BBC HD launches

BBC HD officially launched on Saturday (December 1), some 18 months after the channel first made its debut as a test service. Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Vision said she was delighted that the channel was launching officially, a week after BBC HD received its approval from the BBC Trust. “HD is the next generation of television and a real opportunity for programme makers to reach out to the audience in ways they have never done before. HD is a real creative enabler making our programmes even more powerful and outstanding.”

A glance at the opening night sees only a slight difference from the previous weekend’s schedule with Robin Hood and Strictly Come Dancing in the early evening and US import The Company later on. The official BBC HD does open for business a little earlier to transmit The Electric Proms, but the Sunday night Strictly Come Dancing results show is still absent and HD viewers will have to return to BBC One.

Christmas will give BBC HD a real chance to show the breadth of its output with an Extras Christmas Special, movies including Kill Bill, Sin City and The History Boys, BBC original productions including The Tales Of Beatrix Potter With The Royal Ballet, Lessons And Carols From King’s College Cambridge, Carmen, Jools Holland’s Hootenanny and To the Manor Born. The Queen’s Christmas Message will also broadcast in HD for the first time.

BBC HD is available on channel 143 on Sky and on channel 108 on Virgin Media. Channel 4 HD is currently testing and will launch later in the month. ITV’s HD service is slated for the spring.

Cyfra+ hits the million mark

The Polish DTH platform Cyfra+ has announced that it now has one million subscribers. Reviewing the year to date, it says it has added 12 new channels, built on its HD offer and (this month) introduced a PVR product. It will shortly also add VoD to its offer. As a present to its one millionth customer, Cyfra+ says it will offer “one million minutes” of Cyfra+. Cyfra+’s two competitors Cyfrowy Polsat and n have 1.7 million and (as of last month) just over 200,000 subscribers respectively. They could be joined by up to two more platforms in 2008.

New procedures after MHP debacle

The DVB Project is to adopt new procedures governing intellectual property rights as part of the organisations ongoing review of IPRs. It follows member concerns over the delay in launching the MHP licensing programme and questions from the European Commission over the need for timely disclosure on IPR licensing terms. The terms for MHP licensing set out at the 2006 DVB World conference by Via Licensing were widely perceived as being responsible for putting the brakes on the development of the interactive middleware.

The DVB has outlined the new procedures as follows:

• Those responding to a “Call for Technology” may be requested to confirm a willingness to enter into a patent pool;
• The early launch of the pooling effort can be promoted through the convening of information meetings while a specification is still under development;
• Once a pool is in formation by rights holders and a facilitator, the DVB Project Office will monitor the progress of the pool and, where required, lend technical and other support to help completion of the programme; and
• Assertions of essentiality of patents included within a pool may be subject to “peer review” by DVB specialists.

The new measures are designed to complement the DVB’s existing light touch approach to patent pools.

EU signs off new TV Directive

The European Union has approved the new look Television without Frontiers Directive agreed with Member States earlier this year. The revamped document makes a distinction between linear broadcasts and on demand services, allows the including of product placement in some programmes, and controversially establishes a “country of origin” principal where channels are transmitted from one member country to another.

Broadcasters must follow home country rules when making programmes even if the shows are then transmitted in other member states with different rules. The UK has increasingly become a haven for broadcasters from Scandinavia and Central and East Europe, beaming programmes by satellite into local DTH and cable packages.

Governments will be free to establish regimes stricter than the EU guidelines. It will then be left to the Commission to decide whether they break EU law.

Lithuania backs BelSat TV

Lithuania has announced its participation in BelSat TV, a new independent channel aimed at neighbouring Belarus. Backed principally by the Polish public broadcaster TVP and the NGO The Freedom and Democracy Foundation, the service, which is due to make its debut on December 10, will also have content supplied by its Lithuanian counterpart. BelSat TV will broadcast for 16 hours daily in Belarusian and be distributed by Astra at 19.2 degrees East and (from January 2008) also Sirius 4.

Bulgaria acts on EC criticism

Bulgaria has appointed Vesselin Bozhkov as the new head of its Communication Regulation Commission (CRC). The move is seen as an immediate response to this week’s comments by the EC, which criticised the country for not allowing the telecoms regulator sufficient independence and threatened to start legal proceedings. Georgi Alexandrov, the CRC’s incumbent prior to Bozkhov, had continued in the role for a whole year after his term officially expired.

Change mooted for Prof-Media

The Russian diversified media holding Prof-Media is likely to see a change of ownership by next April. Local reports indicate Vladimir Potanin will become the sole owner of Pro-Media following an asset split with his business partner Mikhail Prokhorov, with 10% of shares being allocated to the holding’s managers. The deal will be worth in the region of $1.8 billion (€1.2 billion). Prof-Media is at present wholly owned by the major Russian private investment company Interros, of which Vladimir Potanin is the president. Prof-Media’s broadcast interests include TV3 and the music channels MTV Russia and VH1 Russia, which it acquired last summer.

The Balkan boys

Chris Dziadul reviews progress in Romania and Bulgaria. Read the story »

Eutelsat grows Digiturk HD

Two more HD channels are to join the Digiturk package from Eutelsat W3A at 7 degrees East. A documentary channel and a film channel will join the Digiturk Plus package; it follows the launch of Turkish football channel Lig TV and Fox Sports Turkey, which began test transmissions earlier this month. A further eight standard definition channels are also scheduled to launch during 2008. This will bring the total to over 170.

In June, Digiturk signed a new four-year contract with Eutelsat Communications. However, the 1.8 million-subscriber platform suffered a blow in November when it was forced to withdraw its IPO from the London Stock Exchange.

One giant leap

Kangaroo will jump start VOD over the internet for its three founder broadcasters, writes Julian Clover Read the story »

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