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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday Online content market to grow 10 fold
Warburg Pincus and Cinven win Essent
Austar’s subscription accelerates
Napster narrows loss
Google XM alliance
RTP DTH Channel Targets Brazil
BCE, BellExpressVu Report Strong Q2
Online content market to grow 10 fold
The worldwide market for online content services is expected to expand by a factor of 10, growing from about 13 million households during 2005 to more than 131
million households by 2010, the high-tech market research firm reports In-Stat says.
"AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple, major Broadcast TV networks, Pay-TV
services and local TV stations are all working on ways to blend their video assets with personalized TV services," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "The future of television is slowly being defined online, where the big Internet portals are finding ways to blend professional video with their high-touch services that follow consumers from screen to screen during the course of a typical day."The report, "Online Content Aggregators - AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple - Slowly Defining the Future of Television" found: Worldwide broadband households will more than double between 2005 and 2010, growing from about $194 million in 2005 to more than $413 million by 2010. Of all broadband households today, 12.8% are already regularly viewing professional content via Online Content Aggregators.
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Warburg Pincus and Cinven win Essent
Warburg Pincus and Cinven have prevailed with their E2.6bn bid for Essent Kabelcom, securing their second acquisition of a Dutch cable company in as many weeks, after Liberty Global dropped out of the auction at the last minute. Warburg Pincus and Cinven will merge Essent Kabelcom with Casema and Multikabel, a small operator in the north of the country that Warburg Pincus bought for E515m last December. Doing so would create a company with about 53 per cent of the cable customers in Holland, and is likely to spark a review by competition authorities.
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Austar’s subscription accelerates
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australian regional pay-TV provider Austar has reported its highest quarterly subscription growth since launching its digital service in 2004. Austar added 20,200 TV subscribers in the three months to the end of June to reach 570,878, an increase of 36,918 for the six months. That compares with four previous half-yearly growth rates of 20,000 in the second half of 2005; 28,000 (1H 05); and 33,000 in both the first and second halves of 2004. TV ARPU also rose, up four per cent from A$64.61 a month to A$67.10 a month.
Revenue in the half-year to the end of June increased 10 per cent to A$242 million, with revenue from subscription TV accounting for A$230 million of that, up 12% from A$205 million. EBITDA up 8% to A$67 million. Operating expenses rose 18%, largely due to an increase in sales and marketing activities. Post-tax profit rose 48% on the same period the previous year, to reach A$26.5 million. Capital expenditure rose from A$32.5 million to A$42.7 million as the company put money into projects including a new wireless broadband service and a personal digital recorder, due to launch in 2007.
As well as the PDR, called MyStar, Austar will also launch a lower-priced entry package over the coming months, mirroring a similar move from Foxtel.
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Napster narrows loss
Napster has posted a narrower loss but shares of the online music service fell after it provided disappointing guidance and said its subscriber base had fallen seven percent as it focused on promoting a new free Web site.The company reported a net loss of $9.8 million, for the first quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $19.9 million. Revenue rose to $28.1 million from $21 million.
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Google XM alliance
Google has struck a deal with XM Satellite Radio to allow the search engine's advertisers to automatically insert ads on the radio company's non-music channels. The deal would give Google's advertisers a way to reach XM's more than 7 million subscribers through the search engine's dMarc media network, the companies said in a statement.
It also would allow XM to increase revenue with new advertisers while lowering the costs related to processing ads, they said. Google's AdWords customers would be able to place terrestrial and satellite radio spots when Google integrates the dMarc platform into AdWords. The company said it plans to do that in the fourth quarter of this year.
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RTP DTH Channel Targets Brazil
Intelsat announced that Rádio e Televisao de Portugal (RTP) has signed on as the first major international broadcast customer to launch a direct to home (DTH) channel on Intelsat’s IA-8 satellite targeting Brazil. The new channel from RTP enhances Intelsat's already strong presence as a provider of high-quality DTH platforms in Brazil. RTP, the Portuguese national broadcaster, will use Ku-band capacity on a South American beam of IA-8 to provide DTH applications in Brazil, where Intelsat recently secured landing rights to operate its newest satellite.
Intelsat, working with Brazilian broadcaster Tecsat, will provide RTP with a turnkey DTH solution which will include signal turnaround, multiplexing and space segment. In order for RTP to provide content directly to homes in Brazil, Tecsat will use its teleport in Brazil to downlink RTP’s Portuguese programming from the IS-805 satellite. Once received, the signal will be multiplexed and uplinked to IA-8’s powerful Ku-band beam where reception will be enabled in antennas as small as 90 centimeters.
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BCE, BellExpressVu Report Strong Q2
Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) said its BellExpressVu satellite TV service increased its annual revenues by 21 percent during the second quarter ($286 million) and 23 percent year-to-date to $563 million. The financial growth, the company said, was driven by year-over-year ExpressVu subscriber base growth of 10.2 percent and a $4 increase in monthly average revenue per unit.
According to the company BCE's BellExpressVu - Canada's largest satellite TV service - added 19,000 net new video subscribers during Q2 and 31,000 year-to-date. The company added 63,000 and 92,000 for the same periods in 2005. BCE said the decreases were due to more aggressive price competition from cable and fewer promos in the retail marketplace.
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TW confirms AOL broadband giveaway
Liberty and private equity face-off, again
MSN scores as web video ads reach TV prices
Telstra backs away from DVB-H
Sirius loss widens
IAC up 18%
ITV ads in ‘free fall’
J:COM new ratings
Sky+ remote record
emuse absolutely into SKY New Zealand.TW confirms AOL broadband giveaway
Time Warner said it swung to a profit in the second quarter and the company confirmed that AOL will give away email accounts and software to broadband users in a major strategy shift aiming to draw more advertising dollars. TW reported net income of $1.01 billion compared with a year earlier loss of $409 million, mostly down to charges related to the AOL takeover.
Leading the way was TW's cable-television business which grew thanks to more high-speed Internet and digital-phone customers, offsetting weakness at AOL. Advertising, though a relatively small part of AOL's revenue, saw a 40% boost in the second quarter, while the unit's overall revenue declined 2%. "We've listened to our customers, and many of them want to keep using these AOL products when they migrate to broadband -- but not pay extra for them,'' said Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's president and chief operating officer.
Revenue rose 1.2% to $10.71 billion, compared with $10.59 billion in the second quarter of 2005. Revenue from advertising rose 11% to $2.24 billion from $2.02 billion
Chairman and Chief Executive Dick Parsons said: "Our cable, filmed entertainment and networks segments delivered standout operating performances, while AOL posted a better-than-expected quarter. Key to these results were impressive strength in AOL's advertising revenues and across-the-board subscriber and profit growth at Time Warner Cable." In the year-earlier period, the company took a $3 billion charge for legal reserves related to settling securities litigation in the wake of the sharp tumble in the company's share price following AOL's deal in 2000 to buy Time Warner.
TW confirmed its trailed policy on AOL which will give away email accounts and software now available only to its paying customers in a strategy shift likely to accelerate the decline in its core Internet access business. The changes are to fully take effect in early September. Millions of subscribers are likely to drop their paid accounts. Currently subscriptions still account for about 80% of AOL's revenue, contributing to 19% of Time Warner's revenue last year. But after peaking at 26.7 million U.S. subscribers in September 2002, AOL's subscription base dropped 30% to 18.6 million in March this year.
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Liberty and private equity face-off, again
Liberty Global and the private equity firms Warburg Pincus and Cinven are battling it out to win the E3bn auction for Essent Kabelcom, the Netherlands’ second largest cable operator. Liberty had apparently been given preferred bidder status, but Warburg Pincus and Cinven are still vying to jointly take control.
A couple of weeks ago Warburg Pincus and Cinven jointly acquired Casema, the Netherlands’ third largest cable group, for E4.1bn including debt. Unprecedented fundraising by buyout groups and liquidity in the debt markets have fuelled interest in the sector that is attractive because it can offer a growth and the capacity to pay down debt. Meantime earlier this year, Liberty said it wanted to get out of “sub-scale” markets in Europe and redeploy the proceeds to expand in its other existing markets, acquiring operations in faster-growing central and eastern European markets, or buying back more shares. As a result the group has sold out of Norway, and France.
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MSN scores as web video ads reach TV prices
Microsoft's MSN has spent heavily to accumulate Web rights to an array of programming from major TV networks and as a result: MSN has emerged as a top video site in terms of traffic, behind Yahoo, and the first choice for many online video advertisers.
The competition is over a share of online video ad dollars, now growing faster than any other type of Internet advertising, says the WSJ. While it accounts for only 2.3% of total Web ad spending now -- an estimated $385 million in 2006 -- it is expected to grow at double the rate of the overall ad market in the next four years, rising to $2.35 billion by 2010, according to eMarketer Inc.
Demand is so strong that prices are now on a par with TV. The average cost of reaching 1,000 Web viewers, the standard TV-ad-pricing measure, is about $25 to $30, about the same as a 30-second ad on ABC's hit show "Desperate Housewives" for the fall season, according to a media buyer.
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Telstra backs away from DVB-H
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australia's incumbent telco Telstra will not participate in further trials of DVB-H technologies following completion of a 375-handset trial in Sydney, ahead of its launch of a third-generation mobile network in 2007.
The decision could eliminate one of the potentially most important bidders for a mobile-television service under government consideration. DVB-H trials, conducted by Telstra and Macquarie subsidiary Broadcast Australia, started in July 2005, with 16 channels including ABC2, Nine, SBS, Fox Football, Fox Sports News, Sky News, Channel V, CNN and Nickelodeon. Nokia's 7710 handset was used.
Although officially noncommittal, with all technologies being "explored", Telstra is widely reported to be against pushing ahead with any further DVB-H activities. The company is choosing to concentrate instead on its 3G mobile network, scheduled for commercial operation in early 2007.
There have been 3G services up and running in Australia since 2003, with Hutchison's 3 service the largest, with over one million customers. Seventy per cent of customers accessed television content in 2005.
Telstra currently only offers an i-mode service. The news comes at a bad time for the government, which is due later in the year to announce its plans for two bands of digital-terrestrial television spectrum.
Communications minister Helen Coonan has stated that she would consider "new and innovative uses" for the channels, with mobile television specifically mentioned as having widespread support within the industry.
Telstra is one of the few companies in Australia with broadcasting know-how which is also large enough to market such a service. But the government seems in no hurry to decide what exactly it will do with the spectrum, let alone allocate it or get new services launched.
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Sirius loss widens
Sirius reported a wider loss for its second quarter as the company continued to build its subscriber base. Sirius also raised its subscriber forecast. The subscription radio service said it lost $237.8 million, compared with a loss of $177.6 million in the same period a year ago. Revenue jumped to $150.1 million from $52.2 million in the year-ago period, largely due to a bigger subscriber base. Sirius said it added 600,460 net subscribers in the second quarter, giving it 4.7 million at the end of the period.
The company said it is now on track to have 6.3 million subscribers by the end of 2006, up slightly from its previous guidance of 6.2 million. It also expects slightly higher revenue of $615 million versus its previous estimate of over $600 million.
Sirius expects to launch a new handheld live satellite radio unit by the end of the summer. The unit, to be called the Stilletto, is still being tested.
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Ineractive Cop said quarterly revenues rose 18 per cent, boosted by its acquisition of Ask.com.IAC reported revenues of $1.612bn in the second quarter. Barry Diller, chief executive, said Ask was seeing good growth in queries – up 40 per cent year-on-year – as well as increased monetisation through search advertising. “We had pretty aggressive goals and we are 10 per cent ahead of our plot year-to-date,” he said.
IAC’s performance was also driven by a strong showing from the Home Shopping Network in the US with sales up 4 per cent at $696m, and from its Ticketmaster agency, where sales grew 14 per cent year-on-year to $295m.
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ITV1 advertising revenues are collapsing and could fall by 15 per cent this year, according to estimates produced by Credit Suisse. In a short circular, the bank gave warning of a “deteriorating trend” that “bodes negatively” for “all UK advertising names”. It estimated that ITV1’s third quarter was down by 22 per cent, and that the crucial fourth quarter could be down by 20 per cent. That would make for a total shortfall of 15 per cent on the year.
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J:COM new ratings
Viewer ratings of multichannel digital broadcasts will be made available for the first time in Japan by Jupiter Telecommunications Co.
J:COM will make ratings data available on a weekly and monthly basis for all 48 basic channels of J:COM TV DIGITAL. This new digital viewership ratings index will specify audience numbers for multichannel digital broadcast programming by generating data on the average number of viewers watching each monitored channel. Ratings will be calculated based on data gathered over J:COM set-top boxes using interactive services.
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Sky has launched its Sky+ Remote Record service using weComm’s wave platform.
Sky+ customers can now set their Sky+ to record their favourite shows using a mobile phone either by sending a text message or with Sky by mobile. If they have downloaded the Sky by mobile application they can view Sky’s sevenday TV guide on their phone and select programmes to record. Sky by mobile is available on a large range of handsets, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and the RIM Blackberry.
Oliver Sturrock, COO of weComm, commented: “This is the first time that TV viewers will be able to remotely record their favourite programmes using a mobile phone from anywhere in the world.”
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emuse absolutely into SKY New Zealand.SKY NZ have entered into a 2 year agreement with emuse absolutely to design, build, test and deploy interactive advertising across wholly-owned or affiliate SKY channels and third-party broadcasters. emuse absolutely will deliver to SKY, broadcast-ready interactive advertising associated with linear television advertising or programming, the aggregation of data and the provision of consolidated campaign response reporting.
“We are thrilled to be working with SKY New Zealand” says Patrick Rainsford CEO emuse absolutely. “We have a long-standing relationship with BSkyB in the UK, and this new agreement with SKY NZ shows again the commitment on both sides to provide quality interactive advertising and content.” He continues, “The R.O.I. for broadcasters and advertisers alike has been proven over and over again and the agreement with SKY NZ is further validation that the model works internationally.”
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DRM needs standard say music sellers
ESPN 360 seeks carriage fees
Verizon solid quarter and FiOS numbers
KT wants IPTV service
TW put Springer man on board
ALL3MEDIA: Permira takes Majority
Six more join TDS
ECI for KT
DRM needs standard say music sellers
An industry-wide standard on DRM for digital entertainment is needed to aid consumers, says the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (Narm), the trade body for 7,000 US music stores, because the current multitude of systems is confusing and disadvantages the consumer.Narm called for a "meaningful dialogue" between retailers and the entertainment and technology industries to find "reasonable solutions that will ultimately benefit everyone involved, most importantly consumers. If consumers are discouraged by compatibility constraints and conflicts, we fear they will be less inclined to purchase more music and other digital entertainment content, and may instead choose illegal options."
The legal digital marketplace would be "derailed" without an end to the "confusion, frustration and disillusion" caused by having several DRM systems, it warned.
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ESPN 360 seeks carriage fees
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN is charging ISPs for the right to offer its ESPN360 web service which offers full-length live sports and interviews, highlight clips and videogames -- more than ESPN offers on its ad-supported site, ESPN.com.
So far there have only been a few takers such as Verizon Communications and Charter Communications. The biggest ISPs, such as cable operators Comcast, Cox and Time Warner are refusing."We do not like the current business model that ESPN is using for ESPN360," Scott Hightower, vice president of data product development and support at Cox Communications told the WSJ. He said the ESPN360 model would force Cox to saddle its customers with unnecessary costs, because they will inadvertently be paying for a service they may not want when they sign up for broadband.
Adelphia Communications had carried ESPN360, but the company is being carved up by Time Warner and Comcast. A spokeswoman for Time Warner said the company will immediately discontinue access to ESPN360.
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Verizon solid quarter and FiOS numberseVerizon reported quarterly earnings of $1.6 billion on revenues of $22.7 billion, up 25.6 percent from second quarter 2005. It said it had passed more than 1.5 million households with its FTTP video network this year and has obtained more than 100 franchises covering approximately 3 million households. The company has begun selling FiOS TV in approximately 60 markets across seven states.
In markets where Verizon has been selling FiOS TV for at least six months, penetration levels already average 10 percent, representing significant progress toward the company's goal of penetration of 20 percent to 25 percent in five years. More than 60 percent of FiOS TV customers have selected advanced set-top boxes with either digital video recorders, high-definition capabilities or both. Approximately 80 percent of FiOS TV customers purchase three services -- voice, data and video.
Complementing the FiOS TV rollout, Verizon says it now has 485,000 customers who receive a Verizon DIRECTV bundle, adding a company-record 70,000 net new customers in the quarter.
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KT wants IPTV service
Korea Telecom is anxious to get under way with IPTV: "We have the technology, funds and personnel to begin an Internet TV service. As soon as regulatory barriers are cleared away, we plan to jump-start it," KT vice president Shim Ju-kyo told The Korea Times. "We expect a new regulatory framework to deal with IP TV to be phased in soon. Then we will be able to introduce the services early next year," Shim said.Currently, up to 12.5 million out of 15 million households here, or four in five homes, are hooked-up to the always-on Internet. However, a turf war between government agencies - the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) versus the Korean Broadcasting Commission - has delayed the debut of the service. As IPTV falls in the gray area between telecom and broadcasting, the two authorities are confronting each other head-to-head as to who regulates the business.
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Time Warner has named Mathias Dopfner, chairman and chief executive of German media group Axel Springer, to its board, the first of two independent directors it plans to appoint. Dopfner becomes the 12th member of Time Warner's board.
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ALL3MEDIA: Permira takes Majority
ALL3MEDIA announced that the Permira Funds and the ALL3MEDIA management team have acquired ALL3MEDIA in a transaction that values the group at approximately £320 million (E463m). The acquisition represents a full exit for Bridgepoint, the original private equity backer.
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Six more join TDS
Six additional television network groups representing ten East and West Coast feeds for seven basic and expanded basic programming services have signed up for network transport aboard the Comcast Media Center (CMC) and SES AMERICOM Total Digital Solution. The Total Digital Solution combines the CMC's content management capabilities with SES AMERICOM's 50-state AMC-4 satellite, provides networks with greater potential for additional penetration in cable systems deploying digital simulcast or all digital service. The CMC's all-digital platform features secured authorization, optimized DPI triggers and high-quality video and audio.The newly added channels include television networks operated by Arts & Entertainment Networks (A&E, History), Hallmark (Hallmark Channel), Jewelry Television, ION Media Networks (Pax TV), Oxygen Media (Oxygen), and WGN (Superstation WGN).
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ECI for KT
KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom), Korea's largest telephone and internet service provider, is deploying ECI's service edge routers on its metro Ethernet network. The routers are provided by ECI's Data Networking Division, formerly Laurel Networks. ECI plans to install additional ST(TM)200 routers in Q3 2006. KT will now be able to offer its enterprise customers up to 1 Gigabit per second Ethernet connectivity and advanced services, creating new revenue generating opportunities and increasing KT's Average Revenue per User (ARPU). The deployment will gradually replace older switches, allowing KT to create highly efficient managed networks.
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AOL video launch
Lycos calls for Euro net cooperation
YouTube out rates Myspace
3G no turn on
Sogecable and Mediapro split football rights
DVRs mean less viewing?
Commission content debate opens up
BT gears up for Vision
ITVN Europe Distribution
AOL video launch
AOL is testing a video portal featuring user-generated content as well as programming from a number of networks, including MTV, Nickelodeon and A&E on 45 VOD channels. The site will offer both free and paid content. It will also include a video search feature, which will link users to video offerings from other sites.AOL's announcement comes as parent Time Warner prepares to unveil a radical plan to open access to nearly all of AOL's services for free. AOL, which had 18.6 million paying subscribers at the end of March, has been losing members at a quickening pace as users abandon the closed confines of its once-dominant dial-up service for high-speed Internet access.
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Lycos calls for Euro net cooperation
Christoph Mohn, chief executive of Lycos Europe has called for Europe to create an 'Airbus of the internet,' to compete with US giants like Google and Ebay. "So far, we have not built up a sizeable internet company in Europe," he said.
Mohn - heir to the Bertelsmann empire - endorsed the controversial Franco-German plan to build a state-funded European search engine called Quaero: "It's a little bit like Airbus Industries. I don't think it requires consolidation but it needs co-ordination." Quaero was launched this year with initial funding of E1.7bn to develop voice-based and picture-based search technologies. Mohn claimed it wasn't just about beatong Google: "It's 'let's build up a competitive internet industry'." Bertelsmann and Lycos Europe are members of the Quaero consortium, which includes Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Thomson and France Telecom.
Mohn said Lycos Europe, which in the first half of this year came close to breaking even for the first time, was now ready to enter the US market. The group would take the first of its products to the US on its own or under licence within a year.
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YouTube out rates MyspaceYouTube has established itself at the top of the league of community websites by becoming even more popular than MySpace, according to Alexa. research. The video sharing site has taken a 3.9% share of global internet visits a day compared with 3.35% for MySpace.
According to Nielsen/NetRatings, YouTube's American user base grew by 297% in the first half of the year. Its success has been such that a price tag of as much as $1bn has been put on the company and rumours are circulating of a possible initial public offering.
The average visitor spends 28 minutes on YouTube, with men 20% more likely to visit the site than women.
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3G no turn on
According to a survey carried out by BMRB for Enders Analysis, 63% of adults are not interested in 3G mobile services, and over half of 3G phone subscribers have never watched a video clip on their handset. When it comes to customers renewing 3G subscriptions, the survey said only one third of 3's customers planned to renew, whereas 81% of O2's clients would sign up again. The figure for Virgin Mobile was 76%.
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Sogecable and Mediapro split football rights
From David Del Valle in MadridSogecable, owner of digital DTH platform Digital Plus, and Mediapro, one of the main shareholders in new commercial channel La Sexta, have reached an agreement to share football TV rights to the Spanish Football League and the King´s Cup from this coming season.
Following the agreement, Mediapro will become a shareholder with a 25 per cent stake of Audio Visual Sport, the company controlled by Sogecable (with an 80 per cent stake) which currently manages the football rights, replacing the regional channel TV3.
The deal guarantees Sogecable the transmission on pay-TV of one football match every Sunday on Canal Plus and the rest on pay-per-view on Digital Plus. The new channel La Sexta is likely to broadcast in the clear the traditional Saturday football match which so far is being offered by the Regional channels.
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DVRs mean less viewing?
Adults in households with digital video recorders watch less TV than adults in the general population, according to analysis by Mediamark Research. The finding, which comes from in-home interviews with 26,000 adults seems to conflict with the contentions of the major broadcast networks. Researchers for the networks told advertisers in November that people in households with a DVR watched 12 percent more hours of TV a day than those without. Those researchers had argued that that tendency counterbalanced the possibility that DVR users would skip past ads.CBS, said the Mediamark numbers were unreliable, because they were derived from people's often-low reports of their own TV watching. The figures suggesting that adults who use a DVR watch more television come from Arbitron's 2,000-person machine-recorded survey in the spring of 2005, but covered only the Houston market. CBS said according to proprietary research, people with DVR's, whatever their level of TV viewing, tended to watch more television after getting the devices than they did before.
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Commission content debate opens up
A public consultation on ways to stimulate the growth of a true EU single market for online digital content, such as films, music and games, was launched by the European Commission. The Commission intends to encourage the development of innovative business models and to promote the cross-border delivery of diverse online content services. It is also keen to ascertain how European technologies and devices can be successful in the creative online content markets. Input to this consultation will help shape a Commission Communication on Content Online, due to be adopted at the end of the year. The deadline for replies is 13 October 2006."Supplying content on line, such as films, music and games, not only helps to make Europe's culture more accessible, but will also be a tremendous opportunity for Europe's content industry to expand its own markets", noted Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. "Easy access to, and secure distribution of, online content is a crucial challenge. I expect input to the consultation to identify clearly any remaining obstacles to a competitive, pan-European online content industry which the EU needs to tackle."
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BT gears up for Vision
BT is to build a "state-of-the-art production facility" as it readies for the launch of its BT Vision internet TV service this autumn. The new resource, which will be located at the BT Tower in London, is being designed in partnership with content distributor Octagon CSI.Meantime it has appointed Marc Watson as the commercial director for BT Vision. A qualified barrister, Watson has worked for Northern and Shell and Reel Enterprises Ltd.
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ITVN Europe Distribution
Interactive Television Networks confirmed the launch of ITVN (Europe) S.A., its wholly owned European subsidiary based in Luxembourg. ITVN (Europe) has taken delivery of over 5,000 ITVN IPTV Set-top boxes and will commence commercial operations in the UK and Germany in September."Over the past 12 months ITVN has been studying developments in the growing European market for narrowcast entertainment and IPTV," said Charles Prast, CEO of ITVN. "Initial contact with local distribution partners indicates a strong market for an independent TV delivery platform focusing initially on niche and on demand content."
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BSkyB figures show new era
Comcast booms in price war peace
XM mixed results
Sony profit up
Google best known brand
OmniBus Transmission for IPTV
J:COM joint CFOs
BSkyB figures show new era
BSkyB annual pre-tax profits rose just one per cent to £798m (E1.156bn) but Q4 dipped year on year as the rate of subscriber growth slowed. It gained 77,000 customers in the three months to 30 June, against 83,000 last time, taking its subscription base up to 8.18 million. It still aims to have 10 million customers by 2010, but is entering an era where emphasis will be on premier products like HD and new services like broadband.Annual revenue was up 8% to £4.1bn and programming costs fell as new content deals were struck, but several other operating cost categories rose. A rise of almost a fifth in marketing spend, to £622m, brought the cost of acquiring each new customer 10 per cent higher to £261. ARPU was £4 lower at £388, which the company said reflected newer subscribers coming in on short-term promotional offers. BSkyB also booked higher transmission charges and £26m for rolling out a new customer service platform, completed in the third quarter.
Advertising revenues were slightly lower in the fourth quarter, which BSkyB blamed on the World Cup and a slowing TV advertising market, but ad revenues for the full year were 4 per cent higher at £342m.
The number of people with Sky+ rose 75% in the year to 1.55m.
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Comcast booms in price war peace
Comcast results show that strong competition among cable and telecom providers is not yet pushing prices down. In its second quarter the average revenue made from each broadband customer rose to $43.78 from $43.35 a year ago. The company, run by Brian Roberts whose family has control over the group, has seen its shares rise 32 per cent this year, making it the sixth-biggest riser in the S&P 100 index of US companies.
In the quarter, Comcast earned $460 million, compared with $430 million, in the period a year ago. Revenue was $6.23 billion, up 11 percent from last year's $5.6 billion. Video revenue rose by 7.6 percent, to $3.74 billion. The company added 350,000 digital cable subscribers in the quarter in contrast to 284,000 a year ago.
High-speed Internet revenue came to $1.21 billion, up 22 percent, while its phone service - digital and circuit-switched calls - racked up a 24 percent gain, to $214 million. About 305,000 customers signed up for Comcast's high-speed Internet service in the quarter, up 1.7 percent from last year's second quarter.
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XM mixed resultsXM Satellite Radio has reported an 82 percent year-over-year quarterly revenue increase and a 56 percent increase in subscribers pushing the company near the seven million mark. For the second quarter 2006, XM recorded gross subscriber additions of 926,281 and net subscriber additions of 398,012. XM finished the quarter with a total of 6,899,871 subscribers, representing a 56 percent increase over the 4,417,490 subscribers at the end of the second quarter 2005.
XM's net loss for the second quarter was $229 million compared to a net loss of $147 million during the second quarter of 2005. Analysts have become concerned about apparent weakness in retail, helped by XM having to withdraw some players on FCC orders, and it is trading just above its 52 week low and has subject to takeover rumours.
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Sony profit up
Sony revealed an increase in first-quarter profit for the first time in four years on the back of a favourable exchange rate and a boost to its flat-panel TV sales from the World Cup soccer season.The consumer electronics group, which is undergoing a tough restructuring plan to revive its electronics business, said sales rose 11 per cent to Y1,568bn ($13.6bn), and operating profit rebounded to Y27bn for the first three months, compared with a Y6.6bn loss previously.Among other divisions, the Vaio PC held up well, while Sony Ericsson mobile phones showed a 41 per cent jump in sales and a 91 per cent surge in net profit. Sales in the Sony Pictures division rose 42 per cent. On the negative side, Sony's games division reported a Y26.8bn operating loss, mainly because of charges associated with the launch of the PS3, slow sales of the PlayStation 2 after six years on the market, and a less-than-scintillating performance by its handheld console, the PSP.
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Google has become the fastest growing brand in the world, only eight years after it was set up.
The search engine now outranks the likes of Sony, MTV and Reuters in terms of worldwide renown, according to Interbrand, the brand consultancy. It pointed to Google's "almost limitless" potential as a company that has expanded beyond search and into email, advertising and aerial maps. The business is ranked 24th, one year after it first entered the top 100 of the annual brand survey.
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OmniBus Transmission for IPTV
OmniBus Systems has announced the introduction of OmniBus iTX intelligent transmission software for IPTV applications. By replicating all the functions of master control to a very high level of sophistication, iTX enables IPTV service providers, online broadcasters, mobile TV services, content aggregators, and media portals to launch new services quickly, simply, and cost-effectively via a single software-based transmission solution."The entry of iTX into the IPTV world changes everything, opening the broadcast scene to newcomers from markets such as content providers, digital signage and IPTV services," said Jay Schwartzberg, OmniBus Systems vice president of worldwide sales for iTX. "The cost and complexity of traditional broadcast infrastructures previously was an obstacle to the launch of new channels and services. iTX eliminates that stumbling block, replacing the unwieldy broadcast infrastructure with an elegant, affordable, and infinitely scalable all-in-one transmission solution."
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J:COM joint CFOs
Managing Director, CFO and General Manager, Finance and Accounting Division, Akihiko Haruyama will be appointed as Managing Director in Charge of Internal Control, and Co-CFO for J:COM. Haruyama joined J:COM in 2003 as CFO and has served concurrently as Managing Director and CFO since 2004. Sharing responsibilities with Haruyama is Ikkyo Watanabe, who will be appointed as Co-CFO. Watanabe joined the company in 2006 as Advisor, Finance and Accounting. Previously in 1993, he joined McCann-Erickson Inc., where he served as CFO and Director."
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