NDS wins out against EchoStar hacking claims
The Supreme Court of the United States of America has turned down a petition against NDS that sought to overturn the August 2010 ruling in the long running EchoStar-Dish hacking case. Dating back to 2003, EchoStar had accused NDS of maliciously hiring a team of hackers in order to crack the Nagra conditional access technology used by Dish. The denial of the petition brings an end to the challenge to the Ninth Circuit’s award against EchoStar on August 2010, when NDS had emerged as the victor. The petition had been brought by EchoStar Satellite Corporation, now known as Dish Network LLC, EchoStar Communications Corporation, EchoStar Technologies Corporation and NagraStar LLC, a joint venture company between EchoStar and Kudelski Group. NDS had been awarded $18 million by the Court with a further $4.3 million of NDS funds held in escrow pending appeals. In a statement NDS said it was seeking a further $1.7 million in legal fees, costs and interest. Back to Top]

NEWSLINE

Press TV loses Ofcom licence
Ofcom has revoked the licence of Press TV after the regulator failed to be satisfied the channel’s licensee had sufficient control over the programmes broadcast. Press TV, a division of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has, has lost its TLCS licence under Condition 29(2)(a) of that licence. Under section 13(1) of the 1990 Act it is a criminal offence to provide a television service without a licence. The licence itself was revoked under Condition 29(2)(a) of the Licence and section 238(4) of the Communications Act 2003. It follows a series of meetings and correspondence between regulator and broadcaster in connection with an interview with Maziar Bahari, an imprisoned Newsweek journalist, that was claimed to have been conducted under duress, and was held to be a serious breach of the broadcasting code. It later emerged that Press TV was unable to pay the fine.

Breakthrough for streaming, claims KPMG
Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for online streaming services, according to KPMG’s latest Media & Entertainment Barometer. The survey says that 64% of respondents would be willing to pay for films online, an increase of four percentage points on March 2011. BBC iPlayer currently has the highest level of awareness with nine in ten people having heard of the online streaming service, followed by ITV Player and Lovefilm. Evans cautioned that by the end of 2012 everyone in the UK will have digital terrestrial TV – the figure is already over 90% – and many households will decide that this is sufficient.

Ofcom looks again at VOD regulation
Ofcom has reopened the debate into the regulation of on demand video services with a new study commissioned from Ipsos MORI. Currently Ofcom does not even directly regulate VOD content, leaving it in the hands of industry-appointed regulator ATVOD. But members of the public interviewed for the study assumed that the regulation for broadcast and on demand television, including that received through connected TVs, were equal, expectations were only lowered for content received over the open internet. Expectations were partly determined by the screen used, such as a large shared screen in living room versus personal PC or device, but also by the comparative ease of access to audio-visual content through a one-touch button or seamless link to VOD.

Games consoles win out against smart TVs
YouGov has updated its already cautious survey into smart TV take-up, suggesting only 15% of UK consumers would own one within the next 12 months.  The research suggests that games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, with their sustainability as gifts and a lower price point, would be far more likely to become the device consumers use to view internet-delivered content on their TV. YouGov says that pre-Christmas sales of smart TVs only resulted in a 1% increase in ownership. Instead HDTV sets increased by 4% to 59%. Broadband TV News notes that as an established product, HDTVs are not only becoming standard, but also often have a lower pricepoint. There has been no practically no change (1%) in people’s intention to purchase a Smart TV within the next 12 months Ownership of a games console that can access TV programmes in the 18-24 age group jumped from 7% before Christmas to 25% in January The modest increase in Smart TV ownership was mostly driven by males – increasing from 10% to 13% over Christmas and Jan – and those aged 35-44.

Fetch TV enters administration
IP Vision, the company behind the Fetch TV receivers and movies on demand service, has entered administration with the possible loss of up to 20 jobs. The IP Vision boxes combined a Freeview DTT tuner with access to the BBC iPlayer, Sky Player and Fetch TV’s own on demand content. They were sold online and in some branches of Tesco under the Teknika brand. Advanced discussions are underway with interested parties. The Fetch TV video on demand service will continue for the time being. IP Vision was formed in 2007. Its shareholders included French manufacturer Netgem and fund manager F&C Reit. Only in December a new Fetch TV app for Panasonic Viera TVs was released with a second app for Samsung’s Smart TV platform slated for the first quarter. Peter Kubik and Michael Kiely of UHY Hacker Young have been appointed as administrators of the company. Mr Kubik’s most high-profile work was the recent administration of Portsmouth Football Club.

3.3 million TNTSat set-tops sold
TNTSat, the French digital terrestrial offer on satellite broadcast via Astra, reached a total of 3.3 million receivers sold at the end of 2011. This represents an increase of 650,000 compared to the end of 2010. TNTSat is a satellite-delivered bouquet of all the French digital terrestrial channels. TNTSat was launched in March 2007 and supported the transition from analogue to digital reception that was completed in November 2011 with the switch off in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. With TNTSat, viewers are able to receive the full French digital terrestrial offer: the 19 French free-to-air channels and the 24 regional channels of France 3 and TV8 Mont Blanc, as well as four channels in high definition (HD).

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TECHNOLOGY

Red Bee launches social media platform
Red Bee Media has launched a portfolio of content discovery solutions, based on the age of problem of consumers not being able to find anything they want to watch, no matter how many channels are available to them. The first two clients are Veronica, the top-selling Dutch listings magazine and the what’s on guide Time Out. Red Discover combines Red Bee Media’s established metadata build, sourcing and distribution services with search, recommendation and personalisation technologies, creative and user interface design and companion apps and ‘second screen’ experiences to enhance the user journey. This includes the ability to link to content on catch-up services.

• Watch Red Bee Media’s Steve Plunket talk about RedDiscover

PEOPLE

SeaChange names new CFO
SeaChange International has announced the appointment of Tollgrade Communications CFO Michael Bornak as its new chief financial officer. Bornak replaces Kevin Bisson, who departed the video tech company last week for Mercury Computer Systems. Bornak spent three years at Tollgrade, during which time the company returned to profitability after several years of losses. He has also worked as CFO across a number of sectors including spells at Solar Power Industries, Inc, MHF Logistical Solutions, Inc, Portec Rail Products, Inc, and was a certified public accountant at Ernst & Young.

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Second guessing a second screen
Viewer behaviour is understandably lagging behind the latest developments in TV technology, writes Julian Clover.

At every trade show we are presented with the latest devices and in the pages of Broadband TV News you can read of the second screen experiences that you can immerse yourself in.

But when it comes down to it viewing of linear TV channels remains at an all time high. In 2011 the average TV viewer watched a total of 4 hours, 2 minutes of linear TV per day. This I regard as worrying, if only from the standpoint that I’m not watching anything close to that, so many are watching more to bring us the average.

Moreover, 90.6% of all linear TV viewing is watched live, leaving 9.4% that is recorded, a testament to the shows from last Easter still sitting unwatched on my PVR.

In households that own PVRs, 84.7% was watched live and 15.3% viewed time-shifted within seven days.   This level of time-shifting has been stable since the first PVRs were released ten years ago.

These figures, released by Thinkbox from data from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), show that there is not going to be a change in viewer habits any time soon. A reminder, as if we needed one, that the audience remains a few years behind what is found on PowerPoints and in the exhibition halls around Europe.

Based on the Barb Establishment Survey (Q3 2011), 97% of people are now in digital TV homes, just as well with digital switchover taking place later in the year.

Thinkbox also quotes Decipher research that suggests 89% of people watch on demand TV to catch up or keep up with broadcast TV they may have missed.

Arguably, it is the job of Thinkbox to remind advertisers of the benefits of linear, particularly commercial, television and when the top rated show on Christmas Day falls below ten million viewers for the first time then you know that the sands are beginning to shift.

But it is just the beginning and what we will see over the next 12 months is whether or not people are actually using the second screen, either as a means to plan or watch their TV, or as a way of keeping track of how many end up as zombies at the end of The Walking Dead.

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