Greece catches IPTV fever
Greece catches IPTV fever
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The Greek broadband provider Hellas online (HOL) is launching a new IPTV service. It features access to the main Greek free-to-air channels, news, information, music, children’s and sports drawn from around the world and – for the first time in Greece – HD content.
The company says its VOD offer features hundreds of titles. There is also a significant amount of entertainment and sports content available free of charge.
Hellas has chosen the Microsoft Mediaroom middleware to drive its functionality that includes automatic recordings from the 14-day electronic programme guide. It is also possible to display photographs from the local network directly onto the TV set. The IPTV decoder is manufactured by Motorola.
HOL, which is part of the Intracom Holdings group, is one of the largest providers of fixed telephony services in Greece.
Separately, On Demand Group (ODG), a subsidiary of SeacChange International, has announced details of the VOD and SVOD content line-up for the incumbent telco OTE’s new IPTV platform.
It will include blockbuster movies from major Hollywood studios including Disney-ABC-ESPN Television, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.
SES-Astra to move 2C to 31.5 East
SES Astra has announced that it will be moving the Astra 2C satellite from its current orbital position at 28.2 degrees East to 31.5 degrees East to take over the mission of Astra 5A, which is no longer in service.
Astra 2C will be moved to 31.5 degrees East in April and remain there for approximately one year. In the meantime, the services transmitted via 28.2 degrees East will continue to be broadcast from the other satellites co-located at this orbital position.
Astra 2C will be able to operate 24 BSS transponders at 31.5 degrees East, thereby continuing the commercialization of this orbital position.
Following the launch of Astra 3B in the fourth quarter of 2009 and its subsequent deployment, another in-orbit satellite will be moved to 31.5 degrees East, permitting the return of Astra2C to 28.2 degrees East and to enhance capacity at this orbital position.
Ferdinand Kayser, president and CEO of SES Astra, said in a statement: “The move of Astra 2C demonstrates our strong commitment to develop 31.5 degrees East into an important position, especially for Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time our fleet flexibility allows us to redeploy Astra 2C at 28.2 degrees East after the launch of Astra 3B in order to serve the growth in the UK market, particularly coming from High Definition (HD) broadcast services.”
Multichoice adds Canal Odisseia
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The Portuguese language documentary channel Canal Odisseia is set to launch in Angola and Mozambique on the pay-TV platform Multichoice Africa, it was announced by Chellomedia.
Canal Odisseia is a documentary channel from Chello Multicanal offering a mix of cross genre programmes through in-house & co-productions, and acquisitions. The channel presents documentaries on nature, current
affairs & social issues, people & places, travel, arts, science & technology.
Odisseia is available on pay TV, cable and satellite in Portugal and Spain, and reaches six million homes. Odisseia joins its sister channel, Canal Panda, on the Multichoice platform. Canal Panda, Chello Multicanal’s Portuguese kids’ channel, which was launched on Multichoice Africa in August last year.
NDS snatches Kudelski client
International technology company NDS has won a significant contract in Switzerland from Kudelski's Nagravision. The country’s largest pay-TV operator Teleclub will in future encrypt its digital subscription package on cable networks in VideoGuard.
For existing subscribers Teleclub will continue to use Nagravision, the system developed by Swiss company Kudelski, in simulcrypt mode for the time being. New set-top-boxes will be equipped with VideoGuard from the outset.
With Teleclub’s decision to adopt VideoGuard, NDS has achieved a landmark coup: The company has not only won its first contract in Switzerland, but also snatched away one of its arch rival’s customers in its home country.
At the same time, NDS has strengthened its market position in German-speaking Europe. Its existing customers comprise Premiere, Kabel BW, KabelKiosk/Tele Columbus/PrimaCom, Arcor and Telekom Austria. NDS and Teleclub want to commence deployment of VideoGuard over the next few weeks. The pay-TV broadcaster currently has more than 80,000 subscribers on cable networks.
“We are more than proud to announce that Teleclub, one of Europe’s true pay-TV pioneers, having started operations back in 1982, has chosen to entrust VideoGuard conditional access (CA) to secure its premium pay-TV programming and protect its service revenues,” said Yves Padrines, vice president, business development at NDS and general manager of the company’s German subsidiary NDS GmbH.
With Teleclub, NDS has signed up CA agreements with a total of six major pay-TV platforms in German-speaking territories, Padrines added. “We look forward to supporting Teleclub in its upcoming initiatives to deliver to subscribers the pay-TV services they want.”
© Rapid TV News 2009
French Assembly examines anti-piracy law
France’s Assembly is this week examining the new anti-piracy law project that plans to prevent illegal use of cultural works on internet and to set up retaliation measures. Supported by Minister of Culture Christine Albanel, this reform project was passed last October in Senate. But the plan to cut the internet subscription of pirates after two warnings is still under debate among deputies.
Some denounce the plan to disconnect repeat offenders as infringing civil liberties. At the same time, the French government is also pleading for the development of an attractive legal and cultural offer (music and movies). Majority party UMP estimates that illegal downloads are mostly responsible for the 50% fall of music sales in France over the last five years. According to a recent poll, 37% of French internauts acknowledge having practised illegal downloads or using pirated contents.
To encourage the development of new legal offers, French Ministry of Culture is going to propose that the media chronology be changed so as to reduce to four months the video delay between the movie theatrical release and the video (DVD and VoD) release. It takes currently six to seven months.
© Rapid TV News 2009
13éme Rue tops French cabsat viewing
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Universal action and suspense 13ème Rue has topped Médiamétrie’s bi-yearly Mediacabsat survey that measures the audience of 90 channels. It reached a 1% marketshare on susbcribers vs 0.8% six months earlier. However, traditional market leader Eurosport (TF1), whose ratings are now measured daily like other channels like Paris Première, RTL9, LCI and TV Breizh, is not subscribing anymore to Mediacabsat.
French TV viewing reached 3 hours and 47 minutes between September 2008 and February 2009 and was ten minutes above the national average in cabsat households. Among these households, the marketshare of cabsat and DTT channels reached 39.4% over the period (vs 38.4% in 2007-2008). This broke down to 29.9% for theme channels, 6.5% for DTT channels and 3% for local, regional and foreign channels.
M6 women’s channel Téva came in second position with a 0.8% marketshare, up 0.1% over one year. It is followed in third place by kids channel Canal J (Lagardère Active) that tied with Comédie ! (Canal+), Disney Channel, Jetix (Disney) and Série Club (M6 and TF1). They all reached a 0.7% market share, down a significant 0.3% for Canal J over one year, but up 0.1% for Comédie !, 0.2% for Disney Channel, 0.4% for Jetix and stable for Série Club over the same twelve-month period. Jetix’ significant leap among kids channels is a good way to bow out as new Disney boy-oriented channel Disney XD will replace it as of April 1.
© Rapid TV News 2009
TF1, M6 introduce new ad break
Following the promulgation of the new broadcast law by President Sarkozy, French private networks TF1 et M6 have announced they will progressively introduce a second ad break into movies and magazine programming.
TF1 started yesterday during the broadcast of a daytime TV drama while M6 will introduce a new ad slot as of March 15 in access and prime-time magazines Capital, D&Co and Zone Interdite.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Cyfrowy Polsat to expand portfolio
Cyfrowy Polsat to expand portfolio
By Chris Dziadul | March 11, 2009 | 10:01 UK
The Polish DTH platform Cyfrowy Polsat is to acquire an 11% stake in the telco Sferia for almost PLN54 million (€11.47 million).
According to PB, the move represents a consolidation assets controlled by the entrepreneur Zygmunt Solarz-Zak and is being made possible by a share issue at Sferia.
It also represents part of a strategy to offer integrated multi-play services.
Cyfrowy Polsat is the leading provider of DTH services in Poland, with over 2.7 million subscribers.
2010 commercial launch for Freeview HD
2010 commercial launch for Freeview HD
By Julian Clover | March 11, 2009
DVB WORLD – BERLIN. The BBC is aiming to have its terrestrial HD service up and running in time for the 2010 World Cup with Freeview looking to target the upmarket ABC1 groups that have found the Freeview+ PVR so attractive.
Cheryl Sloan, director of strategy and new product development, Freeview, said that of the 14 million HD Ready sets already in the market, 26% were already in Freeview homes, this she said represented “low hanging fruit”.
“It’s looking like we should be able to reach 30-40% of the population by 2010 in time for the World Cup in that year,” said Graham Plumb, head of distribution technology, BBC Distribution. The anticipation is that boxes could be priced around the £100 mark.
Plumb said there had been some hard decisions along the way, particularly concerning the use of the 1080p standard, the so-called “Full HD”. “It was a brisk and painful debate, but we decided if we looked at it they would not be able to launch in time, so we if we had of included 1080p we wouldn’t be able to launch in time, although the receivers will be able to upscale.”
Describing the benefits of the DVB-T2 technology that will be used to deliver the UK’s HDTV service, Plumb said he was anticipating capacity savings of 50% on DVB-T. The Crystal Palace main transmitter switched on by Arqiva on February 20, joining the Guildford transmitter that had been on-air since June 27 last year.
Panasonic, Pace, Humax, Sony, Sidsa, NXP and ST Microelectronics are all participating in the tests.
At last! Good news for Sirius
The past few months have been tough at pay-radio outfit Sirius-XM, with talk of bankruptcy, debt-burdens, and most especially the near-collapse of the US auto market with all that means for ‘new’ subscribers to pay-radio. Sirius-XM’s pro-forma results showed some useful improvements.
First, the company added 82,945 net new subs during the pre-Christmas quarter, and ended 2008 with subs up 10% y-o-y at 19m (17.3m at end of 2007). Revenues were also up 16%, taking quarterly revenue to $622m against market expectations of $615m. The pre-Christmas quarter was the first when both the Sirius and XM portions were trading together. As to 2008’s numbers the business had pro-forma revenues of $2.44bn.
Not that all worries were eliminated. For example, in the same quarter year 2007 the two – then rival – broadcasters added 1.1m new subs, so this past quarter’s 82,945 is a concern. Churn was up slightly, from 1.7% in 2007 to 1.8% in 2008. Digging a little deeper into the subs numbers it is clear that the company lost about 131,000 subs who had bought and installed sat-radio receivers in their existing cars. But the company gained about 218,000 subscribers whose radios came installed in their new cars. The company has often said that it is in so many more new cars compared with the past that even with slowing car sales, its subscriber numbers will continue to improve.
In February Sirius-XM was 40% acquired by Liberty Media, which helped bail out Sirius-XM with a $500m infusion to help pay off debt obligations.
© Rapid TV News 2009
M6 posts EBITA down 17.8 %
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M6 Group has announced operating income down 17.8% in 2008 at €194m. Net result group share reached €138.4 million last year down 17.9% vs last year.
While M6 Group consolidated revenues were almost stable in 2008 at €1.35bn, the group explained the decreasing results in relation to “the decline of M6 Network contribution due to the Euro 2008 broadcasting costs.” M6, like TF1, acquired the rights for €50 million each. “Excluding sports event, the cost of programming as well as other operating expenses were under control,” M6 added.
M6 network contribution to EBITA amounted to €137.8m, down 29.9% with programming costs standing at €347m, Euro 2008 included. Digital channels confirmed their role as “growth drivers” with a strong increase in EBITA contribution to €18.9m compared to €0.3m in 2007.
DTT channels reported their “first profitable year”. Diversification and audiovisual rights contribution stood at €42.3m, slightly down compared to 2007.
© Rapid TV News 2009
On Demand wins Greek IPTV order
On Demand Group, part of Seachange Int’l, has won the VOD and subscription VOD contract from OTE, Greece’s Hellenic Telecoms Organisation, for its upcoming IPTV service.
OTE’s FilmExpress transaction VOD (TVOD) service includes blockbuster movies from major Hollywood studios including Disney-ABC-ESPN Television (WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,), Universal Studios (Mamma Mia, The Incredible Hulk), Paramount Pictures (Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), and Warner Bros. (Sweeney Todd, Batman: The Dark Knight), plus a selection of library titles from the above studios including Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney-ABC-ESPN Television), The Bourne Identity (Universal Studios), Forrest Gump, (Paramount Pictures), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.). Subscribers to the service can select a movie of their choice for a 24-hour rental period with full DVD-like features including control to pause, fast forward, rewind or watch over again.
OTE’s FilmClub subscription VOD (SVOD) service includes a wide range of TV series from CBS (Sex and the City, Star Trek: Enterprise), HBO (The Sopranos, Entourage), HIT (Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine), Lions Gate (Mad Men, The Kill Point), and Warner Bros. (ER, Babylon 5), as well as documentaries from National Geographic. The SVOD service also includes library movies from HBO, Lions Gate, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., and hundreds of international and local music videos from EMI, Universal Music and Sony Music. Subscribers will also receive more than 30 digital broadcast channels.
Tony Kelly, CEO of ODG said: “We are very pleased to be able to provide a compelling TVOD and SVOD offer to OTE for its IPTV launch. The range of movies, TV series, kids programming, documentaries and music videos will help to underpin the successful launch and regular and sustained viewing of VOD in Greece.”
On Demand Group provides services for customers such as Virgin Media, Kabel Deutschland, Unity Media, Telekom Austria and others. ODG is Virgin Media TV’s content management partner for their successful VOD service in the UK, which is the largest VOD service outside of North America with over 50m views per month.
© Rapid TV News 2009
Green light for Nick Jr. in Germany
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TV broadcaster MTV Networks can go ahead with the launch of its children’s channel Nick Jr. in Germany after anti-media concentration commission KEK gave the green light.
With entertainment and educational programmes, Nick Jr. will target pre-school children aged 3 to 5 years. The channel, which will be available on digital pay-TV platforms, will be launched later this year, although an exact date has not yet been set. An MTV Networks spokeswoman said that this would be dependent on the course of negotiations with platform operators.
Nick Jr., which was launched in the USA in 1988, is already available in various European countries including the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. In mid-January MTV Networks announced the channel’s market introduction to Germany.
© Rapid TV News 2009
