|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 25th May
Sky: full competition investigation
Murdoch defends China decisions
Netflix for TV
PT Multimedia spin off
Telecom Italia IPTV deal with Disney
More HD for DirecTV
Narrowstep, Telefonica partner
Swisscom buys into Transmedia
Nagra for Suzhou
Sky: full competition investigation
The UK Department of Trade and Industry has referred British Sky Broadcasting’s acquisition of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV to the Competition Commission. The trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, said: "My decision reflects consideration of the reports I have received from both the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom and of other representations I have received about this matter."
The move follows reports from the two regulators that concluded there was a case to answer on "significant" competition and "public interest" issues stemming from Sky’s £940m (E1.36bn) purchase of the stake in November last year.
Ofcom highlighted concerns over the "plurality of news provision for both cross-media and television news in the UK," and suggested that the commission’s review should also consider News Corps influence through newspapers such as The Sun and The Sunday Times. News Corp is a 38 per cent shareholder in Sky, whose chairman is Rupert Murdoch and his son James is the CEO.
BSkyB rivals including Virgin Media, BT, Setanta Sports and Top-Up TV filed a joint submission to the Ofcom inquiry which looked at issues including control over content, ownership of distribution platforms and retail subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Office of Fair Trading said that a "relevant merger situation" had been created by the acquisition of the stake in ITV that could result in a substantial lessening of competition and that clear-cut remedies to resolve its concerns had not been offered by BSkyB. John Fingleton, OFT chief executive at the time, said: "BSkyB’s shareholding means that ITV is no longer fully independent."
In a response to the announcement the DTI’s decision BSkyB said: "We look forward to engaging with the Competition Commission as the ongoing regulatory process enters its next phase."
Rupert Murdoch, though, was less diplomatic accusing the government of ‘chickening out’ by handing the investigation to quangos ‘we have done nothing illegal’ he said.
Comment
Rupert Murdoch’s indignant retort that Sky has done nothing illegal is doubtless true, but Sky / News Corp has allowed a coalescence of cicumstances and decisions to develop which has served to give the impression it believed it could do anything with impunity. For years it has been the 800 pound gorilla that sits where it wants in UK pay-TV, but this time it seems to have trodden on one toe too many. An inexhausitive list of its ‘crimes’ in the eyes of the broadcasting establishment would include: appointing a family member of the leading sharehlder to CEO, buying a major stake in ITV and then disingenuously claiming it wasn’t to stop Virgin buying it, then hard balling Virgin both by cutting what Sky would pay for Virgin programmes and massively increasing the amount it expected Virgin to pay for Sky programmes. Sky will doubtless ride the storm, but it will be a major distraction and it is unecessary: anyone who has observed Sky over the last 15 years would never have backed against them in a fight against Virgin, BT, ITV or anyonelse who is ganging up on them. Your thoughts to nick.snow@advanced-television.com
Back to top
Murdoch defends China decisions
Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s chief executive, has defended himself against accusations that he allowed political pressure from the Chinese government to influence his business decisions. Murdoch was on the defensive about incidents years ago when he dropped publication of a controversial book and withdrew the BBC from Star in China, because they are being used as examples of his lack of independance.
Murdoch told the FT "I had told the HarperCollins editors not to publish the Patten book (Chris Patten’s memoirs as last Governor of Hong Kong) because I did not think it would sell, but then they went ahead anyway," Murdoch said. "When I then found out they were publishing it, I told them anyone else could publish it, just not them. In retrospect, it would have been better just to publish it."
He said the decision by his Star TV satellite group to drop the BBC’s English-language news channel was driven by commercial considerations: "Star was losing $100m per year; we had to pay $10m per year to the BBC. I said ‘Let them pay it themselves’, and they did. We also cancelled two other third-party channels – MTV and Prime Sports. At that stage we never ever had any request from anybody in China. Indeed, there was no discourse at all."
Back to top
In an investor briefing Netflix chief financial officer Barry McCarthy seemed to confirm that the online retailer plans to use some type of set-top box to stream movies from its Watch Now Internet movie service to the TV. McCarthy said Netflix has been working on a "solution" to deliver Internet movies to the TV for two years.
McCarthy said some type of device is needed to deliver movies to the TV and said he didn’t think a PC would be the hardware consumers choose. McCarthy said that because Netflix streams its movies, it can use a cheaper type of box that requires only a wi-fi chip, rather than a more expensive box that has a hard drive for storing movies.
In April, CEO Reed Hastings said the company was working on a number of partnerships to deliver Internet movies to the TV. McCarthy predicted that Internet movie services would continue to create proprietary set-top boxes, such as Apple TV, which only delivers movies and other content from Apple’s iTunes. He said a universal box that would allow consumers to choose which Internet service to download movies from would be "nirvana," but he added, "I just don’t see it unfolding that way."
Back to top
PT Multimedia spin off
PT Multimedia, the holding company of TV Cabo, that with 1,488,000 subscribers is Portugal's largest triple-play MSO, is in the final stages of the spin off from parent company Portugal Telecom (PT). The June 20th AGM will approve the new statutes and a new board.
PT owns 58.43 per cent of PT Multimedia. Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), the state-owned and the country's largest bank, now owns 11.26 per cent after buying the position held by Barclays Bank, a clear sign that the Portuguese government is keen in keeping a position of influence in the spined off company. Two other banks, Espírito Santo and BPI, own around 6 per cent each.
Joaquim Oliveira, whose Olivedesportos owns most of the Portuguese football league rights and is with PT Multimedia a 50 per cent shareholder of the SportTV channel, increased last week his PT Multimedia holdings to 3.77 per cent, while another media group, Cofina, acquired a 2.23 per cent stake.
Back to top
Telecom Italia IPTV deal with Disney
From Branislav Pekic in RomeTelecom Italia has signed an agreement with Disney-ABC International Television, a division of The Walt Disney Company, for the distribution of a selection of movies produced by the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films studios, on its IPTV service, Alice Home TV.
As a result of the deal, Alice Home TV subscribers will be able to receive in "on demand" mode a wide variety of action movies and cartoons from the Walt Disney library. The agreement also foresees the cooperation between Disney-ABC and Telecom Italia in the battle against piracy of Disney-ABC International Television content.
From June, Alice Home TV is also adding free-to-air national and local digital terrestrial TV channels to its programme offer. All subscribers of the IPTV service will soon receive a new decoder with an integrated DTT tuner, necessary to receive the new channels. However it will not be possible to receive encrypted DTT channels that transmit events in PPV, nor teletext and interactive services.
Back to top
DirecTV's has added nearly a dozen more HD channels just in time for the summer season. Hoping to stay on track with its "100 high-definition channels by year's end" goal it unveiled plans this week to launch four Discovery HD channels, five HD channels from Starz and CNBC and Chiller in HD.
Under terms of the agreement with Discovery, DIRECTV will launch four simulcasts - Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and The Science Channel - and two other channels yet to be named (or launched) by Discovery sometime in the near future. The HD feeds of the four existing networks will launch in September, DIRECTV said.
Terms of the deal with Starz include the launch of three new HD movie channels: Starz Edge, Starz Comedy and Starz Kids & Family, as well as Starz's East and West coast HD feeds. The new Starz HD channels, which the company said will feature first-run movies, and the coastal HD feeds will also launch in September.
Back to top
Narrowstep, Telefonica partner
Narrowstep announces a partnership with Telefonica to provide their proprietary technology, telvOS, to deliver top of the market TV over IP channels. Telefonica, the third largest telco in the world, has been trailing two broadband TV channels, Terra TV Spain and Terra TV Peruand early results indicate the broadband channels have been experiencing massive success says Narrowstep.
The broadband TV offerings are the fastest growing features on the portals with Terra TV Spain attracting more than 300,000 unique viewers in March this year and click through rates consistently measuring higher than any other offering on the portal. Terra TV Peru is also attracting thousands of unique viewers and is converting 10 percent of its portal visitors to TV viewers. Terra, the internet arm of Telefonica, operates some of the most popular websites throughout the U.S., Spain and Latin America targeting Spanish and Portuguese speaking customers. Terra TV delivers content across a number of content categories including entertainment, music, local and worldwide news, business, and health.
David C. McCourt, Chairman and CEO of Narrowstep Inc., says, "Working with one of the largest telecom companies in the world to deliver an internet video offering has been a great experience for Narrowstep. Their success in this medium validates our long-term vision for how entertainment will be delivered to consumers and also demonstrates the flexibility of Narrowstep's technology to help customers best achieve their business objectives."
Back to top
After the launch of Bluewin TV and the purchase of holdings in multimedia companies as part of a move to strengthen its position in the fields of media and entertainment, Swisscom is now acquiring a 35 per cent stake in the video-on-demand specialist Transmedia.
Swisscom's 35 per cent participation in Transmedia follows on from its capital shareholdings in the online TV service kyte.tv and the software developer for virtual camera settings, LiberoVision, and will further strengthen the Group's innovative capabilities. Transmedia is a leading enterprise in the video-on-demand (VoD) market. VoD frees consumers from time constraints by allowing them to determine their viewing times themselves, whether on the Internet, digital television (IPTV) or other technical transmission media. Transmedia acquires content and makes it accessible to digital TV operators or Internet service providers via a virtual library.
As an agency, Transmedia supplies individual VoD titles to digital television providers. It also offers its own VoD channel for live concerts (i-concerts) including top international hits on demand as well as live performances by local artists. Transmedia distributes i-concerts to international telecoms companies and cable operators such as Free, Telenet, Club Internet or BT Vision; until now the channel has not been available in Switzerland.
Back to top
Nagravision announced that Suzhou Digital Television Company has selected Nagravision latest conditional access for the launch and transition of the digital cable TV services from analogue for its subscribers in Suzhou. By adopting Nagravision's technology, Suzhou digital programming package will expand to more than 200 channels from its current offering of 50 analogue channels. Nagravision’s leading digital technology will support Suzhou Digital Television’s business and security needs enabling the company to launch more advanced business models and services on a secure and flexible platform.
Back to top
Thursday 24th May
Joost enlists CAA
Viacom heads to India
C4 on block?
SMG mobile TV
CBS buys Wallstrip
Spain's DTT to reach 85% coverage
XM fixed
Taiwan NCC allows IPTV and voice on cable
Satellite football for Africa
BT enhance Sony PSP
Free to air mobile network
Airey to ITV
Irdeto and SafeNet mobile TV protection
Thomson two million cable converter
Joost enlists CAAJoost says talent scouts Creative Artists Agency (CAA) will help it lure big-name Hollywood programming to its service. "CAA will provide Joost greater access to programming through our relationships with networks, studios, record labels, artists and independently-controlled content libraries," Michael Yanover, head of business development at CAA, said.
Earlier this month Joost received around $45 million (E33m) from five backers. One investor is Viacom which has agreed to supply Joost with programmes from MTV Networks, BET Networks and its film studio, Paramount Pictures.
Back to top
Viacom and India's TV18 Group are forming a joint venture for general entertainment business in India and proposes to launch a Hindi-language channel within a year. Viacom will also inject its existing channels in India – MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 – into the venture, called Viacom-18. Its Indian partner will inject its motion pictures division. "India is one of our priority markets for expansion and we see long-term growth opportunities," said Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman.
India, the world's third-largest pay TV market, is set to become the top pay television market in Asia-Pacific by 2015, research firm Media Partners Asia said in a report last month. Indian pay TV revenue from advertising and subscription, which grew 17 per cent in 2006 to $4.2 billion (E3,1bn), is expected to more than double to $10 billion by 2011, MPA estimates.
Back to top
UK Treasury officials are considering a £1 billion (E1.44bn) sale of Channel 4 as revenue raisng otptions are considered in the run up to Gordon Brown's premiereship.
The Labour Party has a manifesto commitment to keeping Channel 4 in public ownership, but advisers to Brown are said to be weighing the political and economic arguments for privatisation according to the Times.
Shanghai Media Group is expected to imminently launch the country's first TV service broadcast directly to mobile phones.The company is readying itself for China's eventual rollout of third-generation wireless services - expected ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Dragon New Media, a unit of SMG, has formed partnerships with China Mobile Group and China Unicom Group, the country's two wireless carriers, to focus on mobile TV services. Other investors in Shanghai-based Dragon New Media Co. include a foreign venture capital fund and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Co., which operates the city's Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
SMG and larger rival China Central Television (CCTV) have both won nationwide mobile TV permits.
Back to top
CBS buys WallstripCBS has bought Wallstrip, an online company whose Web site mixes finance with humour, to add to its daily financial news Web broadcast. Wallstrip, which also produces blogs about financial news, will retain a separate identity, CBS said.
The acquisition will increase the original Internet video offerings produced by CBS’s interactive unit. CBS has agreements with more than 10 companies, including AOL and YouTube, to distribute its shows online.
Spain's DTT to reach 85% coverage
From David Del Valle in MadridThe coverage of DTT in Spain will reach 85 per cent of the country over the next months, in accordance with the present legislation.
DTT operators are legally obliged to extend the DTT coverage from the current 80 per cent and reach 96 per cent in the case of private TVs and 98 per cent concerning public TV networks in 2010, the analogue switch-off deadline.
DTT operators are increasingly launching new added-value services allowing users to do their income tax or even in the future arrange a meeting with the doctor.
Back to top
XM fixedAfter several hours of service outages XM Satellite Radio said that its nationwide radio service had returned to normal operational condition after a software glitch. XM said the problem started during the loading of software to the broadcast system, which resulted in temporary signal failure from the XM-3 satellite.
Back to top
Taiwan NCC allows IPTV and voice on cableTaiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) has announced that it will amend fixed-network telecommunication regulations to include the operation of multimedia platforms, which will allow existing cable TV operators to operate IPTV and local voice communications through their cable TV networks.
According to the amendment, a qualified cable TV operator can either run an independent multimedia platform open to outside providers of digital audio/video and data services and operators of programme channels or run a platform to deliver contents produced by itself and/or partners. The basic requirement of the operator is the establishment of a minimum of 400,000 subscribers, with infrastructure connecting at least to curbs or buildings.
GTV, UK-based television company, is planning to capitalise on the huge popularity in Africa of the Premier League when it launches its "affordable" pay television package next month. For about $35 (E25) a month, subscribers will receive 16 channels, including a dedicated football channel showing eight Premiership games and six Italian Serie A games every weekend.
The company is hoping to gain a major foothold in a continent where satellite television is still the preserve of the elite and of bar owners who can recoup their costs by charging customers to watch football. While there are an estimated 46m colour televisions in sub-Saharan Africa, less than 1 per cent of owners subscribe to pay TV.
Back to top
BT enhance Sony PSPBT and Sony have signed a deal to transform the PlayStation Portable (PSP) gaming device by adding wireless broadband communications functions, including high quality handheld video calls, voice calls and messaging.
The companies have signed a four-year contract to develop a raft of extra features for the PSP, which has already shipped over eight million units in Europe and 24 million globally. BT and Sony will initially promote the offer in the UK.
Yamgo, extreme sports mobile TV company, has signed a technology partnership with Tom Horn, a software development company, enabling Yamgo to launch a global cross-platform mobile video sharing service and what it says is the world’s first free-to-view mobile TV network. The service offers users a fully interactive video sharing community on the Internet via www.yamgo.tv and on any video-enabled mobile device, on any mobile phone network with WAP access, anywhere in the world.
Back to top
Airey to ITVFormer BSkyB head of channels Dawn Airey is set to join ITV to oversee its UK and international production businesses. Due to non-competes in her Sky contract,lshe will not begin her new role for several months. The former Five CEO left BSkyB in March to join ill-fated media start-up lostar.
Back to top
Irdeto and SafeNet mobile TV protectionSafeNet, provider of information security, and Irdeto have confirmed their partnership in mobile TV protection. The resulting joint solution unites two normally competing technologies: conditional access and digital rights management (DRM) to reduce risk and uncertainty for broadcasters and operators, and enable mobile TV to reach its potential.
Back to top
Thomson two million cable converter
Thomson has announced at Anga the sale of its two millionth cable converter. Thomson is marking the milestone with the launch in the converter product line of the DCI1100, a new generation digital cable decoder with broadband connectivity.
Situated in the entry-level decoder category, cable converters are an ideal solution for large-scale digital transition deployments such as those taking place in countries like Germany, China and India. Thomson says the latest product in this category, the DCI1100 is a cost-effective digital cable decoder with built-in broadband connectivity for interactive services via Ethernet or an external modem.
Back to top
Wednesday 23rd May
Blinkx on AIM
Unity Media chief calls for broadcaster action
Subscription fee for Sky Plus dropped
XM dark patches
Jupiter content rationalisation for Liberty
Sky expands HD services
Exterity and Splicecom IP telephony
Casema selects SA
Minerva and ADB STB
Blinkx, the video search engine, has floated on the UK’s secondary market AIM, with shares prices going on at 45p rising quickly to 64p. The company said that 56.4m shares had been placed, giving a market capitalisation of £125m (E181m).
"We are clearly delighted that the initial interest in Blinkx has been converted into strong demand, with the placing being strongly oversubscribed and pricing at the top end of the range," said Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx. "With over 13m indexed hours of video content from thousands of diverse sources, including content from over 130 content partners, Blinkx is, by our estimates, well positioned as the world's largest video search engine in terms of indexed hours of content."
Back to top
Unity Media chief calls for broadcaster action
From Colin Mann in CologneParm Sandhu, CEO of German cable MSO Unity Media, has called on the country’s broadcasters and content providers to play an active role in ensuring that digitisation of broadcast networks is consumer-driven.
Addressing delegates at the ANGA Cable convention, as well as fellow CEO panellists, Sandhu said that digitisation would only succeed if there was added value. "It won’t work if we just slap on five or ten Euros on to the monthly fee," he suggested. He added that commercial broadcasters needed to take a certain amount of responsibility for innovation. "More investment is needed, and the debate should be focused on broadcasters and content."
He accepted that closer relationships were needed between network operators and content providers, and defended the cable industry’s role in acquiring the rights to live Bundesliga football action. "Things were stale, nothing was happening."
Meanwhile it has been announced the ish, iesy and TeleColumbus West will all become known as Unity Media.
Back to top
Subscription fee for Sky Plus droppedBSkyB is planning to drop the monthly subscription charge for its Sky Plus DVR. Since it launched the service in 2001 more than 2 million customers have signed up.
The broadcaster had already waived the £10-a-month (E14.6) subscription fee for those who take its premium sport or movie channels. Now it is preparing to drop the subscription for all its 8.49 million customers from July 1, although it will still charge an initial £99 to upgrade to the Sky Plus set-top box.
Sky's strategy is to increase the number of reasons for subscribers to stay with it in the face of heightened competition from Virgin Media, BT Vision and others. Sky's move will be seen as an attempt to head off the potential threat of FreeSat, a free-to-air satellite version of Freeview backed by BBC and ITV that will belatedly launch next spring.
Back to top
XM dark patchesXM Satellite Radio's XM-3 satellite experienced some type of in-orbit difficulty on Monday that caused service outages for an unknown amount of customers. In order for the problem to be fixed, XM had to perform a software upgrade on the satellite, which required the unit to be re-oriented to be corrected.
XM is said to believe the issue is resolved and that the satellite should be broadcasting again soon. The analyst said that until XM-3 is back up and running, "there exists a very low probability of a very large problem."
Back to top
Jupiter content rationalisation for LibertyLiberty Global announced that it has reached an agreement with Sumitomo Corporation on a series of transactions intended to rationalize the parties’ interests in Jupiter TV, a 50/50 joint venture which owns 70 per cent of Jupiter Shop Channel Co., Ltd ("Shop Channel") and varying stakes in 19 thematic programming channels in the Japanese market, including three channels in high definition format.
Following a restructuring of Jupiter TV’s assets into two companies, Liberty Global has agreed to exchange its indirect interest in Shop Channel for ¥105 billion (approximately $867m or E644m at current exchange rates) in Sumitomo shares. This represents an enterprise value for Shop Channel of approximately 12.5 times Shop Channel’s 2006 operating cash flow as of December 2006.
The company holding Jupiter TV’s thematic programming channels business will then merge into Jupiter Telecommunications with Liberty Global and Sumitomo collectively receiving approximately ¥52.5 billion in J:COM shares. Liberty Global will receive J:COM stock valued at approximately $217 million and thereby increase its consolidated ownership position in J:COM from 36.5 per cent to 37.5 per cent.
Liberty also revealed it has secured $700m of lending secured on its J:COM stake.
Back to top
To mark Sky HD’s first birthday, the company has announced that a wider choice of TV drama, sport and movies is to be made available in high definition. Almost 250,000 people have signed up in ten months. In addition to the company’s original commissions, by Christmas 2008 around two thirds of all prime-time shows on Sky One will be available in HD, nearly double the HD shows that will be available at Christmas 2007.
Back to top
Exterity and Splicecom IP telephony
SpliceCom, the IP convergence company have confirmed a joint development agreement with Exterity, a provider of network IPTV. Under the terms of the partnership the two companies will work closely together to enable the distribution of live TV and video via SpliceCom’s PCS 410, a next generation IP Phone with no physical keys and a large full-colour touch screen.
"We’ve long held the view that IP screen phones would be a perfect desktop delivery vehicle for IPTV and video feeds," says Colin Farquhar, CEO at Exterity. "It’s somewhat ironic that as the only PBX vendor with IP Phones currently capable of achieving this, SpliceCom is also the company that’s closest to us; in terms of geography, focus and innovation. By working together we’ll widen the appeal and take-up of IPTV and IPVideo by making it more accessible."
SpliceCom expect PCS 410s supporting IP TV and IP Video fed from the existing Exterity product range to be available by mid-2007.
Back to top
Casema selects SADigital content company Scientific Atlanta has revealed that Dutch cable operator Casema has selected the Explorer 8455DVB high-definition television personal video recorder set-top for the expansion of digital interactive video services in the Netherlands.
Back to top
Minerva and ADB STBMinerva Networks, provider of open IPTV delivery, and Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), launched the Minerva’s iTVManager IPTV services management platform and ADB’s new ADB-3800W high definition (HD) IPTV set-top box. This solution will enable telcos to deliver television services to their subscribers using standard definition (SD), HD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats.
Back to top
Tuesday 22nd May
Virgin, BSkyB don’t give peace a chance
Sky basics for Tiscali?
UK TV spend down
DVRs dent US advertising market
1.8m pay-TV subscribers in Portugal
DirecTV sues Comcast over advertisements
C4 radio on Second Life
MTG launches Viasat OnDemand
Gravity participation TV
ADB and Latens STB integration
Virgin, BSkyB don’t give peace a chance
Sky has released correspondence showing it offered to ‘split the difference’ between itself and Virgin Media on the new level of carriage fees for basic channels (Sky had tried to double them). But Steve Burch, Virgin CEO, turned down the offer, accusing Sky of withdrawing its channels from the cable platform after demanding "an extreme and anti-competitive price". He said Sky's proposed reduction in the amount it would charge "does not make it fair or lawful nor does it promote good faith discussions".
The move tends to confirm Sky may feel it’s overplayed its hard-ball commercial hand as it now faces regulatory inquiries into both its ITV shareholding and the whole UK pay-TV market. The price cut offer shows it never was wholly about the fee level.
Virgin, however, while doubtless pleased at Sky’s political discomfort, is suffering real economic damage confirmed by poor quarterly figures and forecasts of worse to come.
Click to read James Murdoch’s letters
Back to top
Sky basics for Tiscali?BSkyB is understood to be preparing to let Tiscali’s UK broadband TV service take the Sky basic channels that have been removed from Virgin Media, reports The Times (which is owned by Sky major shareholder News Corp). Tiscali has 1.48m broadband customers in the UK.
Money spent on TV adverts fell last year for the first time since 2001, according to new research. TV advertising spend declined 4.7 per cent from 2005 levels to £4.59bn (E6.55bn). Meanwhile spending on internet adverts topped 10 per cent of the total for the first time.
"I believe online spend could overtake TV within the next three to four years," said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau, the trade association for the internet marketing industry.
Back to top
DVRs dent US advertising market
American television broadcasters are struggling to persuade advertisers to pay up for commercial slots in the coming autumn season amid confusion over exactly how many viewers actually watch the adverts reports US press.
This year's "upfronts" were dominated by how DVRs and the Internet are undermining the value of prime television ad slots. Industry watchers predict advertisers will spend less money during the upfront season again this year, the third year of decline. Last spring, just below $9bn was spent securing slots for the autumn television season, with many advertisers deciding to wait until nearer the time.
An estimated 17 per cent of American households now have DVRs.
Back to top
1.8m pay-TV subscribers in Portugal
From Branislav Pekic in RomeAt the end of the first quarter of this year there were 1.881 million clients of pay-TV services in Portugal (cable and DTH), corresponding to a 18 per cent penetration rate. According to national telecom regulator Anacom, pay-TV services distributed via cable had 1.4 million subscribers, up 2.1 per cent on March 2006. In the period, the Northern region of Portugal registered the biggest growth in cable TV subscribers with 3.1 per cent. At the end of March, TV Cabo’s DTH service had 444,000 clients, a 13.7 per cent growth on the same period in 2006 and 2 per cent more than at the end of 2006.
An estimated 60,000 new subscribers were added during the first quarter of 2007, a 1.5 per cent increase on the previous quarter. As a result, claims Anacom, the number of cabled homes by all operators surprassed four million.
DirecTV sues Comcast over advertisements
DirecTV, has filed a lawsuit against Comcast for alleged misrepresentation in an advertisement where Comcast claims its picture quality to be superior. DirecTV only had its own advertisements pulled in February when it claimed that its broadcasting was superior in quality to what cable companies offered. Time Warner Cable had sued DirecTV for the claims.
The most recent advertisement from Comcast cites a survey from Frank N. Magid Associates which showed Comcast was preferred over DirecTV with regard to picture quality. "The Magid survey upon which Comcast relies does not provide or sufficiently substantiate the propositions for which Comcast cites the survey. Comcast's advertising and promotional claims, including the aforementioned, are literally false," DirecTV's lawsuit alleges.
Back to top
Channel 4 Radio becomes the first UK radio station to launch a permanent presence in Second Life. Channel 4 Radio's launch into the 6.2m-strong virtual population of Second Life will allow visitors to pick up their own free virtual Channel 4 Radio watch. This will enable them to be teleported to Channel 4 Radio's new island at any time and access Channel 4 Radio wherever they are in Second Life.
"Channel 4 Radio's launch in to Second Life demonstrates our commitment to innovation from the groundbreaking content we strive to deliver for our listeners to the way in which we reach new audiences through new technology and new platforms," Nathalie Schwarz, Channel 4's Director of Radio said.
Back to top
MTG launches Viasat OnDemandModern Times Group (MTG) group has announced that Viasat Broadcasting has launched a new pan-Scandinavian dedicated online video streaming site. Viasat OnDemand will provide streaming of feature films, live sports events such as the UEFA Champions League and ‘Euro 2008’ football championship qualifying games, TV series and own-produced content from Viasat’s portfolio of channels.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: "The launch of Viasat OnDemand is in line with our strategy of offering customers our content and channels on a flexible ‘Anytime, Anywhere’ basis."
Back to top
Gravity participation TVGravity Ventures has launched a 3G-to-TV live video calling solution which will enabling Australian television viewers to potentially become part of the show.
By making a standard video call from any 3G mobile phone, viewers can interact with, and participate in participation TV. They say it offers production companies and television broadcasters new forms of competition services, talkback TV and news services; allowing anyone with a 3G mobile phone to potentially become a game show contestant or roving reporter. It also opens up new revenue streams including mobile advertising.
Back to top
ADB and Latens STB integrationLatens, European provider of software security solutions for pay-TV and IPTV, and ADB, supplier of digital TV systems and software solutions for interactive television, have integrated Latens CA systems with ADB set-top boxes. The integration of Latens CAS, Latens FCAS and Latens IPCAS with ADB’s 3800 and 5800 advanced set-top box ranges has been carried out to widen IPTV and cable operators’ choice and provide increased flexibility and functionality.
Back to top
Monday 21st May
Cable & Wireless Virgin agreement
Portugal focus on DTT at home and in Europe
Tiscali interested in Pipex
Life for Channel 4
AT&T Ready for EchoStar?
Ovum: Advertisers underestimate networking sites
Canadian TV rule changes
Spain's Cuatro relies on Internet to sell TV production
Microsoft to acquire aQuantive
MyCorner mobile networking site
Cable & Wireless Virgin agreement
Cable & Wireless has made a four-year agreement with Virgin Media to become its exclusive unbundled local loop (LLU) network provider on a wholesale basis until 2011.
With its LLU footprint giving access to around 4 million additional homes, Cable & Wireless will supply wholesale broadband services to support Virgin Media's existing off net customers as well as new customers. Virgin Media will be able to offer broadband, phone and television service to parts of the country not currently served by its cable network.
Back to top
Portugal focus on DTT at home and in Europe
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe introduction of DTT in Portugal will be put up for public consultation during August, according to the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Works, Transport and Communications, Paulo Campos.
Campos said that the Portuguese Government has already received the opinions from the body that regulates Social Communications (ERC) and the Competition Authority (AdC), while the opinion of the telecom regulator (Anacom) is expected in the coming days. In its opinion on the introduction of DTT, the AdC warned Anacom of the problem of concentration of telecommunications networks in Portugal, namely the fact that Portugal Telecom owns both the copper and cable networks. After the public consultation process is completed and the two ministers issue a ruling, the tender that will award DTT licenses will be launched.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Public Works and Communications, Mário Lino, underlined that DTT will be one of the priorities in the telecommunications sector for Portugal during its presidency of EU in the second half of this year. "We need to define what we will do with the group of frequencies that will be freed up with the passage from analogue to digital television", he said.
Broadband service provider Tiscali has emerged as a potential bidder for the broadband rival Pipex after Massimo Cristofori, the Italian company's chief financial officer, revealed that it is in early-stage talks with its UK competitor.
Pipex has about 570,000 broadband customers, making it the UK's sixth-largest broadband provider. However, the company also has a significant internet hosting business that has deterred some potential bidders, with BT and Carphone Warehouse said to have pulled out of the bidding as a result.
Back to top
Life for Channel 4Channel 4 is close to a deal to buy niche broadcaster Life TV Media, allowing it to establish a six-strong block of channels on Sky’s electronic programme guide. Life broadcasts on channels 137-139, immediately above E4, E4+1 and More4, and a deal could allow C4 to launch new channels and reshuffle its offering without buying new slots directly from Sky.
AT&T has been selling both EchoStar's DISH Network and DIRECTV satellite TV but according to its CFO, the days of selling both services will be coming to an end - prompting press in the US to speculate the telco will make a move on one of the DBS providers.
AT&T chief financial officer Richard Lindner said the company would "migrate to one provider" for satellite TV service by "the end of this year." Lindner didn't say that AT&T was ready to buy one of the satellite TV companies, but he did say it would choose one over the other to sell as a third party service.
Back to top
Ovum: Advertisers underestimate networking sitesAdvertisers are failing to realise the potential of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, states a report conducted by Ovum.
Ovum says: "A lot of advertisers are not fully exploiting social networks. It's a bit of a two-edged sword and they are treading quite warily. The reason they are such a potentially powerful advertising tool is that they engage their users on a much deeper level."Most advertising on social networking sites is banner advertising, but Ovum says advertisers could use the medium better by becoming part of the community themselves. On MySpace, some advertisers have their own profile pages and send requests to other users to include them in their circle of 'friends'. If the advertiser provides content that users will want to share with their friends, such as pop videos, they can effectively recruit end-users to disseminate advertising on their behalf.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has introduced changes to the way it regulates conventional television broadcasters. The measures intend to ensure Canadians have access to digital and high-definition television programming, and that broadcasters continue to contribute to the production, acquisition and broadcast of high-quality Canadian programming.
Notably, the Commission has decided to remove restrictions on advertising time limits after gradually increasing the amount of advertising allowed; Establish August 31, 2011, as the date by which television licensees will only broadcast digital signals; and deny a subscriber fee for the carriage of local conventional television stations on cable and satellite as its necessity has not been demonstrated.
"These changes reflect our approach of developing lighter and more targeted regulation to achieve the objectives of the Broadcasting Act," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC.
Back to top
Spain's Cuatro relies on Internet to sell TV production
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Sogecable-owned commercial TV network Cuatro has launched a web site in both English and Spanish to sell its in-house TV contents. With this new initiative the network is seeking to raise its revenues through the Internet following its recent agreement with YouTube to launch its own channel.
Over the last two months, two of its TV series "Genesis" and "Cuenta Atras" have been acquired by French channels M6 and TF1, respectively. The first production has also been bought by International Distribution company Bavaria to distribute throughout the world.
Back to top
Microsoft to acquire aQuantiveMicrosoft has confirmed it will acquire digital marketing group aQuantive for $6bn in an all-cash transaction. Microsoft says this deal expands upon the Company’s previously outlined vision to provide the advertising industry with a world class, Internet-wide advertising platform, as well as a set of tools and services that help its constituents generate the highest possible return on their advertising investments.
MyCorner mobile networking site
Back to top
MyCorner, a mobile video service, has launched the its mobile video user generated content and social networking service. The MyCorner service is supported by adverts, requires no client download and works on most phones on most wireless networks worldwide. It offers a free service for users that enables them to upload and interact with videos on their mobile phone. It also enables users to upload videos from phone and PC, watch, rate and comment via their mobile phone and share them with others instantaneously.
