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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 13th July
Impresa proposes DTT consortium in Portugal
Premium phone watchdog sees convergence challenges
Web advertising up or down?
Flash pause on TV
Market to free up public sector spectrum
Level 3 Acquires Servecast
GMT acquires Melita
T-Systems mobile TV in Netherlands
Fox business channel launch date
Brightcove launches UK operations
Babelgum partners with GONG
SBS selects Tandberg
AT&T IPTV services powered by Sun
SatLink expands service with Harmonic
Impresa proposes DTT consortium in Portugal
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe president of Portuguese media group Impresa has proposed the creation of a consortium among public broadcaster RTP and private TV channels SIC and TVI, to compete for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licenses.
Speaking during a presentation of the company’s digital plans in Lisbon, Francisco Pinto Balsemão revealed that he’s already discussed the issue with Media Capital, the owner of TVI, adding that the partnership could also be extended to RTP. "On the first tender TVI did not want to join the consortium made up of SIC and RTP, but I think they will now say yes", he added. The president of Impresa underlined that the company, via SIC, is interested in both free-to-air and pay-TV channels on DTT, stressing that priority must be given to HDTV.
The Portuguese Government will launch two separate DTT tenders, one for the management of the digital platform which will carry the FTA channels and another for pay-TV channels. The first tender, for the platform carrying RTP, SIC and TVI, will be organised by national telecom regulator Anacom, as the FTA channels already have a license. The second tender, for its part, foresees the awarding of a license for management of the DTT platform and another for the joint management of pay-TV channels.
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Premium phone watchdog sees convergence challenges
From Colin Mann in LondonICSTIS, the UK premium rate services regulator, has reiterated its commitment to proactively protecting consumers, following the recent high-profile issues surrounding premium rate TV phone-in competitions and quiz shows, and admitted that the advent of mobile TV services will create another set of challenges.
Following the record £150,000 fine imposed by ICSTIS on telephony service provider Eckoh UK relating to a quiz on Channel 4 , ICSTIS Chairman Sir Alistair Graham outlined a "worrying" trend in TV-specific complaints over the past year. ICTSIS estimates the value of premium rate services within broadcasting to be some £270 million.As a result of the Eckoh UK case and others involving premium rate services in television and radio programmes, ICSTIS has consulted on the introduction of a licensing regime for all broadcast premium rate services and is now considering the responses received and is also working closely with broadcast regulator Ofcom, which is conducting its own inquiry into the use of premium rate services in television programmes.
George Kidd, ICTSIS Chief Executive, anticipated "exponential growth in new forms of micro-payment" in the next three to four years as 3G networks and other digital services rolled out and said that convergence would throw up new challenges of risks and harms to consumers of premium services.
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Web advertising up or down?The annual value of pan-European online advertising is set to reach E16bn by 2012, more than double that of 2006, says a study by Forrester, it said online adverts would leap to 18 per cent of market share, up from 9 per cent currently.
The UK will continue to see the most online advertising in the next four years, ahead of Germany and France. European internet users now spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said.
However, WPP’s forecasting arm GroupM said the growth in UK online advertising is likely to slow from 48 per cent in 2006 to 34 per cent this year and 30 per cent in 2008, citing slowing broadband penetration and the increasing popularity of ad-resistant social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Group M added the total media and marketing spend was likely to rise by just 2.6 per cent this year, with TV, radio and press groups expected to face flat or falling revenues in real terms.
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Flash pause on TVA new TV prototype capable of pausing live TV broadcasts without the use of a hard disk drive is about to debut at next month’s IFA in Berlin. Commercial products are expected to reach the consumer market later this year or early 2008. Several consumer chip vendors told EE Times that Pause TV represents a new product category. They will use flash memory to pause or rewind a few minutes of ‘live’ TV.
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Market to free up public sector spectrumUK Media regulator Ofcom has published proposals to enable public sector organisations to share, trade and release radio frequencies for new uses. Frequencies allocated to the public sector (emergency services, Ministry of Defence etc) amount to around half of all radio spectrum below 15GHz – the most sought-after and congested frequencies. The new proposals will provide public sector organisations with new opportunities to make the most efficient use of their frequencies, by allowing them to trade spectrum with commercial companies, while ensuring that national security and public safety remain paramount.
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Level 3 Acquires ServecastLevel 3 Communications announced that it has acquired Servecast Limited, the Dublin-based provider of live and on-demand video management and streaming services for broadband and mobile platforms. Level 3 has paid approximately E33 million in cash to complete the acquisition of Servecast.
Founded in 1998, Servecast offers publishing and distribution tools for video rights holders to monetize their digital assets. These tools enable customers to manage, protect, deliver and track online audio and video content.
"Servecast’s video and rights management platform, combined with its streaming services complement Level 3’s existing portfolio of content delivery capabilities," said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3’s Content Markets Group and European Markets Group. "The addition of these services accelerates our planned development of this technology. These capabilities will enable us to manage and distribute online video content in multiple formats to meet the increasing demand for high-quality video over the Internet."
Level 3 Communications operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world connecting more than 175 metro markets in 16 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite of services including: Internet Protocol (IP) services.
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GMT acquires MelitaGMT Communications Partners, a European fund, is to acquire Melita Cable, provider of television, broadband and telephony services in Malta, from Nasdaq listed Liberty Global and the Gasan Group of Companies.
Melita’s core product is the provision of television, broadband and telephony services as well as communications services to businesses. The Melita Cable brand is the sole provider of cable television services to the Maltese Islands and has secured all of the major sporting rights for the Barclays English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Serie A and Uefa Cup for the next 3 years.
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T-Systems mobile TV in Netherlands
T-Systems Media & Broadcast is launching a test broadcast for mobile TV in The Hague. For the first time, five TV stations will be available on cell phones in the Netherlands. The system is developed for the Dutch mobile TV provider Mobiele Televisie Nederland (MTV NL). The test will broadcast via digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), which has yet to receive a license in the Netherlands.
Helmut Egenbauer, Chief Executive Officer of Media&Broadcast, said, "We've gained extensive experience with this system in Germany, and we're already running several networks on the basis of DMB. Recently we were also able to put networks for mobile TV into operation to the satisfaction of our customers."
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Fox business channel launch dateNews Corp has confirmed that its Fox Business Network cable channel, which it hopes will incorporate content from the Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones divisions if its $5bn takeover goes through, will launch in the US on October 15.
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Brightcove launches UK operationsUS online video syndication specialist Brightcove has launched its UK operations. The Brightcove Internet TV service is already in use by several media owners, publishers and advertisers.
Brightcove has cofirmed BET and Hachette Filipacchi (HFUK) as UK customers. BET will be using Brightcove to extend the distribution of its content – including entertainment, music and celebrity programming – to online audiences in the UK via its Internet video site. HFUK intends to use Brightcove’s platform to extend its magazine brands to the online video space as well as reach new online communities. Other clients include Emap, Sony BMG and IPC.
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Babelgum partners with GONGBabelgum, the global Internet TV Network, has inked an agreement to broadcast anime programmes from GONG. Anime, Japanese animation for teens and adults with a strong cult following, will now be made available immediately to Babelgum users.
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SBS selects TandbergSpecial Broadcasting Service (SBS) Corporation, Australia’s multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster, has selected Tandberg’s solution for Internet TV asset ingest, transcoding, management and distribution. As part of the integration, SBS will access Tandberg’s Alloy and MediaModeler technologies through a managed services model to publish SBS content and user generated video via the Internet. Initially the broadband video will be available on sbs.com and eventually across multiple platforms and syndication partners.
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AT&T IPTV services powered by SunSun Microsystems has confirmed that US telco AT&T will utilise Sun servers and modular arrays to help deliver its IPTV video service, AT&T U-verse TV. AT&T will also deploy Sun StorageTek storage arrays, which will provide continuous access to the U-verse TV Video-on-Demand library. The servers and arrays will be rolled out in new deployments of IP-video super hub offices and IP-video hub offices in the AT&T U-verse network.
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SatLink expands service with HarmonicVideo solutions outfit Harmonic has announced that SatLink Communications, a teleport based in Israel, has expanded its channel capacity with a new transport using Harmonic's DiviCom Electra 1000 multi-channel MPEG-2 encoders, the ProStream 1000 with DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing and NMX Digital Service Manager.
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Thursday 12th July
Sky shares hit 3 year high
Spain's DTT industry claims for state subsidies to boost sales
France outlines DTT coverage process
Commission warns Spain over TV advertising rules
Digital UK boss is wizard in Oz
Consumers desire Internet-connected TV
Sky hikes pub Premiership prices
IPR at the heart of Vietnam pay-TV growth
Liverpool FC channel for Setanta
China Mobile increases stake In Phoenix TV
DISH Network expands HD Package
ROK mobile TV Line-up
Spacecom signs deal for AMOS-4 Satellite
Nokia and Streamezzo multimedia platform
Astra 1L satellite ready for operation
Sky shares hit 3 year high
BSkyB's share price has hit a three-year high and is up 36 per cent so far this year, following the issue of a trading update that was ahead of analysts' forecasts for customer growth. Sky's share price broke the £7 (E10.4) barrier for the first time since March 2004 in a 5.36 per cent surge to 708p.
The trading update saw Sky beat expectations and add 90,000 net new customers to its pay-TV service and increase Sky Broadband subscribers to 716,000, for the three months to the end of June.
A major benefit that has emerged from the customers signing up for broadband - 259,000 in the three months to the end of June - is that one third of them are new to Sky. In addition, every customer who signs up for broadband also has to sign up for a Sky TV package, and while subscribers can elect to have a ‘free’ broadband service alongside their TV, 72 per cent are electing to pay for a faster, better service.
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Spain's DTT industry claims for state subsidies to boost sales
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish DTT industry has urged the Government to approve direct state subsidies to boost the sale of DTT boxes in the country, following the example of the UK, France and Italy.
For Pro DTT Association, Impulsa, the Government should lead the digital migration process, to be completed in April 2010, by providing state subsidies in the purchase of DTT boxes and the adaptation of dishes and giving accurate information about the DTT take-up.
The president of the Association, Jaime Castellanos, said that the lack of information is making many Spaniards acquire TV equipment which is not ready for DTT. He claimed that analogue TV sets from France, which have been refused in that country for not being ready for DTT, are being sold in Spain for "lack of information" amongst consumers. "We are the stocks warehouse of other countries". Castellanos asked the Government to follow the example of other countries to boost DTT boxes sale like the UK "which has allocated E1 billion for subsidies or France with more than E300 million or Italy with E430 million"
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France outlines DTT coverage process
French broadcast regulator the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) has revealed details of the plans it intends to put in place to ensure cover age by digital terrestrial television of existing analogue channels between 2008 and 2011.
This is designed to meet the legal requirement of 95 per cent coverage of the metropolitan population at the end of 2011, while guaranteeing a minimum of 91 per cent of the population for each department. It is also designed to ensure a homogeneous roadmap which avoids any regional ‘digital divide’.
The objective of 85 per cent coverage by the end of 2007 will be achieved thanks to transmitters in Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Forbach, Metz, Nancy, Sarrebourg and Verdun, going live in October 2007 and, before the end December, the transmitters of Abbeville, Amiens, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Cluses, Dunkirk, Gex-Vesancy, Hirson, Lille-Bouvigny, Longwy, Maubeuge, Mézières and Valenciennes.
In order to continue the roll out, the CSA also laid down annual objectives, not only national, but also by department, with what it described as "a regular, harmonious and equitable progression in all the departments".
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Commission warns Spain over TV advertising rules
The European Commission has sent Spain a letter of formal notice for failing to comply with the television advertising rules contained in the ‘Television without Frontiers’ Directive. A report by an independent consultant revealed numerous and frequent infringements of the rules by the major Spanish television channels. The infringements relate particularly to the limit stipulated by the Directive, of 12 minutes per hour for spot advertising and tele-shopping.
Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said "Spain has not taken the requisite measures to ensure effective compliance with all the provisions of the "Television without Frontiers" Directive. Everything must now be done to remedy this situation and to establish a genuine internal market for audio-visual media services".
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Digital UK boss is wizard in Oz
Andrew Townend, the man leading Britain's conversion to digital television, has been appointed executive director of Digital Australia, a body being set up by the federal government to hasten take-up of digital technology in the country. Townend has been chief operating officer of Digital UK since 2005, which is co-ordinating the phasing out of analogue television in Britain.
Australia is scheduled to permanently change from analogue to digital television from 2010-12. The technology was introduced in 2001 but the scheduled 2008 shutdown of analogue TV was postponed because of the slow take-up.
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Consumers desire Internet-connected TV
Nearly two-thirds of consumers want their televisions to link to the Internet, a sentiment that will help propel rapid sales growth for network-enabled consumer electronics devices in the coming years, according to technology research team iSuppli Corp.
In line with consumers’ desires, home networking is migrating beyond its PC-centric beginnings to incorporate a variety of entertainment-oriented consumer-electronics devices. Shipments of these network-equipped devices, along with consumer PCs and home network bridges and gateways, are expected to rise to 732.9 million units by 2011, more than triple the 225.3 million that were shipped in 2006, according to iSuppli.
"The awareness and demand for media home networking is growing rapidly among consumers," said Steve Rago, principal analyst, networking/optical communications for iSuppli. "According to iSuppli’s first-quarter 2007 consumer-demand survey, 61 per cent of respondents agreed that they wanted the ability to network the Internet to their televisions. Male respondents were even more favourable, with a 71 per cent agreed response."
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Sky hikes pub Premiership prices
BSkyB has imposed an 11 per cent hike to the price it will charge pubs and clubs to show Premier League football in the upcoming season.
In April, Sky offered to freeze the price of its basic subscription for the 2007/2008 season for pubs that bought the new football+ package, which replaced the pay-per-view channel Premiership Plus.
The promotion originally applied to pubs that signed up before the end of May but the deadline was then extended until 22 June. However, Sky has now said that from 1 September, the pub and club subscription price will be rise by an average of 11 per cent.
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IPR at the heart of Vietnam pay-TV growth
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has reaffirmed regional television industry support for the speedy growth of the Vietnam pay-TV industry – recently at more than 50 per cent per year.
According to CASBAA, Vietnam has made important strides towards adhering to international standards for the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for broadcasters of all kinds. CASBAA noted the favourable trend, which has heightened the interest of foreign investors in Vietnam.
However, the industry Association, which represents more than 120 companies from across the region, also warned that a formally structured, fully licensed, competitive marketplace must be put in place in order to support digital infrastructure and to underpin Vietnam’s economically vital communications market. "CASBAA and its member organisations are eager to help Vietnamese companies to build a viable pay-television industry to meet the needs of Vietnamese consumers and contribute to the country's development goals," said Simon Twiston Davies, the CEO of CASBAA. "But the deployment of enforceable (and enforced) IPR and transparent licensing regimes is essential if today’s remarkable growth pattern is to be sustained."
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Liverpool FC channel for Setanta
Pay-Tv provider Setanta has struck a deal with Liverpool FC that will see it exclusively offer the club's new TV channel in the UK and Ireland.
‘LFC TV’ becomes the ninth channel in the Setanta Sports Pack and will be offered at no additional fee above the £9.99 (E7) per month Setanta is charging for the services. Freeview subscribers, who only have access to Setanta Sports 1, will also be able to watch Liverpool TV-branded Champions League and Premier League matches as part of a £9.99 package.
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China Mobile increases stake In Phoenix TV
China Mobile (CHL) is planning to further increase its share in Phoenix TV to obtain a controlling stake so as to expand its Mobile TV service across the country. By doing so, China Mobile is also preparing for next year's Olympic Games. China Mobile intends to broadcast Olympic Games to mobile phone users through 3G technology.
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DISH Network expands HD Package
EchoStar Communications and its DISH Network satellite TV service are expanding its DishHD programming package. DISH Network has this week launched eight Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) in high definition. On August 15, DISH Network will add seven national HD channels to its DishHD programming package, including MHD, featuring music programming from MTV, VH1 and CMT; Golf/Versus HD; Animal Planet HD; The Science Channel HD; TLC HD; Discovery HD, and History HD, which will debut on September 1.
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ROK mobile TV Line-up
Mobile technology specialist ROK TV has launched a live and on-demand mobile TV service streamed over existing 2.5G and 3G and networks on a subscription basis aimed specifically at the users of Nokia Eseries devices.
Two packages will be offered initially: a five channel package, charged at £5 (E7) a month, with emphasis on news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe and EuroNews, and a ten channel 'ROK All' package, at £10 a month, containing all live news channels and additional sports, music and comedy channels. As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first 2 weeks. ROK TV is available in the UK now and will subsequently deploy into mainland Europe from August onwards.
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Spacecom signs deal for AMOS-4 Satellite
Spacecom, the AMOS satellites operator, has signed an agreement to build and launch AMOS-4, the newest addition to the AMOS constellation, with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). AMOS-4 is scheduled to launch in 2012 with a 12-year lifespan. When AMOS-4 comes online, Spacecom will reach close to 80 per cent of the world's population.
The AMOS-1 and AMOS-2 satellite create the AMOS platform. They enable Spacecom to provide fully backed-up services, making Spacecom an attractive business partner to Direct-To-Home (DTH) platforms, VSAT networks and digital TV broadcasters in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Nokia and Streamezzo multimedia platform
Streamezzo, provider of media solutions and platforms for mobile communications, has formed a partnership with mobile giant Nokia to develop MyNseries - a platform to deliver multimedia to users of Nokia's N-series family of mobile devices. MyNseries, launched today by Nokia France, is a S60 application for the Symbian mobile operating system. MyNseries offers users a variety of services including news, videos, music services and Internet browser.
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Astra 1L satellite ready for operation
SES Astra has confirmed that its new Astra 1L satellite has been successfully deployed to its final orbital position at 19.2° East and is ready for commercial operations. Astra1L will deliver DTH broadcast services to continental Europe and further strengthen the Astra fleet at the prime orbital position 19.2° East. The new satellite allows SES Astra to move the satellite Astra 2C from 19.2° East to 28.2° East in order to serve the UK and Irish markets.
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Wednesday 11th July
Ofcom won’t name DAB day
Commission takes broad scope for Sky probe
IPTV revenue $26bn by 2011
Gemstar for sale
TiVo users get Amazon movies
Filmmakers predict shift to online distribution
Turner extends partnership with Dogan
Alcatel-Lucent tests DVB-SH technology mobile TV
T-Mobile and Mobix launch Pocket Comedy
Ofcom won’t name DAB dayOfcom chief executive Ed Richards ruled out setting a date for switching off analogue radio in the UK but outlined plans to develop a potential time frame for the transition to digital.
"We do not believe that the government announcing a swift, forced march to analogue switch-off today would be in the interests of listeners or the industry," Richards said. He pointed out that there were 100m to 150m analogue radio sets in Britain, and no equivalent of TV's set-top box to convert analogue equipment into digital without buying a new digital receiver.
But he said in spite of these obstacles there were "very good reasons why we should consider how to take things forward". "The cost of dual transmission is a very real and significant burden - that's money that could be spent on content, money that could be spent on attracting listeners."
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Commission takes broad scope for Sky probe
The UK Competition Commission has set out the scope of its inquiry into BSkyB's purchase of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. The Commission also confirmed it would investigate the broader question of the diversity of media ownership in theUK. The "statement of issues" published by the Commission mentions links between BSkyB, News International and other media outlets also owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation on one side, and ITV and ITN, the news channel of which it owns 40 per cent, on the other.
BSkyB acquired its ITV stake for £940m (E1.36bn) last November, effectively blocking a bid for control of ITV by Virgin Media.
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IPTV revenue $26bn by 2011Telcos increasingly are looking to IPTV to augment their declining voice communications revenue, causing the market for IPTV video services to rise by a factor of nearly 34 from 2006 to 2011, technology researcher iSuppli predicts. The market for IPTV video services will rise to $26.3 billion in 2011, up from $779.2 million in 2006.
Non TV services like digital music, on-demand gaming, data services, home security and other items. These value-added offerings will boost global IPTV video revenue stream by more than $1 billion by 2010. While this represents huge growth, IPTV still will have significant room for expansion in the years following 2011.
"Subscriber and revenue growth in the IPTV market will be awesome," said Frank Dickson, principal analyst with iSuppli. "However, to put things into perspective, Comcast had 2006 pro-forma cable revenue of more than $26 billion. It is very likely that the entire worldwide IPTV industry in 2011 will not be as large as Comcast alone is."
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Shares of Gemstar TV Guide International were suspended this week after the company announced it is reviewing its strategic alternatives and could possibly sell itself.
"The company has made significant improvements throughout its businesses and the Board is very pleased with the growth and strategic direction under [Chief Executive] Richard Battista," Chairman Anthea Disney said in a press release. " We are now poised to investigate the range of available strategic alternatives for continuing to build shareholder value."
TiVo users get Amazon moviesUsers of TiVo digital video recorders will be able to order movies from Amazon.com directly from their TVs starting immediately. The new 'Buy on TV' feature allows TiVo users to search Amazon's video catalogue and rent or purchase titles using their TiVo's remote control.
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Filmmakers predict shift to online distributionResearch by Vividas, a provider of full-screen video streaming technology, has found that 83 per cent of the next generation of filmmakers expect most film distribution to be online.
Survey results found that only 14 per cent of respondents feel that cinema will maintain its mantle at the forefront of film viewing, and the decline of the DVD is evident with only 3 per cent seeing this as a likely way to view film in the future.
Turner extends partnership with Dogan
Turner Broadcasting and Dogan Media Group are set to expand their partnership with the launch of two new 24 hour channels in Turkey. From January 2008, general entertainment channel TNT and animation channel Cartoon Network will be available to Turkish viewers for the first time. This follows the success of the joint venture news channel CNN Turk which was launched in 1999.
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Alcatel-Lucent tests DVB-SH technology mobile TVAlcatel-Lucent is performing a technical test of its solution for broadcast mobile TV using the DVB-SH standard in the S-Band (2.2GHz). The pilot will take place from June to September 2007 in the South-West part of France. Using SFR’s operational 3G mobile infrastructure and pre-commercial DVB-SH elements for the broadcast part, this field trial represents a world first, only four months after the DVB project approved the technical specifications of the DVB-SH standard.
T-Mobile and Mobix launch Pocket Comedy
Mobix, a pioneer in mobile TV and video, and T-Mobile, UK mobile phone network, have launched Pocket Comedy TV, a new made-for-mobile TV channel. Pocket Comedy TV is a channel on T-Mobile’s recently launched mobile TV trial service providing a variety of stand-up and TV comedy together with cartoons and viral comedy clips.
Tuesday 10th July
News Corp video game league
Joost ‘first looks’
Virgin, no more?
Setanta cuts Premiership price
DirecTV launches HD satellite
Dutch digital TV market growing slowly
Cable & Wireless IPTV deal with Inuk
DTR promos on Freeview
Europe and China co-operate on DMB
New agency for BskyB
Jalipo, Euronews service
Trial switchover go ahead
MTNL launches IPTV
Alcatel DVB-SH test
NDS selected by Inteleca
News Corp video game leagueNews Corp has set up The Championship Gaming Series, a video gaming league, that will make its debut on DirecTV in the US. News Corp-controlled BSkyB and Star TV will cover games involving teams in UK and Asian cities this year, culminating in a televised world championship in November.
Video game contests are popular in Korea where there are two 24-hour TV networks dedicated to the sport. But there has only been patchy coverage in the US through competitions such as the World Series of Video Games.
"When you start your own sports league, you get to set your own salary cap, appoint the general managers and you can put your cameras where you want," says Eric Shanks, executive vice-president of DirecTV Entertainment. Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Dell and the Mountain Dew drink are among the inaugural sponsors. Profits will be shared between DirecTV, BSkyB and Star, with some of the proceeds going back into the sport.
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Joost and Viacom are to announce an arrangement in which VH-1, the Viacom-owned channel will premiere the entire season of its new comedy series "I Hate My 30s" exclusively on the upstart Internet TV service 10 days ahead of the series' broadcast premiere.
"This is exactly the kind of partnership we would like to have with content owners," said Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, executive VP content strategy and acquisition at Joost. "We see this as Phase 2 in creating value with content owners." Viacom is an investor in Joost, along with the likes of CBS, Sequoia Capital, the Li Ka-Shing Foundation and Index Ventures in a $45 million round of funding. Joost announced an overall content partnership with Viacom in February, getting programming from MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures.
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Carlyle the US private equity suitor of Virgin Media may change the company's name if its bid is successful, reported the Observer. The theory is Carlyle may choose to distance itself from the Virgin empire to improve relations with BSkyB.
Carlyle is said to be considering whether it would be easier to restore a good relationship if the connection were severed, the paper said. However, as Virgin is one of the best know brands in Britain and it has just spent £25m (E36.2m) promoting Virgin Media and BSkyB isn’t likely to care much about its name, it seems an unlikely theory.
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Setanta cuts Premiership pricePay-TV group Setanta has cut the price of its sports offering to £9.99 (E15) a month ahead of the launch of its live Premiership football coverage. Satellite and Freeview viewers will be able to access the Setanta service for £9.99, although Virgin Media cable TV subscribers do not currently qualify for the same deal and will continue to pay £15 a month.
The new price represents a £6 discount on the previous cost of Setanta's nine-channel offering on the Sky Digital satellite service. Customers who access Setanta's three-channel broadband service will continue to pay £7.99 a month.
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DirecTV launches HD satelliteThe DirecTV 10 satellite has been launched, beginning the first leg of its mission to expand HD programming for users of the television service. The satellite is expected to begin operations in early September, delivering the first of up to 100 national HD channels by year-end. The DirecTV 10 satellite's transponder payload includes spot beam capacity that will enable DirecTV to expand its local HD channel services to up to 75 markets this year.
An additional satellite, DirecTV 11, will be launched early next year to support further HD expansion in 2008. Between the two satellites, DirecTV will tentatively be capable of delivering more than 1,500 local HD channels and 150 national HD channels.
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Dutch digital TV market growing slowlyThe number of digital TV connections in the Netherlands grew 5.9 per cent to pass the 2 million mark during the first quarter, ending the period with 2.12 million subscribers, according to Telecompaper's report on TV connections in the Netherlands, "Dutch Television Market Q1 2007".
In 2006 the number of Dutch households grew to 7.2 million. The number of total Dutch TV connections grew by 0.3 per cent during the quarter to 7.026 million. Analogue TV is still dominant in the Netherlands with 4.91 million connections. Digital's share of the total TV market passed the 30 percent mark,
The cable network operators continue to dominate the Dutch TV landscape, with a share of 87.7 percent of the entire TV market and a growing share of the digital TV market. Year-on-year, cable saw its digital TV market share grow by more than 20 points, to 69 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2007. UPC saw its share of the total TV market and digital TV market fall to 24.1 per cent and 31.1 per cent respectively, but it is still the largest TV provider with 2.198 million customers on 31 March 2007. The penetration of digital TV on the Dutch cable networks passed the 20 per cent mark during the first quarter of 2007, ending the period with 20.3 per cent.
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Cable & Wireless IPTV deal with InukCable & Wireless is set to deliver a national IPTV service via broadband, through a wholesale deal with triple-play service provider Inuk Networks. Worth around £70 million (E108.6m) over five years, the contract will see Cable & Wireless providing Inuk with access to the UK's nationwide multicast network enabling the delivery of television, telephony and broadband services.
In addition, Cable & Wireless will offer Inuk's IPTV platform as a white label solution to other wholesale DSL customers who want to provide their customers with a digital television offering. Cable & Wireless will deliver the triple-play offering to Freewire, Inuk's consumer brand.
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DTR promos on FreeviewTop Up TV, provider of TV content on Freeview, has launched 'Showcase', an exclusive free-to-view service. 'Showcase' provides content owners with a new way of reaching Freeview homes by using the new Top Up TV+ DTR (Digital Television Recorder). Camelot, operator of The National Lottery, and The Audi Channel have already signed up to the new service and their content will be available on 'Showcase' from July 17th.
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Europe and China co-operate on DMBA 2-year European Union funded project, MODIBEC, is aiming to build further co-operation between Europe and China, particularly in the areas of digital broadcasting and convergence with mobile communication. It brings together key players from Europe and China, including Government, trade bodies and the private sector, to promote and support development projects and to establish joint venture business opportunities.
Key to the MODIBEC project is the convergence of mobile digital broadcast solutions between the EU and China. Currently, DAB and its family of standards is the only European multimedia broadcasting standard accepted for digital broadcasting by SARFT, China’s state broadcasting regulator.
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New agency for BskyBBSkyB has appointed ad agency Red Brick Road to handle the £10m (E14.5m) advertising account for flagship channels including Sky One and Sky Movies. The Sky Networks advertising business includes promoting and supporting key channel brands including Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky Arts, Sky Movies, Sky News and Sky Box Office.
The company won the business after a competitive pitch against Bartle Bogle Hegarty and WCRS, which last year won the lion's share of the £75m Sky account from Sir Martin Sorrell's now defunct agency United London.
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EuroNews and Jalipo, the online marketplace for TV, are launching a Live TV service. Internet users can now access directly the seven language versions of EuroNews without any subscription fee.
The service is encoded in different quality streams and can be accessed via a pay-as-you-go model. EuroNews will be streamed live simultaneously in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish using Jalipo’s pay by the minute J-credits system.
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Research says all 25,000 households in the English town of Whitehaven are intending to convert to digital TV, 100 days before analogue switch-off begins. The research, conducted by Ofcom and Digital UK, the organisation implementing the switch, did, however, show that 33 per cent of the respondents were not sure when they would switch.
Ford Ennals, the chief executive of Digital UK, welcomed the findings, but warned Whitehaven residents about postponing the switch to digital.
"It's good news that everyone we spoke to said they were intending to convert to digital," Ennals said. "However, we also found that over a third of households yet to convert are planning to convert 'at and around switchover', which increases the risk of problems and a further third have still to decide," he added. "Too many people converting late would put a strain on suppliers of equipment, installers and other sources of support. To avoid the risk of being left with a temporary blank screen, I'd urge people to make preparations in good time before analogue signals are turned off."
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MTNL launches IPTVThe Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has confirmed the commercial launch of its IPTV service in India. To provide the service, MTNL has tied up with Aksh Optifibre which will provide software, hardware, service set-up and content delivery. The MTNL will be in charge of operations and revenue collection. The registration fee for IPTV has been kept at Rs.500 (E9) that will be charged in telephone bills. In the promotional period, the service starts at Rs.90 monthly rental where a subscriber gets 30 free-to-air channels and bouquet of Star and Zee networks, while Rs.30 extra would be charged for Sony network.
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Alcatel-Lucent announced that it is performing a technical test of its solution for
broadcast mobile TV using the DVB-SH standard in the S-Band (2.2GHz). This
pilot will take place from June to September 2007 in the South-West part of
France. Using SFR’s operational 3G mobile infrastructure and pre-commercial
DVB-SH elements for the broadcast part, this field trial represents a world
first, only four months after the DVB project approved the technical
specifications of the DVB-SH standard.The DVB-SH standard is at the basis of Alcatel-Lucent’s ‘Unlimited Mobile TV
solution’ a hybrid satellite and terrestrial solution whose objective is to
propose a broadcast solution for a mass market mobile TV service.
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NDS has signed a contract with Inteleca, a triple-play operator in Siberia, Russia, to provide a VideoGuard Express system for the planned launch of Inteleca’s digital cable TV services in the region.
Court: ISPs are responsible for piracy
C4 group wins DAB race
Spain: Sogecable to take Mediapro to Court
ITV losses slow
Farncombe roll out Tiscali
Football league VOD for Virgin
Thomson, Nokia and ‘femto’
Private: 745m hand set universe
UK aggregator aims for 100,000 STBs by Xmas
Irdeto Acquires IDway
Court: ISPs are responsible for piracyA court in Belgium has confirmed that an Internet Service Provider must take
responsibility for stopping illegal file-sharing on its network. The ruling is the first of its kind in Europe and, since it implements EU legislation, it sets an important precedent in the fight against piracy internationally.
The judge said that ISPs have the technical means to either block or filter copyright-infringing material on P2P networks and gave the ISP Scarlet (formerly Tiscali) six months to implement such measures. The Belgian court was ruling on a case brought by the body representing authors and composers in Belgium, SABAM, against the ISP Tiscali.
International Film and Phonographic International Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: “This is an extremely significant ruling which bears out exactly what we have been saying for the last two years - that the internet’s gatekeepers, the ISPs, have a responsibility to help control copyright-infringing traffic on their networks. The court has confirmed that the ISPs have both a legal responsibility and the technical means to tackle piracy. This is a decision that we hope will set the mould for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around
the world.”
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C4 group wins DAB race
A group led by Channel 4 has won the right to launch 10 new national digital radio stations for the UK and says it wants to challenge the dominance of the BBC. Ofcom said it had awarded a digital radio multiplex licence to 4 Digital Group which is led by Channel 4 Radio and includes BSkyB, Emap and Carphone Warehouse.
Channel 4, publicly-owned but funded by advertising, plans to operate three national digital stations: one aimed at 15-to-29 year-olds; one on current affairs and an all-music station. Other stations will include Talk Radio from the Ulster Television Group, a music station from Emap based on the Closer magazine aimed at women, and Sky News Radio, which will be a joint venture between BSkyB and Chrysalis Radio.
4 Digital Group said it would commit to working with the BBC -- which had a radio audience share of 56 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 -- to promote digital radio.
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Spain: Sogecable to take Mediapro to Court
From David Del Valle in MadridThe fight for TV rights to the Spanish Football League is likely to end up in the Courts. Sogecable, owner of digital DTH platform Digital Plus and Canal Plus, is to take legal action against production TV company, Mediapro, main shareholder in commercial TV channel La Sexta, over the rights.
The rights battle broke out when Mediapro announced that it had secured broadcasting rights for Spain's top soccer games. Mediapro has acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights for 39 of Spain's 42 professional football clubs starting from the 2009/2010 season. The majority of football broadcasting rights are currently in the hands of Audiovisual Sport, in which Sogecable has a majority stake.
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ITV losses slow
In the first full six-month trading period since Michael Grade was appointed executive chairman in January, ITV’s audience share and advertising revenue brought slightly less bad news than markets had feared. ITV1’s share of commercial impacts was down 5.6 percentage points to 32.3 per cent, but in the equivalent period for 2006, it fell by 9.1 percentage points.
Only a few weeks ago, ITV had predicted net advertising revenue for its main channel would be down 9.6 per cent, but the figure issued in the trading update was slightly better at 9 per cent.
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Technology consultancy Farncombe Technology (FTL) has been appointed to aid Tiscali UK in its nationwide triple-play network rollout with the appointment of Dr Stephen Upton, FTL’s CEO, as its interim director of technology operations.
Tiscali TV was launched in March 2007 to existing customers and will be rolled out over the summer, becoming available to over 10 million UK homes by the end of the year. Upton’s role will be to optimise the performance of Tiscali’s unbundled IPTV, voice and broadband network and complete the integration of VNL’s (Home Choice) networks in London and Stevenage.
Mary Turner, CEO Tiscali UK, says: “The successful rollout of our triple-play network and services is central to our strategy and therefore it is important that we have in place the best expertise to achieve this.”
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Football league VOD for Virgin
The UK Football League and Virgin Media have announced a new partnership that will see action from Coca-Cola Football League matches feature on Virgin Media's broadband and mobile phone platforms for the first time.
The agreement will run for two seasons and begins in time for the start of the new Coca-Cola Championship, League 1 and League 2 season on August 11. Highlights of Football League matches will be available to watch on-demand for up to one week after transmission.
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Thomson and Nokia Siemens Networks have announced their collaboration in developing a pioneering 3G femto cell home access solution. Femto cells are small cellular access points which provide enhanced coverage specifically in residential environments and enable operators to provide fixed-mobile convergence services and others such as IPTV.
Thus, Thomson’s femto cell-enabled residential gateway coupled with the 3G
Femto Home Access network solution from Nokia Siemens Networks - incorporating the new network element, the Femto Gateway, will allow operators to seamlessly deliver 3G multimedia services such as music downloads and video available in the home on any WCDMA 3G handset.“The novel approach enabled by our Femto Home Access Solution combined with Thomson’s DSL technology will greatly benefit operators who seek to launch new and innovative services and will open up new markets for both companies”, says Timo Hyppölä, heading Indoor Solutions Product Line in Nokia Siemens Networks.
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Private: 745m hand set universe
Private Media Group announced that during the first half of 2007, the Company has experienced significant growth in its mobile distribution adding over 200 million handsets to its universe to reach 745 million. The growth includes significant expansion into Latin America, which accounts for 50% of the additional handsets. Private content is available to over 745 million handsets in 33 countries via 78 operators, of which 18 operators went live during 2007. The Company is projecting to grow steadily with at least 10 additional operators each remaining quarter of 2007.
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UK aggregator aims for 100,000 STBs by XmasIPTV specialist, Global Digital Broadcast has signed with UK provider of HD and digital technologies, VeHDa, to install 500,000 IP set-top boxes (STBs) in the UK market by the end of 2008. 100,000 boxes will be installed, by VeHDa engineers, directly into customers homes by Christmas 2007 say the companies.
This partnership utilises the resources of both VeHDa and sister company, Play TV, including: over 200 installation and service engineers and an 800 strong force of sales and customer service staff. Over 200, new, VeHDa/Play TV-branded vans are also being deployed to transport the boxes.
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Irdeto Acquires IDway
Irdeto announced that that it has acquired IDway SAS, a software company providing open software solutions for digital TV consumer devices based in Paris. The deal collaboration builds on an existing relationship between Irdeto and IDway which began in 2006. By combining IDway's state-of-the-art and standard middleware solutions with Irdeto's conditional access (CA) solutions, Irdeto will be able to provide a wider range of integrated solutions to operators and set top box manufacturers. A closer synchronization of the two companies' product roadmaps will also accelerate the product solution availability and time to market for STB manufacturers as well as digital TV operators.
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