Video Age International articles from October 2005

Video Age International archives from October 2005

IPTV: the new rich kid on the world TV box.
October 1, 2005... A new technology is creeping into our multi-faceted TV universe, and it has the proven potential to revolutionize the way television is financed, delivered and consumed. Indeed, this new technology, called IPTV (Internet Protocol Television)...

Italian soccer fans Americas' TV fans.
October 1, 2005... In 2002, when U.S. magazine Business Week asked a VideoAge editor for an opinion on Italian football (or soccer as it is called in North America), the journalist was quoted as saying that "Soccer in Italy is like Hollywood in the U.S.: It lives...

Mobile TV: audiences get younger, Cellcos get richer.
October 1, 2005... Despite the fact that phrases such as, "can you hear me now?!" remain commonplace in the world of cell phones, the next big thing--video streaming--is being rolled out, and TV executives and "Cellcos" are targeting a new demo...

New technologies to take center stage at MIPCOM.
October 1, 2005... It's that time of year again, time for over 10,000 audiovisual executives to gather in Cannes for MIPCOM. And this year's event, held at the Palais de Festivals as usual, will be sure to cause a buzz, with top international TV executives trying...

My two cents.
October 1, 2005... "Digital content and discontent," was the title the Financial Hines gave to a story about the war between the telephone companies (Telcos) and cable TV (MSOs). Italy's daily Corriere della Sera broached the same topic with a story by Pier Luigi...

NBC gets ready to face Turin.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... "At the Turin Winter Olympics, we will face our hardest technological challenge yet, in addition to the problems involved when you work in mountain areas with snow and ice," stated David Mazza, senior vp of NBC Olympics. The main challenge...

TV leads the way for the next U.S. Prez.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... The 2008 race for the White House seems to be set. In one corner Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Senator from New York State and wife of former president Bill Clinton; in the other corner, the star of conservative politic, current Secretary of State...

Mediaset is set on formats.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Mediaset, Italy's commercial broadcaster owned by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is in the mood for marketing its format business internationally. The company even sent two top format executives to DISCOP in Budapest, Hungary: Fabrizio...

TV in Canada to get rich.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... At this year's Banff World Television Festival, independent producers were given two pieces of good news: federal minister of Canadian heritage Liza Frulla announced that the Canadian Television Fund Corporation (CTF)--which distributes money...

Mexican senator wants new laws.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... Mexican senator Javier Corral wants to update Mexicos broadcasting laws, which, he reported, have not seen any major revisions in more than 40 years. Corral, a senator from the State of Chihuahua, belongs to the same center-right National...

More cable for UAE viewers.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... TV viewers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) now have access to more programming than ever. ADD, the largest pay-TV platform company in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, has launched Al Awael Cable, a new channel package via Cable TV...

U.K. digital TV switch confirmed.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... As it stands today, digital TV penetration in the U.K. has reached 63 percent. It is expected that, by 2012, 100 percent of British TV households will have replaced their analog television for digital. The switchover will take place by...

TV forecast casts clouds over PC games.(WORLD)
October 1, 2005... Just as it has done every year since 1987, New York-based communications investor Veronis Suhler Stevenson published what is now its 530-page industry forecast, which makes predictions up until 2009. According to the report, U.S. broadcast...

Sitcom critics get serious about laughs.
October 1, 2005... In the introduction to Critiquing the Sitcom--A Reader (Syracuse University Press, 357 pages), the book's editor, Joanne Morreale wrote that television developed "people's sense of themselves and their place in the world." She believed sitcoms...

Teen shows out, broad reach in. "farming" shunned.(Fall TV Season)
October 1, 2005... If content is king, then drama is the crown prince of the U.S. fall season, and surely it will end up influencing how broadcasters the world over will face new challenges. Spurred by last year's successes, U.S. networks and studios are...

Audiences tune in to DVDs for laughs.(COMEDY SERIES)
October 1, 2005... U.S. network television is getting worse at generating guffaws. The lack of sitcom hits in the past few years, along with recent advancements in DVD technology, are among the factors leading consumers to purchase DVD sets of their favorite...

Viewers moving onto the Web, money streaming along.(Advertising)(Advertisement)
October 1, 2005... TVs are becoming superfluous when one is craving a television fix. Networks across the globe are bringing their TV programs to the Web. Fragmented audiences and commercial-skipping technology (i.e. PVRs) are making streaming video imperative to...

Recasting the business model of European television.(Advertisement)
October 1, 2005... For a snapshot of the challenges European television, the MIPCOM website is a good place to start. Featured conferences at MIPCOM last year included television on 3G mobile phones, advertiser-funded programming, and the booming market in Korean...

Product placement's new order: cutting out the middle man.
October 1, 2005... This isn't your father's product placement anymore. Aggressive marketing strategies are turning product placement--once a staid advertising practice--into a highly competitive and profitable businesses in entertainment. "Product placement,...

Montreal, Toronto show the bare facts.(Film Festivals)
October 1, 2005... If MIFF was about sex and nudity, TIFF was about sex and phalluses. Indeed, the Toronto International Film Festival, which unspooled September 8-17, was described by The Globe and Mail as "the Toronto International Phallus Festival" for the...

The sixth of the big five is no longer a bear market.(Territory: Russia)
October 1, 2005... Unlike in other territories, digital technologies do not represent the main challenge facing the TV industry in Russia today, as the country is several years behind Western Europe in that respect. Russia's six main terrestrial broadcasters...

Russia expands its presence through DISCOP.
October 1, 2005... The fact that Central and Eastern Europe see DISCOP as their own video market (TV, DVD, pay, cable, satellite, mobile and IPTV), could indicate that the territories are already mature markets. To the contrary, the significant growth of DISCOR...

Haim Saban's short and sweet trip into TV broadcasting.(Territory: Germany)
October 1, 2005... It was not exactly unexpected. Rumors have been spreading since early this year, but now it has actually happened. U.S. and Israeli investor, former TV producer and distributor Haim Saban, who just two years ago acquired a 50.5 percent common...

Fox fishes in the soccer bowl with two nets.
October 1, 2005... When it comes to soccer, Fox Cable Networks have English and Spanish-speaking fans covered, with cable and satellite channels Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol. The channels are affiliated with Fox Sports International, a world-wide...

Italian soccer: on RAI International more than ever.(Italian Soccer in the Americas)
October 1, 2005... Early in August 2005, many of the 3.5 million Italian citizens living abroad were hit by a bombshell: The news from Italy was that private TV group Mediaset had acquired broadcasting rights to the main Italian soccer championship. It was...

Italian soccer thrives on Canada's TeleLatino Network.(Italian Soccer in the Americas)
October 1, 2005... One would probably think that Canada's fastest growing sport is hockey or baseball, but they'd be wrong. Just ask viewers of TLN Telelatino Network, Canada's Italian and Latino superstation--which reaches four million Canadian cable and...

Hong Kong rules Far East's new IPTV service.
October 1, 2005... In 2003, PCCW Ltd., the largest telecommunications provider in Hong Kong, launched the "NOW broadband TV" IPTV service through its subsidiary, PCCW Media Ltd. At its launch, 23 channels were available--now there are over 70 channels of...

Three players offer triple-play in France.(IP Television Revolution)
October 1, 2005... The TV climate in France provides the perfect backdrop for fledgling IPTV services, because neither cable nor satellite are very large factors in the country's TV landscape. Due to the cable networks' limited reach and the fact that most...

IPTV business model is all a question of MG.
October 1, 2005... "It is embryonic at the moment," said Ettore Botta, vp at Los Angeles-based Sandra Carter International, about his company's involvement in licensing for IPTV, "but I am optimistic that selling IPTV rights will soon become a priority for us."...

IPTV paves the way for long-awaited VoD boom.(IP Television Revolution)
October 1, 2005... "VoD is beginning to happen," opined David Mercer, principal analyst with Strategy Analytics. For those of us involved from the very beginning, true VoD has been the Holy Grail from time immemorial. In fact, it has been promised for so long...

The world plants its "can you hear me now?" TV seeds.(Mobile Television)
October 1, 2005... When Appointment, a made-for-mobile series, premiered on cell phones in China in September, almost no one watched it. The reason: the series can only be viewed on special high-end LG phones (not coincidentally, the handset manufacturer sponsors...

Quick sand lies under the mobile business model maze.
October 1, 2005... Mobile video represents a major opportunity for independent television and film content owners. The market is enormous, but the path to mobile TV riches is not an easy one. The technical constraints make it necessary to partner with an...

A sea of conferences navigated with a scorecard.
October 1, 2005... If it's Tuesday it must be time for a mobile TV communications conference. The year 2005 has been a year of conferences: some that stand alone and discuss the mobile TV or mobile entertainment markets, and others which are connected to other...

Let's do lunch.(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... MIPCOM JR. AND MIPCOM OCTOBER 15-21 Cannes, France TEL: (212) 370-7470 FAX (212) 370-7471 www.mipcom.com BROADCAST INDIA OCTOBER 18-22 Mumbai, India TEL: (91 22) 2215 1396 FAX: (91 22) 2215 1269 www.saicom.com/broadcastindia SPORTEL...