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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 24th November
Li against Li for PCCW
Sky offers Sky One and Box Office downloads
Jazztel launches VoD
YouTube up in UK
Australia gets serious on switchover
Channel 4 to relaunch E4.com
Ashes online
KT Corp trials IPTV
NASN launches in Poland
Ericsson mobile TV solution for Proximus
Li against Li for PCCW
Richard Li has said he was "dissatisfied" with the sale of his PCCW telecoms company to a consortium backed by his father Li Ka-shing. His comments came as minority shareholders prepare to vote on the deal next week.
Francis Leung, the investment banker orgainising the acquiring consortium issued a statement clarifying aspects of his purchase of Richard Li’s controlling 23 per cent stake in PCCW. Leung first agreed to pay $1.2bn for Li’s PCCW shares after talks to sell its assets to rival bidders Macquarie and TPG-Newbridge were vetoed by China Netcom, the Beijing-controlled telecoms group and PCCW’s second-largest shareholder.
When Leung had trouble raising the money he turned to Li Ka-shing for a $64m loan to fund a downpayment. This month he disclosed that two of Li Ka-shing’s charitable foundations would also join his consortium, paying $622m for a 12 per cent stake in PCCW.
Leung offered to cancel the PCCW transaction "provided that [Richard Li] reimburse the costs and expenses incurred by [me] in connection with the transaction". Li told a Hong Kong paper "I am very unsatisfied with the results," he was quoted as saying. "I will be very happy if minority shareholders vote down the deal and I will continue to develop and lead PCCW."
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Sky offers Sky One and Box Office downloads
Sky is expanding its broadband download service to include pay per view movies and Sky One shows. Sky Anytime on PC (previously Sky by Broadband) will give Sky digital customers, who take Sky One as part of their subscription, the opportunity to watch episodes of shows such as LOST, Stargate and Weeds immediately after airing on Sky One via the new service.
Sky Anytime is also offering a Sky Box Office service offering Sky Box Office movies at any one time. Sky will offer premium pay per view movie titles via broadband giving Sky TV customers access to movies soon after their theatrical release and at the same time as their television premiere on Sky Box Office. Movies and will cost £3.95 (E5.79) each to download whilst TV shows will cost £1.50.
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Jazztel launches VoD
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Telco group Jazztel has launched its Video on Demand service over Jazztelia TV allowing subscribers to access a wide range of contents, including films, TV series, documentaries and sports.
Each piece of content will have a different price depending on the genre and the production year. As an incentive to subscribers, a selection of movies will be offered for free during December, and a series of documentaries will be free to watch until March 2007. The service is based on IBM's BladeCenter technology using BladeCenter T and BladeCenter HS20 network servers.
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YouTube up in UK
YouTube, saw by far the largest growth in UK online audience figures in October recording a 24 per cent increase from September to 7.25 million unique users, according to the latest data from ComScore.
Google also became the most visited site in the UK in October, breaking ahead of Microsoft's websites for the first time. ComScore shows that Google's sites recorded 24.816 million unique users, edging ahead of Microsoft's 24.798 million. eBay and Yahoo! had the next highest visitor numbers, followed by the BBC with 16.34 million uniques. Sky grew by 8 per cent to 7.6 million.
Meanwhile, one month after CBS began putting shows legally on YouTube, figures reveal that the content is being viewed up to 850,000 times a day - and suggest the relationship is boosting TV ratings. CBS has uploaded more than 300 clips to its branded YouTube channel.
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Australia gets serious on switchover
From Rose Major in Melbourne
An action plan for digital switch-off including measures to correct "a relatively low level of knowledge and understanding of digital television among Australians" has been unveiled by the Australian Government’s Department for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA).
Measures will include consumer information campaigns and a point-of-sale labelling system, which will take the form of an industry code of practice registered with media regulator ACMA. New agency Digital Australia, which will be part of the ministry, will be charged with educating the country about digital television, as well as "harnessing the expertise and co-ordinating the diverse interests of industry in the switchover process". It will provide a telephone hotline and website for the public, to be set up in 2007. The Government also plans to establish an Industry Advisory Group which will represent "diverse perspectives in the sector" and will meet regularly to address issues of its own and Digital Australia’s choosing.
Also on the action plan is the establishment of a digital testing and conformance centre, along the lines of the DTG's in the UK, to test the reliability both of hardware and of software upgrades.
The Government will ask the media regulator ACMA to start a detailed analysis of the technical factors that may influence switchover, including asking it to consider whether analogue switch off should occur region by region or nationwide. ACMA will also look into post-switchover spectrum availability and usage, as well as "reception experience of viewers" in other words, the strength and coverage of signals combined with whether adequate equipment such as antennas are in place in homes.
Digital switchover is due to commence in 2010-2012.
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Channel 4 to relaunch E4.com
Channel 4 is relaunching E4 as a social networking website in a bid to challenge YouTube and MySpace. The website will allow users to audition for a place in the Big Brother house next year by posting clips of themselves. One contestant will be chosen directly from their web submission after the clip has been rated and swapped between site viewers.
E4.com will also enable users to create personalised web pages, where they can chat to other users, upload their own content and rate the clips and submissions from other users.
Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive, said: "E4 viewers are the first generation to grow up with the Internet and they are driving the phenomenal growth of social networking online and of user-generated content as a mainstream entertainment medium."
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Ashes online
Cricket Australia is to showcase the Ashes with a broadband TV launch. Its TV portal is aimed at cricket fan in markets where television rights deals haven't been struck for the series.
It will offer paid-for live video streams and audio commentary of the matches to viewers in regions including Europe, Africa, central and South America. There will also be a free video-on-demand service offering highlights of Test matches, one day internationals and Australian domestic cricket.
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KT Corp trials IPTV
South Korea’s KT Corp has launched trials of IPTV services to 260 households in eight districts in Seoul and Yangpyeong County, southeast of Seoul, according to local news. The service is being tested in regions were terrestrial broadcast reception is poor and includes 24 TV channels, 1,200 on-demand videos and 27 interactive services, including instant messaging. An electronic program guide and user-created content will also be available.
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NASN launches in Poland
NASN (North American Sports Network) 24-hour sports channel has launched in Poland on the digital platform. NASN is pushing into Eastern Europe before many other English language broadcasters as part of its rapid expansion across Europe as a whole.
This deal extends NASN’s distribution to 26 European countries, reaching over 6 million homes. The company is backed by Setanta Sports and Benchmark Capital Europe.
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Ericsson mobile TV solution for Proximus
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Belgian operator Proximus has partnered with Ericsson for an end-to-end mobile TV solution. Ericsson are set to provide Proximus with what is claimed to be the world's fastest channel selector solution for mobile TV. The launch of the solution is planned in the course of 2007.
Thursday 23rd November
HBO lnternet TV channel?
French analogue switch off
Branson slams ITV’s bid rejection
Digital STBs to China up fivefold
UTECA's attacks Government on DTT
UK Asians are multi-channel fans
National Grid Wireless leads bid for new digital radio multiplex
Elisa and Canal Digital broadband TV
Lumiere TV opts for NDS
HBO lnternet TV channel?HBO is considering a broadband Internet channel that would be available to customers who subscribe to its cable television service. Chris Albrecht, HBO’s chief executive, told the FT that the company was talking to cable operators about an "HBO-like service" in which broadband customers could click on a branded menu and download the network’s programming.
However, Albrecht stressed that any Internet offerings would be launched in partnership with cable operators, which it relies on for subscriber fees, the main source of income for the advertising-free network. "What we’re hoping to do is to use the brand and to use new products similar to HBO On Demand to help [cable operators] drive their broadband penetration," Albrecht said.
Jeff Bewkes, HBO parent Time Warner’s president, has touted Internet VOD as a way for the company’s cable division to compete with Apple’s iTunes and other emerging forms of digital distribution."Video-on-demand is by far the most powerful product in the television world," Bewkes has said.
French analogue switch off
From Sotires Eleftheriou in ParisThe French Senate has passed the central pillar of the "Television of the Future" bill, setting the date of the final switch-off of the analogue signal for 30 November 2011.
The switchover will take place on a zone by zone basis, beginning 31 March 2008. By the end of the switchover process, DTT should be available to 95 per cent of the population, the remainder will have access via a free satellite service which is to begin operation in the summer of 2007.
The Senate also passed a measure that will attribute an additional "bonus" channel to the three existing private analogue operators, TF1, Canal+ and M6. These three new channels will only be able to commence broadcasting once the final switch off has been completed.
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Branson slams ITV’s bid rejection
NTL’s largest shareholder Richard Branson reacted angrily to the rejection of its £4.7bn bid proposal for ITV, saying that the commercial broadcaster’s board were "closing the door on NTL without even seeking to discuss the strategic merits of a combination." The cable group’s chances of a further tilt at ITV seemed slim after ITV’s board said it wouldn’t recommend any future bids involving NTL’s shares.
Digital STBs to China up fivefold
Interactive digital set-top box shipments to the Chinese market increased by an estimated 563 per cent in 2005 to 212,000 units, according to a report published by IMS Research. This market segment is forecast to grow strongly and reach about 5.3 million units in 2010.
To digitise current analogue cable TV households in urban areas, the Chinese government has adopted its ‘Total Migration Plan.’ Under this plan, operators purchase digital cable set-top boxes and give them to subscribers for free. To reduce the initial investments, operators tended to buy basic set-top boxes at low prices. However, this is changing gradually as operators are increasingly offering value-added services, such as video-on-demand, as their main source of increased business revenues. Interactive set-tops are essential if subscribers are to receive those value-added services.
Senior analyst, Richard Jun Li commented: "The growing Chinese economy will stimulate the increasing use of value-added services via digital TV networks as average household income grows. The change of the operators‚ attitude towards interactive services results in strong growth in the interactive set-top boxes segment."
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UTECA's attacks Government on DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridUTECA, Spain's private TV Association, has accused the Government of passivity in the development of DTT and has warned the country will fail to switch off analogue TV in 2010 as planned.
"The Government is not doing anything (to develop DTT) and has not even a plan", complained the new president of UTECA, Alejandro Echevarría, addeding: "We want to help DTT get moving but we will not be successful as the Government is not doing its bit". Echevarria explained that while private TV channels are losing E150 million for their digital broadcasts, the Government only seems to be worried about the coverage.
He asked for an "ambitious plan" that includes the renewal of all TV sets, like in other European countries such as Italy, that the new TV sets are digital TV-ready, with an integrated set-top-box, and state subsidies to finance the STB purchases and the dish adaptation.
"If we do not have an ambitious plan, we will be unable to meet the 2010 deadline as 12 million homes are still to be digitalised", he added. Currently, 3 million homes can receive DTT in Spain, out of a total of 15 million TV households, representing 14 per cent of the population.
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UK Asians are multi-channel fans
According to a report by Continental Research UK Asians are heavy viewers of multi-channel. The 2006 survey, commissioned by ZMTV, is the second wave of a study first conducted in 2003 into the TV viewing habits of Asians residing in the UK.
The 2006 survey of over 800 UK Asians has expanded to include the significant number of Bangladeshis and Chinese residing in the UK and has found similarly high levels of multichannel TV consumption in these communities. Max Willey, senior research executive at Continental Research said "UK Asians are significantly more likely than the average UK resident to acquire these TV channels – especially via satellite. This is not unlike the findings in 2003, and it is particularly interesting that they still choose satellite and cable platforms given the growth of Freeview since then".
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National Grid Wireless leads bid for new digital radio multiplexNational Grid Wireless has announced its intention to lead a bid for the second national digital radio multiplex, which is due to be advertised by Ofcom later this month. The second national digital radio multiplex will serve most of the UK and is expected to launch in 2008. The company believes that if successful it can provide a ‘neutral host’ role to the radio industry, similar to the one it already provides for digital TV with Freeview.
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Elisa and Canal Digital broadband TV
Finnish telco Elisa and Canal Digital are to provide Elisa’s ADSL customers with the Viihdekaista service package, offering customers television services, video on demand, fast ADSL connection and home telephone in one package.
The introduction of Viihdekaista requires that the customer’s home has Elisa’s 24-megabyte ADSL connection. In the summer of 2007, Viihdekaista intends to be available to more than a million homes.
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Lumiere TV, pay-TV operator in Cyprus, has selected NDS to support its digital terrestrial TV services. NDS will provide Lumiere TV with VideoGuard Express, its end-to-end pay-TV solution that provides security for emerging digital pay-TV operators.
Wednesday 22nd November
ITV rejects NTL offer
Comcast close to Disney VOD deal
Regulator reports tepid pay-TV growth
HD Viewers expect HD on Freeview
EU frequency harmonisation beneficial
Spain: thematic TV channels triple revenues
Astro and Kamera mobile content deal
Lagardère purchases Sportfive
Real Madrid sells TV rights
Astrium to build new Astra satellite
Qatar’s Qtel launches mobile TV trial
NXP and ChangHong IP STB
ITV rejects NTL offer
The Board of ITV plc has rejected would-be suitor NTL’s bid, suggesting that the proposed offer materially undervalues ITV.In a statement, ITV confirmed that the bid had been thoroughly analysed by its advisers and been given detailed and careful consideration, deciding unanimously to reject it, believing that whereas there was obvious appeal to ntl in gaining control of ITV's substantial and successful business, from ITV's perspective there was little, if any, strategic logic for ITV to combine with ntl. The Board also felt unable to recommend to ITV's shareholders that they should take NTL stock as part consideration for their ITV shares.
The prospects of the NTL bid succeeding had severely diminished following BSkyB’s acquisition of a 17.9 per cent stake in the broadcaster, and an indication from the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that it would only investigate BSkyB’s actions if it receives a complaint.
Communications regulator Ofcom has invited ITV plc and BSkyB to comment on whether BSkyB's acquisition of shares in ITV represents a change of control of one or more of the licences held by ITV plc. If Ofcom were to conclude that a change of control had taken place, Ofcom would then need to review the effects - or likely effects - of such a change of control on ITV's licensed services; for example, original productions, news and current affairs programmes and regional programming.
Ofcom will be seeking submissions from ITV and BSkyB in order to consider the position. Ofcom will normally aim to decide whether there has been a change of control within six weeks.
The OFT is responsible for considering whether there is merger for competition purposes. As the sector regulator, Ofcom liaises with the OFT on its assessment of any merger in the communications sector.
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Comcast close to Disney VOD deal
Cable operator Comcast is reportedly set to land a video on-demand deal with Walt Disney Co. for shows such as ‘Desperate Housewives and ‘World News with Charles Gibson’.Comcast has been seeking prime-time television programs to offer on its video-on-demand service for more than two years, the Wall Street Journal revealed.
The deal would include Comcast's purchase of Disney's broadcast and cable programming, including ABC, ESPN, and the Disney Channel, for more than $1 billion a year. It also gives Comcast rights to use Disney promotional content on its high-speed Internet portal.
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Regulator reports tepid pay-TV growth
From Rose Major in MelbourneAustralia’s pay-TV market is "not growing strongly" according to a new report from regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Despite being available since mid-1995, it has reached penetration levels of just 24 per cent, or 1.73 million subscribers, while the comparable markets of the UK and New Zealand have reached 44 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
But the ACMA Communications Report, the first since the regulator was formed in 2005, does say that 80 per cent of Australian pay-TV subscribers are now estimated to use a digitally transmitted service. Free-to-air digital television is also present in some 20 per cent of Australian homes, the regulator estimates, although there is no assessment of possible second set crossover with pay-TV homes.
Digital television’s uptake is low compared with other communications technologies. Around 63 per cent of homes have Internet access, with a third of homes connected to broadband. Nearly 80 per cent of Australians have mobile phones, although just eight per cent have a 3G handset.
HD Viewers expect HD on Freeview
Findings from the UK’s first ever trial of high definition (HD) television over digital terrestrial television (DTT) have been revealed by the joint trial broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
The trial, which set out to prove that HD broadcasts over DTT were feasible and to investigate their appeal to viewers, was deemed a technical success. Quantitative research amongst the panel homes indicated that HD ready viewers expect high definition broadcasts on Freeview in the future.
The four broadcasters have been running the trial since June 2006 to a small closed sample group of 450 selected households in the London area. Nearly all (98 per cent) of trialists stated that it was important to have HD services on UK DTT platform Freeview in the future, with 86 per cent expecting to see these services within three years. 90 per cent believed that the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five should be at the forefront of HD developments.
Jonathan Thompson, Director of Strategy and Research at Channel 4, said that both broadcasters and Government needed to ensure the ongoing strength of the DTT platform as switchover neared. "The trial has raised important questions about how the platform needs to evolve in order to support the delivery of the HD services required to ensure its future appeal."
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EU frequency harmonisation beneficialAccording to a study, harmonising European Union frequency spectrum policy will bring clear economic benefits to the Member States.Analysis shows that continued harmonisation across the EU until 2020 will bring an increase in purchasing power of E244 billion for European consumers. This will result from lower prices and better use of available 3G/UMTS data and speech services, for example via roaming.
In addition, growth in end-user market penetration will be 37 per cent higher within 15 years in a harmonised environment than it would be in a liberalised market. The study, conducted on behalf of the UMTS Forum by global strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, may be seen in the context of discussions taking place within the European Commission where new stipulations on frequency spectrum policy in the European Union are being hotly debated.
Two camps have emerged: Those who believe in market-driven liberalisation and those who would prefer a regulated approach to frequency harmonisation for systems such as mobile communication networks. While the liberalisers want to leave frequency spectrum policy more in the hands of market forces, the harmonisers are calling for a regulatory framework to prevent spectrum fragmentation.
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Spain: thematic TV channels triple revenues
From David Del Valle in MadridSpain's thematic TV channels have more than tripled their ad revenues up to over E20m in the first half of the year from E6.4m in the same period last year.
Whereas traditional TV channels are suffering from advert saturation, thematic TV advert saturation only represents 1.1 per cent, representing a 38 second advert in every broadcasting hour, with barely two adverts in every 60 minute period.
According to the report - Thematic Channels Green Book - thematic TV already represents 10 per cent of TV consumption in Spain. With pay-TV subscribers, the market share of such channels reaches 33 per cent.
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Astro and Kamera mobile content dealKamera’s entertainment channel, Entertainment Daily‚ is one of eight new Astro channels being offered to Malaysian mobile users through the 3G network.
Other new services available include live streams from CNN International, BBC World and CNBC as well as channels customised for mobile viewing from entertainment and education partners like MTV, the Discovery Channel and Cartoon Networks.
This latest initiative sees Astro expand its offering to fifteen channels. "3G is growing at phenomenal rates and we enjoy working with many partners to bring the best of Astro multi-channel TV to the third screen," commented Claire Mula, GM of Astro.
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Lagardère purchases Sportfive
French publisher Lagardère is paying €865 million (E680 million) for Sportfive, Europe's largest football marketing and sports rights company.Sportfive, whose main shareholders are Advent International, Goldman Sachs, and RTL, promotes the Rugby Six Nations Tournament and handles broadcasting rights for more than 250 football teams.
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Real Madrid sells TV rightsReal Madrid has sold its television broadcast rights to production company Mediapro in a seven-year deal worth E1.1 billion. The agreement is the most expensive TV rights deal in club football.
Mediapro is a major shareholder in the new free-to-air Spanish channel La Sexta, which was launched this year. Mediapro recently agreed to share local TV rights with broadcaster Sogecable SA.
"This agreement is a new landmark in the history of this club," Real Madrid said in a statement on its Web site, adding it had accepted the biggest offer with "the most solid guarantees."
The value of Spanish TV rights has previously been diluted because national legislation requires one league game per week on free-to-air TV. Real Madrid secured E64.6 million from TV rights for its rights in the year up to 30 2005.
Mediapro shareholders include WPP Group Plc, the world's second-biggest advertising group, which has a 20 per cent stake. Mediapro has a stake in La Sexta, Spain's newest channel which shows one Spanish league game per week.
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Astrium to build new Astra satellite
Satellite operator SES Astra has awarded the contract for the construction of its new satellite, Astra 3B, to European satellite manufacturer Astrium. As prime contractor for Astra 3B, Astrium will design and build the satellite.
Astra 3B will be a state-of-the-art Ku and Ka-band spacecraft designed for the distribution of both direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast services and two-way broadband services across Europe. After Astra 2B and Astra 1M, Astra 3B is the third Astra satellite to be built by Astrium.
The satellite will have 52 transponders of which 20 transponders are to replace existing in-orbit capacity and 32 transponders which will create new capacity, thereby strengthening 23.5šE as the third orbital hotspot for European DTH services. ASTRA 3B is expected to be launched end of 2009.
Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES Astra said the orbital position at 23.5° East would become increasingly attractive for DTH broadcasters across Europe.
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Qatar’s Qtel launches mobile TV trial
Qatari telco Qtel is to undertake a trial of DVB-H mobile TV technology. The service will be offered free during the pilot phase, according to Qtel CEO Dr Nasser Marafih.
Qtel will provide up to 13 TV channels during the pilot phase including sport, entertainment and TV news channels from domestic and international broadcasters such as Al Jazeera, CNN and CNBC. The service will be accessible in the Greater Doha area.
"We hope the handset suppliers would recognise the demand for DVB-H and make them available in time for the full commercial launch of the service next year," said Marafih.
Qatar is the first country in the entire Middle East and North African region to offer a mobile TV service.
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NXP and ChangHong IP STBNXP Semiconductors has revealed that ChangHong, the CE manufacturers in China, has selected the NXP NexperiaTM STB810 set-top box semiconductor solution to power its next-generation IP-STB for the rapidly growing IPTV market in China.
The NXP STB810 solution was chosen for its Linux software platform and software-based video Codecs, which will allow service providers to remotely upgrade the installed IP-STB to new standards such as AVS (Audio Video Coding Standard). This solution should tentatively allow service providers to save money and manpower by avoiding onsite service upgrades and replacement boxes.
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Sky’s ITV bombshell
Universal sues MySpace
Yahoo must change!
Yahoo!7 helps Seven raise cash
Orbit lay-off plans cause protests in Italy
Reliance investment talks
Irish Times web TV deal with Kamera
BskyB shocked the markets, ITV, NTL and Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson when it bought nearly 20 per cent of ITV from its biggest shareholder the Fidelity fund on Friday.
James Murdoch, Sky CEO and architect of the £940m (E1.36bn) raid, said it was a financial investment and they would be supportive long-term shareholders. Branson said it was a cynical attempt to scupper the proposed takeover of ITV by Virgin Media (the renamed NTL where Branson is the biggest shareholder), and extend undue influence over ITV. He says he will try and get the deal undone through the regulators. Ofcom was meeting yesterday in an emergency session, but implied that at this stage there was nothing for it to act upon.
Meanwhile ITV has to remain studiedly neutral; chairman Sir Peter Burt is expected to meet with James Murdoch soon.
If nothing else the deal guarantees a high profile dual between two ‘big beasts’ of the media jungle: Murdoch will want to show he can emulate his father when it comes to defending controversial tactics and Branson will be looking for a repeat of his victory in the drawn out feud with British Airways in the airline business.
It also guarantees a mountain of speculation as to Sky’s motives. Certainly Sky saw the NTL takeover of ITV as a threat and it may have some of the same advantages in mind: driving down the cost of programme supply, cross promoting platforms, coordinating convergence strategies and, most important, joint bids for premium rights freezing out the BBC and Virgin/NTL.
However it is precisely these activities that would run into trouble with the regulators so, for now at least, passive investment will be the order of the day – Murdoch says he believes the woes at leaderless ITV have been exaggerated and he expects a substantial upturn. “BSkyB wishes to explore options to create value in the interests of both BSkyB’s and ITV’s shareholders. BSkyB believes that ITV is one of Europe’s premier broadcasting and production businesses, and holds substantial potential for long-term value creation. BSkyB has no intention of acquiring shares that would result in BSkyB’s stake exceeding 19.9 per cent or making an offer for the whole of ITV’s remaining share capital.”
One further possibility is using the stake as bargaining chip at once blocking the NTL deal but also encouraging in RTL to bid for ITV. RTL, short of cash and therefore reportedly turning to private equity to help finance a bid, might welcome the chance to swap Channel Five for the Sky stake.
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Universal Music is suing MySpace claiming the social network site is encouraging users to illegally share music and music videos. It accuses MySpace of allowing people to illegally upload videos and of providing the technology for users to share the content with others.
Links to work by its artists including The Killers, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani are available, Universal alleges. But MySpace said it acted legally and dismissed the "meritless litigation". It added that its procedures for removing illegal downloads were good, and that it fully complied with copyright laws.
But Universal claims that MySpace "encourages, facilitates and participates in the unauthorised reproduction, adaptation, distribution and public performance". It added: "Our music and videos play a key role in building the communities that have created hundreds of millions of dollars of value for the owners of MySpace.
Universal alleges that MySpace tries to avoid liability for copyright breaches by making its users give the website the right to publish the content. However the users do not have the right to give that permission, the music firm argues.
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Yahoo must change!
Yahoo needs a dramatic shake-up and cuts in its work force of up to 20 percent, according to an internal memo written by Senior Vice President Brad Garlinghouse who argues that Yahoo suffers from a lack of consistent leadership, business focus and a "single cohesive strategy."
The document was published in the Wall Street Journal. The call for restructuring follows a series of embarrassments that have caused Yahoo shares to lose 31.5 percent of their value so far this year. It is struggling with a slowdown in parts of its advertising business while racing to keep pace with far-faster growing rival Google.
Meantime, a consortium of seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers across the country is announcing a broad partnership with Yahoo to share content, advertising and technology. In the first phase of the deal, the newspaper companies will begin posting their employment classified ads on Yahoo’s classified jobs site, HotJobs, and start using HotJobs technology to run their own online career ads.
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Yahoo!7 helps Seven raise cash
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australian media group Seven, which owns the Seven Network as well as half of the Yahoo!7 new media venture and a stable of magazines, has mirrored rival PBL’s recent move and spun off its assets to raise cash and prepare for acquisitions.
Seven is selling a 50% stake to private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co for around A$4 billion, creating a new enterprise called the Seven Media Group. Seven will receive cash of about $3.2 billion, with the remainder invested in the new venture. KKR said that the Yahoo!7 asset in particular had “interesting growth opportunities”.
Seven’s rival PBL last month spun off its media and new media assets, including its stake in the Ninemsn venture, in a A$4.5 billion deal with CVC Asia Pacific, another private equity firm. KKR was the runner-up in the auction for PBL.
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Orbit lay-off plans cause protests in Italy
From Branislav Pekic in RomeSatellite pay-TV operator Orbit, owned by Saudi group Mawarid, which transmits a digital package of 40 TV and 20 radio channels for 23 Middle Eastern and North African countries from Rome, has announced it will lay-off 92 workers.
Orbit said it had "started a restructuring process over a year ago through which the majority of the production process was transferred to Manama in Bahrain, to Beirut and to Cairo. Since 1993, Orbit was based at the area of Tor Sapienza/Tiburtine Technological Centre, from where its satellite hub (the third largest in Rome) produced and aired programmes for its pay-TV platform. Initially, it employed about 700 employees, mostly Italian, Arab and British. Currently employees represent at least 15 different nationalities. The transfer of production to Bahrain and other locations has led to a drastic reduction in work and staff at the Rome branch, which is likely to close down in the space of a few months.
The move has caused protests by the Italian trade union SLC-CGIL, which points out that the company management has not submitted any new development plans, while wages and severance payments to workers being laid off are suffering month-long delays. The union also says there may be further protests in order to try and involve the government, Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Labour Minister Cesare Damiano and Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni.
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Reliance investment talks
India’s Reliance Telecommunications operators is in talks with private equity groups Blackstone and o Carlyle to raise investments totalling upto $1bn in a new subsidiary created to house its telecoms tower business. Temasek, the Singapore investment agency, and American Tower, the large telecoms tower management company, are also thought to be in talks to take a 5-10 per cent stake in the new group, called TowerCo.
Reliance this month announced plans to spin off its wireless towers business to separate the heavy costs of building telecoms infrastructure from the parent company. Reliance will hold the majority stake in the private company and hinted that it could seek eventually to take the company public. Reliance plans to build 10,000 more wireless towers across the country in addition to the 15,000 it has.
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Irish Times web TV deal with Kamera
Ireland’s first full-scale Web TV channel is to launch in November, when ireland.com launches following a deal with Web TV specialists Kamera. ireland.com is the website of the Irish broadsheet of note, The Irish Times, and is Ireland’s leading news website, with more than 858,000 unique visitors per month. The new Web TV channel will allow users to watch the latest international news and stories, as they break, in a user-friendly format, and enables the newspaper to strengthen its brand positioning and content offering.
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Monday 20th November
Sky’s ITV bombshell
YouTube cuts NHL deal
Arqiva acquires BT’s satellite broadcast business
News Corp switches digital chiefs
Digital TV hits 70% of UK homes
Yahoo buys Bix.com
Ofcom bans junk food ads
Castellanos, new president of Spain's Pro DTT
Verizon and Rainbow programming deal
China's BestTV in IPTV on-demand movie deal
BskyB shocked the markets, ITV, NTL and Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson when it bought nearly 20% of ITV from its biggest shareholder the Fidelity fund on Friday.
James Murdoch, Sky CEO and architect of the £940m (E1.36bn) raid, said it was a financial investment and they would be supportive long-term shareholders. Branson said it was a cynical attempt to scupper the proposed takeover of ITV by Virgin Media (the renamed NTL where Branson is the biggest shareholder), and extend undue influence over ITV. He says he will try and get the deal undone through the regulators. Ofcom was meeting yesterday in an emergency session, but implied that at this stage there was nothing for it to act upon.
Meanwhile ITV has to remain studiedly neutral; chairman Sir Peter Burt is expected to meet with James Murdoch soon.
If nothing else the deal guarantees a high profile dual between two ‘big beasts’ of the media jungle: Murdoch will want to show he can emulate his father when it comes to defending controversial tactics and Branson will be looking for a repeat of his victory in the drawn out feud with British Airways in the airline business.
It also guarantees a mountain of speculation as to Sky’s motives. Certainly Sky saw the NTL takeover of ITV as a threat and it may have some of the same advantages in mind: driving down the cost of programme supply, cross promoting platforms, coordinating convergence strategies and, most important, joint bids for premium rights freezing out the BBC and Virgin/NTL.
However it is precisely these activities that would run into trouble with the regulators so, for now at least, passive investment will be the order of the day – Murdoch says he believes the woes at leaderless ITV have been exaggerated and he expects a substantial upturn. “BSkyB wishes to explore options to create value in the interests of both BSkyB’s and ITV’s shareholders. BSkyB believes that ITV is one of Europe’s premier broadcasting and production businesses, and holds substantial potential for long-term value creation. BSkyB has no intention of acquiring shares that would result in BSkyB’s stake exceeding 19.9 per cent or making an offer for the whole of ITV’s remaining share capital.”
One further possibility is using the stake as bargaining chip at once blocking the NTL deal but also encouraging in RTL to bid for ITV. RTL, short of cash and therefore reportedly turning to private equity to help finance a bid, might welcome the chance to swap Channel Five for the Sky stake.
YouTube cuts NHL deal
YouTube has signed its first pact with a top sports league. It is to host a dedicated NHL channel featuring daily highlights and features from the North American ice hockey league, with the two parties sharing ad revenues.The NHL will provide game highlights and behind-the-scene video; YouTube will put the clips on a dedicated NHL channel supplemented with user-uploaded video. As has been the case with other YouTube content deals, the NHL will be able to remove copyright-breaching content from the site or can leave it and share in the revenue. YouTube says more league deals are in the works.
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Arqiva acquires BT’s satellite broadcast business
From Colin Mann in LondonBroadcast transmission specialist Arqiva is to acquire the full-time service components of BT’s Satellite Broadcast Services business in a £25 million (E36.9 million) cash deal. The deal will include long-term customer contracts, operations and personnel located in the USA, France, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as the UK.
The acquisition – completion of which is subject to regulatory approval in the UK and Germany - is a further stage in the consolidation of the satellite services sector, which saw Arqiva buy Kingston Inmedia in July 2005.
BT’s Satellite Broadcast Services business – part of the telco’s Media & Broadcast unit - currently provides both full-time and occasional-use satellite services from six teleports, three of which are in the UK, two in the US and one in France. Arqiva will acquire the full-time business, including the US and French teleports and one in the UK, while BT will retain the occasional-use part of the business.
Nick Thompson, managing director of Arqiva’s Satellite Media Solutions division, said the deal gave Arqiva an international footprint with a significant presence in France and the US as well as increasing the scale of its activities in the UK. ‘It will give us improved satellite reach and the ability to serve customers on a world-wide basis. It is an important strategic step for Arqiva."
Barry Bonnett, CEO of BT Media and Broadcast, confirmed that a feature of the deal was that Arqiva would become a partner to BT in providing Satellite Broadcast Services to integrate into media solutions for its customers.
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News Corp switches digital chiefsThe architect of News Corp’s internet strategy has been replaced. Ross Levinsohn, head of Fox Interactive Media, and the man behind the MySpace deal, was replaced by the more experienced Fox veteran Peter Levinsohn, a distant relative.
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Digital TV hits 70% of UK homes
Just over 70 per cent of UK households (17.7 million) are watching digital TV on at least one set in their homes, according to figures from Ofcom. The report found that 26 per cent of UK households have now bought digital terrestrial television receivers (Freeview), more than twice as many as in any other country. Ofcom also stated that 55 per cent more UK Internet users have taken up broadband in the last 18 months.
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Yahoo buys Bix.com
Yahoo is acquiring Bix.com – a site that allows users and advertisers to create, enter into and judge online contests. The deal is an attempt by Yahoo to bolster its offerings in social media, an area where it has struggled to compete with sites like MySpace and YouTube.Bix.com capitalizes on the popularity of reality TV shows such as ‘American Idol’. The site allows anyone to create an online contest in any of a number of categories. Users can then submit their own entries and vote on which entry deserves to win.
Yahoo said it planned to keep Bix.com as a stand-alone site and also to integrate it with some of its other social media properties, which include Yahoo Groups, the social network Yahoo 360 and the photo-sharing site Flickr.
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UK’s Ofcom has proposed a ban on junk food ads "in and around all programmes of particular appeal to children under the age of 16". It says the restrictions will apply to "youth-oriented and adult programmes which attract a significantly higher than average proportion of viewers under the age of 16", as well as to dedicated kids’ TV. The regulator estimates that the impact on total broadcast revenues initially would be up to £39m (E56m) a year.
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Castellanos, new president of Spain's Pro DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridThe president of DTT channel Veo TV, Jaime Castellanos, has been appointed as the new president of Impulsa TDT, a Pro DTT Association formed by Spanish broadcasters and Abertis to boost the development of DTT in the country.
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Castellanos succeeds Joan Majo in the post at a time when DTT in Spain is increasingly growing and one year after the re-launch of the market. The Association, which has just launched a massive advertising campaign to promote DTT, has asked the Government to play a more active role in the market and to inject more money to finance the DTT development. The Association estimates that E 1 billion will be needed to develop the DTT market.
Verizon and Rainbow programming deal
Verizon has confirmed a multiyear agreement with Rainbow Media that will make Rainbow's sports and entertainment programming available to Verizon FiOS TV subscribers.
The agreement includes distribution rights for MSG Network, FSN New York, FSN New England and for FSN New England's high-definition programming. Verizon will also carry Rainbow's national networks -- AMC, WE tv, IFC and fuse, along with its original on-demand networks, Mag Rack and sportskool.
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China's BestTV in IPTV on-demand movie deal
Best TV, Shanghai Media Group's IPTV unit, has signed deals with six global media groups for on-demand access to their movies. The deal gives users access to the movie back catalogues of Warner, Sony/Columbia, Fox, Disney/Buena Vista, Paramount and Universal studios. The studios will earn royalties, a share of the fees for every user request, as well as through advertising embedded in the movies.Currently, Hollywood studios can only release movies in China after a government review process. How the on-demand model will comply with Chinese regulations is as yet unknown.
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