arqiva
Thompson continued: “By and large Europe has not even started to think about radio. Spectrum use is modest, of course, and governments cannot achieve the same benefits from switching off analogue radio, and the costs for broadcasters is significant. In the UK we are sort of half-way there with DAB but we know the signals are inadequate. The analogue system is pretty good, and until the automotive manufacturers get fully behind digital radio I think progress will be slow. The UK leads the way, but if we have not yet figured out the right solutions then the rest of Europe is way behind. The commercial broadcasters have next-to-zero liquidity to pay for this expansion, so it is tough to see how it could be successfully managed. It remains a big challenge.”
HDTV
“HDTV is a terrific success for us,” said Thompson. “We have just conducted a major research study, and looking at all of the channels but in particular some of the smaller broadcasters, and generally asking their intent as far as HD is concerned. We can now see that all of the UK’s tier 1 broadcasters, the major networks, are now on air with HD, at least on satellite and cable. The tier 2 players are major names, and include the Viacoms, Turners, Discovery-type channels and they too are mostly on air with HD for their main brands.” However, Thompson stresses that despite more efficient compression, and the availability of DVB-S2 transmissions, the additional costs for some would-be HDTV MPEG4/AVC broadcasters are intimidating. “Carriage is still a huge element. It is likely to triple uplink costs and this is a big penalty for some. Besides, if
you are screening a recently-made programme, perhaps that was originated in HD, then some of this improved quality will still come to the screen even though transmission is ‘only’ in standard MPEG2 definition.” The bigger debate is in managing the bandwidth, both on satellite and terrestrial, he said. “Not every channel needs HDTV. However, there’s a feeling that one of these days BSkyB will switch off its MPEG2 ‘standard definition’ transmissions. I am not sure that I am completely convinced by the concept, but from a marketing concept you can see the logic in saying at some point in the future that they’ll switch to all-MPEG4 transmissions. They were, after all, quite aggressive in switching from analogue to digital, for example. I see almost all transmissions being in higher definition, therefore. I see a greater demand on overall bandwidth. The general view is that if you look five years out from today there will probably be fewer channels on air overall, because some of them will find an alternate route to market probably over broadband. Consequently, the remaining channels, still measured in the many hundreds, will almost certainly be in higher quality either through HD transmission, or HD origination.” Arqiva acquired the Internet television assets formerly known as ‘Project Kangaroo’ built by Britain’s public broadcasters, and is now re- branded as ‘SeeSaw’. Arqiva paid about £8 million for the technology. However, Thompson admits that interest is modest, although the prospects for the service remain considerable. “Not everyone is the BBC, and we see interest coming from those broadcasters, indeed everyone else, looking for a solution to their problems in this area. Our
content distribution
Macquarie, building up further transmission assets
Funds under the management of Australian investment bank Macquarie, besides its stake in Arquiva, is expanding its broadcasting and transmission investments. In mid- December 2010 Macquarie spent ¤574 million buying Ceske Radiokomunikace, the Czech Republic’s main TV and radio transmission service provider.
On Dec 5 Macquarie participated in the acquisition of international facilities house Ascent Media. As regards the Czech purchase, Macquarie has bought 100% of Ceske Radiokomunikace from Falcon Group, itself controlling or managing funds on behalf of Mid Europa Partners. Radiokomunikace serves 99% of the Czech TV and radio broadcasting market and provides corporate and wholesale services to nearly 500 business customers.
Arqiva is owned by a consortium of eight shareholders including Canada Pension Fund Investment Board (48%), Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (21%), other Macquarie funds (13%) and
minorities.
perspective is that the SeeSaw model can work with us as a neutral host. But we need to find a retail partner, a customer-facing partner. Reaching the consumer is more difficult and more expensive. We are not ourselves a broadcaster and we don’t own a newspaper group! Calendar year 2011 is key.”
Thompson says Arqiva has spent the past few years looking at Asia, and China in particular, partly to support existing clients but also to seek out new contracts. He admits that they had hoped to acquire a local presence in the region but that has not happened. “We are still looking,” he said. “We will find a way of having a presence in Asia either by way of ownership or a partnership locally. The Arqiva brand needs to be in the region. The Americas is still important to us, and again we have looked closely at certain businesses but either the price expectation on behalf of the seller has been too rich or for other reasons we have failed to make an agreement. But it is still a high target for us. The new year will see a renewed focus from us, once the changes here settle down.”
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www.pebble.tv www.ibeweb.com l january/february 2011 l ibe l 9
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