Satnews

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Hathway scales up inventory to meet growing demand for digital cable

Louise Duffy ©RapidTVNews | 04-07-2012

Hathway Cable and Datacom has procured an additional 10 lakh set top boxes (in addition to the previously planned 20 lakh deployment) to meet India's growing demand for digital cable as it prepares for the digital switchover.

Over the next four months, Hathway will scale up availability of set top boxes in line with India's new digital switchover date of 1 November 2012.

K Jayaraman, MD & CEO of Hathway, said: “Hathway has always been committed to providing consumers with the best digital cable experience and we have been preparing to bring consumers a seamless move from analogue to digital cable TV. The modified deadline presents us with a unique opportunity to reach out to and impact a greater segment of the market.

"Hathway plans to procure the additional 10 lakh set top boxes to gear up and leverage this opportunity. In total we plan to deploy 30 lakh digital set top boxes across Mumbai and Delhi. The rush for digital services will peak around the last fortnight of October, 2012 and we do not want to disappoint the consumers and drive them towards the costlier option of DTH services.

“We are positive on bagging additional customers and look forward to providing better viewing quality and HD & Broadband offerings to our viewers. We look forward to deliver our viewers with a wider choice of channels and better quality while bringing in transparency and accountability in the industry."

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$$$$$$ vouches for Viaplay hybrid OTT content security

Editor ©RapidTVNews | 04-07-2012

To ensure revenues from its recently launched hybrid STB, combining linear free-to-air broadcast and on-demand OTT content, Scandinavian Modern Times Group (MTG) subsidiary Viaplay has implemented a major enhancement of its content security.

Available in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Russia, via web-connected devices including personal computers, smart phones, tablets and TV sets, Viaplay comprises a subscription-based online pay-TV service that offers Nordic and international TV series and films, as well as live premium sports content including UEFA Champions League and English Premier League football and Formula 1 racing.

The new hybrid service is said to be the first of its kind in the region and will use $$$$$$ ActiveCloak for Media technology to protect media applications and over-the-top (OTT) content running on connected devices such as the iPhone and the iPad.

Built in partnership not only with $$$$$$, but also IPTV applications firm Accedo and hybrid OTT set-top box and middleware specialist Netgem, Viaplay’s new hybrid STB will combine linear free-to-air broadcast and on-demand OTT content, offering 25 linear streamed channels as well as Viaplay’s on-demand and live content.

With Active Cloak protection, Viaplay believes that it can solve the perennial problem for OTT suppliers of being able to establish itself as a trusted distributor for content owners, studios and rights holders. The technology will support a drive to build a successful digital media business model that can be securely monetised, future proofing revenue streams by enabling customers to extend their services to any connected device using any DRM or adaptive bitrate streaming technology.

“In an OTT environment, assuring studios and rights holders that their assets are protected is essential for us to obtain the most exciting and latest content for our consumers. With ActiveCloak, we are able to securely deliver quality content to the most popular consumer devices to the satisfaction of the content owners while maintaining a compelling and intuitive environment for the consumer,” explained Niclas Ekdahl, CEO of Viaplay.

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Global STBs to reach 228MN units by end of 2012, but peak may be in sight

Editor ©RapidTVNews | 04-07-2012

The healthy growth in demand for set-top boxes (STBs), a key signifier of the commensurate robustness of the pay-TV industry, continues apace, new research from Futuresource Consulting has revealed.

Overall, the research shows that STBs will remain a core component of the pay-TV industry’s service proposition as operators utilise the box to exploit existing services and look beyond the delivery of video to improve subscriber retention and grow revenues.

Yet though the analyst estimates that the STB market is on track to reach 228 million units shipped globally by the end of 2012, it cautions that as demand from maturing pay-TV markets like North America and Western Europe begins to slow, the market will start to see moderate decline over the next few years.

To address this issues, Futuresource recognises that box manufacturers are launching a new generation of STBs labelled as media gateways or smart boxes, offering features such as transcoding, wireless routing, multi-platform content management, media distribution and multi-room delivery.

“The roll out of these new boxes comes at a time when the saturation of subscriber bases in mature markets is resulting in the need to develop new non-video related services. The ability to incorporate these boxes within home networking infrastructures and their compatibility with portable devices provides the ability to roll out services that allow the control of in-home lighting, temperature and security. Such offerings are expected to become increasingly widespread due to the competitive nature of the market and slowing video related revenues forcing operators to embrace new growth opportunities,” explained Carl Hibbert, head of Broadcast Research at Futuresource.

Regionally, growth opportunities are still present, says the report. Asia Pacific is expected to represent 45% of global shipments in 2012 and will likely see growth through to 2013, with smaller regions including Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, cable represents the largest proportion of pay-TV homes and close to half of all pay-STB demand and the continuing migration to digital services will drive cable STB growth through to 2014. However, Futuresource believes that cable operators are losing a proportion of their analogue subscribers to alternative pay platforms and FTA services and projects that overall cable subscribers will fall over the forecast period, in turn negatively affecting long-term demand for STBs.

Generally, says Futuresource, there is huge potential for box manufacturers to exploit the growing world of IP video as pay-TV operators are beginning to incorporate IP not only to enhance existing services to the big screen, but to boost content delivery to multiple devices including tablets and smartphones.

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M77 contracts additional DTH capacity with SES

SES announced today that it has signed a new transponder capacity agreement with M77, a sister company of the Luxembourg-based satellite television provider M7 Group. The new capacity (one transponder) is at the 23.5 degrees East orbital position and will be used for the Direct-to-Home (DTH) distribution of the M77 channel bouquets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In these markets, M77 operates DTH platforms under the brand names Skylink and CS Link and reaches more than 2 million subscribers. M7 and M77 are using a total of 13 transponders on the ASTRA Satellite System (four on 19.2 degrees East and nine on 23.5 degrees East).

"We are delighted to support M7 and M77 in their successful expansion from their original home market in Benelux into Austria and Central and Eastern Europe," says Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer of SES. "This agreement shows that we can offer the perfect conditions for a pan-European player to develop its broadcasting business. We are looking forward to a fruitful and long cooperation with this important customer."

Kees Färber, Board Member of M77, stated: "With this capacity we make another step in our successful growth in Central Europe and it will allow us to better service the local broadcasters and our customers. It also underlines the role of the ASTRA 23.5 degrees East position as the most popular DTH position for our markets."

M7 and M77 provide DTH services to more than 3.5 million homes in The Netherla$$$, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia using the brand names CanalDigitaal, TV Vlaanderen, TéléSAT, AustriaSat, Skylink and CS Link.

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Digital TV station planned for 'less affluent' SA communities

Louise Duffy ©RapidTVNews | 04-07-2012

South Africans living in rural areas may soon be able to watch TV channels that were previously inaccessible.

According to the Sowetan, Siyaya Free To Air has been granted a digital terrestrial TV testing licence that will enable it to develop and test a satellite TV station that would reach rural areas.

Siyaya vice chairman Kgosi Nyalala Pilane said: "We want to reach out to the less affluent communities." He added that the station was aimed at reaching the communities that have not had access to digital satellite TV.

The station will have eight channels, including SABC and e.tv.

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Chello CEE wins football rights
July 9, 2012 08.14 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

Chello Central Europe has secured the rights to the UEFA Champions League in Hungary for the next three seasons.

Under the terms of a contract signed by UEFA and the company, Tuesday matches from the Champions League, as well as each final match and UEFA Super Cup, will be broadcast on the channel Sport TV from the beginning of this month to June 30, 2015.

Chello Central Europe also recently won the rights to the Hungarian OTP Bank League and Spanish Primera División.

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Tough times for Bulgarian pay-TV
July 9, 2012 08.29 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

The telecom market in Bulgaria continues to shrink and was worth less than BGN3 billion (â,¬1.526 billion) in 2011, according to the latest annual report published by the Commission for Communications Regulation, quoted by Trud.

The exact figure of BGN2.944 billion was BGN196 million, or 6%, lower than in 2010 and almost BGN400 million down on two years earlier.

Worryingly, the cable and satellite sectors saw their combined revenues fall by 24.6% in 2011, compared to 11% in the case of telephony, while those for internet services remained unchanged.

The only growth â€" an impressive 2.5 times increase â€" was in revenues for bundled telco services. The telco sector currently accounts for 3.9% of Bulgaria’s GDP.

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Russian telco rolls out digital TV
July 9, 2012 08.48 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

Russia’s MTS has announced the launch of digital TV services in 150 cities throughout the country.

As a result, its viewers will be able to access 60% more channels, along with HD content and interactive pay-TV services.

In a statement, the telco says that in its digital offer will initially consist of a basic package of 118 channels, along with six thematic packages.

It adds that in the first phase of the project the services are being provided in 50 cities, while the number of channels it offers viewers will be increased to 140 this September.

MTS currently has 3 million pay-TV subscribers in Russia.

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Ukraine to fund cable expansion
July 9, 2012 09.06 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

Ukraine has approved a new bill that introduces a 3.5% surcharge on the fees charged by operators.

According to Kommersant, proceeds from this surcharge are likely to amount to UAH1.6 billion (â,¬157.6 million) a year and will be used for the development of cable, internet and telephony services in remote parts of the country.

Operators have expressed concerns that the majority of the fu$$$, which will be managed by the National Commission for the State Regulation of Communications and Informatisation (NCCIR), will find their way to Ukrtelecom, the incumbent telco, which has strong presence in rural areas.

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Vivacom sale moves closer
July 23, 2012 07.45 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

The Bulgarian incumbent telco BTC, which operates under the brand name Vivacom, is now likely to be sold in September.

Several local reports say that the company has received notification from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is representing its creditors, on the conditions of the sale of BTC to what is understood to be a Bulgarian/Russian consortium.

The latter, consisting of KTB and Vneshtorgbank, would pay â,¬130 million for a majority stake in BTC, as well as take on debts of â,¬588 million.

This would be considerably less than previously quoted figures of â,¬800-900 million and â,¬1.65 billion respectively.

Indeed, an offer of â,¬900 million for the company by Turkcell was rejected only last year. BTC, whose interests include the DTH platform Vivacom, has undergone a number of ownership changes in the last few years.

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Lattelecom gives more choice
July 23, 2012 09.58 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

Latvia’s Lattelecom is giving viewers who watch its services over the internet a greater choice in the channels they receive.

In a statement, the TeliaSonera-backed company says that in addition to the basic package they can chose any channels from Travel Channel, BBC World, Nat Geo Wild, JimJam, Dom Kino, TV XX1, Nauka 2.0 and Dance Trippin.

This is in response to a survey undertake by GfK earlier this year that shows 71% of respondents were interested in creating their own channel packages.

Lattelecom offers TV services via IPTV, DTT and web TV, with its IPTV platform alone having over 230,000 subscribers.

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MTG loses interest in Canal Digital
July 23, 2012 09.24 Europe/London By Julian Clover

Modern Times Group CEO Hans Holger Albrecht says it is no longer interested in a merger or takeover of Nordic DTH rival Canal Digital.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Albrecht said the company had “probably tried everything over the last ten years” to make a deal happen.

Both MTG’s Viasat and Telenor’s Canal Digital have continued to suffer subscriber erosion. In Q2 2012 Viasat reported 1,031,000 subscribers; Telenor is yet to report but had 955,000 subscribers at the end of March 2012.

Rather than court Telenor, Albrecht believes there is more opportunity in developing the OTT platform Viaplay.

“What I can sense is that the industry is changing faster now and more fundamentally so new platforms like Viaplay are the key future trend, so in my opinion Telenor has missed the opportunity to do something with the asset and we would rather move on to other fields,” he said.

In March 2011 Telenor launched a series of meetings under the cloak of Codename Rainbow, led by Telenor vice president Kristin Skogen Lund. The talks were believed to have also involved the Swedish Bonnier group and Denmark’s Egmont, suggesting that a much wider restructuring could be on the cards.

However, there has been no change to the ownership of either Viasat or Canal Digital.

Over the years there has been constant speculation as to the ownership direction of the two DTH platforms and it is entirely possible that Albrecht’s comments could represent nothing more than a negotiating tactic.

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TF1 online video passes the 10M visitors mark
Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 23-07-2012

TF1’s online video audience has passed the 10 million visitor mark for the first time and now ranks in fifth position for unique viewers according to the June 2012 Comscore Video Metrix.

With 10.66 million unique visitors, In the TF1 follows leading Google Sites (39.2 million), Dailymotion (16.03 million), Adconion Media Group (13.83 million) and VEVO (11.52 million).

TF1 websites gained 886,000 new visitors over one month, while even You Tube and Dailymotion lost some.

Lagardère Group also appears for the first time in this Top 20 holding the last position with 3,8 million unique visitors. It follows M6 (4.9 million), Vimeo (4.2 million) and France Télévisions (4.1 million).

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A+E reaches out into Asia with licensing deals
Editor | 23-07-2012

In a huge fillip for its global ambitions, global media content company A+E Networks has closed licensing agreements with broadcasters in Asia for a number of series and specials.

The new deals encompass the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea and Thailand among other countries and will complement what the company says are “soaring” sales in a “vital market.” Said Ling-Sze Gan, Senior Director, International Content Sales, Asia for A+E Networks: “We have a fantastic library of high quality content and broadcasters are hungry for more. We’re looking forward to introducing additional new program franchises and specials later this year at MIPCOM.”

In the Philippines Lifestyle Network has picked up 24 Hour Catwalk, Celebrity House Hunting, The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet, Dance Moms, and Dance Moms Miami, among others while OKTO in Singapore has acquired Hidden Cities, Stan Lee’s Superhumans, and Modern Marvels. Over in · Malaysia TV Alhijra will screen Disaster Guy and Hidden Cities while in neighboring Indonesia B Channel has acquired IRT Deadliest Roads and Top Shot and compatriot Metro TV bought Shockwave and a selection of HISTORY specials including, The Lost Kennedy Home Movies. Meanwhile Thai PBS has licensed Hidden Cities, The Universe, and a selection of HISTORY specials including Titanic Mystery Solved.

South Korea’s TV Chosun has renewed its output deal, which will include Invention USA, Stan Lee’s Superhumans, Modern Marvels as well as various HISTORY specials such as Secret Access: The Vatican. Also in the country Korean Forces Network has purchased Ancient Discoveries, Modern Marvels, Top Guns, Vietnam Lost Films, Modern Marvels, and a number of HISTORY specials including, Pearl Harbor: 24 Hours After and Secret Access: Air Force One; On Style/XTM Channel bought The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet along with several episodes from the Biography series, including Johnny Depp and Natalie Portman.

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ALU, AuthenTec act to authenticate Apple, Android Meo Go! mobile video
Editor | 23-07-2012

Users may increasingly demand video to any device but doing so securely and effectively is another matter, one that Alcatel-Lucent and AuthenTec believe they have enabled for Portugal Telecom’s Meo Go! mobile video service.

Indeed the two companies say that their solution will enable Portugal Telecom to be able to deliver securely mobile video to Android and Apple smartphone and tablet users. The deployment exte$$$ the operator’s IPTV offering to smartphones and tablets, addressing its customers' appetite for video services at home and on-the-go. It is also claimed to be able to address the growing demand by content providers to securely deliver their programming to mobile devices, making the viewing experience seamless while keeping high-value premium content secure.

Explaining the nature of the deployment and the challenges it presented to the company, Alfredo Baptista, Portugal Telecom CTO, said: "Delivering live and video-on-demand content directly to mobile users just like on a TV was a daunting technical challenge, but thanks to strong support from Alcatel-Lucent and AuthenTec we were able to launch our new Meo Go! service on budget and ahead of schedule. Meo Go! significantly expa$$$ the number of subscribers we can reach."

Meo Go! Now includes features to ensure secure delivery and smooth playback of a variety of different video content formats and subscribers can access 60 live TV channels and video-on-demand (VOD) services. This includes programming from channels such as AXN, Sony Entertainment Television, FOX, Syfy Universal, MTV, Disney Channel, National Geographic Channel, Eurosport and several European football club channels such as Benfica TV, Chelsea TV, Manchester United TV, Barca TV, Real Madrid TV and Inter channel.