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NEWS Monday 11th - Monday 18th November 2002
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Friday 15th November 2002
Top price French Soccer
New UK Comms law in a hurry
Diller takes over at Vivendi US
Telco heads rolling?
Last minute hitch for Spain pay TV merger
Mobile content in supermarkets
AT&T and Comcast merger cleared
Top price French Soccer
By Sotires Eleftheriou
Bids from no less than 11 channels pushed the takings of Ligue Francais de Football (LFP) to E480 million a year for TV rights in an auction that closed yesterday.
As elsewhere in Europe the LFP carves up the rights in to lots, the most important three being two live matches a week, one live match and magazine show and live matches on PPV. In the end Canal + added a last minute E30 million to beat off TPS in PPV and secured all three lots. The deal covers three years from 2004 and the annual fee compares with the Canal+ current deal of E280 million.
The amount has exceeded the LFPs expectations and defies the falling prices elsewhere. Canal + had little choice but to out bid others as it is the main reason for subscribing for over half its customers.
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New UK Comms law in a hurry
As expected a new Communications Bill was part of the programme announced yesterday for the next session of Parliament.
Few details were confirmed – the Bill itself could be published as soon as next week – but it is thought the role of the new super regulator Ofcom will be stepped up in terms of regulating quality in an attempt to head off opposition and get the Bill through as quickly as possible.
Some observers are pessimistic the Bill will have a swift passage however, with the widely trailed new ownership rules likely to re-spark controversy. The rules are intended to pave the way for a single ITV company and will allow foreign takeovers of broadcasters or mergers with newspaper groups. Radio ownership rules will also be relaxed.
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Diller takes over at Vivendi US
Legendary US media executive has been handed management control of all Vivendi's US media interests.
Diller will become co Chairman and CEO with Vivendi chief Jean-Rene Fourto but Diller will be in control and the move is expected to foreshadow some kind of demerger early next year.
Vivendi Universal Entertainment encompasses the movie studio, theme parks, TV interests centred on the USA Networks bought from Diller, computer games and Universal Music the worlds biggest record company.
A demerger, possibly via an IPO, would create a US entertainment giant to rival Viacom or News Corp and, Vivendi hope, attract investors who are uncertain about Vivendi's European future. As if to confirm their concerns Vivendi fell on the Bourse as it was confirmed it had bid E480 for French football rights and was talking to provate equity houses about a joint bid to trump Vodafone's play for Cegetel.
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Telco heads rolling?
More management heads are set to roll as the telecoms sector gloom continues.
Yesterday's record losses (E7 billion) at Cable & Wireless and the under-whelming response to management's rescue plans have seen this mornings London newspapers full of calls for the resignation of CEO Graham Wallace. Once praised for his astute reshaping of the conglomerate with some top price disposals, he is now blamed for investing the resulting cash pile in mainly dotcom related businesses. Virtually all of that investment has been written off.
Many commentators are likening C&W's decline to the fall of Marconi and over at that company Finance Director Steve Hare is leaving. It seems banks owed over E2.8 billion by the firm blame Hare for the collapse of debt restructuring talks back in March.
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Last minute hitch for Spain pay TV merger
The agreed merger between Spain's two loss making pay TV operations has been put on hold while the Economics Ministry looks into competition concerns.
The merger between Telefonica's Via Digital and Sogecable's Canal Satellite Digital will create a company with 80 per cent market share in Spanish pay television but is seen by the partners as the only way to make pay TV viable.
Government concerns centre on the potential for Telefonica to use the dominant player to promote other services, such as VOD and broadband internet, at the cost of the cable industry that has only 20 per cent of the market.
Restrictions are also likely on what kind of rights deals the new company could make particularly in football and movies.
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Mobile content in supermarkets
Tescos, the UK's largest supermarket chain, is to start selling Java based mobile games in all its stores before Christmas, according to New Media Age.
The store says a pilot has exceeded expectations and it is confident the Christmas gift market will be strong. The move, which takes packaged mobile content to the mass market for the first time, is significant in adding to the growing confidence that the gloom over 2.5 and 3G mobile services has been over done. While a return on the massive investment in licenses and technology will still be very slow coming there is growing optimism in the industry that the popularity of picture messaging and gaming will see the market eventually follow the Japanese model with a thriving market in rich mobile media and services.
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AT&T and Comcast merger cleared
The merger between US cable operator Comcast and AT&T has been cleared by US regulators, paving the way for the creation of the largest cable television company in the US.
The E29 billion deal was approved despite opposition from consumer groups, who had complained that it would limit customer choice and lead to higher prices.
Under the merger Comcast will acquire AT&T Broadband and form a new company AT&T Comcast. Comcast is the third-largest cable operator in the US while AT&T is the largest. The combined group would have over 22 million subscribers, and dwarf the number two player AOL Time Warner.
The original deal, agreed in December, had an estimated value E47 billion. However, the value of Comcast's shares have since slumped by 35 per cent and the deal now has a reported value of E29 billion.
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Thursday 14th November 2002
Brussels allows cooperation for 3G
Foxtel will have to share channels By Owen Hughes
Vodafone beats up Cegetel
C&W post E7 billion loss
Prof lends expertise to BSkyB
Telenor funds Russian mobile expansion
3M Co. to buy Corning lens unit
New channels for ntl:home
Brussels allows cooperation for 3G
To facilitate the development of third-generation mobile phone systems the European Commission has ruled that big telecoms firms can join forces without fear of being prosecuted for anti-competitive behaviour.
The Commission was asked in July for anti-trust protection by a group of companies, including manufacturers Alcatel, Samsung and Siemens, and operators such as Telecom Italia, Sonera and France Telecom, which call themselves the 3G Patent Platform Partnership.
The arrangement proposed by Brussels will allow the firms to access other manufacturers' patents when creating new products, without breaching EU rules.
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Foxtel will have to share channels
By Owen Hughes
Australia's pay TV sector is set for a major shake-up after a government regulator approved plans for the market leader Foxtel to share channels with the third ranked Optus.
Despite considerable speculation that anti trust concerns expressed by the regulator and opponents of the deal that the union would create a de facto monopoly of pay TV and programme acquisition, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Profesor Allan Fels announced that he had approved the accord. The broad outline of the plan calls for Foxtel and Optus to share the same programming slate in order to cut programme acquisition costs.
Savings should be passed on in lower subscriptions and that will help to push pay TV penetration beyond the current 23 per cent rate. The pay TV sector warned that after continuous losses since starting operations in 1995 that now totalled E4 billion, that a major change in the way the industry functioned was the only way to stop it from collapsing. The outline of the alliance was first announced in March of this year but an initial proposal was rejected in June by the ACCC.
In September, the would-be partners announced 12 concessions they said would allay fears about access to their network as well as undertaking to create a framework to sell their internally-produced channels at a fair market rate to third parties.
Fels said, “Our concerns have been overcome. Pay-TV operators will now have access to a more comprehensive range of programming, enabling them to offer consumers a broader range of programmes.''
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Vodafone beats up Cegetel
Drawing strength from yesterday's better-than expected results UK mobile telecoms company Vodafone has gone on the attack in the long running battle with Vivendi over control of Cegetel in France.
Vodafone posted a 41per cent increase in earnings and speaking during the results announcement company chief Sir Chris Gent urged struggling Vivendi to accept Vodafone's offer for their 44per cent of Cegetel. He claimed recent Vivendi presentations on Cegetel had under budgeted on the required capex at France's number two mobile operator and the returns for them – and their bankers – would not be as good as they predicted.
In results for the six months to the end of September, Vodafone unveiled pre-tax profits before exceptionals of E7 bn. Importantly free cash flow for the six month period was a record E5 bn after tax, interest and dividends, more than the amount generated for the entire previous financial year. Vodafone shares were up almost 13 per cent in London to close at 111p, their highest level since May.
Many in the City now accept Vodafone has regained its strength to a degree that means it can ‘make the weather' in 3G and capitalise on its huge promotional spending to achieve market share in new services.
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C&W post E7 bn loss
Taking a huge hit on good-will write-offs has seen UK based international telecoms company C&W deliver record interim losses of E7 billion. The company also confirmed 3,500 staff lay-offs as it virtually closed its business services overseas, particularly in the US and Europe, and will now only serve multinational customers.
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Prof lends expertise to BSkyB
Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is to use 74-year-old Professor Sir Roland Smith, the former Chairman of Manchester United, as a consultant on sports rights negotiations.
The renowned company doctor joins the UK satellite company amid growing speculation that informal talks have begun between the country's broadcasters and its top soccer tier, the Premier League over the next television contract.
As well as ten years at Manchester Utd, Smith was Chairman of British Aerospace and has served on the boards of the Bank of England, Equitable Life and House of Fraser. Interestingly, his starring role at the club was leading negotiations when it ultimately rejected a takeover bid from BSkyB in 1998.
Analysts expect the next Premier League deal to be worth a good deal less than the current E2 bn where the price was driven up by counter bidding from former DTT provider ITV Digital and cable company ntl.
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Telenor funds Russian mobile expansion
Telenor and the Russian companies VimpelCom and Alfa Group have signed an agreement to invest a total of E174 million in the company VimpelCom-Region. The company will build and operate mobile services throughout Russia. VimpelCom, in which Telenor holds a 29 per cent stake, had approximately four million subscribers as of October 1, 2002.
"Telenor has now been active in the Russian market for 10 years. We have already invested E347 million in Russia, primarily in mobile activities, and we are pleased to be able to contribute to the further expansion of mobile services in Russia. We are satisfied with our Russian investments so far, and we expect the growth in the Russian mobile market to continue," said Telenor's Chief Executive Officer, Jon Fredrik Baksaas.
VimpelCom is a leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia, operating under the "Bee Line" family of brand names, which are among the most recognized brands in Russia. The VimpelCom Group's license covers approximately 80 per cent of Russia's population (115 million people), including the City of Moscow, the Moscow Region and the City of St. Petersburg.
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3M Co to buy Corning lens unit
US-based 3M is buying the Corning Inc unit that makes lenses for high-definition TVs for E850 million in cash, the largest acquisition in 3M's 100-year history.
Corning welcomed the deal and will use the proceeds to reduce its debt as it struggles to return to profitability amid the protracted slump across the telecommunications sector, which accounts for about half of its sales.
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New channels for ntl:home
UK cable company NTL has announced that a new selection of TV and radio channels have been added to its digital cable lineup, Digital Spy reported. UK Gold +1, Attheraces, Reality TV, The Dating Channel and Thane Direct have been added to the range of TV channels available.
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Wednesday 13th November 2002
Tele 5 expands German distribution
Sonicblue, TiVo settle claim
MTG wins Champions League rights
AT&T and Comcast on debt exchange
Asia Television shares move
SkyStream EMR 5000 for corporate TV
Scientific-Atlanta quarterly dividend
BT gets into home PCs
Vodafone grows stronger
Tele 5 expands German distribution
By Dieter Brockmeyer
Germany's free commercial TV channel Tele 5, which launched six months ago, has further increased its cable distribution through an agreement signed with Deutsche Netzmarketing GmbH (DNMG).
The channel, fully owned by the German TeleMunchen Group (TMG), signed a deal on Tuesday (12/11/02) with DNMG (German Net Marekting Inc), in which major independent cable operators such as Telecolumbus and Primacom have bundled the marketing interests of their cable systems reaching a total of five million German cable homes.
Tele 5 recently announced an agreement with the German cable operator ish, opening up about 6.5 million cable homes to the channel within the next year. Prior to these deals the new channel could only be received via the analogue Astra DTH satellite and some scattered Bavarian cable homes. Now Tele 5 has also agreed a branded block deal with the new Austrian terrestrial network ATV, in which also TMG is a major shareholder, to provide two branded blocks a day. Within half year of existence Tele 5 has managed to secure distribution to more than half of German TV homes.
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Sonicblue, TiVo settle claim
Digital video recording service providers TiVo and Sonicblue, said late last week that the two companies will dismiss their claims on patents infringements - dealing with capabilities associated with digital video recorders (DVRs)- against one another.
The pending lawsuits from the two companies against each other, were filed the US District Court for the Northern District of California late last year and earlier this year. The settlement comes after Sonicblue reported narrowing losses for the third quarter and said that fourth-quarter results would lag behind expectations.
When the two companies filed the lawsuits, they argued they were looking to protect their intellectual property but last week they jointly said in a statement, "We believe our energies are better spent expanding the market for digital video recorders (DVRs) rather than fighting each other. Both sides believe in the merits of their respective positions, but the overall success of the DVR category is what is most important to the companies at this time."
The patent dispute developed after Sonicblue first filed suit in December of last year, a day after receiving a patent covering 50 claims for developing devices that can pause and play back television shows. TiVo in turn filed suit in January for a "multimedia time warping system" patent.
However Sonicblue's visits to court are not over. The company must still struggle with a suit filed by major entertainment companies including AOL Time Warner, MGM, Disney, and the big three US TV networks.
One of the most controversial features offered by Sonicblue's ReplayTV machines and service are the ability to remove commercials during recording and the ability to send copies of recorded programmes to other ReplayTV recorders over the internet.
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MTG wins Champions League rights
By Goran Sellgren
The major Nordic soccer war over the European Champions League rights (see Advanced Television archive 6/11/02) has now come to an end. The winner is Swedish media group Modern Times Group (MTG) which has had the rights for several years and will now keep them until at least 2006.
MTG intends to use its renewed rights mainly to boost the performance of its free TV flagship, pan-Scandinavian generalist channel TV3, and for its mini-pay service Viasat Sport, and for TV3's 'complementary service' 3Plus in soccer-crazy Denmark.
MTG and its DTH affiliate Viasat is reported to have paid Danish 320 million krone (E36 million) for the renewal rights.
The main bidder against MTG was Norwegian Canal Digital, an affiliate of Norway's expansive telco Telenor.
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AT&T and Comcast on debt exchange
US-based telecom giant AT&T and cable operator Comcast completed an exchange and consent offer related to E11.8 billion of AT&T's existing debt, the companies announced on Monday (11/11/02).
An aggregate of approximately E8.5 billion of notes were tendered and about E8.2 billion of notes were accepted in the exchange offer. As part of the deal, the 66 2/3 per cent note consent condition was met at approximately the 90 per cent level, thereby satisfying one of the last remaining conditions to the closing of the merger between AT&T's Broadband cable TV unit and Comcast, according to Sky Report.
Chairman and Chief Executive Dave Dorman was reported as saying that after the AT&T Broadband cable unit merges with Comcast, AT&T's remaining debt-to-EBITDA ratio will be about 1.3, which is at or below the company's current ratios for EBITDA. By mid-November Comcast is expected to close its E54 billion acquisition of AT&T Broadband - the biggest deal in the industry since the AOL Time Warner (AOL ) merger in 2001.
The Federal Communications Commission decision concerning the AT&T Broadband/Comcast merger is expected soon.
AT&T Comcast Corp will be unprecedented in size and influence. Comcast has 8.5 million customers but once it merges it will have 21 million customers in 17 of the top 20 US cities hooked up to this systems. That's nearly twice as many as the next biggest operator, Time Warner Cable - one of every five US' homes with a television.
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Asia Television shares move
By Owen Hughes
The head of one of China's most popular cable TV channels is set to steer a Hong Kong terrestrial TV network towards a stockmarket float next year after its Chief Executive became the station's second-biggest shareholder.
Phoenix Satellite Television Chief Liu Changle learned this week that Asia Television (ATV) of Hong Kong's 45 per cent owners, Lai Sun Development had sold its 45 per cent stake in the station to Chief Executive Chan Wing-kee for E46.5 million. Former People's Liberation Army soldier Liu remains the largest shareholder with 46 per cent of ATV.
Announcing that he had taken long-term owners Lai Sun's stake, Chan said that he and Liu hoped to have an initial public offering for ATV in 2003. ATV is the second-ranked of Hong Kong's two terrestrial channels, well behind TVB which routinely takes an 80 per cent audience share in the former British colony.
But Liu and Chan are known to be interested in building on ATV's viewership in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong which speaks the same Chinese dialect, Cantonese, as Hong Kong. ATV and TVB are carried on cable TV systems throughout the province, but since the distribution has no legal status, the Chinese mask Hong Kong commercials and run their own, keeping the profits. ATV is now actively working on a revenue sharing agreement with cable operators in Guangdong.
Chan's purchase from the heavily indebted Lai Sun will also give Liu greater influence in using ATV's facilities to create content for Phoenix's programming slate in mainland China.
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SkyStream EMR 5000 for corporate TV
SkyStream Networks Europe, a developer of solutions for digital media services delivery, has signed a deal with the UK's BT Broadcast Services (BTBS). Under the agreement, BTBS will deploy SkyStream's Edge Media 5000 Routers (EMRs) for its interactive Corporate TV service, BT Enfocast.
BT Enfocast, which started less than two years ago, says it combines the interactive elements of the Internet and the power of broadcast technology enabling corporate businesses to deliver interactive broadcast quality TV to the desktop. BT Broadcast Services intends to expand this service on a worldwide basis.
SkyStream's EMRs is designed to easily be integrate with existing satellite-based networks and provide the performance and reliability that BT Broadcast Services needs. SkyStream solutions for content delivery via satellite, cable and telecommunication networks are currently provided to some 150 service providers and broadcasters worldwide.
"BT Enfocast provides a cost effective solution for corporations looking to exploit Corporate TV and we selected SkyStream for its unique media routing technology and in-depth understanding of business issues related to multicast delivery of digital services over broadcast and IP networks," said Simon Orme, Director of Corporate Business, BT Broadcast Services.
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Scientific-Atlanta quarterly dividend
US set-top to headend manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta Inc, announced that its board of directors has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on its common stock of one cent, $0.01, per share. The dividend is payable on December 16, 2002 to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 29, 2002.
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BT gets into home PCs
The UK telephony giant BT has moved into the PC market. In the search for more broadband customers, the telecoms company has begun selling computers supplied by Toshiba and Hewellt Packard with high-speed Internet access already pre-loaded.
The computers for the new service, called BT Home Computing, will be sold over the Internet and telephone together with related technology services.
There are eight different PC packages to choose from, costing from E57 a month to E109 a month over a three-year period. The service includes installation by a BT engineer as well as ongoing technical support and maintenance.
However BT's intention to be at the heart of the broadband operation may prove to be far from straightforward. Freeserve, the Internet service provider owned by France Telecom, won a legal battle against BT over the way it sells fast Internet or broadband services and the prices it charges other telecoms companies to connect customers to its network of local telephone exchanges. This new deal will open up the possibility of BT being sued once again over its broadband marketing approach.
BT predicts that it will have about E1072 million broadband-related revenues a year by 2004-05 and expects the new BT Home Computing service to make up about E236 million of that figure.
The company has also named its first Chief broadband officer - Alison Ritchie - the current Chief Executive of BT Openworld, who is leaving the Internet service provider to head up the companyss broadband service.
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Vodafone grows stronger
British mobile telecoms giant Vodafone has reported a rise in pre-tax profits during the first six months of its financial year. The company said that profits before taxes and financial charges for the six moths to September rose to E6.2 billion, an increase of 41 per cent on the same period last year.
The figure comfortably outstripped the E5 billion forecast by City analysts, said the BBC. This places Vodafone in a stronger position for its bid for Cegetel. Meanwhile French conglomerate Vivendi Universal, which is also trying to put its pennies together to pre-empt Vodafone's bid on Cegetel, fell 3.2 per cent after the world's number two media company reported a decline in third-quarter revenues late Monday. Some analysts suggest that if Vivendi's E4 billion bid for French telecoms group Cegetel were to succeed it would be a catastrophic mistake.
Hefty financial charges pushed Vodafone's final result well into the red, but the E7 billion loss was down by more than half on the same period last year. The company said its subscriber numbers climbed by 12.5 per cent in the year to a total of 107.5 million by September 30.
"We are making the transition to the new growth environment enabled by our new data services, with a better financial performance than expected," said Vodafone Chief Executive Sir Christopher Gent.
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Tuesday 12th November 2002
Liberty/Casema deal under investigation
BT sells BSkyB stake
Channel 5 seeks links with BSkyB
AOL TW might postpone News merger
MPEG-4 encoder for digital video
ATG Broadcast wins TV4 expansion contract
C&W to axe 3,000 job
Liberty/Casema deal under investigation
Dutch competition authorities will extend an inquiry into US cable investment vehicle Liberty Media's planned purchase of cable-television company Casema, the Netherlands-based cable-television unit of France Telecom SA, the Denver Post reported.
Liberty made a bid worth E743 million for Casema in August, but may be stopped by authorities, because the sale would leave 60 per cent of the market in Liberty's hands - more than twice that of its nearest competitor, Essent NV.
Liberty, controlled by billionaire John Malone, already owns a controlling stake in United Pan-Europe Communications, representing 40 per cent of Dutch cable connections. Essent NV only has 25 per cent of the market, and this has prompted regulators to veto the purchase.
"For program providers, wide coverage is of considerable importance in relation to the advertising income necessary to finance programs," the regulator said in an e-mailed statement.
"The take-over could result in a dominant position, which could seriously restrain competition in the Dutch market."
Should the sale go ahead, there are fears that too few TV stations would remain, and that cable prices would rise. There is also the possibility of problems with geographical distribution.
The regulator must decide within 13 weeks after receiving the application whether to grant the permit.
Liberty may also face competition from buyout company Carlyle Group Inc, which matched Liberty's bid, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the plans.
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BT sells BSkyB stake
British telecommunications company BT Group sold E194 million (£122 million) shares in UK satellite television broadcaster BSkyB yesterday (11/10/02), Reuters reported.
Several dealers said BT sold 20.8 million BSkyB shares before the market opened for 587 pence per share, or 2-1/2p above Friday's closing price. Dealers said BSkyB shares were indicated to open at 595p following the strong demand for the shares.
The BSkyB shares were issued to BT on Monday, linked to the satellite operator's acquisition of BT's interest in interactive TV business British Interactive Broadcasting in July 2000.
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Channel 5 seeks links with BSkyB
UK terrestrial channel Channel 5, owned by the RTL Group, is endeavouring to forge closer links with BSkyB, including programme cross-promotion, and has already held talks with Dawn Airey BSkyB's new Managing Director.
RTL CEO Didier Bellens is reported as saying that the two have, "a similar audience and the distribution is complementary." He also said he had discussed the link-ups with Airey - former Chief Executive of Channel 5.
There had been no formal discussions with BSkyB, according to Bellens, but it is thought both companies will combine their advertising sales houses if Granada and Carlton Communications get their ITV merger past regulators.
However, Bellens told the Wall Street Journal Europe he "doubted" a shareholding deal could be reached between both companies. RTL has a 65 per cent stake in Channel 5 and Lord Hollick's United Business Media owns the remaining 35 per cent.
BSkyB's Chairman Rupert Murdoch owns a 36 per cent stake in the group through his News Corporation group. Last Friday Murdoch ruled out a take over move on Channel 5 saying he was "not interested" in terrestrial TV even though forthcoming media legislation will lift the ban on national newspaper owners owning Channel 5.
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AOL TW might postpone News merger
US news services CNN and ABC News have reported extensive progress in their proposed merger plans late last week and predicted that an agreement in principle could be in place as early as January. But there are suspicions that CNN's parent, AOL Time Warner, would delay any deal as it copes with other issues affecting the company, the New York Times reported.
Some executives at the two companies said AOL Time Warner could put off finalising the merger to deal with what the board considers more pressing priorities.
"The board may be a little gun-shy for various reasons," one executive involved in the discussions was reported as saying. "Not because they think it's a bad deal. I'm just not sure they want to take on a big, potentially controversial deal right now."
CNN and ABC News said that a joint venture would enable them to combine their resources, cut redundancies and increase ad sales enough to generate more than E200 million in additional profits a year for the combined company. But many commentators have expressed doubts about the advantages of the deal.
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MPEG-4 encoder for digital video
Northern Ireland-based Amphion Semiconductor Inc, a provider of semiconductor intellectual-property for digital video and broadband wireless system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, has extended its CS6700 series of high performance cores for low power MPEG-4 enabled applications with an advanced modular accelerator-based solution for real-time MPEG-4 video compression.
Designed for ultra-low power operation and easy system-level integration into processor-based SoC and platform solutions, the Amphion CS6701 MPEG-4 'Simple Profile' Video Encoder incorporates hardware blocks for the acceleration of key compute-intensive MPEG-4 video compression algorithms, including motion estimation. The same modular architecture is performance-scaleable to more compute-intensive MPEG-4 profiles, such as 'Advanced Simple Profile' (ASP).
Key component blocks for motion estimation, bitstream packing, pixel compression, and video pre-processing are also available as standalone hardware-accelerator cores for the rapid development of MPEG-4 systems-on-silicon.
"This is a truly scaleable, modular architecture for MPEG-4 encode that's equally adaptable for use in power-sensitive consumer electronics and high-end professional broadcast markets," said Stephen Farson, vice president of engineering at Amphion. "The CS6701 is a compact design that requires the absolute minimum of on-chip processor and memory support, yet delivers QCIF and CIF performance with no compromises on picture quality," which is considered suitable for MPEG-4 in wireless video
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ATG Broadcast wins TV4 expansion contract
ATG Broadcast, a broadcast systems integrators provider, has started working on a contract from TV4 Sweden to install and commission a sport channel. The contract includes the provision of comprehensive new routing and output chain infrastructure in preparation for full multi-channel delivery.
It draws on the experience gained by ATG and Omnibus at the BBC Multistreaming Area and New York's NY1 cable channel. TV4 was one of the world's first broadcasters to implement automated disk-based playout. The new installation centres on an Omnibus Colossus Multichannel transmission system, interlinked with TV4's existing Omnibus automation equipment. This will be used initially to transmit the sport channel, and will be expanded to cover all TV4's transmission in a later phase of the project.
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C&W to axe 3,000 job
Tomorrow, (Wednesday 13/10/02) the international telephone company Cable & Wireless is expected to announce plans to cut nearly 3,000 jobs world-wide and take a E1.5 billion restructuring charge when it announces substantial interim losses in the company.
The job cuts will be primarily in the US division of Global, but will also include redundancies in the UK and other parts of Europe.
C&W main problem is its loss-making web-hosting and international data services division. The company has already cut 4,000 jobs this year from its global data communications and Internet business. It has also had four profit warnings in the past 18 months and a half-year deficit of over E314 million.
During Wednesday's first half results announcement Chief Executive Graham Wallace is to say that group sales have fallen by six per cent compared with forecasts earlier in the year of growth between zero and 10 per cent.
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Monday 11th November 2002
Higher prices deter Telewest customers
Vivendi to sell water interests
Bertelsmann posts loss
Microsoft in aggressive iTV move
NTL UK MD quits
Destiny Cable looses against Star
Higher
prices deter Telewest customers
The UK's second largest cable operator, Telewest, had mixed third quarter
results. It reported improving figures but saw consumers fleeing from
its cable TV service after raising prices.
Subscriber numbers fell more than five per cent to 1.76 million in the
three months ending in September. The company is hoping that after agreeing
a debt restructuring plan with its creditors it will be able to attract
more customers and reverse this situation.
However, Telewest revealed it now has 235,000 broadband Internet customers
- including strong demand for the higher-priced 1Mbps service level. Some
10 per cent of all broadband customers are taking the 1Mbps service, launched
in June.
Managing Director Charles Burdick, was reported as saying, "I think we
should be out of the restructuring completely with a new balance sheet
early in the new year."
Underlying earnings increased to just over E440 million in the nine months
to the end of September, from E353 million in the previous year. The pretax
loss decreased to E627 million from E942 million. Sales were up four per
cent at just over E1.5 billion.
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Vivendi
to sell water interests
Debt laden French conglomerate Vivendi Universal announced plans to sell
its stake in its traditional water business by selling its remaining stake
in Vivendi Environnement, indicating it will pursue its media-communications
focus.
Vivendi's Board of Directors met on October 29, 2002 and approved the
principle of proceeding with the sale of 50 per cent of the Vivendi Environnement
shares owned by Vivendi Universal (representing 20.20 per cent of the
capital stock of Vivendi Environnement), the company said. The transaction
will take place without offering the shares on the open market. The shares
will be sold to a limited number of investors who will assume Vivendi
Universal's lock-up agreement which applies until December 21, 2003. Each
VE share sold would also carry an option to buy another VE share before
the end of 2004.
Vivendi also announced that it had signed off on the sale of Houghton
Mifflin, the US publisher, for E1.66 billion.
The company was reported as saying that it now had, "sufficient room for
manoeuvre in terms of liquidity" and was relaxed about the March 2003
deadline for a E1.9 billion cash repayment linked to VE bonds.
Finally the company said that it has reached an agreement with UK mobileco
Vodafone Group Plc, BT Group plc and SBC Communications Inc for Vivendi's
pre-emptive rights over the interests in Cegetel Groupe SA which Vodafone
has agreed to acquire from BT and SBC. As a result of this agreement,
it is confirmed that Vivendi Universal will be entitled to exercise its
pre-emptive rights until December 10, 2002.
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Bertelsmann
posts loss
Germany's largest media conglomerate, Bertelsmann Group, posted a loss
of E384 million for the third quarter on revenues of E4.16 billion, due
to accounting write-offs, but showed a profit before charges in its core
operations and is expecting a boost to its business over Christmas.
Most of the third-quarter net loss - E370 million - came from goodwill
writedowns, or accounting changes connected to the value of acquisitions
such as RTL.
For the first nine months of the year, it earned E1.23 billion. The results
included a gain of E2.8 billion from AOL Time Warner in return for a stake
in AOL Europe, and E1.7 billion in write-offs, including E1 billion related
to its agreed purchase of Zomba Music, Britney Spears' record company,
for a reported E3 billion.
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Microsoft
in aggressive iTV move
US software giant Microsoft Corp has hired cable television veteran Maggie
Wilderotter with the aim of moving more aggressively into interactive
television, reports Reuters.
Wilderotter will join Microsoft on November 26 as Senior Vice President
of Business Strategy. Previously, she was President and Chief Executive
of Wink Communications Inc. Wink Communications is now a unit of OpenTV
Corp, which is controlled by Liberty Media Corp.
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NTL
UK MD quits
Stephen Carter, the MD and COO of NTL UK and Ireland, is to leave the
company at the end of the year.
Carter was reported by the Register as saying that it was a "personal
decision" to leave, nonetheless prompted by NTL President and CEO, Barclay
Knapp's move to take over the day-to-day running of the UK business once
the cableco emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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Destiny
Cable looses against Star
By Owen Hughes
A Manila-based cable TV operation has failed in a legal challenge to News
Corp's Star to force the platform to continue to provide five channels
to its service to Filipino subscribers.
Destiny Cable was told by a court in the Philippines that it would not
agree to its request for a temporary restraining order that would force
Star not to pull the channels after the end of a carriage agreement with
the Hong Kong-based company.
The court ruled that the removal of the channels would not cause 'irreparable
damage' as had been claimed by Destiny's lawyers. However, the operator
is continuing with an E250,000 lawsuit against Star. Destiny has lost
out to rival Beyond Cable that has agreed a distribution deal with Star
which will see it carry the five channels at the centre of the dispute
- National Geographic, Star Movies International, Star Sports, Star World
and ESPN.
Beyond is the largest cable TV system in the Philippines with around 700,000
subscribers. Ironically Star pulled all of its channels from Beyond in
October 2001 over what it claimed was an unpaid bill of E3.5 million for
supplying channels, although the dispute was settled in March of this
year.
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