Inside Digital TV articles from October 2002

Inside Digital TV archives from October 2002

Thomson Throws Down Gauntlet To CA Vendors.(Thomson Multimedia, conditional access)
October 2, 2002... Thomson Multimedia's (TMM) acquisition of an 89 per cent stake in Canal+ Technologies for 190 million euros will enable TMM to expand its horizons, play a key role in the conditional access (CA) and middleware markets, and offer a more complete...

Mobile DTT Tested In London.(DiBcom demonstrates mobile receiver)
October 2, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor French DVB-T chipset manufacturer DiBcom has demonstrated the first mobile receiver incorporating its new Mobitive DIB3000-M integrated circuit technology at the Paris car show. The launch of the new box, one of the...

News Corp Seals Telepiu Deal.(News Corp., Telecom Italia acquires Telepiu)(Brief Article)
October 2, 2002... Mark Holmes Senior Editor News Corp and Telecom Italia have signed a definitive agreement with Vivendi Universal and the Canal+ Group to acquire Telepiu, the leading satellite pay-TV operator in Italy. The deal has cost 920 million euros,...

Turner Readies For Action.
October 2, 2002... Mark Holmes Senior Editor Turner Broadcasting Europe is making a major play to drive revenue from the male 16-34 audience in the UK. It is launching CNX, a new action, adventure and anime channel, in the UK on Oct. 14 on BSkyB and NTL....

Confusion Reigns On UK DTT Standards.
October 2, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor With the launch of the BBC/Crown Castle consortium's new Freeview service only a matter of weeks away, confusion still surrounds both the transmission standard to be adopted in the UK DVB-T environment and the preferred...

UK Cable Subscription Rate Declines.(Illustration)
October 2, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor UK regulator the Independent Television Commission has revealed that the cable industry has lost nearly 200,000 TV subscribers since the beginning of the year, having lost around 74,000 in the first quarter and another...

Telewest Sees Impressive Early Interactive Take-Up.(hopes to increase interactive offerings)
October 2, 2002... Mark Holmes Senior Editor Telewest hopes to ramp up its interactive offerings to customers in the next year and to introduce new interactive services with channel providers such as MTV and ITV later this year. It launched its Enhanced...

DTH Merger In Spain To Pose New Questions.(Canal Satelite Digital to merge with Via Digital)
October 2, 2002... Chris Dziadul Contributing Editor Growth in Spain's digital TV sector has until now been driven by the rival DTH platforms Canal Satelite Digital and Via Digital. To what extent it will be affected by their forthcoming merger, and indeed...

Perspectives On The Far East.(digital television deployments in China and Japan)
October 2, 2002... Barry Flynn looks at forecasts for Japan and China's digital TV deployments, based on the findings of a study shortly to be published by PBI Media, which - as a consultant to Digiscope AB - he co-authored recently with Chris Forrester. ...

Briefly.(multiple topics)
October 2, 2002... * UK cable MSO Telewest Communications plc has reached a restructuring agreement with what it describes as an "ad hoc" committee of bondholders, according to which all outstanding notes and debentures issued by it and Telewest Finance (Jersey)...

VOD Via PC A Hit In Korea.(video-on-demand )
October 16, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor Results of a broadband mission to Korea led by London's Brunel University with the support of the UK's Department of Trade and Industry have revealed that one of the most popular ways of using the technology there is...

Spanish Government Under Fire Over DTT.(Digital Terrestrial Television )
October 16, 2002... Mark Holmes Senior Editor Free-to-Air (FTA) Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) continues to have teething problems in Europe. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Spain where industry players such as broadcasters and electronics...

The Dilemma of Distributing Digital Content.(potential of digital television)
October 16, 2002... Paul Styles, media director, KPMG Digital TV is about more than just technology: It is about the use of rich content applications, either created by platforms or third parties. Coupled with the use of compression of various media and their...

Microsoft TV Here To Stay.(Microsoft denies side-lining Microsoft TV)
October 16, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor Microsoft has denied suggestions made by Inside Digital TV in its IBC issue (Inside Digital TV, Vol.5, No.19) that its Microsoft TV division, which focuses on the interactive TV middleware market, is being side-lined to...

Romania's Dynamic Progress Continues To Surprise.
October 16, 2002... Chris Dziadul Contributing Editor Romania's TV industry has made remarkable progress in the 13 years since the end of communist rule and today ranks as one of the most dynamic in Central and Eastern Europe. Nowhere has the...

End Of An Era At Pace.(the rise and fall of Pace Micro Technology plc )
October 16, 2002... Barry Flynn charts the rise and fall of Pace Micro Technology plc under CEO Malcolm Miller, who will be leaving the company at the beginning of 2003 The announcement by Pace that CEO Malcolm Miller will be leaving the company on Jan. 1...

e.Biscom Enhances VoD Offering.(Video-on-Demand)(Brief Article)
October 16, 2002... Mark Holmes Senior Editor e.Biscom, one of the pioneering broadband operators in Europe, has inked an important deal with 20th Century Fox Film Corp. to boosts its Video-on-Demand offering in Italy over its fiber-optic broadband network....

Briefly.(merger between Echostar and DirecTV blocked)
October 16, 2002... * The way has been left open for Rupert Murdoch to re-enter the US digital DTH market following a ruling by US regulator the FCC that it proposed to block the proposed merger between Echostar and DirecTV. The companies have 30 days to come up...

Amber Light For French DTT.
October 30, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor French regulator le Conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) has revealed the identities of the 31 channels, which will form the basis of the country's national DTT rollout. They are due to be awarded their licences in...

On-Demand Video Coming -- But When?
October 30, 2002... Barry Flynn Editor If there was agreement on one issue at PBI Media's BCE 2002 broadband leaders' conference, which was held in London in mid-October, it was that video content would eventually be delivered to consumers through some form...

MTV Plans New Channel Launch In UK.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2002... Barry Flynn senior editor MTV is planning to launch an interactive channel called MTV World in the UK in the next six to 12 months, according to Simon Guild, COO of MTV Networks Europe. Speaking at the BCE 2002 conference in London, he...

Kofler Oversees Turnaround For Premiere.
October 30, 2002... Mark Holmes senior editor The transformation of German pay-TV operator Premiere from down and out pay-TV business to an operator with potentially a bright future continues. The man credited with this transformation is CEO Georg Kofler who...

OpenTV Unveils Restructuring Plan.
October 30, 2002... Barry Flynn senior editor Following its August announcement that it planned to institute a series of "aggressive" cost-cutting measures in the wake of poorer-than-expected results (see Inside Digital TV Vol.5 No.17), interactive TV company...

COO Expects Issues Resolved Next Year.(Rudolf Fischer)
October 30, 2002... Mark Holmes senior editor When NTL bought Swiss cable operator Cablecom from Swisscom AG, Siemens Schweiz AG and VEBA for $3.7 billion (3.76 billion euros) in December 1999, it was seen as a key part in its plans to become a pan-European...

UK iTV: More Users Than Web; Less Spending.(interactive television forecasts)
October 30, 2002... Barry Flynn has been looking through Forrester Research's forecasts for UK interactive TV Even though the number of regular interactive TV users will exceed the number of regular Internet users in the UK by 2005, they will be spending a...

Satellite Rejection Spells Good News for NDS.(NDS Group)
October 30, 2002... Mark Holmes senior editor The harsh rejection of the EchoStar/DirecTV merger by the US regulator, the FCC, could ultimately lead to some positive news for beleaguered conditional access (CA) vendor NDS Group, if as expected, parent company...

Briefly.
October 30, 2002... * Granada Interactive, BT Openworld and Microsoft Corp. have joined forces to create a "video lounge" for fans of the Granada series Popstars: The Rivals. This allows live streaming to broadband users of the weekend ITV2 shows,...