Apple video sales come to Europe

Apple is to launch its online video sales business in Europe, some 15 months after the US debut of the store. Confirmation came from the seemingly unlikely source of the Luxembourg finance minister Jeannot Krecke, who confirmed that Apple had been in talks with the Luxembourg authorities “for several months”. Luxembourg will therefore extend its reputation as an innovator in broadcasting that stretches back to the creation of Radio Luxembourg in the 1920s through to the launch of the Astra satellite system in the 1980s.

Krecke said that Apple would offer full length TV series in various European countries, extending the arrangement that began when Apple established its European music store in Europe in 2005. The Grand Dutchy boasts one of the lowest VAT rates in Europe, which is favourable towards online stores.

UPC Hungary revamps chello

UPC has announced a major upgrade of its cable Internet service in Hungary. As from this March the 200,000 subscribers to chello will be offered a total of four packages with download speeds of up to 20Mbps for no additional fee. The company is reacting to growing competition from the incumbent telco’s T-Online subsidiary and alternative provider TVNet, both of which will soon also improve their ADSL Internet offers. The total number of ADSL connections in Hungary stood at 520,000 in Q3 2006, while just under 240,000 homes accessed the Internet via cable. (CD)

BBC Trust approves iPlayer

The BBC Trust has given its provisional backing to the Corporation’s on demand television services. Included are the seven-day catch up service, on cable and IPTV, and the Internet-delivered iPlayer.

The Trust has acknowledged some of the criticisms from Ofcom and agreed that the proposals around ’series stacking’ – where a series remains available for download until the end of a current run – needs to be tightened up. There was also criticism over the role of the Microsoft DRM, following a series of high profile meetings between senior BBC and Microsoft executives, and the Trust will require the BBC Executive to adopt a ‘platform agnostic’ approach that would include both Apple Mac and Linux platforms.

A second period of consultation is now underway with a further announcement expected before May. Such a schedule makes it likely that despite months of forward planning by the BBC, both ITV and Channel 4 will already have their iPlayer equivalents up and running. (JC)

HBO Comedy goes East

HBO Comedy will make its debut in Central and Eastern Europe on February 1 when it launches on the Cyfra+ DTH platform in Poland. The service, which will be broadcast in Polish, will be on air for 16 hours daily between 10.00 and 02.00 and join four other HBO channels – HBO, HBO 2, Cinemax and Cinemax 2 – already available in the country. HBO Comedy will also shortly be rolled out in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. (CD)

Sky: Highest customer growth in 6 years

BSkyB has announced subscriber growth of 432,000 in the second quarter, the highest figure in six years. An additional 183,000 net new customers were added bringing total DTH subscriber numbers to 8.441 million.

There was also record growth for the Sky+ Digital Video Recorder product, rising to 2.13 million, in 1.97 million households. When the Sky+ box was first introduced Sky was also promoting its Multiroom concept, moving the original Sky Digibox to a second TV set, and charging the customer an additional £10 per month along the way. The same process is now beginning with the Sky HD product.

High definition subscribers almost doubled on the quarter to 184,000.

The number that will come under the closest City scrutiny is that of Sky Broadband. As of January 28, 2007 – almost a month later than the rest of the figures – there were gross bookings of 343,000 and 259,000 activated customers. BSkyB says that the rollout of its broadband network is running ahead of schedule. 771 exchanges have now been unbundled, representing 50% of the UK.

Revenue increased by 10% to £2,220 million. BSkyB reported EBITDA of £486 million including £66 million in losses for Sky Broadband.

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Total loss of NSS-8 satellite

SES New Skies announced the failure of the launch of NSS-8, the sixth satellite in the fleet, onboard a Zenith-3SL launch vehicle, and the resulting total loss of the satellite. The Sea Launch vehicle, carrying the satellite, experienced an anomaly at the time of lift-off, resulting in total loss of the satellite.

In a press release SES New Skies said it is currently not in a position to comment on the possible
causes of the mission failure and is awaiting the results of the official investigation which is in the process of being installed.

NSS-8 was built by Boeing, with launch services from the Odyssey Platform in the equatorial Pacific provided by Sea Launch. The spacecraft was intended to operate at the orbital position of 57° East to replace the existing NS-703 satellite.

The launch failure of NSS-8 means that NSS-703 will now stay at 57° East in order to continue to serve existing customers until at least 2009.

SES New Skies has already initiated the construction of NSS-9 for launch in 2009 into the Pacific Ocean Region. NSS-9 is intended to free up NSS-5 which in turn will then be free to relocate to 57° to replace NSS-703. The NSS-8 launch failure is thus not expected to have an impact on
existing customers or revenues, the company said.

TeliaSonera makes a Start with free IPTV

Sweden’s TeliaSonera is to offer its broadband customers a free package of eight television channels and the ability to view the Internet directly on their television sets. Kanalpaket Start is comparable with the starter packages offered by the Swedish cable market.

Start is one of four IPTV packages on offer from TeliaSonera to customers with Telia Broadband and a fixed line subscription. In addition to video-on-demand customers can also view documents and photographs that have been stored in TeliaSonera’s storage service Telia Säker Lagring.

The Start package comprises SVT1, SVT2, SVT24, Barnkanalen (Children’s channel), Kunskapskanalen(Knowledge Channel), TV4, The Voice and Aftonbladet TV7.

Net Insight secures Finland DTT upgrade

Net Insight has received a further order from the Finnish DTT operator Digita. The Stockholm-based company had previously supplied its Nimbra platform for Digita’s transmitter network in the north of the country. The new order will see Nimbra deployed in the regional and national network. Separately, Net Insight will also supply the technology for Digita’s network in the southern Finland.

Digita is part of the French TDF Group. In 2005 the Finnish operation reported a turnover of €97 million.

TVP in the money

The Polish public broadcaster TVP has announced its highest ever earnings from advertising, with the PLN1.1 billion (€280.7 million) posted in 2006 being 6% up on the previous year’s total. The incumbent Polish telco TPSA has meanwhile revealed that its net profit in Q4 2006 amounted to PLN381 million, or a disappointing 21.3% less than in the corresponding quarter in 2005. France Telecom-backed TPSA has in addition said that its main focus in 2007 will be to reach a triple play subscriber target of 100,000 by the end of the year. The number who currently received its IPTV service videostrada tp, which made its debut in mid-2006, is unknown. (CD)

Ofcom publishes switchover code

Ofcom has set out plans to ensure minimal disruption to both analogue and digital TV services during the switchover process. The regulator has published its draft code of practice Digital Switchover – Management of Transition Coverage Issues that sets out the steps it expects to be taken to ensure the maximum protection to existing viewers.

When switchover gets underway in each region, BBC Two will be the first of the five analogue channels to move to digital only reception, with ITV taking its frequency. There will also be the need for digital boxes to rescan the spectrum as the digital channels move to higher power.

Ofcom is advising broadcasters to use a variety of migration techniques, including optimising antenna designs and adjusting the power of interfering services, to keep disruption to a minimum.

The closing date for responses is March 6, 2007.

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