ITV

Tag: BSkyB

  • BSkyB bags Mobile TV broadcast rights to Premiere League soccer

    BSkyB bags Mobile TV broadcast rights to Premiere League soccer

    MUMBAI: Overcoming fierce competition from a consortium fronted by sports agency TWI and backed by the UK’s five mobile phone networks – Orange, Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile and O2, UK pay TV broadcaster BSkyB won the rights to telecast Premier League football matches on mobile phones.

    The rights will permit BSkyB to broadcast highlights on mobiles from the start of the 2007/8 season. With this property, BSkyB now has a share of all three types of domestic rights auctioned by the Premier League: Television, online and mobile.

    Earlier this year BSkyB won four of the six live TV rights packages and BSkyB and BT won the right to carry 242 “near-live” league matches each season online.
     

  • Interactive TV portal solution for Dutch channel launched this football season

    Interactive TV portal solution for Dutch channel launched this football season

    MUMBAI: chellomedia Interactive Services has launched a new interactive TV portal in the Netherlands on Sport1, this soccer season.

    Digital premium channel Sport1 now offers its subscribers on the UPC cable platform (UPC Digital TV) the option to switch between four Sport1 channels presented on one TV screen.

    The launch of the interactive portal fits in with chellomedia’s strategy to offer new digital services to cable network operators in Europe as well as to broadcasters and other platform owners.

    While watching a match, viewers are able to call up for extra information such as match results, current scores, player statistics, an interactive quiz and a dedicated World Cup section.

    chellomedia Interactive Services exwecutive VP Noel Leslie says, “We are developing these kind of interactive solutions for operators and broadcasters in order to help them increase and retain channel audiences and to create opportunities for new revenue streams. These converged TV and internet solutions give viewers more and more control: they have more to choose from, can access content on-demand and even participate in programmes.”

    Sport1 GM Jeroen Oerlemans says, “The launch of our Sport1 TV portal will provide great added value to our premium sports channel in the Netherlands. With this easily accessible interactivity and the possibility to view a mosaic with multiple live channels, the viewer becomes more powerful and gets more choices. We think this portal will fulfil a great need.”

    chellomedia develops and facilitates these services using its authoring and deployment solution chello mistral. This solution enables quick and simple development by members of a creative team across multiple platforms and middlewares. It is also accredited by BSkyB to deliver interactive advertising, for which chellomedia has partnerships with leading UK broadcasters and ad agencies.

    chellomedia interactive services delivers entertainment-focused, interactive applications and content which strengthen digital TV and PC-based, broadband Internet offerings.

  • Big winners at 2006 Promax/BDA World Gold & North America Awards

    Big winners at 2006 Promax/BDA World Gold & North America Awards

    MUMBAI: Promax/BDA the global non-profit organization for marketing, promotion and design professionals in electronic media, celebrated its annual Promax World Gold and North America Awards.

    Hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Darrell Hammond, the awards ceremony brought the 2006 Promax/BDA Conference to a close. The awards competition is divided into North America and World Gold based on the entrants main region of business.

    The big winners in the Promax World Gold Awards were design house Red Bee Media, with 15 gold and six silver Muse Awards and Italian broadcaster Fox International, who took home 13 gold and eight silver Muse Awards. BSkyB was also among the big winners in the World Gold competition with 11 gold and three silver Muse Awards, informs an official release.

    In the North America Awards competition, NBC led the charge with 16 gold and nine silver Muse Awards. ABC and Bell ExpressVu followed with 18 awards each – ABC had 13 gold and five silver, while Bell ExpressVu earned 12 gold and six silver. HBO was not far behind with eight gold and nine silver awards.

    In addition to the newly redesigned Promax Muse statuette, award recipients will have their winning entries added to the permanent collection of Promax/BDA media at the United States Library of Congress, as part of The Robert Neer Promax/BDA Promos.tv Collection, containing over 6,900 winning promotional spots from Promax/BDA competitions worldwide since 1999, adds the release.

    Commenting on the event, Promax/BDA president and CEO Jim Chabin said, “The worldwide prestige and value of the Promax World Gold and Promax North America Muse Awards are exemplified by the caliber of work and the talented individuals that create that work. This year, we received an unprecedented number of submissions from companies around the globe so our winners should take pride in knowing they are truly the world’s best.”

  • Qualcomm, BSkyB to conduct MediaFLO Technology trial in UK

    Qualcomm, BSkyB to conduct MediaFLO Technology trial in UK

    MUMBAI: Qualcomm Incorporated and British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB) today announced that the companies have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to conduct technical trials of Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology in the United Kingdom.

    Expected to begin during the summer of 2006, the technical trial will feature 10 channels of BSkyB content on a small number of non-commercial devices provided by Qualcomm. The technical trial is intended to allow BSkyB to closely evaluate the performance capabilities of FLO technology, an open, cellular network-agnostic wireless multicasting technology, as it continues to explore the growing number of opportunities to deliver video services to mobile devices in the UK.

    FLO technology, a multicast innovation and key component of the MediaFLO system, is an air-interface technology designed to increase capacity and coverage, and reduce cost for multimedia content delivery to mobile handsets.

    The BSkyB technical trial is expected to be the first such trial of FLO technology in Europe. In addition to this technical trial, Qualcomm and KDDI have formed a joint venture to explore the deployment of MediaFLO services in Japan. Also, MediaFLO USA, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, is working with Verizon Wireless to deploy wireless multimedia services based on FLO technology in the US.

    “BSkyB is committed to offering customers flexible ways to enjoy our services. We have led the way in the delivery of mobile TV over existing platforms and we look forward to working with Qualcomm in this technical trial to evaluate the potential of MediaFLO,” said BSkyB group director of business development Stephen Nuttall.

    “As one of Europe’s largest, most successful and best-known multichannel television platform operators, BSkyB is the ideal company to team up with Qualcomm on our first MediaFLO trial in Europe. We expect this trial to demonstrate a strong validation of the value Qualcomm believes FLO technology offers both in Europe and other markets around the world. The openness of the MediaFLO system, as well as its significant advantages with respect to coverage, power consumption and cost, set MediaFLO apart from other competing technologies,” said Qualcomm Internet Service and MediaFLO Technologies president Peggy Johnson.

    Engineered specifically for the mobile environment, FLO technology is intended to offer several advantages over other mobile multicast technologies, including higher-quality video and audio, faster channel switching time, superior mobile reception, optimised power consumption and greater capacity concurrently as compared to other multicast technologies.

    In addition, FLO technology-based multimedia multicasting will complement wireless operators’ CDMA2000(R)/EV-DO and WCDMA/HSDPA cellular voice and data services, delivering content to the same cellular handsets used on these 3G networks.

  • BSkyB to share EPL TV rights with Setanta; total bids hit £ 1.7 billion

    BSkyB to share EPL TV rights with Setanta; total bids hit £ 1.7 billion

    MUMBAI: A move that was forced by a tough European competition commissioner has ultimately yielded a veritable bonanza for Britain’s top soccer clubs. And broken the monopoly Rupert Murdock’s DTH operator BSkyB enjoyed over English Premier Leagus (EPL), home to such clubs as Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

    BSkyB has won the telecast rights to four of the six EPL packaged that were up for grabs for three years starting from 2007. But it has had to cough up a staggering £ 1.314 billion for the privelege. The six broadcast packages generated £ 1.706 billion ($3.16 billion) in total, with Irish pay-TV operator Setanta’s £ 392 million bid winning it the rights to the two remaining packages. The bidding was for 138 games in all.

    BSkyB will be paying nearly twice as much per game (£4.8 million as against £2.5 million) and losing the 14-year stranglehold it has had on top flight soccer in the UK in the bargain.

    The upside for Sky is that it has been able to cherry pick the best four of the six packages on offer. It has won the coveted “A” package of matches, which are played late on Sunday afternoons. It also has the rights for early afternoon Saturday and Sunday matches, as well as a group to be played midweek and on bank holidays. Additionally, with Setanta a broadcaster that is already available on its platform, it will still be able to offer its subscribers the “total football” promise that has been the underpinning of its success.

    As far as Britain’s soccer bosses are concerned, there is more to come from its EPL property since the rights it has auctioned were for just the UK territory. According to media reports, the sale of remaining rights – overseas, near-live, highlights, mobile – could swell the final figure to as high as £ 2.5 billion.

    The biggest loser from all this, however, could well be the viewer, which would negate the logic that was behind the European competition commissioner’s insistence that the Premier League end Sky’s monopoly on live television rights in the first place – introduce more choice for viewers. The £1.7 billion tab that Sky and Setanta have toted up between them will ultimately mean that fans will ultimately pay more to watch matches in the UK.

  • BSkyB 3Q net up by 8 per cent to $277.5 million

    BSkyB 3Q net up by 8 per cent to $277.5 million

    MUMBAI: British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) has reported an 8 per cent increase in the third quarter net profit. The company said net profit for the three months ended 31 March rose to 151 million pounds ($277.5 million), from 140 million pounds a year ago.

    BSkyB revenue went up by 11 per cent to 1.06 billion pounds ($1.9 billion). The company also revealed a steep drop in subscriber growth ahead of the launch of new products later this year.

    The company said it recorded net subscriber growth of 40,000 in the quarter, significantly less that the 95,000 increase in “direct-to-home” customers in the first quarter of 2005. Analysts had predicted growth of 30,000 to 50,000 new subscribers.

    The broadcaster now has 8.1 million subscribers, it has a target of 10 million by 2010, and forecasts adding 600,000 in the final quarter of this year following the rollout of new products.

    BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch said, “The business is performing well and is delivering on the plan we laid out for 2006. Our focus during the quarter was to successfully implement our new customer management systems, complete the final preparations for the launch of Sky HD, and continue to ready the business for the launch of residential broadband services in the summer. Operational achievements in the quarter were outstanding. We achieved our goals, continued to grow our customer base and increased the number of products they choose to take from us.”

  • NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    NDTV clocks 24.5 % growth in FY06; revenues Rs 2.24 billion

    MUMBAI: Prannoy Roy’s NDTV has recorded 24.49 percent growth in fiscal 2005-06 with total revenues of Rs 2.239 billion.

    NDTV’s revenues were up from the Rs 1.798 billion recorded in fiscal 2004-05, the company has stated.

    Q4 FY’ 06 saw NDTV hitting its highest ever revenues at Rs 704.4 million versus Rs 497 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, representing a 41.73 per cent year-on-year growth.

    Expectedly, the rise in personnel costs took a huge chunk out of the company’s net with profit after tax after ESOP for Q4 FY’ 06 standing at Rs 20.1 million. If ESOPs are discounted then net profit for Q4 has increased 22 per cent to Rs 125.5 million as against Rs 102.9 million in Q4 FY’ 05. There were no ESOPs granted last year.

    Following the results, NDTV has declared a dividend of 20 per cent.

    BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

    During the year the company made significant investments in building new businesses and strengthening and consolidating its existing business.

    NDTV’s advertising base has seen an impressive growth this year. The network has added 637 new advertisers and 810 new brands in its portfolio, taking its advertising universe to over 2000. A reflection of the group’s marketing strength is also the strategic tie-up with the Microsoft Network, under which NDTV’s subsidiary, NDTV Media Ltd represents and carries out all marketing activity for MSN exclusively in India.

    The reach of the NDTV News Network’s unduplicated reach amongst C&S households has increased to 90.8 per cent, the highest amongst all news networks. NDTV has also extended its global presence across Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. This year it entered into strategic tie-ups with DirecTV, BskyB and ATN to launch NDTV 24×7 in the US, UK and Canada respectively.

    NDTV’s website ndtv.com has emerged as India’s number one news and television portal, attracting over 200 million page views and 1.2 million unique visitors every month. The focus on monetizing the website by adding transaction based portals – Travel, Gadgets, Shopping, Commodities, Profit, Movies and Music, has begun to drive revenues this year.

    “In this year the company has put in significant investments into building new businesses and going forward we are committed to maximizing shareholder value by capitalizing on these investments,” NDTV chairman Dr Prannoy Roy was quoted in the statement as saying.

    Additionally, NDTV has entered into an agreement with Genpact a leading business and technology services company, to jointly offer outsourcing services to the global media and entertainment industry. This is the first of its kind Media Process Outsourcing company in India which will focus on providing cost effective, high quality media services.

    This year also heralded NDTV’s entry into high end-consultancy for news services. The company has entered into a joint venture agreement with Astro Broadcast of Malaysia to provide consultancy for setting up news channels in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Indonesian channel will be launched shortly.

    The NDTV Group, together with other strategic investors, also acquired a minority shareholding in 3 radio companies that hold licenses for FM radio broadcasting in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata under the brand name of RED FM. The company sees tremendous cross media synergies in extending its presence in the radio sector.

  • Sky confirms HDTV launch in May

    Sky confirms HDTV launch in May

    MUMBAI: Sky has confirmed that the first installations of BSkyB’s new high-definition service, Sky HD, are scheduled to begin in May, in time for a raft of major sporting events. The announcement comes a day after the BBC confirmed it would start its HDTV trial in time for the World Cup.

    Customers will have to acquire the Sky HD box for £299, with a monthly charge of £10 in addition to their Sky digital subscription, currently between £15 and £42.50 a month.

    Sky’s director of product strategy and management Brian Sullivan commented, “Sky is just weeks away from an exciting new era that will transform the television viewing experience. Sky HD customers will be able to enjoy stunning picture and sound quality from the widest range of HD channels in the UK and Ireland. We’re delighted that the BBC has said that its HD coverage of the World Cup will be available to all customers with a Sky HD box as a non-subscription channel.”

    The initial Sky HD line-up will consist of seven channels, which includes Sky Sports HD with live Barclays Premiership football, Guinness Premiership Rugby coverage, Coca-Cola League, Carling Cup football matches and England’s home tests and one day cricket internationals.

    Sky Movies HD and Sky Box Office HD also includes movies like Kill Bill: Vol 1, Spider-Man 2 and Big Fish; Sky One, providing 24 and Rescue Me, among others, in HD.

    The HD package will also have arts programming including remastered footage of Jimi Hendrix’s performance at the Isle of Wight Festival, Sky One shows including 24, and Discovery and National Geographic programmes. Other BBC programmes to feature in its trial include natural history series Planet Earth and Galapagos, and forthcoming drama documentary Hannibal.

    The date of transmission has not been announced. HDTV provides a sharper, clearer and more colourful image than standard TV. BBC will make its HD World Cup coverage available to all viewers with a Sky HD box on a non-subscription channel.

    BBC announced this week that the coverage forms part of an HDTV trial and will be an extra stream alongside conventional analogue and digital broadcasts.

    Cable company Telewest launched the UK’s first high-definition television service earlier this month, though the service is currently limited to programmes made by BBC Worldwide. Sky estimates that 2.1 million HD TVs will have been sold in the UK by the end of the 2006, compared with 700,000 at the end of 2005

  • GRB Worldwide signs deal with BSkyB

    GRB Worldwide signs deal with BSkyB

    MUMBAI: Marking its first time to distribute product for a UK broadcaster, GRB Worldwide, the international acquisition, development, and financing wing of GRB Entertainment, has announced that it has signed an agreement.

    GRB Worldwide will have worldwide distribution rights (excluding the UK) to 14 hours of programming which originally aired on BSkyB¹s entertainment channel Sky One.

    GRB Worldwide president Gavin Reardon says, “The profile of BSkyB and its Sky One programming is commercially sound and exactly the kind of product that will work on channels all around the world. We are delighted with these new associations and look forward to a long-term relationship.”

    The titles in the initial agreement include Secret World Of Magic. Top magicians and mates Pete Firman and Alistair Cook embark upon a magical mystery tour of the globe, traveling from Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York City to Spain, France and Argentina. They meet heroes of magic, reveal secrets behind the world¹s best tricks, and wow the locals with their unique brand of entertainment and distinctive, anarchic style.

    Unsolved Crimes follows British journalist Sam Kiley hot on the trail of America¹s most high profile unsolved cases: The Black Dahlia, The Thief Who Escaped by Parachute, The Exploding Pizza Man, and the Atlanta Murders. Each multilayered story is loaded with fascinating characters and grand intrigue as Kiley aims for results where law enforcement failed.

    Myths And Monsters is hosted by Lawrence
    Blair an adventurer, explorer and anthropologist, It delves into the connection between our most cherished myths and legends. He reveals that the ordinary everyday world we inhabit is but a thin layer over a deeper, hidden, supernatural & mythical world.

  • UK leads in digital television viewing: Ofcom

    UK leads in digital television viewing: Ofcom

    MUMBAI: Latest data from UK regulator Ofcom shows that the UK has the highest digital penetration of any country in the world. As of 31 December 2005 digital television was viewed by just under 70 per cent of all UK television households, up from 65.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Ofcom is now predicting 100 per cent digital TV penetration by 2012 (across all platforms – satellite, cable and terrestrial).

    The Communications Market: Digital TV Progress Report for the fourth quarter of 2005 is published by Ofcom. It examines data provided by the main digital television platform providers for the October-December 2005 period.

    Preliminary sales figures of Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television or DTT) set top boxes suggest that by the end of February 2006, digital penetration had exceeded 70% of UK homes. Take up varies across the UK and has not passed the 50% mark in any other European country.

    Digital satellite is now the UK’s most popular television platform. For the first time, there are now more digital satellite subscribers in the UK than there are homes watching analogue terrestrial-only TV, as a result of continued growth in BSkyB’s subscriber base and large numbers of households switching from analogue terrestrial television to digital terrestrial services.

    In the year 2005, more than 2.7 million additional households began viewing digital television for the first time – more than in any previous year. By 31 December 2005, the total number of households viewing digital television services on at least one TV set in the home stood at 17.5 million. The report also reveals that almost one in four UK adults live in homes where all TV sets are now used for digital television viewing and viewing of analogue television services has ceased entirely.

    Quarterly DTT sales DTT sales DTT sales
    Q3, 2005 Q4, 2005
    Freeview set top boxes 826,300 1,527,600
    IDTV’s 196,000 402,200
    Total sales 1,022,300 1,929,800
    Source: Q4 sales figures, Gfk
    Cumulative total DTT boxes DTT total DTT total
    Q3, 2005 Q4, 2005
    Freeview set top boxes 7,214,700 8,742,300
    IDTV’s 1,411,100 1,813,300
    ITV Digital set top boxes 289,000 250,000
    Total digital terrestrial units in market 8,914,800 10,805,600
    Source: Ofcom, Gfk
    Other highlights from the Ofcom data:

    ” By the end of 2005, just under one in four homes had fully converted all their analogue TV sets to digital (either by adding a set top box or by upgrading to an integrated digital TV set (IDTV) – up from 16% in March 2005. Sales of IDTVs doubled between Q3 and Q4 2005, from around 200,000 to 400,000, to reach a total installed base of 1.8 million (see tables below). That means that almost 60% of all UK TV sets (36 million) still receive analogue transmissions.

    ” There are currently an estimated 34 million VCRs in use in the UK. Those that viewers use for recording one programme while watching another amount currently to around 25% of VCRs (7.5 million recorders) and will need to be replaced by personal video recorders (PVRs) if viewers wish to retain this functionality following switchover. By the end of 2005, around 1.4 million PVRs had been sold (mostly Sky+ boxes) and 2.3 million DVD recorders. Most of the latter do not have integrated digital tuners, however, and cannot replicate the full functionality of analogue VCRs.

    ” Ofcom’s new forecasts suggest that digital take-up will continue to grow steadily over the next few years, as switchover starts to take place on a region-by-region basis. It expects digital penetration to grow by around 1.7 million homes in 2006, and on average by around one million homes per year thereafter, until 2012. That means that 85% of homes will have taken up digital TV by the time the first region (Border) switches over in the second half of 2008. By the end of 2010, Ofcom estimates that 95% of households will have taken up digital TV. Penetration will reach 100% by the end of 2012, by the time analogue television is due to be switched off.