Satellite TV Market News

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Virgin and Gemstar meet in High Court



Virgin Media will this week face a High Court challenge over the alleged breach of three European patents in the Gemstar portfolio. The case was brought in January 2008 by Gemstar-TV Guide, then owned by News Corp, though now a part of Macrovision.

At the time Gemstar said the value of its European patent portfolio had already been recognised by leading service providers. These now include UPC, which in April signed an agreement licensing patents for electronic programme guides across multiple European territories. Virgin has described the claims as being “without merit”.

The action relates to three patents covering the display of electronic programme guides in a format that will be familiar in many markets both in Europe and across the world. The detail extends to the method that is used to move between channels and the amount of time that might be displayed on screen at any one time.

Patent EP 1613066 is particularly interesting in that it relates to the recording of programmes through a personal video recorder.

The hearing is expected to last three weeks.
The Patents

Abstract of EP 0969662 (A1)
An electronic program guide comprising: television program listings, each listing including title, telecast time, and channel, a time and channel grid guide (24) in which some of the television program listings are displayed, a moveable cursor (32) for selectively highlighting one of the television program listings displayed in the grid guide, means for changing the time and channel grid guide (24) into a single channel guide (5Cool of the channel of a highlighted television program listing.

Abstract of EP 1377049 (A1)
Screen (10) for a user interface of a television schedule system and process consists of an array (24) of irregular cells (26), which vary in length, corresponding to different program lengths of one half to one-and-one half hours or more. Because of the widely varying length of the cells (26), if a conventional cursor used to select a cell location were to simply step from one cell to another, the result would be abrupt changed in the screen (10). By restricting cursor movements to the regular cells, abrupt screen changes will be avoided. A conventional offset shadow (34), which is a black bar, underlines the entire cell and wraps around the right edge of the cell. To tag the underlying position which defines where the cursor (32) is and thus, where it will move next portions (36) of the black bar outside the current underlying position arc segmented, while the current position is painted solid.

Abstract of EP 1613066 (A2)
A method for transferring recorded programs using an interactive television program guide implemented on user television equipment, the method comprising displaying in a display screen at least one program listing related to at least one program enabling a user to select a program listing from the at least one displayed program listing recording the program related to the at least one displayed program listing on a digital storage device; displaying at least one recorded program listing for at least one program recorded on the digital storage device, wherein the at least one recorded program listing includes a recorded program listing for the program recorded on the digital storage device; enabling the user to select the recorded program listing to transfer the recorded program from the digital storage device to a secondary storage device; ; and transferring the recorded program from the digital storage device to a secondary storage device.

Source: European Patent Office

[maosat]

Legal knives out at Virgin Media




Legal bills will be mounting this week as a long-pending action between Gemstar-TV Guide (now owned by Macrovision) and Virgin Media gets a hearing. The case is being heard at the High Court in London, with Gemstar alleging that Virgin Media has infringed 3 of its patents.

The three patents (EP UK 0969662, EP UK 1377049, and EP UK 161306) cover aspects such as EPGs and the handling of recording from EPGs. Gemstar says the case results from failed negotiations with Virgin to licence Gemstar’s EPG intellectual property rights. When the action commenced, in January last year, Virgin described the suit as “without merit”.

Gemstar’s view says: “While we would have preferred to reach a commercial solution with Virgin Media, we ultimately have a responsibility to our shareholders, licensees, and other stakeholders to protect the value of our intellectual property.”

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Astra wins kudos for HD plan


Satellite operator SES Astra has launched its own HDTV service over Germany, a task normally left to pay-TV broadcasters. But pay-TV has proven hugely difficult to establish in Germany despite millions of suitable HD Ready TVs in people’s homes. And the plan seems to have gone down well.

As we reported yesterday, Astra’s service, branded with the label HD+, will offer new HD programmes to TV households. The launch of HD+ is foreseen for late autumn.

The first programmes which will be part of the HD+ offer are the commercial channels RTL and VOX. Relevant agreements have been signed with the Media Group RTL Germany. RTL has contracted additional long-term transponder capacity for the transmission of the new HD programmes from Astra’s prime orbital position 19.2 degrees East.

HD+ is independent from TV operators and offers the technical management and the marketing of HD programmes for all broadcasters. The technical management includes the distribution of the smart cards that are necessary for the reception. SES Astra will start negotiations with other channels to enlarge the offer.

“The new service creates attractive added value for viewers,“ said Wilfried Urner, Managing Director of the newly-founded Astra operating unit HD PLUS in Unterföhring near Munich. ”This lays a new base for the reception of highly valuable HD programmes.”

Some of the immediate comments said:

HDTV is a "potential driver of digitalisation" (Digitalfernsehen.de). The German Federation of German Consumer Organisations is assuming that HDTV is a potential new driver of digitalisation, according to media expert Michael Bobrowski. He said that it is equally important to increase the amount of attractive content in HD quality.

"HDTV launch has been delayed for years" (HDTV Online). Lothar Bisky, member of the German parliament for the Left Party, demanded a clear schedule regarding the introduction of HDTV, stressing that politics have delayed it for years already. "In these times of crisis, many broadcasters may have problems investing the money for it," he told Digitalfernsehen. Nevertheless, it is not impossible. Bisky claims that HDTV could be a diver for digitalisation.

HDTV creates "added value" (Digitalfernsehen.de). “Digitalisation will be successful with TV viewers,” said Hans-Joachim Otto, head of the German parliament's Committee on Cultural and Media Affairs. He emphasized that it is important for the viewer to realize that HD creates real added value.

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U-Verse deployment in decline


According to UBS Research, AT&T is slowing the deployment of their "next-generation" VDSL IPTV service, U-Verse. UBS initially expected AT&T to pass 11 million homes in 2009, but has ‘re-guesstimated’ that AT&T will pass just 4-5 million homes this year. That would be down from 9 million in 2008. AT&T admits there's been a recession-related slowdown, but insists deployment remains "aggressive".

"Our U-verse build and expansion plans remain aggressive. We will continue expanding into new markets and turning up more households that are currently passed by our U-verse network. In a broader sense, we announced earlier this year that given the current economic environment, we are taking a conservative approach to managing our business."

[maosat]

New German DTH uses Kiosk channels



A new DTH platform for Germany will launch with channels from the Eutelsat Kabelkiosk platform. AllesSehen will have two packages of channels available. One will offer 11 German language channels, a second, called US Entertain, will include a number of mainly English language channels, including America Unleashed and BBC Prime. In addition, viewers will be able to subscribe to the sports channel Sportdigital with the one or both of the packages.

Each package costs E9.90 a month with Sportdigital E4.90 if bought on top or E7.99 separately. Every subscriber will need a starter package for E29.90 that will include the smart card. The platform will be on Eutelsat Eurobird 9A and is scrambled by Conax.

[maosat]

Epix launches in beta



Epix, the joint venture cable channel being launched by Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and MGM, unveiled a beta version of its streaming movie site. EpixHD, streams a selection of 100-plus movies without advertisements to an invited group of users. A spokesman for Studio 3 Networks, the name of the joint venture company behind the service, confirmed the launch, but didn’t provide other details on the service.

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Screen cross-media solution



Viacom Brand Solutions, Pearl & Dean and MySpace are combining to launch Screen, a new cross-media commercial venture in the UK, offering brands a tailored TV, cinema and online advertising service. The three firms will collaborate on specific projects using their separate, existing sales teams.

The partnership will present advertisers and agencies with a one-stop-shop for cross-platform ads across TV, online and cinema

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DVR STB shipments contract



Dell’Oro Group research has reported that the number of DVR-equipped pay-TV set-top box unit shipments contracted 20 per cent year-over-year in the first quarter this year and accounted for one-third of the total set-top box shipped during the quarter.

This contraction in the first quarter may be attributed to several factors. "First, the economy is reducing the demand for premium services such as DVR functionality," said Greg Collins, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. "Second, growth in the set-top box market is coming from Europe and developing regions where DVR functionality is still new and not yet embraced by consumers. Third, multi-room DVR’s are at the very early stages of impacting demand for integrated DVR’s. Multi-room DVR’s offer end-users greater functionality and ease of use by eliminating the need to manage content on multiple set-top boxes. Furthermore, since the hard drive is often the most expensive and most failure-prone component of a set-top box, multi-room DVR’s also offer service providers lower capital and support costs".

The IP STB market was the only segment to grow year-over-year in the first quarter with Motorola and Cisco holding top spots. ZTE captured the third position with strong sales of inexpensive, standard definition products to China where IPTV is starting to gain momentum.

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Mobile TV solution market to decline in 2009



The global market for mobile TV chipset solutions is likely to contract 20-30 per cent in 2009 due mainly to declining demand from the PC and automotive segments, according to Yannick Levy, CEO of DiBcom.

To cope with slack demand and varied standards in different markets, DiBcom and other solution vendors such as Siano Mobile Silicon are introducing integrated chipsets that are compatible with multiple technologies, Levy noted.

For example, DiBcom's latest Octopus platform is compatible with DVB-T, DVB-H, DVB-SH, ISDB-T, T-DMB and CMMB standards, said Levy, who added that the company will begin delivering samples of Octopus chipsets to clients in July-August.

DiBcom will outsource the Octopus chipsets to United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) using a 65nm process, Levy revealed. DiBcom has shipped over 15 million mobile TV solutions so far, and the company is also the top vendor in the DVB segment, Levy claimed.

[maosat]

Five expands into online gambling


UK terrestrial broadcaster Five has struck a deal with digital gambling group PartyGaming to launch an online bingo and casino service. The service, which will be branded with the Five name, will launch within the next six months and will be promoted extensively by the broadcaster.