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NEWS Monday 30th September- Monday 7th October 2002
Scroll down page or click below for news - latest first
| Tuesday | |||||
Meheut
CanalPlus President & COO
MTV counters EMAP threat
Norwegian
DTT box shortlist
Karmazin
may exit Viacom
ProSieben cuts earnings forecast
Vivendi
plans games unit IPO
TV
money dwindles for soccer
Telia
battles broadband pirates
RTL
viewing share up
Meheut CanalPlus President & COO
Bertrand Meheut has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of French media company CanalPlus Group.
The company has issued a statement saying that Meheut, working with Chairman and CEO Xavier Couture, will be responsible for forming the new CanalPlus and establishing the foundations for its future growth, in line with the strategy set by the Group's owner, Vivendi Universal. A priority for Meheut is to prepare for the new CanalPlus stock market introduction.
Meheut, 51, is a graduate of Ecole des Mines. He has spent his career in industry, with a focus on life sciences. Before coming to CanalPlus Group, he was Chairman and CEO of Aventis CropScience, an Aventis and Schering subsidiary involved in agrochemicals and biotechnologies with sales of E4.5 billion and 16,000 employees.
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MTV counters EMAP threat
The UK publisher of Smash Hits and Kiss magazines initially grabbed the only slot for a music channel on the BBC's new digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, replacing MTV - but MTV has managed to muscle its way back on to the line up with the launch of a new channel The Music Factory .
Emap's six music stations, such as Smash Hits and Kerrang!, had already hit MTV's cable and satellite audience, almost matching its ratings, and a seventh service had been created specifically for the BBC-backed terrestrial digital network, to launch in November as The Hits.
The format is based on Emap's network of eight Big City local radio stations, such as Key 103 in Manchester and Radio City in Liverpool, aimed at the 15 to 34-year-old market with mainstream, chart-oriented playlists.
Although Emap originally offered the channel as part of the ITV/Channel 4 consortium that bid against the BBC for the DTT service, when the BBC-backed Freeview won, Emap fought to be included in the line-up of 24 channels.
MTV ran a rear-guard action that only secured its place in the line-up yesterday (3/10/02), hours after the EMAP announcement. Channel 4's subscription channels E4 and FilmFour will not be run on Freeview.
FREEVIEW - CHANNEL LINE-UP
Mixed genre, BBC1, BBC2, BBC Choice, ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4, Channel 5, S4C, Sky Travel, UK Homestyle, Ftn
News and sports news
BBC News 24, Sky News, Sky Sports News, CNN, ITN, Culture, history and ideas, BBC4, UK History
Movies
Turner Classics Movies is still a possibility
Children's
CBBC, CBeebies, Boomerang - Turner Broadcasting classic cartoons channel still a possibility
Citizenship
BBC Parliament, The Community Channel, S4C2
Music
The Hits - a new channel from Emap
The Music Factory - new channel from MTV
Other
Sky Travel, QVC, TV Travelshop
Interactivity
BBCi (Interactive television and text)
Other interactive services (to be confirmed)
Radio
BBC Radio:
1xtra, 6Music, Asian Network, 5 Live, 5 Live Sports Extra (BBC7)
Commercial radio services (to be confirmed):
Smash Hits, Kerrang!, Kiss, oneword, Jazz FM.
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Norwegian DTT box shortlist
By Goran Sellgren
Norway's leading DTT player, Norges Televisjon, an alliance between the country's two major television operators, public service NRK and its private counterpart, TV2 have published a shortlist of potential set top box suppliers for the project. Force, Grundig, Nokia and Philips are the chosen candidates from a total of thirteen manufacturers that responded to the Norges Televisjon tender.
Three more suppliers have been evaluated with regard to them offering other software: CanalPlus technologies, Philips Softworks and Alticast.
When the Norwegian DTT licence deadline expired on the evening of October 1st the result was as expected: Norges Televisjon was the only applicant. France Telecom and its TDF transmitter affiliate is reported to have approached the governing Norwegian authorities, but then backed off without applying.
Establishing of DTT in Norway will happen region by region, when digital transmitter capacity is judged as operational in the region in question, analogue coverage will then be switched off. The general aim is to have all of Norway digitally covered by New Year's Eve of 2005.
Digital set top boxes are to be offered at an extra cost of 500 krona (some E60) per year for the first three years, including an EPG, new teletext and other interactive services and some still unidentified new channels. No state money will be invested in the project.
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Karmazin may exit Viacom
Mel Karmazin, President and COO of US media giant Viacom hinted this week that he may not be interested in staying on the job beyond next year when his contract expires. His new contract will not be decided until the end of this year at the earliest
"People ought not be investing in a company because of one individual or couple of individuals because that person may go and get on the wrong airplane," Karmazin, told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference. "
"If I were not at this company, the extraordinary portfolio of assets would continue to do well."
Karmazin's comments sent Viacom stock down in early trading but it finished the day up 2.3 per cent at $41.49 on a day when the broader market averages and many other media stocks were up much more.
Nonetheless Karmazin had said Viacom plans to hit its financial targets this year, posting a double-digit increase in cash flow.
A public dispute between Karmazin and Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone ended this summer with Karmazin agreeing to stay on until next year.
Rumours about Karmazin's future include running his own company or taking over from Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
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ProSieben cuts earnings forecast
Germany's biggest commercial broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1 Media, has cut its full-year earnings forecast by 20 to 30 per cent, saying it expects a further steep fall in advertising.
ProSieben, which is being sold by insolvent 52.5 per cent stake holder KirchMedia, now says it expects the overall advertising market to shrink eight per cent in 2002, against a previous forecast of a five percent fall.
ProSiebenSat.1 Media expects EBITDA of between E140 million to 160 million, down from a previous forecast of E200 million made last month.
"Due to the ongoing crisis in the advertising market we are looking back at disappointing revenues in the third quarter. Against expectations, we must now presume there will be no advertising turn-around in the fourth quarter,'' said the group's chief executive, Urs Rohner.
ProSieben puts its gross share of the German television advertising market at 45.9 per cent.
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Vivendi plans games unit IPO
French media and utility group Vivendi Universal intends to list between 40 per cent and 49 per cent of the shares in its video games subsidiary on the Nasdaq stock exchange in a bid to raise about E800 million according to French business paper Les Echos. This is substantially down in value from the E2 billion sought when the whole venture was mooted as for sale in August (See News Archive). VUG's turnover is expected to reach between E750 million and E850 million in 2002 and is described as having 'comfortable margins'.
Vivendi has scheduled the IPO for the first half of 2003; it had earlier been expected to take place in the first quarter. The move is part of Vivendi Universal's bid to raise E12 billion over the next 18 months through the sale of non-core assets.
VUG controls five games developers: Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra, Black Label Games, NDA Productions and Universal Interactive. It recently acquired Massive Entertainment, based in Sweden, for about E3 million including debt.
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Telia battles broadband pirates
By Goran Sellgren
Sweden's giant telecom, cable TV and broadband operator Telia, is joining the anti-piracy war. Telia has taken direct action against individuals or groups using Telia's broadband networks to distribute copyrighted movies, music or games through illegal methods.
So far only a handful of broadband subscribers have been disconnected, but Telia is now prepared to take further legal action against those persisting in their illegal activities.
"In most cases a warning seems to be enough, but when that does not help we are now prepared to go further," says Ola Kallemur, Director of Information at Telia Internet (including Telia's market leading cable TV operation, Com.hem).
Telia is about to sell off Com.hem, following EU instructions after the plans to merge Telia with its Finnish counterpart Sonera became known earlier this year. But Telia intends to stay on the broadband scene in many other respects, mainly by way of ADSL technologies, while Com.hem is using its own digital cable networks for broadband operations.
This war in Sweden is orchestrated by the Swedish Bureau of Anti-Piracy (Antipiratbyraan), a gathering of trade organisations for film, video and computer games in a joint task force against piracy. Among the members are several Swedish affiliates of major Hollywood studios (Buena Vista, Fox, Paramount, Universal, Warner etc), the leading Swedish/Nordic movie producers Svensk Film, Sandrew-Metronome, Sonet, Nordisk Film, Scanbox, and international giants Microsoft, as well as local electronics and video companies).
The activities of Antipiratbyraan are heavily supported by major US trade organisations such as MPAA, Mediaforce and IDSA.
Every week the bureau forwards some 75 reports to the various broadband operators, apart from Telia Bredbandsbolaget (the Broadband Company), Tele2, Telenordia, Bostream, Spray and UPC. All except UPC and Spray admit having received reports from the anti-piracy bureau. So far Telia is the only company that has taken direct action.
But criticism is arising within the industry, "I think that the entertainment industry has to review its business methods, and agree on a digital strategy, instead of hunting individual consumers," Ola Kallemur told Swedish business paper FinansVision.
Also within the anti-piracy bureau itself there is an awareness of problems involved. "We are rather early out with this war against pirates here in Sweden", Henrik Ponten at the Antipiratbyraan comments. "For many reasons many operators want to keep a low profile; those who take too active a stand might well lose customers."
However, Sweden's anti piracy organisations get little or no help at all from the Swedish police. "We simply give it no priority at all", Anders Ahlkvist at the IT crime group of the Stockholm police, comments.
During later months Viasat, the pan-Nordic DTH platform owned by Swedish Modern Times Group, MTG, has repeatedly launched several anti-piracy actions in the satellite area, mainly in Denmark, but also on a pan-Nordic basis. Hundreds of private detectives and retired policemen have been involved; the result is reported to be successful.
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RTL viewing share up
By Dieter Brockmeyer
German channel Vox, part of the RTL channel family, has exceeded a five per cent viewing share in the 'advertising relevant target group' of 14 to 49 year-olds for the first time in its 10 year history.
Vox has seen its viewing share increase by 20 per cent compared to last year.
In September RTL itself increased its viewing share in the relevant target group by 2.2 per cent to 18.5 per cent, recapturing the number one position in Germany's channel ranking. Big loosers of the month were both public networks ARD and ZDF each seeing a one per cent decline in their viewing share.
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TV money dwindles for soccer
When BSkyB's contract to show live UK Premier League soccer matches ends, the clubs could see their TV income fall by up to a third says sports analysis firm Sportcal.com, while other analysts say the drop will be some 10 to 20 per cent.
Even if the league set up its own channel selling direct to fans, they would still loose money, suggests the report.
Following fast on the heels of the collapsed ITV Digital contract, which left 72 Nationwide League clubs out of pocket, footballers' wages are expected to be hit hard.
The Premier League has considered setting up its own channel to maximise the value of television rights, as there appear to be no credible counter bidders to BSkyB.
Last time round BSkyB, NTL and ITV Digital were competing for rights, and the eventual three-year broadcasting deal of E1.8 billion represented a 163 per cent increase.
Now NTL is out of the bidding as it is just emerging from bankruptcy and ITV Digital has collapsed, while the BBC led replacement, FreeView, will not have its own subscription sports channel.
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Deutsche Telekom bids 'unsatisfactory'
News Corp launches Sky Italia
Breton, France Telecom's new boss
TF1, C+ and M6 choose DTT channels
NTL real-time web TV shopping
OpenTV 1 st phase restructuring
Liberate 1Q losses
Continued from front page ...............
Deutsche Telekom bids 'unsatisfactory'
Germany's debt laden former PTT Deutsche Telekom has received four offers for its six regional cable-television operators. It is understood that the value of the bids is below its original expectations.
DT had hoped to raise between E2.5 billion and E2.8 billion from the sale - having been offered E5.5 billion by American Liberty Media last year before the deal was obstructed by the regulator RegTP in February - but the bids received were between E2 billion and E2.3 billion.
The four bidders are a consortium of Goldman Sachs Group, Primera, Providence Equity and Apax Partners & Co; CVC Capital Partners with Warburg Pincus; Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst; and Liberty Media with Blackstone Group and Apollo.
The disappointing offers may force DT to look at a merger between its loss-making US mobile arm VoiceStream, and rival Cingular, retaining only a minority stake in the business.
In the meantime, DT is expected to appoint a new Chief Executive by the end of October. The company has reportedly four candidates, two internal and two external. The names in the frame are, the Head of the group's wireless arm T-Mobile Kai-Uwe Ricke, Chief Financial Officer Karl-Gerhard Eick and the external candidates are, Hans-Olaf Henkel, a former head of Germany's BDI industry association, and Porsche Chief Wendelin Wiedeking.
Deutsche Telekom appointed Helmut Sihler as interim chief in July, replacing Ron Sommer who was ousted under pressure from the German government - the group's main shareholder - after he failed to make cut massive debts and presided over a collapse in the company's value.
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News Corp launches Sky Italia
It is confirmed that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and Telecom Italia is buying Italian pay-TV Telepiu from struggling media rival Vivendi Universal.
It is a E920 million deal, consisting of the assumption of up to E450 million in debt and a cash payment of E470 million for the shares of Telepiu.
"This is a world-class property in an untapped market without cable competition," Murdoch was reported as saying in a New York conference on Tuesday (2/10/02) . "We would expect to see immediate subscriber growth, the elimination of piracy and compelling programming."
The acquisition, which is subject to Brussels' regulatory approval, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Telepiu will be combined with Stream, the Italian pay-TV platform jointly owned by News Corporation and Telecom Italia, and renamed Sky Italia. News Corporation will hold an 80.1 per cent equity interest in Sky Italia, and Telecom Italia will hold a 19.9 per cent equity interest.
Italy's terrestrial channels are split between Mediaset, controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest, and state-owned Rai. Sky Italia, with an expected 1.9 million subscribers, is expected to provide some tough competition when it launches next summer.
Telepiu's rights to telecast Italian soccer matches and the rights to two terrestrial television licences are included in the deal. The combined platform will be required to sell the terrestrial television station licences.
As part of the acquisition agreement, all litigation between the companies, including Stream's litigation against Telepiu and CanalPlus' litigation against NDS, will be suspended immediately and permanently withdrawn when the transaction closes.
Murdoch's next move is not clear yet. When asked at a Goldman Sachs Media Conference on Tuesday (2/09/02) about whether his company would bid a second time for Hughes and DirecTV if the assets come up for sale, according to reports he said he would be "interested" in DirecTV if it became available. "Naturally we are watching what is happening," he said. "But we would look very carefully."
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Breton, France Telecom's new boss
Cash strapped France Telecom SA appointed Thomson Multimedia's boss Thierry Breton as its new Chairman on Wednesday (3/09/02), with the blessing of the French Government - which controls 55 per cent of France Telecom's capital and has 11 representatives on the company's 21-person board.
Breton will resign his post as Chairman and Chief Executive of French consumer-electronics company Thomson Multimedia on October 8th 2002 to take the France Telecom chair.
France Telecom has a E70 billion debt and 97 per cent share price decline since March 2000, generated under the leadership of Michel Bon - who stepped down in September. France Telecom's debt has quadrupled since 1999 as it took over Orange, Freeserve and data communications group Equant and acquired a large stake in UK cable company NTL.
Breton, how has already succeeded on turning around Thomson and computer maker Bull, is expected to restore investor confidence by devising a rescue plan.
Breton is reportedly studying several options including a massive capital increase of between E10 billion and E15 billion, and a state-backed loan - although the French government would have to convince Brussels that the latter isn't a disguised subsidy.
France Telecom SA board member Michel Gaveau was reported as saying that Breton, "will take two months to review the strategic options and get to know the company." Gaveau also denied reports that France Telecom has devised a plan to cut costs by six billion euros over the next three years.
Meanwhile, Thomson Mulitmedia said that it is appointing a two-man management team from within the company to replace Breton, but he will still remain on the Thomson board and will chair its strategic committee. Charles Dehelly, former Chief Operating Officer, will replace Breton as Chief Executive, and Frank Dangeard, former Vice-Chairman, would become the new Chairman of the Board of Directors.
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TF1, C+ and M6 choose DTT channels
By Sotires Eleftheriou
The French 'Conseil d'Etat', the country's supreme authority on interpreting the law, has decided to allow private operators to choose their own bonus channels - against the wishes of the broadcasting regulator.
The broadcasting law on DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) decrees that each of the analogue private sector channels (TF1, CanalPlus and M6) can have two DTT channels, one for simulcasting the analogue service and one 'bonus' channel. Each has in fact filed for several channels while specifying which is to be considered the bonus channel.
The CSA, which chooses which channels are to be given a licence, would like the DTT offering to be evenly balanced. It was the CSA that requested the Conseil d'Etat to clarify the law so that there would be not be appeals and additional delays.
Two new bonus channels are TF1's news channel LCI and CanalPlus' news channel recently renamed i-tele.
Given that public sector France Televisions is also planning its own news channel, this would result in three news channels in the limited 33 channel DTT spectrum.
M6 has chose M6 Music channel as its bonus channel, which would effectively block other music channels.
The ruling means that 14 channels are already settled without the CSA: eight for France Televisions and six for the private sector incumbents. The CSA is now left with 59 prospective channels from which it has to choose 19, expected by the end of October.
The Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon has declared that DTT will not begin in France before 2004. He said this is not a new delay introduced by the new government but is simply the result of several smaller delays that had not previously been visible.
This summer the government instigated two new studies on DTT, which some critics have seen as a delaying tactic, but Aillagon insists that it is to avoid costly mistakes.
One particular question that remains outstanding is that of the commercial operator for DTT, which has been left to the market. One contender was CanalPlus, provided it was the sole commercial operator, in which case it would bring its four million analogue subscribers to DTT. But CanalPlus is currently strapped for cash and has other fish to fry. The other possible operator, TPS, is strongly against DTT.
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NTL real-time web TV shopping
UK cableco NTL's broadcast arm (NTL Broadcast) is now providing live Internet streaming of home-shopping TV channel for the country's electronic retailer QVC. The real-time feed goes live this week at the UK portal www.qvcuk.com.
Customers will be able to order any on-air product simply by clicking on the yellow button next to the video stream. This tracks the show and takes the customer to the details of the product from which they can use the 'shopping trolley' system to purchase.
The web-embedded media player containing the real-time stream allows viewers to keep up-to-date with the live programme while browsing the QVC website. At the same time, online viewers can buy from the full range of over 10,000 products via the secure online transaction server. The complete interactive path between the live broadcast and the viewer includes QVC's customer service and fulfilment facility with secure framework designed to ensure that all online purchases are safe.
NTL Broadcast, which already uplinks the QVC channel to satellite from its main teleport near Winchester, added a new interactive 'buy' button facility last year.
Now NTL is taking the feed before it is uplinked, encodes it and serves the channel via a distributed server network onto the Internet. The service uses Windows Media to provide a single stream containing data for broadband, dual-ISDN and dial-up users, which allows high-quality audio and video to be streamed according to the connection rate of the user.
In addition, the web stream will receive the same 24/7 monitoring and maintenance of audio and visual quality as all TV transmissions.
Richard Burrell, Director of Engineering, QVC said, "The launch of real-time streaming of the channel is the latest phase in our strategy to deliver QVC to our customer base across all media platforms. We already work closely with NTL Broadcast not just on the satellite delivery of the channel but on trailing and bringing to market new ways of accessing the channel."
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OpenTV 1 st phase restructuring
US interactive television company OpenTV has closed its Naperville Illinois regional office - which was in charge of the research and development related to OpenTV's Device Mosaic technology - as part of the company's worldwide operations restructuring to reduce its expenses.
OpenTV expects this initial phase to reduce its workforce by approximately 10 per cent of its total.
This closure should cut costs by approximately E9 million annually. As a result of this restructuring, the company expects to take a one-time, pre-tax charge of approximately E4.2 million in the third quarter of this year.
The Naperville office's primary function will be relocated to the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Meanwhile China's largest broadband CATV customer, Shanghai Cable Network, launched the most advanced interactive television network in China using OpenTV's technologies and applications aimed at 3.5 million households.
Shanghai Cable's subscribers will get a digital television package including advanced interactive features and programming such as OpenTV's near video-on-demand (NVOD), impulse pay-per-view (IPPV), an interactive news magazine, online stock and financial services.
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Liberate 1Q losses
Liberate Technologies posted a steep fiscal first quarter loss on a 40 per cent drop in revenue and a one-time charge of E209 million related to the diminished value of past acquisitions.
Liberate also said it had cut about 15 per cent of its work force in the quarter because of a downturn in spending by cable providers. Liberate's net loss widened to E250 million (or $2.35 per share) for the quarter ended August 31, from E78 million (or 74 cents per share) a year earlier.
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Telewest restructure agreed
NDS in third piracy lawsuit
Multi-channel in Australian free to air
ITV1 confirms increase in budget
Stockholm leads Swedish broadband
Convergys' Wizard in Taiwan cable TV
Telewest restructure agreed
Debt-laden UK cable operator Telewest reached a financial restructuring agreement on Monday (30/9/02)(Also see news archive). Under the deal bondholders will take control of 97 per cent of the company in return for cancelling E5.4 billion worth of debts; current shareholders will get just three per cent of Telewest's issued ordinary share capital.
Charles Burdick, Telewest's Managing Director, was reported as saying that the agreement, "...represents an important first step towards completing a financial restructuring that carefully balances the interests of all stakeholders. I am confident we will be able to conclude a final agreement that will put the company on a sound financial footing, allowing us to build on our operational strength and extend our leadership in the broadband market. All customers and suppliers should be reassured that Telewest will continue to meet its operational commitments."
Telewest's senior secured credit facility, vendor financing, trade debt and "other obligations," which make up the remainder of the company's current debt, will be unaffected by this announcement.
However Reutersreports that members of the Telewest Action Group - an online forum which says it represents owners of 2.7 percent of the equity, were not happy with the deal.
Telewest's total debt is E8 billion and the cancellation of E5.4 billion will give the company some breathing space. Earlier this year the group cut 1,500 jobs in a bid to save E956 million a year with a further 1,000 staff expected to go over the next 18 months.
Liberty Media has previously expressed an interest in expanding its stake in Telewest by offering to purchase its debt. With this new agreement the bondholders keep control of the company.
The deal is non-biding said the company, and it will be subject to various conditions, including the reaching of an agreement between Telewest, the Bondholder Committee and Telewest's senior lenders with respect to the detailed terms of the restructuring and the process for its implementation
The company reports it now intends to seek agreement with its other stakeholders. Also, it is deferring some interest payments until after the restructuring negotiations are complete.
It is predicted that following the restructure Telewest will merge with rival UK cableco NTL within the next two years to form a credible competitor in the UK to BSkyB in pay-television and BT in broadband internet.
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NDS in third piracy lawsuit
US-based EchoStar Communications, America's second-biggest satellite communications provider, has joined Canal Plus in presenting legal charges against Israeli-British encryption software company NDS, accusing NDS of piracy.
This is the third lawsuit the News Corp-controlled TV software maker has faced. NDS manufactures TV smart cards, designed to ensure the secure delivery of digital TV programming when installed in set-top boxes.
The first to accuse NDS of breaking the computer code of rival TV smart-card makers, and delivering it to satellite-TV pirates was Vivendi Universal's Canal Plus Group in March 2002. It also said that NDS had disseminated the smart card cracking code over Internet, to damage its business. The lawsuit might be put on hold now as Vivendi Universal seeks to complete a deal to sell its Italian pay-TV service Telepiu to News Corp Ltd.
The other lawsuit against NDS is from Hughes Electronics' DirecTV. It was filed in September 2002, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and other violations relating to access services to DirecTV.
EchoStar, which claims that NDS broke its code in its Israeli labs, says its lawsuit can stand alone, but has filed its complaint as an intervention, joining the suit registered by Canal Plus. It also filed suit in the name of NagraStar, its joint venture with Switzerland's Kudelski Group, which makes the smart cards used with EchoStar's Dish system, reported the Ha'arezt.
NDS CEO Abe Peled told advanced-television.com during IBC that the claims were baseless and would be vigorously contested. NDS also accused EchoStar of trying to divert attention from its acquisition of DirecTV from Hughes Electronics, which appears to be meeting with regulatory objections.
Reuters said that EchoStar argued in a US federal court filing Friday that NDS employees hacked into access cards made by Nagrastar, a joint venture between EchoStar and Swiss digital broadcast technology company Kudelski. It alleged that NDS was trying to make "pirate technology ... intended to facilitate the reception and decryption of EchoStar's encrypted satellite-delivered television programming service by persons not authorised to receive such programming," according to legal papers filed in the US District Court in San Francisco.
The suit also opens another front in the long-running war between EchoStar Chief Executive Charles Ergen and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, who have been vying for more than two years to gain control of Hughes's DirecTV unit.
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Multi-channel in Australian free to air
By Owen Hughes
The Australian government has given its clearest signal yet that it will permit the free to air networks to offer multi-channelling - even though the pay TV industry believed that the technology was not due to be rolled out until 2007.
Communications Minister Richard Alston was quoted as saying, "The government can move ahead with multi-channeling by the three commercial free-to-air operators whenever it wants to." He dismissed suggestions by the pay TV leader Foxtel that it may drop its commitment to digitise its network at a cost of E300 million as part of undertakings to allow a planned content sharing agreement with third-ranked platform Optus.
Alston described the pay TV lobby's comments on multi-channelling as part of the "manoeuvring" used to "advantage themselves." He added, "I think you will find a commitment to digitisation will be part of the Foxtel/Optus deal. We will make decisions on the merits, not because people make threats."
Alston went on to say that the terrestrials would carry three to four extra channels using multi-channelling, whereas the pay platforms could offer up to 500 which meant that the competition between the mediums was "fairly one-sided."
The minister also blasted the pay TV providers for claiming that multi-channelling will harm their hopes of finally becoming profitable. "You don't expect to get back a multi-million investment overnight. Its always going to take whatever it might be - 10 to 15 years - to recover. You are in pay TV for the long haul so the fact that something hasn't recovered its investment at this point doesn't tell you the thing is a dog."
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ITV1 confirms increase in budget
The UK ITV1 network's programme budget for 2003 will be a record E1332 million - the largest in the network's history - as it bids to revive its ratings.
This is a big leap in comparison with the E1235 million for 2002 and if the cost of World Cup coverage is excluded, then the 2003 budget represents a E160 million increase on 2002 funding levels.
The increase in funding is only one side of ITV1's plans; the network is also planning various reforms. These changes include a rebanding - unifying all stations under ITV1, for example, HTV Wales' identity will be replaced for the most part by an 'ITV1 Wales' brand. And regional station identities will be restricted to regional news and other regional programmes.
ITV1's budget will still fall short of matching BBC One's E1619 million for the current financial year, as reported earlier this month. Increasing competition from Channel 4 and a rebranded 'five', as well as a growing range of entertainment channels on the digital platforms, may also dent ITV1's aspirations of continuing to increase its ratings.
Meanwhile it appears that ITV Head of drama Nick Elliott will temporarily fill the gap as programming Chief when David Liddiment quits in December.
Elliott, 58, has more than 35 years' experience in the TV industry, having started out as a Granada TV production trainee in 1966.
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Stockholm leads Swedish broadband
By Goran Sellgren
The Swedish city of Stockholm plans to become a major broadband operator in partnership with 'some of the biggest investors in Sweden'.
Secret negotiations have been carried out during the last six months with plans focused on a direct attack against Sweden's leading telco, Telia, which is still almost 70 per cent state owned, claiming national broadband leadership.
"For years Telia has been able to establish what is almost a monopoly in the broadband area, and what has particularly worried us is that this has led to higher prices - not lower as it promised. Our plans will lead to a greater competition, which will indeed lead to lower prices for all kinds of users," said Luis Abascal, Director of Development at the Stockholm city council.
But the grand plans do not only involve Stockholm. Beginning with the capital of Sweden, the intention is to connect local area or single estate network networks in order to create one single network for all of Stockholm. The next step will be to create similar networks in Gothenburg and Malmo - Sweden's second and third biggest cities, and then join the three areas together, thus creating a potential customer base of over three million people, one-third of the Swedish population.
'Broadband to the people' has been a war-cry in the Swedish media and political world for the last three to four years. But neither the governing Social Democrat party nor the media industry have managed to live up to these grand declarations, and broadband remains a luxury available to a privileged minority. Some of the vanguard players for the late Nineties, like Bredbandsbolaget (The Broadband Company), Utfors etc are now fighting for their lives. Telia, with its vast resources as an ex-monopoly and with the state of Sweden still as its main owner, is offering 'real' broadband through various outlets, and is also using its national cable TV operation, Com.hem, with over 1.3 million households connected, to offer 'broadband light'.
The companies that are participating in the Stockholm city operation are varied. There are city council operations like Stokab - the owner-controller of most of the cable systems of Stockholm - and Svenska Bostaeder, one of the leading housing companies of the capital. Also major estate companies including Drott and Vasakronan, major energy operator Birka energi, Skanska (one of Sweden's biggest building contractors), and Italian Internet operator Tiscali.
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Convergys' Wizard in Taiwan cable TV
Taiwanese cable TV service provider China Network Systems, will use integrated billing service provider Convergys Corporation's system to provide billing and customer management support for its digital cable TV services.
CNS, a joint venture of Koos Group and Star Group, is scheduled to launch Taiwan's first digital cable interactive TV services later this year. The company will licence Convergys's Wizard system to support and manage its interactive TV and call centre services. Through a network of 12 system operators, CNS has access to a million households.
"Wizard gives innovative operators like CNS the highly flexible billing and customer care capabilities they need to offer the latest services and maintain subscriber satisfaction," said Steve Robertson, President of Convergys International.
"The Wizard implementation is scheduled for completion later this Autumn," said Ting Hsiao, General Manager of Convergys Broadband Taiwan.
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Vivendi's Telepiu sale in review
New UPC formed by recapitalising
Telewest must restructure debt
Bidders for Kirch sport rights rise
Advertisers give the back to ITV
Wireless digital TV from Digitenne
Sky threatens to slash MTV cash
Vivendi's Telepiu sale in review
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is reported by the FT newspaper to have uncovered some "due diligence issues" on Telepiu, the Italian pay-TV arm of Vivendi Universal, that could put the E1 billion sale of the debt laden Italian pay TV firm in danger.
The Italian pay-TV company says it has about 1.5 million subscribers, compared to some 700,000 subscribers at Stream, News Corp's existing satellite television joint venture with Telecom Italia in Italy. News Corp intends to merge Telepiu with Stream if the regulators allow.
Under the transaction, News Corp is expected to receive a credit from Vivendi if the independent audit finds that the subscriber numbers are inaccurate. It also has the right to abandon the deal if the figures are significantly below expectations.
Senior executives from Vivendi and News Corp are to meet in Paris in an attempt to resolve outstanding differences over the valuation for Telepiu, part of Vivendi's Canal Plus TV division.
Chairman and Chief Executive of Vivendi, Jean-Rene Fourtou was last week reported as saying that a deal had been agreed, which surprised News Corp which said that negotiations were still underway (See News Archive).
Fourtou has planned a E12 billion disposal programme, designed to reduce Vivendi Universal's E19 billlion debt. The selling of Telepiu is the first significant step towards the E5 billion disposal goal that Vivendi wants to achieve by next year's first quarter, planing to deal with the remainder of the disposal by early 2004.
Murdoch wants to have the deal finalised quickly. He is understood to be preparing a presentation on News Corp's plans for Telepiu, due to be delivered at a Goldman Sachs investment conference in New York today (1/10/2002). However News Corp is demanding an independent audit of Telepiu's subscriber numbers before completion, besides any agreement.
Even if the issue is settled between the companies, European competition commissioner Mario Monti said that News Corp would probably need European regulatory approval to buy the Italian television business from Vivendi Universal.
"It is likely to have a European dimension, so it will have to be notified," Monti told journalists at a conference of international anti-trust regulators. The companies have "not yet notified the commission," he said.
Any merger involving companies with combined global sales of E5 billion and European sales of E250 million each requires Monti's approval, even if the companies are based outside the 15-nation European Union.
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New UPC formed by recapitalising
Europe's biggest cableco, the indebted Netherlands-based United Pan-Europe Communications NV, financial holding company of the UPC group, announced yesterday (30/9/2002) that a binding agreement has been reached with the US' UnitedGlobalCom ('UGC'), its largest creditor and shareholder and it expects to complete recapitalisation of the company to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2003.
An ad hoc committee has been formed representing certain non-UGC holders ('Bondholder Committee') of its Senior Notes and Senior Discount Notes, in support of the recapitalisation plan for UPC.
John F Riordan, President and CEO of UPC, said, "I am pleased to announce that we have now reached agreement with our key stakeholders regarding UPC's Recapitalisation. This will recapitalise UPC to provide a strong and stable balance sheet at a time when our efforts to deliver operational improvements continue to yield strong results. This is excellent news for UPC customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders," adding that it remained, "business as usual."
Michael Kramer, a managing director at Greenhill & Company, which is serving as advisor to the ad-hoc Bondholder Committee, added, "We have now reached binding agreement with both UGC and UPC that will ensure that the UPC group emerges as an appropriately capitalised group with the UPC noteholders as significant equity holders. We shall now continue to work with the company to ensure that the recapitalisation process is completed in a timely fashion."
Gene Schneider, Chairman and CEO of UGC, said, "This agreement confirms what we set out to achieve earlier this year. The UPC recapitalisation envisioned by this agreement will enable UPC to build its future upon a firm financial structure. The management team at UPC remains committed to the future of the business and will continue to focus on business execution. UPC will emerge from this restructuring with one of the strongest balance sheets in the European media and telecom sector at a time when its operations are achieving strong financial results."
The agreed recapitalisation entails the judicially supervised conversion of E925 million accreted value of Belmarken Notes and E4.3 billion 1 accreted value of UPC notes into new common stock of New UPC, Inc, a newly-formed US holding company for UPC. Under the Recapitalisation, UPC NV intends to become a substantially or wholly owned subsidiary of New UPC.
The recapitalisation would result in the elimination of 65 per cent of UPC's outstanding consolidated debt and convertible preference shares, substantially reducing its annual interest costs, which will put UPC in a significantly stronger financial position.
Number of New UPC Common Stock Offered BelmarkenNotes and UPC Notes owned by UGC Group on the date of the Restructuring Agreement 65.5 per cent; UPC Notes (other than UPC Notes owned by the UGC Group on the date of the Restructuring Agreement) 32.5 per cent; Holders of UPC Preference Shares, UPC Ordinary Shares A and UPC Priority Shares (including UGC) and holders of litigation claims 2.0 per cent; percentage of the number of shares to be outstanding immediately following the completion of the recapitalisation, before any dilutive impact of (a) the purchase by UGC of additional New UPC common stock, (b) equity and options issued to New UPC management and (c) existing UPC rights, options and warrants.
(2) Relative allocation to be determined.
(3) If the litigation claims cannot be treated as subordinated under the Plan, they will be treated as general unsecured claims.
To ensure an efficient and effective recapitalisation, UPC NV, the financial holding company, has agreed to file a voluntary case for reorganisation under Chapter 11 with a United States Court and will file a plan of reorganisation (the "Plan") and disclosure statement with the US court as soon as practicable. Completion of the recapitalisation will be conditional on receiving the appropriate creditor consents.
These court procedures only involve the financial holding company, UPC NV, and are not expected to affect the UPC operating subsidiaries.
On the date the recapitalisation becomes effective and final (the "Effective Date"), New UPC will offer to each holder of UPC Notes and Belmarken Notes the right to purchase a pro rata share of up to E100 million of additional shares of New UPC common stock at the share price implied by the Plan. This right will be exercisable only on the effective Date.
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Telewest must restructure debt
Telewest , the UK's number two cableco, will have to reach an agreement with its bondholders on the restructuring its E8.4 billion debt within the next month, after it decided to delay a E108 million bond repayment due today (1/10/2002). Bondholders include US cable giant John Malone who owns nine per cent of the company's bonds and a 25 per cent equity stake; his support for the plans is essential for Telewest.
The normal grace period for missed bond payments is 30 days, after which the company will technically be in default if it does not pay up.
Charles Burdick, Telewest's new Chief Executive promised a rescue package, but so far few plans have been revealed. The company, which has 1.6 million telephone and cable television subscribers in the UK, recently said it wanted to reduce its spending by E 715 million a year and cut staff numbers in order to further conserve its dwindling cash reserves.
A speedy resolution to the company's debt crisis would also accelerate the likelihood of a merger between Telewest and UK lead cableco NTL, which is due to come out of bankruptcy protection next month.
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Bidders for Kirch sport rights rise
Invision, a Swiss investment firm, is one of the bidders for German insolvent KirchMedia sports rights, reports the BBC. The rights cover the football World Cup, and Germany's prestigious Bundesliga.
The other bidders, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, are former KirchSport employee Guenter Netzer, who is leading a management buyout with former Adidas chief Robert Louis-Dreyfus.
The magazine said that both groups had offered E200 million to E300 million for the rights, a tiny fraction of the billions of euros the Kirch group spent acquiring rights during the 1990s.
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Advertisers give the back to ITV
In the coming weeks troubled UK terrestrial TV company ITV might have to renegotiate its main advertisers' contracts.
The Independent on Sunday newspaper reported that clients of ITV were citing the channel's failure to stem the long-term decline in viewers as a reason to switch some of their advertising spend to rival companies, with Channel 5 and BSkyB expected to be the main beneficiaries.
For example DIY retailer B&Q, which last year spent E40 million on television advertising, is considering moving. The company's marketing director, David Roth, has been reported as saying, "ITV's audiences are declining and its rates are going up. That doesn't shout 'good value' to me. We are looking at what ITV can offer. We are deciding whether to take some of our money out of ITV and place it elsewhere.
"ITV had it so good for so long that they seem to have forgotten who it is that pays their bills."
Carlton and Granada, the two main ITV companies, have already seen a fall in advertising of 17 per cent over the last two years.
According to investment bank UBS Warburg, ITV is unlikely to see a return to the levels of 2000 - when it grossed E3 billion - until at least 2007.
ITV's negotiations with its advertisers are for so-called 'share deals'. This is where companies such as B&Q, O2, BT and Procter & Gamble sign up for two-year advertising commitments.
ITV executives have held a series of meetings with advertisers to unveil its autumn programming schedule. Called 'up-front presen- tations', they have impressed some buyers, who have welcomed ITV's commitment to increase programming spend by E40 million.
On another front, the search for a boss for ITV networks continues. The prime candidate seems to be Former Channel 4 boss Michael Jackson - currently boss of Vivendi Universal's USA Networks and based in Los Angeles.
Troubled French conglomerate Vivendi, is considering breaking the group up and Jackson is thought to be keen to return to the UK.
ITV is also trying to fill in the Director of Programming position to replace David Liddiment, who leaves at the end of the year. The job was offered to Channel 5 boss Dawn Airey but she decided to take up a BSkyB offer instead.
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Wireless digital TV from Digitenne
Digitenne, a joint venture of Dutch broadcasters, is to begin trials of wireless digital TV and radio broadcasting in the Netherlands at the end of October, reports Europemedia.
This service will initially cover the cities of Haarlem, Amsterdam and Hilversum with some 1.3 million potential users, and will extend to the rest of the country by 2004.
Digitenne, a consortium, which includes the Dutch broadcasting facility (NOB), the Dutch transmission operator (Nozema) and broadcaster CanalPlus, was awarded a DVB-T licence by the Dutch Government in January 2002.
Subscribers of this service will pay a monthly charge of E9 and will need a 15cm-tall antenna and a set-top receiver the size of a videocassette.
Digitenne subscribers will be able to receive and play television and radio programmes on their PCs when the initial service commences.
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Sky threatens to slash MTV cash
Satellite TV company British Sky Broadcasting is launching three new music channels and from next year wants to halve the E35.7 million a year it pays to music broadcaster MTV for six channels - including VH1 and MTV Base.
The competition in the music channels industry is tough and it moves fast. "Just look at Emap's* channels. They've only been on air a year or so and they've already got similar share to MTV. Brand loyalty is not huge in this space" BSkyB Chief Executive, Tony Ball said.
Last year Telewest threatened to drop MTV channels from its cable service altogether if it did not lower the amount it charged. MTV was eventually forced to slash its charges from 70p to 40p per subscriber.
*Gerry Murphy, Chief Executive of ITV shareholder Carlton Communications, is reportedly being considered for the top job at Emap. Chairman Robin Miller announced he is to stand down next year. Murphy is said to be on a shortlist of three for the Emap role.
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OpenTV buys ACTV and Wink
Discovery to launch Nordic feed
Sky trials web tool for iTV ads
NTL buys soccer cheap
Carlton's shareholders dividend halved
German TV structural crisis forecast
EuroNews Yugoslavia/ Czech launch
Playing with the unemployed
Soccer prioritised by Canal Plus
OpenTV buys ACTV and Wink
US-based interactive television specialist OpenTV Corp, a Liberty Media owned company, is acquiring iTV advertising and commerce company ACTV and Wink Communications, further extending its iTV range across virtually all technical platforms.
It is estimated that the value of OpenTV stock being exchanged for all the shares of ACTV is from E15 million to E41 million, dependent on the share price at the time of the deal finalising, according to Internet News figures.
The deal with ACTV is a stock-for-stock merger and it is subject to approval of both OpenTV - in which Liberty Media is an 86 per cent majority share owner - and ACTV shareholders and regulatory approval.
The actual agreement is to trade between E0.27 to E0.73 worth of OpenTV stock for every share of ACTV stock, depending on whether OpenTV's stock price rises or falls prior to the merger. If the price of OpenTV stock slips below E0.80, the company will either up its payment to E0.584 worth of stock per ACTV share, or allow ACTV to terminate the merger agreement.
The stock-for-stock merger will be a taxable transaction for ACTV shareholders. ACTV had approximately E59 million of cash and cash equivalents prior to contractual liabilities at August 31, 2002. The boards of directors of both OpenTV and ACTV have agreed to recommend the merger to their respective shareholders and key members of ACTV's board and management have entered into agreements to vote their shares in favour of the transaction.
*Separately, Liberty Broadband Interactive Television, a newly formed subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, agreed to sell recently acquired Wink Communications Inc (Wink) to OpenTV for approximately E101 million in cash, representing LBIT's costs to acquire Wink late last month. Wink had approximately E47 million of cash and cash equivalents prior to contractual liabilities at August 31, 2002.
The sale is expected to be completed in the next few weeks because regulatory or shareholder approvals are required prior to completing the transaction.
OpenTV, when combined with ACTV and Wink, will have approximately E160 million of cash, no debt and a global footprint exceeding 35 million homes with one or more of its iTV products or services.
Key iTV products and services offered by OpenTV will include interactive advertising and t-commerce, middleware, enhanced media, interactive games, and a variety of iTV tools that enable content developers, programmers and advertisers to enhance their programming and content for iTV.
OpenTV Chief Executive James Ackerman said that the firm is aiming to reach cash flow breakeven within the next several quarters thanks to the acquisitions, and ongoing restructuring.
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Discovery to launch Nordic feed
By Goran Sellgren
The interest from big international programme operators in the four Nordic countries is apparently increasing. In the middle of last week The Walt Disney Corporation announced a major deal for the Nordic DTH rights with Swedish-based Modern Times Group and its DTH arm, Viasat, covering all four Nordic territories and competing with Norwegian Canal Digital for the market leading position.
Then by the end of the week Discovery Communications announced a further focus on Scandinavia and Finland: from October 1 Discovery will launch a special feed for these four countries.
Not only will many of the programmes be voiced over subtitles in one or more of the four local languages, the programming content will be adapted to the taste and interests of the Nordic audiences. A further focus will also be bring greater efforts to attract Nordic advertisers.
For several years Discovery and its growing number of channels and services have been represented in Scandinavia by CMI, a company based in the Danish city of Ringsted. Formed by Henning and Thomas Kjaer (father and son), still running the company, CMI was acquired in its entirety by Discovery a couple of years ago.
Apart from the original Discovery Channel, also Animal Planet, Discovery Adventure, Sci-Trek and Civilization are now available to the Nordic audience, both via satellite (Canal Digital) and on most major cable systems. Discovery has also shown considerable interest in the Swedish DTT project.
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Sky trials web tool for iTV ads
Interactive TV (iTV) advertising services company Press Red, and Sky Interactive have begun joint technical trials to enable the on-line creation of interactive TV ads (iAds) for the digital satellite platform.
Sky Interactive's broadcast systems are being integrated with Press Red's new on-line iAd creation tool, BlackBox Designer. This new product is intended to enable advertising agencies to create, preview, and submit for broadcast, interactive components for their television campaigns, by simply logging-on over the Internet.
Press Red and Sky say that after successful completion of the current technical trials they may run commercial trials in which agencies would be invited to deploy the system for the first time.
Sky is seeking to stimulate the development of iAds and other interactive services by extending access to its WTVML Microbrowser, the technology which supports the delivery of interactive services on the digital satellite platform.
BlackBox Designer aims to allow brand owners and their advertising agencies to focus on the creative design of iAds without having to worry about iTV technology, or the underlying digital TV platform. Accessed via Press Red's dedicated website, the tool presumes no specialised iTV knowledge on the part of its users, and is intended to allow easy WYSIWYG creation and editing of iAds.
It also permits previewing of iAds on TV via a standard Sky digibox - unlike traditional iTV software, which requires expensive, dedicated hardware.
Danny Payea, Sky's Business Relationship Manger for Interactive Technology Alliances, expressed his hopes for the trials saying, "It is anticipated that the integration of third party tools will remove many of the practical production barriers and bottlenecks involved in getting an interactive ad to air. In turn, this initiative aims to allow agencies to concentrate their efforts where their value lies - in creating great ideas, not necessarily in focusing on technology."
Tobin Ireland, Commercial Director at Sky Interactive adds, "We look forward to being able to support tools which will allow agencies to create templated iAds in-house rather than relying on Sky Interactive resource. We are confident that this will further stimulate the growing iAd market by allowing more agencies and advertisers to embrace the huge potential of this medium."
Chris Moreton, CEO of Press Red, adds, "Up to now, creation of iAds has been a technically difficult process that, outside of a handful of highly specialised companies, Sky has had to manage entirely by itself. The WTVML Microbrowser will provide the ideal environment in which to exploit our BlackBox solution for interactive advertising."
David Hughes, Sales & Marketing Director for Press Red stressed "We aim to deliver a multi-platform, integrated iTV solution that provides a complete interactive advertising publishing service from initial design to final play-out."
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NTL buys soccer cheap
UK cableco NTL will be paying the country's Football League clubs only E8 million (£5 million) to show matches over the Internet compared to the E56 million (£35 million) previously agreed.
After NTL admitted earlier this year that it could not afford to pay the whole amount, the 73 Football League clubs agreed to reduce their fees by E48 million (£30 million).
Nationwide League clubs will receive just E8 million now, but will get an increased share of all future revenue earned by the venture until the total amount reaches the original figure of E56 million.
Football League Commercial Director, Richard Masters was reported in the Guardian as saying, "This new agreement offers a great opportunity for clubs to work with Premium TV to earn themselves significant levels of revenue by providing the groundbreaking Internet content that their supporters deserve."
NTL and the clubs will share the profits 50:50 once the clubs have recovered their E56 million.
Currently video highlights of matches are screened 48 hours after a game has been played. In a bid to attract more subscribers the Football League will allow the highlights to be screened on the Internet just 24 hours after.
Using third generation networks to deliver non-live video footage, NTL's sports broadcasting arm Premium TV, will also be handed the right to show highlights on mobile phones.
NTL also plans to use the offer to attract people to its broadband service, bundling access with subscriptions to highlights packages.
Originally the deal, signed at the height of football rights fever in 2001, outlined an ambitious plan whereby Premium TV would build a broadband enabled website for every club through which fans would pay to watch match highlights. But only 16,000 people have subscribed and many clubs are still awaiting their broadband-enabled subscriber sites.
The league clubs have already lost out due to the collapse of ITV Digital and their subsequent defeat in an ill-advised court case against shareholders Carlton and Granada.
The Football League and Carlton and Granada are now in talks about TV highlight rights but it is believed that the league will not close a deal unless the media giants allow it to recover some of the E284 million it was owed from its E502 million deal with ITV Digital when it went bust.
It is expected that if an agreement is reached, there will be a cut-price deal with Carlton and Granada to allow them to show highlights of games in their own areas.
The 73 Football League clubs are desperate to agree highlights deals to fulfil obligations to sponsors. The BBC is believed to have cooled on the idea of grabbing the highlights, while Channel 5 is reportedly keeping a watching brief.
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Carlton's shareholders dividend halved
UK terrestrial Carlton Communications' own stockbroker has predicted that its shareholders will get just half of the company's predicted dividend payment.
The shares have fallen to 10-year lows aided by worries about the ITV network's prospects and the sharp fall in advertising revenue and now shareholders will have their stake halved.
UBS Warburg, the house stockbroker, has been reported as describing the dividend as "a significant burden on cash resources" and predicted a cut of "around 50 per cent."
Last year directors halved the dividend from 16.6p per share to 8.3p. They are understood to be considering either halving it again or cancelling the dividend altogether. The shares have dropped 87 per cent to 111.5p since March 2000.
A Carlton spokesman said, "A decision on the final dividend will not be taken by the board until they have approved the annual figures and taken into account prospects for the future."
Final results are due at the end of November.
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German TV structural crisis forecast
By Dieter Brockmeyer
A huge structural crisis is forecast for Germany's 'dual system' of commercial and public broadcasters according to German commercial TV and radio lobbyist VPRT.
"Commercial TV providers increasingly suffer from the decline in advertising revenues, while the public system is fed by the stable level of its regularly incoming fees", says the organisation's President Juergen Doetz who also is board member of the commercial TV family ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG.
Moreover, public broadcaster ARD's Chairman Fritz Pleitgen had said, being faced with the tax collectors payments of E464 million delayed tax money for the public systems advertising revenues over the last five years, that this would cause a severe financial crisis that would lead to increasing fees for German TV owners. For that reason, Doetz demands that the Lander in charge of media legislation should review the entire scheme of public broadcasting in Germany.
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EuroNews Yugoslavia/ Czech launch
Pan-European news channel, EuroNews is now available in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and on cable networks in Czech Republic.
EuroNews has concluded an agreement with the Yugoslav cable operator KDS. The English version of EuroNews is now available to 26,000 homes in Belgrade and Novi Sad bringing EuroNews' distribution to 77 countries worldwide.
Already broadcast partially on the terrestrial channel CT2, EuroNews has just concluded its first agreement with the largest cable TV operator in Czech Republic. UPC Czech Republic includes EuroNews in German and English to the 'Lifeline' package consisting of 10 channels. Currently 300,000 homes subscribe to this package and receive EuroNews as the ony channel broadcasting in English.
With these two agreements EuroNews is now distributed worldwide in 124 million homes, including in 15 million households in Central and Eastern Europe on cable networks, satellite platforms and through terrestrial channel.
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Playing with the unemployed
By Dieter Brockmeyer
The 'interactive' German TV channel Neun Live is to launch a game show for the unemployed with the grand prize being a job.
The viewers will call into the show to decide who wins, Christiane zu Salm, the channel's Managing Director said in an interview.
The new format has already roused a lot of criticism. German trade unions believe it to be a cynical idea which would make fun of the four million plus unemployed in Germany.
The channel, which intends to break even next year, will get most of its revenues from the phone calls of viewers. The channel manager agreed that it's game formats that make viewers call and pay 49 Eurocents each time. "But there must be other reasons than the chance to win E100. We're now going to introduce these new options step by step," she said. Neun Live was created out of the TM3 channel last year and can be reached by 70 per cent of the 33 million German TV homes. It is operated by Euviva Media AG of which Zu Salm is the CEO; the company also runs the travel channel 'sonnenklar' (sun bright). Euviva Media AG is owned 48.4 per cent by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG and 45.6 per cent by Barry Diller's European home shopping venture HOT Networks AG. Three percent each are held by Zu Salm and by HOT founder and current CEO of the German digital pay TV platform Premiere, Georg Kofler.
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Soccer prioritised by Canal Plus
France's Canal Plus will concentrate on its football broadcasting, especially on its First Division football, renamed L1, said Chairman Xavier Couture, but in an interview in Les Echos he expressed no intention of entering into a confrontation with TPS-TF1 on this matter.
Speaking about cinema, Couture said the group aims to produce 110-115 films in 2003 from around 172 in 2002.
Couture said a decision on whether to sell its Expand unit has not yet been taken. M6 has asked to see the details, he said.
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