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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 29th August
Veoh copyright case dismissed, Google applauds
Studios back Sony multi-DRM content format
Gilat deal in danger
Freebox VOD surging
Summer of sport boosts HD penetration
TiVo: rare profit
Project director quits Kangaroo
Sony unveils thinnest, lightest TV
IneoQuest for Bluewin TV
Springer, eventIS combine VOD
Digital TV Labs delivers DVB-T2 receiver testing
Veoh copyright case dismissed, Google applaudsA US judge has thrown out a copyright infringement case against Veoh Networks, an Internet video start-up with high-profile Hollywood backers, ruling that video-sharing companies are not solely responsible for policing piracy that may take place on their sites.
The California court dismissed a copyright infringement suit by adult entertainment company I0 Group against Veoh and granted summary judgment to the defendants. The complaint argued Veoh had not done enough to stop site users of its site from uploading unauthorised clips of I0 adult films.
Judge Howard Lloyd of the US District Court found that Veoh worked actively to protect copyright owners and so qualified for "safe harbor" protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). "The DMCA was intended to facilitate the growth of electronic commerce, not squelch it," the judge said in siding with Veoh.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) limits liability for Internet service providers that act quickly to block access to pirated online materials, once the copyright holder notifies a Web site of specific acts of infringement. You Tube owner Google welcomed the judgement – it is relying on the DMCA defence in the similar case brought against it by Viacom.
The ruling draws a line between Napster, the music-sharing service that enabled a wave of music piracy early this decade, and the new crop of video-sharing services that take steps to protect against piracy of copyrighted materials.
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Studios back Sony multi-DRM content formatA majority of the big movie studios and distributors are supporting a plan put forth by Sony Pictures that would decrease the restrictions Digital Rights Management (DRM) imposes on users' ability to enjoy their purchased videos and movies. Last year, Sony Pictures proposed a set of policies and software and service framework it called Open Market that would allow larger flexibility of DRM content and let customers enjoy content on various devices they must first register.
As Sony Pictures presents it, the tentatively named Open Market will involve a neutral third party that will manage device registrations such as TVs, PCs and portable devices, which will then allow users to play their movie rentals or purchases on all their registered devices. The so-called domain provider will let consumers purchase devices freely without having to worry to whose content they will be restricted, while still protecting the content with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protection.
The initiative is expected to put a hold or slow down the sales of non-DRM movies, and is supported by retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and CinemaNow, among others. Apple, and its popular iTunes franchise, are not on that list, instead offering works from Disney studios, including Pixar, Miramax and Touchstone siding with Apple for distribution of their products.
The movie studios – so far consisting of Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Time Warner – are expected to make an announcement in September confirming their support of Open Market scheme.
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Gilat deal in dangerThe planned takeover of Gilat Satellite could become the latest private equity deal to fail if the the Israeli satellite communications company can not persuade its disparate group of investors to close a deal at or near the price they agreed upon in March.
Unless a deal is struck Gilat’s board of directors will meet this weekend to decide whether to continue negotiations or sue the investors who agreed to take the company private for $475 million, or $11.40 per share.
If Gilat opts to go to court, as many other spurned takeover targets have in the past year, it is likely to file a suit in Israel in mid September. But it is also considering litigation in the US, according to people close to the company.
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Freebox VOD surgingSubscribers to the Freebox TV over ADSL service made 2,883,000 VOD and S-VOD transactions in the first six months of 2008. Parent Iliad said use of the French IPTV platform had increased threefold over the last two years following a strong take-up of new subscription video-on-demand offers.
Free was the first platform to launch the Canal+ a la Demande service and has a catalogue of some 10,000 VOD titles. Iliad currently has a total of 3,134,000 subscribers, which will rise to 3,984,000 following the acquisition of Alice. First half EBITDA increased by 24.4 per cent to E256.9 million.
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Summer of sport boosts HD penetration
Euro 2008 and The Olympics has generated a surge in the penetration of High Definition technologies throughout Europe, according to DEG Europe, a pan-industry body to educate consumers on the paid-content choices available to them. According to DEG and based on GfK Retail tracking, it is predicted that by the end of summer 2008, one third of European households will own HDTV's.
Overall, the home entertainment market is showing good resistance. In spite of adverse economic conditions, software sales show a decline of only 2.6 per cent in units and 2.8 per cent in value versus the first half of 2007. Although consumers are continuing to purchase standard definition DVD's, the growth curve is falling off. However, the strong uptake of high definition technologies has helped shelter the industry from the current downturn in the economy.
Johnny Fewings, VP Strategic Initiatives, Universal Pictures International Entertainment, speaking for and on behalf of DEG Europe, said: "In the first half of 2008, the home entertainment industry saw a substantial increase in high definition software sales. DEG Europe estimates that despite the economic slow down, software sales increased six fold in units and five fold in value across Europe, further driving growth expectations for next generation disk sales."
TiVo reported the third quarterly profit in its 11-year history. For its fiscal second quarter ended July 31, the digital video recorder company posted net income of $2.9 million versus a loss of $17.7 million in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue climbed 4 per cent to $65.2 million, though that disappointed some analysts expecting a bigger gain. Significantly-lower marketing costs compared to a year ago helped boost profits. The company had 1.7 million TiVo-owned subscriptions at the end of the quarter, which declined slightly. But TiVo is looking for a boost from deals with multichannel platforms. TiVo’s outlook for the next quarter, which is its fiscal third quarter, is for a net loss of $7 million-$9 million due to hardware and marketing expenses.
In a statement, TiVo President and CEO Tom Rogers said: "During the quarter, we made significant progress in several key areas of our business: in terms of our mass distribution strategy, Comcast has reaffirmed its long-term support for our partnership as evidenced by its roll-out in Connecticut; our international footprint continues to grow with Seven (network’s) successful introduction of TiVo to the Australian market; and on the standalone side of the business, with the recent addition of YouTube content delivered right to the TV set, our vision of creating the ultimate television dream machine is coming to fruition."
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Project director quits Kangaroo
Patrick Ugeux, project director for Kangaroo, has left ITV to join Chellomedia. Ugeux joins as VP of corporate development for the global media company which produces and distributes programmes and channels. He was previously project director for Kangaroo, the joint venture on-demand service from ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide and shareholder representative for the project.
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Sony unveils thinnest, lightest TVSony has showcased the worlds thinnest LCD TV at IFA in Berlin as the industry continues with its "Thin is in" motto. The 40 inch Bravia ZX1 is just 9.9 millimetres thick and weighs a little over 12 kilograms. The TV screen is illuminated from the sides by LED arrays.
The device will have a separate Media Receiver box enabling other appliances to be hooked up to the screen. TV signal cables and inputs from other devices such as DVD players and games consoles, will then connect only to the Media Receiver, which can be kept out of sight.
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IneoQuest for Bluewin TV
IneoQuest Technologies, global supplier of end-to-end service and revenue assurance solutions for video providers, has confirmed that Swisscom has chosen IneoQuest IQPinPointTM Multi-dimensional Video Quality Management System to manage end-to-end video quality throughout their IPTV video delivery network, Bluewin TV.
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Springer, eventIS combine VODAxel Springer, one of Europe’s leading publishing houses and eventIS, the Eindhoven-based specialist for Video on Demand solutions, announced their partnership prior to the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam. Berlin-based Axel Springer Digital TV Guide (ASDTVG) and eventIS have integrated ASDTVG’s advertising delivery platform "My Personal Ad" with eventIS’ new generation Video on Demand back office solution.
The combination of both systems gives advertisers the opportunity to leverage the advertising ecosystem by addressing VOD users and customers with targeted real-time advertisements. Operators are thus enabled to generate new and additional revenue streams from their existing Video on Demand offerings – while digital subscribers enjoy a pure VOD entertainment experience, combined with contextually relevant commercial messages in front of VOD sessions.
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Digital TV Labs delivers DVB-T2 receiver testing
Digital terrestrial receiver and chip manufacturers can now test RF frontend performance against the new DVB-T2 specification with the launch of Digital TV labs DVB-T2 Virtual RF Test Suite. With the DVB-T-T2 specification only released in June this year, until now, there have been no commercial modulators or any other RF test equipment available to enable lab-based testing of new receiver designs. Launched by Digital TV Labs, the Test Suite consists of RF captures that will enable chip and receiver manufacturers to validate and optimise RF front-end performance in reproducible and repeatable lab conditions, in any worldwide location.
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Thursday 28th August
Virgin, Perform sports e-player
US mobile data outpaces Europe
BBC ad supported downloads
T-Mobile Dutch mobile TV
Samsung and Yahoo bringing Web to TVs
Telcel, ROK mobile TV Service for Mexico
TiVo recommends deal
emuse and T-Home Bundesliga Interaktive
Avail launches 20 linear affiliates
Graham for Harmonic EMEA role
Virgin, Perform sports e-player
Perform, the UK-based digital sport and entertainment specialist and Virgin Media have confirmed the launch of e-Player, a free-to-view multi-channel video player delivering sports highlights and video clips across the web.e-Player will be made available to digital publishers in the UK and embedded into websites to deliver a range of sports highlights and video clips, updated daily. The multi-channel player offers selected highlights from Virgin Media’s Barclays Premier League and Coca-Cola Football League match content, as well as a portfolio of sports channels from Perform’s Omnisport.tv brand, including European Football Leagues and international football plus tennis, golf, rugby, cricket, darts and basketball content.
e-Player will be made available across a number of the UK’s leading digital publishers, including ITV Sport, News International, Bauer Publishing and a host of UK newspaper websites. Publishers receive e-Player for free as well as an advertising revenue share based on the amount of video traffic they provide.
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US mobile data outpaces EuropeUsage of the mobile web data is gaining traction in the US at such a rate that in the next month it will surpass the UK. The data was released by Bango, which helps publishers track usage of mobile Web sites. Bango identified the top five countries based on the percent of user visits to mobile Websites in July 2008:
- UK (19.35 per cent)
- US (18.88 per cent)
- India (10.82 per cent)
- South Africa (8.82 per cent)
- Indonesia (4.08 per cent)Adam Kerr, VP of Bango North America: "The USA share of the browsing market has grown as an increasing number of phones come with bigger screens and service contracts that include unlimited internet access. We fully expect the US will overtake the U.K. in this ranking as early as this month."
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BBC ad supported downloadsBBC Worldwide plans to launch an ad-supported online music service, offering both free and paid-for access to the BBC's archive of audio and video music content. The launch of such a service will take the BBC into direct competition with the likes of Apple's iTunes, Amazon and Sky, which will launch a subscription music service later this year.
There are plans to exploit the BBC's full range of 15,000 separate music programmes, meaning the service could offer around 50,000 music audio tracks eventually and 3,000 hours of video content. It is understood that the public broadcaster's commercial arm is working on launching a test version in November, with a full launch expected in January.
Crucially, unlike most established music players the venture, which has not yet been named and requires BBC Trust approval, will allow users to stream full-length audio and video music content for free.
BBC Worldwide will then levy charges for any audio or video music content that consumers want to download to rent for a limited time period or that they download for permanent ownership in order to transfer to other music devices. Significantly, and unlike Apple iTunes, all such downloaded content will be DRM-free, meaning users will be free to copy or transfer content to multiple devices.
It is understood that all audio and video music content will carry pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll ads, which will be sold by BBC Worldwide's digital media sales team. Display ads will also feature on the service, including banners and potentially homepage takeovers, which it is thought will be handled by Google-owned online display ad specialist DoubleClick.
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T-Mobile plans to introduce a mobile TV subscription service in The Netherlands next month. For a monthly fee of E14.95, subscribers will have access to the Nederland 1 and 3, RTL 4, SBS 6 and MTV Music channels.
The channels will be distributed via the T-Mobile’s UMTS/HDSPA network, using the Windows Media player, Real Time Streaming Protocol, H.264 video-coding and AAC+ audio-codec.
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Samsung and Yahoo bringing Web to TVsElectronics giant Samsung is partnering with Yahoo in a deal that will provide integrated Internet access via TV sets. The InfoLive service will provide news, finance and weather information from Yahoo, directed from the remote control. The service is scheduled to be rolled out in Canada, Australia, Singapore and throughout Europe by the end of the year.
With the partnership, users will be able to watch a programme while a tickertape of news items, share prices or weather forecasts runs in tandem with it. The content is accessible via an integrated Ethernet port or via Samsung's wireless LAN adapter, which connects to the viewer's broadband service.
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Telcel, ROK mobile TV Service for MexicoROK Entertainment, the global mobile entertainment group, and Telcel, the leading mobile operator in Mexico, have announced the launch of Ideas TV, a streamed, live and on-demand mobile TV subscription service in Mexico.
Powered by ROK technologies, Ideas TV will offer 10 channels, to include 3 live channels and 7 pre-recorded looped channels, and will be available to Telcel’s 3G customers. The service will be available to prepaid and post paid customers at different pricing that will range from daily rates to monthly subscriptions. Telcel’s Ideas TV offers subscribers such channels as MTV, Nickelodeon, TV Azteca, History Channel, A&E and the Discovery Channel.
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TiVo is to enter into an agreement with Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly that will allow its users to automatically record shows suggested by the magazine's staff, says the WSJ.
The alliance is part of a push by TiVo to differentiate itself from digital video recorders offered by cable companies, which have managed to find a bigger audience.
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emuse and T-Home Bundesliga InteraktiveT-Home, the IPTV division of Deutsche Telekom, and emuse have launched an interactive IPTV application to enhance German Premier League football. Following the acquisition of the IPTV rights to all of the Bundesliga for their T-Home platform and the signing of a development agreement with emuse in late-2007, the companies have now launched the latest release of the Bundesliga Interaktive service.
The application features coverage of up to 9 concurrent live matches every game weekend, the facility to watch a variety of those games simultaneously and to access catch up footage enabling viewers to see selected match highlights from as little as 30 seconds after they occur. The service is further enhanced with the addition of club updates, player news and match statistics. The full games and match highlight packages are then archived and can be viewed at any time by T-Home subscribers.
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Avail launches 20 linear affiliatesAvail Media, the customer service-focused aggregator and provider of MPEG-4 IPTV content, has set an industry milestone with the announcement of 20 linear IPTV affiliates commercially launched in 14 states.
The launch of these 20 linear affiliates marks significant forward momentum for both Avail Media and the industry, and creates new revenue-generating opportunities for both the affiliates and programming networks alike.
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Graham for Harmonic EMEA roleHarmonic has appointed Ian Graham, an industry veteran with more than 13 years of experience, as Vice President of Sales and Support for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Glen Sakata, who successfully led Harmonic's EMEA reorganization for the past two years, has been named Vice President of Sales for the Americas, with responsibility for North America broadcast, satellite and telco sales, as well as Latin America sales across all market segments. In addition, Jim Marino was recently promoted to Vice President of Sales for North America Cable, and Raymond Tse's responsibilities as Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific were expanded to encompass China. All of these sales executives report to Matt Aden, Harmonic's Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Service.
Graham joins Harmonic from Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility division, where he held senior positions in sales management including Vice President of Motorola Sales & Services Inc. for the EMEA region.
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Wednesday 27th August
Crisis in Spanish DTT
RTL hit by slow ad market
BBC to offer ‘series stacking’
Broadcom to acquire DTV business from AMD
FCC Looks at Sat Radio Interoperability
DVB-S2 licensing campaign
Two thirds of UK homes online
Emmy for ITU, ISO and IEC
Bridge launches Eii
Crisis in Spanish DTT
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Jaume Roures, the president of Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, said in that the TV sector will be in crisis if no pay TV content is allowed on DTT. "40 TV free-to-air channels cannot be financed by advertising" he said at a time when ad revenues have fallen 4.1 per cent until June.
He added that the TV sector is suffering the consequences of a stalling economy "with 25 per cent falls in ad revenues in big channels like TV3, Tele 5 or TVE". He is in favour of introducing new pay formulas above all in sports and films to make DTT much more attractive.
He doubts that the analogue switch-off can take place in 2010 as it is scheduled underlining that the DTT audience share is still too low. Today, Catalonia, north east of Spain, is the Spanish region with the highest DTT penetration with 49.7 per cent. Madrid and Canaries are the second and the third with 48.4 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively. On a national level, DTT has a penetration of 34.8 per cent in the country.
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An indolent TV advertising market has hampered RTL Group's first-half profits and Europe's biggest commercial broadcaster said the outlook was cloudy beyond September.
Commercial broadcasters have been struggling with a European advertising downturn and RTL, which owns Channel 5 in Britain and RTL in Germany, said EBITDA slipped 2.5 per cent to E502 million in the first six months of 2008.
"We see a mixed picture and low visibility, overall the mood is not very cheerful," Chief Executive Gerhard Zeiler said. He added RTL expected to meet 2008 profit targets but could not forecast beyond September in many countries.
RTL gave its sombre outlook in the same month that Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 and Britain's ITV sent their stock plummeting when they warned of difficulties in forecasting TV advertising.
Meanwhile, RTL has confirmed that Dawn Airey will start her role as chief executive of Channel Five at the end of October.
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BBC to offer ‘series stacking’The BBC is to offer viewers the chance to catch up on every episode of some of their favourite series through a 'series stacking' feature to be introduced on BBC iPlayer and programme sites from September 13th.
Viewers will be able to enjoy any episode, after it has first been broadcast, for the duration of the entire series. Series stacking extends the catch-up availability window for individual episodes beyond seven days after their transmission, giving viewers the opportunity to catch-up on multiple episodes, up to a maximum of 13.
Meanwhile, more BBC channels are to be simulcast online. BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies will be available to watch live online from September 16th. The channels join BBC Three and BBC News which are already simulcast, and can be watched online via their channel sites on bbc.co.uk and via the BBC iPlayer.
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Broadcom to acquire DTV business from AMDBroadcom Corporation and AMD have revealed they have entered into a definitive agreement for Broadcom to acquire AMD's digital TV (DTV) business.
The acquisition of AMD's DTV business is expected to enable Broadcom to immediately scale its DTV business, and, in conjunction with its existing products, to offer a complete product line that covers all segments of the DTV market ranging from low-end value and mid-range quality to high-end interactive platforms and panel processors. The acquisition also is intended to expand Broadcom's existing tier one customer base, which includes the top DTV brands worldwide.
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FCC Looks at Sat Radio InteroperabilityThe Federal Communications Commission has launched its inquiry into whether satellite radio receivers supporting service from the recently merged Sirius XM Radio should also have capabilities for receiving competing audio offerings.
On July 25th, the commission approved the merger between XM and Sirius, with conditions. While the FCC wouldn't mandate that the combined entity provide capabilities for receiving competing audio sources in its radios, such as HD Radio, the agency said it would investigate the idea.
The notice of inquiry released by the FCC asks whether there should be requirements for devices capable of receiving satellite radio to include digital audio broadcast (DAB), HD Radio or any other technology that provides audio entertainment. The FCC also asks whether devices capable of receiving HD Radio should include satellite radio capabilities or other technologies that provide audio services.
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DVB-S2 licensing campaignS2 Licensing has launched a licensing campaign under the combined patent rights in DVB S2 standardised technology held by DTVG Licensing, a wholly owned subsidiary of The DirecTV Group, and the owner by assignment of DirecTV's essential DVB-S2 patents, and RAI. ESA is in the late stages of agreeing to the initiative and is expected to contribute its DVB-S2 patent rights to those of DirecTV and RAI, at no additional cost to licensees, later in 2008.
DVB-S2 (Digital Video Broadcasting -- Satellite, 2nd Generation) is the second generation DVB system for broadband satellite communications, covering digital TV and HDTV broadcasting, interactive services, and professional links by satellite. DVB-S2 enables delivery of a significantly higher data rate in a given transponder bandwidth than the previous DVB-S standard.
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Two thirds of UK homes onlineAlmost 16.5 million households in the UK now have Internet access, an increase of 1.2 million since 2007, the latest official figures show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the new figure represented close to two-thirds of UK households.
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Emmy for ITU, ISO and IECThe US Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the prestigious Primetime Emmy Award for Excellence to ITU, ISO and IEC for their work in producing an advanced video coding standard, formally known as Recommendation ITU-T H.264 | ISO/IEC Standard 14496-10 on Advanced Video Coding (AVC).
The Joint Video Team (JVT), made up of experts from the three international standards organizations, received industry recognition for its landmark achievement in developing a "high profile" that extends the reach of high quality video from mobile telephones right through to HDTV. The JVT was formed in 2001 by the ITU Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).
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Bridge launches EiiBridge Technologies has released Eii (External Integration Interface) for its VideoBRIDGE series of IP-Probes. Eii provides a comprehensive interface to all the measurements made in real time on the VideoBRIDGE probes, giving media-over-IP operators investment protection. With full documentation of both the SNMP and xml interfacing capability, Eii makes integrating the IP-Probes into any third-party system simple and straightforward. Integrators can choose the level of details they want dynamically, and probe setup and configuration can be controlled from any application.
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Monday 25th August
TV habits unaffected by Web
TV shipments up 11% in North America
Policy framework for IPTV in India
Inmarsat proceeds with S-Band
Orange France bulks up IPTV
BBC HD for Poland
ESPN extends baseball deal
Intelsat video solutions for Latin America Olympics
Scaberia extends strategy, Singapore office
UTStarcom STBs with Zi text
Internet TV has had little impact on British viewing habits, according to a Deloitte report that found that just 4 per cent of the UK population consider it "very important" to be able to receive TV via the Internet, while 47 per cent still regard it is as not important at all. Television industry executives see the Internet as broadcast commercials’ greatest threat in 2008 with 69 per cent of executives fearing the movement of advertising revenue away from television to online.
Television executives predict a growing appetite for Internet television, with 47 per cent believing that by 2010 Internet TV will be embraced by the majority of viewers, but for a minority of viewing.
Jolyon Barker, head of Deloitte’s Technology, said: "There are a number of factors preventing Internet TV from becoming mass market and competing directly with broadcast. One is uncertainty over the business model, particularly around the viability of advertising. Television executives see the lack of bandwidth (25 per cent) as the biggest concern, with uncertainties over who might fund the billions of pounds required to provide the super fast broadband service needed to accommodate future demand for downloading Internet TV.
"At the moment most viewers simply do not want most of their television to be on-demand. The majority still prefer to have their television scheduled for them. In the future Internet television will become one of the principle options from which the mass market could occasionally source its television viewing, along with direct broadcast, DVDs and PVRs."
Television executives fear for the future of the traditional television commercial due to the movement of advertising revenue away from television to online (69 per cent). However the report reveals members of the public were mainly content (43 per cent) with the number of commercial channels on television and only a quarter (27 per cent) wanted fewer. The perceived threat of Internet television to the industry will be the ease with which viewers can skip pre-recorded advertisements.
Jolyon said: "It is clear that television and the Internet are not discrete, mutually exclusive advertising media. Broadcasters should not see Internet TV as a threat to traditional TV. A pound spent on the Internet does not necessarily mean a pound lost for television. Internet TV will continue to play a key role in the television sector and one of its biggest contributions will be to bolster traditional, linear television, for example marketing programmes that help to maintain interest in a series between episodes. An increasing number of campaigns rely on a strong integration between Internet and television.
"Television’s advertising fortunes may be increasingly tied to the Internet. This is dependent on the ability of media agencies to accelerate the progression of the integrated multi-platform campaign from aspiration to reality. Emerging innovations such as high-definition (HD) advertisements and live commercials should maintain – and may even enhance – the value of television in conveying big message advertising to a mass market."
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TV shipments up 11% in North AmericaGlobal TV shipments improved a robust 11 per cent year on year to 47.5 million units in Q2 of 2008, which was up from expected shipment growth in North America according to figures from DisplaySearch’s Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report. LCD TV was once again a hot technology, rising 47 per cent year on year to 23.7 million units. Plasma TV exhibited even stronger growth, rising 52 per cent to 3.4 million units, thanks largely to the reintroduction of 32" into the North American market and wider availability of 1080p models.
North America enjoyed particularly strong growth in Q2 with total TV shipments surging 28 per cent year on year after just 5 per cent growth in Q1 of 2008 and negative growth during most of 2007. The strong shipments in North America reflect introduction of new, lower-cost, flat panel TV models to the US market by top-tier brands in the latter part of the quarter and a consumer that was very receptive to these lower price points.
Globally, flat panel TV share rose from 52 per cent in Q1 to 57 per cent in Q2 as LCD regained unit share lead from CRT, climbing to nearly 50 per cent of all TV shipments worldwide.
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Policy framework for IPTV in IndiaMonths after companies soft-launched or commercially started IPTV services, the Indian government has finally made it a lawful broadcasting operation.
So far IPTV in the country has been in a no-man's land, and its regulation a grey area. But, following a Cabinet meeting, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi said government approval has been granted to the guidelines for provisioning of IPTV services. The Cabinet has also given its nod to amend policy guidelines for downlinking TV channels, so that broadcasters can provide content to IPTV service providers.
State-owned telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam commercially launched their IPTV services earlier this year but, they have been facing problems in accessing content from registered broadcasters, in the absence a policy framework. RComm to launch IPTV by December.
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Inmarsat proceeds with S-BandInmarsat has selected of Thales Alenia Space and International Launch Services to support an application under the European S-band Application Process (ESAP) for an award of S-band spectrum. Inmarsat and Thales Alenia have now confirmed the Authorisation to Proceed for the development of the "EuropaSat" satellite to provide mobile broadcast and two-way telecommunications services in the S-Band throughout Europe.
The new satellite is 60 times as powerful as the whole fleet of its predecessors and can provide broadband at up to 500Kb per second. While that may seem low compared with the speed available to the average UK household, which is 10 times greater, it is a massive improvement on the current speed of just 64Kb per second.
The satellite will now take another four weeks to slot into its geosynchronous orbit.
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Orange France bulks up IPTVOrange France is bulking up its IPTV service ‘Orange TV’ with the introduction of five free TV channels and a number of new pay-TV options.
The free channels consist of: The Art Channel, No Life, AB Moteurs, Record News and Girondins TV. New pay-TV options include ‘Mes chaines lusophone’, and includes SIC International and TV Record channels, both in Portuguese, while the operator is also offering a new adult package, all requiring monthly subscription fees.
France Telecom reported that it had 1.389 million IPTV subscribers in mainland France at the end of June 2008, an increase of 65 per cent year-on-year.
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BBC HD for PolandBBC HD is planning to launch in Poland before the end of the year.. BBC Global Channels, which currently broadcasts BBC Entertainment, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Knowledge and the Cbeebies channel in Poland, also plans to open an office in the country in early 2009.
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ESPN extends baseball dealESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) have reached a digital rights agreement that will extend and expand their current agreement through 2013. The agreement includes rights for ESPN.com, ESPN360.com, ESPN’s mobile initiatives (ESPN Mobile TV, ESPN Mobile Publishing, ESPN MVP), content on emerging platforms including video game consoles, interactive television and portable devices and syndication of ESPN-licensed content.
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Intelsat video solutions for Latin America OlympicsIntelsat, provider of commercial satellite services, and the only global satellite operator to provide coverage of every Olympic Games since 1968, is currently offering transmission support for Latin American rightsholders and non-rightsholders of the Beijing Olympics - delivering more than 12,000 hours of live coverage and recorded highlights to the region. Programmers include Globosat Programadora Ltda., ESPN Channels in Brazil, Organizacion de Telecomunicaciones Iberoamericanas (OTI), Terra Networks Brasil SA and Televisa S.A. de C.V.
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Scaberia extends strategy, Singapore officeScaberia, a Norway-based Technology and Innovations Consultancy firm, has extended its strategy with a new concept called "Business meets Technology". The principle idea is to support early stage technology and start ups in their speed to market and development stages. To support this process, Scaberia has been building its resources over the past six months with key business and sales executives.
As part of this new service, Scaberia has also established a new office in Singapore to offer its clients quick market entry into China and the Asian Pacific (APAC) region.
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UTStarcom STBs with Zi textZi Corporation, provider of solutions for mobile search, text input and advertising, has revealed that UTStarcom, a major international IP and wireless technology manufacturer, has begun shipping IPTV set-top-boxes in China featuring predictive text input solution eZiText in English and Chinese.
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