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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Friday 7th August
Google to acquire On2 Technologies
HDnet chief: Online TV shouldn't be free
ITV sees hope
Ofcom: consumers prefer comms to celebrations
Connected TV revenues top $1bn in Q2
Virgin Media: customers down, ARPU up
Streaming: dramatic increase
TiVo offers free web video channels
FDA anti-piracy campaign
DirecTV Cinema premiering Hollywood movie
Tata Sky hits 4m on NDS platform
Akamai and Livestation bring BBC news to iPhone
Serie A joins ESPN football line-up
ADB-1100T digital terrestrial STB for Ikusi
MTG combines Bulgarian assets
Google to acquire On2 TechnologiesOn2 Technologies and Google have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a developer of video compression technology. The transaction is valued at approximately $106.5 million.
"Today video is an essential part of the web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the web platform," said Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management, Google. "We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2's team and technology will help us further that goal."
The transaction, which is subject to On2 stockholder approval, regulatory clearances and other closing conditions, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.
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HDnet chief: Online TV shouldn't be free
Mark Cuban, the chairman of US television channel HDNet, which airs shows in high-definition and is carried by satellite and cable TV operators, has suggested that consumers stand to benefit from the Comcast/Time Warner TV Everywhere initiative, even though they will end up paying for it.Under the plan, which Comcast says it will soon launch as a nationwide trial, current subscribers of the cable TV service will be able to access some of the same content online as well, for no cost. Non-Comcast cable subscribers won't be able to view its shows on the Internet.
In an e-mail interview with Forbes, Cuban predicted that Hulu would evolve to become the home of library content and ‘desperate’ content. "Desperate content are the shows that aren't established yet, for which all promotion is good promotion. Cable, satellite and telco video distributors understand the need to maximise promotion to give shows a chance to survive."
He conceded that this might have a limited lifespan. "Once cable and telcos go all IP with switched digital, there really will be no difference between offering content through cable/telco versus the Internet--except for the delivery inconsistencies of the Internet. What's more, the remote DVR could completely change the economics and delivery options to your TV, over the Internet and in TV Everywhere."
He suggested that the viewer would have to foot the bill for TV Everywhere. "It's not like the price of Internet connectivity isn't going up and up. You pay for it one way or the other. The difference is that traditional video companies have an obligation to offer quality of service. Your ISP doesn't."
He considered the biggest issue that needed to be addressed for online video to be successfully monetised was that someone has to be willing to pay for it. "I'm willing to bet that more Internet video producers have gone out of business in the last two years than TV producers in the last 10." He was unsure as to what the online video landscape would look like five years from now. "It really depends on how quickly cable and telco companies switch to 100 per cent IP networks and whether or not there is some new type of content that catches the imagination of the American people."
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ITV, Britain's biggest commercial free-to-air broadcaster, said it expected the rate of advertising revenue decline to start easing in the second half after the UK TV market suffered its worst year-on-year decline on record.
Overall, the group said it mostly held its commercial audience through programmes such as Coronation Street and X-Factor, but that net advertising revenue was down 15 per cent, slightly outperforming the wider market, which was down 17 per cent.
First-half revenues were down 12 per cent and underlying operating earnings before one-off items slumped over 60 per cent, but it said this had been protected by its cost saving plan, which had already taken out £57 million (E67 million).
"The UK television advertising market has suffered its worst decline on record, down 17 per cent on last year," outgoing ITV Executive Chairman Michael Grade told reporters. "What that means in cash is that 275 million pounds has disappeared from the whole market in the last six months. The job of management is to manage this business through this terrible recession and to do so without damaging the core business."
Grade announced in April that he would step back from the day-to-day running of the group, earlier than planned, and confirmed that the search for a new chief executive was progressing.
ITV also revealed that it had sold its Friends Reunited social networking site to DC Thomson company Brightsolid for £25 million – taking a hit of £145 million. Grade said that while the £170 million price tag had been "regarded at the time as a good price", £25 million was now the best price that ITV could get. The sales of digital terrestrial television multiplex operator SDN was also making "good progress", according to Grade.
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Ofcom: consumers prefer comms to celebrations
Around half of UK consumers would sooner cut back on eating out, home improvements and holidays than give up communications services, according to new research from Ofcom.
Ofcom’s sixth Communications Market Report reveals that these services remain important to consumers despite the recession.
When asked which items consumers were likely to cut back on in the recession, 47 per cent would choose to cut back on going out for dinner, 41 per cent on DIY and 41 per cent on holidays. This compares with only a fifth (19 per cent) who would cut back on mobile phone spend, 16 per cent on TV subscriptions and 10 per cent on their broadband services.
The report also shows that consumers are seeking opportunities to save money on communications services. In the first quarter of 2009, nearly half of consumers (46 per cent) are taking a bundle of services – two or more services such as telecoms, broadband and TV - from one operator, up from 39 per cent twelve months previously.
Other findings suggest that TV viewers are taking even more control over their TV schedules, choosing how, when and where to watch programmes either through a digital video recorder (DVR) or catch-up services on TV and online.Ofcom’s research shows that by the end of March 2009, more than a quarter of UK homes (27 per cent) had a DVR - an increase of 29 per cent since September 2008. Around 9 million DVRs have been sold in the UK, with the majority being Sky+ boxes (over 5 million).
In DVR homes, 15 per cent of TV viewing was timeshifted in 2008. Around a fifth (19 per cent) of viewing in Sky+ homes is timeshifted, more than for subscribers to Virgin Media’s V+ service who timeshifted 12 per cent of viewing. Some 9 per cent of viewing in Freeview DVR homes was time-shifted programmes.
Online catch-up TV has been driven significantly by the BBC iPlayer. Some 15 per cent of Internet users (5.2 million) now watch the BBC’s iPlayer service, double the figure this time last year. ITV’s catch-up service was next at 3.3 per cent.
Take up of digital television reached 89.2 per cent by the end of the first quarter, up from 87.1 per cent in 2008. In 2009, Exeter became the first ‘digital city’ in the UK in May 2009 when its analogue signal was permanently switched off.
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Connected TV revenues top $1bn in Q2While not the majority of unit or dollar sales in Q2 2009, the growth of TVs with built-in Internet capabilities enabling content such as YouTube, Netflix, TiVo, Facebook etc, or ‘Connected TVs’ was up significantly in both units and value compared to the prior quarter.
Quixel Research’s newly launched USA Large Area Display Report revealed that second quarter Connected TV value, including both LCD and Plasma TV models with Internet capabilities rose 40 per cent from Q1 2009 to Q2 2009. Connected TV unit sales were up 70 per cent for the same time period. The total value of the Connected TV market was $1.08 billion in Q2 2009 compared to $776 million in Q1 2009. Volume almost doubled for Internet capable TVs, with sales reaching 620K compared to 365K units in Q1 2009.
"The timing is right for consumer adoption of Connected TVs," said Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research’s principal. "The majority of people already have high speed broadband in their homes, and with the increased availability of premium content via the internet, such as movies, UGC, etc., manufacturers are capitalising on consumers’ desire to watch ‘programming’ on a much larger screen than their computer monitors."
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Virgin Media: customers down, ARPU up
British quad-play operator Virgin Media lost twice as many customers as expected in the second quarter but pushed their average spend to a record high, keeping revenues flat and in line with market expectations.
Virgin revealed that it had lost 27,000 customers in the quarter. Most were low-value buyers of commodity broadband and prepaid mobile services.
Average revenue per user rose to £43.27 pounds (73.46) a month, largely ascribed to Virgin's strong superfast broadband and video-on-demand services, up from £41.68 pounds a year ago. "We remain well positioned to meet the wider economic challenges and to continue to provide our customers with more reasons to choose Virgin Media," commented CEO Neil Berkett said. "The growth outlook for the second half of the year remains strong."
A record 58 per cent of customers are now taking three of Virgin's four services - landline and mobile phone, broadband and TV - up from 53 per cent a year ago.
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Americans with Internet access are streaming more TV shows and movies than ever before, according to findings from Ipsos MediaCT’s MOTION study. The report suggests that in the past 30 days, 26 per cent of online Americans have streamed a full-length TV show and 14 per cent have streamed a full-length movie. This is more than two times the levels measured in September 2008. Not surprisingly, young adults 18 to 24 years of age have been the most ardent supporters of this medium. What is surprising is just how supportive they are – in the past 30 days, 30 per cent have streamed a full-length movie and 51 per cent have streamed a full-length TV show, which represent dramatic increases from last year.
Ipsos says the rapid rise in longer form video streaming can be attributed to the swift growth of many digital video websites since last year. Hulu, in particular, has experienced heightened exposure and visitation, and has helped pioneer the transition to ad-supported free streaming of TV shows and movies. Now that the ad-supported content model is taking off, content providers will be challenged to monetise their content through alternative fee-based methods given the acceptance of the ad-supported or ‘free’ model. In addition, content providers will need to understand the appropriate level of advertising that streamers will be willing to tolerate for their content. "The digital video revolution is no longer centred on short clips via YouTube; it is becoming an important distribution channel where any type of full-length video can be instantly accessed for immediate consumption without a fee," explained Brian Pickens, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos MediaCT.
han two hours on their PC. Furthermore, even among digital video users, 64 per cent would rather watch hour-long dramas and half-hour comedies live on their TV than rent or purchase them, or watch them on their PC or portable device. Clearly, the TV is still preferred, especially considering the rapid growth of HDTV, now in 41 per cent of homes with Internet access.
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TiVo offers free web video channelsTiVo, the creator of television services for DVRs, has confirmed the addition of hundreds of new free online videos available directly to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL subscribers. In addition to these new channels, any video podcast provider can now publish video content to TiVo DVRs using industry-standard Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and H.264 video.
Hundreds of new podcast channels are being added to TiVo's current suite of free Web videos, from mainstream outlets such as CBS, FOX, Oprah, G4 and more. TiVo users can watch any video instantly, or set a Season Pass recording and have new videos downloaded automatically to their TiVo Now Playing List as they are published. Users also have the ability to stream unique and niche content not listed by TiVo by simply entering the URL for a video podcast they want within the ‘Video On Demand’ menu on their TiVo DVR.
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FDA anti-piracy campaignThe Film Distributors Association (FDA) is launching a campaign in UK cinemas appealing for audiences’ help to combat film theft.
A series of three ad spots, starring UK actors Martin Freeman, Jaime Winstone and Matthew Horne, will run for three months immediately before the British Board Of Film Classification certificate that precedes the film.
The campaign comes after the recent Digital Britain report failed to include any measures to tackle with camcording in UK cinemas. According to the Motion Picture Association, 90 per cent of first unauthorised versions of films can be traced back to cinema recordings. Currently, cinema operators can eject people caught with camcorders or other recording devices in cinemas, but cannot confiscate the equipment.
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DirecTV Cinema premiering Hollywood movieMovie platform DirecTV Cinema has confirmed it will screen a Hollywood feature-length film to DirecTV customers nationwide before its theatrical release date. From August 21st, customers will have access to ‘The Burning Plain’, starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger.
"DirecTV customers have always enjoyed the convenience of ordering new release movies from the comfort of their home with the touch of a remote," said Sarah Lyons, vice president of Marketing for DirecTV. "But now, we are going one giant step further and giving them an advance look at a feature-length film before it even hits theatres."
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Tata Sky hits 4m on NDS platformNDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has revealed that Tata Sky, a provider of Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite pay-TV services in India, has reached four million connections since launching less than three years ago. The latest one million subscribers were gained in just over seven months.
Using technology from NDS, Tata Sky has revolutionised television viewing for Indian audiences. The platform is protected and powered by an end-to-end NDS solutions suite including VideoGuard conditional access system, MediaHighway middleware, an advanced electronic programme guide, as well as market-leading XTV technology for DVR which allows subscribers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their TV programmes.
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Akamai and Livestation bring BBC news to iPhoneAkamai Technologies, a specialist in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, has revealed that Livestation, a UK-based global provider of online broadcast content, has launched its streaming application which allows live television broadcasts to be sent to the new Apple iPhone using Akamai Media Delivery. Livestation went live with its application with BBC World News as the first broadcaster pushing live content to viewers in 16 European countries.
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Serie A joins ESPN football line-upESPN has secured an exclusive deal, with MP & Silva, to broadcast live Serie A matches during the 2009/10 Italian Football season. ESPN will feature up to three of the top picks from each weekend’s fixtures.
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ADB-1100T digital terrestrial STB for IkusiAdvanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), supplier of technology to the global digital television industry, has confirmed it will deliver its ADB-1100T digital terrestrial set-top box to Spanish Ikusi. The deal marks a milestone for both companies, as it will be the very first product launched in the Spanish market for DTT pay services since the demise of the Quiero pay-DTT platform in 2002.
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MTG combines Bulgarian assetsModern Times Group (MTG), the international entertainment broadcasting group, has completed the reorganisation of the ownership of its broadcasting assets in Bulgaria by merging all of its Bulgarian holdings into Nova Televizia, following the receipt of approval from the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition.
An agreement was signed with Apace Media plc in March 2009 to transfer all of the assets within jointly owned Balkan Media Group Limited (BMGL) into MTG subsidiary Nova Televizia. MTG now owns 95 per cent of the enlarged Nova Televizia group, whilst Apace Media plc now holds a five per cent minority interest in the combined entity. MTG had owned 50 per cent of BMGL since March 2007 and completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of Nova Televizia in October 2008. The enlarged Nova Televizia group now comprises the Nova TV channel, which is Bulgaria’s second most watched television channel, as well as the Diema, Diema Family, Diema 2 and MM channels.
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Thursday 6th August
Liberty Global posts Q2 loss
News Corp ups Sky Deutschland stake
HDTVs in over half of US homes
Recession sees major shifts in communications industry
DTT expansion for France
Korean IPTV subs sees sharp rise
RVU alliance to accelerate RUI development
Spain tests DVB-T2
SARFT preparing Internet TV regulations?
Versaly subs outperforming pay-per-download
Bundesliga on Orange sport
Digeo launches Moxi Mate
MIPS pushing Android
Liberty Global posts Q2 lossLiberty Global has reported a second-quarter loss on one-time charges as the prior-year quarter benefited from gains on derivatives.
For the latest quarter, Liberty, which operates cable networks mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, reported a loss of $93.1 million, compared with a profit of $428.2 million a year earlier.
The company added 206,000 revenue-generating units during the quarter and 1.5 million in the first half, up 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier. As of June 30, Liberty had 16.7 million customers, subscribing to 26.6 million services, 15.3 million video, 6.4 million broadband Internet and 4.9 million telephone. Nearly 40 per cent of subscribers pay for more than one service.
The average monthly subscription revenue per average revenue-generating unit was $44.81, down 5 per cent. Excluding currency changes, ARPU rose 5 per cent.
Following a recent trend, the number of video customers decreased by 80,000, mostly in the competitive markets of the Netherlands, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Digital cable subscribers grew 10 per cent.
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News Corp ups Sky Deutschland stake
Media and entertainment giant News Corp has increased its stake in the German satellite broadcaster Sky Deutschland to 39.96 per cent from 30.5 per cent. Further financial details were not disclosed. News Corp was set to report earnings results for the period ended June 30 after the market closes. It is expected to report a 30 per cent fall in full year operating profit, driven by a downturn in the advertising market and the global economic crisis.
News Corp has suggested that it does not plan to raise its stake in the pay-TV operator. "We are very satisfied with our current stake in Sky," a spokesman for News Corp in Germany said, adding that the media group increased its stake because of Sky Deutschland's favourable share price.
Shares in Sky Deutschland have lost 61 per cent over 12 months, but gained more than 11 per cent to E3.50 on Wednesday after news of the acquisition.
News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted earlier in the year that there were few, if any, companies that would be worth buying, adding that eventually he would like to acquire the then Premiere (subsequently renamed as Sky Deutschland).
According to German law, a shareholder must make a mandatory take over bid for a company if it crosses the 30 percent threshold, but News Corp has been exempted from that regulation by financial watchdog BaFin, which can waive the regulation if the takeover target is a restructuring case.
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HDTVs in over half of US homesA Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) report has shown strong growth over the past year in HDTV ownership. In 2009, 53 per cent of total US households report owning a high definition television, an 18 per cent increase in ownership over 2008, when 35 per cent of households reported owning an HDTV (23 per cent in 2007). Among HDTV set owners, 69 per cent now subscribe to high definition service, compared to 56 per cent a year ago.
Ownership of large screen televisions –32 inches and larger – has also seen solid growth. In 2009, 59 per cent of households owned one, up from 52 per cent in 2008.
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Recession sees major shifts in communications industryVeronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a private equity firm dedicated to the information, education and media industries, has published its latest Communications Industry Forecast (CIF) covering the years 2003-2013.
VSS predicts that total communications spending will decline 1 per cent in 2009 to $882.6 billion, but grow 3.6 per cent per year over the next five years to over $1 trillion making communications the third fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy over that period. Segments driven by end user spending and targeted marketing services are gaining even as traditional advertising is shrinking.
2008 and 2009 witnessed a major shift in the spending patterns in the communications industry, as advertising became the smallest of the four major sectors in 2008 - a first for advertising since VSS began tracking the industry in 1986. While this period culminated a decade-long trend away from traditional advertising vehicles and towards institutional and consumer end-user spending and marketing services, it also highlighted the emergence of institutional and consumer communications as the dominant sectors in US communications spending. VSS forecasts that the institutional sectors and various alternative media segments will drive overall communications spending for the next five years.
As expected, the current challenges facing the industry are largely the result of the current cyclical economic downturn, which is exacerbating the impact of structural and secular changes already underway. Over the five-year forecast period, 12 of the 20 major industry segments are expected to show positive growth, with the most challenged segments clustered in traditional advertising. However, the long-term secular demand for information, education and entertainment will continue, and the bright spot for advertising going forward will be in digital and other alternative and targeted advertising businesses.
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DTT expansion for FranceFrench broadcasting watchdog the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) has authorised 55 new zones for the expansion of digital terrestrial television (DTT). The coverage rate of the metropolitan population now exceeds 88 per cent.The 55 sites were selected from those departments currently underserved by DTT, and will see coverage rise, in some instances, from 1.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent of the population, closing in on the departmental target of 91 per cent set by the CSA as a requirement for analogue switch-off.
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Korean IPTV subs sees sharp rise
The Korean government's push to increase the number of IPTV service users appears to be having the desired effect. According to the telecom industry, the number of subscriptions for IPTV services with real time broadcasting increased by nearly 127,000 in July.In terms of daily averages, about 4,000 IPTV subscriptions were taken out each day. In comparison, IPTV subscriptions increased by a daily average of about 1,000 during the first six months of the year. With last month's rise, the three IPTV service providers -- KT Corp., SK Broadband and LG Dacom -- now have more than 595,000 subscriptions for real time IPTV services.
Last month's sharp rise is believed to have been brought on by the government's drive to meet the target of 2 million IPTV subscriptions by the end of the year which has prompted IPTV service providers to employ aggressive marketing strategies.
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RVU alliance to accelerate RUI developmentBroadcom, Cisco, DirecTV and Samsung are forming an alliance to develop a specification for a full-featured ‘pixel accurate’ Remote User Interface (RUI) that will form the core of the new RVU technology. The RVU Alliance complements and benefits existing industry interoperability initiatives and underscores its founders’ commitment to the sharing of digital content in the connected home.
Rômulo Pontual, DirecTV’s chief technology officer, said that the company believed both consumers and service providers would embrace consumer electronic equipment with RVU technology because it enables a high quality digital entertainment experience throughout the connected home. "We are committed to the RVU technology and are planning to deploy it in media servers and clients beginning early in 2010," he confirmed.
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Spain tests DVB-T2
From David del Valle in MadridFollowing trials in London and Turin, the city of Seville, in southern Spain, is hosting a further DVB-T2 test, the first in the country and the third worldwide, to assess the coverage and the quality of the new digital terrestrial broadcasting standard.
Within the project - called Furia – which has a budget of E9 million, the trial is being led by Abertis Telecom, with the participation of 27 national companies.
The test will be continue until the end of the year. Abertis Telecom has installed a 800w transmitter in Seville to cover the whole city.
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SARFT preparing Internet TV regulations?China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) are rumoured to be preparing to issue a policy on Internet television, but declined to reveal the relevant details.
According to reports, SARFT has already sent orders for broadcasting authorities in Shandong, Guangdong and Sichuan provinces to investigate the local state of Internet TV manufacturing, to serve as a reference as SARFT drafts its policy. If results show widespread penetration of Internet television sets, SARFT may issue a more relaxed policy.
Furthermore, co-operation between Internet companies and television manufacturers has drawn the attention of SARFT. The relevant authorities have already contacted the three main providers of Internet television content: online media firms Sina and Sohu and download software developer Xunlei.
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Versaly subs outperforming pay-per-downloadVersaly Entertainment, a mobile media and entertainment company, has unveiled the qualitative results of its first half of 2009 sales for video downloads in the US. Versaly’s VOD clips are distributed through its Vmbc.tv mobile video syndication network. The results clearly show subscription downloads outperforming pay-per-downloads.
Of all the mobile video storefronts in the Vmbc.tv syndication network, those offering unlimited downloads for a fixed monthly subscription fee are downloading about 25 times more video clips compared to those offering individual pay-per-download models. In addition, overall revenue from unlimited video download subscriptions are outperforming individually purchased downloads by almost a factor of 20x. The price of a monthly subscription is somewhere between three to five times that of a single download. The results show subscription plans clearly add tremendous value to next-generation mobile video consumption and are strong growth drivers.
It appears that many mobile video consumers who sign up for fixed monthly fee subscriptions did not download three to five videos in a month and would have paid less for their monthly consumption if they had simply purchased their video on an à-la-carte basis.
Overall, the Vmbc.tv mobile video syndication network, that includes video downloads and streaming video-on-demand programming, has seen an increase of about 60 per cent in views in Q2-09 over Q1-09. The data was aggregated from Vmbc.tv’s 20+ video distribution partners.
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Bundesliga on Orange sportOrange France has acquired the rights for the German football championship for the 2009-2010 season, and will be showing up to four matches every weekend exclusively on the Orange sport channel.
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Set-top box vendor Digeo has launched the Moxi Mate, a companion thin-client device for its flagship Moxi HD DVR that provides the latter with multi-room capabilities. The company bills the new device as a "small, silent set-top box that connects with the Moxi HD DVR over the home network, so users can browse and play back recorded programmes in other rooms". The device can also play media files from the home network or the Internet on any TV in the home, and provides easy access to all recorded content stored on the Moxi HD DVR.
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MIPS pushing AndroidMIPS Technologies, a provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, communications, networking and portable multimedia markets, has met a key milestone in driving the Android platform beyond mobile handsets. Just two months after announcing its port of the Android platform to the MIPS architecture, the company is making the source code publicly available.
Together with ecosystem partners, silicon partners and working groups of the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), MIPS is working to define standardised Android-based platforms for consumer devices such as set-top boxes, digital TVs, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), home media players and VoIP systems. Having already demonstrated Android running on a home media player and on a DTV reference design, MIPS and its partners plan to demonstrate more solutions in the coming months.
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Wednesday 5th August
Digital economy to lift Europe out of crisis
Zon fibre figures flawed?
DivX DTO deals
Timms to head Digital Britain
Pay-TV switch could boost ITV
France opens bidding for fourth 3G licence
Advertising insolvencies fall
Adobe for HBO 'TV Everywhere'
Top Up TV and BT Vision for ESPN
Commercial TV breaks viewing record
Spotify spies cash injection
IPTV could prosper in MENA
Komi and Kofic counter Korean piracy
Netflix to stream hit ABC series
Digital economy to lift Europe out of crisisThe European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005: 56 per cent of Europeans now regularly use the Internet, 80 per cent of them via a high-speed connection (compared to only one third in 2004), making Europe the world leader in broadband Internet.
The Commission suggests that Europe can advance even further as a generation of ‘digitally savvy’ young Europeans becomes a strong market driver for growth and innovation. Building on the potential of the digital economy is essential for Europe's sustainable recovery from the economic crisis, it says, confirming that it is to ask the public what future strategy the EU should adopt to make the digital economy run at full speed.
"Europe's digital economy has tremendous potential to generate huge revenues across all sectors, but to turn this advantage into sustainable growth and new jobs, governments must show leadership by adopting coordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "We should seize the opportunity of a new generation of Europeans who will soon be calling the shots in the European market place. These young people are intensive Internet users and are also highly demanding consumers. To release the economic potential of these 'digital natives', we must make access to digital content an easy and fair game."
The report’s findings suggest that, although the ‘digital generation’ seems reluctant to pay to download or view online content such as videos or music (33 per cent say that they are not willing to pay anything at all, which is twice the EU average), in reality twice as many of them have paid for these services compared to the rest of the population (10 per cent of young users, compared to an EU average of 5 per cent). They are also more willing to pay for offers of better service and quality.
Internet use will soar as Europe's ‘digital natives’ begin their professional lives, increasingly shaping and dominating market trends. As traditional business models stall, companies will have to offer services attractive to the next generation of users, while legislators should create the right conditions to facilitate access to new online content while also ensuring remuneration for the creators.
The public consultation is open until October 9th 2009. This is the first step towards a new European ICT strategy, which the Commission aims to present in 2010 as part of the next wave of the Lisbon Agenda.
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Zon fibre figures flawed?
From Branislav Pekic in RomeMarket research conducted by ING has revealed that Zon Multimédia has only 100,000 homes passed with fibre optics and not 1.3 million as claimed by the Portuguese pay-TV market leader.
The findings come at a time of intense market competition between Portugal Telecom and Zon Multimédia, which has already lead the former to present a complaint for misleading advertising against the later for claiming that it has more than one million homes passed with fibre.
According to ING’s research, Portugal Telecom has committed itself of achieving "one million homes with fibre by the end of the year, and adding another million in 2011". For its part, "Zon covers around 100,000 homes", of which "around 60,000 come from the acquisition of TV Tel, and plans to cover another 100,000 per year with fibre".
ING’s projections indicate that in 2011 Zon will have only 300,000 households with fibre, while Portugal Telecom should reach more than 2 million. However, Zon should be able to cover a total of 2.5 million homes, in two years time, with most resorting to DOCSIS 3.0 technology.
Significantly, the costs per client for the expansion of the copper network to the new generation DOCSIS 3.0 are 10 to 15 times lower than on fibre (FTTH), while fixed costs are also much lower for DOCSIS 3.0 than for fibre.
Despite the high level of competition, ING forecasts that growth of the fibre optic market in Portugal will be slow.
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Digital media company DivX has secured agreements with three European download-to-own (DTO) stores allowing them to sell premium Hollywood content in the DivX format upon completion of their own studio deals. Under the DivX agreement, DTO sites ERG (Belgium, the Netherlands), FilmOn.com (UK), and Play4film.com (international film portal headquartered in Italy) will be enabled to provide DivX movies from major Hollywood studios directly to consumers throughout Europe.
DivX technology allows movies to be compressed to a fraction of their original size while still maintaining visual quality. Full-length movies can be conveniently downloaded from these new DTO sites and played on any of the 200 million DivX devices that have shipped into the market, including digital TVs, the Sony PlayStation 3, mobile phones and portable DVD players. Consumers have the freedom to transfer their DivX movies for playback on other registered DivX Certified devices they own.
"These agreements help make the DivX vision for any content on any device at any time a reality in our key European markets," said Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer, DivX. He noted that the DivX format had been approved by four Hollywood studios.
News of the European DTO deals was accompanied by confirmation of format approval agreements between DivX and both Paramount Digital Entertainment and Lionsgate to enable online retailers worldwide to offer the studios’ films for secure download in the high- DivX video format.
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Timms to head Digital BritainStephen Timms, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, is reportedly taking on to the role of Minster for Communications to help drive the implementation of the government’s Digital Britain report.
Part of his remit will see him push the 50p-a-month levy on phone lines proposed to fund its universal broadband plans. He will bring a Digital Economy bill before parliament in the autumn.
Timms is expected to work across the Treasury and Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, according to reports.
His appointment follows concern that the departure of the current communications minister Lord Carter, who led the Digital Britain report, would see the report lose momentum.
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Pay-TV switch could boost ITVITV should consider changing to a subscription model to boost revenues, according to the conclusions of an analyst’s report, which suggested that 40 per cent of terrestrial households would switch to pay-TV if it moved away from free-to-air.
The commercial broadcaster has struggled in the downturn, as its model has suffered from the global collapse in advertising. Daniel Kerven, analyst at UBS, said there was little upside even after a recovery and "given ongoing structural pressures, we have suggested that it should consider migrating to a subscription model".
UBS commissioned a consumer survey into pay-TV trends from market research group Gfk NOP. The survey found that 24 per cent of non-pay homes would be more likely to subscribe if ITV 2, 3 and 4 were only available on Sky and Virgin, and up to 40 per cent when ITV1 was included.
The survey also found a third of households with terrestrial television plan to move to pay-TV "in the future". UBS said the survey showed a "wider consumer acceptance of pay-TV" with subscriptions expected to hit up to 68 per cent, up from 60 per cent in previous surveys. Kerven expects pay-TV "to eventually become the norm".
The survey will encourage subscription providers such as BSkyB, Virgin Media and Top Up TV. "Despite the tougher economic environment, the intention of pay-TV customers to turn is lower than it was two years ago for both Sky and Virgin," Kerven said.
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France opens bidding for fourth 3G licenceThe French government has opened the bidding for the country's fourth 3G licence, and set the reserve price at E240 million. France Telecom says that it will appeal against the licence fee, saying that it is too low compared to the 3G licence fees paid by the incumbent operators.
France Telecom is arguing that the lower licence fee amounts to illegal state aid for the new entrant, although the presumed winner will be getting a smaller chunk of 3G radio spectrum and will be competing in a more developed market.
Bidders have until 29th October to submit their bids, with the licence expected to be awarded around June 2010.
Iliad, the parent company of French Internet service provider Free, has confirmed that it will be a candidate for the licence. The regulator rejected a previous bid for the licence by Iliad in October 2007. Virgin Mobile France has previously suggested that it might be interested in the licence as a joint venture with Numericable, and Egypt's Orascom Telecom recently said it would consider joining a consortium to bid for the licence.
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Advertising insolvencies fallUK advertising companies have suffered a 50 per cent increase in insolvencies over the last year experiencing more collapses than its media counterparts, according to Consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
However, with Q2 2009 came a brighter spell as the rate of insolvency for this media subsector (22 per cent from Q1) fell. This follows a hard 24 months since the summer of 2007, 352 advertising companies have fallen by the wayside, ten per cent more than publishing, and 25 per cent more than TV/film companies.
PwC forecasts that digital and mobile media will form 78 per cent of growth for the global entertainment & media (E&M) market by 2013. However, despite this, the immediate future looks challenging. Over 2009/2010, even Internet advertising will shrink at a projected rate of 3.2 per cent CAGR, while TV advertising contracts 11 per cent CAGR.
In fact, although both areas will see growth from 2011 – 2013, Internet advertising at 11.5 per cent and TV advertising at 3.4 per cent CAGR, by 2013 the UK advertising market will be worth over $3 billion less than it did at the height of the market in 2007.
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Adobe for HBO 'TV Everywhere'US network HBO has confirmed it will provide encrypted video content to distribution partners for ‘TV Everywhere’-style services using Adobe Systems' Flash multimedia platform, although the broadcaster said that it was open to working with other Internet-video technologies.
HBO's broadband-video complement for TV subscribers - HBO Go - will use Flash and the Adobe-developed encrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol, referred to as ‘RTMPE’, HBO chief technology officer Bob Zitter revealed.
"The Flash player is relatively ubiquitous across PCs and Macs," Zitter said. "It was important to us to make this offering work on Macs as well as PCs." At the same time, HBO will work on an operator-by-operator basis before the full TV Everywhere vision -- meaning any cable, satellite or telco TV customers can access content from any participating site -- is in place industry-wide. "If the distributor wants to use a different security wrapper that will be up to them," Zitter said.
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Top Up TV and BT Vision for ESPNIn line to make its premium sports channel available on a range of UK pay-TV platforms, ESPN and Top Up TV, provider of pay TV content on Freeview, have announced plans to launch the new channel, ‘ESPN’, on the Freeview platform. To mark the August launch, Top Up TV will offer subscribers to the new channel their first month free, with broadcasting starting today. As part of the new arrangement, ESPN will appear on channel 34 (on the Electronic Programme Guide) and will be available from Top Up TV for £9.99 per month.
ESPN has also confirmed a carriage deal for the channel with BT Vision for its IPTV service. ESPN is available with BT Vision’s Bronze, Silver or Gold Value Packs at no extra cost, with prices starting from £7.34 a month for the first three months, £14.68 per month thereafter.
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Commercial TV breaks viewing recordUK commercial broadcast TV viewing had a record first six months of 2009, according to figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB). The average UK viewer watching 16.7 hours of commercial broadcast TV a week, up 9.9 minutes a week on the record set in the same period last year. This is up 42 minutes a week on the representative five-year average for January to June.
The figures, published in the main UK commercial broadcasters’ marketing body Thinkbox’s Half Year Review, show that commercial TV accounted for 63.7 per cent of total broadcast TV viewing in the first six months of the year, a growth of 3.2 per cent in the last five years as the BBC’s share has gradually diminished. Total broadcast TV viewing in the first half of the year was 26.2 hours a week, in line with the same period last year but up 18 minutes a week on the five year average for the period.
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Spotify spies cash injectionSpotify, the digital music service tipped as a potential challenger to the dominance of iTunes, is close to securing new investment from high-profile investors, including the charitable foundation of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.
Spotify, pitched as "a better alternative to illegal downloading", is looking to raise funds to expand in the US, building on the hype it has generated in Europe where it has attracted more than 2m users less than a year after launching in the UK and Sweden.
The free service allows users to listen to music on demand over the Internet, without having to download a track. It is supported by advertising, with other revenues generated by a £9.99 ad-free subscription option, as well as commission from selling downloads. Investors hope Spotify will attract more paying users if Apple allows the service to be used on iPhones.
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IPTV could prosper in MENADespite numerous innovations in television service technologies and high household penetration, IPTV may still offer a potential opportunity for telecom companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, finds a report by Booz & Company. The region is characterised by a traditional, conventional television service - delivered primarily via free-to-air (FTA) satellite, and illegal distribution; offering cost advantages to viewers but limited interactivity. Lack of interactive services and negligible competition from cable makes the MENA region well positioned to leverage the advantages IPTV offers.
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Komi and Kofic counter Korean piracyKorean Film Council (Kofic) has unveiled a new model for online film distribution to help the local market, which has been hard hit by piracy. The Korean Open Movie Exchange (Komi) is a business-to-business service, which connects content holders to service providers.
Komi will provide a platform and archive where content distributors submit their films and service providers select and display them to their users. A pilot service will begin in November, and the official service will bow next year.
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Netflix to stream hit ABC series
Netflix, the world's largest online movie rental service, has signed an agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group that will make several of ABC's most popular TV series available to be streamed instantly from Netflix. The deal will allow Netflix members to watch the first five seasons of the hit ABC franchise ‘Lost’, seasons four and five of ‘Desperate Housewives’, and season five of ‘Grey's Anatomy’, among others.
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Tuesday 4th August
ESPN kicks off in the UK
Virgin Media considers London listing
Google’s Schmidt resigns from Apple's Board
ONO: profits up, subs down
TF1 content on Orange VOD service
GlobeCast delivers CCTV Arabia to MENA region
Microsoft music-streaming site delayed
SARFT seeks STB bids
Miniweb, Metrological and Intel collaborate on CE 3100
New head for Conax's India operations
ESPN kicks off in the UKESPN, the sports broadcaster that bought Setanta's English Premier League football rights when the Irish firm's UK arm collapsed, has this week become available to viewers through Sky and Virgin Media.
The channel will feature 46 live Barclays Premier League matches, as well as a host of live UK and international sporting fixtures in standard and high definition.
ESPN subscribers will also gain access to 30 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League matches and European football from Italy, Germany, Portugal, Russia and the Netherlands. The international offering will also include French rugby, Australian Rules Football and ice hockey and baseball from the US.
ESPN, ESPN America and ESPN Classic will be included within Sky's Ultimate channel pack. Sky News owner BSkyB has confirmed that Sky Sports subscribers will be able to upgrade to ESPN and ESPN America for £9 per month while other Sky customers will be able to upgrade from £12 per month.
Lynne Frank, of ESPN, said: "Having secured the Barclays Premier League rights less than six weeks ago, we have worked tirelessly with the various leagues, rights-holders, platforms and presenters to get the new ESPN channel ready… We look forward to working with Sky and Virgin Media to deliver these channels to their subscribers, and will continue our discussions with all other pay-TV providers so that we can bring ESPN to as many sports fans in the UK as possible."
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Virgin Media considers London listingUK quad-play operator Virgin Media is considering a secondary listing in London to regularise the mismatch between its stock market listing in the US and its geographic operations in the UK, according to local media reports.
Virgin Media, which is quoted on the US Nasdaq exchange and is worth $3.7 billion (£2.2bn), has been reviewing its listing as it examines its capital structure. The US listing dates to its previous incarnation as broadband cable operator NTL, founded by American entrepreneur Barclay Knapp, which requires the company to hold board meetings in the US.
Virgin Media, and NTL before it, has considered a secondary listing in London on several occasions this decade. Shifting its primary listing, though, is seen as out of the question because it would trigger a tax liability.
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Google’s Schmidt resigns from Apple's Board
Apple has confirmed Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, is resigning from Apple's Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said that as Google entered more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Schmidt’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member would be significantly diminished, since he would have to disqualify himself from even larger portions of meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. "Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple's Board," said Jobs.
The move represents a reversal from Schmidt’s stance expressed in May 2009, when he said resigning from Apple’s board hadn’t crossed his mind. Google is developing a computer operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, taking on software from companies including Apple. Google’s Android mobile-phone software also competes with Apple’s iPhone software.
The US Federal Trade Commission was understood to be examining whether Google and Apple are breaking antitrust law by sharing board members.
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ONO: profits up, subs down
From David del Valle in MadridLeading Spanish cable operator ONO has reported a half-year net profit of E26 million, up 26.6 per cent, until June, but lost 2.9 per cent of its clients up to 1.835 million.
The decline particularly hit pay-TV subscriptions falling by 5.8 per cent up to 991,000 clients. Telephony and broadband services weathered the storm, growing by one per cent and 2.4 per cent to 1.647 million and 1.302 million clients, respectively.
ONO cut its operating costs by 14.4 per cent to E228 million, resulting in an EBITDA of E363 million, up 5.8 per cent. Total revenues fell by 4.6 per cent to 769 million, with ARPU decreasing by 4.1 per cent to E51.2 million.
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TF1 content on Orange VOD serviceOrange and TF1 Vidéo have signed an agreement to make content from TF1 Vision, the TF1 Group's video on demand service, available on Orange's 24/24 video VOD platform in France.
Between now and the end of the year, 24/24 video will be offering Orange TV subscribers as well as all web users a selection of premium content, including popular American series such as Ugly Betty and Lost. The videos will be available to rent and customers will be able to watch them as many times as they wish during a 24-hour period. Certain flagship programmes will be offered even before they are shown on TF1.
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GlobeCast delivers CCTV Arabia to MENA regionGlobeCast has confirmed an agreement to distribute Chinese broadcaster CCTV’s newly-launched Arabic channel to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) via Arabsat’s BADR-6 satellite.
CCTV has called on GlobeCast for a fibre backhaul and satellite distribution solution for MENA region – allowing the channel to reach a potential DTH viewership of 200 million. CCTV’s feed originates from the CCTV headquarters in Beijing, which is delivered via fibre to Europe and is uplinked to GlobeCast’s arranged capacity on BADR-6 satellite from Madrid.
CCTV Arabia features news reports in Arabic with some programmes dubbed and subtitled, broadcasting to 22 Arabic-speaking countries. CCTV broadcasts four other international channels in English, French and Spanish, as well as Chinese.
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Microsoft music-streaming site delayedMicrosoft's music-streaming service, designed to rival Spotify, has been delayed. The service was expected to launch at the end of July, offering web users the ability to stream tracks for free or download them for a charge.
However, a Microsoft spokesperson told The Telegraph: "In the coming months, MSN is planning a new music service in beta via its Music channel in the UK. At this stage we won't be confirming the details behind this but more information will be available soon and will be communicated in due course".
Spotify is a free-to-use service that plays tracks littered with adverts, just like commercial radio. However, for a monthly subscription, users can enjoy an ad-free service.
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According to local industry sources, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has held two open meetings with 24 Integrated Circuit and set-top box manufacturers, eventually deciding to continue offering 48 free channels as originally promised to 3.7 million users in the first phase of the Cuncuntong rural direct broadcast satellite (DBS) project.
SARFT originally planned to hold the RMB 6 million (E0.613m) second round of satellite television reception equipment bidding in early July, but was deadlocked following intense opposition from local cable operators, who have protested the publicly available free channel service.
Multiple sources confirmed that second-round bidding might begin after October, and consider the rapid implementation of DBS programming encryption a critical issue.
A senior executive at one of the 24 participating companies told local journalists that in order to expand the public benefits of DBS, the second round tender would also increase the amount of investment from the previous RMB 6 million to "RMB 8 million at the very least."
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Miniweb, Metrological and Intel collaborate on CE 3100Miniweb, the Interactive Service Provider that, and Metrological Media Innovations, provider of middleware and reference designs and part of the Intel Consumer Electronics Network, have collaborated to provide CE 3100 powered devices with converged Internet and broadcast video services for a high-quality TV experience. The collaboration integrates the Metrological Metroconnect OS and the Miniweb services platform and will be available to a range of Intel-based consumer electronics (CE) devices, including satellite, cable and terrestrial hybrid set-top boxes and integrated Digital TV sets.
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ExtendMedia powers TV Everywhere revolutionVideo service solutions provider ExtendMedia Corporation has unveiled OpenCASE Publisher, designed to help cable, telecommunications, satellite, mobile and other video service distributors take advantage of TV Everywhere's growing momentum by providing a platform for them to quickly build and deploy robust, multi-screen TV Everywhere video offerings.
"The TV Everywhere concept is clearly popular with consumers, content owners and distributors. However, to date, the technology questions have primarily focused on the authentication piece -- verifying that a consumer is a subscriber to a pay cable, satellite or telco TV service before allowing access to premium content online," suggested Tom MacIsaac, CEO of ExtendMedia.
The OpenCASE Publisher is a vendor-neutral software platform, designed to provide a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution to manage all aspects of multi-screen content ingestion, syndication, publishing, management and reporting, as well as work easily with home-grown or third-party feeds, platforms and players.
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New head for Conax's India operations
Conax, security providers for digital TV and content distribution world-wide, has appointed Petter Schønberg as its new Chief Executive Officer, Conax Access Systems Private Limited, India. Already market leader in India within content security, the Conax global footprint includes customer platforms in over 80 countries. Schonberg has recently relocated to India from a senior position within technology at Conax headquarters in Norway.
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Monday 3rd August
C4 out of Virgin TV auction
Pirate Bay faces E3m fines
Arqiva picks Sebert for Kangaroo
TiVo ratings show most skip ads
Belgacom IPTV up 50%+
US cable values triple play at $35bn
Annual STB shipments to exceed 200m by 2013
Disney profits dive
SES profit up
C4 out of Virgin TV auctionChannel 4 has withdrawn from the bidding for Virgin Media's entertainment channels, because it can’t afford it. The broadcaster is reported to have told Virgin it would not submit a binding bid for Virgin Media Television, because it believes it has better uses for its limited cash resources.
With Channel 4 out, Virgin Media faces the dilemma of whether to sell the channels to its archrival BSkyB, which put in the largest first round bid at about £160 million (E187m), or one of the remaining contenders thought to include Time Warner.
Virgin had already said it would insert a clause for buyers saying they mustn’t sell on to Sky (it wanted to avoid Sky getting the assets on the cheap) but has said it would sell direct to Sky.
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A court in the Netherlands has ruled that the filesharing site must block its site for Dutch internet users within 10 days or face stiff fines. Failure to comply with the ruling will result in fines of E30,000 a day up to a maximum of E3m for the three founders of the site, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg.
The ruling did not explain how the site would be blocked or whether it could enforce the order. "The Pirate Bay is not a legal person who can be summoned, but a co-operative," the court said.
Kolmisoppi, who acts as a spokesman for The Pirate Bay, said the trio would appeal against the decision and were seeking legal representation, according to the blog TorrentFreak.
Yesterday's ruling was a victory for Stichting Brein, a Dutch group funded by copyright holders. TorrentFreak says: "It is not unlikely that Brein will put pressure on Dutch ISPs if the Pirate Bay doesn't block Dutch visitors within 10 days."
This comes after a dozen movie studios filed a suit seeking to shut down the site this week. They were seeking the injunction after an April ruling by a Swedish court that found the three founders and funder Carl Lundström guilty of helping millions of people download copyrighted material. They were given one-year prison terms and fined 30 million kronor (£9.1m).
Last month, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB said it would buy The Pirate Bay and turn it into a paid site that would operate on a "give and take" model that paid users to share files and would compensate content owners.
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Arqiva picks Sebert for KangarooArqiva have reportedly hired Pierre-Jean Sebert, former managing director of British Eurosport, as chief executive of its proposed online TV venture.
The broadcast transmission company paid £8 million for the assets of Project Kangaroo, and has plans over the coming months to launch its own online TV aggregation service in conjunction with broadcasters.
Arqiva will face competition from Microsoft, which yesterday announced it was launching a pilot online TV service, initially showing programmes from BBC Worldwide and All3Media.
Sebert has most recently spent several years working for Reel Enterprises, the rights negotiation and multimedia channel development company.
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TiVo ratings show most skip adsDVR specialist TiVo has unveiled a first look at its Pure Programme Ratings, which were derived using the number of TiVo subscribers viewing a programme, live or Time-shifted, excluding the commercials, to arrive at the total potential audience for the commercials during a given programme.
Current industry services measure a programme’s viewership rating without separating the programme content from the commercials that air during it. TiVo’s Pure Programme Ratings separates the ratings and makes it possible to determine the percentage of potential viewers lost during a programme’s commercial breaks.
"For example, the May 7th episode of Grey's Anatomy had a Pure Programme Time-shifted audience of 17.0," said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement. "That means there was potential to deliver a commercial audience of 17.0 ratings points, if every viewer watching stuck around during the commercial breaks. However, looking at the Commercial Time-shifted rating, we see most viewers didn't and commercials running during the programme only received a 2.7 rating. Simply put, 14.3 ratings points worth of audience or 84 per cent of available viewers during time-shifted viewing were lost to fast-forwarding during commercials."
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Belgacom IPTV up 50%+Belgacom’s IPTV business has posted year on year revenue growth of 53.3 per cent in the first six months of 2009. 82,000 customer adds took subscriber numbers to 589,000, delivering revenues of E59 million. "Belgacom TV has become the success story of the audio-visual sector, in scarcely four years. This performance is recognized internationally. Belgacom’s digital TV now ranks among the top 3 most innovative IPTV solutions in the world," said CEO Didier Bellens.
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US cable values triple play at $35bnThe cable industry has valued the benefits of bundled voice, video and data to consumers at $35 billion a year and, increasingly, subscribers are taking advantage of those benefits.That came in comments to the FCC in its annual assessment of the state of video competition. That $35 billion is a combination of "enormous cost savings, lower prices and enhancement in value to consumers" said NCTA, thanks to "vigorous" competition.
As evidence the trade association offers up a study it commissioned from economists Michael Pelcovits and Abigail Ferguson of Microeconomic Consulting & Research Associates. The researchers said they were able to get bundled service figures from the top three cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner and Cox (accounting for about 2/3 of total subs). According to those three, 23 per cent of subs were taking a triple play of cable, Internet and phone, in 2008, up from 10.14 per cent in 2007.
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Annual STB shipments to exceed 200m by 2013
The demand for interactive and personalised television services will push annual worldwide set-top box shipments over 200 million by 2013, as providers overhaul their current base with next-generation models, according to Parks Associates.The research firm's latest report says the global digital transition and new distribution channels like DTT, IPTV, and over-the-top video services will intensify competition in the television service market. Carriers and manufacturers looking for a competitive advantage will replace their current installed base of set-tops with advanced models capable of supporting applications such as time- and place-shifting and Internet-based offerings.
"Consumers are attracted to the concept of connected CE, with one-third of US broadband households very interested in a set-top box that connects to their PC and Internet service as well as their TV," said Jayant Dasari, research analyst, Parks Associates. "While less than ten per cent are willing to pay a monthly fee, demand is still on an upward trend, especially as the set-top connects to more and more services."
The tough consumer environment took its toll on Walt Disney’s Q3 earnings, with profits down 25 per cent on falling television advertising income and declining home entertainment sales.Bob Iger, chief executive, acknowledged the difficult economic conditions but said the company, which owns the ABC television network and ESPN cable channel, had detected signs of "economic stabilisation". But he added that "the pace and strength of the recovery remain uncertain… we are managing accordingly."
Disney’s film studio business also suffered, with home entertainment sales falling against the same period the previous year. Studio operating income fell $109 million to a loss of $12 million.
Iger said Disney was continuing to examine cost-cutting measures for the studio, adding that the business model for the film industry was shifting. "The old notion that you can make money from everything is not the case anymore," he said.
He took a bullish stance on Disney’s international expansion, pointing to recent investment in the UK by ESPN. The channel has acquired the rights to some Premier League football matches over the next three years, putting it into direct competition with BSkyB.
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SES profit upEuropean satellite giant SES has reported a 10 per cent rise in first-half core profit (EBITDA) to E607 million. The company repeated it saw revenue growth of 3-4 per cent on a like-for-like basis and an EBITDA margin for its infrastructure business of above 82 per cent.
