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Our Latest Issues
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Tuesday
Sony scores with 3D World Cup
Sony Corporation and football’s governing body FIFA have teamed up to allow selected media rights of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 3D. FIFA is to produce the world’s first FIFA World Cup in 3D. Up to 25 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa matches will be produced using Sony’s 3D professional cameras, intended to provide coverage of the action that is unprecedented in depth, vividness and excitement to people around the world.
Global sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup are considered to be important drivers of new technology, particularly in the TV market. Sony anticipates that the news that the FIFA World Cup will be filmed in 3D for the first time will certainly increase the uptake rate of 3D TVs in the home and develop the installed base earlier than would otherwise have been the case.
As a result of this news, and an increasingly bullish industry outlook on 3D, Screen Digest has increased its forecast, and now estimates that 13.6 million 3D TV sets will be installed in Europe by 2013.
"3D will undoubtedly transform the way we enjoy content in the Living Room," said Fujio Nishida, President of Sony Europe. "At Sony, the 3D entertainment experience will not only focus on the 3D TV alone, but from 2010 will also encompass a range of 3D compatible products such as Blu-ray Disc players, VAIO notebook computers and PlayStation3."
Viewers will be able to enjoy 3D experiences in seven cities around the world (Berlin, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Rome, and Sydney) located within FIFA ‘Fan Fests’. In addition, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment plans to produce and distribute the Official 3D Film on the Blu-ray Disc and other formats.
Friday 4th December
Comcast, GE seal deal
Sullivan to head Sky Deutschland
Portuguese pay-TV penetration hits 44%
Digital Britain copyright laws under attack
EC opens investigation into Spanish broadcasting tax
Movieclips aims to revive film libraries
Five on YouTube
Discovery names Hollinger CEO International
Virgin Media appoints director of on demand TV
Renault on Sky
MobileTribe social services for Roku
Comcast, GE seal deal
In a move that they say will lead the next phase of media industry’s evolution, cable giant Comcast and General Electric have signed a definitive agreement to form a joint venture that will be 51 per cent owned by Comcast, 49 per cent owned by GE and managed by Comcast.
The pair say the joint venture, which will consist of the NBC Universal (NBCU) businesses and Comcast’s cable networks, regional sports networks and certain digital properties and certain unconsolidated investments, will be well positioned to compete in an increasingly dynamic and competitive media and digital environment.
Under the terms of the transaction, GE will contribute to the joint venture NBCU’s businesses valued at $30 billion, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks, and unconsolidated investments, subject to $9.1 billion in debt to third party lenders. Comcast will contribute its cable networks including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its ten regional sports networks, and certain digital media properties, collectively valued at $7.25 billion, and make a payment to GE of approximately $6.5 billion of cash subject to certain adjustments based on various events between signing and closing.
The deal also involves the previously-announced step of GE acquiring Vivendi's 20 per cent interest in NBCU for $5.8 billion. GE will purchase approximately 38 per cent of Vivendi’s interest (or approximately 7.66 per cent of all outstanding NBCU shares) from Vivendi for $2 billion in September 2010, if the Comcast transaction is not closed by then. GE will acquire the remaining 62 per cent of Vivendi’s interest (or approximately 12.34 per cent of all outstanding NBCU shares) for $3.8 billion when the transaction closes.
Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts said the deal was a perfect fit for Comcast and would allow it to become a leader in the development and distribution of multiplatform ‘anytime, anywhere’ media that American consumers are demanding. "In particular, NBCU’s fast-growing, highly profitable cable networks are a great complement to our industry-leading distribution business," he added, suggesting that the deal would increase its capabilities in content and cable networks, amnd also enhance consumer choice and accelerate the development of new digital products and services.
GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said that the combination of Comcast’s cable and regional sports networks and digital media properties and NBCU would deliver strong returns for GE shareholders and business partners. "I believe that the new NBCU will deliver value for both Comcast and GE in the future. We will give consumers and advertisers more choice and our cable and digital assets will be second to none," he said.
Comcast also announced the creation of Comcast Entertainment Group (CEG), which will house Comcast’s interest in the joint venture and will stand alongside Comcast Cable, which operates the company’s traditional cable business. Jeff Zucker, current president and CEO of NBCU, will be CEO of the new joint venture and will report to Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke. Zucker said that consumers of all of NBCU products - on screens large and small - would have the benefit of enhanced content and experiences, delivered to them in new and better ways as a result of the deal.
The deal is bound to face plenty of opposition in Washington, including from Free Press, Consumer Federation of America, unions worried about job losses, and from potential competitors, including smaller and mid-sized cable operators concerned about the competitive position.
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Sullivan to head Sky Deutschland
Brian Sullivan, currently Managing Director, Customer Group at BSkyB, is to take over as Chief Executive Officer of Sky Deutschland in April 2010. Current CEO Mark Williams is to step down as on 31 March 2010 for personal reasons. Sullivan will work alongside Williams for three months before taking over.Sullivan currently manages all elements of BSkyB’s relationship with its customers, and has been a key part of the team developing BSkyB’s multi-product strategy, including managing the development and launch of products such as Sky+ and Sky+HD, both of which can be claimed to have transformed the viewing experience for millions of customers in the UK.
Sullivan said that Germany remained a largely untapped market, not just for pay TV but also for HDTV, and he saw "great potential to build on the foundation that has been laid to develop a truly world-class entertainment service."
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Portuguese pay-TV penetration hits 44%
From Branislav Pekic in RomePay-TV is present in some 44 per cent of Portuguese households, while the total number of subscribers surpassed 2.4 million in the third quarter of 2009. This represents an increase of 72,000 subscribers over the previous quarter and up 232,000 on an annual basis, with the main drivers of growth being IPTV followed by DTH, according to the latest data released by Portugal’s national telecommunications regulator Anacom.
Cable TV distribution now represents less than 60 per cent of the total pay-TV subscribers or 742,000, down 1.8 percentage points on the previous quarter, while the share of other distribution platforms has risen 1.2 percentage points to approximately 15 per cent. The weight of DTH has grown to about 26 per cent of the total or 624,000, while the fibre-based offers, provided by Sonaecom, Portugal Telecom (Meo) and Zon/TV Cabo, represent only 0.5 per cent of subscribers or 12,000.
In regional terms, the distribution platform varies considerably. Cable is still dominant in Lisbon, Madeira, the North, Algarve and the Azores. In Central Portugal and the Alentejo DTH is predominant, although "other technologies" are used by more than 25 per cent of subscribers. As regards to the geographical distribution, Lisbon, North and Central regions still have more than 80 per cent of pay-TV customers.
Zon is still pay-TV market leader with a 66.6 per cent share (down 1.8 percentage points), followed by PT Comunicações (Meo) with 20.7 per cent (+2 per cent), Cabovisão (10.6 per cent), Ar Telecom (1 per cent), Sonaecom (0.9 per cent) and Vodafone Portugal (0.1 per cent).
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Digital Britain copyright laws under attackGoogle, Facebook, eBay and Yahoo have joined forces to lobby Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to drop proposals to give ministers the power to change copyright law. The companies say they had "grave concerns" that a clause in the new Digital Inclusion Bill risks "stifling innovation and damaging the Government's vision for a Digital Britain".
In a letter to the Business Secretary they said: "The industry as a whole had hoped that the outcome of Digital Britain would be a clear, workable set of principles by which the industry could operate. On the contrary, Clause 17 creates uncertainty for consumers and business and puts at risk the UK's leading position in a digital Europe."
Illegal filesharers could have internet suspended The companies said that in its current form the Bill, which had its second reading in Parliament yesterday, would give any future secretary of state "unprecedented and sweeping powers" to change copyright law.
They said the clause could be used to increase monitoring of users "even where no illegal activity has taken place", which would "discourage innovation" and "impose unnecessary" costs on those attempting to improve Britain's digital future.
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EC opens investigation into Spanish broadcasting taxThe European Commission has opened a formal investigation under the EU state aid rules into the new tax-based funding system for Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. Spain is planning to abolish advertising and other commercial activities of RTVE and to replace this source of income by newly introduced taxes on TV and telecommunications operators.
In addition to existing state financing of RTVE, the government plans a 3 per cent tax on free-to-air commercial broadcasters' revenues, 1.5 per cent on pay TV broadcasters, 0.9 per cent on electronic communications operators and an 80 per cent share of the existing tax on radio spectrum use, up to a maximum of E330 million.
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Movieclips aims to revive film librariesHollywood’s biggest film studios, including Warner Brothers Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, have provided thousands of clips to a new online service that aims to enhance the value of older titles at a time when DVD sales are in serious decline.
Movieclips.com, allows users to watch 12,000 clips free and embed them on blogs and websites such as Twitter and Facebook. But the site also allows viewers to buy or rent full-length versions of the films thanks to deals struck by Movieclips with Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon.com.
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YouTube is now adding long-form shows from Five to those it acquired in October from Channel 4. Five is retaining, within a YouTube channel, "DemandFive", the name for its VOD strand. The deal, which is non-exclusive, is for more than 3,000 hours of free full shows and clips, about the same volume as the C4 deal.
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Discovery names Hollinger CEO International
Discovery Communications announced that Chief Operating Officer Mark Hollinger has been named President and CEO of Discovery Networks International.
"Mark has been my most trusted partner at Discovery. He has been critical to building Discovery into the number one nonfiction media company and creating the best global footprint in all of media," said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications, to whom Hollinger reports. "Building strong brands and growing audience share around the world is one of our key growth opportunities, and Mark’s fluency in Discovery’s global business, strong leadership skills and vision to grow the business makes him the ideal executive to lead Discovery Networks International into the future."
Hollinger joined Discovery Communications in 1991 as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. In 1994, he was named Acting General Manager for Discovery Channel Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Hollinger was responsible for overseeing and coordinating all activities related to the launch and operation of Discovery Channel Asia.
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Virgin Media appoints director of on demand TV
Virgin Media has appointed Aleks Habdank as director of on demand television services. Aleks will be responsible for the commercial management of Virgin Media’s pioneering on demand TV service.
Aleks joins Virgin Media from Chellomedia where he was General Manager of Chello on demand. As a founder member of the management team that helped set up transactional TV services across Europe, Aleks has an established record of success in new media and on demand television across cable and IPTV telco platforms throughout Europe. During his nine years at Chellomedia, Aleks also held several non-executive roles with CTAM Europe, Anytime PTE and an advisory role with African Trumpet Telecommunications Nigeria.
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Renault on Skyextended its online video channel with the launch of a dedicated Sky TV channel. The car manufacturer is looking to build on the success of the online channel it launched in March, which has achieved an average visit time of 15 minutes.
The channel, produced by RDF Media and ad agency Publicis Modem, features content focusing on Renault cars, the Formula 1 team, events, concepts and interviews with celebrity fans.
Renault TV launches weeks after rival Audi scrapped its Sky TV channel in October to focus on online distribution.
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MobileTribe social services for RokuMobileTribe has launched a new generation of social converged services for the Roku player product family. Users can now access online social networking through their TV screens. The MobileTribe application allows access to personal communities as well as address books from Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Google, Yahoo, Flicker and Picasa.
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Thursday 3rd December
Next day pay-TV on Google?
Time Warner Cable ‘4A’ for content
Italy asks EU to review News Corp TV plans
Murdoch: Mobile TV is key to future
SeeSaw content deal with BBC
Freeview in 10m+ homes
Nielsen to add online views to its ratings
Comcast broadband meter
STB brings Flip videos to TV
Bridge Technologies partners with TV-Connect
Sky Italia selects Brightcove
Wotone and Digisoft.tv join forces
Next day pay-TV on Google?According to trade reports in America, Google-owned YouTube is in talks with TV networks and studios on offering streaming TV episodes for a fee. TV shows would cost $1.99 each, and become available for commercial-free streaming on the morning after their first network broadcast.
Apple's iTunes Store and other retailers already sell TV episode downloads for $1.99 each, and many network sites, as well as Hulu, offer streaming episodes for free with advertising. However, All Things D said YouTube may aim for "long and mid-'tail' shows and videos that aren't available other places, and don't have to match existing prices."
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Time Warner Cable ‘4A’ for contentTime Warner Cable chief executive Glenn Britt says the company is developing a strategy called ‘Any Content, Any Time, Any Device, Anywhere’ to help the consumer choose how they want to access their favourite shows. The move is aimed at pre-empting a breakdown of the cable business model, which is threatened by the availability of free or close to free programming on the Web.
"We're starting to allow people to access content they want any time," Britt said at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York. He said this is part of the TV Everywhere cable industry initiative to make programmes available online to paying subscribers. Time Warner Cable hopes to take that further by delivering TV using WiMax 4G wireless technology, through its partnership with Clearwire.
Britt said the cable company is also working with a range of device makers and other technology companies to ensure that it can deliver programming on a range of platforms. "We think the distinction between PCs, TVs and BlackBerrys are artificial," said Britt. "We're hard at work in our labs to deliver shows on any device."
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Italy asks EU to review News Corp TV plansThe Italian government is seeking an opinion from EU regulators on whether News Corp's plans to launch the free television channel Cielo conforms to restrictions on the company's broadcasting operations in the Italian market.
Italy's Industry Ministry said its undersecretary for communications, Paolo Romani, sent a letter to Brussels in mid-November as part of the ministry's continuing review of a News Corp. request, made last month, to launch a new channel on free-to-air television. The planned launch of the new channel, called, would mark News Corp's entry into Italy's free TV market, which is currently dominated by state-broadcaster RAI and Mediaset, owned by the family of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
New Corp’s ‘Cielo’ channel, originally scheduled to launch last month, is now set to debut on January 1st 2010.
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Murdoch: Mobile TV is key to futureNews Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, speaking at a Federal Trade Commission workshop on the future of journalism, said that mobile TV is key to his company's strategy for remaining successful in the age of anytime, anywhere digital journalism.
Murdoch pointed out that News Corp was working on a project to use a portion of broadcast spectrum to deliver TV, and perhaps newspapers, to mobile devices. He believes that spectrum could provide a new economic vehicle for newspapers.
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SeeSaw content deal with BBCSeeSaw, the new online TV service set to launch in the UK has announced the first content deal for the service, confirming a major programming deal with BBC Worldwide.
SeeSaw will offer a mixture of free and pay content from BBC Worldwide on the platform. The deal covers a raft of content across the drama, comedy, lifestyle, entertainment and factual genres from the BBC archive.
Pierre-Jean Sebert, CEO SeeSaw, commented: "(This) announcement is a significant milestone for SeeSaw, demonstrating our commitment to deliver a rich and varied range of British programming. By offering an enhanced viewing experience and great content, SeeSaw will become the ideal destination for consumers to indulge their passion for TV. "
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Freeview in 10m+ homesFreeview has passed10 million UK homes. Freeview’s recent growth has been boosted by strong sales across the board and the recent switchover of thousands of homes from five-channel analogue to digital TV, with the vast majority opting for Freeview as their main set.
Freeview+ continues to grow with 1.8 million recorders purchased since launch in 2007, with sales on track to hit 2 million over Christmas. Next year Freeview will launch a new Freeview high definition (HD) box which will give consumers subscription-free, HD television through their TV aerial, without the need for a satellite or cable connection.
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Nielsen to add online views to its ratingsThe Nielsen Company has confirmed that its television measurement homes would soon be Internet measurement homes too, bringing the company a step closer toward providing the integrated ratings that media companies are demanding.
Starting now and going through August, Nielsen will install Internet meters in 7,500 of its television panel homes, where viewership is extrapolated to produce national TV ratings. Eventually — Nielsen has not said when — data from those homes will be used to calculate combined ratings for TV and Internet viewing.
Nielsen’s measurements are vitally important to the television industry because the TV ratings are used to sell an estimated $70 billion in advertising each year.
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Comcast broadband meterComcast has released its long awaited meter, the cableco giant plans to give customers in Portland a preview of the meter which will display broadband usage on a per Gigabyte basis across a calendar month. Comcast's current cap is 250 GB usage; the company says median usage is 2 -4 GB per month. According to Comcast, the usage meter will be rolled out across the country "after a short period."
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STB brings Flip videos to TVPure Digital technologies is releasing a TV set-top box called FlipShare TV, which will allow users to wirelessly stream their Flip videos caught on Flip camcorders from their PC to the TV. The $149 box will let users view videos they've uploaded to a FlipShare online account and also clips from a friend's FlipShare channel.
FlipShare TV builds on Pure Digital's reputation for simplicity and adds in a layer of wireless networking, a traditional strength of Cisco. The FlipShare TV box communicates over Wi-Fi with a USB drive, which connects to a user's online FlipShare channel from a PC or Mac. Users do not need a wireless network at home to make the system work.
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Bridge Technologies partners with TV-ConnectBridge Technologies has revealed that TV-Connect Broadcast Systems has been appointed to distribute and support Bridge Technologies' VideoBRIDGE IPTV monitoring system in Austria. Vienna-based TV-Connect will provide support, sales, and consultancy to IPTV providers seeking an advanced solution for end-to-end fault tracking and performance analysis in the IPTV delivery chain.
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Sky Italia selects BrightcoveSky Italia has selected the Brightcove platform for online video content management and publishing advertising-supported, customised video players across its online properties and across the Web. Sky Italia, which is wholly owned by News Corp, is Italy’s most popular pay-TV company with nearly five million subscribers. With Brightcove, Sky Italia will extend distribution of sports, news and lifestyle-related video programming to the Web, reaching a larger audience and expanding monetization opportunities through enhanced advertising opportunities.
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Wotone and Digisoft.tv join forcesDigisoft.tv , a global provider of carrier class solutions to the IPTV and media entertainment markets, and Wotone Group, a media and internet technology provider in China, have entered in to a strategic partnership to offer a complete end to end service delivery solutions to IPTV, Cable and Hybrid operators in the Chinese market. Under the terms of the agreement, Wotone will offer Digisoft’s DigiHost Service Delivery Platform and Java Based Middleware as part of a complete end to end solution for IPTV, Cable and Hybrid operators.
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Wednesday 2nd December
Rovi will appeal Virgin patent judgement
GE and Vivendi agree NBC Universal deal
Italian TV market in 2009 worth E8.4bn
News Corp delays Italy channel
New initiative for mass market mobile TV devices
Sky mag goes monthly
Boxee beta
Taiwan forms Internet TV alliance
Sony puts faith in 3D
Toshiba working on Blu-ray Freeview HD box
Intelsat 15 launch successful
Rovi will appeal Virgin patent judgementRovi Corporation has condemned last week's UK High Court ruling that three of its Gemstar EPG patents are invalid. The company promised to appeal the decision that said Virgin Media had not impinged patents with its own EPG.
Samir Armaly, Rovi's SVP of worldwide patent licensing said: "We... intend to continue to pursue Virgin and other unlicensed companies for their infringement of our intellectual property." Rovi is the new name for Macrovision, which acquired the Gemstar TV Guide businesses.
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GE and Vivendi agree NBC Universal dealGeneral Electric has agreed to pay Vivendi $5.8 billion for the French group’s 20 per cent stake in NBC Universal paving the way for the conglomerate’s planned sale of 51 per cent of the US media group to Comcast.
The valuation is at the high end of expectations and essentially equates to one fifth of the valuation the Comcast deal puts on NBCU, once debt is stripped out. However, it is slightly below the stake’s current valuation in Vivendi’s books.
GE and Vivendi had been negotiating valuation since the French group’s annual window for exercising a put option on the stake opened on November 15. It was not immediately clear, however, whether GE would pay Vivendi the full $5.8bn upfront, or seek to stagger the payment over a period, given that the Comcast deal is expected to take as long as a year to clear regulatory hurdles.
The ultimate aim is for Comcast deal to buy a 51 per cent stake in NBCU for $30 billion.
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Italian TV market in 2009 worth E8.4bn
From Branislav Pekic in RomeAt the end of 2009, the Italian TV market (TV fee, advertising, subscriptions and on demand services) will be worth a total of E8.4 billion, growing to E8.9 billion in 2011, according to the latest research from ITMedia Consulting.
DTH operator Sky Italia will become the largest broadcaster with E2.7 billion in revenues from subscriptions and advertising, but due to the recovery of the advertising industry in 2011, will be again surpassed by Mediaset.
The consultancy firm predicts that at the end of 2009 some 66 per cent of Italian households will be digital, a figure which will grow to 92 per cent in 2011, one year after the final shutdown of analogue. DTT will in 2009 become the first digital distribution platform and by 2011 will be present in 56 per cent of households. Satellite will not grow significantly, while IPTV will remain marginal, although registering a double-digit growth.
Pay-TV is already present in almost 40 per cent of the households and, driven by increased digital penetration, in 2011, will be available in nearly half of Italian households. Despite the crisis, the main source of revenue remains advertising: it will be worth E4 billion in 2011 and will constitute 46 per cent of total revenues.
Pay-TV revenues will be hit less by the crisis and will continue to grow but at a slower rate than in previous years (7 per cent annually). In the pay-TV market, satellite will remain leader, while the other platforms will reduce its market share but not enough to undermine the leadership of DTH.
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News Corp delays Italy channelRupert Murdoch's News Corp has delayed the launch of free Italian channel Cielo as it waits for government authorisation. News Corp disclosed plans for the digital terrestrial channel in November in a move that heats up competition with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset and state broadcaster RAI.
"Broadcasting will not start on Dec. 1 as planned because as of today the necessary authorisation from the communications ministry has not arrived," Cielo said in a statement.
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New initiative for mass market mobile TV devicesFifteen mobile service providers and broadcast network operators represented in bmcoforum have launched an initiative to come up with common handset specs for vendors, in order to speed up market introduction of new handsets.
These are 3, Orange and Media Broadcast from Austria, 3 Italy, Media Broadcast from Germany, Antenna Hungaria, Dominanta and KENTAVR from Russia, DStv Mobile from Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia and Kenya, Safaricom from Kenya, Digita from Finland, INFO-TV-FM from Poland, KPN from the Netherlands as well as Mediaquest and Smart from the Philippines.
These companies have jointly signed a letter that requests the update of mobile phone roadmaps and an offer to discuss the development of common handset requirements based on the bmcoforum published profiles. The objective is to have a variety of DVB-H enabled devices available as soon as possible, preferably in time for the FIFA World Cup tournament in June 2010.
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Skymag is being renamed Sky Magazine and is upping its frequency from 10 to 12 times a year. The magazine is mailed to 7.5 million subscribers.
The relaunch follows research undertaken by BSkyB, which brought the magazine in-house last year after its former publisher, News Magazines, was shut down.
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Boxee betaThe beta version of Boxee will be unveiled at a special event in New York City on December 7.
The beta release of Boxee includes:
- A redesigned interface
- Improved navigation
- The ability to search for TV shows and movies both on the Internet and on local networks
- A queuing function, most likely similar to what Hulu has now.
- Shortcuts for apps, movies, and other programmesThere will be a 4 week early-access period before the beta version is officially released on January 7th at CES.
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Taiwan forms Internet TV alliance
The Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (TEEMA) and government-sponsored Taiwan Digital Television Committee (DTVC), under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), have confirmed the formation of an Internet TV Alliance by related Taiwan-based enterprises, aiming to tap the Internet TV service and hardware market in China.Members of the alliance include makers of LCD TVs, IP STBs, network/communication equipment as well as Chunghwa Telecom (IPTV service), TV broadcasters such as Taiwan Television Enterprise and digital content providers, DTVC indicated.
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Sony puts faith in 3DSony expects that 3D televisions will make up between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of all sets it sells in the financial year that begins in April 2012. The goal further indicates Sony's confidence in 3D entertainment ahead of a roll-out of the technology next year.
Sony first announced its 3D ambitions in September when it said the company planned to launch 3D-capable Bravia TV sets and Blu-ray Disc players as well as adding 3D to the PlayStation 3. Sony's plans for the latter two products are already becoming clear: the Blu-ray Disc Association is working on a 3D disc standard while Sony plans to add 3D to all models of the PlayStation 3 via a firmware update.
Sony says the 3D-compatible TV sets will include a small piece of additional hardware that enables them to show 3D content but they'll also work as conventional television sets, said Hiroshi Yoshioka, executive deputy president of Sony and head of the unit that includes its TV business. Yoshioka didn't elaborate on the additional hardware but said it would only add a little to the production cost of the TV set.
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Toshiba working on Blu-ray Freeview HD boxToshiba has confirmed that it will be producing a set top box with integrated and recordable Blu-ray and Freeview HD with the service due to arrive in the UK this month. The lack of equipment for Freeview HD – which needs new DVB-T2 tuners – is a concern, although there is expected to be a raft of announcements at CES in January from major manufacturers.
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Intelsat 15 launch successfulIntelsat announced that a Zenit-3SLB vehicle successfully launched the Intelsat 15 satellite (IS-15) from the Land Launch facilities at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. The satellite, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, will provide video and data services through its high power Ku-band payload. Customers will use IS-15’s capacity to distribute in-demand services that include cellular backhaul, for wireless communications to remote locations; broadband networks for enterprise applications; IP trunking, for robust Internet connectivity; and video services, for DTH programming.
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Tuesday 1st December
iPlayer grows and grows
Sky Italia predicts huge growth
YouTube launches first UK ad campaign
Make or break for Ireland DTT
Rogers On Demand Online
New ratings panel for online
7 in 10 people have a digital dependency
Prisa ready to offload more of Digital Plus
UK digital radio tops 10m sales
Open IPTV Forum reaches 60 members
NetCologne to launch 1 Gbps via FTTH in 2010
Huawei wins over half of China Telecom IPTV terminals
Foxtel launches bookable promos with NDS
iPlayer grows and growsOctober set another new record for BBC iPlayer TV requests, racking up 53.2 million TV, according to new more detailed stats released by the public broadcaster.
Streaming or downloads to PCs accounted or 76 per cent, 7 per cent went to iPhone or iTouch devices, 7 per cent to Macs, 6 per cent to Playstations and 2 per cent other devices including Wii. Radio requests were steady at 26 million.
The data doesn’t split out Virgin though it does say 26 per cent of programmes in September were watched via Virgin Media.
It is reported BBC is soon to release an iPhone app – currently iPhones can download via the site but only via Wifi, not 3G. There is already an app for Nokia smartphones.
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Sky Italia predicts huge growthSky Italia CEO Tom Mockridge has told the Italian press it will grow strongly and is not waging a war on Mediaset.
"It is true that, according to the press, Silvio Berlusconi has defined Sky as 'an enemy' and his son Pier Silvio (Mediaset vice-chairman) in the last few days has used the term war," Mockeridge told Corriere della Sera, "...in reality....you are dealing with only competition between two companies," he said.
On expansion, he compared Italy pay-TV market penetration - which the newspaper said is 25 per cent - to the 93 per cent of US families, 60 per cent in Britain, and 50 per cent in France, "there is enormous space to grow," he said.
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YouTube launches first UK ad campaignYouTube has launched its first ad campaign to promote its new full-length TV show service. The site will run press, poster and online ads to market the ad-funded Shows service.
The number of TV shows available on YouTube has increased markedly since the company made a deal with Channel 4 last month under which the two parties share revenues from the advertising around the programmes.
With the slogan "YouTube's got TV", the campaign will feature advertisements on the sides of buses and inside underground trains, along with full-page print ads in publications, including one in today's Guardian. There will also be online ads to support the campaign.
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Make or break for Ireland DTTThe development of digital terrestrial television (DTT) is at a ‘make or break stage’ after the consortium that holds the DTT contract said it needed more financial leeway for the project.
The OneVision consortium, which includes Eircom and TV3, told the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) that it needed some flexibility on the financing of DTT. The consortium has the contract to run commercial content on the DTT system, which will take over from free-to-air broadcasting when transmission to aerials ceases across Europe in 2012.
OneVision, which also includes Arqiva and Setanta, was recently told by the BAI to get contracts signed as a matter of urgency. However, OneVision has said that financial requirements demanded by RTE, which will build the transmission network, are standing in the way of a deal. RTE wants a guarantee of E20 million from One Vision to ensure that the commercial partners will stick with DTT if it builds the network for more than E100 million. OneVision believes that this E20 million guarantee is too much to hand over in the current economic environment.
It also believes that RTE’s proposed transmission fees are too high. The proposed transmission fees are about E10 million, although it is reported that RTE will cut these by 20 per cent. OneVision is also seeking a commitment from the government that it will invest in the promotion of the switchover to DTT.
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Rogers On Demand OnlineRogers Communications has confirmed the widespread availability of Rogers On Demand Online, an authenticated online destination for aggregated primetime and speciality TV programming.Any customer with a Rogers account can visit rogersondemand.com and register to experience Rogers On Demand Online content free from any streaming Internet connection within Canada.
"Rogers On Demand Online is an extension of the existing cable television model which customers have come to enjoy and rely on at home that truly revolutionises the world of entertainment and provides the most convenient TV content access ever made available," said David Purdy, Vice President of Video Product Management. "By expanding the TV experience to the Internet, Rogers customers can now take TV beyond the box with their favorite shows, movies, TV classics and exclusive content - all in one place from virtually any place - wherever they have an Internet connection in Canada. And this is just the beginning."
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GfK NOP Media, the UK media research company, has launched a new panel.The company has partnered with TNS Worldpanel and media research company Nurago to create a panel that measures online and offline media consumption in addition to consumer sales data.
The Media Efficiency Panel will deliver data for 10,000 households, using TNS data to supply FMCG sales data and Nurago and GfK NOP methodology to measure media consumption.
Gary Roddy, research director at GfK NOP Media, said, "For the first time, the UK marketing industry will have real empirical data linking internet advertising directly to sales and the ability to compare this with other above-the-line advertising. We believe this will help marketing budget decisions to be made in a much more informed way."
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7 in 10 people have a digital dependencyResearch from global market intelligence firm, Synovate, has revealed seven in ten people across 11 markets cannot live without the Internet or would miss it a great deal if it were not there, just edging out TV as the world's favourite medium. Seventy per cent of respondents across 11 markets say they either could not live without the Internet or would miss it a great deal if it wasn't there, while 69 per cent said the same for TV.
Whose digital love affair is the greatest? Ninety-two per cent of Brits, 91 per cent of Spaniards, 90 per cent of Australians and 89 per cent of both Dutch and American respondents rate the Internet as completely necessary to their lives.
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Prisa ready to offload more of Digital PlusPrisa, Spain’s biggest media group, is in talks with other potential investors in Digital Plus, after agreeing last week to sell part of its satellite television business to Telefónica.
Juan Luis Cebrián, chief executive of Prisa, said the process of incorporating outside investors into parts of the group was "ongoing". But, he said there is 'no interest in carving up the group.'
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UK digital radio tops 10m salesDRDB (Digital Radio Development Bureau) reports cumulative sales of digital radio sets topped ten million at the end of November. It took eight years to reach the first five million sales (2007), but the second five million has been achieved in just 30 months.
Digital radio sales have consistently outperformed the overall CE Audio market through 2008 and 2009, despite the recession. Figures from GfK show Q3 2009 year end volume growth for digital radio in Audio systems (up 12 per cent) car audio (up 60 per cent) and Radio recorders - multifunction radios such as those with CD or iPod dock (up 60 per cent). In the same year ending period, all categories of analogue radio showed significant declines. For the past three years, sales of digital radio sets have remained solid at around two million per annum and the market is worth around £170 million (E185m) a year.
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Open IPTV Forum reaches 60 membersThe Open IPTV Forum has achieved another membership milestone, with PCCW (Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications provider) and Allion (a leading independent testing organisation) taking Forum membership to 60. The addition of two strong Asian organisations represents continued growth in both awareness and relevance of the Forum’s activities in such an important region.
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NetCologne to launch 1 Gbps via FTTH in 2010German city carrier Netcologne plans to launch 1 Gbps broadband services via its FTTH network in Cologne in the beginning of 2010, according to NetCologne's managing director Werner Hanf. He said that the operator will expand and enhance its FTTH network and start offering very highspeed broadband with download speeds between 150 Mbps and 1 Gbps offering consumers a choice of several speeds between these limits. Hanf also said that currently ten per cent of the around 70,000 households in Cologne use broadband services up to 100 Mbps on its fibre network and plans to expand coverage from 26,000 buildings now to 56,000 in 2012, investing E120 million.
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Huawei wins over half of China Telecom IPTV terminalsChinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei was awarded an order for nearly 500,000 units, more than half of the total of the Chinese Telecom IPTV STB tender. The Huawei-manufactured equipment will be deployed in Shanghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, and other regions.
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Foxtel launches bookable promos with NDS
NDS has developed the first bookable promos service in Asia, for Foxtel, Australia’s leading subscription television provider. While watching a trailer for a show, viewers will now be able to book to record the show to their DVR by pressing the green button on their remote control. With the press of a button, subscribers will be able to book to record movies, individual programmes, or an entire series, immediately or weeks in advance. This user-friendly feature can also be used during an ad break to allow viewers to receive more details about a specific advertisement by expressing interest with the same button press.
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Monday 30th November
Kroes gets EC digital portfolio
Virgin successful in Gemstar EPG ruling
BBC to reduce web and digital services after switch-off?
Virgin Media to deploy new piracy tool
Playcast video games on TV
Australian broadband network to boost IPTV
Korean mobile TV to debut interactive services
Anevia and BNS deliver solutions to Asian service providers
Chello Multicanal and Zon establish JV in Portugal
Kroes gets EC digital portfolio
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has revealed the portfolio responsibilities for the next Commission and given a new look to the College of his second mandate, with a number of new portfolios, in particular with the focus on the Digital Agenda.
Viviane Reding, formerly commissioner for Information Society and Media becomes commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, with former Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes taking on the renamed Digital Agenda brief. Joaquín Almunia becomes Competition Commissioner.
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Virgin successful in Gemstar EPG rulingVirgin Media has emerged successful in the patent dispute lodged against it by Gemstar TV Guide. The London High Court rulings call into question the ability for intellectual property rights holder Rovi to enforce its patents both in the UK and with operators around the globe.
Gemstar, now part of Rovi, had claimed Virgin’s EPG had breached three patents which were involved in the display and transfer of programme information and metadata.
The decisions were applauded by Virgin Media’s general counsel Bryan Hall: "We took Gemstar’s claim to court, confident that the claim was unfounded. The decision is resounding confirmation that our position was correct and that Gemstar’s patents are invalid. Gemstar should not have brought this case."
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BBC to reduce web and digital services after switch-off?The BBC will consider cutting some of its digital television and radio services after the analogue TV signal is switched off in 2012, its director general, Mark Thompson, has said. He also said that there would be "reductions in some content" including a look at the "current scope of our website". He promised that, after the switchover, a higher proportion of the licence fee would be spent on "original British content".
Thompson admitted that it may seem "slightly counter-intuitive" to be talking about cutting digital services when viewers were being encouraged to switch to digital TV. But he said that viewers were now consuming TV in different ways via on-demand services such as the BBC iPlayer, adding that the corporation had already cut the number of interactive services it offers via the red button on digital TV.
"We'll have conclusions from the review early in 2010. Without preempting them, I can tell you something about the direction of travel," he said.
"Expect to see reductions in some kinds of programmes and content – a look, for example, at the current scope of our website – and a close examination of the future of our service portfolios once switchover has been achieved."
Virgin Media to deploy new piracy toolVirgin Media has unveiled plans to use a new measurement tool in the fight against digital piracy. The firm has revealed it is to use consultancy firm Detica's CView software as part of the platform for its upcoming music download and streaming service.
It is hoped the program will help to measure illegal files-haring activity across a range of networks, which means broadband providers and the government may be able to respond better to digital piracy.
Jon James, executive director of broadband for Virgin Media, said the software would play a vital part in the creation of its new music service. He added that CView "potentially offers a non-intrusive solution which enhances our understanding of aggregate customer behaviour".
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Playcast video games on TVPlaycast, a venture capital-backed company based in the UK and Israel, claims to have developed a system that will allow video games to be played in the home via existing cable TV networks, without the need for any extra hardware. It claims its new system will allow video games to be played live on existing set-top boxes of on-demand TV providers, such as BT and Virgin Media.
Chief operating officer Alon Shtruzman says Playcast will offer a selection of video games from leading publishers as a subscription channel. He said: "We see ourselves as a pay TV operation, engaging with companies like Virgin, Sky, BT in the UK and Cablevision in the US, offering video games on demand as part of the TV mix. The games portal will appear like a channel on the EPG."
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Australian broadband network to boost IPTVAustralia's proposed National Broadband Network will help boost the number of IPTV. A Frost & Sullivan report has predicted 235,000 IPTV subscribers for the country by 2014, while New Zealand is also predicted to have 141,000 IPTV subscribers by 2014 as a result of its own new broadband network.
Work is expected to start on the new Australian broadband network before the end of the year. The new network is expected to be based on a mixture of Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), delivering speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
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Korean mobile TV to debut interactive servicesKorean mobile TV operators will introduce interactive services in December. The country's six terrestrial DMB operators will start 'DMB 2.0' services and allow customers to access a range of data services such as e-commerce, stock updates, and personal video recording.
Despite the services being available shortly, there are no handsets as yet that support the technology. Satellite DMB operator TU Media, an SK Telecom affiliate, will launch a handset that supports interactive services before the end of this year. The mobile TV providers hope the new services will boost the struggling service. TU Media provides its services on a subscription basis and has about two million subscribers.
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Anevia and BNS deliver solutions to Asian service providersAnevia, a specialist in video streaming solutions and service infrastructure, and BNS, Asia's leading IPTV technology and content solutions provider, have combined their expertise to provide Asian hospitality, broadcast and telecom service providers with high performance TV and video solutions. The Anevia-BNS partnership has already generated interest among IPTV service providers, leading to deployments in Singapore, Macau, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan, where the companies’ solutions are powering Taiwan’s first ever HD-IPTV service for local operator Max Media.
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Chello Multicanal and Zon establish JV in PortugalChello Multicanal and ZON Multimédia have confirmed a strategic partnership for the production, marketing and distribution of children’s, movie and entertainment channels in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa. The new company, Dreamia – Serviços de Televisão, equally owned by the partners, has been incorporated in Lisbon and extends the successful relationship between Zon and Chello Multicanal.
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