels Documania and Odisea to create the largest Spanish documentary channel.
The new channel, Odisea, will be 100 per cent owned by Multicanal, in turn controlled by ChelloMedia. Into operation from next April, the new channel will be available on Digital Plus, main cable networks and IP TV operators to more than 3.5 million homes in Spain and more than 1.5 million in Portugal through TV Cabo, Cabovisao and some other smaller operators.
Virgin Media in Big Brother talks
Virgin Media is in talks with Channel 4 to sponsor its flagship reality TV show Big Brother. If the two companies reach a deal, Virgin Media could gain exclusive access to video-on-demand content.
Avanti to demerge satellite business
Satellite media and telecoms business Avanti Screenmedia has revealed plans to demerge its satellite networks unit into a new entity called Avanti Communications Group. An EGM for approval of the move has been convened for April 10th.
Both the remaining business and the new company will be listed on AIM, with qualifying shareholders receiving one Avanti Communications share for each Avanti Screenmedia share held.
In addition, the group today reported a loss before tax of £2.9m (E4.2m) for the six months ended 31 December versus a £0.2m profit in 2005, on turnover up 22 per cent to £4.9m.
NDS appoints chief for SiVentureNDS announces the appointment of Simon Milford as new head of SiVenture, the NDS-owned consultancy organisation involved in silicon chip security. He replaces Graham Higgins who is leaving SiVenture after four years in this role to pursue personal interests.
Milford has spent over 15 years involved in computer security. His first role in this area was with a major UK defence organisation, after which he spent over 12 years with the LogicaCMG Security Practice, where he held a variety of roles including Principal Security Consultant, CLEF Business Development Manager and, latterly, CLEF Controller.SiVenture provides consultancy and lab services to silicon chip makers with the aim that new chips introduced to the market are more secure and better protected. With extensive in-house lab facilities and state of the art equipment, SiVenture analyzes all types of chips, evaluating their security, integrity and quality.
