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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 13th November
BT Vision adds only 18,000 in quarter, 50% down
Motorola to sell Connected Home Division
Telefonica ups pay-TV 15%
Motorola Israel buys BitBand
Sky Deutschland losses widen
TelcoTV event news: IPTV is stagnating
Highfield: MSN Video to be available after Christmas
Xbox pirates ‘must buy new box’
Less than half have ‘red buttoned’
Online movie and TV viewing doubles in 2009
SARFT to establish copyright watchdog
Redbox, CinemaNow test download partnership
Cavium Networks to acquire MontaVista
GlobeCast expands global fibre network into Russia
BT Vision adds only 18,000 in quarter, 50% downBT Vision added just 18,000 subs in the three months to September 30, a fall of almost 50 per cent on the previous quarter. And after a "data cleanse" of its customer base during Q2, the service has 436,000 users—only 3,000 more than in Q1.
Unsurprisingly BT re-emphasised it has now abandoned its original target of three million Vision subs. Notwithstanding, Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT Retail, told investors: "we want to count Vision customers in millions, not hundreds of thousands".Patterson also talked about Project Canvas believing it will "provide a quality of service guarantee", separating it from services that merely "go over the top".
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Motorola to sell Connected Home DivisionMotorola is to sell its Connected Home Division, including the world’s biggest STB business, according to the NY Times.
The newspapers says sources at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, hired to advise on strategic options, are now recommending a three-way split with networks being sold off and the remaining company separated between the mobile phone and two-way radio businesses. It had previously been envisaged only the handset business would be spun off separately. The connected home division is already being marketed.
An analyst for Macquarie Capital is quoted as saying the unit, that produced $199 million profit last quarter (to September), could be valued at up to $5 billion. The unit’s revenue fell 15 percent, to $2 billion last year. Motorola currently has $4 billion debt and its handset unit has slipped badly in market share and is now relying on its Droid smart phones to turn things around.Motorola got into the cable STB business in 2000 when it acquired General Instrument for $17 billion.
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Telefónica increased its pay-TV subscriber base by 15 per cent to 2.5 million in the 12 months to the end of September. The bulk of its pay-TV business remains in Latin America where it has over 1.7 million TV customers, up 15.9 per cent year-on-year with operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.
In Spain, the operator ended the third quarter with 654,000 pay-TV subs, up 11 per cent year on year after adding 44,800. Over all Telefónica España recorded third-quarter revenue of E4.9 billion, down 8.9 per cent year on year and E14bn world wide, down 5.7 per cent.
In the Czech Republic, Telefónica ended the third quarter with 135,854 O2 TV pay-TV subs, up 25.7 per cent year-on-year.
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Whoever buys Motorola’s connected home business is now also going to acquire BitBand Networks, just bought by Motorola Israel for $10 million. The company's solutions enable the provision of IP VOD. BitBand had raised $18 million from investors, and has been on the market since 2006.
BitBand was founded in 2000, and currently has 80 employees at its premises in Netanya, the US, and China. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Challenge Fund - Etgar, Aviv Venture Capital, Apax Partners, Portview Communication Partners, and Ascend Technology Partners. Customers include Cisco Systems, IBM, and Comverse.
Slow subscriber growth hit shares in Sky Deutschland even as the German pay-TV broadcaster reiterated it aimed to be profitable by 2011 after a sweeping restructuring.
The company rebranded itself from Premiere to Sky Deutschland in July and launched a huge marketing campaign to win more customers in Europe's largest TV market. That drive, as well as higher programme cost, led to a higher-than-expected third-quarter net loss and did not attract as many new customers as analysts forecast.
Sky Deutschland added 63,000 net subscribers in the quarter, below expectations of 80,000. Sky Deutschland's third-quarter EBITDA loss widened to E87.9 million from E27 million a year earlier.
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TelcoTV event news: IPTV is stagnatingIPTV innovation has stagnated and won't improve until the industry finds a better way to develop and deliver applications, says Brook Longdon, head of media and entertainment at Nokia Siemens Networks. "IPTV innovation is too slow, and we have to do something about that."
He stated that in eight years of discussing IPTV, the conversation hasn't changed much. People still talk about applications like caller ID and multiple sports angles. And the idea of ordering pizza by TV still isn't a reality, "at least not in my house."Longdon explained the key to making telco TV succeed is in the content -- providing good TV. But because content owners hoover up the profits from TV and movies, telcos need to sell applications in addition to regular content if they're to generate any profit margins. And that's where IPTV has stalled because of the paralysing way in which applications are developed and released. For example, the factors that make an application "cool" aren't the same across North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific, yet telcos continue to obsess over building applications that can scale worldwide.
The result is that every region gets a less than optimal product, and the region with the most money to spend gets one that "sucks the least," Longdon said. "As I'm looking to align my roadmaps with my developer teams and deciding how to spend my money, I'm always aiming for the middle." That's why the industry needs to bring in other ideas and more developers, said the NSN man, creating a phenomenon akin to the iPhone app store. The key, he added, is to provide development tools for free. That's the best way to get the tools into the hands of someone who can do something interesting with them.
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Highfield: MSN Video to be available after ChristmasMSN Video, Microsoft's long-form video platform, will come out of its testing phase and be fully available to consumers after Christmas.
Ashley Highfield, Microsoft's managing director and vice- president consumer and online, UK, said he planned a full rollout of MSN Video after Christmas, in response to "a real demand for MSN Video from agencies and advertisers". He said MSN Video would start to capture consumer data to create bespoke ad campaigns in the future.
Speaking at the IAB Engage event in London, he said: "We're starting to get exclusives to pull in an audience. We then cookie the audience, package up the audience data and give it back to the agency, to give to the client, to make a bespoke campaign for users in the future."
Highfield said online video was still a nascent market, but it was an area Microsoft was committed to and which could create "a large amount of online inventory on the web. Spot advertising on video is more likely to produce recall."
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Xbox pirates ‘must buy new box’
Thousands of Xbox 360 owners who have been cut off from Microsoft's Xbox Live service will have to buy a new console if they want to play online again, though modified consoles will still work offline.
Microsoft says offenders machines will be permanently barred and "unable to connect to Xbox Live". Microsoft has barred as many as 1m gamers from Xbox live for modifying their consoles to play pirated games.
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Less than half have ‘red buttoned’Research has revealed that as the digital switchover rolls out, almost half of UK adults have never used a red-button service. The survey by Moneysupermarket.com found 45 per cent of UK adults (20m) have never used interactive TV, of which 19 per cent (9m) cite a fear of costs as their reason.
Of those who do use the red button, 55 per cent said they thought it was one of the best innovations in TV, 20 per cent believe they have extra freedom with the red button, and 8 per cent said they hardly watched scheduled TV, preferring on-demand instead.
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Online movie and TV viewing doubles in 2009The number of US broadband households watching premium online content, including movies and TV shows via the Internet, doubled in the last year, according to a study from Parks Associates. Currently over 25 million US broadband households regularly watch full-length TV shows online, while over 20 million watch movies online.
It says this shift highlights the opportunity for service providers to extend their current pay-TV and video-on-demand services to include online and mobile video features. In fact, providers will have to embrace online video services, including the ability to deliver content across multiple platforms, if they are to remain competitive and attract new subscribers.
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SARFT to establish copyright watchdogThe State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) plans to establish an organisation to supervise the new media industry, with a particular focus on evaluating new media content "transaction prices" and the "tort value" in copyright infringement cases.
At the beginning of November, SARFT's legal department sent a task force to China Central Television (CCTV)'s online CCTV Network, Shanghai Media Group subsidiary SMG Broadband Broadcasting (SMGBB), and online video websites PPLive and PPStream, to conduct surveys with the goal of "standardising new media licensing transactions." The task force's survey has already been completed, and the results are now being readied for publication. Among the task force's recommendations is that SARFT establish an organisation to manage licensing transactions, and that it research and develop software to manage such transactions and sell the software to new media companies.
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Redbox, CinemaNow test download partnershipRedbox is testing a program that gives frequent customers vouchers that let them download titles from Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow service, marking an attempt by the largest US movie-rental kiosk operator to more closely gauge digital-delivery demand. Redbox is giving customers who buy certain prepaid DVD-rental packages gift cards that can be used to redeem titles on CinemaNow.
The test marks an early step in what could be Redbox’s effort to either further develop a digital-delivery business or acquire a company that specialises in the service, said Paul Davis, CEO of Redbox parent Coinstar.
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Cavium Networks to acquire MontaVistaCavium Networks, a provider of highly integrated semiconductor products, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire MontaVista Software for $50 million. This acquisition will significantly increase Cavium’s software and services revenue. MontaVista Software is a leader in multi-core embedded Linux operating systems, virtualisation, development tools and professional services,
"Software is becoming an increasingly important part of the total solution with the rapidly increasing adoption of multi-core processors," said Syed Ali, President and CEO of Cavium Networks. "This acquisition will complement Cavium’s market leading processor portfolio with world-class software expertise and will enable us to deliver highly compelling and differentiated solutions to the market."
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GlobeCast expands global fibre network into RussiaGlobeCast has expanded its next-generation global fibre network with the opening of a new point-of-presence (POP) in Moscow. It has also signed new Russian TV channel STRANA as its first customer for the new link with a distribution and capacity deal to reach Pay TV platforms across Russia and Europe. The channel will be delivered from Moscow to Paris for uplink to HotBird via the new POP.
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Thursday 12th November
Italian IPTV subs up thanks to DTT
US TV viewing at all time high
Mediaset exceeds expectations
Spain pay DTT tops 100,000 subs
Digital out-of-home media growing rapidly
No StarHub STB proposal for SingTel
IFTA introduces new anti-piracy measures
Youku, TV stations cooperate on video content
HGI partnership with Broadband Forum
Italtel and ECI Telecom expand IPTV, 3G in Europe
Kudelski Group reinforces presence in China
Italian IPTV subs up thanks to DTT
From Branislav Pekic in RomeIPTV is getting a new lease of life in Italy thanks to the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television taking place on November 17th in the Lazio Region and city of Rome.
In fact, the switch-off areas such as Piedmont, Lazio and Campania represent over 50 per cent of new IPTV subscribers nationally. In Lazio, some 50,000 families have chosen Alice Home TV, the IPTV service of Telecom Italia, and in recent months, during the switch-off process, there were 16,000 new additions.
In the municipalities currently covered by the switch-off and where the service is available, it will be possible to access Alice Home TV for the first six months free of charge. The offer also includes free installation of a kit that consists of a decoder (on loan basis) and an ADSL modem. With the IPTV decoder, already prepared for HD, viewers can select both on-air and on-demand content. Among the PPV offers available on request, viewers can activate those of Mediaset Premium and Sky Italia.
US TV viewing at all time high
Americans are spending more time watching television, as well as playing on computers and chatting on social networking sites. The Nielsen Company has reported that US television viewing reached an all time high in the 2008-09 season, with Americans spending an average four hours and 49 minutes a day in front of the television.
The figure, which includes Americans watching recorded TV within 7 days of airing and cable viewing, was up four minutes from the previous TV season year and up 20 per cent from 10 years ago.
Nielsen said the average household watched eight hours and 21 minutes a day on average - also an all-time high. Daily viewing during prime-time remained flat compared to a year ago but was still at its highest peak since 1991.
The leading US TV networks have seen a fall in audiences in recent years due to the lure of video games, social networking and the plethora of cable TV offerings.
Nielsen said the overall increase in television consumption was a result of American homes having more TV sets, greater use of digital video recorders and the increase in channels and content to choose from.
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Mediaset exceeds expectationsItalian broadcaster Mediaset has reported a smaller-than-expected fall in nine-month net profit and said the decline in Italian advertising will narrow in the fourth quarter. The mainly free-to-air TV broadcaster, owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, posted a net profit of E184.2 million, down 48 per cent but topping analysts' expectations for E171 million.
The company said it still expects 2009 operating and consolidated net profit to be down markedly from 2008.
Competition with News Corp has recently heated up as the Mediaset rival launched a new free digital channel that adds to its pay-TV satellite broadcasting business Sky Italia.
Mediaset has challenged Sky Italia's dominance in the Italian pay-TV market with an offer on digital terrestrial frequencies. Revenue at its pay operations rose 40 per cent in the first nine months of the year.
In 2012 Italy will switch off completely the analogue TV signal.
In a conference call, a Mediaset executive reaffirmed the target for its pay-TV operations was breaking even in 2010 and said customers would rise back to 3.6 million by the end of December, one month ahead of target. Some 1.8 million pay-TV cards expired at the end of June.
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Spain pay DTT tops 100,000 subs
From David Del Valle in MadridSpain’s first pay DTT channel, Gol TV, has reached over 100,000 subscribers in the country since its launch at the end of August, with 15,000 new DTT subscribers each week.
Combined, the channel has 930,000 subscribers, including all different distribution platforms: cable, IPTV, mobile and DTT. 11 per cent are through DTT, 16 per cent through cable companies such as ONO, Euskaltel or Telecable, among others, 7 per cent through mobile phone companies (Movistar, Vodafone and Orange), with IPTV taking the lion's share with 66 per cent (Imagenio, Orange, Jazztel and Andorra Telecom).
Gol TV hopes to reach 1 million subscribers over the next months before the end of the present football season.
Gol TV is a football TV channel, with some HD transmissions that include three football matches of the Spanish Football League (La Liga) every week.
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Digital out-of-home media growing rapidlyAmid a sharp downturn in global advertising spending and a decline in traditional out-of-home advertising in 2009, digital out-of-home media is among the fastest growing media in the world and will continue on an upward track in 2010, according to PQ Media, a provider of media econometrics.
Spending in the emerging media segment of digital out-of-home (OOH) is on pace to increase two per cent to $2.47 billion in the US in 2009, while digital OOH expenditures worldwide will grow 4.7 per cent to $6.69 billion, according to the third annual PQ Media Global Digital Out-of-Home Media Forecast 2009-2014. While the rate of growth in the U.S. and globally decelerated for the second consecutive year, PQ Media forecasts that digital OOH will grow at a compound annual rate of 9.4 per cent in the U.S. through 2014 and 10.1 per cent worldwide over the next five years.
Digital OOH media, which includes video advertising networks (VANs), digital billboards and alternative ambient ads, are being adopted by brand marketers because they engage target consumers in captive locations for extended periods of time. Spending in each of these media platforms increased in 2009, while spending in all but one venue category grew as well – led by VANs in-theatre and at-road digital boards, according to PQ Media. Strong secular trends impacting the broader media economy have had a positive impact on the digital OOH industry, as consumers spend more time outside their homes, commute longer to work, use ad-skipping technology and multitask with various media on the go throughout the day.
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No StarHub STB proposal for SingTelFootball fans in Singapore who do not want to get an additional cable-TV STB may have to carry on hoping. Cable operator StarHub has said that if IPTV operator SingTel accepts its proposal to carry SingTel's pay-TV content, the single box solution can be ready for tests within two months of starting the technical work. However, SingTel said this it has yet to receive any formal communication from StarHub regarding its proposal.
StarHub told Channel NewsAsia that if enough consumers were interested, it was willing to offer to carry SingTel's branded BPL (Barclays Premier League) channel and ESS (ESPN Star Sports) channels on the StarHub TV network.
"In other words, SingTel can maintain the billing relationship directly with its customer for BPL and ESS channels while StarHub delivers the channels to customers who choose to access that content over a StarHub set-top device".
SingTel won the bid to carry the English Premier League for three seasons starting 2010 on its SingTel mio TV after out-bidding rival StarHub. The move prompted concerns that football fans will have to sign up for two plans and two set-top boxes.
"The first time we heard about the offer was... in the papers, so I suppose we will have to wait and see when we (will) get the proposal from StarHub," said Chua Sock Koong, chief executive officer of SingTel.
Responding to SingTel's comments, StarHub said it will pitch its idea to SingTel formally soon, but did not specify a date.
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IFTA introduces new anti-piracy measuresAs part of its campaign aimed at addressing Internet piracy, The Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) has introduced its members to a number of enhanced security features through its new iWatch trial programme.
IFTA has partnered with Australian Internet security firm IP-Echelon to offer all its members complimentary anti-piracy services. The iWatch trial programme provides IFTA members with services such as monitoring and reporting piracy activities on the Internet, removal of pirated material through take-down notices and online distribution of encrypted movie screeners through a secure website, rather than DVD screeners.
"Internet piracy has been devastating for our members and for the independent distributors around the world on which we depend," said IFTA's president and CEO, Jean Prewitt. "Technical solutions like these, which take into account the unique interests of independents, allow our members to take direct action to mitigate the growing economic damage of worldwide Internet piracy."
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Youku, TV stations cooperate on video contentChinese video-sharing site Youku has formed strategic partnerships with Hunan Satellite TV, Phoenix Satellite TV, and Hunan Economic TV to broadcast dozens of popular television programmes on its website, including cultural, news, and themed programming. A spokesperson for Youku revealed that the deal included online broadcast rights to Hunan Satellite TV's New Year special. The spokesperson said that details of the arrangement were still in discussion, and that the company would not rule out the possibility of offering both live and on-demand broadcasts.
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HGI partnership with Broadband ForumThe Home Gateway Initiative (HGI) has signed a liaison agreement with the Broadband Forum that will lead to close collaboration by both organisations on the development of standards and specifications for broadband networks worldwide.
The comprehensive agreement is designed to enhance the already active cooperation between HGI and the Broadband Forum. It allows each organisation to provide input, and to release copyright on work-in-progress specifications to the partner organisation as working documents are drafted. The result will be acceleration and strong alignment of key specification work within the industry that leads to improvements in the capabilities of customers’ broadband networks.
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Italtel and ECI Telecom expand IPTV, 3G in EuropeIP networks specialist Italtel, and networking infrastructure solutions provider ECI Telecom have signed a partnership agreement for the sale and customisation of optical transport systems for metropolitan networks and access platforms for voice, data, IP video and fixed/mobile convergence.
As such, Italtel will be a preferred vendor and system integrator for ECI Telecom technology in the building of integrated communication networks for service providers, communications providers and utility companies in the 'Quadruple Play' (data, voice, video, mobile) access and transport markets.
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Kudelski Group reinforces presence in ChinaMedia content protection and value-added service technology specialist The Kudelski Group has opened its new digital TV Research & Development centre and office in Beijing, China.
The Kudelski Group has been present in China since 1999 with its fully-owned conditional access systems, Digital Rights Management and integrated on-demand solutions specialist subsidiary Nagravision.
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Wednesday 11th November
ITV and Hulu content and equity deal?
Sony movie release goes to connected TV before DVD
Dish tries to trademark 'TV Everywhere'
RTL reports 6.4% fall in revenue – ads improve
Grass Valley sale stalls
Virgin 3D season
Google acquires AdMob
Intelsat reports Q3
Sky live on iPhone
DMAs, DMPs and DMRs emerge in connected homes
Orca signs deal with CTV for OTT
Vimicro, CSMBC to co-develop CMMB mobile TV
AirTies enters US marketplace with IPTV STB
BH Telecom Selects Envivio for Moja TV
ITV and Hulu content and equity deal?ITV and Hulu are to sign a deal allowing the platform to distribute full-length ITV shows- some exclusively. As part of the deal ITV will gain an equity stake in Hulu UK, understood to be about 25 per cent. Hulu's parent company is owned equally by Disney, NBC Universal, Providence Equity and News Corp. ITV is the only UK broadcaster expected to sign an exclusive online content deal with Hulu.
Central to the deal has been a resolution to disagreements over who will sell advertising around ITV content on Hulu. Following the deal, Hulu plans to appoint its first UK chief executive.
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Sony movie release goes to connected TV before DVD
Sony will make its new animated hit "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" available to viewers directly through Internet-enabled televisions and Blu-ray players before the movie is released on DVD.
With the decline in DVD sales, down as much as 25 per cent at some studios, finding new ways to distribute movies has become a necessity despite the risk of angering the DVD retail/rent sector. The price of the film, $24.95, is high enough not to alienate retailers, Sony said.
"We don’t need a war with Wal-Mart or any other organisation, and I don’t think they’re hostile to this," said Howard Stringer, the chief executive of Sony. "It will make televisions more valuable, and that’s a good thing."
Sony Pictures Entertainment, the only Hollywood studio tethered to a major hardware manufacturer, is in a unique position to experiment with selling movies directly to consumers through television sets, in this case Sony’s Bravia Internet-enabled sets.
As part of this experiment, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" will also be available through Sony’s networked Blu-ray Disc players, which came on the market last month.
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Dish tries to trademark 'TV Everywhere'Dish Network has filed for trademark protection on "TV Everywhere," which the satellite operator plans to use for its forthcoming Slingbox-enabled set-top box.
Dish filed the "TV Everywhere" trademark application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Among other things, the filing covers "television transmission services" as well as "providing access to electronic sites for remote access, recording, and viewing of television programming via personal computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and laptop computers."
The satellite operator's trademark application also refers to "peer-to-peer network computer services, namely, electronic transmission of audio, video and other data and documents among computers" and "rental of set-top boxes and digital video recorders for use with televisions."
Time Warner has referred to its Internet TV subscriber access service as "TV Everywhere" and Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and DirecTV each have TV Everywhere-style services in various stages of development with programming partners, and Canadian cable operator Rogers Communications plans to launch one later this month.
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RTL reports 6.4% fall in revenue – ads improveRTL, owner of Channel Five, has reported that revenue declined 6.4 per cent to E1.1 billion in the three months to the end of September. Despite the decline, the pan-European broadcaster and producer - which is majority-owned by German media group Bertelsmann - said that the TV advertising outlook has been improving since late summer.
"Since September 2009 advertising bookings have been better in almost all of RTL Group's markets, compared to the first eight months of the year," the company said. "However, as there is no visibility for the rest of the year, the group remains cautious."
RTL reported adjusted earnings before interest tax and amortisation up 7.4 per cent to E101 million. However, in the nine months to the end of September adjusted EBITA was down 22.7 per cent to E474.
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Grass Valley sale stallsThomson is struggling to agree terms for the sale of its Grass Valley facility to US investment fund Platinum Equity, according to reports.
French newspapers say the fund and the group are at odds on the level of financing required to fund the restructuring of Grass Valley Group. Other companies might be looking at the unit, but no serious talks had been embarked on."Thomson is pursuing discussions for the disposal of Grass Valley activities," spokeswoman Marine Boulot said. "It is premature at this stage to anticipate the outcome of the discussions." Thomson had initially hoped to complete the sale by early September.
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Virgin 3D seasonThe 3D Festival will be offered to subscribers as part of its on demand service from November 17th, the same time as Channel 4’s own HD season gets underway. Subscribers can pick up the amber and blue glasses from Sainsbury’s or Virgin Media stores.
"Virgin Media is always looking at new technology to see if it is something we would like to offer as a service to our customers. We are currently investigating 3DTV and wanted visitors to our Oxford Street store to get a taste of some of the 3D content that is being produced and experience this technology for themselves," said Virgin Media.
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Google acquires AdMobGoogle has agreed a deal to buy the mobile advertising firm AdMob. The search giant is paying $750 million in stock for the firm in a bid to take advantage of advertising opportunities in mobile devices. AdMob specialises in selling adverts displayed on small screens for handsets such as the iPhone or the Blackberry. Google said mobile advertising had "enormous potential" and praised AdMob's "exceptional progress".
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Intelsat reports Q3Intelsat, the world's leading provider of fixed satellite services, reported results for the three months and nine months ended September 30th, 2009. Intelsat reported revenue of $617.9 million and a net loss of $94.3 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2009. The company also reported EBITDA of debt, taxes and depreciation and amortization, of $439.8 million, or 79 per cent of revenue, for the period.
"Our third quarter financial performance reflects continuing solid demand for services across our global satellite fleet and ground network, as well as the success of our capacity management program," said Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade.
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Sky live on iPhone
Sky is to start streaming live TV via an iPhone app. Its Sky Sports bundle, which includes access to Sky Sports channels Sky Sports News, ESPN, At The Races and Sky News, will be available to stream via WiFi for £6 (E6.7) a month.
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DMAs, DMPs and DMRs emerge in connected homesA new class of devices, Digital Media Adapters (DMAs), Digital Media Players (DMPs), and Digital Media Receivers (DMRs) is emerging in the connected digital home, reports In-Stat. DMAs, DMPs and DMRs allow consumers to connect audio players, televisions, PCs, and other devices to the Internet and to digital storage devices for media recording and playback.
In-Stat has identified over 40 competitors offering products in the segment. Similarly, a range of semiconductor competitors have positioned processors and Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) targeting the emerging equipment market.
"Early competitors were primarily either networking equipment companies or small start-ups," says Norm Bogen, VP of In-Stat’s Digital Entertainment research. "But now a much broader range of device manufacturers are positioning competitive devices. However, the biggest challenge to this market category is the proliferation of networked game consoles, Internet-connected set top boxes, networked DTVs, and networked Blu-ray devices that support web-to-TV video and other services."
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Orca signs deal with CTV for OTTOrca Interactive has signed an agreement with CTV International, a new service provider offering ethnic content to ex-pat communities around the world. The new service offers local language national TV programmes and video content on the viewer’s PC or STB via the Internet. The service will be one of the first live deployments in which an IPTV middleware has "crossed the lines" to support a fully OTT service. Services will initially provide ethnic programmes and content to Israeli communities or travellers located outside of Israel, anywhere in the world.
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Vimicro, CSMBC to co-develop CMMB mobile TVVimicro International, a multimedia semiconductor and solution provider in China, has set up a strategic development partnership with China Satellite Mobile Broadcasting Corporation (CSMBC) to jointly promote mobile TV under the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) standard.
Vimicro will develop highly integrated CMMB chip solutions, and CSMBC will take charge of the CMMB handset testing and certification. They will work to boost the CMMB standard and technology in the end-user market.
CSMBC and China Mobile earlier signed an exclusive broadcast agreement to jointly develop CMMB standard and TD-SCDMA technologies, which allow end product users to receive live TV programmes and multimedia data via TD-SCDMA networks.
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AirTies enters US marketplace with IPTV STBAirTies, the wireless home networking vendor, is launching what it claims is the industry’s first HD, 802.11N wireless IPTV set-top box in to the US marketplace. It says its one-touch set up eliminates the need for installation technicians and solid state storage on NAND flash provides Pause-Live TV functionality eliminating the need of expensive hard disks.
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BH Telecom Selects Envivio for Moja TVBH Telecom, the leading telecommunications operator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has begun the rollout of its new Moja TV IPTV service using a complete IPTV headend from Envivio. Built by systems integrator and middleware vendor Smart Com, the deployment enables BH Telecom to offer a full suite of live and on-demand channels complete with electronic programme guide, PVR and other interactive features to its more than two million subscribers.
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Tuesday 10th November
Ofcom rejects BBC encryption on Freeview
News Corp launching FTA DTT channel in Italy
Comcast homes in on NBC stake
Playboy loses $14m in Q3
FetchTV for Carphone Warehouse
OTT video will drive growth in video encoding
Japan: 70% of families have DTV receiver
Virgin’s Berkett joins GMG board
EchoStar Europe integrates Latens
Myka unveils ION
RRsat to transmit KidsCo channel over Australia
Ofcom rejects BBC encryption on FreeviewOfcom has rejected the BBC's request to introduce encryption to Freeview to limit the illegal copying of high-definition TV shows, until issues raised by organisations including the Open Rights Group are addressed.
The BBC is trying to change the Freeview multiplex licence to allow copy protection technology so shows on its HD channel, which will be rolled out nationally from next month, do not become the target of pirates.
Ofcom has received about 200 submissions about the Freeview HD proposals and admitted that a number of issues had been raised, such as the impact on competition in the market and "fair use" of content interpretations, which the BBC must now address.
Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group, called the proposal a clear attempt to "enact a form of encryption through the backdoor. Such action would permit the BBC to dictate who may provide equipment which accesses the channels it broadcasts - a clear violation of the free-to-air principle and an improper interference in the market by the BBC," he said in a letter to Ofcom.
Ofcom has not given a deadline for the BBC to supply additional information, although the corporation is expected to respond quickly, with the media regulator refusing the change to the Freeview multiplex "without giving these issues further consideration."
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News Corp launching FTA DTT channel in ItalyNews Corp has confirmed it will launch a free digital terrestrial television channel in Italy next month in a move that will heat up competition with Italy's Mediaset and state broadcaster RAI.
The new Milan-based channel branded ‘Cielo’, which means ‘Sky’, will start broadcasting on December 1st on third-party leased bandwidth, reaching 12 million families, News Corp said. "Cielo will enrich the offering available on digital terrestrial in Italy, increasing competition in a sector currently dominated by Mediaset and RAI," commented Cielo General Manager Gary Davey.
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Comcast homes in on NBC stakeComcast may seal a deal to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric within the next week say US reports.
The deal, which values NBC Universal at about $30 billion, would give Comcast, the top US cable operator, a 51 per cent stake in a joint venture that would combine its small roster of cable channels with America’s oldest broadcast network and some of the media’s largest cable networks.
The deal is at an advanced stage but could yet fall apart and is also dependent on Vivendi selling its 20 per cent stake in NBC Universal back to GE. Vivendi has not indicated what it may decide. Under the terms of the deal, Comcast is expected to contribute its cable channels and about $6 billion in cash.
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Playboy loses $14m in Q3Playboy Enterprises' revenue fell $14 million in Q3, on the back of lower income from its international TV channels and magazines. The company, which publishes Playboy magazine worldwide and creates TV programming for its own-branded TV channels, as well as mobile and radio platforms, said global revenue totaled $56 million in Q3 against $70.4 million in the same period of 2008.
Revenue from its non-US TV channels declined $1.1 million year on the year to $10.7 million in Q3. The company blamed increased competition and "the effects of the economy" on consumer spending for the decrease.
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FetchTV for Carphone WarehouseFetchTV SmartBoxes will be available through Carphone Warehouse branches after an agreement between the IP Vision’s broadband TV service and the retail chain. The Fetch TV SmartBox combines a Freeview+ DTT PVR with its own on demand service, will be distributed in Carphone Warehouse’s Digital Lifestyle stores. Earlier this year IP Vision made a deal with the John Lewis partnership.
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OTT video will drive growth in video encodingAn IMS Research report has revealed that the broadcast industry will experience an estimated 19 per cent annual increase in worldwide shipments during 2010, representing an 11 per cent annual increase in revenues over 2009. This includes all broadcast encoders serving the ingest, transcode, distribution and contribution (fixed & mobile) markets.
At the end of 2008, cable comprised the majority of distribution shipments followed by IPTV. This trend is expected to continue through 2014, although the CAGR for satellite is forecast to be stronger than any other platform. On the contribution side, revenues are forecast to grow by 17 per cent through 2014 on shipment growth of 18 per cent.
Shane Walker, research manager and author of the study, states, "Due to a general slowing in the pace of technological advancement within the industry, we expect the replacement rate for both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (SD & HD) encoders for contribution and distribution to drop throughout the forecast. While MPEG-2 channels will continue to be upgraded to MPEG-4 AVC and JPEG 2000, they will still account for 25 per cent of the distribution and contribution market at the end of 2014."
Walker continues "A likely area of opportunity will be encoding for web video, with data from some interviewees putting annual growth in this relatively small segment between 60 per cent and 70 per cent. Two other areas IMS Research is watching include software-based encoders and camera-based encoders, both of which are expected to begin affecting the market between 2010 and 2011. Scenarios are presented in the report which demonstrate that the combined influence of these encoders could lower overall annual revenues for the industry by 9 per cent over the next four to five years. This is due to the fact that, while software-based encoders require a maintenance agreement, they do not require equipment switch-out for upgrades. The impact from all of this on consumers will be a significant jump in new channels, including VOD, over the next two years on a worldwide basis."
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Japan: 70% of families have DTV receiver
The Japanese government has estimated 69.5 per cent of Japanese families had acquired TVs or tuners to receive terrestrial digital broadcasting signals as of the end of September, up 8.8 points from March.
The increase came as the government offered Eco-points for purchasing new TVs under an economic stimulus package that allows consumers to convert the points into gift coupons.
Japan is set to end analogue broadcasting and shift completely to digital in July 2011.
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Virgin’s Berkett joins GMG boardGuardian Media Group has has appointed Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett as a non-executive director. Berkett has been VMED CEO since 2008 and was appointed COO of the company’s precursor NTL in 2005. GMG will hope his experience can help steer its Guardian News & Media division, which houses The Guardian and Guardian.co.uk, back towards profitability.
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EchoStar Europe integrates LatensEchoStar Europe has integrated Latens’ card-less CA and middleware solution with its hybrid HDX-600 platform to create a secure and readily deployable solution for IPTV and broadband TV operators.
"In order to support our strategy in Europe, it is imperative that we partner with a number of the industry’s leading conditional access and middleware solutions", commented Rick Smith, VP Sales and Marketing for EchoStar Europe. "This is one of our first planned integrations in the IP space and provides a middleware and CA platform for adaptation and deployment by IPTV and hybrid IPTV operators".
Meanwhile parent company EchoStar has reported total revenue of $483 million for the quarter ended September 30th, 2009, a 21.6 per cent decrease compared with $616 million for the corresponding period in 2008.
Myka unveils IONMyka, makers of the magic box that downloads and streams high-definition videos to TVs, has unveiled the Myka ION -- the first consumer Web-to-TV product that can easily run Boxee, Hulu and other Internet video services.
Myka ION is powered by the Intel Atom Processor 330 and NVIDIA ION Graphics Processor, giving the Myka ION fast media-player performance at a low cost. Myka ION lets users browse any website and play video content directly onto their TV -- bypassing the PC entirely.
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RRsat to transmit KidsCo channel over AustraliaRRsat Global Communications Network has been chosen by KidsCo, a joint venture channel owned by media companies NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment and Cookie Jar Group, to provide playout to Australia. RRsat will be providing comprehensive playout and uplink services, as well as distributing the channel to the Foxtel DBS platform in Australia via the Asiasat 5 satellite. KidsCo also has the option to leverage RRsat’s Global Network to provide additional playout to Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia in the future.
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Monday 9th November
Scripps wins Travel
STV sues ITV for £35m
DirecTV shows subs gains
Majority of Netflix subs use streaming
India: Policy for mobile TV being framed
CBS lifts advertising rates
MBO Video and 180Squared unveil cloud service
Scripps wins TravelScripps Networks, the owner of the Food Network and HGTV, snapped up a majority stake in the Travel Channel. Cox Communications will keep a 35 per cent stake. The agreement between Scripps and Cox concluded a long series of bids by Scripps, the News Corporation and a number of private equity groups.
"Combining the Travel Channel with Food Network and HGTV will make our fast-growing, young company the undisputed global leader in lifestyle programming," Kenneth W. Lowe, the chairman of Scripps Networks, said in a statement.
The joint venture values the relatively low-rated Travel Channel at $975 million — a price many investment bankers and analysts say they believe is rich for the current market.
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STV sues ITV for £35mSTV, Scotland's ITV licensee, has launched a £35 million (E39m) legal action against ITV that includes claims of abuses in TV ad sales and video-on-demand rights. Also, the company said that the failure to secure a recommission of Taggart across the ITV network meant that the company will take a £2 million hit in earnings and it will make it anyway.
The company also reported that it expects national television ad revenues to be up 2 per cent in the fourth quarter with November up 3 per cent and December up 5 per cent. STV also upped the temperature on the £38 million legal wrangle with ITV over supposed unpaid network programme budget contributions. STV said it will submit a "robust defence" including a £35 million counter-claim against ITV to cover ITV's action as well as a counter-claim "challenging the practices and transparency of the processes of ITV when operating as STV's sales agent for national airtime revenue".
"STV is expecting to file further claims regarding ITV's abuse of video on demand rights and significant prejudicial behaviour on the part of ITV Network and ITV" said the company. It is understood that at least part of the grievance is that all on-demand shows that are delivered in Scotland are done so heavily branded with the ITV logo and idents.
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DirecTV shows subs gainsDirecTV Group was one of the few pay-TV companies to gain subscribers in the third quarter, though earnings stayed steady because of the higher costs it incurred attracting and serving those new customers.
DirecTV said that a marketing partnership with AT&T accounted for most of the increase in US subscribers. DirecTV said that net income was largely flat at $366 million. Earnings suffered because of higher marketing and equipment costs to attract and service new customers, though the company said acquisition costs fell on average for every customer it gained.
US customers ARPU was $85.32 per month for DirecTV's services, up 2 per cent from last year, in part because of fee increases. The number of subscribers getting both high-definition plans and leasing digital video recorders, DirecTV's most valuable customers, was up 50 per cent in the quarter from a year ago.
DirecTV said that after factoring in cancellations, it added 136,000 subscribers during the quarter, ending with 18.4 million, slightly lower than the 156,000 net gains in the same period last year.
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Majority of Netflix subs use streamingNearly two-thirds of Netflix subscribers have tried out the company's ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming service, and more than half use it at least once a month, according to a survey released by research firm One Touch Intelligence.
The survey findings suggest that usage of the streaming service has moved beyond the early adopter stage and into the mainstream, with 62 per cent of subscribers saying they've used the Watch Instantly service at least once. More importantly, 54 per cent said that they stream at least one movie or TV show per month. Usage was fairly heavy among those who use the service. Watch Instantly users instantly watched an average of six titles per month, with more than 20 per cent surveyed saying they watched eight or more streaming videos per month.
Despite calls for a ‘streaming only’ option for subscribers, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has claimed that most users prefer a subscription service that includes both the DVD-by-mail and streaming options, and the survey bears that out. About 73 per cent of respondents say that they watch just as many DVDs as before they started using the streaming service. That compares to about 26 per cent who believe they're watching fewer DVDs thanks to the streaming service.
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India: Policy for mobile TV being framed
From Sanjeev Bhavnani in London
The Indian government is in the process of formulating a policy for mobile TV through terrestrial broadcasting. According to reports, a licensing regime, on the lines of private FM radio, is being planned for mobile TV as well. The information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry is actively considering the proposal.If the proposal is cleared by the Cabinet, an auction process is expected to be initiated for spectrum allocation for mobile TV service providers. Each successful bidder would be entitled to 8 MHz of spectrum, or frequency bandwidth.
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CBS lifts advertising ratesUS broadcast network CBS has said it is managing to charge advertisers double the rates of a year ago for short-notice bookings, adding that it was cancelling promotions for its own shows to squeeze more ads on to the US broadcast network behind CSI and David Letterman.
Advertisers were "knocking down the door", Les Moonves, CBS chief executive, commented. The 100 per cent year-on-year rise in "scatter" pricing reflects moves by CBS and others to hold back inventory during the pre-season "upfront" advertising sales period, in the hope of stronger demand later. Scatter pricing is running 25 per cent above upfront rates, Moonves said.
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MBO Video and 180Squared unveil cloud serviceMBOi, a video solution provided by MBO Video, and 180Squared have unveiled its IPTV Managed Cloud Service called Cirrus Managed Cloud Solutions. The Cirrus solution is built with 180Squared’s v.Unison solution set, which enables a shared installation of an IPTV Middleware platform among multiple entities, while maintaining a secure, autonomous environment for each individual entity’s back-end systems and customised offering.
The Cirrus Managed Cloud Solution, based on Microsoft Mediaroom, gives providers immediate access to applications designed to differentiate their IPTV service including onscreen Caller ID (VoIP and TDM compatibility), remote PVR scheduling, Whole Home PVR, and other customer applications.
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