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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 27th June
Sony push into network media
Sky: Ofcom living in past
AirPlus TV Portugal names chairman, plans pay-TV package
Mobile videophone strong sales
Global Internet adspend $106bn+ in 2011
UK confused on digital
CASBAA cheers breakthrough piracy order
ITV to lose PSB status?
27m in UK watch 3.5bn online vids in March
Arris and BlackArrow deliver VOD advertising
SportsXchange appoints Highflyer
Sony push into network mediaSony will make a strong push into networked media and DTO services as it seeks to make the most of its hardware and software assets for growth. The company said it would aim to double revenues from the fast-growing markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China to 2 trillion yen (E11.7 billion) and invest 1.8 trillion yen in key businesses and technologies as part of a three-year strategy to March 2011. "So much more opportunities exist outside the core markets of Japan, North America and Europe," says the company.
Sony intends to have a DTO service via all its CE products; TVs, DVDs, Playstations, and computers, and 90 per cent of its product categories network-enabled and wireless capable in the next three years.
Sony wants to lift return on equity to 10 per cent from an average of about 6 per cent over the past three years, and reach the 5 per cent operating profit margin that eluded it in a previous plan, coming in at 4.2 per cent in the year ended March.
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Sky: Ofcom living in pastMike Darcey, BSkyB COO, says Ofcom seems determined to live in the past and perpetuate a broadcasting model (FTA public service) that may not be suited to supporting new technologies. He said propping up outdating models meant a financial burden on the industry, sapping investment that would otherwise go into content.
"It is not the job of a regulator to protect the interests of a small group of favoured broadcasters. They should not be trying to prop up a model which has history and tradition on its side, but which faces substantial challenges." Darcey said.
He believes pay television is the right model for supporting diversity and flexibility in the market. Another major advantage is its accountability, if viewers did not like the content, then unlike with the BBC licence fee, they could simply cancel their subscription, he said.
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AirPlus TV Portugal names chairman, plans pay-TV package
From Branislav Pekic in RomeLuís Nazaré has been named as the chairman of Airplus TV Portugal, a company which is competing with Portugal Telecom for the licence to manage the Portuguese pay-TV DTT multiplexes.
At a press conference in Lisbon, Nazaré announced that if the company is awarded the DTT licence it will offer only 18 TV channels in coastal areas and 14 in the interior of the country, for a price of around E11 a month. He explained that Airplus TV opted for a reduced package of channels as clients usually receive more channels then requested, which they end up never watching. Nazaré anticipated that there will be 8 to 10 TV channels produced in Portugal, which will be developed by the broadcasters, as well as a "public interest channel, which will be at the disposition of the State". Despite being rivals in the battle for the DTT license, Nazaré underlined that AirPlus TV also wants to "develop a partnership and friendly relationship" with Portugal Telecom.
AirPlus TV is planning to invest E70 million to achieve national coverage, a figure which includes a E23 million subsidy for the installation of set-top boxes. Portuguese businessman Miguel Pais do Amaral announced he is acquiring a 20 per cent stake in Airplus TV Portugal, which will be effective "only if the licence is awarded".
Despite all the publicity surrounding the awarding of the licences, DTT remains an unknown concept for more than 80 per cent of Portuguese citizens, according to a study conducted by Portugal’s Communications Observatory (Obercom). In fact, only 16.3 per cent of those polled know that the digital platform will substitute analogue transmission in 2012.
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Mobile videophone strong salesCommunications market research firm Infonetics Research has reported that worldwide mobile videophone sales neared $99 billion in 2007 and are expected to grow strongly over the next 5 years, despite the challenge service providers face in making mobile video services profitable.
The report shows that the number of mobile video subscribers topped 10 million worldwide in 2007, and is expected to nearly triple by the end of 2008, with explosive growth continuing through at least 2011.
"The amount of money it takes to manufacture mobile video phones with high quality screens and extended battery life will continue to drop considerably over the next few years, and as that happens, service providers will want to make sure they have the phones with the most revenue-generating potential in the hands of their subscribers. We expect the number of mobile video phones to quadruple between 2007 and 2011," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for IPTV at Infonetics.
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Global Internet adspend $106bn+ in 2011Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total $65.2 billion in 2008, which represents nearly 10 per cent of all ad spending across all media. With IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast projecting 15-20 per cent annual growth throughout the forecast period, this share will reach 13.6 per cent by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 billion worldwide.
"Compared to more mature types of advertising, Internet advertising is growing at a phenomenal rate," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. "But Internet advertising is still relatively new and growing from a much smaller base. By the end of the forecast period, spending for Internet advertising will trail direct mail – the third largest form of advertising – by more than $30 billion, while spending on TV and print ads will each be nearly twice as great as for online ads. The long-term opportunity for Internet advertising can be seen in the disparity between per capita spending. Total advertising revenues equate to more than $105 per inhabitant of the planet, while Internet advertising revenues are less than $50 per active Internet user."
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UK confused on digitalThe government is confusing consumers and putting taxpayers' money at risk with its plan to switch off the analogue television signal by 2012, a parliamentary committee has found. The report by the public accounts committee into preparations for the digital switchover prompted opposition MPs to accuse the government of financial mismanagement and of failing to ensure the project was accountable to parliament.
The committee criticised the departments for culture, media and sport and for business, enterprise and regulatory reform for handing over the £803 million (E1bn) budget for the project to the BBC, making it more difficult to keep track of spending.
"The government has decided to pay over £800m of ring-fenced licence fee money to the BBC to fund digital switchover, without either ensuring adequate accountability to parliament or spelling out exactly what it wants for the money," said Edward Leigh, chair of the committee. It believes £250m could go unclaimed from the scheme to give all 75+ year olds a subsidised STB.
The report found that half of all sets sold in the first seven months of last year were analogue ones that would need an additional set-top box if they were to work following the switchover.
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CASBAA cheers breakthrough piracy orderThe Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines has served its first ever temporary restraining order (TRO) against a pirate cable operator – Turtle Cable, a company in Baao, Camarines Sur province – for copyright infringement. This latest move by the IPO has been applauded by the international pay-TV industry.
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) welcomed the decision. "This is the first time we have brought a cable piracy case to the IPO, and we are pleased that the IPO administrative judge has recognized the validity of the TV industry’s concerns about protecting our intellectual property," said Simon Twiston Davies, Chief Executive Officer of CASBAA.
The order enjoins Turtle Cable from re-distributing international cable channels for which it does not have a distribution contract. It is the result of a series of complaints filed by CASBAA on behalf of the broadcasters who own their copyrighted programs. After preliminary hearings and arguments from both sides, the IPO issued the restraining order. Further arguments on the case will be heard in June and July before a final injunction will be considered.
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ITV to lose PSB status?Ofcom CEO Ed Richards has warned there is "a real possibility" that ITV could give up public service broadcaster (PSB) status as increasing numbers of viewers switch to digital TV. ITV enjoys PSB status in return for broadcasting local news, children’s programming and UK-made drama, giving it free access to spectrum, prominent positions on electronic programming guides and the chance to bid for a high-definition slot on Freeview.
Richards told a conference on the future of broadcasting that it is assessing the financial consequences of ITV giving up PSB status, and promised "healthy debate" on the issue.
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27m in UK watch 3.5bn online vids in MarchcomScore has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that 27.4 million UK Internet users viewed 3.5 billion videos online in March 2008.
Google Sites, driven by the popularity of YouTube.com, attracted a 48 per cent share of all online videos viewed in the UK. BBC Sites ranked second with a 1.2 per cent share. Fox Interactive Media, the parent company of MySpace, ranked third in the UK in March with a 0.9 per cent share with Microsoft's portfolio of UK websites ranking fourth.
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Arris and BlackArrow deliver VOD advertisingArris and BlackArrow, a provider of multiplatform ad-management systems for viewer-controlled video, have announced the completion of interoperability testing between the companies' respective VOD delivery and addressable advertising systems. Built on the SCTE 130 open standard, these combined dynamic, targeted VOD advertising services will help operators and content providers rapidly derive additional ad revenues from on-demand video services.
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SportsXchange appoints HighflyerSportsXchange, a new TV channel for sports betting buffs, has appointed Highflyer as its TV production partner. SportsXchange aims to air in late July and is a new genre of sports TV channel combining the latest sports news and statistics, designed to be a one-stop shop for both professional and occasional betters.
The channel, which will be available on Sky in the UK and UPC in Ireland, will broadcast a range of sports information programming on horseracing, football, cricket, rugby, golf and more.
Thursday 26th June
AT&T into content
BBC rolls out new iPlayer
Japan standardisation for IPTV services
Interactive media global ad share 15%
IPTV middleware ‘spending spree’
HD technology selling, but content remains elusive
Currie to step down as Ofcom Chairman
China mobile TV standard
BBC acquires UK.TV, Oz channels
blinkx partners with ON Networks
Nuts TV and Adult Swim on MySpaceTV
Harmonic and CommScope FTTH solution
AT&T into contentAT&T has said it wants to expand its business of delivering online media, moving into more direct competition with specialised content delivery companies like Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networks.
As more companies launch websites with video and interactive features, AT&T said it will spend nearly $70 million by the end of the year to bolster its network infrastructure across the US, Europe and parts of Asia.
AT&T said it is creating a new business unit focusing on content delivery. The company said its strength is in its international reach and experience dealing with security issues.
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BBC rolls out new iPlayerThe BBC is to launch a new version of the iPlayer along with the first stage of a new Amazon-style programme recommendation offering – although this will only be available to those who register. Integration of the BBC's Radio Player with the iPlayer broadband video service will include the development of a "visual identity" for audio output and a full schedule for the first time.
The integration of the BBC's radio output will launch as a test "beta" version this week, accessible by clicking an icon on the existing iPlayer website.
New rights deals will also allow listeners to fully rewind and fast forward BBC radio content online for the first time. A mobile version of the TV element of the integrated iPlayer, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, will also be available.
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Japan standardisation for IPTV services
Japanese companies are to unify standards for IPTV services. The standardisation process will be led by a forum established by three major telecommunications services firms: NTT, KDDI, and Softbank BB. The forum has been joined by 15 businesses and organisations, its members now include Sony, Matsushita, Toshiba, Sharp, and Hitachi as well as the five major commercial TV broadcasters in Tokyo and NHK.
The forum is to draw up unified standards by the end of August and urge
Japanese IPTV service providers and consumer electronics makers to develop compatible technologies and equipment. Sony, Matsushita and others aim to start selling flat-panel TVs with built-in IPTV receivers by the end of March. The number of subscribers to broadband communications services in Japan reached 28.73 million as of March 31st, enabling the spread of IPTV services.The forum is expected to pitch its IPTV standards to the International Telecommunication Union and other global bodies for use worldwide.
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Interactive media global ad share 15%Interactive media's worldwide share of advertising spend, including Internet, mobile and gaming, is expected to reach 15 per cent in 2009, according to a study by GroupM. The study, 'Interaction: Addressable, Searchable, Social and Mobile', reveals that adspend in interactive media reached 11 per cent of the total last year, sparked mostly by gains recorded in the US and Western Europe. The growth was assisted also by the increased use and availability of improved handsets, inexpensive laptops, faster broadband and extensive WiFi connections.
GroupM's research covered 35 countries and points out that internet advertising has been the principal source of media investment growth in western nations since 2001 as spending in traditional media has levelled off.
IPTV middleware ‘spending spree’
Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reported today that the combined IPTV and switched digital video (SDV) equipment market increased 12 per cent sequentially to $1.3 billion worldwide in Q108.Infonetics' report, IPTV and Switched Digital Video Equipment, Services, and Subscribers, indicates revenue growth is being driven by growing numbers of service providers rolling out new IPTV networks or expanding existing networks to support more subscribers. The market is also getting a push from cable MSOs introducing switched video capabilities into their digital TV networks to free up bandwidth and offer more HD content to their subscribers.
"While most of the segments we track in the IPTV market are seeing consistent quarterly growth, IPTV middleware is going to be an especially interesting segment to watch. We're expecting an IPTV middleware spending spree over the next few quarters because a lot of the early IPTV service providers are running into scaling issues with their off-the-shelf middleware. Those providers are going to have to replace their IPTV middleware with a more robust solution to replace or augment their first-generation deployments. Middleware issues are one of the main root causes of IPTV rollout delays, so early hiccups have to be addressed quickly," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for IPTV at Infonetics Research.
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HD technology selling, but content remains elusiveAccording to Screen Digest, HD technology has reached a tipping point in Europe, with take-up across the region accelerating rapidly. Despite the growing penetration of HD screens, the report identifies a significant content gap‚ caused by a lack of HD content on free-to-air platforms across the region. By the end of 2007, 18 per cent of the 165 million European TV households were equipped with HD displays - but less than one per cent of these (approximately one million) were fully HD enabled‚ (i.e. equipped with an HD set-top box and an HD subscription enabling them to watch HD broadcasts).
The report forecasts that by 2012 the situation will have improved little only 20 per cent of the 85 per cent of European households with HD displays will actually be watching in HD.
Screen Digest Senior Analyst and author of the report, Vincent Létang comments: "In the next five years, HDTV will remain little more than a pay TV product in Europe, primarily on satellite. Analogue switch-off, which will happen between 2010 and 2012 will free-up bandwidth capacity on the digital terrestrial platform and will kick-start the next phase of growth in HD TV. HD TV will become the mainstream and ultimately the standard form of free television around the middle of the next decade. In ten years time, nobody will ever refer to high definition‚ because HD will be everywhere."
Screen Digest identified three critical success factors that will support the successful expansion of HD TV: Penetration of HD displays, supply of HD content and the availability of HD broadcast platforms.
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Currie to step down as Ofcom ChairmanOfcom has announced that David Currie will step down as Chairman of the Ofcom Board after Easter 2009. Currie’s appointment to Ofcom followed a long career in economics, including roles in regulation, academia, the private sector and in advising governments.
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China mobile TV standardAccording to China.com, T-MMB was selected as the national standard for mobile television/multimedia at an assessment conference, and will be promulgated as the formal national standard for mobile television and multimedia content.
Lou Peide, Secretary General of the China Mobile Communications Association, a professor at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, and also promoter of competing standard CDMB has publicly criticised the selection. He stated that standard-selection tests were not reasonable, that many of the experts on the selection panel were not technically proficient, that, while based entirely on T-DMB, T-MMB removed references to T-DMB in its documentation in order to avoid patent problems, and that even disregarding all of these problems, there are still numerous other issues with T-MMB's actual tests results and its standard documentation.
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BBC acquires UK.TV, Oz channelsBBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has acquired Australia’s subscription-television channel, UK.TV, taking 100 per cent ownership of the channel from July 1st 2008.
As one of three stakeholders in UK.TV (formerly with a 20 per cent share), BBC Worldwide’s Channels business has agreed terms with joint partners FOXTEL and FremantleMedia to become the channel’s sole owner. The move forms part of BBC Worldwide Channels strategy to bring the very best of British programming from the BBC and other production houses to a global audience.
In addition, BBC Worldwide has formed a strategic alliance with FOXTEL to roll out three new channels in Australia from its new BBC-branded global portfolio. The first of these is BBC HD, which launched earlier this month as part of the new FOXTEL HD+ service. In addition, BBC Knowledge and CBeebies will be the first BBC channels to launch on FOXTEL when it gains extra cable and satellite capacity in mid 2009. BBC World News, the BBC’s international 24-hour news channel, which is already available to FOXTEL subscribers, will complete BBC Worldwide’s five-channel offering.
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blinkx partners with ON Networksblinkx has formed a partnership with ON Networks, a digital media company delivering original, on-demand TV shows. ON Networks’ high-definition video content is now accessible through blinkx. Under the terms of the agreement, blinkx will leverage its AdHoc platform to place contextually relevant advertising against the footage, and will share resulting advertising revenue with ON Networks.
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Nuts TV and Adult Swim on MySpaceTVTurner Broadcasting and MySpace have confirmed a deal which sees lads channel Nuts TV and cult comedy animation brand Adult Swim have dedicated content channels on MySpaceTV. Launched this week, both channels will include an extensive library of selected clips and see new content introduced each week.
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Harmonic and CommScope FTTH solutionHarmonic has worked with CommScope to assure compatibility of products to provide cable operators with an integrated high-speed fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) solution. Harmonic's MAXLink forward path transmitters and return path receivers combined with CommScope's BrightPath system enable cable operators to implement a cost-effective RF over glass (RFOG) architecture for greenfield type deployments. Integrated with the existing headend infrastructure and consumer premise equipment (CPE), this solution is a prudent use of capital and reduces traditional operating expenditures while dramatically increasing available bandwidth to the home.
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Wednesday 25th June
Nokia buys out Symbian, software goes free
BBC £68m on local sites
US cable nets pull in ads
Kangaroo service "anti-competitive"
Sony Pics – long reach
AEPOC seven steps
Japan lags on digital TV
Vocento retains Telecinco stake
ACP: don’t tax French commercials
Radio Group welcomes DCMS report on digital radio
Pace joins MoCA
Juniper: Expand broadband experience
stv launches digital strategy
Veoh adds ABC and ESPN content
Irdeto protects Chinese cable networks
Verimatrix secures TeliaSonera's IPTV service
Nokia buys out Symbian, software goes freeNokia will pay $410 million (E263m) for the 52 per cent of shares in Symbian it doesn’t already own. Symbian's software is used in two-thirds of smartphones and six percent of all mobile phones, but new platforms such as Google's Android and Apple's iPhone could challenge its dominance. The Symbian software will now be made freely available as an operating system for smart phones.
Currently, Symbian's closest rival is Windows Mobile operating system, which has just 13 percent of the market despite the maker's efforts to gain share. Microsoft charges $8 to $15 per phone, according to Strategy Analytics, while Symbian has charged on average $4.10.
The purchase facilitates the establishment of the Symbian Foundation. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO have confirmed their intent to unite Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP to create one open mobile software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone they plan to establish the Symbian Foundation to extend the appeal of this unified software platform making it a free operating system for all mobile phones.
Membership of this non-profit Foundation will be open to all organisations.
BBC plans to spend £68 million (E85m) by 2013 on a network of 65 websites covering the whole country that will provide local on-demand video news. The plans were unveiled today as the BBC Trust launched a public value test and consultation on the controversial plan to expand the corporation's local online operation, which faces stiff opposition from rival media organisations including regional newspaper publishers.
The expanded BBC Local network would include 47 for England, six for Scotland and two for Northern Ireland. Wales will have five sites, although as each will be in both English and Welsh this equates to 10 overall - taking the total to 65.
BBC management has forecast the expanded BBC Local network's operating budget to be £23 million by 2012-2013, growing incrementally over five years. This works out at the equivalent of around £350,000 a year for each of the 65 BBC Local sites.
The BBC said its main bbc.co.uk site - which has a budget of £114 million - currently has an average of 16.6 million users a month out of a total UK internet population of 33 million. It has estimated that by 2013-2014, local video would achieve a weekly reach of around 11 per cent of UK households.
The BBC said it would not be competing with local commercial websites and would not include services such as local business finders, dating, cars, holidays, recruitment, cinema or property listings. It added that it would also make the majority of local video content available to other local news sites.
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Preliminary figures for advance sales indicate that US cable channels will sell about $8 billion in airtime to advertisers this season, up 7 to 8 per cent from last year’s total. By contrast, the broadcast networks sold about $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion, up about 1 per cent over last season.
The shift in advertising dollars from broadcast to cable is not new, but it is particularly pronounced this year. There are several explanations, analysts say, including the fact that the most popular cable channels on their best nights, now attract nearly as many viewers as some of the less popular broadcast networks. Over all, the ratings gap, once vast, has been gradually narrowing.
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Kangaroo service "anti-competitive"
Talkback Thames commercial director, Rupert Brankin-Frisby, says the Kangaroo web TV service may be anti-competitive. A joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, ITV and Channel 4, it is expected to launch this autumn, offering a combination of free and paid-for access archive content from the three broadcasters.
"We have concerns about Kangaroo because it is a joint venture.We would like to see other platforms develop to create a proper competitive market. Kangaroo may have been beneficial - the video-to-own and download-to-own markets have not really emerged yet - but not if all UK content is aggregated in one place."
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Sony Pictures Television (SPT)’s television and Internet properties reach households that account for $346 billion in annual spending for consumer packaged goods products, The Nielsen Company revealed in the first extensive analysis of media consumption and consumer behaviour based on NielsenConnections’ Brand Target Audience: Consumer Packaged Goods product. This $346 billion covers 83.2 per cent of the total market.
Nielsen found that the average household reached by SPT’s television or Internet properties at least once a month spends more than $3,700 on consumer packaged goods per year, seven per cent higher than households not reached by their television or Internet properties. The average household that is exposed to both SPT’s television and Internet properties spends nearly $4,200 on consumer packaged goods, 20 per cent higher than households not reached by these properties.
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In 2004 Aepoc came up with the "Bratislava Charter" calling on members and relevant bodies in the region to fight piracy. Now chairman Jean Grenier, speaking in Budapest called for 'the Budapest Agenda' a proposal to Aepoc members to launch a special action plan focused on Anti-piracy in Central and Eastern European Countries. He said it had seven simple and clear points:
1. To collect as much signatures as possible to the Bratislava Charter among operators active in CEC Countries.
2. To set up a networking alliance together with all the existing anti-piracy associations present in the area in order to foster and ease cross border cooperation.
3. To hold during 2009 the 6th Aepoc International Anti-Piracy Symposium in an CEC Country.
4. To set in the CEC Countries not only the goal to achieve the ‘aquis communitaire’ in regards to anti piracy laws but also a sufficient level of enforcement and enhancement by the Public Bodies involved such as Police Forces and Public Prosecution Offices.
5. To achieve in CEC Countries cross industry joint initiatives in order to put in place automatic and industry driven systems of response to piracy threats.
6. To obtain at least from 1 Government among the CEC Countries solid and substantial commitments in order to put in place an advertising campaign in order to create anti-piracy education among Consumers and the Public Opinion.
7. To schedule at least one Aepoc Board of Directors meeting every year in a CEC Country, hosted by a local AEPOC member.
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Japan lags on digital TV
With three years until the analogue signal is switched off, only 43.3 per cent of TV households in Japan own TVs able to receive digital broadcasts, according to a report released by the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB).
Only 34.8 per cent of TV households are actually able to watch digital broadcasts, meaning that many with digital-ready sets cannot yet tune into digital broadcasts. The figures come from a NAB survey of 18,000 TV households conducted in March, with an 80.2 per cent response rate.
Among those who have digital sets but cannot yet see digital broadcasts, more than half said they had not installed a proper antenna, while the rest said they either had "other reasons" (22 per cent) or "did not know" why they couldn't tune in.
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Vocento retains Telecinco stakeSpanish media group Vocento has retained around 5 per cent in broadcaster and potential rival Telecinco saying it will not hamper plans to develop its own digital television platform.
"There will be no legal impediment (to retaining a 5 per cent stake in Telecinco)," a Vocento executive said during a conference call with analysts. Vocento said it had sold 1.9 per cent of Telecinco over the last few months on the market and will distribute a further 6 per cent to shareholders in the form of a dividend. The group said it plans to keep hold of a remaining stake of around 5 per cent.
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ACP: don’t tax French commercialsFrance’s L'Association des Chaînes Privées (ACP) – the private broadcasters’ lobbying group - have met with Christine Albanel, the culture and communication minister for a comprehensive overview of the different challenges facing the audiovisual sector.
The ACP addressed elements of the Report of the Commission Copé on the future of public television, the controversial Tasca reform decrees and production obligations undertaken by the Commission-Richard Kessler, and the impact of the entry of telecom operators in the audiovisual sector.
In respect of potential government action in response to the Commission Copé recommendations, the ACP highlighted the negative consequences that a tax on private channels would have at a time when the audiovisual sector is undergoing profound changes, both technological and economic, which already require the channels to invest heavily. The Association has submitted an updated assessment of the shortfall created by the partial lifting of advertising on public channels, showing that the figures on which the Copé Commission relied are significantly overstated and that oversight measures demanded by France Televisions by the Commission are clearly insufficient.
The APC expressed particular surprise that the figures in question reflected not the reality of advertising turnover of France Televisions, but budgetary amounts passed by Parliament, targets which were far from being achieved. "These calculations are unrealistic and have no economic relevance," claimed the ACP.
The Association concluded its that it was "unacceptable that private channels are required to fund the competition of a public sector whose incomes are effectively guaranteed by third parties, without consideration of a commitment to reduce its costs by minimum efforts at change and management, which is the fate of all businesses."
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Radio Group welcomes DCMS report on digital radioThe DRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) has welcomed the Digital Radio Working Group’s Interim Report to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The digital radio trade body believes the report sets out a clear route for increased growth of DAB listening in the UK.
Chief executive, Tony Moretta, says: "It is important that any existing barriers to growth are addressed by the industry as a whole with a cohesive strategy that allows us to build on the success DAB has enjoyed over the past few years. This report goes a long way to setting out an agreed vision for the future of digital radio in the UK. We look forward to reading the full report later in the year."
MoCA continues to add to its roster of worldwide digital TV equipment vendors with the addition of Pace plc the leading independent developer of digital TV technologies for the global payTV industry.
"Pace has a well deserved reputation for delivering innovative products enabling network operators to introduce value added services to their customers," said Charles Cerino, president of MoCA. "Their membership really helps position MoCA as a truly global standard." Pace Americas' Vice-President of Technology Chris Dinallo commented, "MoCA aligns well with Pace's goal of using open standards-based technologies in providing innovative and flexible set-top box solutions. In doing so, both the operators and subscribers benefit from non-proprietary mechanisms."The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) is an open, industry driven initiative promoting distribution of digital video and entertainment through existing coaxial cable in the home. MoCA technology provides the backbone for whole home entertainment networks of multiple wired and wireless products.
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Juniper: Expand broadband experience
Juniper Networks, provider of high-performance networking, has released the results of a broadband lifestyle survey. The results suggest that European broadband service providers have an increased revenue opportunity by offering more personalised, experience-based, quality services to consumers. To meet the rising expectations of broadband customers, providers must leverage network intelligence or risk being locked out or left behind because of an inability to engage and cost-effectively expedite customer loyalty.
The research, conducted among 5,000 broadband consumers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. during April 2008, revealed that 39.3 per cent of respondents have five or more different user identities to access various online services on a single broadband connection, each utilizing unique passwords. Furthermore, 79.9 per cent confirm that their broadband connection is used regularly by two or more users, suggesting that each broadband connection supports multiple identities and services.
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stv launches digital strategyScottish TV has become stv and announced its new digital strategy, based around its website - stv.tv. The company is building a platform featuring top quality network and regional programming, which will be promoted to an available audience of 4 million viewers via the stv television channel.
The new video site will deliver a high quality flash based user experience and has been developed in partnership with platform company Brightcove. Through the partnership, stv will make available regionally produced material across news, sport, entertainment and drama as well as national material from the ITV network, including shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Selected material from stv’s 50 year old archive of 200,000 hours of material will also be accessible.
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Veoh adds ABC and ESPN contentABC, ESPN and Veoh Networks have announced that full episodes from ABC and short-form online video content from ESPN.com are now accessible through Veoh.
In addition, Veoh now features highlights from major sporting events through a multi-sport embedded ESPN video player as well as original ESPN programming including SportsCenter Right Now - a twice-daily capsule of top sports stories, highlights and breaking news - and clips from ESPN programmes. Viewers can access the Veoh ABC and ESPN channels through channel tabs located on Veoh’s homepage.
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Irdeto protects Chinese cable networksIrdeto has announced that Hebei Broadcasting and Television Information Network and Xinjiang Broadcast Television Transmission Network have chosen the Irdeto DVB conditional access solution for their digital migration process. With these agreements, Irdeto is slated to deliver two million smart cards to both of these cable networks over the next 24 months. Hebei is China's sixth largest province with 67.4 million people and with nearly 6.5 million cable TV subscribers.
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Verimatrix secures TeliaSonera's IPTV serviceVerimatrix has confirmed that TeliaSonera has deployed the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for IPTV for the tier one telecommunications operator's successful IPTV services in the Nordic region, Estonia and Lithuania.
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Tuesday 24th June
Murdoch puts faith in pay-TV
Malone slates networks on line
TV set-top makers to challenge EC ruling
Italy switch-off timetable by September
FCC cracks down on placement
BBC offers expertise
O2 TV nears 100,000 subs
A1GP goes HD
Digital TV Labs ships MPEG-4 test suite
Murdoch puts faith in pay-TVNews Corp is counting on its growing pay-TV businesses to offset any downturn in the advertising economy that would affect its television and print divisions, according to chairman Rupert Murdoch.
Speaking after a global advertising conference, Murdoch flagged plans for further activity in the European pay-TV platform market after the company bought a 25 per cent stake in German pay-TV business Premiere earlier this year. "We've got hopes and plans to do more (in Europe)," Murdoch said "We just had three directors elected to the board of Premiere. They're happy to have our help."
He said the company's pay-TV businesses would "more than compensate" in case of a downturn in print and terrestrial television advertising and could help fund "later purchases", Murdoch said. "Our cable programming businesses are going to be a great profit driver for us in the coming years (if) advertising on TV stations and in newspapers has a hard time. The News Corp chairman and chief executive predicted there would be a marked recession for at least two years but said the US would be the first market to emerge from the slowdown because of its ability to innovate.
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Malone slates networks on line
John Malone, Liberty chairman, warned that moves by television networks to make programmes available for free on the internet were doomed to fail and such moves could undermine more promising ways of making money from broadband and other new technologies, he said.
Malone told the FT: "I think the idea that they’re going to put television shows and movies on the internet, bypass their traditional distribution and have no way of collecting [revenues] is absurd."US networks are making more programmes available on their own sites or through closely controlled ventures such as Hulu.com, a partnership between NBC and Fox. The networks insert advertisements similar to those on regular television, but the spots are shorter and less numerous, and therefore less profitable.
"Very expensive events – expensive to buy and expensive to produce – are not going to have adequate underwriting through advertising. At worst attempts to mimic the free-to-air model of traditional television on the internet could end up hurting networks’ ability to move to subscription or pay-per-view models in the future, by entrenching consumer expectations for free online viewing. You’ve got to be very careful what you promise to the public on the internet," he said. "They’re going to have a very hard time getting anyone to pay them for their content."
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TV set-top makers to challenge EC rulingSTB makers and pay-TV platforms are considering legal action against the European Commission after a tax ruling left many of them facing millions of pounds in unexpected costs. Basic set-top boxes, which are classified as communications devices, are exempt from tax when imported into the European Union. But a change to the rules last month means any box with a hard disc drive or Ethernet connection will be treated as a recording device, which is liable for tax at 13.9 per cent.
A reclassification of digital video recorders such as the Sky+ box, could cost BSkyB alone £15 million (E18m) a year from next month. Charges covering the past three years could force the company to pay another £25 million-£30 million.
Pay-TV operators including BSkyB, UPC and Sky Italia have joined manufacturers including Thomson and Pace to mount a challenge.
The companies are considering an appeal to the European Court of Justice, or through the World Trade Organisation. The new rules have already triggered a dispute with the US trade department, which has started a formal consultation procedure on the issue.
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Italy switch-off timetable by September
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItaly’s Ministry for Economic Development, will present the timetable for the definite switchover to digital terrestrial by 9th September 2008.
According to the Association for the Promotion of Digital Terrestrial Television (DGTVi), the timetable will indicate areas (between 15 and 20) and the deadlines in view of the complete analogue switch-off in 2012. The Ministry will also define the bodies that will be responsible for managing the transition phase and also earmark the necessary financial resources.
Italian operators, equipment manufacturers, content suppliers, distributors and users have been waiting for precise information on the strategy of the new Italian government regarding the introduction of DTT.
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FCC cracks down on placementFederal regulators are beginning an effort to crack down on stealth advertising in television shows, a move aimed at letting consumers know when companies have paid to use their products as props. The FCC is expected to open a formal proceeding about new rules requiring more disclosure of product placement.
Regulators say they've become more concerned about the issue as TV executives seem to be using more product placements to reach viewers, who are using digital video recorders to skip commercials. Regulators are mostly interested in improving the amount of disclosure advertisers and producers will have to provide for consumers during the TV programmes.
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BBC offers expertiseTrying to avoid top-slicing the licence fee, the BBC has expanded on a "practical partnerships" proposal focusing on areas such as digital production, regional and local news, and distribution partnerships with commercial arm BBC Worldwide.
In its submission to Ofcom's second public service broadcasting review, the BBC has questioned whether there is case for intervention to support PSB plurality in a digital age by giving licence fee money to other broadcasters, including Channel 4. The BBC has offered a raft of "initial ideas" on a range of "practical partnerships" with other public service broadcasters that it said could make a "significant contribution to the industry and benefit audiences".
Ideas floated by the BBC include sharing its "knowledge and expertise" in digital production with producers, broadcasters and publishers.
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O2 TV nears 100,000 subsO2 TV, the Czech IPTV service, will exceed 100,000 subscribers imminently according to owner Telefónica O2, and is offering a top of the range LG LCD television as a prize to the 100,000th customer. The company added around 14,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year to reach 87,173 by the end of last March.
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A1GP goes HD
A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has become one of the first international racing series to offer its World Feed TV Broadcast in High Definition as the 2008/09 season approaches. A1GP is carried by more than 45 broadcast licensees worldwide, reaching nearly 180 countries and territories around the globe. They will all now be given the option to receive A1GPs host broadcast in HD, while broadcasters without HD channels will still be able to receive the Standard Definition feed.
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Digital TV Labs ships MPEG-4 test suiteDigital TV Labs, the European Digital TV testing specialists, have shipped the first MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) test suite covering digital terrestrial (DVB-T) broadcasts including the receiver requirements of the imminent French HD TNT service. The Evora MPEG-4 test suite consists of custom in-house test streams supporting Main and High profiles as well as Level 3 and 4. AC3, AC3+ and HE-AAC audio codecs are also supported. Tests are included covering PSI/SI, simulcast descriptors, logical channel numbering, lip-sync and transition states.
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Monday 23rd June
Tele 5 sues YouTube for copyright damages
XM and Sirius sink on forecasts
Traffic surge on relaunched ITV sites
C4 markets on mobile
Sky HD Mix
56.com closes?
UK iPod tax call
ASEAN agrees on common STB for DTV
Tech Mahindra aligns with Microsoft for Mediaroom IPTV
Alcatel-Lucent, SpeedCast DVB-H mobile TV platform
Tele 5 sues YouTube for copyright damages
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Mediaset-controlled Tele 5 has filed a lawsuit against YouTube accusing the video sharing service of violating intellectual property rights by posting video clips without permission.
The TV network has urged YouTube to cease distributing its content on several occasions, according to the channel, but the company has ignored its claims arguing that it is only a mediator (intermediary) in the delivery of users' video clips and not a content provider as the channel says.
"Piracy is an attack against culture and freedom of speech, so we have decided to fight against pirates by suing YouTube which is severely damaging authors, culture and companies", said Paolo Vasile, CEO of the channel.
"YouTube's practices are hindering our business prospects because today our content has a longer lifetime with the existence of other windows like VoD, DTT and mobile telephony. Telecinco has its Internet content exactly where it should be, on telecinco.es", Vasile concluded.YouTube is also being sued for over $1 billion by Viacom on similar grounds.
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XM and Sirius sink on forecastsWithout or without merger XM and Sirius face a bleak future says Wall St. Goldman Sachs, citing a dramatic slowdown in subscriber growth, high debt costs, refinancing pressure and a shrinking trend in revenue per customer cut its XM price target to $6.50 from $11.50 and reduced Sirius to $1.75 from $2.25.
After a rapid growth phase earlier this decade, satellite radio sales have plunged due to a sluggish economy and slumping car sales. XM's cash fell to $156 million in February and the company was forced to tap $187.5 million from its $250 million credit line. The appeal of satellite radio is declining in the youth market as kids lean more toward MP3s, says Goldman.
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Traffic surge on relaunched ITV sitesVideo views on ITV.com and ITV Local grew by 21 per cent month-on-month for the last five months, with 12 million video views in May alone. The figures announced by Jeff Henry, MD of ITV Consumer, also show that average daily unique users to ITV.com have doubled since the site’s re-launch, reaching a total of unique users for ITV.com in May of 6.8 million, while ITV Local received 1 million unique users.
Since launch in August 2007, ITV.com combined with ITV Local has received 69 million video views and there has been a 362 per cent increase in usage for video across ITV’s portfolio of sites.
ITV.com alone has seen a four-fold rise in video views since August which represents an average increase of 53 per cent month-on-month. ITV Local had 4 million video views in May alone and has grown on average by 18 per cent month on month since the start of the year with the London region experiencing the most growth of 50 per cent between April and May.
Channel 4 has sent 87,000 video clips of hit shows including The F Word and Peep Show to consumers' mobiles using Bluetooth as part of a campaign for its 4oD catch-up service. The campaign took place at five London train stations.
Steve Forde, marketing manager of new media at Channel 4, said that using Bluetooth technology allowed a high level of interaction to take place. "Providing free content over Bluetooth rapidly achieved our objectives of raising awareness of this service."
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BSkyB has confirmed changes to its HD offering with Sky+ HD being the new name for its current HD box. From July, both new and existing customers upgrading to Sky+ HD will be able to purchase the HD box for £150, (E180) when taken with a £10 per month subscription to the ‘Sky HD Mix’, which compares to the previous price of £249.
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56.com closes?A leading Chinese online-video site backed by several high-profile foreign investors has been closed, raising questions about the future of the once-promising industry in China. 56.com suspended operations more than two weeks ago, replacing its user-generated YouTube-like video offerings with a message saying that a server upgrade was to blame for the disruption. Such operations usually take hours, or at most days, however, and 56.com executives have refused to explain the delay.
The outage is widely believed to mean the site has fallen foul of regulators. The site's problems also illustrate the risks overshadowing the country's online-video sector, even for top companies backed by savvy investors.
The 56.com site -- the Chinese words for 56 sound similar to the Chinese words for "I'm happy" -- has raised at least $30 million from investors including Sequoia Capital and Steamboat Ventures, a fund backed Walt Disney Co.
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Former singer Feargal Sharkey used the London Calling music conference to demand a levy on gadgets that allow music to be copied. "To legislate for the copying of a CD on to an iPod might, at this point in the development of humanity, seem like a technical irrelevance, even bizarre. But if successful, this would create a new income stream, returning lost value to the artists and composers."
Sharkey said the proposal was "exactly the same" as the license under which electronics makers must pay to use the MP3 format: "The organisation that licenses manufacturers to produce MPEG players has now licensed about 300 million devices around the world at about $2 each, so that generates about $600 million of business. Guess who’s not seen one single penny from that $600 million? The artists and the creators."
Twenty-two of the EU’s 27 countries already impose such a surcharge on hardware makers that allow music, books, movies and other copyrighted content to be copied - something that reaped €568 million for rightsholders in 2004 - but the UK has opted out. Sharkey said Britain has "a lot to learn" from European counterparts: "It would be a shame if creators in the UK were not given parity."
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ASEAN agrees on common STB for DTVThe Southeast Asian nations have agreed on a common set of specifications for Digital TV Standard and High Definition set-top boxes.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached the agreement at the end of the ASEAN Digital Broadcasting meeting in Singapore, said a statement by Singapore's Media Development Authority. This will create economies of scale for equipment manufacturers and help to lower the prices of such set-top boxes for consumers, said the statement.The ten member countries also agreed to establish an ASEAN HD Centre to facilitate training and co-productions for HD content. A checklist has been developed for ASEAN members to determine their readiness to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting.
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Tech Mahindra aligns with Microsoft for Mediaroom IPTVTech Mahindra, a solution provider in India focused on the global telecom industry, has entered into a strategic alliance with Microsoft to address its System Integration (SI) requirements for deployments of the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia software platform.
Through the alliance, Tech Mahindra will provide deployment and integration services for new and existing Microsoft Mediaroom broadband service provider customers to deploy IPTV services.
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Alcatel-Lucent, SpeedCast DVB-H mobile TV platform
Alcatel-Lucent and SpeedCast have announced plans to jointly market, deploy and operate a shared, hosted DVB-H platform for mobile TV operators in Asia. The objective of the collaboration is to enable the seamless delivery of digital video content to operators for transmission to devices supporting the DVB-H mobile TV standard.
Alcatel-Lucent and SpeedCast will leverage their respective technologies, infrastructure and content delivery solutions to provide operators around the region with a state-of-the art DVB-H head-end. This hosted service, jointly operated by Alcatel-Lucent and SpeedCast, will enable mobile TV service providers to deliver more than 20 TV channels via satellite (in the Ku-band or in the C-band) to their transmission towers for terrestrial broadcast (in the UHF band) to DVB-H handheld devices.
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