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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 20th October
Music companies gain from YouTube sale
Kudelski scoops OpenTV
France Telecom and Microsoft joint instant message
Three screens to drive Cable TV infrastructure
BBC1: important role in digital future
ISMA releases video encryption spec
Astrium to build Hot Bird 10
Spanish Government challenged over cable legislation
MTN South Africa backs combined 3G/DVB-H
Sky Sports lands PGA rights
BT Vision signs entertainment deals
Music companies gain from YouTube saleFollowing YouTube's $1.65 billion deal with Google, record labels Universal Sony BMG and Warner are to receive a share of the sale.
Each of the major music companies negotiated to take small stakes in YouTube as part of video and music-licensing deals they struck shortly before the sale. The music companies collectively stand to receive as much as $50 million from these arrangements.
The deals that the music companies struck should help to shield Google from copyright-infringement lawsuits, an issue that concerned some Google investors when the YouTube deal was first announced. Other copyright holders, including the Hollywood and television studios, could still pursue legal action if their content appears on YouTube.
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Kudelski scoops OpenTVDigital security specialist the Kudelski Group is to acquire set-top box middleware provider OpenTV Corporation from Liberty Media by means of a stock purchase agreement, valued at $3.60 per share, a 26 per cent premium to Tuesday's closing price.
The transaction comprises some 36.7 million A and B shares, equivalent to 26.7 per cent of capital and 74.7 per cent of voting rights. As part of the transaction, Liberty will pay OpenTV up to $19.7 million, representing 71.4 per cent of the premium. The deal is expected to close by the first quarter of 2007.The pair suggest the deal better enables them to provide enabling technologies for the key revenue drivers of the digital television industry including content protection technology, on-demand services, interactive applications, and enabling technologies for enhanced and interactive advertising.
André Kudelski, Chairman and CEO of Kudelski, said: "The transaction allows us to be more responsive to clients that want either combined systems solutions or only parts of the system, such as only conditional access or middleware, providing them with a better choice and service. He confirmed that both OpenTV and Nagravision would continue to support respectively other third party conditional access systems and middleware when specified by their customers.
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France Telecom and Microsoft joint instant message
From Sotires Eleftheriou in ParisSteve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft and Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom, have unveiled new instant message service. The new service - Orange Messenger by Windows Live – neither snappy nor in French, is to be rolled out in France in December and in other countries in Europe soon afterwards.
It is compatible with Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN) and, according to the two CEOs, fully interoperable with other IM services such as Yahoo. It will enable messages to be sent instantly, not only between personal computers but also to and from mobile phones.
Moreover, a very large number of mobile phone terminals will be compatible from the outset. 700,000 mobile phones will be able to use it at launch. During a service demonstration, live TV sourced via the Internet was playing in one window of a PC while in another the demonstrator chatted with other people sending messages from a mobile phone and another PC, completely transparently.
No details were given about the pricing, although Lombard did say that it was based on an "innovative model" and would "not break the children’s piggy bank".
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Three screens to drive Cable TV infrastructureThe worldwide cable TV industry is in a race to provision a ‘three-screen’ service that starts with HDTV sets, maps over to broadband-connected PCs, and follows subscribers around during the day on cell phones or other portable devices, according to high-tech market research firm In-Stat. As a result, strong, continued growth in cable TV infrastructure equipment with sales rising from about $925.4 million during 2006 to more than $2.1 billion in 2010 is expected.
"The cable TV industry is working diligently to connect all the infrastructure dots in the race to provision a three-screen telecommunications service," noted Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "System operators are building out Super Headends and upgrading Local Headends to provide the economies of scale needed to provide the greatest number of services, over the greatest geographical reach, at the lowest possible cost. Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC, will become a fast-growing market for cable operators, and they will disrupt the cell phone industry."
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BBC1: important role in digital future
From Colin Mann in LondonBBC1, the public service broadcaster’s leading mixed-genre channel, still has a major role to play in the Corporation’s digital future, according to BBC1 Controller Peter Fincham.
Addressing the UK Broadcasting Press Guild, Fincham said that he saw in important part of his role as defining what the channel’s role would be in the digital era and preparing it for the time when analogue transmission ceased. "What do we need to be to still matter?" He suggested that BBC1 needed to remain mixed genre and mustn’t become narrow to chase ratings.
"How do we address the power of new and future media," he asked, warning that there was a danger in thinking that the conventional terrestrial channel was a thing of the past and suggesting that the linear channel was here to stay. "Let’s not be dazzled by new technology and overlook the fact that huge audiences still come to BBC1."
ISMA releases video encryption spec
A specification designed to offer true end-to-end video content protection, ISMACryp 1.1, has been released to the industry by trade association the Internet Streaming Media Alliance, who focus on developing open standards for the IPTV industry.
ISMACryp 1.1 already has been deployed in 111,000 terminals as part of the first mobile TV implementation in Europe, and incorporated into DVB-H.
The revised specification addresses the encryption of H.264/AVC video and HE-AAC audio for RTP transport and storage in MPEG-4 files. While other protection schemes safeguard content only when it is being transmitted, ISMACryp 1.1 provides end-to-end encryption starting at the source so that the content can be safely stored and streamed later. ISMACryp 1.1-protected content can be used on any network or device.
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Eutelsat Communications has confirmed that satellite system specialist Astrium will build the Hot Bird 10 broadcast satellite which will be launched in Q1 2009.
Following Hot Bird 8 and 9, it is the third high-power broadcast satellite based on Astrium's Eurostar E3000 platform that will be located at Eutelsat's premium video neighbourhood for cable and satellite broadcasting.Eutelsat CEO Giuliano Berretta said the new craft would further consolidate the operator’s premium Hot Bird position and would also expand the associated resource it could offer broadcasters from 10 degrees East for standard digital television, High-Definition Television and new video services using MPEG-4 compression.
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Spanish Government challenged over cable legislation
From David Del Valle in MadridSpain's regulatory body, CMT (Telecommunications Market Commission), has taken the Government to the Supreme Court over new cable legislation.
CMT has accused the Administration of invading its jurisdiction on the matter of the awarding of licences and the competition defence. It argues that the new cable rules break its areas of competence since it is the CMT and not the Government the one who must award the cable licences and guarantee free competition.
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MTN South Africa backs combined 3G/DVB-H
South African cellco MTN South Africa has signalled its intention to lead the market in the Mobile TV arena, as South Africa’s preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup gathers momentum.
The operator has launched the country’s first commercially available 3G/ DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) capable cellular handset - the Samsung P910 cellphone. The handset offers the functionality of any other 3G handset but with the use of the first available USIM featuring encryption technology that ensures the highest level of security for users.
"MTN again leads the market by offering solutions that build on existing user platforms, e.g. laptops. Tracing the evolution of content delivery from the desktop to the laptop, MTN gives you the chance to have access to the latest technology from the comfort of your home, office or car with a 3G/DVB-H handset,’’ claimed Ashraff Paruk, MTN SA’s Head of Business Strategy and Product Innovation.
"3G is a one-to-one transmission and thus is subject to bandwidth and frequency limitations. By contrast, DVB-H is one-to-many true broadcast and does not suffer such limitations. The advantage of offering both technologies on one handset is that 3G can accommodate a ‘return path’, allowing a user to request content on demand, and download it for use almost immediately or at a later stage," noted Paruk.
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Sky Sports has won the live broadcast rights for the annual PGA Golf Championship. The 10-year deal also includes broadcast rights for Sky’s mobile and broadband services.
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BT Vision signs entertainment deals
BT has signed video-on-demand agreements with MTV, Paramount Comedy and Nickelodeon in the UK to supply some of their entertainment content for BT's next-generation TV service, BT Vision.
BT Vision tentatively launches this Autumn.
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Thursday 19th October
Universal to sue Grouper and Bolt.com
Spain's pay-TV slows
O2 and Arqiva broadcast Mobile TV trial
China Network to Sell Controlling Stake to MBK
ProSiebenSat.1 online
PBL uses media for wagering funds
Cuatro burdens Sogecable's results
DAB in half UK homes by 2010
Duffy to quit NTL
Broadband UK needs 'more speed'
Sky and Sony show UK’s first HD advertisement
QVC enters mobile arena
Universal to sue Grouper and Bolt.com
Universal Music has filed lawsuits against two music video-sharing sites Bolt.com and Sony’s Grouper, for allowing users to swap pirated versions of its musicians' videos.
Universal, whose artists include U2 and Blink 182, is seeking damages as high as $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement, plus costs. Universal has estimated that thousands of music videos are being viewed on both sites to the advantage of the sites alone. The company charges both Grouper and Bolt.com with "mass infringement" of Universal's copyright, comparing their practices with those of the original file-sharing sites Napster and Kazaa, which have both paid damages in similar cases.
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Spain's pay-TV slows
From David Del Valle in MadridSpain's pay-TV market is suffering from the re-birth of DTT, the launch of new commercial TV channels and the Internet download boom (with the free-of-charge downloading of films and music.
According to the latest report produced by Red.es, relying on the Ministry of Industry statistics, Spanish households spent E297 million on pay-TV in the first quarter of the year, 6.3 per cent down than the same period last year. The ARPU fell by E1 to E 34.4 per month, whereas concerning Internet ARPU grew by 14 per cent up to E 26.2.
At March 2007, according to Red.es, Spain had 3.28 million pay-TV subscribers, of which 1.428 million are to Digital Plus (the company claims to now have 2 million), 1.57 million to cable companies, including ONO, Euskaltel, R and Telecable, and 300,000 subscribers to Telefonica's IPTV service Imagenio.
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O2 and Arqiva broadcast Mobile TV trial
UK’s O2 and Arqiva have revealed the first consumer trial of broadcast mobile TV in Ireland. Beginning in December 2006, the trial plans to include the live broadcast of the main Irish TV channels. Sky content and other TV channels will also be available.
From January 2007, the trial will be expanded to include four hundred O2 Ireland customers in the Greater Dublin area. Arqiva will operate the broadcast technology for the trial. Danuta Gray, Chief Executive of O2 Ireland, said: "O2 is delighted to be first in Ireland to trial live broadcast television to customers on their mobile phones. This latest innovation in the wider communications sector is set to play a key role in the future of mobile technology."
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China Network to Sell Controlling Stake to MBKChina Network Systems, Taiwan's second-largest cable television provider by subscribers, has agreed to sell a controlling stake to MBK Partners, a private equity fund formed by former Carlyle Group executives.
MBK agreed to pay about NT$30.9 billion ($932 million) for a 60 per cent stake in China Network, the Economic Daily News reported.
MBK and other companies based outside the island have purchased three Taiwanese cable television companies in the past year, including China Network, betting regulation changes will allow the addition of digital television and high-speed Internet services will boost revenue.
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ProSiebenSat.1 online
From Dieter Brockmeyer in Frankfurt
Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is to expand onto the Internet. Only a month after taking control of the German video portal myVideo, the company has now acquired a 30 per cent stake in Lokalisten media AG which runs leading German social network Lokalisten.de - with currently some 325,000 users.
"With myVideo and Lokalisten.de we now own special media for the young mySpace generation and it perfectly adds to our portfolio of services", says ProSieben CEO Guillaume de Posch.
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PBL uses media for wagering funds
From Rose Major in MelbourneAustralian firm PBL has leveraged some of its media assets to raise funds for its gambling ambitions, following the Australian government’s opening up of media foreign ownership laws.
PBL has placed flagship channel the Nine Network, plus Nine’s stakes in Australia’s Sky News channel and its 50/50 joint venture with Microsoft, Ninemsn, in a new unit, PBL Media. Venture capital company CVC Asia Pacific will take 50 per cent of the unit once the new laws, passed by Parliament today, have been enacted. That is likely to be in early 2007.
PBL’s 25 per cent stake in digital-television platform Foxtel is not included in the new unit, but ACP Magazines and PBL‚s 41 per cent of carsales.com.au are.
The deal would enable PBL Media to take advantage of media opportunities both in Australia and overseas, PBL said.
PBL will receive net cash of A$4.5 billion for the deal, which company executive chairman James Packer said would "provide the capital and flexibility necessary for the company to achieve its ambition to expand its international gaming interests". PBL Media has underwritten financing from UBS for new debt of $3.75 billion non-recourse to PBL and CVC. CVC will also invest $982 million to acquire convertible notes in PBL Media.
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Cuatro burdens Sogecable's results
From David Del Valle in MadridSogecable's venture in the Spain's commercial TV market is costing the pay-TV group heavily. The launch of Cuatro (with E78.3 million losses) means to September the company lost E25.9 million against a profit of E19.5 million the same period last year.
Despite the loss, Sogecable has increased its turnover up to E 1,192.8 million, a rise of E 101.5 million, 9.3 per cent more than the same period in 2005.
Sogecable's pay-TV DTH platform Digital Plus currently has more than two million subscribers, according to the company.
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More than half of UK households will have digital radio sets by 2010, according to The Digital Radio Development Bureau, the industry body charged with driving the uptake of digital radio. The projection represents a near-fourfold rise in penetration from current levels and reflects the increasing availability of cheap models. It estimates that penetration of DAB sets will be 13.9% by the end of the year.
Two million sets are expected to be sold over the course of 2006, some costing as little as £29. "Over the past four years, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of DAB digital radio sets available to consumers, and there are now about 300 different models available from all the leading consumer electronic brands," said the DRDB's chief executive, Ian Dickens.
UK press says Executive Vice Chairman Simon Duffy will soon leave the NTL Virgin operation. The Times says the former CEO of Telewest could leave with up to $30 million in cash and shares.
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Broadband UK needs 'more speed'Experts warn the UK is falling behind its European counterparts when it comes to Internet speed says Jupiter Research. It says three-quarters of UK online households will connect to the web via broadband by December 2006, analysts predict. But while uptake has helped the UK to the broadband fast track, lack of speed compared to other countries could still see it derailed.
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Sky and Sony show UK’s first HD advertisement
Sky and Sony are joined forces to screen the UK’s first television advertisement in the high definition (HD) format. The ad for Sony’s BRAVIA range of TVs was seen in HD for the first time on Sky Sports HD 2 during coverage of the UEFA Champions League.
The launch of the first HD ad follows a major marketing agreement between Sky and Sony to promote the advance in picture and sound quality that HD brings to television viewers.
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QVC enters mobile arena
UK shopping channel QVC has launched a mobile service "QVC in your Pocket", giving customers access to its product range through their mobile handsets. The service lets customers place orders, access the Today’s Special Value item, the on-air item, a rolling list of the last 12 items aired on the television and 24 Hour Product Review.
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T-Com goes live with MSTV
Narrowstep 2nd quarter revenues increase 118%
RTL launches pay TV with Unity Media
Viacom on Baidu
Ensequence enhances next-gen QVC Active
Tandberg for Croatia IPTV
MTG/NASN to launch Eastern European sports channel
freedom2surf with Aggregator
Turner launches Nokia Cartoon Network downloads
Tiscali partners Rawflow
NDS PR Director
T-Com goes live with MSTVT-Com, the ISP of Deutsche Telekom, has announced the commercial launch of its T-Home service, including TV services delivered using the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform.
The television service offers over 100 free and pay TV channels and an extensive choice of entertainment video on demand. Content partners range from major broadcasters ARD, ZDF, RTL, Pro7 and Sat.1 to specialist broadcasters like Planet TV, History Channel and Gusto TV. It also includes all Premiere channels and offers football fans the Bundesliga with live matches from the 1st and 2nd German football leagues. The video on demand service features films from Universal, Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Warner and Sony.
"T-Home stands out by virtue of its convenience, attractive content and future-proof infrastructure. We offer our customers top entertainment at home by using the very latest technology," said Walter Raizner, Member of the Board of Management responsible for Broadband/Fixed Network at Deutsche Telekom.
"On behalf of Microsoft, and our teams who have worked so closely with Deutsche Telekom in Germany I would like to congratulate Deutsche Telekom on the launch of T-Home. When we announced our partnership to develop next generation TV services earlier this year, I said that Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom would work together to help create a revolution in TV entertainment for consumers across Germany, and that revolution has started today," said Steve. Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft.
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Narrowstep 2nd quarter revenues increase 118%Narrowstep, the broadband TV company, has revealed its revenues increased 118 per cent to $1,568,367, up from $717,985 for the second quarter of 2007.
Steve Beaumont, Narrowstep President and CEO said, "Revenues from our narrowcasting and related activities, which represent recurring revenue streams, have increased dramatically compared to our results from the prior year. We believe that narrowcasting revenues will continue to increase, primarily driven by the addition of new customers and the resulting increase in licensing, bandwidth usage and storage fees.
"The increase in narrowcasting revenues, which have significantly higher margins, drove our strong increase in gross profits and gross profit margin for the quarter, which we believe demonstrates the scalability of our business model."
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RTL launches pay TV with Unity Media
RTL is launching the first RTL pay TV offerings in Germany on the digital satellite platform of arena and the cable networks of Unity Media.
RTL Living and Passion are to be launched on 1 December throughout Germany via the tividiSAT satellite platform of arena.
The new digital RTL channels will be part of the "tividi FAMILY" package in cable. Viewers with satellite can see the three new channels as part of the "tividiSAT" programme package.
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Viacom has announced a deal to distribute music videos and television shows through the Web site of Chinese Internet-search company Baidu.com. Baidu is the most popular search engine in China, which has 123 million Internet users, a population second only to that in the U.S. A survey by the government’s China Internet Network Information Centre put Baidu's share of search traffic at 62 per cent, trailed by Google at 25 per cent.
Viacom's deal has created an "MTV channel" on Baidu's site movie.baidu.com, where users can pay to download music videos or can watch television shows free, but with advertising. About 15,000 hours of content will be available initially.
But with illicit copies of popular songs, movies and TV shows already widely available on the Internet, company executives admitted they are still looking for ways to entice Chinese users to seek out legitimate forms of online entertainment.
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Ensequence enhances next-gen QVC Active
From Colin Mann in LondonInteractive TV authoring software and services provider Ensequence has secured a deal with UK television retailer QVC to offer enhanced interactive TV shopping services to QVC viewers.
Under the terms of the agreement, QVC will use Ensequence on-Q software and professional services to deliver the next generation of its QVC Active service on Sky Digital in the United Kingdom, aimed at giving QVC customers a more timely and richer interactive shopping experience and increasing conversion rates for QVC. Ensequence won the business in competition with other providers, including incumbent supplier NDS.
Aslam Khader, VP Marketing and Strategy, said that having the largest TV retail operator select them was a great endorsement of Ensequence’ solution. "We think interactive television is entering ‘2.0’ mode now. We can use moving video to increase stickiness."
TANDBERG Television announced that its IPTV video head-end and MPEG-4 AVC encoders have been selected by Deutsche Telekom. Working with its leading business partner, Siemens Networks, TANDBERG Television is providing this technology for the MAXtv IPTV service being launched by Croatian T-Com. The service is using TANDBERG EN5930 SD encoders, TT1222 professional receivers and TT7140 IP streamers to provide Croatian viewers with a new way to watch TV with over 80 real-time channels and a large number of video on-demand movies.
"Getting the IP network infrastructure right is a critical part of our service roll-out. We recognize that we need best-of-breed technologies to enable us to cost-effectively meet our core objectives of providing our customers with the best quality and widest choice of entertainment services. Siemens and TANDBERG Television have given us access to advanced systems that meet our needs today and give us flexibility and scalability for the future," says Vedran Perisic, Director for Content Development and Management at Croatian T-Com.
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MTG/NASN to launch Eastern European sports channelModern Times Group (MTG) will launch an eighth Viasat pay-TV channel in Central and Eastern Europe. The new ‘Viasat Sport’ channel has been co-developed with North American Sports Network (NASN), and will be launched in Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the three Baltic states in November.
Viasat Broadcasting and NASN will be the first broadcasters to offer viewers in Russia, the CIS countries and the Baltic countries access to premium sports content such as the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. The channel will feature up to 24 hours per day of NASN and other premium sports programming.The channel will be made available through cable TV packages in Russia and CIS countries, as well as on Viasat’s own satellite DTH TV platform in the Baltics.
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freedom2surf with Aggregator
freedom2surf is the first ISP to sign with IPTV provider Aggregator, offering on-demand television over broadband (TvoBB) to its customers.
Aggregator says TVoBB services will create a UK pay-TV platform that will serve multiple devices including PCs and hybrid set-top boxes. Initially offering programmes for Russian expatriates living in the UK through its Mo?TV portal, Aggregator says it will launch a number of further services in the coming months targeted at a range of special interests.
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Turner launches Nokia Cartoon Network downloadsTurner Broadcasting and Nokia have announced that Turner's Cartoon Network is being made available for consumer downloads through the Nokia Content Discoverer client.
Under a multi-country agreement between the companies, mobile subscribers will be able to browse, download and purchase over-the-air Cartoon Network games, video clips, and other content from a dedicated Cartoon Network mobile content "storefront" available to consumers.
Territories covered under the agreement include: United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Norway.
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Tiscali, the ISP, has partnered with RawFlow, a provider of live peer-to-peer streaming technology, to increase the scalability and quality of Tiscali's Media Delivery Network serving inter alia over 60 private radio stations. Due to its popularity, Tiscali is now broadcasting over 100 terabytes per month, and approached RawFlow to increase streaming capacity and quality.
Tiscali and RawFlow will jointly develop the freestream-model in combination with peer-to-peer streaming technology into a pan-European service.
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NDS PR DirectorNDS has appointed Cynthia Ritchie as Director of Public Relations. Ritchie joined NDS’s European Sales and Marketing team in 2005. Prior to joining NDS, Cynthia was European Marketing Manager at Intelsat in London for three years. She has also held sales, marketing, and communications positions at BT Broadcast Services and Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications.
Tuesday 17th October
Rights holders pressurise Google
Ricke under pressure at DT
BBC mobisodes flop
ABC eyes children's digital
Fremantle Media Sprints to mobile deal
Technetix distributes C-COR
Telefónica broadcasts WOW! TV
Get gets NDS
Widevine Technologies secures SaskTel’s HDTV
NXP and ITVN enable IPTV market growth
Rights holders pressurise GoogleA week after its $1.65 billion buy of YouTube, Google is being pressed by major media companies to cut licence deals to cover unauthorised use of copyright material by YouTube contributors.
YouTube says it hasn’t broken copyright laws, because it immediately removes clips when rights holders complain about their inclusion on the site. But lawyers for the group of media companies, which includes News Corp., NBC Universal and Viacom, have concluded that YouTube could be liable to copyright penalties of $150,000 per unauthorised video. Viacom believes that pirated versions of video clips from its channels -- including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon -- are watched 80,000 times a day via YouTube.
Time Warner hasn't joined the group, but has also warned YouTube about what it considers to be the site's repeated infringement of its copyrights. Whether the media companies eventually will file legal action is unclear, but the legal manoeuvring comes as each of them is holding separate negotiations to allow YouTube to carry their programming in return for a slice of advertising revenue.
So far, YouTube has struck deals with TV companies NBC Universal, CBS and with most of the major music companies, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music. YouTube is building a system that would help automate identification of videos containing copyright material on its site, and allow the content owners to get a portion of any related ad revenue.
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Ricke under pressure at DT
Directors are reported to be sizing up potential candidates for CEO at Deutsche Telekom group before a decision in December whether to renew the contract of the current chief executive beyond 2007. Kai-Uwe Ricke has come under pressure since issuing a profit warning as falling subscriber numbers at the company’s ailing fixed-line division continued and growth of its mobile businesses in the US and Europe slowed.Some Telekom directors are understood to be pushing for a candidate with an international record – with Ben Verwaayen, BT’s chief executive, among those being considered.
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The BBC's heavily publicised ‘Tardisodes’ - one-minute Doctor Who episodes designed specifically for mobile phones - were a flop, the corporation has revealed. The BBC says they only attracted an average of 3,000 phone downloads per mobisode. "It seems we have a long way to go to understanding this new space," said the BBC.
Despite being attached to one of the BBC's biggest brands and receiving heavy cross-promotion during the series earlier this year, the Tardisodes did not meet the BBC's expectations for mobile phone downloads.
Downloads to PCs of the bespoke mini-prequels and teaser Tardisode episodes reached 2.6 million users but the same Tardisodes offered to mobile subscribers attracted only 40,000 downloads over the 13-week series. One problem was that even though the BBC provided the mobisodes free, most users had to pay a charge to their phone operator of between £1.50 (E2.1) and £2 per Tardisode.
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ABC eyes children's digital
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australian public broadcaster the ABC is reported to be planning to launch a digital-only children's channel, perhaps as early as the New Year. Such a move would be a big vote of confidence in Australia's digital terrestrial platform, which has grown slower than some other countries' platforms.
It would not be the first time the ABC has operated a digital children's channel. In 2001, the broadcaster launched ABC Kids and ABC Fly, but these closed in mid-2003 with the ABC blaming a lack of government funding for its digital project. ABC2, which launched in early 2005, now airs some children's programming.
In its submission to the recent Senate inquiry into the government's media legislation, passed last week, the ABC indicated it would be interested in expanding its children's offerings, should genre restrictions on its digital only output be lifted.
"Subject to available spectrum and funding, the ABC is interested in providing additional digital television content in a number of priority areas including children's television," the submission said. But that could also encompass services to mobile TV or ‘datacasting’ channels which the broadcaster has also flagged an
interest in.
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Fremantle Media Sprints to mobile deal
Fremantle Media is launching a mobile phone channel called Atomic Wedgie in partnership with the US mobile operator Sprint Nextel.
The subscription service, launched in conjunction with the technology provider Mobliss, includes streamed versions of programmes from RTL-subsidiary Fremantle's library.None of the clips will be longer than two and a half minutes because most research suggests mobile video viewing mainly involves ‘snacking’ for short periods of time.
"This is about getting into the direct-to-consumer business," commented Olivier Gers, general manager of FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide.
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Broadband cable TV and telecommunications equipment supplier Technetix is to become primary distributor of C-COR’s broadband access products in Europe The deal will see Technetix will provide product stocking and distribution, technical support and customer service, and product repair and customisation.
The agreement covers C-COR’s cable operator customer base in Europe, except certain major accounts that will continue to be fully and directly supported by C-COR. C-COR and Technetix have also agreed to co-market and co-sell their complementary product lines in the European market.
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Spanish mobile operator Telefónica Móviles España has signed up for Kamera’s live entertainment channel WOW! TV.
The launch is part of a major mobile TV roll-out initiative planned by Telefónica Móviles España, which has over 21 million subscribers, in which 12 live TV channels will be available to its 3G customers.WOW! TV is Kamera’s premium channel, reporting on the latest music, movies, fashion and celebrity news and gossip. The service is currently carried by over 20 mobile operators worldwide.
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NDS has announced that Scandinavian broadband channel Get will be using its technology to support the operator’s digital cable TV platform.
Get is planning to launch its new service using NDS technology before the winter holiday season, which will include the introduction of new set-top boxes (STB) and the deployment of new smart cards to the company’s cable TV subscribers.
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Widevine Technologies secures SaskTel’s HDTVDownloadable content protection and forensic watermarking and digital copy protection solutions provider Widevine Technologies has expanded its content security for Canadian telco SaskTel’s HDTV over IP deployment.
SaskTel’s new HDTV service is part of a complete broadcast and VOD service offering comprised of 27 Max HD channels. The service offers several entertainment theme packages, plus sports, news and movies from top Hollywood studios including Warner Bros. International, Paramount, NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Pictures.
"To acquire the highest quality and earliest release windows for our HDTV service, SaskTel had to demonstrate we had the content security to persistently encrypt SD & HD content throughout the entire video distribution chain," SaskTel President and CEO Robert Watson said. "We chose Widevine because they are highly regarded by Hollywood for HD content protection and are the only company that could scale to the numbers of subscribers we need to support."
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NXP and ITVN enable IPTV market growth
IPTV hardware, software and interactive networks provider Interactive Television Networks, Inc. has selected the NXP STB810 set-top box semiconductor solution to build IP set-top box devices for mass deployment in the US.
"IPTV subscriber revenue will reach more than $27 billion in the next four years," said Mark Kirstein, vice president of Multimedia Content & Services. "However, in order for the IPTV market to reach its full potential, consumers need devices that are easy-to-use and enable a smooth transition from traditional TV to IPTV.
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Monday 16th October
BT Vision next spring?
Malone wants DirecTV
FastWeb up 40%
TW will pursue Google on YouTube rights
BBC Trust names complete
US Wireless can use TV frequencies
New Medium Enterprises unveils first-generation VMD player
Draft Bill in Italy
New satellite channel to promote Portugal
Five VOD
BT has told UK press its television over broadband service will have a soft launch this autumn "in an attempt to avoid the customer service problems." A nationwide marketing campaign will wait until next spring. A spokesman said: "As the first service of its kind, we are expecting a lot of interest, and so we will roll it out sensibly to ensure the best possible customer experience.. [BT] will start at a steady jog rather than a sprint. If you sprint from the outset, you can take a nasty tumble."
BT said that the company would initially market BT Vision to its existing broadband customers. He stressed that this should not be seen as a delay, but as a "sensible" rollout, and said that paying customers would be added to the network immediately after launch. Other observers aren’t so sure. Mid-October is usually considered autumn, and there is no sign of a launch yet and a studio source, whose company has a content deal with BT, said he had been told a consumer launch might have to wait until March.
Speculation over launch dates has been fuelled by rumours of glitches with the Microsoft TV platform. Microsoft has been adopted by 14 telephone carriers around the world including BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia and AT&T but none of those companies are selling the service yet beyond tests.
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Malone wants DirecTV
Liberty Media said it may swap its stake in News Corp. for a controlling interest in DirecTV Group. John Malone, Liberty's chairman, has been in discussions with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch over making a swap for Liberty Media's 18 percent stake in News since Malone quietly bought up shares in 2004."We were saying in the marketplace that we may exchange our roughly $11 billion stake in News Corp. for a controlling stake in DirecTV," Liberty President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei said. Publicly, Murdoch has continued to defend the U.S. satellite TV market despite a slowdown in subscriber growth and his new found enthusiasm for the web through MySpace.
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FastWeb said third-quarter earnings rose 40 per cent as the company added a record number of users. EBITDA advanced to more than E113 million from E80.9 million a year earlier, the Milan-based company said. Revenue rose 22 per cent to more than E315 million.
Earlier this week, FastWeb agreed to expand a commercial accord with News Corp.'s Sky Italia to offer clients access to television channels and fast Internet services. In September FastWeb and the Italian unit of Vodafone announced a deal to offer broadband Web access and discounts for calls between their fixed-line and wireless clients.
FastWeb added a record 83,000 customers in the third quarter, bringing the total number of clients to 957,300 at the end of September, it said.
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TW will pursue Google on YouTube rights
Time Warner will take talks with YouTube over copyright issues to new owner Google, TW Chairman and Chief Executive Dick Parsons said . "You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some acceptable position," Parsons told The Guardian.The acquisition will give Google a foothold in the emerging market for video advertising, but it also stands to inherit court challenges from independent film makers, garage bands, television studios and others who may chafe at YouTube users uploading copyrighted material to the site without permission. Parsons added, "We'd like to have our content displayed on these platforms, but on a basis that it respects our rights as the owner of that content."
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BBC Trust names completeFormer ITC chief executive Patricia Hodgson and ex-ITV director of programmes David Liddiment are among the final eight members of the new BBC Trust. UK culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, announced the eight remaining appointees to the 12-strong board, headed by the BBC chairman, Michael Grade, which will replace the board of governors.
The other newly board members include vice-chair Chitra Bharucha, chair of the fitness to practise panel of the General Medical Council and lay member of the Review Body for Judicial Complaints; economic consultant Diane Coyle; and Janet Lewis-Jones, vice-president of the British Board of Film Classification.
The remaining three places are filled by media consultant Alison Hastings; Rotha Johnston, a non-executive director of Allied Irish Bank; and Mehmuda Mian Pritchard, a member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission. They join the four existing members appointed before today, Michael Grade, Dermot Gleeson, Jeremy Peat and Richard Tait.
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US Wireless can use TV frequencies
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to permit certain wireless devices to use vacant airwaves between active television channels as long as they do not cause interference. "Allowing low-power wireless devices to operate in the unused portions of the television bands could be an efficient and effective use of this unused spectrum," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.The FCC agreed to permit the use of fixed, low-powered, wireless equipment on some unused channel frequencies and said it would conduct testing to assess interference and encouraged others to submit their findings. The FCC said it expected to have the laboratory test results on interference by July and would set final technical requirements for the devices by October 2007.
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New Medium Enterprises unveils first-generation VMD player
From Colin Mann in CannesHigh-definition platforms, processes and technologies developer New Medium Enterprises (NME) has released its first-generation HD VMD player, intended to offer true high definition to the international mass consumer market at an affordable price. The player, which will retail for $175, will allow consumers to experience high definition at a low cost on a backwards-compatible player, capable of playing existing DVD formats. The player utilises NME's HD VMD format, which it sees as a natural successor to the existing DVD platform.
NME has already secured content deals in Europe, China and India and expects to be able to announce further contracts in the near future. Mahesh Jayanarayan, CEO of NME, said the launch was both a milestone for NME and a significant moment for the industry. "NME has worked in close collaboration with our partners, who can justifiably lay claim to be leaders in HD electronics, to bring to the market a high-quality HD player at an affordable price in all regions. NME has the platform, which will allow content developers to deliver high definition content to worldwide markets now, not at some future point. This is clearly generating significant interest in the market."
NME plans to announce additional products in the near future incorporating other codecs.
Draft Bill in Italy
Italy's cabinet approved the draft of a new media bill, which former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immediately denounced as an "act of banditry" for the way in which it could potentially punish Mediaset which he controls.
The bill, aimed at increasing competition in the Italian television market, would force Mediaset to reduce its domination of the advertising market to less than 45% from about 66 per cent. The bill also would require state-owned broadcaster RAI and Mediaset to move one of their free-to-air channels to a digital terrestrial platform, where viewership is expected to be lower. The bill still must be approved by Parliament, and passage is by no means certain.
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New satellite channel to promote Portugal
From Branislav Pekic in RomeA new satellite TV channel will be launched in the second quarter of 2007 for the international market from Faro in Portugal.
Portugal Channel has as its main goal the promotion of Portugal as a holiday and leisure destination, as well as a country with innovative companies. The programme schedule will be mostly made up of reports and documentaries promoting national tourism, with special emphasis on golf, art, design, wine and fashion. The remainder of the programming will be dedicated to Portuguese companies that are export orientated and have innovative business models. Although the channel will be based in the Algarve region, it will also promote Continental Portugal and the islands.
The new channel will be broadcast in English, free to air, via satellite throughout Europe, as well as globally on the Internet. Depending on the interest of viewers, Portugal Channel could add some content in Spanish, German or French in the future. Negotiations are currently underway for cable carriage. The director of Portugal Channel is Paulo Lavadinho, a former journalist at public broadcaster RTP and main shareholder of the Tele 7, the company backing the venture that will be financed by advertising.
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Five has partnered with BT Media & Broadcast to develop the state-of-the-art VOD service, which forms part of the five.tv website.
Jane Lighting, Five’s Chief Executive, said: "Five Download is an important part of Five’s digital media strategy."
The service offers full length episodes downloadable via broadband to PC users. Viewers can watch their chosen programmes an unlimited number of times for a full 14 days following download. The new previously-unseen programmes are priced at £2.49, (E3.6) with all other episodes at £1.49.
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