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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 19th September
Kangaroo concerns Sky
blinkx launches web-based BBTV
KT investing $1.5bn in IPTV
Antena 3 TV goes live on mobile phones
TW: AOL decision ‘fairly soon’
TNTSat going HD
Fujitsu launches digital HDTV SoC
All3Media buys Illumina Digital
Samsung offer for SanDisk rejected
Kangaroo concerns SkyBSkyB has added its voice to concerns about Project Kangaroo, the online television service planned by ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide. Many of the channels on Sky’s subscription TV service draw heavily on archive programming. In its filing to the Competition Commission, which is investigating Kangaroo, Sky argued that the service "might be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition" in the nascent video-on-demand sector.
Sky also said Kangaroo’s "access to direct and indirect state funding", because its shareholders are public service broadcasters, gave it a "unique" advantage. "Kangaroo’s existence may reduce the likelihood of VOD offerings by existing competitors and potentially decrease the likelihood of new entry," Sky said.
blinkx launches web-based BBTVblinkx, one of the largest video search engines, has launched blinkx BBTV. The company noted that BBTV is available in the browser, without any software download, integrating video into the fibre of the web for true, full-screen online TV, much like the BBC iPlayer..
The new web-based release enables users to instantly and easily browse or interact with online sources related to the programme they are watching straight from their browser.
blinkx said it will add dozens of additional channels and premium video content to BBTV in the coming months. BBTV is fully compatible with blinkx AdHoc, its’ contextual advertising platform.
KT investing $1.5bn in IPTVKT Corp, South Korea's top fixed-line and broadband provider, has announced it will invest $1.5 billion in its IPTV service by 2012 and expected a break-even as early as 2011.
KT is offering a trial of full IPTV service, including real-time TV programme transmission, as of this week. A commercial service will start as early as in October.
Telecom operators in mature markets such as KT hope IPTV will create new revenue sources. KT said it expects to secure 300,000 subscribers for its real-time IPTV by the end of this year and bring the number to 3 million in 2012. It has 6.7 million broadband subscribers, nearly 45 per cent of the home market where it competes with number two telco hanaro telecom.
Antena 3 TV goes live on mobile phones
From David Del Valle in MadridSpanish TV network Antena 3 TV, has become the first commercial TV channel in Spain to be available live via mobile phones. The company has signed an agreement with Vodafone that allows its 3G customers to watch the commercial TV channel through their phones. 70 per cent of Antena 3 programming will be available on the mobile phones, excluding sports events and foreign series and films for lack of the necessary TV rights.
The service will be free-of-charge until October 31st. Beyond then, it will cost E4 per month for those clients with a contract and E1.5 per week for those with a pre-paid card. Antena 3 will also distribute two channels specifically created for mobile, Series Antena 3 and Noticias 24Horas.
"The TV consumption on the move will significantly grow", commented Giorgio Sbampato, General Director of Antena 3 Multimedia, adding that this initiative "is a halfway step to adapt content to mobile TV" at a time when the Government is about to regulate the mobile TV business.
TW: AOL decision ‘fairly soon’Time Warner will decide the future of its AOL online division "fairly soon", its chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes has told investors. For much of this year, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have held talks to try to secure their position on the internet and compete better with Google that dominates the internet search advertising market.
One rumoured scenario includes a merger of Yahoo and AOL with Time Warner holding a stake. But no new information has emerged since a burst of activity between Time Warner and Yahoo just a few weeks ago.
Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner chief executive, told shareholders at a Goldman Sachs media industry conference; "All of the players, including us, are exploring what kind of scale combination would improve the operating and strategic positioning of AOL and other internet players. That probably will get decided fairly soon."
TNTSat going HDTNTSat, the free-to-view DTH service from Canal+, is set to offer four HD channels in France from February 2009 onwards. The HD line-up will consist of the channels France 2 HD, TF1 HD, M6 HD, and Arte HD.
Fujitsu launches digital HDTV SoCFujitsu Microelectronics Asia has developed a digital HDTV system-on-chip (SoC) with integrated video processing engine. The new chip, the MB86H70, is targeted toward digital TVs receiving high-definition broadcasts that are ramping up in Europe, the company said. It has also come up with a full high-definition multi-decoder that decodes both MPEG-2 and H.264 video compression formats.
The chip, which was co-developed with Fujitsu Laboratories, is an application-specific standard product (ASSP). The new proprietary picture quality adjustment tool allows easy adjustment of picture parameters by using a mouse. Furthermore, SoC integration of the video processing engine and multi-decoder allow common memory to be used, enabling use of the chip by simply adding two 16-bit external memories.
All3Media buys Illumina DigitalThe UK independent production firm All3Media has bought Illumina Digital to expand its multimedia division. It said Illumina would sit alongside its existing digital specialists North One, Maverick, Lion and Conker Media.
Samsung offer for SanDisk rejectedSamsung Electronics giant, has had an unsolicited $5.85 billion cash offer for SanDisk, a Silicon Valley maker of flash memory cards, rejected. SanDisk’s founder and chief executive, Eli Harari, rejected the proposal saying that Samsung was significantly undervaluing the 20-year-old company.
Thursday 18th September
Terms for Phorm – must be easy to deny
Bidders circle Digital Plus
P2P-Next releases end-to-end streaming solution
Advertising to fuel mobile social networking
Oi awarded Brazilian DTH licence
Channel 4 funding gap can come from BBC
NBC HD films for BT Vision
MGM in India
Bridge partners with Tandberg
Teleste launches headend hosting service
Macrovision signs tru2way
Terms for Phorm – must be easy to denyThe UK government has outlined how a controversial online ad system can be rolled out. Answering EU questions about its legality, it said that Phorm conformed to EU data laws, but any future deployments of the system must be done with consent and make it easy for people to opt out.
The European Union had demanded clarification about the system which tracks web habits in order to provide better targeted ads. The controversy over the Phorm ad-serving system blew up following revelations that the system had been trialled by telecoms firm BT without the consent of users. The UK government said future trials must be done with consent from those being targeted. "Users will be presented with an unavoidable statement about the product and asked to exercise choice about whether to be involved. Users will be able to easily access information on how to change their mind at any point and are free to opt in or out of the scheme."
Information Commissioner Viviane Reding had called on the UK government to clarify the legality of Phorm, and this is the response from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr). It says "After conducting its enquiries with Phorm the UK authorities consider that Phorm's products are capable of being operated in a lawful, appropriate and transparent fashion," said a Berr statement.
The fact that profiles are based on a unique ID rather than the identity of users coupled with the fact that Phorm does not keep a record of actual sites visited are cited as reasons for its legality.It also pointed out that Phorm's search terms have been widely drawn so they do not reveal a user's identity and that Phorm has no information which would enable it to link a user ID and profile to a living individual. But it stressed that any profiling must be done "with the knowledge and agreement of the customer".
Three Internet service providers have showed initial interest in using Phorm but, so far, only BT has conducted widespread trials. The City of London police is currently investigating the trials, following a dossier of evidence handed to it by angry users.
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Prisa, Spain’s largest media group, has reported it has received a number of preliminary bids for its Digital Plus satellite television subsidiary. The company said it had received offers from "strategic operators and financial companies". Offers reportedly range between E2.8 billion and E3 billion, according to El Pais (which is also owned by Prisa). Bids are said to have been received from Telefónica, Vivendi, Telecinco, Ono and BSkyB.
Digital Plus had been targeted by News Corp, but it’s pursuit of Premiere meant that any approach for the Spanish asset would have to go through BSkyB.
Prisa is seeking to sell Digital Plus to repay debts incurred in this year’s highly-priced buy-out of other shareholders in Sogecable, the TV group that also owns Cuatro, the free-to-air channel.
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P2P-Next releases end-to-end streaming solution
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamP2P-Next, a pan-European conglomerate of 21 industrial partners, media content providers and research institutions has released its first version of NextShare, an Open Source P2P (Peer-to-Peer) video delivery platform. NextShareTV is a implementation of the NextShare content delivery platform running on low-cost embedded hardware.
The P2P-Next research project has successfully released and tested the first Beta version of their P2P live streaming technology. This new technology allows anyone to broadcast a live stream, such as a webcam feed or TV channel, to millions of Internet users. Key is the bandwidth efficiency of this technology, by expanding the proven BitTorrent protocol you can stream to thousands of people using roughly the same amount of bandwidth as for a single user.
"This is an extremely ambitious project which will create a viable broadcast platform that would enable large audiences to stream and interact with live and on-demand content via a set-top box or a TV receiver," said Lieven Vermaele, EBU Technical Director. "In addition, it is our intention to allow audiences to build communities around their favourite content via a fully personalised system."
Mark Stuart of Pioneer Digital Design, and Technical Director of the P2P-Next project, said that the harnessing of Open Source P2P video streaming technology such as NextShare by low-cost consumer electronics represented a change and an exciting opportunity for the market. "Pioneer recognises that consumers are demanding greater choice and quality content on demand, together with integrated devices that are easy to use. The next step is to agree Open Standards for interoperability between CE peer devices across Europe," he added.
The P2P-Next project will run over four years, and plans to conduct large-scale technical trials of new media applications running on a wide range of consumer devices.
The project has an open approach towards sharing results. All core software technology will be available as open source, enabling new business models. P2P-Next will also address a number of outstanding challenges related to content delivery over the internet, including technical, legal, regulatory, security, business and commercial issues.
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Advertising to fuel mobile social networkingAd-funded social networks will provide the bulk of revenues in the mobile user-generated content (UGC) space by 2013, according to a report from Juniper Research.
The report says that the total value of the UGC market - comprising social networking, dating and personal content delivery (PCD) services - will rise from nearly $1.1 billion in 2007 to more than $7.3 billion in 2013, with social networking overhauling dating to become the largest revenue generating segment by 2009. The report also notes the increasing importance played by advertising, which will account for nearly one-third of total revenues in the UGC space by the end of the forecast period, and more than half of mobile social networking revenues.
According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "It’s clear that we have seen an industry wide shift regarding the implementation of business models in this area. Whereas initially there was a perception that users would pay a small mobility premium to access social networks on their handsets, it rapidly became clear that to achieve truly mass adoption, it would be necessary to offer free membership and then to augment that with advertising and the sale of premium content."
The Juniper report also observed that, while the iPhone had substantially increased public awareness of mobile content services, there was significant scope for improvement with regards to the marketing of such services within the industry as a whole. It also stressed the need for operators to reduce data costs outside of bundles to encourage casual use of social networking and dating services.
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Oi awarded Brazilian DTH licenceThe director-general of Brazil's Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel) has authorised telco Oi to offer a pay-TV satellite service throughout the national territory.
The licence, which cost BRL470,00 (E182,000), was granted to TNL PCS, the group company which holds the licences to operate mobile telephony and broadband services.
In addition to the licence fee, Oi has undertaken to provide a free channel for the Ministry of Health and to distribute two thousand installation kits among institutions of the System of Public Health for connection to the service.
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Channel 4 funding gap can come from BBCMedia regulator Ofcom has warned that Channel 4 faces a £100 million-a-year (E126m) funding gap by 2012 and said ITV and Channel Five could be free of public service broadcasting obligations from 2014.
Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, rejected the idea that the BBC should be the only public service broadcaster, raising the possibility that top-slicing - diverting licence fee money from the BBC to Channel 4 - could become government policy.
Richards said Channel 4's financial prospects were worsening because the "external situation" in the market had deteriorated considerably since an Ofcom review 18 months ago. "To break even, Channel 4 would need to cut its investment in public service content year on year to 2012," Richards said. "We have subjected these projections to close scrutiny and, while we are not as pessimistic as Channel 4 itself, we do believe this annual deficit could amount to between £60 million and £100 million by 2012."
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NBC HD films for BT VisionBT Vision has entered an agreement with NBC Universal International Television Distribution for a wide selection of feature films to appear on BT Vision’s new Hi-Def on demand movie service in the UK.
Available immediately, BT Vision customers with HD Ready screens can enjoy the picture definition and Dolby 5:1 Surround sound3 of HD movies on demand. BT Vision’s HD service is delivered seamlessly through the existing V-box, and does not require an additional monthly subscription.
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MGM in IndiaMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios will be launching The MGM Channel on Indian cable television, the world’s third largest cable market. Carriage of The MGM Channel will be handled by Star Den Media Services, the distribution joint venture between News Corp.'s Star India and Den Digital Entertainment Network, one of India's leading cable companies.
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Bridge partners with TandbergBridge Technologies and Tandberg Television have entered into a partnership to market the VideoBridge series of IP-Probes for IPTV monitoring. Tandberg will supply VideoBridge installations to broadcasters, telcos and network operators worldwide, providing an advanced end-to-end monitoring solution available in the industry.
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Teleste launches headend hosting serviceTeleste has started headend hosting services i.e. providing headend functionality to cable TV operators as a service. Teleste also announced that a group of Spanish cable television operators have already started using the company's hosted encryption services. With the announcement, Teleste extends its portfolio from equipment, software and professional services to also include hosting services.
The hosting service is set up so that Teleste operates the physical headend equipment and provides customers the functionality they need as a service. Customers pay only a monthly fee based on the number of subscribers they have and do not need to purchase equipment themselves.
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Macrovision signs tru2wayMacrovision Solutions Corporation announced that it has signed a tru2way Implementer’s Agreement with CableLabs. The agreement will permit the company to build products based on CableLabs tru2way interactive cable architecture. In addition, Macrovision has signed an OpenCable Contribution Agreement with CableLabs to allow Macrovision to provide additional knowledge, resources and day-to-day support toward the development of tru2way as an industry standard.
In the fierce battle for television viewers, cable operators and service providers are looking for new ways to reduce cost and resources involved with deploying their services.tru2way, the underlying common platform for both cable service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers, streamlines the creation of new products and services and allows each industry to focus on their core expertise. As a technology provider for both cable and consumer electronic providers, Macrovision is a valuable link between the two industries, connecting both in the effort to create a more enjoyable entertainment experience for the end consumer.
Wednesday 17th September
Bouygues becomes IPTV player with BBox
ITV Chairman: YouTube is a parasite
Free films and TV shows through IMDb
DVRs in over a quarter of US homes
Tiscali latest to slam Kangaroo
Bharti Airtel to launch IPTV and DTH
UPC ‘fibre power’
Hybrid IPTV no longer enough
6m can’t afford live football
US DTV transition awareness rises
BT Vision keeps kid’s TV ad-free
Cable Europe renames technology labs
Nuts TV loyalty card
Bouygues becomes IPTV player with BBox
From Sotires Eleftheriou in ParisFrench mobile telephone operator Bouygues Telecom (part of the Bouygues construction group which owns TF1) is to launch a triple/quad play service called BBox on October 20th. The triple play offering is broadly similar to the other triple play services on the French market and pitched at the same price - E30 per month. However, Bouygues lays its stress on the ease of use and the technical features of the service.
The B-Box, manufactured by Thomson, is in two parts, an ADSL/router/wifi/VOIP box and an HD compatible TV box. The latter features a built in 120 GB hard drive, which can be activated on payment of an optional E5 a month. It will feature over 50 channels and optional access to the Canal Plus and Canal Satellite platforms. The telephone service will include unlimited calls to land lines in over 60 countries. For an additional E10 a month subscribers can have 3 hours of calls to mobile phones; until January 2009, subscribers to Bouygues Mobile (except pre-pay) get 6 hours. Broadband alone costs E20.
Bouygues has built up a telecom network of its own, mainly by acquiring portions of network that came up for sale following the recent spurt of mergers in the French broadband sector.
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ITV Chairman: YouTube is a parasiteITV executive chairman Michael Grade has labelled YouTube a "parasite" that lives off the TV shows and content created from the broadcaster's £1 billion (E1.256bn) annual programming budget.
But Grade said he did not consider the rise of technology companies such as Google, which owns YouTube, to be a threat to ITV. "The day that Google or Joost or any of these people start investing £1 billion a year in UK content is the day I'll start to be worried. They're all parasites, they just live off our content is what they do. As long as we can create the content, the content is the keys to the castle for us going forward."
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Free films and TV shows through IMDbAmazon has revealed that its subsidiary, The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), will now allow users to watch feature films and TV shows for no charge through its website.
Over 6,000 titles will be available, the company said, citing recent episodes of popular television shows such as 24 and Heroes and classic films such as Some Like It Hot.
IMDb also said that the first episodes of new fall television shows like 'Lipstick Jungle' and '30 Rock' will be available for free viewing before their first air date.
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DVRs in over a quarter of US homesConsumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found that 27 per cent of TV households in the United States have at least one Digital Video Recorder (DVR), and 30 per cent of those households have more than one DVR.
DVR owners are very happy with the service – 87 per cent would recommend their DVR service to a friend, and 81 per cent rate their DVR 8-10 on a 10 point scale (with 45 per cent rating the service as 10). Yet recorded viewing is not necessarily the priority in DVR households – 68 per cent of DVR owners say that they usually watch recorded DVR programs when there is nothing on regularly scheduled TV that they want to watch.
These findings are based on a survey of 1,300 households throughout the US and are part of LRG’s study, On-Demand TV 2008: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs. This is LRG’s seventh annual study on this topic.
LRG’s research also found that:
- 35 per cent of DVR owners feel that they spend more time watching programmes recorded on their DVR than regularly scheduled programmes.
- 45 per cent of DVR owners record five or fewer programmes per week.
- 68 per cent of digital cable subscribers say that they have used Video-on-Demand – with 85 per cent of this group having used VOD in the past month.
- 42 per cent of VOD users are more likely to keep digital cable because of on-Demand.
Tiscali latest to slam KangarooTiscali UK is the latest to see "significant issues and competition concerns" in Project Kangaroo. UK CEO Mary Turner told the Competition Commission’s inquiry that the yet-to-launch VOD JV "will, by offering consumers free and limitless access to the content they value most highly, pose a significant threat to every other platform operator and broadcaster in the UK market".
Like other correspondents, Tiscali said TV producers could be forced to grant Kangaroo exclusive VOD rights to their shows or to accept low prices, because the Kangaroo JV partners hold all the keys to the conventional TV world.
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Bharti Airtel to launch IPTV and DTHBharti Airtel, India's leading telecom company, has reported that it intends to launch its IPTV and DTH services before the end of the year.
"We have been conducting IPTV trials in a thousand households in Gurgaon and our strategy is to deliberately go slow, rolling out in the NCR region first in a phased manner and then targeting the other top six cities in the country," said Atul Bindal, president, Airtel Telemedia Services."A trial launch of the DTH services has also been done amongst our employees and the feedback has been very good. We have retail outlets across India through which we sell prepaid, post-paid, and value-added service offerings and we are looking at leveraging this network for our DTH service," he added.
The two services will have differential pricing. The rates offered by Airtel for its DTH service will be similar to those of existing DTH operators. On the other hand, IPTV strategy is to target the top seven cities in the country making a triple play proposition. IPTV will be targeted at top-end users and customers outside this ambit will be the targeted for DTH.
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UPC ‘fibre power’
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamUPC Netherlands will begin the commercial introduction of its so called UPC Fiber Power broadband access product, says CEO Diederik Karsten. The service will offer consumers high-speed internet up to 120Mbps, based on the EuroDOCSIS 3.0 standard. "With the new product we offer far greater speeds that ADSL or VDSL, at least five times as fast." UPC will use the Cisco EPC3000 EuroDOCSIS 3.0 modem.
The MSO is launching the product across The Netherlands during the next few months. Pricing is yet to be announced.
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Hybrid IPTV no longer enough
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamTelcos adopting a hybrid solution to video service delivery need to go further than just integrating digital terrestrial or DTH services into their platform, according to Andrew Burke, CEO of Amino Communications.
The increased availability of video content ‘Over The Top’ freely available over the telco network, using an advertising and sponsorship business model, should be incorporated into what Burke called ‘Hybrid Cubed’ technology, which would lead to a more personalised service.
"You’re not seeing true interactive personalisation with current hybrid offerings," said Burke. "As the battle hots up, the experience has to be better, and that means personalisation." He predicted that IBC 2009 would see "true interactivity, true personalisation," on such platforms.
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6m can’t afford live footballThe beautiful game has become too expensive to watch live on TV for six million football fans, according to research from the CentreForum event at this year’s UK Liberal Democrat conference.
Some 73 per cent of fans interviewed who do not subscribe to premium sports channels, accounting for 12 per cent (6 million) of the total UK population, said that they feel excluded from their favourite sport. Of those fans priced out of live football, 77 per cent say they want to watch more live sport than they do currently and 90 per cent at least sometimes miss an event or match because they don’t have access to premium live sports channels.
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US DTV transition awareness risesConsumer awareness of the transition to digital television (DTV) has grown 12 percentage points to 86 per cent since the first of the year, according to new market research released today by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). This growth can be attributed to the ongoing joint educational efforts of government and private sector entities.
CEA also released new survey results that predict the continued success of the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA)’s converter box coupon program. With five months remaining before the transition date, almost one-third (32 per cent) of households using an antenna on at least one television have already applied for their converter box coupon. Another 37 per cent of antenna households plan to request their coupon within the year, while 21 per cent don’t plan to request a coupon at all. This data suggests that antenna households will request an additional 14 million converter box coupons in the coming months, well within the available number of coupons remaining in NTIA’s programme.
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BT Vision keeps kid’s TV ad-free
BT Vision is to keep its children’s channels ad free after its research reveals a majority of parents want ads banned from children’s TV programming altogether.
The survey, commissioned by BT Vision, found that three quarters of parents questioned want advertising around children’s TV programmes banned. Parents are concerned that TV advertisements are turning their children into cynical consumers and relentlessly driving youngsters’ desires for the latest ‘must-have’ brands. Although around half of the parents questioned believed their children didn’t watch too much TV, 76 per cent of parents named TV as the main medium though which their children were exposed to adverts.
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Cable Europe renames technology labsThe technology arm of Cable Europe is also adopting a new corporate identity that is closely aligned with the brand of its parent organisation. This will help the association to better leverage its communications efforts and enhance the profile of the cable industry. Cable Europe Labs was previously known as ECL or EuroCableLabs. The rebranding follows the decision in 2006 to rename the Cable Association as Cable Europe.
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Nuts TV loyalty cardTurner Broadcasting has become the first broadcaster to strike a deal with MiCard to create an interactive loyalty card scheme for lads channel Nuts TV, in a move that has seen the channel become interactive red button enabled. The scheme launches this month.
MiCard is a viewer relationship management (VRM) scheme with the infrastructure to create a Nuts TV branded loyalty environment called "Nuts Loyalty". This is the first time that a third party has utilised the second slot in the Sky set top box to create a loyalty card scheme. Once viewers receive their Nuts TV branded loyalty card they are invited to insert it into the interactive slot in their Sky set top box and an interactive application, developed using the Ensequence On Q tool set, triggers a series of ‘call to action’ instructions on screen.
MiCard has agreed exclusive deals with brands such as Kitbag, Just Eat, and Dixons and viewers are able to redeem points earned whilst they watch to access them. Earned points are stored on the card’s memory chip and converted to a digital voucher once a designated points level has been reached. In order to redeem points against prizes and discounts, viewers go online and enter the voucher code. The scheme is anticipated to generate a substantial data source, as well as new revenue streams for Nuts TV.
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Tuesday 16th September
Open download consortium
Numericable tops 100,000 fibre subs
Abertis and Microsoft to launch IPTV platform
BT bid for football rights?
Consumer demand drives HD online content
Mobile TV – size matters
Orca Interactive, ruwido get personal with fingerprints
Conax pairs chips for increased security
All3Media on BlinkBox
UK broadband faltering
Ericsson signs Sonaecom and KPN deals
SBB expands with Eutelsat
Strong distributes ADB
Open download consortiumAnother consortium has been formed to encourage open download and transfer of paid media. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), consortium brings together Warner Bros, Fox Entertainment, NBC Universal, Sony, Paramount Pictures and Comcast with US retailer Best Buy along with technology providers Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Philips, Toshiba and Verisign. Each company has an invested an unspecified sum in the endeavour.
"When we start to bundle these digital rights together, we believe we can actually develop and deliver a product to the consumer that's better than free," said Mitch Singer, chief technology officer at Sony Pictures and the lead architect of DECE.
All together, they are mounting a radical redefinition of digital rights management. In its current form, DRM largely confines content to a limited number of devices depending on the source of that content. DECE intends that participating devices and services will be interoperable regardless of differing makes. DECE would allow an unlimited number of copies of a video to be created or burned onto a disc.
The consumer would even have the option of not storing the copy at all, but rather streaming it from a server-based "rights locker" that can be tapped from any location.
The consortium plans to design a logo that will be placed on products and websites to let consumers know that those products and services are compatible with DECE standards.
"We will be developing a... specification that services and device makers can license. They can use the logo to associate their device, knowing that when the consumer goes to buy the content, they know it will play," Singer said.
Singer says Apple (and associated studio Disney) would be welcome to the consortium.
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Numericable tops 100,000 fibre subs
From Sotires Eleftheriou in ParisPierre Danon, the brand new head of French cable operator Numericable, announced a new policy of disclosing key figures to the press. Numericable is the outcome of the recent merger of all the major French cable operators, plus the telco Completel.
Danon announced the enlarged group has 9.6 million cable outlets in homes, 8.3 million of which are enabled for triple play. 3.4 million are FTTH. 2.7 million of these outlets were active as of 31st August. It now has 104,000 optical fibre subscribers with a bandwidth of 100 Mb/s – well ahead of the country’s leading triple play operator Orange, which has only 42,000 optical fibre subscribers.
Its total TV subscribers number 3.5 million, 930,000 broadband Internet and 650,000 telephone (VOIP). The number of digital TV subscribers is over a million.
Numericable also disclosed its financial performance: turnover in the first six months of this year was E640 million, and Capex E170 million. The group has also just created a broadband operators division, based on its acquisition of Completel, to provide DSL and optical fibre services for other operators.
A new double play entry level service for E19.90 a month has been introduced, providing broadband and unlimited telephone calls to 45 countries. The speed will be up to 100 Mb/s, where this is available.Numericable made a soft entry into quad play earlier this year, by introducing a mobile telephone service. This offers a competitive rate, plus unlimited calls to the subscribers home number. Danon said that the group was not interested in a mobile operators licence, but could not exclude it for the future.
Finally, Danon stated that a considerable improvement was to continue being made in the group’s customer services, which have been its bugbear over the last few years.
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Abertis and Microsoft to launch IPTV platform
From David del Valle in MadridSpain's telco operator Abertis Telecom and Microsoft have reached an agreement to create an IPTV service that will manage and distribute DTT content using Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser multi-platform plug-in for delivering content over the Web.
This platform is also being used by other TV companies, such as TF1, RTL, France Television, iTV, MSN UK and Setanta. The CEO of Abertis, Salvador Alemany, said that "the agreement… opens new possibilities in the development of DTT through the Internet and in the search of new joint initiatives in the corporate social responsibility".
The Abertis Telecom service is using Microsoft IMM (Interactive Media Manager) as the backend workflow solution to acquire and manage digital content.
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BT is mulling a bid for rights to the Premier League when the auction for coverage of the competition gets underway early next year. The contest is also set to involve ESPN and the current holders Sky and Setanta.
Dan Marks, BT Vision’s chief executive, has called a bid an "interesting idea". In the 2006 auction for rights through to the 2009/10 season Sky bid £1.3 billion (E1.64bn) for 92 games in three packages. Setanta paid £392 million for its 46 games across two packages.
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Consumer demand drives HD online content
From Colin Mann in Amsterdam
Rich media specialist Akamai Technologies has revealed that trend research conducted with attendees of this year’s IBC2008 shows that 82 per cent of European broadcast organisations have plans to offer High Definition (HD) video content to online audiences in the next 12 months. Akamai’s survey – involving primarily European TV stations, TV networks and video and film production professionals in Europe - revealed that nearly 50 per cent of those questioned believed that consumer demand for higher quality video, in addition to the ability to attract new audiences with differentiated video experiences, were the primary drivers for offering HD content online.
Close to one-fifth of those surveyed are already offering HD experiences online, and the market in Europe is expected to expand over the coming year. When asked about their timeframes for providing online HD video, 64.5 per cent of broadcast organisations responded that they were either offering HD programming to online audiences already or planned to do so in the next 12 months, with 19 per cent planning to do so in the next six months. Video quality standards are also increasing the bitrates by which content is being delivered. Close to 60 per cent of the European broadcasters questioned stated that they planned to deliver their online HD content in bitrates well over 4 Mbps, and around 20 per cent said that they were even aiming for bitrates of more than 8 Mbps.
Short-form content is still leading the pack in terms of consumer interest, with 63 per cent of respondents saying they would continue to offer this to their viewers. However, close to 50 per cent also indicated that they would be offering longer-form content, such as movies and full-length TV episodes. This is in contrast to a survey Akamai conducted with North American broadcasters in November 2007 that revealed that only 35 per cent planned to offer long-form content.
"This indicates to Akamai that broadcasters’ increased plans to support long-form content is being driven by the shift towards Internet Television and Internet-enabled devices that allow viewers to access online video content from the comfort of their living rooms," said Alex Gibbons, Director, Digital Media Europe at Akamai. "The shift toward Internet TV has users demanding new video quality standards and offers broadcasters ample opportunities to develop new premium business models around HD content."
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Mobile TV – size mattersA panel of broadcast industry experts and insiders at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival have united on one opinion about the potential for mobile TV - screen size matters and determines viewing length.
VIP visitors and senior executives from the broadcast world were invited to try out iWear personal viewing headsets from Vuzix. With the headsets on, mobile phones and other portable viewing devices such as the iPod Nano, are suddenly transformed into the equivalent of a 62" LCD screen.
Offered this option, 83 per cent of the experts who tried the headsets - including representatives from BSkyB and ProSieben - agreed that they would be much more likely to download and watch mobile content on a personal "big screen" display.
The panel results also revealed just how far the mobile TV industry still has to go and why bigger screens could be the key to unlocking market potential.
Some 40 per cent of the respondents admitted that they do not currently watch video content on their mobile screen, and of those that do, mobile video snacking is still the norm - 50 per cent watch for only two minutes on average and less than 15 per cent watch for longer than ten.
"Bigger screens mean more viewers for longer periods," said David Lock, Director of European Operations at Vuzik, "that much was clear. But what was also interesting is that while we expected people to say they would use the headsets to view mobile content while travelling, twice as many people said they would view content at home. The potential is certainly there for the mobile phone, as a connected device, to become a viewing medium of choice - but the screen size is critical to its success."
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Orca Interactive, ruwido get personal with fingerprints
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamIPTV middleware and applications specialist Orca Interactive and infrared products manufacturer ruwido have developed a finger print recognition functionality that will provide viewers with one of the most personalised, interactive TV experience available on the IPTV market. Based on ruwido’s voco remote control - enabling automatic user distinction and a revolutionary personal TV user experience – the innovation aims to provide a breakthrough opportunity for operators and advertisers to provide more targeted services to niche audiences that best reflect individual user interests and needs.
Available over Orca's PTV middleware RiGHTv and the content discovery solution Compass, voco will enable users to create individual TV viewing profiles, facilitating instant access to their personalised TV environment such as favourite channels, skins, favourite video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR) and optimised, personalised content recommendations- all readily available by a swipe of the finger. The solution provides a subscriber-friendly approach to privatisation and safety identity by providing secure payment options for pay-TV entertainment. In addition, the new offer is designed to simplify yet ensure effective parental control features through separate user profiles.
Advertisers and operators will benefit from strong revenue possibilities by further recognising each user's personal characteristics and preferences as a means to offer specific services and a more engaging targeted advertising agenda.
"The advanced dual offer successfully reflects ruwido's ambition to create user experience excellence in the context of home. voco provides users with the security to effectively distinguish and explore their personal tastes as part of an enriched TV viewing experience", said Ferdinand Maier, Managing Director of ruwido.
Sefy Ariely, VP Sales and Marketing of Orca Interactive, said that as personalisation continued to take precedence in the multimedia TV arena, personal recognition technology was representative of the next leap forward in the evolving interactive TV experience.
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Conax pairs chips for increased security
From Nick Snow in AmsterdamConditional access provider Conax is claiming success with introducing increased levels of security to meet the new challenges that digital TV operators face. Chipset Pairing is a technology that provides operators and content providers with an additional level of security for their premium content, ensuring that specified content is released only to the client devices supporting Conax Chipset Pairing.
Conax CAS7, together with Conax chipset pairing, provides operators with the highest level of security for content distribution. The combined solution offers operators the best insurance available against the illegal consumption of content.
Conax has successfully extended its open STB policy, creating a new environment where it is possible to embed an additional level of security into the STB. Conax will continue to provide information and guidelines for STB vendors to support the Conax solution. For chipset pairing-enabled STBs and CAMs however, Conax requirements stipulate that the client devices undergo both a functionality test and a security evaluation to receive certification.
"Through this strategy, Conax has created an incentive for STB vendors to supply the most secure STBs to the market, so we feel that our strategy to introduce chipset pairing has been most successful. Both quality and security levels of the STBs have improved significantly in the last years," claimed Berit Svendsen, CEO, Conax.
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All3Media on BlinkBoxAll3Media International has struck a major online distribution deal to make its programmes available via video service BlinkBox. The deal will see 56 episodes from nearly 20 shows available via BlinkBox.
BlinkBox, the online video service that fashions itself as a cross between iTunes and Facebook, will provide all of All3Media's content free of charge using an ad-supported model. The company said it was the first major online distribution deal that All3Media has done beyond its traditional broadcast partners, which include Channel 4 and ITV.
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UK broadband falteringThe quality of broadband connections in the UK are below the average recorded in 42 countries, a Cisco study has revealed. Sweden and the Netherlands had the best-performing broadband connections in Europe. The study found that both countries benefited from increasing investments in fibre and cable network upgrades, coupled with competition diversity, and were supported by strong government vision and policy.
Over half the 42 countries studied enjoyed broadband connections at the level of performance required to deliver a consistent quality experience for most common web applications. Some major countries, including the UK, Spain and Italy, fell just below the threshold. Japan topped the table.
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Ericsson signs Sonaecom and KPN deals
Ericsson has signed an agreement with Portuguese triple play operator Sonaecom to provide and integrate its open, standards-based, end-to-end IPTV solution. It includes Ericsson's new IMS-based IPTV middleware and enables the operator to deliver personalised and interactive TV experiences to its subscribers. Under this Prime Integrator agreement, Ericsson will upgrade Sonaecom's IPTV system by delivering and integrating a next-generation, end-to-end IPTV solution.Ericsson and Dutch mobile network operator KPN have also signed a contract for hosted mobile advertising. This marks Ericsson's first contract for hosted mobile advertising. Under the agreement, Ericsson will provide KPN with a flexible end-to-end business solution for managing and delivering targeted advertisements to be displayed on mobile phones and other devices. The hosted service enables KPN to deliver targeted advertisements based on consumer preferences to individual network users via mobile Internet pages and various messaging services.
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SBB expands with EutelsatSBB, Serbia’s leading cable and satellite operator, has inked a contract with Eutelsat Communications for a fourth transponder on Eutelsat’s W2 satellite. The new capacity will support expansion of SBB’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) television platform called Total TV which addresses subscribers in Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The contract covers a lease of a 36MHz transponder for seven years at Eutelsat’s 16 degrees East neighbourhood. The new capacity will be used for improving Total TV’s regional offer as well as to support additional channels for the Bosnian pay-TV service and soon to be launched Croatian pay-TV service.
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Strong distributes ADBSet-top box develooper ADB has named Strong as a new distributor of its IPTV set-top boxes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa markets. Strong will dispense the ADB 2800, 3800 and 5800 series of IPTV set-top boxes, which will be sold under the ADB and i-CAN brands.
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Monday 15th September
Kangaroo concessions
Sky Picnic cancelled
KKR takes on Sat 1 debt
Bank will sell UK spectrum
Portuguese cable TV slow growth
Kudelski claims Europe piracy victory
HBO launches HD channels on AMOS
Cinea, Harmonic and NDS develop VOD
Conax to support secure broadcast home cinema
IBM and Widevine aid Skynet
SES Astra capacity deal with ETV
Kudelski continues fight against piracy
Irdeto expands STB deal with Cisco
Kangaroo concessionsProject Kangaroo, the online video service from BBC, ITV and C4, is under investigation by the Competition Commission and broadcasters such as BSkyB and Virgin media claim it would control too much of the emerging market for online television in the UK. The FT reports that this pressure has forced Kangaroo to backtrack on plans to retain exclusive rights to programmes commissioned by its shareholders.
Kangaroo is now likely to allow other online services to show catch-up TV, the most popular shows for on-demand viewing. ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC will retain the rights to syndicate programmes up to 30 days after transmission.
Such a gesture would demonstrate Kangaroo takes criticism seriously and is open to compromise. But Chris Goodall, of Enders Analysis told the FT: "They wanted to be the Google of UK video-on-demand," said Mr Goodall. "This step makes it less likely that they will be able to achieve the monopoly profit that they had hoped to. But it may not be enough to satisfy the competition authorities."
Pact, the independent producers’ association, wants Kangaroo to make its entire library available to other on-demand services "at a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory price". "The market power of the broadcasters associated with Kangaroo in primary and secondary television is therefore likely to be extended into the video-on-demand market," Pact told the Commission. But Ashley Highfield, Kangaroo’s chief executive, said their 70 per cent share of broadcast viewing would not transfer online. "British broadcasters face intense competition from powerful players in our market. Many of them have gained real competitive advantage by linking their video-on-demand services to brilliant pieces of hardware. No single UK broadcaster could compete with Apple, Microsoft and Sony" Google owner of YouTube, was the only company to welcome Kangaroo in its submission to the Competition Commission.
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Sky Picnic cancelledRedundancies are expected at BSkyB after it axed Picnic, its pay TV service on Freeview, and launched a consultation with 28 staff. Sky first started developing plans for the service some 18 months ago but has been unable to launch because Ofcom has not completed its regulatory investigation.
Picnic, which would have seen Sky replace its three free-to-air Freeview channels with a paid-for service, had employed as many as 70 staff. A spokesman for BSkyB said that regulatory delays forced it to let go of 40 contractors and that a core BSkyB staff of 28 were now involved in a consultation process.
"We want to invest in Picnic because it will be good for consumers and a good opportunity for Sky but the blunt truth is that Ofcom has spent 18 months looking at our proposals and there is no end in sight," said a spokesman for BSkyB."While regulation works at its own pace, no business can go on like this indefinitely so we've had to take some pragmatic decisions. We will decide whether to reactivate the project when we have regulatory clarity."
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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira, the private equity owners of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, have acquired chunks of debt in the struggling German television broadcaster.
The debt purchases – about E100 million by KKR’s credit arm and Permira’s debt subsidiary – are the latest examples of how, as the credit crunch has made it harder for private equity groups to secure debt for new buy-out deals and driven down the price of the loans issued for existing deals, the attraction of buying debt has increased.
KKR is believed to have acquired about E100 million of first lien debt issued by the holding company of ProSiebenSat.1, which sits above the listed operating company and is secured on the private equity group’s shares in the German broadcaster. The US private equity group made the debt purchase via KKR Fixed Income, its $18 billion credit investment arm, at a discounted price of 70 cents in the euro.
Last year Bank of America, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland and UniCredit sold on most of the debt used to finance KKR and Permira’s E3.1 billion purchase of a 50.1 per cent stake in ProSiebenSat.1.
However, critics argue that if a private equity group owns debt and equity in a company that runs into trouble, it might try to block other creditors from forcing a renegotiation of its loans.
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Morgan Stanley has won the contract to market the prime broadcast spectrum that will become available for sale once all television stations switch from analogue to digital signals in 2012.
The auction, which could raise up to £5 billion (E6.3bn) for the Treasury, will make available up to eight packages of wavelength in a "sweet spot" on the spectrum. About 128Mhz of spectrum in the sweet spot around 700Mhz will be available. Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, is expected to begin the process at the end of next year or in early 2010.
Morgan Stanley beat several other banks and two marketing companies to the contract, the value of which was not disclosed. Analysts expect existing telecoms companies to take up most of the spectrum, although Ofcom believes that it can spark wider interest from around the world.
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Portuguese cable TV slow growth
From Branislav Pekic in RomeAt the end of the second quarter, the number of cable TV subscribers in Portugal totalled 1.5 million, representing a 2.9 per cent growth on the previous year, only 42,000 new subscribers were added.
The total number of pay-TV subscribers in the period reached 2.1 million or 20 per cent of the population. Cable TV has around 70 per cent of the total subscribers, followed by DTH with 24.5 per cent while other technologies (IPTV and FWA) are responible for the remaining 5.5 per cent.
In the period the Zon group (Zon Multimédia, Zon Açores and Zon TV Cabo Madeirense) had 74.3 per cent share of subscribers, followed by Cabovisão (14 per cent), PTC (5.4 per cent), TVTel (3.4 per cent) and other operators (2.9 per cent).
The number of cabled households arrived to 4.21 million at the end of June, 75,000 more than in the prevous quarter and 281,000 more than in the same period last year. For its part, DTH currently has 525,000 subcribers or 26,000 more than in the previous quarter (+5.1 per cent) and 80,000 more (+18 per cent) than at the end of the second quarter of 2007.
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Kudelski claims Europe piracy victoryKudelski, which owns Nagravision says it scored a big victory in its fight against pay-TV piracy in Europe with a German court prohibiting one of the main "free-to-air" TV decoder importers from importing, possessing or marketing TV decoders that have decoding capabilities. The decoders contain an electronic mechanism that makes it possible to circumvent conditional access systems and allow for the illegal reception of pay-TV programming.
Although the banned "free-to-air" decoders also allow for reception of free (unencrypted) programming, the court found that the devices are illegal because they contain the electronic mechanism, the company said. The company, Heinrich Zehnder GmbH, risks a fine of up to E250,000 or a prison sentence for executives if it does not comply with the verdict."This verdict is a clear message for manufacturers and importers of ‘de facto' pirate decoders. From now on, they will have to ensure that such decoders are not equipped with technical elements that - by themselves or through the downloading of pirate software - allow circumvention of content protection systems and the illegal reception of encrypted content," Kudelski said in a statement.
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HBO launches HD channels on AMOS
From Nick Snow in AmsterdamThe AMOS satellites operator announced that HBO Central Europe has launched three new HD channels using Spacecom's AMOS satellites. The three channels target HBO's growing presence in key markets of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The leading Central European producer and broadcaster signed a deal with Spacecom to expand its channel bouquet on the AMOS satellites for transmission of its new HD channels during a ten-year period. The three new HD channels contain premium content, which until now had been distributed in SD format only, and now will be retailed by cable and DTH platforms across the CEE region.
The addition of these leading HD channels strengthens AMOS' channel neighborhood and the new deal demonstrates the strong, long-term partnership between the two companies.
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Cinea, Harmonic and NDS develop VOD
Cinea, a subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories, Harmonic and NDS are developing an integrated video-on-demand (VOD) solution which harnesses Cinea’s Running Marks watermarking technology, Harmonic's VOD platform, and NDS’s conditional access solution VideoGuard. This integrated-solution architecture can allow system operators to easily deploy VOD with built-in conditional access and session-based watermarking without needing to upgrade their deployed set-top boxes.
Harmonic’s VOD solutions, which include the StreamLiner video servers and Armada intelligent content distribution network software, provide operators with a complete, scalable and flexible video delivery platform for delivery of any video service to a variety of devices."We are committed to offering comprehensive, high quality and flexible VOD solutions to the marketplace," said David Price, vice president of business development for Harmonic. "As film release windows become shorter and popularity of VOD continues to grow, efficiently protecting on-demand content becomes more and more critical. The combination of Cinea’s forensic watermarking capability and NDS’s conditional access solutions with Harmonic’s VOD platform offers operators a best-in-class solution to meet their needs."
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Conax to support secure broadcast home cinema
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamLobal provider of security solutions for digital TV operations, Conax, has revealed its support for Common Interface+ (CI+) on Conditional Access Modules (CAMs). The founders of the CI+ forum and CAM manufacturers are driving market development of the new CI+ standard that implements protection between the CAM and the digital television receiver. Conax will be ready to support the upcoming market of advanced HD flat screens with a built in slot for CI+ modules, without needing the extra set top box.
"Digital TV operators experience that today's DVB Common Interface (CI) standard, where content is transmitted in clear between the CI module and the STB, does not provide the necessary level of security for HD content. Consequently content providers and digital TV operators are avoiding these modules," says Geir Bjørndal, COO/Sales & Marketing Director, Conax. The new CI+ standard supports the authentication and encryption mechanisms that provide a secure channel between the CAM and the integrated digital TV (IDTV).
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IBM and Widevine Technologies, are helping Skynet, the Internet Service Provider arm of Penki Kontinentai group, to provide premium TV content to all 25,000 Skynet users in Lithuania.
Skynet turned to IBM and content protection partner Widevine for the technology needed to better secure content for television and Video on Demand (VoD) distribution. To meet consumer demands, Skynet will launch a new service later this year, with basic and premium television channels to will compete with mainstream cable, satellite and other IPTV providers in region. Skynet will deliver PayTV services to set top boxes at their ‘PenkiTV’ subscribers and are planning to expand service delivery to PCs in the very near future.
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SES Astra capacity deal with ETVSES ASTRA, an SES company, has signed the first capacity agreement with a customer for its African capacity ASTRA 4A at the orbital position 5 degrees East. The South African broadcaster ETV contracted one transponder on the beam targeting the sub-Saharan region. ETV uses the capacity for its 24-hours news channel broadcast which is carried by the South African bouquet Multichoice.
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Kudelski continues fight against piracyThe Kudelski Group has announced a new judicial success in its continuous fight against all forms of piracy attacks or threats against pay TV signals. In a verdict rendered on August 27th, the county court of Frankfurt-am-Main prohibited one of the main "free-to-air" TV decoder importers in Germany, Heinrich Zehnder GmbH, from importing, possessing, or marketing a model of TV decoders containing an electronic mechanism that makes possible the circumvention of conditional access systems and allows the illegal reception of pay-TV programs.
Although the banned "free-to-air" decoders also allow reception of free (unencrypted) television programs, the Court found these devices illegal because they contain an electronic mechanism with the sole function of facilitating piracy of encrypted content.
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Irdeto expands STB deal with Cisco
Irdeto, expert in content and business model protection solutions and services has confirmed further expansion of a set-top box licence agreement with Cisco, global player in networking for the Internet. The agreement enables Cisco to integrate Irdeto's Conditional Access (CA) solution with its set-tops.
