SatelliteTv News

[Maxi]

Free adds 28 new channels to IPTV service



French ISP Free has added 28 new channels to its IPTV service 'Freebox TV' this month, of which over half are included in the standard subscription package.

The new channels include: Ma Chaîne Sport (MCS), offering sports programming for all the family, including European football championship games and sports coaching programmes (including yoga, fitness training and dancing); Premium Football Club, offering coverage of the Brazilian football leagues; Nat Geo Music, a new music channel from National Geographic; Trace Tropical, a tropical hits channel; Clubbing TV; E! Entertainment; local channels such as Télé Bocale and Téléssonne; and foreign channels such as Dubai TV and Abu Dhabi TV.

In terms of new high-definition content, Free has added Luxe TV HD and Arte HD to the standard package, and will be adding Melody Zen to the list of optional channels before the end of this month. In all, Freebox TV offers over 150 linear channels as standard and the ability to receive a further 150 optional channels, as well as a number of video-on-demand platforms (Free Home Vidéo, Canal Play, TF1 Vision, M6 Vidéo, Vodéo, I*Concerts, Frissons).

Free (owned by the Iliad Group) has not released subscriber figures for its IPTV service 'Freebox TV', while its sister company Alice had around 150,000 subscribers for its own French IPTV service 'Alice TV' at the end of last September, according to figures from Informa Telecoms & Media.

[Maxi]

Astra Germany prepares digital campaign


By Robert Briel | April 24, 2009

Astra Germany will launch a big consumer campaign next month to inform viewers about the digital future. Using billboards, flyers, radio commercials and in-store promotions, the satellite operator will tout the benefits of digital television.

Using the slogan ‘analogue reception is a cul-de sac, digital satellite reception means a free ride into the future,” the operator is preparing German viewers for the upcoming analogue switch-off on the satellite.

“The digititalisation in Germany has now taken the lead. At the moment, more than 50% of German TV households have digital reception. This is a great development! At satellite level, we are even at 70%,” said Wolfgang Elsässer, MD of ASTRA Deutschland. However, there are still almost five million analogue satellite homes. With our campaign we want to convince then of the benefits of digital television.”

The campaign will also emphasise that digital reception also make HD possible.

Next year, the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will start regular HD broadcasts with the Winter Olympics.

[Maxi]

The Slovak cable association APKT has lodged a protest against Orange, which operates an IPTV service named Fiber TV in the country.

Strategie reports that APKT has accused Orange of abusing its marketing power to discredit smaller players, such as cable operators, in a misleading comparative advertising campaign.

Orange has issued a statement strongly denying the charges.

[Maxi]

Trace Tropical heading to Kabel Deutschland


The music channel Trace TV is planning to place on the German market its newest music program Trace Tropical. The station is focused on the music of Latin America and the Caribbean.. Tropical Trace appears on the cable network of Kabel Deutschland (KDG), there is already ongoing.

According to the available information is already in the channel under test is available in the menu KDG.

From the outset, is available in France, including the Orange offer IPTV, as well as in Africa, where the program is distributed in the packet Can***** Reunion, My TV and Can***** Caraibes.

Program Trace Tropical transmitted to Europe via satellite Eurobird 9 (9 ° E), currently the uncoded channel to transp. 55, the frequency of 11,823 GHz, pol H SR 27500, FEC 3 / 4, DVB-S/MPEG-2.

Posting will probably soon scrambled system Viaccess.

Kabel Deutschland as a route to the cable distribution network throughout Germany using satellite Astra 3 position at 23.5 ° E.

[Maxi]

3D more than 20/20 vision



What is it about 3D that has got the broadcast community talking before current technologies have even bedded in, asks Julian Clover?

Already parallels are beginning to emerge between 3DTV and the last next big thing, high definition. We have a variety of formats, a swathe of organisations seeking to set the standards, and a manufacturing community all hoping to convince us it is about time we replaced the ten-year old television set.

The lack of broadcast content has not stopped TV manufacturers from launching Full HD sets on consumers that often believe they have already acquired an HD set through the purchase of a device marked HD Ready.

3D also gives the consumer the opportunity to wear comedy glasses, and while they are not manufactured from the red-green microfilm that was familiar with earlier efforts, they still have a certain X-Ray Specs feel about them. Consumers also have the chance to lose pairs behind the sofa, have them covered in chocolate by the kids, or just eaten by the dog.

But if glasses are the problem, then maybe Philips should think again over this week’s decision to pull out of 3D imaging production and research, closing the door on the WOWvx technology that did not require the use of additional eyeware.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK, early proponents first of HD and now 3D, have been demonstrating an early version of a system dubbed Integral TV. Based on an SHV camera that uses 32 mega pixels in combination with an array of cylindrical lenses, Integral TV boasts near holographic properties, though currently offering but a low resolution. On the positive side, it does not require glasses.

Sky has been a major proponent of 3DTV, going further than it has ever before with any emerging technology, all the time reminding its trade audience that there are no firm plans to introduce any commercial 3D service. There may be dissenting voices from other parts of the European broadcasting community, but so far these have remained largely silent.

I wonder if there is perhaps some sort of subliminal message coming through from Sky’s support of 3D. True, under the Sky proposals you would still need to spend a few thousand pounds on the purchase of a new television and wear those glasses, but given that the technology works on today’s set-tops, the purchase of Sky+ HD means you are at least partially futureproofed.

[Maxi]

French TV regulatory body CSA


French TV regulatory body CSA has said that a minimum break of 20 minutes must be observed between two ad breaks during the broadcast of a feature-film or a TV production.Ad breaks in feature films mustn’t exceed six minutes, the council added. whether it is a series, TV movie, documentary or youth programming.
This decision comes after private networks were authorized by the new broadcast law of March 5 to have two ad breaks during TV and movie broadcasts

[Maxi]

Irdeto turns 40 with raft of deals


As content protection and monetisation specialist Irdeto marks its 40th year in business, it has unveiled a series of deals at NAB covering web, on demand and cable services.

Setanta Sports has adopted Irdeto’s Content Management Solution for its new content on demand service Setanta-i. Irdeto is working with Setanta Sports to create an end-to-end service for creating, managing and publishing live and on-demand content for distribution and consumption through multiple web properties on a free and pay basis.

Setanta Sports now has a fully automated service for managing the capture and encoding of content from up to 17 live feeds, the entering and management of the associated metadata and the monetisation and secure distribution of that content. The service will allow Setanta Sports to generate subscription and on demand revenues from its content and to promote its brand worldwide.

Meanwhile, Irdeto has been selected by MTG’s Viasat Broadcasting to manage its enhanced internet based on-demand service, Viasat OnDemand. The service will be available across multiple territories, in Europe, using one single platform and will provide

Irdeto has also revealed that the Common Interface Plus (CI+) Conditional Access Module (CAM) will be commercially available in May 2009. In an industry first, Ziggo, the leading Dutch cable television operator is Irdeto’s inaugural customer to implement CI+, which will be used by up to one million digital subscribers.

Irdeto has implemented the features of CI+ as specified by the CI+ Forum, an industry standards body, comprised of four major television manufacturers, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Samsung and Conditional Access Module manufacturers SmarDTV, Neotion and SMIT. Operators who adopt CI+ CAM have the ability to give customers increased content protection providing a secure interface between the CAM and hosts, such as integrated digital TVs and common interface set-top boxes.

[Maxi]

Polish pre-pay DTH takes off


The Polish pre-pay DTH service Telewizja na Karte (TNK) is proving to be a resounding success.

According to Satkurier, it is securing between 500-1,000 new customers daily and likely to have 200,000 by the end of this month.

TNK, which is backed by ITI Neovision, was launched last October and is one of five DTH platforms operating in Poland.

The others are Cyfrowy Polsat, Cyfra+, n and Orange.

[Maxi]

Setanta Sports to stream programming

The satellite sports broadcaster, Setanta, has partnered with one of the main providers of live sports internet TV, Swarmcast, to deliver a new service offering online video of live and on demand sports content.

Setanta i is a service that will stream all of Setanta’s main channels that are available in a particular region.

This service allows the user to view the satellite channel’s programming in full screen, offering the viewer a chance to view both free and paid for programming.

Something that UK viewers forget is that Setanta is bigger than just a regional sports channel and has developed a major service covering all areas of sport coming from all regions on the world.

With Setanta i, viewers will be able to view this content anywhere in the world on a computer.

[Maxi]

Premiere loses Telekom’s Bundesliga contract

German media group Constantin Medien will produce the live coverage of Germany’s soccer league Bundesliga for Deutsche Telekom. The material will be distributed on the telco’s IPTV platform T-Home Entertain and by its mobile network subsidiary T-Mobile.

The contract, financial details of which were not revealed, covers the four seasons from 2009 until 2013. The switch to Constantin Medien is a bitter blow for pay-TV operator Premiere, which until now produced the Bundesliga coverage for Telekom. According to industry sources, the contract was worth around €20 million per year to the Munich-based broadcaster. At the same time, Premiere loses its exclusivity in live coverage of the Bundesliga on pay-TV.

Constantin Medien will operate a Bundesliga channel for Telekom on which all 612 matches of the league’s 1st and 2nd division will be transmitted live per season. The commercial-free offer, dubbed LIGA total! and transmitted entirely in high definition (HDTV), will be accompanied by a video-on demand service offering highlights 30 minutes after the end of each match. Additionally, interactive applications such as live news updates and goal statistics will be available. The service will be launched at the beginning of the new Bundesliga season on August 7, with prices still to be fixed.

Rainer Hüther, vice-chairman of Constantin Medien, stressed that the company will give an “independent and distinctive face” to the Bundesliga coverage. “With many innovative functions on the IPTV and mobile phone platforms we will offer viewers real added value.”

Industry insiders surmise that with the separation from Premiere, Telekom wants to give its Bundesliga offer an independent profile which will attract more notice from soccer fans. Until now, the company re-distributed Premiere’s Bundesliga coverage, which is also available via cable and satellite, and therefore was not able to offer any real incentive for IPTV.

T-Home Entertain can be received by around 20 million households on Telekom’s broadband networks using the technologies ADSL2+ and VDSL. At the end of 2008 Telekom had around 500,000 IPTV customers, with a million expected by year-end.

Through Constantin Medien Leo Kirch is also once again involved in the Bundesliga. Via his company KF15, which holds 25.85%, Kirch is the Munich-based media group’s largest single shareholder. Sports channel DSF, productions company Plazamedia, film producer Constantin Film, sport rights dealer Team, web portal Sport1 and creative agency Creation Club belong to the Constantin Medien group.

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