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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 11th May
BT Vision above the line
$45m for Joost
Motorola movie phone
DirecTV flat
EchoStar Q1 results
Viacom down on MTV costs
IPTV in 700,000 Latin America homes by 2011
Eutelsat Q3 results
Deutsche Telekom and Neuf Cegetel agree on T-Online
ROK TV VOD over 2.5G GPRS
ADB for Multimedia Polska
BBC News 24 streamed permanently
BT Vision above the lineBT is to launch its first TV ad campaign to promote BT Vision. It says the two 60-second ads will highlight the flexibility of the service, which combines Freeview TV channels with on-demand content available via broadband, catch-up TV, and personal video recorder storage capacity.
The TV campaign will be supported by posters on buses and billboards. There will also be national newspaper and magazine ads and a major online campaign. "When people are considering digital TV, the campaign spells out why BT Vision offers the best option - no matter what their mood or viewing occasion," said Lib Charlesworth, the director of sales and marketing at BT Vision.
BT has also announced that BT Vision set top boxes will now be made available to buy through John Lewis and Comet this summer.
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One week after formal launch Joost, the online video site established by the founders of Skype, has raised $45 million (E33m) in funding from four VC and media groups. Sequioa Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken small minority stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.
Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost with Niklas Zennstrom, said the investment would help it attract "tens of millions, even hundreds of millions" of viewers: "This funding round is all about accelerating everything."
The start up has been funded personally by its founders, who invested from the proceeds of selling Skype to Ebay for $2.6bn in 2005. By the time of last week’s launch, it had signed up "a few hundred thousand" people to test a beta version of the service, which was originally codenamed the Venice Project.
At launch, Joost had secured programming from CBS, Sony, Turner and Warner Brothers, as well as sports coverage of the National Hockey League and Indy car racing. The free-to-view service is funded by advertising from Coca-Cola, Nike and others.
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Motorola is to unveil a mobile phone with full-motion video and the means to play feature films from removable storage cards, says Chief Executive Ed Zander who said it would show 30 frames-a-second, full-motion video.
The new device would initially be targeted at the European market, where faster, so-called "third generation" (3G) networks are more widely available than in Motorola's home U.S. market. Zander also said Motorola has partnered with another company that can fit feature-length movies on so-called Secure Digital (SD) cards capable of storing several gigabytes of data. "We are working with another company to deliver movies on SD cards. You can start watching unbelievable quality movies," Zander enthused.
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DirecTV Group posted a smaller-than-expected 43 per cent rise in first-quarter profit amid concerns about growth in the satellite television market in the face of tough competition from cable and phone companies.
Chief Executive Chase Carey said the company expects to add about the same number of subscribers in 2007 as it did in 2006, about 820,000 net new subscribers.
DirecTV, which is expected to come under the control of Liberty Media this year, said profit rose to $336 million (E248m) from $235 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 15 per cent to $3.91 billion. DirecTV added 235,000 U.S. customers in the quarter, including twice as many high-definition TV (HDTV) customers as in the same period a year earlier. Carey said the company has already signed deals to offer more than 70 channels as part of its plan to offer up to 100 HDTV channels by the end of this year.
DirecTV said customer cancellations were 1.44 per cent in the quarter, down from 1.45 per cent in the year-ago quarter. It ended the quarter with 16.19 million U.S. customers.
Liberty struck a deal last year to swap a 16.3 per cent stake in News Corp for News Corp.'s controlling 38.5 per cent stake in DirecTV. The deal is awaiting approval from U.S. regulators and could close by September.
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EchoStar Q1 resultsEchoStar has reported a total revenue of $2.64 billion (E1.95bn) for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, a 15 per cent increase on 2006.
Net income totalled $157 million for the quarter compared with $147 million during the corresponding period in 2006. DISH Network added approximately 310,000 net new subscribers during the first quarter of 2007, ending the quarter with approximately 13.415 million subscribers.
Viacom Q1 net income fell 36 per cent amid restructuring costs at MTV. It reported net income of $202.9 million (E150.1m) compared with $317.2 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 16 per cent to $2.75 billion.
Earnings at Viacom's television division fell 3 per cent to $601.5 million, as revenue increased 10 per cent to $1.73 billion, driven by gains at MTV and BET.
Viacom's movie business swung to a loss of $105.7 million amid a surge in U.S. print and advertising costs. Revenue climbed 27 per cent to $1.05 billion.
Viacom is in the midst of a legal battle with Google Inc. over the company's YouTube video-sharing site. Viacom sued for more than $1 billion in March for alleged "massive intentional copyright infringement," and the company is seeking an injunction preventing Google and YouTube from further copyright violations. Google has denied the charges, saying it is protected from liability under the so-called safe-harbor clauses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
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IPTV in 700,000 Latin America homes by 2011Around 700,000 households in Latin America will be watching TV over an internet connection by 2011, according to a study published by the Centre for Telecoms Research. The report ‘Latin America Internet Market Databook, 2002-2011’ expects Latin America to reach 30 million broadband connections in five years (an almost three-fold increase) with a market value of USD$14 billion.
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Eutelsat Q3 results
Eutelsat said sales for the third quarter of its financial year 2006-7 were E205.7 million a rise of 5.4 per cent over the year earlier period. On the back of the results for the first three quarters, Eutelsat has raised its full year sales target to over E815 million, and revised up its full year EBITDA margin target to 78 per cent from 77 previously.
Deutsche Telekom and Neuf Cegetel agree on T-OnlineDeutsche Telekom has reached an agreement on the sale of its French Internet subsidiary T-Online France. Neuf Cegetel will take over all the shares in the ISP, which operates under the Club Internet brand.
The transaction is subject to approval by the French anti-trust authorities. Both parties aim to complete the transaction by the end of H1 2007.
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ROK TV VOD over 2.5G GPRS
ROK Entertainment Group, UK-based developer of mobile entertainment services and technologies, has announced the provision of the world’s first video-on-demand (VOD) mobile TV service streamed over mass market 2.5G GPRS.
The up-graded VOD mobile TV service is available now on ROK TV which is currently being deployed to 30 selected MNOs worldwide with the most recent service launches being with AIS in Thailand and with Telenor in Pakistan.
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ADB for Multimedia PolskaAdvanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) has reached an agreement with Multimedia Polska, a provider of triple play services to Polish consumers, to supply advanced, high definition digital cable set-top boxes. ADB will supply its ADB-5800C interactive cable STB; this new unit will enable Multimedia to expand its broadband television service into new areas such as HD television.
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BBC News 24 streamed permanently
Viewers are now able to watch BBC news streamed online through the BBC News website front page, as well as in the body of relevant website stories. For the past few years the continuous news channel has been streamed through the website in order to cover major news stories but now BBC News 24 will always be available to UK audiences to watch live online. The service is also available to users of 3G mobile network.
Thursday 10th May
Virgin "Q2 could go negative"
Consumers to pay for IPTV features?
Disney discloses ‘digital video vital signs’
News Corp Q3 rise
Shorter online ads
50% of tenants unprepared for switchover
23% of US TVs only broadcast
ProSiebenSat.1 Q1 results
Telia claims 100,00 digital TV subs
Servecast launches Barça TV Online
3DD sign with Babelgum
TVN Bollywood VOD packages
Virgin "Q2 could go negative"Speaking about its under whelming Q1 07 results, Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch admitted it could get worse and TV subscriber gains "could be negative" as a result of the loss of basic Sky channels in the row over carriage fees. Virgin is currently taking action in the High Court over the dispute claiming Sky has abused its dominant position.
Virgin customers cancelling because of the channel losses at the beginning of April would not feed through until the next quarter. But the company said the Sky row had already played a part in denting gross customer additions, which were down to 184,300 compared with 215,500 in the previous quarter. Burch said the publicity surrounding the row "may have confused consumers and affected acquisition efforts". Burch said: "Should Sky want to come back and negotiate in good faith we are open to that." Sky added 51,000 subscribers in the same period.
Virgin said it added 36,100 cable TV customers in the first three months of the year, taking its TV subscriber base to 3.39 million. This was down from the 38,500 net TV subscriber additions in the last three months of 2006. Burch said the number of telephone customers would also fall in the second quarter, continuing the downward trend since Carphone Warehouse offered telephone customers a "free" broadband deal last year. A net loss of 42,800 telephone customers was mainly responsible for Virgin's overall customer base dropping to 4.81 million. All these falls were despite the £25m (E36m) re-branding campaign that fell mainly in the period.
The only bright spot was broadband sign up with 97,600 new connections in Q1. The rollout of 20Mb/s and trials of 50Mb/s continued, which Virgin noted is an example of its "inbuilt advantage" as cable monopoly holder. Churn rates were down marginally from 1.7 to 1.6 per cent but will rise materially if the sign-off rate climbs in Q2 as predicted.
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Consumers to pay for IPTV features?
According to research by Microsoft and Screen Digest more than 60 per cent of consumers in seven developed countries would consider switching TV service providers to obtain the features and content they want, at current market prices or higher.
This finding tends to contradict previous assumptions that price is the single most important factor in selecting TV service providers. The study further points to key trends that define the IPTV market.
Surveys of 5,000 "entertainment-oriented" consumers were conducted in: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US. Overall, the survey estimated a total of 230 million potential candidates for more advanced TV services across these countries, with 75 million of those consumers expressing interest in switching and paying for a TV service with the features and channels they want.
An additional 2,000 surveys were conducted in urban China and India. When these countries are included, the global audience for advanced TV services increases to 380 million, with 200 million willing to switch and pay for a new TV service.
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Disney discloses ‘digital video vital signs’
Despite flat revenue, Walt Disney reported Q2 net income up on the back of strong gains at ESPN and movie hits such as 'Wild Hogs.'Second-quarter revenue was largely static at $8.07 billion. Disney said media networks were the biggest profit driver during the second quarter. Although revenue was flat there, operating income jumped 21 per cent. ESPN led the way, benefiting in part from lower sports-programming costs and a decline in investment in ESPN mobile, which switched to a licensing model.
As part of its results Disney outlined its ‘digital video vital signs’. The company reported that 92 million ad-supported episodes from ABC and Disney have been requested since September 2006; 23.7 million Disney shows have been sold on iTunes and 2 million movies have been sold on iTunes.
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News Corp. quarterly profit rose on the back of good studio and cable network perfoemace. The company said third-quarter profit rose to $871 million from $820 million a year ago. Revenue rose 21 per cent to $7.53 billion. Poor performers were MyNetworkTV and the newspaper groups.
News Corp.last week it had made a $5 billion offer to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co.
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Shorter online adsNBC Universal has become the first big-media player to limit the length of ads that run before online-video clips. Starting in July, advertisers will have to keep their spots to 15 seconds or less. The cap will apply to video ads across all NBC Universal's Web properties, ranging from NBC.com to MSNBC.com. The company made one concession to its broadcast advertisers and will continue to run 30-second ads during full-length episodes of shows that also play online.
50% of tenants unprepared for switchover
Around half of tenants in the UK still don’t know what they need to do to continue watching television after digital TV switchover, according to research. With half of all those living in apartments dependent on communal aerial systems, Digital UK, the body leading switchover, is calling for action from both landlords and tenants to ensure no one is left in the dark when analogue signals are switched off.
The joint research by Digital UK and UK communications regulator Ofcom found that: 43 per ent of private tenants, and 54 per cent of council tenants, understand how to prepare for switchover (compared to national average of 64 per cent); just 3 per cent of tenants have discussed switchover with their landlord; three quarters of tenants already have digital TV on their main sets but less than one third of secondary sets in rented property have been converted.
Ford Ennals, Chief Executive of Digital UK, said the research was a wake-up call for any landlords or tenants who had yet to start thinking about switchover. "Our message is simple: switchover is coming, the countdown has started and you need to prepare. We have already been focusing communications on the social housing sector but are now stepping up a gear in response to low awareness, particularly among those renting in the private sector."
Digital UK is working with Communities and Local Government (CLG) and housing
associations across the country to implement a programme of conversion and awareness raising.
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23% of US TVs only broadcastLeichtman Research Group has found that 23 per cent of all TV sets in consumers’ homes do not receive cable or Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) programming. This represents over 70 million TV sets in US households that only receive over-the-air broadcast television.
While just 15 per cent of households nationwide do not subscribe to cable, DBS, or any other type of multi-channel video service, these households account for only half of all broadcast-only TV sets. The other half are in households that subscribe to cable or DBS. Nine percent of TV sets in cable households are broadcast-only, and 19 per cent of TV sets in DBS households are broadcast-only.
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German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media has reported first-quarter EBITDA rose 16.1 per cent to E82 million from E70.6 million a year earlier on the back of rising advertising revenues.
Sales in the three months through March grew to E501.2 million from E465.3 million. Net profit for the period grew to E40.6 million from E30.7 million.
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Telia claims 100,00 digital TV subsNordic telco TeliaSonera has reported that households in Sweden have responded enthusiastically to Telia’s IPTV initiative. According to the company, customer uptake over the past few months has surpassed all expectations, with early May marking the 100,000th television customer subscribed to the Telia Digital-tv service.
"We know we have one of the strongest digital television offerings on the Swedish market but the response from customers has surpassed all our expectations and we are extremely pleased to see it," commented Kent Jonsson, VP, consumer broadband, at TeliaSonera Sweden.
Since the launch of Telia Digital-tv in Sweden, Telia has continuously built out switching centres and approximately 2.5m Swedish households can receive digital television service through their phone line.
"Our needs and behaviour are changing all the time. Customers increasingly want to control their own media consumption and watch television and films when it suits them. We want to create services that cater to these requirements," added Jonsson.
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Servecast launches Barça TV Online
Servecast, provider of broadband video solutions to the sports and media industries, has launched Barça TV Online, the broadband video service of the Spanish football club.Barca TV Online will offer a range of on-demand video content. The streamed content is divided into 8 different channels: News, Barça TV Programmes, Youth Academy, Champions, Liga/Cup, Friendlies, Archive matches and other professional sports teams. The majority of the content will be very similar to that available on the club’s TV channel, Barça TV. The audio will be made available in three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English.
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3DD sign with BabelgumUK based 3DD Digital has signed a content licensing deal with new Internet on demand TV Network Babelgum. 3DD Digital has finalised a deal to provide a selection of music concerts and live performances from to consumers over the Internet.
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TV on demand company TVN Entertainment has reached a five-year agreement with BODVOD Networks, the leading distributor of South Asian digital content worldwide, to launch a selection of on demand channels featuring Bollywood content from the top South Asian content producers. The service will be marketed to consumers under the "Saavn" brand name.
The Saavn packages include a movies package featuring, in an industry first, VOD movies released alongside their worldwide theatrical premieres; a subscription movies on demand service that offers both new release and classic Bollywood films; a subscription music on demand service and a subscription TV service.
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Wednesday 9th May
Premier League sues YouTube
Disney VOD for Cox ‘but with ads’
Cable should beware of new platforms
Tricolor TV on Eutelsat
VoD ‘just scratching surface’
TVTel postpones launch of satellite service
WB on Joost
Comcast SmartZone
Cisco adds Internet streaming
Envivio Enable Jyske Bank for 5,000 new customers
Dr. Jas Saini CEO of UDcast
The UK’s Premier League is suing YouTube for copyright infringement. According to court documents filed in New York, the League alleges YouTube had "knowingly misappropriated" its intellectual property by encouraging footage to be viewed on its site.
The English Premier League and US music publisher Bourne launched the legal action claiming unspecified damages. They said YouTube had consciously encouraged people to view content on its site in order to raise its profile, violating the material's commercial value. "Defendants which own and operate YouTube have knowingly misappropriated and exploited this valuable property for their own gain without payment or licence to the owners of the intellectual property," the suit says. The combined TV, radio and internet rights to show live games and highlights over the next three years fetched £2.7bn (E3.9bn) in a series of auctions.
Google-owned YouTube already faces a $1bn lawsuit from Viacom, accusing it of illegally showing clips from its TV shows.
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Disney VOD for Cox ‘but with ads’
Disney’s two TV networks, ABC and ESPN, have struck a deal with MSO Cox Communications to offer hit shows and football games on demand -- but with the unusual condition that Cox disables the fast-forward feature that allows viewers to skip ads.
The agreement only applies to programs available on Cox's video-on-demand menu, so it doesn't affect viewers using digital video recorders to fast forward through ads. The deal could make it easier for the major networks to make their most popular shows available on demand free. Because networks have found it difficult to sell advertising for on-demand broadcasts, most offered only a few shows - and viewers usually have had to pay a fee of 99 cents per episode to watch those.
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Cable should beware of new platforms
Cable programmers should experiment with new media, but remember it makes little money and threatens business partnerships with operators. This was the advice from representatives of both sides on a digital programming panel at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's trade show in Las Vegas.
"In our view, the Internet, while it should be available and open to the networks and [is] not a totally inappropriate avenue, should be supportive and promotional to the core linear networks," said Comcast Executive VP of Content Acquisition Matt Bond. Bond, while citing the "tantalizing revenue opportunity" in networks putting their content online, reminded programmers that operators still pay cable networks a collective $20 billion (E14.8bn) in license fees to carry their channels; cable networks, unlike broadcast, have a dual revenue source – advertising and license fees. Putting entire episodes of series online, as broadcasters have done, is tricky for cable networks as it undermines the relationships they have with cable operators who pay them for carriage on their systems.
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Russian broadcaster National Broadcasting Company announced the launch of 12 new channels on the W4 satellite of Eutelsat Communications in order to expand development of its Tricolor television platform. The channels have been launched following a contract for the lease of a second transponder on W4.
Launched in Russia in 2005 as a free package of 15 channels accessed via a decoder developed and commercialised by General Satellite, the Tricolor platform today serves an audience of 800,000 homes. With buoyant receiver sales since the beginning of 2007, Tricolor forecasts audience growth to 1.2 million homes by the end of the year. Tricolor’s main target is the estimated 50 million viewers in western parts of Russia living in rural areas with a limited offer of channels through terrestrial reception.
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The US largest cable operators say they are "just scratching the surface" of video-on-demand and promised to offer new products to allow viewers more control. "My sense is that (VOD) goes all the way," said Stephen Burke, COO of Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator. "Eventually not only will you have prime time television shows that you can go back and catch up with, but eventually on your TV set, you will get virtually everything or maybe everything on TV when you want it."
Opportunity" at the NCTA. Glen Britt, president and CEO of Time Warner Cable, said that viewers who used DVRs were some of the biggest users of other VOD products. "Video ON Demand is becoming more powerful and were not going to stop," said Burke.
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TVTel postpones launch of satellite service
From Branislav Pekic in RomePortuguese regional cable TV and internet operator TvTel will initiate test broadcasts of its new nationwide DTH service on May 10, before launching on June 1. According to a TvTel spokesperson, the test broadcast will serve to evaluate the functioning of the multiplexing, scrambling and broadcasting systems, as well as the reception of signals by clients. The setting up of a national dealer’s network is also in the final stages.
The satellite bouquet will include 16 of the most popular cable TV channels in Portugal, such as AXN, FOX, MGM, Hollywood, NASN, ESPN, MTV, Panda, História, Odisseia and Biography Channel, as well as the four national terrestrial TV channels (RTP1, A 2, TVI and SIC) and RTPN. TVTel’s satellite service was originally due to have launched on May 15.
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Warner Bros. Television Group will make its television programming available for the Joost online video service. Warner Bros will launch a science fiction and a celebrity channel on Joost this month. Financial terms were not disclosed. Joost has recently signed on Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Television and Hasbro to its service.
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Comcast will integrate its e-mail and voice messaging services in a new Web-based communications center called SmartZone. It will enable Comcast's 12 million high-speed Internet subscribers to access their voice mail and e-mail from the same online platform, with instant messaging and an interactive address book. The company's 3 million digital phone subscribers will also be able to use the service.
Comcast believes services like SmartZone will strengthen its relationship with subscribers who may be tempted by offers from satellite television operators, or from telephone companies that are also selling video and Internet services.
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Cisco adds Internet streaming
At NCTA Cisco announced an enhancement to its Content Delivery System (CDS), adding Internet streaming media capabilities that allow service providers to offer an ever-expanding scope of online content to help meet their customers' expectations of accessing any content, anywhere, anytime and on any device. The Cisco CDS Internet Streaming solution incorporates applications for delivering video to digital televisions and set-top boxes as well as delivering video, voice, music and data to a wide range of Internet Protocol (IP) devices such as personal computers, Wi-Fi-connected mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
Envivio Enable Jyske Bank for 5,000 new customers
Jyske Bank, the second-largest independent bank in Denmark, successfully implemented an enterprise-wide IP video communication system using technology from Envivio. Live encoders for webcasting and on-demand video servers from Envivio are used to communicate product announcements, financial services, and news updates within the bank and to create innovative branding. Jyske Bank uses the Envivio MPEG-4 products to change the way employees receive information and how it educates and markets to its customers. The decision to leverage internal and external video communications throughout Jyske Bank was crucial to its ability to attract 5,000 new customers in the fourth quarter of 2006 alone, compared to the 8,000-10,000 new customers that Jyske Bank signs up in a typical year.
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Dr. Jas Saini CEO of UDcast
UDcast a leading provider of solutions enabling full IP over broadcast and satellite media, announced that it has appointed Dr. Jas Saini to the position of chief executive officer. Saini, a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of experience in the electronics industry, has previously held executive positions at NDS, Thomson Multimedia and Irdeto.
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Monday 7th May
Microsoft circling Yahoo Again
No BBC or C4 VOD on Macs
ONO to raise by 66% pay-TV service subs fee
Cablevision up
BBC Future Media and Technology appointments
Initiative to trial mobile 100 Mbps
Digital music sales will overtake physical sales by 2011
etisalat's mobile TV 100k subscribers
Canadian pay-TV profits
SPTI: 1m subs in Germany
T-HT Croatia selects Scientific Atlanta STB for IPTV
Microsoft circling Yahoo Again
Shares in Yahoo jumped 18 per cent in on reports that Microsoft is once again weighing a bid for the search company and has asked for formal talks to be renewed.
It is believed Yahoo could fetch around $50 billion, Micrsoft’s current market value is about $300 billion (E589bn).
The move follows an attempt by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo! a few months ago in a bid to mount a credible attack on Google. The New York Post reports that a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo would increase the combined companies' share of the search advertising market to 27 per cent against Google's 65 per cent.
A deal to acquire Yahoo! would radically expand Microsoft's footprint in display advertising, an area where Yahoo! has traditionally been strong. It would also give Microsoft access to Panama, the online operating system that Yahoo! has trumpeted as a realistic threat to Google's prowess.
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No BBC or C4 VOD on MacsC4 and the BBC will not allow Mac owners to use their VOD services until Apple resolves digital rights management issues. This is because TV bosses fear that they could fall foul of copyright issues, as Apple refuses to license its FairPlay DRM copy protection to third parties.
If the broadcasters allowed Mac users to access programmes they would be open to potential copyright abuse as they would have no DRM protection. Apple has resolved some DRM issues with EMI in recent weeks, allowing Apple to start offering the record label's stable to its iTunes customers without FairPlay so that songs can be played on a range of devices, reports vnu.net.
Unless a similar deal can be hammered out, only owners of the very latest Macs, which are compatible with Windows copyright protection, will be allowed to use the service, said Channel 4.
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ONO to raise by 66% pay-TV service subs fee
From David Del Valle in MadridThe Spanish largest cable company, ONO, is increasing its pay-TV package 66% to E30 a month from June. The company currently has more than 900,000 TV subscribers.
The triple play package customers will pay 7.14 per cent more, up from E64.96 to E69.6. In a letter tocustomers ONO announces that it will increase by 50 per cent the speed to access the Internet and will offer for free some of its current pay-TV channels. As of December 31, the company had a total of 1.8 million customers, of which 31 per cent have access to the triple play.
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Cablevision Systems reported stronger than expected Q1 earnings one day after accepting the third buyout offer from the Dolan family, the company's founding family and controlling shareholders. Revenue rose 12.5 per cent to $1.59 billion from $1.41 billion, thanks primarily to growth in cable due to an increase in basic and premium subscriptions. Cablevision's earnings were buoyed by continued demand for its digital TV and telephone products. The results are likely to renew complaints from some investors that the Dolan’s accepted offer does not reflect the profits that are about to flow from the years of network investment.
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BBC Future Media and Technology appointmentsAshley Highfield, Director of BBC Future Media and Technology, has confirmed three new and final appointments to the Future Media and Technology leadership team. Erik Huggers, formerly of Microsoft, will join as BBC Future Media and Technology Group Controller. Paul Dale, a technology director from Sky Networked Media, has stepped into the role of Future Media and Technology Controller for BBC Vision. And James Cridland will move up to the position of BBC Head of Future Media and Technology, Audio & Music.
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Initiative to trial mobile 100 Mbps
A group of leading vendors and network operators comprised of Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, France Telecom/Orange, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, T-Mobile, and Vodafone have formed an initiative aimed at driving forward the next-generation of mobile broadband networks based on 3GPP Release 8 "Long Term Evolution / System Architecture Evolution" specifications.
The trial targets supporting mobile broadband peak data rates exceeding 100 Mbps. In line with 3GPP requirements, this next-generation technology aims to provide a mobile broadband service that outperforms both 3GPP Release 6 HSPA, as well as current fixed line DSL data rates while maintaining and extending the highly successful mobility and coverage benefits of 3GPP networks such as GSM.
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Digital music sales will overtake physical sales by 2011
According to a report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, digital music sales will overtake physical sales in Western Europe by 2011. This year the report estimates that digital sales are going to account for 10 per cent of total music retail revenues. Rapidly increasing digital sales are expected to offset the decline in physical sales and push the European music market back into growth from 2008. The total European music retail value is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 6.5 per cent from E8.5 billion in 2007 to E11.6 billion by 2012.
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etisalat's mobile TV 100k subscribers
The mobile TV subscriber base of etisalat, based in Abu Dhabi, has crossed the 100,000 mark within two months. etisalat offers 11 Arabic and English channels to mobile TV service users including Abu Dhabi Sports, Dubai Sports, Abu Dhabi TV, Al Arabiya TV, BBC World, CNBC Arabiya, Emirates, MBC, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera International and Sama Dubai.
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Canadian pay-TV profitsThe Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) have released the financial results for the Canadian speciality, pay, pay-per-view television and video-on-demand (VOD) services industry. During the last year, this industry experienced the highest growth in its revenues in the past five years. Total revenues rose by 12.4 per cent in one year, to $2.5 billion in 2006, compared with $2.2 billion the previous year.
The largest share of the total revenues, $2 billion, was earned by the 136 Canadian specialty television services operating in 2006, while the remaining $482 million was earned by pay, pay-per-view and VOD services.
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SPTI: 1m subs in GermanySony Pictures Television International announced that its high energy, action and adventure channel, AXN, has passed the one million subscriber mark in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. The channel is carried by a number of distribution partners, broadcasting via cable through KDG and Unity Media and through other distributors over satellite, IPTV and mobile.
SPTI said: "The German digital pay TV market is one of the most challenging in Europe. Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for AXN in German speaking territories. Passing the one million subscriber mark provides us with a firm foundation on which to build our channels business in the region."
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T-HT Croatia selects Scientific Atlanta STB for IPTVScientific Atlanta, a Cisco company, revealed T-HT Croatia (T-Hrvatski Telekom) has selected its Model IPP330HD IP set-tops for the rollout of T-HT Croatia’s IPTV service. T-HT Croatia is deploying these next-generation set-tops to deliver advanced services, including high-definition television to help expand its subscriber base and provide greater differentiation for its service portfolio.
