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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 20th November
YouTube UK TV portal
Mediaset Premium VOD
Broadband continues to grow in the EU
ITV: 20% catch-up by 2013
DirecTV names White as new CEO
ITN first loss
Sony HD store on PlayStation
mirada teams with SmarDTV on Nagra Media Guide
Bluewin TV becomes Swisscom TV
Orange cinema service a success
Telstra selects Netgem
YouTube UK TV portalYouTube has taken a significant step toward a UK TV VOD portal with a new section called UK TV and featuring full length TV shows from its deal with Channel 4 and others from US broadcasters.
YouTube is posting around 5,000 videos, of which almost 4,000 are full-length programmes, from more than 60 partners. YouTube said it "expects this to significantly increase in the coming months."
It is presumed Google, parent of YouTube, is keen to steal a march on Hulu before it launches in the UK and SeeSaw, the Arquiva owned resurrection of Project Kangaroo. All will be competing to acquire online rights to broadcaster output.
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Mediaset Premium VODItalian media company Mediaset is to this week launch a video-on-demand service for its DTT Premium pay-TV offering.
Alongside the service, which will have at least 50-movies on offer, it is launching a 160GB DVR at E139. Mediaset expects to have 4.5 million Premium customers by the end of 2010, a 12 per cent increase on 2009. Company vice-chairman Piersilvio Berlusconi said that he is targeting breakeven for the pay-TV services next year.
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Broadband continues to grow in the EUWith more than 11 million new fixed lines laid in a year, the take up of broadband Internet continues to grow in Europe. According to a report published by the European Commission, 24 per cent of the EU population had a broadband access line subscription in July 2009, up from 21.6 per cent in July 2008.
The report also shows that mobile broadband is gaining momentum in Europe, with a 54 per cent increase since January and now at a penetration rate of 4.2 per cent per 100 citizens. Last but not least, broadband Internet connections in Europe are increasingly faster. 80 per cent of broadband lines in the EU now have download speeds of 2 megabits per second (Mbps) or greater (allowing the use of Web 2.0 and video streaming), which is 5 per cent up from last year.
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ITV: 20% catch-up by 2013
From Colin Mann in LondonA senior executive at ITV has suggested that 20 per cent of viewing of its channels will be via ‘catch-up’ services in 2013, up from four per cent currently.
Carolyn Fairbairn, Director of Group Development and Strategy at the broadcaster told delegates at the Digital TV Summit that this would come from its ITV Player on itv.com as well as other platforms and PVR/VoD-enabled devices. "We need to be where our audiences are," she said, suggesting that there was a good demand for ‘middle tail’ programming, and the challenge was to monetise this. "We’re getting much more optimistic. We want to find new pots of new money." She also revealed that ITV was "thinking very hard" about monetising the opportunity for viewers to preview ‘next in series’ episodes.
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DirecTV names White as new CEODirecTV has named Michael White as its new President and CEO.
White announced in September that he will retire later this year from his current position as vice chairman of PepsiCo. He will assume his new role at DirecTV beginning January 1st, 2010.
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UK’s ITN has revealed its first-ever loss though to be less then £10 million (E11.5m). Last year, ITN made a pre-tax profit of £4.1m on turnover of £105 million.
The company makes news bulletins for ITV and Channel 4, and is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust, United Business Media and Thomson Reuters which each have a 20 per cent stake, with ITV holding the remaining 40 per cent.
The biggest blow has been the closure of Setanta Sports News, the news channel operated by the Ireland-based sports channel network that went into administration this year. Revenue from Setanta made up approximately 5 per cent of ITN’s sales in 2008.
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Sony has launched its high-definition video store on the PlayStation Network across Europe.
Sony has made distribution deals with studios including Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony and Twentieth Century Fox, with approximately 50 new titles expected to be made available each week
The European launch comes in the same week Microsoft launched Zune, its HD-streaming service, on Xbox Live.
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mirada teams with SmarDTV on Nagra Media Guidemirada, the audiovisual interaction specialist, has teamed up with SmarDTV, a manufacturer of pay-TV technologies, to port Nagravision’s Nagra Media Guide, onto a SmarDTV CI Plus module. The Nagra Media Guide is a fully integrated turnkey solution, which delivers an HD user experience enhanced with innovative features based on personalisation and recommendation. The partnership demonstrates for the first time that operators can integrate their own branded Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) onto a CI Plus module.
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Bluewin TV becomes Swisscom TVTo coincide with its third birthday, Bluewin TV, the Swiss IPTV service, is rebranding as Swisscom TV. The product name change is part of the strengthening of the Swisscom umbrella brand which took place in 2008. Three years after its launch it has acquired over 200,000 customers.
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Orange cinema service a successOrange has reached 324,000 subscribers for its Orange cinema series bouquet in France, 1 year after launching the service, with similar audience levels across each of the five channels offered. The service offers a number of features, including multi-screen, catch-up TV and start-over, with nearly 50 per cent of subscribers using catch-up TV, and watching 6.7 videos per month on average, focused largely on US programming. The telco is celebrating its successful first year with a festival of exclusive films and previously-unreleased series being aired throughout November and December.
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IPTV set-top box manufacturer and software developer, Netgem, has been chosen by Telstra to supply set top box device and software for the T-Box service in Australia. T-Box will offer content from its BigPond movie store brand along with Australian terrestrial free-to-air high definition and standard definition television channels seamlessly together on a home television.
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Thursday 19th November
Mediaset files antitrust against Sky USB key
Phorm UK MD out
KDG subs up
US networks agree on online question, no answers
Archie Norman confirmed as ITV chairman
BSkyB sees higher profits as competition increases
Ofcom clears way for 'white space' networks
IIF delivers new IPTV standards
AT&T launches new interactive apps
Mediaset files antitrust against Sky USB keyItaly's Mediaset has filed a complaint with antitrust officials against Sky Italia over its Digital Key that allows Sky Italia subscribers to view free DTT channels. The pay-TV market is dominated by Sky Italia on DTH but Mediaset has been trying to challenge Sky's position with low-cost pay-TV on DTT.
"The distribution by Sky of this key breaches (European) community and national rules on competition," Mediaset said. The Key, or dongle, plugs into Sky STBs and allows the reception of DTT channels now denied via Sky’s DTH since the move of the Mediaset channels to TivUsat.
Mediaset claims the USB key aims to slow the sale of devices that allow viewers to access pay programmes and services offered by other operators, specifically Mediaset’s ‘premium gallery’.
Sky Italia Chief Executive Tom Mockridge said that the key would help the digitalisation of Italy by offering a "service for consumers in a market in swift development. A development that, evidently, is not easy to accept for a group like Mediaset that for many years has been, and still is today, the main private subject operating in Italian commercial television and dominant in the advertising market."
Sky itself is already suing Mediaset for antitrust because it won’t let Sky advertise its pay services on its FTA channels.
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Phorm UK MD outTargeted ad firm Phorm has lost its UK managing director Nick Barnett. With none of Phorm’s initially-announced three interested UK ISPs having gone ahead with rollout it seems the company has chosen to focus on international opportunities. South Korea’s KT has begun a trial. European potential customers have been put off by privacy concerns and the resulting hostile attitude of the European Commission.
Barnett joined after Phorm’s major reorganisation in December 2008.
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KDG subs upKDG’s digital pay-TV subscribers totalled 844,000, up 21,000 year-on-year at the end of September. It had 1.7 million broadband and telephony subscribers adding 645,000 on the year. There were 851,700 internet and 872,000 phone customers.
Average services per customer increased to 1.31 from 1.23 giving the operator 11.84 million RGUs, up 585,000 year-on-year. ARPU for the quarter ending September reached E11.88, up from E10.92 a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter grew by 8.6 per cent year-on-year to E368.3 million.
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US networks agree on online question, no answersIn a panel at a B&C event Marc Graboff, chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios; Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros. Television Group; Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Network Television Entertainment Group; and John Wells, president of the Writers Guild of America, agreed the success of Hulu and other catch up services and the beginnings of content everywhere, illustrated the urgent need to create a model for online viewing that dissuades viewers from cord cutting, is measurable and presents content in branded environments that relate back to the TV networks that distribute it.
"The dollars that go into cable MSOs and satellite help support basic cable nets and help support us [the content supplier]," said Warner Bros.' Rosenblum. "We don't want the consumer to stop paying for cable. It feeds the ecosystem that pays basic cable that pays us for repeats."
The measurement of viewing on DVR and its potential effect on the economics was another key point and all hoped the recently formed Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement would deliver. NBC's Graboff said DVRs "a huge leak in the bucket."
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Archie Norman confirmed as ITV chairmanITV has confirmed Archie Norman, the former chief executive of supermarket group Asda, as its new chairman. The appointment of Norman, 55, a former Tory MP, will bring to an end a seven-month search for the commercial broadcaster as it sought to replace Michael Grade, its executive chairman.
ITV is expected to see its fortunes revive as advertising returns but fundamental questions remain about strategy. Grade will be credited with some restructuring but his ambition to make great shows and sell them around the world has failed. With the exception of "I’m a Celebrity" ITV owns the rights to none of its major hit formats.
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BSkyB sees higher profits as competition increases
BSkyB expects profit and cash flow to grow in coming years as it continues to add clients even as competition increases. "The pay-TV market is an attractive place to be," Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Darroch said at a Morgan Stanley conference in Barcelona, adding "BSkyB is well-positioned to increase earnings and cash flow."
BSkyB reported in October that new subscribers and demand for high-definition programs boosted fiscal first-quarter profit. BSkyB, which owns the Sky TV channels, won 94,000 net new subscribers in the quarter ended Sept. 30 for a total of 9.54 million. The company has a target to reach 10 million customers in 2010.
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Ofcom clears way for 'white space' networksRural areas of the UK could gain access to broadband Internet services by using spare television spectrum after Ofcom gave the green light to the technology's development. The communications regulator published a discussion paper on use of so-called ‘white space’ spectrum - the buffer radio spectrum between television channels, inviting the industry to push forward on the technology.
In addition to rural broadband, the white space spectrum could be used to launch new connected devices, such as digital cameras that transmit images back to a computer as soon as the shutter is clicked, or controllers to allow people to set their central heating remotely. A host of technology companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Dell, is known to be interested in offering services using the technology which would be exempt from the licence fees that mobile phone operators pay.
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IIF delivers new IPTV standardsThe Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has released three newly-created IPTV standards. ATIS’ IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF) – a global player in IPTV standards development – recently completed this work.
These deliverables standardise multiple areas of the IPTV ecosystem. The three released standards consider: a test plan for validating objective quality models in the context of IPTV services; IPTV software download sequence and remote management security considerations and requirements to ensure interoperability between service provider IPTV multicast applications; and network provider domains, home networks, and the IPTV terminal device. The recently-released documents are
Test Plan for Evaluation of Quality Models for IPTV Services (ATIS-0800025) describes a comprehensive test plan for validating objective perceptual quality models in the context of IPTV services. The plan defines the procedure for evaluating quality models’ criteria, performance, evaluation and documentation.
Remote Management of Devices in the Consumer Domain for IPTV Services (ATIS-0800009.v002) expands ATIS-0800009 to include additional details on security considerations and clarifies the software download sequence and protocols.
Multicast Network Service Specification (ATIS-0800019) provides a baseline set of requirements to ensure interoperability between service provider IPTV multicast applications and the network provider domain, the home network, and the IPTV Terminal Function (ITF).
"These standards will enable interoperability between disparate elements of the vast IPTV ecosystem," said Susan Miller, ATIS President and CEO. "Successfully realising remote device management and multicast network interoperability – while simultaneously ensuring high QoS levels across and between services – is essential to IPTV’s continued growth and adoption."
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AT&T launches new interactive appsAT&T has launched two free interactive TV applications on its Microsoft IPTV platform, U-verse TV: Offers On Demand and Caller ID on TV. The launch of the new apps brings the number of free apps that have been rolled out on U-verse TV, since its initial launch, to 20--with 12 of those apps having been launched this year alone.
Offers On Demand lets customers enter a coupon code on channel 199 in order to instantly redeem a coupon for a movie rental. The company says that the app will also save a list of the customer's available coupons and their expiration dates, should the customer want to return and watch the movie later. U-verse Caller ID on TV lets customers view their U-verse Voice Caller ID and voicemail notifications on their TV screen.
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Wednesday 18th November
Spain: ONO's profits up, subs, ARPU down
STV sues ITV over VOD rights
YouTube new services: Direct and Latino
UK delays BBC funding decision
Premier League takes site to Israel Supreme Court
Orange wins Twitter integration
Ericsson TV broadcasting deal
AEPOC calls on EU to prioritise piracy
Time Warner confirms AOL spin off
South Africa selects MHEG-5 for switchover
J:COM October subs
Bouygues Telecom selects Envivio
Ondas Media teams with Jazz FM
Spain: ONO's profits up, subs, ARPU down
From David Del Valle in MadridFor the nine month period to September, ONO - Spain's largest cable company - declared a net profit of E41 million, up 144.7 per cent, with an EBITDA of E541 million, up 3.5 per cent year on year. But revenues fell by 5.1 per cent to E1,140 million, with subscriptions also dropping by 2.7 per cent up to 1,819,000 and ARPU going from E52.4 to E50.2.
The highest fall was in pay-TV subscribers, down 7.6 per cent, with the company losing 80,000 on the year and 14,000 in the third quarter down to 977,000 subs. In telephony, ONO increased customers by 1.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent for broadband adding 31,000 new clients.
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Scottish ITV franchise owner STV is counter-suing ITV over the VOD rights to ITV shows it airs. STV was already being sued by ITV for £38 million (E42.7m) it claims it’s losing by STV not screening its programmes in Scotland.
STV’s claim is that, though STV acquires rights for linear ITV television shows, ITV Network and not the franchise, has been licensing the VOD rights for those shows. It is suing for £12 million related to VOD and a further £23 million it claims for unpaid share of network advertising revenues.
STV already operates its own breakaway STV Player, and Ofcom has already ruled ITV should give more information to franchisees about its VOD deals and proposed "rights acquired by ITV Network on behalf of the network as a whole are available for use by all licensees on an equivalent basis".
ITV agreed franchise owners could exploit VOD rights for themselves if their VOD platform supported geoblocking to within their region - a virtually impossible task.
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YouTube new services: Direct and LatinoYouTube Direct is a new market place service whereby TV and online news editors can obtain video from so-called "citizen journalists". News outlets seeking footage can announce it in a variety of ways, including via call-out videos.
"News organisations always want to verify the content they use," said Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube. YouTube Direct isn't a revenue play -- either for YouTube or its users, Grove said. "It's an incentive to upload great video, because of the recognition you'll get from legitimate news organisations."
Meanwhile YouTube said it has reached an agreement with Univision, the most-watched Spanish language television network in the United States, to make a wide range of its shows available on the video sharing site. YouTube described the deal as one of its most comprehensive agreements for TV content. The agreement is nonexclusive and includes short clips as well as full-length TV shows from Univision’s three networks, Univision, TeleFutura and Galavision.
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UK delays BBC funding decisionThe government is delaying until after the next election the decision on whether to force the BBC to share part of its £3.6 billion (E4bn) licence fee income with producers of independent regional news programming.
In publishing the results of a short consultation of the proposals, originally laid out in the Digital Britain white paper in June, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport pulled out of a final clash with the BBC. Digital Britain said the government was committed to maintaining more than one source of regional news, apart from the BBC, in the interests of balance and impartiality, but admitted that its preferred solution of independently financed consortia operating in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions would need public subsidy. The source of this funding has proved controversial, with the government wanting to take a £130 million slice from the licence fee which is currently used to pay the costs of switching the UK’s analogue television signal to digital.
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Premier League takes site to Israel Supreme Court
A ruling stating that sporting events may be aired live online without violating copyrights undermines the legal basis for managing broadcasting rights, representatives of the English soccer Premier League have stated in their appeal to the Israeli High Court of Justice.The earlier ruling was handed down by the Tel Aviv District Court. The English Premier League grants game broadcasting rights to television stations in 207 countries, and discovered the games are being streamed live on the website live-footy.org. The league's management sent a cease-and-desist email to the website owners, who are Israeli. They refused to comply.
According to the earlier judgement Premier League failed to prove that the website had violated its rights, and online broadcasts are different from television broadcasts. Therefore, there was no cause to demand that the site owners' identity be revealed. In the wake of that decision, the website was permitted to continue its free broadcasts of English Premier League games.
The EPL argues in their appeal that the ruling legalises digital piracy and warned that it could place Israel among countries notorious for allowing piracy. They also argued that contrary to the judge's decision, which found that the website operator derives no profit, the website has earnings from advertisements and links. They also stated that there is no basis for the assumption that online viewers would not potentially pay to view games.
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Orange wins Twitter integrationTwitter users will soon be able to tweet to each other via their TV sets while watching TV as Orange has struck a deal to integrate the service into its mobile and television offerings. Orange, part of France Telecom, runs TV services in France, Spain and Poland and mobile and internet services internationally, including in the UK.
Under the deal, Orange is aiming to integrate Twitter into football coverage, news, entertainment shows and films. Twitter will also begin to appear in ad campaigns run by Orange.
Orange said that Twitter services would be rolled out in the UK first, to be followed by France, Spain and Poland later this year. The service will be rolled out in other European markets next year. The key to the deal, said Orange, is that Twitter will become completely integrated with the suite of digital media services available via its mobile portal.
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Ericsson TV broadcasting dealEricsson, the world’s largest provider of telecommunications infrastructure, has signed its first deal with a television broadcaster. The 10-year contract to provide television transmission services to TV4, one of the biggest broadcasters in the Nordic region, opens a new potential market for Ericsson.
Under the TV4 contract, Ericsson will take day-to-day responsibility for transmitting all the broadcaster’s free-to-air and pay-TV channels in Sweden and Finland.
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AEPOC calls on EU to prioritise piracyWhile AEPOC praises increasing effectiveness in law enforcement activities in many EU countries to counteract audio-visual piracy, several EU states show little involvement.
Eight EU countries have still not yet named a delegate for the EU’s High Level Expert group. AEPOC calls on Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovenia to join the group to help facilitate a better implementation of the Directive.
Time Warner confirms AOL spin off
Time Warner and AOL have confirmed the timing and details regarding the spin-off of AOL from Time Warner. The Time Warner board has approved the final distribution ratio and declared a pro rata dividend of the shares of AOL common stock owned by Time Warner that will result in the complete legal and structural separation of the two companies.
On the distribution date of December 9th 2009, Time Warner stockholders will receive one share of AOL for every eleven shares of Time Warner common stock they hold. The AOL spin-off has been structured to qualify as a tax-free dividend to Time Warner stockholders for US federal income tax purposes.
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South Africa selects MHEG-5 for switchoverIMPALA, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance, has announced that South Africa – via its Digital Dzonga Advisory Council – has selected MHEG-5 as the interactive TV middleware for its digital switchover.
Following on from a successful DTT trial that began last year, the SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, led the process of developing a MHEG-5 profile for South Africa to meet some of the unique needs of the South African market. The South African MHEG-5 profile has now been finalised and can be obtained from SABC while the overall receiver specifications are now also being completed. The MHEG specification includes a platform-wide EPG that will allow consistent listings and onscreen branding.
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J:COM October subsJupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has announced that the total subscribing households as of October 31st 2009 served by J:COM’s 23 consolidated franchises reached approximately 3.26 million, up 343,100, or 11.8 per cent since October 31st 2008.
Combined revenue generating units (RGUs) for cable television, high-speed Internet access and telephony services reached 5.89 million, up 655,100 or 12.5 per cent. The bundle ratio (average number of services received per subscribing household) increased to 1.81 as of from 1.80. The cable television digital migration rate increased to 88 per cent from 76 per cent.
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Bouygues Telecom selects EnvivioEnvivio has announced that its 4Caster C4 video encoder is being used by Bouygues Telecom, one of France's largest mobile network operators with ten million subscribers, to encode video for its TV 3G+ mobile video service. The Bouygues Telecom video headend is hosted by Cognacq-Jay Image, the content management and delivery subsidiary of TDF. TV 3G+ provides subscribers with access to more than 60 channels in a variety of standard and premium packages.
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Ondas Media teams with Jazz FM
Ondas Media, the satellite radio company for Europe, has teamed up with Jazz FM in a content cooperation agreement. The partnership will see distribution of Jazz FM’s content on the Ondas Media digital satellite radio platform to be broadcast across the internationally recognised borders of 27 European countries.
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Tuesday 17th November
Virgin rethinks TV sale, again
OneVision told to get on with DTT plans
BBC timetable for Freeview HD availability
Online ad spend to climb 7% in 2010
MGM looking for buyer
Telstra to start T-box movie trials for TV
Sezmi debuts
Widevine raises cash
SES invests in 03b Networks
Fastweb VOD deal with Disney
OpenTV powers Foxtel next generation
GlobeCast’s platform on Astra 4A adds Canal 3
Virgin rethinks TV sale, againVirgin Media’s attempt to sell its wholly-owned television channels has been called to a halt following an initial review in October and it now seems certain Virgin will try and package up a deal to sell its owned stations and its half of the UKTV joint venture.
The company’s advisors have valued its channels - including Living, Bravo and Trouble — at £160 million (E175m) and its half-share of UKTV at £300 million. Virgin Media had narrowed down the bidders for its wholly-owned channels to three: Viacom, Time Warner, and BSkyB.
These bidders and others are being sounded out on a deal for the package – Virgin just has to hope the BBC doesn’t exercise its right to veto the buyer. UKTVs channels are essentially made up of BBC repeats.
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OneVision told to get on with DTT plansThe consortium chosen to develop digital terrestrial television (DTT) in Ireland has been told by the The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) to make progress with its plans as a matter of urgency. It has written to the OneVision consortium, requesting that contracts for DTT be signed within the next couple of weeks. It was originally expected that contracts would be signed in September.
OneVision is backed by Eircom, transmission specialist Arqiva, TV3 and Setanta.
Reports in Ireland say that the process was now at a ‘‘critical’’ stage, similar to the stage when the first consortium quit the process. One of the sticking points for OneVision appears to be a E20 million guarantee being sought by RTE. The broadcaster is to build the DTT network at a cost of more than E100 million and wants to ensure that the commercial backers will stick with the project.
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BBC timetable for Freeview HD availabilityThe BBC has confirmed the timetable that will make HD services on Freeview available to 50 per cent of the UK population in time for next June’s World Cup, and to 98.5 per cent of the population by the end of digital switchover in three years’ time. The Freeview HD rollout has been accelerated so that viewers in London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham receive signals by the end of March 2010.
The majority of viewers will come into coverage at the same time that they go through digital switchover - including viewers in Manchester in December 2009 and those in Cardiff, who will get Freeview HD by the end of March 2010. For the 7 per cent of the UK population who switched before December 2009, a retrofit programme will bring them into coverage before the end of November 2010.
DVB-T2 technology will deliver an increase in capacity of 67 per cent to the BBC’s Multiplex B, creating the space needed for UK public service broadcasters' HD transmissions.
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Online ad spend to climb 7% in 2010
Online ad spend is set to buck the trend of the wider advertising recession in 2010 with a predicted 7.6 per cent year-on-year increase across Europe, according to a new report by The Marketers' Internet Ad Barometer. The report forecasts that online ad spend across Europe will grow even more rapidly in 2011 with budgets expected to grow by 15 per cent year on year.
This forecast by the European Interactive Advertising Association – which counts AOL, BBC, MTV, eBay and Condé Nast as members – will raise hopes that marketers are beginning to regain confidence and increase their budgets across the board.
EIAA also found that while TV ad spend may be under pressure, websites such as ITV.com that offer programmes online are starting to catch on with marketers.
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Struggling movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is looking for a buyer. The home of the James Bond and Rocky franchises said it has begun to explore strategic options including "a potential sale of the company." In a statement, MGM also said its lenders have agreed to grant the company another respite until January 31st from interest payments on nearly $4 billion in debt.
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Telstra to start T-box movie trials for TVTelstra will begin a live trial of its new digital set-top "T-box" this week, ahead of its release in Australia. Several hundred customers will begin using the device in a trial that will enable them to start watching movies downloaded from the Internet on their TV sets. The T-box will make it possible for Telstra customers to download and watch movies using Telstra sites such as BigPond movies, or watch BigPond's IPTV channels, including news and sport, all without running up any additional charges.
The personal video recorder and set-top box is Telstra's attempt to offer its online content on the more user-friendly TV set. Telstra said the set-top box would also have TiVo-like functionality allowing users to record free-to-air TV.
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Sezmi debutsSezmi has made its all-in-one personalised television service available to the public in an exclusive pilot in Los Angeles. The first television offering to seamlessly integrate live television into a broadband content experience, Sezmi delivers video entertainment experience that brings television content from leading cable networks together with a broad selection of on-demand movies from top studios and popular Internet video content.
Buno Pati, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sezmi, said, "The launch of Sezmi in Los Angeles is the culmination of years of development and dozens of relationships in the content, broadcast and technology industries. We are extremely pleased to deliver on our vision of a premium television service that maximises value for consumers."
Sezmi also announced that the company has received $25 million in new funding from new and existing investors. Investors in this financing include previous investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Omni Capital, TD Fund, Index Ventures, and Legend Ventures, and a new strategic investor.
Widevine Technologies has raised a fresh round of capital. Chief Executive Brian Baker said he plans to announce the financing and details of a strategic partnership with a large customer in the coming weeks. A Securities and Exchange Filing indicated that Widevine had raised over $7 million.
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SES invests in 03b NetworksSES and Channel Islands-based O3b Networks Limited (O3b), have confirmed that SES has made a minority investment in O3b. The investment will support the development of O3b’s satellite-based, global Internet backbone designed to reach the "other three billion" people in the developing world who do not have access to the internet. SES joins Google, Liberty Global, HSBC and North Bridge Venture Partners to become an investor in O3b.
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Fastweb VOD deal with DisneyFastweb and Walt Disney Television Italy have announced an agreement to offer Disney programmes on demand. As a result, the main contents of the Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney will be available on Fastweb's IPTV service, without time or listings restrictions, on two channels exclusively devoted to children and tweens. Disney on Demand Bambini and Disney on Demand Ragazzi will be available for all those that subscribe to FastwebTV.
OpenTV powers Foxtel next generation
OpenTV has revealed that Foxtel, the leading subscription television operator in Australia and longtime OpenTV customer, has launched its next generation platform in collaboration with OpenTV. Powered by OpenTV middleware and using OpenTV’s latest interactive TV technology, the operator’s new platform features an array of new channels and innovative applications that were developed by Foxtel and OpenTV and are now available to Foxtel’s subscribers.
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GlobeCast’s platform on Astra 4A adds Canal 3GlobeCast has confirmed that Canal 3 Benin has joined its platform on Astra 4A (Sirius 4) at 5šE. This privately-owned channel joins other key regional and international broadcasters on the platform, such as Vox Africa, Canal 2 International, LMTV and Waladjiri.
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Monday 16th November
Liberty Global scoops Unitymedia
Canvas not needed say Sky and Virgin
Oliart, new president of RTVE
Sky set to lose cricket’s ‘Crown Jewel’?
Kudelski completes takeover of OpenTV
Disney wants pay TV Everywhere
Satellite pay-TV in Eastern Europe sees strong growth
India: digital cable TV approved
MTV extends relationship with BSkyB
MediaFLO technology recognised by Japan's MIC
Al Jazeera English launches on Austar
Liberty Global scoops UnitymediaInternational cable operator Liberty Global is to acquire Germany’s second largest cable company Unitymedia in a E2 billion deal. Unitymedia has systems in the German federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, which are among the most prosperous and densely populated regions in Europe.
Unity Media’s cable footprint passes some 8.8 million homes, including ten of the twenty largest cities in Germany, including Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Frankfurt. At September 30th, 2009, Unitymedia reported approximately 6.4 million Revenue Generating Units (RGUs) (as defined by Unitymedia), including 4.5 million analogue and digital basic cable subscribers and 1.9 million new service RGUs (digital TV Pay, retail broadband internet, wholesale MMA Internet, and telephony).
Liberty Global is buying Unitymedia from its parent, which is owned by a group of shareholders led by BC Partners and Apollo. Together with Unitymedia’s reported net debt at September 30th, 2009 of approximately E1.5 billion, the total consideration is approximately E3.5 billion, excluding transaction costs, and represents a purchase price multiple of approximately 7.4 times Liberty Global’s estimate of Unitymedia’s 2010 Adjusted EBITDA. Completion of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2010 and is subject to regulatory approval.
Mike Fries, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Global said the deal complemented the operator’s existing European footprint and had significant untapped growth potential in one of the fastest growing cable markets in Europe. "The addition of Unitymedia not only enhances our European presence, but adds significant scale to our global operations, as our footprint, including Unitymedia, will exceed 40 million homes."
He added that Unity Media fitted Liberty Global’s strategy of operating best-in-class cable systems, bringing an experienced management team, a significantly upgraded network, and a product suite that was well positioned to deliver superior value to its customers.
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Canvas not needed say Sky and Virgin
BSkyB and Virgin Media had a rare show of unity when they agreed that the Project Canvas open IPTV platform should not be cleared by the BBC Trust because it isn’t providing anything the market isn’t already. Griff Parry, director of on demand for Sky, told the C21Media’s FutureMedia conference "there’s no evidence of market failure here. There are a broad range of players who want to drive Internet TV services."
Virgin Media TV’s commercial director David Cuff said "I don’t understand his (Eric Huggers of the BBC who demonstrated the Canvas UI) explanation for why it’s needed. He’s worried for us that we might need to deal with different (technical standards) it seems to me the marketplace is already providing this."
Meanwhile, BBC iPlayer is relaunching on the Nintendo Wii in the form of a dedicated Wii channel on November 18th. To get the service, Wii owners will be able to download it from the console's online shop for free.
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Oliart, new president of RTVE
From David Del Valle in Madrid
A former minister of Defense, Alberto Oliart, aged 81, will be the new president of the state-owned TV group RTVE following the resignation next Friday of Luis Fernandez, the first president of the pubcaster elected by Parliament in 2007.
One of his main challenges at the helm of RTVE will be to cope with a public TV only financed by state subsidies, taxes on private TVs and telco companies and the sale of content as the new law, recently approved by the Parliament, bans RTVE from broadcasting advertising from next January.Oliart will also have to pilot the group at a time when Spain is heading for analogue switch-off scheduled for April 2010.
Meanwhile as RTVE prepares for its ad-free existence, freeing around E600 million in ad revenues, Spain is at the front of Europe in the fall of TV ad revenues. A report produced by UTECA, the private TV Association, reveals that the TV ad market (representing 41 per cent of total advertising market in the country) has fallen by 30 per cent in the first half of the year to end the year with an average drop of 19 per cent, going from a total turnover of more than E3 billion in 2008 to around E2.5 billion in 2009. As a way of comparison, in other countries like Germany and France the TV ad fall is expected to be around 7 per cent, with the UK and Italy falling by around 12 per cent.
To complicate matters, it is estimated that the TV ad market in the country, which represents 41 per cent of the total ad market, will not turn the corner until the last quarter of 2010. Private TVs have urged the Administration to also ban advertising on state-owned Regional TV channels freeing another E280 million in the ad TV market.
UTECA claimed the losses incurred by public TV in Spain total E1.618 billion in 2008 excluding state subsidies, representing a net cost per home of E118.
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Sky set to lose cricket’s ‘Crown Jewel’?
From Colin Mann in London
UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB may no longer have sole rights to show cricket’s ‘Ashes’ series between England and Australia when the matches are played in the UK, according to the findings of an independent review Panel into the future of listed sporting events, which suggested that these be added to a list of protected events that should receive live free-to-air coverage. Any such decision would not affect current deals, with the Australian tour in 2016 the first likely to come under any future restriction.The panel, chaired by former broadcaster and executive director of the English Football Association David Davies, said that sporting events with a special national resonance should continue to be protected for the widest-possible television audience. It accepted that there was still a place for a listed events regime, but suggested its long-term future in a changing media landscape was by no means certain.
If the Government chooses to continue listing events to ensure free-to-air broadcast coverage, there should be a single list of live events, the Panel concluded. Protected coverage of highlights is now insufficient and out-of-step in a multi-channel, digital and online world.
The Panel recommended that the following events should be protected for free-to-air live coverage:
- The Summer Olympic Games
- FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament
- UEFA European Football Championship Finals Tournament
- The Grand National
- The FA Cup Final (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland only)
- The Scottish FA Cup (in Scotland only)
- Home and away qualification matches in the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championships (listed in the Home Nation to which they relate)
- The All-England Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship (listed in its entirety)
- The Open Golf Championship
- Cricket’s Home Ashes Test matches
- The Rugby Union World Cup Tournament
- Wales matches in the Six Nations Rugby Championship (in Wales only)The Panel applauded BSkyB’s role in driving innovation in the way in which sport is covered in the UK. Its capacity with ESPN, to reach 90 per cent + of households in 2012 via commercial multiplexes and Freeview, was confirmed to the Panel by Digital UK, which has overall responsibility for completing digital switchover. The Panel urged both BSkyB and ESPN to consider again what may be in the best interests of UK viewers, and the circumstances in which they might broadcast a small number of major events free-to-air.
The Panel also accepted that sports governing bodies should be best-placed to know what is in the best interests of their sport now and for the future. But the A three-month period of consultation now follows before Ben Bradshaw, the Culture Secretary, and Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, decide whether to adopt any of the report’s findings.
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Kudelski completes takeover of OpenTVDigital TV company Kudelski has purchased approximately 60 per cent of the shares in OpenTV Corp it had not already owned for $1.55 a share, taking its voting rights to 91 per cent.
In February, Kudelski had proposed buying the remainder of OpenTV's shares for $1.35 per share, but withdrew that bid in June after a special committee set up by OpenTV's board rejected it as inadequate.
Kudelski also announced that it has commenced a subsequent offering period to acquire all of the remaining outstanding Class A shares.
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Disney wants pay TV EverywhereSpeaking on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger outlined his disagreements with TV Everywhere. "What we’ve heard suggests that interest in charging the consumer for greater access isn’t a priority and we think it should be," he added that, "if we go to a world of authentication we shouldn’t be precluded from offering our products directly to consumers," who aren’t pay-TV subscribers.
Disney reported its fiscal fourth quarter. Net income came in at $895 million for the quarter, an increase of 18 per cent on the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose by 4 per cent to $9.7 billion. Strong performance at the media division, which includes the ESPN and ABC television networks, helped to drive overall sales.
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Satellite pay-TV in Eastern Europe sees strong growthA Screen Digest analysis focused on the Central and Eastern European pay-TV market shows that the recent rapid growth in new satellite TV market entrants in Central and Eastern Europe shows no signs of slowing down. There are at least four new satellite players due to launch in the region in the next few weeks with new services earmarked for Russia, Macedonia, Slovakia and the Ukraine.
Prospects for growth vary by country with the underlying uptake of pay TV and plans surrounding Digital Terrestrial Television important factors in the potential for new entrants. Pay-TV penetration in Russia, Ukraine and Macedonia is still relatively low (less than 50 per cent of homes each) leading to a land-grab among new entrants.
One of the main reasons that these markets are proving attractive is that DTT has yet to launch in any of them. Experience from other markets like Romania and Poland has shown that satellite TV can expand very rapidly in DTT-free markets, taking advantage of the lack of competition rural areas and small cities. But the window of opportunity to launch without competition from a free DTT service is disappearing fast. In Slovakia Towercom, the DTT operator licence holder, is required to launch a free service with 80 per cent coverage by the end of 2009. In Macedonia, Slovenia Telecom, the winner of the tender for DTT, is expected to launch by May 2010.
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India: digital cable TV approvedThe Indian cabinet has approved a policy that would help digitise cable TV operations across the country. Under the so-called headend-in-the-sky (HITS) policy, cable operators will have to lease transponders on a dedicated satellite, acquire TV channels from broadcasters, uplink these to the satellite, then download and beam the signals to households in digital format.
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MTV extends relationship with BSkyBMTV Networks International (MTVNI), and BSkyB have concluded two agreements which further strengthen the relationship between the two companies. MTVNI has appointed Sky Media as its exclusive advertising sales representative. Under the agreement, Sky Media will manage MTVNI’s advertising sales in the UK and Ireland for all its pay TV services across music, kids and entertainment, which includes MTV, VIVA, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET. The five-year agreement will take effect from 1st January 2010.
The second agreement sees MTVNI and Sky extend their distribution agreement for the carriage of the MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central channel families on Sky’s Direct-to-Home (DTH) and Sky Player platforms in the UK and Ireland.
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MediaFLO technology recognised by Japan's MICQualcomm has revealed that Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has recognised MediaFLO technology as one of two official technologies for nationwide mobile multimedia broadcasting services in Japan. This milestone signifies that MediaFLO-enabled mobile TV services may be deployed in Japan once spectrum is made available in 2011.
The only other mobile broadcast technology recognised by the MIC for this purpose is ISDB-Tmm, an evolution of Japan’s digital TV (DTV) standard, ISDB-T.
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Al Jazeera English launches on AustarAl Jazeera Network has confirmed the launch of its English language global news service on the Austar Pay TV platform in Australia which will begin on the 15th of November, 2009, expanding Al Jazeera English’s distribution reach to over 180 million households globally.
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