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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 12th September
Tesco movie downloads
News Corp man for Premiere
YouTube draws 5bn in July
Sling Media into Spain
ESPN nets Twenty20 rights
Thomson sells Grass Valley
Korean IPTV rolling out
Scopus unveils IRP platform
Open IPTV Forum grows stronger
Red Bee opens gateway to Digital Hive
ITN Clips on Demand
Comstar-Direct expands with Tandberg
Tesco movie downloadsTesco Digital is in talks with content providers including BBC Worldwide, ITV Worldwide and Fremantle Media to launch TV and film content via its digital download store. The service is hoped to launch before Christmas.
Tesco is understood to be negotiating direct deals with content providers rather than via a third-party aggregator. One TV company said the popularity of the Tesco website, coupled with its marketing clout and ability to "sell anything" was a sign of the impact the retailer could have on the emerging online video market.
Tesco Digital launched a digital download music and games service in April offering around 3m tracks priced from 79p. It was unavailable for comment as
News Corp man for PremiereNews Corp has moved to replace outgoing Premiere CEO Michael Börnicke with Mark Williams, a senior News man and one of the company’s recent appointments to the Premiere Supervisory Board. Börnicke is said to have resigned for personal reasons.
Earlier this week News Corp COO Peter Chernin said the company was looking to further increase its holding in Premiere, but the timing was still open.
YouTube draws 5bn in JulyDigital world data analyser comScore has released July 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month.
In July, Google Sites once again ranked as the top US video property with more than 5 billion videos viewed (representing a 44 per cent share of the online video market), with YouTube accounting for more than 98 per cent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 446 million videos (3.9 per cent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 282 million (2.5 per cent) and Yahoo! Sites with 269 million (2.4 per cent). Hulu ranked eighth with 119 million videos, representing 1 per cent of all videos viewed.
Sling Media into Spain
From David Del Valle in MadridSling Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EchoStar, is launching its SlingBox products, Pro and Solo, to allow their customers in Spain to watch and control the home TV from almost every network-connected device: PC, MAC, or mobile phones.
SlingBox devices are able to support 640 x 480 video signals and even 16:9 with plans to allow HD in the future. Equipped with a Analogue and Digital PAL tuner, SlingBox Pro can even connect up to three devices and will cost E299. The basic SOLO connects to only one device and is marketed at a price of E199.
Once installed the user will have a password in order to watch the TV channels from anywhere. The minimum bandwidth needed is 256Kb and 1MB in case of the HD version of Slingbox Pro. To have access through the mobile phone, the user has to download a specific application at a cost of E30.
ESPN nets Twenty20 rightsUS sports broadcaster ESPN has paid almost $1 billion for the global rights to the Twenty20 Champions League, the world's richest cricket competition, in a 10-year deal, securing the commercial and marketing rights for the tournament until 2017.
ESPN paid $900 million for the commercial rights and a further $75 million for marketing the tournament. A bid for the rights from Abu Dhabi Sports Club was "disqualified for being a conditional bid".
Thomson sells Grass ValleyThomson is selling the Thomson Grass Valley digital film transfer equipment business to private investors led by PARTER Capital Group, a German private equity firm. The sale includes the market-leading Spirit film scanning family, together with the Bones digital intermediate workflow tools and LUTher, a colour space management product. Financial terms are not being made public.
Korean IPTV rolling outAfter a long drawn out process, three Korean telcos are finally preparing to launch real time IPTV broadcasts after getting the green light from the government. Trials by KT Corp, Hanarotelecom and LG Dacom are set to begin imminently, to complement the operators’ existing on-demand IPTV services. Around 200 homes will take part in each trial.
Scopus unveils IRP platform
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamScopus Video Networks is introducing its Integrated Receiver Processor (IRP) platform, the next generation of Scopus's Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) technology. The versatile multiformat receiving/decoding/processing platform for cable, satellite, terrestrial, and IPTV operations, the IRP brings together an array of processing capabilities, such as multiplexing, IP streaming, transmodulation, and descrambling, to provide a complete reception solution for content contribution and distribution over IP, ASI, or satellite infrastructures.
"Today's broadcast operators and content providers are challenged like never before to expedite a smooth transition to digital broadcasting and establish mass delivery of HD services," noted Yan Mostovoy, associate VP of marketing at Scopus Video Networks. "At the same time, the environment in which they operate has become increasingly complex, requiring the ability to manage a large variety of video formats, technologies, and standards" he explained. "With the IRP platform, we're directly addressing these challenges by bringing together multiple front-ends, programme descramblers, and powerful remultiplexing capabilities, all within a compact 1-RU chassis."
Open IPTV Forum grows strongerThe Open IPTV Forum, the pan-industry initiative that was established to produce the end-to-end solution specification which will open up access to the interactive and personalised services offered by IPTV, significantly expanded its membership this month. Seven new members joined, bringing the total number of groups working within the forum to 44.
The new members are; EnCentro, HwaCom Systems, Institut fuer Rundfunktechnik, Neotion, Sigma Designs, UTStarcom and WyPlay
Red Bee opens gateway to Digital Hive
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamRed Bee Media has extended its Digital Hive media management platform with a secure Media Gateway to enable clients to transfer large media files over an ordinary Internet connection. This will allow clients to receive or deliver either work in progress or completed programmes as files rather than on tape or fed over dedicated circuits, resulting in improved efficiency and reduced costs.
"File-based delivery has many advantages, but existing internet technologies like FTP simply do not scale to support the transmission of massive media files over standard networks," explained Sue Farrell, Head of Architecture at Red Bee Media. "The Media Gateway is designed to provide the fastest possible transfers, making it feasible to deliver even high-definition programmes as files over existing networks in a reasonable timeframe."
The Media Gateway opens the Digital Hive media management platform to new applications, reducing the need for dedicated network links while providing a secure and efficient means of transferring media files over existing broadband connections.
ITN Clips on DemandITN Source has launched Clips on Demand, the world’s largest collection of broadcast-quality, ‘rights-ready’ video clips available for purchase and download online for the first time. Over half a million clips are on offer, covering news, history, entertainment and wildlife selected from ITN Source’s range of video archives. A range of clips will be added every minute of every day from ITN Source’s content partners including ITN, Reuters, FOX Movitone, Setanta Sports News and UTV.
Comstar-Direct expands with TandbergTandberg Television has revealed that Comstar-Direct, Russia's leading provider of broadband Internet access services and a member of Comstar-UTS Group Telesystems is expanding its IPTV head-end to support MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding. The Moscow-based ISP is a long-standing customer of Tandberg’s MPEG-2 encoders for its standard definition television service. The upgrade means Comstar-Direct can benefit from the higher bandwidth efficiencies of MPEG-4 AVC encoding, which is ideally suited for video over DSL networks.
Thursday 11th September
Disney: ISPs should ban pirates
Pace demo DVB-T2
Virgin adds Directors
Half of Europe's youth go online for TV and movies
Sat radio first guidance
Mobile TV growth driven by broadcasters and consumers
DirecTV and Liberty Entertainment merging?
Brent for Sky
NBC back on iTunes
CRTC: Internet firms should fund TV content
Open TV, Adobe enrich TV experiences
Microsoft and Hauppauge bring Freeview to PCs
Ericsson launches IMS IPTV middleware
France 24 on iPhone
Disney: ISPs should ban piratesBob Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, has called on Internet service providers to ban people who illegally download content.
In July, six of the UK's biggest ISPs signed a memorandum of understanding with the government, music industry body the BPI and the Motion Picture Association to reduce illegal filesharing within three years.
Iger said as part of the deal between distribution businesses and firms like Disney, clauses should be made that people who illegally download content are banned. "We are simply asking for people who are downloading illegal files to get a warning initially then to get their service cut off," he said. "That should be part of the agreement with these companies. We are not asking for information on who the customer is or to show up with law enforcement authorities."
"Most distribution businesses succeed because they have a distribution process in place. They also have product. We contribute to that mightily. It is a joint partnership. As part of that pact to give our product and make it available on their platform, we believe they should work with us to prevent people from stealing. It is in their best interests we well," he added.
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Pace demo DVB-T2
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamPace plc is demonstrating the first set-top box capable of receiving and displaying DVB-T2 HD content at IBC 2008.Pace’s prototype consists of the world’s first DVB-T2 front-end (the silicon tuner TDA18211 and a prototype of the forthcoming demodulator TDA10055) from NXP Semiconductors and a Pace high definition terrestrial set-top box which will receive a live MPEG-4 HD stream from an Enensys DVB-T2 Modulator based at the DVB stand at the show.
DVB-T2 brings efficiencies of between 30 per cent and 50 per cent in its use of spectrum compared to DVB-T and is expected to be a key enabler to the roll out of high definition TV in the UK over Freeview.
Darren Fawcett, Chief Technologist for Wireless Systems at Pace plc commented: "The take up of high definition services within mature TV markets is picking up speed, and is expected to grow substantially over the next five years. But this HD content is currently in the cable and satellite domains. To enable terrestrial services to compete effectively with the other platforms, DVB-T2 is an essential move. As we saw with the shift to the DVB-S2 standard for satellite services, the extra efficiencies in the use of the spectrum will make the option of delivering HD via DTT viable."
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Virgin adds DirectorsVirgin Media has confirmed the appointment of two new independent non-executive directors; Charles Allen and John Rigsby.
Allen is non-executive Chairman of Global Radio, the UK commercial radio group that recently acquired GCap Media plc and has recently been appointed as a non-executive director of TV production company, Endemol. He served as Chief Executive Officer of ITV plc from 2004 to 2006.
Rigsby has over 30 years experience in the cable industry and was most recently President of Bright House Networks' Florida Group, a position he held since 2003. He spent eight years as the president of the Florida Division of Time Warner Cable.
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Half of Europe's youth go online for TV and movies
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamEurope’s younger generation is leading the way in adoption of web TV services, according to research to be released by Strategy Analytics at this year’s IBC convention.
The Strategy Analytics survey of 2,500 European broadband users shows that nearly 50 per cent of under 25s from the five major Europe markets are now regularly streaming TV shows or movies from broadcaster websites.
"Our survey suggests that broadcasters have been successful in reaching out to those demographics which have been drifting away from traditional television," commented Martin Olausson, Director of Strategy Analytics’ Digital Media research. "However, there is no room for complacency – Europe’s youth is ready to move on to alternative sources of online entertainment as soon as they are made available."
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Sat radio first guidanceSirius XM has provided its first performance guidance. On the customer side, the company said it expects to end 2008 with about 19.5 million subscribers and it will finish 2009 with about 21.5 million subscribers.Sirius XM said it expects to post pro forma revenue of about $2.4 billion in 2008 and revenue of approximately $2.7 billion in 2009. Also, it said it could incur a pro forma adjusted EBITDA loss of about $350 million this year. The company reiterated its previously stated financial guidance of about $300 million in positive adjusted EBITDA for 2009.
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Mobile TV growth driven by broadcasters and consumersMobile TV and mobile video services offered over broadcast and unicast distribution are projected to grow almost ten-fold from an estimated user base of over 57 million at the end of 2007 to 566 million users in 2013 according to market research group NSR. Much of that growth will come from free broadcast services and unicast video as a result of broadcaster involvement in mobile broadcast distribution, 3G network expansion and user/operator involvement in user-generated content (UGC) and web-mobile social networking integration.
Global service revenues comprising subscription, advertisement and transactional revenue are projected to reach $9 billion by 2013. Advertisement will exhibit the highest growth as a result of the expected proliferation of free broadcast services and ad-supported video. However, despite the long-term promise of the highly-engaging mobile video advertisement, NSR highlights the embryonic stage of mobile advertisement and believes that by 2013, mobile TV advertisement revenue will still be far from reaching its full potential.
Based on the user adoption successes of free services in Japan and Korea, NSR expects that broadcasters in the process of digitising will be vital during the initial phase of audience building and that broadcast standards fragmentation will possibly never disappear. Although network fragmentation is not desirable, its occurrence at other levels of the mobile TV supply chain can more negatively affect mobile TV growth.
"The emergence of enabling platforms bringing liquidity to distribution, advertisement and application building will play key a role towards cooperatively overcoming current fragmentation issues" stated Carlos Placido, Analyst for NSR and author of the report. "Platforms will help to make the mobile TV ecosystem efficient enough to attract the much-needed targeted advertisement revenue that would ultimately propel this application into a virtuous economic cycle."
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DirecTV and Liberty Entertainment merging?Liberty Media Corp has said it would like to merge DirecTV Group with Liberty Entertainment if the terms are suitable to its shareholders. Liberty Media has said it will spin off its nearly 50 per cent stake in DirecTV and other assets into a publicly traded Liberty Entertainment vehicle.
"We would ultimately like to have one company, a DirecTV merged with LMDIA," said Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei.
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Brent for SkyBSkyB has appointed former Burger King executive Andy Brent as its group brand marketing director. Brent will report to BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch and take a seat on the company's executive committee. BSkyB director of brand marketing Robert Tansey, marketing director of Sky Networks Alex Lewis and Christian Cull, the director of customer communications, will all report to Brent.
"The Sky brand is a critical factor in our growth," Darroch said. "Its strength has allowed us to reach out to new customers and to enter new product categories and we see a substantial opportunity for further growth."
Brent's last job was a consultancy role handling the Department of Health's £75 million obesity pitch and before that he spent three years at Boots, rising to the role of group brands director.
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NBC back on iTunesApple has agreed to drop its one-price-fits-all approach to standard television programming on its iTunes media store as part of a deal to bring shows from NBC Universal back into the digital download service.
The creator of shows such as Heroes and the US version of The Office will now be able to charge 99 cents for older episodes from its library, $1.99 for current shows and $2.99 for high definition programming. It will also be able to offer a ‘season pass’ allowing users to view multiple episodes of a programme at a discount.
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CRTC: Internet firms should fund TV contentAn independent study released yesterday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has called for a hands-off approach to regulating television on the Web, but for companies that provide Internet access to fund the creation of online Canadian television content.
The recommendations in the study, by American professor Eli Noam from the Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia University, are at odds with Internet service providers, who oppose any form of tax to help create video programming for the Internet.
One problem with taxing Internet service providers (ISPs) is that it would unfairly target everyone who pays for Internet access, said a Toronto-based digital media consultant. "Not everybody who uses the Internet watches video on the Internet," said Alan Sawyer, after reading the report.
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Open TV, Adobe enrich TV experiences
From Colin Mann in AmsterdamAdvanced television services provider OpenTV and Adobe Systems are to integrate Adobe Flash Lite software onto OpenTV middleware as an additional application environment, complementing OpenTV’s standard and HTML offerings, further enhancing Web browsing capabilities and strengthening the development of rich applications and user interfaces.
The agreement is based on a longstanding relationship between the two companies. OpenTV is also joining the Open Screen Project and will be working with Adobe and other members of the initiative to define the TV profile and Open Screen requirements to help enable great user experiences on television screens. The project brings together industry leaders to deliver a consistent runtime environment across desktops, televisions and mobile devices by leveraging Adobe Flash technology and Adobe AIR software.
Tracy Geist, OpenTV’s senior vice president of Market Development, said that by combining its technologies, the authoring and development benefits of Adobe Flash with the digital TV experience and technology of OpenTV, was opening the door to a host of new service possibilities for operators and developers worldwide. Gary Kovacs, vice president and general manager, of Mobile and Devices at Adobe, added that the pair could push the boundaries of digital TV application development and bridge the gap between various sources of content, such as Web and television.
The first commercial deployment of OpenTV Core2 middleware with integrated Adobe Flash support is expected to be targeted at the Japanese market in the second half of 2009.
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Microsoft and Hauppauge bring Freeview to PCsMicrosoft, working with tuner manufacturer Hauppauge Computer Works, has launched the first Freeview-certified, PC-based TV solution. With Windows Media Centre, Microsoft will now be able to offer UK consumers interactive and enhanced TV paired with personal video recorder (PVR) features.
Freeview support is one of the major Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) enhancements of the Windows Media Center TV Pack. Other enhancements of this update include support for Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite (DVB-S), improved guide and playback experience, great PVR auto-extend support, and the flexibility of support for multiple TV standards.
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Ericsson launches IMS IPTV middlewareEricsson has extended its TV offering with the IMS integrated IPTV middleware. The company says its open, standards based, end-to-end IPTV solution supports ease of integration and delivers vendor choice for operators.
Leading TV technology providers have integrated their consumer devices, content protection solutions, video servers and applications software with the new Ericsson IPTV solution, an open, carrier-class solution that is designed to drive the future of converged and blended communications and entertainment services.
The end-to-end IPTV solution is aligned with the Open IPTV Forum specifications and is the first solution in the world to be pre-integrated with IMS. It brings together core Ericsson solutions – new IMS-enabled IPTV middleware, IPTV network infrastructure, market-leading video processing solutions and video-on-demand technologies – with interoperable third-party products from key TV players such as Accedo Broadband, Agama Technologies, Amino, HP, SecureMedia, Sun Microsystem, Tilgin, Verimatrix, and ZyXEL.
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France 24 on iPhoneFrance 24 has launched a version of its mobile Internet site that is specially tailored for the iPhone through the 3G connection available on the latest version of the phone.
The site presents the main international headlines in the form of text, photos and videos. The latest news bulletin is also available (updated every half-hour) as are the business bulletins and the channel’s world weather report.
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Wednesday 10th September
Google to agent NBC ads
Cable America to increase capex
Google, Liberty back Africa connect
Scotland seeks digital channel
MIB guidelines for Indian IPTV
U-verse HD multi PVR
beeTV with personalised EPG
Platform HD on Eurobird 9
ITV new media head
SecureMedia protects Freewire
GET Norway selects Tandberg
Google to agent NBC adsNBC Universal has confirmed that it will sell advertising time on "several" of its cable networks through the Internet company. The announcement comes 18 months after Google reached its first deal to broker television ads on behalf of Dish Network.
NBCU and Google characterised their ad-selling move as part of a broader "strategic advertising partnership" under which Google will work to expand both the effectiveness and the reach of NBCU’s advertising base.
The Internet company’s base of existing customers would help it bring new advertisers who have not turned to television as a medium before, they claimed. They also said they would use Google’s analytical tools to develop a better understanding of how users respond to adverts, enabling them to improve the cost-effectiveness of TV advertising.
"The Google TV ads platform is making television advertising more accountable and measurable and we are pleased with our progress to date," said Tim Armstrong, the president of advertising and commerce for Google North America. "Our partnership with NBCU will help us to bring the power of television to a broader set of advertisers as well as give our current advertisers increased reach through our system."
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Cable America to increase capex
Cable network operators in North America will increase their capex spending through at least 2010 in an effort to compete more effectively with telephone and satellite service providers across the full range of voice, data, and video services, with capex totals reaching $14 billion this year and $15 billion in 2009, according to the inaugural edition of the Cable Next-Gen Technology Quarterly Market Tracker.
"Cable industry infrastructure expenditures will keep rising through at least 2010, as North American MSOs upgrade their plant and equipment for the rollout of such new technologies as switched digital video [SDV], tru2way, and Docsis 3.0," says Alan Breznick, author of the Cable Next-Gen Technology Quarterly Market Tracker. "After a slow start in the first quarter of this year, MSOs began to ramp up purchases in the second quarter, and that trend is expected to continue for the second half of this year."
Sales of set-top boxes were the biggest revenue growth driver in the second quarter, according to Breznick. "Digital set-top shipments will nearly double in 2009 and stay higher over the next few years as cable operators seek to take advantage of the upcoming US DTV transition by signing up new video subscribers. HD and DVR box shipments will keep rising steadily in the years ahead as well." MSO spending on advanced technologies such as SDV, tru2way, and Docsis 3.0 is just beginning to ramp up but will accelerate quickly in 2009-2010, Breznick adds.
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Google, Liberty back Africa connectGoogle has thrown its weight behind ambitious plans to bring internet access to 3 billion people in Africa and other emerging markets by launching at least 16 satellites to bring its services to the unconnected half of the globe.
Google has joined forces with Liberty and HSBC bank to set up O3b Networks, named after the "other 3 billion" people for whom fast fibre internet access networks are not likely to be commercially viable.
They have announced an order for 16 low-earth orbit satellites from Thales Alenia Space, the French aerospace group, as the first stage in a $750 million project to connect mobile masts in a swath of countries within 45 degrees of the equator to fast broadband networks.
Larry Alder, product manager in Google’s alternative access group, said the project could bring the cost of bandwidth in such markets down by 95 per cent. "This really fits into Google’s mission [to extend internet use] around the developing world," he said.
The partners have so far injected about $20 million each to raise $65 million, including a smaller contribution from Allen & Company, the media advisory boutique.Richard Cole, head of HSBC’s private equity group, which has already funded fixed-line communications projects in some emerging markets, said the bank would lead the search for further finance in the next two years – about 70 per cent of which will come from the debt markets.
Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, said the three partners reserved the right to contribute further towards the extra $150 million-$180 million in equity financing required, but could bring in other backers.
Greg Wyler, the technology entrepreneur who founded O3b Networks, said its satellites would be operational by the end of 2010. Wireless spectrum required for the service had been secured through the International Telecommunication Union.
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Scotland seeks digital channel
Scotland should get its own digital television channel and more money to address a significant imbalance in its share of national broadcasting, an independent inquiry has decided.
The Scottish Broadcasting Commission suggests that UK broadcasters are failing to properly serve their audiences in Scotland or spend a fair proportion of their budgets on Scottish programmes - a deficit the industry's regulators and successive governments have also failed to correct.
The commission, set up 13 months ago by Alex Salmond, the nationalist first minister, said Scotland needed a publicly-funded digital channel with its own news bulletins and a budget big enough to commission current affairs, drama and entertainment It would also be shown UK-wide on satellite, Freeview or cable.
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MIB guidelines for Indian IPTV
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued guidelines for provisioning of IPTV Services in India. The guidelines "bring clarity on various platforms capable of providing IPTV services, the regulatory provisions and licensing requirements and other issues to encourage stakeholders to launch IPTV," according to the MIB.Under the new guidelines, those eligible for providing IPTV include telecom Access Service Providers who have a licence to provide triple play services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with net worth more than Rs1 billion (E0.01bn). Cable TV operators registered under Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995, or any other telecom service provider duly authorised by the Department of Telecom, will not require further registration for offering IPTV service.
Downlinking regulations, earlier allowing broadcasters to share their channels for the cable and DTH platforms, have now been amended to include sharing of channels with the IPTV platforms.Airtel Telemedia Services president Atul Bindal said, "We welcome the policy approval. IPTV remains a strong part of Bharti Airtel’s focus on converged media solutions and we will be launching the service this year."
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U-verse HD multi PVRAT&T has upgraded the video recording function of its Internet-based television service called U-verse, stepping up its competition against cable service providers. AT&T's improved U-verse digital video recorder (DVR), called Total Home DVR, will enable users to record and play back multiple programs on different television sets around the house. Up to eight television sets will be able to access recordings from a single DVR, compared with the limit of one TV per DVR for most cable services, AT&T said. Total Home DVR can record up to four shows simultaneously, compared with two for cable.
The free upgrade will be deployed to all customers by the end of the year. It needs no visits from technicians or any new hardware as the advanced Internet protocol television (IPTV) system allows AT&T to upgrade its software remotely.
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beeTV with personalised EPGbeeTV has been unveiled as a "revolutionary new way for people to watch television".Taking existing electronic programme guides (EPGs) to a completely new level, beeTV is a "personalised channel" which allows platforms (IPTV, cable, satellite, mobile, Internet and DTT) to market and distribute their television content in a personal, push manner. beeTV enables viewers to be matched with content based on their individual tastes, behaviour and mood.
When a viewer pushes a button on the remote, the platform responds instantly with personalised, individualised matches of TV programmes and movies. beeTV uses a proprietary contextual matching algorithm to generate this personal channel in real time fuelled by the interaction of data derived from viewing behaviour, a consumer profile, timing sensitivity analysis and the business logic and marketing requirements of the platform.
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Platform HD on Eurobird 9Platforma HD, the new Russian all-HDTV platform has selected the Eurobird 9 satellite operated by Eutelsat to deliver new HD content across western parts of Russia to the Urals. The new platform was launched in August in order to offer Platforma HD’s first subscribers the Beijing Olympics in HD with the Eurosport HD channel. Platforma HD has signed a contract with Eutelsat for a full transponder on Eurobird 9. This capacity is already broadcasting the new platform’s initial offer of four HD channels.
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ITV new media headITV Worldwide, the broadcaster’s overseas commercial arm, is appointing former Roo sales director Jason Binks as head of digital and new media. ITV Worldwide says it has digitised 1,200 hours of archive content from the last half-century. Binks remit: selling that on to global digital platforms targeting distributors including Amazon and iTunes. ITV has a declared aim to make £150 million (E186m) from online by 2012.
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SecureMedia protects FreewireSecureMedia and Inuk Networks, a triple-play service provider and developer of distributed broadcast quality TV, have confirmed that Freewire is now protected by SecureMedia Encryptonite One System. Freewire is the popular IPTV service in operation at over 40 university campuses across the UK with future expansion to students in residential accommodation.
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Tandberg Television has confirmed that its OpenStream digital services platform and EQ8096 Edge QAM solutions have been selected by Get Norway for a next-generation network upgrade. Get, Norway’s leading digital television, broadband and telephony operator is integrating OpenStream to help create its video-on-demand services which it will launch this autumn. Tandberg Television is providing prime integration of a complete on-demand system to enable Get Norway to deploy a proven and flexible platform on which it can grow its market-leadership.
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Tuesday 9th September
Portugal’s Meo to add six club TV channels
Penetration of digital technology sustains growth
UK brands failing to monetise digital media strategies
HBOlab launches web video
Comcast debuts Fancast
Fewer media companies in FTSE
BBC iPlayer on Nokia phone
GlobeCast acquires NETIA
BBC to review how licence fee is collected
FastWeb launches Warner TV in Italy
Miniweb secures $32m of funding
BSG publishes costs of super-fast broadband
Chellomedia to buy Spektrum
SecureMedia protects 3PlayPlus
QVC On Demand
Portugal’s Meo to add six club TV channels
From Branislav Pekic in RomePortugal Telecom’s triple-play service Meo will boost its sports offer with the addition of five European football club TV channels.
According to the head of content at Meo, José Carlos Baldino, the IPTV operator will from September 15th add the TV channels of Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Manchester United and Real Madrid football clubs.
The new channels will be available exclusively for clients of the Meo Mix package, but during the first month will be offered free of charge in the Meo Base package as well. At the end of this period, Meo Base clients will be able to acquire this content, for a monthly fee of E0.75 per channel. On the Meo Mobile service, the new channels will be available for all TMN clients, with no additional costs.
In November, Meo will also become the exclusive platform for the Benfica football channel, which will air live coverage of the club’s UEFA matches. Carriage deals are currently underway with Cabovisão, AR Telecom and Clix Smart TV.
Meo’s sports offering currently includes three Sport TV channels, four Eurosport channels, PFC (which airs Brazilian league matches), ESPN Classic and NASN.
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Penetration of digital technology sustains growthGrowth in the broadcasting industry has been largely driven by the increasing inflow of advertising revenue as well as the unprecedented growth and acceptance registered by the pay-TV market globally, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts.
Broadcasting industry will continue to be stimulated by the new content and programs being aired with special focus on information and entertainment for niche viewer groups and put together with value-added benefits such as Internet access and loyalty card schemes. Another noteworthy factor in growth of broadcasting sector would be the emergence of interactive multimedia add-ons that provide links to other sources of information.
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UK brands failing to monetise digital media strategiesMarket research by industry analyst, Redshift Research, on behalf of Oxygen8 Communications, has found that major UK brands are still failing to monetise their digital media strategies, and campaigns are often in direct competition with traditional print or TV advertising campaigns.
The research finds that whilst consumers are interested in accessing more services from organisations on their mobile phones, corporates and media companies are failing to make the most of digital opportunities. Two thirds of organisations recognise that consumers are less receptive to traditional advertising, 76 per cent of corporates feel that Internet advertising is more effective than both TV and print. This sentiment is echoed by media companies, where 83 per cent felt that SMS and email is more effective than the traditional channels. Only 13% of media companies and 23 per cent of corporates believe that traditional media is still more important than digital media.
Budget (40 per cent) and lack of skill and experience (28 per cent) are quoted as the main barriers to using digital media more frequently. Furthermore, whilst 60 per cent of companies think it would be useful to have one single CRM system/database combining traditional and digital media campaigns, 65 per cent collect and analyse campaign data in separate systems, thus rendering them unable to gain a full view into any cross media campaigns' performance.
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HBOlab launches web videoHBOlab, an experimental offshoot of the cable powerhouse focused on online programming, is launching a Web video series featuring a cast of the Internet's most popular entertainers.
Jessica Rose, star of the Web sensation "lonelygirl15," will be joined with top YouTube talent, including video bloggers known as sxePhil and KevJumba, for the scripted comedy "Hooking Up." Set to premiere October 1st, the 10-episode series will be distributed on top video portals including YouTube and MySpace as well as a destination site, hookingupshow.com.HBO says "Hooking" could prove groundbreaking for the nascent webisode genre by amassing a sizable viewership, given its aggregation of Internet personalities who can promote the production to their devoted audiences of millions of young viewers.
For HBOlab, "Hooking" is an opportunity to take to the next level the knowledge the unit has gleaned regarding Internet video distribution.
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Comcast debuts Fancast
Comcast has launched its Fancast Store, an electronic storefront that offers more than 3,000 digital downloads of TV shows and movies for rent or purchase. The move puts Comcast’s Fancast digital entertainment portal into direct competition with the likes of Apple’s iTunes and Amazon.com.The strategy is to supplement the thousands of Fancast’s free-to-watch, ad-supported episodes and movies with paid downloads. Comcast executives have said their goal for Fancast is to build it into a destination where consumers can find any TV and entertainment content they’re looking for, regardless of release window.
The Fancast Store offers more than 1,600 movies variously available to rent, download to own or both and 1,500 TV episodes available for purchase. Pricing starts at $3.99 for 24-hour movie rentals; $9.99 for digital movie purchases and $1.99 for TV shows.
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Fewer media companies in FTSEThe number of media companies present in the FTSE 100 will be at its lowest level for more than 10 years, according to research from accountants BDO Stoy Hayward.
A review of all the companies identified that once ITV is relegated this week, only five per cent of the FTSE 100 will be media companies. This is a significant fall from the highs of 10 per cent in the early part of the decade. Other recent leavers include Yell and the Daily Mail Group.
Andy Viner, Head of Media at BDO Stoy Hayward says: "Media companies are really struggling in this difficult trading environment, particularly as spend on classified advertising is falling dramatically. Those who are best surviving the credit crunch seem to be subscription based companies such as BSkyB, where for example a large number of consumers are reluctant to give up watching football - particularly as we’re at the start of a new season."
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Users of the Nokia N96 are to be among the first with the ability to run the BBC's iPlayer on their mobile phones. From October 1st a purpose-built application will be available to download via the BBC website and will also be pre-loaded on some handsets.
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GlobeCast acquires NETIAGlobeCast Chairman and CEO Christian Pinon has confirmed that GlobeCast has acquired 100 per cent of the shares in software company NETIA. NETIA - which has offices in France, the US, Italy and Australia - offers leading software solutions for audiovisual content management.
NETIA will retain its identity and autonomy in terms of administrative functions, as well as its personnel. Both companies will optimise their product development and marketing costs by taking advantage of synergies between skillsets, and will of course co-operate both commercially and technically to the benefit of broadcasters of all sizes.
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BBC to review how licence fee is collectedThe BBC Trust is launching a public consultation as part of a wide-ranging review into how the licence fee is collected. The Trust is responsible for overseeing the licence fee collection arrangements, put in place by BBC management, and ensuring they are "efficient, appropriate and proportionate". This is a new responsibility for the BBC's governing body which is stated in the Royal Charter for the first time.
The Trusts review will consider areas such as:
- The range of payment methods available to licence fee payers and
whether it is clear to people when a TV licence is needed
- The tone of the marketing and advertising about the TV licence
- The enforcement methods used by TV Licensing, including letters,
visits and detectionThe review has been prompted by growing public concern that the BBC has been increasingly heavy handed in the way it collects fees and threatens dire consequences for non-payers. Since the BBC took over responsibility for collection non-compliance has dropped from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.
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FastWeb launches Warner TV in Italy
FastWeb has launched Warner TV, a new entertainment channel from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD). The non-exclusive new Warner TV channel is a branded Subscription Video on-demand channel that will be available to FastWeb TV subscribers as of this week. This is WBITD’s first launch of its Warner TV branded service in Italy.
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Miniweb secures $32m of fundingMiniweb, the Interactive Service Provider has confirmed a significant funding round, securing access to $32 million of venture capital investment. The funding is lead by Meritage Funds in Denver, Colorado and DeGeorge Holdings III, Nevada. The capital raised will enable Miniweb to finance its international growth and drive new momentum in the interactive TV market.
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BSG publishes costs of super-fast broadbandThe Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) – the UK government’s advisory group on broadband – will this week publish a report on the costs of deploying fibre based next generation broadband in the UK.
The report, produced by Analysys Mason for the BSG, sets out the costs of the various technology options in detail and explains how those costs mount up as fibre is pushed out across the country. It suggests that rolling out fibre nationwide would cost between £5.1 billion (E6.3bn) and £28.8 billion (depending on the technology used) and that the costs of deploying in rural areas will far exceed the costs in urban areas.
"This is the most comprehensive analysis produced to date on the costs of deploying fibre in the UK", said Antony Walker Chief Executive of the BSG. "The scale of the costs looks daunting but the report does shed light on how some of these costs can be reduced and what the likely extent of commercial rollout will be. It should focus minds of commercial players, policy makers and regulators on the potential solutions to these challenges."
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Chellomedia to buy SpektrumChellomedia, the content subsidiary of cable operator Liberty Global, is to buy Spektrum, a documentary channel in eastern Europe, in the company’s fifth acquisition in the region in less than 18 months.
Although no figure has been confirmed, Chellomedia is believed to be paying £600 million (E74.4m) for Spektrum, which is owned by HBO Central Europe, a joint venture between Home Box Office, Sony Pictures, and Walt Disney.
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SecureMedia protects 3PlayPlusSecureMedia, the technology leader in content protection software, and 3PlayPlus, Ireland's leading developer of multi-service telecommunication networks have revealed that deployment of the Encryptonite ONE System across HomeVision, 3PlayPlus' flagship residential triple play offering.
First in Ireland to deliver triple play services over a Next Generation Digital Network (NGN), HomeVision offers digital TV with 47 popular channels including premium Sky by Wire, BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Setanta Sports. HomeVision has also introduced the first VOD library to the Irish market with an extensive library of over 350 hours of programmes and 120 TV movies. HomeVision will increase its selection of standard VOD choices to include Hollywood blockbusters.
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QVC On DemandShopping channel QVC has launched QVC On Demand. QVC first launched video on demand in 2006 and, with this next generation service enabled by on demand software from Brightcove, the global online video platform, Internet customers have the flexibility to select from single product video clips to an entire programme. Customers can choose the product category that interests them to watch the last 7 days of catch-up TV, as well as bespoke programmes produced each day exclusively for QVC On Demand.
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Monday 8th September
Comcast sues FCC on shaping rule
Amazon VOD
Phorm delay
No aid for UK broadband
Online TV popularity grows
SIDSA launches EtherTV deLuxe
ODG expands in Germany
Viaccess for Star
Accedo partners with Ekioh
Comcast sues FCC on shaping ruleComcast will take the Federal Communications Commission to court over its decision to find the company in violation of the FCC's open-access guidelines. Filing in Washington, Comcast said it would comply with the terms of the FCC decision, but it was challenging the legal underpinning of that decision, as well as the findings that Comcast was in violation, which it said "were not justified by the record.""We filed this appeal in order to protect our legal rights," said Comcast, "and to challenge the basis on which the Commission found that Comcast violated federal policy in the absence of pre-existing legally enforceable standards or rules."
In August the FCC released the official order finding that the company's broadband-network-management practices were arbitrary and capricious and giving Comcast 30 days to "disclose the details" of those "unreasonable" network practices, as well as its plan for replacing them by year's end with network-management practices acceptable to the FCC.
Saying that it was inviting the public and Comcast critics to keep an eye on the company, the FCC said the order did not terminate the proceeding, but it would retain jurisdiction as it "trusts but verifies" Comcast's compliance. The FCC's order was in response to complaints by Free Press that Comcast was interfering with its customers’ use of peer-to-peer applications, notably BitTorrent, as well as its request for a declaratory ruling on just what constituted reasonable network management.
The FCC concluded that Comcast had a competitive reason to slow BitTorrent uploads since it is trying to grow its own online-video business and BitTorrent represented "a competitive threat" to cable. Comcast argued that it was simply trying to keep bandwidth hogs from impeding network traffic for other users, but the FCC countered that it was not necessarily targeting high periods of traffic or congestion -- a point Comcast ultimately conceded, the FCC said.
Also key to the FCC's finding was its conclusion that Comcast had not sufficiently notified customers about what it was doing.
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Amazon has confirmed a video-on-demand streaming service.The internet retailer said advertising-free movies and television shows could be watched instantly within a web browser or streamed directly on to Sony televisions equipped with an internet video link.
Its Amazon Video On Demand is the new name for Amazon Unbox, launched two years ago. Unbox was confined to selling digital downloads of movies and TV shows, but the new service puts the accent on paid-for streaming. "The ability to watch content instantly without downloading first was among the most requested features of our customers, and now it’s live," said Roy Price, director of the service.
Amazon’s service can also be displayed through a Tivo digital video recorder and a Microsoft Xbox 360 games console linked to a TV.
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Phorm delayPhorm, the internet advertising provider, has admitted that preparations for the first major trial of its internet advertising technology had taken "longer than originally anticipated" but that it still expected deployments to go ahead with the UK’s largest broadband providers.
Phorm’s technology is placed within internet service providers’ networks to monitor the sites visited by broadband users, in order to direct more appropriate advertising at them. Although Phorm said that the anonymity of broadband users is guaranteed, some consumer groups have expressed concern about a perceived invasion of privacy by tracking browsing behaviour.
Kent Ertugrul, Phorm chief executive, told the Financial Times that since announcing partnerships and trials with BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media, the UK’s top three ISPs, it had conducted a "lengthy dialogue across a number of different fronts" with "outside parties".
"With the touchpoints and visibility we have, we can’t afford to [deploy the technology] badly," he said. "What will be apparent after launch is what a large, complex project this is and how much preparation is required in order to execute flawlessly." Phorm said that "significant and accelerating progress has been made" towards trials with BT, its first testing partner, but did not set a start date. In April, Phorm had said it expected consumer trials to begin "in the near term".
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No aid for UK broadbandThe inquiry into Britain's broadband infrastructure looks likely to advise against major public investment in a high-speed network, with the inquiry's head, Francesco Caio, saying that this decision would not impair the competitiveness of Britain's digital market.
Caio, the Europe vice-chairman of Lehman Brothers and a former chief executive of Cable & Wireless, said he was minded to advise the government that it leave the development of a high speed broadband network to the market, rather than recommend state intervention.
He added that upgrading the UK's broadband network might "risk putting £15 billion (E18.45bn) in the ground" when there are other technologies, including wireless, that will provide alternative connectivity.
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Online TV viewing has been gaining in popularity. Nearly one-fifth of American households who use the Internet watch television broadcasts online, double the viewership from 2006, The Conference Board and TNS report. The top two destinations for online broadcasts are the official TV channel homepage and YouTube.com.
Most consumers do not like a set schedule. Being able to watch broadcasts on their own time and at their convenience are the top reasons users tune in online. Other reasons include avoiding commercials and portability. Nearly 72 per cent of online households log on for entertainment purposes on a daily basis, and one in ten cites entertainment as the most important Internet activity.
Among online TV viewers, almost nine out of ten watch online broadcasts at home. About 15 per cent say they watch Internet broadcasts in the office, and 6 per cent watch TV online from other locations, including the library or a friend's home."The shift from appointment TV to content on demand is well underway," says Michael Saxon, Senior Vice President, Brand and Communications, TNS.
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SIDSA launches EtherTV deLuxeSIDSA, the International DVB technology provider, is launching Ether TV deLuxe, the new generation of its EtherTV IP gateways, which basically stream any DVB-like signal (like DVB-T, DVB-S/S2) into IP networks.
"With EtherTV deLuxe", says Jose Luis Isidro Commercial Director of SIDSA, "we'll have a unique position in the market because no other company can offer so many functionality and flexibility in a single product".
Ether TV is a professional IP gateway for digital TV since it is able to receive any digital TV signal - through satellite, cable or via terrestrial - and convert into independent IP multicast streams. It is a key element to provide live TV streaming in triple play networks, and is able to distribute and unlimited number of TV channels to an unlimited number of viewers equipped with IP set-top-box or PCs.
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ODG expands in GermanyAlong with its results, SeaChange has revealed its On Demand Group is in advance discussions that will double the number of subscribers it has access to in the German speaking markets. Its joint venture with Tele München Group currently reaches two million homes across the networks of Kabel Deutschland, Unitymedia and Telekom Austria. It is anticipated that digital growth will boost numbers by 20 per cent over the next few years.
ODG has recently improved its content offering through new multiyear movie output deals with Warner Brothers and Fox and a number of TV series producers. Seachange announced revenues of $50.7 million across its software and hardware divisions, a $6.5 million increase on Q2 2007. The company recorded a net profit of $1.176 million for the quarter, compared to last year’s Q2 loss of $8.546 million, and a six-month profit of $1.532 million.
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Viaccess and Star India, have signed an agreement for the encryption of its upcoming new channels. François Moreau de Saint-Martin, CEO, Viaccess, said, "I am delighted to contribute to the growth of the media industry in India. This success is a great step for our development in South Asia and confirms that Viaccess matches the requirements of major players of these markets."
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Accedo partners with EkiohAccedo Broadband has teamed up with Ekioh, an embedded UI engine developer based in the UK. As a result of the new partnership, the leading Accedo Application Portfolio will support the new SVG technology that by many industry professionals is seen as the natural successor to current browser technologies. Due to the power of SVG, it is able to finally solve the challenge of creating HD user services for IPTV where guaranteeing a good user experience in terms of performance and responsiveness is usually a problem.
