Satellite News

[otheitis]

India public broadcaster Doordarshan says it will carry the 2010 Commonwealth Games in HD. The Commonwealth Games broadcasting rules require that the host broadcaster produce an international broadcast feed in HD.

New Delhi, India’s capital city, is the host for the Games (Oct 3-14, 2010) and is reportedly upgrading and modernising its equipment and will be able to relay HD signals to its own citizens and the outside world. Doordarshan’s Chief Engineer R R Prasad said: “The existing technology at Prasar Bharati is being upgraded. DD is also trying to put at least one high-definition (HD) channel on its DTH (satellite) service to enable screening of the Games.”

But the public broadcaster is on a tight timetable. With barely 18 months to go before the event, Doordarshan is only now considering upgrading its analogue transmitters, and obtaining quotes for an upgrade. New HD studios in Delhi and Mumbai are planned along with improved facilities in Chennai and Kolkata.

© Rapid TV News 2009

[otheitis]

Italy’s Mediaset will continue to invest in pay-TV as part of a two-pronged strategy which has free TV as the “core” business but pay-TV as a strategic asset for the future.

Mediaset Premium, the company’s pay-DTT offering, saw revenues rise 79% in 2008, to reach €404 million. During the year, the number of active cards rose from 2.1 million to 2.8 million, rising further to reach 3.225 million by mid-March.

New deals have been signed for soccer rights, with the Europa League (formerly the UEFA Cup) due to join the platform as well as new motor racing, including Grand Prix, coverage. Mediaset also plans an expansion of Premium’s pay-per-view movie offering to help it compete against News Corp’s Sky Italia. To date, over €1.7 billion has been invested in Mediaset’s digital-terrestrial service.

Breakeven for the pay-TV platform is set for 2010, with average revenue per user (ARPU) forecast to rise to €100 by that year. ARPU was up in 2008 to €80 from 2007’s €60.

Overall, Mediaset saw group profit fall 9.4% to €459 million on revenues up a meagre 4.2% to €4.251 billion.

© Rapid TV News 2009

[otheitis]

Factual broadcaster Discovery Communications has accused Amazon of infringing patents Discovery holds on electronic book technology. The lawsuit claims that the original Kindle, as well as version 2 released in late February, infringes on technology developed by Discovery founder John S. Hendricks, who with two others, received a patent for the invention on November 20 2007.

The technology provides a "secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books," says Discovery. The company says it, and John Hendricks were significant players in the development of digital content and delivery services in the 1990s. Hendricks' work included inventions of a secure, encrypted system for the selection, transmission, and sale of electronic books. Fellow patent-holders are Michael Asmussen and John McCoskey.

Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., General Counsel of Discovery Communications, said: "The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems. We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation. Legal action is not something Discovery takes lightly. Our tradition as an inventive company has produced considerable intellectual property assets for our shareholders, and today's infringement litigation is part of our effort to protect and defend those assets."

Hendricks’ patent (No. 7,298,851) is owned by Discovery, and the broadcaster is asking the US District Court in Delaware for a jury trial.

The technology behind the 55-page patent seems comprehensive, right down to an EPG offering options such as “books you can order” and the supplying assorted themes (History, Romance, Business, etc) as well as listing “Books in your library” with “next shelf” and “previous shelf” options.

Discovery says it does not want Amazon to stop selling the Kindle, but is seeking damages, legal fees and an ongoing licensing deal.

© Rapid TV News 2009

[otheitis]

Cologne-based public broadcaster WDR has started test transmissions on the Eins Festival HD transponder on Astra at 19.2 degrees East.
The Westdeutscher Rundfunk had earlier said it would launch test transmissions in order to prepare for regular broadcasts. For the past year the Eins Festival HD transponder has been used for special HD showcase presentations first during the IFA exposition in Berlin and last Christmas.
At the moment, the German language HD offer on Astra is limited to the free-to-air channels Luxe.tv HD and Annixe HD and the two premium channels Discovery HD and Premiere HD. In the past few days there has been some speculation that ProSiebenSat.1 would resume HD broadcasts and that RTL is also contemplating launching HD; but so far there has been no official word from either of the broadcasters.

[otheitis]

The Czech and Slovak pre-pay DTH platform Sky Link is to boost its HD offer.
Digizone reports, quoting unconfirmed sources, that it will introduce Discovery HD, FilmBox HD and History Channel HD on April 1, with testing likely to start a few days earlier.
It already offers Brava HD and Eurosport HD in both countries, along with Nova HD in the Czech Republic.
Sky Link claims a combined total of more than 500,000 customers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

[otheitis]

Tough times for RCS/RDS


By Chris Dziadul | March 19, 2009 | 08:10 UK

Problems appear to be mounting at RCS/RDS, the operator of both Romania’s largest cable network and DTH platform.

ZF reports that a number of leading executives have left the company in recent months, some of them to work at rival companies such as UPC and Romtelecom.

These have recently restructured their businesses and now pose far greater threats to RCS/RDS than previously.

The latest person to leave RCS/RDS is Ovidiu Ghiman, one of the 15 most important people in the company, who has joined Romtelecom.

RCS/RDS has also just suffered a blow in neighbouring Hungary, where it was competing for the fourth mobile licence, the tender for which has been cancelled.

[otheitis]

Owing to the current judicial procedures launched by Canal+ Group and competing telcos, France Télécom’s commercial brand Orange announced that it could suspend the sale of its new channel Orange Sport.

This option follows the decision in February of the Paris Court of Commerce asking France Télécom to stop tying the subscription of Orange Sport to the sale of a triple-play offer before March 24. The action was initiated by competitors Free and SFR.
Orange has appealed the judgement but needs to make a choice before next Tuesday, March 24.

Two other options are being studied by Orange : to pay the €50,000 daily fee or broadcast Orange Sport via satellite.

Should the company decide to expand distribution, while Orange may lose out in terms of exclusivity, it could sign up more subs to the channel, which as with all sports channels, is expensive to run.

© Rapid TV News 2009