Inside Digital TV articles from June 2001

Inside Digital TV archives from June 2001

XTC PROMISES 'BELOW GBP20'SET-TOP BOX.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 4, 2001... David Elstein, chairman of XTC, says its ultra-low cost box concept is available for licensing now, and the company sees it retailing for "below GBP20", writes Chris Forrester. Elstein, who most recently was CEO at Channel 5, and talking...

NOKIA SEEKS SUBSIDY FOR MEDIA TERMINAL.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... Nokia Home Communications is looking for potential subsidies from the retail sector to help it bring down the cost of its Media Terminal product when it launches in the UK this November, writes Julian Clover. The PC-like set-top box,...

DIGITAL TV USERS SPURN INTERACTIVE SHOPPING.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 4, 2001... New, authoritative research sponsored by the 4i Group and conducted by e- Mori, the technology division of Mori, has shown that only a small proportion of digital TV owners use the technology for shopping - underlining the problems faced by...

DIGITAG CHARTS MHP MIGRATION ROUTES.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... In what could be interpreted as a rebuff to the notion that the DVB MHP interactive TV middleware solution is only intended to "offer a choice for new operators coming into the market", the pro-DTT European lobby group DigiTag has just issued...

PACE UNVEILS NONE TOO BASIC RECEIVER.(Pace Micro Technology)(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... The first fruits of Pace Micro Technology's acquisition of French manufacturer Xcom were revealed at Mediacast in London this month - and the much-heralded 'basic' receiver turned out to be anything but. The DTVA (Digital Television...

SPAIN MOVES ON SINGLE DECODER.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... Following the example of the Italian market, Spain's Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has asked all digital TV operators to use a common digital set-top-box which would be compatible with all existing and future digital TV offers. ...

QUIERO TO LAUNCH NEW SET-TOP-BOX.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 4, 2001... Spain's digital terrestrial platform, Quiero, has announced plans to launch a new high-end digital set-top-box in the last quarter of this year. Developed by Sagem, amongst others, the new device will allow subscribers to record up to 20...

STREAM REPORTS LOSSES OF L194 BILLION.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 4, 2001... Italian pay-TV operator Stream, which is owned by Telecom Italia and News Corp, has closed the first fiscal half-year in the red, losing L194 billion (E100 million). The result is close to the figures for the same period last year, when losses...

BBC VOTES FOR ELECTION INTERACTIVITY.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... As the votes are counted in the British General Election on June 7, DTT viewers will be able to plug into the BBC's election database, as part on an enhanced television application. The Interactive Election Special has been created by BBC News...

MEDIASET SEEKS PARTNERS FOR DTT.(digital terrestrial)(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... The recent change of government in Italy, with the arrival of the centre- right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, is not expected to have any influence on moves to introduce DTT, since the laws regulating this issue had the blessing of...

SWEDISH BOXER TO LAUNCH DTT CHANNEL.(digital television)(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... Boxer, the organisation tasked with distributing set-top boxes for Sweden's ailing DTT platform, is planning to launch its own DTT channel. Boxer has no licence of its own, and the move is an advance of the tender for a new DTT multiplex...

MHP LICENCE COST: 11,000 EUROS.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... DVB has published a draft outline of the licensing system that will be required to be observed for MHP-compliant equipment and applications, together with the documentation-set required. Essentially, it is divided into two phases:...

NETGEM SHIFTS STRATEGY TO SOFTWARE.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... The Mediacast exhibition at London's new ExCel centre was the location for the first public demonstration of French Web-via-TV specialist NetGem's new interactive TV platform, 'Netgem 4.0 Digital'. Netgem claims the Netgem 4.0 will...

BT GETS INTO SHOWBIZ.(British Telecom)
June 4, 2001... Barry Flynn argues that BT has always been able to compete against cable in the entertainment business, but hasn't done so for good reasons - reasons that still apply today Considerable heat - and very little light - has been generated by...

ITALIAN DECODER EXTENSION.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... Italy's Telecommunications Authority has conceded there should be a further extension of the deadline by which Stream and Tele+ are required to comply with the single decoder law, and have given the pair until August 26 to finalise...

DIGITAL ISLAND BROADBAND FORECAST.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 4, 2001... Digital Island is predicting that UK broadband penetration will be two million in two years and 15 per cent by 2005. In a presentation at Mediacast, the company said it had found that Internet usage was 61 per cent higher among broadband users...

BBC TO LAUNCH BRANDED PVR.(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... Inside Digital TV understands that the BBC has linked with Axcent Technology to create a BBC-branded PVR for introduction to the market later this year. Axcent showed a prototype box at the recent MediaCast event in London with a 40GByte hard...

BRIEFLY...(miscellaneous brief articles)(Brief Article)
June 4, 2001... * TV Cabo, the Portugal Telecom multichannel operator, will launch its delayed interactive TV in Portugal on June 7 in Lisbon in the presence of Microsoft's Steve Balmer. The system uses Microsoft's Advanced TV platform and, according to Alan...

UPC wavers over Microsoft in Holland.(United Pan-Europe Communications, Microsoft TV)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... European cable MSO UPC is maintaining that it has still not decided whether to implement the Advanced Microsoft TV platform in its Dutch networks, writes Barry Flynn. According to the company's head of corporate communications, Bert...

BSkyB delays PVR intro - again.(British Sky Broadcasting Group postpones PVR digibox introduction)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... BSkyB will delay introducing its second-generation PVR digibox until a 'hard launch' now scheduled for Christmas this year, writes Chris Forrester. This is the second delay for the Pace Micro Technology-built XTV box. Previously the box...

ONdigital victim of poor DTT reception.(digital terrestrial television)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 15, 2001... Speaking at the same conference, Carlton Communications' CEO Gerry Murphy, said the company was considering "inviting" a third investor into ONdigital and mentioned it would be "logical" to consider BSkyB and BT as possible members of the...

C5 ponders DTT capacity options.(Channel 5 Broadcasting, digital terrestrial television)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 15, 2001... Channel 5 is weighing up its options as to what it will do with its 'spare' digital terrestrial capacity on Multiplex A - and ONdigital's PPV service, ONrequest, could be the casualty. The UK's fifth terrestrial broadcaster was 'gifted'...

OpenTV takes Static.(acquisition)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 15, 2001... California-based middleware company OpenTV has bought struggling interactive specialist Static, which amongst other assets owns TV entertainment service Playjam. The deal sees OpenTV acquire all of Static's shares in a combined stock and cash...

Teletext Ltd launches on Sky (finally).(Sky Digital)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... Teletext Ltd, the analogue text provider to ITV, has at last launched a service on the Sky Digital platform. The company has launched its lucrative holiday listings service under the brand Teletext Holidays. The service is accessed by pressing...

Phoning friends on iTV wish-list.(interactive television)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... The latest Digital TV Report from Continental Research shows that UK consumers are quickly warming to the idea of interactive activity via their digital TV, and are keen to use services not yet offered by broadcasters and advertisers. High...

Sogecable to enter DTT market.(digital terrestrial television)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 15, 2001... Spain's leading pay-TV group, Sogecable, owner of Canal Satelite Digital and Canal+, has entered into an alliance with Portuguese telco company ONI and Media Capital, owner of private TV channel TVI, to set up a consortium that will apply for...

Sogecable enters interactive TV takes a punt.(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... Spain's leading pay-TV group, Sogecable, owner of Canal Satelite Digital and Canal+ Espana, has reached an agreement with TVC Multimedia, owned by regional channel TV3, to develop interactive TV. TVC Multimedia will produce interactive...

Portuguese debut for Microsoft TV.(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... An e-mail message from Mariano Gago, the Portuguese minister of Science and Technology, to Microsoft's Bill Gates, kicked off what has been heralded by Microsoft as "the commercial deployment of the world's first interactive, high- speed cable...

A change of name...and e-mail.(PBI Media)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... In line with our sister companies, Phillips Business Information and The Phillips Group, Phillips Global Media, publisher of Inside Digital TV, is rebranding as PBI Media. The name will be introduced across our range of newsletters, management...

Italian DTT fog begins to clear.(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... Inside Digital TV's Italian correspondent Branislav Pekic reviews the state-of- play of the Italian DTT market Although Italy is planning to switch off analogue TV transmissions on December 31, 2006, the plans are heavily dependent on a...

TV online - the new paradigm.(Sky Digital)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... It's not impossible that by the end of this year the UK will have more people accessing interactive TV than the Internet, reckons Barry Flynn. The UK is about to become the first country in the world to find itself with more people at...

BBC Technology revenue growth.(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... BBC spin-off BBC Technology says it expects revenues of GBP220 million in the 2001-2 trading year. The business already has 1,200 employees and is sitting on a five-year contract with the BBC worth GBP1 billion, with the corporation making up...

Stream gives away free digital boxes.(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... "Do not pay for the single decoder, Stream will pay it for you". That is the slogan of the digital pay-TV operator's current promotional campaign, which will last until June 30 and may end up revolutionising the Italian satellite TV market....

Briefly...(TeleWest Communications Group Ltd.)(Brief Article)
June 15, 2001... * Modern Times Group says there is no prospect of any closer co-operation with Canal+ in Scandinavia. CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht said MTG is "not interested" in a Canal+ deal and that there was clearly room for two players on the Scandinavian...

MTG ABANDONS SWEDISH DTT.(Modern Times Group MTG AB; digital terrestrial television)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... As of August 15, Sweden's Modern Times Group (MTG) will be pulling out of the Swedish DTT project altogether, by withdrawing its five channels - TV3, ZTV, TV8, Viasat Sport and one of its premium pay services, TV1000 - from the Senda- operated...

BSKYB PVR AVAILABLE 'WELL BEFORE XMAS'.(personal video recording product)
June 29, 2001... BSkyB has responded to reports of further delays to its second-generation digital TV box, which incorporates a hard-drive for personal video recording functionality plus the Pace/NDS XTV software, with a detailed announcement about the product...

CSA PUBLISHES RULES FOR COMMERCIAL DTT.(Conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel; digital terrestrial television)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... Sotires Eleftheriou, Paris The French audiovisual regulator, the Conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), has published a draft version of its request for tenders for the French DTT platform, and has requested comments before July 2. ...

BRAZIL SET TO ADOPT ISDB-T.(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... Barry Flynn, Editor Following public hearings held by Brazilian telecommunications regulator Anatel, the Japanese DTT standard, ISDB-T, looks likely to be the one adopted rather than the European DVB-T system. According to TV Globo's...

MIH GOES BACK INTO THE RED.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 29, 2001... Barry Flynn, Editor MIH Group - the South African-based pay-TV and Internet platform which owns the OpenTV and Mindport software businesses - posted an EBITDA loss of $45 million (E52.13) for the year ended March 31, 2001 against a...

DEADLINE FOR SPAIN'S NEW DTT PLAYERS.(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... The Spanish administration has told new DTT operators they will be required to start DTT transmissions by June 2002. The measure applies to Veo TV and Net TV, each of which were awarded national DTT licences last November, and had been due...

SPAIN EXTENDS UNITARY DECODER DEADLINE.(cable set-top boxes)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... David del Valle, Madrid Spain's telecommunications regulator, the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has decided to extend its deadline for the receipt of digital broadcasters' views on a common set-top box until June 29, at the...

DIGITAL TV SURGES IN SPAIN David del Valle, Madrid.(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... In the first five months of this year, Spain's digital TV sector grew by 11.9 per cent compared with seven per cent in the same period last year, according to industry sources. The Telefonica-led digital DTH platform Via Digital appears to...

STREAM DEFAULTS ON SOCCER PAYMENTS.(Italian pay television)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... News that Stream has not been able to pay the third instalment of its fee for the Italian football league rights has underlined the financial crisis the Italian pay-TV business finds itself in. On June 13, Societa Diritti Sportivi (SDS),...

WILL PREMIERE WORLD UPGRADED-BOX?(German cable broadcaster)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... Jorn Krieger, Munich Premiere World could be planning to make radical changes to its technical infrastructure. According to industry speculation, the d-box, the digital set- top-box used by the Munich-based pay-TV broadcaster, will become...

MHP - NOW READY FOR MARKET.(digital video standards set for the Multimedia Home Platform)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... The missing link in DVB's Multimedia Home Plaftorm (MHP) - the Internet access profile - has finally been ratified, writes Barry Flynn. So what are the next steps? The final Internet specification for MHP (Profile 3) was approved at a...

MEDIA AUTHORITIES LOOK FOR SPEEDY CABLE DIGITALISATION.(Germany)(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... In a recently released paper, the German media authorities have requested a quick and nationwide digitalisation of the cable networks. The documents asks the new owners of Deutsche Telekom's former cable networks to quickly outline their plans...

IESY CHOOSES LIBERATE.(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... Iesy (formerly eKabel), the owner of Deutsche Telekom's former cable network serving German regional state Hessen, is to launch digital interactive services on its network used middleware from US-based technology company Liberate. According to...

BRIEFLY...(Brief Article)
June 29, 2001... * Sveriges Television (SVT) has broadcast its first official widescreen programme, the opening episode of a long-running summer entertainment series, Allsaang paa Skansen, a singalong show featuring popular artists which is permanently in the...