Satellite TV Market News

[maosat]

VOA expands broadcasting to Pakistan border region


Deewa Radio, the Voice of America’s (VOA) Pashto service broadcast to the war-torn Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, is expanding to nine hours daily starting today. “The time is right to add three more hours to Deewa’s original programming,” said Steve Redisch, VOA’s executive editor. “Deewa is often the only source of accurate news and information for the millions of people living in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) and elsewhere. They rely on us daily for basic information.”


Created in October 2006, Deewa is aimed at an estimated 40 million Pashto-speaking people in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, including the NWFP where some 2.5 million people have been displaced as Pakistani military battle Taliban fighters. Deewa also reaches Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan.
(Source: VOA)
* The VOA website has not yet been updated with the expanded schedule. Deewa Radio had been operating at 1200-1800 UTC. According to Dragan Letic via DX Listening Digest, the additional three hours are at 0000-0300 UTC on 12015, 11535 and 9380 kHz

[maosat]

Political ads on television rejected in Norway



Stortinget - the parliament - has with a strong majority vote (61-34) upheld the ban on political ads on television in Norway. Politicians fear that polical ads on television will not benefit parties with limited financial resources. In order to give heed to the European human rights court decision 2008 to open the airwaves for all political parties, the Minister of Culture Trond Giske (Social dem.) instead has found a constructive compromise. The proposal also was supported by one opposition party (Christian Democrats).

The mission to increase coverage of small parties before upcoming elections was added to the remit for the public service broadcaster NRK. Also an agreement between the government and Frikanalen - the non-commercial open channel on the national digital terrestial network - will guarantee all parties broadcast space especially three weeks before an election. The channel will also be open for regional broadcasts for local parties.
The agreement also provides for government support to Frikanalen - a civil society NGO. Frikanalen will receive 10 million Norwegian kronor (1.12 million euro) for operations and investments for the period 2009-2012

[maosat]

French Regulator Warns Eutelsat About Some Porn Channels


French media regulator CSA has advised satellite operator Eutelsat, based in Paris that the future distribution of porn channels Sexy One, All Sex and Sex World, displaying advertisements telephone service for adult users is dubious. This , because the channels do not respect the rules of protection of children and adolescents . The CSA says that if the channels co not conform to the French law it will have no choice but to stop their future broadcasting.

[maosat]

Hispasat's Next Satellites



Hispasat is planning to launch Hispasat 1E next year . The satellite will be positioned in 30 degrees west and will join the Hispasat 1C and Hispasat 1D satellites at this location. This satellite will be followed by Hispasat 1F that will be launched in 2011. Before the launch of Hispasat 1E Hispasat plans to launch the Amazonas 2 satellite that , incontrary to its predecessor Amazonas 1 will not have European coverage. Next in this series of satellite - Amazonas 3 is scheduled to be released in 2013

[maosat]

CRTC Exempts New Media from Regulation


The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has made a ruling which is sure to please some proprietors of online media content. The CRTC has extended an exemption which does not allow the commission to regulate or monitor trends for this kind of content. The commission’s Chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C, stated that Internet and mobile services were complimentary to traditional broadcasts and that any intervention would get in the way of innovation.

Another review of the exemption is expected to be completed within the next five years. The CRTC went on to state that Canada was in need of a national digital strategy as endorsed by the National Film Board.

[maosat]

New Launch Date For RAZAKSAT



Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd (ATSB) of Malaysia announce that RazakSAT's new launch date by a Falcon 1 rocket has been rescheduled for July 13th .

The launch was delayed last month after SpaceX identified the potential for an unfavorable interaction between the satellite and the launch vehicle. After further analysis, SpaceX determined the implementation of a simple vibration isolation system would address this concern. SpaceX selected the SoftRide isolation system from CSA Engineering for this purpose, citing the system's strong flight heritage and established success in addressing vibration concerns.

Falcon 1, a two-stage, liquid oxygen/rocket-grade kerosene vehicle designed from the ground up by SpaceX, will place the RazakSAT satellite, equipped with a high resolution Medium-Sized Aperture Camera (MAC), into a near equatorial orbit.

RazakSAT was designed and built by ATSB, a pioneer and leader in the design and manufacture of satellites in Malaysia. The satellite is expected to provide high resolution images of Malaysia that can be applied to land management, resource development and conservation, forestry and fish migration.

SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site is located approximately 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific.

[maosat]

IPTV Set Top Market is Cooling



The IP set top box market grew 55 percent in 2008, but such breakneck growth will not continue, reports In-Stat . Many telcos have already launched TV services, so there are fewer new customer prospects. In addition, the economic climate is sapping investment in new telco TV systems.
“Established telco TV providers like France Telecom, AT&T, Free, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and China Telecom provided much of the subscriber growth that drives the demand for IP set top boxes,” says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. “We expect this situation to continue in 2009 and 2010. However with few new deployments, unit shipments of IP set top boxes will see only slight increases in 2009 and 2010.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

- More than 50% of 2009 IP set top box unit shipments in Western Europe will have hard disk drives.

- Among the key technology trends are improved power management and support for 3D graphics, multiple codecs, and open software platforms. The average bill of materials for an HD IP set top box will fall below $50 in 2010.

- Among the semiconductor competitors providing solutions for the IP set top box market are Broadcom, CopperGate, Intel, NXP, Sigma Designs, and STMicroelectronics.

- Motorola held onto the top market share position in IP set top boxes in 2008, but its market share slipped from 2007 as Cisco ramped up shipments.

[maosat]

Prisa, Mediapro seal deal



Several days ago, Rapid TV News reported on a likely deal between Spain's main media groups Prisa and Mediapro's Imagina. Now this agreement has been signed, turning the relationship between the companies upside down.

Prisa’s Sogecable, which operates the Digital+ pay-TV platform and Mediapro, which owns the LaSexta terrestrial channel, have been warring over soccer for almost two years now. Sogecable sued Mediapro claiming its soccer rights were illegal. Now the companies will exploit them together.

The deal, signed last Thursday night, establishes Sogecable's pay TV operator Digital+ as offering all of the soccer matches of the Spanish Soccer League and the King's Cup for the next three seasons. And both companies have a month to sign a formal agreement of merger, creating a new company in which both will be shareholders.

Mediapro executives said that this month will serve both parties to "consider the possibility of this operation".

However, the agreement doesn't encompass Mediapro's pay TV channel Gol TV which the producer wants to launch in Spain's DTT on August (although as yet there is still no law allowing payment on DTT).

Last February Spain's government opened the door to the merger of national private broadcasters providing that the average audience acumulated of the broadcasters is not higher than 27% of the country’s total. Sogecable's Cuatro and Mediapro's laSexta fulfill this requirement.

But Mediaset's Spanish Telecinco said this agreement "is something difficult to accept taking account the deal means the creation of a big media holding meaning at the same time Spain's biggest media concentration".

The new holding company will have two national newspapers, another two national TV channels, a pay-TV operator and the biggest Hispanic radio station ever

[maosat]

End nearing for Setanta?


Numerous local report suggest that today (Monday) is likely to be crunch day for Irish pay-TV sports broadcaster Setanta. Now the talk is of formal administration, one step from full bankruptcy.

Setanta has appointed liquidation specialists Deloitte to examine all options. Top of the list is payment of £3m that should have been paid to the Scottish Premier League last week. Last day for the £3m cheque to land on the SPL’s doormat is today. The SPL has itself made a distribution payment to its own clubs, which means it is wholly out of pocket if Setanta defaults on its obligations.

Next up is a £35m instalment due to be paid to the English Premier League on June 15. There are also other significant contract obligations, not least to transmission operators Globecast and Arqiva.

Setanta, which launched itself as a rival to BSkyB in 2003, has struggled to make its numbers, and reportedly not helped now by a tougher approach to cash-flow from major funders Doughty Hanson. Setanta is said to need at least a £100m immediate injection to see it through this winter – but the problems are compounded given that its soccer offering is reduced. Existing shareholders are pressing for a major rights re-negotiations with the soccer leagues in particular. They, in fairness, are duty bound to get the best possible terms for their member clubs, and if Setanta ends up in formal administration then the rights may revert to Setanta’s rivals.

The ‘usual suspects’ are reportedly in discussions over rescue terms for Setanta, but players like Disney’s ESPN have already looked closely at Setanta’s books and walked away. Of course, today’s picture might be very different for ESPN and the asking price might be very much lower. BSkyB, meanwhile is quietly waiting on the touchline, looking to pick up fresh soccer rights to help consolidate its own position.

[maosat]

MTV and VIVA leave Zattoo



Zattoo has ceased distributing MTV, VIVA and Nick/Comedy Central on its internet TV platform in Germany due to the litigation over copyright issues with Hollywood studios Warner Bros and Universal.

According to MTV Networks Germany, Zattoo has cancelled the carriage contract because it feared legal consequences instigated by third parties which claim that the service doesn’t resemble conventional cable distribution. The contract concluded between the company which operates the three channels and Zattoo contained a special cancellation clause in the event that Zattoo incurred copyright problems.

Warner Bros and Universal argue that in opposition to conventional platform operators via cable, satellite or ADSL, Zattoo does not transmit TV channels unaltered, but intersperses them with its own commercials. The studios gained a temporary injunction against Zattoo to stop it from screening selected movies which form part of channels onboard its platform.

Zattoo’s free offer is financed through advertising which is shown whenever viewers change channels. The Swiss-American company argues that the channels’ programmes are not interrupted, but transmitted one-to-one as commercials are only rolled out when switching channels, thereby not disturbing the actual programmes.

If the studios are able to prove their claim in court, they could demand from Zattoo to negotiate separate distribution contracts with movie producers and pay them royalties.