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NEWS Monday 27th-Wednesday 5 June 2002
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
DUE
TO A PUBLIC HOLIDAY IN THE UK ON JUNE 3, 4, OUR NEXT
NEWS POSTING IS ON JUNE 5.
UPC Sweden gets soccer rights
UPC Sweden has announced a new deal with Norwegian Telenor, the controller of Scandinavian pay TV and digital deals for the Football World Championship, which will secure the rights for UPC's 265,000 subscribers in the greater Stockholm area to watch all 64 matches live.
In addition to UPC's digital subscribers being offered this opportunity at a price of E55 for all 64 matches), UPC will also extend its offer to its analogue customers, at the same price.
For its digital customers UPC Sweden has made space for six new channels, where the viewers will be able to zap between various options, chosing various camera angles, eg from the two involved teams' respective perspectives, or from a camera covering the whole arena from an aerial position etc. Another alternative will feature highlights from the day's matches.
Also in Denmark the country's biggest cable operator, TDC, will offer World Championship football. But there TDC has run into unexpected problems, as its main box supplier, France's Sagem, has recently ceased to deliver boxes to TDC, as Sagem has recently introduced a new box, the technical specifications of which do not comply to TDC's standards.
Foxtel stymies Seven/Optus deal
Australian free to air Seven Network has revealed that it was close to creating a programming alliance with pay TV platform Optus - only for the Singapore Telecom-owned cable service to announce a content swap with market leader Foxtel.
Seven's plans were outlined in its submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ahead of its decision to allow or veto the Optus/Foxtel link up.
The submission outlines how Seven and Optus were investigating a joint bid for regional and rural Australia pay TV provider Austar, according to reports from Sydney. Optus admitted that it was in discussions with Austar early this year before the February announcement that the former was seeking to link up with market leader Foxtel.
"As recently as the last quarter of 2001, Seven and Optus negotiated a detailed sheet that involved the acquisition of Optus channels by Seven and the supply of those channels, as well as [Seven's pay sports service] C7 to Optus," the submission said.
Austar CEO John Porter confirmed that talks were held with Seven and that he was open to future approaches from the network. But he added, "Its just as way for these to deal themselves in, without having to write a cheque. They should have invested, they should have come with content, they should have actually put money behind some of the stuff that they have done, instead of just trying to take some of the cream off the top of the table."
NDS seeks to dismiss Piracy case
Conditional access and TV set top software company NDS, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News International, yesterday called on a San Francisco court to throw out a E1 billion suit by Canal Plus, a division of Vivendi Universal, which claimed that it helped hackers pirate set-top box access cards. Alternatively, it sought to have the case heard in Santa Anna where it has a US office.
NDS is accused of illegally breaking Canal Plus' MediaHighway conditional access security code and supplying it to DR7.com, a website used by software pirates.
NDS claims that Canal Plus simply"designed its complaint to lay the blame for its financial woes publicly on NDS".
NDS' court filing also asserts, "While examining the truth of those allegations and the dubious connection between them and Canal Plus's ineptitude must wait another day, the time is now ripe to test the legal adequacy of Canal Plus's claims."
Both of Rupert Murdoch's sons, Lachlan and James, sit on the NDS board and the FT says that one key Canal Plus witness runs a company which is 60 per cent owned by NDS.
Canal Plus alleges that NDS staff in Israel deliberately cracked the card code and then west coast NDS employee Chris Tarnovsky was instructed by his NDS seniors to post the codes on a hacker website, DR7.com. Counterfeit cards subsequently became widely available in the UK, Italy and France, enabling free viewing of premium channels.
Former ITV Digital Chief Cxecutive Stuart Prebble attributed part of his company's estimated E156 million piracy losses to the security breach by NDS, and would also be expected to seek damages if the Canal Plus case were won.
Canal Plus has began replacing its 12 million cards across Europe but said it was concerned that, unless the case succeeds, the new cards could also fall victim to hacking.
During the Mediacast exhibition in London earlier in the month, Canal Plus technology's Herve Creff commented to ATV, "There is no new news but we stand firm in all our allegations." He added that Canal Plus has been swapping out all its smart cards, whose security has been compromised, starting with Poland, then Italy during June, and it expects to have completed the process in all of Europe by the end of the year.
Granada results, promotes Carlton merger
In response to speculation that UK ITV company Carlton Communications' boss Gerry Murphy has been in discussions with potential US buyers, the Chief Executive of Granada, Steve Morrison, has warned Carlton that it would be better off merging with its ITV rival rather than doing a deal with an overseas competitor.
A non-UK parent company could prove difficult Carlton, it was suggested by Morrison, punning show titles to comment, "There are many more synergies in Neighbours than Home and Away." He added that it made more sense for ITV to be unified under UK broadcasters.
However it was confirmed that no merger talks are currently taking place with Carlton, despite the recent the draft UK communications bill allowing formation of a single ITV making a deal 'inevitable' at some point, according to Morrison.
Granada had just announced half-year losses of E264 million following the collapse of ITV Digital. During the six month period Granada spent E155 million on its share of the ITV Digital operating losses and wrote off a further E163 million for other debts related to the venture which - with ITV Sport - cost Granada E895 million over five years. The company also saw a 12 per cent drop in advertising in the six months to March this year.
Total revenues fell nine per cent to E1,114 million, but company saw its first quarter of positive growth for two years.
June was forecast to show a seven per cent rise and a six per cent increase expected in July thanks to the World Cup soccer tournament.
This week's E500 million advertising deal between ITV and Unilever was also cited a sign of improved confidence, with the move likely to be followed by Proctor & Gamble.
EchoStar merger costs E2.5 billion
EchoStar projects that the cost of its merger with Hughes Electronics could exceed E2.5 billion over the next four years as it will need to update and standardise set-top boxes.
Substantial integration costs are expected as well as retention bonuses and severance pay the company said in its Securities and Exchange Commission filings this week.
Retention bonus payments are put at up to E117 million, with severance to Hughes executives potentially reaching E44 million.
Messier faces scrutiny
Jean-Marie Messier, Chief Executive of France's Vivendi Universal is reported to be seeking to cut the group's E17bn debt by selling a 15 to 20 per cent stake in Vivendi Environnement, in which it has a 63 per cent holding - both raising cash and increasing the company's media focus. Two banks, Societe Generale and La Caisse des Depots, are planned to be used to 'park' the stakes to overcome political objections to the move.
The sale of Italian pay-TV business Telepiu, potentially to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (see news archive 30/5/02) is also being discussed.
Messier is also being pushed to convince shareholders that the company is more valuable than its separate parts, and in the interim faces establishment of a committee to monitor his performance. The new 'corporate governance committee' will be co-chaired by company Vice Chairman Edgar Bronfman, Jr, whose family owns 5.3 per cent of Vivendi stock, and by Marc Viinot, Chairman of the company's audit committee. The company's shares have fallen 45 per cent this year with some analysts putting its market value at less than half that of the sum of its parts.
The board has said it will not issue any details of its debt reduction plans.
Vivendi Universal shares fell four per cent after Wednesday's board meeting
Against market expectations, as Messier did not announce the sale of 15 to 20 per cent of Vivendi's stake in Vivendi Environnement at the meeting.
For the first quarter of 2002, Vivendi posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of E1 billion, up 18 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier, and a 13 per cent increase in revenue, to E6.7 billion.
T-Mobile adds media surcharge
UK mobile company T-Mobile - formerly One2One - plans to charge £20 (E31)-a-month to its users for unlimited picture and text messages, and unlimited WAP access, which is still a significant increase on the current 10 pence per text message.
It is believed that T-Mobile will be the first mobile phone operator to offer picture messaging when it launches the service next week.
Infocast in ME launch
Infocast has opened a subsidiary in the Middle East, called Infocast Middle-East, which will be based in Cairo, Egypt, to deliver the @Sky pilot technology service to the region.
The office will be managed by French-Egyptian businessman Doctor Anas Fawzy, whose experience in the industry includes his work with Komdex International Communications Satellite.
Infocast says the Middle-East will soon implement the @Sky center solution developed by At-Sky, and then start operating the first Arabic language multimedia service on the Nilesat satellite. The aim is to address the mass-market with the @Sky pilot, which will be manufactured in Egypt 'soon'.
"Thanks to his background, his experience and the key relationships he has built, Anas is definitely the ideal partner to drive our solid implementation in the Middle-East," said Jean-Yves Le Roux, President and founder of At-Sky.
"I have been rather impressed by the Technology and the professionalism of At-Sky. After having introduced the Project to key players in the Region, both Media and Telecom Operators, it became evident that the market was now mature enough to seriously start this new business" insisted Anas Fawsy, President of Infocast Middle-East.
Doctor Fawzy will also be appointed to the At-Sky Board of Directors.
nCube wins Seachange patent suit
A US Delaware District Court jury unanimously upheld server technology company nCube's patent for VOD delivery and found that competitor SeaChange wilfully infringed the patent. In the case presided over by Judge Joseph J Farnan the jury also ruled that Seachange must pay nCube over E2 million in damages as a result of the infringement and a seven per cent royalty on all sales of infringing products after February 1, 2002.
"We believed all along in the validity of our patent and are pleased that the jury agreed," said Michael Pohl, President and Chief executive officer, nCUBE Corporation. "Now it's back to business; nCUBE's on-demand solution continues to capture an ever growing share of the US market - Manhattan and other communities just in the last six months - a fact that speaks for itself."
nCUBE filed its lawsuit January 8 2001, alleging that SeaChange's ITV System infringed US Patent 5,805,804, issued September 8, 1998. nCUBE sought damages in the amount of approximately E2 million. Judge Joseph J Farnan presided over Case No 01-011-JJF.
The '804 Patent concerns a unique video server architecture specially suited for VOD delivery. The architecture covered by the '804 Patent allows the video server to provide scalable video services to all service providers, while requiring only minimal changes to the video server in order to make it compatible with the existing systems of these providers. nCube believes that technology covered by the '804 Patent is critical to providing cost-effective VOD services.
nCUBE's enhanced video server, the n4x, provides more than 200,000 hours of unique video storage, scales and supports a communities from 5,000 to more than 500,000 homes. A single n4x server can provide one to more than 53,000 users the ability to simultaneously access the same single piece of content, an increase of more than 60 per cent from the previous server.
In response to the jury's decision against SeaChange International Inc, Bill Styslinger, the company's President and CEO stated, "While we are surprised and disappointed by the jury's finding of wilful infringement today, the verdict will not materially affect the marketing and performance of our VOD system. We expect the verdict will be set aside in further proceedings."
Seachange also notes that the results of this suit do not affect a previous case in which a Delaware district court jury found nCube to have infringed SeaChange's US Patent 5,862,312 relating to its MediaCluster Technology. A separate trial to determine damages owed SeaChange is still pending in that case.
Seachange also emphasises that six of the eight largest cable operators in North America have selected SeaChange's VOD systems for over 34 cities with the two largest cable systems in the US.
*SeaChange postponed the release of its first quarter financial results until the beginning of next week due to the jury verdict against SeaChange in the patent litigation brought by nCube Corp. Its financial results for the first quarter ended April 30, 2002 (fiscal year 2003) had been scheduled to be released May 30.
Although SeaChange disagrees with the jury verdict and is reviewing all its options in the litigation, under applicable accounting rules the jury verdict will require material adjustments to SeaChange's financial results for its first quarter.
SeaChange's revenues for the first quarter, which are not be affected by the jury verdict, were E36 million, up 12 per cent as compared with revenues of E32 million for the comparable period last year.
Video-on-Demand (VOD) system revenues for the quarter were E17 million, SeaChange's highest ever and up 40 per cent compared to E12.5 million in the comparable period last year. Total systems revenues for the quarter were E28 million, which in addition to VOD, included revenues of E6.6 million from broadcast systems and E4.4 million from advertising systems. Service revenues for the quarter were E7.7 million. SeaChange shipped 60,000 video streams for residential VOD systems, bringing its total shipped VOD stream count to 226,000.
Teleste share increase
A total of 90,800 shares in Teleste Corporation have been subscribed with the warrants attached to the Bond Loan with Warrants issued in 1997 after the increase in the share capital registered on April 25, 2001.
The subscription price is, in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of the Bond Loan with Warrants, E0.68.
On May 30th, 2002 a total of 90,800 Teleste shares were subscribed for with the warrants attached to the Bond Loan 1997 issued to the key personnel of Teleste. As a result of the subscriptions the share capital of Teleste was increased by 90,800 new shares, ie, by E36.320. As a result of the increase, the share capital of Teleste is now E6,806,960 and the total number of shares is 17,017,400. The nominal value of one share is E0.4.
The holders of the new shares are entitled to all shareholders' rights from the registration date, ie May 30th, 2002. Listing of the new shares will be applied for at the Helsinki Exchanges together with the old shares beginning May 31st, 2002.
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MTG's
war on Piracy |
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MTG's war on Piracy
By Goran Sellgren
Modern Times Group, MTG, the Swedish-based international media group, has declared open war against pay TV piracy, believed to be costing MTG and its DTH arm Viasat an annual E10 million just in Scandinavia.
MTG has announced an "extensive series of measures against illegal pirate copying of set top box cards for Viasat's premium pay channels in Scandinavia" (ie TV1000 and its parallel channel TV1000 Cinema).
With immediate effect Viasat is implementing a "technical change" (no details given, of course) in the encryption of the cards, which means, according to the Viasat management, that a majority of the pirate cards will be blocked. Viasat has also announced a more frequent change of the encryption codes, which will 'drastically limit space for pirate card providers and holders.'
Viasat is also considering implementing to 'ultimate measures' to counter pirate cards, ie replacing all legal digital pay TV cards - in the 'very near future.'
"In just a few months card piracy has grown into a giant problem for us," Hans-Holger Albrecht, MD of MTG, comments. "So no wonder we have decided to take quick action. We also understand that this is no longer a matter of 'friendly hackers' helping people to save money, but of a large scale organised crime operation."
Some time ago it was reported that not only Viasat, but also Telia's cable division Com.hem and the Swedish DTT operator Boxer have all been severely hit by card pirates.
Industry research suggests that there are as many as 250,000 pirate cards in Scandinavia. Some years ago leading DTH and cable operators in Sweden formed the STOP organisation (Scandinavian TV Organisations against Piracy). Today STOP, has expanded into all the Nordic countries, and through STOP Europe liaisons have been forged with anti-piracy organisations in Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Albrecht is aware that the powerful pirate industry is likely to find new ways to break the new encryption codes, particularly over the Internet - "but hopefully this will soon become so expensive that new customers will be deterred. And what we really hope for is a change of attitude by the Swedish government, so that Swedish laws, still not taking action against possession of pirate cards, will be changed, as they have already been in the other Scandinavian countries."
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Murdoch's Italian play
Ahead of yesterday's Vivendi Universal board meeting - at which beleaguered
CEO Jean Maire Messier was expected to survive threats to his position
and seek approval for his strategy - it was being speculated that losses
at Italian pay TV operation, Telepiu would result in the subsidiary being
sold to Rupert Murdoch who would take on the company's debt in a E1 billion
merger with Stream, the Italian pay TV joint venture which Murdoch owns
with Telecom Italia.
News Corp previously sought to sell Stream to Vivendi Universal, and quit
the Italian market, rife with piracy and inflated soccer rights costs.
Changes in Italian competition authority conditions to approve the E517
million deal made it less attractive to Vivendi, which now wants to pull
out of the agreement. It has also come under shareholder pressure to be
more cautious with expenditure
Murdoch's options as outlined by the Financial Times include staying in
the Italian pay TV market until Telepiu collapses from debt; suing Vivendi
chairman Messier for pulling out of the deal; or acquiring Telepiu for
around E1 billion and so dominating the Italian pay TV market - combining
the two competing loss makers into a profitable monopoly. The latter route
is reportedly being investigated in cooperation with Telecom Italia.
*Other concerns on the table for Messier include not just the Canal Plus
Italy subsidiary, but whether Vivendi should sell Canal Plus, taking advantage
of evident interest from French media group Legardere. This could form
part of a wider break up to realise the value of assets Messier gathered
during earlier consolidation, with US entertainment assets of interest
to the US majors. In addition, the company will need to agree plans to
halt losses, not just at Telepiu, but also at Internet portal Vizzavi.
* Vivendi Universal Entertainment ha appointed Frederick Huntsberry as
its chief financial officer following the E11 billion acquisition of USA
Networks Inc. by parent Vivendi Universal. Huntsberry was chief financial
officer of Vivendi's Universal Studios which merged with USA Networks'
film and television operations to create Vivendi Universal Entertainment.
*Murdoch's News Corp, which owns a 43 per cent stake in Gemstar-TV Guide
International Inc, is reportedly pressuring founder Yuen to quit ahead
of his contract enabling an exec from News Corp's Fox TV unit to help
restructure Gemstar.
Murdoch's May 14 E4.5 billion News Corp. writedown of its Gemstar investment
resulted in him announcing,"We are taking a much more active role in preserving
the value of this powerful asset." Gemstar shares, which were $76 (E81)
when the merger closed, now trade below $10 (E9.3) due to disputes over
the company's auditing methods and figures.
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German advertising stutters
By Dieter Brockmeyer
Latest figures released by the central body of the German advertising
industry ZAW say that advertising spending in Germany declined in 2001
by 5.1 per cent to a mere E31.51 billion.
This figure reflects the entire ad spending including production and payments.
Looking at the number of bookings the picture is even more severe. The
decline here is as high as 7.3 per cent. However, the least impact was
in TV advertising were spending declined by 5.1 per cent, that's E236
million, to E4.47 billion, followed by printed magazines with a decline
of 6.9 per cent while daily newspapers lost a mere 14 per cent or E914
million to E5.64 billion.
Also the first half of this year will be very dark, ZAW predicts. Even
if the engine picks up speed again in the second half, including a good
Christmas season, the impacts will not be strong enough to compensate
for previous losses.
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TV
convention cuts costs
At this year's German 'Telemesse' (TV Convention) there will be 38 TV
channels and eight sales houses trying to attract its advertising clients
to its new program formats.
German media experts predict that this very German event, held in Cologne
August 19 and 20, will be of special importance this year since advertising
spending still is declining, and also the prospects for the coming year
are not predicted to be brilliant. The biggest exhibitors are the two
sales houses SevenOne Media, which is selling advertising slots for the
channels belonging to ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, and IP Deutschland which
does the same for the German RTL channels. Also the German public broadcasters
ARD and ZDF will present their new shows for the 'pre-prime time' where
they are allowed a total of 20 minutes of advertising during working days.
New exhibitors at the event this year will be Universal Studios Networks
Germany, which runs two pay TV channels in Germany and the metropolitan
network XXP.
It is the fifth edition of Telemesse where almost all German TV channels
gather together to present their new programming for the upcoming year
to advertisers. It initiated cost cutting for the road shows where individual
channels travelled around Germany bringing their individual events to
the main advertising centres in Germany: Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt
and Munich. During recent years the Convention has been held in Dusseldorf,
but to cut costs in the current economic climate, the event has been moved
to Cologne, to the 'Colloneum', a huge new TV studio complex on a former
military air base, in which both RTL and ProSieben hold a stake.
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MHP
deployed in Finland
Visa Noronen, Communications Manager at Sofia Digital in Finland reports
that the first iTV receivers using the MHP standard came to the shops
two weeks ago.
The first device was an integrated TV receiver made by Sony. This model,
Sony Wega NX100 for terrestrial transmissions, is the current flagship
of Sony TVs in Finland. Despite its retail price, a massive E4000, more
than 100 receivers have been sold in retail shops in Finland following
the launch on May 14. This in a country where there are a total of two
million TV households.
Set-top-boxes are expected to arrive in retail shops in the beginning
of autumn. The prices are expected to be between E300 and E500.
At the moment the broadcasters have a range of MHP services available.
All major national iTV channels are broadcasting around the clock news
and other information on digital teletext systems using MHP. The national
iTV channels also have a joint EPG broadcast. In addition, the Finnish
lottery has previewed its iTV Lotto and its first banking services have
been previewed. Consequently, the MHP environment is up and running commercially
in Finland, used both for enhancing TV programs and for iTV advertising.
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Kingston
cuts Kit valuation
Hull, UK- based telco Kingston Communications is reported to have has
slashed the book value of its loss-making KIT interactive TV unit by two
thirds in line with the downturn in media valuations, and warned that
it would not continue supporting the venture indefinitely.
Some E30 million has been invested in the video and other broadband content
via DSL service over the last two-and-a-half years, but analysts suggest
there is no early prospect of the service making money, hence the write-down
increased losses in the group as a whole.
Chief Executive Steve Maine is reported in the Independent newspaper as
saying, "We are committed to making this business work, but if we cannot
make it work in financial terms we will not allow it to be an indefinite
source of attrition."
KIT halved its losses in the year to the end of March to E7.4 million
from E14.7 million. These losses are expected to fall further this year,
although it is unlikely to make it into the black until 2004.
Kingston reduced the value of KIT by E19.6 million, increasing Kingston's
operating loss for the year to March to E60 million, compared with a loss
of E25.5 million the previous year.
"Fundamentally, what we have done is to write down the media element of
the asset base, consistent with the decline in the value of most media
elements these days," Maine said. However, he did not specifically refer
to the valuation of the company's extensive Inmedia broadband distribution
unit which saw its Ebida fall 39 per cent.
Kingston's strong underlying annual performance, primarily from core business
communications division, saw a 37 per cent increase in tunover to E498
million for the year ending March 31. Ebitda rose 74 per cent to E45 million.
Shares in the company closed up four per cent at 92.5p (E1.45).
The company reduced its spending on network and equipment to E166 million
last year, down from a peak of E254 million. For the current year Kingston
expects to spend E102 million to E118 million, predominantly on connecting
customers and introducing new products.
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US
interest in ITV
Following publication of the UK's draft Communications Bill, which allows
non-European companies to buy ITV for the first time, Michael Green, Carlton's
chairman, has held informal conversations with potential US partners -
though these have been downplayed and characterised as "informal chats,
not formal talks," according to reports the UK Independent newspaper.
Green told analysts that he had simply been fielding calls from US executives
who were trying to make sense of the draft Communications Bill as he has
strong personal relationships with executives from the main US studios
as his company previously owned Technicolor.
Carlton has recently distanced itself from a possible merger with Granada,
the other main ITV operator, and noted the possibility of other deals
as the Bill "could enable new opportunities for working with non-European
partners". The two have previously held merger talks, worked together
on the doomed ITV Digital (and are jointly being sued by the Football
League as a result), and were previously thought certain to eventually
merge when regulations allowed.
US media groups such as Viacom and Disney, are now seen as possible bidders
for Carlton or Granada, or both companies together or separately. The
legislation is not reciprocal, in that UK companies would not be able
to buy one of the US giants - but there are no UK media companies with
the resources to do so anyway.
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iMagicTV
ups interactivity
UK software provider iMagicTV has signed with home entertainment products
and services provider Thomson multimedia to deliver its middleware platform,
DTV Manager, for use in Thomson's RCA DSL1500 Gateway Decoder.
iMagicTV provides software platforms and applications that allow telephone
companies and other service providers to deliver interactive multi-channel
television and other multimedia services over high-speed broadband networks.
DTV Manager in particular is an integrated software platform for the management
of multi-channel television, Video-on-Demand and other interactive services
backed by administrative and operations software that enables telecom
service providers to compete in the delivery of television and other multimedia
services.
The RCA DSL1500 delivers video and music experiences like on-demand home
theatre and high-speed Internet surfing, shopping and mail via the television
set.
The two technologies combined provide a market-ready interactive television
platform that enables network operators to offer consumers broadband bundled
services over DSL such as broadcast, on-demand video, music and other
interactive and data applications.
This product integration is the first of its kind for the Thomson DSL1500
and is a result of a joint development and marketing relationship with
iMagicTV. The two companies continue to expand their joint marketing,
promotions, sales and product development activities to support to telecommunications
carriers worldwide.
"iMagicTV's flexible and deployed DTV Manager has proven to be an effective
choice for integration into the Thomson Gateway platform," said David
Spomer, Vice President digital decoder product management, Thomson.
This set top box serves as an interactive home entertainment system and
as the gateway for the delivery of broadband services throughout the home,
using integrated routing, home networking and optional DSL modem capabilities.
Marcel LeBrun, President and COO of iMagicTV said, "Thomson's DSL 1500,
together with iMagicTV's middleware platform, will offer service providers
a competitive, advanced and financially viable entree to delivering interactive
television services over their existing network. Thomson's commitment
to innovative broadband products and proven consumer electronics experience
adds to the already strong case for TV over broadband deployments."
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UK
IQ on interactive test
More than four million people in the UK were tuned in to their TVs and
playing interactively to find out their IQ.
On Saturday May 11th, 45 per cent of UK households with access to digital
TV took part and scored their IQ in 'Test the Nation' - the UK national
IQ test, live on BBC One.
A survey of 800 Digital Satellite households commissioned by BBCi, revealed
that 26 per cent of Digital Satellite households watched Test the Nation.
The interactive service was available live to DSat and DTT viewers. The
Digital Terrestrial (DTT) application was built in-house by BBCi and the
Digital Satellite (DSat) application by TwoWayTV.
More than half of Digital Satellite viewers who calculated their score
on the night pressed the Red Key to use the interactive service and find
out their own IQ score straight away.
BBCi commissioned the survey through Taylor Nelson Sofres to track how
many people played along through interactive TV on the night of the test.
No data is available from BARB or external tracking agencies for interactive
services where the process takes place through the set-top box and not
broadcast.
Scott Gronmark, Head of Interactive TV, BBCi said, "Test the Nation was
the single biggest interactive entertainment programme broadcast so far.
The response from Digital Satellite viewers was overwhelming, with hundreds
of thousands of them doing the test on the night, which proves the point
again that where interactive TV provides a service people want and isn't
just a gimmick, they will use it."
On the night of the test, 9.1 million viewers watched Anne Robinson and
Phillip Schofield put six studio groups through their paces. Almost 100,000
people took part at home through the Internet, and viewers could also
take the test live on digital TV, with scorecards or using pen and paper.
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Carlton
downplays merger speculation
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Carlton downplays merger speculation
Despite speculation in the UK press over ITV consolidation following publication of the recent draft UK communications bill, ITV company Carlton says it is not in merger talks with Granada and a deal should not be taken for granted.
Chief Executive, Gerry Murphy, is reported as saying that consolidation was "on the agenda", but it could be with Granada or another company.
Although a merger of the two companies is now permitted, but so is purchase of one or both by US media groups who could also bid for their own ITV licence. Disney, or Bertelsmann's RTL Group are among potential bidders for both Carlton and/or Granada.
"Clearly consolidation is on the agenda and I expect it will happen, but whether it happens in terms of a simple merger with Granada or anybody else remains to be seen," Murphy said. He added, "We are intrigued by the prospect of working in the UK with some of world's biggest media companies."
Carlton has made a fresh E155.8 million charge due to closure of ITV Digital, with closure costs of E100 million and a E55 million asset write-off following a total investment of E944 million over three years. Carlton subsequently reported a first half loss of E282 million. Carlton's advertising revenues for the first half of the year had fallen 13 per cent year-on-year, with total turnover slipping to E792 million from E848 million. The company expects to make E70 million in cost savings by the end of the current year.
Granada expects similar losses when it reports results on Thursday.
Despite the ITV Digital fiasco, the company has not turned its back on DTT as a platform with Murphy commenting, 'We have drawn a line in the sand on pay television but we are still looking at what we might do in terrestrial digital broadcasting."
*Further details are reported on UK cableco NTL's purchase of ITV Digital's database of two million customers.
Industry reports suggest the company paid about E1.6 million to buy ITV Digital's subscriber records, with half the total number of households who had ever subscribed to the service having cancelled their contracts.
Signalling a return to customer aqusition efforts, Stephen Carter, the managing director of NTL, was reported as saying, "With thousands of former ITV Digital customers looking for a new digital service, we intend to win more than our fair share."
Not all the households will be in cabled areas - NTL's network passes about a third of the country's homes, and it is these that will be targetted. The homes within the rival cableco Telewest's franchise areas could conceivably be sold on as cable companies do not compete directly with each other. In contrast, Sky is a direct competitor with NTL that is also aggressively targeting the ex-ITV digital subscribers.
*A side effect of the financial shortfalls at ITV is that many high-quality - expensive - dramas originally announced 18 months ago or more, such as The Mayor of Casterbridge, are still awaiting transmission. Nick Elliott, the network's drama controller, told reporters that part of the reason was the substitution of less expensive programmes, such as documentaries.
ITV's accounting system means that investment in programmes is only recorded after a show has gone out and so by delaying transmission, costs are kept off the books.
With the loss of loss making ITV digital, and an apparent upturn in advertising, ITV has this week announced that its budget freeze is over and released an extra E44 million to be spent this year.
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Liberty renews European interest
When Juergen Brautmeier, Deputy Director of the German Media Regulator LfR told delegates at advanced-television.com's panel discussion last week that Germany needed to relax its regulation, he couldn't have known that Liberty Media chairman John Malone was considering another try at the country - could he?
Malone is reported in the US trade press to be keen on international expansion, and has even revived his interest in buying cable assets in Germany "when the regulatory atmosphere becomes more favorable."
However, it is UnitedGlobalCom, parent of Holland based UPC that Malone primarily intends to drive his expansion, despite UGC currently undergoing a debt restructuring. Liberty has 74 per cent of the outstanding equity in UGC, which in turn owns a 53 per cent stake in UPC which has operations in 26 countries.
Many will say that Liberty was right not to be pushed into complying with the regulators' demands on service offerings and set top box standards - even less likely following the purchase of Open TV. But it remains to be seen whether Malone accepts the main point of the advanced-tv panel, made clear by Wolfram Winter, MD of Universalõs channel Subsidiary, Universal Studios Network Germany GmbH, who explained that US and UK models just do not fit the structurally different German cable market - which needs to be dealt with by understanding of the market's specific characteristics.
"We still believe there are strong opportunities internationally. We hope UGC will be a strong asset for us for expansion through acquisitions and [internal] growth," Malone told a shareholders meeting in the US.
Liberty is in talks to acquire systems serving about three million subscribers in Western Europe and expects to close a small deal within two months to buy systems serving about 22,000 subscribers in Japan, adjacent to Liberty's cable holdings in Tokyo. Liberty CEO and President Bennett saw these assets as also eventually making a logical extension of UGC's business.
Heavy debt loads at cable systems in Europe and Latin America could result in bargain prices as these companies are forced to sell assets - hence Liberty is in no rush to buy.
Liberty could also be a seller in the market, disposing of some of its non-core assets in the US, including stakes in programme makers† "When these assets become more valuable to someone else than to us," according to Bennett.
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BBCi gets more Astra
Luxemburg based satellite operator SES Astra has reached a long term agreement with BBCi, the interactive arm of the UK public broadcaster BBC, to provide an additional digital transponder on Astra at 28.2 deg East.
This brings the total number of Astra transponders at 28.2 deg East contracted to the BBC to four.
The BBC already digitally transmits BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, BBC News 24, BBC Choice, BBC Parliament, CBBC and Cbeebies, plus the BBC Digital Text services on Astra. The new deal will further enhance the range of interactive programming available to viewers in the UK.
The BBC services on Astra are available free to viewers within the UK. By the end of 2001 more than 6.5 million UK homes were able to receive the digital TV, radio and interactive services on Astra at 28.2 deg East. The Satellite Monitor, conducted in the UK by NFO BJM, also identified a further 1.9 million homes planning to install digital satellite receivers this year.
The BBC's additional transponder capacity was brokered in a deal by BBC Distribution, whose controller, Andy Townend, commented, "Our agreement with Astra is central to the BBC's interactive strategy on digital satellite. BBC Distribution is helping the BBC to bring interactive events into the homes of millions of users across the UK."
Scott Gronmark, Head of Interactive TV for BBCi added, "This fourth transponder is vital for us to continue delivering such a range and depth of digital services to our viewers. We have been transmitting interactive programmes on an Astra transponder for the last year and we have a great reputation for reliability with our digital viewers."
Commenting on the latest agreement with the BBC, Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES Astra said, "The BBC is a benchmark around the world for quality programming and innovation. Like Astra, the BBC continues to expand media boundaries enhancing and expanding its service for its viewers. We believe that this new long-term agreement reflects SES Astra's commitment to operational excellence and performance reliability which are essential to an organisation such as the BBC. We look forward to working closely with the BBC in the future."
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Bloomberg's China inroad
Financial news provider Bloomberg Television has linked with dominant Hong Kong terrestrial Television Broadcasts (TVB) to gain carriage in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China.
Unlike its TV business news rivals, CNBC, CNN and BBC World, Bloomberg Television has not been able to gain a slot on the SAR's almost unchallenged pay TV platform, i-Cable Communications.
However Bloomberg Television has announced that it will be carried daily between 6.0 am and 7.30 am on the English-language TVB Pearl channel from July 1. This agreement will extend to the Cantonese service, TVB Jade in the third quarter.
The agreement will give Bloomberg Television access to 2.1 million Hong Kong homes, adding to its claim of reaching 19 million households in the rest of Asia. By contrast, CNBC, CNN and BBC World are each carried on a 24-hour basis on i-Cable that currently has 560,000 subscribers.
Bill McHugh, Director of Programming for Bloomberg Television in Asia said the accord boosts the channel's profile in the second-largest financial market in Asia after Japan, and will allow its advertisers to reach a coveted audience.
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Sigma expands in Europe
Cable industry management solutions provider Sigma Systems has launched its Central Europe operation with the opening of an office in Frankfurt and the appointment of Dr Robert Wiesheu, a German national, as regional Director.
The company's expansion into Europe began earlier this year with the opening of offices in London, Amsterdam and Paris.
Germany is Europe's largest cable market with over 20 million cable subscribers and more than 80 per cent of homes passed by cable. The complex network ownership structure, split between Level 3 and 4 cable operators, coupled with large subscriber numbers, means that cable system operators need to automate the information transactions that take place between the network layer and disparate business support and back office systems such as billing and CRM. The Sigma Service Management Portfolio provides operators with the flexibility to optimise performance of legacy investments, while enabling them to accelerate time to market of new services.
"Service management has not been a top priority for cable operators offering just analogue television services in the past," comments Danny Dicks, Senior Analyst with Analysys. "However, as cable operators look to new revenue streams from broadband services such as high-speed data, telephony, VoIP and iTV, they will need to look carefully at all their operations and business support systems; integrated service management solutions from specialist vendors can reduce operational costs and allow operators' new services to be competitively priced."
Prior to joining Sigma Systems, Dr Wiesheu worked as Business Development Director, EMEA, for Digiquant, providing infrastructure software for supporting the delivery of services over advanced networks. He has also held various senior international sales and marketing posts with ICL-Fujitsu and LHS - now Sema-Schlumberger. Dr Wiesheu obtained an MSc at the University of Erlangen and his PhD at the Technical University of Munich.
Dr Wiesheu will also spearhead Sigma's sales and business development activities in Austria and key Central and Eastern European countries including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, where interactive services such as telephony and high-speed data are already being offered by cable system operators.
"The German cable market opportunities are already significant, and with Deutsche Telekom in the process of selling its cable assets, the inevitable stream of mergers and acquisitions in this influential market can only increase the need for service management solutions," said Richard Hubble, European Managing Director, Sigma Systems. "Central and Eastern Europe - and Germany in particular - is of significant long-term strategic importance to Sigma."
Dr Robert Wiesheu adds, "Sigma Systems' unrivalled customer base in North America, with six 'tier 1' cable operator customers, places us in a very strong position to advise and support the evolving needs of broadband operators in the region. By improving accuracy of throughput and alleviating the burden on call centre and technical support staff, effective service management can drive up revenue per subscriber, significantly reduce operational costs and increase subscriber satisfaction."
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ECCA Awards made
Jim Price (Telewest Broadband) and Hans Wambach (UPC) were presented with ECCA (European Cable Communications Association) awards on Tuesday, 28 May for their 'outstanding efforts in creating a set of standards for Internet Protocol (IP) based services within the European cable industry.'
The ECCA Award was made by the newly elected ECCA President Henk de Goede, at the European Broadband Communications 2002 Gala Dinner in Brussels. The annual ECCA Award honours individuals who have significantly contributed to the development of the European cable industry.
Jim Price (Telewest Broadband) and Hans Wambach (UPC) efforts are described as having been crucial in the creation of an open set of European standard for IP based services over cable networks. This set of standards - known as the IPCablecom standards - enhance the efforts of cable operators and vendors to develop and improve IP-based services like Internet, voice-over-IP (VoIP) and interactive TV services via cable networks. Eventually, the IPCablecom standards are designed to generate product interoperability, making it possible to use one device (such as a cable modem) on different networks, thus drastically reducing research, development and construction costs.
Hans Wambach, Director Network Architecture at United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) initiated the standardisation efforts of the European cable operators in cooperation with the cable industry's leading vendors. As chairman of the ECCA EuroPacketCable Experts Group, Hans Wambach worked in close cooperation with the European Technology Standardisation Institute (ETSI).
Jim Price, Manager Legal, Regulatory and Standards Engineering at Telewest Broadband is also Chairman of the ETSI Operational Coordination Group. The rapid development of the IPCablecom set of standards is attributed to his co-ordination of the standardisation work performed by several ETSI bodies.
ECCA President de Goede, made the ECCA Award saying, "Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Hans Wambach and Jim Price, the cable industry has set an open standard for IP based services over cable networks. This is crucial for the development of existing and new services within the European cable industry. I am delighted to offer these gentlemen the ECCA Award."
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Cartoons, TCM on Orbit
The Middle East and North African Orbit Satellite Television & Radio Network is adding Cartoon Network and TCM (Turner Classic Movies) to its DTH offering.
Turner Entertainment channels will now be available on all major platforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network describes itself as the world's first fully digital, multi-channel, multi-lingual, pay-television service. Orbit's current premium package comprises 45 plus services with original Arabic and international English language entertainment channels and customer services. Countries within the footprint include: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Yemen in Middle East, and in North Africa includes Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
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Irdeto counterfeit claim success
Content protection and management company Irdeto Access, a subsidiary of MIH Limited, has successfully prosecuted Mr Altikrity (owner of a Satellite shop in Manchester called Digital Supervision) for counterfeiting and selling illegal pay-TV smartcards.
Altikrity's company advertised various products for sale in a magazine called 'What Satellite TV.' The advertisement included a reference to "Italian, Greek and Dutch cards." Investigators employed by Irdeto Access started an investigation to determine whether Digital Supervision was selling illegal pay-TV smartcards.
Irdeto says that after a thorough investigation, criminal proceedings were begun by UK law firm DLA on behalf of Irdeto Access. Proceedings culminated in April when Altikrity was convicted of two offences of supplying illegal smart cards contrary to the provisions of section 297A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, and received a £1000 fine and was required to contribute towards Irdeto Access' costs.
"This case again vindicates Irdeto Access' decision to take private criminal prosecutions. Irdeto Access has a 100 per cent success rate in prosecutions in the United Kingdom. Anyone wishing to become involved in the piracy of Irdeto Access' cards would be wise to consider the possible consequences of their actions." says Graham Kill CEO of Irdeto Access. "Our customers expect us and depend on us to protect their content, so the result of this case is a great win for both our customers as well as for Irdeto Access." He continued.
Irdeto Access says it has a three-pronged approach to the industry-wide issue of content piracy.
1. Applying its security technology and continuing to develop content security technologies
2. Conducting extensive investigations of suspected fraud and counterfeit operations with its own force of private investigators working with local authorities
3. Maintaining close co-operation with international bodies to develop anti-piracy legislation
Irdeto Access is also a founding member of the European Association Against Piracy (AEPOC) and has successfully lobbied the EU to issue its anti-piracy directive that member states were supposed to have implemented by May 2001.
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French
DTT hearings on TV |
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French DTT hearings on TV
France's TV regulator, the CSA, is currently going through the massive volume of documents supplied by candidates for the country's DTT capacity.
The 66 remaining candidates (three have already dropped out) will be able to present their proposals and answer questions at public hearings. Each candidate will have 15 minutes to present their case, followed by 15 minutes of questions. The public hearings will begin on June 17 for the 26 services that plan to be FTA, lasting throughout the day until June 20.
The 40 proposed pay services will begin to put their case from June 24, until July 1. The entire proceedings will be broadcast Free To Air via the French parliamentary channel and may be viewed from the UK using a dish pointed at 19.2 E and any digital decoder, even a Sky Digibox, by tuning to 12.207 V.
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ITV
Digital jobs go ...
Granada/Carlton losses expected
Last Friday (23/5/02) failed DTT service ITV Digital laid off some 400
call centre staff, retaining 150 to deal with customer enquiries.
When broadcasting stopped at the beginning of May the Plymouth's call
centre staff were told by administrators Deloitte and Touche that their
jobs would continue for a few more weeks.
On Friday staff were told to log out of their computers and phones and
go to a meeting at 2pm. Then they were all told they were redundant, and
to leave the premises. It is believed that those who stayed to handle
enquiries lost redundancy packages worth £2,500 (E3,961).
*This week, ITV Digital parents Granada and Carlton are expected to announce
huge losses following the collapse of their E1.9 billion joint venture
- likely to cost each company E238 million for the financial year to September.
However their losses on the business could be offset against gains made
on future disposals as the move into administration was made ahead of
1 April rule changes. More than E1,030 million of losses at ITV Digital
have already been set against corporation tax, and a further investment
of E998 million could be offset against tax in the future enabling the
companies to potentially recover some E317 million.
This would require the UK tax authorities to accept that their stake in
ITV Digital was of negligible value before 1 April.
Granada has been forecast likely to post a pre-tax loss of over E73 million
compared with a profit of E27 million in the same previous period. Its
pre-tax profit is likely to be almost halved to about E111 million before
digital costs, compared with E203 million last time.
Carlton is expected to report a first-half, pre-tax loss of E139 million
after digital investments compared with a loss of E103 million last year.
Excluding digital activities, Carlton's pre-tax profit is likely to be
about E55 million compared with E105 million last year.
The gloom has been lightened by a E507 million advertising deal between
ITV and Unilever, which the companies hope signals the revival of the
advertising market.
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MTV
in Romania by June
MTV Networks Europe has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Romanian
broadcaster, Music Television Systems (MTS) to bring MTV Romania to 1.4
million cable households, MTV's tenth European regional channel.
MTV Romania launches in Romania on June 15 2002 with an exclusive music
concert at Bucharest's top stadium venue - Lia Manoliu - featuring Latino
heart-throb Enrique Iglesias performing before a crowd of 50,000. This
event, sponsored by Coca Cola, will be the first time Enrique Iglesias
has performed in Romania. The new channel will go live at midnight.
Alex Ogilvie, Managing Director, MTV Northern Europe comments, "The launch
of MTV Romania represents another exciting step in MTV Networks Europe's
regional expansion strategy, combining the brand's traditional editorial
and music strengths with MTS's local experience and expertise in Romania.
By super-serving the needs and tastes of young Romanian audiences, we'll
be able to create increased relevance for MTV in Romania, providing new
opportunities to grow both reach and ratings."
Adrian Anghel, General Manager of MTS noted that Romania was one of the
first countries in Eastern Europe selected by MTV International to join
its cultural and musical family.
The new channel is targeted at the Romanian youth audience 15 to 25, and
a secondary target 26 to 35, combining locally-produced Romanian-language
programming, Romanian presenters/VJs, and a music playlist tailored to
Romanian music tastes with MTV's international programme inventory and
access to international artists and signature music events.
MTV Romania will also feature Romanian music news and is intended to create
a new marketing platform for advertisers targeting the Romanian youth
audience. The channel will operate out of MTS's Bucharest studios.
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Unified
regulator for Singapore
Singapore has followed the trend of other Asian governments in the creation
of a centralised government regulator for the broadcasting and media sectors.
Officials have announced the creation of the Media Development Authority
from the merger of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority, the Singapore
Film Commission and the Films and Publication Department.
The move is part of wider trend by the government to change the regulatory
environment. It will have to balance the desire to increase competition
without major changes to the conformist social and political stance followed
by the two dominant media groups owned by the government - Singapore Press
Holdings and the Media Corporation of Singapore.
The government will also increase the percentage of foreign ownership
permitted in any local broadcast or print operation from three to five
per cent; a group will be allowed a maximum of 12 per cent and the government
will consider requests to raise this higher.
The Chinese, Thai and Indian governments are also currently attempting
to rationalise and centralise their broadcasting regulators. Their reasons
range from trying to end overlapping duties among different agencies,
dealing with the effect of convergent technologies and making their markets
more attractive to foreign investors.
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US VOD launch
This summer, Time Warner Cable customers in Binghamton USA become one
of 16 Time Warner markets delivering VOD using digital video server systems
from SeaChange International Inc.
Hollywood movies on-demand and HBO On Demand will be provided to 150,000
subscribers in the region.
"Imagine having VCR-like access to a huge library of action, drama and
childrens movies and every episode of the most talked-about programming
like 'The Sopranos' or 'Sex and The City.' These are hot titles. VOD is
a hot service that only cable can offer," said David Whalen, Vice President
of marketing, Time Warner Cable of Binghamton. "Movies and subscription
VOD are just the leading edge of the broad potential of video-on-demand.
Time Warner Cable has a vision to pull more types of entertaining and
helpful programming into VOD. On-demand programming from cable networks
as well as sports and news will eventually enter the picture."
Time Warner Cable's iControl VOD service will be available to digital
subscribers in Binghamton and the surrounding communities this summer.
Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer digital set-top box and SARA electronic
program guide are integrated with SeaChange's VOD system. Binghamton is
one of 16 Time Warner markets delivering VOD with SeaChange.
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StarBand
Sues EchoStar
StarBand Communications Inc in the US has filed a legal suit against its
30 per cent shareholder, and former billing agent, EchoStar Communications
Corp, for allegedly illegally billing and collecting revenue from 31,000
StarBand satellite Internet customers.
EchoStar's billing relationship with StarBand was terminated in February
but customers' records were not handed over so StarBand was not able to
bill them.
EchoStar is reputed to owe StarBand more than E2.2 million in revenue,
though the damages claim is not specificed; Starband also wants its customer
records.
EchoStar Chairman and Chief Executive Charlie Ergen, and three others
executives resigned from StarBand's board of directors earlier this month.
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Teleste
CFO quits
Teleste's CFO Antti Salminen is quitting at the end of August to become
Raisio Group's CFO.
On September 1st Group Controller Erja Saarikoski will take over the CFO's
duties during an interim period.
Teleste is an international technology group founded in 1954, which is
specialised in broadband data communication systems and solutions. The
group is divided into two Strategic Business Units: Broadband Cable Networks
and Video Networks.
In 2001 the group's net sales in continuing business was E93million and
the net profit E12.6 million. The return on capital employed was 27.4
per cent and the return on equity 28.9 per cent.
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iHDTV
in Korean first
South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has exhibited
its Interactive Media Solution (IMS), described as the world's first high
definition television carrying interactive and personalised data services,
at the COEX Inter-Continental trade show in Seoul.
The two year national project is reported by the Korea Times newspaper
to have developed broadcasting technology which allows TV viewers to relay
video and audio data to television broadcasters via their television sets.
A demonstration was conducted over six television programmes including
a news and weather forecast, a football game, a documentary, a fashion
show and a music programme. Viewers were able to search for information
on a particular player or soccer team while watching the game on their
TV set. Broadcasters can simultaneously receive and collate audience feedback
in real-time and change to TV programming to accommodate the results.
T-commerce was illustrated by viewers buying clothing worn by a pop star
directly from the TV via a click on the item to get price and size information
before buying.
"The technology will be commercialised once we complete development in
2005. We also expect to export E14.1 billion worth of technology and related
digital home appliances by 2007," said an MOCIE official.
The broadcasting technology was jointly developed by the Korea Broadcasting
System and LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Daewoo Electronics.
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US
Satellite vs Cable study
Despite - or perhaps because of its position as the new arrival on the
US pay TV scene - satellite TV outscored digital cable on customer satisfaction
in a new 1,000 plus home Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association
study.
Research by The Taylor Research and Consulting Group showed DBS winning
a 68 per cent approval rating among consumers, while analogue cable scored
37 per cent and digital cable 36 per cent.
DBS earned a 79 per cent approval rating for signal quality, while analogue
received 67 per cent and digital cable 66 per cent. On making customers
feel valued, DBS earned a 64 per cent approval rating, while analogue
cable scored 46 per cent and digital cable 44 per cent.
Digital cable was also more susceptible to consumer switching than satellite
TV, with 21 per cent of digital cable subscribers expressing an interest
in switching to a dish. In contrast only five percent of DBS subscribers
would consider switching to digital cable.
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NTL
buys ITV Digital customer list
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NTL
buys ITV Digital customer list
Leading UK cableco NTL has bought the two million plus former customer database of failed DTT platform ITV Digital from the administrator Deloitte & Touche in the first significant asset sale to date. Detailed information is provided on everyone who subscribed to the pay TV service enabling NTL to contact by phone or post, all former ITV Digital customers living in cabled areas - hence a major marketing campaign could well follow NTL's financial restructuring.
Earlier this
week NTL, which has about three million phone or TV subscribers in the
UK, resumed ordering new set-top boxes from Pace and restarted its marketing
efforts.
NTL slashed its marketing department from 55 people to just eight. The
US-listed company is in the middle its major restructure, which it hopes
will halve its E19 billion debt. This could also facilitate a possible
merger with Telewest, with US cable investment company Liberty Media possibly
the catalyst.
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Portuguese channels hit
Portugal's parliament has approved regulation which allows closure of one of the country's two public television channels. A consultative body, whose rulings are legally binding, had earlier vetoed the government's appointment of a new board for state broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa.
The company
operates the RTP-1 and RTP-2 channels. The government appointed board
had intended to slash costs and restructure the state-owned media sector,
which also includes radio and the national news agency.
The bill removed the veto from RTP's 37-member Consultative Council which
had opposed the government's plans - along with staff and opposition parties.
However the conservative coalition government's majority allowed it to
force the bill through. It plans to create a committee to decide the future
of public service broadcasting in Portugal - but this will include one
less RTP channel.
RTP is some E1.5 billion in the red and the government says its 2,600
staff is more than six times the number of its private-sector counterparts.
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ITV
Digital creditors unpaid
Creditors of failed DTT platform ITV Digital are meeting on 13 June, but
little of the operators E467 million liabilities can be paid given the
company's bank balance of just E14 million. The business lost E1,228 million
between September 2000 and March 2002.
The figures were revealed in a letter to creditors from Nick Dargan, representing
administrator Deloitte & Touche, which has itself cost E1.9 million since
its appointment just under two months age, despite failing to make any
significant asset sale until today's subscriber list sale (see separate
article).
However, Dargan had said that there is substantial interest in the set
top boxes - and the Monkey mascot. He commented, "Since 1 May 2002, there
has been considerable interest in ITV Digital's assets, including its
customer database, stocks of set top boxes, broadcasting equipment, the
rights in and stocks of the Monkey character and the Plymouth call centre.
While at the stage of this report no material sales... have been completed,
negotiations continue with interested parties."
Lawyers hired by ITV Digital have cost a further E1 million in fees so
far - no doubt with owners Carlton and Granada acting guarantor ahead
of preparations to argue in court that there is no such relationship ITV
Digital's deal with the Football League.
In addition to the Football League, creditors include content providers
such as BSkyB, and transmission supplier Crown Castle.
It was also revealed that Granada an Carlton put an extra E8.7 million
into ITV Digital during the administration period, and not the E32 million
previously reported.
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Channel 5 pushes digital
UK Free-to-air terrestrial Channel 5, whose reception in the affluent south east, and in Scotland is often poor or non-existent, aims to expand its reach beyond a current 70 per cent of homes by encouraging uptake of digital terrestrial boxes following the collapse of ITV Digital.
Channel 5 is willing to back a 24 free channel service proposed by the BBC and ITV. But if they fail to agree on a channel line-up - as they did last week, then Channel 5 Chief Executive Dawn Airey, and her deputy Nick Milligan, are reportedly preparing parallel plans to encourage purchase of the new range of £99 (E146) "free to air" DTT decoders to pick up its service - with the expectation that prices will eventually fall to £45 (E71).
Channel 5 expansion plans - to eventually overtake Channel 4's audience share of between 11 and 12 per cent - are said to be ahead of target with an audience share of more than seven per cent expected this year.
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Vivendi strategy sought
French press reports suggest there is pressure to come up with a clear strategy for media and utility company Vivendi Universal ahead of a key board meeting in New York May 29.
Claude Bebear is quoted as saying, "I think the (Vivendi) board needs above all to define and approve a strategy and to see with management how to apply it."
A special 'investor day' originally penciled in for May 30 has now been postponed until September.
La Tribune reports that French corporate raider Vincent Bollore, believed to have acquire stakes in parts of Vivendi's operations including pay-TV company Canal Plus, may already have resold a portion of an unspecified small stake in Vivendi bought during the recent slump in the company's share price.
Bollore, is said not to have officially informed Vivendi of having acquired a stake greater than the 0.5 per cent, the level beyond which share movements must be official notified. However, Bollore would be legally allowed to build up more than 0.5 per cent in Vivendi without informing the company by waiving voting rights.
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AT&T Vice Chair leaves
AT&T's Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer, Charles (Chuck) H Noski, is to leave the company on completion of the sale of its cable television operations to the Comcast Corporation, in a E38.7 billion deal expected late this year.
Noski said that the company is only considering outsiders CFO because it is determined to hire someone with experience as a company's top financial executive - preferrably within a few months so that person can have a couple of quarters at the company before the Comcast deal is completed.
The new chief financial officer will report to Noski until the deal is finished and will report to the new Chief Executive of AT&T after that. David W. Dorman, AT&T's President, is expected to become Chief Executive of the remaining AT&T after the Comcast deal is finished.
Michael Armstrong, AT&T's chairman and Chief Executive, is to become Chairman of the new AT&T Comcast. Day-to-day management of AT&T Comcast will be under the control of Brian L Roberts, now Comcast's President. Roberts has his own financial team, so there was no need for Noski to join AT&T Comcast.
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Montgomery DTT bid
US asset finance group Babcock & Brown and media analysts Spectrum Strategy Consultants, are reported to be backing a consortium that includes former Live TV an Mirror newspaper boss David Montgomery, in seeking the re-tendered UK DTT licences.
Among some 10 expressions of interest received by The Independent Television Commission (ITC) is a proposal from the Montgomery consortium that would entail setting up a fully fledged pay-TV business.
Reports say that the group has held talks with Viacom and other potential suppliers of news and entertainment content.
Other potential bidders for the three DTT licences include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, transmission businesses NTL Broadcast and Crown Castle, shopping channel Sirius Television, Scottish call centre firm MGt and an Alcatel-linked technology business called Third Space.
The date for the winning application to be announced has been set for July 4.
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