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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday Friday 12th December
BBC, ITV, BT partner for broadband TV
Portugal Telecom receives licence for FTA digital multiplex
BBC launches PSB partnerships
STB market weakens in Q3
Social networking adspend fails forecast
Davis to review FTA UK sport list
Ofcom confirms 4th HD channel
SK Broadband to launch IPTV
MTG Baltic sports channel
Chellomedia, Meteo launch Weather & Traffic Channel
Vecima for Cisco
BBC, ITV, BT partner for broadband TV
From Colin Mann in London
UK broadcasters the BBC and ITV, together with dominant telco BT, are joining forces to promote a common industry approach and consumer offer to deliver on demand TV over broadband. The initiative is open for all public service broadcasters, device developers and other ISPs.
The proposals, which form part of the BBC Executive’s wider partnership proposals, would see the development of a standards-based, open environment for broadband connected digital television receivers. It would support a wide range of content providers and could be promoted by all Internet Service Providers, with the aim to involve a wider group of partners by launch.
The partners suggest that this would lead to a new generation of subscription-free devices, carrying free-to-air channels and a wide selection of on demand TV services such as iPlayer and ITV Player, as well as the potential for films, shows and interactive content from a range of other providers in standard and high definition.
Michael Grade, Executive Chairman, ITV, said the initiative would bring catch-up from the PC to the TV set in the living room, all for free. "This makes convergence a reality. It will also future-proof our free-to-air platforms, Freeview and Freesat." Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC said that audiences told the corporation that they want more services through their television set. Ian Livingston, CEO, BT, added that television and broadband were "a compelling combination. Together they can offer live TV along with an unrivalled choice of on demand content and interactive services."
The plans are subject to BBC Trust approval and public consultation.
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Portugal Telecom receives licence for FTA digital multiplex
From Branislav Pekic in RomePortugal’s telecommunications regulator Anacom has issued a licence to manage the country’s free-to-air digital terrestrial TV multiplex to Portugal Telecom.
Portugal Telecom can now proceed with the installation of the necessary infrastructure for Multiplex A, which will carry five TV channels (RTP 1, RTP 2, SIC, TVI and the new fifth TV channel) in Continental Portugal and six in the autonomous regions (five national plus one regional channel).
Portugal Telecom has promised to invest E120 million in the DTT project over three years, including a E40 million fund for subsidies. According to the terms of the licence, the operator will have to cover 78 per cent of the population by the end of the 4Q 2009 and 87.26 per cent in 2010. Other technologies, such as satellite and IPTV, will also be used to guarantee 100 per cent population coverage.
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BBC launches PSB partnerships
From Colin Mann in LondonThe BBC has launched a series of new partnerships that it suggests could deliver more than £120 million (E135.3 million) per annum by 2014 to Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) beyond the BBC, including sharing the iPlayer with other broadcasters and bringing it to the television set. The proposals cover the production, distribution and exploitation of content.
One partnership – to develop a common industry approach to delivering on-demand and Internet services to the television – is already being progressed by a group including BBC, ITV and BT (see above).Initial modelling for the BBC by consultancy firm Deloitte indicates that the partnerships, if approved by the BBC Trust and supported by the other partners, could by 2014 generate over £120 million a year of benefit to PSB beyond the BBC. The partnerships would mean the PSBs working together, with the BBC as a catalyst, to achieve sustainable benefits for the long term. It is suggested that they could also bring benefits to the media and communications sector more widely.
The BBC Executive has developed the partnership proposals following a challenge to do so from the BBC Trust in June 2008. They also form part of the BBC's response to Ofcom's second PSB review.
Other proposals include creating a public service iPlayer, by offering the BBC's highly-successful iPlayer for use beyond the BBC; sharing digital production technology: the BBC proposes to invest in and share technology that will allow a common industry approach to producing, sharing and editing digital content; exploring a series of commercial areas of cooperation between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4; harnessing the strength and popularity of bbc.co.uk to drive reach and usage of other public service content across the Internet
Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, said the proposals directly address the central question of the public service broadcasting debate: "How we ensure a sustainable future in the digital age. We are proposing that the BBC shares some of the benefits of its scale and security with the rest of the industry to strengthen it for the long term. While the BBC is also facing significant economic challenges, we can still play a valuable role in underpinning public service broadcasting at a time when the industry is grappling with huge strategic challenges. Through partnerships I believe broadcasters can help secure the future of public service broadcasting in this country."An ITV spokesperson said: "ITV and the BBC have a good track record of collaboration on projects such as Kangaroo, Freeview and Freesat. We will be giving careful consideration to the approaches outlined today and look forward to receiving more detail on the proposals in due course."
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STB market weakens in Q3Researcher Dell'Oro has reported that the worldwide Set-top Box (STB) market contracted 2 per cent sequentially in the third quarter of this year to $3.5 billion, due in large part by declines in both cable and satellite unit shipments. These declines were partially offset by strong unit shipments of IP STBs that increased over 30 per cent sequentially.
This growth in IP STBs is forecasted to continue through 2009, helping the overall set-top box market grow in single-digits next year to approximately $15 billion.
"The consequence of the recession on the STB market will likely be subdued growth as fewer consumers choose high-end services, like high definition and digital video recorder, and more choose basic services that come as part of a bundle," commented Greg Collins, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group. "The economic difficulty and very tight credit markets will result in significantly less home construction and thus a smaller market opportunity for set-top boxes," added Collins.
During the third quarter this year, Cisco's IP STB unit shipments grew 85 per cent sequentially, which accounted for over 20 per cent of the worldwide market. Motorola remained the top vendor in IP STB unit shipments with almost 25 per cent of the market.
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Social networking adspend fails forecasteMarketer says advertisers will only have spent $1.2 billion on social media ads by the end of this year - down 14 per cent from its prediction of $1.4 billion in May. And the researcher is cutting forecast social net spending growth by nearly 28 per cent for next year as well: from its projection of $1.8 billion to $1.3 billion next year. The recession and slower-than-expected revenue growth at MySpace are two main reasons for this cut.
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Davis to review FTA UK sport listFormer FA executive director David Davies has been chosen by culture secretary Andy Burnham to lead the first review in 10 years of the 'crown jewels' list that guarantees major sporting events are broadcast on free to air TV. Davies, who left the FA in 1996 after 12 years, will head an advisory group of sporting and broadcasting experts who will consult with media organisations and other interested parties. The group is expected to report by the second half of 2009 to Burnham, who has ultimate say over the list.
According to the department for culture, media and sport, the review will cover "the principle of having a list, the criteria against which events may be listed and the content of any list itself".
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Ofcom confirms 4th HD channelMedia wtachdog Ofcom has confirmed that capacity will be made available to launch a fourth HD channel on the digital terrestrial network in Summer 2010. Ofcom has issued a second statutory notice to apply to the UK’s public broadcasters ITV, Channel 4, S4C, Five and Teletext for capacity within Multiplex B.
HD services from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will become available on digital terrestrial starting next March.
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SK Broadband to launch IPTVSK Broadband will launch commercial IPTV services in Seoul and the surrounding areas in January 2009. Korea’s largest communications service provider KT launched its version of the service last month.
SK Broadband said KT it has completed related negotiations with terrestrial broadcasters KBS2 and SBS, and is about to conclude negotiations with MBC.
LG Dacom, another IPTV operator, said that it is currently in similar negotiations with terrestrial broadcasters.
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MTG Baltic sports channelModern Times Group (MTG) has launched Viasat Sport Baltic, a new premium sports channel in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The channel gives Viasat’s premium subscribers in the Baltics access to localised major international and regional sports. Viasat Golf, the dedicated golf channel which is broadcast in the Nordic countries, will also be made available in the Baltic states for the first time.
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Chellomedia, Meteo launch Weather & Traffic ChannelChellomedia together with the weather forecasting firm Meteo Consult have launched a new digital weather and traffic information channel, Weer & Verkeer, in the Netherlands. Broadcast to over one million households, the channel uses state of the art technology combining weather-related news with the latest traffic updates in the Netherlands and Europe. The channel is the first to use a radar system to indicate precipitation, using separate colours to highlight rain, snow and glaze. Chellomedia’s existing weather channel Weerkanaal, a joint initiative of the two firms, will be incorporated into the new service.
Broadcasting 24 hours a day, the Weer & Verkeer channel will provide information in tenminute blocks with continuous updates. In addition to the forecast radar images, the broadcast will also include live presenters and journey timings.
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Vecima for CiscoVecima Networks, the Last Mile Solution provider for broadband wired and wireless networks, announces the signing of an agreement to supply a next generation upconverter module for use in the Cisco family of Cable Modem Termination System products.
"For over a decade, the partnership between Cisco and Vecima has succeeded in delivering the dominant CMTS product to the global marketplace. The signing of this new agreement is a testament to the strength of this ongoing relationship. We believe this arrangement optimally positions Vecima to be a leading supplier of DOCSIS based products, up to and including DOCSIS 3.0," said Dr. Surinder Kumar, Vecima's Chairman and CEO.
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Thursday 11th December
Commission issues Mobile TV guidelines
BSkyB eyes Tiscali
BBC should partner
1m U-Verse subs
ITV websites prosper in 2008
TiVo ad pause
UK online radio strong growth
BBC to join Digital One
Web TV transforms TV habits
New CEO for ProSieben
Significant growth in consumption of Mobile TV
Babelgum mobile
UEFA Cup Spanish rights deals
GlobeCast becomes DTT partner for Rai
Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members
Aksh partners with MTNL for mobile TV
Commission issues Mobile TV guidelinesThe European Commission has taken a decisive step towards the promotion of competitive Mobile TV services in the EU. It has published a set of guidelines for the authorisation of Mobile TV to accelerate roll-out of the service across Europe. Mobile TV revenues worldwide are expected to reach more than E7.8 billion in 2013.
"Successful commercial launches of Mobile TV in Austria, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands have proved that efficient authorisation procedures are a key factor for the fast take-up of Mobile TV. In Austria, 5,000 citizens were using Mobile TV within the first weeks of its launch. With predicted growth in sales during the Christmas period, many more Europeans should have the opportunity to watch TV on the go", said Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms and Media Commissioner.
"This is why we want to give Member States guidance on how to allow industry to get these innovative services on track as quickly and smoothly as possible. We stand for a collaborative approach between all actors involved including broadcasters, mobile operators and platforms operators, and we oppose heavy regulation or burdensome authorisation procedures for the introduction of Mobile TV in Europe."
The Commission says the commercial services launched before summer 2008 in some European countries show that there is an increasing consumer demand: in the Netherlands alone, 10 000 users had already subscribed to the service at the beginning of autumn. Authorisations from Member States for Mobile TV services are needed before any commercial launches by operators. Along with the addition of the DVB-H standard to the EU list of official standards in March 2008, the EU says these guidelines underline the Commission's strong commitment to the promotion of new services for European consumers.
In close cooperation with Member States and industry, the Commission has identified the main principles which regulators and governments in the Member States should follow when authorising operators to provide Mobile TV services. The Commission today published these principles in a new Communication that will help Member States to make Mobile TV a reality and success for operators and consumers without delay.
To date, only a few Member States, such as Austria, Finland, France and Germany have adopted legislation for new Mobile TV services. The Commission's guidelines aim to keep up the momentum for Mobile TV at EU-level, in order to create a coherent and favourable regulatory environment for take-off and take-up of this new service.
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BSkyB eyes TiscaliBSkyB CFO Andrew Griffith has publicly stated it could make sense to buy the UK unit of Italian broadband operator Tiscali in order to increase the number of broadband households it can reach.
"At the moment, we only address 9 million homes, so Sky broadband products -great value though they are – are only speaking to customers who are willing to take the TV offering," he told an investor conference. "Something like Tiscali would allow us to extend our offering and our services to another 16 million households, and that potentially could have value."
Media reports have put the value of Tiscali's UK assets at about $737 million.
Andy Burnham UK culture minister said he would not rule out top-slicing the licence fee to boost Channel 4's future funding. The broadcaster estimates that it will face a £150 million annual funding shortfall once it loses the subsidy of terrestrial TV spectrum, when the analogue TV signal is switched off by 2012.
However, he said he would only opt for that solution as a last resort, saying the BBC should partner with others in broadcasting: "It has developed assets and infrastructure over time that can put value into the rest of the broadcasting system. Lots of this stuff is being worked on at the moment. It's not a new thought that the BBC can operate more as a backbone of the system and help other elements."
Meanwhile, on the subject of digital radio, Burnham said he backed the recent decision by the Digital Radio Working Group - convened by Burnham to outline the future of digital radio - not to commit to a date for analogue switch off.
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AT&T’s U-Verse television service is ahead of schedule in adding subscribers, according to John Stankey, the company's president and chief executive of telecom operations. AT&T planned to add one million U-Verse TV subscribers by the end of the year. The company will hit that benchmark next week, Stankey said. "Operationally, we've hit our stride," he declared. The company plans to make the service available to 17 million homes by the end of the year.
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ITV websites prosper in 2008ITV is preparing to overhaul its website next year to introduce more social media features and a greater emphasis on its most popular TV shows with a "fewer, bigger, better" strategy. "Project Penguin" will see ITV.com's content management system restructured and new discussion and content-sharing features introduced, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal. This follows the rebranding of the broadcaster's online video catch-up service as ITV Player last week.
Figures announced by ITV Director of Online, Ben McOwen Wilson, show that visitors to ITV.com have increased by 270 per cent since the re-launch in August 2007, with 9.4 million unique users and 134 million page impressions in November.In November 2008 video views on ITV.com increased to 15.7 million, up 598 per cent year on year and a million on the previous month. The video consumption across the site has seen 69 million videos viewed since re-launch in August 2007.
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TiVo ad pauseTiVo is offering advertisers a new way to reach TiVo subscribers, who are prone to fast-forwarding through standard 30-second spots as they consume time-shifted programming. "Pause Menu," allows clickable, promotional graphics to be placed on the TV screen when a TiVo user pauses a live or time-shifted programme. The first advertisers to use Pause Menu to deliver targeted product messages are Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and automaker Mercedes-Benz USA, which plans to use the feature early next year to help promote its new GLK SUV to football viewers.
"With the number of DVR homes on the rise, TV advertisers are facing a very serious commercial avoidance issue that must be addressed now," said David Sandford, TiVo Vice President of Marketing and Product Management. "The launch of Pause Menu moves us another step closer to achieving our goal of providing a comprehensive suite of interactive advertising solutions designed to help the TV industry reach viewers in a DVR world."
Pause Menu works with TiVo Series 2 DVRs, and also provides broadband-connected TiVo subscribers with a direct link to TiVo’s Swivel Search feature. Swivel Search allows subscribers to find programme information, related shows and downloads when they click the "pause" button on the TiVo remote. Promotions on the Pause Menu are displayed as a single line of text and another line links the viewer directly to TiVo’s Universal Swivel Search.
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UK online radio strong growthRadio listening via the Internet is growing in the UK, with almost one third of the adult population claiming to have listened via the internet in October, according to research. Commissioned by the industry's audience research body Rajar, the Ipsos Mori survey conducted in October this year found that 31.7 per cent of the UK's adult population - or 16.1 million people - claimed to have listened to the radio via the internet.
The survey also found that 7.2 million said they had downloaded a podcast during October. This means that the number of people in the UK who have engaged in internet listening was up by 1.6 million people on the previous survey, conducted in May this year, which showed that an estimated 14.5 million claimed to have listened online.
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The BBC may put one or more of its digital radio stations onto the Digital One national service in a bid to help breathe new life into the struggling medium. BBC is looking at putting the BBC Asian Network, plus the possibility of one or two other stations, on the Digital One national commercial digital audio broadcasting - DAB - multiplex, which is co-owned by Global Radio and transmission business Arqiva.
The move would fill some of the vacant capacity on Digital One, which has room for around 10 stations but currently carries only four: digital simulcasts of Classic FM, TalkSport and Absolute Radio, plus the sole national DAB-only station, Planet Rock.
BBC stations joining Digital One would also free up more capacity on the corporation's own national digital radio multiplex, enabling it to launch more services or improve the sound quality of one or more of its existing ones.
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Web TV transforms TV habitsOne in seven quizzed for the ITV survey into changing TV habits said that the increase in TV available online means they’ll argue less about what to watch on Christmas Day.
The survey shows that for many viewers the TV is far from the only way to watch shows, with 40 per cent claiming to watch on a computer, laptop or handheld device. The desktop computer is the favoured way of watching on-demand content via the web (65 per cent), closely followed by the laptop (50 per cent).
In terms of where TV is watched, the living room comes out on top among those who watch TV on a laptop (67 per cent), but the bedroom is not far behind, favoured by 55 per cent of respondents. A large number of respondents (39 per cent) also said they watch TV on a laptop while in the same room as they are watching something else on the TV.
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Thomas Ebeling is to be the new CEO ProSiebenSat.1 as successor to Guillaume de Posch. Ebeling was most recenty CEO of pharmaceutical company Novartis Consumer Health. De Posch announced in June that he would resign at the end of the year.
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Significant growth in consumption of Mobile TVQuickPlay Media, provider of mobile TV and video solutions, has unveiled the findings of its first quarterly consumer consumption analysis. The results - aggregate usage statistics from 15 representative QuickPlay-powered services over the third quarter of 2008 - demonstrate that demand for mobile TV and video content is increasing steadily. The results, compiled from July through September, 2008, show mounting consumer usage of both mobile video on demand (VoD) and linear TV. Further, the increase in streaming video and video downloads per unique user shows consumers are becoming more engaged with this medium.
Key findings include:
- Total video downloads increased by more than 87 per cent over the previous quarter
- Average download per user increased by 42 per cent, to 4 per user/month
- Total video streams viewed grew more than 27 per cent
- Average streams per user increased by 12 per cent, to 19.3 per user/month
- Average stream duration over Q3 2008 was two minutes and 47 seconds
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Beta web video platform Babelgum will reveal a partnership with Vodafone that will bring its service to both iPhone and Nokia handsets. The well-funded European outfit has convinced the carrier to zero-rate data transfer for its VOD content in its native Italy and in the UK, meaning watching the service will be free to users.
Babelgum quietly launched its iPhone app globally around the same time its big P2P TV rival Joost did the same thing. But, unlike Joost’s app - and unlike that under development by live TV streamer Livestation - Babelgum’s will work over 3G as well as WiFi.
Almost all content from Babelgum is accessible through the mobile apps, but not some shows for which it doesn’t have mobile rights, and the service will focus on promoting short-form content of 30 seconds to five minutes. For Babelgum, which is heavily backed by Italian telecoms billionaire Silvio Scaglia but has replaced three of its top executives in just over a year, this is a commercial trial to examine how viewers use its normally web-based TV service on mobile.
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UEFA Cup Spanish rights dealsUEFA has announced deals with two leading Spanish broadcasters – Telecinco and Canal Satelite Digital (Digital+) - for the 2009-12 UEFA Europa League media rights.
Free-to-air commercial broadcaster Telecinco has secured a package of rights which include the exclusive broadcast of the first-choice live match (including the final and the UEFA Super Cup) every matchweek, as well as a dedicated weekly highlights programme featuring the best of the action from the competition.
Canal Satelite Digital has won the rights to broadcast the remaining live matches as well as a highlights programme every matchweek and delayed match coverage. These rights will be exploited across various Digital+ pay channels. Each broadcaster will also exploit the rights on the Internet.
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GlobeCast becomes DTT partner for Rai
GlobeCast has been chosen by Italian public broadcaster Rai to provide fibre connectivity, teleport facilities and satellite capacity to deliver Rai signals to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) transmitters throughout the country in the process of the switchover from analogue to Digital TV.
GlobeCast has signed a three year deal to manage the switch to DTT - providing uplink, fibre connectivity, satellite capacity and distribution for the broadcaster, which leads the Italian market in terms of audience share.
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Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new membersThe Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology and mobile players, has announced the membership of 14 additional companies. The new members are: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.
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Aksh partners with MTNL for mobile TVAksh will provide IPTV feed for mobile TV on MTNL's 3G service. Mobile TV, based on Aksh's advanced MPEG 4 technology, will enable subscribers to view all channels at high resolution and speed. Aksh-MTNL Mobile TV will be available on MTNL's 3G Network for the first time in India. The Mobile TV subscriber would need a compatible 3G phone and MTNL's 3G subscription.
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Wednesday 10th December
iPlayer for C4 and ITV?
Cablecom slashes workforce
Croatia to get second IPTV platform
EU Conditional Access expert group
Congress slams FCC chairman
Rai and Sky Italia score Champions League rights
Fox selects Motorola for HD
DiBcom HD decoder in USB Key
Microtune automotive tuner chip
Brightcove global partner ecosystem
Cisco media processing platform
Sega launches free gaming site
iPlayer for C4 and ITV?The BBC is reportedly considering offering Channel 4 and ITV the free and open use of its iPlayer online video technology. The offer will form part of its response to the public service broadcasting review being conducted by Ofcom.
The idea is being considered as the BBC works out its proposal for partnerships with other public service broadcasters as it seeks to head off the possibility of having to share the licence fee. BBC insiders believe that its iPlayer technology is better than that developed in the private sector and that it is set to become the industry standard.
The move to share technology would mean giving ITV and Channel 4 access to a BBC high-speed digital post-production network, which the corporation believes will help reduce programme-making costs.
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Liberty Global’s Swiss subsidiary Cablecom has said it plans to lay off up to 150 staff as part of its organizational streamlining, citing ‘increasingly fierce competition.’ Cablecom, Switzerland's largest cable operator also said that Managing Director Rudolf Fischer will resign. He will remain in his post until a successor has been found, the company said.
"In the face of increasingly fierce competition and to enable the company to focus on its core areas, Cablecom is streamlining its organisational structures and senior executive departments as part of a programme to boost efficiency," the company said. "To cushion the effects of the job losses, the company will adopt measures such as recruitment freezes, making use of natural fluctuation, alternative working hours or early retirement schemes."
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Croatia to get second IPTV platform
From Branislav Pekic in RomeCroatia’s second fixed-line operator, Optima Telekom, has announced plans to launch an IPTV service by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
Optima has signed a contract with Croatian company Oda_ilja_i i Veze (OiV) for the provision of the transmission infrastructure and the digital signal compression system for the OptiTV service which will be available from day one in HDTV1 technology. Negotiations are already underway with content suppliers for the distribution of the most popular TV channels in several pay-TV packages. OptiTV should offer a total of 75 TV channels, as well as a digital recording and VOD service. The first public trials of the OptiTV service will start before the end of December with up to 3,000 users of the OptiDSL service and should last two months.
The potential market for OptiTV are the more than 600,000 ADSL connections available on 200 switchboards connected to Optima’s network. In the first phase, the IPTV service will be available in 10 cities with the largest number of Optima users: Osijek, Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Vara_din, Zadar, Slavonski Brod, Velika Gorica, Karlovac and Samobor. Besides the above-mentioned cities, the service will be gradually introduced in all other locations where Optima Telekom has its users and on which it continues to install its proprietary optical network.
Croatia’s first IPTV platform T-Com MAXtv, which launched in September 2006, currently has over 100,000 subscribers.
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EU Conditional Access expert groupThe European Commission is to set a high-level expert group to advise it on the detail of the revised Conditional Access Directive, with members drawn from all twenty-seven member states.
The announcement was made by Jean Bergevin, head of electronic services in DG3 part of the Information and Society Directorate, speaking at the Aepoc board meeting in Brussels. The process of recruiting members to the group will begin in January next year and ultimately it will advise the Commission on the content of the revised CA Directive.
Davide Rossi, Director General of Aepoc, the industry group dedicated to counter-piracy in digital media, said they were delighted at this clear sign the issue of digital media piracy was now front and centre of media policy making. "Setting up the group is recognition that the protection of pay television revenues is vital to maintaining investment levels in creative content production," he said.
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Congress slams FCC chairmanDeception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission Under Chairman Kevin Martin" is the unsubtle title of a new report from the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
The report concluded, among other things, that the outcome of an la carte cable report-reversing findings of a previous report--was predetermined and dictated by the chairman, and that the chairman manipulated findings in a video competition report--yet to be released--that would have triggered re-regulation of cable.
The cable industry has argued that Martin has it in for the industry, while the chairman has countered he is merely seeking regulatory parity, more consumer choice, and lower cable bills.
"Any of these findings, individually, are cause for concern," said Dingell. "Together, the findings suggest that, in recent years, the FCC has operated in a dysfunctional manner and Commission business has suffered as a result. It is my hope that the new FCC Chairman will find this report instructive and that it will prove useful in helping the Commission avoid making the same mistakes."
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Rai and Sky Italia score Champions League rightsRai and Sky Italia have been awarded major UEFA Champions League media rights packages in Italy for the period between 2009 and 2012.
Italian public broadcaster Rai has won a package of rights which include the exclusive free-to-air broadcast of the first choice live match on a Wednesday (including the final and the UEFA Super Cup) every matchweek. Rai will broadcast these matches on its Rai Uno and Rai Due channels.
Sky Italia has secured a comprehensive package of UEFA Champions League rights. The broadcaster will show all live matches (including the final) in full across its various channels as well as a complete range of match action on its popular ‘Diretta Goal’ channel as well as highlights on both nights.
Each broadcaster will exploit the rights via the Internet and mobile TV.
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Fox selects Motorola for HDMotorola has been selected to provide the satellite transmission equipment, including compression systems and multiplexors, to enable Fox to transition all its satellite programme distribution to 100 percent HD delivery. The move which will enable Fox viewers to benefit from the clarity of HD content on the company’s broadcast network, national cable channels, regional sports networks, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. The migration to Motorola technology will be rolled out in early 2009.
The transition to all-HD distribution will enable Fox to significantly streamline its distribution infrastructure as it moves from the current mix of SD and HD environments and diverse, multi-vendor technology platforms to a common all HD Motorola architecture. The need for parallel SD storage and distribution will be eliminated since Motorola radios will support the real time conversion of the HD content to the SD format.
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DiBcom HD decoder in USB KeyDiBcom, provider of Mobile TV solutions, has revealed its involvement in the design of the Canal+ Key – what it claims is the first USB key-sized Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) HD decoder in the world. The device enables the reception of French pay-TV programmes on PCs anywhere and at any given time.
A full DTT pay TV decoder embedded in the USB Key offers French subscribers the possibility of receiving Canal+ television channels (including the premium channel Canal+ HD), the 18 free DTT channels, as well as other HD and local channels.
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Microtune automotive tuner chipBringing its advanced radio frequency (RF) silicon electronics to the automotive industry, Microtune has introduced a first-of-its-kind tuner chip for high-speed in-car TV. The MicroTuner MT2067 is a world-standard, automotive-grade TV tuner engineered to provide superior, stable TV reception for passengers in vehicles travelling at top speeds along the highway. It enables automakers to improve performance, increase reliability and minimize total RF systems costs when adding real-time broadcast TV to increasingly popular rear-seat entertainment options.
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Brightcove global partner ecosystemBrightcove has announced the formation of the Brightcove Alliance, a global ecosystem of leading technology and distribution partners who have integrated with the Brightcove online video platform, as well as solution providers building customer websites and video applications using Brightcove. Through the Brightcove Alliance, organisations worldwide have access to a broad range of expert partners, pre-integrated technologies and services to support online video initiatives of any size and scope in every market.
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Cisco media processing platformCisco has unveiled a media processing platform that simplifies live and on-demand media sharing across PCs, mobile devices and other digital screens, by seamlessly formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device. The create once and share anywhere Cisco Media Processing platform provides media conversion, real-time post production, editing, formatting, and network distribution capabilities in a single networked solution to help businesses develop targeted visual communications that drive intimacy with employees and customers.
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Sega launches free gaming siteVideo game veteran Sega has launched its own online gaming website, branded Play Sega. The site currently contains a combination of new flash games and previously released titles such as Brain Assist, which appeared on the Nintendo DS, and the mobile version of Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games. Sega also revealed that a VIP section will soon appear, which will allow gamers to play established titles from the Megadrive era for a "small fee".
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Tuesday 9th December
Disney takes 96% of Jetix
Prisa fails to agree Digital sale
Consumers won't cut media spending
C4+1 a success
Beijing cable TV provider to produce content
Telstra rolls out next-gen STB
blinkbox inks agreements with Hollywood studios
NDS acquires Electracade
Disney takes 96% of JetixThe Walt Disney Company has entered into agreements to acquire outstanding shares of pan-European kids entertainment company Jetix Europe. The move will give Disney a 96 per cent stake, allowing it to expand its kids and family media business in Europe.
Completion of the transaction is expected to take place before the end of the year, after which time Disney plans to pick up all remaining shares.
Jetix has already been rebranded in the US as Disney XD, although the company says that it will make decisions on rebranding international networks on a case-by-case basis.
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Prisa fails to agree Digital salePrisa, the indebted Spanish media group, put a brave face on its failure to agree the anticipated sale of Digital Plus, its satellite pay-TV business, and said talks were continuing with a partnership of Vivendi of France and Spain’s Telefónica.
Juan Luis Cebrián, Prisa chief executive, told shareholders there was "no deadline" for the sale of Digital Plus, although observers say Prisa is urgently seeking to make the sale in order to reduce its E4.8 billion debt burden. In the latest round of talks, Prisa has argued that Digital Plus is worth up to E3 billion, although Vivendi and Telefónica are reluctant to offer more than E2.4 billion.
Telefónica wants Digital Plus and its 2 million subscribers to complement Imagenio. But concerns over competition have obliged the Spanish telecommunications group to cede leadership of the potential bid to Vivendi, which is expected to have a majority stake in any vehicle that takes over Digital Plus.
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Consumers won't cut media spendingDespite the darkening economic forecast, US consumers have no plans to reduce spending on Internet, wireless, cable and satellite services, according to a study from Amdocs, a customer experience consultancy.
According to Amdocs' second annual Experience Matters Index, 66 per cent of US consumers do not plan to cut service-related costs and a majority (67 per cent) would pay more for a better customer experience. That may be good news for cable providers, which have worked to overcome their dismal customer service image encapsulated by the Comcast worker who fell asleep on a customer's couch and became a YouTube sensation.
"We were pleasantly surprised by the findings," says Anthony Piniella, director of corporate communications for Amdocs. "Ultimately, what it's really saying is that customers are willing to pay for value. If there's a perceived value, even in difficult times, they're willing to pay for it."
The survey, which polled 2,003 consumers of wireless, cable and satellite services in the US and the UK, also found that more consumers report they have had a "very good" customer experience and would "definitely" recommend their service providers. That's up 8 per cent compared to Amdocs' first EMI study, released last February.
Taking the long view, what the Amdocs survey spells out is that service
providers need to continue to improve customer experience, be it service,
content or user interface, in order to differentiate themselves. Today's consumer is technologically empowered with more choices than ever."Consumers' access to information is critical," Piniella says. "In an economy where every day in the news you're hearing, 'Tighten your budget and don't spend money on lattes,' these services are no longer luxuries. They're requirements."
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C4+1 a successChannel 4's digital time-shift service Channel 4 +1 will reportedly account for nearly 10 per cent of the total audience share for the broadcaster's main network this year. Figures show that for the 11 months to the end of November, Channel 4 +1 pulled in a 0.7 per cent share of all TV viewing, across all hours.
This is up from 0.2 per cent for the same period last year, although the time-shift channel - which allows viewers to watch Channel 4's entire schedule an hour later - only launched in August last year.
Meanwhile, the main Channel 4 network's audience share has continued to fall, from 8.6 per cent for the January to November period in 2007 to 7.5 per cent this year. This equates to a year-on-year decline of nearly 13 per cent. When the figures for the two services are combined, the Channel 4 total audience share stands at 8.2 per cent, compared with 8.8 per cent last year.
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Beijing cable TV provider to produce content
Beijing's cable TV service monopoly has confirmed it will soon be producing content for digital TV programmes, but did not specify what kind of content it will offer. Beijing Gehua CATV Network Company said it will establish a joint venture together with two institutional investors from Shanghai and Shenzhen to develop digital television content and engage in cable channel management. Gehua is believed to hold 40 per cent of the proposed company, which has a total investment of $7.26 million.
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Telstra rolls out next-gen STB
Telstra is expected to take a major step towards its goal of being a media company early next year when it rolls out set-top boxes in Australia that allow Internet customers to download films and play them on television.The launch of a digital video recorder would put Telstra in competition with Foxtel's iQ DVR and Home Box Office on-demand movie service after the non-competition agreement between the two parties expired last month. But sources said Telstra, which owns 50 per cent of Foxtel, was pitching the service as a ‘TiVo-killer', targeting the Seven Media Group's TiVo DVR and media device. Telstra is likely to offer its broadband Internet customers streamed TV programmes and BigPond movie downloads that can be played on a computer or TV.
The box will be given free to broadband Internet customers as early as the first quarter of next year, with Telstra expecting customers to upgrade their broadband download package to take advantage of the service.
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blinkbox inks agreements with Hollywood studiosMichael Comish, CEO of blinkbox has revealed two new digital video deals with leading Hollywood studios, 20th Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI). In addition, blinkbox announced it has extended its partnership with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, securing a digital distribution deal for the studio’s award-winning TV catalogue.
The new agreements bring the total number of major Hollywood studios distributing through blinkbox to five (Paramount Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. have been onboard since launch) and the number of film titles available to download to over 1500.
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NDS acquires ElectracadeOrbis Holdings, a subsidiary of UK-based conditional access specialist NDS, has purchased interactive games and betting solutions developer Electracade for an initial payment of £2.6 million (E3.3m). Orbis Holdings is the parent company of interactive games developer Orbis Technology, which has previously developed OpenBet software, used by online gambling services around the world, and which was acquired by NDS back in December of 2000.
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Monday 8th December
Ofcom will focus on pay-TV competition
Viacom cuts 850 posts
Digital sector "punches below its weight"
IPTV pay-TV mixed progress
Court blocks Springer's ProSieben acquisition
Media technology growth stalls, profitability falls
HDs now most popular TVs
High-speed broadband increases HD streaming
Grade spurned over single ITV
MobiTV surpasses 5m subs
IAC's CE sees M&A opportunity in downturn
Vizimo acquires TIOTI.com
Guizhou to invest in broadcast network
ITV Catch Up now ITV Player
Tandberg for KT, SK
Ofcom will focus on pay-TV competitionOfcom has released details of its 2009-10 annual plan, with emphasis on delivering spectrum through the digital dividend and promoting competition in pay-TV. Ofcom expects to make a decision on proposals to force Sky to offer some of its premium channels wholesale in spring 2009. The current consultation as a result of Ofcom’s pay-TV review, and covering the wholesale proposals and Sky’s plans for the Picnic DTT service, will close next week. The decision timetable is apparently designed to give the market clarity before the 2009/10 football season.
On spectrum management the regulator says: "Spectrum is a key resource for the UK economy and society, and we think that in general a market-based approach to spectrum management is the most suitable way to achieve the best use of this resource."
To date Ofcom has held five spectrum auctions and is giving priority to the liberalization of spectrum between 900 and 1800 MHz already used by mobile services. It is also looking at a March auction in the 2.6GHz band, suitable for WiMax operations, but is being held back by litigation from existing mobile operators.
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Viacom cuts 850 postsViacom has announced a major restructuring across its entire global business, which including MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures. It will cut jobs in all divisions of the company, which will result in the reduction of its workforce by approximately 850 posts or 7 per cent of the staff. The company is also suspending senior level management salary increases for 2009. In addition, the company will write down certain programming and other assets.
The restructuring and write-downs together will result in a pre-tax charge of between $400 million and $450 million in the fourth quarter of this year. However, the cutbacks are expected to improve profitability, resulting in pre-tax savings of between $200 million and $250 million in 2009.
Viacom said the plan was designed to better align its costs with what it termed "evolving economic conditions".
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Digital sector "punches below its weight"
From Colin Mann in LondonStephen Carter, the UK’s first Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting, considers that the digital sector, while vitally important to the economy, punches below its weight.
Lord Carter is spearheading a report - Digital Britain - intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the digital economy, at its core an ambition to accelerate the rate of growth, and cement the UK’s position as a world leader in the knowledge and learning economy.
He told members of the Broadcasting Press Guild that the UK was at a critical tipping point for access to broadband in terms of availability and participation. He said there was a potential to move the discussion and decisions from being "important" to sectors such as broadband, broadcasting, mobile and the Internet to "critical".
"It is an underpinning sector … we are going to be a knowledge economy. To maximise your competitive advantage you need access, infrastructure, interoperability, competitive pricing, high-quality content, and an intellectual property regime that allows those who are creative some protection to enable them to earn something from their creativity," he said.
He felt that it wasn’t the role of government to ‘pump-prime’ broadband with a view to providing the UK with a universal, high-speed broadband fibre network, but that it could help with the vision.
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IPTV pay-TV mixed progressAccording to InfoCom’s most recent release of its quarterly television monitoring service, IPTV has been making mixed progress in the pay-TV market in countries that generally have a large broadband subscriber base.
While some operators achieved six to seven-figure IPTV subscriber numbers, others were not as successful. In the UK, for instance, despite having significant number of broadband users, take-up of IPTV has been sluggish due to satellite and Freeview’s strong market hold that places the IPTV players at a disadvantage. Tiscali, in particular, has plateaued between 36,000 to 45,000 IPTV subscriptions from 2005 until 1H08. In Germany, Hansenet has been struggling to add subscribers since its IPTV launch in 2006. Telecom Italia and Spain’s Jazztel were also among these providers that have lagged behind in the IPTV race.
On the other hand, in the forefront of the IPTV race is the French incumbent France Telecom, attracting more than 1.5m IPTV customers in 1H08 — more than 90 per cent of which are from its domestic market and the rest, from subsidiaries in Spain and Poland. The French incumbent also has IPTV operations in Slovakia and Senegal but so far, numbers are rather negligible. France Telecom kept its top position from end-2007 to 1H08 and largest IPTV provider.
MII China (comprising of China Telecom and China Netcom), in the 6-month period (end-2007 to 1H08), more than doubled its IPTV subscriber base — the highest increase among all groups.
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Court blocks Springer's ProSieben acquisitionA German court has upheld a decision by regulators to block plans by publishing giant Axel Springer to acquire broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1.
Springer said that it will decide whether to file an appeal after reviewing the full verdict. The Berlin-based publisher pulled out of its planned E2.5 billion purchase of ProSiebenSat.1 in early 2006 after regulatory concerns arose. German media and antitrust regulators had rejected the combination because of fears about control over public opinion and advertising markets.
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Media technology growth stalls, profitability fallsAfter an extended period of strong sales growth and profit performance the IABM Industry Index reveals the first indication of a downturn in the broadcast and media technology sector.
The IABM Index tracks year on year change in overall sales and profitability for the broadcast manufacturing and media technology sector worldwide by examining the latest reported financial data. Companies analysed in this report have sales turnover in the last 12 months of over US$10.3BN. Global sales have increased by 11.9 per cent year on year, but this rate of increase now appears to have peaked. 74 per cent of companies are in profit in the latest results, but the number moving into loss is increasing and the aggregate profit to sales ratio stands at 11.7 per cent and is declining.
Roger Stanwell, IABM Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The cyclical peak rate of sales growth seen in both October 2006 and October 2007 has hardly happened at all this year. There is now an indication of the start of a decline in the long term value of this Index, for both North American and European companies."
Profitability has still improved, but now by only 9.3 per cent year on year, the lowest increase since the Index tracking started three years ago. Profit growth in Europe has in fact turned negative – a 1 per cent decline on the prior 12 month period.
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HDs now most popular TVsAccording to a report released this week by market research firm iSuppli, HDTVs are now the leading television product on the market in terms of global shipments, outstripping SD sets this year for the first time. Based on the firm's data, HDTV shipments, which were at 97.1 million in 2007, could reach as high as 241.2 million units annually by 2012, managing a compound annual growth rate of 20 per cent.
"The technology is everywhere these days - on broadcast television, on cable, on satellite, and on the internet," says Sheri Greenspan, senior analyst for consumer electronics at iSuppli Corp. On the flipside, non-HDTV shipments are slowing almost as fast as high-def is growing, with SD shipments expected to decline to 23.1 million units by 2012, down from 114.8 million units last year.
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High-speed broadband increases HD streaming
A jump in average broadband download speeds in the UK from 4.1Mbps in January to 5Mbps in October 2008 has coincided in Brits move from watching predominantly low-quality video clips on platforms like YouTube to high-quality video on the BBC's iPlayer which perform best at download speeds.
Picture quality and sound via streaming technologies is greatly improved at higher speeds and waiting for pages to load or buffer is no longer an issue. The impact that super-fast broadband such as offered by O2 and Virgin Media is having on Internet usage is clearly reflected in increased consumption of rich media like high definition (HD) TV downloads. The iPlayer alone has seen daily requests to stream or download TV and radio programmes rise from 360,000 in January to 957,000 in October 2008.
The downside to this rich-media revolution is that high-resolution, quality video files and streams require more data to be downloaded than ever before meaning broadband provider download allowance limits are being reached and exceeded more than ever before. Coupled with the UK’s aging ADSL broadband network not being built to withstand the kind of capacity issues it is facing, the future will see ADSL2 and fibre-optic broadband technologies becoming the norm.
"Alongside the limitations of the existing network technology, the downside of this exponential growth in high-quality video streaming services like the iPlayer is that people are increasingly being hit with colossal, unexpected data charges for exceeding their download allowance – not ideal during this current recession" says Jessica McArdle, a spokesperson for Top 10 Broadband. "With average speeds now over 5Mb making the rich media dream a true reality, download allowance remains the final frontier to be crossed before online HD entertainment becomes a viable option for the majority of UK broadband users. Only ISPs that can match these demands will remain viable options for the average video-hungry user."
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Grade spurned over single ITVSTV and UTV, the two UK regional franchise holders of ITV licences, have told Ofcom, the British broadcast regulator, that they wanted nothing to do with a single nationwide licence for Channel 3 in the UK.
The idea was floated by Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, in recent remarks at a Royal Television Society. Rob Woodward, chief executive of STV, which owns the Scottish and Grampian franchises, told the Financial Times: "The idea of a single ITV at a time of Scottish devolution seems to run completely counter to both political and social trends in this country."
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MobiTV has revealed its managed network for mobile television and radio has surpassed the five million subscriber mark. Available on more than 350 handsets across 20 carrier networks including AT&T, Sprint and Alltel in the US, MobiTV continues to shape the mobile TV market it introduced more than five years ago.
"With the addition of over a million new subscribers in less than five months, MobiTV is widening its lead in the mobile media delivery industry," said Charlie Nooney, chairman and CEO, MobiTV. "We’ve seen our subscriber base accelerate rapidly by creating an exceptional experience for the consumer and continuing to develop innovative offerings."
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IAC's CE sees M&A opportunity in downturnIAC/Interactive Corp Chief Executive Barry Diller has told Reuters he expects his company will have up to $2.2 billion in cash by March 2009 and has no plans to use it for share buybacks, although he is keen for acquisitions.
"My sense is that we wouldn't be purchasers of our own stock and that's because tomorrow will present unknown opportunities," Diller said. "This downturn is going to present opportunities if you're in the position that we're in," he said, citing entertainment, media and search as areas of interest. "In entertainment and media, I think there's going to be a 'cascade' of acquisition opportunities."
Diller said he would be interested in acquisitions in search, but not to acquire technology. "The interest would be on audience, we would acquire audience absolutely. We would acquire vertical audiences as we acquired with Dictionary.com, and Thesauraus.com."
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Vizimo acquires TIOTI.com‘Next generation guidance’ company Vizimo has confirmed the acquisition of TIOTI (Tape It Off The Internet), the popular, interactive, TV social networking website. Vizimo plans to use TIOTI as a shop window in which to pioneer, demonstrate and test new functionality and tools that tie together TV, the web and, increasingly, mobile devices.
TIOTI launched in Spring 2007 to considerable media interest and has attracted a substantial, loyal user base since then. In the same period, Vizimo has been quietly developing ‘next generation guidance’ solutions: intelligent, interactive, guidance technology that enables viewers to find, discover, manage and watch TV or video programmes that they are interested in.
Guizhou to invest in broadcast network
The Guizhou provincial broadcasting authorities plans to invest a total of RMB 2.2 billion (E0.25bn) between 2008 and 2010 into accelerated construction of a province-wide integrated television and data network in order to ensure effective cable coverage and transmissions at the central, provincial, municipal, and county levels. The project is planned to be completed in three years: investment for this year totalled RMB 360 million, and will increase to RMB 1.105 billion in 2009 and RMB 735 million in 2010.
At present, there are still 35 counties in Guizhou that have not been connected to the cable broadcasting network, and the overwhelming majority of townships and villages do not have fibre-optic connectivity.
ITV Catch Up now ITV PlayerITV is changing the name of its on demand player to ITV Player. The move is part of the broadcaster’s aim to create a recognisable brand as their content becomes available on other platforms and coincides with a recent deal with BT to show ITV content on their video-on-demand (VOD) service BT Vision.
The re-brand, which will be promoted with a high profile on-air campaign from December 19th, will see a new logo for the on demand service. The video-on-demand section of ITV.com, formally know as Catch Up, allows users to view a selection of the best ITV shows for 30 days.
Tandberg for KT, SKTandberg Television has confirmed that KT, Korea's leading integrated wired/wireless communications service provider, has selected a Tandberg IPTV head end to support the continued growth of its Mega TV IPTV service. Mega TV has over 700,000 subscribers and provides interactive and pay per view services, including movies on-demand. KT will use TANDBERG Television’s market leading EN8090 HD MPEG-4 AVC and EN8030 SD MPEG-4 AVC encoders to expand its linear broadcast TV services.
SK Broadband, South Korea’s second largest broadband provider, is also deploying a Tandberg IPTV head end, which includes HD and SD MPEG-4 AVC encoding. This solution will enable SK Broadband to launch linear broadcast television services in 2009.
