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NEWS Monday 14th - Monday 21st January 2002
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
Weekend Friday 18th to Monday 21st January
NTL seeks investors
Low cost digital TV from Pace
Video Networks to take on cable
Video streaming to grow
Liberate adds Premier Tier
NTL seeks investors
UK lead cableco NTL - currently €19 billion ($17 billion) in debt and potentially facing a liquidity crisis in the future - is looking at options for debt/equity restructuring of the company. Its major shareholder, France Telecom, which holds 18 per cent of NTL's equity and €5.6 billion ($5 billion) of convertible bonds, is also promoting talks with third parties.
In Friday's FT (18/01/02) it was reported that the companies are talking to US media giants AOL Time Warner and Liberty Media as well as the software collosus Microsoft about investing in NTL to help strengthen its finances - following restructuring.
French media company Vivendi Universal has also been approached but is described as the least interested.
Any decisions on investment are believed to be two to three months away. It is not clear whether an investor would buy equity or debt.
Bondholders would have to approve any restructuring, which could include a debt-for-equity swap. The cable company has asked Credit Suisse First Boston to help advise it on a debt restructuring.
A revised business plan and 2002 financial projections for NTL are due out this month, expected to including cutting capital and operational expenditure. The company next month faces bond interest payments of €153 ($134 million) reports the FT.
Liberty is already active, expanding in Germany and across Europe - most recently through its rescue of indebted Dutch cable company UPC.
AOL Time Warner is expected to move into cable in Europe and previously considered investing in NTL.
Microsoft owns a stake in NTL, and like Liberty also has a stakes in Telewest, the second UK cable company - which it was deterred from increasing by regulatory considerations. Microsoft also has investments in UPC and TV Cabo in Portugal - and despite company denials, has been described as - unsuccessfully - buying market share for its TV software.
The FT report suggests that a new investor could expect to pay some €2.8 billion ($2.5 billion) to take control of NTL - including a majority of the company's outstanding senior debt as well as an equity injection to stabilise and recapitalise the company.
NTL has about €10 billion ($9 billion) of outstanding senior debt. The company's bonds are trading at between €0.33 and €0.39 (30 and 35 cents to the dollar).
Low cost digital TV from Pace
UK digital TV technology and set-top-box specialist Pace Micro Technology has launched a low cost off-the-shelf digital TV adapter that enables consumers to receive free to air digital channels, including the five terrestrial channels, for a one-off cost of €162.5 (£99.99). Currently digital TV in the UK requires around €325 (£200) a year subscription to BSkyB, NTL, Telewest or ITV Digital.
The new box is described as small enough to fit into the palm of your hand and will be on sale from the end of March. Viewers will be able receive digital TV instantly, without a payTV subscription, by simply plugging the device into the back of their existing analogue TV sets. Viewers can also upgrade to payTV services at a later date without purchasing extra equipment.
Pace believes that this new device will help accelerate take-up of digital TV in the UK, providing a new and cost-effective path to digital for those who have yet to make the switch. At the same time it could help the UK government's digital take-up strategy of switching off analogue signals by 2010.
Malcolm Miller, Chief Executive, Pace Micro Technology said, "Today's announcement brings us one step closer to the goal of affordable digital TV for all, and in turn cements the UK's global leadership in digital TV take-up as we work towards the target digital switch date of 2006 to 2010."
"The BBC's launch of three non-subscription Digital TV channels in March is a prime example of the content needed to ensure we achieve our goal. The onus is now on the Government to continue to support industry initiatives by providing clear, unbiased information to the public about Digital TV."
An additional benefit of a conversion box is that it will enable the upgrading of secondary sets.
Video Networks to take on cable
UK ADSL video-on-demand company Video Networks plans to revamp its on-demand entertainment offering, HomeChoice, this summer to include broadcast TV.
Video Networks will be in direct competition with NTL and Telewest as a result of improving its services, potentially offering as wide a range of channels as Sky Digital.
So far its offerings have been restricted to shows such as EastEnders and Premiership football on-demand previously aired on other TV channels.
Simon Hochhauser, Video Networks' Chief Executive, said that the revamp - scheduled for July 2002 - would take place in two phases. In the first phase the company will launch up to 20 channels. He added that by the end of the year a much broader TV offering could be launched. This will include the UK's leading sports channels and all the main terrestrial services. HomeChoice subscribers will also have access to high-speed Internet and telephony.
Video Networks says it has not been able to expand beyond its current level due to the 'prohibitive cost' of BT's wholesale ADSL lines. Hochhauser was more optimistic for 2002. He predicted that HomeChoice would grow beyond its currently stagnant subscriber base of 15,000 London homes in this year's second quarter.
"Over the next four to five years we want to get to about three million subscribers," he said, noting that BT's ADSL charges would fall from €97.5 (£60) to around €32.5 (£20) per month. He intends to grow HomeChoice by poaching subscribers from Sky, ITV Digital and the cable companies.
Video streaming to grow
UK telecoms research company Analysys, forecasts a positive outlook for video streaming. The company said in a report released on Wednesday (17/01/02) that thanks to companies taking up streaming video for corporate communications (such as financial results webcasts), the market in Western Europe would grow tenfold in the next five years.
Margaret Hopkins, the report author said, "Video streaming provides instantaneous corporate communication in a very engaging and emotionally forceful manner.
"A small to medium sized enterprise can now produce a webcast of its Chairman's address, using a digital camera costing a few hundred dollars and free download software for encoding and playing the resulting stream."
Companies such as Cable & Wireless, Fantastic and Emblaze are set to benefit from the video streaming market taking off, expected to be worth €226 million ($200 million) by 2006 according to the report.
Revenue and traffic are set to increase by an average 90 per cent and 50 per cent a year respectively, with 2005 being the boom time.
An other report by Cahners In-Stat/MDR, also released on Wednesday, said that interactive TV customers using 'on-demand' services - including pay-per-view films on demand - would grow from 1.3 million in 2001 to more than 33 million in 2005.
"The expanded capabilities that two-way digital transmission networks offer to both subscribers and service providers have resulted in greater penetration of interactive applications like Electronic Programming Guides and Video-on-Demand," said Cahners Senior Analyst Mike Paxton.
Liberate
adds Premier Tier
Enhanced television software company Liberate Technologies has added a
new Premier Partner level to its PopTV program with more than 2,600 registered
members in more than 50 countries.
In addition to tools, training and support programs currently offered
to PopTV members, Premier Partners now receive preferred referrals to
network operators, Liberate internal information on software APIs and
eligibility for application development funding to accelerate delivery
of new services to market.
"Content and applications drive the success of interactive services in
our market," said Roy Frederickson, Vice President of Product Development
at Cox Communications, one of the five largest cable network operators
in the United States. "Liberate has taken a leadership role by committing
significant resources to its top PopTV partners to help us deliver the
best television experience possible to our subscribers."
"Our subscribers want compelling entertainment-based content," said Jeremy
Davies, Director of Content at ntl:home, the UK's largest cable operator.
"Liberate's expanded PopTV program can help us identify the most expert,
committed and innovative content creators, with the right applications
and services ready for market."
"As a pioneer in the interactive TV market with applications in use by
leading operators and channels such as Sky and MTV, NDS has been working
closely with Liberate to develop both headend and application products,"
said Nick Thexton, Vice President of TV Platforms for NDS. "Liberate's
new Premier Partner program will provide us with the increased capability
to create more sophisticated and revenue-generating applications for our
customers."
Liberty
drops Kirch plan
Widescreen
takes off in Sweden
EchoStar launch approved
New
Premiere CEO
Sionsat routing for China
broadcasts
Alcatel DSL Deployment
Fantasy footie on iTV
Intelsat upgrades
Tahiti Satellite
Arris
completes Cadant acquisition
New UK Cartoons
chief
OpenTV to AT&T Broadband
Liberty
drops Kirch plan
Liberty
Media has given up its plans to takeover BSkyB's 22 per cent stake in
Kirch's Pay TV unit Premiere Medien (formerly known as Kirch Pay TV).
The
German Cartel Office confirmed that Liberty had withdrawn the filing of
its intent to acquire the shares. "We think it is preferable to pursue
a commercial relationship with Kirch," a spokesman for Liberty was reported
as saying.The move has been characterised as Liberty softening its position
in relation to the authorities - while some commentators believe the move
was never serious, simply a ploy by Liberty to allow it to appear to be
making concessions when it withdrew.
In the case of a separate objection against Liberty's main plan to take
over more than half of Deutsche Telekom's TV cable system reaching over
10 million homes for €6.25 billion ($5.5 billion), German media reports
say the company has moved towards the antitrust authority's demands. Liberty
now says it will open up its cable systems for telephony by 2005. If the
authority agrees with this time frame, the former cable owner Deutsche
Telekom will remain without major competition to its telephony core business
for another four years. So far, the copper based competitors need to rent
the so called 'last mile' from DT.
Miranda Curtis, head of Liberty's European business, and Robert Bennett,
Liberty's chief executive, were expected to meet top antitrust officials
in Bonn yesterday (Thursday 17/01/02) to discuss the DT deal - the Cartel
Office has until February 28 to make its ruling.
It is expected that a written warning will be issued three weeks ahead
of the deadline, with the Cartel Office outlining its objections and possible
remedies. Remaining concerns of the Cartel Office include Liberty's plan
to merge DT's backbone network with several smaller retail cable operations
- historically part of two separate markets in Germany. It is also worried
about its refusal to endorse an open standard for digital set-top boxes.
Liberty Chief John Malone told a conference in the United States last
week that he would not risk a large investment in the cable telephony
service to win regulatory approval.
Germany's Deutsche Bank was reported in the local press to be preparing
to lead a consortium - which would merge its Telecolumbus unit with cable
operators Primacom and EWT/TSS plus Bosch Telecom - to acquire Deutsche
Telekom's cable assets if Liberty's bid was blocked by Germany's cartel
office.
A consortium formed by the Bavarian state government and publicly-owned
Bayerische Landesbank as well as a number of other companies would bid
for the cable assets in the state of Bavaria, the reports said.
Widescreen takes off in Sweden
In the last few years sales of widescreen TV sets sets have rocketed, and today more than 75 per cent of all TV sets shipped in Sweden are widescreen. A major problem, however, has been that new owners of widescreen sets have had too few opportunities to make full use of their new investments.
Yesterday, however, private TV4, Sweden's biggest and most watched channel, announced a major campaign for more 16:9 in its operations in the Swedish DTT project. Last autumn TV4 introduced widescreen options for DTT viewers of its new (and immediately successful) new docusoap series 'The Farm.'
Now TV4 has announced plans to broadcast several major US movies, starting early April, in widescreen format. Among movies selected are all four 'Star Wars' films, and 'Titanic'. TV4 will also offer 16:9 versions of weekly soap 'Nya tider' (New Times) and a variety of other series.
"Already many viewers sit on their sofas enjoying movies with DVD quality. As Sweden's biggest channel we feel an urge to lead the development; offering movies and certain other programmes in 16:9 is a first step in this direction," Mikael Hernstrom, Director of Planning at TV4, comments.
"We are also working on making DVD quality available for our viewers. None of the set top boxes available today can offer digital 5.1 sound, but as soon as box manufacturers are able to supply these we are prepared to start broadcasting in this new higher sound quality," Leif Kvist, Technical Director at TV4, states.
Also TV4's main rival, public service broadcast Sveriges Television, SVT, has major plans for more widescreen programming. Some weeks ago the new leadership duo at the station, MD Christina Jutterstroem and her new Director of Programming, Leif Jakobsson, made a number of public 'New Year's vows'; one of these being to offer, "at least" 50 widescreen movies for the DTT viewers in the new year.
Recently SVT has broadcast several prestige programmes in widescreen, one of which was the lavish new drama mini-series 'The Marriage of King Gustavus III'.
Canal Digital also has widescreen on its menu, mainly the third Canal+ channel, Canal+ Blue, with several movies presented in real widescreen each week.
EchoStar launch approved
On Wednesday (16/01/02) the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission granted satellite operator EchoStar permission to launch and operate a new direct broadcast services (DBS) satellite, EchoStar 7, and co-locate the spacecraft with EchoStar's existing network of satellites at the 119 degrees W orbital location.
Northpoint Technology, the Washington DC company that wants to use DBS spectrum for a wireless service, and the National Association of Broadcasters noticed that there was technical information missing in EchoStar's application. As a consequence Northpoint filed pleadings to the FCC to stay action on the matter. The company withdrew its motion once the data was available.
EchoStar can now use its frequencies at 119 degrees W more efficiently and expand its programming options say the FCC International Bureau's Satellite and Radiocommunication Division. EchoStar currently provides DBS service to US consumers from the 61.5 degrees W, 110 degrees W, 119 degrees W, and 148 degrees W orbital locations.
EchoStar 7 is to be co-located with EchoStar 4 and EchoStar 6 satellites at 119 degrees W. Use of a spot beam would increase DBS consumers' programming choices, improve EchoStar's spectrum efficiency, and enhance the system's capacity to provide local broadcast signals under the provisions of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 (SHVIA) and the FCC's rules, says the company. SHVIA required satellite TV providers to carry every local channel in any market where it offers local signals, beginning January 1, 2002.
No official timeframe has been given for EchoStar 7's launch, which has been hampered by delivery delays for the spacecraft.
New Premiere CEO
The CEO of Home Shopping Europe, Georg Kofler, is to be the new CEO of the German digital platform Premiere World.
Industry commentators are saying that Premiere World finally has a strong CEO who will be allowed to make decisions independently from the main shareholder KirchGroup. In the past, it was suggested that no matter who was CEO, Kirch Vice Chairman Dieter Hahn would still be making the decisions.
The venture is still way behind the business plan announced when it was relaunched over two years ago. The company has been without a CEO since Ferd Feyser resigned just a few months after taking the Chairmanship from Manfred Puffer who had held it for less than a year. Kofler is a respected entrepreneur in the German TV industry, having built up the Pro Sieben Group for Kirch from scratch, making it Europe's most profitable TV venture. His track record also includes building up the Home Shopping Europe Group which started as a Pro Sieben spin off channel HOT (Home Order Television) and is now available in most German language regions. When Kofler made his surprise resignation from the Chairmanship of ProSieben in 1999, many believed that the reason was due to Kofler having differences in approach with the group's founder Leo Kirch.
In addition Kofler was said to insist on a certain degree of independence. He is now believed to have had this granted before he signed his Premiere contract. At Home Shopping Europe, where Kofler himself owns a 26.63 per cent stake, he will become head of the supervisory board.
Sionsat routing for China broadcasts
Asia's pay TV channel providers are set to meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing on January 25 to discuss the plan to route all foreign broadcasts through the Sinosat bird this year.
Announced mid-way through 2001, the plan involves foreign channel providers paying Chinese regulators to be carried on Sinosat which would be the only acceptable source of foreign programming for mainland viewers.
Channels like Discovery, ESPN, MTV and others would also pay €113,500 ($100,000) a year and give Chinese officials the ability to switch their signal on and off at will. The measure was to have started on January 1, but China said that "technical problems" had delayed it with the latest projections suggesting it will start operating midway through the year.
The delegation to Beijing will be led by the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) - the region's most influential industry body. Chairman Marcel Fenez declined to outline the agenda, but did say that concerns about censorship would be among the topics covered.
There are significant questions that need to be answered by China about how the Sinosat platform will work. Among the outstanding issues are how existing agreements with other satellite companies will be affected and arrangements to collect advertising and subscription revenue.
Alcatel DSL Deployment
Alcatel has introduced a suite of feature enhancements to the Alcatel 7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) broadband network access platform. The company says that these upgrades position the Alcatel 7300 ASAM to further boost carriers, revenue generation, operational efficiency and premium service development - while lowering overall capital expenditure. Enhanced subtending capabilities make the benefits of these upgrades available to service providers with heritage Alcatel DSL networks based on the Alcatel 1000 ASAM.
France Telecom announced in early January 2002 that it had selected Alcatel as its worldwide supplier of DSL equipment, marking the first major deployment of the enhanced Alcatel 7300 ASAM. France Telecom will use the ultra-density platform to offer asymmetric and symmetric DSL services across both its domestic and international activities.
"At a time when cost containment is the carriers' watchword, Alcatel continues to define long-term investment protection in the DSL marketplace," said Ron Westfall, Principal Analyst, Broadband Infrastructure, of Current Analysis, a competitive response solutions firm.
"The Alcatel 7300 ASAM's ability to offer a variety of services, addressing different markets from a unified platform, is a cornerstone of the successful service provider's business model. In addition, for operators with an Alcatel ASAM installed base, these feature enhancements open the next chapter of high-value broadband service deployment. "
Double density asymmetric and symmetric DSL line cards are designed to optimise the Alcatel 7300 ASAM's physical footprint, while lower power consumption reduces operating cost. This enables the Alcatel 7300 ASAM to support up to 1,152 lines per 300mm ETSI* rack or 1,296 lines per 12 inch ANSI** rack, the highest density available in the industry.
Fantasy footie on iTV
Di3, an interactive fantasy football manager game, is available online
and on iTV. Software applications developer Di3 has developed the interactive
fantasy football game for Sky digital, and made it available on the web
and through digital satellite television.
As with the print versions, the online fantasy football competition allows
users to pick and manage their own football team and compete against other
players with scores based on the performance of the team. A World Cup
2002 game is also reported to have been been developed
Intelsat upgrades Tahiti Satellite
Intelsat Global Sales & Marketing Ltd is reported by Communications Today to have upgraded the Tahiti Nui Satellite bouquet which it provides in partnership with the Office des Postes et Telecommunications of French Polynesia and France Telecom's broadcast services division, GlobeCast.
Intelsat officials made the announcement at the 24th annual Pacific Telecommunications Council's (PTC) conference. An additional 72 MHz is was made available to provide customers in French Polynesia with 23 direct-to-home (DTH) channels and four radio channels, Intelsat officials said. The existing 72 MHz Ku-band video service, provided to French Polynesia's telecom agency since June 2000 on the Intelsat 701 satellite, included 12 video and three radio channels.
This digital service bouquet simultaneously transmits video, IP and DTH services to all 118 islands of French Polynesia. The digital DTH service is the first dedicated to French and English programming in the area that mixes video and Internet services in a single platform, and it reaches an audience of 10,000 subscribers.
Arris completes Cadant acquisition
Telecoms technology company Arris completed its previously announced acquisition of all of the assets of cable modem manufacturer Cadant Inc this month.
designer and manufacturer of next-generation Cadant and Arris are the only companies whose CMTS (Cable Modem Termination Systems) products have met the CableLabs Docsis 1.1 specification.
Under terms of the transaction, the Company paid 5.25 million shares of Arris common stock for the assets and assumed approximately €19 million ($17 million) in liabilities. Arris also agreed to pay up to two million additional shares based upon future sales of the CMTS product.
Bob Stanzione, Arris President and CEO commented, "It is clear that the combined strengths of our CableLabs Docsis 1.1 qualified Cornerstone CMTS 1500 and the Cadant C4 CMTS uniquely position us to provide Telephony over Internet Protocol (ToIP¸) and allow us to respond to customer requirements for ToIP and high speed data transport.
These head-end products coupled with the recently received CableLabs Docsis 1.1 certification of our Touchstone Telephony Modem, allow worldwide availability of end-to-end IP telephony and data solutions for operators of all sizes."
The carrier-class Cadant C4 CMTS was declared generally available in November 2001. Numerous C4 CMTS lab and field trials are currently under way with major North American and European MSOs including Sunflower Broadband and GCI.
Sunflower Broadband replaced legacy Docsis 1.0 CMTS equipment with the C4 CMTS as the first step in its upgrade to Docsis 1.1. GCI, an MSO with cable deployments throughout Alaska, chose the C4 CMTS as its multi-service delivery platform initially targeting tiered data services to residential and business customers.
Arris suggests that reliable platform based solutions will accelerate the deployment of internet protocol standards based telephony and data transport solutions for broadband system operators worldwide. The company says that by having the leading Docsis 1.1 qualified rack mounted and high-density chassis based CMTS architectures, combined with the knowledge and infrastructure gained from the largest number of cable telephony deployments, it is positioned to help its customers migrate from existing technologies to newer ToIP technologies. In addition, Arris remains committed to CableLabs PacketCable standards based IP Telephony.
New UK Cartoons chief
Cartoon Network UK has appointed Richard Kilgarriff as Channel Manager and Vice President of Cartoon Network UK.
Richard Kilgarriff is an award-winning producer with a background in the multichannel world and experience in TV, film and radio production, marketing and programme sales. He was Director of Programmes for Rapture TV, launched an internet TV channel, made and sold a variety of TV and radio shows and was digital consultant to Microsoft and Channel 5.
His responsibilities will include programming, presentation, interactive, marketing and PR for Cartoon Network UK and Boomerang. He took up his new position on January 14th, and reports to Stephen Johnstone, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Cartoon Network Europe.
OpenTV to AT&T Broadband
Interactive TV software company OpenTV Corp has signed a multi-year agreement with AT&T Broadband's Headend In The Sky (HITS) for the delivery of an interactive television solution for HITS affiliates.
OpenTV will bundle its interactive TV set top middleware with content from its content unit, Static 2358, including Static's PlayJam interactive television games channel, enabling interactive applications such as games, news, weather and horoscopes Through HITS, more than 275 affiliated cable operators can build their own suite of interactive offerings for local deployment. Commercial launch will follow technical acceptance testing.
Back to top
Italian
Piracy battle hots up
ITV Sport's future undecided
Telepiu's
new box
IMagicTV
Saskatchewan launch
Cogeco Cable posts loss
Kirch gets loan extension
Broadband data for mobiles
MTV
Nordic supports expo
Feratel
Austria buys Scopus
Bid-up
in Lastminute deal
TV tax opposed in Mexico
Gambling mainstream in
UK
Italian Piracy battle hots up
The battle against piracy between Italian pay TVs and hackers is becoming increasingly bitter. During the weekend (January 12-14) Telepiu released an EMC able to block the 80 per cent of the pirate cards in circulation. However, it has been reported in Italy that the pirates have created a new smart card, called the X-card, which is able to convert into a clear signal all the payTV channels encoded by Irdeto, Seca and Viaccess, using individual CAM. One of the most important characteristics of these cards is their ability to handle Seca/Irdeto/Viaccess codes when these are modified.
The PayTV channels are also asking for higher fees for exclusive of soccer matches, which are hugely expensive and not remunerative.
Commenting on the debate at RAI concerning the difficulty of acquiring soccer rights, Tullio Camiglieri, Director of Communication at Stream, said, "Soccer costs payTV companies billions of Euros and our exclusive mast be defended with more protection. It's time for TV and soccer organisations to work together to protect those who invest in this business."
ITV Sport's future undecided
The UK's pay-TV ITV Sport Channel, run on cable and DTT, but owned by UK terrestrials Granada an d Carlton, has withdrawn from plans to run on BSkyB's digital satellite platform, with ITV postponing talks indefinitely and taking with it Sky's access to Champion's League and Nationwide soccer.
ITV Digital's Chief Executive, Stuart Prebble, had previously urged soccer clubs and supporters to put pressure on Sky to carry the channel, therefore giving the sport access a greater audience.
Although ITV Digital's 1.2 million subscribers have access Premiership, FA Cup and England international matches on Sky plus Champions League, Nationwide and Worthington Cup matches whereas, Sky Digital viewers cannot watch the latter three events.
Sky is reported in the UK press to have insisted that they are bound, by regulators, to offer 'fair and reasonable' terms to ITV.
The Football League had been pleased that more of its divisions were gaining coverage via ITV Sport but criticised low viewing figures - down to 1,000 viewers for some First Division games
Some reports suggest the issue is the result of a rift between ITV Digital's shareholders Granada and Carlton Communications, which is also delaying resolution of ITV Sport's future prior to restructure of the digital terrestrial platform. Granada is thought to be more in favour of a deal with BSkyB than Carlton. A deal for satellite distribution would be likely to boost advertising on the channel by increasing viewers, while its absence from Sky is seen as a key to increasing subscribers.
A 'conditional access' deal with BSkyB for satellite delivery of the channel has been estimated to cost up to €6.5 million (£4 million) whereas ITV Digital is reported to be asking for €131 million (£80 million) for ITV Sport to become part of the Sky package.
Closing ITV Sport would save Carlton and Granada €135 million to €147 million (£120 million to £130 million) a year for the next three years, according to Mathew Horsman at Investec Henderson Crosthwaite.
Telepiu's new box
Italian Telepiu Digital, in collaboration with the manufacturers of the Gold Box decoder (Kenwood, Nokia, Pioneer, Strong, Thomson, TMX and Sim2), have launched a new product called Kit Number One.
The kit includes a digital receiver Gold Box and a prepaid smart card, which allows access for six months to the Premium pack (Telepiu Bianco, Nero and Grigio), to Disney Channel and the three cinema channels.
The cost of the Gold Box is added to the subscription fee. It is the first time that Telepiu has linked the sale of the decoder to its packs. So far, this policy has only been applied to video rental. The offer is valid until stocks of decoders run out, and it is not binding on those who want to buy a Gold Box without subscribing.
IMagicTV Saskatchewan launch
Candadian-based iMagicTV has announced another rollout of its TV over DSL software. The incumbent telco in Saskatchewan, SaskTel plans to launch digital and interactive television services using the company's DTV software suite during 2002.
The size of the rollout and the launch date have not yet been announced. IMagicTV's software has been used to deliver telco TV in New Brunswick since 1999. SaskTel will use the software to deliver pay audio, pay-per-view, high speed internet access, email, and local information.
Cogeco Cable posts loss
Canada's fourth largest MSO, Cogeco Cable Inc, has recorded a net loss of €1.2 million (C$1.7 million) for its first quarter of fiscal 2002, against a profit of €266,031 (C$375,000) for the same period a year earlier.
Cogeco, which has been unusual in the past because it has almost always shown a profit, would have shown a profit except for a one time charge of €3.3 million (C$4.7 million) resulting from cutting 100 employees last year.
Over the last year the company lost 9,893 basic subscribers leaving it with 869,073 subscribers, down from 900,000 in the recent past. While the company has been adopting cost cutting measures to combat market erosion, it recently quashed plans to launch VoIP this year as too costly. It has seen revenues from recurring operations increase by 9 per cent to €19 million (C$27 million) for the first quarter thanks largely to a roughly 15 per cent growth in high speed internet subscribers to 124,289. Digital cable subscribers also grew by 14 per cent to 119,568.
Customer retention and satisfaction are Cogeco's dual focus for the year. The company believes that it is on track to meet its targets of adding 40,000 high speed customers and 25,000 digital cable subs. The company said that it may also lower cable prices to increase its ability to compete with DTH providers.
Kirch gets loan extension
Dresdner Bank has given the Kirch Group in Germany an extension on repayment of its €464 million ($410 million) loan which fell due on Tuesday (25/01/02), and does not now need to be paid until April. This loan is one of many debts falling due for payments this year, resulting in speculation about the possible takover of the German media empire by predators such as Liberty Media and News Corp.
Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting could exercise an option to sell back to Kirch a 22 per cent stake in Kirch after October 1, which would exacerbate the company's financial woes - but probably not be enough to force a sale of the entire company - just some of its assets.
Broadband data for mobiles
Pan-European broadband company Ebone is using its Europe-wide IP network to help Bouygues Telecom, one of France's main mobile telecommunications operators, to deliver web content and information from corporate intranets to customers' mobile phones.
Ebone's IP transit services were selected by Bouygues Telecom to provide Bouygues Telecom's GPRS (global packet radio service) subscribers access to the Internet. Bouygues Telecom, which anticipated the growth of the IP based traffic and potential revenue streams that these new services could offer, says it wanted Ebone because of the quality of its European network and network connection to the US.
Ebone's IP services were also selected by Bouygues Telecom for the migration of its web portal, http://www.6sens.com to which subscribers now have faster and more reliable access. This portal enables Bouygues Telecom users to customise their mobile phones to receive additional mobile data services such as real-time information, news, financial information and weather forecasts.
MTV Nordic supports expo
MTV Nordic is to support Music Export Norway's 'Norway Now' at Midem by creating dedicated programming in support of some of the biggest names on the Norwegian music scene. MTV Nordic will be interviewing and filming performances by some of Norway's hottest homegrown artists including Briskeby, Royksopp, Sondre Lerche, Kings Of Convenience at Norway Now which opens Midem on 20 January 2001.
Norwegian artists are a priority for MTV Nordic, with many of them enjoying pan European support across the network as well as extensive playlisting on MTV Nordic.
Feratel Austria buys Scopus
Austria's Feratel Media Technologies AG has bought additional digital television transmission platforms from Scopus Network Technologies to replace earlier systems.
Headquartered in Innsbruck, Feratel will use Scopus' end-to-end platforms for the transmission of tourism-related information sold to leading broadcasters across Europe. Feratel will be hooking up Scopus' interoperable platforms to both microwave and satellite broadcast equipment which transmit scenic images of major European tourism sites as well as other general weather and tourism information to an array of European networks such as ORF, 3sat, BR, Canvas, TW1, Italia7 Gold and others.
Feratel is once again using Scopus' CODICO product line. It will be integrating Scopus' E-1000 Encoders, RTM-3600 Statistical Multiplexers and IRD-2600 Integrated Receiver Decoders that make up Scopus' complete digital television transmission suite.
"Feratel, as a premier supplier of tourism information in Europe, is a key element in Scopus' European strategy. By expanding our client base to include tele-information as well as television providers we are improving our base of operations in Europe," reported Chen Landau, Scopus director of sales. "Scopus is committed to our client and to providing them with the highest quality and best possible solutions that match client needs."
Bid-up in Lastminute deal
The online trading site, Lastminute.com, is working with Bid-up.tv to expand into the digital televised market and auction holidays on live TV according to a report in MediaEurope.
The report suggests that the move makes Lastminute.com one of the first UK e-commerce companies to auction holidays live on-air, an expansion into a new platform for the company.
Some eight million households in the UK will be able to watch the daily auctions which will offer holidays and short breaks on TV.
TV tax opposed in Mexico
In Mexico three pay-television companies and two electronic media business groups said (14/01/02) that they will fight a new 10 per cent tax on satellite and cable television services.
The operators say that the newly approved fiscal reforms will force them to increase rates.
The Mexican affiliates of Sky and DirecTV satellite television companies, MVS Multivision microwave television company, and the National Chamber of the Cable Television Industry (Canitec) and the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (Cirt) sponsored the announcement.
Mexico City's leading cable television firm Cablevision, also part-owned by Televisa, did not sign the announcement.
Gambling
mainstream in UK
A Times newspaper report on Tuesday (15/01/02) says that the UK's TV regulator,
the Independent Television Commission, is considering allowing the advertising
of interactive betting on mainstream TV for the first time.
The ITC, with the encouragement of the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport, is conducting a public consultation exercise on relaxing the current
rules to allow new forms of betting via digital TV. A report by the Gambling
Review Body, the Budd Report, argued that restrictions on the advertising
of betting and gaming be removed, apart from controls to protect minors
and prevent excessive gambling.
As gambling is virtually the only interactive TV application making money,
this move has been welcomed by the industry.
SES
Americom link for EBU
MTG
extends into Russia
New digital channel from SVT
Granada
consolidates sports rights
NTL shares hit new low
Optus
opts for DSL
DT: no financial
pressure
PanAmSat financial released
Thomson
wins US box deal
DBS gains US market share
Philips
new chip
Analogue switch
off after 2010
SES Americom link for EBU
SES Americom is to supply a multi-transponder trans-Atlantic satellite connection to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its members for television coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, USA.
The EBU secured the European rights for the Games until 2008 under a long-term contract signed in 1996.
Stefan Kurten, the EBU's Director of Operations, said, "We expect the upcoming Winter Games to generate a lot of excitement and perhaps even some respite from other world events; all of our broadcast partners are anticipating strong audiences throughout the competitions. The ability to transmit our coverage over such a long distance with the efficiency of one satellite circuit will ease the transmission burden considerably and facilitate the distribution of these world-class sporting events."
Eddy Frankland, SES Americom's Vice President of Broadcast Services said, "We believe that this agreement for Olympic coverage connections will be the beginning of a very successful relationship between SES Americom and the EBU."
The Geneva-based EBU serves 70 national broadcasters from 51 countries in and around Europe, making it the world's largest professional association of national broadcasters. Activities include operation of the global Eurovision and Euroradio networks; the exchange of news, sport and cultural programming; coordination of co-productions; technical research; training; legal advice; and the defence of public service values.
MTG extends into Russia
The Swedish Modern Times Group, MTG, is making further inroads into the expanding Russian television market. Some days ago MTG announced its acquisition of 36.3 per cent of StoryFirst Communications Inc an American conglomerate controlling Russia's third biggest commercial network, CTC.
This time last year MTG made its first major entry into the Russian televison market by its acquisition of 75 per cent of the shares of Darial TV, a network of regional stations, today reaching some 30 million Russian viewers.
CTC today has a national penetration of some 60 per cent and reaches an average of 75 million Russians with its mainly entertainment-based programming, focusing on the 18 to 45 age groups. CTC broadcasts from eight of Russia's biggest cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg and Nishniy Novgorod, and also runs a national network with 156 companies operating 341 cities. Storyfirst also operatates six radio stations, Radio Maximum, in some of the continent's biggest cities.
"This investment continues our international expansion. The Russian televison market has an enormous potential with growth last year of some 80 per cent, worth €447 ($400 million)," Hans-Holger Albrecht, MD of MTG, comments.
On Monday (14/01/02) MTG also announced its launch of its home shopping service PIN24, also in Germany.
New digital channel from SVT
Sveriges Television (SVT), Sweden's public service broadcaster, took the Swedish media world by total surprise on Monday (14/01/02) announcing the launch, the very same day, of a new digital channel, SVT Extra.
The new channel will have a heavy focus on sports. First out will be the European figure skating championships in Swiss Lausanne, which began on Monday. SVT then plans to make space in its newest channel for some 400 hours from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. During that period SVT will also launch yet another, however temporary, digital channel to cater for the Olympic freaks.
But SVT Extra, which will use frequencies earlier planned for various regional services, will also soon feature the full version of this year's Swedish Film Gala (two hours of which will be presented on SVT1) with a lot of "behind the scenes" coverage. The future Dutch royal wedding between crown prince Willem Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta will also get full coverage on SVT Extra. Also ongoing SVT series like current affairs magazine 'Debatt' (Debate) will soon have follow-ups on the new service
"This is an additional service for today's digital viewers. It will develop gradually during 2002, and we see a great potential for this service," Leif Jakobsson, SVT's new Director of Programming, comments.
SVT Extra will be available on SVT's DTT multiplex, but also on Canal Digital's digital DTH platform and on Telia's cable service Com.hem, Sweden's biggest cable operation with 65 per cent of the Swedish cable market.
Jakobsson and his boss, Christina Jutterstroem, the new Director General of SVT, recently made a 'New Year's Promise' to launch yet another new digital service during the new year. No details about that channel have yet been made public.
Granada consolidates sports rights
UK terrestrial TV company Granada is reported to be putting all its football assets relating to Liverpool, Arsenal and MUTV, the Manchester United TV channel, in a new division.
Granada has a 50 per cent stake in Liverpoolfc.tv, established with the club to exploit Internet and broadband rights. Adam Rhodes, Chief Executive of Liverpoolfc.tv, is leaving the group and the enterprise will now form part of Granada Sport and Interactive.
Granada's broadband joint venture with Arsenal - Arsenal Broadband - and management of its stake in MUTV will also move to the new division which will share resources with Granada's production arm.
The slow rate of broadband take-up has hindered revenue growth which is said to be below target. Max Graesser, Chief Operating Officer of Granada Sport and Interactive, was reported in the FT as saying, "This move is really about aggregating our sports assets. We are in this for the longterm and we have to accept that these are long-term businesses."
Granada paid Liverpool €36 million (£22 million) for a 9.9 per cent stake in the club two years ago. This was followed by a payment of €32 million (£20 million) for 50 per cent of the joint venture company. The five per cent stake in Arsenal (due to be increased to 10 per cent) and share of a broadband joint venture with the north London club is believed to have cost a similar amount. Granada also holds a 33 per cent stake in MUTV - along with Manchester United and British Sky Broadcasting.
* During the Football Expo 2002 in Cannes, Prisma Sports and Media Senior Vice President Richard Dorfman defended the price charged by Kirch's UK subsidiary for rights to World Cup soccer. In the UK the BBC and ITV paid £160 million for rights to the 2002 and 2004 World Cup which Dorfman called 'fair' because the World Cup was a 'special case' and would continue to be seen as a premium event. He added that he expected the cost of rights for the best content such as the Fifa World Cup to continue to climb, but that future increases would not be of the same magnitude.
NTL shares hit new low
The Nasdaq listed UK cableco NTL saw shares fall 15 per cent on Monday (14/01/02) from 65 to 55 cents ($US) leaving the company with a market capitalisation of €168 million ($150 million) and debts of €19 billion ($17 billion).
NTL's revised business plan is to be presented later this month, but investors already appeared unconvinced. Lowered capital expenditure and revenues targets for 2002 are expected, along with debt restructuring to cut heavy interest payments over the next 12 months.
Some 4,000 job cuts are planned this year and this week the company said it may open its network to rival companies to provide broadband internet access.
Optus opts for DSL
Australian pay TV provider Optus is planning to deliver its service over its copper wire network in the 2002/2003 financial year.
Reports said that the DSL deployment follows a trial of the technology in 2001 when 300 homes accessed the platform over their phone lines at 4Mbps. Optus, which was bought by Singapore Telecom last year, already has a retail broadband service, Optus@Home.
The DSL service is set to run by Optus' consumer media division that also runs the cable TV service Optus Vision which reaches 225,000 homes, and is third in size behind Foxtel and Austar respectively. The service will be available to homes within a 2.4 km radius of an exchange, which will limit its penetration potential among rural Australians and restrict it largely to urban dwellers who make up the majority of the population.
Optus is also running an interactive TV trial on a commercial basis to 1,800 homes in the state of New South Wales, after a smaller-scale trial to 300 Sydney homes last year.
The set top box used for the interactive trial can also be connected using an ethernet port to an ADSL or a cable modem. TV has not previously been available over ADSL in Australia. Broadband rollout has been held up by the perception among consumers that the services are erratic and expensive.
DT: no financial pressure
Following threats from Liberty Media to possibly pull out of the purchase of German teleco Deutsche Telekom AG's sale of its cable assets (see ATV archive), DT announced that it's balance sheet is not under pressure and wouldn't be harmed even if the deal did not go through.
DT also said it has no intention of cutting its dividend to shareholders and rejected reports that it is facing growing cash problems.
DT posted a 2001 third-quarter loss of €627 million ($552 million) last November, compared to a profit of €4.11 billion ($3.6 billion) during the same period a year ago.
* In the US an affiliateof Liberty Media Corp - IDT United Inc - raised its cash offer for UnitedGlobalCom Inc from $1.375 billion of 10-4/4 per cent notes to $360 for each $1,000 of senior secured notes, from the original $250 offer from last month, and also on Monday 14/01/02, it extended the offer's expiration date from midnight on January 22.to midnight on January 29.
On December 3, UnitedGlobalCom and Liberty Media said they had agreed that Liberty would take a 76 per cent stake in UnitedGlobalCom in exchange for an $896.1 million exchangeable loan, $200 million in cash, $1.44 billion in notes and other items.
PanAmSat financial released
This week US satellite operator PanAmSat Corporation reported 2001 total revenues of €976 million ($870 million) after generating €224 million ($204 million) in revenues in the fourth quarter.
The company's 2001 Ebitda earnings were €651 million ($580 million) - some 67 per cent of revenues or 20 cents a share. Operating lease revenues for 2001 were reported as $802 million, a 2.8 per cent increase over operating lease revenues of $780 million in 2000.
"Operating lease revenues for 2001 were the highest in the company's history, and they increased during a tough growth year in our industry," said Joe Wright, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The higher operating revenues were primarily due to increases in our direct-to-home and network services, and we continued to see strong demand for our domestic video neighbourhood among premier entertainment and media customers. More important, our streamlining efforts started last September are already beginning to pay off as our operating costs in the second quarter of 2001 were around €83 million ($74 million) and today they are at a run rate of about 20 per cent less."
PanAmSat expects to receive €280 million ($250 million) in insurance proceeds early this year for the PAS-7 insurance claim, which will boost cash assets to €778 million ($693 million) - compared to €145 million ($129 million) at the end of 2000 - enabling the company to lower its financing requirements.
"We have essentially completed a €2.2 billion ($2 billion) capital spending program over the past three to four years to create one of the most modern and reliable satellite fleets in the industry," Wright said.
Thomson wins US box deal
Thomson Multimedia of France is to supply an undisclosed number of digital TV set-top boxes to US satellite broadcaster, Echostar Communications, starting production this summer. Thomson already supplies TV decoders to rival and market leading US satellite broadcaster DirecTV, which owns a 3.1 per cent stake in Thomson.
The agreement is not contingent on government approval of the merger between EchoStar and Hughes Electronics, parent of DirecTV. However, the company said that future receivers which Thomson manufactures for EchoStar will facilitate the migration to a combined network once the pending merger is approved. Thomson also said it will immediately begin a development program for DISH Network compatible products.
Thomson's shares rose by 4.4 per cent to €36.44 on the announcement of the order.
DBS gains US market share
A report released on Monday (14/01/02) by the US Federal Communications Commission, suggests that the cable industry's share of the US pay TV market has slipped from 80 per cent to 78 per cent for the year ending June 2001 due to growth by direct-broadcast satellite carriers.
Nonetheless, cable remained the dominant video-programming provider despite the strong showing by the DBS industry concluded the FCC.
DBS carriers ended the reporting period with 16 million subscribers, up three million, or 23 per cent, from the previous year. Cable operators, by contrast, added 1.3 million subscribers, up 1.9 per cent.
The FCC said the overall pay TV market grew 4.6 per cent to end the reporting period with 88.3 million subscribers, compared with 84.4 million the previous year.
More than one in five subscription TV households are not customers of cable operators - which had about 95 per cent of all pay TV subscribers eight years ago.
The FCC said competition is forcing cable operators to respond by lowering prices or adding channels without raising monthly rates - although cable rates rose 4.24 per cent during the 12-month period, slightly higher than the 3.25 per cent increase in the US inflation rate as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.
Philips new chip
Philips Semiconductors introduced a new chip, the SAA7108A/09A HD-CODEC, in the US on Monday (14/01/02). This device is believed to be the first to combine the two standards for digital television, known as standard definition and high definition, or SDTV and HDTV and will allow customers to receive digital signals at a lower-cost.
The codec acts as a translator, decoding digital TV signals and allowing them to be viewed on a television or computer displays.
The US Congress and the Federal Communications Commission has given US TV stations until May 1 to switch from analogue to standard digital television, and most are making the transition now.
An €20 ($18) price is available when purchased in mass quantities, and manufacturers could produce low-price digital TV receivers enabling digital TVs to be available to the masses by the end of the year. The cheapest HDTVs currently cost about €2,240 ($2,000), whereas set-tops using the new Philips chip could cost as little as €224 ($200) to start.
Analogue switch off after 2010
The UK Government will delay switching off analogue television signals
until at least 2010 - rather than the earlier date of 2006 - because millions
of UK households do not want digital TV says Tessa Jowell, the UK Culture
Secretary.
A quarter of all UK consumers - 11.5 million adults - are reported to
say that nothing will persuade them to voluntarily replace their terrestrial
service with digital sets or boxes. Of two million televisions sold during
December and January, only some 40,000 were equipped for multi-channel
transmissions.
Jowell was reported in the UK press as saying, "I would expect, with the
present rate of take-up, that there will be a point in 2006/2007 where
we will have a clear sense of the size of, if you like, the refusenik
group: the people who are disinterested. This has got to be an act of
gentle persuasion." Another minister commented, "The industry has told
us that it would prefer a clear date, even if it means delaying until
after 2010."
Premiere
sub numbers announced
Yes
launches Star Channels
AOL/TW in Chinese delivery
Slow US migration
to HDTV
Super RTL strengthens
position
Quiero launches
interactive service
RealNetworks teams up
with TiVo
MHP launch
catalogued
AOL competes for Euro
subs
Premiere
sub numbers announced
After more than a year, Germany's digital pay TV platform Premiere World
officially announced (rather than simply confirmed rumours on) subscriber
figures. In the last year, the overall number of subscriptions increased
by five per cent to €2.41 million compared to €2.3 million last
year. The number of digital subscriptions increased by 20 per cent to
€2.28 million.
The reason is that the analogue service is planned to be turned off this
year. The increase, especially in the last quarter, is reported to be
the weakest ever. Premiere confirms, that the platform also suffered the
current difficult economic situation climate. and prices for basic packages
decreased significantly prior the Christmas season. Premiere didn't sell
any six months contracts as all the new contacts run for 24 months. This
was intended to made the subscriber asset more valuable. The cancellation
rate last year was said to exceed 40 per cent.
Next year most of the new subscribers will still be Premiere clients.
However, the platform owned by Germany's KirchGroup and British BSkyB
(22 per cent) is far behind the expectations expressed after the relaunch
three years ago, under which Premiere should have broken even with about
3.5 million subscribers by the end of this year.
Many observers now believe BSkyB will draw upon the option that allows
it to sell its stake back to Kirch for the price paid three years ago
plus interest, forcing Kirch to raise over €2.0 billion in cash.
Yes launches Star Channels
Broadband TV company Yes Television in Hong Kong is to carry a package of Star channels on its commercial trial in SAR (special administrative region) of China. The five Star channels are Adventure One, Star Movies, Star World, Channel [V], and Phoenix Chinese Channel.
Viewers registered for the commercial trial will have access to Adventure One, an adventure lifestyle channel produced by National Geographic Asia. The channel is available for the first time in Hong Kong. Movies from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Disney, MGM/United Artists and Canal+ will be shown on Star Movies; there will be leading English-language entertainment on Star World; chart- and Chinese music; and trends and lifestyles of Asian youth on Channel [V]; and Phoenix Chinese Channel, the Mandarin-language entertainment channel.
February 2002 sees the start up of Yes Television's commercial trial, which the company says blends premium broadcast television with true video on demand (VOD), Internet access and email in a single integrated package of digital television services.
Thomas Kressner, Chairman and CEO of Yes Television, said, "The Hong Kong market remains an important one for Yes Television and I am delighted that we have secured Star's broadcast channels for our commercial trial. The channels will bring the best entertainment, movies, music and documentaries to Hong Kong viewers."
*Lanny Huang has been promoted to General Manager - Commercial Services at Yes Television Asia and Nigel Harper to General Manager - Technology of the company with immediate effect. Charlene Lai is appointed as the Content Manager.
Lanny Huang joined Yes Television in September 2000 and is responsible for the business development and commercial operations for Yes Television's Hong Kong and expanding Asian service. Her expertise extends to her fifteen years in domestic and international organizations, which include broadcast television, pay television, pay-per-view, near-video-on-demand and true video-on-demand.
Nigel Harper joined Yes Television Asia's management team in 2000. His role is to lead the company's technical activities throughout the Asia Pacific region. He has four years' experience with Yes Television and a six-year history in the interactive TV services business.
AOL/TW in Chinese delivery
AOL Time Warner's China Entertainment Television (CETV) is investing in broadband content delivery to mainland Chinese homes with the target date for launch slated to be in the second half of 2002.
The broadband content would be FM365.com, a joint venture Internet platform between AOL Time Warner and China-based computer company, Legend Holdings. CETV Vice President and General Manager, Ringo Chan, said that they were also having talks with other Chinese broadband service providers. CETV was acquired last year from Hong Kong TV industry veteran Robert Chua who founded the company as a general entertainment, Mandarin-language service.
Chan said the channel was planning to ramp up the amount of in-house production from 20 per cent of the total currently, to more than 30 per cent. The new content will be focused on entertainment news, lifestyle programmes, documentaries and variety shows and independent production houses will also be asked to provide material.
Late last year CETV became the first foreign-owned TV channel to gain carriage around the clock in China when it was granted landing rights in the southern province of Guangdong, although it had been carried on a 24-basis without official sanction, or interference, since 1996.
Slow US migration to HDTV
Migration of HDTV (1.5 Gbps) over fibre among US TV stations will be slow according to the 2001 - 2006 DTV Migration Trends Survey of US TV Stations, conducted by market research company SCRI International.
Only 12.2 per cent of stations are expected to be using HDTV (1.5 Gbps) over fibre by the end of 2002; by 2003 this will increase to 17.6 per cent; by 2004 23 per cent and by 2005, just under three in ten stations (28.4 per cent) are expected to be using HDTV over fibre.
Fibre's ability to accommodate extremely high bit rates, irrespective of content, was highlighted by Larry Bloomfield, SCRI's technical consultant who comments, "Bits are bits are bits - they do not know if they are HDTV or anything else. The bandwidth required for HDTV is significantly greater than that required for SDTV. Bandwidth capacity is the key important factor in any medium of transport - fibre, cable or over the air."
As at January 9, 2002 there are 229 DTV stations operating in digital and DTV signals are now being transmitted in 80 markets that include 73.72 per cent of US TV households according to NAB.
Super RTL strengthens position
SuperRTL, the channel belonging to the German RTL channel family and jointly owned by RTL Group and Disney, strengthened its position in the German children's TV market during the last year.
According the GfK TV survey, the channel led in this genre with a market share of of 19.8 per cent in the 3 to 13 age group. "During the last year we were able to expand our position once again, making us the most successful provider of kids programs across Europe," says SuperRTL General Manager Claude Schmitt. He believes this was made possible by introducing the cross media branding 'Toggo.'
The Toggo Internet site, with almost 20 million page impressions, was the absolute number one kids side in December, Schmitt said. Also the annual kids road show and event series all around Germany and the channel's merchandising is promoted under the Toggo brand. "We were able to keep the net revenues of 2001 up on the same level as in the exceptional advertising year 2000, with advertising down about 10 percent throughout the market. However it would be wrong to consider SuperRTL to be a mere kids channel. Germany's RTL Television provides the entire prime time and night programming to expand the channel's offer and become a full family entertainment channel.
Quiero launches interactive service
Spanish digital terrestrial platform Quiero has launched an interactive service called 'Catch Mr Wop', a game in which viewers can win €1,200 prize.
Quiero's cartoon character, Mr Wop, will appear on different channels from January 15th to 31st and viewers will be able to catch it by pressing 'OK' on their remote controls. Each time the viewer catches Mr Wop, an automatic local call is made to Quiero and he or she will automatically be registered to participate in the draw.
The channels to incorporate this service are: Palomitas, Showtime Extreme, Studio Universal and Calle 13, as well as the children's channels Buzz and Club Super.
RealNetworks teams up with TiVo
RealNetworks Inc, the software company best known for its RealPlayer multimedia software, is extending into consumer devices and intends to include its technology in a variety of microchips and devices, including TiVo Inc's digital video recorders.
In an interview with Reuters Real's Chief Executive Rob Glaser said that TiVo and television set-top box start-up Moxi are to include Real's new RealOne Player into their products, while electronics firms Hitachi, NEC, Philips and STMicroelectronics would all support Real technologies in chips to be used in everything from DVD players to handheld computers and digital cameras.
TiVo would also offer its users the RealOne subscription service, which delivers exclusive entertainment, sports and news content to customers paying a monthly fee.
Glaser said he believed that in 10 years most Internet content would be accessed by devices other than traditional personal computers. Real already has deals to include its technology in the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console, Nokia mobile phones and chips made by Texas Instruments. "We're now in basically all the leading current platforms," Glaser said.
MHP launch catalogued
Sofia Digital has published a report on the launch of the world's first MHP services. 'Starting the world's first regular MHP broadcasts - a Report on the DVB-MHP Broadcasting in Finland' records how MHP broadcasting began in Finland last August.
The publication explains how the MHP applications work in Finland, including how the business model differs in an MHP environment compared to proprietary Application programming Interface (API) systems
The report is available for free download in PDF format (318 KB, 19 pages) at www.sofiadigital.com/publications.
AOL competes for Euro subs
Following last week's report (see advanced-television archive) that AOL Time Warner is pursuing a €7.8 billion ($7 billion) purchase of Bertelsmann's 49 per cent stake in AOL Europe (UK, France and Germany), the company now has to beat local rivals for subscribers while cutting costs ahead of gaining full control of the group by July.
AOL Europe had 5.5 million subscribers in 2001, up 40 per cent year-on-year. It also lost €672 million ($600 million) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) on €895 million ($800 million) in revenue in 2001, compared with an expected loss of €335 million ($300 million) to €447 million ($400 million) on revenue of about €1.11 billion ($1 billion). "We were surprised by the magnitude of losses at AOL Europe," Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen was reported as saying in the FT.
Robert Pittman, AOL chief operating officer, said AOL Europe's revenues would reach €1.11 billion ($1 billion) in 2002 while losses would "substantially reduce."
Marketing costs to acquire its estimated 1.5 million subscribers are put at as much as €111 million ($100 million) a year, but are expected to be reduced.
Germany provides almost half AOL Europe's subscribers, but far behind Deutsche Telekom's T-Online, while in France, market leader Wanadoo has 2.3 million subscribers.
AOL intends to get half of its revenue from outside the US over the next 10 years - hence it will need to overcome the fierce local competition in Europe to achieve this aim.
Back to top
NTL
may rent broadband
Russia's
TV6 to close
Fox on Telewest
Expansion of
DSL services
New VP at MTV Europe
UAE launching UMTS end-2003
Telefonica media
changes
Viacom network President resigns
BT upgrade just £400 m
NTL
may rent broadband
Among options being considered by UK cableco NTL to reduce its €19
billion ($17billion), debt is allowing rival companies to buy access to
its local networks for broadband or high-speed internet services - something
which may appeal to potential suppliers who have complained about BT's
prices and availability.
Wholesale broadband cable access would be provided to other internet service
providers (ISPs), and has already been discussed with Freeserve and AOL
UK according to FT reports today (14/01/02).
It has been suggested that this strategy could undermine the remote likelihood
of another media player, such as Vivendi or AOL Time-Warner, taking a
stake in NTL.
However, by selling capacity wholesale, NTL would avoid the heavy costs
of signing up its own new customers. Last year NTL won more than 100,000
fast Internet customers following a major marketing push.
Stephen Carter, Chief Operating Officer at NTL, "It is definitely something
we are looking at. Last year, we had a short-term retail advantage that
we wanted to exploit. I would not rule out our participating in the wholesale
market in 2002."
NTL asked ISPs to pay both wholesale charges, and contribute towards upfront
costs in rolling out broadband access, and this has not gone down well
in the market - being totally rejected by Freeserve, which was initially
identified as one of the most receptive of the ISPs. It points out that
even BT does not make charges for network upgrades, or ordering and installing
broadband equipment in customer homes.
Russia's TV6 to close
TV6 station, previously the only national network in Russia outside Kremlin control and often critical of the government, lost its court battle to stay open last week. On Friday Moscow's Higher Arbitration Court upheld an earlier ruling that the station, owned by self exiled Boris Berezovsky, should close for failing to comply with statutory financial regulations.
Berezovsky, who owns some 75 per cent of TV6's shares, plans to take the case to Russia's Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Fox on Telewest
Pan-European integrated children's entertainment company Fox Kids Europe NV, is to launch its UK channel on Telewest Broadband's digital cable service on February 15, 2002, reaching 600,000 new subscribers. Following the launch on Telewest, Fox Kids UK will be available to 6.8 million multi-channel homes in the UK and Ireland, including 5.5 million households via BSkyB's DTH service.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Fox Kids UK channel will broadcast daily nationwide on Telewest Broadband systems from 06:00-22:00. The Fox Kids channel is already available via two analogue networks, Birmingham Cable (since May 1997) and Eurobell (since October 1996), which have been acquired by Telewest.
Gavin Patterson, Commercial Director, Telewest Broadband says, "Telewest Broadband is delighted to extend the carriage of Fox Kids to its digital customers. The addition of Fox Kids will increase customer choice and further enhance the range of quality content from key brands in the children's market."
Ian Finnegan, Managing Director, Fox Kids UK says, "This launch on Telewest Broadband represents a significant increase in Fox Kids UK's channel reach. It will also bring us to a closer level of distribution with our competitors and enable us to compete more effectively."
Expansion of DSL services
Allied Data Technologies, in cooperation with Cirpack, has introduced a method of adding new telephone services over unbundled local loops
The solution consists of the Allied Data Technologies CopperJet 816 Integrated Access Device (IAD) and the Cirpack Voice Gateway and Class-5 SoftSwitch. The Allied Data Technologies IAD connects the customer phones and computer network to the DSL line while the Cirpack equipment enables telecom operators to convert voice traffic from the DSL local loop to the PSTN and to manage telephone services (call supervision, Class-5 services, etc).
The CopperJet 816 from Allied Data Technologies is a Voice over DSL (ATM AAL2) integrated access device that has demonstrated wide interoperability with industry standards. With this Cirpack Certification, the CopperJet 816 now demonstrates it can work both with legacy TDM switches and with Next Generation Class-5 SoftSwitches.
Niels Everstijn, Vice President of Technology, Allied Data Technologies, says, "We are pleased that Cirpack has certified the CopperJet 816. This certification confirms Allied Data Technologies as a Premium Partner within Cirpack's IAD Alliance Program. This partnership further extends our abilities to provide integrated access solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in response to increasing market demand."
Cicrpack equipment allows operators to extend their legacy Local Exchange switches to new broadband local loops such as DSL. They can also be used to build an entire public switching architecture supporting all network protocols (IP, ATM, TDM, SS7) and delivering a wide range of advanced voice services (ISDN PRI and BRI, VoDSL, WLL, VoIP, etc) with low investment (50 per cent CAPEX saving) and operational costs (70 per cent OPEX saving).
"With the Allied Data Technologies/Cirpack solution, VoDSL services can be offered with legacy TDM Switches or with NGN Class-5 SoftSwitches," explains Didier Heen, VP Marketing & Partnership at Cirpack. "This is the only solution available enabling Service Providers to smoothly migrate their voice networks to new technologies or to build sophisticated infrastructures with up to 50 per cent cost reduction and very quick Return on Investment (ROI)," he adds.
New VP at MTV Europe
Hans Hagman, formerly Head of Production and Programming for MTV's European feed and VH1 European has been promoted to Vice President, Music Programming, MTV Networks Europe.
Hagman, who will report into Harriett Brand, Senior Vice President, Music, will be responsible for MTV Networks Europe's music programming strategy. This will include music positioning for the network's 10 MTV channels, two VH1 channels, its five digital channel brands and the recently acquired Dutch brand TMF which runs alongside MTV NL in the Netherlands. Hans will work closely with MTV Networks Europe's local Talent & Music teams to maximise playlists, formats and music policies across the network and will continue MTV Networks Europe's strong momentum for delivering music in accordance with audience needs across Europe.
UAE launching UMTS end-2003
Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), the telco of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is to carry out live trials of its Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network from March this year.
Commercial launch of the UMTS system is scheduled for the end of 2003, according to Minister for Communications Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer.
Mobile subscriber numbers in the Emirates has grown by 60 per cent annually during the last five years, resulting in 62-percent mobile penetration.
"These rates are poised for further increase, and we think that there is room for the figure scaling up to 70 to 80 per cent," Al Tayer said.
Telefonica media changes
Spanish telecommunications group Telefonica's, loss-making media division has sacked its senior management following €260 million ($232 million) of losses in the first nine months of 2001.
Company Chairman Cesar Alierta has replaced Telefonica Media Chairman Juan Jose Nieto with Luis Abril, a former senior banker at Santander Central Hispano, Spain's largest bank. A new chairmen has also been appointed at Onda Cero, Telefonica's loss-making network of radio stations, and Via Digital, its unprofitable satellite pay television group.
FT reports say that Alierta told his new media team on Saturday that he did not want to sell the division. Instead, he wants to transform the media assets into content producers for Telefonica's Internet, broadband and mobile telephony subsidiaries.
Telefonica Media posted revenues of €1 billion in the first nine months of last year. Two-thirds of the total was earned by Endemol. The biggest loss-makers are Via Digital, which was €209 million in the red by the end of September 2001, Onda Cero and Atco, a holding of Argentine media assets.
In recent weeks, Telefonica has been approached by Bertelsmann, the German media group, which is interested in acquiring Endemol and in increasing its 18 per cent stake in Antena 3, a Spanish television network controlled by Telefonica.
Viacom TV network President resigns
Dean Valentine has resigned as President of the UPN television network in the US, Viacom has announced. The move followed the company's decision to combine UPN with the CBS network which gave Les Moonves, CBS President, more control.
Kerry McCluggage, who helped build the UPN network while he was Chairman of the Paramount Television Group, resigned when the merger was announced.
"By working closely with their CBS colleagues under Les's direction, we are confident that the talented UPN team already in place can significantly improve the network's creative and financial performance," said Mel Karmazin, President of Viacom.
BT upgrade just £400 m
Following BT Chairman Sir Christopher Bland's announcement that the company would move into broadcasting - and its subsequent retreat last week when investors reacted negatively to estimates of the cost, ADSL broadcaster Video Network's Chief Executive Simon Hochhauser says the upgrade would 'only' cost €650 million (£400 million) - rather than billions.
A Sunday Times report quotes Hochhauser as saying BT only needs to complete the installation of ADSL equipment in its local exchanges, and increase its optical-fibre capacity.
"There's no physical building involved. BT only needs to get more fibre into its ducts, or to use fibre that's not being utilised. In terms of cost, you are talking hundreds of millions, not billions."
Video Networks operates the Home Choice video on demand service in London and plans to introduce a full cable-television service later this year, again using telephone line delivery, effectively becoming the UK's third 'cable' TV company.
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