 |
|
|
||||||
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
NEWS Monday22nd July - Monday 29th July 2002
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
|
Liberty
buys Caseema |
|
Liberty
buys Caseema
John
Malone's Liberty Media agreed yesterday (1/8/02) to pay E750 million cash
to buy Casema, the Netherlands' third largest cable operator with about
23 per cent of the market, from France Telecom which is selling assets
to reduce its E61 billion debt.
Liberty
already controls United Globalcom (UCOMA), which in turn controls Europe's
largest cable provider UPC which has 36 per cent of the Dutch basic cable
market, and if the Casema purchase is approved by Dutch competition authorities
NMa, Liberty would control almost 60 per cent of the local cable TV market.
As 40 per cent is the threshhold for significant market status in Holland,
the regulator may not approve the deal. Liberty said it has no immediate
plan to merge the two companies. Liberty's plans to acquire Deutsche Telekom
franchises in Germany earlier this year collapsed due to regulatory objections.
France Telecom said it expected the sale to close by the end of October,
barring competition concerns.
"Liberty Media is acquiring Casema at a time when Casema is set to benefit
from its past investments and its future strategy," said Liberty President
and Chief Executive Officer Robert Bennett in a statement.
Malone is also reported to be eyeing other 'distressed sellers' in the
debt-ridden market, which has not recouped the cost of earlier acquisitions
while needing extensive infrastructure investment to allow delivery of
new services.
UCOMA is working on a rescue deal for UPC which would retain Malone's
control, while giving other bondholders about a third of the company by
converting E5.4 billion in debt to equity.
Liberty's refusal to offer new services, such as high-speed Internet and
telephony, are reported by Reuters to have led to the company being dropped
as a bidder for the German cable franchises.
Back to top
Comms
bill criticised
The UK Government is pushing ahead with plans to permit greater foreign
ownership of British broadcasters under its proposed new Communications
Bill, despite parliamentary criticism on Wednesday that the move would
result in more US repeats and fewer British programmes.
On the UK
TV's Newsnight programme, Thursday night (1/8/02) committee chairman,
film producer David Puttnam, reiterated his view that American investors
would use their marketing expertise to shift the balance of audience and
regulatory expectations away from domestic content produced primarily
with a British
audience in mind toward a more US or internationally focused product mix."
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has added its criticism of
opening domestic broadcasting markets without reciprocal liberalisation
from other countries.
Panelist Dominic Schrieber of TBI disagreed with both views, noting that
US imports did not fare as well as local content, and any US investor
would not want to devalue their own asset. He also noted that, while it
was true that there would be no reciprocity with the US on media ownership,
this was a purely theoretical issue as there were no UK groups large enough
to buy a CBS, NBC or other major US network.
The committee had called on the media ownership rule reform to be delayed
for two or three years to allow a new industry regulator, Ofcom, to become
effective.
The May draft Communications Bill, would scrap rules preventing non-Europeans
owning British television and radio stations and would lift restrictions
prohibiting owners of national newspapers with a market share of more
than 20 per cent from getting also controlling a license for terrestrial
TV. It is Rupert Murdoch's News Corp which is most susceptible to being
affected by these latter changes, as it is currently banned from say owning
channel five - a move it is believed likely to pursue if permitted.
At the committee meeting, Tony Ball, Chief Executive of Murdoch's BSkyB
reiterated his company's support for relaxation of UK media ownership
rules, but said there was no intent to bid for Channel 5 "over the short
term." But added, "Should we want to go into terrestrial TV, we should
be able to. There should not be any rules precluding Sky from moving in
to free-to-air."
Channel 5 is owned by German media company Bertelsmann and United Business
Media - with some recent speculation that the change in management at
Bertelsmann, and a less expansionist policy could see it selling its Channel
5 stake - with BSkyB the obvious buyer.
Back to top
Bertelsmann cuts expansion
Gunter Thielen, the new CEO at German media company Bertelsmann, has indicated that he will reduce expansion planned by his predecessor but intends to procede with an initial public offering in 2005.
In an authorised interview with Germany's dpa news agency Thielen said, "We're going to concentrate less on dealing and more on shaping."
The company intends to honour commitments to Groupe Burxelles Lambert, allowing it to float its 25 per cent Bertelsmann stake in 2005. But the Mohn family, which controls the remaining 75 per cent, will not be selling part of its stake in the offering.
Management will now focus on cutting the company's debt, recently pushed up to E4 billion thanks to a E3 billion obligation to buy US record label Zomba. This exceeds Bertelsmann's internal limits, hence the company plans to focus on its core content businesses and try and grow organically, Thielen told employees.
Thielen added that despite the cost cutting approach, the company had no plans to abandon its midterm 10 per cent profit margin target. It is assumed that plans drawn up by ex CEO Middelhoff to dispose of some 25 smaller non-core businesses will go ahead while international expansion will be halted.
Back to top
Viasat patrols pirates
Viasat, the DTH and pay-TV arm of Swedish-based media group Modern Times Group, MTG, is intensifying its fight against piracy. The latest move is the hiring of a permanent 'detective corps', manned by pensioned policemen and the like to hunt down illegal showings of pay TV and pay-per-view transmissions in public premises.
In Denmark alone the force will consist of some 150 people according to press reports. "In the future they might be more, or they might be less; future needs will dictate," Dennis Wuergler from the pan-Scandinavian STOP organisation, comments.
STOP, Scandinavian TV-organisations Against Piracy, was formed in the late Nineties by the leading pay TV operators (TV1000 and Canal Digital), several of Sweden's major TV stations and some leading trade unions, representing actors, compositors and other copyright holders. From Sweden STOP has expanded into the other Nordic countries, and also into countries like the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Belgium.
The first detectives in Denmark will be out on the street this upcoming weekend.
Viasat now has deals with some 100 Danish restaurants and pubs, but as Wuergler puts it, "If some are paying, everybody should."
Back to top
Viacom expects China profits
Viacom Inc Chairman and Chief Executive Sumner Redstone expects to start making profits in China and Asia within the next year.
The South China Morning Post reports Redstone - who met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin this week, as saying, "We have not made money in China. We have made money everywhere except in Asia. Within a year, we expect to move into profit in both Asia and China. The driver of Viacom will be overseas networks."
Viacom operations in China include MTV, which broadcasts into 60 million homes in China, and Nickelodeon, which broadcasts into about 40 million.
Its revenue in China comes mainly from advertising, with a small amount from affiliate fees.
Back to top
ITV Digital wins League writ
The UK Football League has failed in its bid to recover E182 million from Carlton and Granada following the collapse of joint venture ITV Digital.
The UK High Court ruled the parent companies are not liable for ITV Digital's debts. Some of the Nationwide League clubs had already spent their share of the E498 million broadcasting contract signed in June 2000.
Carlton and Granada had argued that, although a statement of guaranteed funding was made during bid negotiations, it was subject to contract and did not constitute an enforceable guarantee. There was nothing in writing.
The media giants also argue that the statement contained in the bid document was not made with their authority, and that in any event, now that the contract has been terminated on the collapse of ITV Digital, any liability they might have had was terminated with it.
Back to top
BSkyB results up
As predicted this week (See News archive 31/7/02) satellite broadcaster BSkyB has surpassed the six million subscriber mark, reporting 6.1 million DTH subscribers yesterday, higher than earlier predictions, while its financial results showed reduced losses - at E35 million ($34.5 million), down from E341 million the previous year despite a difficult year for media advertising.
BSkyB added 214,000 new subscribers in the past three months, which exceeds viewers lost through the demise of ITV Digital, leaving it with a net gain of 148,000 for the final quarter of its financial year - and the main beneficiary of ITV Digital's demise - which also open the door for BSkyB's move into digital terrestrial television and cut the cost of sports rights. When cable and other subscribers are added in, the total pay TV market for the UK and Ireland is 10.1 million. BSkyB Chief Executive Tony Ball said, "With 6.1 million subscribers and 11 per cent growth in revenue per subscriber to E554 a year, we are on track to meet our targets of 7 million subscribers and E638 Arpu (average revenue per user) (by the end of 2003. This has generated strong operating profit growth and positive free cashflow.'
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose more strongly than most of the City had forecast, by 22 per cent to £273 million. Revenues rose by 20 per cent to E4.4 billion with faster growth in the direct-to-home and interactive areas. Direct-to-home revenues account for 69 per cent of the total and rose by 26 per cent to E3 billion.
Debt, which peaked at £1.83 billion in December 2001, has fallen by E486 million to E2.44 billion. Pre-tax losses more than doubled from E820 million to E2.04 billion with the loss per share, after goodwill and exceptional items, catapulting from 29.2p to 73.3p. A major exceptional item was Sky's E1.13 million charge on the value of its investment in the German media group KirchPayTV, now in bancruptcy.
BSkyB also had to make a E35 million provision against operating costs for money owed to it by ITV Digital. It said it was seeking to maximise the recovery of funds from ITV Digital through its membership of the creditors' committee.
Sky reported that its churn rate remained steady at 10.5 per cent - one of the lowest rates among European pay TV broadcasters despite price increases averaging seven per cent in each of the past two years. The company's shares rose five per cent to 623 pence in early trade following the announcements.
Back to top
Deadline
for offers on Kirch Media
Anyone interested on bidding for the free-to-air television and sports
rights group from Germany's troubled media giant Kirch Media, had their
last call last night (Wednesday evening, 31/07/02)
The Financial Times reported that offers value the company at between
E2 billion (£1.26 billion) and E2.4 billion (£1.5 billion).
German publishers Axel Springer and Heinrich Bauer, French broadcaster
TF1 and US television entrepreneur, Haim Saban, as well as Kirch's film
rights arm are the main bidders.
From today the shortlisted bidders will enter a period of due diligence
during which they will have access to the group's confidential financial
information. A final decision is expected to be reached by the end of
August.
Back to top
Singer
ousted from Telewest
Adam Singer, Chief Executive of UK number two cableco Telewest, was asked
to leave the company following a board meeting yesterday (31/8/02) with
the company saying his style of leadership was more suited to the company's
earlier expansionist phase.
The £5.3 billion indebted company, whose share price crashed 99 per cent over two years in the expectation of a financial restructure, has been touted as a takeover target for both rival cableco NTL and major (25 per cent) shareholder, John Malone's Liberty Media, which is currently involved in the company's financial restructure.
Finance Director Charles Burdick has been appointed Managing Director. Chairman Cob Stenham, who was involved in the ousting of Singer, was quoted in the FT as saying, "Given our current financial postion, the independent directors bbelieve the company needs a different management style to take the business through its next phase."
It is expected that bondholders with £3.6 billion of the company's debt will refinance the company via a debt for equity swap which would negate the value of shareholders stock. While Liberty halted its moves to increase its bondholdings from 11 to 25 per cent last month, it is still expected to play a lead role in the ultimate consolidation of UK cable.
Viva Media misses target
By Dieter Brockmeyer
The German pop music TV group Viva Media AG is not going to reach its targeted revenues and profits for the current year. The reason given is the crash in advertising revenues and the possible insolvency of the PC game developer Westka, the group announced this Tuesday in Cologne.
In Westka the Viva subsidiary Brainpool holds a 60 per cent stake. The group's revenues for the entire year is now expected to be E109 million instead the previous E125 million. The pre-tax results will be down to E15 million instead the earlier forecast's E37 million. Financial analysts say they do not to understand why Viva was waiting so long with its profit warning instead of insisting all the previous months remain within the targeted corridor while all other companies in the industry were struck hard by the global advertising crisis. Only a month ago, AOL Time Warner announced it would increase its stake in the German TV group targeting operational control in the future.
Back to top
Final curtain, almost
By Dieter Brockmeyer
The German Berlin based metropolitan TV channel tv.berlin is facing its final curtain. The insolvency procedures are likely to be launched today (Thursday 1/8/02), said the office of the preliminary administrator of the insolvency Christoph Rosenmuller on Tuesday. Chances of finding an investor before August 1 were seen as less than tiny. The channel belongs to the insolvent media empire of Leo Kirch. It was due to this major insolvency that tv.berlin announced its insolvency three months ago. The channel that was founded in 1994 was owned by Leo Kirch's son Thomas.
After the official insolvency procedures are launched only a makeshift program will be held on air. Moves will be made up until September, in cooperation with the regional media regulator MABB, to find a solution to rescue the operation.
Back to top
WorldGate and AP provide Interactive News
US-based WorldGate, provider of interactive entertainment solutions for the cable television industry, is to offer interactive content from The Associated Press news organisation. They plan to jointly provide what they describe as, '24/7 dynamically updated news and information' via WorldGate's interactive TV services to the company's iTV subscriber base in systems across Canada, the United States and Latin America.
The two companies worked together to integrate an XML database feed that delivers AP breaking news headlines, stories and photos to subscribers using WorldGate's ITV services. The Associated Press will provide content for WorldGate's interactive TV product line, which offers a robust set of content channels for digital cable. Subscribers will have enhanced, one-button access to news links provided in French, English, or Spanish according to the appropriate region.
"We are pleased to work with WorldGate to integrate our content with their interactive TV services, which will now incorporate AP breaking news in three languages into this global platform," said Thomas E Slaughter, Vice President and Director of AP Digital. "Now this interactive audience can access AP's award-winning news gathered from more than 240 bureaus worldwide."
"Cable subscribers that use WorldGate's ITV product spend about an hour a day interacting with dynamic information, games, e-mail and chat. Interactive television is proving to be a great added value to the digital cable offering being deployed by cable operators around the world. iTV adds a new dimension of entertainment and information to digital cable," said WorldGate's President, Gerard Kunkel. "We are very excited to be working with the Associated Press to bring interactive content to consumers in North, Central, and South America."
Back to top
New BBC TV arts boss
Franny Moyle is the new head of arts commissioning for television at UK pubcasterthe BBC. Following this internal promotion she will be responsible for commissioning arts and music programming for all of the BBC's analogue and digital channels, in partnership with channel controllers.
Moyle will also manage 245 hours of arts and music on analogue channels, with an annual budget of E80 million.
She replaces Roly Keating, who was appointed controller of BBC4 in December 2001. Moyle will report to then BBC's Director of television, Jana Bennett, with a 'dotted line' to Glenwyn Benson, director of factual and learning.
Bennett said that she and Moyle will work together to develop the arts programming which is core to all channels and services across the BBC aiming at "delivering ever more ambitious, bolder arts output across our television service."
Moyle joined the BBC's arts department in 1992 as a producer and director.
Back to top
Time Warner/ VitalStream deal in Web-cast
US digital broadcasting solution provider VitalStream Inc and Time Warner Cable Los Angeles Creative Services have combined resources in a Web-casting effort for management consulting firm PRTM and Wireless Week magazine.
This deal enables the companies to provide high-quality video production for live and on-demand streamed events.
The first Web-cast called 'Wireless LANs: Where Do We Go From Here?' was aired yesterday (31/07/02) at 9am Pacific time, or 12 noon Eastern.
VitalStream said that the Web-cast, designed to provide a perspective on WLAN, will help providers and users understand the direction of the market, and is expected to attract tens of thousands of viewers.
"The Time Warner Cable Los Angeles Advertising Sales organisation is well-known for award-winning production of local cable television commercials, but most businesses don't realise that we also provide corporate video, film and multimedia solutions," says Mike McMullin, western regional Vice President, Time Warner Cable Advertising Sales.
Time Warner Cable will provide video production services, while VitalStream delivers streaming media distribution and tracking through its MediaConsole system.
Paul Summers, VitalStream CEO said, "The creative resources available through the Los Angeles Creative Services Division of Time Warner Cable enable our clients to have a turnkey solution for streaming media campaigns," and added "The combination of our resources provides easy and affordable solutions for our clients, while allowing our companies to stay focused on what we each do best."
Back to top
Who will run CanalPlus?
By Sotires Eleftheriou
Following change at the top of Vivendi Universal, the question remains as to what will happen to the management of CanalPlus and the new man put in place by Jean-Marie Messier, Xavier Couture.
Jean-Rene Fourtou let slip last week that there would be changes. Couture will be moved to head Studio Canal, the group's film production unit. At the end of last week three names were mooted to replace him at the head of CanalPlus. Firstly, Marc Tessier, currently head of France Televisions. He was involved in the founding days of CanalPlus, alongside Andre Rousselet. However, at the end of last week Tessier declared that he had every intention of staying at France Televisions where he has a five year contract.
Secondly Thierry Breton, Head of Thomson Multimedia. His name was already mooted as a possible replacement for Jean-Marie Messier, however, the proposition is not felt to be serious in his circle. Finally, Nicolas de Tavernost, head of M6. To begin with his only comment was 'no comment', but on Saturday he put paid to the idea in a letter sent to all the staff of M6 in which he said that his only priority is the development of M6 and its subsidiaries.
Another name is also doing the rounds, Eric Licoys, currently head of the Conseil de Surveillance of Vivendi Universal.
*Vivendi Universal Corporate staff in Paris and New York could be cut the company warned, following a recommendation by consultants Constantin Group that 100 out of 370 jobs go at Vivendi's headquarters in Paris and about 130 of 200 jobs go at its New York office.
Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou's predecessor, Jean-Marie Messier had ordered the review of corporate efficiency in Spring. The recommendations may not be followed exactly, but a memo to staff said, "We do anticipate changes and plan to announce these to the general employee population as soon as possible."
Back to top
Five bidders for DT cable
Deutsche Telekom is selling its six remaining cable television (CATV) networks in Germany as a package - to avoid being left with the least attractive franchises - and is expecting bids over the next few days according to Welt am Sonntag, and by the end of September according to the FT and AP. However, DT would consider breaking up the package if it could not find a single buyer for the systems which serve 10 million households.
It was reported that initially 12 potential investors declared an interest in the networks following Deutsche Telekom's sales presentations for north and eastern Germany, Bavaria and the Rhineland Palatinate. However, just five international consortia were reported to have been chosen from the nine firm offers received, and these companies are now expected to begin due dilligence ahead of binding offers expected in September. DT said the procedure would allow it "to push forward the sale process so that a result can be achieved as quickly as possible," but did not name a date.
John Malone's Liberty Media saw its E5.5 billion bid for the six networks rejected earlier this year on competition grounds following intervention of the German antitrust authority which blocked the sale (See News Archive, February). The regulators have made more conciliatory noises about non-German investors recently, and Liberty Media is again one of the bidders - but in the meantime cable stock prices have plummeted. The proceeds of the sale would contribute to reducing Deutsche Telekom's E67 billion debt.
Back to top
AT&T, AOL Time Warner suspend TWE deal
US-based AOL Time Warner might end up paying phone giant AT&T Corp as much as E1.5 billion in cash, if negotiations regarding the dissolution of its Time Warner Entertainment partnership are wound up - a move now expected following AOL and AT&T suspending the registration process for an initial public offering of TWE.
Sources familiar with the matter said that the Bank of America Corp has until the end of the month - Wednesday (31/08/02) - to assign a value to AT&T's 26 per cent stake in the partnership.
For months AT&T and AOL Time Warner have been trying to split the partnership, but they couldn't agree on the price. AT&T is said to value its stake at nearly E15 billion, while AOL Time Warner thought of a much smaller value.
The Bank of America valued Time Warner Entertainment's assets last year after AT&T registered its interest in the partnership for public sale. TWE assets include most of the Time Warner Cable systems, Home Box Office and the Warner Bros Studios.
AOL Time Warner is not likely to want the TWE partnership to be publicly traded - it would rather have ownership of all of its HBO and Warner Bros. assets and offer a minority interest in the cable systems, reported TV Insite.
AOL holds a 74.5 per cent stake of Time Warner Entertainment and AT&T holds the rest.
According to a report in The New York Times, AOL Time Warner is pushing for AT&T to swap its TWE interest for a stake in a newly created Time Warner Cable. AT&T - which is expected to close its pending merger with Comcast Corp by the end of the year - could then sell that Time Warner Cable stake to the public.
But, the Times said, AT&T is asking for a E1.5 billion cash payment in addition to the Time Warner Cable stake due to the sluggish market for cable stocks.
Officials at both companies declined to comment.
Back to top
BSkyB results due today
When British Sky Broadcasting announces its full year results tomorrow, the satellite broadcaster's figures are expected to show that it has won 170,000 new subscribers in the past three months - some 20,000 more than analysts previously expected. The boost comes primarily from failed DTT venture ITV Digital, putting the total over six million and enhancing the prospect of achieving its seven million subscriber target by the end of next year.
In contrast, the UK cable industry (NTL and Telewest) is believed to have lost around 60,000 customers since the collapse of ITV Digital.
BSkyB losses are forecast to reach E1.7 billion, before one-off items. However, reduced competition has already cut the cost of bidding for sports rights - with the Nationwide rights now showing zero inflation over four years, and the cost of renewing its Premiership broadcasting contract is also expected fall sufficently to offset lost channel sales to ITV Digital.
The company is also expected to announce a broadband-enabled digital set-top box providing faster downloads of material and enhancing its interactive digital television (iTV) services. The access package is believed to be in collaboration with the UK telecoms operator BT, but neither company has confirmed the reports.
BT have previously worked together to offer a joint package to compete against cable, with joint ventures including iTV platform Open - in which BT had a 19.9 per cent stake.
Back to top
Call for dual sports rights
By Owen Hughes
Australia's largest pay TV platform has secured the rights to the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy cricket tournament - and used the announcement to attack the way sports events are allocated between the pay and free to air sectors and to repeat their call for dual rights.
Under anti-siphoning legislation, the free to air networks have to be offered the right to screen most sports events before the pay sector can run them exclusively. In sports-mad Australia, the defenders of the measure say that it allows popular events to be seen in the more than 75 per cent of homes that do not subscribe to a pay TV platform.
But Foxtel, with 780,000 subscribers, attacked the "cumbersome" way that the list operates. Under current rules the pay TV platforms cannot bid for events on the anti-siphoning list and must apply to have them removed from the list before they can take them, assuming that one of the terrestrials has not then asked for the rights.
In the case of the ICC Champions' Trophy, Foxtel bid for the event back in February 2002 and it was only granted to them at the end of July.
Foxtel's Fox Sports channels added that the coverage of Australian cricket tours by the terrestrials had been "lamentable" in the past and it could not understand the continuing rationale behind the list. Earlier this year Foxtel produced research claiming around 75 per cent of the events on the list were never shown by the three Australian commercial terrestrials.
A spokesman was quoted as saying "The process of applying for the rights to events is clearly too cumbersome. It takes too much time. There is a better way to achieve the same result, and it is through a dual rights system."
Back to top
Court reserves judgement on ITV
On Monday (29/7/02) the UK's High Court reserved judgement on declaring whether Carlton and Granada are liable for E283.5 million of outstanding payments owed to Nationwide League soccer clubs under a broadcasting contract signed in June 2000 with ITV Digital. The companies said that they gave no guarantee to cover debts from the digital platform which they owned. Justice Langley's judgement is expected this Friday (2/08/02) or early next week.
If it doesn't succeed in its court action against ITV Digital's parent companies Carlton and Granada, the Football league may sue Edge Ellison, the legal firm which drafted the media rights deal with ITV Digital.
*Carlton has denied reports that it held merger talks with US media giant Viacom Inc.
The Financial Express on Sunday had suggested that Preliminary discussions, which could lead to a E6.3 billion merger, had taken place in London last month.
A spokesperson at Carlton was reported as saying, "We never had negotiations about any kind of co-operation," and added, "The only meeting that we held with Viacom was in June when a Viacom fact finding mission approached a number of UK communications companies to know more about the industry in general."
Back to top
ARD against court formats
By Dieter Brockmeyer
Gunter Struve, the program director of German public broadcasting conglomerate ARD, said in a German newswire interview that the group would not to follow the current German program trend of presenting more and more court formats during the day time.
Commercial broadcasters RTL and Sat.1 are presenting increasing numbers of daily court formats, claiming they are reinacting true court cases. Such formats would not be introduced in the ARD program schedule Struve said. He believes these court room shows to be a perverted successor of the daily talk shows covering all the elements debated in Germany as endangering the youth. However, he agrees the daytime daily program formats, like the music clip show 'Wunschbox' (Wish Box) targeting at an older audience, and the daily talk format 'Fliege' in that time slot have lost audiences because of the competition with the new commercial formats. Wunschbox will be taken out of the schedule from Autumn on, while Fliege, hosted by a protestant cleric by the same name, has had to change some of its approaches and will include more practical health advice and aid for the problems of its audience.
Back to top
GlobeCast Australia /MediaSat merge
Christian Pinon, chairman and chief executive officer of satellite broadcast company GlobeCast reports that the company is to merge its GlobeCast Australia business unit with Australian teleport and production operator MediaSat, creating GlobeCast Australia Pty Ltd.
GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Telecom, says it is the world's largest provider of satellite transmission and production services for professional broadcast, enterprise multimedia and Internet content delivery.
Sydney-based GlobeCast Australia combines its existing mobile satellite newsgathering (SNG) resources and digital video platforms on Intelsat satellites POR180 and IOR62 with MediaSat's 24/7 teleport, master control and DTH platform on Optus B3.
Under the terms of the merger, GlobeCast will acquire MediaSat as a whole, creating an enlarged GlobeCast Australia business unit of which GlobeCast and the former owners of MediaSat will each hold 50 per cent shares. GlobeCast Australia's chief executive officer Peter Booth will oversee management of the combined company.
GlobeCast Australia will offer media organisations across Australia and New Zealand a single-source partner to supply domestic and global satellite connectivity for broadcast, enterprise and Internet content distribution. The company's combined resources include a full-service teleport with C- and Ku-Band satellite uplink/downlink, 24/7 booking and master control, fibre connectivity to free-to-air networks and Pay-TV companies via the Telstra switching hub, a three-camera production studio, editing suites, mobile satellite trucks and flyaway antennas.
The company says its customers will benefit from seamless access from Australia to the company's other 14 teleports and customer service centres in America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, offering new capabilities to Australian media companies to expand distribution to world media markets.
"By combining the global reach of GlobeCast with the local expertise of MediaSat, GlobeCast Australia offers a premium level of service not previously available in the region, with true one-stop shopping for domestic and global content delivery," said Christian Pinon.
GlobeCast Australia has also inaugurated its new headquarters in Artarmon, which houses sales and administration as well as the company's fleet of SNG trucks and flyaways. The GlobeCast Australia Broadcast Center and Teleport remains in central Sydney. GlobeCast Australia anticipates increasing its current staff of 23 before the end of 2002 to accommodate the increasing customer demand that it believes will be generated as a benefit of the merger.
Back to top
Continued from front page ...............
Bertelsmann may sell Ch5 stake
By Dieter Brockmeyer
On Sunday the German-based international media conglomerate Bertelsmann - the world's third-largest media company - confirmed that its CEO Thomas Middelhoff is leaving to be replaced by company veteran Gunter Thielen - who may sell the company's 65 per cent stake in UK terrestrial Channel 5.
Middlehoff reportedly disagreed with the company's future strategy as outlined by main shareholder, 81 year old founder Reinhard Mohn. While Middlehoff was pressing to bring some of the Bertelsmann shares into a free float the aging founder was resisting this idea, apparently not keen on the additional disclosure this would require.
Bertelsmann had planned to list its shares on the stock market by 2005, and had sold assets to tighten its focus, selling its 50 per cent stake in AOL Europe for E6.9 million during the Internet boom, and its stake in a Kirch Group ahead of that company's bankruptcy this year. Several smaller units were also put up for sale. Now the company is repored by today's FT to be looking at selling off its UK assets, including its 65 per cent stake in Channel 5. Following changes in UK ownership, Rupert Murdoch could bid for Channel 5. The move is expected to be followed by a review of US assets - with Joel Klein, chairman and Chief Executive of the group's US operations announcing yesterday (Mondday 29/7/2002) that he was leaving the company.
At a Sunday supervisory board meeting current executive board member Gunter Thielen was named Middelhoff's successor. Thielen heads Bertelsmann's media services division Arvato and the Bertelsmann Foundation, which holds a majority stake owned by the Mohn family.
The Berliner Kurier newspaper said that Middelhoff would now become chief executive of Deutsche Telekom. Telekom's board chairman has said a new CEO could be named before September 22 national elections. Others predict Middelhoff will join AOL Time Warner whose CEO Steve Case is an old friend.
*Takeover bids for UK ITV groups Granada and Carlton have fallen following Middelhoff's departure with Bertelsmann previously seen as a potential bidder as it owns 65 per cent of Channel 5, and German experience in the commercial television market. Without the group's float, it is unlikely to have the cash to make such a bid.
Back to top
AT&T seeks E1.5 billion
AT&T is seeking at least E1.5 billion in cash from AOL Time Warner as a condition for accepting AOL's plan for dissolving the Time Warner Entertainment joint venture which was bought at a cost of E263 billion in stock at the turn of the century.
Bank of America was expected to deliver an opinion yesterday on how much AT&T's stake in TWE is worth and on how much of that stake investors could be expected to buy in a public offering. The bank's determination is meant to form a basis for additional negotiations as AT&T and AOL Time Warner try to unravel their venture, which includes the HBO pay-television operation, the Warner Brothers film studio and most of AOL Time Warner's cable-TV systems.
AT&T and AOL could jointly ask the bank to suspends its judgement if the companies believe that they are close to reaching a side deal.
Given the difficulty in valuing dot.com ventres, AT&T's 27.3 per cent stake could be worth anything from E12 billion to E15 billion. It is presumed that investors would be receptive to buying only a fraction of AT&T's shares.
AT&T and the company that is now AOL Time Warner have been trying for years to untangle the T.W.E. partnership. Frustrated by the pace of the talks, AT&T last year began the process of turning T.W.E. into a public company.
AOL Time Warner would rather retain control over its core HBO and Warner Brothers divisions than see the company go public. AOL is trying to persuade AT&T to swap its interest in TWE for a stake in a newly created Time Warner Cable, which would include AOL Time Warner's cable systems. Under AOL's plan, AT&T would then sell its stake in Time Warner Cable to the public.
If AT&T and AOL do not make a deal, TWE will either become a public company or the partnership's rules say that AT&T can require AOL to buy out as much of AT&T's stake as Bank of America determines the public would buy.
Back to top
Ownership change to go ahead
The UK Government appears unlikely to reverse its decision to allow foreign ownership of UK media companies despite calls by a parliamentary committee that it do so.
Proposals outlined in the draft communications bill in May would allow foreign media firms to buy into the UK media
Lord Puttnam's committee is expected to recommend that unless other countries - particularly the US - reciprocate by opening up their media markets then the changes should be dropped.
Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, commented, "The provision on media ownership were not tentative proposals, they were decisions. Of course we will look very closely at what the committee says and the evidence they had. But the Government believes the broadcast industry and the public will benefit enormously from the foreign investment that would flow from the recommendations."
Back to top
Aussie TV changes rejected
By Owen Hughes
Proposed changes to Australia's digital TV landscape have been put back after a submission by the Communications Minister Richard Alston was pushed out of the federal government cabinet's agenda this week without a new date being offered.
Alston's submission sought approval to overturn a 1998 policy that Australian terrestrial channels should embrace high-definition TV and replace it with one that calls for them to operate multiple digital channels.
It is now thought that the submission will not be discussed until next month at the earliest, and there is some speculation that it may never appear in front of the cabinet. The multchannel option has been rejected by two of the three commercial broadcasters, and Australian politicians are mindful of the political clout wielded by them, particularly Nine Network, owned by tycoon Kerry Packer.
There are other arguments against the change, including the belief that any about face over multichanneling will be seen in a bad light by private enterprise in terms of the government's probity. Other concerns centre around the possibility that terrestrial channels with multichannel capacity would have a significant commercial advantage over pay TV; Network Seven has taken an opposing position to its fellow terrestrials, regarding multichannelling as a chance to set up a subscription arm.
Back to top
Kirch bid expected
German publishing companies Axel Springer and Heinrich Bauer are reportedly poised to announce that Spiegel Verlag and HVB Group are to join their consortium bid for the core assets of KirchMedia.
Axel Springer is reported by the FT to have confirmed that the four partners including Germany's second largest bank now had the required capital to launch a bid for KirchMedia, which filed for insolvency in April of this year.
Prime assets include Europe's largest films rights library, sports rights, and a 52.5 per cent stake in Germany's biggest free-to-air television broadcaster ProSiebenSAT.1.
Back to top
Triple Play opposed
By Owen Hughes
Plans to bundle content from Australian pay TV leader Foxtel with telephony provided and Internet services by its 50 per cent shareholder Telstra are running into opposition from the regulator.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is opposing the Telstra bundling plan on the grounds that it is contrary to the country's trades practices legislation. The telecommunications provider says that approval for the bundling plan is a precondition for Foxtel's E1,193 million content sharing deal with fellow pay TV platform Optus.
Optus already bundles the three products to consumers, but the ACCC approval was granted because of the company's significantly smaller market share. There are also concerns within the ACCC and among rival media groups and independent pay-TV providers that Telstra has not given sufficient undertakings to allow access to its network by third parties.
Now the ACCC has 14 days to deal with Telstra's bundling application, including seeking submissions from interested third parties. Telstra's linkage of bundling with the future of the Foxtel and Optus content share is consistent with its insistence that it will not sell its stake in the former in order to facilitate the union by removing the network access issue.
With pay TV penetration running at 22 per cent, Telstra says that bundling is a means of increasing the number of Australian homes taking the service. Both the ACCC and the Foxtel camp are studying options in order to allow the content sharing part of the proposal through.
Back to top
Allen to increase Charter stake
Paul G Allen, the Chairman of US number four cableco Charter Communications, is believed to be about to significantly increase his stake in the company and perhaps even take it private.
Following a share price slump, the company is now valued at about E1,241 million though it has some 6.8 million subscribers.
Allen could also take a major investment in Charter's E27 billion debt; its bonds are trading at a fraction of their face value, some at only 35 cents on the dollar. Allen could then make a new investment in Charter's stock or perhaps in newly issued bonds convertible into stock- along the lines of the E796 million investment in Level 3 Communications by a group led by Warren E Buffett earlier this month.
Allen already controls about 55 per cent of Charter's stock and about 93 percent of the company's voting interests. If he took the company private, it could be floated at a later date when the current anti-cable sentiment in the market subsides - but it is not just sentiment, but also the debt which has depressed the company's valuation.
Back to top
ITV endorsed by advertising industry
Around 90 per cent of Media and Creative agencies believe interactive TV (iTV) should be part of the current marketing mix according to new reseach by iTV creative partnership, Weapon7.
In addition 71 per cent of the advertising industry expects most broadcast commercials to include interactivity by 2005.
Yet traditional and new media agencies polled in this latest research believe a lack of knowledge is the main hurdle to overcome in order to achieve broad industry acceptance of iTV.
Ben Hart, co-founder of Weapon7 comments, "Although there is a positive inclination towards interactive TV, it seems there is a way to go before iTV becomes wholly accepted amongst Media and Creative agencies. Our research clearly shows that agencies themselves charge the current traditional agency structures and expertise as being the core obstacle to iTV advertising."
Eighty-two percent of agencies polled believe that the current iTV experience is rewarding for the consumer and that they are now considering it as part of the mainstream marketing mix. However, over 65 per cent of respondents believe their own agency structure and process are inhibiting the uptake of iTV advertising. This, coupled with a lack of case study information, consumer research, and technical know-how, has resulted in an erratic approach to iTV advertising, with iTV executions often being tacked onto the end of larger campaigns.
Agencies appear to see the potential of iTV and recognise the issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure interactive TV advertising achieves broad industry and advertiser acceptance.
The UK company Weapon7 conducted the research this March in collaboration with Chinwag. Media, creative and interactive agencies, completed 120 survey questionnaires designed to understand how the traditional advertising industry viewed the media and to gauge the future for quality creative executions.
Back to top
Viacom sees advertising lift
At last some good news from the TV advertising industry. Viacom, the group that owns CBS, MTV and the Paramount Film Studio, reported Thursday that it had seen some improvement in TV and radio advertising - prompting speculation that the worst may be over.
"All advertising signs are very strong for us," Mel Karmazin, Viacom's Chief Operating Officer, told the Financial Times. CBS sold E1.9 billion of advertising for its autumn programming line-up, a 46 per cent year on year rise. Cable revenue from MTV and Paramount rose four per cent to E1.1 billion while earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation rose 9 per cent.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond the much-hyped recovery in ITV advertising seems to be petering out. ITV executives had hoped a World Cup sales boom would push the network into positive growth for the year, but it doesn't seem to have happened.
Advertising sales in May and June were up about 10 per cent against the same months last year, while July rose 3.2 per cent and August is expected to show an improvement of 6.2 per cent. However, the latest advanced booking figures show that September sales will climb just 1.3 per cent.
Cumulative figures for the year from January to September - a firmer indication of advertising trends - show total ITV advertising revenue will be down 2.9 per cent to E1.9 billion, despite the summertime gains.
Back to top
ITV companies deny League claims
The main shareholders of the defunct pay-TV outfit, ITV Digital, dismissed the Football League's case against them as a "lawyer's concoction" in the first day of their E206 million high court legal battle, Thursday (25/7/02).
Lord Grabiner, QC representing ITV giants Carlton and Granada, said senior League executives admitted their E499 million broadcasting deal with ITV Digital was not backed by financial guarantees from its shareholders. "The whole of the Football League's case is an ex-post facto lawyer's concoction," he said. Eight drafts of the contract were prepared over 18 months during which time "the subject of a guarantee was never raised," he added.
However, Charles Flint, QC for the League, said the claim that Granada and Carlton gave no guarantee to cover the debts for the remaining two years was "completely implausible". "This company was dependent throughout on its shareholders' support," he told Mr Justice Langley in the High Court in London. Stuart Prebble, the former chief executive of ITV, the Carlton chairman Michael Green and Granada's chief executive Steve Morrison are all expected to testify this week.
The league is suing Carlton and Granada over the contract, which was scrapped when ITV Digital went into administration in April leaving payments of E285 million still outstanding on the three year deal. The league is seeking E208 million, the outstanding figure minus the income from the first two years of the E150 million four-year replacement package agreed with BSkyB.
Back to top
France Telecom sells TDF
France Telecom has sold its broadcasting transmission services subsidiary TDF for E1.9 billion, following lengthy negotiations, writes Sotires Eleftheriou.
The complex deal was completed on Thursday after five months of negotiations. The buyer is a consortium of Charterhouse Development, CDC Ixis and the Caisse des Depots. However, France Telecom will still be involved in TDF since it has undertaken to acquire 36 per cent of the new company for E250 million.
The price is lower than France Telecom had hoped for. Earlier this year, it had estimated that TDF would fetch between E2 and E2.3 billion. France Telecom's half-year results were up 10 per cent, largely due to the integration of the Polish operator TPSA. Its mobile phone company Orange grew by 12.9 per cent whereas its fixed line operations fell by 7.3 per cent.
Back to top
ITV Digital: rich Sky pickings
Next week's annual results from UK satellite organisation BSkyB are expected to show that it picked up as many as 170,000 subscribers in the three months ending June 30 - many of them refugees from the collapse of ITV Digital.
By contrast, indebted cable companies NTL and Telewest are thought to have lost a total of about 60,000 television customers in the corresponding period.
It's also understood that Sky chief executive Tony Ball is preparing to demonstrate a new high-speed internet product that will challenge the telephone, television and internet Įtriple-play' offered by the cable firms. The broadband-enabled set-top box, which is expected to be launched in conjunction with a big telephone firm like BT, will provide fast downloads of information such as video and text to open up new income-generating services.
A bigger than expected increase in subscribers would take BSkyB's overall customer base past the six million mark and closer to Mr Ball's target of seven million by the end of December 2003.
Back to top
Australian HDTV changes on hold
Proposed changes to Australia's digital TV landscape have been put back after a submission by the Communications Minister Richard Alston was pushed out of the federal government cabinet's agenda this week without a new date being offered, writes Owen Hughes.
Alston's submission sought approval to overturn a 1998 policy that insists on Australian terrestrial channels embracing high-definition TV. He wants to replace the policy with one that calls for them to operate multiple digital channels instead.
It is now thought that the submission will not be discussed until next month at the earliest. The multichannel option has been rejected by two of the three commercial broadcasters. It is also thought that terrestrial channels with multichannel capacity would have a significant commercial advantage over pay TV.
Back to top
Spanish network falters
After struggling to find an audience in a Spanish-language market dominated by bigger players, the Hispanic Television Network Inc has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
Formed in 1999, the company operates the Television Hispana network and owns the English-language American Independent Network. It also owns two TV stations in Texas and is affiliated with six others across the country. Its programming is also distributed by US cable companies.
Television Hispana has been unable to win large Spanish-speaking audiences against competition from Univision and Telemundo. It lost E38.5 million in 2000.
Back to top
Australia's Foxtel hits out
Australia's largest pay TV platform, Foxtel, has secured the rights to the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy cricket tournament - and used the announcement to attack the way sports events are allocated between the pay and free-to-air sectors, reports Owen Hughes.
Under anti-siphoning legislation, the free to air networks have to be offered the right to screen most sports events before the pay sector can run them exclusively. In sports-mad Australia, the defenders of the measure say that it allows popular events to be seen in the more than 75 percent of homes that do not subscribe to a pay TV platform.
But Foxtel, with 780,000 subscribers, attacked the "cumbersome" way that the list operates. Under current rules the pay TV platforms cannot bid for events on the anti-siphoning list and must apply to have them removed from the list before they can take them. In the case of the ICC Champions' Trophy, Foxtel bid for the event back in February 2002 and it was only granted to the company at the end of July.
"The process of applying for the rights to events is clearly too cumbersome. It takes too much time. There is a better way to achieve the same result, and it is through a dual rights system," said a Foxtel spokesman.
Back to top
TV Norge: Oslo contender
Despite its parent company SBS Broadcasting's financial problems, TVNorge has emerged as one of the applicants for the vacant local TV licence in Oslo, writes Goran Sellgren.
TV Norge is one of six different parties that have put forward applications, according to Statens Mediaforvaltning (the State Media Administration). Others include Oslostasjonen (the Oslo Station), A-Pressen (a Labour-based media group), TVTango, Bio Visjon, Jasmin TV and TV Oslo A/S. To the surprise of many TV2 - Norway's biggest commercial station, and one of the major owners of TVNorge - did not even bother to apply.
The licence became vacant when the Metropol consortium finally went bust in May.
Back to top
For the very latest news go to Home Page ............