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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 22nd February
BSkyB appeals Competition ruling
AEPOC chief refutes pirate allegations
DTV STB sales surpass 100m
Google online video ads
Online users prefer web to TV
TV ads evolving to meet needs of marketers
NBC streams retro TV
Discovery Shorts set for multi-platform
Vivendi high expectations for Zaoza
SK takeover of Hanaro approved
Tilgin signs Nokia Siemens Networks deal
ShortsTV joins iTunes
Eutelsat appoints Maine
ANT joins Open IPTV Forum
OmniGlobe buys BTIG
BSkyB appeals Competition ruling
BSkyB has confirmed it is to launch a legal challenge against key conclusions of the Competition Commission's report on its investment in ITV plc and the Secretary of State's consequent decision that it should dispose of the majority of its 17.9 per cent shareholding.
Sky will lodge its application with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) today (Friday 22 February 2008.) The CAT has the power to quash part or all of the previous findings and to send the case back to the Competition Commission for further consideration.
AEPOC chief refutes pirate allegations
Davide Rossi, chief of AEPOC, the anti-digital media piracy industry association, has denied allegations in the Italian press that he is implicated in smart card pirate ring.
In recent days Rossi has been named in two Italian newspapers in connection with information acquired in raids in France, Poland, Greece and Sicily. The public prosecutor in Syracuse and the Italian Financial Police are investigating links to Rossi after his contact details were found on a computer impounded in raids.
Rossi admits being in contact with one of the 132 people under investigation but said this was in connection with his anti-piracy work, specifically as a previous member of the Committee for Intellectual Property Protection under the auspices of the Italian Prime Minister’s office. Rossi said he had been in touch with the individual as part of attempts to better understand the technical aspects of hacking and therefore how regulations should be drawn up to prevent it. He said the individual concerned specifically assured him he was not involved in piracy.
Rossi concluded that while he was disappointed details of the investigation had leaked, he would cooperate fully with the investigation. He also said he would take any legal action necessary to protect his good name.
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Worldwide sales of digital TV set-top boxes broke through the 100 million barrier for the first time in 2007, according to research from Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. The report, "Digital TV Set-Top Boxes: Global Market Forecast" found that sales reached 102.4 million units last year, an annual increase of 12 per cent. IPTV's market share rose to 5.9 per cent, compared to 3.6 per cent in 2006. Cable's share also rose, to 36.2 per cent, while satellite and terrestrial shares declined.
For 2008 the report predicts a surge in demand for digital terrestrial set-top boxes, driven by the impending switch-off of analogue broadcasting in the US. By 2012 annual global sales of all digital TV set-top boxes will reach nearly 200 million units.
"We expect the Asia-Pacific region to overtake North America and Europe in 2008, accounting for a third of this year's 129 million sales," says Peter King, Director, Connected Home Devices. "Sales of digital terrestrial TV boxes in Europe have now plateaued, as consumers begin to transition to integrated digital TV sets, but this pattern is unlikely to prevent overall market growth across all platforms."
"The set-top box remains the key gateway to advanced digital television services around the world," says David Mercer, Principal Analyst. "Added value services such as high definition TV, digital video recording and Internet video are all set to drive further growth in this strategically important sector."
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Google launched a new advertising technology that will allow publishers to incorporate text ads into online videos. The launch marks the search group’s most ambitious attempt yet to make money by selling ads that appear inside video clips. Under the new system, advertisers will pay to have their messages appear inside online videos across the web.
Google’s video ads will take one of two forms: banner ads, which will run at the top of the video screen, and "overlay" ads, which will be inserted on top of videos as they play. The ads will be selected based on the content of the video and the web pages on which they appear.
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Online users prefer web to TVAn IDC study of consumer online behaviour found that the Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).
"The time spent using the Internet will continue to increase at the expense of television and, to a lesser extent, print media," said Karsten Weide, programme director, Digital Media and Entertainment at IDC. "This suggests that advertising budgets will continue to be shifted out of television, newspapers, and magazines into Internet advertising."
The data also show that consumers tend to use the media they grew up with. The older the respondents, the more they consume TV, newspapers, and magazines; the younger they are, the more the Internet displaces usage of traditional media. Using search engines (84 per cent of respondents), mapping and navigation services (83 per cent), personal research (77 per cent), and using email (76 per cent) are the most frequent online activities.
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TV ads evolving to meet needs of marketersA majority of marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective in the past two years, but marketers are interested in exploring new ad formats and new forms of video commercials, according to the fourth biennial TV & Technology survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research.
Sixty-two per cent of marketers believe television advertising has become less effective in the past two years, but close to half of the advertisers surveyed have already started to experiment with new ad types to work with DVRs and VOD programmes. Eighty-seven per cent of advertisers believe branded entertainment will play a stronger role in TV advertising in the coming year.
Advertisers are eager to try new ad formats, including ads in online TV shows (65 per cent), ads embedded in VOD (55 per cent), interactive television ads (43 per cent), and ads within the set top box menu (32 per cent).
Over 50 per cent of marketers reported that when half of all TV households use DVRs, they will cut spending on TV advertising by 12 per cent. Eighty-seven per cent of respondents said they intend to spend more on Web advertising this year.
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NBC streams retro TVNBC Universal has revealed will stream full episodes of old TV shows, including "The A-Team", "Buck Rogers" and "Kojak," on its websites.
Beginning this month, the shows will be available on NBC.com and on network-owned niche sites SciFi.com, ChillerTV.com and SleuthChannel.com. The content also will be available on Hulu, the online video joint venture that NBC Universal launched with News Corp. last year. Through Hulu, the shows will be syndicated to Yahoo, News Corp.'s MySpace, MSN, Comcast, Time Warner's AOL and other Web destinations.
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Discovery Shorts set for multi-platform
From Colin Mann in London
Discovery Networks EMEA has premiered a series of short films, commissioned to capture the spirit of the Discovery Channel. The collection – Discover Shorts - will air on the Discovery Channel across Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 1 March.Discovery Shorts vary in length, from 30 to 120 seconds and will air between scheduled programming. James Gilbey, Discovery Networks EMEA Creative Director, said this made them suitable for subsequent distribution on other platforms.
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Vivendi high expectations for ZaozaFrench telecoms and media group Vivendi expects its new Internet music, ringtone and video games provider Zaoza to attract 500,000 subscribers by the end of the year. The portal, which launched this week, offers a selected list of exclusive content for mobile phones and computers for E3 a month.
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SK takeover of Hanaro approvedThe Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) in Korea has approved the acquisition of Hanaro Telecom by SK Telecom. SK won a 1.090 billion KRW bid for the company late last year, which was subject to the approval of government antitrust regulators. Hanaro had been rumoured to be an SK takeover target for the last year.
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Tilgin signs Nokia Siemens Networks dealTilgin, provider of customer premises equipment (CPE) for triple play, next-generation broadband and IMS-based services, has signed a worldwide sales and marketing co-operation agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks a globally recognised system integrator regarding the sale of pre-integrated Tilgin IPTV set-top boxes to selected customers.
Tilgin will be promoted as a preferred supplier of Nokia Siemens, with respect to Tilgin products certified with the system integrator’s technical platform. Under the agreement, the Tilgin IPTV Mood product series will be specifically tailored for compatibility with the evolution of Nokia Siemens' platform end eco-partners for IPTV solutions.
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ShortsTV is the tenth television channel to be added to Apple’s line-up on the UK iTunes Store. The Channel launches with all 10 of the Oscar Nominated Short Films in the Live Action and Animation categories for this years Academy Awards.
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Eutelsat appoints MaineEutelsat Communications has appointed former BT and Kingston employee Steve Maine as CEO of their jointly-owned venture offering Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in S-Band. The Joint Venture, known under the name "Solaris", will commercialise the first satellite infrastructure in Europe for broadcasting video, radio and data to mobile devices and vehicle receivers as well as a range of interactive mobile services.
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ANT Software, provider of software solutions and services for delivering digital media content to any consumer device, across any media distribution platform, has joined the Open IPTV Forum.
Simon Woodward, CEO of ANT plc, said, "We believe the Open IPTV Forum has a very important role to play in the IPTV industry through driving and specifying a practical and open IPTV platform. We are very pleased to have been invited to join this initiative and look forward to contributing the benefits of our many years of IPTV experience."
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OmniGlobe Networks, specialist in delivering cellular, broadband
internet and VoIP services, has acquired Bandwidth Technologies International Group Limited (BTIG), the UK based international provider of satellite communications systems.
OmniGlobe Networks, the privately held Canadian group, acquired the entire equity of BTIG - including its principal trading subsidiary L-TEQ Limited. BTIG will become the operations and sales centre for OmniGlobe's planned expansion of its existing business in the Middle East and Africa. David Harper, former managing director of L-TEQ Ltd, becomes managing director of OmniGlobe in the UK and head of OmniGlobe's International Satellite Communications division.OmniGlobe Networks specialises in the provision of telecommunications services in areas of the world where the conventional telecommunications infrastructure is often nonexistent. It deploys wireless internet and cellular services, using a combination of satellite backhaul infrastructure and its own proprietary software.
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Thursday 21st February
NBC tailors ad sales for multimedia
Multimedia home networking still not mainstream
Sport the content of choice online
Video quality essential to success of IPTV
Gesture-recognition for Imagenio
Mobile adult video chat revenues $1.5bn by 2012
Orange, Thomson and Sagem’s Soft At Home
DVB-C2 spec out
OpenFLO developments
CEA and NAB online antenna
UK indie reord
BBC iPlayer growth continues
Moovyplay integrates NexGuard
NBC tailors ad sales for multimediaNBC Universal is adjusting its traditional approach to television ad sales to cater to customers who are increasingly using the internet, mobile phones and other devices to reach consumers. The company will scrap the "up-front" presentation in May, and in its place it will hold a "spotlight" event focusing less on specific programmes than on the different ways it can reach audiences, from its iVillage website, to its cable networks, wireless offerings and Spanish-language network, among others.
NBC has also committed to introducing its television schedule a month earlier than usual, in April, and to supplying advertisers with a full-year schedule rather than a one-season glimpse.
"This one-size-fits-all approach that the typical up-front has been doesn’t work anymore," said Mark Graboff, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, arguing that advertisers were demanding greater flexibility to develop sponsorships or customised campaigns that blended a series of media.
Multimedia home networking still not mainstreamThe market for home-networked CE devices has been trying to move past the early adopter stage, but this has not been occurring very quickly, In-Stat says. Although In-Stat's consumer research shows that there has been progress, the majority of consumers still only use their home network for Internet sharing.
"Improvement is still needed when it comes to consumer awareness of the new breed of PC and non-PC network-capable media devices (Media Center PCs, CE media servers, digital media adapters, digital media receivers/players, and other networked CE devices)," says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. "To date, non-PC network-enabled stationary media devices have been dominated by game consoles. However, the vast majority of non-PC network-enabled stationary devices are not currently used to stream audio and video multimedia streams from room to room."
Research by In-Stat found that worldwide media server-capable device shipments will grow by a 43 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2006 to 2011. The worldwide market for basic media server shipments to be placed in home networks within one year is expected to grow by 62 per cent from 2006 to 2011.
Sport the content of choice online
In the same way that sport content was a major driver of pay-TV adoption, sports will be the single biggest driver of consumption for online video. Screen Digest forecast the number of online sports videos (OSV) streams/downloads served in the domestic US market will increase from 5.2bn last year to 10.8 billion by 2012. In the UK the number of streams/downloads will more than double from 398 million in 2007 to 1.2 billion in five years time.
Most significantly, OSV accounted for 35 per cent of all online TV streams/downloads consumed in the US in 2007. In the UK, OSV constituted a 46 per cent share of all online TV consumed in 2007.
Screen Digest forecast that US revenues from domestic OSV consumption will increase from $762 million in 2007 to $2.3 billion in 2012. In the UK, OSV revenues will treble from £23.5 million to £82.9 million. Yet it will be advertising, not subscriptions that will generate the lions share of the revenue from OSV. In the UK advertising will account for 61 per cent of revenue by 2012, up from for 46.5 per cent five years earlier. That will be twice the value of subscriptions. By comparison in the US, advertising and subscriptions will contribute almost equal revenue by 2012 at 41 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.
Video quality essential to success of IPTVSymmetricom has released a study conducted by Multimedia Research Group (MRG) that assessed telecommunications service providers’ requirements for IPTV test, measurement and monitoring solutions.
Results of the study confirm that video quality is critical to the growth and success of IPTV, significantly affecting customer support calls and customer churn. Importantly, the study also revealed that service providers feel their existing monitoring solutions lack an accurate measurement of perceptual end-user quality. In addition, most service providers believe an end-to-end solution is required to monitor and understand quality issues occurring at the headend, access networks and the home – where the majority of video quality problems can occur.
Key results of the study show: that 84 per cent reported video quality monitoring as critical or a very important part of their video initiative, and 77 per cent say video quality is a main reason for customer churn.
Gesture-recognition for Imagenio
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Changing channel through gestures and without a remote control will be possible very soon on the Telefonica-controlled IPTV platform, Imagenio, with more than 500,000 subscribers. Telefonica and the technology specialist Gesture Tek are joinly developing a system that can recognise user hand signs via the set-top-box (STB). The system includes a small video camera in the STB that can read the user's gestures to change channel and other commands without using a remote control set. The system will also be able to recognise if there is a minor using the system and apply a parental lock accordingly.The GestureTek's technoloy is already being used to power the EyeToy USB camera accessory for Sony’s PlayStation 3.
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Mobile adult video chat revenues $1.5bn by 2012
Global revenues from adult video chat services are expected to rise sharply over the next five years, reaching $1.5 billion by 2012, according to a report from Juniper Research.
The report states that, while adoption levels of such services are comparatively low even by the standard of mobile adult services, the average monthly spend of this niche market is typically 10-20x higher than for other adult services.
According to report author Windsor Holden, "Those video chat services already deployed are showing quite remarkable levels both in terms of customer retention and average usage, with users regularly returning to chat to the same hostess and developing a virtual relationship with her. With 3G penetration expected to exceed 25 per cent in many developed markets by the end of 2008, there is a significant opportunity for service providers to launch and monetise live chat services."
The report also recommended that, while users of mobile adult services are less price sensitive than those of other mobile content, offering subscription services at a reduced price for a trial period would ultimately increase revenues, as such a period allows the customer to ascertain whether or not the content is worth a greater, longer-term investment.
Orange, Thomson and Sagem’s Soft At HomeOrange, Thomson and Sagem Communications have joined forces to create a joint venture: Soft At Home. This structure is aimed at creating a standard for the interconnection of equipment within the multimedia ecosystem.
Soft At Home is designed to facilitate the deployment and interoperability of digital equipment in the home and make it possible to combine it with enhanced and innovative services. For instance, it enables you to access photos stored on a computer on your TV, make a telephone call using the television remote control, or even simultaneously save multimedia content, wherever the digital equipment is located in the home.
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DVB-C2 spec outThe DVB Board has approved the commercial requirements for the DVB-C2 specification. The demand for more advanced services has pushed the existing cable specification to its limits and DVB has therefore introduced the process to develop a set of commercial requirements and is looking for contributions towards a specification that will serve the cable industry for between 10 and 12 years.
The satellite DVB-S2 standard is already being used by a number of operators and progress is also being made on the terrestrial DVB-T2.
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OpenFLO developmentsThe FLO Forum, a global consortium of over 90 wireless industry leaders dedicated to the open standardisation of FLO (Forward Link-Only) technology for mobile multimedia broadcast, has announced the completion of the FLO Receiver Application Programming Interface (API) Specification. The news marks the latest step in the on-going OpenFLO initiative, which is designed to facilitate multi-vendor interoperability within any FLO mobile TV network. The group also announced the completion of its Mobile TV Content & Services Specification.
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CEA and NAB online antennaThe Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have unveiled a partnership to produce AntennaWeb.org, an online antenna mapping programme designed to help consumers and electronics retailers determine the proper outdoor antenna to use in order to receive free local broadcast channels. The tool is particularly valuable to consumers as the US approaches the deadline for the transition from analogue to digital television.
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UK Indie reordRevenues in the UK's independent television production sector rose by nearly 10 per cent last year to pass £2 billion (E2.77bn), according to industry trade body Pact. Total revenues in the sector were £2.14 billion, Pact said, more than £500 million higher than two years earlier.
Pact said the majority of growth last year was generated by increased commissions from UK broadcasters, with spending up by £156 million compared to 2006. International sales totalled £310 million, with the US accounting for 84 per cent of these.
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BBC iPlayer growth continuesOver 17 million programmes have been streamed or downloaded on demand on BBC iPlayer in the first seven weeks since its marketing launch, according to the latest figures from the BBC. During January, over 2.2 million people watched a programme on BBC iPlayer, with approximately 11 million TV programmes streamed or downloaded on demand.
Moovyplay integrates NexGuardMoovyplay has selected NexGuard, Thomson's content security solution suite, for implementation into its portable movie rental service. Moovyplay is a venture developed by Paris-based CPFK, France's leader in DVD rental services with 2200 outlets under three retailer brands: Video Futur, Cinebank and Video Pilote. The partnership marks the first integration of a digital video watermarking solution into a portable video device.
Wednesday 20th February
Euro project to shape next-gen Internet TV
Asia-Pacific will outpace Europe in IPTV
Euro VoD services expand in 2007
New regulation for broadcast PRS providers
UK broadband speeds below 3Mbps
Hathway selects NDS
Cablevision rolls out SeaChange flash memory
Scopus wins in E.Europe
Euro project to shape next-gen Internet TV
From Colin Mann in LondonP2P-Next, a pan-European conglomerate of 21 industrial partners, media content providers and research institutions, has received a E14 million grant from the European Union. The grant will enable the body to carry out a research project aiming to identify the potential uses of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology for Internet Television of the future. The partners, including the BBC, Delft University of Technology, the European Broadcasting Union, Lancaster University, Markenfilm, Pioneer Digital Design Centre Limited and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, intend to develop a Europe-wide ‘next-generation’ Internet television distribution system, based on P2P and social interaction.
According to the partners, the project will run over four years, and plans to conduct a large-scale technical trial of new media applications running on a wide range of consumer devices. Should the initiative prove successful, the creation is envisaged of a platform that would enable audiences to stream and interact with live content via a PC or set-top box.
The partners also intend to allow audiences to build communities around their favourite content via a fully personalised system, and suggest that the technology could potentially be built into Video on Demand (VOD) services in the future. Plans are underway to test the system for major broadcasting events.
P2P-Next confirmed that the project has an open approach towards sharing results. All core software technology will be available as open source, enabling new business models. P2P-Next will also address a number of outstanding challenges related to content delivery over the Internet, including technical, legal, regulatory, security, business and commercial issues.
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Asia-Pacific will outpace Europe in IPTVThe global IPTV industry is rapidly expanding with the rising penetration of broadband in households all over the world, says "Global IPTV: Market Analysis and Forecast to 2011", a comprehensive market research report by RNCOS, a market research company.
The report has found that the global IPTV market is currently dominated by Europe but it is expected that Asia will emerge as a stronger competitor to Europe in coming years. The number of broadband subscribers will take long jump in the Asia-Pacific region and it is expected to grow at Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 91 per cent during 2006-2011. RNCOS report has thoroughly studied the reasons that are promoting the IPTV market in the Asia-Pacific region with special focus on the implications of regulations, penetration of personal computers and quality of broadband service.
The report has also discovered that only six countries from the Asia-Pacific region, namely South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Macao, came in the world’s top 20 countries, which had good broadband penetration in 2005, as measured by the International Telecommunication Union. But India and China, two fastest developing economies, will also be included in these six countries as the number of broadband subscription is rising in these countries, including rural areas. In fact, the rural areas of both the countries are offering enormous growth opportunities for the expansion of broadband. However, the Philippines is also expected to join the league soon.
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Euro VoD services expand in 2007
At the end of 2007, a survey by the European Audiovisual Observatory and the French Government's Media Development Department found 258 VoD services in operation in the 24 European countries covered, compared with 142 services at the end of December 2006.This upsurge in the number of services is largely explained by the fact that television channels generally now have websites offering free catch-up TV, giving viewers access to certain programmes, notably episodes of series, for a period of several days after their transmission. As in 2006, France - with 32 services - remains the country with the highest level of VoD provision; it is followed by the Netherlands (with 30 services) and Germany (with 26 services). Together, these three countries account for almost a third of Europe's VoD services.
74 per cent of the services surveyed are delivered via Internet, 26 per cent are available as part of IPTV packages and 10 per cent come with cable packages. As previously, only a minority of VoD services are delivered via satellite or on digital terrestrial television.
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New regulation for broadcast PRS providersPhonepayPlus (previously known as ICSTIS) has announced that service providers looking to provide premium rate services (PRS) to broadcasters must first seek its permission. Taken alongside tough new rules for broadcasters from Ofcom, it is expected the new regulatory regime will protect viewers from any possible harm when participating in broadcast PRS. Ofcom has made the broadcaster ultimately responsible for the service provided and they will have to obtain third party verification of services and competitions. The phone regulator has also said it will be carrying out unannounced spot checks on broadcasters.
UK broadband speeds below 3Mbps
UK broadband users are only getting an average download speed of 2.95Mbps, according to broadband comparison site Broadband-Expert.co.uk. The study is based on a survey of 18,558 UK broadband in January of this year.
Be Broadband offered users the highest average download speed, with an average of 6.07Mbps recorded. This is partially due to Be broadband's ADSL2+ technology, which allows much greater speeds to be achieved compared to other providers that use traditional ADSL technology. The lowest average download speed recorded was 1.72Mbps for Tiscali customers.
"Current advertising campaigns like Tiscali's promise superfast broadband (download) speeds of up to 8Mbps. Yet the average actual speed achieved by Tiscali customers was a pitiful lowly 1.72Mbps. Now that is not superfast by any stretch of the imagination and is over 1Mbps lower than the UK average," said Broadband-Expert.co.uk's technical director William Harvey.
Be Broadband also achieved the fastest average upload speed in the survey of 850Kbps. On average UK broadband users are receiving upload speeds of 296Kbps. Orange customers are receiving the slowest speeds at just 219Kbps, according to the study.
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Hathway selects NDS XTV for cable DVRNDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has revealed that Hathway, India’s leading cable TV services company, has selected NDS XTV technology to launch India’s first cable DVR. The new XTV DVR solution will be deployed during 2008, and will give subscribers ultimate control over what they watch and when they watch it. In partnership with NDS, Hathway can now deliver a compelling combination of broadcast and On-Demand digital television to Indian cable subscribers.
Cablevision rolls out SeaChange flash memoryCablevision Mexico has become the first digital cable television company to enhance its video-on-demand operations with SeaChange flash memory storage and streaming. Mexico's largest digital cable operator has switched on SeaChange International's MediaServer Flash Memory Streamers, seamlessly extending Cablevision 's SeaChange Axiom software and disk-based server operations.
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Scopus has revealed that FN Cable Holdings, a pan-European Multi Service Operator management group, will deploy Scopus headend solutions for the digital upgrade of its FiberNet Hungary and Eurocom Bulgaria subsidiaries.
"In moving to a digital environment, we sought a partner whose solutions could fulfil our requirements for bringing high-quality video, voice, and data to our customers while also enabling us to extend our reach with new services and channels," said FiberNet CTO Adam Bognar. "We made the decision to deploy Scopus' end-to-end headend solutions based on their reputation for quality, versatility, and performance."
Scopus' headend solutions are designed to enable cable operators to increase revenue generation through improved processing efficiency, as well as enhanced functionality that enables the provision of advanced services such as video on demand and HD television.
Tuesday 19th February
BSkyB to appeal Competition Commission ‘mistake’
13m+ US households not ready for digital
RTVE and Telefonica in multimedia deal
Blu-ray wins HD-DVD war
Zee contests Trai's mobile TV regulation
SES falls
Digital Outreach to aid switchover
TVCatchup suspended
Q4 in Latin America for DirecTV
Digital conduct code
Australia consider 3 strike rule
Samsung See’N’Search
DK for mobile
BBC shows on iTunes?
BSkyB to appeal Competition Commission ‘mistake’BSkyB is to take its case to the Competition Appeals Tribunal and will claim the Competition Commission’s findings are mistaken in all material respects. The Commission said BSkyB’s purchase of 17.9 per cent of ITV created a merger situation and was prejudicial to competition. The Government accepted the finding and the recommendation that Sky be forced to sell down to below 7.5 per cent, having rejected Sky’s offer to put the shares in a blind trust.
It is understood Sky will argue that the Commission is wrong in fact and law; it will say because Sky is a media company it shouldn’t alter the regulations that apply to everyone else in terms of what constitutes a merger. The move will prolong the uncertainty over ITV shares – Sky wrote off more than £300 million (E402m) in its latest accounts on its original £940 million investment.
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13m+ US households not ready for digitalMore than 13 million households with television sets that can only receive analogue broadcasts are currently unprepared for the transition to all digital broadcasting that is scheduled for February 18, 2009, according to the Nielsen Company. Another 6 million households have at least one television set that would no longer work after that date. Neilsen also reported that 10.1 per cent of all households would have no access to television signals if the transition occurred today.
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RTVE and Telefonica in multimedia deal
From David Del Valle in Madrid
The Spanish state-owned group, RTVE -that operates the terrestrial TVE 1 and La 2- and the incumbent telco Telefonica have signed a 3-year strategic agreement to promote and develop joint multimedia projects through all existing distribution platforms.
The agreement, signed by the presidents of the companies, Luis Fernández and Cesar Alierta, respectively, is aimed at launching new joint TV services based on the digital, interactivity of content. Both parties will develop interactive content, including interactive TV advertising, and launch a joint offer of International TV channels to be distributed through all kind of distribution platforms, among them, mobile TV and DTT.
It is an exclusive agreement since both parties have undertaken not to sign a similar deal with other companies in Spain that directly compete with RTVE and Telefonica. Cesar Alierta, president of Telefonica, said that "for Telefonica this agreement represents a great opportunity to develop its huge expertise in audiovisual services". He added that "we are proud to meet RTVE's innovation strategy with the launch of new audiovisual services, based on digitalisation and interactivity"."Telefonica is helping us in this new phase of the RTVE Corporation with the development of new services and new resources", commented Luis Fernandez. "We are going to offer Spanish content to develop new opportunities and take advantage of new technology and emerging platforms", he concluded.
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Blu-ray wins HD-DVD warSony's Blu-ray looks set to become the standard for high-definition DVDs after Toshiba signalled it will give up in a long-running format battle, to the relief of investors. Toshiba is reviewing its HD DVD business and "a complete withdrawal is one of the options it is considering." The demise of HD DVD could spur sales of next-generation DVD players among consumers, who have been reluctant to gamble on one of the formats, analysts said, although Blu-ray was already far ahead in sales, particularly in Japan.
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Zee contests Trai's mobile TV regulation
Zee Network has written to the Information & Broadcasting ministry, stating that the Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) regulation for mobile TV is discriminatory. Zee has demanded that any broadcasting company should be allowed to provide mobile TV services. Zee says that cross holding caps are not appropriate in these scenarios, and has warned that the regulation, if left untouched, would lead to engineering monopolistic control by some players.
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SES fallsSES Global reported profit and turnover down but declared it was still in the market for small add on acquisitions despite its failed offer for Spacecom of Israel.
Net profit fell by 7 per cent to E404 million from the previous year’s E435.8 million, mainly on interest charges related to the debt incurred in the split from GE. Revenue fell 0.3 per cent to E1.61 billion. Utilisation rates increased from 75 per cent to 76.5 per cent.
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Digital Outreach to aid switchoverDigital UK is setting up a new organisation, Digital Outreach, bringing together the charities Age Concern England, Help the Aged and Community Services Volunteers, as well as drawing on help from Collective Enterprises, a company specialising in working with the charity sector. Digital Outreach will offer help to those who fall outside the reach of the BBC's £600 million (E805m) aid scheme, which is designed to help the over-75s, disabled people and blind people.
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The TV recording site TVCatchup.com has had its service suspended after complaints from the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Channel Five.
TVCatchup launched in trial last year, allowing users to record offline TV shows, watch them online and share copies with other members. The UK-focused site immediately attracted the concern of broadcasters, which have invested millions of pounds in their own web TV catch-up services.
A note posted on the site over the weekend said the web hosting company terminated the TV service on February 15, and that management assumed this was as a result of requests from broadcasters.
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Q4 in Latin America for DirecTVDirecTV Latin America achieved net subscriber additions of 199,000 in the quarter, a jump the company attributed to strong customer growth in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina. The total number of DirecTV subscribers in Latin America as of December 31 increased 21 percent to 3.28 million, compared to 2.71 million as of December 2006. Revenues for DirecTV's Latin America operations increased 41 percent to $499 million in the fourth quarter, an increase attributed to strong subscriber and ARPU growth.
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Digital conduct codeAOL, the BBC, Bebo, Channel 4, Google, ITV and Yahoo! have signed up to a new code of conduct designed to protect children from unsuitable digital content.
The media companies have agreed to follow guidelines set out by the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) and supported by Ofcom to emulate the standards used in existing media.
Anthony Walker, CEO of the BSG, said the recommendations were designed to be applied flexibly depending on the platform "The principles are based on existing industry best practices," he said. "They will also be used for new services as they emerge and develop."
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Australia consider 3 strike ruleThe Australian Government is considering a three-strikes policy against computer users who download illegally. The Government will examine new legislative proposals being unveiled in Britain this week to target people who download films and music illegally.
Under the three-strikes policy, a warning would be first issued to offenders who illegally share files using peer-to-peer technology to access music, TV shows and movies free of charge. The second strike would lead to the offender's internet access being suspended; the third would cancel the offender's internet access.
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Samsung See’N’SearchCE maker Samsung has introduced its first set-top box, the Internet-powered See'N'Search device designed to allow users to integrate web functionality into their TV viewing experience.
According to Samsung, the See'N'Search set-top trolls a virtual channel guide to catalogue what's on and when. It then uses that information to suggest video or web sites to accompany what the user is watching, allowing them to connect to the web directly via their remote control. In addition, See'N'Search information can be transmitted to other WiFi-enabled devices.
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Dorling Kindersley, the world’s leading non-fiction publisher, has agreed terms with Mobifusion Inc. to deliver branded mobile content products to consumers around the world. Mobifusion develops, publishes and distributes mobile technologies and value-added services and is considered one of the foremost mobile media content companies in their field. The global deal will see content coming from DK’s health, reference, fitness and lifestyle, food and drink and travel titles, made available to mobile users through both handset manufacturers and network operators.
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The BBC's commercial arm is rumoured to announce a deal to distribute shows via the iTunes video store this week. BBC Worldwide will unveil plans to set up shop at Apple's online media store.
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Studios sue Google’s China partner
Big uplift predicted for broadcast
BT welcomes tightened access
Nielsen buys STB research firm
Resources deal still not closed
MTNL mobile TV launch
Chello invests in Shorts
Godfrey quits ITV
Nagra for T-Mobile CZ
Studios sue Google’s China partner
Six U.S. film studios have filed civil complaints against Chinese file-sharing firm Xunlei Networking, part-owned by Google, for copyright infringement and are seeking more than Yn7 million (E0.7m) in damages and costs, the Motion Picture Association said.
MPA said that the plaintiffs were also seeking a public acknowledgement of the infringements as well as a pledge from Xunlei to refrain from future infringements. MPA said that Xunlei facilitated the unauthorised transmission of hundreds of Hollywood movies produced by its members. Google said at the beginning of 2007 that it had bought a stake in Shenzhen-based Xunlei, but declined to disclose the size of the stake or financial details of the deal.
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Big uplift predicted for broadcast
Researcher Datamonitor expects the global broadcast market to experience significant revenue growth from US$284.1 billion in 2007 to US$326.2 billion by 2010. However, it is expected that growth will only be secured through revenue diversification from value-add and bundled services including Internet service provision, HD content, on-demand solutions, interactive applications and multi-platform distribution.Consumers are faced with an unprecedented number of methods to watch and obtain video content. “From personal media players (PMPs), to TV sets, to mobile phones, people will access media content on a variety of different devices over a multitude of communications networks,” says Chris Khouri Media and Broadcasting Analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report. “As such, broadcasters are faced with strong pressure to adapt to multi-platform entertainment provision.”
Datamonitor says there were around 149.5 million households subscribing to a digital television service in Western Europe and the US in 2007. Of the total digital TV households, digital cable services accounted for a 32 per cent share, satellite 43 per cent digital terrestrial television (DTT) 22 per cent and IPTV at around 3 per cent. By 2010 Datamonitor estimates 193.5 million households in the US and Western Europe to be connected to a digital television service. In terms of absolute growth, the two largest gainers will be DTT and digital cable growing by an estimated 13.3 million and 14.5 million households, respectively.
In terms of market share, Datamonitor expects IPTV and DTT to show the strongest percentage growth with a 2.7 per cent and a 3.7 per cent increase, respectively. Considering this, digital TV players will face a challenging year as they look to attract new customers and reduce churn.
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BT welcomes tightened access
BT believes it may be able to limit rivals’ access to some of its wholesale broadband network after the European Commission backed a drive to lift regulation of the division in parts of the UK. Brussels endorsed a proposal by Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, to scrap controls on internet providers in certain densely populated areas where broadband competition is strong.
Under the proposal, operators in areas deemed to be competitive would no longer have to guarantee competitors access and regulated fees in those locations. At least four rival operators should be in place in the chosen regions for such a move to go ahead. Ofcom estimates the area covered by the proposed deregulation accounts for about 65 per cent of premises.Ben Verwaayen, BT’s chief executive, said: “This is very welcome news from the European Commission. Their support for Ofcom’s proposal is a step in the right direction.”
The news could boost BT’s struggling wholesale division. Third-quarter results last week showed revenues at the unit fell 11 per cent to £1.2bn (E1.7bn), as rivals such as Carphone Warehouse and British Sky Broadcasting moved to their own exchanges. This cut the revenues BT accrued from renting its network.The European Commission insisted that British consumers would continue to be protected by competition rules if Ofcom went ahead with the move.
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Nielsen buys STB research firm
In a move aimed at strengthening its ability to process audience measurement data from set-top boxes, The Nielsen Co. has acquired Audience Analytics and its Audience Watch software. Nielsen said the Audience Watch software will become the primary delivery mechanism for the company’s Nielsen DigitalPlus product line,
providing analytics on tuning and interactive television usage, based on
set-top box data, as well as measurement of video-on-demand transactions.
Nielsen said that Mark Cannon, Audience Analytics founder Mark Cannon will
join the company as senior vice president, analytics technology, leading an
advanced applications team to sustain and expand this technology across a
growing number of complex data sets.
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Resources deal still not closed
The troubled sale of BBC Resources has been delayed.
The BBC had been hoping to complete the sale by the end of its current financial year, March 31. Mike Southgate, the chief executive of BBC Resources told staff "I appreciate how difficult it must be waiting for information. As I said before, we've spent so long preparing for [the] sale that an extra couple of months getting it right should not be a cause for concern."
It is understood that the current plan the BBC is considering is to split up BBC Resources among a number of bidders.
Meantime, the BBC Trust has approved £81m (E112.5m) of funding to complete the first phase of the Digital Media Initiative, which will see the Corporation move into multi-platform production and tapeless workflow. Future media and technology director Ashley Highfield said the transition would open up a "world of possibilities", adding: "It is the single most important initiative we are working on."
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MTNL mobile TV launch
State-run telecom MTNL announced the soft launch of its mobile TV service in the capital, which would allow its users to watch live television on their handsets. Initially, MTNL customers would be able to watch seven channels on their GPRS-enables mobile handsets. The commercial launch of the mobile TV service will be in April.
The streaming technology would be provided by AirChord Televentures.
The users will have to pay a minimum of Rs 50 per month to access five free channels on their mobile TV. For watching rest of the channels, they would have to pay accordingly for every channel.
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Chello invests in Shorts
Chellomedia, the European content division of Liberty Global, announced the acquisition of a 25% interest in Shorts International Ltd, the creator of ShortsTV, the television channel which is distributed on cable in France, Belgium and Luxembourg reaching 3.2 million households so far, on several mobile phone platforms and via the internet on Joost. The channel provides high quality award winning short films, cinema, and animation films, which are particularly attractive to today’s video generation.Shorts International’s films have already made it a key content supplier to the iTunes Store in the US, where its films are sold via the internet for $1.99.
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Godfrey quits ITV
Jim Godfrey, ITV's director of corporate affairs, is leaving in March after three years to set up his own PR agency. Godfrey, a former Labour special adviser, said he intended to specialise in political campaigns and branding with his new company, which will have ITV as its first client when it launches in July.
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Nagra for T-Mobile CZ
Nagravision has announced T-Mobile CZ, the leading mobile phone carrier in the Czech Republic, has selected it for the delivery of a trial OMA BCAST Smart Card Profile system. In partnership with T-Systems and in line with T-Mobile Czech Republic plans to launch a commercial mobile TV service in the near future, Nagravision will set up a test system for OMA BCAST Smart Card Profile in a complete play out eco-system. The objective is to evaluate and certify the end-to-end performance of handsets, SIM cards and headend in a close to real life environment before the full commercial service launch.
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