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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 28th March
BitTorrent, Comcast co-op on OTT speeds
Kangaroo target ads
Portugal to launch tender for 5th TV channel
Boxer wins DTT for Denmark
US next-generation TV habits
Streaming to generate $70bn in 2013
29m blu-ray homes by year end
BBC nets Wimbledon deal
DTV in 22m households
Shanghai leads China IPTV uptake
BitTorrent, Comcast co-op on OTT speedsThe companies are in talks to collaborate on ways to run BitTorrent's technology more smoothly on Comcast's broadband network, and allow Comcast to transport video files more effectively over its own network in the future, says Tony Warner, Comcast's chief technology officer.
Comcast and BitTorrent have been at odds since the cable operator said it was delaying traffic from BitTorrent at peak times. Legislators and some advocacy groups argued that Comcast's efforts were anticompetitive, but the current rapprochement will attempt to defuse this issue. As part of the agreement, Comcast pledges to experiment with ways to more effectively manage traffic on its network at peak times, said Ashwin Navin, the president of BitTorrent.
Rather than slow traffic by certain types of applications Comcast will slow traffic for those users who consume the most bandwidth, said Comcast's Warner. Comcast hopes to be able to switch to a new policy based on this model as soon as the end of the year, he added. The company's push to add additional data capacity to its network also will play a role, he said. Comcast will start with lab tests to determine if the model is feasible.
Comcast said BitTorrent file-sharing software accounts for 50% of Internet traffic and has been downloaded 170 million times. The cable operator said it must have the means to slow the delivery of some traffic on its network in order to provide adequate service to its overall customer base.
BitTorrent will also work to optimize its software to run more effectively over Comcast's network, said Navin. BitTorrent plans to publish its findings in technology forums so that other application developers looking to work with Comcast can benefit.
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Kangaroo, the on-demand service from BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, aims to offer targeted advertising, targeting users by location, age or demographic profile.
The service's backers are considering introducing a registration process on the service's homepage, which would help track how users access video content and ensure effective advertising. Users would initially be asked to submit details such as their sex or date of birth, with the possibility of more detailed information being captured in future.
Errol Baran, Channel 4's head of new media advertising, said the registration process and targeted advertising offering would be unlikely to be up and running at launch, which is expected to be in the summer, but could be a "phase two development".As the service nears launch, details are emerging about its ad sales arrangements. ITV and Channel 4 will handle ad sales around their own content, while BBC Worldwide is seeking to appoint a third party to handle ad sales around its content. Both ITV and Channel 4 are pitching for the BBC Worldwide contract.
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Portugal to launch tender for 5th TV channel
From Branislav Pekic in RomeThe tender for Portugal’s fifth national free-to-air TV channel will be launched in October or 180 days after the submitting of the bids on the Digital Terrestrial Television tender.
Portugal’s Minister for Parliamentary Issues, Augusto Santos Silva, announced that the bids for the two DTT tenders can be submitted up until April 23. The bids will be published a day later, with the DTT licenses being issued by October.
The new national FTA channel will be available on DTT and cable. Santos Silva said that the operator of the new channel will be selected "by the end of winter or the beginning of spring 2009". The remaining frequency spectrum will be used for the launch of an HDTV channel, airing a selection of programs for existing national TV channels RTP 1 and 2, SIC, TVI and the fifth channel.
Portuguese media groups Controlinveste and Cofina are known to be the frontrunners for the new channel.
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Boxer wins DTT for DenmarkSwedish DTT platform Boxer has won the right to operate the DTT platform in Denmark. The media authority announced Boxer will run the three multiplex service that opens in November 2009 after switchover. Boxer won out over bids from the Norwegian Telenor and the Swedish Modern Times Group.
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US next-generation TV habitsABI research says 66 per cent of respondents to its TV habits survey subscribe to some form of pay-TV service, and of those, 60 per cent receive at least one additional service (telephone, Internet etc.) from their provider. However, only 54 per cent of respondents declared themselves satisfied overall with their providers: pricing and customer service are the biggest sources of discontent.
Forty-one per cent of TV owners have a high-definition TV, but only 56 per cent of this group subscribe to a HD service package. A substantial 45 per cent of viewers say they use pay-per-view, but not often: most do so just once a month or less.
Generally, interest in "next generation" TV services is low (although greater in younger viewers), with the one exception being the ability to move content sourced from the Internet from the PC to the TV.
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Streaming to generate $70bn in 2013
Streaming video and music distributed across the Internet, an IPTV network, or a mobile handset will generate $70 billion in network-derived and content-derived revenue into the US markets over the next six years, according to a study from The Insight Research Corporation.Insight's market analysis study, "Streaming Media, IPTV, and Broadband Transport: Telecommunications Carriers and Entertainment Services 2008-2013," describes the technology and market forces underpinning the network-derived revenues generated from distributing streamed content across the public Internet, content distribution networks, cellular networks, or telco IP networks. The study also estimates the revenue from the various types of content-derived revenues, along with associated advertising revenue. The streaming market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 29 per cent over the next six years, driven by on-demand audio, on-demand video, as well as the accompanying advertising revenue.
"The outlook for streaming media has never been brighter. Questions surrounding consumers' willingness to pay for content have been dispelled by satellite radio and iTunes," says Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research president. "The forecasts that we present are conservative and in line with current performance. If, however, per-stream costs drop faster than anticipated, we have quicker acceptance of IPTV, or improvements in 3G delivery take place faster than expected, it could blow the doors off of our forecasts, propelling this industry into explosive growth."
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29m blu-ray homes by year endThe blu-ray disc victory in its recent format war with HD-DVD will propel this technology into 29.4 million homes worldwide by the end of 2008, states research published by the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. According to, "Blu-ray Devices: Forecasting Sales and Ownership ," Sony's PS3 games console will continue to drive the blu-ray market until 2009, after which stand-alone blu-ray players will become the dominant segment. By 2012 more than 132 million homes worldwide will own at least one blu-ray device.
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BBC nets Wimbledon dealBBC Sport has confirmed a new five-year contract giving the BBC the rights to broadcast the Wimbledon tennis tournament for a further five years from 2010 to 2014 inclusive. People will be able to catch all the key matches via BBC iPlayer, for up to seven days after broadcast, and have the opportunity to watch Wimbledon on mobile. The new agreement also confirms that, for the duration of the contract, Centre and Number One Courts will be provided in HD, as part of the BBC HD channel.
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DTV in 22m householdsThe number of UK households with digital television on their main set has risen to 22.2 million homes according to research published by Ofcom. The Digital Television Progress Report for the fourth quarter of 2007 (October-December) also shows that multichannel television take-up has reached 87.6 per cent of households, up from 86.1 per cent in the previous quarter.
The growth in digital television was driven by sales of digital terrestrial television (Freeview) which saw its best quarter to date with over 4 million units sold, up by almost 70 per cent, year on year. Cable television also had a strong quarter adding over 61,000 more customers to reach almost 3.5 million subscribers, the highest level of take-up since 2002.
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Shanghai leads China IPTV uptakeInitial statistics for 2007 on the number of Chinese IPTV subscribers shows that by the end of 2007, Shanghai had 240,000 IPTV subscribers and that after large-scale promotion in January, this figure is now at 300,000 – the highest in the country. As a whole the country now has 1.2 million IPTV subscribers.
Currently, over 90 per cent of provinces in mainland China have IPTV systems. However, coverage is not as complete in some provinces as in others, and some provinces are still undergoing trials before commercialising the service.
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Thursday 27th March
US cable mulls WiFi
Motorola splits
Verizon wants easier sub transfer
Yahoo joins social net standard call
Freeview reach falling short
PC is the home’s second TV
Telefonica and Televisa in a pay-TV deal?
SDV will boost HD
Beijing Olympics boosts China’s cable market
Current launches user-generated ads with O2
Gale at Five
Akimbo selects Harmonic
US cable mulls WiFiComcast and Time Warner Cable, the two largest U.S. cable operators, are discussing funding a new wireless company that would be run by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire. Comcast is expected to contribute as much as $1 billion to the nationwide wireless venture, which would use WiMax technology, according to the WSJ. Time Warner Cable is expected to put in about $500 million.
Comcast is said to want to raise $3bn for the venture and other potential investors are named as Bright House Networks, Intel and Google.
This wouldn't be the first time cable companies have partnered with Sprint Nextel on a wireless play. In 2005, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox Communications teamed up with Sprint Nextel on a joint venture called "Pivot" that was designed to provide a wireless-phone service that would complement cable's wire-based video, data and telephony services. But Pivot faced operational challenges and met with myriad delays, and it had such a slow rollout that Sprint announced last fall that it would stop marketing the service.
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Motorola Inc said it would split into two publicly traded entities to separate its loss-making handset division from its other businesses. The move is expected to be completed in 2009, the company said.
Motorola has been losing handset market share and is now ranked third in the world. The two entities it plans to split into are Mobile Devices, and Broadband & Mobility Solutions. The latter consists of its network equipment, enterprise and public safety businesses.
It said the creation of two companies would improve flexibility, increase management focus and provide more targeted investment opportunities for shareholders.
Motorola Chief Executive Greg Brown said in a statement that the company has started a global search for a new CEO for the mobile devices business. The move comes after Motorola said in late January that it was conducting a strategic review of its business that could lead to a separation of the handset business.
Verizon wants easier sub transfer
Verizon Communications said that it asked the Federal Communications Commission to make it easier for consumers to switch from cable providers to video services offered by phone companies.
The move comes amid increasing rivalry between phone companies and cable service providers. Verizon and AT&T offer high-speed Internet and video services that compete with cable, while cable providers sell phone services. Verizon said many cable companies refuse to accept video service cancellations from a new provider, creating extra work and confusion for consumers.
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Yahoo joins social net standard call
Yahoo has joined Google’s OpenSocial initiative for common standards for social networks, increasing the pressure on Facebook to join the movement. Google also acted to make OpenSocial appear less a vehicle for its own ambitions, announcing with Yahoo and MySpace the formation of the OpenSocial Foundation, a non-profit organisation set up by the three groups to promote the standard and its neutrality.
The key feature of OpenSocial is that developers can write one application for all networks complying with OpenSocial’s specifications. They should be able to create their own networks as users are able to communicate, share interests and play with one another across the different social networks.
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Freeview reach falling shortA quarter of Freeview households in Wales and Northern Ireland – and a fifth in the Meridian and Anglia regions of England – will not have full access to the digital terrestrial TV channels after analogue switchoff, according to media regulator Ofcom.
Freeview will reach just 73 per cent of Wales and 75 per cent of Northern Ireland from 2012, when switchover is completed due to mountainous terrain interfering with terrestrial transmitter reception in some areas and the need to avoid the signal overlapping with the Republic of Ireland. In England, the Anglia and Meridian regions will have 80 per cent coverage, again because their signals could overlap with foreign territories, in this case France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
"There are simply not enough frequencies available to allow all the multiplexes to be available across the whole UK - we have to accept limitations in some areas, as do other countries," Ofcom said.
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PC is the home’s second TVResearch published by Internet video specialist Simply has revealed that as online video usage goes mainstream, the PC has become the second TV in many homes. Men in particular are using Internet video as a way of indulging their interests and escaping into a ‘virtual shed’.
Research also revealed that online video viewers are thoroughly mainstream. Three distinct categories of online content emerging which have been characterised: Snippets, Boutique and Catch-Up. Each is being viewed in a different way. Furthermore, viewers accept advertising in exchange for ‘free’ content as in traditional TV.
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Telefonica and Televisa in a pay-TV deal?
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Mexico's largest TV group Televisa is approaching Spain's largest telco operator Telefonica in an attempt to enter into a pay-TV alliance in the Mexican market edging out dominant player Telmex, controlled by Carlos Slim.
The president of Televisa, Emilio Azcarraga Jean, said that the TV group is "looking for opportunities" to better its position as a telco player and "didn't reject an alliance with Telefónica".
Televisa owns satellite pay TV operator Sky Mexico, has interests in cable with its recent acquisition of TVI and Cablemas and controls Mexico City telco Bestel. But Telmex controls 90 per cent of Mexican land lines and is awaiting a government license to move into Internet pay TV.
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SDV will boost HDSwitched Digital Video (SDV) technologies provide an excellent, long-term approach that is helping cable operators keep up the pace with expanding High Definition TV and super-high-speed data services, reports In-Stat. "Initial deployments will create a strong market for upgrades, which will become dominant in 2012," says Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. "The strategic key to success for vendors will be winning early deployments, because follow-on upgrades will be lucrative. World-class professional services, staff training, and the ability to remotely monitor and repair SDV installations will be the winning formula."
The market for SDV equipment, software, and services is expected to grow from about $165 million during 2008, up to more than $1 billion in 2012. North America will be the biggest market, with Asia coming on strong later.
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Beijing Olympics boosts China’s cable marketScreen Digest's 'China Television Market: Assessment and Forecast to 2012’ has concludes that the world’s largest TV market is enjoying a period of strong growth and despite regulatory hurdles still offers significant investment opportunities for global technology suppliers. In particular, the Beijing Olympics is driving domestic digital cable take-up which is set to grow from 18 per cent at the end of 2007 to 24 per cent by the end of Olympics year.
With 378 million TV households and 152 million cable TV households at the end of 2007, China is the world‚s largest TV market. Its cable TV industry generated RMB3.4 billion (E0.3bn) in revenue in 2007 and is expected to grow at over seven per cent year-on-year to be worth RMB4.8bn by 2012. Cable dominates the multi-channel industry as satellite reception is banned and IPTV is in its infancy. As a result 40 per cent of all homes have cable TV, and it accounts for 99 per cent of the pay TV market.
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Current launches user-generated ads with O2Current, the news and information network, has signed a deal with O2 to launch its first ever British Viewer Created Ad Message (VCAM). Anyone will be able to create and submit a 60 second ad for O2’s Bluebook service and receive £1,000 if their work is selected to air on the network and website or up to £25,000 if screened elsewhere.
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Gale at FiveBBC commissioning editor Ben Gale has been confirmed as Five's new director of programmes. Gale will replace Jay Hunt when she takes on the role of BBC One controller.
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Akimbo selects HarmonicHarmonic’s Rhozet Carbon Coder video transcoding solution has been selected by Akimbo for automated web-based video transcoding and packaging. Akimbo, a pioneer in Internet-delivered VOD, manages a vast library of mainstream and niche encoded video content acquired through its numerous relationships with content providers. Rhozet Carbon Coder has enabled Akimbo to create a web-based solution that is convenient for its partners to submit video, which is then automatically transcoded and sent to Akimbo's publishing system.
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Wednesday 26th March
JoD OK’s Sirius, XM merger
Google seeks 'white space' wi-fi
ONO on the up
BT appoints BBC strategist
Italian boom for TVs with DTT decoders
blinkx for iPlayer?
50%+ prefer free broadcast TV after DTV transition
Mobile TV subscribers in Korea top 11m
Czech Telefónica O2 seeking Internet TV users
Time-Stanton JV IPTV on mobile
Irdeto selected by Shanxi
Envivio AVS video encoding in Shanghai
Broadcom and Coship STB collaboration
The US Justice Department has approved the merger of satellite-radio companies Sirius and XM Satellite Radio leaving one more major regulatory hurdle -- the Federal Communications Commission -- before a deal that was given little chance of success can be completed.
The companies proposed their merger in February 2007 as a way to bolster satellite radio's chances of long-term success. Sirius and XM charge subscribers a fee for supplying dozens of channels of programming delivered via satellite to special radios. Both companies have posted huge losses as they have tried to persuade consumers to pay for a medium that has always been delivered free.
But despite the companies' problems, the XM-Sirius deal was considered a long shot, in part because it was seen as creating a satellite-radio monopoly. The companies have argued to regulators that the satellite-radio services compete not just with each other but with all kinds of audio entertainment, starting with regular radio stations but including I-Tunes and other downloads. At the end of last year, Sirius had 8.3 million subscribers, and XM had nine million.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was initially seen as being inclined against the deal. But his reservations appear to have dissipated somewhat over the past year, particularly after the companies agreed to offer so-called a la carte pricing that allows customers to subscribe to individual channels rather than the full line up of programming -- a service he also wants in cable TV.
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Google seeks 'white space' wi-fiGoogle is pressing the US government to allow the unlicensed frequencies of TV "white space" to be used for wi-fi. The Internet giant has written an open letter to regulators saying the US spectrum was a "once in a lifetime opportunity".
"The vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly under-utilised," wrote Google's Richard Whitt in the letter. "Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow." Google has said the white space could be used to bring "ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans". In the past TV broadcasters have opposed the use of white space, fearing it would cause interference with television programming.
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ONO on the up
From David Del Valle in MadridSpain’s largest cable company ONO is financially performing well. The operator ended the year with an EBITDA of E642 million, up 14.9 per cent against 2006. The company has made a drastic cut in non-profitable divisions and has increased its ARPU with a rise of 6.8 per cent (E1,176 million) in residential direct access and 54.5 per cent (E34 million) in residential indirect access.
ONO ended 2007 with 1.86 million clients, up 3.7 per cent, with 6.79 million passed homes, adding 458,000 homes in a year. In 2007 ONO had 3.77 million RGU. 31.2 per cent of its clients take the triple play, with 960,000 TV clients (as of March 2008 with more than 1 million TV clients) and 1.2 million broadband clients. In 2007, ONO led the pay-TV audience ratings with an average share of 7 per cent, up 12 per cent. Two years after the acquisition of its rival Auna, ONO has managed to capture 200,000 new clients and pass more than 1 million homes.
Now the company plans to start deploying its Docsis 3.0 technology in 2008 in the main Spanish cities to extend it to the whole country in 2008.
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BT appoints BBC strategistBT has appointed a former BBC policy adviser as its first head of media and convergence policy as it moves further into the media sector. The appointment of Simon Milner comes as BT is pulled into regulatory arguments about so-called converged services, which pull together online and broadcast offerings.
Take-up of BT Vision has been subdued compared with Sky and Virgin Media, with nearly 200,000 users signed up.
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Italian boom for TVs with DTT decoders
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItaly is registering a boom in sales of TV sets with integrated DTT decoders, as a result of the tax break introduced last August by the ministries of Communications and Economy.
A total of 1,027,000 DTT-compatible TV sets were sold during 2007, in comparison to only 150,000 a year earlier. Sales are continuing at the same rate in 2008, with 173,000 devices sold in January.
The decree enables Italians to deduct 20 per cent of the effective purchase in their tax returns for 2008. The tax breaks, which have since ended, and increased consumer interest have contributed to a price drop. While Italians had to fork out E1,500 on average for TV sets with integrated decoders for Christmas 2006, one year later prices had dropped below the E1,000 threshold.
The ministerial decree also establishes that from June 2009 only TV sets with integrated DTT decoders will be sold on the Italian market.
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blinkx for iPlayer?The creators of video search engine blinkx are reportedly in talks with the BBC about a deal to supply it with technology for the corporation's iPlayer, which allows viewers to download programmes over the Internet. The BBC wants the company to provide it with a search facility that will enable users of the service to find programmes quickly and easily.
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50%+ prefer free broadcast TV after DTV transitionMore than half of over-the-air consumers who are aware of the US digital transition prefer to receive free digital television by buying a converter box or digital TV set instead of pay TV services, according to a survey from the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS).
Roughly 62 per cent of the approximately 14.5 million over-the-air consuming households who are aware of the cut-off to analogue television indicated that they would buy a converter box or digital TV set between now and when the transition takes effect February 17, 2009, compared to 10 per cent who would opt for cable, satellite or telecommunications service to receive digital television.
Consumer awareness of the transition has also increased to 76.4 per cent in February 2008 compared to 51 per cent in November 2007. Moreover, 55 per cent, or 23 million of these households, correctly identified the year when the DTV transition will occur.
Mobile TV subscribers in Korea top 11m
As of February 2008, the number of subscribers to mobile TV service in Korea is 11 million including 9.69 million to terrestrial DMB and 1.31 million to satellite DMB. If the growth continues at this rate, terrestrial DMB users will pass the 10 million mark in March.According to the Broadcasting and Communications Commission and the Special Committee on Terrestrial DMB, over 520,000 T-DMB devices were sold and satellite DMB attracted 36,000 new subscribers during one month of February.
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Czech Telefónica O2 seeking Internet TV usersTelefónica O2 Czech Republic plans to raise the number of clients using its Internet TV services to 140,000 by the end of 2008 from the current 80,000 users, Czech Telefónica's CEO said. Salvador Anglada also said he expects the number of its high speed Internet connection users to reach one million in five years, versus the current 600,000.
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Time-Stanton JV IPTV on mobileTime Broadband Services and joint venture partner Stanton Technologies have launched their IPTV service over 2.5G mobile platform. The JV also announced the signing of contracts with DiGi in Malaysia and China Mobile and China Unicom in China. "Through an exclusive deal with the Chinese government owned entity, the Time-Stanton JV will have access to provide IPTV to over 500 million mobile subscribers in China," an official release said.
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Irdeto selected by Shanxi
Irdeto has announced that Shanxi Cable Broadcasting Network has chosen the Irdeto Digital TV conditional access solution to accelerate their digital migration process. Under the agreement, Irdeto will deliver one million smart cards over the next 24 months. Shanxi province in China has nearly four million cable TV subscribers.
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Envivio AVS video encoding in ShanghaiEnvivio, technology provider of IP video convergence encoding solutions from mobile to HD, has revealed that its 4Caster C4 encoders are being used in extensive broadcast trials in Shanghai that, for the first time, combine AVS video encoding with China’s standard for DTT broadcasting. This is the first large-scale evaluation of AVS with the DTMB Digital Terrestrial Media Broadcasting standard to take place in China. Full commercial roll out of digital terrestrial TV services based on a combination of the two standards is expected to begin later this year.
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Broadcom and Coship STB collaborationBroadcom has revealed the first high definition, personal video recording, set-top box, system-on-a-chip solution for China. The result of the collaboration between Broadcom and Coship, the first commercial high definition STB in China will provide advanced HD viewing, full 1080p support, improved picture quality, PVR functionality and interactive services all in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
