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Our Latest Issues
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Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Tuesday
Friday 23rd October
Virgin implements behavioural ads across portal
Meo tops 0.5m subs, aims to be market leader in 2012
Strong IPTV growth forecast for Verizon, AT&T in Q3
Internet disconnection a clear vote loser
Thomson teams with Live for airline TV
Sky movies free weekend pass
Ixia acquires Agilent's N2X product line
Orca partners with AirTies on IPTV solution
Virgin implements behavioural ads across portalVirgin Media has embraced behavioural targeting across its portal and has appointed behavioural targeting firm AudienceScience to collect data and create segments based on user behaviour across its site, which includes sections like travel, shopping and music.
Visitors will receive relevant ads based on the anonymous data collected by AudienceScience. The firm’s tags have been implemented across Virgin Media’s site to build audience segments. Virginmedia.com attracted 6.5 million unique users last month, according to Nielsen.
Virgin Media said, "we’ve signed an agreement with AudienceScience to explore and develop our audience segmentation capabilities on virginmedia.com. The solution will enable us to deliver relevant advertising to groups interested in similar topics, such as a haircare ad for visitors who recently searched for Britain’s Next Top Model or offers from Eurostar for users browsing hotels in Paris."
For its television services Virgin Media is still reviewing whether to move forward with a trial with targeting firm Phorm.
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Meo tops 0.5m subs, aims to be market leader in 2012
From Branislav Pekic in RomePortugal Telecom’s pay-TV service Meo has surpassed the 500,000 subscriber mark at the end of the second quarter of 2009. According to owner Portugal Telecom net additions during the quarter surpass 57,000.
Since launching in June 2007 Meo has managed to snatch one fifth of the pay-TV market for Portugal Telecom. It is available on several platforms - IPTV/ADSL2+, fibre optic and DTH (satellite). Market analysts ESER and BPI estimate that Meo will close 2009 with 577,000 subscribers.
The CEO of Portugal Telecom, Zeinal Bava, is confident that Meo will become the pay-TV market leader in Portugal by the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012, taking over the top spot from Zon Multimedia and its pay-TV unit TV Cabo. The goal, he says, is to achieve a 30 per cent market share which is equal to around 750,000 clients.
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Strong IPTV growth forecast for Verizon, AT&T in Q3AT&T and Verizon are expected to post double-digit IPTV subscriber growth in their respective third quarter releases, according to Strategy Analytics. The firm estimates that Verizon’s FiOS TV customer base will grow 12 per cent in the quarter, exceeding 2.8 million total subscribers. Meanwhile, AT&T is expected to add over 250,000 new U-verse subs, implying a 17 per cent sequential growth rate.
A report by Strategy Analytics shows US IPTV growing to 15.5 million subscribers by 2013. This growth, however, will hinge upon the ability of Telcos to articulate the value of IPTV: "Telcos need to go beyond trying to simply replicate the cable experience," said Ben Piper, analyst and Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service. "Content does matter, but so do features. Operators able to optimise relevant feature sets for customers will ultimately succeed."
The total US Telco TV market, estimated at 4.6 million subscribers in Q3’09, will near 5.3 million subscribers by year-end, according to Strategy Analytics.
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Internet disconnection a clear vote loserA YouGov poll for the Open Rights Group shows that nearly a third (31 per cent) of UK citizens would be much less likely to vote for a party that supported Internet disconnection for online copyright infringement. A further 13 per cent would be a ‘little less likely’: in total, 44 per cent would be less likely to vote for a party that supported such a policy.
Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) said if they were disconnected, they would find their ability to use vital commercial services, such as shopping and banking, completely disrupted or fairly harmed. Over 40 per cent said their ability to work or gain an education would be harmed.
Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group said: "This poll shows people rely on the Internet, and an overwhelming majority think that access should only ever be withdrawn as the result of court action. Nearly a third would be much less likely to vote for a party that supports disconnection proposals.
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Thomson teams with Live for airline TVThomson has signed a long-term contract with LiveTV for the development of a live TV broadcast system for aircraft. Based on Thomson’s pioneering IPTV-based satellite television distribution technology, the solution enables the transformation of satellite content into video-over-IP content for distribution and viewing on individual seat back screens. Thus, Thomson’s system enables LiveTV to offer hundreds of channels in digital quality, as well as providing features such as electronic program guide. Additionally, the system allows for insertion of live channels generated within the plane, such as navigation information.
This partnership has been proven with Continental Airlines, to which LiveTV is currently supplying DIRECTV services via Thomson’s technology.
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Sky movies free weekend passSky Movies has announced a weekend of free movies allowing all Sky TV customers to watch Sky Movies content, free of charge from 6pm on Friday the 30th of October until 6am on Monday the 2nd of November. Sky Movies Screen 1 HD will also be available for the duration of the weekend giving all Sky TV subscribers the chance to watch movies in high definition.
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Ixia acquires Agilent's N2X product lineIxia has signed a definitive agreement with Agilent Technologies under which Ixia will acquire Agilent’s N2X Data Networks Product Line for $44 million in cash. The acquisition is scheduled to close on October 30th, 2009 and will include certain assets of the N2X product line, along with its customers, sales and R&D teams.
The N2X provides testing for multiplay services, giving network equipment manufacturers and service providers insight into quality of experience of services that combine video, voice and data. As more multiplay services are brought to market and consumers are increasingly looking for ‘on demand’ services, Ixia can capture additional market share in supporting service providers delivery of this. Ixia’s product suite, Fusion, will incorporate N2X and continue to support existing Agilent N2X customers.
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Orca partners with AirTies on IPTV solutionOrca Interactive and AirTies have joined forces to present the first pre-integrated wireless IPTV and Web TV solution. The solution will include Orca's RiGHTv middleware, Orca's COMPASS, the Content Discovery solution for a personalised TV experience, and AirTies' latest STB with its built-in support for wireless and 3D graphics.
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Thursday 22nd October
Cisco: 10% of users create 60% of broadband traffic but P2P declining
Bradshaw: ISP cut-off will need court order
Liberty pay radio for Europe?
BBC cuts Freeview multiscreen news
Zillion appoints new CEO
Disney confirms Keychest digital initiative
Appear TV for Iskon platform
Cisco: 10% of users create 60% of broadband traffic but P2P decliningAbout 10 per cent of the world's broadband subscribers generate more than 60 per cent of all Internet traffic, with the average connection using about 11.4 Gigabytes of Internet traffic per month, according to a Cisco Systems survey of more than 20 service providers. Meanwhile, the top 1 per cent heaviest global subscribers account more than 20 per cent of all traffic.
The networking company's Visual Networking Index (VNI) Usage report represents activity during the third quarter of 2009 aggregated from cable, wireline telco, and mobile providers in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and various emerging markets.
Globally, the average broadband connection consumes about 4.3 Gbytes of video and other "visual networking applications" (such as social networking) per month. That's the equivalent of approximately 1.1 hours of Internet video, according to Cisco.Peer-to-peer traffic represented about 38 per cent of all Internet traffic, which was a significant decrease from Cisco's earlier pilot studies that showed P2P accounting for more than half of all bandwidth used, said Doug Webster, senior director of market management in Cisco's Service Provider Group.
"There's been an assumption that peer-to-peer is taking up the majority of the traffic," Webster said. "But the relative percentage of peer-to-peer is decreasing because of the rise in other application types."
Cisco also found a common "Internet primetime," across all geographies, which spans approximately 9pm to 1am around the world. About 25 per cent of global Internet traffic - or 93.3 Mbytes per day per connection -- is generated during the Internet "primetime" period.
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Bradshaw: ISP cut-off will need court orderUK Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw has continued to back away from previous enthusiastic government backing for cutting off file sharers telling MPs that suspected music file-sharers must be proven guilty before their broadband is cut off.
He told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that suspect pirates would have the right to defend their innocence in court. "It wouldn’t just happen on the basis of an accusation. First there would need to be a court order for any of the technical measures," said Bradshaw.
Following a consultation period, the Government will decide what measures to enforce as part of the Digital Economy Bill on 18 November.
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Liberty pay radio for Europe?Liberty Satellite Radio, part of Liberty Media, may take control of Worldspace, the struggling pay-radio broadcaster. Liberty has a major stake in Sirius the subscription satellite radio service in the UK and there is speculation they will try and launch pay radio in Europe.
The heavily indebted Worldspace has confirmed that it is seeking to sell itself to Liberty Satellite Radio.
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BBC cuts Freeview multiscreen newsAs a result Freeview being upgraded to allow HD viewing the BBC will no longer be able to provide its News Multiscreen red button service and it will stop on 27 October, though it continues on for Sky and Virgin Media.
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Zillion appoints new CEO
Studio-backed Internet-to-TV startup ZillionTV has named former Dotcast chief financial officer Jack Lawrence its CEO, replacing Mitch Berman, who will remain with the company as executive chairman.The switch comes shortly after ZillionTV reportedly laid off one-third of its employees. The startup last month announced it would delay the commercial launch of its broadband-delivered VOD service until the second half of 2010 while also embarking on a direct-to-consumer service to supplement its telco-based distribution strategy.
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Disney confirms Keychest digital initiativeDisney has confirmed that it is working on a new business model planning for a world becoming less dependent on DVD and Blu-ray sales.
Its so-called Keychest initiative aims to solve the conundrum of how best to distribute its content to a wide variety of platforms and devices while maintaining robust digital rights management (DRM). At the heart of the Disney proposal is an attempt to completely redefine the concept of right of ownership. In the future, consumers would effectively purchase access rights to a feature film or TV show, rather than have physical ownership of material on a disc. One Keychest solution would involve digital files being stored on a cloud server rather than on PCs owned by consumers.
According to Disney president Bob Chapek, the Keychest project is unlikely to deliver ‘tangible financial results’ before 2015.
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Appear TV for Iskon platformAppear TV, a global provider of next-generation head-ends for broadcast and IP television, announces the successful deployment of its SC2000 IP Streamer as part of Croatian broadband operator Iskon Internet’s new MPEG4 DSL platform. The project, delivered with Verso, a leading Croatian systems integrator, helped create the infrastructure for its new Iskon.TV IPTV service.
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Wednesday 21st October
Sky Italia to launch Digital Key in December
BBC Trust vetoes plan to share iPlayer
Arqiva to spend £5m to promote SeeSaw
Sky wants 3D advertisers
UK Spectrum auction delayed?
Tiscali MD departs
NZ: One warning will stop young illegally downloading
Warner On Demand for Japan
NHK World TV on AsiaSat
MTS Allstream launches Canada's first whole home PVR
GCT unveils single-chip T-DMB mobile TV receiver
Sky Italia to launch Digital Key in December
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItalian DTH operator Sky Italia will launch a Digital Key, (a USB stick) which when connected to the Sky HD or My Sky HD satellite box, will enable the reception of the free-to-air digital terrestrial TV channels.
The small USB pen with a DTT tuner function, to be launched in December, is the solution found by Sky Italia to circumvent the problem of the multiplication of decoders, in view of the final transition from analogue to digital by 2012. The Digital Key will integrate the programming of the DTT channels in Sky’s EPG, allowing for viewers to zap across the entire digital TV offer without changing the remote.
Sky Italia has also announced that the number of HD channels will go up in 2010, from 16 to 30. Subscribers will be offered a Full HD TV set with only E50 advance payment and installments starting from E6 per month. Currently, one million Italian households watch the 16 HD channels available on Sky Italia.
The adoption of a "single decoder" by Sky Italia now poses new challenges for RAI, with many questioning whether there should be a rethink of the strategy that the Italian public broadcaster with the cancellation of the contract for the carriage of the RaiSat channels on Sky Italia.
"The news that from December it will be possible to receive digital terrestrial also with a Sky decoder is definitive proof that RAI, by not renewing the contract for RaiSat, has thrown out of the window around E60 million per year", commented RAI Board member, Nino Rizzo Nervo.
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BBC Trust vetoes plan to share iPlayerThe BBC's plan to offer Channel 4, ITV and Channel Five the free and open use of its iPlayer online video technology has been blocked by the BBC Trust because it will not deliver value to licence-fee payers.
Open iPlayer, originally dubbed Project Marquee, was intended to create a "federation of on-demand public service broadcasting services" offering the best of the BBC and commercial PSB programming at the same online destination.
However, the BBC Trust said that while it did support the idea of sharing the iPlayer technology more widely with other PSBs, the corporation's plans were too complex. "We concluded that the Open iPlayer plans in their proposed form, combining both commercial and public service elements, were too complicated," said Diane Coyle, chair of the BBC Trust's strategic approvals committee. "We were not convinced that there was enough potential value to licence-fee payers in the public service part of the proposal."
In the meantime, the trust said, it was open to considering an alternative proposal for "the licensing of the iPlayer technology to third parties if that can be done on a simple, fair and commercial basis".
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Arqiva to spend £5m to promote SeeSawArqiva has appointed Vizeum to handle the £5 million (E5.5m) media planning and buying account for SeeSaw, its soon-to-launch video-on-demand service.The deal was concluded by Maya Bhose, head of brand marketing at SeeSaw, and Stuart Newman, managing partner, planning at Vizeum. The agency will start work immediately. The search for an ad agency for SeeSaw is ongoing.
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Sky wants 3D advertisersPay-TV giant Sky is in talks with media agencies about offering 3D ads to run on its new 3D platform, which will incorporate advertising capabilities. Sky said: "Although it's still very early days, we anticipate there being a range of exciting new creative opportunities for advertisers. As we prepare to launch a commercial service next year, we've already had some initial discussions with advertisers about the potential for 3D TV, and their enthusiasm for innovating is clear."
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UK Spectrum auction delayed?Proposals for a large auction of radio spectrum next year to support wireless broadband could be delayed because of a possible merger between Orange and T-Mobile, the UK’s third- and fourth-largest mobile operators.
The government is hoping the auction can take place in the second half of next year, which would extend the availability of web browsing on mobiles from urban to rural areas. But a review of the likely merger between Orange and T-Mobile could push the auction into 2011 or later.
The government’s Digital Britain initiative, which aims to deliver a telecommunications infrastructure fit for the 21st century, identified the need to end the mobile operators’ lengthy dispute over spectrum ownership.The government is consulting on recommendations for spectrum reform made by Kip Meek, a former senior official at Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, who was asked to find a solution to the spectrum dispute because of fears it would hinder internet-based services on handsets, particularly in rural areas. In a report published last week Meek calls for an auction of several frequencies, including some currently used for the transmission of analogue television. He also recommends caps on operators’ spectrum holdings, so no company has a competitive advantage.
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Tiscali MD departsJonathan Sykes has left his role as managing director of Tiscali TV, the IPTV service acquired by The Carphone Warehouse. Sykes held the role of managing director, content strategy at HomeChoice, the IPTV service that is the basis of Tiscali TV.
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NZ: One warning will stop young illegally downloadingMore than 70 per cent of New Zealand youths would stop accessing illegal versions of copyrighted material if they received a notice from their ISP, a survey has found. Research firm Synovate found that a notice from their ISP would be enough to stop 71 per cent of young people further accessing illegal copies of movies.
The survey also found two in five young people have downloaded illegal copies of movies for free. The majority (65 per cent) do not feel any guilt about the artists not receiving any payment for their works but a similar number (62 per cent) would also probably stop if their Internet connection could be terminated, the survey found.
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Warner On Demand for JapanWarner Entertainment Japan has unveiled plans to launch Warner On Demand, a portal allowing Japanese consumers to rent or buy Warner Bros films and TV series for the first time ever directly from the Studio via VOD and download to own on their PCs and mobile phones. Warner Bros aims to make the service available at the end of November.
To buy content through Warner On Demand, consumers will purchase a series of points, which will be exchanged per transaction for Warner Bros films or TV content. Consumers will have access to a wide range of Warner Bros content from classic catalogue titles through to the latest features, including a number of titles never before released on DVD.
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NHK World TV on AsiaSatAsia’s leading satellite operator AsiaSat has confirmed that Japan International Broadcasting (JIB), has signed a contract to deliver a free to air English language news and information channel, NHK World TV, through AsiaSat’s C-band full transponder MCPC (Multiple Channels per Carrier) platform on AsiaSat 3S. Home viewers across Asia and Australasia can receive the free to air broadcast signal directly via a satellite dish or through local cable operators and Direct to Home (DTH) services providers.
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MTS Allstream launches Canada's first whole home PVRMTS Allstream has launched Canada's first Whole Home personal video recorder (PVR). This new and more advanced PVR is capable of recording up to three programmes at the same time and playing back programmes from any connected TV in the home. Customers can also set up their PVR to record up to three programmes from any connected TV in any room of the house while watching recorded content from their PVR - all at the same time. As well, customers can still pause, replay and rewind live TV from their main set top box.
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GCT unveils single-chip T-DMB mobile TV receiverGCT Semiconductor, provider of highly integrated semiconductor solutions for wireless communications, has announced its mobile TV receiver, GDM7024, a high performance single-chip receiver with built-in DC/DC converter, specifically developed for the T-DMB market in Korea. GDM7024 offers the smallest form factor on the market, 3.8 x 3.8 mm, and smallest BOM with limited number of passive components. This solution was selected by Korea’s top-tier handset maker for a new T-DMB phone which will be released in December.
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Tuesday 20th October
Mediaset to launch IPTV service by December
German broadcasters reveal switchover date
ProSieben to launch prepaid mobile Internet/TV service
FCC: closed nets damaging US broadband
Miniweb IPTV
DTVs vie to bring Internet to the living room
Canal+, AlloCiné team up
Taiwan government to release two mobile TV licences
du orders Motorola IPTV STBs
Babelgum and Metcafe partner
Microtune’s MicroCeiver IC platform
Elgato full-featured DVB-T stick
Mediaset to launch IPTV service by December
From Branislav Pekic in RomeItalian commercial broadcaster Mediaset is planning to launch an IPTV service from December 2009. According to a document circulated by Mediaset among possible technological and commercial partners, the IPTV offer would be initially received on PCs, before being extended to TV sets in November 2010, when a special set-top box will be introduced on the market.
At launch, the IPTV service would include Mediaset’s free-to-air TV channels already available on DTT, as well as an on-demand service, offering users the possibility of watching programmes previously aired by Mediaset channels. From March 2010, the IPTV service will also include the pay-TV channels from the Mediaset Premium DTT platform.
Currently, some 700,000 to 800,000 Italians subscribe to the three existing IPTV services provided by Fastweb, Telecom Italia and Wind, which already include some content from Mediaset.
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German broadcasters reveal switchover dateGerman public broadcasters ARD and ZDF plan to switch off their analogue transmissions on Astra on April 30th 2012, according to Carl Eugen Eberle, ZDF Director of Legal Affairs.
It seems unlikely that analogue television will be completely discontinued on the date. Just 30 per cent of German cable households have so far made the switch to digital television, whereas the figure is already at 70 per cent for DTH satellite reception.
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ProSieben to launch prepaid mobile Internet/TV serviceGerman commercial broadcaster ProSieben will launch a mobile data service via the network of Vodafone Germany. The prepaid service will be called ProSieben Web & TV Stick and is developed by ProSiebenSat.1's multimedia division SevenOne Intermedia and Vodafone.
The service offers mobile data access via UMTS and free mobile TV via DVB-T plus free access to the mobile portal of Prosieben. ProSieben Web & TV Stick's starter package costs E89.95 including E3 mobile data credit and access mobile Internet outside the Prosieben portal costs E0.77 per hour. Customers can also order data packages offering 12 hours, 3 days or 7 days for E1.99, E3.99 and E8.99 respectively. The 7 days package is limited to 2 GB and the 12 hours and 3 days packages are limited to 1 GB.
Prosieben will also offer an UMTS-only USB stick for E39.95 including E5 mobile data credit or an UMTS Sim including E10 mobile data credit for E14.95.
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FCC: closed nets damaging US broadbandA reluctance to force telecoms and cable operators to open their networks to competitors has led to the country being overtaken in rankings of broadband penetration and affordability, according to a study for the Federal Communications Commission.
The study could strengthen expectations of change in the stance held by the FCC for much of this decade, which contrasted with countries from the Netherlands to South Korea that have "open access" policies. It notes that open access has been "a closed issue in US policy debates" since 2002.
The report’s authors said their "most surprising and significant finding" was that unbundling, wholesaling and functional separation had played core roles in the transition to first-generation broadband access in most high-performing countries."Pushing incumbent telecoms providers to restructure and open networks was playing an equally central role in planning for the next generation of high speeds and ubiquitous access, it said. The FCC is not bound by the study and has asked for comments on it, but its publication has been seen as a sign of possible changes under Julius Genachowski, who was confirmed in June as its new chairman.
Telecoms, technology and content industries are also awaiting the outcome of an FCC meeting planned for October 22nd, to decide how it will implement "net neutrality" rules aimed at preventing network owners from favouring some content providers over others.
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Miniweb the VC-backed spin-off from BSkyB’s Sky Interactive division, which raised now £20 million (E22m) from US-based investors last year and still provides "red button" services to Sky TV, wants to launch its own IPTV service in the UK in early 2010.
Miniweb says it already has distribution deals with multiple retailers and ISPs and a private UK beta begins next month. Miniweb claims to already have 30 million hours of content to show - 40 per cent of it will be paid-for premium content such as movies - including its deal with online video search engine blinkx (and a large amount of adult content). It is also pitching to content owners saying clips and programmes can appear in a branded menu which content owners themselves control.
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DTVs vie to bring Internet to the living room"DTVs are competing with computers to be the entertainment hub of the home," says Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst. "Sets with Internet connectivity are already commercially available in the US, Europe, and Japan. Models from Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, and Sony can connect directly to the Internet without a home computer."
Research by In-Stat found the following:
- 36 per cent of digital sets sold in 2013 will be network-enabled.
- DTV Revenue in Asia-Pacific will see a 6.3 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2008 to 2013, the fastest growth among the major regions, except for Rest-of-World.
- DTVs are now the only TVs available in most of North America, Western Europe, and Japan.
- Silicon TV tuners capable of demodulating both analogue and digital television signals in a single chipset are beginning to replace Can TV tuners in high-end models.
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Canal+, AlloCiné team upCanal+ and Internet movie information specialist AlloCiné have signed a deal to promote video on demand on the French market. By the end of the month, CanalPlay, the platform for downloading videos at the request of Group Canal + will be available on the new site Allociné. CanalPlay is currently the only platform for VOD to be hosted on Allociné. 900 000 visitors daily access the site which contains more than 3,500 recent films or cult and many successful series, most exclusive. This announcement is a first step in a more global partnership designed to foster the growth of VOD in France attractive and accessible. It also fits in the new regulatory environment that opens access to film four months after their theatrical release.
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Taiwan government to release two mobile TV licencesTaiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has completed a draft proposal for the release of two national mobile TV operating licences in Taiwan in 2010, according to AN Economic Daily News report.
The government will be neutral on the adoption of either DVB-H or Media FLO developed by Qualcomm broadcasting technology, the paper noted. Qualcomm, Taiwan-based carrier Taiwan Mobile (TWM) and the Want Want Group, which publishes the Chinese-language China Times and Commercial Times newspapers, have reportedly expressed interest in bidding for the licences.
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du orders Motorola IPTV STBsUAE telco du has contracted with Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility business to supply its VIP series IPTV set-top boxes in order to support the telco's delivery of IP video services to its customers. The Motorola VIP1200E and VIP1216E series set-top boxes ordered by du support HD and SD digital video services as well as intuitive channel search and display, advanced browsing and instant channel change, with the VIP1216E model also supporting whole-home DVR with client scheduling and media sharing.
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Babelgum and Metcafe partnerWeb and mobile premium content platform Babelgum and Metacafe, a leading independent video site, have announced a partnership that maximizes and aligns Babelgum’s content offerings and mobile technology with the growing Metacafe audience of more than 46 million unique monthly viewers.
The Metacafe iPhone application, powered by Babelgum, which features a curated collection of Metacafe videos in categories including movies, sports, music, comedy, animation and "how-to" as well as a selection of Babelgum professionally produced programming. The free application is now available via the iTunes Store in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
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Microtune’s MicroCeiver IC platformMicrotune has unveiled details of a new ultra-small, low-cost technology platform, named MicroCeiver, that is the foundation for the Company’s new breed of highly integrated receiver products for the digital TV and cable TV markets.
The MicroCeiver platform is a breakthrough radio frequency (RF) analogue and digital signal processing system in a single chip. A complete radio frequency (RF)-to-baseband solution, MicroCeiver technology offers the building-block architecture for a new family of fully integrated front-end receivers that will bring low cost, miniature footprints and excellent signal reception quality to manufacturers creating next-generation digital televisions, set-top boxes, cable entertainment hubs and IP video electronics.
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Elgato full-featured DVB-T stickElgato has unveiled the new EyeTV DTT Deluxe, a tiny designed DVB-T stick that is barely larger than a USB connector. EyeTV DTT Deluxe delivers powerful DVB-T (Freeview) reception, cutting-edge technology, clean design, and extreme portability in one diminutive device. It is available immediately at a price of E89.95 EUR and comes with Elgato's Mac TV software, EyeTV 3. EyeTV DTT Deluxe also includes drivers for Windows 7 and ships with TerraTec's Home Cinema software for Windows.
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Monday 19th October
Apple to sync movies across multiple devices
Spain approves new overall TV law
US mobile digital TV standard approved
700+ on-demand audiovisual services in Europe
TalkTalk steals music to make point
UEFA: Streaming football is not the way forward
NBCU sales down, earnings up
Tilgin wins new order for Gigabit IP
Apple to sync movies across multiple devices
Apple has filed a patent application entitled Synchronisation of Media State Across Multiple Devices, which appears to combine local iPod and iPhone synchronisation with MobileMe and cloud-computing services.
The patent, if implemented, would note where you had stopped watching a video on any connected device, and would automatically set that as the start time on a different device. The patent also includes various forms of distance tracking, allowing for various sync operations to occur when two devices come within wireless range of each other. Apple specifically describes an Apple TV device detecting an iPhone coming within range, and then picking up the latest data from a central server.
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Spain approves new overall TV law
From David Del Valle in MadridA Spanish cabinet meeting has approved a new overall TV law (Ley General del Audiovisual) paving the way for the creation of an Audiovisual Council, the exploitation and development of pay DTT, Mobile TV and HDTV and allowing TV cross-ownerships, among other things.
With the new legislation, TV operators will be able to dedicate up to 50 per cent of its DTT multiplex to pay DTT services. From April 2010, each nationwide broadcaster will operate one multiplex (5 channels), except for the state-owned RTVE, with 2 (8 DTT channels).
The new law allows broadcasters to merge or integrate their TV companies as long as the new company does not reach a combined 27 per cent audience share or have more than two DTT multiplexes.
TV channels will have to dedicate 51 per cent of their annual programming to European productions, of which 10 per cent will come from independent production companies. The broadcasters are obliged to invest 5 per cent (6 per cent in state-owned channels' case) of their total annual revenues in European productions (cinema, TV movies, TV series, documentaries and animation).
The new law extends the TV licences to a 15-year period (currently, it is only for 10 years) with automatic renewals and limits the broadcasting of certain encrypted content (pornography, violent scenes) to particular slots (from 10pm to 6 am). It also toughens fines for breaking advertising limits and broadcasting inadequate content.
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US mobile digital TV standard approved
The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has confirmed the approval of A/153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard. The ATSC Mobile DTV Standard defines the technical specifications necessary for broadcasters to provide new services to mobile and handheld devices using their digital television (DTV) transmissions.
"Development and adoption of the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard is a major milestone in the ongoing evolution of digital television," said ATSC President Mark Richer. The ATSC Mobile DTV Standard will enable broadcasters to provide new compelling services to consumers utilising a wide array of wireless receiving devices including mobile phones, small handheld DTVs, laptop computers and in-vehicle entertainment systems.
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700+ on-demand audiovisual services in EuropeThe European Audiovisual Observatory and the Direction du développement des médias (France) are publishing a new study entitled Video on Demand and Catch-Up Television in Europe. The study provides a survey of the on-demand audiovisual services existing in Europe and is based on the criteria established in the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which was adopted in November 2007 and is currently being transposed into national law by the EU member states.
Applying this criterion, the Observatory has identified 696 services from 366 different providers that were operational at the end of December 2008. The United Kingdom had the most services (145), followed by France (106) and Italy (93). More than half these services were delivered via the internet, 30 per cent on a DSL network, 7 per cent on cable and less than 3 per cent by satellite. At the moment, the only on-demand services delivered by digital terrestrial television are available on the Top Up TV platform in the United Kingdom.
The Observatory’s survey does not take account of services distributed on mobile telephones or websites devoted solely to the provision of information, trailers or adult programmes. Nor does it consider the channels set up by commercial undertakings in the context of video sharing sites such as YouTube or Dailymotion.
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TalkTalk steals music to make pointUK number two ISP TalkTalk has staged a wireless stunt, aimed at illustrating why government to disconnect filesharers is "naive". The stunt demonstratration showed how innocent people could be disconnected from the network if the plans become law.
In order to illustrate the point Matt Roxburgh, a security expert from TalkTalk, visited an ordinary street and within a couple of hours he had identified 23 wireless connections which were unsecured. He downloaded music files from two connections, in both cases, the residents had given prior permission to "be hacked" and the content downloaded was legal. TalkTalk plans to offer advice to all residents about how to secure their wi-fi networks.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) remains confident that its "robust" evidence-gathering system will not allow innocent people to be caught in the net in the same way as has happened in the video game industry. For those who have had their wi-fi connection hacked into, there would be no immediate threat of disconnection, said BPI spokesman Adam Liversage. "The account holder would receive a notification in the first instance, which would represent an opportunity to discuss filesharing with others in the household and which would provide the account holder with the information and tools to help ensure that the account is not used illegally again," he said.
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UEFA: Streaming football is not the way forwardUEFA have said that the experiment to screen the Ukraine v England 2010 World Cup qualifier on the Internet is not the solution for the future.
About 500,000 fans paid to watch England play Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier on the Internet last weekend. It was the first England game to be shown exclusively online. Kentaro, appointed by the Ukrainian Football Federation, sold the UK rights for the game to digital sport firm Perform following the collapse of broadcaster Setanta."I think it will be a model for some properties along with other ways of displaying pay per view. For me, it was not really an event, it was just showing that Internet is totally valid as a method like any other broadcasting method," said Alexandre Fourtoy, CEO of UEFA Media Technologies.
Fourtoy noted that there were ongoing issues with Internet piracy, with companies offering illegal streams of live football games online. "90 per cent don't know that they are pirates. Most of them are kids, who show it to their friends," he said.
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NBCU sales down, earnings upNBCU had a lopsided Q3, as earnings grew 13 per cent to $732 million even as revenues dropped 20 per cent to $4 billion from $5 billion.
NBCU’s troubles are attributed to its declining broadcast business, which offsets gains on the cable side. There is much speculation parent GE is about to do a deal to buy out Vivendi and then sell to Comcast, others say they may form a JV.
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Tilgin wins new order for Gigabit IPTilgin, provider of solutions for multiplay and next-generation broadband services, has won the first order for products and software from Bredbånd Nord, a leading Danish fibre operator. This is the first order for Tilgin’s latest Gigabit Home Gateways. The order value is approximately SEK 2 million.
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