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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 25th May 2006
BT nets FAPL win
Studios sue Cablevision over network PVR
MPAA hires hacker?
TiVo losses widen
XM trims subs forecast
Bertelsmann will buy out GBL
Sky: first ad free music
Orange free broadband
US $1.4bn on games
Universal comedy for mobile
BT nets FAPL win
BT has won the rights to carry 242 ‘near-live’ FA Premier League football matches per season. The three year deal covers the 2007-8, 2008-9 and 2009-10 seasons. BT has acquired the rights in a joint bid with BSkyB.
This means fans will, for the first time, be able to watch full Premiership matches on their televisions on a pay per view basis - without the need for an upfront television subscription. The matches will be offered via BT Vision, the telco’s ‘IPTV service scheduled for launch in Autumn 2006.
BT Vision customers will have access to a range of Premiership matches, on demand. The matches will generally be available from 10 pm on kick-off day for a period of fifty hours, allowing fans flexibility in terms of when they want to watch the game.
Dan Marks, CEO of BT Vision, said: “We’re delighted to have won this bid. This is a landmark moment for sports viewing in the UK as BT Vision customers will have great control, convenience and choice over the games they want to watch without the need for an upfront subscription.”
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Studios sue Cablevision over network PVR
Looking for a precedent creating verdict, seven leading movie and television producers have filed a lawsuit in New York against Cablevision Systems challenging the operator's plan to enable viewers to store and pause TV programmes via the network rather than on set-top boxes, claiming the system breaks copyright laws.
Cablevision believes it will be far less expensive to build PVR capability into the network rather than provide hundreds of thousands of households with individual recorders. The producers charge in their lawsuit that Cablevision's plan would "exploit" their programming "in a manner that violates the law." The lawsuit, which has been expected since Cablevision announced its plans, asks the court for a judgment declaring that Cablevision's plan would violate copyright law.
The plaintiffs include Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Paramoount, Walt Disney, CBS Broadcasting, NBC Studios Inc., Disney's ABC Network, and Universal Studios. Cablevision said the lawsuit was without merit and reflects a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the company's plan. The suit "ignores the enormous benefit and well-established right of viewers to time-shift television programming."
Cablevision's plans have been closely watched by other cable operators, attracted by the potential cost savings of network PVRs. Time Warner cable studied such a plan a few years ago but shelved it after executives concluded that there were too many copyright hurdles. Operators have said they would follow Cablevision's lead if it survives court challenges.
Cablevision contend their plan wouldn't infringe copyrights because the technology they are considering is different from prior plans; rather than recording all content automatically on a centralized device, the company would create individualized storage within the network for each subscriber that paid for the service. The customers would fill up that storage, recording and erasing at will. In that sense, Cablevision executives have argued, it would be no different from distributing digital-video recorders.
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The Motion Picture Association of America is alleged to have hired a hacker to glean information from a company that the MPAA has accused of helping copyright violators. So says a lawsuit filed in California by Torrentspy.com parent Valence Media. The suit says the man, a former associate of one of the plaintiffs, was asked to retrieve private information on Torrentspy.com, a search engine that directs users to download links.
The allegations come three months after the MPAA filed suit against Torrentspy and other Torrent directories for allegedly making it easier for pirates to distribute movies over the Internet.
"These claims (by Torrentspy) are false," Kori Bernards, the MPAA's vice president of corporate communications, told CNET News.com. "Torrentspy is trying to obscure the facts to hide the fact that they are facilitating thievery. We are confident that our lawsuit against them will be successful because the law is on our side."
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TiVo losses widen
TiVo posted a wider quarterly loss due to litigation costs, stock option expenses and lower pricing for its television-recording technology. The net loss was $10.7 million, compared with $857,000 a year ago. Revenue rose to $56.5 million from $46.9 million in last year's first quarter. Revenue in the quarter reported included $7.2 million related to Comcast development.
TiVo forecast second-quarter service and technology revenues of between $50 million and $53 million and a second- quarter net loss of $12 million to $15 million. TiVo-owned gross subscriber additions were 91,000 in the first quarter, compared with gross additions of 104,000 for the year-ago quarter. Total subscriptions as of April 30 were more than 4.4 million, a 33 percent increase over last year.
TiVo said it netted 51,000 owned customers during the first quarter. The company also signed up 2,000 DirecTV customers with TiVo service, a significant decline when compared to the 247,000 net additions the DVR pioneer picked up during the same three-month period in 2005. DirecTV has been selling its own DVR product.
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XM trims subs forecast
XM Satellite Radio Holdings trimmed its 2006 subscriber forecast, citing a slump in demand and the slow rollout of new products. XM said it now expects to end the year with 8.5 million users. It had previously forecast 9 million.
"Although XM has regained retail market share since the first of the year, the satellite radio category has seen an overall softness at retail during the second quarter to date, and we have been later than anticipated with broad availability of our new products," XM chief executive Hugh Panero said in a statement. Rival Sirius is sticking by its previous forecasts.
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Bertelsmann will buy out GBL
Bertelsmann confirmed plans to sell its BMG music publishing division in order to buy back the 25 per cent group stake held by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, for E4.5bn. Until a buyer is found, the privately-owned German media giant said it will finance the deal with a bridging loan.
The announcement was made jointly with the Mohn family, which has a controlling stake in Bertelsmann, and GBL. “The executive board and the majority shareholder are convinced that the share buy-back is the best option to secure the continuity and the successful development of the company on the basis of our corporate culture of partnership,” said Gunter Thielen, chairman.
GBL had said it planned to float all or part of his 25 per cent stake.
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Sky: first ad free music
Sky is to launch Britain's first music television channel that does not carry advertisements - funded by the voice of Crazy Frog. The Irish-owned channel, called Bubble Hits, will start in August and generate all its revenue from sponsorship and other services, including texting for "prizes you can't buy" competitions.The channel will also launch a dedicated text service built on a database of viewers and their musical tastes. The channel's founders, 23-year-old James Hyland and 22-year-old Lee Walsh, insist Bubble Hits will occupy a unique place in a marketplace where many ads for the 40 or so digital music channels are often aired at roughly the same time. Hyland's business, Creative Sound, is the global voiceover agency for the Crazy Frog advertisements.
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Orange free broadband
Orange is poised to join the "free" broadband revolution as the mobile phone company officially merges with fellow France Telecom unit ISP Wanadoo. To try to stop Wanadoo's existing one million broadband and one million dial-up internet-access customers deserting, Orange plans to offer "free" broadband to customers who also take a mobile phone contract. They will also get a bundle of cheap fixed-line calls, including free calls to other Orange customers.
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US $1.4bn on games
U.S. spending on video games for PCs hit $1.4 billion in 2005, according to NPD Group research. Online subscriptions to PC games and gaming Web sites accounted for about $344 million of those annual sales. Faster Internet connections are making it easier for consumers to play games online and to download game content that had once only been available in stores, said NPD, which last year began tracking online subscriptions.
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Universal comedy for mobile
Universal Pictures UK announced a digital mobile content launch, offering consumers access to video clips of the UK’s biggest names in live comedy via mobile phone. The service is live to Vodafone and Orange customers in the United Kingdom, extending in the coming weeks to all other UK mobile service providers including, O2, T-Mobile, Virgin, 3 networks and Universal’s own off-portal sites.The range of content available to download includes clips from live shows of Lee Evans, Ricky Gervais, Bill Bailey and Roy Chubby Brown. The service is compatible with all 2.5G and 3G mobile handsets in the UK.
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Setanta confirms Freeview and seeks funds
Alcatel, Microsoft, HP triple play pact
Ofcom expands wireless opportunities
Telephia mobile TV panel
Disney online games for China
HD DVRs gain traction
ITV Disposes of Seven Network stake
Micronas launches MicRacer
OpenTV gaming gains
Arris lead Euro partnership
New CEO for Proxilliant
Setanta confirms Freeview and seeks funds
Setanta has confirmed it will screen live Premier League matches on Freeview and on broadband internet as well as cable and satellite. Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan, founders and joint chief executives of Setanta also revealed it has hired JP Morgan to lead a fresh round of fundraising for the company, which is 40% owned by venture capital firm Benchmark.
The pair said their deal to pay £392m (E568m) over three years for 46 games a season was less than they budgeted for. "It's a natural step. It's a very big step but it's not as though we're doing something we've never done before," Ryan told the Guardian. Setanta’s contract, which runs for three years from the start of the 2007/08 season, gives Setanta 46 matches a year, BSkyB paid £1.31bn for the remaining 92 games in each season.
The company said its package of seven sports channels, which also show live Scottish Premier League games, top French, German and Dutch football and a string of North American sports, would remain priced at about £14 to £15 a month when the Premiership deal began. At present on air only at weekends, Setanta will go 24 hours from July. It has about 150,000 subscribers and Mr O'Rourke said it needed to rise to "less than a million" to break even on the Premiership deal.
It is likely to offer a "best of" channel on the Freeview service, which is in 6m households, featuring live games from the English Premiership and Scottish Premier League. It could also put together a broadband offering available through new internet TV services such as BT Vision. Mr O'Rourke said that the channel would target three main customer types: sports fanatics who did not want to miss a single game, those who wanted to watch some live football but did not want to pay for a full Sky package and Freeview homes not served by Sky Sports.
Trevor East, formerly of Sky Sports, will lead the search for a new production outfit and presenters.
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Alcatel, Microsoft, HP triple play pact
Alcatel and Microsoft announced the establishment of a global relationship with HP focused on the delivery of server solutions for carrier-class triple play/ IPTV deployments. This announcement, combined with the existing OEM agreement between HP and Alcatel, solidifies HP as a key member of the joint Alcatel-Microsoft IPTV ecosystem. As a result, HP, Alcatel and Microsoft will work together to deliver these advanced systems to carriers deploying triple play service offerings.
The optimization of HP's server solutions will include the ability to provide superior support for the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition within Alcatel's overall Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA). HP will validate and recommend the appropriate HP ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers to optimize the performance and scalability of Microsoft TV IPTV Edition applications.
In addition to providing optimized server solutions, the three companies will also establish joint global go-to-market efforts that will include sales and marketing activities. Alcatel will include specific bundled server solutions built with HP ProLiant and pre-integrated HP OpenView IT element management software in its end-to-end triple play offering.
"Alcatel and Microsoft are changing market perceptions about IPTV services, and HP is pleased to be extending its long-term relationships with both companies," said Peggy Dau, worldwide director, Broadband & Media Solutions, Network and Service Provider business at HP. "HP will leverage its combined experience in telecommunications, digital media and systems architecture to deliver a scalable and cost-effective solution that meets the demanding requirements of IPTV."
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Ofcom expands wireless opportunities
Ofcom has published proposals to increase the opportunities for broadband fixed wireless services, by opening the 71-76GHz and 81-86GHz bands for licensed use. At present these spectrum bands are not in commercial use. However, new technology offers the possibility of new applications for these higher frequency bands.
These applications could include very high capacity point to point wireless networks, which could potentially be used as alternatives to fibre optic cable. Possible data speeds range from 1Gb per second to 10Gb per second over distances of 1-2 km. Communications Act 2003 requires Ofcom to secure the optimal use of the spectrum and requires Ofcom to have regard to the extent to which the spectrum is available for use.
Ofcom proposes to adopt a flexible, light licensing approach to making this
spectrum available, it is proposing that the band should be licensed on a first come, first served basis, rather than auctioned, as the band’s unusual properties - high bandwidth, narrow beam - mean that a very large number of users could co-exist without interference. Demand for the spectrum is therefore very unlikely to exceed supply.
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Telephia, a leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry, announced the launch of the industry's first mobile television user panel. This longitudinal research panel will provide the mobile industry with detailed measurement of the attitudes and behaviours among mobile TV audience.
Telephia is currently building its panel in the U.S. and the U.K., and will expand coverage to the rest of Europe and parts of Asia in 2007. Telephia research shows that more than two million or 1.4 percent of the U.S. wireless user base subscribed to a mobile video plan during the first quarter of 2006. The average U.S. mobile TV subscriber spends $40 a month more on wireless services than non-TV subscribers, according to Telephia.
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Disney online games for China
Disney has gained a foothold in China's growing online-games market by striking a deal with Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. to create a game featuring Disney characters. Under the deal Shanda will develop, distribute and operate the online game, to be released next spring, which will target an unusually broad demographic that includes young children and women. The announcement comes amid continuing talks between Disney and the Chinese government over a potential Disney theme park in Shanghai and broadcast rights for a stand-alone Disney TV channel in China.
The Burbank, Calif., entertainment company has been asking for rights to broadcast on a stand-alone channel for years. Other foreign media companies, such as News Corp., have recently put parts of their China plans on hold after the government tightened regulations on foreign media.
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HD DVRs gain traction
IMS Research says it has observed a shift from standard definition DVRs to high definition DVRs, particularly in the US. IMS Research is estimating that HD DVRs made up 29% of the total worldwide shipments in 2005, and is forecasting this to grow to 54% by 2010.
In 2005, US shipments of HD DVRs were already estimated to represent 36% of all DVR shipments. Motorola, one of the largest suppliers of DVRs for the US market, only produces an HD DVR, and has since it rolled out its first DVR.
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ITV Disposes of Seven Network stake
ITV announces the sale of a 11.6% stake in Seven Network Limited, the Australian Media Company, for £87 million (E126m). This represents a further step in the disposal programme of non-core assets which has raised close to £400m in cash since the creation of ITV in 2004. ITV retains its strong interest in the Australian television production sector through its wholly-owned subsidiary Granada Productions Pty Limited.
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Micronas of Switzerland has launched MicRacer 1D-X, the world’s first PCI Express H.264 / VC-1 decoder reference design for the PC market. The solution allows OEMs to affordably offer H.264/AVC and VC-1 content consumption on desktop computers.
”By pairing our unique expertise in advanced video decoding and PCI Express, we’ve created an approach that extends the reach of home entertainment into the family PC by achieving the price and quality deltas needed to bring H.264 and VC-1 adoption on a standard PC into the mainstream,” said Kai Scheffer, Director Media Home at Micronas.
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OpenTV gaming gainsOpenTV will announce a multi-year deal with MC3 Global’s soon-to-be-launched UK-based 24-hour Gaming and Participation TV service, Play Platinum for its OpenTV Participate platform.
OpenTV Participate is a technology platform that lets programmers create and manage interactive services from any device. Play Platinum will be able to offer viewers competitions, quizzes, auctions, voting and games with participation with live or pre-recorded TV shows from any device including phones, mobile phones, PC and TV.
Play Platinum expects to broadcast programming such as virtual horse racing and numbers games, including Keno, to viewers on free-to-air satellite, broadband internet, and other distribution platforms across multiple regions including Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East.
OpenTV will be the core business management tool for Play Platinum handling all transactions in real-timeincluding registration, customer care and billing and reporting.
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ARRIS announced the establishment of an European Commission supported Framework for Partnership 6 (FP6) project – CODMUCA (COre Subsytem for Delivery of Multiband Data in CATV Networks) -- which will research the technology required to accelerate the deployment of very high speed broadband access over European Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) networks.
ARRIS’s European R&D Centre, Communications Ireland, Inc., is a leading EU-based developer of Euro-DOCSIS CMTS headend equipment and has been a strong contributor to European CableLabs initiatives. Its facility in Cork, Ireland is responsible for the Cadant C3 CMTS and Keystone D5 DMTS products.
The members of the CODMUCA project are: Liberty Global Europe Technology B.V. (Netherlands), Coditel S.P.R.L. (Belgium), Coditel S.A.R.L. (Luxembourg), EST Videocommunication S.A.S. (France), VECTOR sp.z o.o (Poland), Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland), Politechnika Warszawska (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland), ARRIS Communications (Ireland).
The CODMUCA research programs will accelerate development and deployment of cost-effective technology needed to bridge the gap between current Euro-DOCSIS 2.0 standards-based systems capable of delivering data at a maximum of 40 Mbps, and Euro-DOCSIS 3.0-based systems of the future -- which envision data delivery at speeds of up to one Gigabit per second.
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Proxilliant Systems Corp., which offers solutions essential to broadband service expansion and profitability of broadband cable networks, has announced the appointment of Sonia Khademi as Chief Executive Officer. Khademi is a veteran cable industry executive who first began working in the U.S. cable industry in 1983 as a Design Engineer for Data Transmission Devices, is the co-founder of two telecommunications companies over the past ten years—CableSoft Corporation and Sumatus.
“Proxilliant’s technology has a direct and vital impact on a cable network’s ultimate capacity, reliability, scalability, service quality and profitability,” said Khademi. “By enabling operators to prepare their networks for such real-time advanced services as VoIP and to cost-effectively scale capacity as demand grows, the company is particularly well-positioned for great success throughout the U.S. and international cable industry.”
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Sky HD delays
France Telecom launches Wanadoo TV in Spain
Danon takes Eircom private again
EuroCableLabs deal with tComLabs
Bertelsmann may avoid IPO
XM terminates WCS buy
BBC choses Arqiva for DTT
Experimental streaming channel
Irdeto CryptoWorks for Arena
Darty IPTV over Wi-Fi
Content Services for Intelsat
Sky has delayed the installation of HD in 17,000 homes because of delivery delays on Thomson set-top boxes. Many subscribers have been told they must wait several weeks for installation.
Anyone requesting installation on Monday, launch day, will be told that they must wait until early August, meaning they will miss the World Cup. But Sky said all customers whose installation date was changing were being offered a new date within three weeks of the original date.
"We're working hard to resolve the situation," said Sky. "Thousands of customers will have their HD box this week and many more will be installed in time for the start of the World Cup." Those who had ordered first would receive their equipment first, the company said, adding that the quantity of set-top boxes delivered to the company was expected to double in the next three weeks. Sky had previously said 40,000 advance orders were received in the first three weeks of bookings, which had opened on 13 April.
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France Telecom launches Wanadoo TV in Spain
From David Del Valle in MadridFrance Telecom España has launched its ADSL-based TV offer, Wanadoo TV that includes 40 TV channels, interactive services, EPG and a Video on Demand service.
Initially launched in Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza, Wanadoo TV will reach 1.6 million homes with plans to extend it to seven million homes by the end of the year. It will have to compete with other IPTV operators like Telefonica (250,000 subscribers), Superbanda and Jazztelia.
Wanadoo TV will not mean any extra cost for subscribers to Wanadoo ADSL with and national telephone calls who are currently paying E36 per month.
The programing line-up is comprised of, Deluxe Music, VH1, Teledeporte, Real Madrid TV, Fashion TV, Canal 24 Horas, EuroNews, Bloomberg, CNN, TV5, as well as all Spanish national and regional channels and all DTT existing channels. The company will offer a premium package for E11 (free over the next thee months) with channels Fox, AXN, Paramount Comedy, Cosmo TV, Showtime Extreme, MGM, TCM, Cine& Arte, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Super Ñ, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Natura, Discovery Channel, People &Arts and c MTV.
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Danon takes Eircom private again
Ireland’s dominant telco is set to be taken private for the second time in five years after a E2.36bn takeover offer led by Babcock & Brown, the Australian financial services company. B&BC and its associates already hold 28.8 per cent of Eircom.
Pierre Danon, a former head of retail at BT and former chief operating officer of CapGemini, is to become executive chairman. Danon said Eircom was more attractive and faster growing than many incumbent telecoms operators because of Ireland’s young population and expanding housing sector, and because the group had a strong position in mobile telephony and was just ramping up its broadband and IT services offerings.
The acquisition will cost the consortium E4.8bn, including debt and transaction costs, with the deal to be 80 per cent debt-financed.
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EuroCableLabs deal with tComLabs,
EuroCableLabs has made a deal with tComLabs by which it will provide certification testing for the EuroCableLabs Certification Board. The agreement solidifies the already strong relationship between EuroCableLabs and tComLabs.
Over the past five years tComLabs was closely involved in developing a testing regime for the EuroCableLabs Certification Board. The new agreement has the advantage of providing a clear contractual structure to the work already going on between the two groups, and to enhance potential future work between the two parties. “The agreement between EuroCableLabs and tComLabs is important to ensure the continuity of the services the EuroCableLabs Certification Board is providing to the cable industry. We look forward to continue working with tComLabs and to enjoy their support and excellence for our certification work going forward.” said Niels-Kristian Hersoug, Managing Director of EuroCableLabs.
The agreement between EuroCableLabs and tComLabs includes the continued testing in support of already in place and on-going certification work, including EuroDOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0, as well as Euro-PacketCable 1.0, 1.5, and EuroPacketCable Multimedia.
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Bertelsmann may avoid IPO
Germany’s Bertelsmann said that it might buy out minority shareholder, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, and avoid the need for an initial public offering. Under an earlier agreement, Groupe Bruxelles Lambert can formally request an initial public offering to realize its goal of selling its 25.1 percent stake in Bertelsmann.
Bertelsmann said it would "fulfill its contractual obligations and prepare the listing of shares held by G.B.L.," if requested, but it added: "Bertelsmann is also prepared for a buyback of G.B.L.'s stake at a reasonable price, if the shareholders reach an agreement."
Bertelsmann said its managers and majority shareholders, the Mohn family, "were unanimously of the opinion that in the case of such a repurchase, Bertelsmann would be able to continue to invest in its businesses and maintain its solid financial standing." Bertelsmann is Europe's biggest media company and owns Random House; the magazine publisher Gruner & Jahr; and the broadcaster RTL. It also operates Sony BMG, a music joint venture with the Sony Corporation.
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XM terminates WCS buy
XM Satellite Radio has terminated its agreement to acquire WCS Wireless, a move that would've given the satellite radio company wireless spectrum licenses in certain geographic areas throughout the United States.
The acquisition was announced in July 2005, with the timing of closing dependent on receipt of necessary government approvals. XM said the companies agreed to terminate the acquisition deal in order to free WCS to pursue other alternatives for its spectrum licenses. Broadcasters, which had feared the WCS acquisition would bolster XM's local programming efforts, were relieved at the news.
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The BBC has handed a key role in the run up to digital switchover to Arqiva which will be responsible for setting up and running a new high-powered digital terrestrial television network to replace the existing, low-powered system.
Due to come into operation in 2008, the new, improved digital signal will enable millions more viewers to watch digital TV via Freeview. Currently, large parts of the country still cannot receive a digital terrestrial signal. Arqiva will also be responsible for building and operating additional transmitters to expand the coverage of the BBC's digital radio network.
The switch-off of the analogue signal is due to begin in the Border region in 2008 and will be completed four years later. The BBC said the selection of Arqiva followed a "rigorous procurement process conducted throughout 2005 and early 2006".
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Experimental streaming channel
Datmedia has partnered with The Institution of Engineering and Technology to launch IET.tv, a new IPTV research channel, using datpresenter software - the latest in streaming media technology.
IET.tv allows universities from across the UK to create live and on demand video presentations of research that can be distributed to a global audience over the internet. Universities broadcast using just a laptop and webcam, whilst synchronising with PowerPoint slides, flash or video footage. Over 150,000 IET members will be able to keep up with the latest engineering and technology advancements as they happen.
Dr Lee Gillam, of the Department of Computing at University of Surrey, commented: “While we are becoming used to receiving digital content, such as pod-casts, from mainstream broadcasters, IET.tv offers the opportunity for research groups within Universities to become content producers. This has significant potential for extending the dissemination and potential impact of research activities.”
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Irdeto CryptoWorks for ArenaGermany’s Arena has selected the Irdeto CryptoWorks conditional access solution to protect its newly-obtained German Bundesliga soccer broadcasting rights for 2006 to 2009. The satellite broadcast service plans to go live in June 2006. Arena is part of Unity Media which is also the parent company of cable providers iesy, ish and Tele Columbus.
The Irdeto CryptoWorks solution was chosen because of the large existing base of CryptoWorks-compatible set-top boxes present in the German market, and the reputation of the CryptoWorks system.
”The Arena contract is a great way to begin the new relationship between Irdeto and its new staff from CryptoTec. Due to the company’s extensive experience in the German-speaking market, with customers such as Easy.TV, debitel/ MFD and ORF/ ORS Austria, we were well-positioned to meet the content security needs of Arena,” said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto.
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Darty IPTV over Wi-Fi
Ruckus Wireless announced that Darty, the French consumer electronics chain, has become the first company to bring location-free TV to consumers in France through
their nationwide network. The Ruckus MediaFlex smart Wi-Fi system enables Darty to offer an instant TV solution for a variety of IPTV services such as services from Wanadoo, France Telecom, Alice, Neuf Cegetel, Dutch Telecom and AOL.
"France is a harbinger for the future of IPTV," said Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless. "And Darty is leading the way to a new generation of triple play services that give consumers the ultimate in freedom and control."
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Content Services for Intelsat
Content Services, Inc. (CSI) and Intelsat announced that CSI has signed a distribution agreement for AmpiageSM, Intelsat’s satellite-based, open-architecture, video transport platform. Under the agreement, CSI will be the first Ampiage distributor to focus on delivering wholesale video, voice and data services to retail providers in the multi-dwelling unit, hospitality, municipality, university and master planned community markets.Content Services will initially focus on distribution to multiple system operators seeking to cost-effectively upgrade video content to MPEG-4 as well as telecommunications operators (telcos) and Internet Service Providers looking to enter the IPTV or triple-play (voice, video and data) market. CSI Digital customers are expected to realise significant cost savings by taking advantage of the flexible packaged offerings and reduced capital expense associated with the use of Ampiage.
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TW: “we’ll turn round AOL”
Premiere, DT team up for Bundesliga
SKY Italia selects Pace for HD
Doubts Cast on National Broadband Network
Sirius sports downloads
BT wanted to buy On Digital
Telenor OK for BGAN
New CEO for Aperto
TW: “we’ll turn round AOL”Time Warner is committed to turning around its AOL business CEO Richard Parsons told the company’s AGM. The pledge comes as AOL’s dial up customers defect at a faster then forecast rate to the high speed offerings of DSL and cable operators. AOL is trying to reposition as an ad supported portal for entertainment services. Earlier this month TW reported quarter figures showing 835,000 accounts had defected.
Parons told Reuters: “AOL is in a space that the marketplace thinks is contracting and needs to migrate its business to another part of the Internet landscape where the market is growing. Our plans are to see that journey through, I think that if we do that, the market and the stock will react very positively."
AOL underlined its commitment to advertising confirming the purchase of Lightningcast. It is the industry leader in broadband video and audio ad insertion and campaign management. The Company pioneered the development of solutions for delivering advertising into on-demand, live, and downloaded video content across the web. AOL has been using its services since 2002.
At the same meeting, shareholders approved Time Warner's slate of 11 directors and bid farewell to media mogul and CNN founder Ted Turner, who has decided to step down from the board. He remains the biggest individual shareholder, owning 33m Time Warner shares.
Turner, 67, will turn his attention to his work with the United Nations. He also has a chain of burger restaurants called Ted’s Montana Grill, and will open one later this year in Time Warner’s Time Life building.
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Premiere, DT team up for Bundesliga
German pay-TV operator Premiere has reached a deal with Deutsche Telekom (DT) that will allow the broadcaster's customers to see top German football matches over the Internet. Under the terms of the deal, Bundesliga games will be available to Premiere customers who have a broadband Internet connection from Deutsche Telekom, using a special set-top box connected to their television. Nevertheless, the deal only enables Premiere to offer the matches to about half of its estimated 3.5m subscribers.
DT owns the Internet rights to broadcast the matches. Premiere lost the live-TV rights last December to rival Arena, which is owned by cable operator Unity Media.
Premiere revealed that its existing channels would be part of DT's Internet TV offer, which is set to launch this summer when it rolls out a new high-speed Internet broadband network in 10 German cities.
Arena claimed that the deal between Premiere and DT changed little for the operator, because those who wanted to watch the games over satellite and cable TV would still need to subscribe to Arena.
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SKY Italia selects Pace for HDPace Micro Technology has been selected by SKY Italia as a launch partner for its high definition (HD) TV service.
Pace is supplying its next generation HD set-top box to SKY Italia - the DS815NS. The DS815 incorporates DVB-S2 technology - giving up to a 30% improvement in performance - and H.264 compression decoding to optimise bandwidth utilisation, says Pace. It also comes with HDMI connectivity, with HDCP, to ensure secure transfer of data to HD-Ready displays.
SKY Italia's HD service launched on 17 May with live coverage of the European Champions League Cup Final. In June, it will provide full coverage in HD of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Mark Williams, SKY Italia COO commented: "High definition is the ultimate way to enjoy television. We are very excited about our launch, especially with the FIFA World Cup only weeks away. Pace was a natural choice as an HD partner as we launched our initial digital service together and also recently our PVR service at the beginning of the year."
Neil Gaydon, Pace CEO added: "SKY Italia is among the first major pay-TV operators in Europe to start deploying HDTV - as Premiere is doing in Germany - and Pace has been the launch partner for both. It is our experience in delivering HDTV to the States over the last four years that has given us this lead in the development of the HD technologies for Europe. We are pleased that we can continue to build on this success with our key customers across Europe."
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Doubts Cast on National Broadband Network
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Senior Telstra executives have cast fresh doubt on when a mooted national broadband network capable of delivering services such as IPTV would be built, and
also how fast it would be nationwide.
The network would deliver speeds of 6Mbps using fibre, wireless and satellite and Telstra is exploring delivering television pictures over the network. But the fibre part of the network would only be built in the country's five state capitals, with provision for the rest of the country much more patchy.
Speaking at a Senate hearing Telstra’s government relations manager David Quilty said that talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,
which Telstra hopes will end with the network being protected from too heavy competition, were "progressing" but that a deal was far from certain.
That contradicts the communications minister's recent assertion that a decision on the network could be weeks away. Quilty said: "What is important for us is to get a
regulatory result which enables us to make an investent on behalf of our shareholders."
James Packer, chairman of PBL which has interests in Foxtel and the internet joint venture ninemsn, also called for "regulatory certainty" to encourage high-speed broadband provision.
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Sirius sports downloads
After settling its dispute with the music industry over the S50 portable receiver, Sirius Satellite Radio has introduced the Sportster4 -- a plug-and-play radio that can be used in the car and the house. A smaller version of the current Sportster Relay, the new device comes with a vehicle dock that includes an input for MP3 players.
The Sportster4 enables users to pause, rewind and replay up to 444 minutes of Sirius programming. It also has a feature called S-Seek Alert that stores the names of favourite artists and songs and issues an alert to listeners when they are playing on any channel. The device will retail for about $170.
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BT wanted to buy On Digital
BT made a £600m (E869m) bid for ITV's ONdigital service, The Independent on Sunday reported. Carlton and Granada, which controlled the pay-television venture before merging to form ITV, rebuffed the offer made in 2001 because they wanted more than £1bn. The next year, the loss-making venture, renamed ITV Digital, went bust. 2001 was when the post-privatisation ban on broadcasting, imposed on BT by the Government, was lifted.
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Telenor OK for BGANTelenor Satellite Services received initial licensing approval to offer Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service throughout the United States. BGAN offers high-speed IP-based broadband communications and voice calling via a portfolio of small, lightweight user terminals. The service is useful for a variety of IP-based applications such as streaming video, videoconferencing and Web browsing, the company said.
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New CEO for ApertoAperto Networks, developer of the ced WiMAX base stations and subscriber units, announced that Michael K. Pratt has been appointed president and CEO of Aperto Networks. He replaces Reza Ahy who will continue his role as founder and chairman.
"Aperto is a global WiMAX leader and Mike is a proven operational leader with a track record of achieving accelerated growth at multiple companies," said Reza Ahy. "Given the tremendous demand for Aperto's carrier-class WiMAX products, Mike's joining Aperto is timely in helping us realize the terrific opportunities that lay ahead of us.”
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Monday 22nd May
AT&T expands IPTV plans
Reding defends Internet content regulations
Spain: RTVE should axe 4,150 workers
Voda back in Japan
3m ABC downloads
Bango warns on US downloads
S. Korea fines mobile operators
Extreme mobile for Portugal
AT&T plans to offer television service in 15 to 20 markets by the end of the year, a sign it is confident of overcoming early troubles with roll out of the Microsoft TV platform. The telco, which currently has a trial version running in San Antonio, plans to launch it next in Houston, then in additional markets in all four of AT&T's regions serving parts of the West, Southwest, Midwest and East Coast.
Lea Ann Champion, AT&T senior vice president who oversees the project, said plans to launch television service is a cornerstone of its strategy to compete with cable operators in offering packages of phone, TV, high-speed Internet and wireless services. The company is spending $4.6 billion to make TV available to 19 million homes in 41 markets by the end of 2008.
However, Champion's remarks won’t convince everyone as she declined to say how many homes in the 15 to 20 markets would be offered the service by the end of the year. She also wouldn't provide additional details about the controlled launch under way in San Antonio, where AT&T has said it has "hundreds" of subscribers.
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Reding defends Internet content regulationsEU proposals to regulate content on the Internet are aimed at protecting society not undermining free speech, European Union Media Commissioner Viviane Reding has said. Reding spoke after a group of European Union culture ministers met to discuss extending rules restricting television content to cover telephones and the Internet as well as over-the-air broadcasts.
She said the proposed regulations reflected "basic societal values" -- the protection of young children and restrictions on incitement to hatred. "That has nothing to do with free speech, that has to do with the freedom to protect your society on the basis of laws which have been accepted by national and European parliament," she said. She also said it will take years to reach agreement.
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Spain: RTVE should axe 4,150 workers
From David Del Valle in MadridThe Government has toughened its conditions for a rescue package for RTVE – the operator of La Primera and La 2 - that has debts of E7.5bn. The Administration now proposes the dismissal of 4,150 workers out of the total 9,212, up from the initially planned 3,133.
The RTVE plan is part of the recently approved controversial reform package for the state-owned group aimed at transforming it into a corporation financed by a mix of ad revenues, sales revenues and state subsidies.
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Vodafone will try to break the stranglehold on the Japanese mobile phone market exerted by leaders NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, with an Y11bn ($100m) joint venture to develop cutting edge handsets and software with Softbank.The joint venture also shows Vodafone’s determination to retain its global competitive advantage by continuing to tap into Japanese mobile expertise. Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone, said Japan was "a very innovation-centric market", and "we don’t want to lose the window of innovation".
The 50-50 venture between the two companies follows Vodafone’s Y1,750bn sale of its Japanese arm to Softbank this spring. Vodafone has been a poor third in Japan’s mobile market. Analysts criticised its erstwhile philosophy that the world’s mobile markets were in essence the same, and could therefore be won using the same global products.
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3m ABC downloads
Viewers have watched ABC television shows available online about 3 million times since the network launched the free service just over two weeks ago.
ABC began a two-month Internet trial earlier this month, allowing viewers to watch four of its programmes, including blockbuster hits "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," on the Web with commercials.
ABC owner Disney is looking at a variety of options for expanding the service, which airs shows on the ABC.com site about 12 hours after they are first broadcast on television.
Each online episode kicks off with a 10-second sponsorship message from a single advertiser. It is followed by three commercials that air during breaks in the program. Viewers have to watch or click through ads to get to the next segment of the program.
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Despite a jump in profits, shares in Bango, the mobile content platform group, dropped more than 25 per cent as it warned of slower-than-expected spending on content downloads by US consumers. The company warned in its full-year results that initial spending by customers in the US would be slower than in European markets, blaming in part different regulations about what constitutes adult content.
However, Bango said turnover from its subscription business, where companies such as Sony BMG and The Sun pay to put content on Bango's technology platform, had outperformed expectations. Full-year revenues for the year to March 31 more than doubled to £7.53m, (E10.9m) while pre-tax losses widened to £1.3m up from £918,000.
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S. Korea fines mobile operators
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog fined the country’s three mobile carriers a combined Won1.78bn ($1.8m) for price collusion, the first punishment of its kind for wireless operators in the country. The FTC said the three operators, SK Telecom, LG Telecom and KTF, KT’s wireless unit, engaged in unfair business practices in 2004 by agreeing to discontinue flat-rate services, as competition intensified with the introduction of the number portability system.
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Extreme mobile for PortugalLiberty Global owned Extreme Sports Channel has extended its growing international mobile content service by signing a new deal to bring its action sports content to 3G phone users in Portugal. Subscribers to mobile service TMN can receive Extreme programming on their phones from April as part of a deal brokered through CabSat operator TV Cabo.
TMN subscribers get the best of the action from Extreme’s dedicated Portuguese channel plus unique made-for-mobile content, the fruit of Extreme To Go, the new mobile division set up last month.
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