Satellite News

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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

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News Outdoor, News Corp’s outdoor billboard business in Russia, has been hit with a $31m claim from Russia’s Federal Tax Service. The bill is very much disputed by News Corp.


According to Mosnews, News Outdoor allegedly engaged in activities other than outdoor advertising in 2006, and therefore had no right to claim tax benefits available to such advertisers. As a result, Federal Tax Service says that News Outdoor now owes the tax authorities 247 million roubles in income tax, and 679 million roubles in VAT, together making almost 14% of News Outdoor’s turnover in 2007-2008.

News Outdoor is reportedly going to file an appeal, and says it can prove that its Russian business was working within the law. However, it is somewhat stymied because Russia’s Interior Ministry is still holding onto documents seized in a complaint against the Murdoch-owned company. Last September News Outdoor’s Russian offices were raided by investigators from the prosecutor general’s office and accused of receiving illegal discounts on Moscow billboard advertising from 2002 to 2007, says Mosnews. The claim was later rejected by a Moscow court.

Rupert Murdoch is on record as saying he was concerned about further investments in Russia.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Package RTL World Astre 3A


AAKTUALIZOVÁNO - on satellite Astra 3A (23.5 ° E), unexpectedly discovered a packet with the German RTL World thematic channels RTL - namely RTL Crime, RTL Living and Passion.All of these stations at the time of publishing the text broadcast free-to-air, so it can (and can) tune all satellite viewers who receive programs from this position.

Station RTL Living is intended not only women but also men. Index consists of the lifestyle magazine, docu soap, programs about cooking, garden, and magazines about the construction and travel. RTL Crime appeals mainly for men. Broadcast channel is composed of domestic and foreign series on the theme of crime. Passion is the first German digital thematic channel dedicated to a never-ending series, telenovelám and romantic series.

RTL Living, RTL Crime and Passion are paid channels and therefore free of the stations broadcasting on the 23.5 ° E is only temporary and is not yet clear whether these stations broadcasting on the 23.5 ° E is temporary or permanent (at 19.2 ° E are the same programs are coded and included pay-TV platform Premiere and Arenas).

RTL World package is transmitted to the satellite Astra 3A (23.5 ° E), the frequency of 12,689 GHz, vertical polarization, SR 6111, FEC 3 / 4, DVB-S.



Image for article: package RTL World Astre 3A

RTL Crime, service ID 12010, video PID 200, audio PID 201 RTL Crime, service ID 12010, video PID 200, audio PID 201

RTL Living, service ID 12030, video PID 210, audio PID 211 RTL Living, service ID 12030, video PID 210, audio PID 211

Passion, service ID 13207, video PID 2070, audio PID 2071 Passion, service ID 13207, Video PID 2070, audio PID 2071

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Eutelsat is ordering a new satellite, dubbed W3C, to replace the W2M craft lost after in-orbit problems occurred in January. The new satellite will come from Thales Alenia Space, and should be launched in Q3/2011.

The decision to build a replacement also has Eutelsat having to change some of the upcoming missions and locations. The original plan for W2M was for it to replace well in advance Eutelsat's W2 satellite. As a result of this January problem, Eutelsat decided that the W3B satellite, which is already one year into construction, will replace W2 from the middle of 2010, raising available capacity at 16 deg East to 56 transponders from its current manifest of 27 transponders.

W3B, says Eutelsat, had the dual mission of accompanying the expansion and in-orbit redundancy of Eutelsat's 7 degrees East position and to ensuring a solution for continuity of service in the event of the loss of W2M, W2A or W7. The W3C satellite will now assume this double mission of boosting by more than 50% available capacity at 7 degrees East, or ensuring - if required - Ku-band continuity of service for future satellites, namely W2A, W7 or W3B.

Scheduled for launch in third quarter 2011 and equipped with 56 transponders, W3C will be based on the Spacebus 4000 platform of Thales Alenia Space. Its co-positioning with Eutelsat's W3A satellite will expand capacity at 7 degrees East from 44 to 70 transponders. The co-positioning of both satellites underscores Eutelsat's objective to transform 7 degrees East into a flagship position, repeating the multi-satellite strategy pursued at 13 degrees East which has enabled the Hot Bird satellites to develop into the leading neighbourhood worldwide for the number of channels broadcast.

With optimised coverage of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, the W3A satellite at 7 degrees East already broadcasts close to 200 television channels and carries professional video and data services. The additional resources will enable Eutelsat to support expanding business of existing customers, notably broadcasters now launching their first HDTV channels.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Hong Kong's i-Cable crashed to a net loss of HK$111 million for 2008, compared with a profit of HK$183 million in 2007. The company characterised the Hong Kong pay-TV and telecoms markets as “a war of attrition”.

Revenues fell, both overall and in its pay-TV division, down 10% to HK$2,080 million overall and down 15% for pay-TV to HK$1,355 million. Pay-TV subs actually rose 4% to 917,000 from the previous year-end figure of 882,000.

Operating profit fell from HK$545 million in 2007 to HK$277 million, with network and other operating expenses up from HK$419 million to HK$487 million. Selling, general and admin expenses also rose markedly, up from HK$390 million to HK$423 million.

Operating profit from i-Cable’s pay-TV division was down from HK$179 million to just HK$6 million.

In a results statement, the company said: “Within the Pay TV market, competition remained intense. Our main competitor [PCCW’s Now TV] has been following our lead to launch local channels that focus on news and entertainment in order to chip away at our leadership in these areas. The Group will continue to invest to solidify our edge.

“With the markets becoming saturated, it is a war of attrition for both broadcasting and telecommunications services with the players trying to poach subscribers from one another via aggressive pricing, enhanced content and service quality. But the Group's strong balance sheet and low cost base will put us in a good position to stay competitive in a harsh environment.”

The operating environment for the year ahead would remain bleak under the “prevailing macro-economic climate” but i-Cable claims it has now braced itself for “subsequent waves by better equipping ourselves. The Group has acquired premier and attractive contents; is building up a new defence system against piracy; and gearing up for delivering new services such as High Definition TV.”

These initiatives will not take effect until the second half of the year but the company is hoping to be “back on a recovery track” when the economy turns around.

However, a new report from Paul Budde Communication casts doubt on the company’s resilience. The report, which examines Hong Kong’s mobile, telecoms and broadband sectors, states that having lost its leadership position to Now TV, i-Cable could be in for worse times.

“In a densely packed market with over 2 million TV households, PCCW ended 2008 with nearly 930,000 video subscribers in Hong Kong with a paying base of 670,000…Besides losing its historic market share edge, i-Cable may start shedding subscribers during 2009,” says the report.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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A motion filed on March 12 to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court argues that Worldspace has submitted incorrect information to the Court, at least as far as its Washington HQ lease might be concerned. The claim comes from Worldspace’s landlord at 8515 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.

Worldspace hasn’t paid the rent on its HQ offices since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. Worldspace owes the landlords $195,512 to the end of March. Worldspace has asked the Court to permit the delayed payment for another 90 days.

Worldspace told the Court that until it knew who the successful bidder was for Worldspace’s assets they could not determine whether the Headquarters lease will be assigned to a buyer. This is not true, say the landlord’s lawyers. We now know that the successful bidder was a Noah Samara-owned business, Yenura Pte Ltd, and the March 9 ‘sale’ of Worldspace’s assets specifically excluded the HQ lease. In other words “the lease is not being included as part of the sale,” argue the lawyers, cheekily adding that “[Worldspace] obviously does not to intend to reorganise and continue its business since it is selling all of its assets needed to operate…and thus has no need to retain the HQ lease.”

The Motion adds: “The lease is no longer an important asset of the estate since it is not being sold [to the new Worldspace owners]. Indeed, in light of the fact that [Worldspace] has sold all of its assets and must be ceasing business operations leads to the inevitable conclusion that the lease is not required for any plan of reorganisation.”

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB’s CEO (and former CFO) told the Financial Times that his pay-TV subscribers were trading down a little. Asked what 2009’s recession looked like in terms of its own business, Darroch said “It's difficult to predict exactly - 2009 is going to be a difficult year for the consumer environment.”

Darroch confirmed that “so far” pay-TV income had proved to be “pretty resilient” to the downturn and that through 2008 Sky had grown at a slightly faster rate than 2007. But he was cautious on what might be happening to subscribers and Sky’s top tier bundles.

Asked whether subscribers were “trading down”, Darroch admitted this was happening “a bit… Right across our business what we are seeing are more marginal pressures and we are certainly seeing more customers come in at a basic level and a bit more pressure in terms of downgrades. Conversely, though, we're also seeing customers taking more services from us. One of the things we are seeing is that TV remains central to people's lives. They are consuming more TV than ever before.”

He told the FT – and perhaps referring obliqely to the current dilemma at Tiscali - that Sky had no need to buy another Internet company. “We've worked hard over the past few years to assemble the distribution assets we think are going to be competitive for the long term, and that is why we acquired our own broadband network three years ago. If there are opportunities we will be open-minded, but there is not really anything we feel we need to do,” he said.

© Rapid TV News 2009