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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday Friday 31st March
DirecTV still covets DISH
PCCW not 3G fan
Alcatel and Lucent merger still on
Large Blue environment channel
Redstone: "windows need to be bigger"
Star goes interactive with Two Way
Small Screens Need Big Ideas
CCTV will unify IPTV
Tandberg First Multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC Decoder
Al Jazeera International makes Latin America appointments
DirecTV is still interested in buying smaller rival EchoStar but doubts U.S. regulators would allow such a deal. The two companies tried to merge in 2002, but the deal collapsed under opposition from the Federal Communications Commission, which believed it would be anti-competitive.Mike Palkovic, chief financial officer of DirecTV, said a merger would be "desirable but not feasible" as the market environment had not changed.
"We'd be nuts not to look at it," Palkovic told Reuters. "But the regulatory issues haven't gone away." According to Leitchman Research Group, DirecTV has 55 per cent of the satellite TV market, or 15.1 million subscribers, and EchoStar Communications Corp. has 45 percent, or 11.9 million subscribers.
DirecTV said in February it was in talks with EchoStar to create a wireless high-speed network, which would put them in a stronger position to compete against cable operators and telephone companies that sell Internet, video and phone services.
Palkovic said technical issues still had to be worked out and speculation about the partnership had got ahead of itself. "Technologies still have to be evaluated." He said a decision on some specifics on the partnership would be made by mid-year and that Wi-Max technology would be the most likely technology standard.
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Richard Li, chairman of PCCW said the company would not invest heavily in 3G because of soft demand for the technology. This is in sharp contrast with the upbeat picture painted by Hutchison Whampoa – controlled by his father Li Ka-shing. Richard Li said many high-end mobile users were still using 2G phones because they were unwilling to pay extra for 3G services."You need to know where the demand is. From what we are seeing, customers will not pay more just to use videophone. For streaming TV or information downloads, they will only use it when they find it useful," Li said. Hutchison, which has invested more than E20bn in 3G worldwide, is the world’s biggest investor in the technology. Last week, Li Ka-shing said he had strong confidence in the company’s 3G business, which reported losses of US$3.5bn last year.
PCCW last year acquired Sunday Communications, a local wireless operator, to become an integrated operator with fixed-line, mobile, broadband and pay-TV services. It launched a free 3G trial for 110,000 users in January. Li said: "Unlike other companies, we do not believe in investing in 3G and incurring losses. We believe that there is an attraction compared with 2G. But we don’t believe it is so overwhelming that we would incur big losses on it."
Announcing its results, PCCW also said its core fixed-line business turned round in the second half of last year, with 50,000 new lines added compared with 53,000 lost in the first half.
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Alcatel and Lucent merger still on
Alcatel and Lucent are confident they have narrowed most of their differences and could strike a deal to merge the two telecommunications equipment manufacturers within days. The Alcatel board is expected to discuss the terms of the deal which would value its US rival near its current market capitalisation of $13.7bn.
Patricia Russo, Lucent chief executive, and Serge Tchuruk, her counterpart at Alcatel, have agreed on many of the broad terms of the combination. The board would be evenly split between former Alcatel and former Lucent directors. Russo would take over as chief executive and the headquarters would remain in Paris.
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Large Blue environment channelThe creative agency Large Blue is launching an environmental channel, Green.tv, backed by the UN. The free channel will show environmental content from NGOs, governments, and companies – N Power and Ben and Jerry’s have submitted films. James Arthur, the channel’s producer, said it will soon develop to let viewers upload their environmental content.
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Redstone: "windows need to be bigger"
Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements, the family-owned cinema chain that controls Viacom and CBS, said that Hollywood should increase the gap between a film’s theatre and DVD release.
This is counter to current trends and cinema owners have identified the compression of release windows as a key culprit behind the eight per cent decline in box office attendance that they suffered last year. Whereas the gap between a film’s cinema and home video release was 180 days just a few years ago, that has steadily eroded to an average of 129 days last year, reducing the incentive to go to the cinema. The window is expected to shrink even further as studios begin to experiment with universal release, in which a film is distributed simultaneously in cinemas and on DVD and cable or satellite video-on-demand.
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Star goes interactive with Two Way
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Subscribers to News Corp's Star TV DTH platform in Asia will soon be able to interact with their televisions using mobile phones, following a deal with Two Way TV Australia. Two Way has finalised a five-year deal, agreed provisionally last December, to sell its mobile-to-television technology, Simcast, to Star. The deal closure follows successful trials in China and India, which involved chat and voting applications on two channels, Channel [V] and Hindi service Star One.
New interactive applications are expected to roll out on other channels on the Star platform as the two companies identify which programmes hold the greatest
potential for interactive television.
Star claims 300 million viewers in 53 countries across Asia. Two Way TV said: "Over time, the deal has the potential to generate multiple revenue streams for the company, from the deployment of multiple applications across multiple countries."
Two Way TV Australia is a separate company from Two Way TV in the UK.
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Small Screens Need Big Ideas
The results of a new study, ‘Mobile TV - Attitudes to Broadcast on Mobile’, confirm the need for broadcast and entertainment brands to work harder to tailor their content to mobile phones. The qualitative study by Red Bee Media and audience research agency, iBurbia, aimed to research consumer attitudes to specially made or tailored mobile content compared to TV streamed to mobile phones.
The findings suggested that full length programming on mobile is not as popular as made for mobile TV because screen sizes are too small, opportunities to watch full length programmes on-the-go are rare and subjects preferred to watch full-length programming on the TV.
"We talked with a broad range of people in this study and there was significant interest in concepts that complemented TV viewing with extra and exclusive content on mobile phones. But the content had to be sufficiently compelling to be worth the effort and there is a fear of billing abuse, meaning that cost needs to be made clear," said Nigel Walley, CEO of Decipher, which owns iBurbia.
Results also suggested that the most successful mobile TV will be marketed with a prompt on the TV screen and targeted to a specific audience. Participants in the study found any content over three minutes too long and anything over one pound too expensive.
Catriona Tate, Business Director, New Creative Content at Red Bee Media says "The results point towards the mobile TV market being driven in the short term by advertiser funded content and mobile video that compliments or promotes TV programmes.
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CCTV will unify IPTV
CCTV's two affiliates CCTV.com and ICCTV.com.cn are discussing a merger and will soon open a new company to serve as a unified platform for broadcasting IPTV programmes in China. CCTV also says it will obtain an IPTV licence in about 3 weeks.
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Tandberg First Multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC Decoder
Tandberg Television announced that it is bringing the benefits of MPEG-4 AVC advanced video compression to the video contribution arena. The NAB launch of the world’s first professional multiformat MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC SD/HD decoder will enable network operators and broadcasters to deliver both standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) content from studio to studio and across networks to regional head-ends and affiliates.
The RX1290 is Tandberg Television’s next generation professional receiver and has been specifically designed for the high-end contribution market where premium quality and performance is paramount. The RX1290 comes with a standard ASI interface and can in addition be fitted with an integrated high performance DVB-S2 demodulator giving an additional potential 30% bandwidth saving. Future interfaces will include IP and COFDM as well. Capable of processing and decoding more video formats than any other receiver on the market, the RX1290 is designed around the most powerful processors available. It works with the Tandberg Director V5 control solution with smartcard-less conditional access for satellite contribution and distribution.
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Al Jazeera International makes Latin America appointments
Lucia Newman has joined the new channel’s line up as correspondent for the Buenos Aires, Argentina bureau. International award winning journalist Mariana Sanchez also joins the new channel’s line up as correspondent for the Caracas, Venezuela bureau.
Newman joins from CNN, where she was most recently CNN’s Havana bureau chief and correspondent. Prior to her Havana posting, Newman was CNN’s senior correspondent in Latin America, and bureau chief in Mexico from 1993-1997, Chile from 1989-1993, Nicaragua from 1985-1989 and Panama in 1987.
Sanchez, a former news anchor for Panamericana Television, ATV and stringer for the Los Angeles Times in Peru, has freelanced extensively for many international news organisations, including The Wall Street Journal Americas, CNN Espanol, UNIVISION and Agence France Presse, to name just a few.
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Thursday 30th March
Government urged to explain digital switch options
Dyke plots ITV-Five merger
SkyStream zBand powers ReelTime VOD
Even Technologies in IP streaming first
CASBAA and PCTA step up IPR campaign
Extreme Sports Channel launches mobile content division
Sogecable and La Sexta to share World Cup
Sofia Digital launches mobile digitext for DVB-H
145 Targeted in Operation TrackerGovernment urged to explain digital switch options
A committee of MPs has said the UK government needed to do more to tell the public why they had chosen to proceed with analogue switch-off and what options were available.
The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s report, Analogue Switch–off: A signal change in television, added that the government's assistance programme was "too restricted" and failed to acknowledge those who are in genuine need.
It called for a comprehensive awareness campaign to let older people know that analogue switch-off would begin in 2008.
Committee chairman John Whittingdale said: "Currently there are too many people who do not qualify for government assistance, yet are in genuine need. "If switch-off is to be a success, there must be no-one who wakes up on the day to discover that they are watching a blank screen," he warned.
Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK - the industry group charged with co-ordinating the switch – said that Digital UK was very aware of the need to explain to consumers the reasons for switchover and their options for going digital. "We will launch our first national programme of information and support in May.," he confirmed.
The Committee commended the Government for what it described as "a bold decision to proceed with complete analogue switch-off by 2012," adding that "all attention must now focus on ensuring that switchover takes place with the minimum cost and disruption."
The report also expressed concern that by emphasising the low cost of set-top boxes in an effort to persuade people that switch-off will be relatively inexpensive, the Government risked missing an opportunity to encourage the take-up of more sophisticated digital technology offering interactive services and additional facilities. It recommended that the Government and Digital UK should make clear that the more advanced boxes and other digital platforms, including broadband, may offer significant additional benefits rather than simply focusing on the cheapest option.
The report concluded that the switchover timetable appeared to be technically realistic, but if it is to be achieved with minimum disruption and maximum support, the process would require timely regulation by Ofcom, effective management by Digital UK and clear leadership by Government.
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Dyke plots ITV-Five merger
A consortium headed by former BBC director general Greg Dyke's that is seeking to take control of UK commercial broadcaster ITV would seek a further merger with Five to try to consolidate the commercial television sector, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.
According to Dyke, a merger between ITV and Five would make strategic sense as analogue broadcasters fight for audience and advertising share in a digital environment where there are hundreds of channels available.
Dyke’s links with the channel go back to the time when as chairman of Pearson Television, he was part of the group which launched Channel 5. Five is now owned by RTL Group, the German media group 90.4pc owned by Bertelsmann.
A merger with Five would also enable ITV to pursue pay-TV possibilities, despite its previously unsuccessful foray into the sector with ITV Digital.
In November 2005, Five paid a reputed £20 million to take a 20 per cent stake in digital terrestrial ‘mini-pay’ operator Top Up TV. Using DTT capacity would remove the need to arrange carriage via Sky’s digital satellite service or cable services.
A spokesperson for RTL has denied that any merger talks have taken place and suggested that the broadcaster was "happy with the development of Five".
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SkyStream zBand powers ReelTime VOD
Australian national IPTV operator ReelTime Media has selected IP video delivery solutions specialist SkyStream’s zBand content delivery platform to deliver the latest Hollywood and Australian movies, regional fare and specialised video content to service providers and customers in major metropolitan areas in Australia. ReelTime claims to be the world's first service provider to deliver push VOD over broadband to a set-top box in the living room.
"The success of VOD services is hugely dependent on having the right network delivery system and the right content," said Scott Dougall, general manager of content delivery software for SkyStream, who pointed out that ReelTime was the first VOD service to utilise a pure unicast distribution model over broadband Internet to set-top boxes in the living room using new technology in zBand, whereas other Internet VOD services are accessible only on computers.
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Even Technologies in IP streaming first
Advanced digital image and video coding specialist Even Technologies has enabled live streaming of full screen DVD quality video over the Internet, by utilising its PSI_V Video Compression Engine to broadcast a concert of four emerging British artists.
Thousands of users were able to view the March 27 event on their PCs, full screen at visual DVD quality, over a broadband Internet connection at just 750 Kbps for half to a third of the cost of a comparable quality MPEG4 video stream. The latency from the onsite camera to desktops was less than eight seconds.
Nick Ringma, President of Even Technologies, said he was "very pleased" with the success of the broadcast. "We have demonstrated that our technology works to the delight and satisfaction of our users. Judging by the number of people who viewed the broadcast, it is clear that there is a significant and growing demand for live video streaming." He added that the move to IPTV marked an important step forward in the evolution of digital television
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CASBAA and PCTA step up IPR campaign
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) and the Philippine Cable Television Association (PCTA) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that reinforces their partnership to promote and protect intellectual property rights in the pay-TV industry.
CASBAA represents some 110 Asia-based companies and organisations active in the multi-channel television via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks sector. The PCTA is composed of the country’s biggest cable operators as well as medium and small cable operators. PCTA’s member cable operators serve 90 per cent of the total cable subscribers in the Philippines.
The MOA signifies the commitment of CASBAA and the PCTA to advance their mutual goal to arrest the growing piracy problem in the country. Both have been trying to build public concern over signal theft in the Philippines, a problem that has now reached epidemic proportions.
"Our commitment to support the growth of the domestic market in the Philippines and to protect its viability in the face of rampant piracy gains strength with our partnership with the PCTA. Through co-operative efforts, CASBAA and the PCTA aim to attain real results in the coming months," said CASBAA CEO Simon Twiston Davies.
PCTA President Antonio Selda said that signal theft has a negative impact on the industry in the long-term. "Legitimate cable operators are finding it difficult to survive in this climate, and the industry as a whole stands to suffer if piracy continues. Increasingly piracy stunts the industry’s growth in terms of programming and technological development."
He added the number of illegal cable connections now threatened to exceed the number of legal ones, suggesting that it was a phenomenon that "clearly hurts legitimate cable operators and even the government, which loses a substantial portion of its revenues because pirate cable companies don’t pay taxes and licence fees."
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Extreme Sports Channel launches mobile content division
Liberty Global-owned Extreme Sports Channel is launching a mobile content division in response to the demand for its action sports programming on mobile phones, handheld devices and for Podcasts.
The new division, Extreme To Go, will offer action sports fans high quality mobile content, ranging from streamed versions of the channel, to downloadable clips, and bespoke mobisodes, WAP content and footage for pre-loading onto phone and wireless handsets.
"Extreme’s trail-blazing audience is driving the uptake of this technology and action sports content is so visually strong that it is ideally suited to viewing on mobile phone screens" said Matt Goff, who will head up the new unit. "The creation of this new division will position us perfectly to become the leading international brand delivering action sports content on mobile phones".
Extreme already offers a streamed mobile service in France, following an exclusive deal with CanalSat on Mobile, the mobile extension of the country’s leading satellite and DSL TV platform CanalSat, in February. The agreement has made Extreme branded content available to more than 1 million 3G subscribers on France’s SFR network. Extreme to Go intends to roll out similar services in key European markets and the creation of the new unit is in line with these expansion plans.
The channel’s investment in new media, increased channel distribution and original programming follows Liberty Global taking full control of Extreme in November 2005.
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Sogecable and La Sexta to share World Cup
From David del Valle in Madrid
Spanish pay-TV leading group Sogecable, owner of digital DTH platform Digital Plus, has reached an agreement with new free-to-air channel La Sexta to share the Spanish transmission rights to this year's football World Cup.
Following the agreement, Sogecable will exclusively broadcast almost half of the 64 games through Digital Plus (Canal Plus in particular) and the remaining games will be broadcast free-to-air by La Sexta.
As La Sexta is also available on Digital Plus, on channel 86, the Sogecable's digital DTH platform will be the only service to offer all the World Cup matches.
With this agreement, La Sexta aims to recoup its E100 million investment in the World Cup. Both companies had been negotiating an agreement in recent months to share the rights to an event that promises to draw large audiences.
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Sofia Digital launches mobile digitext for DVB-H
Digital TV content solutions specialist Sofia Digital has unveiled Sofia Backstage Mobile Digitext - a solution for bringing digital teletext services in mobile TV. The product is aimed at mobile TV channels that wish to bring interactive teletext services for their viewers. Sofia Backstage Mobile Digitext service is sent to mobile TV terminal as DVB-H filecast. It uses cellular networks as the return-channel.
"Mobile TV markets are emerging and growing. We believe that in this phase it is essential to be able to give mobile TV viewers a good run for their money when they first try mobile TV out," commented Olli Väätäinen, CEO of Sofia Digital.
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145 Targeted in Operation Tracker
Up to 145 of the 150 individuals identified following a recent Court Order for illegally sharing software over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have been targeted by UK anti-piracy organisation the Federation Against Software Theft.
All have been written to by The Federation demanding that they settle in full and pledge not to undertake this illegal activity again. This is the first such campaign of this nature in the UK and represents a major step forward in enforcement of software copyright infringement.
In January 2005, 10 Internet Service Providers were ordered by the High Court to hand over customer details following a 12-month investigation into the covert sharing of software by PC users.
Although most file sharers used false names and email addresses, the ten ISPs handed over full personal details, including names, addresses and dates of birth etc. This followed his Honour Judge Raynor’s confirmation that there was "an overwhelming case" for ordering such customer details to be released.
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Wednesday 29th March
US Franchise Bill ready
ONO, Europe's multiplay operator
Latens, Tiglin, Minerva partner to be IPTV provider
XM new line up
New name for DirecWAY
Verimatrix for Rushplay
Entone for Iowa
Satellite Broadcasting Al Harbi contracts
DiviTel for DeltaUS Franchise Bill ready
The House Energy & Commerce Committee has released a draft new national video franchising bill and it looks as though the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, lobbying has been largely successful.
In the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006" gone are the provisions that meant cable companies had to wait until an alternative video provider was supplying 15% of the nation before it can apply for a national franchise. Gone too is the insistence cable companies make offers across their franchises not just to areas that are competing with telco video providers.
The draft bill as currently constituted allows new video providers to get a 10-year franchise within 30 days of filing an application. It also allows cable to get a franchise under the same national franchise terms if a competitor enters the market with a national franchise or when their current franchise expires. The national franchise can be revoked for "repeated and willfull violations," including discrimination in terms of service (so-called "red lining"), violating rights-of-way laws, or making false statements about service.
Kyle McSlarrow of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said earlier drafts of the House bill focused on "picking winners and losers on the basis of technology, and we are pleased that focus has now changed. While our policy recommendation would be to reform and streamline the franchising process to ensure speedy entry by new competitors, we are pleased that the national franchising scheme proposed in the House bill seeks to ensure all providers compete on a level playing field." The bill still allows for local franchise deals if video providers wish to seek them.
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ONO, Europe's multiplay operator
From David Del Valle in MadridThe largest Spanish cable company, ONO, claims to be Europe's first multiplay operator following the official launch of its video on demand service, OJO, TV a tu manera (www.ojo.tv), along with its TV, Internet and telephony packages.
The VoD service already has 400,000 clients and is available in several Spanish regions and cities (Comunidad Valencia, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Cantabria, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Cadiz and Huelva) through ONO's networks. The company plans to extend it to the whole country, including Auna's networks, in 2007.
The General Director of the company, Fernando Ojeda, says that the service is working well "more than 160,000 programmes have been watched in a single day", with 25 per cent of ONO's clients using it on a regular basis. Users can pay a monthly fee for the service, (the regular fee is E8.9, but currently in a promotion E4.5) or purchase a particular programme (E0.49 per episode of a series, E0.70 per documentary, E0.49 per entertainment programme, or E2.99 per movie.)
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Latens, Tiglin, Minerva partner to be IPTV provider
Leading IPTV vendors have strengthened their partnership to provide a pre-integrated and ready-to-deploy IPTV solution. The pre-integrated solution includes Tilgin IP Set-top Boxes, Latens Content & Revenue Protection and Minerva Network's iTVManager Middleware.
Tilgin, Minerva Networks and Latens Systems announced that they have
released an immediately deployable IPTV solution that is fully integrated
and ready to deploy. The pre-integrated solution includes: Tilgin Mood 300 IP Set-top Boxes, Latens FCAS Content & Revenue Protection and Minerva Network's iTVManager middleware. The ecosystem additionally benefits from a seamless and secure migration path to advanced IPTV services, such as network PVR, High
Definition IPTV and support for MPEG-4 / H.264.
"The combination of MPEG-4 AVC capabilities and advanced IPTV
architectures provides an open platform technology infrastructure that can
be tailored to the specific needs of all IPTV service providers," says Dante
Iacovoni, Marketing Director, Tilgin.
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XM new line up
XM Satellite Radio unveiled a revamped channel line up that will expand the total number of channels the company delivers to more than 170. In addition to 10 new commercial-free music channels, seven regional news and talk channels will debut this spring and summer, the company said.
The regional channels will be programmed by radio giant Clear Channel, which has a small stake in the satellite radio company. The regional news and talk offerings will bring XM subscribers regional news coverage for every area of the continental United States.
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New name for DirecWAYHughes Network Systems formally took the wraps off its new brand, HughesNet. The brand will replace DirecWAY, the previous name for its satellite broadband product. The new HughesNet brand encompasses all broadband solutions and services from Hughes. Products and services include managed network services, digital media, and enhanced broadband offerings for business and government agencies, as well as high-speed satellite Internet access for consumers and small businesses.
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Verimatrix for RushplayVerimatrix, the developer of IPTV content security solutions, and Heuris, a leading manufacturer of video compression, processing tools and applications, announced Supernatural Films as the first production company to actively use RushPlay onDemand for immediate and secure viewing of screening tests during the filming of the Warner Bros. series. RushPlay onDemand is a suite of secure screening tools for the Hollywood theatrical film and television industry that was developed through a partnership between Verimatrix and Heuris. It is the only secure IPTV solution that supports the entire review and approval process making it simpler, faster, secure and more cost effective than alternative solutions, such as overnight courier or point-to-point video transmission. With RushPlay onDemand, producers can have their own on demand television channel.
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Entone for IowaEntone Technologies announced that Iowa Network Services (INS) has chosen Entone’s IPTV solutions to enable its network of Independent Telephone Companies to deliver personal television services such as Video-on-Demand. INS provides a range of network-based services to 148 Independent Telephone Companies who, in turn, provide telecommunications and digital services to over 500,000 Iowans in 330 different communities throughout the state.
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Satellite Broadcasting Al Harbi contracts
Telenor Satellite Broadcasting will deliver over 300Mbps of IP backbone services via satellite into Saudi Arabia as well as provide earth station services from its UK
teleport facilities located in Central London. Al Harbi Telecom is to provide the IP
connectivity for the second ISP, Bayanat, in Saudi Arabia. The second
contract is for 140MHz of satellite capacity on Intelsat 10-02, providing Al
Harbi with key satellite connectivity within and to/ from the Middle East.
James Taylor, IP Services Director of Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, said,
"Our relationship with Al Harbi has gone from strength to strength. We are
pleased to be able to continue to deliver excellent services to the Middle
East and look forward to maintaining a business partner relationship based
on understanding, developing and deploying reliable satellite services."
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DiviTel for DeltaDiviTel announces that Delta, the Dutch cable operator, has taken delivery of an IP video transport solution, designed and built by DiviTel. The deployment ensures that Delta can provide consumers with the widest possible range of digital television channels. The signals from the NOB Cross Media Facility, Mediagate, are transported from Hilversum to Zeeland through redundant equipment and transport routes, utilising an advanced new IP transport solution, the TVG420, developed by the Norwegian company, T-VIPS.
The system, designed, developed and implemented by DiviTel BV is closely integrated with the NOB Mediagate system (also delivered by DiviTel BV). By choosing to partner with DiviTel, Delta will benefit from the most advanced solutions available for transporting video signals over IP networks. The system meets the high quality and fault-free demands of the broadcast industry through the combination of the reliability of telecommunication networks and the advanced error correction and resiliency technology of the T-VIPS TVG420.
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Tuesday 28th March
Bertelsmann out of music?
Network DVR for Cablevision
La Sexta launches with World Cup in Spain
Thomson climbs on bid speculation
TW wants to let viewers follow the crowd
Report wants multichannel but government says no
Zone Mobile Juices up
J:COM joint marketing with Aeon
Tilgin launches VoodBertelsmann is reportedly preparing to sell its music companies as Europe’s largest media company fights to maintain its private status. Apparently it has mandated investment bankers to prepare disposals of its music publishing catalogues and its stake in Sony BMG. A sale, worth an estimated E2bn, would help Bertelsmann finance a buy-in of all or most of the 25 per cent stake held by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL), its only outside investor.
Gunter Thielen, Bertelsmann’s chief executive, said last week that the company would not decide about any moves until it knew more about plans by GBL, which has the right to place its stake in Bertelsmann from May, potentially triggering an initial public offering. Together, the music companies reported revenues of E2.1bn last year, down 16.5 per cent as CD sales fell.
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Network DVR for Cablevision
US operator Cablevision Systems said it plans to introduce a network video recording service as early as this year that will replace the living room digital video recorder.
Cablevision said the move is designed to cut the cost of installing and fixing digital video recorders, which are prone to malfunction. It will operate over the existing cable systems through customers' current digital set top boxes. Though the company said it had not yet priced the service it expects cost-savings to be passed on to customers.
Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said in an interview with Reuters "In every way, it's exactly the same product as (subscribers would) get with a physical hard disk digital video recorder".
Rutledge said nothing will be recorded on Cablevision's network unless the viewer orders it from the remote control - a subtle but important difference from other failed experiments. Earlier controversies had centred on Time Warner's Maestro service, which proposed to let viewers order up just about any show that had been previously broadcasted as the shows would have been automatically stored on its network without any prompting by viewers.
TV networks argued that the Maestro infringed on their copyrights, unless Time Warner planned to pay networks more for the privilege.
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La Sexta launches with World Cup in Spain
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Competition in the Spanish commercial TV market is intensifying with the launch of the new TV player La Sexta. It is the sixth nationwide commercial TV channel available in the country (the others being TVE1, TVE2, Antena 3, Tele 5 and Cuatro).
La Sexta aims to make a big impact with the free-to-air exclusive broadcast of the forthcoming Football World Cup (for which the channel has paid E100 million). It is also finalising an agreement with Canal Plus to allow it to broadcast some football matches on pay-per-view.
The new channel will only cover only 70 per cent of Spain, for lack of spectrum, although it will be available throughout the country through DTT.
La Sexta, is owned by GAMP, itself split between Mediapro-Globomedai, with a 60 per cent stake, and the Mexican Group Televisa, with 40 per cent. It aims to become an alternative to the existing TV networks by mainly targetting at an "urban and dynamic audience". Chaired by showman and business man Emilio Aragon, it will invest E500 million over the next five years with plans to reach break even in 2010 with an estimated average audience share of seven per cent.
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Thomson climbs on bid speculation
Shares in France's Thomson surged after a newspaper report of a possible E5 billion bid for the company. Newspaper the 'Business' reported that investment banks were putting together a bidding consortium.
Deutsche Bank said in a research note that while the buyout interest seemed plausible, investors would do well to treat the bid rumour with some caution. The reports said that Silver Lake, the U.S. venture capital company that has already invested $500 million in Thomson through a series of convertible bonds, would be involved in any bid consortium.
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TW wants to let viewers follow the crowd
Time Warner Cable has initiated talks with the four broadcast networks — CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC — about testing a service that would give viewers access to top programmes, as rated by Nielsen Media Research, soon after their broadcast. A video-on-demand service based on the shifting whims of TV viewers would represent the first effort to package and sell television programs in a way that mimics the "wisdom of crowds" approach, which has become common on the Internet and underpins the way search engines like Google rank results.
Since their establishment a half-century ago, Nielsen ratings have mainly been used as a measure of the popularity of a programme, and therefore its attractiveness to advertisers. The concept under discussion is aimed at making what was on TV last night as compelling to viewers as what is on tonight.
A Time Warner Cable spokesman confirmed that talks about the service were in progress but declined to give details. One approach being contemplated, it is said, would offer viewers on-demand access to programmes ranked in the top 20 (over a period of time to be determined) for a fee of $10 a month, on top of the regular bill.
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Report wants multichannel but government says no
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australia's ministry of communications has released a report it commissioned recommending free-to-air networks be allowed to multichannel on DTT, just two
weeks after the government indicated in draft legislation it would not allow them to do so. The report, delivered to the government in September 2004 during a review of the restrictions on the DTT spectrum but only published last week, forecast that digital take-up could be 34 per cent of households by 2008 if multichannelling was allowed. Additional profit from new channels would "broadly offset the decline in profitability experienced by the existing channels" said the report, adding that there is some scope in the industry for profits to be lower "before the operational viability of the industry at large is threatened".
But quality is key, the report says, and multichannels could be expected to be of low quality because of financial concerns by broadcasters. "Multichannelling that merely results in time-shifted broadcasts of analogue channels is unlikely to add significant value to most consumers (but it is a low cost market entry
strategy)," it says.
Of the Australian free-to-air broadcasters, only Seven Network supports multichannelling, while Nine and Ten do not. Foxtel, Australia's major pay-television platform, is also against multichannelling. While the report points out that free-to-air multichannelling could act as a disincentive to pay-TV uptake, it adds that the degree to which this manifests itself will be "heavily influenced" by local content laws and the regulations over listed sport events.
Pay-TV appears in a healthy state in Australia - ad revenue grew 28 per cent in the six months to the end of 2005, to A$85 million. Viewing of pay-TV accounts
for 19 per cent of all Australian TV-watching, while in pay-TV homes, its share is 54 per cent.
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Zone Mobile Juices upZone Vision Network’s new mobile media division, Zone Mobile, has signed a deal with Juice Mobile to distribute material from Lloyd Kaufman's Troma films through mobile devices. The deal will feature a series of clips from the highly original independent Troma studio, which will be available for download via the soon to launch Horror Channel WAP site.
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J:COM joint marketing with Aeon
Jupiter Telecommunications the largest MSO in Japan based on the number of customers served, has announced a comprehensive agreement with AEON Japan's largest store chain to proactively engage in joint marketing and promotional efforts for certain products and services. This unprecedented alliance between the cable TV and retail leaders will seek to leverage strengths in point-of-sale, media promotion, customer outreach and sales by aligning AEON retail stores with J:COM affiliate regions to strategically develop new customer sales and subscriptions.
The companies plan to offer customers new, more compelling ways to experience their product lines and services through combined promotions and sales incentives. As part of the deal, interactive media from J:COM Video On Demand and InteracTV and signage in AEON stores will feature new product information, special offers and other cross-promotional information.
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Tilgin launches Vood
Tilgin, a provider of VoIP and IP-TV products and solutions, announces the availability of Vood 342, a new IP residential gateway that offers high-quality and hassle-free VoIP and LAN switching to operators needing a solution that connects to a broadband modem.
The Vood 342 provides a one product VoIP and Triple Play solution that leverages the advantages of comprehensive voice support, wire-speed Ethernet switching, a built-in firewall and a NAT router. "The Vood 342 IP Residential Gateway provides operators with the control and functionality they need to successfully offer broadband subscribers quality VoIP and other value-added services, regardless of who owns the network. Unique network-oriented and TR-069 compliant management enables them to personalize and dynamically provide enhanced voice and security functionality," says Peter Galyas, CTO at Tilgin.
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Canal+, Sky prime HD launches
Sogecable seeks a pay-TV alliance with Telefónica’s Imagenio
UK download and keep service
Alcatel and Lucent combine?
Sony Games Network
Telstra's loss was News Corp's gain
Interactive from Zee
PanAmSat for African DTH
Netcom picks ZTE
Hot on the heels of the announcement that the BBC is to trial HD services, Europe’s leading pay-TV services have revealed further details of their respective HD offerings.
Canal+ has announced that its first channels will be ‘Canal+ en HD’ and National Geographic HD on CanalSat. Canal+ HD will be the first, with its entire output in HD, with National Geographic HD coming in June. It will be joined progressively by other channels during 2006 and 2007 reflecting CanalSat’s main themes.
As from April 4, subscribers will be able to reserve the Mediasat Max set-top box, a newly developed MPEG-4 HD terminal. The HD package will cost E9 per month.
Meanwhile, BSkyB moved closer to its HD launch with the announcement of pricing details and confirmation that the first installations of Sky HD are scheduled to begin in May 2006. Customers will pay £299 for the Sky HD box and a Sky HD subscription of £10 a month in addition to their Sky digital subscription. As an introductory offer, standard installation of Sky HD is free for all new or existing Sky digital subscribers. Sky One HD, Artsworld HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD and Sky Box Office HD will be available to all Sky HD subscribers.Brian Sullivan, Sky's Director of Product Strategy and Management expressed his delight that the BBC has confirmed that its HD coverage of the World Cup would be available to all customers with a Sky HD box as a non-subscription channel
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Sogecable seeks a pay-TV alliance with Telefónica’s Imagenio
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Sogecable, owner of digital DTH platform Digital Plus, is seeking an alliance with Telefónica’s IPTV service Imagenio as a way to break into the triple play market.Group President Jesus de Polanco has asked the Government to lift the limits imposed in 2002 on Sogecable because of the digital merger, which prevent the company from reaching distribution agreements with Telefonica until December 2007. This was one of the 30 conditions imposed before approval of the merger between the former Sogecable-owned Canal Satelite Digital and Telefonica-controlled Via Digital.
At Sogecable's AGM Polanco said that the market has radically changed over the last few years to the extent that "some limits on the co-operation between Telefonica and Prisa (main owner of Sogecable) do not make any sense anymore".
For Sogecable, entry into the growing ADSL market is vital, as it would allow it to distribute triple play content in one single package, benefiting from synergies with Telefonica and increasing its subscription base with the addition of more than 225,000 clients from Imagenio. Sogecable has been losing market share in the pay-TV business, following the arrival of Imagenio and the cable companies, going from 83.4 per cent in 2001 to the current 58.3 per cent.
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UK download and keep service
Universal Pictures has launched the new service on the AOL website. Users will pay £19.99 (E29) for a DVD of their chosen film plus two digital copies to keep indefinitely - one for their home computer and one for a portable device.
Users will not be able to burn copies of the films to DVD themselves and the files will be compatible only with PCs and Windows software and will only work on the device they were downloaded to. Last month, another UK website, Wippit, started offering permanent downloads - but only of independent movies.
Universal Pictures UK chairman Eddie Cunningham said this would be the first of many such announcements and digital films would become available in many different ways. "I think what you're seeing here is the beginning of a revolution in terms of how we can distribute digitally and I would expect you'll see a lot more news of this type over the next few months," he said. Consumers felt "much more comfortable" if a DVD was included in the package as well as the downloads. "The statistics said people were three times as likely to pick up on this service if the physical copy was included as part of the bundle, and that astonished us."
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Alcatel and Lucent combine?
It looks as though further consolidation among major telco suppliers could come about with the combination of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies who are discussing a potential merger.
Between them, the two firms employ almost 90,000 staff and have revenues of more than $22bn. Analysts said a deal may be worth $33bn and could trigger further consolidation. A deal would offer Alcatel greater scope for US expansion, where Lucent is very strong in mobile, while offering Lucent more opportunities in Europe and a chance to get in on the IPTV market.
The two held merger talks five years ago that foundered on cultural differences. The companies have stressed there is no guarantee of a deal this time around either.
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Sony Games Network
Sony have unveiled a long-awaited online gaming network. "In the future, we’re going to go through a radical change," said Phil Harrison, president of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment. "We will be creating and servicing a network of game communities...a shift from a disk-based to a network-based business."
Complete games could be downloaded from the service on to the hard drive of its next-generation console PlayStation 3. Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service also allows downloading of games, but the company has restricted this to downloads of single levels of games or simple arcade games in order not to jeopardise its relationship with retail stores. But Harrison made no mention of retailers and suggested the aim was to cut out the middleman.
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Telstra's loss was News Corp's gain
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Fox Sports was the key difference for shareholders in the Foxtel platform around the time rival C7 shut - News Corp and PBL who owned the former made a profit when subscribers signed up to Foxtel, while Telstra, which had no interest in Fox Sports, made a loss, a court heard this week.
New subscribers cost Foxtel A$162 each in 2001, but PBL made a marginal return of A$141 and News Corp A$244 from each new sub, while Telstra made a loss. Bruce Akhurst, a senior Telstra lawyer, told the court hearing a claim by Seven Network for damages over the closure of C7 in 2002, that he had been worried in 2000 that Foxtel might be misusing its market power by declining to carry C7. But he added that he did not believe News and PBL wanted to monopolise the sports rights market.
Earlier in the week, former Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski said that the telco wanted the C7 sports channel on Foxtel, but was vetoed by News Corp and PBL.
Switkowski told the court that he wanted half-owned Foxtel to carry the channel as C7's AFL coverage would attract subscribers and also be of benefit in providing some competition to Fox Sports - then, as now, the only sports channel on Foxtel. Fox Sports charged Foxtel A$8.30 per subscriber per month for the channel, while a contemporaneous Telstra document said C7 would cost A$2. But Switkowski also said that he did not recall either News or PBL wanting to put C7 out of business.
C7's parent Seven is suing a number of parties, including Telstra, News and PBL for colluding to shut down C7, which closed in 2002.
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Interactive from Zee
The Essel Group, owners of Zee Telefilms, is launching a new dedicated digital content company. Digital Media Convergence (DMC) will acquire, digitise and distribute content for various platforms. The content could be of special interest, sourced from abroad for Indian consumers, or Indian content for overseas and domestic market.
Subhash Chandra, chairman, Essel Group, said it is the end of television as we know it. "In the digital age, the viewer is going to demand the content they like, where they like, and when they like," he said. Television viewing of the future, would be lot more interactive, which would free the consumer of time and space constraints.
Zee Telefilms is undertaking a multi-million dollar project to digitise its entire content library, 50,000 hours of programming and 1,500 films, which it hopes to finish in 12 months.
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PanAmSat for African DTH
PanAmSat has signed a multi-year agreement with Strong Technologies of Dubai for use of the PAS-10 Indian Ocean Region satellite for My TV, a direct-to-home platform that will serve sub-Sahara Africa.
My TV was awarded a DTH broadcast license by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. It will deliver channels such as BBC World, kids net Eureka!, Baby TV, Trace TV, MCM Top, Adventure 1, Fashion TV as well as six additional channels that will be added over the coming months including sports, movies, children and music programming. The channels will be uplinked from Stellar in Germany, PanAmSat said.
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Netcom picks ZTEChina Netcom's first IPTV agreement confirms ZTE as IPTV network provider. ZTE Corporation is to install the first IPTV trial for the Beijing arm of China Netcom, the country's second largest fixed-line telecom operator. This contract will make ZTE one of the largest providers of trial IPTV infrastructure in the world, with a total capacity of nearly 500,000 subscribers and over 200,000 concurrent users in China, Europe and South America, says ZTE.
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