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BSkyB wins five-year
EDS contract dispute
BSkyB has won its five-year legal battle against Electronic Data Systems
(EDS) after a High Court judge ruled it had lied to Sky in order to secure
a contract as part of a new customer relationship management system. Justice
Ramsey said EDS, acquired in 2008 by the US computer giant Hewlett Packard,
was liable of fraudulent misrepresentation. Sky was originally seeking £709
million in damages from the EDS contract that had an original value of £48
million. The time to judgment is one of the most protracted in recent history;
during the lifetime of the case one of the EDS legal representatives retired
and another became a QC. Hewlett Packard described the action as a legacy
issue. “We’re pleased the court dismissed the majority of the
allegations made. While we accept that the contract was problematic, HP
strongly maintains EDS did nothing to deceive BSkyB. HP will be seeking
permission to appeal,” the company said in a statement.

European 3D studies
underway
The DVB is hoping that its work on 3D television will be passed to the
organisation’s steering board before the end of the year. As is
the case with much of the DVB’s work, standardisation will then
be sought through ETSI. Speaking at the DTG technical seminar in London,
David Wood, who chairs the DVB’s 3D commercial module said the
group will meet this week to discuss its work and that of the initial
technical module led by BSkyB’s David Daniels. The two modules
will work in tandem, the technical module looking at the feasibility
of the requirements drawn up by its commercial counterpart. Separately
the European Broadcasting Union, where Wood is head of new technology,
will commence work on its own study mission next month. The organization
has already received representation from the Japanese broadcaster NHK,
which is concerned over possible eyestrain experienced by the young when
viewing 3D.
Plan for HD to replace Portuguese
pay DTT
Portugal Telecom is negotiating with the regulator Anacom to replace
its proposed pay-TV multiplex with a bouquet of high definition channels.
The telco argues that market conditions have changed since the original
application was made. The plan is for national broadcasters RTP, SIC
and TVI to broadcast HD versions of their existing channels free-to-air
in the HD format. However, Portugal Telecom is to push ahead with its
own national digital TV channel, which under the plan would also have
an HD simulcast. Portugal Telecom was awarded five multiplexes on which
to run its pay-TV service, potentially leaving a swathe of unused bandwidth.
The 2007 tender included the free-to-air DTT platform, a fifth generalist
channel and a sixth in HD.
Liberty Global to sell J:COM interest
Liberty Global has announced the sale of its 37.8% ownership
interest in Jupiter Telecommunications (better known as J:COM), the Japanese
communications provider, to KDDI Corporation, the second largest
wireless operator in Japan. The cash deal covers the Liberty subsidiaries
that directly or indirectly
hold its interest in J:COM, including LGI/Sumisho Super Media. Additionally,
Liberty will retain the right to receive the anticipated final 2009 dividend
of ¥490 per share attributable to its interest in J:COM that is expected
to be approved at the March 2010 J:COM shareholders meeting. Including
both the agreed purchase price and the anticipated dividend, Liberty
Global expects to make approximately ¥363 billion ($4.0 billion or €2.83
billion as of January 22, 2010).
Servus goes for old-fashioned
3D
The Austrian commercial TV channel Servus TV has started broadcasting
videos in 3D using the old anaglyph system. Servus is sending out the
coloured (amber and blue) glasses to see the 3D effect to viewers in
German speaking territories at no charge. At the moment only short
videos are shown in between regular programming, but the channel also
plans longer 3D broadcasts. Using the old system, which broadcasters
have used on rare occasions in the past, no special receivers are needed,
just a pair of simple glasses. There is of course no connection with
the various new 3D TV systems currently under development, but it gives
the Red Bull-owned broadcaster a much needed PR boost.Last November,
the UK’s Channel 4 ran a week of 3D programmes
using the anaglyph system, a move criticised in some quarters for confusing
the market.
KPN sees IPTV growth
The Dutch operator KPN announced the growth of its IPTV service Interactieve
Televisie accelerated during the last quarter of 2009, reaching
about 90,000 connected homes. The incumbent recorded 880,000 customers
for its Digitenne digital terrestrial bouquet at the end of 2009;
this figure also includes an undisclosed number of DVB-H mobile
TV subscribers. The total number of TV customers reached 970,000
in Q4 2009, compared with 775,000 at the end of 2008. The operator
now claims a 13% market share of the total TV market and 23% of
the digital TV market.
RTE to control receivers for Saorview
DTT
RTE has appointed Sweden’s Teracom to test the receivers for its
free-to-air DTT platform that has been named Saorview. Discussions with
Teracom stretch back to the ill-fated bid by Boxer subsidiary Boxer to
run the pay-TV multiplexes on the Irish DTT platform. Broadband TV
News
understands that RTE wanted to act as the gatekeeper for its FTA channels
and joined the Scandinavian technical group NorDig. RTE has subsequently
become an active member of NorDig and will use the NorDig unified receiver
specification for DVB-T, adding the MHEG-5 middleware that is also used
in the UK. Using the NorDig specification should help to bring down the
costs for receiver manufacturers while tapping into Teracom’s facility
that already serves the Boxer affiliates in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Brussels approval for Unitymedia buy
Liberty Global has received regulatory clearance from the European
Union for its €3.5 billion purchase of Unitymedia. “The Commission
concluded that the concentration would not significantly impede effective
competition in the European economic area,” read a European
Commission statement. The 4.5 million-subscriber network is the second
largest cable operation in Germany after Kabel Deutschland. It controls
the regional networks that were formerly owned by Deutsche Telekom
in the states of Hesse and Northrhine-Westphalia, serving 10 of the
20 largest cities in Germany, including Cologne, Dusseldorf, and
Frankfurt.
Germany to decide on future of DVB-H
The German state media authorities hope to reach a decision
on giving DVB-H mobile TV a second chance by the middle of March. A condition
for opening a new tender for a DVB-H licence is that there will be “a
relevant interest of the market” for a new 10-year concession.
Ever since the Mobile 3.0 consortium handed back its DVB-H licence
in the autumn of 2008, a special working group of the regional media
authorities has explored a possible rebirth of a DVB-H service with
potential candidates and other market players. The ZAK now hopes
to reach a clear decision on the possible future of DVB-H.
Back to top

Content
BBC online soap pulls in 1.7m views
E20, the online spin-off from the BBC soap EastEnders, has reached
1.7 million views since its launch on January 8. The figures compare
favourably with conference darling KateModern, produced by Bebo,
which at its peak in May 2008 was drawing in 1.5 million views per
week. The BBC soap was commissioned by BBC Vision Multiplatform and
has benefitted from both cross-promotion and storylines that have
interweaved with the four-nights-a-week soap. In addition to the
EastEnders website, E20 is also available through the BBC iPlayer.
Cross platform carriage
for NRK HD
NRK will launch its new HD channel on February 12 with carriage
secured across DTT, satellite, cable and IPTV. RiksTV, Canal Digital,
Get and
Altibox will all go live at 20.05 for the first broadcast from NRK’s
Olympic studio. In addition to extensive coverage of the Winter Olympics
in Vancouver, NRK viewers will also be able to watch the popular drama
series Himmelblå and coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest,
which takes place in Oslo on May 29. Films including The Kite Runner,
Spiderman 2, The Young Jane Austen and The Golden Compass will also
be seen in the HD format. NRK is in the process of upgrading its studio
equipment and estimates that all domestic production will be in the
format from 2015. The policy is to renew equipment as part of the normal
replacement cycle, ensuring that no money is taken from the regular
programming budget. Commercial broadcasters TV2 and TV Norge already
have HD channels in place.
KabelKiosk adds RTL
Group HD channels
Eutelsat’s KabelKiosk, Germany’s cable headend-in-the-sky,
has announced the immediate launch of the RTL HD and Vox HD channels
from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. The addition to KabelKiosk of both
channels follows the signing of an agreement between Eutelsat Germany
and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, which was announced in Berlin at
Eutelsat Germany’s annual reception on January 21. With their
launch in KabelKiosk, RTL HD and Vox HD will be available for the first
time in HD quality for digital cable networks in Germany. KabelKiosk’s
German cable partners will immediately be able to offer the new option
to their subscribers via Eutelsat’s Eurobird 9A satellite. KabelKiosk’s
HD offer will progressively expand over the next months to up to ten
German and international channels. The package will offer a choice
of free and pay content to partners and customers, opening up the future
of HDTV for independent network operators and the housing industry.
Euronews
launches in Turkish language
Euronews will launch its Turkish service this Saturday January 30,
at 20.00 CET. The Turkish internet service premiered last Friday, January
22, and features all Euronews programmes on demand. The Turkish version
of the channel will be available via Turksat. Turkish Radio and Television
(TRT), a Euronews shareholder, will broadcast a daily Euronews branded
block on its terrestrial channel TRT2, reaching all Turkish homes.
The new language version will be provided by a team of 30 staff. It
will broadcast across the Euronews global network of satellites and
can be rebroadcast by international platforms including those already
distributing euronews (cable, ADSL, satellite and terrestrial) reaching
some 300 million homes in 151 countries.
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to top

Technology
Ofcom to approve DTT content protection method
Ofcom looks ready to give its consent to the use of the now infamous
Huffman Tables as part of content protection measures on the new
Freeview HD platform. Without it key programmes may have to be
withdrawn from the terrestrial platform. The regulator has published
its second consultation on the control of content over the terrestrial
platform. It follows BBC requests to compress data from the electronic
programme guide using Huffman coding and then use look-up tables
to decompress the data. In consultation with the DTG the BBC has
agreed a licensing scheme that would give manufacturers royalty
free access to the tables on a non-discriminatory basis. In a concession
to open rights organisations, made in a letter to the regulator
by Graham Plumb, acting controller BBC distribution, said the tables
would be available to both manufacturers and those using Open Source
software.
UPC upgrades last parts of Dutch network
UPC Nederland has said it will invest this year in upgrading the
remaining ‘white spots’ in the network in the provinces
of South Holland and Gelderland to make them fully interactive. Until
now, the cabler could not offer full triple play in these parts of
the network. The upgrading of the nets will also allow customers
to get access to all interactive digital TV services including VOD.
Until now, subscribers in these parts could only buy a limited number
of digital TV channels.
Abraham leaves UKTV for Channel 4
UKTV chief executive David Abraham is to leave the multichannel broadcaster
to become chief executive of Channel 4. Abraham will replace Andy
Duncan, who stood down from the post in November. Abraham was appointed
chief executive of UKTV in April 2007 from Discovery Networks USA,
where he had been president and general manager of TLC for two
years. In a 20-year career on both sides of the Atlantic he has
also served as general manager, Discovery Networks UK and was a
founding partner and Chief Operating Officer at leading independent
advertising agency St Luke’s. While at UKTV, Abraham used
to feel for marketing with the relaunch of UKTV G2 as Dave, a brand
that led to the repositioning of the entire UKTV portfolio, both
on screen and online.

 |
Clover's
Week
And now in stereo
Julian Clover finds that the prospect of 3D TV is more realistic than he thought. |
Now is probably not the time to fess up to my previous disregard of
3DTV. While being a keen supporter of high definition television I
just couldn’t see the demand for its stereoscopic cousin.
My road to Damascus moment probably came last week at the DTG-organised
3DTV event in London. The room was full to bursting and the gentle
reminders to check that I was still coming underlined the pressure
on seats. Arguably such events just prove that there is a demand from
the supply chain to sell their products; the real test will come later
in the year when the promised 3D TV services make it to market.
Initially these will just be for public display; handing out 3D glasses
to drunken football fans up and down the country may be asking for
trouble, but with the cost of the specs down to just 65 cents a pair
it will not be an expensive venture. The same goes for the ability
to kit out the whole family with their own 3D glasses and if like me
you already where glasses, you can get a pair o Foster Grant-style
clip-ons.
The majority of new TV displays are already HD Ready, so it is not
that greater jump to think that in five years time, 3D might also
be as standard. And unlike the HD sets that many watched oblivious
to
the need to connect up some HD content, you can tell pretty soon
if you don’t have a 3D image.
That problem might also be about to solve itself. Sky’s announcement
on Thursday morning that it was to phase out its standard definition
equipment in favour of an HD PVR for all can also be regarded as n
industry milestone. Although the Ukrainian operator MYtv is launching
with HD capable receivers – the forward thinking decision was
made even though the satcaster will not initially have any HD channels – my
hunch is that it will take a while before any other European operators
take similar decisions.
Back at the conference it was noticeable how far forward the production
techniques have come. Gone is the look of the children’s theatre
or the feeling that the footballers are taking part in a high tech
version of Subbuteo. Instead crystal clear images – the side-by-side
system used by Sky is not strictly HD, but it’s close – and
an increasing knowledge of what does and doesn’t work.
Sky can promise to deliver a weekly Premier League match on its Sky
3D channel because it has been doing just that since early in the season.
The skillset being developed has made it clear that the shots used
in standard and high definition, don’t deliver the same experience
in HD – remember those long lingering stadium shots in Euro 2008.
This brings in another problem, commentators, so much so that when
the BBC experimented in 3D on the 6 Nations rugby it used its radio
commentary rather than the TV feed so that viewers were told precisely
what was happening.
There is still one flaw in the introduction of 3D: 2009 saw the greatest
number of TV sets purchased in one year and with 14 million flat panels
expected to be in situ by the end of 2010, do we really want to go
through it all again.
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