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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 7th September
OFT to review CRR
Broadcasters missing online revenue
Competition could threaten mobile TV
XM/Sirius deal wins support from former FCC head
Widevine secures Inuk’s PC IPTV
Apple overhauls iPod
Spain leads in DTT says Abertis
GlobeCast chooses Intelsat for DTH service
Latens to secure du IPTV services
ICO selects DiBcom for MIM trial
Swisscom deploys Tandberg
OFT to review CRRUK Office of Fair Trading has agreed to ITV’s request that it review a restrictive agreement that limits how much advertisers pay the broadcaster for airtime. The Contract Rights Renewal agreement was a condition of allowing Granada and Carlton, the two biggest channel 3 franchises, to merge in 2003 to create ITV, and allowed advertisers to extend existing contracts.
The amount ITV can charge is dependent on its share of commercial impact, a more demanding measurement than raw ratings. If the company performs poorly in comparison with rivals, its revenues from advertising suffer accordingly. Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV last, has identified reform or removal of CRR as key to his strategy for turning the business around.
ITV welcomed the decision, adding: "We will be making the strongest possible representations to the OFT to conclude the processes within a year from now, giving advertisers and commercial broadcasters the certainty needed to contract airtime and plan levels of programme investment for the calendar year 2009."
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Broadcasters missing online revenueVividas, the video streaming company, has revealed uncertainty and knowledge gaps amongst broadcasters on monetising digital content. Most broadcasters surveyed are looking at online advertising models, but only 7 per cent consider Pay Per View (PPV) as a future revenue generator.
With 95 per cent of broadcasters confident that online content will take off, only 43 per cent of those surveyed currently offer online video. A further one third plan to implement online video by 2009. Further research conducted by Ovum shows that the growth of Video On Demand is set to grow by almost 100 per cent year-on-year in Western Europe. By 2009, VoD revenues are predicted to be worth $888.5m. The UK VoD market alone is set to contribute $189.57m, nearly 22 per cent of the European total. Despite most broadcasters focussing on advertising to facilitate free VoD, it is only one of four business models identified to monetise broadband video, the other three being: Subscriptions:, VoD rental and Download-to-own.
Andrew Wilding, European CEO at Vividas, says: "Broadcasters would do well to aim PPV models at advertisers, rather than relying on obtrusive adverts or trying to convince the consumer to pay for one-time content. By sponsoring online clips, advertisers will have the advantage of targeting individual users and the viewer gets to watch video online for free, which is a real win-win scenario."
The advertising PPV model would work especially well with streaming because advertisers can tell how many times adverts are viewed off the back of online video content and if content is forwarded to other users. Streaming also has the added advantage of eradicating storage issues for end users and helps to minimise bandwidth bottlenecks for ISPs struggling to cope with fat file downloads.
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Competition could threaten mobile TVIn-Stat reports that "mobile" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as "cellular." New technologies and business models are now under development that may threaten mobile operators' ability to profit from video content, the high-tech market research firm says.
"Cellular operators may find that consumers won't be as interested in their video offerings once other types of service are available," says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. "Of the five methods of mobile video delivery studied in a recent In-Stat report, two operate outside the current cell phone ecosystem, and a third ‘out-of-band video’ seems to be allied to mobile operators for commercial convenience, not technological necessity." All three, Chamberlain says, could bypass mobile operators altogether.
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XM/Sirius deal wins support from former FCC headMark Fowler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the 1980s has praised XM and Sirius for offering a diverse slate of programming targeted to many audiences Fowler had short shrift for broadcasters opposing the merger.
"In observing the broadcasters' intense negative reaction to the proposed merger of the two satellite radio companies, it struck me that little has changed in 26 years," Fowler said. "Each year, the skies over Washington darken as the Lear jets bring industry lobbyists to the latest battlefront against competition and its offshoot - mergers that enhance competition."
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Widevine secures Inuk’s PC IPTV
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamDownloadable content protection provider Widevine Technologies, has agreed a deal with UK-based triple-play service provider Inuk Networks to deploy Widevine Cypher for the PC to protect and enable its secure delivery of premium broadcast channels and video-on-demand content for its Freewire service - the nation’s first PCTV deployment launching September 2007.
Inuk’s Freewire platform features a virtual set-top box solution that enables Inuk to deliver television to the PC with full PVR capabilities. All on-screen information and controls are displayed within an electronic programme guide for viewing on Windows or Mac based platforms.
Brian Baker, Widevine’s CEO, said that Inuk’s selection of Widevine further demonstrated how comfortable Hollywood is with the depth of its PC protection capabilities. "PC-based television delivery is fast becoming a critical component for offering innovative services that will expand a video operator’s footprint and grow their revenues significantly," he added.
Inuk Networks’ CEO Marcus Liassides said that Widevine’s multiplatform, multiformat downloadable conditional access and digital rights management solution with digital copy protection was a key requirement for licensing premium broadcast and Hollywood content for delivery to PCs.
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Apple overhauls iPodA touch-screen iPod, dubbed the iPod Touch, has been added to Apple's line of portable music players. It also has wi-fi and a web browser on-board so people can buy music when they are out and about.
Owners of the iPod touch will be able to use the built-in Safari browser to surf the web or buy music via the onboard wi-fi iTunes store. A deal with Starbucks will let people use the wi-fi iTunes store for free while inside one of the company's cafes.
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Spain leads in DTT says Abertis
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain has taken the lead in the DTT take-up in Europe. Tobias Martinez, General Director of Abertis Telecom, broadcasting agency responsible for the DTT signals carriage, said that Spain is leading the DTT take-up in Europe following the sales of set-top-boxes increasing over recent months.According to the Pro DTT Association, Impulsa, DTT already covers 85 per cent of Spain, with a penetration of 24 per cent and an average share of 7.4 per cent. Up to July, 5.8 million boxes had been sold.
Martinez pointed out that the main driving force behind the development of DTT in the future will be mobile DTT, Internet DTT and High Definition, the mainstay of the DTT market. Martinez also urged the Government to do its best for the launch of mobile TV in the second quarter of 2008.
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GlobeCast chooses Intelsat for DTH serviceIntelsat has revealed that GlobeCast has signed additional channels for its WorldTV Direct-to-Home (DTH) service in Europe using Intelsat capacity on the Intelsat 905 satellite located at 335.5šE. This DTH platform supports free-to-air and subscription channels, allowing programmers to reach home audiences via antennas as small as 60 cm.
The lineup of the WorldTV Platform now includes; Channel Punjab, Sahara One, Sony Entertainment Television Asia, NDTV 24x7 and Star One, Gold and Plus.
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Latens to secure du IPTV servicesLatens, provider of software security solutions for Pay-TV and IPTV, has been awarded a contract by the Dubai-based telco, du, to protect its IPTV service. du, the new telecom operator in United Arab Emirates (UAE), has acquired over 500,000 customers. This represents more than 10 per cent of the UAE population within less than a year of its launch of operations.
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ICO selects DiBcom for MIM trialSatellite communications company ICO has confirmed that semi-conductor comapny DiBcom has joined its Mobile Interactive Media (MIM) alpha trial team to provide DVB-SH chipsets. DiBcom joins Hughes Network System and Alcatel-Lucent as technology partners for the US MIM trial, which is set to start in Spring, 2008.
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Swisscom deploys TandbergTandberg Television has announced that its iPlex UltraCompression IPTV head-end has been selected by Swisscom for the next step of its Bluewin IPTV service. Swisscom and Tandberg commenced their collaboration with the trial of the Bluewin IPTV system in autumn 2004, followed by commercial deployment in November 2006.
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Thursday 6th September
NBC sells shows on Amazon
Highfield defends iPlayer
MPAA wants movie piracy criminalised
Universal attacks Veoh
German digitalisation breakthrough
Yahoo buys BlueLithium
Pace extends into networks
iBAHN acquires ETV
Al Jazeera Sport, 1m subs
Harmonic HD for DirecTV
Verimatrix enters cable market
NBC sells shows on AmazonNBC Universal has deepened its relationship with Amazon’s digital video download service after a dispute with Apple over the pricing of television shows on iTunes.
The company has revealed that Amazon had agreed to give offer greater flexibility in the pricing and packaging of video downloads. As a result, NBC Universal will sell a wide variety of its television programming on Amazon’s fledgling Unbox download service, including the popular US shows "Heroes" and "The Office". Episodes will be available on Unbox the day after they are broadcast on TV.
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Highfield defends iPlayerResponding to complaints from Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse that iPlayer downloads will slow their networks, Ashley Highfield, head of new media at the BBC, said "I don’t really expect my internet service provider to turn around to me and say ‘ah yes, but we didn’t actually expect you to use that capacity and we didn’t really want you to download video’. I think that’s a bit disingenuous if any internet service providers start to turn around and say that to their customers."
In an interview with paidcontent he denied the BBC was "in the pocket of Bill Gates" over the application’s Windows dependence. He said a Mac version - "our next major priority" - is now under development: "The peer-to-peer solution has got unique issues with the Mac platform because we can only give our programming away for seven days for free and that’s quite a difficult rule to implement, particularly to devices like the iPod, so we would be looking at a streaming solution for the Mac probably."
Highfield complained the BBC Trust took nine months to give the go-ahead to iPlayer, which was first proposed in 2003: "The issue is the time it takes ... That’s a terribly long process. And we end up being criticized ... That does bother me because I think it’s important the BBC is an innovator ... My ideal would be to have the same level of rigor but to do it in a much shorter timeframe."
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MPAA wants movie piracy criminalisedDan Glickman, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, is seeking to persuade the UK government to introduce new anti-piracy legislation that would make it a criminal, rather than a civil offence, to record a film in a cinema using a camcorder.
Glickman says piracy and intellectual property infringement, cost the UK film industry an estimated £460m (E657m) in 2006. Although cinemas do not allow people to use camcorders to record films in the UK, there is no legislation in place to allow the prosecution of offenders. The MPAA says it is partly thanks to its lobbying that Italy, Japan and Canada have recently implemented laws allowing prosecutions.
He said that 90 per cent of illegal copies of films that are in circulation were originally recorded using camcorders in cinemas, and that the popularity of new UK-made films – and the size of the UK market – made fighting piracy a top priority.
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Universal attacks VeohUniversal Music Group has launched legal action against video networking site Veoh, claiming the online video-posting service infringes its copyrights, saying: "Veoh follows in the ignominious footsteps of other recent mass infringers such as Napster." Veoh claims it takes steps to prevent illegal postings and is therefore exempt from infringement allegations.
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German digitalisation breakthroughThe digitalisation of TV-households is gathering momentum in Germany where 77 per cent of TV-households will be digitalised at primary reception by the end of 2012. This is the forecast of Goldmedia published in its study "The Future of TV-transmission", which analyses the development of broadcasting infrastructures in Germany.
Satellite in Germany acts as the driving force behind digitalisation. More and more analogue satellite TV channels are only transmitted digitally. The diminishing number of these satellite programmes is becoming increasingly unattractive for customers and therefore 94 per cent of satellite reception will be digitalised by 2012.
Only 14 per cent of Germany's TV-households made use of digital cable by the end of 2006. However, by 2012 cable will have a more than 50 per cent degree of digitalisation and will thereby become the second most important digital infrastructure for television in Germany.
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Yahoo buys BlueLithiumInternet giant Yahoo has acquired international online advertising network BlueLithium for £150m (E222m) in the latest move to cash-in on the growing trend of behavioural ad targeting.
BlueLithium, which claims to be the fifth largest online advertising network in the US and the second largest in the UK, has around 1,000 websites that will be added to Yahoo's own growing operation in this area.
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Pace extends into networksPace Micro is extending its reach in the digital TV industry with the launch of a new business unit - Pace Networks. The company says this will open up new markets for the company with solutions that will enable operators to grow their subscriber bases and increase ARPU by gaining new subscribers that were previously difficult to reach, either due to expense, legislation or other restrictions.
The first product developed within Pace Networks is Pace MultiDweller. MultiDweller enables operators to deliver a full suite of interactive digital services to customers in multi-dwelling units (MDUs), including digital video, broadband and telephony.
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iBAHN acquires ETViBAHN, provider of broadband services to business travellers worldwide, has acquired ETV Interactive, a player in single cable digital TV, entertainment and communications systems for the hospitality industry. As a result of the deal, iBAHN, in conjunction with ETV, will offers services in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. iBAHN seeks to launch a service in the US in 2008.
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Al Jazeera Sport Channel (JSC Sport +1/ JSC Sport +2) has reached more than one million subscribers: "I am delighted by this achievement which we have accomplished in only a few years since the Channel’s launch in 2003. This is a testament to the Channel’s superb content which our subscribers recognise and value," said Ayman Jada, the Managing Director of the Sports Channel.
The Channel has acquired a long list of TV rights for top quality regional and global sporting events including the Qatari, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Argentinean, Portuguese and Japanese leagues. In addition, Al Jazeera Sport has the TV rights to some of the most important European football competitions such as the English, Spanish, French and German Cup, not to mention the European League Cup, the competition that Al Jazeera Sport has had the exclusive rights to since last season.
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Harmonic HD for DirecTVHarmonic announced that DIRECTV, the world’s largest direct-to-home (DTH) satellite operator with more than 16.3 million subscribers, has deployed Harmonic’s DiviCom Electra 7000 high definition (HD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders for its national HD channel expansion.
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Verimatrix enters cable marketVerimatrix has revealed its latest content security solution Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for Cable IPTV, a solution for delivery of secure IPTV services over cable. In an OEM partnership with GoBackTV, Verimatrix has integrated its VCAS with GoBackTV’s CMTS Bypass solution, which converts an existing cable system to an asymmetric IP network suited for IPTV services. By enabling IPTV on existing cable plants, operators can reclaim bandwidth for new services and reduce cost by gaining access to a wide variety of IPTV consumer premises equipment.
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Wednesday 5th September
Limited appeal for Setanta on DTH and DTT
KT launches IPTV service
BSkyB standalone broadband
Tiscali widens footprint
Gemstar-TV Guide on Spanish DTT
PTS Taiwan mobile TV trials
Thomson buys SyncCast
ProSiebenSat snaps up MyVideo
In game ads from Double Fusion
Scaberia and Mirifice monitor video streaming
LG Freeview playback TVs
KPN and Narrowstep Internet TV solution
Westell for BT
Harmonic for Indonesian Pay TV
Limited appeal for Setanta on DTH and DTT
Despite its securing rights to broadcast live UK Premiership football, sports broadcaster Setanta Sports looks set to struggle to compete against the established players in the subscription market. Only 1 per cent of UK adults with digital TV at home said they were very likely to subscribe within the next 12 months, according to Continental Research’s Digital TV 2007 Report.Amongst the relatively small number of Sky customers who said they were likely to buy Setanta, a majority said it would be in addition to Sky Sports, rather than as a replacement.
Report author, James Myring, said: "Sky has dominated the multichannel TV race for many years… Setanta is unlikely to seriously disrupt the UK multichannel marketplace in the short term. It may have more success in expanding its reach through the tie-up with Virgin Media that has given premium Virgin Media subscribers access to Setanta premiership games, hence significantly boosting reach. BT is already offering access to the 46 live Setanta games and delayed (but full) coverage of another 242 matches. This type of partnership may be the route for Setanta to maximise its distribution, rather than via additional subscriptions on Sky and Freeview."
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KT launches IPTV serviceKT, the largest telephone and broadband line operator in Korea, has launched its IPTV offering to its Megapass broadband Internet service users across the nation.
Mega TV is expected to form a healthy rivalry with Hanaro Telecom's 'Hana TV' service, which has secured more then 500,000 users and aims to double the number by early next year. KT also expects to draw 300,000 subscribers this year and to increase the number to one million next year.
The new Mega TV service will offer a multitude of video-on-demand programming services, and a range of interactive TV services.
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BSkyB standalone broadbandBSkyB is preparing to offer Internet access without insisting that it is bundled in with a satellite television subscription. BSkyB CEO James Murdoch has been testing a standalone service – tentatively known as Picnic B - that will allow it to serve customers who are not interested in a satellite package.
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Tiscali widens footprintAs part of its stated aim to reach 10 million households by the end of the year, UK triple-play provider Tiscali has confirmed its availability in Liverpool, Birmingham and Leicester, ahead of a national roll-out, increasing its reach to 5m homes. This potential customer base, which already includes London, will be further increased next month with some Scottish cities and others in North West England earmarked to receive the service.
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Gemstar-TV Guide on Spanish DTT
From David Del Valle in MadridGemstar-TV Guide is to launch its Interactive Programme Guide (IPG) in the Spanish market following an agreement with DTT broadcaster Veo Television, controlled by newspaper El Mundo.
The agreement allows Gemstar-TV Guide to supply data to its Guide Plus+ Interactive Program Guide (IPG), which has already been incorporated into digital recorders and televisions from leading brands including Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Pioneer, JVC and Sharp in Spain. According to the company, the release of Gemstar-TV Guide‚s digital service in Spain will complement the analogue service that is currently available in the Spanish marketplace.
"This announcement reinforces our commitment to be at the forefront of guidance technology and services as Europe transitions to a digital future," said Lydie Levy, chief operating officer for Gemstar-TV Guide’s consumer electronics business.
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Public Television Service (PTS), one of the five terrestrial TV broadcasters in Taiwan, has began trials broadcasts of DVB-H (digital video broadcasting-handheld) mobile TV service in the northern region of Taiwan, with the trial scheduled to run until the end of the year.
Taiwan's top three mobile telecom carriers, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone Telecommunications, are all partners with PTS for the trial broadcast, while Motorola and Qisda (originally named BenQ) are also assisting by providing 200 DVB-H handsets for use in the test.
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Thomson has acquired SyncCast Corp., a wholesale distributor of online movies, music and other entertainment, as part of an effort to boost its own digital-services businesses. Through its Technicolor services division, Thomson is trying to win more business from studios and distribution companies as they increasingly move toward digitization of key processes such as creating masters and delivery.
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ProSiebenSat snaps up MyVideoProSiebenSat 1 Media, Germany’s largest commercial TV broadcaster, has bought 70 per cent of MyVideo, a German video sharing site that it already had a 30 per cent stake in, thereby buying out the site completely, The remaining stake cost the company about E19m.
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In game ads from Double FusionDouble Fusion, a company that connects advertisers and video game publishers, is rolling out new technology to allow advertisers to mount last-minute ad campaigns in games the same way they use spot TV ads. Game designers now designate and hard-code locations for in-game advertising during the development process. After the coding is completed, advertising content can be changed via an Internet connection, but locations for ads cannot be changed or added.
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Scaberia and Mirifice monitor video streaming
Scaberia, a Norway based technology consultancy, and Mirifice, broadcast technology and solutions group, have signed an agreement to target monitoring and end-user behaviour challenges, faced by telco, broadcast network and mobile operators as they introduce next generation digital services.
"In the TV distribution and VoD world it is always on issue to get sophisticated system data and parameter and time to market cycles are taking much longer. This is where Mirifice with their Mirimon monitoring system can add substantial value to our clients." commented Frank Schmull, CEO Scaberia.
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LG Freeview playback TVsElectronics specialist LG has confirmed the launch of a range of flat-screen TVs with upgraded built-in digital video recorders. The LT75 (LCD) and PT85 (plasma) series of Freeview playback TVs include 160GB of storage, and dual tuners which allow viewers to watch one programme while recording another whilst eliminating the need to connect the TV to a separate box.
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KPN and Narrowstep Internet TV solutionWholesale carriers KPN has teamed up with Narrowstep, provider of TV over the Internet solutions, to provide a wholesale Internet TV offering to mobile and fixed network operators, ISPs and content parties.
Narrowstep has developed an Internet TV platform that can deliver quality long-form programming available, giving audiences a TV-like viewing experience over the Internet. KPN will offer a bundled service to its customers that will enable them to monetise video content and decommoditise bandwidth sales. The new service will launch in October 2007, and as part of the deal, Narrowstep will use KPN’s global network infrastructure to extend its Content Distribution Network.
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Westell for BTWestell, the convergence migration specialist announced that BT is using its IiQ 2030 gateway product to allow BT to launch a new solution in its convergence portfolio called PBX Net. PBX Net is ideal for those BT customers who wish to make their first steps toward full IP based converged voice and data communications, without needing to rip and replace their existing telephony systems/exchanges.
Many enterprises already have IP networks from BT, which actually have the capacity for voice and video, yet currently are only being used for sending and receiving data. PBX Net utilises these existing networks, so that customers can cut costs by running all communication over IP. This transition ensures that customers can make savings from utilising a single voice and data network, increase their confidence in VoIP and negate the need to change or put any additional investment into their existing legacy communication systems.
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Harmonic for Indonesian Pay TV
Harmonic has confirmed that PT Indonusa Telemedia has implemented Harmonic's DiviCom Electra 1000 multi-channel MPEG-2 standard definition encoders for its Telkom Vision direct-to-home satellite service in Indonesia.
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Tuesday 4th September
Tribler ‘bandwith currency’
BT broadband leader
Trai: DTH must offer refunds
Whistle blows for Mediapro football kick-off
Hollywood slowing download growth
Scott named Freesat MD
ADB to supply T-Com for interactive project
AccessKey STB development
NUTS TV promises viewer interaction
T-Com selects Quative
Nagravision protects Dream Satellite
Researchers have found a way to enforce good manners on file-sharing networks by treating bandwidth as a currency. A peer-to-peer system called Tribler has been developed enabling selfless sharers to earn faster upload and download speeds, whilst leechers are penalised.
The technology is being assessed by a European broadcasting body looking at ways of piping TV across the net. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), is trying to create a standardised Internet broadcasting system across Europe.
"Tribler is a good candidate," said Franc Kozamernik, senior engineer at the EBU. "We are in the process of testing it and checking whether it fulfils our requirements or not," he said. The EBU has already tested a number of other P2P systems and is in the process of building a media portal which will allow EBU members to publish their radio and television channels across Europe.
Using bandwidth as a kind of currency helps to encourage better habits, according to Dr Johan Pouwelse, an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology and co-creator of Tribler.
"In our model your TV would use "TV watching minutes", our form of P2P currency, to download content," he said. "The TV would connect directly to the Internet and provide video on demand in HDTV quality. After you watch a programme on TV, the system would automatically share this programme during the night with other people, until your ‘TV watching minutes’ credit is healthy again. If we get this right, it would mean quite a change in the TV business."
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BT broadband leaderBT has passed the 4 million landmark for customers signed up to its broadband service, cementing the company’s position as the UK’s leading supplier. BT, on average, adds 2,000 customers a day to its service.
This dramatic rise in connections has led to the UK overtaking most of its main competitors in terms of broadband penetration. Only Canada is ahead of the UK in the G8 meaning the UK is ahead of Japan, France, Germany and the US. There are more than 15 million connections in the UK with approximately 11.5m of those running over the BT network. The rest are carried via the UK’s cable network.
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From December 1st, India’s 3.2 million Direct-to-Home (DTH) subscribers will be able to ask for refunds on DTH equipment (the set-top box and antenna) if they choose to discontinue the service. This is one of several key directives issued by industry regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to ensure subscribers quality of service.
The move will provide customers with the flexibility to choose between competing DTH platforms. The new regulations will be called the ‘Direct to Home Broadcasting Services (Standards of Quality of Service and Redressal of Grievances) Regulation, 2007’ and will cover regulatory provisions protecting DTH subscribers.
DTH companies will also be forced to offer subscribers a choice between outright purchase of DTH equipment and a rental scheme on roughly the same line as TV homes that subscribe to conditional access system (CAS) services.
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Whistle blows for Mediapro football kick-off
From David Del Valle in Madrid
A Spanish court has rejected a request from Sogecable-controlled Audiovisual Sports division to block Mediapro from entering stadiums with television cameras and broadcasting football matches, until a final decision has been taken on broadcasting rights.Audiovisual Sport and Mediapro are currently embroiled in a legal battle over a contractual agreement to share premier league football broadcasting rights, which the Catalan producer claims is invalid.
For Mediapro, the Court’s decision means that until the legal battle over who holds the rights to which games is concluded, Mediapro will be permitted access to the games and permission to broadcast them. Sogecable has announced an appeal against the decision.
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Hollywood slowing download growthHollywood’s leading studios are holding back the growth of digital downloading by their failure to adapt a common strategy for the distribution of content. Screen Digest, the media research consultancy, says that Hollywood’s failure to agree on a dominant downloading format has resulted in a fragmented market that is confusing consumers.
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Scott named Freesat MDFreesat, the BBC and ITV joint venture satellite equivalent to digital terrestrial service Freeview, has appointed Emma Scott as its first managing director.
Scott, who will take up the position next month, will be responsible for developing the strategy to launch Freesat in spring of next year. She had previously been responsible for leading the BBC’s successful bid for a digital terrestrial television licence and was subsequently a launch director for Freeview.
Freesat will offer all the benefits of digital TV plus full interactivity across a range of 200 plus channels for a one-off payment. Freesat intends to build on the success of Freeview by offering viewers a trusted, subscription free digital upgrade path.
The proposition will target both the 27 per cent of the UK population who are currently out of digital terrestrial coverage - the 5 million homes that still don’t have a single digitally-enabled set - and all those who have HD enabled TV sets and want HD for free.
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ADB to supply T-Com for interactive project
Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), supplier of digital TV systems and software solutions for interactive television, has been selected by T-Com Innovation to supply its ADB-3810TW series set-top boxes for a new innovation project and consumer pilot of an Internet TV service.
The project is designed to pilot and test consumers’ acceptance of a new interactive television concept based on Internet standards. It will consist of a limited number of subscribers and has been designed specifically to test a number of services distributed over the Internet to set-top boxes running HTML and JavaScript-based software.
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AccessKey STB developmentAccessKey IP, developer and producer of entertainment and communication devices, has signed a Letter of Intent with a US based organisation in the IPTV sector.
Rich Lauer, President of AccessKey IP, commented: "This next generation device leverages much of AccessKey’s existing investment in advanced technology for the IPTV field while also applying a highly targeted and customer-specific set of functional requirements to the design." The prospective customer’s identity remains confidential pending certain significant business transactions.
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NUTS TV promises viewer interaction
NUTS TV, inspired by IPC’s top-selling men’s weekly magazine, has set its launch date as September 12 on UK DTT platform Freeview, as well at nuts.tv. Dee Forbes, SVP and GM TBS UK, said that with a multi-platform launch and UGC strategy at heart, NUTS TV would bridge the current gap in the TV marketplace. "Male audiences are currently bombarded with entertainment and information so we have taken great steps to ensure this is a channel representative of their lives with content they will want to both watch, and interact with."
Adrian Swift, Director of Television, ETV, added: "NUTS TV will be fresh television that not only allows the audience to see the programme itself, but behind the scenes as it’s made live. Viewers can also be part of the show by texting, calling or sending in their own content."
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Quative is supplying its IPTV Service Delivery Platform (SDP) to T-Com Innovations GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, for an interactive TV pilot project.
"With this interactive TV pilot we are testing innovative service concepts with a limited number of subscribers under real deployment conditions," said Thomas Staneker, SVP of T-Com Innovation GmbH. "The Quative IPTV platform allows us to easily support multiple application partners for a host of new interactive services."
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Nagravision protects Dream SatelliteNagravision, independent provider of content protection and service technology, has been selected by Dream Satellite TV, a brand of Philippine Multimedia System, to protect the content rights for its commercial deployment of DVB-H mobile TV services in the Philippines.
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Monday 3rd September
NBC quits iTunes
Consortium to develop DTT interactive applications
Portuguese DTT public consultation
Free fibre fights back
Vivendi's half year
Thailand lifts YouTube ban
Uruguay adopts DVB-T and DVB-H
Sony shuts Connect
Tooway tunes in
Starz increase HD output with Motorola
NBC quits iTunesNBC Universal has been unable to come to an agreement with Apple on pricing and has not renewed its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows through iTunes. NBC is the largest supplier of digital video to Apple’s online store, accounting for about 40 per cent of downloads.
The decision by NBC Universal highlights the escalating tension between Apple and media companies, which are unhappy that Apple will not give them more control over the pricing of songs and videos that are sold on iTunes. NBC Universal is also seeking better piracy controls and wants Apple to allow it to bundle videos to increase revenue.
The current two-year deal extends through December so the breakdown will not have an immediate impact on iTunes.
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Consortium to develop DTT interactive applications
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Four Spanish companies -maat Gknowledge, SDI Digital, HyC and Multicanal del Cable - have joined their forces to set up a consortium called Maat Media to develop MHP-based DTT applications.
Financed by the Ministry of Industry through European Funds FEDER, the consortium has been developing DTT interactive services over the last months in an attempt to boost the DTT market.
So far, the consortium has put in use several applications related to Educational Interactive TV, weather services, interactive TV pages about traffic and the Stock Market and the job search, many of them tested by the state-owned TV channel TVE.
Interactive DTT applications are facing an important handicap in Spain as most of Spaniards are buying cheap set-top-boxes that are not ready to receive MHP-based services.
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Portuguese DTT public consultation
From Branislav Pekicin RomeThe public consultation on DTT licenses in Portugal initiated opened August 31 and will last until October 15.
Interested parties will be able to express their opinion on the limitations of the rights of use of frequencies and the definition of the respective procedure for awarding the licenses. Up for consultation are also the rules for the public tender that will award national and regional frequencies and the licensing of a network operator.
According to Portugal’s Minister for Parliamentary Issues, the tender should take place by the end of the year, with licenses being issued during the first half of 2008. Various companies have already expressed interest in taking part, including the three groups which own national terrestrial licenses - RTP, SIC and TVI -, media group Cofina, telecom operators Portugal Telecom, Sonaecom, AR Telecom and Vodafone, cable operator TvTel and regional broadcasters Canal Sul TV and TV Centro.
The Portuguese Government will launch two separate DTT tenders. The first will be for a digital multiplex that will carry up to 10 free-to-air channels. The second tender foresees the simultaneous awarding of two licenses to the winner: for the management of the platform and for the distribution of the pay-TV channels. Two national and three regional multiplexes will be available on the second tender.
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Vivendi's half yearVivendi reiterated that it expected full-year adjusted net profit of at least E2.7bn as it posted first-half underlying earnings of E2.6 billion. The company said adjusted underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation rose 10.6 per cent to E2.596bn last year.
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Free fibre fights back
From Sotires Eleftheriou in ParisFrench ADSL operator Free responded to Numericable’s announcement with the details of its own fibre to the home package. This will be at the same price as the standard ADSL triple play pack, namely E29.99 per month, for which subscribers will get 100 Mb/s (50 Mb/s upload), a range of audiovisual services including access to more than 100 channels and to High Definition (HD) channels on two televisions, 2 Freebox units for these TV services: a High Definition compatible Optical Freebox including router and WiFi functions, with 4 Ethernet ports, plus a High Definition compatible Freebox HD connected to the Optical Freebox via Ethernet or WiFi to provide access to the audiovisual services on a second television, including a digital video recorder. The fibre to the home service will be available in parts of the 15th and 20th districts in Paris from mid September.
Free had in fact announced a year ago that it planned to invest E1 billion in fibre over the next ten years, but since then details of the roll-out and the package have been rather sparse. The other great unknown is to what extent the four companies currently "fibring" the country (Orange, Free, Neuf, Numericable) will cooperate and under what conditions each will let the others have access to fibres it has already laid.
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Thailand lifts YouTube banThe Thai Government has lifted its five-month ban on the video-sharing website YouTube, after owners Google agreed to block videos deemed offensive to the Thai people or in violation of Thai law.
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Uruguay adopts DVB-T and DVB-HThe DVB Project has welcomed the decision of Uruguay to adopt the DVB-T and DVB-H standards for its fixed and mobile Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasting. The decision was announced in a Presidential Decree signed by President Tabaré Vázquez and the Minister of Industry, Jorge Lepra.
Undersecretary Martín Ponce de León stated that the adoption of the DVB standards will allow Uruguay to "actively participate in the process of technological development through investments and through development of software and content."
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Sony is to close its online music store Connect. The service, which sold songs in a format barring them from being played on non-Sony devices, will shut down after next March
Meanwhile, it introduced a new US version of its Sony Walkman that includes the ability to play digital video, the latest potential rival to Apple’s dominant iPod media player.
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Eutelsat and ViaSat announced that the consumer broadband satellite service they are partnering to offer in Europe will be available from the end of September in Germany, with selected other European markets to follow before the end of the year. Called Tooway, the new-generation service is designed for residential users, with equipment a fraction the cost of existing enterprise-focused satellite services.
As a new broadband alternative for homes with low-speed dial-up, Tooway can change the price/performance paradigm for consumer satellite Internet access in rural areas across Europe. The new service is based on ViaSat's well-established SurfBeam DOCSIS two-way broadband satellite system that is already used by more than 250,000 homes in North America. They say ghe system is a highly scaleable open standards-based platform.
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Starz increase HD output with Motorola
US movie channel provider Starz Entertainment will utilise a Motorola four-channel, high-definition (HD) MPEG encoding system for the upcoming launch of its new HD channels – Starz Comedy, Starz Edge and Starz Kids & Family. The technology, offered by Motorola’s Home and Networks Mobility Group, compresses, encrypts, and modulates the HD signals within a single integrated transmission system. The HD system is configured for Starz using Motorola’s Modular Uplink System which will support Starz’s planned future migration to MPEG-4 compression technology.
