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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
BBC confirms HD World Cup and Wimbledon
Tuesday
Liberty Global plans French cable sale
EC and Premier League reach deal
Downloads to reach £1.7bn by 2010
Loral Skynet back into orbit
Euro1080 plans HD cinema World Cup
Aussie regulator seeks help on new channels
Free World Cup on Chinese broadband
ONO's losses increased fivefold
Broadband consumption of sports content tipped for 25% increase
SureWest protects HD IPTV service with Irdeto
Player X, please for Blockbusters
BBC confirms HD World Cup and Wimbledon
From Colin Mann in London
The BBC is to broadcast its 2006 World Cup football coverage and major Wimbledon tennis matches in high definition this summer as part of technical and audience evaluation trial, which begins with the BBC's allocation of World Cup matches up to and including the final. World Cup 2006 will be the first major sporting event to be broadcast in HD in the UK. The trial will continue with Wimbledon matches from Centre Court and Court One.
BBC HD will start broadcasting on Monday 15 May with a test stream previewing forthcoming programmes. The first live HD programme will be the opening World Cup match. In all, trial will last for about twelve months. It will enable the BBC to test technical delivery of HD and to understand how the audience values a BBC HD service. Any ongoing BBC HD service will be subject to approval by the BBC Trust.
BBC director of sport Roger Mosey said that high definition worked particularly well for sport, adding that although only limited numbers of people will be able to see this trial, the BBC hoped it would be a glimpse of the future." Head of BBC HD TV, Seetha Kumar, expressed her belief that in the long term, the BBC could help provide the benefits of HD to everyone, free to air, in the same way that it backed colour, stereo, widescreen and online in the past. "With this trial, the BBC is taking the first crucial steps to support the development of HD broadcasting in the UK,"
The BBC will provide its HD trial stream on all technically capable platforms, including satellite and cable, once available, from commercial providers. Although it is not currently possible to provide HD transmissions on digital terrestrial service Freeview because of limited spectrum, the BBC will run a simultaneous technical on the platform. That trial will be confined to few hundred trial households in London.
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Liberty Global plans French cable saleLiberty Global has entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Altice and Cinven for the sale of 100 per cent of its French cable business, UPC France through its subsidiary UPC Broadband France SAS. Liberty Global will sell UPC France for approximately €1.25 assuming zero net debt at closing. The sale price represents a multiple of approximately 11.4 times UPC France’s 2005 operating cash flow.
Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Global said that Liberty was realising "an excellent return on our investment in France over the last several years. Just as importantly, we are taking a significant step in the continued rebalancing of our operating businesses. Together with the sale of our Norwegian asset, we are exiting sub-scale markets tax-efficiently and at attractive prices, with the intention of refocusing that capital on existing or new markets that offer greater long-term growth and stability.
He said the transaction should be viewed as a compelling validation of Liberty Global’s M&A and operating strategies in Europe and reflective of the value the company was creating for shareholders in its core broadband businesses around the world.
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EC and Premier League reach deal
The English football Premier League has reached a deal with the European Union over the future sale of broadcasting rights which will allow all 20 Premiership clubs to sell their rights together.
In a move that will see the end of BSkyB’s 15-year exclusivity, no single broadcaster will be able to show all the available games, with the rights will be sold in six packages. The deal also covers mobile phone and Internet rights. No single buyer will be able to buy more than five of the television packages.
"This decision creates legal certainty for the FA Premier League (FAPL) and our clubs as to how we sell our rights from the 2007/8 season onwards," said Premier League chief Richard Scudamore. "The FAPL believes that the conditions are now in place to create maximum interest for our audiovisual rights and to take the world's most popular domestic football competition from strength to strength."
European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes had threatened legal action against the League unless the Premier League opened up the broadcast market for live games. She said the solution would benefit football fans while allowing the Premier League to maintain its timetable for the sale of its rights. The EC said that the FAPL’s commitments, which remain in force until 30 June 2013, would increase the availability of media rights, and improve the prospects of competition in providing services to
The Commission could impose a fine amounting to 10 per cent of the FA Premier League’s total worldwide turnover if it breaks its commitments without having to prove any violation of the EC Treaty’s competition rules.
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Downloads to reach £1.7bn by 2010
UK consumers will spend £1.7 billion a year on downloading music, films and ebooks from the Internet and on mobile phone content by the end of the decade, according to new research. The PayPal Digital Content Report – complied by online payments system PayPal and business information specialist Datamonitor - shows that spending on internet and mobile phone downloads and online gaming could account for as much as 10% of all online retail spending in the UK by 2010.
Mobile services including music, movie clips and mobile TV services will create a market for digital content worth £1.14 billion by 2010, suggests the report. The market will grow three-fold from £380 million in 2005 as the rise of 3G mobile will spur consumer spending on mobile services.
Carl-Olav Scheible, General Manager, UK Merchant Services for PayPal Europe, said that mobile content was already the biggest digital content market in the UK and one that was going to see even greater growth in the coming five years. "As new wave services such as wirelessly-delivered music files, movie clips and mobile TV are delivered to handsets, the levels of spend are likely to be spurred once again." He said the challenge would be in creating payment mechanism that means businesses
While music and mobile content will account for 89% of all consumer spending on digital content, film downloads, eBooks and online gaming will be areas where substantial growth will be seen, according to the report.
The UK online film download market will be worth £109 million by 2010, rising from virtually nothing today. PayPal expects online downloads in the large part to supplement rather than replace traditional means of obtaining film content (DVD purchase, DVD rental and subscription/digital TV). However, it is likely that services such as iTunes film download will create a market for film download and that new players offering streaming ‘film on demand’ will have started to make inroads by 2010.
According to Scheible, film downloads are the hotly watched sector amongst the big players – with BT, Sky and Google all moving to launch services that offer film downloads of one form or another. However, our report suggests that downloaded films are not likely to be a huge market by 2010.
"The fear of piracy – which has ravaged the music sector – has limited the roll-out of Internet-based movie download services. However, content owners are increasingly looking to exploit new distribution channels, with improved content protection helping to allay security fears.
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Loral Skynet back into orbitLoral Space & Communications subsidiary Loral Skynet has resumed offering fixed satellite services (FSS) to customers in North America. Skynet was precluded from offering basic FSS capacity leasing services in North America for two years under the terms of Loral's agreement to sell certain of its North American assets to Intelsat in March 2004.
"Having the ability to once again offer our FSS services in North America is a major milestone in Skynet's growth strategy," said Patrick Brant, president of Loral Skynet," adding that Loral intended to vigorously market its heritage services in the newly available region, in addition to providing its successful IP-focused network services."
Loral Skynet currently operates two satellites that provide coverage of North America. Telstar 14/Estrela do Sul offers Ku-band capacity across North America and Telstar 12 offers Ku-band capacity to as far West as Denver. Skynet also offers FSS service on transponders it leases across the North American arc, including four transponders it will operate aboard Satmex 6, a high-power C- and Ku-band satellite covering all of the Americas, which is scheduled to begin service this summer.
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Euro1080 plans HD cinema World Cup
HDTV specialist media company Euro1080 has reached an agreement with global broadcast rights sales outfit Infront Sports & Media with regard to the commercial exploitation of HDTV transmissions of the 2006 FIFA World Cup for public viewing purposes in cinemas.
Infront’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Host Broadcast Services (HBS), will produce the multilateral signal for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the HDTV 16/9 widescreen format.
Euro1080 has acquired the non-exclusive broadcast rights for theatrical venues or cinemas on a pay basis. It entitles the company to pick up the HDTV live feed at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Munich and to distributed it to cinemas in 23 European countries. By co-operating with Euro1080, cinemas will be able to organise live, pay HDTV exhibitions of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Euro 1080 has also started talks with 2006 FIFA World Cup Official Broadcasters to bring this competition in selected markets also to home viewers in HD quality
Dominik A Schmid, Executive Director of Infront, said the initiative supported the promotion of HDTV as the standard of the future, as well as providing an opportunity to showcase HD transmissions to home viewers in markets where national broadcasters were not yet ready to broadcast in HD quality.
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Aussie regulator seeks help on new channels
From Rose Major in MelbourneAustralia’s media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is inviting submissions on what to do with two digital-terrestrial channels which the government is planning to assign.
Following the release of the government’s media discussion paper last week, ACMA has come out with its own document, Future Use of Unassigned Television Channels. It follows the government’s request that ACMA start planning for possible allocation of the channels. Responses will be collated and passed on to the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts.
ACMA suggest uses for the channels may include datacasting (text-based broadcasting), audio channels, open narrowcasting (free-to-air channels either targeted at specific groups, limited locations, or for a limited time), subscription TV or mobile television. The two 7 MHz channels will be available in most areas but may have power limitations to protect existing services.
Deadline for submissions to ACMA is April 26.
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Free World Cup on Chinese broadband
Sohu.com and Shanghai Media Group broadband service provider SMGBB.cn are to broadcast the 2006 football World Cup in China free of charge.
"SMGBB and Sohu will work together to broadcast online video programs of the upcoming German World Cup to Chinese Internet users," Zhang Dazhong, SMG's Vice President and General Manager of SMGBB, revealed. "The collaboration with Sohu enables us to provide better news reports, features, and interactive services for the event."
The two companies jointly launched http://2006.sohu.com/smgbb, which is the portal SMGBB.cn will use for the broadcasting of the World Cup to north China. The website will provide video, updated news reports and game results for the World Cup.
Sohu will also launch some mobile value-added services for the World Cup, which enables subscribers to receive game information, time schedules, and pictures of the event via mobile phone.
"We will also invest tens of million RMB to upgrade the software and hardware for our broadband broadcasting system, so as to meet the large demand expected for the broadcasting of the World Cup," Zhang said.
The broadband broadcast is likely to see an Internet audience of more than 10 million, according to Zhang. "Instead of charging broadband users for the broadcasting, we will mainly make profit from online advertisement and wireless value-added services business, both of which can generate a large amount of revenue," he claimed.
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ONO's losses increased fivefold
From David del Valle in Madrid
The financial situation of Spain's largest cable company, ONO, has worsened in 2005. The company has declared a net loss of E466 million as of December 2005, a fivefold increase in comparison with E85 million the previous year.
Nevertheless, EBITDA was up 48.2 per cent to E458 million and revenues by 54.3 per cent, reaching E1,726 million (E1.13 billion from Auna and E595 million corresponding to ONO).
Subscriber numbers grew significantly. At the end of 2005, the company had 1.77 million residential clients (up 126 per cent) and 122,000 businesses, nearly six times more than in 2004. Passed homes reached 5.65 million, a 121.7 per cent increase.
The president of ONO, Eugenio Galdon, claimed that the company had become one of the main European telco operators following the acquisition of AUNA and forecast that 2006 would be a year of "very important challenges".
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Broadband consumption of sports content tipped for 25% increase
According to new media sportscasting experts, broadband consumption of sports content will increase by 25% over the next 3 years. The findings came from a survey of delegates at a recent Summit hosted by Servecast.
Other key messages were that best way to minimise subscriber churn from broadband sports subscription services is to incentivise customers towards annual, rather than monthly subscription, and that the new phenomenon of ‘Placeshifting’ meant that the desire to have sports content anytime, any place was driving new media sportscasting.
The fourth screen – the mobile phone – was considered vital in the communications mix for new media sports content. An understanding of mobile personalisation, content recommendations and search capabilities in a wireless environment were key to enabling the success of mobile portal contentAccording to Kieran Mahon, Head of Media from Vodafone, "personalisation of mobile content has improved usability by learning about users’ mobile content preferences, dynamically building the user a personalised menu and reducing the time and clicks to services."
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SureWest protects HD IPTV service with Irdeto
Content security specialist Irdeto is securing SureWest Communications’ HDTV over IP services in its Fibre-to-the-Premise network. The new HD IPTV service in the Sacramento, California, region, will deliver more than 260 channels, including 17 high-definition, 24 international, 45 music channels and 75 premium channels. SureWest also provides movies on demand and major studios’ theatrical releases.
"As more customers subscribe to broadband services, demand for advanced IPTV programming will increase rapidly. HDTV is just one of the many popular services that SureWest will be offering to our customers," said Bill DeMuth, SureWest’s vice president and chief technology officer. "Security is a necessary element for the success of all of our IPTV programming services including our most recent HDTV roll-out."
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Player X, please for Blockbusters
Following the successful launch of The Price Is Right and Family Fortunes, mobile content publisher and distributor Player X has launched a mobile game on UK networks based on the popular FremantleMedia gameshow, Blockbusters.
Players are presented with a game board of 20 hexagonal tiles and must build a line from one side to the other within a three-minute time limit. While the game has been designed especially for a mobile screen, it also replicates the format of the TV original by allowing contestants to play along to the original gameshow rules.
"Our partnership with Player X will help expand the Blockbusters brand presence to masses of fans familiar with the show as well as a much broader base of consumers who are simply looking for a fun and interactive game to play on their mobile phones," said Melissa Goodwin, Vice President Europe, Middle East and Africa, FremantleMedia Licensing Worldwide.
"This is a great game and we expect it to do as well as Family Fortunes. We're increasingly finding that game show content is loved by mobile gamers and we predict similar success for upcoming titles Sale Of The Century and Strike It Lucky," said Tony Pearce, Player X CEO.
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Thursday 23rd March
ITV turns down VCs
BSkyB plans triple play
Prisa takes lead in Sogecable
Multiplatform MTV for Canada
Nortel steps up for IPTV
China: digital TV standard soon
SCM for Comet
Latens signs more Lots
Sigma adopts ANT
ITV has rebuffed an approach from a private equity consortium made up of Apax Partners, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs. The consortium offered to acquire a controlling stake and return a "substantial" amount of cash to shareholders in return for a "very material" increase in ITV’s level of debt, ITV said.
ITV’s board unanimously rejected the proposal because it thought the price was too low. A newspaper report said that the consortium would inject £1.5bn (E2.17bn) into the broadcaster, but it is unclear how a deal would be structured. Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC is reported to be advising Apax.
Earlier this month the broadcaster announced plans to return £300m to shareholders via buy-backs as it pledged that operations outside its ITV1 channel would account for half of its revenue by the end of 2010.
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In a meeting with analysts, BSkyB has confirmed its plans for broadband services including video-on-demand and telephony over Easynet's network. "We will be bringing a proposition to the consumer in the second half of the year," said Andrew Griffiths, head of investor relations.
Easynet's network can currently reach about 20 per cent of UK households, but a planned build-out will see the number of exchanges rise from 232 to 750 by the end of 2006 and 1,200 by 2007 -- equivalent to about 70 percent of homes. "The wider the footprint the more leverage we'll have when we launch," said Easynet founder and Chief Executive David Rowe.
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Prisa takes lead in Sogecable
From David Del Valle in MadridSpanish media group Prisa has strengthened its leading position in Spain's largest pay-TV group Sogecable, owner of digital DTH platform Digital Plus, as Telefonica and Vivendi significantly reduce their shares in the company.
Within its strategy to divest its media interests, Telefonica has reduced its stake from 23.8 per cent to 17.26 per cent, while Vivendi Universal has gone from 9.08 per cent to 3.01 per cent. Prisa is now the main owner with a 44.5 per cent stake in Sogecable, a company that ended the year with a net profit of E7.7 million and a turnover of E1.515bn.
With this increased influence in the company, Prisa has appointed a new board of directors at Sogecable. The CEO of the company, Javier Diez de Polanco, claimed that the outlook for pay-TV in Spain seems to be very promising: "The trend in other European countries is to reach a (pay-TV) penetration rate of 40 per cent. In Spain the rate is at 21 per cent, meaning that we have a long way to grow".
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Multiplatform MTV for Canada
From Gail Chiasson in MontrealCTV's MTV launched March 21 in Canada with the biggest multi-platform launch among all 49 worldwide MTV services. The MTV brand debuted across six different platforms, with distribution via conventional and specialty channel platforms, mobile, Video On Demand and a newly created premium broadband service, MTV Overdrive.
The Canadian analogue MTV specialty service offers lifestyle, talk and documentary programming, anchored by distinct Canadian series. The channel is immediately available in six million Canadian households via major cable and DTH services. MTV Overdrive, a free premium video service at www.mtv.ca, delivers MTV content to anyone at broadband speeds.
Mobile offers exclusively produced MTV mobisodes and made for mobile programming for individual carriers and also via cross-carrier mobile distribution.
Video on Demand offers an extensive line-up of MTV hit programs immediately available. And MTV-branded live events will take place both across Canada and at its headquarters in Toronto.
MTV Canada had earlier been available through Craig Media. However, when CHUM Ltd. purchased Craig, MTV Networks exercised a clause that allowed the deal to be terminated if Craig was sold to a third party.
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Nortel steps up for IPTV
Nortel complete the line up of major league telco vendors seeing IPTV as a big part of their future. It says its industry leadership in SIP-based services and its breadth of solutions across IMS, broadband and VoIP to develop new IPTV services and functionality that can dramatically change the way people use their TVs for both entertainment and communications.
Walt Megura, general manager, Broadband Networks, Nortel said: "The real power of IPTV is in the merging of entertainment and communications, the integration of telephone features into your television experience, and the mobility of video services that follow the user anywhere, anytime." At its IPTV lab in Ottawa, Nortel is demonstrating the delivery of IPTV services over Nortel's IMS infrastructure, the first step for enabling telcos to create personalised IPTV services across wireline and wireless networks that helps to provide long-term differentiation from competitive offerings. Demonstrated services include mobile-to-TV picture sharing, on-screen instant messaging and presence, and click-to-call functionality.
"IPTV is a key investment area for Nortel, and the integration of IPTV services within an IMS infrastructure is a fundamental part of our IPTV strategy" said Megura. "We are also concentrating our efforts on enabling new IPTV services that take full advantage of our industry-leading SIP capabilities."
Meanwhile, Minerva Networks and Nortel announced the joint development and release of an Application Interface (API) that enables the integration of real-time IPTV services with Minerva’s iTVManager software. Nortel is using this jointly
developed interface as a first step to bring together Minerva’s IPTV
middleware platform with Nortel's IMS solution to make content available
to users anywhere, anytime, on any device.
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China: digital TV standard soon
The long-awaited DTT standard is expected to come out this year and China will also draft standards on mobile (phone) broadcasting, Internet protocol TV (IPTV) and satellite broadcasting.
So said Zhang Haitao, a senior official with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) at the opening of the China Cable and Broadcasting Exhibition. "Digital TV is our biggest opportunity and the most important task" said Zhang. China has decided to develop its own standard, paying reference to the European standard but with Chinese features to meet local demands. The number of households with digital broadcasting facilities rose from one million in 2004 to 4.13 million in 2005.
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SCM Microsystems announced that it has signed a contract with Comet Korea Corp. to supply 70,000 OpenCable compliant CableCARD digital TV decryption modules for deployment to CMB DMC, the third largest MSO in Korea.
Comet, which is one of South Korea’s largest systems integrators in digital broadcasting, has been working with CMB DMC since 2005 to plan and implement the roll out of digital equipment and services to the operator’s subscriber base of two million. SCM estimates that the modules ordered by Comet for CMB DMC will be required and shipped over the next one and a half years.
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Latens Systems announced that CP-Tel has purchased Latens FCAS Conditional Access solution working with Amino, leading IPTV set-top box supplier, to secure IPTV services delivered to the AmiNET Series of set-top boxes. CP-Tel now can offer its subscribers secured video services that include Pay-TV, personal-video-recording, video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand as MPEG2 streams.
"We have to do everything in our power to ensure we don’t suffer piracy, which would put both our revenues and our programming licenses at risk. We selected Latens security solutions because we were impressed with the FCAS pre-emptive approach to content protection and its true renewable security," said Philip Fernbaugh, Network Operations Manager, CP-Tel.
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ANT plc, a provider of software and solutions for the IPTV, hybrid TV
and consumer electronics industries, and Sigma Designs, a
provider of digital media processing solutions for consumer electronics,
announced that Sigma has adopted the ANT Galio Browser and
IPTV Client software for integration with its EM8620L and SMP8630 series
media processors.
The companies say the pre-integrated solution unleashes the maximum potential of the silicon-based processors while ensuring a quicker time to market and
considerable cost savings. The solution is already planned for deployment
with a Tier One European Telco and is also actively in review by a number of
other global Tier One Telcos for delivering enhanced IPTV services.
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Wednesday 22nd March
DT chooses MSTV
China Netcom looks to IPTV for growth
Verizon will pay carriage fees
Sirius makes peace with music
BBC sites revamp for VOD
France to open iTunes?
Tandberg for Oriental
DT chooses MSTV
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s biggest telco group, has picked Microsoft to power its IPTV service due to launch initially in 10 German cities in mid-year. The carrier plans to offer television services over its T-Online upgraded VDSL network which will support data rates up to 50Mbp.The deal comes two weeks after Telecom Italia also selected Microsoft, BT chose them at the end of last year. "The announcement with Deutsche Telekom, together with the announcement of Telecom Italia signifies the growing number of the world’s largest and most innovative communications companies are committed to the business potential of IPTV services powered by Microsoft TV," Microsoft said.
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China Netcom looks to IPTV for growthChina Netcom said it planned to use broadband television to boost its high-speed internet subscriber base and compensate for slowing growth in its core business. Although IPTV is still banned in most parts of China, Netcom last year launched a trial in the northern Heilongjiang province, which has signed up 48,000 subscribers.
"Once the government restriction is removed, we will make big investments in IPTV," said Zuo Xunsheng, senior vice-president and chief operating officer, who did not say when Beijing would relax its policy.Last year, revenue from the company’s traditional businesses, such as local and long distance calls, only grew 1.4 per cent to Rmb64.6bn, compared with growth of 50.2 per cent to Rmb7.8bn for broadband. Zuo said its IPTV business, which offers subscribers 41 satellite TV channels, 14 customised channels and pay-on-demand programmes for Rmb60 a month, has been very successful. Netcom hopes that by improving speed and content, it could further boost the number of broadband users. These grew 35.1 per cent to 11.48m last year, representing 13 per cent of the company’s fixed line customers.
Netcom a better-than-expected five-fold surge in 2005 net profit to Rmb13.9bn, compared with Rmb2.7bn in the previous year, helped by the inclusion of four new provincial operations and one-off gains. Sales rose 4.5 per cent from Rmb83.5bn in 2004 to Rmb87.2bn last year.
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Verizon will pay carriage feesVerizon will pay CBS for the right to carry its television stations on its Fios home TV service. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but people familiar with the agreement say Verizon will pay CBS about 50 cents per subscriber, on par with what cable operators pay for cable channels such as USA and Nickelodeon. The agreement will put pressure on cable operators to pay up for its programming.
Securing payment for the right to carry CBS programs has been a priority for CBS since it split from Viacom in January. Although cable operators pay a per-subscriber fee to the most important cable channels, they have been reluctant to pay to carry broadcast stations because those stations are delivered free of charge over the air.
Companies such as Viacom have largely agreed to provide their broadcast signals free to cable operators in exchange for accommodating extra cable channels operated by corporate siblings. But marketers are shifting more ad dollars from TV to the Internet so CBS sees subscriber fees as important to revenue growth.
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Sirius makes peace with musicSirius Satellite Radio has reached agreements with three recording companies to settle disputes over a portable music player that allows users to store digital copies of music, financial details were not disclosed.
Sirius made separate deals with the Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group; and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. The agreements address the music companies' concerns over the Sirius S50 player, which can record up to 50 hours of music beamed by the broadcaster.
Sirius and its rival, XM Satellite Radio Holdings, already pay a compulsory licence fee to broadcast music to the satellite receivers of subscribers. The recording industry argued that the license did not cover making a permanent digital copy.
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BBC sites revamp for VODThe BBC will work more closely with technology companies such as Microsoft and Apple as part of a plan to overhaul its website and prepare for Internet VOD. Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology, shared a platform with Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates and said the corporation would step up efforts to work with a range of partners to prepare itself for the next era of the Internet, known as web 2.0.
"We are already working on a radically different search engine and thinking about how we completely reinvent bbc.co.uk It's time to completely redesign it for a web 2.0 world," said Highfield.
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France to open iTunes?Apple could be forced to open up its digital music business to competitors after a vote in the French parliament. It will have to choose between making downloaded music compatible with rival platforms or pulling out of France if, as expected, the parliament in Paris approves a draft copyright law.
"It is unacceptable that the [access] key should be controlled by a monopoly. France is against monopolies," said Martin Rogard, an adviser at the French Culture Ministry. "The consumer must be able to listen to the music they have bought on no matter what platform."
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Tandberg for OrientalTandberg Television announced its OpenStream Digital Services platform has been selected by Oriental Cable Network to support its first VOD content deployment in Shanghai. Oriental Cable Network, formerly known as Shanghai Cable, operates the world’s largest metropolitan cable television service that covers the entire area of Shanghai, delivering more than 61 channels to a subscriber base of over 4 million viewers.
The contract builds on the company’s strong position in the North American cable VOD market, where OpenStream is the leading, open digital services platform, enabling cable operators to quickly and confidently offer on-demand services such as video on-demand.
As part of the contract, Tandberg Television will provide the back office software systems and also work with OCN’s engineers to integrate technologies and devices from numerous third party vendors.
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Tuesday 21st March
BT's Vision of the past
China: no VoIP yet
Nagra EchoStar statement
Vodafone fixed line
Sirius for VW
Discovery, Nokia partner
US wireless TV
Wave 7 in Denmark
NDS partners SES
SysMedia for Sparrowhawk
GUBA video upload
BT's Vision of the past
From Colin Mann in London
BT has revealed the name of its next generation TV service to be launched in the autumn of 2006, and has, perhaps surprisingly, chosen the same as that used for its ill-fated cable and satellite TV unit at the end of the 1980s. The service, which will combine digital terrestrial TV with on-demand film, TV and music programming, as well as interactive services delivered via an IPTV platform, will be called BT Vision.
The original BT Vision grew out of the telco's Broadband Services unit, formed to take advantage of the licensing of cable networks in 1983. BT divested much of its cable network and operational ownership in the 1990s as it sought to concentrate on its core network strengths.
With the advent of IPTV and the ability to deliver entertainment and interactive services over its main network, the name has been revived. According to Dan Marks, chief executive of TV Services, the choice of the name BT Vision "encapsulates the qualities needed to make this offering successful and underpins how important our next generation TV will be in the converged world."
He confirmed that BT Vision would be offered nationwide and not be restricted to metropolitan areas.
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China will not allow calls between computers and telephones for at least two years, according to the head of Tom Online, the Chinese internet portal which has a joint venture with Skype.Wang Leilei, Tom Online's chief executive said the government "is not going to issue VoIP licences until 2008". The news will be a disappointment to Skype, which told the Financial Times in November that it was in talks with Chinese telecoms operators which it hoped would clear the way for the launch of its computer-to-telephone service, dubbed SkypeOut. Chinese fixed-line operators are concerned that SkypeOut could undermine their core business.
Skype currently offers a free computer-to-computer telephony service to its nine million users in China, although calls are limited to five minutes. It also launched a free computer-to-telephone service about a month ago, which has signed up 10,000 users a day. Wang also said the company, controlled by Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon, would consider acquisitions to lift its user numbers.
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Kudelski, the Swiss company behind Nagravision the CA supplier to EchoStar’s DISH Network, has responded to speculation surrounding the future of the companies' relationship.
In a statement, Kudelski, which has a 50/50 partnership with EchoStar in conditional access company NagraStar, said, "our signal encryption has been compromised ... We continue to respond to compromises of our encryption system with security measures intended to make signal theft of our programming more difficult."
Kudelski also said that while the attack on smart cards deployed at EchoStar has resulted in a signal compromise, recent generations S01, S02 and 206 smart cards have not been compromised. EchoStar had disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the security of an existing set of cards has been compromised, and added that it has implemented software patches and other security measures to help secure the service.
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Vodafone plans to offer fixed-line services alongside its mobile business, Chief Executive Arun Sarin has said. It was looking at offering broadband and VoIP Sarin told The Business. "The question is as the world evolves with services like VoIP and wi-fi and all that, should we expand the services our company provides?" Sarin said. He said Vodafone had no immediate plans to acquire fixed-line players such as BT Group.
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Sirius has made a deal to make it Volkswagen's sole satellite-radio provider for U.S. vehicles through to 2012. Volkswagen will offer Sirius beginning with its 2007 model-year vehicles, including its Audi brand cars, and said it expects to install Sirius radio receivers in about 80% of Volkswagen vehicles.
The agreements boost Sirius's market share to 39 per cent, against a 58 per cent share for XM, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Barton Crockett.
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Discovery, Nokia partnerDiscovery Communications and Nokia announced a global collaboration that will deliver Discovery's knowledge-based content pre-loaded onto Nokia's newest and most sophisticated mobile devices and wireless personal devices.
In the first phase the co-operation will give consumers access to a Discovery-produced ‘Best of Discovery’ montage clip on the Nokia N92 mobile device and Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Additionally, Discovery's content will be demonstrated on Nokia's devices in many trade shows. The Discovery clip will include video of nature shots such as landscapes, animals and sunrises as well as city scenes.
"Co-operating with Nokia allows Discovery to bring its high quality content to consumers wherever they are, whenever they want it," said Donald A. Baer, Senior Executive Vice President for Strategy & Development, Discovery Communications. "The worldwide appeal, utility and flexibility of Discovery's content make it a great fit for on-the-go applications."
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US wireless TV
A rural phone company in Oklahoma has begun to roll out its IPTV service wirelessly. Pioneer Telephone Co-operative is trialing a system from Ruckus Wireless. It has more than 20,000 high-speed-internet subscribers in 76 towns, and about 5,000 of them subscribe to IPTV.Scott Ulsaker, video-products manager for Pioneer, said the Ruckus technology appeals to his company because it will shave more than two hours off the three-hour installation process in customers' homes.
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Wave7 Optics the FTTH/FTTP supplier and Sydfyns Elforsyning (SEF), a major utility company based in Svendborg, Denmark, announced a major FTTP network that is currently the largest such system installed in northern Europe. The two companies announced that 1,200 residential customers have been connected to the network and are now enjoying a full suite of triple play services. SEF expects to have more than 5000 customers on net by the end of this year. Eltel Networks is managing the project as the equipment installer and integrator.Sydfyns Elforsyning is in the process of connecting all of their 30,000 electrical customers in the Svendborg area to this new single fibre optical broadband network.
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NDS partners SESNDS announced an agreement with SES Americom to support its IP-PRIME IPTV distribution solution with NDS Synamedia. Synamedia is a secure IP solution for two-way IPTV network operators. IP-PRIME is a centralised, satellite-delivered IP television delivery system that permits Telcos to bundle traditional standard and HD programming on a single line with their voice and Internet services.
The new offering enables telecommunications companies to offer secure, premium TV services to their customers. SES Americom will deliver up to 300 channels encoded into MPEG-4/H.264 via its IP-PRIME platform, offering Telcos a more efficient and robust transmission path.
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SysMedia is providing a solution to Sparrowhawk Media, owners of the international versions of the Hallmark Channel, for the creation and carriage of a teletext programme listings service on its Scandinavian feed.
Hallmark Channel, which is carried across Europe on a wide variety of cable systems, is originated in Denver, Colorado, then sent via fibre to the UK where it is uplinked to Eutelsat’s Hotbird 3 satellite. However, programme information including synopses, is compiled as a spreadsheet in London. SysMedia was contracted to supply a tailor-made solution so that viewers can access programme information for the next 24-hours simply by pressing the text button.
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GUBA video upload
GUBA has added a new video upload and sharing service, GUBA Upload, to its entertainment content site that currently hosts more than 20,000 videos. The new service is the first to allow individual content creators to upload videos such as short clips, films and home movies, and have them automatically formatted for the Apple iPod / iTunes, Flash and Sony PlayStation Portable formats. All site visitors, including both GUBA subscribers and non-subscribers, can access the service and view the uploaded videos at no cost.
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Monday 20th March
Vodafone Japan to Softbank for E13bn
Ofcom: UK most digital
Pirate fines in France
DSL leadership changes
Sanyo FST JV
Wegener for Auroras
GlobeCast for ESPN
Vodafone Japan to Softbank for E13bn
Vodafone has agreed to a Y1,800bn sale of its Japanese mobile telecoms business to internet conglomerate Softbank. It will take over 97.68 per cent of Vodafone KK as it enters the mobile telecommunications sector for the first time since receiving a license last year.
Vodafone said that it had considered other offers but was satisfied with the value offered by Softbank. It would invest Y400bn back into the business through the purchase of Y300bn in preferred shares and lending Softbank Y100bn. Softbank will put up Y200bn in cash while its affiliate, Yahoo Japan, is also buying Y120bn worth of preferred shares in the business.
Vodafone said on Friday that it would return £6bn (E8.7bn) to shareholders on completion of the sale, which should take 1-2 months. The Vodafone brand will no longer be marketed in Japan following the sale but the UK operator is considering a joint venture in mobile platforms and content with Softbank
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Ofcom: UK most digital
Ofcom’s Digital TV Progress Report for the fourth quarter of 2005 reveals that the UK has the highest digital penetration of any country in the world. As of 31 December 2005, digital television was viewed by just under 70 per cent of all UK television households, up from 65.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Take-up has not passed the 50 per cent mark in any other European country.
Preliminary sales figures of Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television or DTT) set top boxes suggest that by the end of February 2006, digital penetration had exceeded 70 per cent of UK homes. Over the whole of 2005, more than 2.7 million additional households began viewing digital television for the first time – more than in any previous year.
At the end of 2005, more households were watching BSkyB subscription services on their principal TV set than were watching any other form of television service. BSkyB added 194,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing its total number of UK subscribers to 7,666,000. BSkyB pay-TV services are now present in just under a third (30.5 per cent) of all homes with free-to-view digital satellite services viewed in a further 2.4 per cent of homes.
More than 10.5 million Freeview boxes had been sold by the end of 2005, with the average price paid for a Freeview box - £41 (E59) - having halved in just over two years.
The total number of subscribers to cable television increased slightly during the quarter to just over 3.3 million. Digital cable subscribers increased by over 71,000 while analogue subscriptions fell by 58,000. Digital cable now accounts for 2.72 million of the total cable subscriber base.
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Pirate fines in France
Having defeated the idea of a download licence, the French Parliament has decided copyright pirates in France will face prison and large fines after French MPs pushed through laws to curb illegal music and film downloads.
The UMP party and moderate deputies backed the new law, which was considerably watered down following a stormy passage through parliament and amendments backed by the Socialist party and even some UMP deputies. It allows a jail term of up to six months and a fine of E30,000 for those who supply software enabling users to break copyright protection on DVDs or CDs, helping them to be made available on the internet.
People possessing or using this software to remove copyright protection will face a fine of E750 while hackers caught working individually to break the copyright on discs will face a fine of E3,750.
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DSL leadership changes2005 saw a big shift in the leadership of the DSL market away from the Asia-Pacific region and in favour of Europe. Asia-Pacific countries grew their installed base of DSL lines much more slowly than the leading Europeans. Even China could manage 'only' 56 per cent growth and the number of DSL lines in use in South Korea actually fell by 250,000.The three biggest European countries all overtook South Korea in number of DSL lines, and Spain passed Canada and Taiwan to enter the Top Ten. The UK was the fastest growing Top Ten country for the year as a whole, adding over 3 million DSL lines to increase its installed base by 73 per cent. All the leading European countries grew by more than 40 per cent.
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Sanyo has announced a tie-up with Taiwan's Quanta Computer to make flat-screen TVs. Quanta is expected to take over Sanyo's TV production arm. Sanyo lags behind Sony and Philips with a 1.5 per cent share of the global liquid crystal display (LCD) TV market.
Sanyo makes more than six million TV sets a year but the majority are traditional cathode ray tube models, sales of which are falling. Quanta is the world's largest contract manufacturer of laptops, but also has a division manufacturing LCD panels for flat-screen TVs.
Meanwhile, Philips Electronics will make house calls to repair almost 12,000 flat panel plasma TV sets in the United States because they are liable to overheating. "As a precaution we'll go to the consumers and replace the component. There's no fire risk," Philips said.
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Wegener for AurorasWegener Corporation the provider of television, audio and data distribution networks announced it has received an order from Auroras Entertainment for WEGENER IPTV set top units. The order comes as a part of a previously announced licensing arrangement where Wegener will license its COMPEL network control system to Auroras for their network.
"Auroras is dedicated to ensuring that smaller broadband service providers can offer advanced television entertainment services," said Mike Kazmier, President and Chief Technology Officer at Auroras. "Providing reliable, reasonably priced, MPEG-4 compatible IPTV set tops is an important part of our business strategy and Wegener's offering provides these key features in a flexible package."
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ESPN has struck a deal with GlobeCast, the global content management and delivery company, to deliver ESPN Classic, the company’s first UK-dedicated sports channel, to the Sky Digital platform. GlobeCast’s solution for ESPN includes connectivity from the broadcaster’s playout facility in West London to GlobeCast, where the feed is encoded, multiplexed then sent to GlobeCast’s Brookmans Park teleport for uplink to the Sky Digital platform using GlobeCast’s Eurobird capacity. ESPN Classic is available 24 hours a day on Sky’s EPG channel 442.
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