Satellite news 09.03.07

Can'al launches entry-level digital pack

Can'als'at is introducing a new digital package replicating the French DTT line-up. The new service will go live on June 15 using the Astra satellite network at 19 degrees East and will carry 18 of the channels included on the ‘TNT’ system. The pack is designed to supplement the largely metropolitan coverage of the existing DTT network. As the channels are freely available on the DVB-T network, the satellite service will also be available without a subscription, however a smartcard will still be required. At a later date the various regional versions of the France 3 network will be added to the line-up.

Premiere pulls foreign bouquets

German pay TV operator Premiere has pulled the plug on a number of its international bouquets aimed at foreigners living in Germany. Affected are a Russian and an Italian bouquet with Kanäle Perviy, RTVi, Nashe Kino, RTR Planeta, RAI Uno, RAI Due, RAI Tre and Video Italia. Premiere will continue to sell and market a 10 channel Turkish package broadcast from Astra at 23.5 degrees East. The move comes because of disappointing sales with Italians and Russian viewers. Insiders were not surprised, since the four Italian channels are available free of charge on the Eutelsat Hotbird position alongside a few dozen other free-to-air Italian broadcasters including the three popular Mediaset channels Italia Uno, Rete Quattro and Can'ale 5. For Russian viewer other offers are available with a wider choice of channels.

Virgin Media gives Sky 30-day deadline

Virgin Media has told BSkyB that it will take its carriage fee dispute to the High Court if it is not resolved within 30 days. The cablenet intends to challenge BSkyB for its “abuse of dominance”. “We are not interested in prolonging this dispute any longer than necessary but we will not allow Virgin Media or our customers to be the victim of Sky’s market power. In the interest of the consumer, we want these issues resolved quickly,” said Virgin Media CEO Steve Burch. In a presentation to an'alysts Monday, Burch said he anticipated the loss of subscribers to BSkyB to be numbered in thousands, though to date churn has only amounted to a few hundred. He confirmed Broadband TV News reports that subscribers would be offered discounts on their monthly fee to encourage them to stay and that great store was being put in the company’s VOD service.

Tandberg backs Ericsson offer

The Board of Directors of Tandberg Television ASA said Wednesday that the digital television systems vendor is now recommending the voluntary offer made by Ericsson to acquire all outstanding shares in the company. The offer was launched February 26 2007, competing with an offer by Arris, recommended by the Tandberg board on January 15. To acquire all outstanding shares, Ericsson has extended its offer to include US citizen and US resident holders of Tandberg shares. Tandberg says it has notified Arris of the withdrawal of its recommendation that Tandberg shareholders accept the offer from Arris and terminated the Transaction Agreement with Arris. As a result, Tandberg Television is obliged to pay a termination fee to Arris of $18 million within one business day after the change of recommendation. Ericsson has, with certain exceptions, agreed to refund the $18 million to Tandberg if Ericsson does not complete its offer.

Dublin DVB-H trial underway

The first consumer trial of mobile TV in Ireland got underway in Dublin Wednesday. The trial is being conducted by the mobile operator O2 and the transmission company Arqiva. The 350 participants, selected from the O2 customer base in Greater Dublin, will have access to a package of 13 channels including RTE1, RTE2, TV3, Sky Sports, Sky News, Setanta Sports and The Discovery Channel. Interactive music and games channels will also be available. The DVB-H mobile TV standard will be used for the trial. Signals will be received on the Nokia N92 handset, which has replaced the 7710, used in earlier trials such as those in Oxford. The trial will run until August 31, 2007 and will look at how consumers respond to the next generation TV services they are presented. An earlier trial took place last year during the Ryder Cup held at the K-Club.

Sci-Fi awarded Benelux licences

Versions of Sci-Fi Channel and 13th Street have been licensed by Ofcom for carriage in the Benelux. The two stations have been issued with television broadcast licences. However, the two have been rebuffed in their attempts to get carriage on the UPC cable network in the Netherlands. Another broadcaster using the UK as its base is Discovery Channel and the network has received a new licence for Spain and Portugal. Also receiving a licence from Ofcom is Liverpool Football Club, only the third Premiership club to plan its own broadcast channel, after Chelsea and Manchester United.

German WDR to begin HD pilot in 2007

German regional public broadcaster WDR plans to test HD transmissions on satellite later this year, according to Rainer Hesels, responsible for television strategy and online, in an article in the in-house magazine WDR In-Print. “We already shoot most productions in HD,” he said, but he expects regular HD transmissions from the German public channels to start somewhere between 2010 and 2012. WDR, the largest and most cash-rich of all regional broadcasters, plans to transmit all their programmes in widescreen by the end of this year. The HD pilot will also take place this year as well as tests with mobile TV in the region of Cologne.

Alcatel-Lucent boosts Danish IPTV

Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed that TDC has opted for the company’s services integration, as well as the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform, for its new IPTV service. Known as TDC TV, it made its debut on February 20 and offers over 35 TV channels, an EPG and movie rental service consisting of over 200 titles and can be received in up to 1.6 million Danish households. TDC TV’s coverage should rise to over 1.8 million homes – or 70% of the country’s total – by the end of the year, and it will eventually offer HDTV channels.

Hot opts for VideoGuard

The Israeli cable operator HOT Telecom has decided to use NDS’s VideoGuard conditional access for its pay-TV subscription-based service. HOT Telecom is owned by the three former MSOs Arutzei Zahav (previously known as Golden Channels), Matav and Tevel and has over a million cable TV and 400,000 broadband Internet subscribers. Offering VoIP and VOD, it competes in a market also served by the incumbent telco Bezeq and its DTH platform Yes.

165,000 views of BBC YouTube content

IPTV WORLD FORUM – Over 165,000 viewers have accessed the BBC’s content on YouTube since its launch on Friday. Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology, told the IPTV World Forum in London that he expected between 400,000 and 500,000 views by the end of the week. The BBC has launched two channels on the Google-owned YouTube with a third to follow. The commercial deal is for two BBC-branded entertainment channels showing short form videos under two separate agreements with the BBC and its commercial arm BBC Worldwide. The advertising funded elements, for which BBC Worldwide will receive a commission, will only be available outside of the UK.

ODG in Tele Munchen JV

On Demand Group has formed a joint venture with Tele München Group to launch a series of on demand and pay-per-view services in the German market. On Demand Deutschland will be based in Münich and cater for the 45 million German-speaking television households in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “We have the perfect combination of content and services to jump-start this market,” Tony Kelly, CEO, On Demand Group. “TMG adds significant local punch to make our offering the obvious choice for the region’s operators.” ODG, owned by SeaChange International, already provides VOD services into Kabel Deutschland as well as the FilmFlex service for Virgin Media. TMG is best known as a shareholder in German stations Tele 5 and RTL2 and the Austrian commercial broadcaster ATV.

Mediaset to launch 8-channel DTT pay service

The Italian Mediaset company will launch an 8-channel pay service on DTT, according to a report in the daily Corriere della Sera. The new service would compete with News Corp owned DTH service Sky Italia in the battle for Italian viewers. The service would retail at 8 euro a month and offer movies, cartoons and women’s interest channels. At the moment Mediaset only offers a free-to-air multiplex on DTT with live soccer matches as a premium service. Compared with the Sky DTH platform with dozens of channels the new Mediaset bouquet would only offer a very limited service.

Fastweb’s Scaglia backs broadband Babelgum

Fastweb founder Silvio Scaglia is backing a new broadband television and on demand service known as Babelgum. Scaglia, who is still the Italian IPTV operator’s largest shareholder is investing €10 million in the new project that launches in London this week. His business partner is Erik Lumer who spent several years in strategy consulting for leading IT and Telecommunications companies both in Europe and in the United States Babelgum will use peer-to-peer technology and will enter a test phase before the end of the month ahead of a full release later this year. The content will use professionally produced videos – putting it in competition with Joost – rather than relying on User Generated Content. However, Babelgum is looking towards the independent production sector rather than the big name brands favoured by Joost.

Vivendi posts impressive results

Vivendi saw its net income rise by 17.9% in 2006 to reach €2.6 billion, while its earnings were up by 27.9% to €4 billion. 2006 was a particularly good year for the Can'al+ Group, which saw its EBITDA grow to €251 million, excluding the transition costs of the TPS merger in France. The figure represented a 21.8% increase on the 2005 total. Although EBITDA in 2006 rose by 46% in France itself, it was slightly down for Can'al+ operations elsewhere including Poland, where the company operates one of the country’s three DTH platforms. Can'al recorded 5.14 million subscriptions at the end of 2006, an increase of 76,000 over the past 12 months, with the total of 646,000 new subscribers providing the best performance since 1987.