Satellite News

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Multiteritoriální Pay-TV Digi TV platform to make substantial changes in the Nagravision conditional access system, which means that pirated excluded income, including the so-called AutoUpdate.

Digi TV is recently the most popular platform on the black market due to the use of the old system Nagravision 2 but also mainly because of the rich menu of attractive film and sports TV channels. This platform is one of the few services that have long nevypořádala black income. Other European platform has moved to a higher version of the coding system, possibly using a different coding system.

Pay-TV service is distributed via satellite, Intelsat 10-02 (1 ° W) and Thor 5 (0.8 ° W) and operates in six countries, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Is gaining viewers thanks to its rich menu of programs for a low price.

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The Portuguese IPTV operator Meo has launched nine channels aimed at the main expatriate communities living the country.

The channels offered free of charge in the basic package are Inter + (Ukraine), Channel 1 and Russia Today (Russia), Pro TV (Romania), BNT (Bulgaria) and Phoenix CNE (China).

Three more channels will also be aired unencrypted until June 30, after which they will be only available for a premium fee.

The channels in question - SET Asia, SET Max and SAB TV - are aimed at the Indian community.

Meo added 72.000 new IPTV and DTH subscribers during the first quarter, bringing the total to 384.000.

Pay-TV clients represented 14.5% of the traffic generating lines and 51.1% of ADSL clients.

Around 50% of Meo IPTV clients used the VOD service, consuming on average 2.8 movies per month.

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The international children’s channel KidsCo will make its debut on the Greek IPTV service conn-x TV on June 1.

KidsCo is owned by NBC Universal, Cookie Jar Group and Corus Entertainment Inc and already present in a number of key European territories including France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Poland.

Conn-x TV is meanwhile operated by the incumbent Greek telco OTE.

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Spain's government will allocate a maximum of €165 million more for public broadcaster RTVE's 2009 budget, so compensating the corporation for the loss of advertisements.

New laws covering the public broadcaster, to be approved soon, anticipate RTVE won't have any more than €1,200 million in incomes and expenses during 2010-2011 although this amount could increase during the following three years. Growth is unlikely to be over 1% a year. From 2014 on, the amount will be even with inflation.

Apart from the State's allocations for RTVE, the government also anticipates a new income model based on a tax for the use of radioelectric services (80%), another on the private TV channels (3%) and one on the revenue of telcos (0.9%). This point has been very controversial because the country's telcos claim they don't have anything to do with the television market.

Included in the measures are a proposal to allow RTVE to commercialize its radio and TV content on the internet by means of a payment for basic packages. The government will also allow the Corporation to offer contents under conditional access in the case of value-added services.

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tmc Content Group, a Swiss media service provider specialising in erotic content, will launch pay-TV channel Lust Pur in Germany on June 1.

The service, which will be distributed on Eutelsat’s direct-to-cable platform KabelKiosk, screens erotic films, series, reports, documentaries and short videos from German and international producers each evening from 8pm to 6am CET. The target group is 20 to 59 year old men, women and couples. In order to meet youth protection requirements, programmes will be accessible before 11pm only after entering a youth-protection PIN. From 11pm the PIN is no longer necessary.

The channel, which until now carried the working title Blue Movie Soft, was granted a broadcasting licence by Berlin-Brandenburg’s media authority MABB. tmc Content Group, in which erotic industry group Beate Uhse holds a stake, already operates erotic channel Beate-Uhse.TV and adult video-on-demand services Blue Movie, Blue Movie Extra, Blue Movie Gay and redXclub.

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The Bulgarian DTH platform Bulsatcom has taken another transponder on Greece’s Hellas Sat.
According to Parabola, it will be used to carry two of its existing channels (Film Plus HD and Eurosport HD), along with two new HD channels and some SD services.

Bulsatcom’s current HD offer also includes the channels Hobby TV HD and Music Plus HD. Its main programme packages are named ‘Economy’, ‘Standard’ and ‘Premium’, with the latter consisting of 16 channels, including TV 1000, AXN Sci-Fi and MTV Europe.

Bulsatcom is one of two DTH platforms in Bulgaria – the other being ITV Partner – and the most recent figures available indicated that the two had a combined subscriber total of around 90,000.

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MTV Networks will launch its high definition television channel MTV Networks HD (MTVN HD) in Germany on June 3.

The music and entertainment channel, comprised of programmes from MTV, VH1 and NICK (Nickelodeon in the UK), will be available on the IPTV platform T-Home Entertain on Deutsche Telekom’s VDSL broadband network. MTVN HD screens concerts and events such as MTV Unplugged, MTV World Stage and VH1 Storytellers, award shows such as the MTV Video Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards as well as footage from international music festivals such as the Roskilde and Oxegen festivals.

To celebrate the channel’s launch live concerts by Scottish band Franz Ferdinand and Swedish rock group Mando Diao will be screened on June 7 and June 21 respectively. On weekends a NICK programme window is offered with cartoons, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar – The Last Airbender and Jimmy Neutron.

Telekom announced at the beginning of March that it would include MTVN HD as part of its IPTV offer from summer. The channel, which was launched in Europe on 15 September 2008, is already available in many countries including France, the UK and Scandinavia.

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South African pay-TV is in a mess. Even ICASA, the telecom and media authority, seemingly admits it has got things wrong, especially given that it is to re-advertise the planned pay-TV licence opportunities for the country.

Local reports state that, besides Multichoice, the other licences awarded by ICASA back in 2007 have gone badly wrong. None of the proposed – and newly licensed - services (to the ‘Walking on Water’ religious channel: On Digital Media, which has SES Astra as a junior partner; and Telkom Media) have yet to start transmissions.

Icasa chairman Paris Mashile said yesterday that the regulator would hold a second round of licensing to increase competition in the pay TV market. His announcement, at a breakfast briefing hosted by Neotel and the Mail & Guardian, came despite Icasa's recent statement that it would look at issuing satellite free-to-air licences as an alternative to pay TV, reported IOL Business Report.

David Moore, a media analyst at Africa Analysis, said: "I think Icasa is in a state of turmoil, and needs to pause and re-examine where its focus should be and how best to fulfill its mandate. "It needs to determine a single path to follow, and stick to it," he said. Its handling of Vodacom's listing was "a clear indicator that Icasa staff are not all reading from the same page. This situation just adds to that."

"It is not up to the regulator to decide competition issues. It is up to the market and the proper competition authorities… Icasa should award licenses to as many companies that want one and can reasonably prove that they can survive the market, and then let the market itself decide who sinks or swims. That is how it is done in the free market system."

IOL Business added that the industry has cautioned that the South African market would not accommodate more than two players, given that MultiChoice has already sewn up all content available and is targeting all segments of the market through its different bouquets. Media commentator Sei Mukoma said that if Icasa planned to issue new pay-TV licenses, it should do an intensive market study to ensure that the market could accommodate more operators. "The first round of licenses has not produced anything so far, as none of those licensed operators has launched services."

Mashile said that the new licensees, such as Walking on Water, had been given six months to commercially launch operations. If they failed to do so, the regulator would revoke their licenses. Telkom Media was recently sold to Shenzhen Media and there is still a veil of secrecy on its operational plans.

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The Polish station TV Puls may find a new strategic investor as soon as this June, though not, according to its president and leading shareholder Dariusz Dabski, at any price.

Quoted in Wirtualne Media, had added seven parties had so far expressed an interest in TV Puls, with two having put in bids.

He also said that finance was not the main issue in any deal, as TV Puls, which until last year was backed by News Corp, is aiming to become a leading player in the new Polish digital marketplace and programming was the priority.

TV Puls has secured a slot on the first DTT multiplex, due to make its debut this September, and also has plans to launch two thematic channels.

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The Franco German cultural channel Arte has launched the online video portal Arte Live Web, which offers a selection of music, dance, theatre and other performing arts.

The new portal is free-to-view and will offer both on-demand content and live ‘broadcasts’ of events including the Art Rock festival, which takes place this weekend in Saint-Brieuc and features acts including Birdy Nam Nam and Cold War Kids.

Arte Love Web is available in both German and French and comes in addition to the regular Arte video portal, which serves 2.5 million video requests a month, of which 1.7 million are Catch-up TV streams. The site will offer between 200 and 250 programmes.

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Discovery has said it still wants to launch a channel on Freeview this year.
The broadcaster suspended the launch of Quest, its first free-to-air channel in the UK, just prior to the channel's expected launch date of May 14.

It cited "a number of commercial factors" as being behind the "difficult decision".
A spokesperson for Discovery has now told Media Week that despite the "challenging economic environment" the broadcaster is "still committed to launching a channel on Freeview during 2009".

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Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) and the Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific have signed an agreement in Hanoi on June 19, allowing VOV to use programming services from CNN. Under the two-year deal, VOV can now receive, monitor, record and incorporate excerpts from CNN services such as CNN International, International Newsource and CNN Radio in the news and information programmes to be broadcast on its channels. This includes the video image radio channel known as VOV TV. VOV is also licensed to publish CNN’s news stories on its website.

Ann Chu, director of CNN’s Broadcast Sales & Affiliate Relations, said that this was the first time CNN and the VOV have established cooperative ties and that the Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific plans to sign a similar deal with Vietnam Television. She expressed her belief that cooperative ties between CNN and Vietnamese media agencies will be strengthened in the future.

VOV Deputy General Director Hoang Minh Nguyet spoke highly of the deal, which she said will help improve the quality of radio broadcasts by keeping audiences better informed of what is happening around the world. She also stated that the VOV and CNN will continue to cooperate and share information in many other areas in the future

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The Romanian government has authorised the Ministry of Communications to start procedures for the granting of licences for the terrestrial transmission of TV broadcasts in digital format across 80 percent of Romania’s territory.

“Technically speaking, Romania has the necessary resources to implement the terrestrial transmission of TV programs in digital format across 60 percent of the country, but my goal is that we achieve a percentage of 80 percent by the end of 2009,” said Minister of Communications Gabriel Sandu, cited by daily Ziarul financiar. He added that the government has mandated the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) to initiate the transition from analogue to digital television and implement broadband [sic]radio services nationwide.

According to the strategy paper, no analogue television broadcaster shall remain operational in Romania after January 1, 2012, the date when the transition from analog to DVB-T television services is due to be finalized.

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The Greek government has decided to sell as further 5% stake in OTE to Deutsche Telekom.

According to Greek news sources, the move is in accordance with a deal struck last year obliging Deutsche Telekom to buy a further 5% in OTE at €27.5 a share proving the Greek state remains in control of the telco.

As a result of the deal, the state will collect €674 million plus and benefit by over €385 million due to the current OTE share price.

The sale, which raises Deutsche Telekom’s interest in OTE to 30% plus one share, is being strongly opposed by the Federation of OTE employees and PASOK political party.

Separately, it has been confirmed that OTE will participate in €2.1 million FTTH network project.

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Revamped ESPN channel may show EPL

ESPN may launch a revamped version of its ESPN America channel to show the recently secured Premier League matches, DS has learned.

It was announced on Monday that the Disney-owned firm had acquired the Premier League rights previously owned by collapsed Irish broadcaster Setanta.

Damion Potter, ESPN communications director for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific Rim, described the win as a "huge step for our business in the UK".

He added: "We said we were interested in building our business here; that is exactly what we will do with this acquisition.

"We look forward to working with the Premier League, football clubs and distributors to bring English sports fans high-quality coverage of their favourite teams."

A deal is already in place with Sky to distribute the matches to residential and commercial customers on an a la carte basis.

Meanwhile, the company is also talking to the other platform holders, including Virgin Media, about retail partnerships.

It has previously been suggested that ESPN plans to launch a new standalone channel for broadcasting the games.

However, DS has learned that this is just one possible solution, with the other being to host the matches on a revamped version of ESPN America.

Following the demise of Setanta, the channel will continue running on a standalone basis on Virgin Media, while Sky will offer it as part of the News and Events television pack.

Despite this, the arrangement is just an interim solution to ensure seamless access to the channel's US sports coverage for viewers.

"We have come to this interim solution to make sure that US sports fans and existing subscribers to ESPN America can continue to enjoy watching the channel whilst we make permanent arrangements," said Potter.

The company is currently discussing firmer plans for the future of ESPN America, with a vehicle for Premier League games believed to be among the options.

On the possibility of ESPN bidding for other sports rights, including Scottish Premier League games, Potter reiterated: "We're interested in rights where they are available and they make business sense."

He also said that the firm has "met with a number of production companies" about covering the Premier League matches ahead of the start of the new season in eight weeks.