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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Canal+ claims unfair competition from OrangeCanal+ has filed a complaint with French antitrust authorities against France Telecom's Orange, accusing the carrier of unfair competition in bundling its Internet, telephone and other services to attract customers. The complaint, filed with France's Autorite de la Competition, accuses Orange of taking advantage of its control over the broadband market by tying its cable services — particularly football and movie programming — to its Internet and telephone services. In announcing the complaint, Canal Plus CEO Bertrand Meheut said that Orange sells the sports programming and other cable content for less than they're worth in order to attract customers for the other services.
Orange instantly hit back in a statement calling the complaint "yet another episode in a long series of attacks carried out by the Vivendi Group and Canal+." The company accused Canal Plus of trying to "kill off all form of competition" through lobbying in the media. Orange added that Canal Plus "remains in an ultra-dominant position."
The France Telecom unit further claimed that Canal Plus was trying to "undermine Orange's efforts to launch a brand-new television service" while acting to "reconstitute the monopolistic position that it believed" it had achieved after purchasing then-rival satellite TV provider TPS in 2006.
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Setanta moment of truth
Setanta is looking to the Premier League to help it secure more games from 2010 but its first challenge is to come up with the deposit on the package it has secured. Reportedly a deposit of up to 5 per cent of the £392 million (E442m) deal will be due with the League early this week.
Both the Premier League and Sky are believed to be implacably opposed to the idea of re-opening the auction or re-selling the matches to Setanta. The Irish pay-TV operation may take its case to UK media watchdog Ofcom and competition authorities in Brussels. But Sky would argue that the margin by which it was defeated was so narrow, that Setanta's error was one of judgment rather than a result of unfair competition.
The deadline for lodging a deposit with the Premier League will send a clear signal about whether or not its investors believe it has a future.
..............Ofcom underlines support for BT NGN profit
The chances of BT spending £1.5 billion (E1.7bn) on a superfast broadband network have increased after Ofcom said its rules would not prevent the telecoms operator from securing an adequate return on its investment.
Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, told the FT the planned regulatory regime for BT’s network would not be an "obstacle". Since unveiling plans for its superfast fixed-line broadband network in July, BT has insisted they are conditional on its ability to make a sufficient return. "Regulation will not be a barrier to this kind of investment," said Richards, adding that Ofcom would publish its planned rules next month. "I am confident we will lay out a regulatory framework which will clearly enable companies to be free to make a return which justifies the investment they are making."
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MTG record results
Modern Times Group (MTG) reported revenues of SEK13.166 billion (E1.22bn) for the year to December 2008, up 16 per cent year-on-year. Group operating income after non-recurring items was SEK2.598 billion, up 28 per cent. The Viasat Broadcasting had revenue of SEK3.018 billion in the fourth quarter, up 17 per cent year-on-year. Nordic free-to-air channels turned in revenue of SEK1.053 billion in the fourth quarter, up 9 per cent year-on-year, while free channels in the emerging markets turned in SEK754 million, up 38 per cent.
In pay-TV, Viasat in the Nordic region contributed fourth quarter revenue of SEK1.042 billion in the fourth quarter, up 10 per cent, while central and eastern European pay-TV operations contributed SEK203 million, up 70 per cent. Fourth quarter operating income was SEK194 million, up 14 per cent. Total premium subscribers rose by 14,000 quarter-on-quarter.
In central and eastern Europe, the Baltic and Ukrainian DTH platforms added 25,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, and 54,000 for the full year. Mini pay subscriptions increased by 38 per cent to 36 million over the full year, with over three million new mini subscriptions in the fourth quarter. Operating income for the fourth quarter was SEK50 million.
President and CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said that while 2008 had proved to be a record year for MTG, 2009 was likely to prove a "challenging" year.
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SES fairs wellEuropean satellite giant SES reported 2008 earnings hit by one-offs and trimmed its outlook for revenue growth this year, but said it was barely affected by the economic crisis.
EBITDA rose 0.9 per cent to E1.10 billion. The figure included a E19.2 million hit from restructuring and the termination of IP-PRIME, its IPTV service in North America. Revenue rose 1.2 per cent to E1.63 billion as broadcast capacity stayed strong despite the economic downturn.
President and CEO Romain Bausch said he expected revenues to grow by more than 7 per cent and EBITDA by more than 10 per cent in 2009. Bausch said that video services were leading the company’s growth, with more than 70 per cent of its total business coming from such services. In established DTH markets, Bausch said the company was seeing increasing subscriber numbers and the addition of new pay-TV channels, including growth in HD channels in particular. He also said there were plenty of opportunities for DTH in emerging markets in central and eastern Europe, parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
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Will Ergen get Sirius?
This week may decide the destiny of Sirius XM, the worlds only major subscription radio outfit. In 2009 the recently merged entity has lost 45 per cent of its value and trades at about six cents a share. Latest rumours are DirecTV may be making a bid to counter Echostar who are closing in as a result of their ownership of over $300 million of Sirius’s debt that will mature on February 17th. Another possibility is Chapter 11. Worth watching this week. Sirius has 19 million subscribers.
.............Verizon challenges DirecTV as HDTV leader
DirecTV continues to offer the most HD channels of any pay TV provider throughout the US, but Verizon is catching up quickly with its FiOS TV service, according to analysis by market research provider Pike & Fischer.
In a new report, HDTV Service Comparison, P&F finds that as of January 2009, DirecTV was offering as many as 104 channels in HD. But that only beats Verizon's HD menu by one channel.
Comcast, the largest cable operator in the US, has one of the smallest selections of HD channels, according to the study. Comcast in some markets is offering less than 40 HD channels, although the company's marketing focuses on its large selection of HD movies, TV shows and other content available on demand.
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Charter Chapter 11Charter Communications said it had reached an agreement in principle with a debt holders committee on terms of a financial restructuring, to be done under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, to reduce Charter’s debt by about $8 billion.
The cable operator, controlled by Microsoft’s co-founder, Paul Allen, said in a statement it would file for Chapter 11 on or before April 1st. Various debt holders and bondholders will receive a mix of new notes, equity and cash, depending on their seniority. Shareholders will not receive anything for their common stock, which will be cancelled. Allen will continue as an investor and retain the largest voting interest in Charter.
The company has more than 5.5 million subscribers.
...........Netflix passes 10m subs
Netflix, the world's largest online movie rental service, has surpassed 10 million subscribers, a milestone that reflects the widespread and growing appeal of the company's service. Netflix members can get unlimited DVDs delivered to their homes and can instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed over the Internet to their TVs and computers.
In crossing the 10 million subscriber threshold, Netflix has added more than 600,000 net subscribers since January 1st this year. The company attributed the recent surge in subscribers to growing consumer recognition of the Netflix and increasingly more ways to instantly watch their growing library of films and TV shows. Netflix ready devices now include the Roku digital video player, Blu-ray disc players, Xbox 360 game consoles and newer models of TiVo DVRs.
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TrustCenter to implement the CI Plus standard
CI Plus LLP, a consortium of leading TV and Conditional Access Module manufacturers, has heralded a new era of protection against piracy with the publication of the new CI Plus Common Interface Standard. To implement the necessary content protection mechanisms that are based on digital certificates, CI Plus signed an exclusive multi-year contract with TC TrustCenter, the leading On Demand Digital Identity Services provider based in Hamburg, Germany. As an authorised Trust Authority of CI Plus, TC TrustCenter will not only provide certificate issuance and management services but also the necessary registration for all manufacturers of TV devices, digital recorders and Conditional Access (CA) modules who want to license the CI Plus standard.
The CI Plus standard is an enhancement of the existing CI Specification that eliminates vulnerabilities in content protection for Pay-TV content. To ensure optimum security between the CA Module and the digital receiver, the new CI Plus standard uses a collection of established, industry accepted and validated techniques, including key management, device and message authentication and encryption.
.....Wii-style remotes lead the way
According to a Strategy Analytics survey, TV viewers have identified point and click controllers, such as Nintendo’s Wii Remote, as the best type of control device for the next generation of TV-based media browsers. The Digital Home Observatory report, "Consumer Imperatives for Digital TV Media Browsers," found that PC-style keyboards ran a close second in popularity, followed by traditional TV remote controls which use either on-screen keyboards or alphanumeric keypads. Voice control, often promoted as the future of man-machine interface, was considered the least appropriate option by those surveyed.…
Viaccess and UDcast mobile TV solution
French telco Viaccess and UDcast, provider of wireless IP broadcast solutions, have confirmed a partnership to provide an end-to-end mobile TV security solution, based on the OMA BCAST SmartCard Profile standard. The joint offering ensures full interoperability between the Viaccess purple-TV conditional access system with UDcast’s Mobile TV head-end solution to provide a secure environment for Mobile broadcast and on-demand video.
http://www.rgbnetworks.com/resources/
Friday 13th February
BT Vision creeps up, group profit crumbles
Viasat pay-TV up 10%
500m views for Virgin VOD
RAI offers 22 live channels via Internet
ILIAD boosts ARPU
Broadband subs slump in 2008
Tvinci raises $1.6m
HGI adds Arcor
ETSI approves FLO interface
Ericsson Connected Home Gateway
Viaccess for Globecast
PacketVideo and Nagravision enable mobile TVs
Star Mandarin Mobile in Australia
Fashion TV HD Chooses AsiaSat 2 through RRsat
BT Vision creeps up, group profit crumblesUK telco BT has revealed that it has garnered 398,000 subscribers for its IPTV service 'BT Vision' in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 340,000 subscribers at the end of the previous quarter. The group also saw an increasing number of its new customers subscribing to one or more of its on-demand programming packages.
BT also added 83,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter of last year, taking its total number of retail broadband customers to 4.7 million in the UK. But BT profit of £113 million (E124.6m) in the last quarter of 2008 is 81 per cent down on the year before despite five per cent better revenue of £5.43 billion. The problmes are mainly in its ailing overseas corporate networks division, which has a pre-announced £336 million one-off charge. Total revenue across all operations for the fourth quarter of 2008 reached £5.437 billion, up 5 per cent year-on-year.
CEO Ian Livingstone: "Three of our businesses performed ahead of expectations in the quarter and the group, excluding global services, delivered the best year on year profit growth for five years."
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Viasat pay-TV up 10%Viasat Broadcasting’ fourth quarter results show development in Central and East Europe and an increase in premium subs. Viasat’s Nordic pay-TV operations grew sales by 10 per cent as the combination of price increases and new services pushed up ARPU by 13 per cent to SEK 4,097.
Premium subscribers increased by 14,000 on the quarter, thanks largely to last May’s distribution agreement with Sweden’s Telia, ending 2008 on 754,000. DTH subs fell 3,000 to 676,000. 12,000 ViasatPlus PVR subs were added, taking the installed base to 115,000 at the end of the third quarter.
Viasat ended 2008 with 218,000 subscribers to its premium DTH operations in Central and Eastern Europe, up on 164,000 a year earlier including the new platform in Ukraine.
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500m views for Virgin VOD
Virgin Media's cable TV customers viewed more 500 million pieces of broadband video content last year, with the BBC's iPlayer accounting for almost 20 per cent of programmes watched.The cable TV company said its on-demand TV service, which is accessed by 52 per cent of its 3.5 million subscribers, had 516 million views of content in 2008. The BBC iPlayer catch-up service notched up 95 million views from launch on Virgin Media interactive TV service from late May to the end of the year. The ITV Player will soon join the service.
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RAI offers 22 live channels via Internet
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItalian public broadcaster RAI has become a multimedia operator by relaunching its website and offering users access to all content as well as personalised services.
Two new web portals are now available which provide access to a total of 22 live channels. Seven of them are RAI’s TV channels (Rai Uno, Rai Due, Rai Tre, Rai News24, Rai Sport Più, Rai Storia and Rai Edu), there are seven radio channels (Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, GR Parlamento, Isoradio, Musica Leggera and Musica Classica) as well as eight web channels.
Besides live broadcasts, RAI offers 500 on demand channels, 60 audio and programmes and video pod casts as well as a selection for archive content. In one month’s time RAI will also introduce MyRai.tv, a personalised audio and video playlist service.
RAI director general, Claudio Cappon, said that Italy is now only second to the BBC in Europe (which has one more simulcast channel) and ahead of France and Germany. Last year, RAI’s web portal registered a total of one billion pages viewed and more than 5 million downloads.
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ILIAD boosts ARPUFrench IPTV operator Iliad boosted ARPU for its Free service to E36.90 during the fourth quarter of 2008.
The operator said its record ARPU figure to-date was partly down to the launch of new services, including the Multi-TV Freebox in September. It introduced two new high-definition channels, France 2 and M6, and HD content on its VOD service Free Home Video, and also launched Canal Plus on-demand in May. Iliad increased its ADSL subscriber base by 1.3 million to 4.2 million across its Free and Alice brands last year. Its acquisition of Alice in August added 836,000 subscribers.
Illiad reported consolidated revenues of E1.565 billion for 2008, up 29 per cent year-on-year. It said it was targeting five million subscribers in 2011 and confirmed its target of connecting four million households with FTTH in 2012.
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Broadband subs slump in 2008The telco broadband market experienced a significant downturn in new subscriber additions during 2008, according to iSuppli Corp.
"New telco broadband subscriber growth saw a 9.1 per cent decline in 2008 following double-digit gains during the prior five years," said Steve Rago, principal analyst, broadband and digital Home for iSuppli. Hardest hit was North America, with new subscriber additions in 2008 amounting to 3.1 million, down 56.1 per cent from 6.5 million in 2007.
Driven by the need to upgrade the broadband access network, new Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) connections grew by 90 per cent and new VDSL connections grew by 54 per cent compared to 2007. In the cable world, many European and American operators introduced DOCSIS 3.0, significantly increasing broadband access data rates.
Telco TV was a major driver of high-speed access upgrades during 2008. Virtually every telephone company and competitive access supplier deployed or made plans to deploy television services during 2008. Overall telco TV subscribers grew by 8.8 million to end 2008 at a total of 18.5 million.
MSOs, led by Comcast and Time Warner, added 4.3 million new voice subscribers, most of which were previously telephone subscribers. The MSOs in North America also won the battle for the broadband connection, adding 4 million subscribers compared to 2 million for the telephone companies.
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Tvinci raises $1.6m
Israeli internet TV tech provider Tvinci has completed its first round of $1.6 million led by private investors. The Tel Aviv-based company is also looking for a second round in order to expand sales into other territories. Tvinci offers turnkey video customization tools to both mobile and pay-TV operators, and counts MSN and MTVN, including VH1 and Comedy Central among its clients. It has also launched "Orange Time," a VOD portal for mobile operator Orange.
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HGI adds ArcorThe Home Gateway Initiative (HGI), the industry body representing players in the home networking space, has announced the addition of Arcor to its list of operator members. Arcor is Germany’s second largest telco.
Arcor joins a current list of operators that includes Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Fastweb, France Telecom, KDDI, KPN, NTT, Portugal Telecom, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telecom Slovenije, Telekomunikacja Polska, Telenor, TeliaSonera and Telstra. The role of the HGI is to use its broad member base to establish technical specifications that enable the interoperability of home gateways with multiple connected devices, and the implementation of end-to-end services in the Digital Home.
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ETSI approves FLO interfaceThe FLO Forum is pleased by the decision of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) Broadcast to publish ETSI TS 102 589, "Forward Link Only Air Interface; Specification for Terrestrial Mobile; Multimedia Multicast." JTC Broadcast is a collaborative working group of EBU (European Broadcasting Union), CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) established to develop specifications for broadcast systems.
The publication of is a significant step towards ensuring a single global specification for the FLO air interface.
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Ericsson Connected Home GatewayEricsson will launch its Connected Home Gateway software at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, giving consumers the freedom to access and interact with their home multimedia devices, services and media, wherever they are. The gateway also enables one single entry point for IPTV and multimedia telephony services into the home.
Installed in the home, Ericsson Connected Home Gateway achieves all of this by providing a secure connection between consumers digital home networks and the telecommunications network, and a single point of entry for IPTV and communication services, such as multimedia telephony. Consumers can then use their mobile devices, such as mobile phone and laptops to communicate directly with their computer, TV or media player.
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Viaccess for GlobecastViaccess has been selected by GlobeCast to provide its Viaccess Mobile Broadcast service protection solution based on the OMA BCAST Smartcard profile for use in a key trial platform to facilitate the commercial launch of this technology in Europe.
The objective of this platform is to demonstrate both the viability of
DVB-H as a mobile television standard as well as the expertise of GlobeCast as a technology integrator and end-to-end service provider for television bouquet operators, regardless of standard or networks used.
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PacketVideo and Nagravision enable mobile TVsNagravision and PacketVideo, the software innovator powering the global mobile multimedia services, have introduced the first conditional access enabled version of the Telly device. Created by PV and combined with Nagravision’s Mobile TV solution, Telly turns iPhones, WiFi-enabled phones, portable media players and PCs into mobile television sets.
The product seamlessly decodes broadcast signals and repurposes them for high quality viewing, automatically recognising the consumer’s device using protocols to ensure rendering of the TV signal. Because Telly processes audio and video signals, consumers have access to secure, premium channels without changing their handset.
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Star Mandarin Mobile in AustraliaStar, the pay-TV operator, has launched Star Mandarin Mobile in partnership with digital media publisher News Digital Media and MNO 3 Australia. Star Mandarin Mobile is Australia’s first Chinese language subscription based mobile TV service and is available to 3 mobile users at A$1 a day or A$4 a month. To start, the service features three of Star’s top rated Mandarin programmes. More shows will be added to the line-up in the near future.
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Fashion TV HD Chooses AsiaSat 2 through RRsat
Asia's leading satellite operator, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (AsiaSat) and Fashion TV (FTV) have announced the signing of an agreement for C-band capacity on AsiaSat 2 to launch FTV HD, the new high definition channel by FTV, in Asia Pacific. FTV has also chosen once again RRsat Global Communication Network Ltd., a provider of comprehensive content management and global distribution services to the television and radio broadcasting industries, to provide the advanced play out and uplink services for the FTV HD channel to AsiaSat 2.
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Thursday 12th February
Setanta no footie fear
Cable Europe: ‘EC wrong to back Dutch open net’
Canal Digital profits up
Growth in mobile traffic forecast
Telia IPTV growth
Half a billion mobile TV viewers in 2013
Mockridge to Sky board
Mediascape DTH service deploys NDS
Motorola extends cable PON portfolio
RGB for island NGN
Setanta no footie fearSetanta is said to be seeking an urgent meeting with the Premier League in the hope it will help broker a deal to regain the rights it lost in the recent record-breaking TV auction. The Irish sports pay-TV broadcaster won only one package for the rights to broadcast the Premier League between 2010 and 2013, cutting in half its current output. That would restrict coverage to 23 matches on Saturday evenings, which analysts believe may not be enough to sustain subscriber numbers and could plunge the loss-making channel further into the red.
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Cable Europe: ‘EC wrong to back Dutch open net’Cable Europe, the industry representing Europe’s cable industry, has expressed disappointment at a European Commission decision to allow the Dutch communications regulator, OPTA, to impose new regulatory rules on cable operators (See Daily News 11/02/09).
The Commission has effectively approved a move by the Dutch regulator to mandate cable operators to allow third party services on their networks. Caroline van Weede, Managing Director of Cable Europe, said: "The Dutch television and communications markets are among the most competitive in Europe and need no further regulation."
Cable companies in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe currently deliver their services to customers using their own networks, which Cable Europe says is a guarantee for innovation and the continued existence of strong competition. Cable Europe will monitor closely how the proposed measures will be applied in The Netherlands.
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Canal Digital profits upTelenor Broadcast’s Canal Digital added 12,000 DTH subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2008, ending the year with 1.113 million, down slightly from 1.131 million in 2007. The number of cable households increased by 5,000 in the three months to December 31st, ending the year at 746,000, compared with 705,000 in 2007.
Canal Digital posted revenues of NOK6.392 billion (E734m) for 2008, up from NOK5.765 billion a year-earlier. The operator reported an operating profit of NOK174 million for the year, down from NOK502 million in 2007. Telenor said revenues in the Canal Digital Group increased primarily due to higher numbers of cable TV subscribers and higher sales of additional services including hardware both to cable and DTH subscribers. Telenor Broadcast reported total revenues, including those of the Canal Digital Group, of NOK8.170 billion for the full year, compared with NOK7.137 billion in 2007.
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Growth in mobile traffic forecastCisco has released the results of a Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013, providing findings on a variety of IP networking trends driven largely by the increased use of mobile broadband applications.
The Cisco VNI Mobile Forecast projects global mobile traffic to increase 66-fold between 2008 and 2013 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 131 per cent over that same period. These projections reflect a transformation in the fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile Internet that will enable consumers to view more mobile video and access a variety of mobile broadband services.
Additional key findings from the Cisco VNI Mobile Forecast:
- Nearly 64 per cent of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2013.
- Mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 150 per cent between 2008 and 2013.
- Western Europe will have the most mobile video traffic of all regions in 2013.
TeliaSonera had 867,000 TV subscribers, including 477,000 IPTV subscribers, at the end of last year. The IPTV base grew by 99,000 in the course of the year, while its overall TV subscriber base grew by 98,000. The company saw IPTV growth of 27,000 in the fourth quarter, including 4,000 in Sweden. Telia’s Swedish IPTV base grew by 20,000 year-on-year to 324,000, with about 70 per cent being paying customers. TeliaSonera also offers cable TV services via Danish subsidiary Stofa.
TeliaSonera’s broadband customer base grew by 108,000 year-on-year to 2.434 million.
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Half a billion mobile TV viewers in 2013The approaching switchover to all-digital television in the US and other major countries will create an unprecedented opportunity for the mobile TV market, according to a study from ABI Research. While mobile broadcast TV was pioneered in Japan and South Korea, following the switchover traditional and mobile TV broadcasters and cellular operators in many regions will launch mobile TV services that are forecast to attract over 500 million viewers by 2013.
"Mobile TV users have yet to value the medium properly because it has not been validated as an independent product and service," says senior analyst Jeff Orr. "It has been primarily offered at the end of a long list of more preferred cellular services. However, Mobile TV will soon be positioned in a more proper role as an extension of traditional broadcast TV services."
"Mobile TV viewing will not solely be on cellular handsets," Orr continues, "but also on MIDs, and automotive infotainment systems. I believe that once the content is available and the services launched, mobile TV will enable more classes of mobile devices that are natural fits‚ for mobile entertainment."
Who will benefit? Content developers and providers; device vendors, especially MID and cellular handset OEMs; and service providers. Other winners: multimedia and security software, semiconductor and network infrastructure vendors. Once mobile TV users adopt the service at high growth levels, advertisers will also climb on board to target the significant number of new "mobile eyeballs."
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Mockridge to Sky boardSky has announced that Chase Carey, CEO of DirecTV, has resigned as a non-executive director to be replaced by Tom Mockridge. Mockridge is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Sky Italia and Chief Executive, European Television of News Corporation where he oversees News Corporation's television operations in Europe, outside the UK.
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Mediascape DTH service deploys NDS
NDS has deployed a complete end-to-end pay-TV broadcast system for Cignal Digital TV, the satellite-delivered digital TV platform in the Philippines recently launched by Mediascape.
Mediascape has deployed a suite of advanced technologies from NDS. The solutions that comprise Mediascape’s new system include VideoGuard conditional access, MediaHighway middleware and a customised Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).
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Motorola extends cable PON portfolioMotorola has broadened its cable passive optical network (PON) portfolio with Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) solutions through a strategic agreement with Alloptic. The agreement between Motorola and Alloptic provides Motorola with exclusive rights to offer Alloptic’s RFoG solutions to cable operators worldwide. The addition of these new products to Motorol’‚s existing portfolio of RFoG solutions addresses cable operators‚ needs to create a seamless evolution while reducing operational expenditures on the path to all-fibre infrastructures.
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RGB Networks, specialist in network video processing, has announced that United Telecommunication Services (UTS), the parent company of TDS, the wireless cable service provider servicing the Dutch islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, has deployed RGB’s Broadcast Network Processor (BNP) as a key element of its next-generation video delivery network.
Working with Divitel, RGB’s system integration partner in the Netherlands, UTS has migrated its TDS system to a fully digital, IP-based platform. RGB’s BNP, offering high density grooming, statistical multiplexing and transrating, enables UTS to offer their subscribers in Curaçao and Bonaire a number of new services, including significantly more high definition channels at extremely high quality.
"Utilising RGB’s innovative equipment has helped us to deploy a future-proof IPTV platform for UTS—the solution meets today’s requirements, as well as future demands," said Hans Kornmann, Chief Executive Officer, Divitel. "The new core system gives the local TDS system a high quality picture performance at excellent operational costs. It’s a technical winner and an excellent basis for a successful cross media business."
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Wednesday 11th February
News Corp studies behavioural
EC back open nets for Dutch cable
Record DTT sales
Eutelsat raises targets
C4 plans new VOD
TEO hits 40,000+ subs
ITN mobile boosted by iTunes
Starz benefits from Disney/Spielberg deal
Pryde for Controller, BBC Distribution
Star appoints Sharma
News Corp studies behaviouralNews International is investigating working with News Corp sites such as Sky and MySpace, to create a behavioural targeting network across its properties. The creation of such a network would allow News International titles, such as The Times and The Sun to share data on reader behaviour and enable brands to target across both News Corp's and News International's sites.
Martin Corke, head of digital strategy at News International, said "we're reviewing the opportunities within our own organisation to offer behavioural targeting, across say Sky, MySpace and Fox. It makes sense as we've got so many strong sites."
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EC back open nets for Dutch cableThe European Commission has backed plans from Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA to open up the country’s cable TV market. OPTA plans to force the country’s four largest cable operators Ziggo, UPC, Delta and CAIW to open up their digital networks to third parties. According to OPTA, the regulations are needed to boost competition in the cable market to ensure consumers get better services and lower prices.
The European Commissioner Vivienne Reding said: "I fully support the view of the Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA that more competition is needed in this important market."
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Record DTT sales
From David Del Valle in MadridThe sale of DTT devices in December broke all records with more than 1,016,487 pieces sold in only one month, nearly two times the sales in November with 590,813 or in September with 546,163.
Out of the total December sales Integrated DTT TV sets represented 444,000 units, with 369,000 external STBs. Total DTT devices available now in the market amount to 15.2 million, with plans to reach almost 25 million by the end of 2009, according to Impulsa TDT.
By the end of 2008, 65.5 per cent of all SMATV buildings were already adapted to DTT, although there are around 431,000 buildings still to be converted for DTT. As for coverage, DTT reaches 92.38 per cent of the population or 42.6 million people.
In terms of audience, DTT has an average of 23.8 per cent, with a total penetration of 47.3 per cent in the country. In December, 9.8 million had daily access to DTT.
By June 30. 2009, more than 1,300 towns across the country will experience the analogue switch-off with a new phase to take place by the end of the year.
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Eutelsat raises targetsEutelsat has raised its revenue target for the full year after the world's third-biggest satellite operator posted a 52.8 per cent increase in net profit over the first half of 2008-2009. Eutelsat said it now targeted sales of E910 million in full-year 2008-2009, up from a target of more than E900 million last confirmed on November 4th.
The group maintained its earnings and revenue targets for the period 2008 through 2011 as sales in the first half rose 7.9 per cent.
Net profit in the first half of 2008 to 2009 reached E135.2 million, up from E88.5 million a year earlier, thanks partly to the sale of a stake in Hispasat and a decrease in depreciation charges.
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C4 plans new VODFollowing the Kangaroo blockade, Channel 4 is preparing to launch its new strategy for free online TV catch-up next month. Unlike its 4oD TV download service, the broadcaster's shows from the last 30 days will appear directly on Channel4.com web pages - in the mould of the BBC iPlayer.
The move has not been provoked by Kangaroo's demise but was drawn up last year in anticipation the project would go ahead. BBC, ITV and Channel 4 had each decided to show recent, catch-up TV websites, which would provide open access to archive material on Kangaroo.
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TEO hits 40,000+ subsLithuanian telco TEO has revealed that the number of subscribers to its IPTV service 'Interactive GALA' more than doubled during 2008 to reach 40,400 by year-end.
Its DTT service, which launched in March, reached 26,300 customers by the end of 2008, and its broadband subscriber base saw an increase of 15.2 per cent during 2008 to reach 298,100 customers, giving the company a 48.2 per cent share of the Lithuanian broadband market, according to the Communications Regulatory Authority.
Total revenue for the year totalled E239 million, an increase of 4.1 per cent over the total revenue of 2007.
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ITN mobile boosted by iTunesITN is celebrating the most popular news application in the iTunes chart with a tool that allows users to watch video news reports on their iPhone, even if they have no signal. The ITN application -free from the iTunes Store - offers a browseable menu of the latest headlines in UK and international news, sport and entertainment. ITN's application downloads the latest headlines and video reports when launched and can store them to view offline. It has been downloaded almost 45,000 times and is free to use.
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Starz benefits from Disney/Spielberg dealDisney has agreed a 30-film deal with film director Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks venture. Disney will receive a fee for each DreamWorks film it distributes and markets through its global pipeline.
Disney’s pay-television deal with Starz, the cable channel owned by John Malone’s Liberty Media, will include the DreamWorks films providing it with a crucial source of income. DreamWorks had hoped to be included in Universal’s pay-TV deal with HBO, the cable channel owned by Time Warner. But HBO is already well stocked with movies and was not prepared to pay for such a deal.
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Pryde for Controller, BBC DistributionAlix Pryde is to become the new Controller, BBC Distribution. She replaces Richard Waghorn who has left the BBC to become Chief Technology Officer for SABC, the South African public service broadcaster.
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Star appoints SharmaStar, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp and Asia’s leading media and entertainment company, has confirmed the appointment of Yeshpal Sharma as its Vice President of Distribution and Advertising Sales for the UK and continental Distribution and Sales and head of Star’s North American and European offices.
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Tuesday 10th February
Sky wins extra Premier package
Access takes Setanta stake
France IPTV figures up
34m VoD on UPC
RTL board offer on C4 – Five
Verizon gets Phili
Middle East telcos hot for IPTV
Salvatori for Seachange board
Sky wins extra Premier package
The second round of bidding for pay-TV rights of Premier League saw Sky secure one of the two remaining TV packages to air live games from 2010 to 2013, meaning it will have one more and Setanta one less than under the current deal. Setanta took the remaining package in the auction that netted the Premier League a total of £1.78 billion (E2.03bn), the same as it did for the current deal, which expires at the end of the current season.
Last week Sky paid more than £1 billion for four packages of 92 prime live matches, making its total payout £1.62 billion for five out of the six available packages.
The two packages auctioned consist of 23 games each, taking BSkyB to a total of 115 live matches per season from 2010 to 2013, while Setanta paid £159 million for the last package. Setanta secured two packages in the last Premier League deal for a total of £392 million.
The other bidder, left empty handed, was ESPN rumoured as a buyer of Setanta last year. ESPN said: "We can confirm that we did bid for Premier League rights and we are therefore disappointed in the outcome. But we were pleased to be at the table and we would like to congratulate Sky and Setanta."
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Access takes Setanta stakeWith some analysts doubting Setanta’s future after it failed to renew both its Premiere League packages, Access Industries, which is headed by the Russian-born US citizen Len Blavatnik, is understood to have acquired a stake of about 3 per cent.
Blavatnik's petrochemicals business, Lyondell Basell filed for bankruptcy protection last month owing $26 billion. Royal Bank of Scotland was forced to write off a £2.5 billion loan to the company made by ABN Amro, the Dutch bank which was taken over by RBS.
Blavatnik's company also has a shareholding in Top Up TV, the pay-television company founded by the former BSkyB executive David Chance.
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France IPTV figures upFrance had 5.643 million IPTV subscribers by the end of September 2008, according to data published by the telecoms regulator Arcep, up 1.6 million or 39 per cent on the same period of 2007. France Telecom’s 'Orange TV' service accounted for around 1.5 million of the total uplift ahead of Neuf Cegetel’s rival ‘neuf TV’ offer with 850,000, and Iliad-owned ISP Alice with 150,000.
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34m VOD on UPCCable operator UPC Netherlands’ video-on-demand service saw over 34 million requests from subscribers last year, the first full year of the service’s operation. UPC said that about 50 per cent of customers used the service on a monthly basis in the second half of the year, up from 40 per cent in the first half. At the end of 2008, UPC offered about 430 movie titles and 1,300 TV episodes on its VOD service.
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RTL board offer on C4 – FiveRTL, the Germany-based owners of Channel Five, has offered to set up a government-appointed editorial board as part of merger plan with Channel 4. Five's chief executive, Dawn Airey, told The Guardian that the independent editorial board would monitor the output of both channels if the two broadcasters were allowed to merge. The board would ensure the new group's programmes met strict quotas on the quantity and quality of its public service programming.
A combined Channel 4 and Five would expand its remit and produce more news and current affairs shows, she said. Executives from Five who have been pursuing a merger with Channel 4 for months.
Airey said RTL would agree to cap the amount of money it took out of Channel Five, and set up a fund to protect its public service broadcasting output, which would be ring-fenced and used to meet those commitments if the economic environment deteriorated.
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Verizon gets PhiliPhiladelphia has become the latest big city to approve a video franchise for Verizon's FiOS TV fiber-supported service. The City Council voted unanimously to grant the telco a 15-year franchise with the expectation that Verizon will roll out the service citywide over the next seven years. Verizon said it expects to begin offering FiOS to select city residents within a year.
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Middle East telcos hot for IPTVDelta Partners consultants says IPTV, mobile TV and multiplay will increasingly form the new battleground for Middle East telcom firms as they see lower fixed line revenues, fixed-mobile substitution and strong mobile competition going into the future.
Research Director, Mohsen Malaki, says that broadband sharing and cheap broadband alternatives are becoming a feature of the market with more regulatory pressure and entry of fixed line competition. He adds that Gulf telecom firms were increasingly turning their investment horizons to the African continent. "Increasingly market penetration is being focused on multiplay and IPTV," said Malaki. "The foundation for this is broadband and in Africa the markets are at differing stages in the development of bandwith."
"The package of mobile with fixed line, and IPTV with mobile and fixed voice, or tripleplay is still some time away because of the regulatory hurdles of bundling," comments Malaki. He points out this regulatory obstacle is especially strong in the Gulf, even if technically the markets are very developed, since most mobile operators don’t also have a fixed line licence. But for mobile TV as a standalone service there are no regulatory obstacles hence we have seen Qtel in Qatar with its service and with Zain Bahrain Smart TV and other examples coming soon in Saudi Arabia.
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Salvatori for Seachange boardCarlo Salvatori, CEO of the Italian insurance and banking conglomerate Unipol Gruppo Finanziario, has joined the board of SeaChange International."Carlo is an exceptional addition to our team and the Board is enthusiastic to start working with him immediately," said Bill Styslinger, SeaChange President & CEO. Salvatori has been CEO of Unipol Gruppo Finanziario since 2006 and was previously chairman of Gruppo Unicredito Italiano from May 2002 to January 2006.
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Monday 9th February
Sky Italia subs up profit down
Landmark piracy case in Oz
Korea's IPTV market 'to expand 10-fold'
NDS buy out complete
Volny IPTV bows out
Oregan Onyx browser for connected DTVs
Setanta for Oz
Sky Italia subs up profit downNews Corp-owned Italian pay-TV operator Sky Italia added 322,000 net subscribers in 2008 for a total subscriber base of 4.7 million. It reported second quarter operating income of $10 million down $52 million year-on-year. New Corp said marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and increased sports programming costs hit net income.
News Corp’s operating income for the second quarter was down 42 per cent year-on-year to $818 million, meaning the company faced a net loss of $6.4 billion, compared with net income of $832 million a year earlier. The explanation was in an $8.4 billion write down on the value of assets – particularly ad supported TV channel and the recently acquired Dow Jones Group – to reflect the downturn. Chairman Rupert Murdoch blamed the "grim" economic situation for the poor results: "Our results for the quarter are a direct reflection of the grim economic climate. While we anticipated a weakening, the downturn is more severe and likely longer lasting than previously thought."
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Landmark piracy case in OzIn a landmark case, leading Aussie ISP iiNet has formally defended itself against claims by movie studios that it willingly permitted customers to download movies illegally. In the Federal Court Australia's third largest ISP - which could face millions in damages - argued the case was "like suing the electricity company for things people do with their electricity".
iiNet filed its defence claiming that the Copyright Act and Safe Harbour provisions introduced with the US free trade agreement stipulated that ISPs were not liable for copyright infringement by customers.
Late last year, seven major movie studios and the Seven Network filed suit against iiNet for allegedly allowing its users to download pirated movies and TV shows using BitTorrent. The landmark case will determine the lengths to which an internet provider must go to prevent illegal downloading on its network. A loss for the movie industry could leave it no choice but to go after individual downloaders, as has occurred in the US. However, if iiNet loses, all ISPs could be forced to disconnect customers identified by the movie studios as illegal downloaders.
In its defence, iiNet admitted that the movie studios held copyright to their libraries of films but was not yet ready to concede that its customers illegally downloaded them. Regardless, it said that it would not derive commercial benefit from customers downloading films illegally and would in fact incur more costs due to the additional bandwidth used.
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Korea's IPTV market 'to expand 10-fold'Profits in Korea's market for IPTV are expected to expand nearly 10 times by 2012 following the suspension of all analogue broadcasting services in Korea later that year. Ovum have said in a report that IPTV profits in Korea will increase to over $310 million in 2012 with almost 3.5 million subscribers.
Ovum includes Korea as one of the highest potential in developing IPTV technologies, along with Canada and Singapore. Ovum says that although Korea was late in establishing related laws and providing real-time services for IPTV subscribers, the country will be able to overcome the gap with its widespread high-speed Internet access and well-founded infrastructure.
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NDS buy out completeThe deal for NDS’s biggest shareholder in partnership with private equity firm Permira to buy NDS off the market has been completed. A deal valuing the company at $3.6 billion sees News Corp keep a 49 per cent stake. NDS provides conditional access and DRM services across all platforms.
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Volny IPTV bows outCzech telco Volny has posted a message on its website stating that it is shutting down its IPTV service Volny TV. The reasons for the closure are so far unconfirmed, though it is believed to be due to poor subscription figures.
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Oregan Onyx browser for connected DTVsOregan Networks, an embedded software and solutions company, has announced availability of Oregan Media Browser 4.0 for connected DTVs, branded as Onyx, it also comes in a Set Top Box edition for network operators. Onyx delivers simplified accessibility to multiple sources of trusted Internet and personal content on TVs through a single resident TV application that can be easily ‘called up’ in the form of a widget and dismissed without leaving regular broadcast channels or switching TV inputs.
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Setanta for OzThe Australian version of Setanta Sports has signed a distribution deal with the IPTV network TransACT. Setanta will provide exclusive coverage in Australia of Six Nations rugby union and English FA Cup football. The channel is available for free on a week’s trial period after which it will cost A$14.95 a month.
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