ITV

Tag: Digital TV

  • Samsung strengthens DTV position in the US

    Samsung strengthens DTV position in the US

    MUMBAI: Electronics major Samsung captured the number one market share position for digital televisions in the US in 2006, according to The NPD Group’s retail tracking service.

    NPD VP industry analysis Stephen Baker says, “The industry’s overall DTV unit sales have grown 54 per cent and three million more digital TVs were sold in 2006 than 2005; and within 2006, Samsung sold more digital televisions than anyone else in the industry.

    “Samsung is the only television manufacturer that demonstrates market strength in all four digital TV categories, which includes LCD, plasma, Microdisplay and Flat Tube. According to NPD’s monthly sales data Samsung’s share position improved throughout the year with Samsung leading the market in units and dollars within the second half of the year.”

    Samsung became America’s choice for digital TVs in 2006 with total Digital TV unit share of 20 per cent, which is a significant lead on the competition. In addition, Samsung demonstrated strong category leadership in Flat Panel TVs with number one unit share of 21.5 percent and number one dollar share of 25.1 percent; Samsung grew its LCD market share (10″ and larger) to the number one position in 2006 (from the number four position in 2005) with a market share of 15.1 per cent; and its SlimFit™ line of flat tube CRT TVs claimed an overwhelming 46.1 percent unit share and a 43.7 per cent dollar share in 2006, according to NPD data.

    Samsungsays that it is the only manufacturer that produces, and is committed to leading, in all four major digital television technologies: LCD, Microdisplay, Plasma, and Flat Tube. Strong 2006 sales across each category catapulted Samsung to the number one position.

    Samsung Electronics America executive VP, consumer electronics division Tim Baxter says, “Achieving a number one market position is a significant milestone for Samsung and we are very proud that for the first time, the American public has made us their first choice for digital televisions.

    “Samsung has demonstrated its growth to demand-brand status within the highly competitive Digital TV landscape. We attribute our success to a combination of manufacturing strength, commitment to all four digital television technologies and our leading product designs.”

    In 2006, Samsung launched its 51/52 series of LCD HDTVs, which the company nicknamed Bordeaux for its wine-glass curve at the bottom of the sets. For the first time, Samsung’s TVs offered consumers a choice of luxurious lacquer-like piano-black or smooth white-pearl exterior that not only complemented consumers’ home design but enhanced it as well.

    People the firm says no longer had to hide their TVs inside bulky, space-consuming furniture; Samsung provided them with design choices that accented their home décor.

    Samsung adds that it is one of the largest panel manufacturers in the world. In fact, the company consistently increases its R&D investments each year. In 2005 alone, Samsung’s R&D investments reached 5.41 trillion KRW. Recently, Samsung SDI (one of Samsung’s group affiliates) expanded the capacity of its plasma development facility in Cheonan, Korea.

    Samsung Electronics is currently planning to open a Gen8 LCD manufacturing facility in TangJeong, Korea. Because the company designs and manufactures most of its own components, it can maintain the utmost control over production quality and manufacturing costs, giving the company a distinct market advantage.

    About five years ago, Samsung decided to focus its TV resources almost exclusively on its digital television product line. The company recognized that each of the four digital TV technologies brought different advantages – and price points – to consumers and it decided to invest in each of them.

    The firm says that due to its manufacturing strength it is able to bring price-competitive televisions to market while maintaining our profitability. So its early decisions and investments are paying off.

    Samsung attributed its success to a combination of manufacturing strength, commitment to all four digital television technologies and product designs

  • US ready for pay mobile TV: study

    US ready for pay mobile TV: study

    MUMBAI: American consumers are willing to pay enough for watching TV on mobile phones to justify what it would cost carriers to build a new broadcast network to guarantee quality service, according to just-released study.

    The study by the Mobile Digital TV Alliance discusses the economic viability and consumer adoption of mobile TV and concludes that a successful proposition for mobile TV in the United States is high-quality video and service and flat rates of about $20 a month for unlimited viewing.

    To meet those standards, the alliance suggests building a separate broadcast network, which would cost a carrier between $500 million and $2 billion.

    “The Economics of Mobile TV,” authored by Yoram Solomon, discusses how open standards promote mature competition furthermore improving the economics of mobile broadcast TV, how mobile TV adds a new dimension of value to existing products; as well as why – contrary to popular belief – consumers will pay to use this added service.

  • Netherlands becomes first country to switch over fully to digital TV

    Netherlands becomes first country to switch over fully to digital TV

    MUMBAI: Netherlands has pulled the plug on transmission of free to air analogue television, becoming the first nation switching completely to digital signals.

    Fewer than 75,000 households in the country relied on analogue antennae, although 220,000 still have second sets. They will require a small decoder to receive digital terrestrial television signals.

    Former Dutch telecommunications monopoly KPN has licenced the former bandwidth used by analogue through 2017.

    KPN carried the cost of building the digital network and will continue to broadcast three state-supported channels and several regional public broadcasters.

    In return, KPN will use the remaining available capacity to carry a package of pay-television channels.

  • Digital TV conversion impacting TV market

    Digital TV conversion impacting TV market

    MUMBAI : The international migration from analog broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT) marches on with a significant impact on the television set market, reports market research firm In-Stat.

    Many nations have announced an analog broadcast shutoff date, but how they implement this change varies, In-Stat says. Some countries are allocating spectrum so they can transmit analog and digital broadcasts concurrently for a number of years. Other countries are rolling out DTT regionally and shutting down analog service as the rollout is completed.

    “There are now four main standards for digital television (DTV) broadcasting, with some similarities between these standards in audio and video compression, but the demodulation schemes are all different,” says Chris Kissel, In-Stat analyst. “Consumers that wish to receive free, over-the-air broadcasts must buy either a digital television with a digital tuner, or must have a set top box or converter box to receive the signal.”

    Among the findings in the study are:

    *DTV tuner integration is happening faster in North America and Japan than it is in Europe or other parts of Asia.

    *In-Stat anticipates that flat-panel displays will overtake CRTs by 2007.

    *11.6% of all respondents to an In-Stat US consumer survey plan to buy a new DTV set within the next six months.

  • DTV, IPTV growth to boost Set-Top Box, Chipsets & Flat Panel industries

    DTV, IPTV growth to boost Set-Top Box, Chipsets & Flat Panel industries

    MUMBAI: The anticipated growth of digital television (DTV) and high-definition television (HDTV) is expected to positively influence the development of a range of support industries. These include those of flat panel displays, broadcasting, telecommunications, chipset design and production, set-top box manufacturing, and software or middleware development, according to a Frost & Sullivan – Technical Insights study.

    The flat panel display industry, in particular, has recorded huge revenue growth since the launch of DTV and HDTV services. Moreover, emerging display technologies such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and field emission displays (FED) are being seen as a challenge to the market dominance of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and with the recent advances in manufacturing techniques, the future for both OLED and FED look promising.

    With regard to the set-top box (STB) technology, new STB chipsets are steered toward the direction of providing a single-chip solution. The introduction of advanced compression standards such as Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG)-4 AVC has highly enhanced the video streaming capability of the high-end STBs, and future STBs will have more programmability and advanced functions such as a personal digital recorder. Future chipset designs are likely to focus on the convergence of TV and computer networks and the concept of a multimedia home platform (MHP).

    “Determined to lead the broadcast technologies, the Information Society Technologies (IST) and European Union (EU) have been funding numerous projects in the field of digital and high-definition television, driving the European companies and universities in this area,” notes technical insights (www.technicalinsights.frost.com) research analyst Dr. Jayson Koh.

    “While countries such as Greece are laying infrastructures for the digital switch over, terrestrial DTV services are already well developed in Germany and France, and Britain has also recently introduced many DTV and IPTV services.”

    In Asia, South Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese companies are leading the flat panel display industries, catering to the increasing demands for LCD and plasma discharge panel (PDP) TV from Europe, North America, and notably, China. Also there have been a significant number of IPTV and DTV deployments in Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Singapore and South Korea.

    Amidst these positive trends, the high entry barrier and the lack of cost-effective techniques for mass production are the most critical issues that the new companies and technologies in the flat panel display industry face. Other obstacles that add to the entry barrier include competing with the low average selling price of LCD, high cost of investment, lack of customer awareness, availability of raw materials and components suppliers, and the distribution networks, the study notes.

    “The prolonged format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray is expected to delay the integration of new DVD standard in high-end STBs and manufacturers would prefer to wait till a common format arises,” says Koh. “In the case of new video compression standard, the H.264 would slowly take over the MPEG-2 market but face competition from both AVS and VC-1.”

    In the near term, STB manufacturers have to decide whether to support a certain new generation DVD format or to provide a multiple format drive. Although chipset companies are providing more multiple video compression supports in their products, the high licensing fee arises from this kind of chipsets may not be encouraging.

    Global Advances in Digital TV and HDTV Chipsets, a part of the Electronics Device Subscription, provides informative insights on the progress and development of flat panel display, chipsets, compression and broadband television technologies. In this research service, Frost & Sullivan’s analysts thoroughly examine the following technologies: flat panel display, set-top box and its chipsets, compression coding and broadband television technologies. Analyst interviews are available to the press.

    Technical Insights is an international technology analysis business that produces a variety of technical news alerts, newsletters, and research services. Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years.

  • China Digital Media Corp completes digital TV migration for 200,000 households

    China Digital Media Corp completes digital TV migration for 200,000 households

    MUMBAI: China Digital Media Corporation, a provider of cable and digital television services and content in China, has announced that it has reached a record level of households that have installed digital set-top-boxes (STB). As of 30 June 2006, approximately 200,000 subscribers had installed over 220,000 digital STBs, with over 15 per cent subscribing for additional digital STBs, according to a media release issued.

    The company receives a portion of the subscription fees from each customer. It installed over 30,000 STBs in May 2006, the highest number of installations in a single month, and these newly installed STBs are equipped with Java platform and Ethernet port, the release adds.

    “This is a major milestone for the company, as it represents a significant source of revenue,” says China Digital Media Corporation chairman and CEO Daniel Ng. “The launch of our new IP based STB has generated incredible interest in Nanhai and surrounding cities. We intend to focus on promoting our value added services and pay TV services, and searching for new projects elsewhere that we believe will enhance revenue growth.”

  • Irdeto to help ETV make the transition to pay

    Irdeto to help ETV make the transition to pay

    SINGAPORE: Irdeto, which works in the area of providing content security for digital TV, IPTV and mobile networks, has announced that ETV has chosen its digital TV solution to help protect ETV and ETV2 as they get converted from free-to-air to pay TV services.

    ETV VP operations K. Bapineedu says, “ETV and ETV2 are known for providing the best of family entertainment and leading edge news, and thus, it was crucial that we protect this content with the most robust conditional access solution possible..

    “Irdeto’s reputation as the proven leader in the industry with an unparalleled record of three generations of uncompromised smart cards in the market was key in our decision to go with their content security solution.”

    Irdeto CEO Graham Kill said, “Leading broadcasters like ETV-Network realise that content security plays a key role in securing revenue. Irdeto offers a choice in proven content security solutions that support many different business models creating new business opportunities for content owners and network operators.”

    Irdeto’s India country manager Rahul Nehra says, “We are committed to curtailing piracy on local and national levels. In order for ETV-Network to achieve a successful conversion from free-to-air to pay TV services, a tried and tested content protection solution was crucial. We are pleased to be selected by ETV-Network to protect two of its key local-language channels.”

  • Digital TV in focus as television hooks into the high definition era

    Digital TV in focus as television hooks into the high definition era

    SINGAPORE: With more than 150 million Digital TV homes across the world, the debate has fast moved on from ‘whether internet will do to TV, what TV did to radio years back!

    The morning session on the changing face of television at Broadcast Asia 2006, brought home the fact that from the first launches of MPEG -2DVB broadcast platforms, the industry is seeing a new wave in TV delivery, which is being driven by intense competition amongst platform operators across the world.

    Speaking on the occasion, Tandberg Television Asia Pacific president Graham Cradock said, “Research indicates that by 2010, more than 50 per cent of TV viewing is going to be on -demand basis. Consumers are already reacting favourably and adopting the new technological changes. There are 10 million High-definition (HDTV) subscribers in the US and The desire to watch the recent World Cup Fever has added on to the HDTV households across the globe including countries like Korea and Japan.”

    Quoting from a study conducted by Ernst and Young in the US, Cradock added that in this digital decade, it takes very little time for people to adopt to newer technologies. So, it took almost 16 years for mobile to catch on, nine years for the internet, DVDs took six years to bust the video business; but for digital TV, it will probably take just very little time. He added, “Across the world more than ten per cent of the digital TV homes have shifted to on-demand basis. By 2010, we predict more than 50 the per cent of TV viewing is going to be on demand basis.”

    The key message here is that the consumer has fast changed in the last five years. The availability of increasingly sophisticated personal media services has created a new generation of digital savvy consumers. With devices such as digital camera and video phones, MP3 players, personal video players and gaming consoles the use of WiFi to connect to the internet, the consumer is becoming a more and more accustomed to living in a world where he or she can access content anywhere.

    So, what does this mean for the consumer and for broadcasters? Well, in the on-demand economy, obviously content remains king and consumer the real winner. Television will not offer more customized content supported by technology to go with the new multi media solutions like internet protocol television (IPTV) and high-definition technology. To add on it will be features like personal video recording, digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and conditional access control.

    Cradock stressed the fact that there was not much customised content for television, “Television content, will have to be repurposed to suit the delivery platforms. And there is a growing cohabitative relationship between television, the Internet and to some extent mobile too. The challenge in the future is to make them complimentary to each other,” he said.

    So, how are broadcasters gearing up to the challenges of Digital TV and the emergence of convergence?

    Said Cradock, “The changing face of television is giving sleepless nights to many broadcasters, as the order will question the fundamental parameters of TV viewing. From the commercial perspective, fragmented content will obviously reduce advertising revenue. Also, they have to make sure that consumers have the screens which support the newer technologies. The complex TV world will also bring about legislative issues in the wake of digital switchover, access rights, franchising fees, etc.”

    Graham listed out the survival strategy in the changing scenario:

    Don’t get anxious. Instead, get enthusiastic about the changes and adapt to them. Like, New Zealand is already talking about the digital switchover and opening up the bandwidth to cater to interactive television.

    In IPTV, see an opportunity for delivery for interactive TV

    Fragmentad and customized content will mean a drop in revenues but there is a positive side to it. Look at branded content, which will deliver more return on investment (RoI) for the advertisers.

    For advertisers, it will be a win-win situation; at least now they’ll get to know what works best for them.

    Remember, earlier it was content to the consumer, and now it is content for the consumer.

  • Uptake of digital TV in the UK faster than expected: Ofcom

    Uptake of digital TV in the UK faster than expected: Ofcom

    MUMBAI: Britain’s media regulatory body Ofcom has published its Communications Market: Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2006 i.e. January-March.

    The report shows that digital television was viewed by 72.5 per cent (18.2 million) UK television per households – up from 69.5 per cent at the end of last year.

    The take-up of digital television is growing faster than expected. Ofcom’s last Digital Progress Report had forecast that an extra 1.7 million homes would take-up digital television this year. By the end of March almost 800,000 extra households had already done so.

    The number of free-to-view digital households (Freeview plus free-to-view satellite) is estimated to have grown by 9.7 per cent from January to March to over 7.7 million.

    Freeview has for the first time overtaken traditional analogue television on primary sets in the home. Almost 7.1 million households have Freeview on the primary television set compared to around 6.4 million who are yet to take-up digital television.

    Freeview sales for January to March were up 40 per cent on the same period in 2005 at over 1.2 million, making this the third successive quarter in which sales have exceeded the 1 million mark. Estimates suggest that 38 per cent of Freeview sales are intended for secondary television sets in the home.

    Ofcom notes that digital satellite is the UK’s most popular digital television platform viewed by 8.3 million, or 30 per cent of homes of which almost 7.7 million subscribe to BSkyB pay services and 645,000 receive free-to-view satellite services.

    Just under one million BSkyB households view pay television on more than one television set through BSkyB’s Multiroom subscription service. The number of cable television households increased slightly over the quarter and is currently just over 3.3 million. Over 70,000 digital cable subscribers were added during the quarter, mainly as a result of analogue subscribers transferring to digital services.

  • 47 per cent UK viewers oppose licence fee hike; report

    47 per cent UK viewers oppose licence fee hike; report

    MUMBAI: A BBC-commissioned report into public attitudes to the licence fee showed 47 per cent of the 2,000 adults questioned said they opposed the principle of the licence fee being increased to help those who could not afford to upgrade to digital TV.

    The UK government is due to cease analogue transmission by 2012, when all homes should be able to receive digital output. The proposed terms of the new BBC charter being issued later this year hand the corporation new responsibilities for assisting in this process.

    The findings are part of an independent report commissioned by BBC governors. The research indicate that most viewers – if forced – would pay more than they do now for their annual licence. However, they would only be happy to do so if the extra revenue was spent on relevant services, and the standard of the BBC’s output did not deterioriate.

    The reserach has been undertaken as part of a consultation process over the future of the funding for the corporation, and asked Professor Patrick Barwise of London Business School to gauge licence fee payers’ opinions.

    According to BBC News, the fee – £131.50 for each household – generated nearly £3 billion of revenue for the corporation in 2004-2005.

    The reaction to a rise in the licence fee of £150 by the middle of the next decade – for which the BBC has asked the government – was that the number of people willing to pay for existing services would fall from between 75 and 80 per cent today to nearer 65 to 70 per cent. However, if it proceeded with the proposal, “it won’t be the straw that breaks the licence fee’s back”, Professor Barwise noted.

    The survey also suggests the public is broadly in favour of most of the new interactive services being planned by the BBC. These include a media player offering a chance to catch-up with an entire week of programming, which 80 per cent of respondents agreed was interesting and 76 per cent said they would be likely to use.