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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 12th May
Sky Italia for IPO?
ECCA wants rights bodies to compete
La Sexta bids for biggest clubs TV
US cablecos to bid for mobile
Liberty Global claims 124% increase
DISH adds 225,000
DT domestic disappoints
Teleste: New organisation
Catholic Church on Sirius
Entriq for C4
Digita and Nokia first commercial DVB-H
Sky Italia for IPO?News Corp has doubled net profit for the third quarter with a jump to $820m from $400m on sales up $200m at $6.2bn, thanks to rising advertising sales. Airtime sales compensated for falls at movies and newspapers as News Corp announced it was upping its share buy back programme from $3bn to $6bn and revealed it may float Sky Italia next year.
"This $3 billion step-up (in the buy back) clearly reinforces our view that repurchases of News Corporation shares are among the best uses of our cash in today's environment," chairman Rupert Murdoch said.
On Sky Italia Murdoch said he was still "a long way from making a decision", but said that the Sky Italia business could be worth at least E1,500 per subscriber. At the current subscriber level of 3.7m, this would value the business at over E5.5bn. "That would be a minimum," Murdoch said when asked about the valuation. Sky Italia is now profitable, generating operating income of $69m in the third quarter, $90m more than in the same period last year when it was still operating at a loss.
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ECCA wants rights bodies to competeThe European Cable Communications Association (ECCA) has urged the EU Commission to further harmonise national copyright clearance regimes, it also wants licensing organizations to compete.
In the "Economic Impact of Copyright for Cable Operators in Europe," ECCA states copyright clearance issues are becoming more and more important in Europe as the media and telecom market increasingly converge, and new technologies trigger new ways to distribute content. It complains that cable operators are facing complex negotiations with numerous copyright collecting societies, and are often uncertain as to who can clear which right, and are sometimes hindered in getting the necessary copyrights to provide new services such as Video On Demand.
"The current copyright regime and the way it is implemented in different Member States is hindering the development of content distribution services, and not helping Europe to realize its ambition to become a seamless European information society. We plead for all players in the field to apply the same rules." said Manuel Cubero, President of ECCA, and Managing Director of Kabel Deutschland.
ECCA’s first key recommendation is for: ‘All-Rights-Included’ packages. ECCA favours a system where cable operators can buy directly from the broadcasters all the necessary copyrights to distribute fully cleared content packages to the public.
Its second recommendation is ‘Central Licensing’ meaning broadcasters and content providers should have the opportunity to clear all their relevant rights at an organisation of their choice at European level. ECCA says this would initiate competition among copyright collecting societies, and as such stimulate the efficiency of copyright collective management.
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La Sexta bids for biggest clubs TV
From David Del Valle in Madrid
TV production company Mediapro, one of the main shareholders in La Sexta and the largest TV producer in Spain following its merger with Globomedia, has opened hostilities early in soccer TV rights bidding. It has made offers to Barcelona and Real Madrid to exclusively acquire their TV rights for around E120 million per year each, (doubling their current TV revenues), from the 2008-2009 season for a five year period. Mediapro is also in talks with other important football teams, like Valencia and Atletico de Madrid.
With this move, Mediapro (La Sexta) is challenging Sogecable, owner of DTH platform Digital Plus, which currently controls most of the football TV rights in Spain through its subsidiary Audiovisual Sport. La Sexta is betting on football to make itself room in the Spanish TV market in a very short time. It has already acquired this summers World Cup rights for around E100m.
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According to US press cable television operators including Time Warner and Comcast are considering a joint bid with Sprint Nextel, the third largest mobile carrier, for wireless spectrum in the auction set to attract bids from a long list of media and telecoms companies.
Time Warner Cable, already part of a joint venture to develop wireless offerings for cable customers, said they would register their interest with the FCC. They have ruled out separate, independent offers. The move suggests bidding in next month’s FCC auction of 90Mhz of wireless spectrum suitable for 3G services will be fierce and attract attention not just from established wireless carriers, but also new entrants such as technology companies and satellite operators. Analysts have estimated that the sale, which could last weeks, could bring in between $8bn and $15bn.
The filing by the cable consortium and Sprint Nextel does not commit the group to a bid in the auction on June 29, but is necessary for a chance to bid. Other members of the consortium, which was formed with Sprint in November, include Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications.
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Liberty Global claims 124% increase
Posting its Q1 results Liberty Global, Europe’s biggest MSO, said it achieved a 124% increase in organic net additions in the first quarter to 437,000 RGUs.
Revenue grew 38 per cent to $1.63 billion, while earnings from continuing operations increased 152 per cent to $43 million. President and CEO Mike Fries said, "By any measure, we had an outstanding first quarter. (The additions were) a record for the period and gives us an excellent start on achieving our full year target of 1.6 million net additions. These results were driven across all key product lines, but especially by our continued success adding new broadband Internet customers, combined with accelerating growth from our world-wide digital telephony (VoIP) deployments. Equally important, we added approximately 250,000 digital customers to our video subscriber base which continues to show strong growth across markets."
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DISH adds 225,000
EchoStar revealed its DISH Network added 225,000 customers during Q1, taking its total to 12.265 million. Gross additions numbered 794,000. ARPU was $59.93, an improvement over first quarter 2005 ARPU of $57. Subscriber acquisition costs were $665 for the first quarter, up from $623 reported during the same period last year.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $2.2 billion, up from the roughly $2 billion reported during first quarter 2005. Net income fell to $147 million during first quarter, compared to $317 million recorded for the same quarter in 2005.
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Europe’s largest telco, posted strong first-quarter growth at its US mobile arm masking a weak domestic performance. The company said guidance for 2006 net revenues would now fall in the upper half of its previous range of E62.1bn-E62.7bn as mobile phone revenue forecasts were raised to take into account strong US growth.
But the company was forced to cut its range for its broadband and fixed network division from E25.4bn-E25.8bn to E24.8bn-E25.2bn as growing fast-internet revenues failed to offset the ongoing erosion of traditional fixed-line sales. The adjustments followed a 3.9 per cent increase in revenues to E14.8bn for the first three months of the year, largely driven by T-Mobile USA which added more than 1m customers and grew revenues by 29.1 per cent to E3.4bn.
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Teleste: New organisation
Teleste's Broadband Cable Networks will be split in two and the business units created will be known as HFC Networks and Services and Digital Video and Broadband Solutions.
Juha Järvenreuna has been appointed Senior Vice President in charge of the HFC Networks and Services business unit. The business unit will focus on providing its customers products and services in hybrid fibre and coaxial cable networks.
Reinaart Bryssinck has been appointed Senior Vice President in charge of the Digital Video and Broadband Solutions business unit. The business unit will focus on products, solutions and services involving EttH, FttH and IP Head End technologies providing to support customers in rolling out Digital Video and Next generation
Broadband Services.
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Worldspace adds 38,000Global satellite radio company Worldspace said it finished the first quarter with 153,437 subscribers, up 38,13. In India, WorldSpace had 111,723 subscribers at the end of first quarter, up 50 per cent from 74,574 customers reported at the end of fourth quarter 2005 and a five-fold increase from 21,730 at the end of the first quarter 2005, the company said.
This year, Worldspace rolled out satellite radio services throughout 10 cities in India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Kolkata. The company said its market distribution is available to a population of nearly 63 million.
Worldspace said its first quarter net loss was $29.2 million, compared to a net loss of $9.2 million for the same period in 2005. Revenues for the three-month period were about $3.5 million, representing a 35 per cent increase.
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Catholic Church on Sirius
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York is venturing into satellite radio, announcing a deal to work with Sirius Satellite Radio to create a 24/7 Catholic channel. Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the channel is a way to "spread the word in a new way."
Of the 17,000 licensed terrestrial radio stations in the United States, 1,700 are Protestant or evangelical Christian in nature, while just 130 are Roman Catholic, said Stephen Gajdosik, president of the Catholic Radio Association. But the number has been growing by about one station a month, he said.
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Entriq announced that it has been selected by Channel 4 to help enable its new Video on Demand offering. Channel 4 recently announced an agreement with Buena Vista International Television (BVITV), part of Disney, to acquire the exclusive UK video-on-demand rights to Seasons One and Two of Lost and Desperate Housewives. For the first time viewers in the UK can watch full length episodes of the hit shows streamed on the Channel 4 website. To ensure only legitimate viewers can access the content, Entriq will provide security for all online video content. Entriq will also provide a customer care and billing solution, including live chat and email for consumers.
Channel 4 is using the Entriq Mediasphere platform for many different premium video services on an ongoing basis. During the past year Channel 4 has used the Entriq platform in order to enable UK consumers to stream premium content from Big Brother 6, Space Cadets, Celebrity Big Brother, the IT Crowd and other shows.
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Digita and Nokia first commercial DVB-H
Digita and Nokia have signed the world's first commercial DVB-H mobile TV platform supply contract. Nokia will deliver to Digita its Nokia Broadcast Solution (MBS) 3.0, which is a service management solution for DVB-H services. The MBS 3.0 supports the broadcasting of different types of digital content such as live TV, radio, and video clips over DVB-H networks to mobile devices. Digita obtained the DVB-H network license from the Finnish Government earlier in 2006. Digita will be responsible for the broadcasting network and administration of channels as the network operator. The first stage of network rollout in 2006 will cover the area inside the Ring Road III in the Helsinki region and the cities of Turku, Tampere, and Oulu.
The network will reach 29 per cent of the population in Finland by the end of 2006.
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Thursday 11th May
NTL abandons Virgin Sport
PVR homes still prefer ‘live’
Cablevision makes triple play pay
TiVo internet TV
Disney flies high
Liberty approves tracker split
First BBC HD slated
Universal Film in Nordic DTO
Cisco rises on IP
Playchannel launches in Latin America
PIMP my TV
J:COM targets grey market
Alcatel to supply Slovakia IPTV solution
Irdeto for Samsung
Open powers HD for TPS
Mobrio interactive for Flextech
NTL abandons Virgin Sport
NTL has abandoned plans for a flagship subscription sports channel after it failed to secure any Premiership rights in an auction process it condemned as "flawed". It will continue to show BSkyB content and intends to buy matches from Setanta, the other successful bidder in last week’s auction, but it conceded that, without exclusive content, its vision of a Virgin Sports channel was doomed.
James Mooney, the chairman of NTL, said that the Premier League auction process — under which it was forced to bid separately for six individual packages covering the 2007-10 football season, rather than bidding for critical mass — was "very flawed". The group is understood to have ruled out legal action, although it said that it will express its concerns to Ofcom.
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PVR homes still prefer ‘live’Most TV viewing in households with personal video recorders like Sky+ is still live and "traditional scheduled TV will be around for a long time yet", according to new research. Also, viewers still paid attention to adverts even when they fast-forwarded through them, the study found.
"This research suggests that the impact of PVRs on viewing of commercials may not be as extreme as some had previously thought," said Mark Bunting, the strategy manager at media regulator Ofcom. Patrick Barwise, of the London Business School, part of the consortium behind the research, said: "These results show the importance of measuring actual, rather than claimed, behaviour. People's self-perception is that they time-shift a lot and always fast-forward through the commercials. The reality is very different, more complex, and much less threatening for the future of TV advertising."
The study used in-home cameras and microphones to measure the TV watched by eight households of varying types. Full results from the study, together with findings from the US and data measuring Sky+ usage, will be revealed next month.
Most commercials in time-shifted viewing are fast-forwarded, the study found, but viewers "continued to pay a high degree of visual attention" and often engaged with ads while fast-forwarding at high speed.
The consortium behind the study consisted of research consultancy ACB, the London Business School, Initiative, Ofcom, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five.
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Cablevision makes triple play payCablevision has delivered its strongest subscriber growth quarter since 2000. The strong results echo those recently seen from bigger cable operators. Cablevision said its quarterly net loss fell to $58.9m, $118.9m, in the first quarter of last year. Revenue for the quarter rose 16.2 per cent to $1.41bn from $1.2bn. The company raised its 2006 outlook for basic video subscriber growth, saying it expected an increase of 2.5 to 3 per cent, compared with previous guidance of an increase of 2 to 2.5 per cent rise.
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TiVo internet TV
TiVo has reached an agreement with Brightcove Inc. that will let TiVo users download and watch video from the internet on television sets. Brightcove will allow companies that use its system for distributing video over the internet to make their shows available to TiVo users. Brightcove plans to start offering video from six to 12 programmers to TiVo users in June, though it didn't identify the programmers. The companies using Brightcove to publish video over the internet include New York Times, Oxygen Network and SmartMoney.
While most people watch video distributed by Brightcove on their computers, Jeremy Allaire, founder and chief executive of the company, said, "increasingly they want to be able to have the same programming on set-top devices and portable devices." Allaire said the companies plan to eventually expand the number of content providers who can offer video to TiVo users.
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Disney flies highSignificant gains by the ABC broadcast network and a good performance by theme parks offset a decline in film studio earnings enabling Disney group to report a 12 per cent gain in second-quarter net profits on Tuesday. Net income in the quarter ended April 1 increased to $733m, or 37 cents per share, compared with $657m, or 31 cents per share, a year ago.
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Liberty approves tracker split
In the latest move in a long and complicated quest to get Wall Street to recognise the value of its businesses, Liberty has gained shareholder approval to split its shares into two tracking stocks. Trading of the new shares will begin on May 10, with the company split into its operating assets such as the QVC home shopping business and stakes in IAC and Expedia, and its financial investments.
Greg Maffei, Liberty Media’s chief executive, will meet investors in New York this week to discuss the group’s plans in more detail. When chairman John Malone, announced the plans for the tracker shares last year he said part of the reason was to give Mr Maffei the ability to use the capital company to target new investments, such as potentially undervalued corporate debt.
Liberty Media, which has sold its cable operations but continues to own significant stakes in some of the biggest US media groups, is currently in discussions with Time Warner about selling its 4 per cent stake.In exchange, Time Warner might buy the 50 per cent of CourtTV owned by Liberty. Time Warner owns the other half already.
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The BBC is to screen Planet Earth and Bleak House in high definition television (HDTV) at the end of May. The shows will be the first to be broadcast free-to-air in the UK in the new format. They will initially be available to satellite viewers with the right equipment. Sky will start installing HD set-top boxes from 22 May. BBC shows are already available in HD from cable company Telewest.
The corporation has also announced it is to screen this summer's football World Cup and Wimbledon championships in HDTV. Bleak House and part one of Planet Earth will be screened on the Sky service between 27 and 29 May. The programmes will kick off a 12-month trial to test the technology and the audience's appetite for the format.
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Universal Pictures Nordic and film2home, are offering Nordic’s first major movie download-to-own (DTO) service. The service, offering consumers a unique 3-copy model, will be launched first in Sweden, with other Nordic territories to follow shortly after.
Universal Pictures is the first major Hollywood studio to offer major feature film content for download through an electronic sell-through distribution model in Scandinavia. It is the second global territory that Universal has launched its unique 3-copy DTO model. The DTO service was launched as a global first in the UK in a partnership between Universal and LOVEFiLM in April.
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Cisco rises on IP
New products such as IP telephony, WiFi and storage equipment, along with solid growth in its core switching and routing businesses, lifted revenues at Cisco Systems during the latest quarter.
John Chambers, chief executive, called the latest period a "very strong quarter" helped by an all-round performance from its various product groups.
Excluding the impact of Scientific-Atlantic, the set-top box maker acquired in February, revenues would have grown 12 per cent in the three months to the end of April, the third quarter of the company’s fiscal year, which was faster than the 10.5 per cent analysts had expected. Including the results of Scientific-Atlanta, which contributed $407m in sales in the period, Cisco reported overall revenues of $7.3bn, an 18 per cent increase from a year before. As expected, the acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta ate into Cisco’s overall profit margins. Pro-forma operating margins slipped to 29.9 per cent, from 31.2 per cent.
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Playchannel launches in Latin America
From David Del Valle in MadridPlaychannel, the first TV channel specifically made for mobile TV, has been launched through Hispasat 1C, with a 24 hour interactive programming. Produced by Endemol Argentine and distributed by Thematic Media, the channel is available in the whole South American continent, taking the signal from Hispasat and using a DVB decoder.
Targeted at all the family, the channel offers an entertainment programming as well as some interactive services, such as SMS, interactive chats and videogames.
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PIMP my TV
From Rose Major in Melbourne
IceTV, the start-up Australian DVR technology company, has launched a service to enable users to remotely record television programmes from outside the home.
The technology, called PIMP (Personal Interactive Media Planner) allows Australians with Media Center PCs and subscriptions to IceTV to use their mobile phones to start recording programming on their PCs. The company will extend the service to subscribers using IceTV on digital video recorders for TVs in the coming months.
IceTV currently provides an EPG for Australia's free-to-air channels. The new service works by the user logging on to a website, either through a PC or a mobile phone and selecting the shows they want to record. A message is then sent to the user's media centre or DVR to start recording.
IceTV is currently staging an IPO. The service has 1,400 subscribers with around 150 new users signing up per month.
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J:COM targets grey marketJupiter Telecommunications the Japanese MSO has announced its plans to launch a new marketing initiative to enable citizens of 50 years old and older to better understand, and benefit from, the use of cable and telecommunications services. The initiative, dubbed "Elder Marketing," will begin on May 16 with the goal of positioning members of Japan's growing elder population as J:COM agents in a unique peer support program that fosters J:COM product and service adoption in local markets.
J:COM will invite consumers 50+ to register as J:COM Community Leaders. With 40 per cent of Japan's population over 50 years old, this "elder" segment represents more than 49 per cent of J:COM's total subscriber base. J:COM Community Leaders will act as peer support agents, enlisted to provide easy-to-understand explanations of J:COM services for both existing and potential elder subscribers within their assigned areas, as well as local organizers of community events designed to attract new subscribers as well as maintain and assist existing ones.
"As our society ages, it will be essential to foster a better understanding of how J:COM cable telecommunications services can provide people with useful benefits," said Tomoyuki Moriizumi, President and CEO of J:COM. "Consumers over the age of 50 and their children represent a broad subscriber base who are key agents of change in helping to make others more comfortable and aware of all the new services and programs cable affords and how they can be used to maximum potential, especially by our respected elders," Moriizumi added.
Studies indicate that people 50+ prefer to have cable and telecommunications services explained to them by those in their own age group. New digital and network services, remote control hardware operation and various content details were among those elements of cable television cited as those that many would like peer guidance on.
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Alcatel to supply Slovakia IPTV solution
Deutsche Telekom group member Slovak Telekom, which provides its products and services under the T-Com brand, has selected Alcatel to support its upcoming IPTV deployment, based on the combination of Alcatel's services integration solution and the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform.
The project will include broadcast TV and video on demand (VoD). The first phase of the contract, a market trial, is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2006. A full market deployment is expected by the end of 2006.
Herbert Müller, Senior Executive Vice-President/COO of Slovak Telekom, said that IPTV fitted into T-Com’s ongoing commitment to deliver a diverse mix of telephony and multimedia services over IP. "Slovak Telekom has a modern infrastructure capable of delivering high-speed Internet, voice over IP (VoIP), unified messaging and a range of integrated applications."
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Irdeto have signed a Partnership Agreement for mobile content security solutions with Samsung Electronics. The partnership will include both conditional access and digital rights management solutions for Samsung’s mobile products. It will include integration of Irdeto’s solutions into Samsung’s mobile TV products. Irdeto and Samsung have previously achieved a number of world firsts, including the first mobile handset with conditional access for the CDMA market (SCH-B100). Also, Irdeto’s solution is integrated in Samsung’s SGH-P900, the first GSM mobile TV
handset with conditional access.
Irdeto and Samsung are closely cooperating for the successful launch of Europe’s first nationwide commercial mobile TV service with Debitel and MFD (Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland). In addition, the agreement provides for Irdeto and Samsung to cooperate on other mobile TV opportunities, including satellite DMB, terrestrial DMB, and DVB-H projects.
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OpenTV announced that TPS has launched high definition television service in France using OpenTV advanced digital television solutions. In 2005, TPS selected OpenTV as its technology partner for the development and deployment of its advanced set-top box platform on which TPS launched its high definition television (HDTV)/MPEG4 satellite services based on Thomson ST7100 set-top boxes. TPS began deploying its HD-capable set-top boxes to commercial customers in April. HD channels currently available through the TPS service include TPS Star, TF1, and M6. The World Cup is expected to be broadcast in HD on TF1 and M6.
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Mobrio interactive for Flextech
Mobrio Limited, the online community and mobile web services company, has been appointed by Flextech Television to build an interactive consumer-generated content platform that can be integrated into Flextech’s web assets to support any of the shows broadcast on its channels. The online community platform will be able to receive, format and present all consumer-generated content in a quick and flexible manner, regardless of the type and file format of the content submitted by the user. The system enables Flextech’s producers to engage directly with viewers who can post and share pictures, text, audio and video clips using their mobile phones and personal computers.
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Wednesday 10th May
Warner Bros goes on Bit Torrent
Sky closes Setanta pub and platform deal
NTL confirms cuts
Liberty Q1 loss
Sony, date and price for PS3 at last
AT&T: more broadband
Gemstar’s Yuen must pay $22m
Sky to trial MediaFLO
Warner Bros goes on Bit Torrent
Warner Bros. video unit has unveiled plans to sell movies and TV shows to BitTorrent for legal downloads in a huge turnaround for the site once blamed for most movie piracy worldwide. The deal also marks a big step for Hollywood as it increasingly makes content available on the Web.
In November last year BitTorrent agreed with the Motion Picture Association of America to help stem illegal swapping of digital movies and TV shows by removing links to pirated copies. Warner Bros. and BitTorrent said the MPAA pact and new digital rights management software from BitTorrent were key elements in bringing the parties together. "We've come to a point where you have sufficient consumer demand and we have the technology that is now mature enough," said Jim Wuthrich, senior vice president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Starting this summer, Warner Bros. will make more than 200 films available at BitTorrent.com. The content will be available on the same day and date they are put on sale in retail stores, but cannot be copied and burned onto a DVD. They must reside on a computer drive. BitTorrent will charge customers, and while final prices have not been set, the company expects TV shows to be priced comparably to the current rate of $1 per episode on other Web sites and movies to be around the price of a new DVD.
"We have just been embraced by the largest movie studio that is owned by largest media company," said Ashwin Navin, co-founder of BitTorrent. "We expect to see more deals and to push the envelope" for getting people video on the Web.
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Sky closes Setanta pub and platform deal
As expected Sky has struck a deal with Setanta which will enable about 40,000 pubs, clubs, sports centres and other commercial operators to receive Setanta's coverage of 46 live Premier League football games.
The broadcaster added it had also come to an "in-principle" deal with Setanta that will make these matches available to residential Sky subscribers, so all 138 live Premiership football matches will be available to customers without them having to switch to another platform. It is uncertain – and possibly undecided yet – how the Setanta games will be packaged and for how much. In addition to being on the Sky platform the package will almost certainly also play on Freeview with Top Up, and on NTL.
In any event it is unlikely Setanta will pursue a pay-per-view route as The Times revealed Sky’s Prem Plus generated only £35m in the current season from 50 games – Setanta has effectively spent £131m a year for 46 games.
The Irish company, which is 40 per cent owned by Benchmark Capital, currently charges £14 a month for its sports channels on satellite and cable. Setanta also owns rights to show Scottish Premier League football, and NASN, a channel dedicated to American sports.
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NTL confirms cutsNTL has confirmed plans to cut or outsource 6,000 jobs by the end of 2007. About 1,500 call centre jobs in Swansea and Liverpool will transfer to IBM. NTL said about 4,500 other employees would leave the company, many of them also seeing their posts outsourced. It seems likely some of the outsourcing will be to Indian call centres.
It said most of the job cuts that did not involve outsourcing would go through natural attrition, voluntary redundancy and cuts in temporary staff. "Since we announced the merger with Telewest, we have consistently said that headcount reductions are likely. We cannot avoid taking difficult decisions if it means a better experience for our customers in the long term." NTL said.
Peter Skyte, national officer of the Amicus union, said the announcement was "a devastating blow for thousands of employees across the whole country".
NTL - which has debts of £5.4bn (E7.82bn) - reported an operating profit of £4m for the first three months of the year, and said it had added 25,800 new subscribers.
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Liberty Q1 loss
Liberty Media has posted a quarterly net loss based on its financial reorganization but excluding ‘special items’ the profit was $232m down from $254m last time. Revenue rose 9 per cent to $2 billion.
Sales at the QVC home-shopping network climbed 7 per cent, to $1.56 billion, yielding an operating profit of $212 million, 6 per cent higher than a year earlier. The Starz Entertainment Group division had sales of $259 million, down from $254 million. Operating profit at the unit fell 8.3 per cent, to $33 million.Liberty is set to spin off two tracking stocks, including one for its interactive division that would hold QVC plus its 22 per cent stake in IAC. The company is also in discussions to sell off its half stake in cable channel Court TV. Liberty owns about a 4 per cent stake in Time Warner which owns the other 50 per cent of Court TV.
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Sony, date and price for PS3 at last
Speaking at the E3 games show in Los Angeles, Kaz Hirai, head of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said that the long-awaited PS3 would go on sale in Japan on November 11, with US and European sales set to begin on November 17. Sony said it would sell two different models of the console: a machine with a 20GB hard drive that will cost $499 and a 60GB version that will sell for $599.
Microsoft, which stole a march on Sony by getting the Xbox 360 to stores last November, sells a base model for $299 and a premium version that includes a 20GB hard drive for $399. Justifying the decision to put a hard drive in every machine, as well as a player for Sony’s own Blu-ray DVD format, Hirai said that the expensive technology was essential to high-definition video, which Sony hopes will help sell the machines.
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AT&T: more broadbandThe US telecommunications group plans to deploy satellite and new broadband wireless technologies to extend the reach of its broadband ‘footprint’ and enable it to offer IPTV and other advanced services to its customers.
Ed Whitacre, AT&T’s chief executive noted that the US is currently ranked twelfth in terms of broadband deployment, behind nations like Korea, Canada, Belgium and Japan. "This is not right," he said, "it makes no sense that our country, which took the Internet out of the lab and into the living room, now lags so many others. The challenge before all of us who build networks is to ensure that everyone has access to broadband and other leading-edge technologies."
Whitacre said AT&T will offer new satellite-based broadband services in rural markets where DSL is not available and will expand its trials of and expand its investment in an emerging wireless broadband technology called WiMax.
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Gemstar’s Yuen must pay $22m
A U.S. court has ordered former Gemstar-TV Guide CEO Henry Yuen to pay $22 million for his role in a scheme to defraud investors by inflating the company's licensing and advertising revenue. The Securities and Exchange Commission said the decision in the civil case comes after a three-week trial in December in which a court ruled that Yuen committed securities fraud by making misrepresentations and omissions about Gemstar revenue.
The court ordered Yuen to pay about $22 million in penalties, interest and a return of ill-gotten gains and also barred him from serving as an officer or a director of a public company. The decision comes after he pleaded guilty to separate criminal charges of obstructing a federal investigation, in a deal with prosecutors in Los Angeles. As part of that plea deal, Yuen admitted to destroying documents sought by the SEC during a probe into alleged accounting irregularities at Gemstar between 1999 and 2002.
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Sky to trial MediaFLO
BSkyB will trial Qualcomm's MediaFLO broadcast mobile TV technology in Cambridge this summer. The closed technical trial signals the European debut of MediaFLO, which is the third broadcast mobile TV platform to make it to the UK after trials of DVB-H and the commercial launch of BT Movio's DAB-based services by Virgin Mobile.
The FLO trial will comprise 100 handsets and may eventually be widened to include members of the general public. Separate trials with other UK broadcasters have not been ruled out and Qualcomm is in discussions with local mobile operators, none of which are involved at this stage.
Qualcomm's director of international business, Omar Javaid, claimed channel capacity and cost of deployment are FLO's key differentiators in what is becoming a crowded market, arguing that broadcasters and operators could save "hundreds of millions of pounds" and offer "twice the number of channels" if they opted for FLO over DVB-H and DAB.
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Tuesday 9th May
Soccer: Sky pays more for less as Setanta scores
NTL will cut up to 6,000 jobs
Pollard quits Sky News
NDS revenues up 18%
TiVo to find ads
Sky Italia signs up Red Bee Media's Piero
Soccer: Sky pays more for less as Setanta scoresWith Irish pay-TV firm Setanta winning the rights to show 46 live Premier League matches per season from 2007, the rights auction has generated £1.7bn (E2.4bn) for the League, 65 per cent up on last time.
Ultimately, BSkyB took packages A, B, E and F adding up to 92 live matches including the ‘elite’ games on Sunday afternoons, but down from 138 in the current deal. Setanta took the C and D packages paying £392m. Breaking it down Sky has paid £4.8m a match and Setanta £2.8m.
"For the first time these are platform-neutral rights available for exploitation on wider technology," said League chief executive Peter Scudamore. "The increase is because these rights are available to be simulcast on broadband or other platforms. They are no longer just television rights."
In terms of presentation, it seems Sky is abandoning Prem Plus (50 have been on pay per view Prem Plus under the current deal) to maintain value for money for Sky Sports. Analysts have already downgraded Sky profit forecasts. Meanwhile Setanta, which runs channels in Ireland, UK, USA and Australia, has a major marketing challenge to make good on its investment. There is speculation it will license Sky some, or all, games for showing in pubs and clubs. Its other options are a channel on DTT pay TV operator Top UP and a deal with failed bidder NTL.
BSkyB had held exclusive live rights to Premiership football ever since 1992 but the European Commission ruled rival broadcasters must get a slice of the action this time.
Other Premiership rights, including mobile rights, television highlights packages and overseas rights, will be determined separately.
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NTL will cut up to 6,000 jobsNTL is preparing to announce thousands of job losses, according to newspaper reports. The shake up follows the merger of NTL and Telewest and the takeover of Virgin mobile.
Newspapers have speculated NTL plans to cut a third of its workforce, with some call centre jobs being outsourced to India and the closure of Telewest’s HQ in Woking.
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The head of Sky News is to quit, after an expensive relaunch that won few plaudits or viewers. Nick Pollard, who has run the 24-hour news network for just over 10 years, will leave in September.
A multimillion pound relaunch in October did not make much difference to viewing figures. BBC News 24, launched in 1997, has pulled ahead of Sky News in ratings, rising from an average 5m weekly reach in 2005 to 6m, while Sky News fell from 4.6m to 4m.
In addition to the lacklustre re-launch it is said Pollard was resistant to cuts sought to make up for increased sports rights. Sky emphasised the decision to go was Pollard’s alone, he said he believed 10 years was long enough, and that he had worked "non-stop since 1968". Pollard is widely credited with establishing Sky News’ reputation for independence and resisting any attempt ‘to do a Fox News’.
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NDS revenues up 18%NDS has reported revenues for the third quarter up 18 per cent to $149 million and for nine months up 9 per cent to $446 million. Operating income for third quarter was up 56 per cent to $35 million; Nine months up 46 per cent to $105 million. Operationally, NDS has 64 million active digital TV smart cards, 38.4 million cumulative set-top boxes activated with NDS middleware and 2.7 million cumulative DVR deployments.
Dr Abe Peled, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDS, said: "NDS has enjoyed another solid quarter benefiting from strong demand across our world-wide customers. We continue to invest in people and infrastructure to meet the demands of our customers for more rapid introduction of new technologies, principally DVR, high definition and broadband."
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TiVo to find adsTiVo launches Product Watch, a service offering on-demand ads to its subscribers. TiVo has signed up about 70 advertisers, including such as Kraft Foods, Ford, General Motors and IAC/InterActive's LendingTree, to participate. TiVo announced plans for the service in November.
The marketers won't run traditional 30-second TV commercials, instead they will offer longer ads that attempt to be more informative than typical commercials. General Motors will offer detailed video presentations about its vehicles, Ford is trying something more entertaining: one-minute takes of magicians Penn & Teller performing various tricks on a golf course, with a Ford vehicle shown nearby. TiVo users will be able to search for ads in several categories, including finance, lifestyles and travel and leisure. Similar ads already are available on video-on-demand services offered by cable operators such as Comcast.
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Sky Italia signs up Red Bee Media's Piero
Sky Italia to use Piero Red Bee Media's Piero system, the first technology of its kind that enables better analysis of sports games, has been sold to Sky Italia and will be used in the broadcaster’s World Cup coverage. Piero enables viewers to see 'play' from angles that can not be captured by cameras.
The Piero technology transposes pictures of real players into a virtual stadium, where it is possible to view and analyse play from different angles in animated sequences. Offside, forward passing and other offences can be seen from the best angle for analysis - even if the play has not been captured at this angle.
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Monday 8th May
Sky Sports’ Football and Cricket live on Vodafone 3G
Pandalian for set for multi-platform launch
DirecTV: strong Q1
SES Astra and Discovery agree capacity deal
Hong Kong Cable TV set to score at World Cup
Foxtel launches low-cost digital entry package
Ad models "must change" to exploit new television medium
IPTV equipment sales set to top $6b
conVISUAL clinches fresh ProSiebenSat.1 deal
Harshman steps up at Harmonic
Sky Sports’ Football and Cricket live on Vodafone 3GThe weekend of May 6and 7 sees UK broadcaster Sky Sports and mobile operator Vodafone UK offer live international cricket and the Football League Playoffs to Vodafone live! with 3G phones.
For the first time in the UK, live football matches will be shown simultaneously live on mobile and on TV, starting with the semi-finals of the Championship Playoffs on Saturday 6 May. In the first month alone around 100 hours of coverage will be scheduled, including 15 live football matches and three live Test matches. Live cricket will continue through the summer until the final Test against Pakistan in September.
Live football and cricket from Sky Sports is being made available as part of the Sky Mobile TV service, which offers Vodafone live! with 3G customers the chance to receive a wide range of mobile TV channels, including news, sport, entertainment, documentary and music channels. The coverage will be available at no extra charge as a bonus service for subscribers to Sky Mobile TV’s News, Sports and Factual Pack.
Stephen Nuttall, Sky’s Director of Business Development, said: "Sky Sports is known for being at the forefront of innovation. This collaboration with Vodafone gives fans the flexibility and convenience of watching two major series – a summer of international cricket and the intrigue and excitement of the Football League Playoffs – even when they cannot get to a TV screen."
Al Russell, Head of Content for Vodafone live!, said: "We are delighted that we can continue to offer the best in sport to our customers wherever they are. Our hugely successful collaboration with Sky on Mobile TV now extends to a summer of sport bonanza for Vodafone customers, offering a full 90 minutes of football as well as live England cricket coverage."
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Pandalian for set for multi-platform launchCanadian youth TV channel YTV have devised a launch plan for fantasy adventure cartoon Pandalian that will see the series available on-air, online and on-demand. A full episode will premiere on broadband and VOD ahead of the July 5 broadcast launch
"As part of Corus Entertainment’s continuing strategy to offer kids the content they want, when they want and on the platforms they want, Nelvana and YTV have devised a launch plan for Pandalian that is unrivalled in the Canadian kids television industry," said Phil Piazza, VP of Programming, Corus Children’s Television. "As the story unfolds, we’ll begin to add further creative to expand the brand’s online world, including interactive games, downloads, ecards, personality quizzes, colouring pages and themed clips."
The series begins on June 7 as YTV debuts an interactive Pandalian webpage offering a full half-hour sneak peek episode and promotional clip. YTV will air a promotional spot to support the online sneak peek as the first episode simultaneously debuts on video on-demand (VOD).
The show will premiere in its regular YTV timeslot Wednesday, July 5. From June 7 to the scheduled broadcast debut July 5, Pandalian will be promoted via on-air spots and on the YTV.com homepage. Following the on-air launch, the immersive webpage will begin hosting ‘Next Week’ trailers that offer viewers a sneak peek at upcoming episodes, which will also air on VOD.
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DirecTV has reported first quarter revenues up 8 per cent to $3.39 billion with operating profit before depreciation and amortisation more than tripled to $605 million compared to last year's first quarter. The Group reported first quarter 2006 operating profit of $392 million and net income of $235 million, or $0.17 per share, compared with an operating loss of $54 million and a net loss of $41 million, or $0.03 loss per share, in the same period last year.
"DirecTV U.S. had a strong first quarter highlighted by revenue growth of 14 per cent to $3.19 billion, operating profit before depreciation and amortisation more than doubling to $545 million and cash flow before interest and taxes of $211 million," said Chase Carey, president and CEO of The DirecTV Group, Inc. "Similar to recent quarters, this solid growth was driven by our large and growing subscriber base, strong ARPU growth and higher operating margins due mostly to the significant scale and operating leverage of our business."
Carey continued, "In addition to the strong financial performance, first quarter results also reflect the benefits gained from our strategy to attain higher quality subscribers. DirecTV's stricter credit policies and revised dealer incentives implemented over the past several quarters have impacted both our gross and net subscriber growth."
Carey concluded, "Looking ahead, the introduction of new high definition programming will play an increasingly important role in DirecTV's competitive strength and future growth. Just two weeks ago, we launched local HD channels in eight new cities bringing our total coverage to 20 markets representing about 40 per cent of U.S. TV households. We will continue launching new markets over the coming months and by the end of the year, we expect to have HD local channels available to approximately three-quarters of all households. And after the launch of our two remaining HD satellites next year, we expect to have the most comprehensive and compelling offering of HD programming for nearly every home in America."
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SES Astra and Discovery agree capacity dealSatellite operator SES Astra has signed a long-term satellite capacity agreement with Discovery Communications. As of 1st February this year, XXP, a German factual based mainstream entertainment channel, has extended its analogue transmission from four to 24 hours per day. XXP has been using analogue capacity from Astra on the prime orbital position 19.2° East since May 2001. XXP is also distributed in digital on Astra. Discovery Communications acquired a controlling stake in XXP in March 2006.
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Hong Kong Cable TV set to score at World CupHong Kong’s Cable TV is confident its coverage of June's soccer World Cup will generate a profit even though it has already spent nearly HK$200 million (US$25.8 million) on programming and promotions, according to the South China Morning Post. That figure does not include what the company is paying to secure the exclusive Hong Kong broadcasting rights and its investment in a 3-D sports analytical system.
Project Manager of Cable TV’s FIFA World Cup organising committee, Tsang Chin Cheung, said advertising slots for the 64 matches were practically fully booked. Tsang added that negotiations to sell studio game-show and event sponsorships are still ongoing. "There is more scope for these kinds of sponsorship, as sponsors have seen our past World Cup success," he said.
A deal to share broadcasting rights for some of the tournament matches with Hong Kong's two free-to-air broadcasters, Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) and Asia Television Limited (ATV), is in the final stages, Tsang revealed
The company is also introducing the Piero 3-D system as part of this year's coverage. The system - designed by BBC Research and Development and first deployed last year by BBC Sport - allows viewers to track and analyse plays and players in greater detail and from any angle, using a virtual stadium.
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Foxtel launches low-cost digital entry package
From Rose Major in Melbourne
Australian digital-television platform Foxtel has created a new cheaper entry-level package in an attempt to boost subscriptions.
The A$37-a-month package looks a lot like an analogue pay-television service, with 25 channels, although subscribers will also get around 30 audio channels and some interactive services. There are also five new tiered packages, which subscribers can add to the new basic package for A$15 a month. These packages cover sports, documentaries, lifestyle, youth and two movie tiers. Subscribers can choose one for A$15 extra, two for A$20 and three for A$23.
Foxtel’s cheapest package immediately before the new launch was A$51.
The company also said that it intended to keep transmitting the seven free-to-air channels it will now have to pay 22.5 cents per subscriber per month for, following a copyright ruling.
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Ad models "must change" to exploit new television medium
From Colin Mann in LondonA major study of the television industry, featuring essays from TV industry commentators and top executives from UK television companies and related organisations has revealed a TV industry lacking in consensus over how to respond to TV’s growing complexity and of structural resistance to change.
Television advertising sales house ids, which commissioned the book - New Language for the New Medium of Television - has identified five priority areas of focus to optimise the relevance of the most powerful communication medium, television:
A need for language that differentiates between old and new television media; The more widespread application of new creative and commercial models to exploit the potential offered by the new television medium; A more sophisticated approach to measurement and a better understanding of how viewers consume television; An appropriate regulatory framework to reflect the contemporary viewing environment; Increased collaboration across all sectors of the commercial television industry
James Wildman, Executive Sales Director of ids, commented: "Television has undergone a radical transformation. The changes that have occurred in the TV market over the last few years have been primarily driven by technology. The consequences have been very focused at both ends of the spectrum, from platforms at one end to consumers at the other. Platforms have emerged and improved, and viewers are watching TV in very different ways. However, in the middle lie broadcasters, agencies and advertisers, and their ways of working individually and collectively are more or less unchanged from 20 or 30 years ago."
At the book’s launch, Decipher Group Chairman Nigel Walley, one of the contributors, refuted suggestions that the 30-second spot was obsolete. "It will become the gateway to other video executions," he suggested.
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IPTV equipment sales set to top $6b
According to recent research, IPTV equipment sales, service revenue, subscribers, and service provider capex all increased dramatically between 2004 and 2005, and are expected to explode by 2009.
With worldwide IPTV subscribers swelling to 53 million by 2009, service providers are investing rapidly increasing amounts on IPTV content and transport equipment. In 2009, $26 billion of worldwide service provider capex will be spent on IPTV infrastructure, suggests Infonetics Research.
Meanwhile, worldwide IPTV equipment revenue will surge to $6 billion, and service revenue will jump to $38 billion. Broadband service providers with DSL and FTTH services account for the bulk of IPTV service revenue now, but cable broadband providers will also migrate to all-IP triple-play services in the next few years, and offer wireless services as well.
"Service providers expect huge returns from IPTV, and they are investing heavily in IPTV infrastructure to ensure those returns," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for IPTV at Infonetics Research. "Right now they’re focused on transport infrastructure, upgrading their access networks with higher-bandwidth ADSL2+, VDSL2, and FTTH platforms, and adding IP edge routers and Ethernet routers and switches to handle the expected traffic demands of the escalating numbers of IPTV subscribers. Over the next four years, though, their investments will shift a bit to content infrastructure, so they’ll spend more on things like video on demand servers, encoders, content security platforms, and headend equipment."
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conVISUAL clinches fresh ProSiebenSat.1 deal
Mobile interactive TV specialist conVISUAL has agreed a second master agreement with SevenOne Intermedia GmbH, the multimedia company of the ProSiebenSat.1 group. The contract covers the provision of mobile download services for the online and teletext platforms of the TV broadcasters ProSieben, Sat.1, kabel eins and N24.
conVISUAL provides everything that TV viewers of ProSieben, Sat.1, kabel eins and N24 can order for their handsets. The agreement comprises consulting, content licensing, technical service and billing of network operators. Apart from content sales, conVISUAL and SevenOne Intermedia concentrate on the viewer's loyalty to TV formats.
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Harshman steps up at Harmonic
Digital video delivery specialist Harmonic has announced that Dr Patrick Harshman has been appointed the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer by the Board of Directors. Harshman succeeds Anthony Ley, who has led Harmonic’s growth and development for 18 years. Ley is retiring from active, full-time service with the Company, but will continue as the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
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Telecinco: top ratings and revenues
From David del Valle in Madrid
Mediaset-controlled TV network Telecinco, has performed well, both in terms of revenues and in audience ratings. In the first quarter of the year, the channel declared a net profit of E73.31 million, 13.6 per cent up in comparison with the previous year when it recorded a historic result.
Ad revenues amounted to E 215.76 million until March, 8.1 per cent more than in the first quarter of 2005, with an EBITDA of E103.61 million, up 9 per cent.
Telecinco also heads the audience ratings with a daily average share of 21.1 per cent, reaching up to 21.4 per cent in prime time.
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