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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 10th November
ntl confirms ITV interest
News Corp, Liberty nearer deal
Viacom profit down
Sony lets users have movie clips on Grouper
Microsoft pays for Zune sales
BT reports revenue and profit increase
Spain under fire over DTT plan
Euro media regulation needs to be specific
Liberty Global Q3 2006 results
Growth in Mobile TV users in Asia Pacific region
Eutelsat report revenues
Sundance commissions movies for mobiles
Disney and BT VOD UK deal
NRTC MPEG-4 Rights Aid Rural IPTV
Movistar launches streaming mobile TV
NDS Joins ANYTIME Technology Partner Program
Falcon Deploys Thomson’s IPTV Solutions
ntl confirms ITV interestCable operator NTL has released a statement to confirming that it has "advised ITV of its interest in exploring a possible combination transaction" and "has scheduled an initial conversation" with the broadcaster.
The statement followed speculation that the pair were discussing a merger. Ex-Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter, formerly a managing director of ntl, has been tipped as the most likely candidate to head ITV as its chief executive within the combined entity.
ITV has been trying to find a new CEO for several months, has an advertising
revenue crisis and has been linked with a sale to RTL and a private equity
consortium.
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News Corp, Liberty nearer dealNews Corp said its discussions with Liberty Media over swapping its stake in satellite operator DirecTV for Liberty's 19 per cent voting stake in News Corp had "advanced" and that a deal could still be completed this year. Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer said the recent increases in the share price of DirecTV and News Corp "does not prohibit a deal" in any way and that talks with John Malone's Liberty are "going constructively".
News Corp posted net income for the quarter ended September 30 of $843 million, compared with a loss of $433 million, in the year-earlier period, when it took a $1 billion accounting charge related to the value of its TV stations' broadcasting licences.
Revenue rose 4.1 per cent to $5.91 billion from $5.68 billion, but operating income declined to $851 million as its film- and television-production segment faced difficult comparisons with a year earlier. Profit drivers were television businesses, cable networks and Sky Italia satellite-television subsidiary.
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Viacom profit downViacom reported a lower quarterly profit from continuing operations as disappointing box-office results offset higher advertising sales at its MTV Networks cable service. The company also said Chief Financial Officer Michael Dolan was leaving at the end of the year, and Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Dooley would take on those additional duties.
Viacom said third-quarter earnings from continuing operations fell to $356.3 million, from $449.8 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 7 percent to $2.6 billion. Cable network revenue rose 10 percent to $1.8 billion, as operating profit increased 14 percent to $778 million on higher ad sales at the MTV group. The film division reported an operating loss of $6 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $108.2 million, as revenue rose 1 percent to $856.5 million.
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Sony lets users have movie clips on Grouper
Sony Pictures Entertainment is launching a film clip download service called "Screen Bites" on its Grouper platform.
Like other sites that specialise in user-generated content, Grouper has run into legal difficulties because its users have posted and published content protected by copyright. Universal Music recently began legal proceedings against the site for allowing users to post music videos of its artists. However, under the new film clip service, Grouper users will be able to take clips from Sony’s film library and "embed" them in blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace.
There will be no charge for the service although Sony is hoping users will be compelled to buy the full-length versions of the films and television programmes, either by downloading them or buying them on DVD.
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Microsoft pays for Zune salesMicrosoft has agreed to pay Universal Music Group a fee for each new Zune digital music player sold the companies said. Rivals including cell phone makers eventually could pay for hardware sales as well as for the music itself, Universal said.
"We felt that any business that's built on the bedrock of music we should share in," said Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal. The amount of the fee for the Zune was not given.
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BT reports revenue and profit increase
BT has posted an interim profit before tax and one-off costs up 17 per cent year-on-year to £1.3bn (E1.88bn). Revenues rose 3 per cent to £9.8bn as new wave revenues more than offset a 4 per cent decline in traditional revenues. BT added it had 9.3m broadband end users at the end of September, up 2.8m from the previous year.
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Spain under fire over DTT plan
David Del ValleSpanish TV networks have urged the Government to approve a switch-off of analogue TV plan as soon as possible to boost the development of DTT. The Government has set April 2010 (two years before than initially planned) as the deadline to migrate to digital, but a detailed switch-off plan has not been outlined yet.
"We need a switch-off plan to be seriously implemented. We have to start switching off analogue transmissions to make it clear that the digital process has already taken off", said Andres Tejero, CEO of DTT channel Veo TV.
He criticised the lack of support from the Government to develop the DTT market and asked the Administration to take a more active role in the market. "The Administration’s support is not sufficient", he said, adding that the central Government has only invested E9 million in DTT when it is estimated that E 1bn will be needed to develop the DTT market.
Tejero was very pessimistic about the coming Christmas campaign since of the existing 24 per cent of Spanish population receiving DTT, only 14 per cent have bought a set-top-box (the rest are receiving DTT through cable networks and ADSL-Imagenio). Today, between 2.6 and 2.7 million Spanish homes are receiving DTT out of the total 15.7 million TV households, despite the fact that DTT currently has a potential coverage of 80 per cent of the country.
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Euro media regulation needs to be specificUK’s upper house, The House of Lords, EU Committee, which is investigating the EU’s Audio Visual Media Services Directive, has set out their concerns that the EU’s proposals would damage the growing new media industry in the UK.
It says: "This Directive should allow successful self-regulation to continue unhindered. It is increasingly clear that established broadcasters will have to compete with a growing new media market for advertising revenue. The Committee are clear that the regulator’s role should not be to protect companies with an established market position from this competition. If the EU does want to regulate new media services beyond the existing eCommerce Directive, it should seek to adopt a whole new approach and not simply try to transfer provisions designed for television. There is however a continued need for controls on harmful and illegal content in new as well as established media."
Liberty Global Q3 2006 results
Liberty Global’s third quarter results have seen a 42 per cent increase in revenue to $1.62b in comparison to the same period last year. The Qthird quartergrowth in RGUs was 357,000, a 28 per cent year-on-year increase. Losses from continuing operations was $173m up from $123m last time.
Liberty Global’s President and CEO Mike Fries stated, "The fundamentals in our business remain strong. We believe that our YTD results put us on track to exceed our full year 2006 guidance targets. We should meaningfully exceed our guidance for RGU additions given the trends we are seeing so far in the fourth quarter, as we added over 150,000 RGUs in the month of October alone."
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Growth in Mobile TV users in Asia Pacific region
By the end of 2008, the number of Mobile TV users in the Asia Pacific region should reach 25 million, according to a study conducted by e-Media Institute.
Currently, mobile TV services in the Asia Pacific region have been launched in South Korea (in May 2005 and December 2005) and in Japan (in October 2004 and April 2006). Mobile TV phone services will be available in Vietnam by the end of 2006 and, starting early in 2007, in India. Mobile TV service trials are also currently being conducted in other countries in the region, including China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. In the medium-long term, growth in the mobile TV market in the Asia Pacific region is closely tied to the development of Mobile TV services in China.
According to the e-Media Institute study, in 2010 there could be nearly 73 million Mobile TV users in the Asia Pacific region. However, should the Chinese market develop more rapidly, the dimensions of the Mobile TV market could even be greater in the medium-long term.
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Eutelsat report revenuesEutelsat Communications has reported revenues for the first quarter 2006-2007 were up 6 per cent year-on-year. A 10.7 per cent growth in video applications followed the deployment of HOT BIRD 7A and ATLNATIC BIR 4 satellites, and the overall performance was in line with the FY 2006-2007 objective of over E800m.
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Sundance commissions movies for mobiles
The Sundance Film Festival is to hold the Global Short Film Project - a pilot project that will showcase and extend the reach of the independent short film genre to mobile users worldwide. In conjunction with the GSM Association, the project will see six independent filmmakers create five short films, crafted exclusively for mobile distribution.
"Cell phones are fast becoming the ‘fourth screen’ medium, after television, cinema and computers," said Sundance Institute president and founder Robert Redford. "We feel this experiment embodies fully, our quarter-century dedication to exploring new platforms to support wider distribution of independent voices in filmmaking."
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Buena Vista, the distribution arm of Disney, and BT have concluded a multi-year broadband video-on-demand rental agreement in the UK. This will make available, on-demand, a selection of upcoming, current and library movies from Buena Vista’s portfolio via BT’s upcoming next-generation TV service, BT Vision. Through this agreement, BT Vision’s customers will be able to purchase on-demand a selection of current and upcoming features from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.
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NRTC MPEG-4 Rights Aid Rural IPTVNRTC (National Rural Telecommunications Council) has completed negotiations with several video copyright holders for the rights to offer a vast quantity of MPEG-4 compression format programming. During the TelcoTV conference held this week in Dallas, NRTC announced the full list of programming services that soon will be available to rural telcos planning launches of Internet protocol television (IPTV) services. The list announced so far is the beginning of a greater lineup of services NRTC plans to offer in the future.
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Movistar launches streaming mobile TV
Argentine mobile operator Movistar, a unit of Spanish giant Telefónica, has launched a mobile TV service.
Movistar's clients will be able to receive video and audio services. This service is offered through Movistar's data network. In order to use the service, clients must have a mobile device with video streaming capacity. Movistar said it would only charge for the data traffic. This service is available in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay and Argentina.
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NDS Joins ANYTIME Technology Partner ProgramANYTIME has confirmed that NDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, is the newest member of the ANYTIME Technology Partner Program.
NDS joins a growing number of technology vendors including Verimatrix, SecureMedia, Concurrent and Tatung as members of the ANYTIME Technology Partner Program.
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Falcon Deploys Thomson’s IPTV Solutions
US telecommunications systems integrator Falcon Communications is rolling out an IPTV platform based on an end-to-end solution featuring encoding, content delivery, service management, and access products from Thomson. This deployment includes the Thomson SmartVision service management platform and multiple Thomson IP set-top boxes, as well as NetProcessor and ViBE products from the Grass Valley.
"We have taken a radically new approach to rolling out IPTV," said Donald Cook, president and CEO of Falcon Communications. "Our content bundling provides all the content aggregation, so each individual telco just needs to break it out into individual channels, add local content, and send it over their network."
Thursday 9th November
ntl becomes Virgin
US satcasters results
SingTel Receives Trial IPTV Licence
Worldwide Cable households grow
Freeview welcomes users to ‘Free TV Land’
Content financing for mobile suffers
On Demand PPV service in Germany
Nordics renew cooperation
JDSU for Alcatel IPTV Ecosystem
Teleste to upgrade Cablecom networks
ntl Telewest and Virgin Mobile have unveil the merged company's brand as Virgin Media to be consumer launched in the first quarter of 2007. Virgin Media will exploit its ability to offer a 'quadplay' of digital TV, broadband, mobile and home phone.
Along with the name, NTL is also hoping it can leave behind its poor customer service record. Ntl announced it had incurred a net loss of 37,300 customers in the quarter after 55,000 had their service disconnected. Steve Burch, chief executive, said: "Virgin Media will exploit its unique ability to offer a ‘quad-play’ of digital TV, broadband, mobile, and home phone services to deliver an unrivalled choice of high quality content and communication packages."
In broadband, third quarter net additions were 78,000, down from 104,900 in the second quarter after 58,000 disconnections. The customer losses across the consumer division meant that revenue was down £1.9m (E2.75m) compared with the second quarter to £642.8m, while business revenues rose from £160.1m to £162.3m.
Operating losses across the group widened £9.6 from £4.7m in the third quarter last year, while net loss almost doubled to £104.2m from £53.5m due to higher interest charges as a result of borrowings to finance the Telewest and Virgin Mobile acquisitions.
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The DirecTV Group has reported that third quarter revenues increased 13 per cent to $3.67 billion and operating profit before depreciation and amortisation more than doubled to $894 million compared to last year's third quarter. Meanwhile Echostar said that its third-quarter profit came in lower. The company posted net income of $140 million, compared with $209 million in the year-ago period. Last year's results included a $73 million tax benefit from previously reported tax losses. Revenue rose to $2.47 billion from $2.13 billion posted in the year-ago period.
EchoStar added about 295,000 net new subscribers during the quarter, ending with 12.76 million subscribers.
SingTel Receives Trial IPTV Licence
SingTel has been granted a six-month licence by the Media Development Authority to trial an IPTV. The trial begins this month, featuring high-definition content from MediaCorp Studios and MegaMedia. The telco has also applied for a commercial pay-TV licence to complement its existing VOD licence, as it looks to take on Singapore’s only cable platform, StarHub, which has been faring well with its triple-play bundle of television, phone and online services.
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Worldwide Cable households grow
Cable TV operators continue to expand their reach claims a report by research firm In-Stat. While this service expansion is delivering only modest total household growth, it is being offset by solid service revenue gains. Overall, rising consumer demand for more TV content, combined with the rollout of new voice, video, and data services, is enabling cable TV operators to maintain a market leadership position in both pay-TV services and telecommunications service bundling."In many parts of the world, the cable TV industry is currently riding a swell of improving business and customer satisfaction," says Mike Paxton, analyst. "This condition is especially notable because the global cable industry has historically had a less-than-stellar reputation for both customer service and overall service value."
In-Stat found the following: Out of the 1.2 billion TV households around the world, 355 million are currently cable TV households. Total worldwide cable TV households are still increasing, although at a modest pace. At the end of 2005, there were 349 million worldwide cable TV households. China, with 106 million cable TV households, and the United States, with 69 million cable households, are the two largest cable TV markets. Cable modem service continues to be a "cash cow" for cable operators. Worldwide cable modem service revenues are on track to reach $26 billion in 2006, up from $22 billion in 2005.
Freeview welcomes users to ‘Free TV Land’
Freeview is launching a new brand look and feel with creative based on the concept of ‘Free TV Land’. Freeview says it has worked with a branding agency to identify the Freeview values that consumers love the most and created a more defined brand identity – designed to engage with consumers and develop a stronger, ongoing relationship between Freeview and its viewers. Free TV Land creatives will be used across all Freeview marketing collateral, online, in-store and across PR activity.
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Content financing for mobile suffers
The market for mobile TV and video is growing rapidly, but content providers are finding it difficult to finance new projects, according to a new report published by Informa.
The report forecasts worldwide revenues from mobile TV and video services will rise from US$2.46b in 2006 to US$8.35b in 2011, but content providers vying for a share of this market face challenges.
"While mobile TV and video content is less expensive to produce than film or broadcast TV content, it still requires upfront production costs that typically run several thousand dollars per minute," says Chris Coffman, author of the report. "Revenue shares don’t fund the initial creation of content. The mobile TV and video sector would benefit from distributors, such as broadcasters, mobile operators and content aggregators, sharing in more of the risk."
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On Demand PPV service in GermanyOn Demand Group (ODG), provider of transactional television, has launched its first wholly owned content service, CineExpress. The pay- per-view movie service has been launched to subscribers of Kabel Deutschland's (KDG) cable network in Germany.
KDG customers now have the opportunity to order movies via their digital cable service. The new service is marketed under KDG's 'Select KINO' pay-per-view offering and includes the latest movies from Hollywood studios and large German independents. The standard price for a film is E3 and there are no activation or subscription fees.
Telenor, Canal Digital and SBS Broadcasting and C More Entertainment have renewed their partnership and deepened their overall co-operation. The agreement ensures that the CANAL+ premium pay television channels will remain with the satellite platform Canal Digital on the Direct-To-Home satellite market in the Nordic territory until 2010.
Canal Digital has also secured the right to broadcast SBS’s Nordic commercial channels on the Direct-to-Home satellite platform for three more years. These channels include Kanal 5 serving the Swedish market, TV Norge in Norway and Kanal 4 and Kanal 5 serving the Danish market.
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JDSU for Alcatel IPTV EcosystemJDSU has been chosen as a formal test and measurement partner for the Alcatel IPTV ecosystem. Included in the agreement are JDSU’s IPTV test, monitoring and analysis solutions.
"We look forward to working as a formal partner in the effective delivery of Alcatel’s IP-based video services around the globe by providing scaleable IP video test solutions that enable the deployment of video services and the promise of IPTV" said the company.
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Teleste to upgrade Cablecom networks
Cablecom, the largest cable operator in Switzerland, is upgrading its
Broadband cable networks with Teleste’s AC-series nodes, amplifiers and accessories. The order value is more than E1.5m. The network upgrading at Cablecom will be carried out in the first half 2007.
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Wednesday 8th November
YouTube goes wireless?
MySpace for Japan
XM loss narrows
Italy allocates E120 million for DTT
RealNetworks profit up
Spain's Cuatro good first year
Xbox joins video download market
Comcast to carry Fox business channel
NDS Synamedia integrated with Amino
Samsung unveils new wireless broadband device
Kazakhtelecom selects Alcatel for triple play service
France Telecom film rights investments
Channel 4 at the races
Widevine and Amino sign reseller agreement
Tektronix to Acquire Minacom
Alcatel and ARCHOS team for portable multimedia player
T-VIPS Video gateways live in France’s DTT network
YouTube goes wireless?US mobile operator Verizon is said to be in advanced talks with YouTube to bring the site's videos to cellphones and television sets. An agreement would allow Verizon's customers to view some of the most watched entertainment on the Internet.
Under the terms being discussed, customers of Verizon Wireless will be able to view some YouTube videos on their cellphones through the carrier's premium V Cast service. Verizon also would offer YouTube videos as an on-demand feature of its IPTV service it is launching.
YouTube, which belongs to Google, is expected to seek similar deals with other big cellular operators such as Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless.
Chad Hurley, YouTube's chief executive and co-founder, told a conference last week that he sees a huge market in mobile services. The company has already launched a service that allows cellphone users to upload videos from some handsets to the YouTube site, but the clips can be watched only on a PC.
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MySpace for JapanNews Corp is to team up with Softbank to launch a local version of MySpace, to capitalise on surging demand for online networking services. The tie-up would mark the group’s first venture into the Japanese new media market and MySpace’s first such joint venture with a telecommunications company.
A Japanese MySpace would compete with Mixi, the country’s most popular social networking site, with an estimated 5.7m users. The joint venture, MySpace Japan, is expected to target mobile phone users in addition to Japan’s growing online population, as younger users in particular spend an increasing amount of time networking on the internet and on their mobile phones.
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XM satellite radio posted a narrower third-quarter loss amid subscriber growth. It reported a net loss of $84 million, up from a loss of $132 million, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 57 per cent to $240.4 million from $153 million.
XM said it added 286,002 net new subscribers during the quarter, ending with 7.2 million subscribers - an increase of 43 per cent over a year earlier. Gross subscriber additions came to 868,007 while churn, or the rate of monthly customer losses, was 1.8 per cent, up from 1.4 per cent a year earlier. XM said average revenue per subscriber was $10.15 during the quarter, compared with $9.78 per subscriber a year earlier. Cost per gross customer addition was $93, up from $89 per user last year.
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Italy allocates E120 million for DTT
Branislav Pekic from RomeThe Italian Government has allocated E120 million over the next three years to help the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television.
Communications Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said that the E120 million allocated in the Budget represent "a reasonable figure" but admitted that "further resources are needed". He believes that the 2012 switchover deadline set by the EU is "too close" as Italy has yet to overcome several obstacles. The first problem is with frequencies as there is currently not full coverage of the population. "If we should switch-off analogue TV in 2007 as some want – explains Gentiloni – half of the Italian population would not be able to receive TV anymore". The second problem is on the content front: "We are thinking of 20 DTT channels available from broadcasters, helped by promotional ads to be transmitted on terrestrial TV". There is also the question of decoders, as the four million boxes in circulation are already outdated and need to be upgraded.
On the content front, at least, broadcasters might lend a helping hand. The head of RAI’s New Media unit, Roberto Sergio, said that the pubcaster will present its digital strategy in six months time, anticipating that they will need E25-30 million per DTT channel. For its part, rival Mediaset is working on the project of an "all news" channel to be transmitted in digital.
Digital media company RealNetworks reported a higher net profit, boosted by proceeds from the settlement of its antitrust litigation against Microsoft and commercial agreements with the software giant. Net income was $42.2 million compared with $11.2 million in last year's third quarter. Third quarter revenue rose to $93.7 million from $82.2 million in the year-ago period.
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Spain's Cuatro good first year
From David Del Valle in MadridSogecable's commercial TV network Cuatro has performed well in its first year. The channel has increased by 36.7 per cent its audience since its launch last year reaching an average share of 6.7 per cent in October, from 4.9 per cent the first month of its launch.
According to the company, Cuatro has been the most successful launch in Europe of the so-called 2nd generation TV channels, far ahead of the UK Channel 4 and Five, launched in 1983 and 1998, which managed to get an average share of 4 and 2.3 per cent in their first year of operations. Cuatro nearly doubled the average share of Antena 3 and put it on the same level as Tele 5 in the year of their launch, with 3.7 per cent and 6.5 per cent, respectively.
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Xbox joins video download market
Microsoft are to offer movies and episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Live online service in the US. Microsoft has negotiated the rights to rent or sell more than 1,000 hours of material from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount, Warner Brothers and Turner Broadcasting. Some programmes will be available in high-definition video.
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Comcast to carry Fox business channelA business news cable channel planned by News Corporation has reached a deal to be carried by Comcast, the US’s largest operator of cable television systems. The new network will tentatively be spun off from the Fox News Channel.
Comcast’s roughly 12 million digital subscribers would get the channel as part of their service. Those subscribers, combined with the 15.5 million subscribers to DirecTV, the satellite service controlled by the News Corporation, give the channel a substantial platform of as many as 27.5 million subscribers.
At the media company’s annual meeting last month, chairman Rupert Murdoch said the new channel would "definitely" begin in 2007.
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NDS Synamedia integrated with AminoNDS and Amino, announced that the NDS Synamedia Metro middleware solution has been integrated into the AmiNET130 advanced IPTV platform. The integration of Synamedia Metro with the AmiNET130 provides telco operators with a second generation IPTVsolution for a fast and economical deployment of next-generation IPTV services.
The AmiNET130 IPTV set-top box features support for H.264, a low-bit rate advanced video codec for SD and HD quality video, enabling operators to provide revenue-generating services by maximizing the efficient use of network bandwidth. The AmiNET130 offers operators a cost effective means to deliver end-to-end digital High Definition TV as multicast, on-demand video and multi-room IPTV services with stunning TV quality and minimal capital expenditure.
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Samsung unveils new wireless broadband deviceSamsung Electronics have demonstrated a three-way foldable combination of phone, personal computer and music player tailored for an emerging wireless broadband technology the company is pushing as a global standard.
The gadget was unveiled at the Samsung-sponsored industry conference on Mobile WiMax, a technology just coming into use that promises fast remote broadband connections.
The device, known as MITs (Mobile Intelligent Terminal), weighs about one pound (560 grams) and contains a fold-out keyboard, 5-inch (13-centimeter) screen, 30 gigabyte hard drive and Windows software. It incorporates the CDMA mobile phone communications standard, which is used in South Korea and other countries including the U.S.
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Kazakhtelecom selects Alcatel for triple play serviceAlcatel has confirmed that Kazakhtelecom JSC, the fixed incumbent service provider in Kazakhstan, has selected Alcatel's optical networking solution for triple play service delivery across the country.
The new 6,000 km optical transport network will increase the capacity and extend the reach of Kazakhtelecom's existing infrastructure, broadening its service offering to new areas. The E5 million turnkey project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2007, covering around 133 districts, 10 regional and 14 local departments.
France Telecom film rights investments
France Telecom has created a subsidiary responsible for investing in French and European cinematographic rights, both on co-production and acquisition of catalogues of rights. It will be part of the Content Division, headed by Patricia Langrand and is aiming to co-produce 10 to 15 French and European films a year.
"With the creation of this subsidiary, with a dedicated team and resources, France Telecom, with its Orange brand, is firmly committed to supporting cultural diversity and its financing", explains Didier Lombard, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of France Telecom.
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Channel 4 has signed a new three-year deal for UK horseracing broadcast rights. Under the deal, C4 will show 80 days of racing and will develop broadband, mobile and pay-TV coverage in association with subscription broadcaster Racing UK.
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Widevine and Amino sign reseller agreement
Widevine Technologies, provider of downloadable content protection, has announced that Amino, IPTV platform supplier, has entered into a reseller agreement to distribute the Widevine Cypher content security solution for IP video operators worldwide. Under the terms of the deal, Amino has purchased the first 50,000 Virtual SmartCards for planned deployments around the world.
Tektronix, provider of test, measurement and monitoring solutions, has acquired Minacom, a provider of active probe test solutions used by telecommunications carriers, MSOs, wireless and VoIP providers worldwide. Minacom is based in Montreal, Canada and has an installed base in 30 countries worldwide. The acquisition will expand Tektronix' leadership and addressable market in Next Generation Network Management Solutions.
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Alcatel and ARCHOS team for portable multimedia playerAlcatel and ARCHOS are establishing a strategic co-operation agreement for Mobile TV. ARCHOS will develop the world’s first portable multimedia player adapted to Alcatel’s "Unlimited Mobile TV solution", a hybrid terrestrial and satellite broadcast solution based on an evolution of the DVB-H standard in the S-Band (2.2 GHz). Commercial availability of ARCHOS S-Band compatible devices is expected in the fourth quarter of 2007.
The joint solution will adhere to the upcoming standard being prepared in the DVB Forum by the dedicated DVB-SSP (Satellite Services for Portable devices) Workgroup. Alcatel will provide support to ARCHOS in terms of interoperability testing and in terms of access to chipset manufacturers implementing DVB-SSP.
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T-VIPS Video gateways live in France’s DTT network
Norwegian technology company T-VIPS has confirmed that its solutions have been selected to distribute video streams for France’s DTT network. Following the awarding of a contract by towerCast, T-VIPS TVG420 Video Gateways are now deployed on the DTT link that towerCast operates between the Toulouse regional media centre and the Albi transmitter site. The T-VIPS equipment was delivered through Isovision, T-VIPS’ business partner in France.
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Tuesday 7th November
KKR bid for Vivendi rejected
UK consumers reluctant to pay for downloads
Mobile TV still unpopular in UK
Sales of digital TVs top analogue in UK
Mobile TV a benefit broadcasters told
News digital head for CBS
Philippines NTC issues draft digital TV regulations
Digita and SBS Finland agree on DVB-H
SES reports strong third quarter results
Irdeto inks VAR agreement with IDC
Espial’s Evo IPTV Service Platform added to Auroras
RGB Networks, EGT Partner
GlobeCast extends UEFA Champions League delivery
Vivendi, the French media and comms company, has confirmed a friendly approach from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US buy-out firm, which it has rejected.
KKR had made a E40bn offer to buy Vivendi before talks on what would have been the world’s biggest buy out, foundered. Vivendi said in a statement that it had "received and reviewed a friendly expression of interest from KKR. This review, which included maintaining the current Vivendi assets within the group in order to create value, did not result in any proposition and has now ended."
Vivendi owns Universal Music, the record company that is home to U2 and Eminem, and Vivendi Games, maker of the online computer game World of Warcraft. It has a controlling stake in SFR, France’s number two mobile telephone operator, and is also the dominant shareholder in Canal Plus.
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UK consumers reluctant to pay for downloadsThe Olswang Convergence Consumer Survey 2006 has revealed that rights holders and service providers are facing new challenges in the battle for consumer attention. In the digital age, consumers want choice and control but show an unwillingness to pay for content.
Consumers are demonstrating a clear preference for feature films and TV programmes over shorter clips and trailers as their content of choice for the PC. Nearly 40 per cent of UK consumers are already streaming or downloading audio-visual content onto computers at home. Whilst this may suggest a potentially lucrative market for rights holders and service providers, the downside is that consumers appear reluctant to pay to receive content on their home PC, with 1 in 2 not prepared to pay anything extra for streamed/downloaded content and a further 40 per cent not willing to pay more than £5 (E7.25) per month.
Mobile TV still unpopular in UK
The same Olswang survey revealed that, despite the launch of a range of mobile TV services in the last 12 months, consumers remain uninterested in using their mobile phones to view audio-visual content. 90 percent of respondents have not yet streamed or downloaded any full length content, clips or trailers to their mobile phones and, of these, over 70 per cent stated they have no future interest in this activity.
Mobile phone companies also face competition from usage of other portable devices, with 30 percent of consumers already using a portable DVD player, Sony PSP, iPod with video or other device to watch TV programmes or movies.
Sales of digital TVs top analogue in UK
Sales of digital television equipment have overtaken analogue sets for the first time, according to market researcher GfK. In the three months to September, digital televisions, set-top boxes and recorders accounted for 51 per cent of all television equipment sold. Data gathered from 20,000 stores showed an increase in demand for flat-screen televisions and a sharp decline in sales of conventional sets. Year-on-year sales of flat-screen televisions grew by 83 per cent while CRT set sales fell by 40 per cent.
Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK, the organisation leading the nationwide switch to digital TV, described the numbers as a "landmark moment" in the UK's transition to digital television.
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Mobile TV a benefit broadcasters told
Broadcasters should not see new technologies such as mobile TV as a threat, and instead think of them as opportunities that come with switching to digital mode, the Technical Committee heard at the 43rd ABU General Assembly in Beijing.
John Bigeni, the DVB representative for Asia, said the common misconception was that mobile broadcasting services have been "largely identified as the realm of telecommunications operators rather than broadcasters, simply because they are expected to be ideally received over the mobile phone".
However, it was the broadcasters who held the valuable and scarce spectrum which enabled the launch of such services, and the telecommunications companies were actively trying to acquire this spectrum.
Bigeni said that technology such as DVB-H changed the threat of new technology to an opportunity for broadcasters because it enabled them to provide handheld services over their existing digital channels. "This is done together with normal services, and can be made either free to air or pay service as this depends on the adopted business plan. But above all, these services are not just restricted to telco-type services," he said.
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CBS has hired star Silicon Valley dealmaker to shape its new media strategy and pursue acquisitions. Quincy Smith is joining CBS as president of CBS Interactive, a newly formed division. Smith will report to CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves.
Smith succeeds Larry Kramer, who CBS hired just over a year ago to jump-start CBS's digital businesses. Kramer, who will remain an adviser to CBS, had earlier founded MarketWatch which he sold to Dow Jones for $528 million in early 2005. Moonves has been keen to move faster to offset slower-growing assets such as broadcast television. More importantly, he doesn't want to be left out of the scramble among traditional media companies onto the Web.
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Philippines NTC issues draft digital TV regulationsThe National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has posted its first draft regulations on digital terrestrial television (DTT), paving the way for the implementation of high definition video broadcast services in the Philippines.
The NTC stated in its draft that the sole standard in delivering DTT in the Philippines is digital video broadcast-terrestrial (DVB-T), which uses the MPEG-2 compression standard. NTC stated that current analogue television broadcast stations will be allowed to apply for authorisation to provide DTT services and will have the option of adopting either the higher-quality high-definition TV (HDTV) or standard definition TV (SDTV) standard.
The draft regulations also state that the NTC will require all analogue TV providers to convert to digital transmission by the end of December 2015.
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Digita and SBS Finland agree on DVB-H
SBS Finland and Digita, Finnish distributor of radio and television services, is to launch the first commercial service in the DVB-H-based mobile television network.The mobile television service will combine the two different networks, the DVB-H television network and mobile network, to the same terminal. Thus, mobile television will permit interactive services from the beginning. In addition to broadcasting digital radio broadcasts, the DVB-H service offers different kinds of content related to programmes, such as information on programmes and channels, further information on artists and interactive sections such as competitions and opinion polls. Commercial operations are set to launch in the beginning of December.
SES reports strong third quarter results
SES GLOBAL, the worldwide satellite operator has reported strong results for the third quarter of 2006. Romain Bausch, President & CEO, commented: "The third quarter results confirmed our expectations and guidance, maintaining the strong business performance reported for the first half. The strong results were further boosted by one-time payments, amongst others from Connexion by Boeing and Star One."
Irdeto inks VAR agreement with IDC
Content security group Irdeto has entered into a value-added reseller (VAR) agreement with International Datacasting Corporation (IDC), distributor of products and systems for IPTV and VOD via satellite.
Under the agreement, IDC will be granted a non-exclusive licence to market and distribute Irdeto’s content security solutions for DVB, PVR and IPTV to customers worldwide.
Meanwhile Irdeto also announced that it has successfully completed a full audit of its Irdeto IPTV with SoftClient content security solution by one of the industry_s most respected security experts, Merdan Group, Inc.
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Espial’s Evo IPTV Service Platform added to Auroras
Espial IPTV, provider of IPTV middleware and applications, has announced that IPTV service provider Auroras Entertainment has added Espial’s Evo IPTV Service Platform as supported middleware for its IPTV service.
Auroras will be offering a complete end-to-end solution for telcos based on Espial’s pre-integrated solution that includes both Espial’s Evo Client and Espial’s newly launched Evo Server.
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RGB Networks, EGT Partner
RGB Networks and EGT announce that they have teamed together to deliver a best in-class videoprocessing solution for telecommunications operators offering video services to their subscribers.The companies say that by integrating EGT's high-quality video encoders with the advanced grooming, switching and digital program insertion capabilities of RGB's Broadcast Network Processor (BNP), telco operators will be able to accelerate and cost-effectively deploy new IPTV services, while also increasing their revenue potentials through value-added services such as advertisement insertion.
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GlobeCast extends UEFA Champions League delivery
Content management and delivery company GlobeCast has extended its nine year relationship with UEFA in a deal to provide world wide coverage of the UEFA Champions League to non-European rights holders for the next three seasons.
The competition will be distributed to 26 territories via GlobeCast’s content delivery network, with facilities on offer including downlink, uplink, capacity, encoding and encryption as well as a multi-lingual helpdesk.
Monday 6th November
Berlusconi bid for ProSiebenSat1
Sky beats subs forecasts
YouTube on the run on rights
First Pakistan IPTV licence
IDC goes exclusive with SES
iTouch buys Ostrich
Berlusconi bid for ProSiebenSat1
According to reports, Silvio Berlusconi is considering a E5bn takeover bid for ProSiebenSat1, Germany’s largest commercial broadcaster. Mediaset, the Berlusconi media company, plans the offer to the group of eight private equity investors – led by Haim Saban – that controls the German television company. The deal would create one of Europe’s biggest and most profitable commercial broadcasters. It would also be the first takeover of a top German broadcaster by a foreign competitor.
Saban bought ProSiebenSat1 in 2002, after the media empire of Leo Kirch collapsed. Berlusconi, who held a 2.4 per cent stake, was said to have been interested in taking over the broadcaster, but political opposition in Germany prevented any move.
As well as Saban, the owners include Providence Equity Partners, Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Quadrangle Group, Alpine Equity Partners and Putnam Investments.
In January, Axel Springer, the German publishing group agreed to acquire ProSiebenSat.1 from GMP for E4.2bn ($5bn), but was forced to withdraw after two regulators vetoed the deal on competition grounds.
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BSkyB beat market expectations by adding a net 82,000 subscribers in the three months to September, beating the consensus forecast of 60,000 and taking the total to 8.26m.
James Murdoch, chief executive, said new customers were attracted to the range of products that the company was offering, such as Sky+, the digital video recorder, and high definition TV. BSkyB reported a 17 per cent fall in first-quarter pre-tax profits to £166m (E240m). Revenue rose 11 per cent to £1.07bn. Profits were diluted by the investment in its broadband operations, and operating profits fell 16 per cent to £180m, in line with expectations.
BSkyB said it had received about 1m registrations of interest in the broadband service, which was launched in July, and that there were 74,000 customers. The broadband service saw an operating loss of £42m, including a £7m operating loss at Easynet. BSkyB bought Easynet, a provider of broadband services for £211m and is expected to spend an additional £400m over the next three years to develop broadband. The company is processing about 20,000 orders a week, and expected to bring that figure up to 30,000 by the end of the year.
The company said churn was 11.8 per cent, compared to 11.7 per cent the same time last year.
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YouTube on the run on rights
YouTube owner Google is engaged in a frantic round of negotiations to persuade traditional media companies to supply their content to YouTube and ward off a potentially crippling round of lawsuits.Chief executive Eric Schmidt and other managers have met CBS, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal, News Corp and others offering tens of millions of dollars in upfront payments for the right to broadcast their video content legally on YouTube.
YouTube serves 100m video clips a day, making it the most popular internet video site. But much of the material available on the site belongs to the traditional media companies and has been posted without their permission.
So far Warner Music, Universal Music and Sony BMG have signed agreements with YouTube to supply some of their content in exchange for licensing fees and a share of associated advertising revenue. In lieu of upfront payments the music companies received equity stakes in YouTube worth tens of millions of dollars.
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First Pakistan IPTV licencePakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has awarded the first Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) licence to Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and PTCL will start its service by June 2007. Chairman of PEMRA Iftikhar Rashid said it was a milestone in the history of broadcasting in Pakistan.
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SES Americom and International Datacasting Corporation (IDC) are integrating IDC's next-generation DVB-S2 satellite receivers aboard the IP-Prime IPTV service. As part of a new agreement between the two companies, IDC is now the exclusive provider of satellite receivers over the initial year of IP-Prime service rollouts.
According to IDC, the company's receivers feature new DVB-S2 technologies to maximize IPTV delivery over satellite bandwidth. SES Americom is also using IDC
IP encapsulators and custom engineering and network management in support of IP-Prime, enabling telcos to deliver broadcast TV to customers across the country.
iTouch a provider of mobile, voice and interactive services, announces the acquisition of Ostrich Media, the Channel 4 subsidiary that produces Quiz Call, the UK Quiz TV channel. Under the deal, Ostrich Media will expand its operations as a transactional TV production company in the UK and overseas. It will continue to produce Quiz Call and will provide high quality transactional TV content for other broadcasters, both in the UK and abroad.
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