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Digital TV Europe September/October 2010
Global Wrap
Australian pay-TV network Nine will launch its third digital net- work days ahead of rival Seven. Seven said it would be the first Australian free-to-air broadcast- er with a trio of digital nets when it announced the launch of male-skewing offering Mate. Nine’s new channel is expected to be a crime-focused offering. US pay-TV operator Dish Network has a launched an online video portal called
DishOnline.com. The site will show some free video clips, but series and movies will be avail- able only with a subscription. Kids channel KidsCo has inked a deal with Indian media compa- ny NDTV, which will distribute the kids channel in the country. NDTV will handle distribution of the NBC Universal, Cookie Jar and Corus-owned channel across all digital platforms. Mexican telco Telmex could move a step closer to launching into the local television market after regulators announced it would likely to clear the path for entry. The Carlos Slim-backed company has been eyeing a major move into the television market to compete with major media giant Televisa. Indonesian pay-TV operator Indovision has launched a 24- hour standalone business news channel. The satellite pay broad- caster has launched MNC Business to compete with inter- national business networks including Bloomberg and CNBC. NBC Universal is rebranding the Hallmark Channel in Asia next month as part of its global rebranding exercise. The company's Asia channels arm will rebrand the entertainment network as Diva Universal in 21 Asian territories in September.
SAT > TVN posts loss Despite adding post-paid pay-TV customers and seeing ad rev- enues increase during the second quarter, Polish broadcaster TVN posted a net loss of PLN98m (€24m) compared with a net prof- it of PLN149m a year earlier, a result of foreign exchange losses. Operational results were more positive, however. TVN’s DTH plat- form ‘n’ added 6,000 post-paid subscribers during the second quarter of the year, a 32% year- on-year growth. However, its TNK pre-paid service lost 28,000 subs during the quarter, something the operator attributed to “extraordi- nary events available in the free- to-air channels, discouraging recharges for pay-TV”. The opera- tor ended June with 279,000 pre- pay customers. TVN said pay-TV revenue increased by PLN42m, or 38%, year-on-year to PLN151m during the quarter. Total EBITDA was up PLN37m to PLN227m. TVN said its free-to-air business had benefited from Poland’s
growing TV ad market, which it estimates to have increased by 8% year on-year. Revenue was up by PLN23m, or 5%, year-on-year to PLN443m. “We attribute the increased advertising revenue to the continuing economic recov- ery, which coupled with our mar- ket leading position led to high sell-out ratios at increased prices,” the company said.
Portugal
MOB >Vodafone football Vodafone Portugal has secured mobile TV rights to Champions League and Portuguese league football. Vodafone will show 18 Champions League games. The telco has also secured rights to 30 Portuguese league games, beginning with a fixture between Pacos de Ferreira and Sporting. The football coverage is free to Vodafone mobile TV subscribers. Customers can also sign for weekly, daily and monthly access.
Romania
DSL > Dolce Sport launch Romanian telco Romtelecom has soft-launched its new sport chan- nel Dolce Sport as part of its Dolce TV pay-TV service. The service is available free-to-air via DTV and IPTV. Content is still in development, but will include Portuguese national and UEFA Champions League soccer and French rugby among other things.
Russia
SAT > Serie A HD for NTV+ Russian pay-TV provider NTV-Plus is showing Italian Serie A football in high-definition from August 28. NTV-Plus has acquired the rights to broadcast Serie A matches for the next two years, showing all 38 rounds of the Italian champi- onship. Coverage will also be available online via the
ntvplus.ru website.
BSkyB on track for 10 million subscriber target Darroch: one
By Stewart Clarke >
UK satellite pay-TV operator BSkyB is on track to reach 10 million subscribers by the end of next year as it continues to see bumper growth. The com- pany added 429,000 sub- scribers to its high-definition service and added 90,000 net new customers in the second quarter of the year. The News Corp-backed pay operator said that 30% of its 9.86 million subscriber base now takes its HD service, although chief executive Jeremy Darroch admitted that this growth will start to slow over the next few quarters. Revenue rose by 11% to £5.9bn (€7bn), with operating
in five
customers are now triple-play.
profits hitting £855m, a 10% rise year-on-year. “High definition goes from strength to strength, with more than twice as many customers as a year ago. At the same time, customers are choosing broad- er bundles of services, with one in five now taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony. Overall, customers are taking 45% more additional subscrip- tion products than a year ago,” Darroch said. Earnings per
share are up 20% to a record 31.1p and Sky is proposing a further 10% increase in the full year dividend. Separately, communications regulator Ofcom has asked the Competition Commission to investigate the sale and distri- bution of pay-TV movies, citing concerns that the way the mar- ket is currently structured allows and encourages BSkyB to distort competition. “Ofcom is concerned in particular that the way in which these movies are sold and distributed creates a situation in which Sky has the incentive and ability to distort competition,” the regulator noted. “The end result for con- sumers is less choice, less inno- vation and higher prices.”
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