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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday Friday 7th April
Burke out at BT
ITV joins UK HD trials
YouTube gets VC baking
Kudelski buys SCM TV business
Multicanal leads Spain's thematic TV market
Lucent claims Xbox patents
Sky HD consumer launch April 12
MoboVivo offers download TV shows
Andrew Burke, CEO of BT Entertainment and the driving force of BT’s IPTV proposition has left the corporation ‘by mutual consent’. Last month BT announced the new service would be called BT Vision and launch nationwide in the autumn.
Burke, a former News Corp exec, had built up a team of TV specialists and some analysts speculated that the emerging entity had caused friction with BT Retail boss Ian Livingston. Burke was appointed by Livingston’s predecessor.
Another potential problem laid at Burke’s door is the ongoing speculation surrounding the readiness, or ldack of it, of Microsoft’s IPTV platform. BT’s – and several other incumbent telcos’ IPTV plans - entirely rely on its successful deployment and rumours persist of interoperability and scaling problems.
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ITV is joining the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel Five in this summer’s digital terrestrial television HD trial in London. The six-month DTT HD trial, using a test and development licence from Ofcom, will use local frequencies to showcase a selection of specially recorded HD programming, including live World Cup coverage from Germany.
"ITV is already commissioning and recording a wide range of HD programming. This trial will allow us to evaluate the technology and give us valuable insight into viewer attitudes to HD, helping to show the possibilities for HD broadcasts over DTT post-switchover," said Simon Fell, the controller of emerging technologies at ITV.
ITV and the other broadcasters are hooking up 500 volunteers to take part in the trial, which is designed to test a range of consumer equipment and gain a better understanding of terrestrial HD broadcasting. The issue for HD broadcasts on DTT is that there is not likely to be enough bandwidth to support permanent services until after digital switchover in 2012.
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ADVANCED TELEVISION is looking for industry correspondents to file news, particularly from ITALY and the NORDIC REGION. If you would like to be considered or can make any helpful recommendations, please contact colin.mann@advanced-television.com. We are always pleased to hear from potential correspondents in other regions as well.
YouTube, which hosts video clips uploaded by its users, has received $8m in second-round funding from Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm that was an original backer of companies such as Yahoo! and Google. "This is the birth of a new clip culture where the audience is in control more than ever," said Chad Hurley, YouTube chief executive.
IDC Research has said that internet video services were on the brink of becoming a mainstream phenomenon in the US and were primed for explosive growth. It predicted that the market would grow from around $200m in 2005 to generate revenues of more than $1.7bn by 2010.
YouTube reports more than 35m videos are watched daily on its site by 6m unique users, with tens of thousands of clips uploaded every day.
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Kudelski buys SCM TV businessSCM Microsystems announced that it has agreed to sell its Digital TV solutions business to the Kudelski Group for $11 million in cash. The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies. "SCM pioneered removable security for digital broadcasting and has helped build a market for open systems in the digital TV industry. Removable security modules will become a key enabler of digital pay-TV services as the retail market continues to grow and develop," said André Kudelski, Chairman and CEO of the Kudelski Group.
"The sale of our Digital TV business furthers our strategy to consolidate and restructure our organisation around a more focused business model," said Robert Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of SCM Microsystems.SCM will sell substantially all of the assets that relate to its Digital TV solutions business, including its office building in France, certain inventory, contracts, trademarks and intellectual property. In addition, approximately 40 employees in Europe and Asia are expected to join Kudelski’s newly created business focused on providing secure pay-TV modules compatible with consumer electronic products for the digital TV industry. The products that Kudelski is acquiring include SCM’s DVB and OpenCable compliant conditional access modules.
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Multicanal leads Spain's thematic TV market
From David Del Valle in MadridMulticanal, distributor of seven thematic TV channels to the Spanish and Portuguese markets (Canal Hollywood, Canal de Historia, Sol Musica, Odisea, Canal Cocina, The Biography Channel and Panda) leads the audience in thematic channels in Spain.
According to ratings group Sofres, in the first quarter of the year Multicanal's channels were the most widely watched in the Spanish market. Canal Hollywood had an average daily audience of 1 million people.
The music channel Sol Musica led the music channels with a daily audience of 900,000 people. Odisea and Canal de Historia are the most widely watched documentary channels with more than 200,000 viewers every day. Its cooking channel Canal Cocina is the first in Lifestyle channels, with more than 300,000 viewers.
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Microsoft says it is reviewing a lawsuit filed against it by Lucent Technologies alleging Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains technology that infringes on a Lucent patent. Lucent filed the suit in San Diego and asked for injunctive relief and unspecified damages.
In 2003, Lucent sued Microsoft's hardware partners Gateway Inc. and Dell Inc., accusing them of infringing on three patents. The suit did not seek damages from Microsoft. The computer makers asked Microsoft to shield them from Lucent's claims since the technologies in question were built into Microsoft's products. In response, Microsoft filed a declaratory judgement complaint in San Diego.
In August 2005, Judge Rudy Brewster threw out part of Lucent's complaint because the patent at issue contained a typographical error. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a certificate of correction for the patent in October, which allowed Lucent to sue Microsoft last week. The name of the patent is "Adaptive Coding and Decoding of Frames and Fields of Video." Lucent now says Microsoft is infringing on the patent through the Xbox 360, which the company released in November.
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Sky HD consumer launch April 12
Sales to the general public for Sky HD will open on Wednesday 12 April and installations are due to begin in May, allowing customers in the UK and Ireland to enjoy a wide range of HD channels for the first time.
Customers will pay £299 (E433) for the Sky HD box with a Sky HD subscription of £10 a month in addition to their Sky digital subscription. The Sky HD box will be equipped with 160GB of personal storage space. This means customers should be able to record around 30 hours of HD programmes or 80 hours of standard definition. The Sky HD box will offer Sky+ functionality.
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MoboVivo offers download TV shows
MoboVivo Inc. is the first Canadian company offering legal downloadable television shows for the Apple Video iPod. The ability to download to other mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and the Sony PSP will be available later in the year.
"Until now, there has been no place for Canadians to buy downloadable television programmes," says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of MoboVivo. "With over 100,000 television episodes being downloaded daily from the iTunes Video Store in the USA, MoboVivo presents a huge opportunity for Canadian and international content providers to offer downloadable versions of their TV shows."
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Thursday 6th April
NTL Virgin may bid for football rights
Liberty sells Swedish cable
Gemstar mobile IPG
Thales will buy Alcatel satellite business
Disney kids mobile
BPI says piracy cost £414m in 2005
MSNBC ad supported mobile service
Pace announces new CEO
New multi format service
NTL Virgin may bid for football rights
NTL chairman, Jim Mooney, said it was looking at the possibility of bidding for Premier League football through a new Virgin Sports subsidiary and brand. The Virgin group becomes the largest shareholder in the newly merged NTL-Virgin company, with a 10.7 per cent stake as a result of NTL’s purchase of Virgin Mobile.
Mooney confirmed the company was weighing its Premier League bid options, including considering potential partnerships with other broadcasters, though he declined to comment on reported links with ITV. He said he was interested in the idea of a "Virgin Sports" service. "The concept of Virgin Sports is probably one of the most exciting things I can think of that we could look forward to. We will evaluate that very carefully. We are doing our homework and will make very intelligent decisions."Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said: "Going forward, it's going to be extremely exciting to have Virgin being involved in TV and to be working with all the team at NTL and Telewest. We're looking forward to shaking up this industry". Sir Richard said he was not worried about the potential risk of attaching the Virgin brand to a business that has suffered from poor customer service. "I don't think it's a big gamble - it's very positive for the Virgin brand. If you switch the clock back a few years NTL did have customer service problems. But we've had a team of people in looking at customer issues at NTL and we found the graph is going absolutely in the right direction. There are fewer complaints coming in."
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Liberty sells Swedish cableLiberty Global has reached an agreement to sell 100 per cent of its Swedish cable business, UPC Sweden to a consortium comprising The Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners for E349m.
The sale price represents a multiple of 9.3 times UPC Sweden’s 2005 operating cash flow, as customarily defined by Liberty Global, except that corporate expense allocations have been excluded. Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Global said: "Upon completion of this transaction, together with the sale of UPC Norway and the pending sale of UPC France, we will have generated approximately $2.5 billion in gross proceeds to the Company before required debt repayments of approximately $1 billion. As a result, we have made substantial progress in the rebalancing of our European operations over the last six months, improving our focus on those areas where we have significant in-country scale and where we see above average opportunities for growth."
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TV viewers will be able to tap into their TV Guide for local programme listings, reviews and features on the go -- and later this year, they will be able to programme their digital-video recorders from their cellular phones. Launched by Gemstar-TV Guide International subsidiary TV Guide Mobile Entertainment, TV Guide Mobile’s new interactive programme guide is specially fitted for smaller mobile-phone screens, providing programme listings, viewing recommendations and editorial content.
Later this year, TV Guide Mobile Entertainment will also launch an updated version of TV Guide Mobile that will offer more tools and the ability to programme their DVRs via their cell phones. It will also launch a mobile, on-demand version of TV Guide Channel. The mobile version will offer short clips of TV Guide Channel content, as well as original content highlighting shows and movies airing on TV.
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Thales will buy Alcatel satellite business
Thales, has agreed to purchase Alcatel’s satellite business. The deal, which is still subject to shareholder approval, would give Alcatel a 21.6 per cent stake in Thales. Thales will issue 26.67m shares to Alcatel, and will pay Alcatel E673m on closing the transaction.
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Disney kids mobileWalt Disney Company is introducing a wireless phone service that will allow parents to set limits on their children's cellphone use as well as track them on a map using Global Positioning System technology.
Parents can determine what hours and days of the week children can use phones, blocking school hours for example, and what numbers they can dial. They will also be able to set spending limits on their phone bills. "This is very much about putting control in the hands of the parents," said Steve Wadsworth, president of the Walt Disney Internet Group.
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BPI says piracy cost £414m in 2005
The British music industry lost £414m (E600m) last year as a result of illegal file-sharing on the internet, The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says. The figures were released as 2,000 new lawsuits were launched across 10 countries to clamp down on online piracy and promote the use of legal download facilities. This brings the total to 5,500 in 18 countries excluding the US, which has filed 18,000 cases to date.
The BPI says the rise in illegal piracy cost the UK music industry £1.1 billion over the last three years, despite the fact that the number of Britons downloading illegally has fallen since last year. But the dent to the music industry coffers has increased largely because those downloading music illegally are the individuals expected to spend the most on music.
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MSNBC ad supported mobile serviceMSNBC.com says it will test an ad-subsidised news service for cellular phones in a bid to gain a wider audience among mobile phone users. MSNBC.com, a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal News, will run a three-month experiment that it hopes to expand into a full-on service by the end of summer.
MSNBC hopes to boost mobile usage of its site by adding photos and video clips that are popular among online users such as "The Today Show" and other NBC programmes as well as slideshows and text articles, paid for by short ads.
According to MSNBC, only about 1 percent of its estimated 25 million monthly desktop Web site users also view its stories on cellphone browsers, which show a free text based news service minus the ads, photographs and video on its site.
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Pace announces new CEO
Pace Micro Technology announced that its new Chief Executive Officer will be Neil Gaydon, current Board member and the Company’s Director of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. Gaydon will become Chief Executive Officer this month on the retirement of John Dyson
To coincide with Neil Gaydon’s appointment, David McKinney, who joined Pace in November 2005 as director of engineering and operations, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. In this role he will lead Pace’s engineering and operations teams and drive greater efficiencies through the Group’s end-to-end product development processes
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New multi format service
Combining Red Bee Media’s Digital Hive technologies, Netgem’s advanced HD-Ready devices and Microsoft’s Windows Media Technologies, the new service will permit consumers to access digital television and downloaded on-demand programming via a single digital hybrid set top box (DTT/IPTV). Programming content will be encoded in the Windows Media Video Format (VC-1) and protected by Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10. The service should be available in the UK by late summer 2006.
The package will involve the use of a Netgem integrated (DTT/IPTV) set top box and deliver the following services: Access to all Freeview channels, navigation interface for downloaded video and audio content, EPG and interactive programme guide, pause Live TV, local recordings and playback in High Definition, broadband connectivity and home networking (using Windows Media Connect) to enable sharing between devices and PC."The end-to-end solution we are building with Microsoft and Red Bee Media will enable any UK Internet Service Provider to offer an innovative integrated live TV and video on demand service to its customer base without extensive infrastructure investment, thanks to our hybrid digital set-top box design and network software", said Joseph Haddad, Netgem’s CEO.
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Wednesday 5th April
NTL closes Virgin deal
US Sat broadband up, but tiny
Spain launches new DVB-H mobile TV trial
AOL mobile web browser
Date set for digital radio
Irdeto supports Coral interoperability
TV2 and Telenor combined soccer package
BVITV VOD for FT
NTL is to takeover Virgin Mobile, the VMNO, paying £962.4m (E1.39bn) in cash and shares. The new group will be the first in the UK to provide a four-way offer of cable TV, internet access, fixed line telephony and mobile phone services.
"It is truly a step-change transaction not only for NTL but for the media sector as a whole in the UK," said James Mooney, executive chairman of NTL. Virgin Mobile, which is 71%-owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, had rejected NTL's original £871m bid. Virgin Group is to accept shares and cash which will see it become the largest shareholder in the new entity. "After careful consideration, the independent directors of Virgin Mobile intend to recommend NTL's offer to shareholders," said Charles Gurassa, chairman of Virgin Mobile.
NTL has also agreed an exclusive 30-year licence for the Virgin brand and believes this will help attract and retain customers. It will have to pay 0.25% royalties on its revenue for three decades - with a minimum annual payment of £8.5m - to Virgin Enterprises for the use of the brand name. NTL has also persuaded Virgin Mobile management to stay on and run the business.
NTL said that, having concluded its merger with Telewest, the Virgin Mobile deal would "help transform it from the UK’s leading triple-play cable provider into a national entertainment and communications company, harnessing the powerful Virgin consumer champion brand." The deal still has to be signed off by T-Mobile, whose UK network Virgin Mobile uses.
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US Sat broadband up, but tiny
The FCC's latest report on broadband services found there were 377,291 satellite broadband customers as of June 30, 2005. When grouped with wireless services, the satellite/wireless category had 970,133 broadband users. That's up from 549,621 reported in December 2004.
The numbers are a fraction of cable modem and DSL counts. The FCC said there were 16.182 million DSL users and nearly 24 million cable broadband users as of June 30, 2005. Cable modem service represented 64.9 per cent of these lines while 33.9 percent were DSL connections. The commission report said alternative types of technology - including satellite, terrestrial fixed or mobile wireless - made up 0.5 per cent of the nation's broadband customer total.
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Spain launches new DVB-H mobile TV trial
From David Del Valle in MadridA new DVB-H mobile TV trial is underway in Spain. Network operator Abertis Telecom, mobile company Amena, the Regional TV in Asturias and Nokia have joined forces to launch this third DVB-H test, following the pilots led by Telefonica and Vodafone.
200 people (75 from Gijon and 125 from the city of Zaragoza) will take part in this experience that is up and running until next Summer. Equipped with a Nokia 7710 phones, they have access to 15 TV channels (all the Spanish commercial channels, seven thematic channels, among them 40 Latino, C24, Teledeporte, Nova and Neoz, and the Regional channel of Asturias), as well as some interactive services.
Carlos Celaya, director of business development at Amena, said that "in 2010 there will be more mobile TV users than fixed TVs" adding that there are plans to market the service from the end of 2006.
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AOL mobile web browser
AOL announced the debut of new mobile information and location services, including a new addition to the industry-leading suite of mobile AOL Search services. The new offering is a mobile browsing service that automatically adapts Web pages for mobile screens. According to a new survey AOL conducted with the Associated Press and Pew Research Center, 52 per cent of adults keep their cell phone turned on all day, everyday, and 40 per cent of those aged 18-29 are likely to drop their landline once and for all. Published today, the report reveals that more than 30 per cent of adults want to search and browse the Web from their cell phone, while 47 per cent say that mobile maps and driving directions are a "must have" on the next phone they buy.
"We are committed to providing people with easy access to the Web's full range of information, location and communications services wherever they may go," said Eric Engstrom, senior vice president of Products for AOL's wireless group. "We are pleased to be working with the nation's leading carriers to provide their subscribers with our complete suite of popular and consumer-friendly offerings. Together, we are making it easy for people to stay connected to friends, family members and colleagues."
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Date set for digital radio
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Digital radio will launch in Australia by January 2009, the government has announced, with a further six-year moratorium on any new services above those
licensed to start by then.
While the government said last October it planned to develop legislation and structures for digital radio, it gave no timetable. But minister Helen Coonan said: "I am pleased to announce the next steps in the implementation process which will result in services commencing in the six state capital cities by 1 January 2009."
Trials are currently underway aimed at assessing which technologies to use for digital radio broadcasting. The Australian Communications and Media Authority will
plan and licence digital radio services.
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Irdeto supports Coral interoperability
Irdeto announced it has joined Coral Consortium, an industry-wide technology initiative whose goal is to deliver an open, voluntary standard for interoperability between digital rights management (DRM) technologies for consumer devices and services.
The lack of standards for interoperability between proprietary technologies represents an obstacle to the broad deployment of legitimate, consumer-friendly media distribution, especially when consumers want to move content from one device to another. By joining Coral Consortium, Irdeto aims to further its vision of putting the consumer at the centre of the content enjoyment experience, enabling content to be securely played on a variety of devices while still protecting the rights of the content owner.
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TV2 and Telenor combined soccer package
TV 2 Interaktiv and Telenor have launched solutions that allow for a new way to follow Norway's Premier League. Together with Norsk Toppfotball (NTF), they have set up fxt.no - the football portal that they say will become Norway's leading meeting place for those interested in football.
In launching fxt.no, which will offer Premier League on the Internet and via mobile phones, TV 2 Interaktiv, NTF and Telenor are exploiting broadband and mobile technology to the full and allowing football fans to follow their favourite team almost anywhere. "Fxt.no will be Norway's leading football portal. No other website in Norway - and perhaps no other website worldwide - offers the same total, interactive football experience as we do," says Odd Harald Hauge, Project Manager for TV2 Interaktiv's football project.
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Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) and France Telecom have concluded a multi-year VOD agreement for BVITV's portfolio, through France Telecom's Wanadoo broadband, and MaLigne TV IPTV set top box services.
Under the new agreement, France Telecom's subscribers will be able to enjoy a selection of current and library features from producer groups such as Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films. Viewers will be able to access the content online via Wanadoo broadband, downloading movies for a period of up to 30 days, or via the MaLigne TV set top box service. On both services, titles will be available for 24 hours once the film has been accessed.
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Tuesday 4th April
TW wants mobile
Alcatel, Lucent deal closes
Ball readies £150m
Single provider pays off for Aussie pay-TV
HK digital working groups
BT collects content and execs
Faith tv online
Serra London anchor for Al Jazeera
Red Bee Hive
Fischer named MD of cablecom
TW wants mobile
Dick Parsons, chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, wants to establish a strong presence in mobile services, either by purchasing wireless spectrum or via an acquisition. Parsons told the FT that Time Warner Cable would focus on adding wireless telephony to its "triple-play" services once the $18bn acquisition of cable operator Adelphia had been completed.
"The ultimate table has to be constructed with four legs, not three. The fourth leg will be wireless – how one solves the equation I don’t know," Parsons said. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest operator in the US, is growing strongly as customers opt to buy its bundled services. But investor concerns about a potential price war with telecoms operators has lowered sector valuations.
Currently Time Warner offers wireless services through a partnership with Sprint. But Parsons said Time Warner might want a bigger stake in the fast-growing wireless business. He added: "The Sprint partnership is meaningful and a good way for us to participate in and learn about the wireless market."
Parsons said the cable business and AOL were both growth engines. "Cable and AOL are the two big drivers of our share price. We need to be more persuasive in the market place about cable. The future is brighter than people think."
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Alcatel, Lucent deal closes
Alcatel will buy smaller rival Lucent Technologies for $13.4 billion. The companies plan to cut about 10 per cent of their combined work force, or about 8,800 jobs. The cuts would be "fair and balanced" across geographic regions and business sectors, Lucent said.
The transaction comes five years after the companies first discussed a merger, but those talks broke down after Lucent balked at the idea of a takeover, rather than a "merger of equals." This time Alcatel will own 60 per cent of the combined company, which will have total revenue of $25 billion. It expects the deal to boost earnings per share in the first year, excluding restructuring charges.
Alcatel Chairman and Chief Executive Serge Tchuruk will be non-executive chairman. Lucent Chief Executive Patricia Russo, will serve as CEO of the combined Paris-based company, although she does not speak French. To get around security issues, the Bell Labs subsidiary of Lucent will be separately managed by a board composed of three US citizens "acceptable to the U.S. government".
Ingenious Media Active Capital chaired by Tony Ball, former CEO of BSkyB, has raised £150m (E217m) from investors and will list on the Aim market. The fund hoped to raise up to £250m but has drawn the line at £150m because investors want it to spend all of its capital within a year of launching.
Ball will be joined on the IMAC board by Neil Blackley, the former media analyst, and Patrick McKenna, the entertainment entrepreneur whose Ingenious Media finance house will run the fund. IMAC, which is seeking a 15% profit on its investments, intends to take stakes in "progressive" media companies such as interactive TV businesses, mobile games publishers and video games developers. It is understood that IMAC already has a number of investments lined up and will announce them soon.
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Single provider pays off for Aussie pay-TV
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Foxtel, Australia's monopoly urban pay-television platform, has knocked 25 per cent off the price it pays for some premium movie content following the first renegotiation since Optus left the television content market, according to local reports.
Under the new six-year deal between Foxtel and the Premium Movie Partnership, which supplies movies from studios including Fox, Sony, Universal and Paramount,
Foxtel will also be free to use the content for an IPTV or mobile TV service.
Similar terms have been agreed with Sony, Paramount and Universal for the TV1 general entertainment channel.
A report in the Australian Financial Review also said that the new deal was in Australian dollars, rather than US dollars, which means Foxtel will not be so
open to fluctuations in the currency markets. The new deal could mean savings of A$30 million a year for Foxtel.
Foxtel has been in negotiations with the Premium Movie Partnership since 2002, when the platform agreed to content-share with Optus, effectively giving Foxtel an
urban monopoly. Optus now resells Foxtel. In regional areas, Austar provides pay-television. Austar is also believed to have renegotiated its contract with the
Premium Movie Partnership.
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HK digital working groupsThe Hong Kong Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau has set up working groups with Asia Television Limited (ATV) and Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) to ensure timely and smooth launch of digital services next year.
Led by the Hong Kong office of the Telecommunications Authority, the groups will work with the TV stations to solve technical issues related to the transmission and reception of digital terrestrial TV, and facilitate inter-departmental co-ordination to ensure successful migration from analogue to digital TV at different stages.
The bureau approved the investment plans of ATV and TVB for their digital TV programme service and network rollout. According to the blueprint, ATV and TVB will start broadcasting their existing services in both analogue and digital format and launch a new digital service on the respective additional frequency channel assigned to them by 2007. ATV and TVB will extend the coverage of their digital networks to at least 75 percent of Hong Kong by 2008. If the mainland has not promulgated a national standard by the end of 2006, ATV and TVB will adopt the European DVB-T standard.
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BT is to announce a series of content deals that will allow customers of its broadband TV service to call up live footage of their favourite bands and access a host of films. The company has also poached Karl Bistany, the man who advised UEFA on the sale of television rights to Euro 2008, to lead its push into on-demand sports programmes.
BT has been aggressively hiring recently. Alongside Bistany, who has joined as a consultant to develop BT's sports package, BT has hired Freeview's general manager Lib Charlesworth as marketing director, Sky's head of pay-per-view Karen Saunders and Disney's broadband head, Antony Carbonari.
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Faith tv onlineFaithGlobe.tv Europe’s first Internet delivered Christian Television network has launched. The channel will be broadcasting online 24 hours a day, 7 day a week 365 days a year and uses Narrowstep’s proprietary telvOS (Television Operating System).
FaithGlobe.tv is an independently funded Christian television service from International Gospel Media, an organisation established to co-ordinate the partnership efforts of ministries involved in Christian television around the globe. The service has been developed by Reverend Hugh and Seva Jackman who have been involved in establishing four successful satellite television launches since 1994: BET International, God TV, Revelation TV and DoveVision TV.
Serra London anchor for Al JazeeraAl Jazeera has appointed Barbara Serra as presenter in their London broadcast centre, she will present the news at weekends and will report from across Europe during the week.
Before joining Al Jazeera International, Barbara was one of the main presenters on the UK’s Channel Five News. She was the first, and to date the only, second-language English speaker to present a flagship news programme on terrestrial British television.
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Red Bee Hive
Red Bee Media is launching Digital Hive, a service for content owners, rights holders and distributors, which offers a one stop service to enable them to get their content onto new platforms and make it work on different screens - whether it be mobile, video on demand (VOD), broadband or other portable devices such as video iPods.
Digital Hive aims to take the hassle and cost out of the process for rights holders and distributors, including advising on how to get consumers to pay for content, negotiating with platform owners and storing the content for future use. Red Bee Media will charge a low fee for ingest or offer the opportunity for rights holders to participate in a revenue share scheme with Red Bee Media, thereby decreasing their risk while maximising the opportunities new platforms offer.
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Fischer named MD of cablecomUPC Broadband announced that Rudolf Fischer has been appointed as Managing Director of the Swiss cable company cablecom. Fischer has been a member of cablecom’s management for many years. Gene Musselman, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of UPC Broadband, said: "cablecom’s integration is at a very advanced stage, and the future structures have been established. I am pleased that we have been able to enlist Rudolf Fischer, an experienced manager, for the position of Managing Director in Switzerland. He will continue to lead cablecom on its present road to success."
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Monday 3rd April
Dyke ITV bid fails
Kingston bid abandoned
Content provider for the Spanish local DTT
Off shore TV production to India?
MGM new media
XM targets 9m by end 06
UPC HD prices
Emery retires from UKTV
Sigma integrated with Nagra
The private equity consortium headed by Greg Dyke has abandoned its takeover bid for ITV after it rejected a revised second offer. In a statement issued to the City, the consortium said it had "decided not to proceed further with its proposal".
The consortium, comprised of investment bank Goldman Sachs and private equity firms Apax Partners and Blackstone, had been seeking a takeover that had the approval of the ITV board and did not want to pursue a hostile bid. ITV said its board had rejected a revised offer because it "was not capable of being recommended as being in the best interests of all shareholders".
Unlike the original offer rejected last week, the second bid constituted an offer for the entire share capital of ITV whereas the first offer would have seen the consortium acquire 48% of the business, leaving existing shareholders with 52% of the company.
Other parts of the bid were unchanged, including an equity investment of £1.3bn (E1.88bn) from the consortium and £3.5bn of debt. ITV said the level of debt was "unduly risky" for a business that relies on advertising for more than two-thirds of its revenues.
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Kingston bid abandoned
Shares in Kingston Communications dived over 13% after the group confirmed that bid talks it first announced in November last year had ended after it failed to agree on a price and structure for the deal. The Hull-based telecoms operator was in discussions with Carlyle, the US private equity group, over a deal thought to have valued the group at over £400m (E579m). The group’s current market capitalisation is about £345m.
Despite the failure of the bid, Kingston said that trading had been strong in the second half of the year and that both revenue and underlying earnings would be stronger than in the first half. The group said that it expected robust organic growth from broadband and integrated communications services to business and the public sector, but that the business mix was shifting away from network intensive services and the changes would result in a charge against the value of its network assets.
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Content provider for the Spanish local DTT
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Distrivision.tv, the first TV content provider for local and regional DTT TV channels, has launched in Spain, under the motto the channels' Channel. The company aims to distribute in-house and bought in programming through local and regional DTT channels, also offering operators other services such as consultancy, marketing, local production and legal advice.
Distrivision.tv has leased a transponder on Hispasat to broadcast its programming. From May 1, it will be available to local DTT operators who sign up with the company. Distrivision.tv has reached output deals with Warner, Televisa, Mediaset, TV Globo, the Regional EiTB, Claxson and SkyMedigroup-Intermedia TV Services to fill its schedule.
Distrivision.tv is the first TV content provider dedicated to the local and regional DTT market, which are hoping to carve out a two per cent audience share in the medium term. The company launches in Spain at the time when local and regional Governments are currently awarding DTT licences across the country.
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Off shore TV production to India?
Genpact, the largest provider of offshore outsourcing services in India and 33% owned by General Electric, has allied with New Delhi Television, a leading broadcaster, in a 50-50 joint venture that will initially target costly technical, editing and production functions in the audio-visual segment of in the latest sign of the growing threat to media jobs in the US and Europe from low-cost offshore locations.
They will initially market their services to studios and TV networks looking to lower the cost of digitising libraries of old analogue programmes – creating graphics and subtitles, editing of raw footage, tagging material and archiving programmes.
"There’s a lot of stuff which is expensive but easy to do," says Prannoy Roy, NDTV’s chairman, who established NDTV’s now market-leading English language news channels in 2003 after years of supplying programming to News Corp’s Star. He said 70% of the global media and entertainment industry, valued by PwC at £770bn ($1.3bn) in 2005, could be digitised, of which 70% could be outsourced, potentially offshore to India.
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MGM new media
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios announced the formation of MGM’s New Media division and named Douglas A. Lee to oversee the new unit as Executive Vice President. Lee will oversee MGM’s digital distribution strategy, he will also spearhead the studio’s broadband and wireless efforts.
Harry E. Sloan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MGM, said: "MGM will be making significant moves in terms of new platforms, ranging from TV and the Internet to wireless, mobile and more. Doug has a wealth of senior management experience culled from several major media companies including Fox, HBO and Universal."
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XM targets 9m by end 06XM Chairman Gary Parsons said the satellite radio company is ready to meet ambitious growth goals in the coming years. According to Parsons' XM is aiming for 9 million subscribers by the end of the year. The company has a goal to hit 20 million by 2010. Parsons stated that XM expects to hit $860 million in subscription revenues by the end of 2006.
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UPC Digital TV customers in the Netherlands interested in receiving HDTV, will pay a once-only activation fee of E49.99 for the HD ready UPC Mediabox manufactured by UPC partner Philips. The HD MediaBox will be available from June, in time for the start of the football World Cup.
chellomedia’s pay TV service Film1 and Sport1 will offer HD content. The premium TV content will be available to Film1 and Sport1 customers without any additional charge. With the HD ready MediaBox and a HD ready TV set UPC customers will also be able to watch the football world championship in HD on the public broadcaster channel Nederland 2.
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Emery retires from UKTVDick Emery is to retire as chief executive of UKTV, the BBC/NTL pay-TV joint venture that operates channels including UKTV Gold. He joined UKTV in 1998 from the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, where he was managing director of television.
UKTV was set up in 1997 as a joint venture between the BBC and Flextech, which was later bought by Telewest, the cable TV firm that recently merged with NTL. It is the UK's second biggest pay-TV channel operator, after BSkyB, with 10 networks and a turnover of £177m (E256m) last year.
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Sigma integrated with NagraSigma Systems a provider of OSS service management solutions for broadband IP and wireless service providers has announced its Sigma Service Management Platform and Digital Video Service Package has been integrated to the Nagravision Conditional Access System.
It says this end-to-end OSS integration delivers significant advantages for digital broadband operators by providing a fully-automated business and operational environment for digital video services. The integration to the Nagravision CAS system supports a robust set of operational use cases including subscriber adds, deletes, suspension, resume, refresh, purge records, and credit management. The Digital Video Service Package enables the automated provisioning of subscribed digital TV channels and c…hannel packages with support for pay-per-view, impulse pay-per-view and pre-paid credit management.
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