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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 20th April
BBC want iPlayer to be universal
Ofcom ‘open’ on DTT HD
Entavio nets Premiere
Freeview top digital TV
AT&T expands IPTV
Abertis and Microsoft Internet DTT deal
BBC ups ‘360’ budget
Bewag buys Croatian cable operators
MySpace news service
Scopus and Neotion offer decoding solution
Hispasat prepares IPO
Orca IPTV Service in Russia
Orsten for Joost
BBC want iPlayer to be universalAshley Highfiled, head of BBC future media and technology, told a MIP audience he wants to see the iPlayer available on cable and wants compatibility with iTunes and Macs.
"Although Apple’s proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches, it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs," he said. He added that the trial of the interactive media player had demonstrated that the service could account for as much as 10% of BBC TV viewing in broadband homes. "With this level of nascent demand, we want to make BBC iPlayer as widely available as possible, across as many platforms as is feasible. We're starting with the biggest available audience: the 22 million people who are broadband connected in Britain. The next biggest audience is three million cable homes. After that, it's Macs, media centres, and smart handheld devices."
He said the BBC will next month launch a public trial of its BBC Archive project, offering 20,000 people the opportunity to access 1,000 hours of content drawn from a variety of genres. A 50-hour library of programmes will also be available to internet users. The trial will influence decisions over which programmes should be made available free to licence feepayers and those which might be paid for.
This ‘long tail’ plan is being developed alongside iPlayer catch-up service, which will offer online viewers the chance to watch any programme broadcast during the previous seven days. It is due to be launched later this year, subject to final approval from the BBC Trust.
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Ofcom ‘open’ on DTT HDUK regulator Ofcom has offered some hope it may reconsider the decision to auction off virtually all of the analogue spectrum that’s freed by switchover.
Ofcom has stated that it is obliged to auction the spectrum, while broadcasters want it to boost HDTV but fear they will be out bid by mobile companies. Ofcom has received more than 750 separate claims and proposals for use of this spectrum, much of which doesn’t become available until 2012.
But Ofcom CEO Ed Richards has told the UK Parliamentary media committee that he wants to settle the dispute. But he stressed Ofcom believed broadcasters had sufficient spectrum for between four and six HD channels on terrestrial TV.
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SES Astra’s has won Premiere as the first client for its entavio pay-TV platform. entavio will manage Premiere’s DTH subscriptions and the deal will give other broadcasters access to the 2.5 million Premiere-enabled STBs in the German market. Entavio management will start in September.
Astra CEO Ferdinand Kayser stressed the openness of the platform which he said was "an open and neutral technical satellite platform, which gives satellite households access to a whole range of digital TV programmes and services, and offers programme operators access to those households."
Meanwhile Premiere’s shares fell heavily on the German market yesterday following the announcement it will suspend selling new subscriptions to the Arena Bundesliga service pending a government cartel inquiry.
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Freeview has overtaken Sky as the most popular way of watching digital television in the UK. Freeview also unveiled a new hard disk recorder which it claimed would be in 10m homes by 2012. Freeview's general manager, Cary Wakefield, said she hoped many would switch to one of the new Freeview Playback machines, which will be available from next month from a range of manufacturers from around E250.
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AT&T says it is happy with an additional 15,000 video subscribers to its IPTV service so far this year and announced plans to roll out the U-verse service in the Los Angeles area in the coming weeks.
The carrier launched the service in Texas late last year and ended 2006 with 3,000 U-verse customers. AT&T said the U-verse service is now available to 200,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and in parts of Milwaukee, Kansas City, Houston and San Antonio.
AT&T lost 1.4m residential phone lines last year, mostly to cable TV and wireless operators.
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Abertis and Microsoft Internet DTT deal
From David Del Valle in Spain
The Spanish telco operator Abertis and Microsoft are joining forces to distribute DTT through the Internet. Both have signed an agreement under a project called TDT.com to jointly develop the distribution of live DTT contents through the Internet, including pay-per-view and Video on Demand services. Both broadcasters and Institutions have been invited to take part in this state-of-the-art project.
Microsoft will provide the necessary technology, including the access platform, based on Windows Vista and Windows XP and with Windows Presentation Foundation as the latest graphic interface. The company will also provide with safety tools to protect contents and rights.
Abertis will be responsible for the management and distribution of TV contents using Microsoft Windows Media. It will also take care of the protection of TV contents using Windows Media DRM.
Abertis has a monopoly in the carriage of TV signals in Spain, with Axion, subsidiary of French Group TDF, trying to make a presence in the market. Currently, 80 per cent of Spanish population can have access to DTT. More than 4 million set-top-boxes have been sold in the country since the re-launch of DTT.
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The director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett told MIP the cross-platform programming budget will double in the next three years - an increase of "tens of millions of pounds".
She said the BBC will be reviewing the ratio of money spent on TV to other platforms according to the response from users and viewers, and wants to work with producers that are keen to explore cross-platform projects. This is a world that includes posting stuff on YouTube for marketing but also to allow people to ‘mash stuff up’.
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Bewag buys Croatian cable operators
Branislav Pekic from RomeAustrian company Burgenländische Elektrizitätswirtschafts (Bewag) has acquired Croatia’s two biggest cable operators, DCM and Adriatic Kabel, in a deal worth €55 million.
Announcing the deal, Hans Lukits, president of the Board of Bewag, said they see a lot of potential for growth, in view of Croatia’s low broadband penetration rate (13%). He said that Bewag plans to invest €15 million over the next three years to upgrade the network in order to offer triple play – broadband internet, fixed telephony and cable TV. By September, DCM and Adriatic Kabel will be integrated into the newly-established company B.net Croatia, headed by present DCM director Adrian Jezina.
Bewag estimates this year's B.net Croatia revenues could reach €14 million, compared to last year’s combined total of €10.5 million. Adriatic Kabel and DCM currently have 92.000 clients in Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Rijeka, Zadar, Velika Gorica and Solin, but this number should grow to 100.000 by the end of 2007.
The Austrians are aiming to make B.net Croatia the biggest competitor to former telecom monopoly T-HT and, with this goal in mind, are currently negotiating the takeover of Croatian telecom operator Wimax Telecom which has been awarded 12 WiMax licenses.
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MySpace news serviceSocial networking site MySpace is set to launch a news service that will scour the net for news stories and let users vote on which ones receive the most exposure.
This approach borrows elements of Google News and sites such as Digg and Netscape, which rely on readers to submit stories and determine their prominence. The move marks the site’s attempts to become a web portal like Yahoo, providing its users with a front door to the Internet.
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Scopus and Neotion offer decoding solution
From Colin Mann in Las-VegasDigital video networking solutions provider Scopus Video Networks and French technology firm Neotion (have integrated Neotion’s MPEG-4 Conditional Access Module (CAM) with Scopus’ IRD-2900 professional Integrated Receiver Decoders. The plug-in module, a unique version of Neotion’s MPEG-4 CAM, enables operators utilising Scopus’ MPEG-2 IRD-2900s to make a quick and easy field upgrade to H.264 scheme without having to resort to the acquisition of separate platforms.
The future-proof decoding solution targets broadcasters, cable, terrestrial, Telco and satellite operators, and is immediately available to the large customer base of Scopus’ IRD 2900s worldwide. The solution also enables cable and Telco operators to distribute H.264 content to edges where a full decoding to analogue is performed, thereby saving up to 50 per cent in bandwidth over satellite and IP infrastructures. Ovadia Cohen - Vice President Business Development, Marketing Communications for Scopus said the initiative fitted into that area of a smooth migration of decoders easily upgraded by a plug-in module.
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Hispasat prepares IPO
From Davd Del Valle in MadridSpain's satellite operator Hispasat is considering its debut on the Stock Market. Its board of directors has commissioned a report on viability.
Its main shareholder Eutelsat, with a 27.69 per cent, would back the decision, although the French operator is seeking to increase its stake at the same time. Shareholders like Telefonica (13.23 per cent), Auna (17,64 per cent) and BBVA (10.75 per cent) are likely to sell their shares.
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Orca IPTV Service in RussiaOrca Interactive has confirmed that its IPTV middleware ‘RiGHTvČ’ has been deployed by Open Technologies, a Russian system integrator of complex information services for Sibir Telecom.
The first phase of the deployment covers the Novosibirsk branch of Sibir Telecom with an expansion planned within the limits of this federal district this year. Using Orca's ‘RiGHTv’ middleware as part of the end-to-end solution provided by system integrator Open Technologies, Sibir Telecom's IPTV service includes high quality broadcast television, electronic programming guide, radio channels, video on demand, network PVR and time shifted TV.
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Orsten for JoostOnline TV platform Joost has appointed Tony Orsten as its UK head of content and acquisitions. Orsten was formerly managing director of Paramount Comedy Networks Europe.
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Thursday 19th April
Premiere halt Arena sales
Research reveals IPTV changes TV habits
Intelsat for sale
Sogecable Q1 profits
NBC-Universal, News Corp arrive at thePlatform
Telefonica and Ericsson in mobile TV deal
GE/NBC $250m for tech
Schmidt: Google not TV’s enemy
AOL does ‘upfronts’
Murdoch web summit
Intelsat helps UK digital switch over
RTL Online demands Entriq solution
Viaccess strengthens partnership with Home2US
Cinegy and NDS Power Dogan TV
Pirelli for Microsoft
Premiere halt Arena salesGerman pay-TV company Premiere will stop selling new subscriptionsto Arena, the channel that broadcasts Bundesliga soccer matches, via satellite 'until further notice' due to an investigation by the German Federal Cartel Office.
The cartel office is investigating a deal by which Premiere earlier this year obtained rights to distribute and market the matches Germany-wide via satellite. Premiere had agreed to give Arena a 16.7 per cent stake in the company in exchange for non-exclusive satellite marketing rights. Arena, its parent company Unity Media (owned by the German cable companies) and Premiere aim to answer the cartel office's concerns over the deal, Premiere said. Premiere originally lost the bidding for soccer rights to Unity.
Households that already have a subscription to receive the matches will not be affected.
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Research reveals IPTV changes TV habits
Club Internet/T-Online France, part of the Deutsche Telekom Group, and Microsoft TV have presented the results of an IPSOS study of around 2,000 IPTV subscribers in France on their attitudes towards the media and their own TV consumption.
The research comes nine months after the launch of the Club Internet IPTV service, based on the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform. The IPSOS results show that since the introduction of IPTV in France across all service providers, a number of viewers have significantly changed the way they interact with their television. On average these viewers watch around four hours of TV a day and now benefit from the flexibility and accessibility of IPTV services.
The majority (70 per cent) of users polled state that IPTV makes watching TV more enjoyable; 61 per cent like the way in which IPTV offers more control over when to view certain programmes and 43 per cent believe that IPTV makes the TV-viewing experience less passive than traditional TV.
"The study clearly shows that we are entering a new era of TV viewing. The Microsoft TV technology that powers our IPTV service offering empowers consumers to choose not only what they want to watch on TV but when and how they want to watch it" commented Marie-Christine Levet, CEO of Club Internet.IPTV is also encouraging more viewers to subscribe to paid-for channels. Almost half of those polled have subscribed to additional TV channels and packages since they started using IPTV services, compared to only a quarter that chose paid-for content from a previous TV service.
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Intelsat for sale
Intelsat has been put up for sale by its private equity owners with a price tag of at least $17bn (E12.5bn). Blackstone, the buyout firm, triggered an auction when it made a bid that valued the company's equity at about $6bn. Intelsat has also been loaded up with $11bn in debt by its owners, a consortium of Apax Partners, Permira, Madison Dearborn and Apollo Management.
They stand to make 10 times their original investment just three years ago. Satellite companies have proved popular targets for private equity firms since, after the high cost of launching a new satellite, they generate steady cash flows from broadcasters and governments, who use them to transfer video and information around the globe.
"Being private has been good for us," Intelsat's chief executive, David McGlade, told Bloomberg. "We're always open to other capital structures and view them all the time."
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Sogecable Q1 profits
From David Del Valle in MadridSogecable reported a first quarter profit of E1.2 million against a loss of E20.1 million the same period the previous year. Subscriptions to Digital+ grew by 21,000 on the quarter bringing the total to 2,065,000. Subscriber revenues are also on the climb, by 6 per cent year-on-year, coming close to E300 million
DTH platorm Digital+ reduced its churn rate to 10.9 per cent from the heights of 12 per cent a year ago. At the same time free-TV channel Cuatro doubled advertising revenues to E58.1 million from E28.9m a year earlier. The CEO of Sogecable, Javier Diez de Polanco, admitted that the company is in talks with telecom operators aimed at reaching deals to broadcast its premium TV services (namely, Canal Plus) through their DSL platforms. "Conversations with telecoms are progressing and we hope to reach an agreement as soon as possible," he said.
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NBC-Universal, News Corp arrive at thePlatform
From Colin Mann in Las VegasBroadband video application service provider thePlatform has signed a deal to provide content publishing and distribution services for the Internet video venture to be launched by NBC-Universal and News Corp. The joint venture will include thousands of hours of full-length, premium content from major networks and film studios that will be distributed to hundreds of millions of consumers via some of the biggest portals on the Web.
George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer, NBC Universal and interim CEO of the NBCU/News Corp. joint venture, said that working with thePlatform would provide the partners with an efficient system for managing, syndicating and generating revenue from broadband video.This new agreement builds upon thePlatform's existing relationship with NBBC, supporting its broadband video marketplace. thePlatform currently manages and publishes online video for ABC News, Amp'd Mobile, CNBC, College Sports TV, Court TV, Comcast, E!, Hearst, the Oxygen Network, PRIMEDIA, Scripps, Sony/BMG Music.
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Telefonica and Ericsson in mobile TV deal
From David Del Valle in MadridTelefonica has reached an agreement with Ericsson to develop and implement its mobile TV content and services. Ericsson will provide Telefonica with "the world's fastest channel selector", according to the company, to make mobile TV channel surfing much easier, through an Electronic Programming Guide (EPG).
Telefonica already offers its mobile TV service on the emocion portal, featuring more than 20 live channels and more than 2000 video-on-demand clips.
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GE/NBC $250m for tech
GE Commercial Finance and NBC Universal announced the launch of a $250m (E190m) equity fund to invest in high-growth media and technology companies. The fund’s first investment was $3m in Adify, an online advertising company. It is a reflection of the desire of big media companies to forge links with promising start-ups early in their life cycle before they become prohibitively expensive to acquire.
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Schmidt: Google not TV’s enemyGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt told NAB that the Internet company was not encroaching on their turf "Google is a new phenomena. It does not replace radio and television," he said.
Google has announced a multi-year advertising sales agreement with Clear Channel Radio. This came immediately after it said it would buy web ad supplier DoubleClick. Clear Channel said it has agreed for Google to sell a guaranteed portion of the 30-second spots available on its 675 radio stations in top U.S. markets, in a bid to expand the universe of local radio advertisers to Google's online buyers. Schmidt said it looks like advertising in radio and television has been relatively flat in revenue growth. "If our technology can bring more advertisers to radio, I think that is a good thing," he said
Schmidt brushed aside concerns that Google was taking away ad revenue from broadcasters and said that advertising as an industry is growing. "The money is there," he said. "It makes good sense to have an ad that is targeted to you. It is more important to have an ad that is more relevant to you."
Meanwhile Microsoft said the DoubleClick deal would allow Google to corner the online advertising market and provide them access to a huge amount of information on consumer behaviour on the Internet. AT&T and Time Warner said they hoped regulators would scrutinize the DoubleClick deal.
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AOL does ‘upfronts’AOL is taking a leaf from TV’s book giving advertisers a first look at new features oin the hope of securing ad campaigns in an event, which they’re calling FirstLook. "It really is a recognition that the marketplace is starting to shift in a very big way away from broadcasting, away from print, and more and more to online," said Randy Falco, who left NBC, a traditional TV network, to take over as AOL’s chief executive.
AOL is in the midst of a conversion from a dial-up internet service provider, which collects monthly access fees from consumers, to a free service supported by advertising. While it lost 2m paying subscribers in the fourth quarter, its advertising sales increased 49 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
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Murdoch web summitRupert Murdoch is to gather News Corporation new media execs from around the world in California next month for a high-level summit on the internet. About 50 executives will meet in Carmel, near to where Murdoch has a ranch
Murdoch held a similar meeting last year, in addition to two such meetings in 2005, the year News Corporation paid $580m for Intermix Media, a company with more than 30 websites including MySpace.com, which has seen phenomenal growth over the past two years.
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Intelsat helps UK digital switch over
Satellite services provider Intelsat has secured a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract with broadcast transmission speciaslist Arqiva for satellite capacity to carry digital programming for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) following its digital switch over. Intelsat is providing space segment capacity on its IS- 907 satellite at 332.5E, which Arqiva will use as part of its distribution solution to around 90 main terrestrial transmitter sites in the United Kingdom.
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RTL Online demands Entriq solutionContent protection specialist Entriq has been commissioned to provide DRM solutions to RTL online for its new VOD service, RTL NOW! The newly-launched RTL NOW!
RTL online's chief executive Sushel Bijganath said an essential prerequisite for such a service was a technically reliable and, above all, secure platform, adding that the solution enabled RTL to distribute its content securely while guaranteeing that all the licensing rights, especially those of its international partners, were reliably protected.
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Viaccess strengthens partnership with Home2USViaccess has concluded a new deployment to protect new channel launches on the Home2US DTH (ex-pat) platform on SES-Americomís AMC-4 satellite and on Home2US Viaccess platform.
This decision extends the relationship between the two companies that have been working together for more than 3 years. Since the introduction of Viaccess CAS on its platform, Home2US quadrupled the number of subscribers on its premier DTH platform and continues to experience a surge in the number of subscribers.
Media technology development company Cinegy and NDS are together powering Dogan TV's new D-Smart platform. Dogan TV is a subsidiary of Dogan Yayin Holding, owner of the most popular newspapers and TV channels in Turkey. The new D-SMART digital TV platform enables Turkish consumers to access free-to-air and premium content without a monthly subscription.
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Pirelli for MicrosoftPirelli Broadband Solutions, the broadband access and photonics company within the Pirelli Group, has confirmed that its portfolio of hybrid set top boxes will become part of the product offering for Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform.
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Wednesday 18th April
Time Warner to abandon cable?
IPTV global forecast
O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile joint DVB-H launch
Comcast signs for News Corp online
Intel and Tandberg Television bridge PC, TV gap
Payday for Virgin executives
Al Jazeera English on YouTube
Zeiler: "Embrace fragmentation"
1.5m Brits to use IPTV by 2011
UGC a blip? You decide…
Jalipo online launched
Endemol and EA get ‘personal’
Harmonic enables VoD for non real-time content delivery
UPC package for Ireland
Time Warner to abandon cable?
Time Warner senior executives are said to be considering whether the world's biggest media company should substantially reduce its cable-TV holdings over time.
They regard the long-term future of cable as doubtful as the Internet emerges as an alternative network for TV and comms and are considering getting out of cable and investing more in the Web, reports the WSJ. Time Warner, which already owns AOL, may seek to purchase another major Internet company.
The issue will be put before the board at a meeting next month as part of an annual strategic review. Time Warner management will present several alternatives for future ownership of Time Warner Cable, the second biggest MSO in the U.S. based on subscribers.
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The steady growth of IPTV subscribers and service revenue continues on an upward trend in Europe and Asia and, to some extent, in North America, according to the new MRG report IPTV Global Forecast Report April 2007.
Driving the market’s successful growth in the past six months is fast growth in Europe, especially France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe; in Asia, particularly China, Japan, and Hong Kong; and in North America, and Canada. "Our forecast shows service provider revenue growing from $3.6 billion in 2007 to $20.3 billion in 2011," said Len Feldman, Director of IPTV Analysis for MRG. "Europe continues to be the biggest market for IPTV, with France easily leading the growth spurt through IPTV operators Free, Orange France Telecom and Neuf Cegetel."
O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile joint DVB-H launch
O2 Germany, Vodafone Germany and T-Mobile Germany are set to jointly market mobile TV services via DVB-H technology.The tentative plan is to launch at least 16 mobile TV channels via DVB-H in the spring of 2008 according to the spokesman for the planned consortium, Jens Kuerten. The operators have already applied for DVB-H licences at the state media offices in Thuringa and Baden-Wuertemberg and will file applications with the other state media offices during the coming weeks.
Comcast signs for News Corp online
US cable group Comcast is the first media company to sign a content deal with an online video venture being developed by News Corp and NBC Universal. Under terms of the deal, Comcast will supply clips from its E!, Style and Golf Channel networks for distribution on the new venture in exchange for a share of associated advertising revenue.Comcast will also serve as a distribution partner, adding its Comcast.net website, which draws 15m unique visitors a month, and Fancast.net, an entertainment guide site the company plans to launch this summer. The platform already has distribution agreements with AOL, Mcrosoft, Yahoo, MySpace and others.
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Intel and Tandberg Television bridge PC, TV gap
From Colin Mann in Las Vegas
Intel Corporation and Tandberg Television have announced a collaboration aimed at bridging the gap between the PC and TV with a broadband television programming solution that provides entertainment programmers with an easy way to develop and deploy broadcast-quality content over the Internet to Intel technology-based devices and PCs, such as those based on the Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
"Our goal is to make delivering the Internet TV experience a simple extension to the tools already used today by many top TV broadcasters around the world," said Kevin Corbett, vice president of Intel's Digital Home Group.
The two companies will jointly market the broadband television solution
to professional content owners, programmers and broadcasters later in 2007.
Building on its August 2006 acquisition of Zetools, Tandberg Television recently formed a new broadband television business unit to advise content owners and distributors in solving key challenges in their transition to TV 2.0 through turnkey solutions for creation, management and delivery of broadcast-quality content for the broadband world. This agreement with Intel expands the business unit's distribution capabilities.
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Payday for Virgin executivesCable group Virgin Media rewarded top executives with a total of almost $45m (E33m) last year and paid Richard Branson £60,000 for his personal appearances promoting the company. Virgin Media said that under an agreement it was obliged to pay an annual fee of £100,000 for Sir Richard's personal public appearances promoting the company
In a filing with regulatory authorities in the US, where the company is listed, Virgin Media revealed its chief executive, Steve Burch, was paid $11.14m last year, including $9.22m in stock awards. The Virgin Media chairman, Jim Mooney, took home $7.29m with $5.55m in stock options, while deputy chairman Cob Stenham made $10.68m before his death in October. In all, the company's top seven executives were paid almost $45m (£23m) in 2006.
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Al Jazeera English on YouTubeAl Jazeera English announced plans to begin making clips from its news and programmes available to the YouTube by launching a branded Channel on the site. YouTube users worldwide will have the ability to comment on Al Jazeera English clips, rate them, recommend them to friends and post their own video responses to communicate with other viewers. Al Jazeera English is also planning to release some exclusive web-only programming.
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Zeiler: "Embrace fragmentation"
From Nick Snow in CannesDelegates at MIP/MILIA are being treated to some very mixed views on the benefits or otherwise of broadband distribution.
In an opening keynote Gerhard Zeiler, head of RTL, said broadcasters must embrace media fragmentation as "an overwhelming opportunity… we must not freeze in shock." He set out a survival plan: "The first thing we must do is fragment ourselves… we need a family (of products) approach – a fleet of small and mid sized channels that can capture market share."
He told broadcasters "don’t be afraid of the technology. Platforms like VOD, mobile and IPTV … are opportunities for us to distribute our brands to as wide an audience as possible."
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1.5m Brits to use IPTV by 2011Five per cent of the UK population - some 1.5 million UK households - will be watching TV over an internet connection by 2011, according to a new study by the Centre for Telecoms Research (CTR).
With more people moving to faster broadband connections and the release of IPTV set top boxes, CTR expects the number of people to jump significantly from the 80,000 users in 2006.
The report also predicted 85 per cent of UK households would have a personal computer by 2011. There will be 20 million UK broadband connections, with 90 per cent reaching speeds above 2Mb - up significantly from the 33 per cent with such speeds in 2006.
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UGC a blip? You decide…
From Nick Snow in CannesIn a lively panel at MIP/MILIA yesterday, content owners, technology vendors and ‘platform’ providers demonstrated that your view on the benefits of UGC depend heavily on where you reside in the value chain.
Rick Sands, COO of MGM, cheerfully admitted he doesn’t like anything that gets in the way of viewers consuming his branded product but also described the vast majority of UGC as "crap". Tony Dunaif, VP Content at Brightcove, not surprisingly disagreed saying UGC could be key to making new niche TV distribution opportunities thrive, if it was ‘used’ the right way. He cited the Boston Channel that would aggregate the best videos uploaded by viewers of local events and provide the means to send these videos to anyone – thereby relieving everyone of the burden of capturing their own video to show to relatives.
An unrepentant Sands said this was a pretty good example of what he meant and doubted it could be monetized anyway. But Rob Bennett GM MSN Entertainment said the key was to recruit UGC to the cause of your brand, providing viewers with the opportunity to interact with your content. Sands was still unconvinced "at that point it stops being UGC. An analogy would be the independent studios. In the 90s they produced a lot of good product that changed cinema, but once the conglomerates got involved, the creativity dried up."
Frederik de Wahl, CEO of Joost said UGC would be deployed in the context of niche channels. He said much current UGC was really just User Published as it relied on owned content – which was causing havoc in the rights market. But sharing recipes in the context of a niche cooking channel was UGC that was useful and monetizeable by selling ads around it.
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Jalipo online launchedJalipo, a new online distribution network for TV and video content launched at MIP/MILIA with partners including BBC World and Al Jazeera English. Jalipo, which has the former president of Sony Europe Chris Deering as its chairman, will offer a pay-as-you-go credit service to consumers wanting to watch live events and video-on-demand online.
The group says this will allow content owners more control over their footage to set the price and determine where it is available to avoid jeopardising any other distribution deals.
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Endemol and EA get ‘personal’
From Nick Snow in CannesElectronic Arts, the worlds biggest video game company, announced a partnership with Endemol Entertainment that will allow users to create their own personal avatars and take them online to participate in virtual versions of Endemol shows.
This year the ‘Virtual Me’ concept will be used with Big Brother – meaning there will be thousands of virtual BB houses across the Web. "We’re moving social networking to the next level," said EA’s Gerhard Florin, implying Virtual Me will reach far more people than Second Life, the on line virtual world that has popularised the use of ‘avatars’.
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Harmonic enables VoD for non real-time content delivery
From Colin Mann in Las Vegas
Harmonic has introduced video-on-demand capabilities for non real-time content delivery on its StreamLiner 2000 video server product line. The new functionality allows the video servers to download assets to set-top box hard drives, in addition to the existing support available on the StreamLiner platform for real-time VoD sessions.
The download capability is designed for service providers such as satellite direct-to-home (DTH), terrestrial (DVB-T) and telco operators who are not able to guarantee or deliver a real-time VOD service today.
Shahar Bar, Director of On-Demand Solutions for Harmonic said that the new download capability available on the StreamLiner video servers opened up new business models for satellite, terrestrial and telco operators previously unable to offer a VOD service.
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UPC Ireland, the parent company of cable operators NTL Ireland and Chorus, is launching a broadband and digital phone package for E24 a month.
UPC is aiming to have more than 375,000 homes enabled for phone services by the end of 2007 and is investing over E300m in the network. UPC Ireland marketing director Mark Coen said the service would be available to 100,000 cabled homes in Dublin, Waterford and Galway initially, and Cork and Limerick would be added by the end of the year.
Tuesday 17th April
UK ‘must increase broadband investment’
Samsung and Nokia co-op on Mobile TV
Imminent Sogecable-Telefonica deal
Canada’s consolidation of media continues
Italian regions switch-off analogue
Digital investments on the up
LG Electronics, Harris launch MPH mobile
Irdeto integrates with Thomson
Thomson, Grass Valley delivers mobile TV
Ex Sky man joins Ofcom
SA delivers open Conditional Access platform
ODG launches PPV for Unity Media
Joost adds content
UK ‘must increase broadband investment’Ministers and regulators have just two years to find ways of encouraging investment in the next generation of high-speed broadband, or the UK’s competitiveness will suffer. Existing Internet access networks, and those being rolled out, will be too slow to meet the demands of the most bandwidth-hungry businesses and households by 2012, the Broadband Stakeholder Group report warns.
Pressure on broadband pricing means commercial incentives for building the necessary infrastructure are "particularly weak" in the UK, according to BSG, a Government advisory group composed of telecoms companies, content providers and regulators.
"If steps are not taken (by 2009) to prepare for next-generation broadband, then we may well find ourselves in a position where it is too late to catch up," said Kip Meek, BSG chairman.
BT will start offering broadband download speeds of up to 24 megabits per second from next year – three times its fastest existing speed – as it rolls out its £10bn 21st century fixed-line network. Virgin Media plans to offer up to 20 mbps from June and is testing a 50 mbps service.
However, France Telecom is, in trials, already achieving broadband speeds of up to 100 mbps in Paris, and Deutsche Telekom has plans to offer speeds of up to 50 mbps in 50 German cities next year.
Samsung and Nokia co-op on Mobile TV
To encourage greater adoption of broadcast mobile TV services and accelerate service deployment, Samsung and Nokia are set to work to achieve interoperability among their DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) enabled mobile devices and the open standards based Nokia network services system.The handset manufacturers will work together to support solutions based on the open OMA BCAST standard available for operator partners interested in deploying multi-vendor mobile TV services and trials in 2007 and onward.
The deployment of mobile TV services will offer new business opportunities for companies across the value chain, including content and broadcast companies, mobile service providers, infrastructure and handset manufacturers, and technology providers. The availability of interoperable DVB-H enabled devices and services is a key factor in further opening up the market.
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Imminent Sogecable-Telefonica deal
From David del Valle in Madrid
Spain's largest pay-TV group, Sogecable, owner of digital DTH platform, Digital Plus, is finalising an agreement with telco Telefonica, a 16.65 per cent shareholder in the pay-TV group, to offer triple play services.
Following the deal, Telefonica would distribute Sogecable's premium channel Canal Plus and some others such as Viajar or 40 Latino to its nearly 400,000 IPTV subscribers through its Imagenio IPTV service. At the same time, Digital Plus could offer triple play in competition to cable operators such as ONO.
Both Sogecable and Telefonica are lobbying the Government to lift as soon as possible the prohibition on a possible agreement between them. The ban is currently due to end in November 2007.
In an attempt to boost pay-TV subscriptions and raise its revenues, Sogecable is opening up its premium content (namely Canal Plus) to other operators. Recently, the company reached an agreement with mobile phone operator Vodafone to distribute 10 of its channels to its 3G subscribers. Other similar agreements with other operators are likely.
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Canada’s consolidation of media continues
From Gail Chiasson in MontrealAstral Media Inc., owner of 10 specialty TV channels, six pay TV channels, a variety of out-of-home media and 29 radio stations, will become Canadian's largest radio broadcaster with its purchase of Standard Radio Inc. at C$1.08 billion in cash and stock. (more than E654 million)
The buy includes Integrated Media Sales, a national advertising sales company; Sound Source Networks, a radio service provider; and two CBC television affiliates in northern British Columbia.
Astral expects the transaction to add $210 million in revenues, and to give it approximately 30 per cent in market share. Astral also announced that it will pay C$34 million to acquire the remaining 50 per cent of TV channel MusiquePlus Inc. that it doesn’t already own from CTVglobemedia and CHUM.
And Rogers Communications Inc, cable operator, recently agreed to buy CHUM’s A-channel properties – eight analogue and two digital – adding to its TV broadcasting assets, for C$135.7 million This would make Rogers the third-largest private-sector TV owner in Canada behind CTV and Canwest Global Communications Corp.. Better known for its cable and telephone assets, Rogers currently has four OMNI channels mainly serving ethnic communities, Sportsnet and the Shopping Channel.
The A-channel buy will make it easier for CTV to take over CHUM Ltd., for which it has offered C$1.7 billion. Rogers acquisition of the A-channels is contingent on CTV getting regulatory approval for its CHUM buy. CTV had said it would shed the A-channels to ease anti-trust concerns and pave the way for approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. CTV plans to keep CHUM’s Citytv stations located in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.
CHUM had acquired the A-channels when it bought Craig Media in 2004. It sold off Craig’s Toronto 1 (now Sun TV) to Quebecor, which also owns Canada’s biggest French-language TV network, TVA.
All the above new moves are subject to regulatory approval.
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Italian regions switch-off analogue
From Branislav Pekic in RomeAfter Sardinia, on April 16 Valle d’Aosta became the second all-digital Italian region, with the switching-off of the analogue transmitters of the Rai Due and Retequattro TV channels.
The first phase of the transition to digital terrestrial television concerns a population of around 600.000 in the city of Aosta and 16 neighbouring municipalities. In order to ease the change, the local population will be able to benefit from a E70 Government subsidy for the acquisition of a digital interactive box.
The switch-off in Sardinia took place on March 1 and initial figures indicate that 65 per cent of viewers have completely abandoned analogue in favour of digital. Italy’s Communications Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, has confirmed that the frequencies freed up by RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media, will be redistributed among the various operators. He added that the full passage to the new digital technology by 2012 can only be achieved if leading broadcasters offer more products and programming in digital. Public broadcaster RAI has already confirmed the launch of a new ad-free childrens’ channel in June, while Mediaset is promising a new digital channel for the same date.
After Valle d’Aosta and Sardinia, the next all-digital areas will be the autonomous province of Trento and Bolzano followed by Veneto, Tuscany and Sicily. According to research company Gfk, the number of DTT decoders installed in Italian homes at the end of February stood at 5,006,867. The goal of the Ministry of Communication is to equip 21 million Italian families with digital boxes by the national switch-off deadline of 2012.
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UK digital publishers are predicting 72 per cent growth in turnover in 2007, double their forecasts from last year, according to an Association of Online Publishers survey.
Publishers view broadband, mobile and community-based media as their biggest opportunities for growth 2007. The findings reveal that digital publishers reported an average increase in turnover of 60 per cent last year, with the total turnover for members recorded at £575m, up from £344m in 2005.
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LG Electronics, Harris launch MPH mobile
From Colin Mann in Las VegasLG Electronics USA, the North American subsidiary of consumer electronics giant LG Electronics and communications technology provider Harris Corporation have unveiled the MPH In-Band Mobile DTV system, aimed at providing robust DTV signals to mobile, pedestrian and handheld devices.
Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications said the flexible MPH system maximized broadcasters' use of their DTV channel, enabling them to deploy handheld and mobile services, while continuing to deliver HDTV, SDTV and datacasting services.
MPH In-Band Mobile DTV is debuting at broadcast technology exhibition NAB 2007, with live, over-the-air demonstrations in a minibus travelling through Las Vegas and the nearby vicinity, including the signal-challenged canyon of high-rise hotels along the Las Vegas Strip.
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Irdeto integrates with Thomson
From Colin Mann in Las VegasContent security specialist Irdeto has integrated its conditional access solution with Thomson's NexGuard Forensic Marking Solution. The integration is aimed at allowing operators to secure content against piracy and deter illegal copying and distribution of broadcast content.
NexGuard for STBs can watermark all forms of broadcast content delivered via IPTV, satellite, cable or terrestrial broadcast and viewed with a digital STB. It is the first watermarking tool available that supports both standard and next generation compression in digital STBs formatted for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and VC-1 and it is currently demonstrated with STBs based on the STx7100 family of System-on-Chips (SoC).
Jean-Luc Moullet, Thomson vice president and head of the Software and Technology Solutions business unit, a part of Thomson's Technology division, said that watermarking perfectly complemented conditional access and extended content security beyond the set-top box.
Graham Kill, CEO for Irdeto, said that its customers could deploy a powerful additional deterrent against illicit redistribution.
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Thomson, Grass Valley delivers mobile TV
From Colin Mann in Las VegasMedia and entertainment technology and solutions provider Thomson is to provide equipment for two roll-outs of mobile TV in the US. Qualcomm subsidiary MediaFLO USA has placed orders for Ultimate Transmitters and Grass Valley NetProcessor multiplexers, while its Grass Valley business has been chosen to support the new Modeo live commercial quality mobile TV service across the New York City metropolitan area with a full complement of products and systems designed to facilitate, monitor, and control the reliable transmission and reception of mobile digital audio, video, and other data types.
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Ex Sky man joins OfcomUK comms regulator Ofcom has appointed Julian Eccles as its new Director of Communications. Eccles was previously Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs at BSkyB. Prior to this he worked at British Interactive Broadcasting and at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards said: "Julian brings specialist knowledge and broad experience to this critically important role."
In March 2007, Ofcom announced that it would investigate the pay TV market, following a submission from BT, Setanta, Top Up TV, and Virgin Media.
SA delivers open Conditional Access platform
From Colin Mann in Las VegasDigital content contribution and distribution systems specialist Scientific Atlanta has unveiled Advanced Program Receiver (Model D9854T) designed to provide widespread flexibility to service providers through support of multiple conditional access (CA) systems and a streamlined path for delivering more video over existing satellite bandwidth using DVB-S2, the second-generation standard for digital video broadcasting via satellite.
The receiver's bandwidth efficiency improvement is complemented by its support for third-party CA systems, as well as Scientific Atlanta's PowerVu CA system. The result is increased flexibility for potential applications of this cost-saving technology in content-distribution systems.
The new receiver's support for the DVB-S2 modulation standard, which expands the content carrying capacity of existing satellites by up to 30 per cent, together with the bandwidth improvements of Scientific Atlanta's MPEG-4 advanced video encoders provides programmers and broadcasters with powerful capabilities for the delivery of considerably more content over today's satellite transponders.
"In addition to support for multiple CA systems, this receiver has bandwidth-efficiency improvements for just about everyone: DVB-S2, high definition, standard definition, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 advanced video coding and MPEG over IP outputs, all in one receiver," said Dean Rockwell, vice president and general manager, Digital Media Networks at Scientific Atlanta. "These multiple capabilities will be extremely valuable to help meet the increased demand for HD programming that is generating a bandwidth challenge for content owners and creators."
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ODG launches PPV for Unity MediaOn Demand Deutschland, the newly formed joint venture of On Demand Group (ODG) and Tele München Gruppe (TMG), has taken over the management of the pay-per-view movie service for Unity Media, parent company of the German cable network operators ish (North Rhine-Westphalia) and iesy (Hesse).
Unity Media serves over 5.1 million basic cable subscribers. For the standard price of E3, digital customers can order a movie from Unity Media's "Kino auf Abruf" service. This service, marketed under Unity Media's pay-per-view offering, includes the latest movies from Hollywood studios and large German independent studios.
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Joost adds contentInternet television platform Joost has signed distribution partnerships with independent film and television producers ALL3MEDIA International, Alliance Atlantis, September Films and Wall to Wall; as well as independent distributors IndieFlix and Shorts International.
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Monday 16th April
Virgin files against Sky
Nielsen out of home ratings
Telcos to Spend $41b on equipment in 2007
Channel 4 joins InuK
iTunes movie sales fall
Apple pressed to adopt subs
New CEO for Ondas Media
Snyder out at Vonage
Orange partners with Paramount
Sony Pictures, VirginMega VOD deal
Private Media for Belgacom
Virgin files against SkyVirgin Media has now filed its High Court action against BSkyB. It has brought the action under the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty. "Sky, which accounts for almost 70 per cent of the country's pay TV subscribers, is dominant in the UK Pay TV market and has engaged in a strategy to stifle competition by using its dominance against Virgin Media," Virgin alleges.
It accused Sky of "forcing" it to accept much lower fees for some of its channels, and then hiking the price it charged Virgin Media for providing the basic channels package. Denying the claims, Sky said the action was "without foundation" and called on Virgin to resume negotiations.
Virgin is also challenging the rates imposed by Sky for carrying Virgin's TV channels. Sky said that throughout negotiations between the two, Sky had offered to include two more channels - Sky Three and Sky Arts - as well as an On Demand and High Definition service to Virgin for the increased fee. Sky added "Virgin Media is saving money as a result of this dispute but it hasn't reduced prices. Millions of customers have lost access to the shows they enjoy and it is clear that many resent paying full prices for fewer channels."
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The Nielsen Company will release national ratings for TV viewing away from home in places like bars, hotels, gyms and offices from September.
Networks like ESPN, CBS and CNN have complained for years that out-of-home viewing was not counted and was costing them money — advertisers generally base their payments on Nielsen’s numbers.
Nielsen has ambitious plans to measure viewership everywhere it occurs, whether on televisions, computers, iPods, cellphones and other mobile devices. And it is working with large advertisers like Procter & Gamble to measure how many people watch programs and ads on television screens in retail stores.
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Telcos to Spend $41b on equipment in 2007Telcos in 2007 are expected to spend nearly $41 billion (E30b) on equipment, the highest annual level since 2002. However up only 1.6 percent from $40.4 billion in 2006. In comparison, telco equipment spending rose by 10.7 percent in 2006 and by 8.3 percent in 2005.
"The major reason for the slowdown is focused spending and a ‘pay-as-you-grow’ strategy among telcos," said Steve Rago, principal analyst, IPTV, broadband and digital home research for iSuppli. "The marginal increase in 2007 spending is being driven largely by telcos‚ purchases of equipment to deploy IPTV services. iSuppli estimates $9 billion will be spent on IPTV-related communications equipment in 2007."
IPTV provider Inuk Networks has added free-to-air channels Channel 4, E4, More4 and Film4 to its Freewire TV service. The addition of the channels follows the recent expansion of Freewire TV with the Five service. Launched in November 2006 using multicasting technology to deliver TV over a closed IP network, Freewire TV is targeting the thousands of students at universities across the UK who access the service via the high speed JANET network. Freewire TV is ultimately aimed at the estimated 6m homes that Inuk says are unable to receive high quality digital TV by other means.
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iTunes movie sales fallAs MGM has joined Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate and IFC in testing the market for films on Apple's iTunes Music Store it was revealed sales on line had fallen.
From September through January, with only Disney films available, iTunes sold 1.3 million movies. In the past three months, company has sold some 700,000 more. Though comparisons are difficult because iTunes sales always spike around the holidays, numbers demonstrate that the addition of three new studios this winter has not significantly accelerated business, reported Variety.
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The world’s biggest music companies are to ask Apple to introduce a subscription service to its iTunes digital media store as part of negotiations to renew their agreements with the computer company.
Executives believe a subscription service could prove more lucrative for them than iTunes’ prevailing model of charging consumers per track because it would increase consumption of music. It would also entitle the labels to a share of monthly payments, in addition to small licensing fees each time their songs are played.
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New CEO for Ondas Media
From David del Dalle in MadridOndas Media, the Madrid-based pan-European satellite radio company, has named Jacinto Palacios as its new CEO. Formerly CEO for the Spanish telecommunications satellite organisation Hispasat, Palacios’ role will be to lead the company into its next stage of development to bring satellite digital radio to Europe.
He replaces Celso Azevedo – who will remain available to ONDAS in a consulting capacity. Palacios’ remit will also include the expansion of the ONDAS team to manage this phase of development.
ONDAS intends to broadcast its multi-lingual radio, music, video and data services directly to European consumers in their automobiles, trucks, homes, offices and to their mobile and portable devices.
Snyder out at Vonage
Mike Snyder has quit as head of Vonage, the struggling broadband telephony pioneer, as the US-based group announced a series of cost-cutting measures to shore up business after its bruising patent battle with Verizon Communications.The upheaval comes at a crucial time. Vonage faces a potential ban on signing up new customers following a jury ruling last month that it had infringed three patents held by Verizon. An appeal against that ban, which has been temporarily suspended, is due to be heard this week. Vonage said it remained confident that it would eventually prevail in the patent case. It was also working on a technology "work-around" that would enable it to continue serving customers should the US courts impose an injunction.
Meanwhile, the loss-making company gave a preliminary estimate for revenue of $195m for the quarter ended March 31 and said it had added 166,000 net subscriber lines, which was somewhat below expectations.
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Orange partners with Paramount
Orange has an agreement with Paramount that will allow Orange customers with a broadband digital television package or a High-Speed Internet package in France to access a Video-On-Demand programming schedule. Paramount is the latest partner to join Orange’s "24/24 Video" VOD package.
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Sony Pictures, VirginMega VOD deal
Sony Pictures has a new Video-on-Demand (VOD) agreement with VirginMega in France enabling users to access a range of Sony Pictures box office hits and classics online and on TV. Online, Sony Pictures movies and TV content will be available on the VirginMega French website while subscribers to the Alice broadband service in France can view Sony Pictures content on its Mes Vidéos à la Carte service using a set top box.
Private Media for BelgacomPrivate Media Group has confirmed a multi-year agreement with the Belgacom Group, Belgium's leading telecom, for the supply of content for distribution via their Video-On-Demand (VOD) service.
The agreement includes access to hundreds of titles from Private's proprietary movie library and includes both new releases as well as classic titles.
