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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 3rd August
Virgin delays auction
Setanta speedy uptake
BBC: ads on news site
Copyright warnings ‘too heavy’
Sky Sports on mobile phones
Widevine alleges patent breach
Viacom surprise rise
Disney acquire social net
VOLNY IPTV service for Czech Republic
ITV sells ITFC share
Tiscali Italian IPTV deal
Virgin Media appoints Oxby
Virgin delays auctionAs predicted Virgin Media is to delay its auction in the hope credit market turbulence will settle to allow private equity suitors to finance bids of up to $23 billion (E16.8bn).
The UK company had set a deadline of next week for initial offers, after an approach by Carlyle kicked off an auction. But its advisers are said to have ditched the timetable, and are expected to inform bidders of a fresh deadline early next week.
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Setanta speedy uptakeSetanta says it has already signed up 2.5 million customers for its Setanta Sports package. Of those 2.5 million, 1.4 million are Virgin Media customers who had taken up the offer of adding Setanta Sports to their XL basic subscription package. The remaining 1.1m are paying £9.99 (E15) per month to access Setanta Sports via other platforms.
Virgin Media and Setanta announced the XL basic addition last month. Virgin Media XL subscribers are able to access Setanta's 46 live games from the Barclays Premier League, 60 matches from the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League and the US PGA Tour golf, as well as European League football, rugby and horse racing from around the country.
In addition, Setanta Sports North America will begin airing on EchoStar’s DISH Network representing the second major carriage deal for the international sports network. Already on DirecTV since its April 2005 launch, Setanta is now available in approximately 30 million homes.
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BBC: ads on news siteThe BBC is adding commercials to broadband video news clips on its BBC News web site when viewed outside the UK. In a message to web site visitors, the BBC said the technical quality of the video was being improved for overseas users "so that anyone anywhere in the world with a high speed internet connection can watch the BBC's news reports in broadband quality".
Until now this has only been possible for users in the UK, said the message. "We did not want the BBC's UK licence fee payers meeting this cost and in effect subsidising the service for people outside the UK. Now, with the help of our partners in BBC World, the BBC's commercially funded international TV news channel, we are making our broadband video news service available internationally. BBC World is funded by advertising and subscription revenue and the cost of the improved video service will be met by advertising around the broadband news clips. So if you are viewing video from outside the UK you may see a short commercial before your clip plays."
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Copyright warnings ‘too heavy’An association of computer and communication companies, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, accused several professional sports leagues, book publishers and other media companies of misleading and threatening consumers with overstated copyright warnings.
In a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, the group, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, said that the National Football League, Major League Baseball, NBC and Universal Studios, DreamWorks, Harcourt and Penguin Group display copyright warnings that are a "systematic misrepresentation of consumers’ rights to use legally acquired content."
The complaint alleges that the warnings may intimidate consumers from making legal use of copyrighted material, like photocopying a page from a book to use in class.
"It is an attempt to convince Americans that they don’t have rights that they do in fact have," said Ed Black, the association’s president and chief executive. "This is part of the larger context of what should be and what are proper rules for copyright in an Internet age."
The complaint asks the Federal Trade Commission to take remedial actions against content owners, like ordering them to provide a more accurate copyright warning, and to assist with efforts to educate the public on their rights.
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Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is expanding its sports offering with the launch of live Barclays Premier League football on mobile phones. Every one of this season’s Premier League matches are to be broadcast live by Sky Sports via Sky Mobile TV beginning on 11 August.
Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 will be available as simulcast channels as part of a dedicated sports mobile TV package. This will also include Sky Sports News and other channels to be announced and will cost £5 (E7.40) a month.
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Widevine alleges patent breach
Widevine has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Verimatrix for unspecified damages. The lawsuit comes following attempts by Widevine to openly license its intellectual property to Verimatrix. Widevine claims it has important intellectual property in the field of content protection with a robust patent portfolio of 8 issued patents and approximately 45 domestic and international patents pending.
Widevine alleges that Verimatrix has willfully infringed Widevine's patent rights. Widevine previously provided Verimatrix with the opportunity to openly license the selective encryption patent. Verimatrix has not responded to the open licensing opportunity. "Widevine is a leading global creator of intellectual property innovations to protect multimedia content delivered over managed networks and the open internet. Widevine’s intellectual property is one of our core assets and represents the work product of our engineers and millions of dollars of research and development. When our intellectual property is taken, without our permission or through unauthorized licensing, we have no option but to protect it through every means available to us," said Widevine Technologies’ General Counsel Mani Aliabadi.
Viacom Inc posted a better-than-expected profit, boosted by the film division. The New York-based owner of MTV Networks, Paramount movie studios and Nickelodeon cable channels said its second quarter profit fell less than 1 per cent to $434 million down from $437.3 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose 13 per cent to $3.19 billion ahead of Wall Street expectations. Global advertising revenue rose 6 per cent to $1.15 billion.
Revenue from its cable networks divisions including MTV Networks rose 10 per cent. Profit rose 3 per cent, hurt by $11 million in restructuring charges and higher programming expenses as it invested in new shows. Movie studio revenue rose 20 per cent to $1.3 billion and profit rose $17 million to $21.4 million.
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Disney acquire social netDisney has made its first acquisition in social networking buying Club Penguin, which operates an online virtual world for children, for a fee that could eventually rise to $700 million.The deal bolsters its presence in digital entertainment.
Unlike social networking sites for older audiences, such as MySpace and Facebook, Club Penguin has a subscription-based business model. It has more than 700,000 paid subscribers and 12 million "activated" users, primarily in the US and Canada.
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VOLNY IPTV service for Czech RepublicCzech telco VOLNY has launched its IPTV service in the Czech Republic called VOLNY TV. The service offers nearly 40 Czech and foreign TV stations, as well as first-run movie channels, video-on-demand, HBO Digital, the VOLNY Album, which enables on-line viewing and sharing of photos published on the Internet, games and radio. VOLNY TV also includes the service "My TV", which enables viewers to organise their own channel by compiling all the programs that they want to watch.
The service, including rental of modem and set-top box, starts at CZK297 (E10.5) per month. VOLNY TV is currently available in Prague and major parts of Brno.
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ITV sells ITFC shareUK commercial broadcaster ITV has sold its majority share in the television facilities firm ITFC to the Medici Group for £7.4m (E10.7m). ITFC provides services including subtitling, editing and DVD authoring for companies including ITV, GMTV, Channel Five, Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures.
Tiscali will be launching its new IPTV service in Italy in late October. Reports state that Tiscali TV will access three RAI channels; RAI Fiction, Rai Cultura and RAI Junior. Tiscali TV subscribers will also be offered PVR features that will allow for on demand access to these channels and to RAI 1, RAI 2 and RAI 3.
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Graeme Oxby has replaced Alan Gow as MD of Virgin Media. He will report to Neil Berkett, Virgin Media's chief operating officer and will be responsible for driving Virgin Mobile's consumer proposition and additionally its integration with Virgin Media.
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Thursday 2nd August
FCC approves airwave auction
Sky vs Virgin: £92m of ads
TW up 5%
CBS suffers losses
Virgin ad banned
Murdoch wins Dow
Sirius holds up
Fourth French 3G licence
J:COM consolidates ops
NBC channels on Verizon phones
ITV citizen UGC news
DirecTV add TiVo Features
ROK powers mobile music service with Soul Candi
GlobeCast Central London broadcast centre
FCC approves airwave auctionThe Federal Communications Commission voted to approve rules for a big airwaves auction that would require the winner to make them accessible to any cell phone or other device. The sale is set for December or January and the government expects it to raise at least $10 billion. The airwaves are being returned by television broadcasters as they move to digital from analogue signals in early 2009.
The access requirement would apply to 22MHz of the 62 MHz of spectrum to be sold. Two Republican FCC commissioners, who expressed reservations about the idea, stressed it would not apply to existing airwaves held by carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless.The agency stopped short of a broader requirement sought by potential bidder Google that would force the winner to resell access to its network on a wholesale basis.
Currently, wireless carriers restrict the models of cell phones that can be used on their networks. They also limit the software that can be downloaded onto them, such as ring tones, music or Web browser software.
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Virgin Media and Sky have lavished an unprecedented £92m (E133m) on advertising in five months, as the battle for subscribers in the pay-TV market intensifies. Sky made up the lion's share and boosted its adspend by more than a third year on year ploughing almost £60m into ads compared with £44m in the same period in 2006, according to Nielsen Media Research. In contrast, Virgin Media spent £32m on promotional activity between February and June.
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TW up 5%Time Warner said quarterly profit rose 5.2 per cent as it added more digital cable, Internet and phone customers. The company said second-quarter net profit rose to $1.07 billion from $1.01 billion.Revenue rose 6 percent to $11 billion.
AOL's advertising sales rose 16 per cent but its revenue fell 38 percent to $1.3 billion as it lost more paid Internet service subscribers.Chief Executive Richard Parsons said last quarter the company will continue to see AOL's ad growth rise at or above industry rates. The company plans to review the Internet unit's performance at the end of this year.
Cable services revenue rose 59 per cent and operating income before depreciation and amortization rose 52 per cent helped by newly acquired cable systems. But basic video subscribers fell 57,000 during the quarter, primarily from those new systems. Time Warner Cable ended the quarter with 13.4 million basic video subscribers.
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CBS suffers lossesCBS has reported a sharp 48 per cent decline in quarterly net earnings from a year ago when it was helped by a tax benefit and the sale of its Paramount Parks business. The results also reflected the weak advertising market that hit revenues in both its radio and television divisions.
Second quarter net earnings of $404m compared with $781.7m, a year earlier.Meanwhile, CBS plans to announce a partnership with four mobile-advertising companies to sell ads on mobile devices for its entertainment, news and sports programming. Marketers will be able to buy text and banner ads for mobile Web sites as well as video commercials for mobile devices as part of CBS Mobile's partnership with AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media. The deal is an effort by CBS to find new ad-revenue streams.
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A Virgin Media press campaign has been banned after a complaint from BSkyB that it compared the two companies' services in a misleading way. The ad, entitled "The real deal" included a table comparing the two companies' TV, broadband and phone services. BSkyB and a member of the public challenged six claims and comparisons made by Virgin Media. Complainants said the claimed "real price" was misleading because it implied the £30-a-month (E43) Virgin Media fee, for cable TV, landline phone and broadband, was standard and not just a promotional offer.
A second complaint against the campaign was that the ad implied that access to films and TV shows on Virgin's Top TV package were free when they were pay-per-view. Thirdly, that the ad was accused of unfairly comparing Virgin Media's 2MB broadband service against Sky's 8MB service.
Sky criticised the fact that Virgin stated, of its rival's 8MB broadband service, that "the further you live from the exchange the slower it gets", while not also noting that speed degradation also applies to its own service.
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Murdoch wins DowNews Corp has clinched victory in his battle to acquire Dow Jones after securing support from enough Bancroft family members to secure majority backing for his $5bn cash offer for the owner of The Wall Street Journal.
In a joint statement with Dow Jones, Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chairman and chief executive, said: "I am deeply gratified at the level of support we have received from the Bancroft family and its trustees. Given the Bancrofts’ long and distinguished history as custodians of Dow Jones, we appreciate how difficult this decision was for some family members. I want to offer the Bancrofts my thanks, and an assurance that our company and my family will be equally strong custodians."
Although it looks a high price for a newspaper company, most observers think Murdoch will move swiftly to exploit the brand territorially, online and through TV.
The FT, which looked at buying Dow with GE, said it would step up efforts to exploit its brand on TV and was already in discussions with CNBC.
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Sirius holds upWith revenues and subscribers showing steady growth, Sirius Satellite Radio seems to be quite satisfied with its financial results for the second quarter. Sirius executives said the company's Q207 was strong and solid as momentum for the merger with XM continues to build.
Year-over-year revenue jumped 51 per cent to $226.4 million while operating expenses only increased by six percent. Sirius also added 561,493 new subscribers during the three months ending June 30. CEO Mel Karmazin said, "We have added over 1.1 million net new subscribers so far this year, and second quarter results mark the seventh consecutive quarter for leadership in satellite radio net additions and the third consecutive quarter of leadership in gross subscriber additions."
Sirius ended the period with 7.142 million subscribers, a 53 per cent year-over-year increase. Of the company's net adds during the period, about 130,000 came from the retail and aftermarket channels and about 431,000 from the OEM channel. The company also said during the period it captured 62 per cent of satellite radio market share.
The contest for the fourth French 3G license, held by French telco regulator ARCEP reached its deadline on July 31. One application was submitted by Free Mobile, 100 per cent subsidiary of Iliad, a listed company held at more than 70 per cent by its managers.
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Jupiter Telecommunications the largest MSO in Japan, announced the merger of
its three subsidiary companies: J:COM Kanto Co., Ltd., Chofu Cable Inc. and
J:COM Setamachi Co., Ltd.. The company said this strategic consolidation will strengthen group competitiveness and improve management efficiency. It also creates Japan’s largest cable TV operating company, with a total of approximately 520,000 subscribing households. J:COM Kanto is now positioned to become the main cable TV operator in the Kanto area, with plans to broaden its operations.
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NBC channels on Verizon phones
Wireless phone company Verizon and NBC Universal (NBCU) are offering V CAST customers with select phones access to video on demand clips from NBCU’s entire suite of video channels. Entertainment and services available include NBC News, NBC Sports, Access Hollywood, iVillage, Telemundo, NBC Entertainment and BravoToGo.
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ITV citizen UGC newsITN has launched a national network of citizen correspondents, giving the public a chance to have their views aired on news bulletins of commercial broadcaster ITV.
The initiative, called Uploaded, will allow members of the public to post video clips on the Uploaded website via mobile phone or webcam, responding to a daily "debate of the day" set by ITV News. The best clips will be incorporated into ITV's TV news bulletins.
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DirecTV add TiVo FeaturesDirecTV and TiVo are developing a software upgrade to enhance the user experience for DirecTV customers who have DirecTV DVRs with TiVo service built on the Series2 platform. Launching in early 2008, the new software will provide customers with DVR enhancements offered with the TiVo service, including a Recently Deleted Folder and Overlap Protection, as well as DirecTV's Remote Booking feature.
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ROK powers mobile music service with Soul CandiSoul Candi, a leading independent record label in South Africa, has confirmed it will launch a subscription-based on-demand music service on all three of the countries mobile operators.
Soul Candi is powered by ROK Radio - a division of UK mobile applications developer ROK Entertainment Group – that enables the subscriber to listen only to the music they wish to listen to, rather than to whatever is being broadcast at the time. Crucially, the subscriber is also able to instantly purchase individual tracks on-demand with the purchased music being delivered under data compression and copy-protection, over-the-air, to be stored on the memory card of the subscriber’s handset.
Set to launch across South African mobile operators Vodacom, MTN and CellC this month, Soul Candi will initially offer 5 hours of selected music every week and will be charged at R10.00 (E1.50) per week.
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GlobeCast Central London broadcast centreContent management and delivery company GlobeCast has opened its complete playout and Media Management centre at its existing facility in the heart of London, offering a range of solutions to global broadcasters. GlobeCast’s London office and technical hub is one of 18 GlobeCast locations providing worldwide delivery of permanent channels, coverage of news and sporting events and a host of value-added services.
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Wednesday 1st August
Sky buys Amstrad
TPG drops Virgin bid
Zenith: UK TV ad market up from 2008
New national DTT channel in Spain
EMusic sales via mobile phone
O2 Digital TV 40,000 customers
Alcatel-Lucent posts loss
Two candidates for Swiss mobile TV licence
Hauppauge HDTV on PC
Cable operators join SES for HD
Amstrad is being sold to BskyB in an agreed deal for £125 million (E181m). The deal marks the end of ownership for Alan Sugar who founded the business 40 years ago selling car aerials and named it after himself: Alan Michael Sugar Trading.
Sugar (who owned 27.5 per cent) and the rest of the board recommended the takeover as the best way to secure the future of the business; 75 per cent of its current revenue comes from its deals with Sky to produce about 30 per cent of their STBs and PVRs.
Sky said it believed the deal was the best way to speed up product development and exert greater influence over the supply chain. It also said real cost savings would be achieved. As we went to press there was no reaction from Sky’s other major suppliers, Pace and Thomson.
Sugar said: "I cannot imagine a better home for the Amstrad business and its talented people. Our companies share the entrepreneurial spirit of bringing innovation to the largest number of customers. Sky is a great British success story. I'm proud to have worked so closely with it."
Sugar, who has recently been a TV star in the UK version of The Apprentice, is staying with the business for the time being. Amstrad has been a household name in the UK since the 1970s when it brought out the first hi-fi ‘stacks’ or "mugs eyeful’s" as Sugar called them. But its greatest success was the introduction of the first home computers in the early 1980s.
In the late 1980s Amstrad was the first company to mass produce STBs when Sky first launched and the two businesses have had a close relationship ever since.
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The $23 billion auction for Virgin Media suffered a setback as TPG, the US private equity group withdraws. TPG, one of the world’s biggest buyout firms, is reported to have abandoned the auction in part because of concerns over Virgin Media’s business model.The news comes as tightening in the credit market has already lead to speculation the auction could be delayed as private equity players struggle to put in place sufficient debt at affordable rates.
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Zenith: UK TV ad market up from 2008
The UK television advertising market is expected to start growing in 2008 although it will continue to lose market share amid rising spending on Internet and outdoor ads, according to new data released by ZenithOptimedia. The media planning and buying firm said it expects the UK television ad market to stop shrinking this year and grow at 2 per cent a year from 2008.
However, television will only grow 1-2 per cent through to 2012 and by 2012 it is expected to have 22.7 per cent of the market spanning television, magazines, Internet, radio, cinema and outdoor, compared with 27.2 per cent in 2006.
Zenith also said it expects all UK households to be receiving digital TV in 2010, two years before the analogue switch-off date.
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New national DTT channel in Spain
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain's commercial TV channel La Sexta has launched its second DTT channel with a nation wide coverage. Called Hogar 10 it will offer family programming with soap operas, sitcoms, and other entertainment programmes as its main features.
This is the second DTT channel operated by La Sexta that will form part of the Spain's DTT platform, with more than 20 TV channels, that is currently operating across the country.
La Sexta, owned by a consortium of Spanish TV production companies and the Mexican TV station Televisa, is thought to be leading a pay-TV initiative in the DTT field planning to launch specific pay-TV contents (football matches) through the Spain's current DTT platform from next year. With this move, La Sexta would be trying to benefit from its E100 million spend on Spanish TV football rights.
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EMusic sales via mobile phoneEMusic, the US’s second-largest online music seller after Apple’s iTunes, is planning a deal with AT&T that will allow users to buy songs from independent labels through their mobile phones, without the need to go through a personal computer. Nearly all of the 2.7 million tracks eMusic has the rights to sell will be available through the service, which will work on several handsets from Samsung and Nokia.
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O2 Digital TV 40,000 customers
O2 TV digital television has reached 40,000 customer is the Czech Republic. Customer interest in the company’s Trio package, which combines digital television, high-speed Internet and free calling has aided the uptake. Also, owing to the upcoming switch from an analogue to digital transmission, Czech households are eager to adapt.
Telecommunications technology provider Alcatel-Lucent reported a net loss of E586 million for the second quarter, hurt by accounting charges for its merger, a writedown of 3G assets and a drop in sales. Revenues totalled E4.326 billion, down 4 per cent from a year earlier and up just 0.5 per cent on a constant currency basis. The operating result was a loss of E206 million, including E187 million in accounting charges.
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Two candidates for Swiss mobile TV licenceMedia regulators have received two candidates for the Swiss national mobile TV licence. By the deadline two applications had been received from Mobile TV Schweiz AG, and Swisscom Broadcast AG. These will now be evaluated and the licence will be awarded to the candidate who submitted the best proposal. The goal of the tender is to ensure that the first mobile TV services will be available in the cities of Basle, Berne, Zurich and Geneva in time for the UEFA EURO 2008 finals.
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Hauppauge Digital, manufacturer of TV tuner products for PCs, is introducing a £99 (E147) TV tuner card that allows owners to watch free-to-air HD content on their PC or linked TV. The Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2 card plugs into a PCI slot inside a desktop PC and connects to a satellite dish to provide live HD TV on the PC.
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Cable operators join SES for HDSES Americom has revealed that CableOne and Cox Communications are among the latest US cable operators to join its' triple-feed antenna programme, which enables operators to access HD programming via the company's HD-PRIME service. These new members join a list of cable operators, including Comcast, Bresnan Communications, Brighthouse Networks and RCN.
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Tuesday 31st July
Liberty in for Virgin?
TV downloads will slow connections
Setanta By Broadband launch
YouTube expects anti-piracy tech in September
ITV ad revenue not made up by digital
Spain: TV ad expenditure grows by 8%
CASBAA supports Singapore call
KT IPTV service in Russia
Pirate music downloads at all time high
SDN and Arqiva for new digital TV network
RawFlow acquires Aggregator TV
Liberty in for Virgin?John Malone, chair of Liberty Global, has said it may enter the $20bn+ auction process for Virgin Media. It fits Liberty’s criteria of being number one (indeed the only one) in its market and its vast accumulated losses are attractive to the profit making cable company.
Through UPC, Liberty is Europe’s biggest MSO but would still probably require partners for this deal. John Malone told the FT: "We have to look at it, not in a traditional way but in a quite exceptional way, perhaps with partners, perhaps in ways we’d not regard a normal cable company."
But Malone isn’t getting over excited – UPC has lost out in bids in The Netherlands and Germany to consortia of private equity funders. However, he admits recent speculation that increasing interest rates will make leveraged finance more difficult, does mean private equity may be looking for trade partners.
Malone also expressed concern about competing with his old sparring partner Rupert Murdoch in the shape of Sky, about which he said: "The bottom line issue is, can anything flourish under the Death Star?… The concentration of market power that’s been created means you have to scratch your head and say ‘can anything compete?’"
Virgin Media has asked for indicative offers from more than 10 private equity firms and cable companies by August 8 after a $32-$33 (E23) per share proposal from Carlyle kicked off a formal auction.
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TV downloads will slow connections
Experts have warned that P2P TV download services like the BBC’s iPlayer, may leave some web surfers struggling with slow connections. Many users are unaware that the system continues to send files to and from a computer even when the program appears to have been closed reports The Guardian.
Ian Fogg, a broadband analyst with Jupiter Media, said this could drastically reduce the speed of some viewers' connections. When testing the BBC iPlayer software, for example, he found that their web surfing slowed to a crawl - even though they had closed the application. "It's coming across as quite underhand, and the consumer has no visible way of switching it off," he said. "Many will notice that their Internet connections may be running slower, but will not necessarily know why."
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Setanta By Broadband launchSetanta Sports is launching a new service called Setanta By Broadband: users can watch Setanta’s live sports broadcasts - like the Barclays Premier League, exclusive pre-season friendlies, the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, the US PGA Tour or Rugby Union from the Magners League - as well as catch up on sports coverage you have missed stored in Setanta’s archiv. Setanta By Broadband is priced at £7.99 (E11.6) a month.
Setanta By Broadband is also the only place in the UK where fans can watch live Barclays Premier League and Clydesdale Bank Premier League games online.
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YouTube expects anti-piracy tech in September
YouTube hopes recognition technology will be in place in September to stop the posting of copyrighted videos on the popular website. YouTube lawyer Philip S. Beck, told a US District Judge that the company was working "very intensely and co-operating" with major content providers on a video recognition technology as sophisticated as fingerprint technology the FBI uses. He added the company believes the new technology goes way beyond what the law requires to stop copyright infringement.
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ITV ad revenue not made up by digitalThe growth of ITV's digital channels will not be enough to compensate for the ad revenue decline at flagship ITV1, according to a report by media planning and buying agency ZenithOptimedia. By contrast it found that both Channel 4 and Channel Five are successfully compensating for ad revenue declines on their core channels through ad income growth on their digital services.
Looking at this year E4, More4 and Film4 "should more than make up" for a 2 per cent expected decline at the flagship Channel 4 network, with overall ad revenue growth of 1 per cent predicted across the portfolio, according to the Zenith report. Channel 4's digital channels will bring in a combined £141m (E203m) in ad revenue this year, up from £115m last year; the core Channel 4 network will see ad revenue drop from £664m last year to £650m in 2007.
Five Life and Five US should turn a 2.6 per cent predicted drop in revenue for Five's main analogue channel into a 2.1 per cent increase for the group, according to the report. The broadcaster's digital portfolio will bring in £13m in ad revenue this year, Zenith forecasts, compensating for a drop in revenue at the main Five analogue network from £286m last year to £279m in 2007.
However, ITV's four digital channels - ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV - "are not growing fast enough", despite significant audience share growth, to make up for ITV1's predicted 7 per cent decline in ad revenues this year. Overall ZenithOptimedia is predicting ad revenues to shrink by 4 per cent across all ITV-branded TV channels.
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Spain: TV ad expenditure grows by 8%
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain's TV ad spending (45.6 per cent of all advertising pie) are grew in 2007 with a growth of 8 per cent in the first half of the year. Commercial TV channels attracted E.1.777 billion until June, with Mediaset-controlled channel Tele 5, the ratings winner, taking the lion's share with E550 million, according to Infoadex. The second was Antena 3 TV with E449 million, followed by the state-owned channel TVE 1 with E381 million; Cuatro, with E 151 million and La Sexta, with E62 million.
All in all, nation wide TV operators registered a growth of 10.5 per cent up to E1.6 billion whereas Regional TV stations saw their ad revenues drop by 10 per cent up to E184 million.
Internet and thematic channels are experiencing the largest growth with a rise of 34.4 per cent up to E 86 million and 27.4 per cent up to E25.9 million, respectively.
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CASBAA supports Singapore callThe Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has applauded a decision by Singapore's Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA), Lee Boon Yang, to refrain from intervention in exclusive carriage agreements in Singapore’s pay-TV industry.
"CASBAA welcomes the Singapore decision," said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of CASBAA. "The right to contract between parties for premium and exclusive content is part of the bedrock of the global pay-TV industry. The MICA decision is the way ahead for digital media, as new channels of delivery open new vistas for consumers."
Twiston Davies noted that the recent launch of SingTel’s long-awaited IPTV service has resulted in the announcement of several additional pay-TV channel offerings for Singapore consumers.
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KT IPTV service in RussiaKorea Telecom (KT) plans to launch an IPTV in Russia before doing so in Korea. KT President Nam Joong-soo said "Trial service will begin in August in Russia's Maritime Province ahead of a full launch next year."
KT currently offers an Internet TV service in Korea called Mega TV, but it's considered only a halfway service as legal limitations bar real-time broadcasting. Nam said, "We received overseas offers to launch IPTV services which we delayed in order to launch it first in Korea, but we couldn't wait anymore."
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Pirate music downloads at all time highIllegal music downloading is at an all-time high and set to rise further, according to a report published by Entertainment Media Research. Although social networking sites are boosting interest in music that translates into sales, a growing band of consumers are unconcerned about being prosecuted for illegal downloads.
The Digital Music Survey, that polled of 1,700 people, suggests illegal music buying is widespread, with 43 per cent claiming that they are illegally downloading tracks, rising from 36 per cent last year and 40 per cent in 2005. This year only 33 per cent cited the risk of being prosecuted as a deterrent against unauthorised downloading, compared with 42 per cent in 2006.
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SDN and Arqiva for new digital TV network
Communications company Arqiva has been awarded a contract by SDN - a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK commercial broadcaster ITV - to design, build and operate a new national digital terrestrial TV network in preparation for digital switchover.
The contract will run until 2034 and is estimated to be worth in the region of £500m (E724m) over its 27 year term. SDN currently broadcasts a range of free-to-air channels including Five, S4C and QVC together with pay-channels via Top Up TV.
SDN intends to continue to broadcast from the 81 key transmission sites from which it is currently transmitted but Arqiva will increase its transmission power levels to provide enhanced coverage so that it will be available to over 90 per cent of the UK population by the end of switchover.
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RawFlow acquires Aggregator TVP2P streaming technologies specialist RawFlow has acquired end to end video distribution platforms provider Aggregator TV.
London-based Aggregator has developed a foothold in the market for providing a complete video content distribution package. RawFlow sees the deal as being of strategic importance to developing its peer to peer streaming technologies with the ability to introduce micro-payment systems. Aggregator claims over 50,000 paid for subscriptions each month to view specialist programmes. RawFlow has bought Aggregator’s entire publishing platform, giving it an end-to-end video on demand platform which includes setting up portals, payment gateways and handling billing.
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Monday 30th July
BSkyB profit down on broadband investment
Commission to remove restrictions on radio spectrum
CSA boosts DTT coverage
French watchdog vetoes soccer TV plan
4.5 million Italian families receive DTT
BBC iPlayer launched
Sky TV on Sony PSP
‘American’s aren’t expecting switchover’
Bouygues mobile deal with Numericable
Seven loses out to News Corp
PLDT acquires GV Broadcasting
Thomson to aid UK Digital switchover
ESPN, MediaFLO USA and Verizon Mobile channel
OpenTV solutions for Casema
BSkyB profit down on broadband investment
BSkyB has reported a fall in profits as a result of investment in broadband and telephone. Pre-tax profits for the year to June fell 9 per cent to £724m (E1.05bn). Sky says its profits "reflect investment for future growth".
Sky Broadband reported a net operating loss of £169m, but signed up 716,000 new subscribers. BSkyB's operating profit fell 7 per cent to £815m on turnover up 10 per centto £4.551bn. Sky's annual net customer growth of 406,000 sees subscribers now at to 8.582m. Wholesale subscription revenue, which is the money it receives from other broadcasters that show its channels, fell £16m, the first direct effect of the cancellation of Sky channels on Virgin Media.
Despite falling profits, Sky is increasing its dividend by 27 per cent to 15.5 pence per share.
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Commission to remove restrictions on radio spectrumThe European Commission has proposed measures to make it easier and more lucrative for mobile operators to offer and develop innovative wireless technologies. By opening radio spectrum for advanced mobile data and multimedia services, the Commission proposals will increase the number and choice of wireless services available, and will expand their geographic coverage. The new EU measures will also reduce network deployment costs for Europe's wireless communications industry.
"Radio spectrum is a crucial economic resource which must be properly managed across Europe to unlock the potential of our telecoms sector," said Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner. "In the EU, we must therefore remove regulatory barriers and facilitate the deployment of mobile communications by allowing new technologies to share spectrum with existing ones. This proposal is a concrete step towards a more flexible market driven approach to spectrum management in Europe. It will increase competition in the use of spectrum bands and enhance accessibility of European citizens to multimedia services."
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CSA boosts DTT coverageFrench TV regulator the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) has selected 65 new areas for digital terrestrial TV broadcasts. Transmitters will be brought into service before the end of March 2008. Accordingly, all main towns in France will be able to receive an improved service.
A list of new areas to come on-stream in 2008 will be published in the coming weeks, after consultation with channels. This brings the total number of areas scheduled to receive DTT in the next year to over 250.
Michel Boyon, CSA president, underlined its determination to avoid any digital divide on a regional basis through DTT roll-out: "The law requires ‘legacy channels to be able to serve 95 per cent of the metropolitan population by the end of 2011. The CSA has decided, moreover, to set a minimum coverage for each department with the aim of achieving a homogeneous and harmonious development of DTT in all our territories." He added that all new channels had also undertaken to meet the coverage target.
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French watchdog vetoes soccer TV planFrance’s Conseil de la Concurrence, the country’s competition watchdog, has refused the French football league, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, the right to sell its TV rights over a five-year period.
The LFP had hoped to be allowed to sell its rights from the 2008-09 season for a period of five years, rather than the current restriction of three years, in an attempt to entice telecoms operators to bid for rights.
Competition for rights from 2008-09 is uncertain following the merger of France’s two pay-operators, Canal Plus and TPS. The league’s present TV deal with Canal Plus is worth E600 million a year, but competition from TPS forced up the price.
The Conseil defended the current structure, saying "the nature of the competition rules is an element that can only encourage applications to buy the rights." It also said that other solutions could be explored by the league, for example, the introduction of a greater choice in the composition of the packages on offer, along the lines of tenders issued in other European countries.
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4.5 million Italian families receive DTT
From Branislav Pekic in RomeDigital terrestrial television is received by 4.5 million Italian families, representing 19.2 per cent of total households, or around 11 million individuals, according to data from the latest Makno&Consulting survey.
The figures, for June, also revealed that a total of 4.5 million satellite TV households subscribe to DTH platform Sky Italia, while IPTV services are seen by 400,000 families. The Makno research also reveals that 88 per cent of DTT decoder owners actually use the devices (up 4 per cent on January).
Among Italian families equipped with a DTT decoder, 3.9 million use it occasionally, 1.1 million claim they watch TV mostly via DTT, 850,000 leave the digital box always switched on, while 400,000 have connected it to the telephone line.
BBC iPlayer launched
Grandly billed as ‘the biggest change in the way viewers watch television in 40 years’, the BBC launched its iPlayer on Friday last week. BBC Director General Mark Thompson says the arrival of the "on-demand" iPlayer is as important as the first colour broadcasts in the 1960s.Our vision is for BBC iPlayer to become a universal service available not just over the Internet, but also on cable and other TV platforms, and eventually on mobiles and smart handheld devices," said the BBC's Ashley Highfield, director of future media and technology.
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BSkyB and Sony have confirmed the formation of a joint venture company to deliver on-demand entertainment content to owners of the PSP (PlayStation Portable) in the UK and Ireland.
Focusing exclusively on delivering video content to the PSP, the venture will initially provide video and film content to the 2.3 million PSP owners in the UK and Ireland. The two companies are already in discussions with entertainment content providers across Europe to facilitate future introduction of the service to European PSP owners.
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‘American’s aren’t expecting switchover’Washington is worried that too few Americans know that the analogue TVs they have been using for years will be useless after February 18, 2009, when broadcasters shut off their signals. During a Senate Commerce Committee lawmakers aired their views that too little was being done to get the message to Americans
Senator Maria Cantwell said there was "high potential for a train wreck" as she questioned National Telecommunications & Information Administration director John Kneuer and FCC Consumer Bureau chief Cathy Seidel. "Far too few of these consumers know that the transition from current analog television technology to digital television, or DTV, is under way," said committee chairman Sen. Daniel Inouye.
Kneuer defended the government's actions, telling the committee it's up to the broadcast industry to let people know what's going on.
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Bouygues mobile deal with NumericableBouygues Telecom has signed an agreement to give French cable operator Numericable access to its network as a virtual operator. It would allow Numericable to offer 'quadruple-play' services - TV, internet, fixed-line telephony plus mobile - and compete with established operators such as France Telecom, Orange and Vivendi affiliate Neuf Cegetel's Neuf Telecom. The service is expected to launch early next year.
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Seven loses out to News CorpAustralian TV network Seven has lost a lawsuit claiming Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and 21 other firms colluded to prevent Seven from accessing the Foxtel subscription network and gaining Australian football rights. Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville said: "Seven failed to make its best offer for the rights when they became available. In essence, Seven was the author of its own misfortune."
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PLDT acquires GV BroadcastingA subsidiary of the Philippine telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) has acquired the partner of another PLDT unit that launched the first mobile TV service in the country. MediaQuest Holdings president Orlando Vea told reporters that his company has acquired GV Broadcasting Systems as part of its foray into mobile TV service. GV Broadcasting Systems has been renamed 360media Corp., the partner of PLDT's wireless subsidiary, Smart Communications, in myTV, which will broadcast TV shows on mobile phones.
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Thomson to aid UK Digital switchoverArqiva, the independent broadcast transmission provider in the UK, has appointed Thomson as its supplier for high power digital television transmitters for the BBC. Arqiva has won a contract from the BBC for the BBC's new digital high power terrestrial network. To service this contract, which involves delivering two digital multiplexes, Arqiva has ordered 24 new Thomson Paragon IOT (inductive output tube) transmitters.
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ESPN, MediaFLO USA and Verizon Mobile channelSports network ESPN, MediaFLO and wireless network Verizon have teamed up to deliver a new mobile TV channel, EXPN on V CAST Mobile TV, that offers footage of X Games 13 as well as live competitions, behind-the-scenes coverage and commentary to mobile phones. EXPN will be available for the duration of extreme sports competition X Games 13.
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OpenTV solutions for CasemaOpenTV, provider of solutions for the delivery of digital and interactive television, has revealed that Casema, one of the Netherlands' leading cable providers, has selected OpenTV to provide solutions enabling its new high definition, interactive digital television services. Casema, Dutch will deploy high definition personal video recorders (PVRs) with OpenTV solutions.
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