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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday Freeview channel for sale
Orange Cinema make up
Spain passes 12 million DTT devices
Web video on cable TV
Web video ‘connectors’
CEA wants mobile TV group
Premiere CMO quits
Hulu goes international
UKTV rebranding continues
Tandberg for SBSA Freeview channel is to go up for auction. Arqiva, which holds the licence for two of the six multiplexes that make up the UK's digital terrestrial TV platform, is calling for bidders by October 22, with the channel available from January.
In 2005 Channel 4 paid about £10m (E12.8m) a year for its sixth slot on Freeview, when the DTT platform was in 10.8m households. A recent Ofcom report estimated that Freeview was now in 16.7m homes.
There are currently 48 TV channels and 24 radio channels available on Freeview. In June, Freeview multiplex operator SDN, a subsidiary of ITV, put another channel up for auction. It will be available from January 1.
However, the combination of an economic downturn hitting broadcaster’s budgets, falling revenues from advertising and the fact that many of the big players now have a presence on Freeview could depress interest in the auction.
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Orange announced the details of the five new channels that are set to launch in France on November 13th as part of the Orange cinéma séries. The new channels include a main “feature film” channel, Orange cinemax, which is available in HD and includes the best of recent films and TV series shown for the first time in France. In addition, Orange will launch four other channels, Orange cinehappy (family), Orange cinechoc (action), Orange cinenovo (art house) and Orange cinégéant (classics). These new channels will be priced at E12 per month on TV and PC and E6 on mobiles.
With the launch of Orange cinéma séries, the company says it is fulfilling its strategy of “content everywhere”. Apart from traditional broadcasting, all programmes will be available on-demand and can be watched on any screen (TV, mobile, PC) at any time depending on the circumstances.
All together Orange cinéma series will provide more than 1,200 films, 1,000 hours of TV series, 200 documentaries and 300 hours of children’s series each year. All programmes shown on the five channels will be accessible on-demand for 30 days after the first broadcast and a range of films and series will be available on-demand.
As part of the announcement, Orange also unveiled a range of additional new services available to viewers. With the multi-screens approach, subscribers may watch Orange cinéma séries channels and programmes on-demand.
Furthermore, Orange cinéma séries offers a catch-up service to see or re-watch programmes that have already been broadcast.
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Spain passes 12 million DTT devices
From David Del Valle in Madrid
12.4 million DTT devices have been sold in Spain, of which 88% are IDTVs, according to the latest report from Impulsa TDT. Every day 7.7 million people watch DTT, representing an average share of 17.4%, with more than 6 million homes having access to DTT, with a penetration of 38.8 per cent on average, 50% in some Regions like Madrid or Catalonia.
DTT coverage reaches 89.15% of the population. The Pro DTT Association Impulsa TDT has asked all involved parties in the DTT market to do their best to promote DTT and raise public awareness of the analogue switch-off as, according to Andres Armas, General Director of the Association, "even though 60% of Spaniards know the concept of the analogue switch-off, there is still a great confusion about it". The National DTT Plan states that 1,287 towns from 36 provinces, more than 5 million people, will stop receiving the analogue transmissions by June 2009 and 15 million by December 2009. So, he says, "it is vital to speed up the adaptation of SMATV dishes in those regions otherwise there will be a severe shortage of installers".
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Time Warner Cable and ActiveVideo Networks announced the deployment of a new television experience that will bring Web content and interactivity to the TV.The new service, which is being launched in Oceanic Time Warner Cable, intelligently streams traditional and Web-based content to any digital set-top box. ActiveVideo combines the personalized, dynamic, socially-connected experience that viewers have come to expect from the Web with the quality, immediacy and remote-control navigation that is expected of television.
Initial channels include interactive games from TAG Networks; home shopping from HSN; and news, sports and children’s versions of P:Mosaic, an intuitively personalized video navigation system that allows consumers to view, customize and navigate through their favourite channels at a single glance. In addition, the ActiveVideo service enables Oceanic Time Warner Cable to create Web-based channels that are specific to the market.
“With studies continuing to show that the television remains the device of choice for viewing video content, we’re seeing dramatically increased interest in ActiveVideo solutions that bring the Web experience to television through existing STBs and CE devices.” said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks.
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Web video ‘connectors’When it comes to advertising, not all online video viewers are created equal, according to a new commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Veoh Networks. "Watching The Web: How Online Video Engages Audiences" reveals that while some online video viewers still only "snack" on short clips, there exists a large audience of young, influential, engaged viewers who watch a great deal of long-form online video and pay attention to the brand messages delivered to them in online video environments.
The study found that Engaged Viewers (viewers who watch more than an hour of online video a week) make up nearly 40% of all online video viewers and watch nearly 75% of all online video. Of these Engaged Viewers, those who spend the most time consuming and sharing long-form content:
* Are more likely to watch videos all the way through
* Pay more attention to online video more than they do TV
* Interact with and rate the videos they watch more frequently
* Are twice as likely to recall in-video ads and post-rolls than non-Engaged Viewers
* Agree more readily that advertising is fair and helps pay for their free experience
* Consider banner ads and ads that come in between videos (mid-rolls) most effective"As online video viewing continues to grow as a primary source of entertainment, it will create many new opportunities for content providers and advertisers alike to reach engaged, influential audiences," said Steve Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks. "Now is the time for advertisers to re-think their approaches to marketing in online video in order to captivate these valuable viewers as they drive online video into a mainstream entertainment medium."
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The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) of the US seeks participants in a new Special Interest Group to address A/153 - the mobile/handheld addition to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ATSC) broadcast digital television standards in the United States. The ATSC is working to complete the new standard which will allow digital television (DTV) broadcasts beyond the living room. The new capability, called ATSC Mobile/Handheld (M/H), allows TV broadcasters to use part of their signal to deliver services that can be reliably received by handheld receiving units and receivers in moving vehicles.
“CEA is organising this Special Interest Group for ATSC M/H to assist the consumer electronics community in understanding the technology and market dynamics,” said Brian Markwalter, CEA vice president of technology and standards. “CEA is excited to work with members to accelerate this innovative extension to our DTV system.”
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Premiere’s chief marketing officer Oliver Kaltner is leaving the pay-TV operation after just three months in post. In a statement, Premiere said the Supervisory Board had accepted his resignation with immediate effect.
“I decided to leave Premiere immediately. It has been a very difficult decision for me leaving the company after just three months. I wish the management of Premiere all the best for the upcoming tasks,” said Kaltner.
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Hulu, the online web video joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal, is set to rollout internationally and some local versions may launch before the end of the year. News Corp president Peter Chernin says it hopes to roll out a number of joint venture sites in local markets. "Hulu will eventually be the leader in premium online TV worldwide - that's the aim. We are working on going international and you will see this in the future. We will probably look to do a series of joint ventures in local markets to roll out Hulu internationally," he said.
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UKTV will be relaunching UKTV People as Blighty and UKTV Documentary as Eden early next year, as part of the broadcaster's continuing rebrand strategy.
This week, the broadcaster debuted Watch and rebranded UKTV Drama as Alibi, following last year’s rebrand of UKTV G2 as Dave.
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TANDBERG Television announced that Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), Australia's multicultural and multilingual public broadcaster, has selected the company’s IP-based iSIS 8000 head-end architecture for its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network. TANDBERG Television is supplying SD and HDTV encoders, dense multiplexing and embedded SFN (Single Frequency Network) adaptation, all based around a core of flexible IP switching. The company’s compression head-ends are now used for four of the country’s five national digital terrestrial networks.
SBS’s digital television services began in January 2001 and currently reach an estimated 96% of the Australian population. The new centralized head-end will generate DVB-T transport streams for 12 separate regions. This is the first deployment of TANDBERG Television’s iSIS 8000® IP head-end architecture for the Australian DTT market and is the first deployment worldwide of dense SFN adaptation as part of the TANDBERG MX8400 IP multiplexer.
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Thursday 9th October
Grade: ‘No PSB for ITV DTT’
Solaris Mobile submits S-Band application
Airtel DTH debut
RTL Group eyes Serbia’s TV Avala
US DTV coupons will run out
Music and videos on You Tube
Ofcom: TV can run more ads
News Corp controls Jamba
Livestation bales Jalipo clients
ViewCast Niagra streamingThe ITV executive chairman Michael Grade, has suggested it could drop its public service responsibilities and hand responsibility for regional news to a third party such as ITN. Grade reiterated that ITV would "prefer to remain a licensed PSB, if justified economically", but outlined a possible scenario in which the broadcaster could drop its PSB obligations and become purely commercial.
Grade also outlined a future scenario in which ITV would have to buy its existing Freeview spectrum at the market rate, as it currently enjoys free spectrum as a PSB. "ITV would enjoy a unified brand, with the widest UK coverage through DTT [Freeview] and other platforms," he added. "There would be no regulatory prescription - the lightest touch." ITV is a shareholder in Freeview.
He dismissed queries that sacrificing a privileged spot on the electronic programme guide, a benefit of PSB status, would necessarily harm viewing. "People are not going to stop watching Coronation Street because we are not on the front page of the EPG," he said.
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Solaris Mobile submits S-Band application
The Astra – Eutelsat JV, Solaris Mobile, announced that the company has submitted to the European Commission a comprehensive application in response to the Commission’s call for applications for pan-European systems providing mobile satellite services.
The Solaris application was submitted as part of a tender process that was initiated and co-ordinated by the European Commission. The successful applicant(s) will be able to provide innovative mobile services, such as mobile TV reception, high-speed data transfers, public safety, disaster recovery and remote medical communications via satellite, anywhere within the 27 Member States of the European Union. In addition, operators may deploy complementary terrestrial networks where necessary.
Steve Maine, CEO of Dublin-based Solaris Mobile said of the company’s application: “We are excited to be submitting our application today in what promises to be a landmark development for European mobile communications. This timing complements our investments, with our commitment in 2006 to procure a satellite payload from Thales Alenia Space. Solaris Mobilewill be in the unique position of being able to offer mobile satellite services as early as 2009, empowering state-of-the-art mobile networks and enabling innovative services to consumers across Europe, well ahead of the Commission’s deadline of 2011. We look forward to continue working with European consumers, regulators, network operators, equipment and solutions vendors, car manufacturers, content and service providers, to make this vision become a reality within the next twelve months.”
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Bharti Airtel Limited has announced the launch of Airtel digital TV, its Direct To Home (DTH) Satellite TV service. The service will be available to customers through 21,000 retail points including Airtel Relationship Centres in 62 cities across the country.
Manoj Kohli, CEO, said, “Today we are starting a new chapter in our journey, one that adds a new dimension to our existing product portfolio and is a major step towards transforming Airtel from just a telecom brand to a lifestyle enabler. The launch of Airtel digital TV is the culmination of our three screens strategy, which is to be present across mobile phone, computer and TV screens.”
Atul Bindal, President - Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel, added, “We believe that the Indian DTH segment offers immense growth potential going forward. Given our deep understanding of Indian customer, we believe that Airtel has created an excellent product offering. With added benefits of Airtel's strong brand equity and wide distribution network, we are well placed to emerge as a leading player in this segment.”
Airtel digital TV uses the latest MPEG4 standard with DVB S2 technology, which also enables delivery of more complex interactive content and is High Definition ready. Also, Airtel digital TV uses 20% larger dish antenna that offers better performance during rain.
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RTL Group eyes Serbia’s TV Avala
From Branislav Pekic in RomeGermany’s RTL is eyeing the possiblity of entering the Serbian TV market and is currently in negotiations with TV Avala, one of the holders of a national TV license.
Some local media reports have even gone as far as to claim that as of October 6, RTL has become the owner of TV Avala, although this has been denied by RTL Group’s head of Corporate Communications, Oliver Herrgesell. Strangely, Wikipaedia on Monday published that TV Avala has become one of the 43 TV stations in Europe owned by RTL (with a 91% stake), but this information was taken off the site later the same day. Other reports claim that RTL will acquire a minority share for E45 million.
The RTL Group has known to be interested in TV Avala for at least the past year and a half, following its unsuccesful bid in 2006 for one of the five national TV frequencies in Serbia. At the time, CEO Gerhard Zeiler, said that the Serbian TV industry is likely to be profitable for the top three players.
The existing legislation in Serbia prohibits the sale of national TV licenses before previous approval by the country’s Broadcasting Agency Council. Also, foreign companies can own a maximum of 49%. Currently, 48% of the capital of TV Avala is owned by Serbian businessman Danko Djunic, Belgrade-based firm Tehnoprogres has 32.28%, while marketing agency Medija Plus has 15.72%.
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FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has told Capitol Hill he is concerned that the DTV-to-analogue converter box subsidy program could run out of money before it runs out of requests for the $40 coupons, suggesting the calculations of the government agency responsible for administering the program are wrong.
The $1.5bn program is overseen by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Martin says NTIA could have underestimated the number of coupons it will need.
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YouTube will start to sell music and video games and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue. The Google-owned business is taking the first steps towards building an e-commerce service through which it will sell music, films, TV shows, video games, books, concert tickets and other media-related products featured on the millions of videos on YouTube.
Visitors to YouTube.com can buy songs from music videos they watch on the site by clicking on buttons that take them either to Amazon's MP3 store or Apple's iTunes store.
YouTube users will also be able to buy video games through the Amazon link. Amazon and iTunes will share revenue with YouTube when users buy content through the partnership.
Investors have been asking Google when it would start to generate meaningful revenue and earnings from YouTube, for which the Web search leader paid $1.65 billion in 2006. Google does not break out YouTube's financials, but analysts at Piper Jaffray Research estimated that the video site would earn about $200 million in revenue in 2009, compared with estimates of around $27 billion for Google.
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Ofcom has reiterated it will consider relaxing UK rules governing how many advertisements can be shown in peak time. In its most recent directive on the subject, the European Commission said countries could relax restrictions on advertising “minutage” to permit a maximum of 12 minutes an hour. Ofcom currently allows the PSBs to run seven minutes of advertising an hour, on average.
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News Corp has taken full control of mobile media company Jamba by buying VeriSign's 49% stake for about $200m.
Jamba creates content such as wallpapers, ringtones and games for mobile phones.
It also produces short, made-for-mobile episodes of certain Fox television shows such as 24.
VeriSign has been trying to divest its slower-growing businesses to focus on its core internet security services for some time, and the Jamba sale marks the latest step in that process.
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Livestation bales Jalipo clients
Web TV provider Livestation has put together a package for customers of the Jalipo platform that shut this week. The new owners of Jalipo, ROK Entertainment, closed the programme portal claiming it was in need of “significant unplanned investment”.
Livestation offers TV and radio streaming and already carries a number of channels that were available to Jalipo subscribers. Livestation is working towards an advertising model with pay-per-view to be introduced later on.
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ViewCast Corporation, a leading provider of streaming media hardware and software, announced the release of its next-generation streaming media encoder, the Niagara Pro II.
The Niagara Pro II is the newest in the line of Niagara encoders, which are utilized by many of the world's leading broadcasters for high-quality, high-resolution video capture and streaming. This professional-grade encoding appliance has the most powerful processing of all Niagara encoding appliances and offers an array of innovative features designed to meet the rapidly expanding online video needs of broadcasters/studios, enterprises, and Internet/network service providers.
Niagara Pro II excels at capturing, encoding, and streaming video and audio over the Internet and mobile networks for live viewing and video-on-demand applications.
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Wednesday 8th October
EC: CA is indispensable but should be cross border
Web ad-spend to surpass TV?
Consumer spending on mobile TV to hit $2.7bn by 2013
RealNetworks ordered to pull copying software
Pace partners with DISH
DISH/TiVo case not over yet
Channel 5 on BT Vision
Qatar readies commercial mobile TV service
Technisat powers Poland pre-pay DTH
VideoJug inks five content syndication deals
Virgin tops broadband speeds
ESPN on PSP
Ocean Blue powers next-gen HD
EC: CA is indispensable but should be cross borderIn a changing market, it remains essential for the roll-out of pay-TV services that conditional-access systems be protected at European level against piracy. This is the verdict of a new report published from the European Commission. Such protection is also a vital precondition for the growth of new content distribution services like video on demand, online products and mobile TV.
To boost the effectiveness of the European Directive providing this protection, the Commission is setting up a group in which government experts can exchange information and good practice, and proposes that the EU ratify the Council of Europe’s European Convention on the Legal Protection of Services based on, or consisting of, Conditional Access.
The report reviews conditional access services ten years after the original directive, and the Commission says efforts to combat smart card piracy vary considerably between member states. Pay TV operators and CA vendors have contributed criticising, "overly mild penalties," and lobbying for the imposition of laws against personal possession of illegal decoders.
Meanwhile, the Commission bemoans the sluggish growth of cross-border conditional-access services on offer and intends to put together a complete picture of the potential of cross-border markets, especially as many Europeans move around the continent. "As millions of people in Europe live away from their country of origin and want to access services from ‘back home’, but often cannot, the Commission will be gathering more information on potential markets for the distribution of TV programmes and films beyond national borders," said the Commission.
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Web ad-spend to surpass TV?Internet advertising spend is providing buoyancy for traditional media, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, surging 21 per cent year on year to £1.68 billion (E2.14bn) in the first six months of 2008.
The resilience of Internet ad spend in the downturn turned what would have been a 4.6 per cent year-on-year decline in UK advertising spend in the first half to a slide of just 0.7 per cent, according to the study by the interactive advertising bureau.
"Online is not immune from the economic downturn, but while other sectors see falls in expenditure, the Internet is still experiencing an incredible increase and is propping up the entire advertising market," the report said.
The IAB said that the Internet increased its market share of the total UK advertising pot by four percentage points to 18.7 per cent, less than 1 per cent behind print display advertising's 19.3 per cent and 3 per cent behind TV advertising's 21.7 per cent share.
The IAB said it is still "cautiously optimistic" that UK Internet spend remains on track to overtake the amount spent on TV next year, despite the economic downturn.
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Consumer spending on mobile TV to hit $2.7bn by 2013The increasing availability of mobile handsets capable of receiving free-to-air analogue and digital terrestrial TV signals will adversely impact the prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast TV networks, according to a report from Juniper Research.
While the report says that more than 330 million mobile users worldwide will own broadcast TV-enabled handsets by 2013, less than 14 per cent will opt for mobile pay TV services. Although mobile broadcast TV will generate global annual end-user revenues of $2.7 billion by 2013, this level is markedly lower than previously forecast.
According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "The development of terrestrial TV-capable receivers with comparatively low power consumption, and the availability of these receivers in mass market handsets, throws into question the business case for the deployment of a dedicated network in many markets."
The report notes that operator decisions to offer DVB-T handsets in Germany has effectively closed the door for DVB-H in Germany, and argues that the strong take-up of analogue TV handsets in China indicates that free-to-air services will continue to predominate.
However, the report also notes that this trend in turn has created a further opportunity for streamed TV services. Holden continued: "There will always be a market for some form of premium TV service on the mobile handset, and with broadcast TV in many markets likely to consist simply of the free-to-air terrestrial signals, the gap in the market is likely to be filled by streamed video-on-demand services over the 3G network."
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RealNetworks ordered to pull copying softwareRealNetworks has temporarily stopped distributing its DVD copying software, RealDVD, at a federal judge's request in a copyright case brought by Hollywood studios (see ATV News 2/10/08).
The site now tells visitors: "Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use."
Six major movie studios jointly sued the company on September 30th, the day the software launched. They claim RealDVD illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs.
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Pace partners with DISHDigital TV provider DISH Network has signed national content and hardware distribution agreements with Pace International and newly-formed Pace CSO, Inc. Pace will offer DISH Network content, set-top boxes and hardware, system design, marketing, technical support, customer support and billing to triple-play communities throughout the US.
Pace International, a national distributor in the direct broadcast satellite commercial and multi-family business has expanded its operations to encompass this partnership with DISH Network. Pace will offer the full lineup of both DISH Network content and hardware to operators targeting triple-play communities. This comprehensive approach will allow Pace to "capture the community" as a single turnkey solution, including billing for properties and operators offering triple play.
"DISH Network and Pace are perfect complements to each other. Together, we've created the DBS industry's first scalable multi-family business model. This offering is a cost-effective way to help providers grow their subscriber base," said Vern Swedin, President of Pace. "With its MPEG-4 optical network and 1080p technology, DISH Network has shown clear vision about offering video content and services that customers want. We are positioned perfectly to provide those industry-leading services to multi-family communities."
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DISH/TiVo case not over yetWhile the US Supreme Court's move to deny DISH's appeal of the TiVo patent infringement case was a significant blow for the satellite TV company, the litigation between the companies is far from becoming a done deal.The Supreme Court denied DISH's petition to review a US Court of Appeals Federal Circuit ruling that upheld a lower federal court judgment of willful patent infringement of TiVo's so-called Time Warp patent. With the denial, all eyes are now focused on the Texas federal court handling what's being called the penalty phase of the lengthy legal matter.
In a statement, TiVo said it's looking forward to the receipt of damages awarded by the US District Court handling the case. Those damages would cover a two-year period. Also, TiVo said it remains "confident that the District Court will enforce the injunction and award further damages from EchoStar's continued infringement of our Time Warp patent.
"In its statement, DISH stressed that the Supreme Court's decision does not impact a software design-around that has been placed in DISH DVRs subject to the district court's injunction, and that customers of the small dish service can continue using their DISH DVRs.
"We believe that the design-around does not infringe TiVo's patent and that TiVo's pending motion for contempt should be denied. We look forward to that ruling in the near future," DISH said in a statement.
Nonetheless, because of the Supreme Court decision, DISH said it will pay TiVo approximately $104 million, the amount the jury awarded in 2006 plus interest. The money is in an escrow account and will be released to TiVo in the next few days, DISH said.
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Channel 5 on BT VisionChannel Five is to make its programmes, including Neighbours and Fifth Gear, available for catch-up viewing on BT Vision's TV service.
The channel has struck a deal to launch Demand Five, its on-demand TV service, on BT Vision for programmes that have aired over the past eight days. Users will be able to access most content on a pay-per-view basis for between 79p and 99p per episode, or as part of BT Vision's £3 (E3.8) per month and £6 per month packs.
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Qatar readies commercial mobile TV serviceQatar Telecom (Qtel) and Nokia Siemens Networks have signed the world’s first commercial Mobile TV deployment contract based on DVB-H and OMA BCast Smart Card Profile technology.
Nokia Siemens Networks will supply Qtel with the state-of-the-art Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) solution providing their subscribers enhanced TV viewing experiences on their mobile phones with the added flexibility of selecting their preferred subscription payment model.
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Technisat powers Poland pre-pay DTH
This month Cyfrowy Dom, a company owned by ITI Neovision, the majority shareholder in the DTH platform is offering viewers Telewizja na karte (TNK TV on card). It will allow them to watch over a dozen channels, five of them (TVP1, TVP2, TVN, TN7 and Religia.tv) will be free of charge. The other channels will include TVN24, nSport and Disney Channel and will be included by paying an additional monthly fee.
To receive TNK, viewers will be required to buy a decorder using Conax, supplied by TechniSat Digital. Cyfrowy Dom will be targeting the lower end of the Polish pay-TV market, especially those subscribing to the basic Cyfrowy Polsat service, and aims to have 50,000 clients by the end of this year.
TechniSat Digital Group has R&D and production facilities in Oborniki Slaskie/Poland as well. The production of Set-Top-Boxes started in Poland in 2006.
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VideoJug inks five content syndication dealsVideoJug, the global ‘how to’ video site, has signed five new content syndication agreements which will increase its potential global audience to an estimated 60+ million viewers per month. The deals have been struck with Yahoo, WikiHow, Kontraband, WonderHowTo and Tiscali and will all go live within weeks.
VideoJug, which attracts over 3.2 million unique users a month, will provide relevant video content to each syndication partner, in return for license fees and/or a share of advertising revenues. The films will all be sourced from its video library of 45,000 professionally produced and curated films.
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Virgin tops broadband speedsVirgin Media has beaten the likes of O2 and Be Broadband to don the crown for fastest average broadband speed in September 2008. The cable broadband provider offered its customers an average download speed of 6.128Mbps last month, beating O2 and Be's 5.321Mbps.
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ESPN on PSPESPN Classic have signed up to provide content for Go!View, the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) video-on-demand service in the UK and Republic of Ireland. As part of the deal, ESPN Classic will give PSP users the opportunity to see some of the greatest moments in sporting history. Every month up to 20 hours of ESPN Classic’s legendary sports content will be regularly added to the service for PSP users to download.
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Ocean Blue powers next-gen HDThe new Sunrise software from Ocean Blue, a specialist digital TV software company, is the first software that incorporates power saving functions, HD, USB support, digital and analogue formats, which can all operate on a single internal chipset, as opposed to the multiple chips currently in use. Combining multiple broadcast types and functions on a single chip will potentially cut development time and reduce software and hardware costs for the next breed of HD TVs.
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Tuesday 7th October
Now Sky Italia on regulation rack
Sky Italia cannot impose decoders
EC will ban help for C4
Lord Carter is comms minister
Warner early release dates in Korea
Viasat extends F1, UEFA rights
BT ads mock packaged pay-TV
Now Sky Italia on regulation rackBSkyB is currently beset by competition enquiries and now Sky Italia is facing an investigation by the competition authority AGCOM into whether the pay-TV platform is abusing a dominant position.
The probe, lead by the financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, was launched after a complaint from Conto TV, a third party channel carried on the Sky Italia platform. It claims the conditions imposed by Sky to broadcast on the platform were not transparent and failed to reflect their true cost.
Sky Italia said: "We have always guaranteed access to our platform at fair, transparent and non-discriminatory conditions. We are confident that the results of the Antitrust authority’s preliminary investigation will confirm Sky’s absolute correctness."
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Sky Italia cannot impose decoders
From Branislav Pekic in RomeA Magistrate in Naples has ruled that DTH operator Sky Italia cannot impose on its subscribers the use of its own digital box.
In its ruling, the justice condemned Sky Italia for "breach of contract and contractual and personal damage" towards one of its clients, identified as Mr. V.D.P., defended by the consumers association solicitor Angelo Pisani. In the complaint, Pisani pointed out that Sky Italia has changed its own conditional access since 2005, providing users with its own decoder for the reception of the new signal which is otherwise not receivable by other decoders. He also underlined that the Sky box is not capable of receiving all of the FTA channels and has a reduced memory capacity.
The subscribers decided to protest, as he owns a better decoder which can receive more channels and has better functions. Besides "breach of contract", the plaintiff alleged that Sky’s action also represents a threat to competition, as it has a monopoly of the decoder market.As a result, the Magistrate has mandated Sky Italia to observe the existing legislation and the normal supply of the signal to the TV viewer, plus damages estimated at E500. However, according to Pisani, the sentence is valid only for the petitioner and not for other clients of the pay-TV operator.
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EC will ban help for C4The European commission is likely to ban the government's proposed £14 million (E17.9m) aid to Channel 4 to meet the costs of the digital switchover and fulfill its public service broadcasting (PSB) commitments.
Neelie Kroes, European competition commissioner has told the foreign secretary, David Miliband that Channel 4 had enough reserves and revenues to pay for its digital expansion. Her comments have been seized on by several international broadcasters as indicating that separate plans being considered by the media regulator, Ofcom, to allow C4 access to some public funding could also represent an unfair subsidy.
The commission is investigating the £14 million aid package to C4 after a complaint in 2006 by a rival UK-based broadcaster. Officials said the inquiry was still under way but no complaint had been received so far about the Ofcom proposal. C4 has argued that its ability to deliver its PSB remit is jeopardised by a looming funding gap, and has announced cuts of £100 million by the end of next year.
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Former Ofcom and NTL chief executive Stephen Carter has been named as minister for communications, technology and broadcasting in the House of Lords, as part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's reshuffle.
Carter, who has been handed a peerage to take up his role in the House, said: "Given the global financial challenges, the communications sector has never been more important to our economy. This role is an opportunity to make a contribution to the growth of this key sector, and I look forward to working closely with Peter Mandelson and Andy Burnham," the new Secretary of State for Business and the Culture Secretary, to whom he will report respectively.
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Warner early release dates in Korea
Warner Brothers Entertainment has commenced releasing its films online in South Korea before they are released in the country on DVD, shaking up the time-honoured Hollywood distribution model and potentially paving the way for a sharp increase in movie downloads.
The studio has targeted South Korea because it has high broadband penetration. It hopes that releasing films online first will cut down on DVD piracy, which is rampant in the country. Kevin Tsujihara, head of Warner Bros’ home entertainment group, said: "Korea used to be a very robust video market but we have been hit very hard by piracy. We have high hopes of turning that market around and legitimising it again... all the ingredients are there."
If the move is successful, Warners will target other countries. It is considering bringing forward the online release of films in China, potentially the world’s largest home entertainment market.
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Viasat extends F1, UEFA rightsViasat Broadcasting has concluded a comprehensive new agreement with Formula One Management (FOM) for the media rights to the FIA Formula One World Championship for Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The agreement provides Viasat with free- and pay-TV rights for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Championships. Viasat already holds the exclusive rights for Sweden and Norway until the end of the 2008 Championship.
In Sweden all live-action will be broadcast on the dedicated motor channel Viasat Motor supplemented by delayed coverage of Qualifying and Races on TV6 in prime access. In Norway all live action will be broadcast on the new Norwegian premium sports channel Viasat Sport.
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BT ads mock packaged pay-TVBT’s new ads for its BT Vision service poke fun at subscription-heavy pay-TV rivals seeing a man flicking through a friend’s fictional pay TV service and joking with him about the number of channels he pays for but never watches.
The new ads, part of a £11 million (E14m) TV campaign, focus on how BT Total Broadband with BT Vision can potentially offer better value for money because customers only have to watch what they pay for with no compulsory subscription.
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Monday 6th October
Premiere: subs re-stated, shares plunge, CFO quits
Copyright judges impose peace
Free satellite in 900,000 UK homes
Spain prefers analogue TV
News Corp pushes for end to DirecTV conditions
Mobile DTV settles in Latin America
BBC Global News expands on YouTube
Virgin bolsters commercial team
VUDU launches HDX
Premiere: subs re-stated, shares plunge, CFO quits
German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere’s shares fell 60 per cent as it announced losses, a subscriber number re-statement and revealed it is trying to restructure bank debt.
Premiere said its chief financial officer, Alexander Teschner, had stepped down as it restated its customer numbers to be in line with other pay-TV companies, resulting in a 940,000 drop in the figure. The company said it expected EBITDA to show a loss of E40-70 million in 2008. The expected result excluded a possible one-time gain from further sales of broadcast rights for the 2010 soccer World Cup.
"As a result of the EBITDA outlook, Premiere has commenced discussions with its banks regarding a restructuring of debt facilities and is confident to reach an agreement," it said. The company said it was satisfied with the way the talks were proceeding and did not plan a capital increase. "We are conducting a thorough review of operations and are confident that this will result in a new strategic direction supported by a financially sound business plan for the future growth and profitability of Premiere," said CEO Mark Williams.
Premiere, which is one-quarter owned by News Corp, said it had adopted a new subscriber classification in line with that used by other leading pay-TV companies. Under the new methodology, Premiere had 2,411,000 direct customers as of September 30, 2008 including 2,293,000 monthly subscribers to at least one of Premiere’s channel packages and 118,000 customers who purchased pay-per-view and pre-paid services from the Premiere Flux range. ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for these subscribers stood at E24 in the third quarter.
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Copyright judges impose peaceThree US copyright judges have imposed a truce between songwriters, music labels and digital music services such as Apple’s iTunes store by keeping royalties on CDs, downloads, online streaming services and ringtones broadly unchanged. The ruling from the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington gave none of the parties what they had asked for but allowed each to claim that it would boost the nascent but growing digital music market.
Songwriters and the publishers that represent them will receive the same 9.1 cents per track for digital downloads and CDs as they had before, but secured a 24 cent fee for each ringtone and the right to seek a 1.5 per cent-per-month interest if labels or digital retailers fail to pay them promptly. Music publishers had pushed for a 15 cent "mechanical" royalty from downloads and CDs, while digital music services wanted it cut to 4.8 cents.
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Free satellite in 900,000 UK homesThe latest figures from Ofcom reveal that there are over 900,000 households with a free satellite service in the UK. The Communications Market: Digital Progress Report for the second quarter of 2008 shows around 840,000 homes were using free satellite - from BSkyB, BBC/ITV or other retailers - on their main television set. This was an increase of around 120,000 on the previous quarter.
In addition, between June and September BBC/ITV freesat sold a further 60,000 units, meaning that the total number of households using a free satellite service is now around 900,000.
The report also shows that 88 per cent of households now have digital TV on their main set. The second quarter of 2008 showed that households remain focussed on switching their secondary television sets to digital as well. Over half (19.1 million) of the 35 million secondary sets have now been converted to digital.
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Spain prefers analogue TV
From David Del Valle in Madrid
One and a half years before the analogue switch-off, scheduled for April 2010, Spaniards seem to be not very keen on DTT as most of them, 61.4 per cent, still prefer to watch analogue TV, according to the latest viewing figures.
DTT got an average share of 17.4 per cent in September, a record figure in its history but still very low in comparison with the allegedly high DTT take-up, with 37.4 per cent of Spanish homes already enjoying DTT (of which 32.4 per cent have an IDTV), according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
According to INE, TV penetration reaches 99.7 per cent, with 21.4 per cent receiving TV through satellite, 15 per cent through cable and 4.6 per cent via IPTV. INE's latest report also reveals that 51 per cent of Spanish homes have access to the Internet, of which 43.5 per cent (almost 6.6 million homes) through broadband via ADSL (67.9 per cent) or cable (14.8 per cent).
News Corp pushes for end to DirecTV conditions
News Corp is pushing for an end to conditions placed on the media giant after its acquisition of a controlling stake in DirecTV, asking the Federal Communications Commission to move on its petition on the matter.
News Corp acquired the DirecTV stake in 2003, but sold its ownership in the DBS platform to Liberty Media in February. When News Corp acquired the DirecTV interest, the FCC tied a number of conditions to the deal, such as allowing unaffiliated pay-TV companies access to News Corp-controlled regional sports programming and local broadcast signals. Now that News Corp doesn't control a pay-TV platform, the company has asked the FCC to drop those conditions.
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Mobile Digital TV settles in Latin America
According to a TVTelco Latam’s report, Latin America will have 21.3 million mobile digital TV handsets in use in 2013, mostly on phones, but also on portable MP4 players, cars and buses, and USB for notebooks.
With its ISDB system, Brazil will lead the Latin American free-to-air mobile TV market, with 12.5 million viewers by 2013. Brazil has been the first country in Latin America launching mobile phones with free-to-air TV enabled features in 2008.
In Mexico, the ATSC’s MPH system for free-to-air mobile digital TV will reach 4.7 million customers by 2013. Significant contribution will came from other Latin American countries as they define its digital TV standard. Colombia and Uruguay already chose the European standard and will use DVB-H, whereas Argentina is expected to reverse its decision to choose the ISDB system adopted in Brazil.
Towards 2013 is a predicted there will be 1.56 million mobile digital pay TV subscribers through different broadcasting systems, in addition to other unicast or multicast TV customers using 3G or WiMax networks. Advertising revenues on mobile TV will reach $96 million in 2013 in Latin America.
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BBC Global News expands on YouTubeBBC Global News has extended its relationship with online video community YouTube, by signing an agreement to add six BBC video news channels in Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Persian and Urdu to its existing BBC World News channel.
In what is the first multi-language deal by a major international news broadcaster with YouTube, users will have access to high quality news clips produced by the BBC World Service in six languages. Video news stories will run each day across the different language Channels and each channel will be branded and tailored to its specific audience.
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Virgin bolsters commercial teamVirgin Media Television (VMtv) has confirmed two senior appointments to strengthen and develop its commercial strategy for the multi-screen digital future. David Cuff joins VMtv as its new Commercial Director, responsible for commercial strategy across the full range of VMtv’s business. Cuff has previously held positions with Flextech Television and Initiative Media, and runs his own consultancy business, Cuff Media.
Ivan Ali-Khan also takes up the newly-created position of Head of Digital, reporting to Cuff. Ivan will be responsible for VMtv’s multiplatform commercial and creative strategies, and he is tasked with developing VMtv’s channel and programme brands across broadband, on-demand and mobile. Ali-Khan has been Head of Media Planning at VMtv since January 2006, and was previously Broadcast Director at the Media Planning Group.
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VUDU launches HDXVUDU, provider of digital technologies and services that deliver Internet entertainment to consumers' HDTVs and Home Theatres, has unveiled HDX, a video format that enables the viewing of Internet-delivered movie content in full HD 1080p format optimised for 40 inch and larger HDTVs and Home Theatres.
HDX delivers the highest quality available from any Internet, broadcast, cable, or satellite on-demand service, offering consumers a cinematic experience with a detailed and artefact free picture accompanied by high-resolution sound. HDX movies are available to all VUDU customers at the same price as standard HD titles. VUDU has already compiled a library of 65 films available now in the new HDX format and will offer every newly released HD title in the new format.
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