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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 25th July
Ofcom relaxes ad rules
UK crackdown on illegal downloads
Online video most popular
Joost and TOM joint venture in China
MTV South Europe to create branded hostels
FCC Approval Imminent for XM/Sirius Merger
Virgin aims for 200Mbps broadband
Electronic giants develop WHDI
Satellite operators call for EU to guarantee services
Humax biggest DTT PVR
Thomson BT home hub ships 3m
Astra selects Harmonic
Ocean Blue USB stick PVRs
Sistema Chooses NDS
Samsung's MediaLive
Ofcom relaxes ad rulesUK’s Ofcom is to remove "outdated and unnecessary" rules that require a 20-minute interval between ad breaks on TV, as part of a new advertising code to come into force on 1st September.
Following a consultation on the UK implementation of Brussels' new Audio Visual Media Services (AVMS) Directive, Ofcom is changing its code on the rules for the distribution of TV advertising. Ofcom has ditched the 20-minute interval rule and the new code will also allow for one advertising break for every 30 minutes of a film, instead of one for every 45 minutes, and will end restrictions on advertising breaks in documentaries.
The next stage of the review, due for release in the autumn, will deal with possible changes to the rules on the amount of advertising allowed by broadcasters. But Ofcom has indicated that the industry is not in favour of increasing the amount of ad minutes that TV broadcasters may carry.
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UK crackdown on illegal downloadsBritain's six biggest Internet providers - BT, Virgin Media, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carephone Warehouse - have backed a government plan to clamp down on music and film piracy. The deal will result in warning letters being sent to thousands of persistent downloaders to let them know their activities have been detected and are being monitored.
The ISPs though have rejected demands from the music industry to cut people's connections if they ignore repeated warnings. An estimated 6.5 million Britons were involved in illicit music downloads over last 12 months, a trend estimated to cost the music industry up to £1 billion in the next five years.
The firms have also agreed to develop legal file sharing services in order to ensure that customers are aware of the repercussions for sharing copy-right protected music.
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Online video most popularTwenty eight per cent of Europeans now regularly watch online video, more than double the rate in 2006, according to a new report from JupiterResearch. The report finds that online video is now the most popular online media activity.
Though time spent consuming online video in Europe has grown by 50 per cent in the last 12 months, it has not been at the expense of TV: European Internet users still spend more time watching TV than going online. But the European audience for video content, fuelled by next-generation broadband connections and increased laptop ownership, will see further growth as multiple online outlets emerge. As online consumption of video grows, European broadcasters must develop strategies to distribute content across online and TV to engage an increasingly fragmented audience.
Short form video content - typified by YouTube - currently accounts for the majority of online video behaviour and just nine per cent of Europeans watch full length video. However Jupiter predicts this rate will increase significantly as the success of TV broadcaster online services such as the BBC's iPlayer in the UK and M6 Replay in France demonstrates the growing appetite for watching longer-form video.
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Joost and TOM joint venture in ChinaJoost, the Internet television service, and TOM Group one of the leading Chinese media conglomerates in Greater China, have launched a joint venture to bring a full Joost offering to China. Joost and TOM Group’s Internet arm, TOM Online, also launched a new Chinese version of Joost.
Both Joost and TOM will primarily source programming from within China, and distribute this programming within and outside of China. To date, TOM has sourced about 16,000 hours of Chinese programming for Joost.
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MTV South Europe to create branded hostels
From Branislav Pekic in RomeMTV South Europe, one of the seven divisions of the global music TV network present in 146 countries, plans to create a network of branded hostels for young tourists.
Presenting MTV Italia’s autumn program schedule in Milan, CEO Antonio Campo Dall’Orto said that the broadcaster is "sounding out several global entrepreneurs in the hotel business" with the goal of finding a partner with the necessary financial clout. The project, he added, foresees "easy accessibility", which means low prices, but "also special attention to form and style". The hostels will, for example, have the shower heads in the form of a microphone and an area dedicated to music.
The goal of the initiative, according to Campo Dall'Orto, is to further expand the revenue sources of the group. This strategy, combined with the expansion on new markets such as the launch of MTV Greece and MTV Africa, has led to 50% of revenues in Italy now coming from sources other than traditional TV advertising and should increase to 70 per cent in three years time.
The recent launch of the MTV Mobile initiative in Italy, combining telephones and services in collaboration with mobile operator TIM, has already surpassed expectations, with 30,000 mobile devices distributed to shops in only two weeks.
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FCC Approval Imminent for XM/Sirius Merger
It appears XM and Sirius have won approval for their proposed merger from the Federal Communications Commission, more than 17 months after the companies first proposed a combination of operations. A formal decision from the commission is thought to be imminent.
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Virgin aims for 200Mbps broadbandBritish triple-play provider Virgin Media is aiming to offer broadband speeds of up to 200Mbps by 2012. An interview with Virgin’s Chief Technology Officer, Howard Watson also confirmed that the roll out of technology boosting speeds to 50Mbps should be completed within twelve months.
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Electronic giants develop WHDIAmimon, Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp and Sony have announced the formation of a special interest group to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity utilizing Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) technology. The group's intention is to complete the new standard in 2008.
A key ingredient of WHDI technology is a revolutionary video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band to enable robust wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video (including 1080p).
The objective of the group is to enhance the current WHDI technology to enable wireless streaming of uncompressed HD video and audio between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, A/V receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top boxes, game consoles, and PCs. The new interoperable standard aims to ensure that CE devices manufactured by different vendors will simply and directly connect to one another.
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Satellite operators call for EU to guarantee servicesEuropean Ministers discussing challenges and future initiatives for promoting a strong common EU Space Policy have all expressed their desire to see the European Union become a "global player" in this sector, looking into areas such as exploration, research, financing mechanisms, competitiveness and monitoring climate change.
Satellite communications play a key role in achieving Europe's objectives. As the Chairman of ESOA and CEO of Eutelsat, Giuliano Berretta, explained, satellites are "an integral and indispensable part of everyday life whether we talk about TV or emergency communication, connectivity in villages, mountains, islands, in-flight and at sea".
The European Parliament is now debating a new regulatory framework for electronic communications that may jeopardise the long-term stability of distribution of services provided by satellite operators. As part of this Telecoms Review, the satellite operators say, the new legislation does not account for the singularities and uniqueness of satellite communications required to protect their signal and guarantee access to required spectrum and quality of the service currently offered.
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Humax biggest DTT PVRHumax has expanded its award winning set-top box range with the launch of two, twin-tuner Freeview+ digital TV recorders (DTRs), giving access to up to 48 Freeview channels plus a host of recording features, so viewers never need to miss their favourite shows. The PVR-9300T boasts a massive 320GB hard drive, which can store up to a colossal 200 hours of programming, as well as HDMi up-scaling for superbly improved picture quality for viewers with an HD-ready TV. The PVR-9150T offers a lower cost alternative, with 160GB of recording capacity.
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Thomson has announced shipments of their BT Home Hub wireless gateways have passed the three million mark in fewer than two years since the devices were deployed by BT in the UK.
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Astra selects HarmonicHarmonic has revelaed that Astra Platform Services (APS), a subsidiary of SES Astra, has selected Harmonic's DiviCom Electra 7000 high definition encoders and DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing for a network upgrade designed to substantially enhance and expand its HD MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) service. APS operates one of Europe's most modern satellite broadcast centers, transmitting over 200 television and audio channels to subscribers throughout Europe from its headend in Germany.
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Ocean Blue USB stick PVRsOcean Blue Software, has developed a hot-plug USB extension to their core software. The USB extension for set-top boxes and integrated Digital TV's will allow consumers to activate PVR functionality on low-cost base models by simply plugging in a USB memory stick or USB hard drive. The development will allow consumers to take advantage of USB memory sticks to add limited record and pause-and-rewind functions for very little cost. A 4Gb memory stick, for example, could record up to 4 hours of video and provide a 30 minute rewind.
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Sistema Chooses NDSNDS has confirmed that Russian media giant Sistema Mass Media (SMM) has selected the NDS Unified Headend to manage and protect TV content delivery to subscribers across both IP and mobile networks.
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Samsung's MediaLiveSamsung Electronics has launched its MediaLive adaptor allowing consumers to view PC-content on a Samsung HDTV. MediaLive delivers digital content (including HD content) in real-time from Windows Media Centre on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate operating systems to the big screen of a Samsung HDTV via a wireless or wired home network.
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Thursday 24th July
US consumer electronics industry: $173bn in 2008
MTG Q2
Web TV becomes regular TV
Rambler to be Russian Hulu
Pay-TV STBs on target for 40% growth
FCC urged to reject MPAA exemption
Cable can compete
Pace for Foxtel
KPN digital progress
Premiership football has mass global interest
Verimatrix funding round
Al Jazeera expands Spanish reach
Utah selects Latens ECOsystem
Sky News tops EMS
Comverse partners with IBM
Masters steps down at Red Bee
US consumer electronics industry: $173bn in 2008The consumer electronics industry will see overall shipment revenues top $173 billion in the US in 2008, according to data released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The semi-annual US Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecast shows CE shipment revenues will grow by 7.3 per cent this year, reaching more than $183 billion by 2009.
"The CE industry is a backbone of economic activity in this country," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. "In a tough economy, consumers turn to CE products for many reasons – from entertaining in the home to telecommuting to save gas. Such factors – and access to global consumers through free trade – help the CE industry to flourish while growth rates of other industries have either stalled or declined. Consumers don’t want to live without CE products and continue to crave the latest gadgets and innovations our industry has to offer."
Leading the way are digital displays, with shipment revenues approaching $28 billion. DTV shipments represent 16 per cent of all CE shipment revenues. With the switch to digital television occurring on February 17, 2009, unit sales for digital displays will accelerate, climbing 24 per cent this year, while retail prices will fall by 11 per cent.
"LCD TVs dominate the digital display market," said Steve Koenig, CEA’s director of industry analysis. "With prices continuing to drop, consumers are deciding the time is right to upgrade to digital. By the end of the year, more than 60 per cent of US households will have at least one digital television."
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MTG Q2International entertainment broadcasting company Modern Times Group (MTG) has released figures for the second quarter and six months ended 30 June 2008. Group net sales were up 17 per cent year on year to SEK3.318 billion (E350m). Group operating income was up 26 per cent year on year to SEK673 million, with an increased operating margin of 20 per cent. Total Group operating income was SEK1,756 million (including a SEK1,159 million net gain from the sale of Russian DTV Group and a SEK76 million non-cash asset impairment charge in the Online business area).
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The results for the second quarter and first half of 2008 are again at record levels, both in terms of sales and profitability. This quarter marks the fifteenth consecutive quarter of double digit year on year sales growth by MTG."
Meantime, MTG is reported to be among those considering bids for News Corps central European broadcast assets.
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Web TV becomes regular TVWeb video is no longer confined to PC users, according to Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. A wave of recent announcements from major players such as Sony, Microsoft and Samsung confirms that Internet-enabled TVs, games consoles and peripherals, such as Blu-ray Disc players, will soon deliver web-based content to millions of TV viewers around the world.
According to Strategy Analytics estimates, by the end of 2008 186 million connected TV devices worldwide will be able to access some form of Internet content. "The web video explosion has so far been restricted largely to PC users, says David Mercer, VP and Principal Analyst." Now it is moving to the TV screen. While business model and content partner issues are still to be resolved, the floodgates are open - and web video is set to become a regular part of the TV viewing experience.
"Internet connectivity is becoming commonplace across a wide spectrum of consumer devices," says Peter King, Director, Connected Home Devices. "By 2014 more than two-thirds of all products sold will integrate Internet access."
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Rambler to be Russian HuluRussia’s third-placed search and portal operator Rambler is to launch a major TV and movie site - described as a "Russian Hulu". Rambler Kinozal ("cinema") will offer titles for download rather than web streaming.
Programming comes from Russia’s Star Media, TV Scope, TNT, NTV and CTV. "By the middle of 2009, it will contain approximately 2,000 hours, all premium TV series as well as full-length Russian feature films and TV movies," Rambler says. "The television channels rarely hold non-linear rights so we are dealing directly and only with the content owners who hold the relevant rights for our use."
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Pay-TV STBs on target for 40% growth
Global shipments of Pay-TV set top boxes (STBs) are on track to grow by nearly 40 per cent by 2012 according to a new Industry Update Report from Futuresource Consulting. This represents an increase of 38M units, with growth derived from new subscribers and consumers trading up to STBs with Personal Video Recording (PVR) functionality and High Definition (HD) capability.
"Pay-TV operators around the world continue to use STBs to drive digital services, increase ARPU and reduce subscriber churn," says Carl Hibbert of Futuresource Consulting, "with innovations such as High Definition, PVR, VoD and Home Networking." This competitive ‘technology push’ from the Pay-TV industry and the continued importance of content security will maintain the stability of the STB industry for at least the next two to three years, despite the wider availability of TVs with open interfaces like CableCARD and CI+, and increasing trends towards CE product connectivity into Pay-TV networks.
"The next five years will see further consolidation in the STB industry, with smaller vendors being absorbed or pushed out, especially as China_s major OEMs and brands increase their drive on export markets. And in a commoditising market, the long haul survivors will be the ones with solid account relationships, competitive economies of scale and/or unique competencies in software or end-to-end network solutions."
Furthermore, the next five years will see a geographical shift in demand for STBs. Futuresource research shows that EMEA accounted for the largest proportion of demand in 2007, generated through rapid subscriber adoption across both cable and satellite, with Analogue Switch Off generating additional traction for DTT boxes.
By the latter part of the forecast period, Asia Pacific will become the dominant territory, accounting for nearly 50% of global demand. India and China will account for the majority of this, though both have witnessed slow uptake of multi-channel TV to date, due to price and technology limitations.
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FCC urged to reject MPAA exemptionSeven public-interest and consumer groups have called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to turn down Hollywood_s request to take control of consumers’ TV sets and other devices. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had asked the FCC to grant it an exemption to 2003 rules that specifically prohibited the type of behaviour the movie companies want to pursue now - the ability to limit what consumer devices can do. MPAA said it needed the waiver so that it could offer movies to consumers while protecting copyrighted material.
But the groups said the waiver _will give the largest motion picture production companies veto power over the connections which are used to connect set-top boxes, receivers, high definition televisions, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and other consumer electronics devices, the groups said in their comments. This veto power will give media companies leverage to dictate which home electronics manufacturers can produce products capable of viewing their content.
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Cable can competeA period of consolidation in the industry has been followed by heavy investment from private equity groups meaning they can compete with telcos and other operators, says Screen Digest. "With the onslaught of competition in the form of IPTV, DTT and freesat, as well as the older adversary of pay satellite, Europe's cable industry has had to get its act together. Heavy investment over the past few years has allowed it to focus on offering triple-play services - with a great deal of success in some markets, most notably the UK and Spain."
The researcher finds that Europe's cable operators have been focusing on triple-play services - with telephony rolling out at a rapid rate. Spain and the UK lead in triple play, with over 80 per cent of cable homes taking telephony and more than 60 per cent per cent taking broadband services.
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Pace for FoxtelPace has been selected as the launch partner for Foxtel’s high definition (HD) service in Australia. It will be supplying cable and satellite HD PVRs (TDC850NF and TDS850NF) for Australia’s leading subscription television provider. Both come with 320GB hard drives and quad-tuners for the ultimate HD PVR experience. Two tuners will be dedicated to programme recording, while the third will enable users to continue to view and pause live TV while two programmes are being recorded, with no clashes. The fourth tuner will be dedicated to the EPG, enabling full programme information to be accessed even when all three other tuners are being used. This fourth tuner will also be capable of delivering HD and SD push-VOD content to the consumer.
At launch, the Foxtel HD+ service will give viewers access to five dedicated channels Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, Fox Sports HD, ESPN HD and BBC HD, plus PPV HD movies that can be watched instantly via the Foxtel Box Office HD On Demand service. Further channels will be added in 2009 with Foxtel also committed to delivering multi-channel HD coverage of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2010 Winter Olympics.
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Dutch KPN gained 636,00 digital TV subscribers at the end of June, up from 553,000 on March 31. The figures represent the combined subs totals of DTT platform Digitenne and the IPTV service KPN Interactieve TV.
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Premiership football has mass global interestComScore has released the results of a study on visitation to the official Web sites of Premiership football clubs, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. The study revealed that the majority of traffic to the Web sites of the "Big Four" Premiership clubs – Manchester, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea – now originates from outside of the UK.
Premierleague.com, the official site of the FA Barclays Premier League, attracted an average of 1.2 million UK visitors per month during the 2007/08 season (August 2007 – May 2008). The website of Premiership Champions Manchester United ranked as the most popular club site with an average of 912,000 visitors per month. Liverpool ranked second with 887,000 visitors, followed by Arsenal (718,000 visitors), and Chelsea (402,000 visitors).
Premierleague.com attracted 55 per cent of its total audience from outside the UK, demonstrating the broad global interest in the league. With the exception of Liverpoolfc.tv, all of the "Big Four" club sites drew the majority of their visitors from outside the UK, with Manutd.com generating the largest share of its audience from abroad (64 per cent).
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Verimatrix funding roundCA/DRM specialist Verimatrix announced a new Series C funding round led by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs. The firm said that all of its Series B investors Cipio Partners and Mission Ventures had participated in the financing.
The target funding has not been announced but the two previous rounds raised $23 million in all. The new capital will fund further expansion of the business including the acceleration of Verimatrix’s so-called 3-Dimensional Content Security Solutions. The company is defending itself against various patet breach claims from rival DCAS provider Widevine.
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Al Jazeera expands Spanish reachAl Jazeera Network has unveiled a new contract with TSF On Sat that takes the channel to over 3.2 million households across Spain on the Hispasat satellite network. Al Jazeera English (AJE) currently reaches over 120 million households worldwide. Al Jazeera English programming will be broadcast on TSF’s satellite platform and on digital terrestrial television services in Northern Spain and Southern France, on cable in all Spanish and French major cities and on the station’s Internet channel.
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Utah selects Latens ECOsystemLatens has confirmed that IPTV Network Services, a consortium company of several IPTV service providers in the state of Utah, has successfully deployed the Latens ECOsystem (ECO) to enable its IPTV offering. Latens ECO provides IPTV Networks with a single platform comprising next generation middleware and Latens’ Conditional Access for the secure delivery of advanced content services.
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Sky News tops EMSSky News has retained its position as the leading pan-European news TV channel among Europe's leading business executives. According to the 2007 European Media and Marketing Survey (EMS) survey, which polls the main income earner in Europe's top 20 per cent of homes by income, Sky News increased its daily reach to 5.3 per cent Overall, news and business TV channels posted a healthy performance among this demographic, increasing daily reach from 15.3 per cent to 16.1 per cent. But among the EMS Select respondents, which represent the top 3 per cent of earners across Europe, the daily reach of news and business TV channels dropped slightly from 21.1 per cent in 2006, to 20.9 per cent in 2007.
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Comverse, supplier of software and systems enabling network-based, multimedia enhanced communication and billing services, is partnering with IBM to help telecommunications service providers worldwide reduce operational costs, increase efficiencies and drive growth. Through a recently-signed technology and services agreement, Comverse and IBM will offer customers solutions based on IBM’s software products and service delivery platform solutions, together with Comverse’s services and billing and active customer management solutions.
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Pam Masters, the chief executive of Red Bee Media, is stepping down to take on the newly created board position of vice-chairman from January next year. Masters oversaw the spin-off of the former BBC Broadcast division, which had 100 people, to become Red Bee Media under the ownership of a Macquarie Bank consortium three years ago.
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Wednesday 23rd July
Boxer wins Irish DTT
CBS: Streaming doesn't hurt TV viewing
TiVo and Amazon sales pitch
Sky, Universal music store
Tiscali to sue BT for misleading customers?
TW uses Comcast
BBC abandons programme sponsorship
UTStarcom deploys IPTV video network in China
Boxer wins Irish DTTThe Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has awarded – subject to contract - three national DTT multiplexes to a consortium of the Swedish DTT operator Boxer and the Communicorp Group, the Irish commercial radio group. They will have equal shares of a JV called of Boxer DTT Limited.
Assuming final negotiations are successful, Boxer will construct and operate three multiplexes due to be ready for broadcasting in 2009. The DTT licence will run for 12 years. The public broadcaster RTE has been gifted a multiplex that will carry the existing terrestrial services. "Ireland will be a major challenge. We will be competing with international pay-TV companies such as BSkyB and the cable-TV operator UPC," said Per Norman, CEO at Boxer.
Boxer, part of Sweden’s Teracom, beat out Easy TV (a joint venture between RTE and Liberty Global) and One Vision (comprising Eircom, Arqiva, Setanta and Ireland’s TV3).
CBS: Streaming doesn't hurt TV viewing
US network CBS says it has found streaming full-length episodes of primetime series is mostly additive for the broadcast networks and does little to threaten TV viewing. According to a report issued by CBS Interactive, less than half of the network's online audience (46 per cent) primarily view shows online, and most say that the wide availability of these shows across the Internet does not impact their TV viewing. In fact, 35 per cent of the nearly 50,000 streamers surveyed by researcher Magid Media Labs on behalf of CBS reported that they are more likely to view shows on the network as a result of having been exposed to content online.
That's particularly good news for CBS, which has been aggressive in both offering full-length episodes of its shows on its site and also in syndicating these shows all over the Internet as part of the CBS Audience Network."These findings confirm what we've believed all along," said David Botkin, senior VP, research & audience analytics, CBS Interactive. "Online viewing is complementary to broadcast viewing, so making our programming more accessible to people drives awareness, interest and ratings both online and on-air."
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TiVo and Amazon sales pitchTiVo is teaming up with Amazon.com to make it easier for consumers to purchase products they see on television commercials and talk shows. TiVo plans to offer the feature to advertisers and programmers, giving viewers the chance to purchase products during commercials and product placements in shows.
A "product purchase" feature on onscreen menus will provide TiVo customers with links to buy products like books, compact discs, and DVDs featured initially on shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Late Show With David Letterman, and The Daily Show.
The move is part of TiVo's push to create new advertising technologies for the television industry.
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Sky is to launch a digital music store, in a bid to take on the likes of iTunes, HMV and Tesco. Sky has partnered with major Universal Music to enable visitors to download thousands of songs from its artists.
The service will be available for a single monthly subscription charge and users will able to both stream songs on-demand and download tracks. Songs can be downloaded on devices such as iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones.
Sky, which plans to partner with other major and independent record labels, for the joint venture service, said it will roll out the digital store later this year.
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Tiscali to sue BT for misleading customers?
Italian ISP Tiscali is considering legal action against BT, for sending emails to its customers suspecting company’s future existence, ISPReview reported. The letter titled, "Tiscali Chief Plots Sell-Off", was sent to Tiscali and its associates- Pipex and Nildram, casting doubts in their minds about the future of the ISP.
The letter reads, "We can understand why you are wondering what might happen to your Tiscali broadband service, and because no one really knows the answer just yet, it could be a good time to look for an alternative broadband service." It further explains the process of switching to BT’s broadband services.
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TW uses ComcastTime Warner Cable and thePlatform, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp, announced that thePlatform will serve as the central backend video management system for Time Warner Road Runner portal. Under the terms of the agreement, thePlatform will aggregate and publish video content and associated advertising for the website. Road Runner currently offers video content from programmers including CNN, HBO and Showtime.
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BBC abandons programme sponsorship
Following widespread condemnation of a drinks company’s sponsorship of Sports Personality of the Year (including from the BBC Trust), the BBC has said it will not try it again.
The Corporation had tried to draw a distinction saying the programme was really an event but this didn’t wash with the Trust or ITV, commercial radio or the public – several of whom had complained.
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UTStarcom deploys IPTV video network in ChinaUTStarcom has confirmed that Guangxi Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Telecom in South China's Guangxi, has chosen UTStarcom's RollingStream IPTV platform to deploy a new interactive advertising system. Guangxi Telecom is the first service provider in China to employ IPTV platform for building-based video advertising.
UTStarcom will provide Guangxi Telecom with 3,600 concurrent IPTV streams for the initial deployment of the interactive advertising system in 14 cities in Guangxi.
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Tuesday 22nd July
Web TV threat is "bollocks"
Yahoo decries Ofcom and BBC
iPlayer: hit (?) for Virgin
Google is UK’s top brand
Italian DTT receiver sales top 8.6 million
XM Satellite subs rise
Inmarsat looks for suitors as Harbinger talks stall
Crawford uses SES New Skies satellite
Beltelecom introduces Minsk IPTV service
Sony appoints Marsh
TWC films for Sky Italia
Alvarion chosen by GO Mobile
Web TV threat is "bollocks"A UK media academic has warned broadcasters and national newspapers not to be fooled by "hype" about the Internet. Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at the London Business School, defined as "Bollocks 2.0" claims about the threat to traditional media from innovations such as social networking and Internet TV.
"Television is not a market going into catastrophic decline," Barwise told an audience of broadcasters, regulators and analysts at LBS. Advertising was bad, but "it is not falling off a cliff", he said. This was in contrast to regional newspapers and classified advertising, where a genuine collapse was taking place, he added.
Barwise criticised the "obsession" with the threat posed by the Internet. "People who should know better are talking about a digital revolution, about whether or not we will all be watching ‘linear television’ in five years’ time. They have signed up for what I call ‘Bollocks 2.0’."
Broadband was an inefficient way of distributing content, Barwise said, while digital broadcasting on satellite, the airwaves or cable met the same needs at "much, much greater efficiency levels".
Detailed research on the use of personal video recorders had reached surprising conclusions, he said. "There is next to no demand for on-demand. The argument is wildly out of proportion about how important this is for television."
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Yahoo decries Ofcom and BBCYahoo responded to Ofcom’s ongoing second review of public service broadcasting
by rubbishing the regulator’s vision for online. It offered an alternative model - a public content fund involving advertising and revenue share. It also joined the growing ranks complaining about the BBC’s scale.Yahoo said Ofcom’s description of search as "the starting point for the vast majority of online experiences" was "over-stated". On its proposal that search engines should give particular prominence to PSB content, Yahoo said: "This analysis misunderstands the incentives behind search. Internet users turn to search engines to find content and information online which they are looking for. Providers of public service content would have to exhaust a number of innovative distribution models before the manipulation of search results could be considered a proportionate policy response." Yahoo doesn’t want to be told how to manipulate search results.
Yahoo called for a "public fund for commissioning content", it says "Ofcom has overlooked the potential of distribution partnerships with commercial online service providers and aggregators as a means of generating revenue for content creation. Ofcom should explore advertising supported models (including revenue share)."Yahoo also raised the prospect that BBC.co.uk should be scaled back if it’s found to be anticompetitive: "It is important to assess the scope of (PSBs’) remit with respect to online content and, if market provision is sufficient, narrow the scope of public service provision to only those areas where the market does not make adequate provision. The BBC already accounts for a significant proportion of the UK’s online audience and creates a difficult landscape for other media owners to compete."
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iPlayer: hit (?) for VirginThe BBC iPlayer service on Virgin Media recorded over 10 million viewings in June according to the figures released by the cable TV company.
Virgin Media, the first TV service to make the BBC iPlayer catch-up service available, managed to attract half as many viewings as the BBC website in the first full month it was made available to cable TV customers. Virgin Media has a pool of around 3.5 million cable TV subscribers who can access its version of the BBC iPlayer to catch up on more than 350 hours of the corporation's programming. The surge in usage has been fuelled by Virgin Media making the BBC iPlayer accessible through its cable TV electronic programming guide from June 1st.
Of course Virgin makes no money from iPlayer usage and while the TV is tuned to iPlayer viewers aren’t watching pay or Virgin Media channels. Virgin must just hope it popularity might cut churn.
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Google is UK’s top brandGoogle has become the UK's top brand for the first time, according to a consumer survey. Google also topped a poll of "superbrands" as judged by professionals earlier this year.
Meanwhile the search company has bought Russian advertising company ZAO Begun from Rambler Media for $140 million. Begun offers contextual text-based advertising services and has more than 40,000 advertisers. Its partner network includes over 143,000 Russian-language sites.
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Italian DTT receiver sales top 8.6 million
From Branislav Pekic in RomeA total of 310,000 DTT decoders were sold during May in Italy, bringing the total installed base to 8.6 million, according to the latest market survey conducted by Gfk. 236,000 (77 per cent of the total) were receivers integrated in other devices, while the remaining 75,000 were external set-top boxes. An estimated 1.4 million DTT decoders have been sold since the beginning of 2008.
Makno’s "Monitor TV Digitale" survey, on the other hand, estimates that, at the end of May, there were 5,912,000 Italian DTT households, i.e. those having at least one digital terrestrial receiver in their principal home. This figure represents an increase of 130,000 units (+2.2 per cent) on April figures.
Significantly, for the first time the audience of the Italian DTT channels surpassed for the 5 per cent threshold in June, representing an increase of 131.8 per cent on June 2007. Italy’s DTT offer is currently made up of 28 national free-to-air channels as well as movies, series, sports and kids programs available on PPV.
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XM Satellite subs riseXM Satellite Radio had added 322,000 new net subscribers in the second quarter and now has about 9.7 million. The total represents a 17 per cent increase in subscribers since the end of the second quarter of 2007, said XM, which is in the process of being acquired by rival broadcaster Sirius Satellite Radio.
In a preliminary report, the company said gross additions for the quarter included a record 857,000 gross new subscriptions for radios in automobiles. It marked 224,000 retail additions.
XM forecast subscription revenue for second quarter at $283 million to $288 million and an adjusted operating loss of $32 million to $38 million.
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Inmarsat looks for suitors as Harbinger talks stall
Inmarsat the says takeover discussions with Harbinger Capital Partners had been suspended. The hedge fund owns a 28.5 per cent stake in the company and shares in Inmarsat fell in London. Inmarsat hinted that the discussions had fallen victim to regulatory issues, but added: "The board...is open to any future proposals or co operation with Harbinger, which will continue to be evaluated in this context."
Harbinger, which has a significant shareholding in a number of US-based satellite communications ventures, needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission and other US regulators to redeploy Inmarsat’s spectrum. Harbinger had apparently asked Inmarsat to help in its appeal to the FCC . However, this posed a conflict for Inmarsat, as Harbinger is its largest shareholder.
The regulatory process could take 18 months, a Harbinger spokesman said, and therefore the talks had been suspended.Inmarsat’s value to Harbinger lies in a successful tie-up with Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), controlled by SkyTerra, in which the hedge fund also owns a significant interest.
Crawford uses SES New Skies satellite
SES New Skies has confirmed that Crawford Communications has contracted a total bandwidth of 20 MHz on the NSS-7 satellite at the orbital location of 338 degrees East for a period of five years.
Crawford has been awarded a long-term contract to provide content aggregation, media, Internet and satellite services for the US military's Digital Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS). This dedicated operation provides a connection between the global media and the US military. With a network of 106 portable Ku-band transmitters, public affairs units can send video, audio and still imagery back to the US. The NSS-7 satellite will support that mission.
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Beltelecom introduces Minsk IPTV serviceBelarusian national fixed line operator Beltelecom has launched an IPTV service in Minsk, according to Kanstantsin Tsikar, Director General of the company. The official said the new service will be deployed in other parts of the Republic from this autumn. Tsikar said that Beltelecom received around 500 applications for the service in the first three days. It plans to charge a one-off payment of BYR30,000 (E8.8) for IPTV subscribers, plus a monthly rental of BYR40.000. Beltelecom’s IPTV offering currently carries 20 TV channels, Tsikar confirmed.
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Sony appoints MarshSony Pictures Television International (SPTI) has appointed Kate Marsh to the position of vice president, brand partnerships and channel development, within the company’s networks division. Marsh, who joins SPTI from WPP’s media investment company, GroupM, takes up her new role from September. Marsh will focus on the growth of SPTI Networks’ new and existing channel activities, responsible for building brand and content partnerships with advertisers and both identifying and developing non-subscriber revenue streams.
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TWC films for Sky ItaliaThe Weinstein Company has furthered its international presence by signing an exclusive deal with Sky Italia to distribute its films on pay TV. in Italy. This pact will enable audiences across Italy to view a wide range of The Weinstein Company and its genre company Dimension Films.
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Alvarion chosen by GO MobileAlvarion, provider of WiMAX and wireless broadband solutions, has been chosen by GO Mobile, Malta’s mobile operator, for a nationwide Mobile WiMAX network deployment. Using Alvarion’s 4Motion solution with BreezeMAX as its RAN (radio access network), GO Mobile plans to provide voice and data services at the 3.5 GHz frequency band to the residents of the island of Malta. Rollout of the commercial network is expected to begin in the next few weeks. The new network will open opportunities for high speed Internet, as well as video, TV and gaming.
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Monday 21st July
Microsoft and Google warn in revenues
BBC: Huggers in and virtual IBM man
Quality the criterion on Portuguese 5th channel tender
News Corp Baltic sales?
CNN online video up 250%
Sony confirms PlayTV launch date
Verizon and AT&T Olympic deal with NBC
IPTV Industry Association in Korea
Minerva adds systems integrators in Middle East
Microsoft and Google warn in revenuesGoogle and Microsoft shares were hit when each reported quarterly earnings that fell short of most analysts’ estimates. But both companies expressed cautious optimism that their international reach would continue to protect them from the worst; for the first time Google’s international revenue outstripped that in the US.
Google’s shares dropped by 8 per cent after it reported pro forma earnings per share of $4.63, lower than the $4.72 Wall Street had expected. However, Google’s net revenues of $3.87 billion, up 42 per cent, were slightly ahead of forecasts and the company said search engine advertising was proving resilient to the broader downturn in consumer advertising.In the US and UK, the most developed internet markets, Google recorded an increase in both revenues and "clicks" from advertising in economically sensitive sectors such as cars and travel, with real estate advertising the only area to show a decline, Hal Varian, the company’s chief economist, said.
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BBC: Huggers in and virtual IBM manErik Huggers has been confirmed by the BBC as its new director of future media and technology, replacing Ashley Highfield. The BBC has also hired an expert on virtual worlds as part of its efforts to bring its TV and Internet output closer together.
Roo Reynolds, who is currently a ‘metaverse evangelist’ at IBM, will join the corporation as portfolio executive for social media, with a role across BBC Vision. Reynolds, who has been working at IBM's research laboratories in Hursley Park, Hampshire, for much of the past 10 years. Most recently he has specialised in the company's use of virtual worlds, and in particular has championed IBM's use of Second Life.
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Quality the criterion on Portuguese 5th channel tender
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe quality of the television offer will be the main criteria for the evaluation of bids on the tender that will award the license to run Portugal’s fifth national terrestrial TV channel.
According to the proposed tender rules, published in Portugal’s Official Gazzette (Diário da República), and on which interested parties can pass comment until August 29th, half of the points will be awarded to the quality of the TV offer. Special emphasis will be given to the "guarantee of pluralism", i.e. priority will be given to those bidders who do not already have a broadcasting licence.
The other criteria that will be taken into consideration will be the diversification of the TV offer (30 per cent), the transmission of European, independent and Portuguese language programmes (10 per cent), the human resource policy (5 per cent) and the fulfilling of legal norms and commitments (5 per cent).
The owner of pay-TV operator TV Cabo, Zon Multimédia is interested in taking part and, according to executive president Rodrigo Costa, talks are underway with minority shareholders, Controlinveste and Cofina, for a possible joint bid.
The tender will be called this autumn and the new TV channel could be on the air by mid-2009.
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News Corp Baltic sales?News Corp. is rumoured to be selling its television companies in Latvia, Serbia and Bulgaria. The company has reportedly hired the US investment company Lehman Brothers to ascertain the value and strategic options for three Eastern European television stations after being approached by multiple suitors.
News Corp. is the owner of the Latvian television channels LNT and TV5. In Bulgaria it owns the television channel "bTv", which is a co-owner of the Serbian television "Fox Televizija".
CNN's international news site has seen a 250 per cent increase in traffic to its video reports in the past year, according to the company, reflecting an industry-wide surge in demand for video content. The US news broadcaster saw its biggest traffic spikes in May around its video reports of the demonstrations in Myanmar and the earthquake in Sichuan. CNN.com served 116.7 million video streams throughout the month.
CNN.com has published 79 per cent more video content since the relaunch and during May the site saw just under 4 million live streams served from its live news service. Most video on the site is adapted from broadcast, with some web-exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and extended interviews.
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Sony confirms PlayTV launch dateSCEE president David Reeves has confirmed that Sony’s highly anticipated Freeview TV add-on PlayTV will launch in the UK on September 10th, and will roll out to the rest of Europe by the end of December.
PlayTV turns a Playstation 3 into a fully-functional PVR – a device that allowing users to watch Freeview digital TV through their console and also record programming on the hard drive. Although no new pricing information has been confirmed, Amazon are claiming the device will retail at around E99.
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Verizon and AT&T Olympic deal with NBCUS telecos Verizon and AT&T will show live coverage of the 2008 Olympics Games through their mobile, IPTV and broadband platforms after agreeing distribution deals with US Olympic broadcaster, NBC.
Under the agreement, Verizon will air NBC's coverage on its FiOS TV service through VOD programming and live streaming footage of the competition. The carrier's will also launch two NBC HD channels to carry NBC's basketball and football coverage at the event, and will be running daily highlights and results on its streaming wireless video service.
AT&T will show live streaming of events on its U-verse TV service. In addition, mobile customers will be able to have 24-hour access to the platform’s new MediaFLO service called NBC Olympics 2Go.
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IPTV Industry Association in KoreaThe IPTV Industry Association has launched in Korea, following the green light from the country's Knowledge Economy Ministry. The organisation includes big name members such as KT, LG Dacom and KBS, as well as 40 small and medium sized solution developers. The founding members reportedly decided to open the organisation to other members to attract local companies to the IPTV industry and instigate growth. The association intends to host seminars on industry outlook and participate in public hearings for relevant laws, provide a large-scale industry exhibition and become involved in joint IPTV systems projects in other countries.
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Minerva adds systems integrators in Middle EastUS middleware provider Minerva Networks has added three systems integrators in the Middle East to its Minerva Channel Partner programme to support the growing number of installations in the region of its iTVManager middleware platform. The three new systems integrators are ACT in Egypt, Bond Communications in the United Arab Emirates and Mannai in Qatar.
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