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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 18th July
YouTube on TiVo
New VoD store from Amazon
Facebook, ITV grow online video
PC-TV tuner market boosted by DTT
AOL men back doc site
South Africa: IPTV before digital broadcasting
BT: more Phorm tests
Five catches up
Muzu partners Sony
Babelgum sets up US base
Lions Gate share YouTube ad revenue
Hong Kong DTT coverage boosted to 75%
Verizon TV franchise in NY
Thomson joins Open IPTV Forum
YouTube on TiVoTiVo is to offer thousands of its subscribers the ability to stream YouTube videos onto their television sets through their broadband-enabled TiVo boxes. It's TiVo's first deal for streaming online content, though the company has partnerships with 60 Internet sites that provide content to TiVo. Unlike with those relationships, TiVo users won't be able to store YouTube video clips, just watch them and bookmark them for easy retrieval later.
TiVo's most popular Internet content partner thus far is Amazon Unbox, which features rented movies that are downloaded to TiVo set-top boxes for viewing on TV screens.
Tara Maitra, GM of content services at TiVo, said the company's users have downloaded 27 million pieces of content from the 60 Internet partners. Beyond Amazon Unbox, product reviews from the likes of CNET and comedy shorts from such sources as the Onion and Break.com are popular.
YouTube, though, is expected to quickly outdo them all. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, YouTube attracted 68 million unique users in May who streamed 3.8 billion videos, making it by far the most popular video brand on the Internet. Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, was second with 18 million unique users and 328 million video streams.
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Amazon is introducing a new online store of TV shows and movies. Users of Amazon Video on Demand will be able to start streaming any of 40,000 movies and television programmes immediately after ordering them.
Amazon has also struck a deal with electronics giant Sony to place its Internet video store on the Sony Bravia line of high-definition TVs. Amazon would pursue similar deals with other makers of TVs and Internet devices, Bill Carr, Amazon's vice president for digital media said.
Amazon Video on Demand will be accessible to a limited number of invited Amazon.com customers before it opens more broadly to other users later this summer.
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Facebook, ITV grow online video
Facebook and ITV.com were the only major websites other than YouTube to significantly increase their share of the UK's web video market over the past year.
Both Facebook and ITV.com launched new video offerings over the year to the end of May, growing their market share from a very low base to create a monthly audience of almost 2 million users each, according to new data from metrics firm comScore.
Facebook, which launched a video-sharing feature with its developer application platform in May 2007, saw a 1,324 per cent increase in video clips watched in the following 12 months.
User numbers for video increased from just 174,000 in May 2007 to 1.8 million in the same month this year.
The growth of ITV.com, which saw the number of videos it serves increase by 1,102 per cent year on year, was driven by the relaunch of its website with an expanded video offering and catch-up service.
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PC-TV tuner market boosted by DTT
The adoption of digital PC-TV Tuners will accelerate in Europe as Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) services continue to expand there. Asia, China and India will present strong growth opportunities. North America is expected to see a surge during 2009, when analogue TV is cut off, and new mobile digital broadcast TV (MDTV) services are introduced by major US TV stations. In-Stat cautions that the uptake of PC-TV tuners is not guaranteed, as they face challenges from a wide variety of options, consumers now have to use computers to gather and view a wide range of video content.
"The challenges to PC-TV Tuner adoption include easy-to-use Cable, TelcoTV, and satellite TV services that provide high quality Video-on-Demand, Internet distributed video content, IPTV services, and mobile broadband, such as 3G, WiFi, and WiMAX," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "While some European cable and satellite operators allow the use of digital PC-TV tuners with conditional access to receive premium content, the US market will take some time to implement CableLab's tru2way technology. Microsoft also needs to improve their internal support for multiple tuners in a PC."
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AOL men back doc site
Three former top executives of AOL are backing a new online video venture being launched aimed at creating a new outlet for documentary feature films, a category that has struggled to gain mainstream attention. Founded by AOL Vice Chairman Emeritus Ted Leonsis, the site, SnagFilms, will offer about 200 feature-length films initially, with about 750 available by the end of the year.Instead of relying on offering its films on other big Internet video portals such as AOL or Microsoft Corp's MSN, SnagFilms will let its viewers embed films on their own home pages or Facebook and MySpace pages, relying on a strategy made popular by sites such as YouTube.
The business is backed by Leonsis, AOL co-founder and Revolution LLC Chairman Steve Case and former AOL executive and former Time Warner board member Miles Gilburne, who is now a venture capitalist. Former Discovery Communications executive Rick Allen is SnagFilms's CEO.
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South Africa: IPTV before digital broadcastingSouth Africa's telecommunications companies could well take advantage of IPTV, especially if it is implemented before the digital terrestrial television migration (DTT) expected in November.
Speaking at the TM Forum, Sami Matri, Safrecom senior multimedia consultant for France Telecom, likened the African climate to that experienced by France. "Businesses in Africa need to open the right window. In France, that window was also the opportunity to launch IPTV services before DTT." He said without the heavy competition of large numbers of digital channels in traditional broadcast streams, French telecoms companies had the advantage of providing local content before the broadcasters.
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BT: more Phorm testsBT will begin further trials in the next few weeks of a controversial advertising technology that it hopes will give it a slice of the lucrative online advertising market. The group is one of three UK internet service providers which have conducted trials of technology developed by Phorm, an Aim-listed company, which tracks the web-surfing habits of its internet users to enable it to target advertising more tightly.
Carphone Warehouse’s Talk Talk and Virgin Media have also agreed to evaluate the service but are yet to run trials. If successful, Phorm is expected to sign deals with other internet service providers around the world. However it has proved controversial, with internet bloggers and privacy activists labelling the technology as "spyware". Gavin Patterson, head of BT Retail, told the group’s annual general meeting that customers would again have to opt-in for the service.Critics have alleged that BT conducted trials without customers’ consent in 2006-07. Patterson said the group had conducted technical trials in that period but had taken legal advice to rule whether it was both ethical and legal. He added that the Information Commissioner had also cleared the technology of breaching data laws.
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Five catches upFive has introduced a full catch-up TV service to its website, the last UK broadcasters to do so. Demand Five features a mix of free on demand content, rental and purchase options. The RTL-owned broadcaster has chosen a mix of free and pay options for its site. Five is using the Windows Media Format.
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Muzu partners SonyMuzu TV, an ad-funded music video site, has announced Sony BMG and Ministry of Sound as launch partners. The free-to-use site has signed up major record label Sony BMG to provide content including over 5,000 videos from its artists such as Kylie, Beyonce and The Ting Tings.
The site offers music fans the ability to set up their own TV channel with video playlists, which they can share with friends.
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Babelgum is establishing its presence in the US with an office in New York, hiring Ethan Podell as the president and Michael Rosen as the executive VP. Podell will oversee all aspects of the company’s U.S. operations and business growth. He will report to Valerio Zingarelli, the CEO of Babelgum.
Podell is a veteran of both HBO and CBS, and founded and managed several successful start-ups, including Orbis Communications and All American Orbis.
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Lions Gate share YouTube ad revenueGoogle has confirmed that it will partner with filmmaker Lions Gate Entertainment to share revenue from ads that Google places on YouTube clips from the studio's movies. The deal will put advertising on clips uploaded by users and by the studio itself from Lions Gate movies such as the "Saw" horror series and "Dirty Dancing."
The deal would make Lions Gate the second major moviemaker to try to profit from the popularity of online movie clips, the first being Paramount Pictures.
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Hong Kong DTT coverage boosted to 75%Two of the six new transmitting stations that will eventually extend free coverage of digital-terrestrial television (DTT) to 75 per cent of the Hong Kong population in time for the Beijing Olympics have launched.
The two stations extend DTT coverage in the territory by another 25 per cent. The already operational main transmitting station at Temple Hill covers 50 percent of the territory. The six new stations are located at Golden Hill, Kowloon Peak, Castle Peak, Cloudy Hill, Lamma Island and Mount Nicholson.
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Verizon TV franchise in NYThe New York State Public Service has confirmed the agreement between Verizon and The City of New York for Verizon to provide TV service to all five boroughs of the city, and bring competition in the TV market. The company will provide the service through its all-fibre-optic FiOS TV network. The confirmation follows an agreement on April 29 by the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to accept the Verizon proposal, and approval by the city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee on May 27th. The PSC confirmation today is the final governmental and regulatory step in Verizon's plan to offer FiOS TV service to New York City residents.
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Thomson joins Open IPTV ForumUnderscoring its commitment to open standards in emerging technologies and media platforms Thomson has become a full member of the Open IPTV Forum. The aim of the Forum is to promote IPTV by making it easy for consumers to experience and enjoy it, ensuring interactivity between all devices, networks and technologies.
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Thursday 17th July
Airplus TV challenges Portuguese DTT decision
Cable Europe welcomes EU copyright review
Half of Italian population to be digital in two years
Poland: DTT multiplex 3?
Court says U-verse IS cable service
Microsoft attacks Google, Yahoo ad deal
Showtime pay-TV deal with Weinsteins
DISH HD bird up
J:COM subs
PS3 movies
Sky Italia on Pace
Endemol aids Dutch football platform
TF1 Selects Thomson
Telegent mobile access to TV
ANT and Unihan target Japanese IPTV market
Airplus TV challenges Portuguese DTT decision
From Branislav Pekic in RomeActing on the deadline for appeals, Swedish company Airplus TV has requested that Portuguese telecommunications regulator Anacom names "a new [independent] and capable" jury for the public tender that will award the licence to run Portugal’s Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform.
Speaking at a press conference in Lisbon, the president of Airplus TV Portugal, Luís Nazaré, stressed that the existing jury "made crude technical mistakes, which would incomprehensible for a [fair] jury ". He claims that Airplus TV was only informed of the evaluation criteria after the bids were submitted, adding that the jury "did not show it had the qualities of [expertise] necessary for evaluating such a process".
In the jury’s preliminary report, according to Nazaré, Airplus’s bid was judged as best in four out of the seven criteria, which are "effectively the most important criteria".
The company has made clear it will "go to the end" in its challenge, including court action in order to prevent Portugal Telecom being awarded the licence to manage the pay-TV DTT multiplexes (which had already been awarded to Portugal Telecom).
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Cable Europe welcomes EU copyright review
Cable Europe, welcomed the decision of the European Commission to address the monopolistic way in which copyright collecting societies are organised in Europe. Cable Europe called for a new copyright collecting system that stimulates the development of new digital content services, and ‘future proofs’ collections.Cable operators in Europe regard the Commission’s decision (to order the end of agreements between rights collection societies to not compete across borders) as a first step in the right direction. But the industry is now seeking further action to create a new simple, efficient and homogeneous system throughout Europe that drastically reduces legal uncertainty and incremental costs associated with copyright management. This would stimulate trade in content to the benefit of both music authors and cable operators. The organisation says the current copyright regime is outdated and has numerous inefficiencies caused by the arcane organisation of copyright payments and collecting societies. The ruling of the European Commission demands for the collecting societies in Europe to end restrictions preventing composers and songwriters in one country from joining collecting societies in another. Additionally the decision demands an end to restrictions preventing companies in one country clearing copyrights via the collecting society in another country.
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Half of Italian population to be digital in two years
From Branislav Pekic in RomeHalf of the Italian population could be digital-only in two years time, according to the president of the country’s Communications Authority (AgCom), Corrado Calabro.
Presenting the Authority’s annual report, Calabro also said that the winners on the tender for the awarding of 40 per cent of transmission capacity on the DTT multiplexes of RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media will be soon made public. He added that a total of 25 bids have been presented by 18 companies, many of them foreign. According to Calabro, the tender could represent a turning point for the Italian TV market, with the arrival of new and independent content suppliers.
The AgCom report also revealed that in 2007, Italian public broadcaster RAI registered revenues of E2.7 billion. Among commercial broadcasters, Mediaset had E2.4 billion, Sky Italia E2.3 billion and Telecom Italia Media E188 million. More than half of Italian households (54.3 per cent) are equipped to receive digital TV (satellite and terrestrial).
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Poland: DTT multiplex 3?Poland could launch a third DTT multiplex as part of its switchover. Regulators the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) and National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) may use the 20 per cent of frequencies allocated to Poland that have not already been earmarked for two planned multiplexes by setting up a third.
The new multiplex would carry a limited number of channels, some HD, and initially reach between 25-50 per cent of the population. As with multiplex 2, the operator will be chosen in a tender.
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Court says U-verse IS cable serviceAT&T failed to convince a federal judge to vacate a legal precedent declaring that U-verse TV is a cable service. The telco had petitioned the US District Court of Connecticut to declare as moot that court's July 2007 ruling striking down a finding by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control from 2006.
That regulators, in an action unique among state utility boards, proactively examined the Internet-delivered U-verse TV service. They came to the controversial conclusion that U-verse, because it delivers video in bits and bytes via the Internet and not in a continuous stream, does not meet the definition of a cable service. AT&T has consistently argued that U-verse is not a cable service and should not be regulated as such. But Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that U-verse does meet the legal definition of a cable service.
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Microsoft attacks Google, Yahoo ad dealThe search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo should be blocked, Microsoft has told the US Congress, saying the advertising industry has never seen one company dominate 90 per cent of a market.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice-president and general counsel, told a Senate committee that Yahoo's chief executive, Jerry Yang, had even warned Microsoft that such a deal would freeze it out of the market. "Never before in the history of advertising has one company been in a position to control prices on up to 90 per cent of advertising in a single medium," Smith said, appearing before the Senate judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights. "Not in television, not in radio, not in publishing. It should not happen on the Internet."
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Showtime pay-TV deal with WeinsteinsCBS 's pay-TV subsidiary, Showtime Networks, has agreed to exclusively distribute movies made by The Weinstein Co. for seven years starting with films released theatrically in 2009.
The deal comes after studios Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM announced in April they would pull their movies from Showtime to form their own pay TV and video on demand service in late 2009. Showtime reportedly paid $300 million a year to the three studios for 35 to 40 movies annually, but the CBS unit balked at renewing the arrangement because the movies' exposure on DVDs and on video-on-demand online services reduced their value.
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DISH HD bird upDISH Network plans to roll out more high definition video channels received a boost with the successful launch of its EchoStar XI broadcast satellite. DISH needs to roll out more HD channels to be able to compete with larger rival DirecTV Group as well as cable and phone companies' video services.
The company's HD plans were set back in March when a satellite launch by SES Americom failed to reach its intended orbit following its launch on board a Russian Proton Breeze-M launch vehicle. The SES Americom satellite was entirely contracted by DISH sister company EchoStar Corp. DISH said earlier this month it would add another 17 national HD channels bringing its total to 100. DISH also said it would introduce TurboHD, an all-HD programming package.
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Jupiter Telecommunications, the largest multiple system operator in Japan, has announced that the total subscribing households as of June 30, 2008 served by J:COM’s 20 managed franchises reached 2.87 million, up 180,300, or 6.7 per cent since June 30, 2007. Combined RGUs for cable television, high-speed Internet access and telephony services reached 5.12 million, up 428,800 or 9.1 per cent since June 30, 2007.
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Sony has begun offering a video-downloading service for its PlayStation 3 video games console, part of its aim to broaden its audience and grab a piece of the growing content-downloading market. The launch also reflects the push by Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer to get its business units to work more closely with one another.
Sony said its service will let users rent or buy movies and rent television shows produced by major studios and production companies -- including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures -- and watch them on TV sets through its PlayStation Network in the US.
Sony's service will face stiff competition from rivals such as Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft just announced a deal with Netflix to stream movies over the Internet to the Xbox 360 game console.
Park Associates estimates that annual revenue from Internet video, including ad-based and user-paid services, could reach $5.3 billion by 2010 and $12.4 billion by the end of 2012 in the US.
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Sky Italia on PaceSky Italia has chosen Pace as its launch partner for high definition personal video recorders (HD PVRs) for the launch of its HD PVR service. The Pace HD PVR (model TDS850NS) comes with dual DVB-S2 tuners, H.264 compression and a 250GB hard drive to store up to 60 hours of HD programming. It comes integrated with OpenTV middleware and NDS conditional access. Pace has also been chosen to supply an MPEG-4 capable standard definition (SD) PVR, the TDS480NS. This twin-tuner PVR uses MPEG-4 compression, which will enable Sky Italia to make better use of future bandwidth. It comes with a 160GB hard drive, capable of storing up to 60 hours of SD programming.
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Endemol aids Dutch football platformEndemol has teamed with major football clubs to create content for the brand new digital platform Eredivisie Live. The platform will show live coverage of Dutch Premier League football, as well as a full set tailor made formats.
Former footballer, Gary Lineker, who now hosts Match of the Day for the BBC, will join a list of Dutch presenters, reporters, analysts and commentators on the channel. Following agreements with Holland’s main carriers Eredivisie Live will be accessible nationwide through cable, IPTV and Internet.
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TF1 Selects ThomsonThomson, global provider of video solutions, has announced that TF1, France’s leading TV broadcaster and the largest private European TV channel, has launched TF1pro, its business-to-business preview content platform, which is being secured by Thomson’s NexGuard solution.
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Telegent mobile access to TVViewers worldwide can stay abreast of live sports coverage this summer with TV handsets that incorporate Telegent’s free-to-air mobile TV technology.
According to SINO-MR, a leading China market research firm, 71 per cent of China consumers surveyed were interested in watching the 2008 Beijing games on a TV phone, with 41 per cent considering buying one to gain mobile access to the summer sports coverage. SINO-MR estimates that domestic sales of free-to-air analog TV handsets will exceed 21 million by year-end, propelling China to the forefront of mobile TV adoption worldwide and suggesting that this summer’s quadrennial games are set to smash world records with the number of people viewing the event on mobile TV.
According to Telegent’s chief executive officer Weijie Yun, the Beijing games could be the first major sporting event to be widely viewed on mobile devices. "Free-to-air mobile TV provides consumers with a compelling, free and easy-to-use method of watching the same news, sports and other programming that consumers receive on their TV sets at home," said Yun. "This explains why sales of analogue TV handsets have already outpaced the number of digital subscription mobile TV viewers worldwide." Analyst firm In-Stat predicts that 34 million analogue TV handsets will be sold globally in 2008.
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ANT and Unihan target Japanese IPTV marketANT, provider of software and services for the delivery of digital TV, announced that Unihan, a wholly owned subsidiary of AsusTek, has licensed ANT Galio Browser for its new set top boxes. The first customer for the new Unihan set-top box is the leading Japanese Contents Delivery Systems (CDS) Integrator and Service Provider Cool.revo which plans to roll-out innovative new IPTV services in Q1 2009.
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Wednesday 16th July
BT super fast broadband
OPTA forces Dutch cable TV to allow resellers
YouTube and Viacom privacy compromise
Study predicts serious bandwidth shortages
Pay DTT channel for Spain
TRAI seeks to restructure cable TV industry
Global broadband subscribers reach 370m
PSP Go! View goes live
Valuable acquires MovieBeam
Latens protects Digicable
Bridge launches FSM
NDS secures SkyLife
UTStarcom continues IPTV momentum with Aksh
F1 for Spanish hand sets
BT super fast broadbandBT has confirmed it plans to spend £1.5 billion (E1.83bn) building a super-fast broadband network across the UK over the next four years. The plan would connect 10 million homes, around 40 per cent of the UK, to a new fibre-optic based network.
The upgrade will provide speeds up to 60MB an those on a fibre-to-the-premises network will see speeds of up to 100 MB. "Broadband has boosted the UK economy and is now an essential part of our customers' lives," BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston said. "We now want to make a step-change in broadband provision which will offer faster speeds than ever before. This is a bold step by BT and we need others to be just as bold. We want to work with local and regional bodies to decide where and when we should focus the deployment. Our aim is that urban and rural areas alike will benefit from our investment".
BT noted a supportive and enduring environment was "essential" for the investment, which adds around £1 billion to its existing expenditure plans for fibre deployment. This is a reference to Ofcom’s recent reassurances about ‘protecting’ broadband investment, and Ofcom was effusive about the investment: "This is a clear sign that the UK market is moving in the right direction, with a growing number of plans to deliver super-fast broadband services to consumers. These new networks will be a critical part of the UK's infrastructure and will change our experience of communications. They will support and deliver innovative applications and services as well as helping create new opportunities for businesses of all kinds," said Ed Richards, Ofcom CEO.
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OPTA forces Dutch cable TV to allow resellers
Dutch cable television operators will be forced to allow rivals to resell TV subscriptions under a draft decision by telecoms regulator OPTA. At the same time, OPTA plans to free the former telecoms monopoly KPN from some restrictions in the consumer market for telephony, saying competition was sufficient.
KPN has long complained that it has to allow alternative providers on its network while cable television companies such as Ziggo and Liberty Global's UPC, whose networks can also carry voice and data, were under no such obligation.
OPTA now plans to force cable companies to offer a wholesale deal to competitors who want to sell analogue cable TV to their customers, for instance bundled with broadband Internet access. Rivals will have to secure their own broadcast rights, however. The regulator said satellite TV and KPN's digital TV offers "do not put sufficient pressure on cable tariffs and have not led to more choice in the cable bouquet".
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YouTube and Viacom privacy compromise
Google has struck a deal to protect the personal data of millions of YouTube users in the $1 billion copyright court case brought against the video-sharing website by Viacom. Under the deal, Google will make user information and IP addresses from its YouTube subsidiary anonymous before handing over the data to Viacom in the US legal case.
Earlier this month a judge in New York ordered Google to pass on the personal data of more than 100 million YouTube users to Viacom.
The agreement that Google has struck also applies to other litigants pursuing YouTube user information over copyright claims in a class action that includes the FA Premier League, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organisation and the Scottish Premier League.
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Study predicts serious bandwidth shortagesThe demand for Internet bandwidth is set to double in two years and grow still further, according to a study carried out by the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications.
The independent 'Global Bandwidth' study said that huge changes in network content and social behaviours will mean bandwidth demand exceeds 160 Tbits/s by 2010 – an annual demand that exceeds the equivalent of the combined broadband network usage of the previous decade (1998-2008).
Professor David Payne, the study’s author, has calculated that increasing demands are not likely to lessen as the use of streaming online video and data services expands. He said: "Around the turn of the millennium, we used to talk about a bandwidth ‘glut’. There was a lot of idle capacity. Networks now are being used in a way that few people foresaw, for example early take-up of personalised video, rather than broadcast television, dominating internet video services."
But Payne found that, based on a range of service scenario models, demands for bandwidth will continue to put increasing pressure on existing network infrastructures and warned of the need for significant infrastructure investment. "By 2018, assuming that this capacity is made available by the operators, usage could grow to 40 to 100 times the levels seen in networks today," he said. "However it is difficult to see how operators can economically grow existing network architectures to meet this demand and further consideration of the types of networks and the technology deployed is required if they are to ensure profitability."
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Pay DTT channel for Spain
From David del Valle in Madrid
Mediapro, main shareholder in the commercial TV channel La Sexta, is finalising the launch of a pay DTT channel to distribute premium sports events like the European Champions League and matches from the Spanish Football League, among other content, at a monthly fee between E17 and E18.
Mediapro expects the Government to change the law to allow pay-TV DTT services as the curent legislation prohibits any pay TV content on DTT networks. "There isn't authorisation (for these services) but we believe that this will change shorly, since it is a logical option and perfectly viable", said a Tatxo Benet, a Mediapro executive.
Nevertheless, the company does not rule out other options. "We are open to selling the (football) matches to other pay-TV operators, such as cable, ADSL operators or even Digital Plus, but we are working on our model to distribute those events through our own pay-TV channel", he added.
Mediapro has recently acquired the pay-TV rights to the European Champions League, the Basketball Worldwide Championship in 2010 and to Formula 1, from 2009 to 2013, as well as rights to most of Spanish football teams, including Barcelona and Real Madrid.
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TRAI seeks to restructure cable TV industryThe Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended a separate licensing framework for local cable operators and multi system operators, in its draft recommendations to restructure cable television services.
India's cable television industry, which covered 78 million households at the end of 2007, is facing challenges of technology, resources and fragmented distribution, leading the regulator to examine possibilities of restructuring. The draft recommendations released on Tuesday by the regulator, include an entry fee for different areas of operations, a five-year licence fee and encourages advance transmission technology.
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Global broadband subscribers reach 370mThe Broadband Forum, formerly the DSL Forum, has announced the latest Broadband and IPTV statistics. The report shows that IPTV subscribers have more than doubled for the second year running with an increase of 53.14 per cent in the 12 months to 31 March 2008.
The statistics also show that worldwide broadband subscribers have reached over 370 million with DSL remaining the most dominant access technology with 65 per cent of the world’s subscribers. However, fibre subscriptions have risen by 33 per cent since the beginning of 2007, with over 10 million people connected to a fibre network. This increase in fibre subscriptions may be attributed to the increased popularity of bandwidth hungry services such as IPTV. However, the leading technology delivering IPTV today is ADSL2plus, with 12,049,817 subscribers.
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PSP Go! View goes liveSony and Sky have confirmed that their handheld video-on-demand service Go! View has gone live, in both the UK and Ireland. Users of the service can download and transfer content from their PCs to the PSP (portable Playstation) after they have signed up for monthly subscription packages ranging between £5 and £10 per month.
Partners of the service include Disney-ABC-ESPN, BBC Worldwide, Sony Pictures Television, NBC Universal International, National Geographic and Sky Sports.
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Valuable acquires MovieBeamValuable Group has confirmed the acquisition of Movie Beam including all of its assets, trademarks, IPR, and alliances that Disney, Intel, Cisco and other private equity investors spent over $200 million in creating. MovieBeam was a Push Video on Demand service launched by Disney in 2005.
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Latens protects DigicableLatens has been awarded the contract to provide its Latens BCAS next generation conditional access system to Digicable Network (India) to protect and enable a national broadcast cable Pay-TV network with an estimated subscriber base of over 12 million.
Latens BCAS is being deployed to cable subscribers over a "HITS" satellite distribution system that is part of Digicable’s nationwide roll-out plans. The nationwide roll-out will begin with 20 cable headends in major cities and then expand into other areas. This offering is designed and built so that cable networks delivering services based upon the Digicable solution can support a diverse range of consumer set-top boxes and PVRs available in the Indian market.
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Bridge launches FSMBridge Technologies, a Norwegian broadcast and telecommunications monitoring provider, has launched FSM (Full Service Monitoring), an extension of the company's VB20/220 IP probes that allows operators to monitor the functionality of the middleware controlling viewers' IPTV experiences. With FSM-enabled probes, IPTV operators can monitor not only the transport of the media, but also the functioning of all the elements contributing to the user's interaction with the service: subscription validation, programme listing displays, conditional access, VOD controls, and more.
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NDS secures SkyLifeNDS has revealed that Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting, (SkyLife), Korea’s first and only satellite pay-TV operator, has extended its long-standing relationship with NDS by selecting market-leading VideoGuard conditional access (CA) technology and MediaHighway middleware for its new HDTV service. SkyLife HD is the first H.264 based HD service in Korea.
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UTStarcom continues IPTV momentum with AkshUTStarcom has signed a new contract with Aksh Optifibre that expands the operator's deployment of the industry-leading RollingStream IPTV solution. UTStarcom's second deal with Aksh demonstrates the company's continued commitment to building and delivering IPTV capabilities throughout India.
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Formula One will be on Spanish mobiles thanks to HyC - part of the Ericsson group - in partnership with Boomerang TV and Spanish broadcast network Telecinco. HyC supplies an end-to-end, scalable service including encoding, editing and transmission, which enables Boomerang TV and Telecinco to stream the Formula One races to mobile subscribers via live or scheduled repeat broadcast.
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Tuesday 15th July
ITV in play again?
BT offers Setanta for free
TV sports rights setback for Sogecable
Canal+ plays film catch-up
Indian government orders feed share
iPhone top for mobile browsing
Setanta supports Freeview push ahead of footy season
Kodak HD suite
ITV in play again?Shares in ITV have risen by more than 8 per cent on speculation about a takeover following remarks by the co-founder of Endemol that a tie-up with ITV could "make sense". That a throw-away remark to the FT should shift the price so much indicates how nervous some shareholders are that ITV faces a bleak future in the looming recession. New research suggests companies are reducing their marketing spend at the fastest rate since 2001.
ITV has been subject to takeover speculation several times since it was formed by the merger of Carlton and Granada. Endemol, the maker of Big Brother and Deal or No Deal, is the latest in a long list of firms to be linked with ITV, including US network NBC and channel Five owner RTL.
John de Mol, who helped launch Endemol and owns a stake in the business, told the Financial Times that ITV might be of interest to the firm. "This one is an example of a combination that could make sense, depending on numbers," he said, adding he wouldn't "want to exclude" such a scenario.
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BT offers Setanta for freeBT Vision has confirmed it will be offering sports channel Setanta Sports 1 on a subscription free basis. If users sign up to the Bronze, Silver or Gold packages, which start at £14 (E18) a month, they will receive Setanta Sports 1 free of charge. This gives access to Setanta Sports 1’s 46 live Barclays Premier League football games, 60 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League games, live action from every round of the FA Cup, home nations World Cup qualifiers, live US PGA Tour Golf, and live World Championship boxing amongst other sporting events.
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TV sports rights setback for Sogecable
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Sogecable's attempt to increase the value of its pay-TV unit Digital Plus for its eventual sale is being hindered by its competitors in the Spanish TV market. The company has suffered a new setback by losing the pay-TV rights to the European Champions League from 2009, to Mediapro, main shareholder in the commercial TV channel La Sexta.
Mediapro will broadcast 14 Euro matches each Champions League day, including two played by Spanish teams, via a new pay TV channel on DTT it's preparing for the next season. To win the contract until 2012, Mediapro would have paid well above the E50 million a season Sogecable has been paying for Spanish pay TV rights.For over a year, Sogecable and Mediapro have fought a bitter battle for Spanish soccer league rights, with Mediapro making a full-frontal assault on TV sports rights, now holding the rights to 38 out of 42 soccer teams of the Spanish Soccer League starting from the season 2009-2010.
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Canal+ plays film catch-upCanal+ has signed a deal with a range of French film industry bodies that will allow the pay-TV operator’s subscribers to view French and European films available on its on demand service.
The three-year deal, with Blip, ARP, Bloc, APC and UPC, permits a subscriber to view a title three times during its broadcast window. The fees that Canal+ will pay are dependent on the title’s original acquisition price and its usage rate.
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Indian government orders feed shareThe Indian government has made it mandatory for all broadcasters — representing about 350-plus television channels that are currently allowed to be beamed on cable and direct-to-home (DTH) platforms — to share their feed with Headend-In-The-Sky (HITS), IPTV and Mobile TV, the new cable distribution platforms that have emerged recently.
A clarification issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) makes it compulsory for all broadcasters to immediately share their channels with Wire & Wireless India (WWIL), the HITS licence holding company of Essel Group.
This is significant as several broadcasters, including the STAR channels (distributed by STAR-DEN) and Sony bouquet (MSM Discovery), were not sharing their channels with Essel Group's HITS venture that will be initially launched across 12-cities in the last week of July. WWIL would ultimately rollout HITS across all the 55-cities listed by the broadcast regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), for the proposed CAS rollout.
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iPhone top for mobile browsingcomScore, specialists in measuring the digital world, has reported that iPhone users surpass all others in mobile media usage, with more than 80 per cent of iPhone users in France, Germany and the UK using the device to browse news and information on the mobile Web, compared to 32 per cent of other smartphone users.
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Setanta supports Freeview push ahead of footy seasonSetanta is gearing up for the new football season by offering savings to sports fans to ensure its array of exclusive sport is available to everyone on the UK digital TV platform. All new customers who sign up to Setanta Sports 1 on Freeview will be offered three months free subscription. Setanta is also working with retailers and hardware manufacturers to bring down the prices of Setanta-enabled set-top boxes, Conditional Access Modules (CAMs) and viewing card packs. Freeview products capable of receiving Setanta will be available for reduced prices from 24th July.
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Kodak HD suiteEastman Kodak Company has launched an array of interactive products that give consumers new ways to experience their photos and videos – from capture to viewing to sharing. The suite of HD-enabled products includes two new category introductions for the brand: the Kpday Theatre HD Player and Koday Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. The Kodak Theatre HD Player is an interactive device that displays personal and web-based content on an HDTV, while wirelessly connecting to a household’s private Wi-Fi Network.
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Monday 14th July
Murdoch: News Corp/Yahoo deal unlikely
SES combines New Skies, Americom
Two-thirds of all UK TVs linked to digital
Operators take more STB risks
UKTV unveils new channel brands
DirecTV: 1m+ remote recordings scheduled
China Telecom: IPTV lab for Shanghai
NZ: Freeview now in over 7.8% of homes
T-MMB set to become standard
Verimatrix says ‘Hello Moto’
Murdoch: News Corp/Yahoo deal unlikelyRupert Murdoch has deemed it "very unlikely" that the media giant would be involved in any deal involving Yahoo, and also suggested that Yahoo and Microsoft would fail to agree a deal. "There's bad personal feelings," he said. Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo earlier in 2008 for $47.5 billion, but withdrew its offer in May after feeling frustrated over discussions.
Addressing the annual Allen & Co media and technology conference, Murdoch predicted that in six months, Microsoft would walk away. Shortly after Microsoft offered to take over Yahoo, News Corp held talks with Yahoo to combine its MySpace Internet social network with Yahoo and separately discussed a possible deal with Microsoft to take over Yahoo.
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SES combines New Skies, Americom
Satellite operator SES has revealed plans to combine SES Americom and SES New Skies to form a new operating segment of SES. Robert Bednarek, currently President and CEO of SES New Skies, will become President and CEO of this new operating segment.
The SES Americom and SES New Skies satellite fleets will remain separately owned and operated, and the new segment will continue to be supported from its current locations and facilities around the world. No major changes to business operations and market activities are currently anticipated.
"By creating this new segment and combining the experienced management teams of SES Americom and SES New Skies, SES will improve its overall operating performance, while strengthening its competitiveness and better positioning the company for future growth," said Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES. "In addition to the synergies that can be expected, the new segment will be able to approach its markets with an increased level of focus and flexibility, while leveraging the power of SES’ global fleet to benefit its current and future customers."
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Two-thirds of all UK TVs linked to digitalOver two-thirds (68 per cent) of the 60 million television sets in the UK are now digitally – linked via cable, satellite or digital terrestrial - according to the latest figures from Ofcom . The Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2008 shows that the total number of digitally-linked sets has grown by around 7 million from 33.5 million to 40.5 million over the past twelve months as householders focus on converting secondary television sets to digital. The survey uses new consumer research which gives Ofcom a more accurate view of take-up of digital television in residential households.
Key trends for the first quarter of 2008 include: There are over 9.6 million homes with DTT on their main television set – an increase of almost 1.3 million over the past twelve months; nearly 14 million homes had converted secondary sets to DTT by the first quarter of 2008 bringing the total number of DTT sets to over 23 million.
Digital satellite platform Sky grew its UK subscriber base by 43,000 to 8.3 million households, an increase of 332,000 over the past twelve months; ahead of the BBC/ITV launch of its Freesat service in May, some 720,0000 homes were receiving free satellite services by the end of March 2008.
In cable TV Virgin Media subscribers, the total number of cable subscribers is now over 3.5 million, up by 36,800 in the first quarter of this year.
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Operators take more STB risksFaced with stiff competition in the cable market and from telcos vying for TV viewers, traditionally risk-averse cable operators are becoming increasingly 'bipolar', supporting a roadmap that may require the deployment of new STBs with more advanced features and functions, while also apparently aiming to drive the ubiquitous STB to extinction.
Meanwhile, STB vendors are offering a variety of new features to entice operators. When it comes to STBs, operators have traditionally tread carefully, and have largely been unwilling to 'shop around' much for new technologies.
According to ABI Research analyst Paulhwa Lee, because some operators are facing stiffer competition, they are now willing to experiment a little more, venturing into offerings such as Electronic Programme Guides, wireless support, home networking support for MoCA or HomePlug, and expanded hard drives – all at increasingly affordable prices.
ABI also identifies a growing trend toward partnerships and consolidation, citing STB giant Motorola’s acquisition of Chinese STB vendor, Dahua Digital; decoder manufacturer Broadcom’s partnership with Chinese STB vendor Coship; and semiconductor specialist NXP’s acquisition of Conexant’s STB operations.
Some operators, too, are partnering with new STB manufacturers. This is because as the United States market matures, subscriber growth slows and evolves towards STB replacement. STB sales may still be driven by one-off developments such as the CableCARD mandate, the digital to analogue transition, and the unification of data and video. But operators know that these transitions are CAPEX-intensive. At every opportunity, operators are trying to standardise and commoditise STBs by formulating standards and consortia such as tru2way and CableLabs, so many STB manufacturers are looking to fresh markets in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
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UKTV unveils new channel brandsCable and satellite programmer UKTV is launching of three distinct channel brands: Watch (previously UKTV Gold +1), GOLD and Alibi (previously UKTV Drama). All three channels will launch on Tuesday 7t October 2008.
Operating as a linear catch-up service for modern classics including Torchwood, Mistresses and Larkrise to Candleford, Watch will sit next to Gold in the pay section of the EPG. The crown in its enviable schedule will be Watch’s brand new commission, the Richard and Judy primetime show, which will air on weekdays.
GOLD - Go On Laugh Daily - becomes a dedicated comedy channel with a clear mission: to make people laugh. UKTV Drama will be transformed into Alibi, the World’s Number 1 Detective Agency, and is dedicated exclusively to the best crime shows.
Matthew Littleford, UKTV Controller explains, "The fact we’ve taken the bold decision to re-brand our entire entertainment portfolio in one swoop demonstrates the magnitude of our ambition and our commitment to Pay TV. Watch, GOLD and Alibi are dynamic channel brands that are clearly identifiable, full of personality and I believe will future-proof our business as we head towards 2012."
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DirecTV: 1m+ remote recordings scheduled
DirecTV customers nationwide are embracing a new way to remotely record their favourite shows to their DVRs with the DirecTV DVR Scheduler, which has reached a milestone with more than one million recordings scheduled remotely through the service.
"The positive response we have received for the DirecTV DVR Scheduler has truly surpassed our expectations," said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment. "The convenience and ease of use that the service provides is resonating and it is exciting to see what shows make our customers pause their busy schedules to set a recording to their DVRs no matter where they are or what they are doing."
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China Telecom: IPTV lab for ShanghaiChina Telecom has set up an IPTV technology research and development laboratory in its Shanghai research institute.
The lab mainly aims at creating technical standards that are consistent with international standards for Chinese IPTV manufacturers and offering test and authorisation services to IPTV platform and terminal suppliers throughout China.
At present, the Chinese government has not issued any IPTV licences to telecommunication operators directly. Instead, all IPTV services are jointly managed by IPTV broadcasting corporations and telecommunication operators.
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NZ: Freeview now in over 7.8% of homes
Uptake of Freeview, the free-to-air digital television and radio service, continues to prove attractive to New Zealanders. At the end of June 2008 123,903 receivers had been sold. That means that 300,000 Kiwis have access to the service, or 7.8 per cent of the population.
Freeview General Manager Steve Browning says that Kiwis are obviously warming to the cost effective quality viewing experience. "We are all acutely aware that the cost of living has gone up dramatically this year. This makes Freeview's offer of digital quality TV and radio for a one-off cost and no ongoing payments very appealing," he says.
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An inside source says that "probably within the next two weeks," the Standards Administration of China will announce the results of its evaluation of mobile television standards for the choice of "recommended national standard". The source expects that the winner will be Nufront's T-MMB standard, calling the choice "clear-cut."
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Verimatrix says ‘Hello Moto’Content security technologist Verimatrix and Motorola have entered into a comprehensive reseller agreement whereby the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for IPTV has been integrated with Motorola's end-to-end IPTV solution.
"Our customers benefit from our agreement with Motorola as it provides them with a turnkey solution for a faster and more secure deployment environment -- already approved by major studios and broadcasters," said Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer, Verimatrix.
Motorola's advanced VIP series IP set-top boxes fully support the VCAS for IPTV solution and are deployed in IPTV systems around the globe. Motorola and Verimatrix are working together to integrate and certify new VIP set-top models.
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