Doordarshan should dump terrestrial analogue for DTH

The Prasar Bharati Expert Committee, headed by Sam Pitroda, has submitted a report to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting recommending that India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan should discontinue terrestrial analogue transmission and move to direct-to-home (DTH) signals as its primary mode of transmitting content.

“This scenario presents a strong case for switching off analogue terrestrial TV broadcasts within a short period of time and adoption of DD Direct (DTH) as Doordarshan’s primary mode of transmission,” the Committee recommended in its report.

The committee also suggested that Doordarshan should expand its satellite and digital cable TV operations and said that public broadcaster should continue to transmit through private DTH and cable and satellite operators. This move from terrestrial to satellite transmission will result in considerable cost saving, even as it offers the possibility of a wider content variety as compared to the limited number of channels available through terrestrial broadcasts.

Astro Best and SPT strike a deal

It has been announced that premier pay per view service, Astro Best, in Malaysia, has struck a new deal with  Sony Pictures Television (SPT). Under the agreement, Astro will being Sony Pictures’ feature films to over 15 million Astro viewers. 

Astro Best was launched in 2012 and offers both Hollywood and Asian titles in its repertoire. Agnes Rozario, Vice President of Content Management Group at Astro said, “We are pleased to celebrate a significant milestone in our agreement with Sony Pictures to bring our viewers access to many of the studios’ latest Hollywood titles on Astro Best. This spells a variety of offerings for our customers with better value, and more viewing choices. Sony Pictures joins renowned studios such as Walt Disney Pictures, Lionsgate Film and Sundance to name a few, partnering with Astro to provide a variety of Hollywood and Asian movies at either day-and-date or at an earlier window compared to the usual Pay TV window.”

Angel Orengo, EVP, Distribution, Asia-Pacific for SPT said, “Sony Pictures is home to one of the world’s largest content libraries, featuring a wide variety of popular, beloved and critically-acclaimed feature film titles. We are delighted to work with Astro to bring an incredible collection of quality movies to their customers across Malaysia for years to come.”

TV opportunity in Laos

Russian pay TV market grows 13% in 2013

According to iKS-Consulting the Russian pay TV market grew 13% in 2013 to 52 billion roubles (US$1.5bn). The number of subscribers reached 33.6 million up 9% year-on-year, giving a penetration of 60%. This is expected to reach 73% in 2018.

During 2013, cable TV subscribers were static at 17.3 million, whereas DTH subscribers grew by 19% to 12.9 million and IPTV ended the year with 3.4 million subscribers – an increase of 25%.

Pay TV revenues in MENA to grow more than 83%

Pay TV thrives in the Middle East & North Africa

Pay TV revenues in the Middle East and North Africa will grow by more than 83% between 2010 and 2020 to $5.60 billion, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

The Digital TV Middle East & North Africa Forecasts report states that Turkey and Israel are expected to contribute 52% of the region’s pay TV revenues in 2020 total. From the $1,490 million pay TV revenues to be added between 2013 and 2020, Turkey will supply $359 million, Egypt $362 million and Saudi Arabia $257 million. Revenues in Israel will fall by $56 million over this period due to greater competition.

Satellite TV will continue to dominate pay TV revenues, taking two-thirds of the 2020 total (similar to the 2013 proportion). Satellite TV revenues will reach $3.74 billion in 2020, up by $1 billion on 2013 and nearly double the 2010 total.

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

The third edition of the Digital TV Middle East & North Africa Forecasts report is 185-pages long – 20% larger the previous edition. The third edition contains full forecasts for 21 countries – up from 16 countries in the second edition.

More: Digital TV Middle East & North Africa Forecasts

Worldwide pay TV subscribers to exceed 1.1 billion in 2019

SINGAPORE — ​Worldwide pay-TV market reached 903.3 million subscribers in 2013, generating $249.8 billion in service revenue. IPTV operators enjoyed significant growth (18.5% YoY) in 2013 to 92 million subscribers with a total of $37.2 billion in service revenue.

“Increasing FTTH subscriber base and bundled subscriber base of telcos are boosting the IPTV market. ABI Research forecasts that the IPTV subscriber base will grow to 161 million subscribers in 2019 accounting for 15% of overall pay-TV market,” comments Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting.

The cable TV market grew at the slowest rate among different pay-TV platforms with only 3% YoY growth, ending 2013 with 570.2 million subscribers. Cable TV subscribers in Western Europe and North America declined around 1% and 1.5% respectively in 2013. However, cable TV markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America continued to contribute to global cable TV market growth, which is expected to reach a total of 634.5 million subscribers in 2019.

The global terrestrial TV market reached 9.5 million subscribers at the end of 2013. A declining pay DTT subscriber base in Italy and Spain had an impact on the overall Western European DTT market which dropped around 5% in 2013.Unlike Western Europe, the DTT market in Africa grew a remarkable 45% to 2.1 million subscribers in 2013. “As African countries start to switch over to digital, digital terrestrial TV has become an affordable alternative to satellite TV service in the region. ABI Research forecasts that Africa will have over 4.8 million DTT subscribers in 2019,” adds Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

DIRECTV maintains its largest market share in terms of pay-TV service revenue. The company had around 20.2 million subscribers in the US with an ARPU above $102 by the end of 3Q-2013. Globally, the pay-TV market is expected to grow to 1.1 billion subscribers with $320.3 billion in service revenue in 2019.

ABI Research’s new “Pay TV ARPU and Revenues” Market Data is updated quarterly and profiles global pay-TV subscription information. Detailed market trends and market forecast information for key regions and countries around the world are provided where available. The study is a part of the company’s Pay TV Research Service.

Producers in Thailand get ready for digital channels

With the historic auction of the licences for 24 commercial digital TV channels completed in Thailand, the country’s content producers are now gearing for the the upsurge in the demand for content in the coming months. The channels will be debuting in April.

According to reports, the country’s regulatory body, National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has noted that it will be letting broadcasters of digital television to get help from content providers when it comes to co-production. However it has also notified that the content providers can only help for about 40% of the total available airtime.

There are currently six analogue channels in the country. With the influx of the new channels, Thailand will be looking for 576 hours of programming a day. Previously it was 144 hours a day from the analogue channels. The new digital channels are SD variety, HD variety, news and children’s channels.

Foxtel Presto launch delayed

The new year started with bad news for Australia’s pay TV giant, Foxtel. The company has just announced that it was delaying the launch of its highly anticipated OTT movie streaming service called the Foxtel Presto. It was originally slated to be launched at the end of 2013.

Regarding the delay as the service is still yet to be launched, a spokesperson from Foxtel has been quoted by the newspaper, Aistralian Financial Review that there were complications from technical issues. The spokesperson said, “This is a complicated platform to put together and there have been a few technical issues. We’re double checking everything to make sure it’s completely working before we launch it. We’re aiming to launch it in the next couple of months but we haven’t got a specific date at this stage.”

It was only recently when Foxtel’s  director of programmes Brian Walsh spoke about the company’s roadmap for the new year. He specifically noted that the company was making Presto a priority for 2014 as well as Foxtel Go. The date for its launch has not been announced.

500,000 TV sets could go blank in Bangalore

Bangalore, the city which comes under the second phase of digitisation might be looking at a massive cable TV blackout come January 31, 2014. According to reports, as many as 500,000 TV sets could go blank if they are not connected to STBs to receive digital signals.

According to Sibichen K Mathew, an adviser for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), as of December 31, 2013, only 80% of the television sets were covered by digitisation. There are approximately 2200000 television sets in the city which means nearly 500,000 of them are facing a cable TV blackout if they don’t act before the deadline.

Moresoever the cable operators in the city are worried about the onset of digitisation. The Karnataka State Cable Operators Association president Patrick Raju has said that this process would lead to monopoly. He said, “According to TRAI guidelines, cable operators have to merely collect subscriptions from consumers and hand them over to MSOs. Post-digitisation, MSOs may hike the subscription fee. Since they are the only service providers, consumers will have no option but to pay up.”

Fox channels launch in France on Freebox

Fox International Channels increases distribution in France with the launch of the company’s bouquet of channels in the IPTV platform Freebox TV.

National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild and Voyage are available for Free subscribers from Thursday, January 16, 2014.

Frédéric Chevance, managing director Fox International Channels France said “We are delighted to start this collaboration with the ILIAD group via the Free triple play offer. We will allow millions of subscribers to benefit from the quality of our programs and the prestige of our brands. This will also permit us to gain great visibility on the French Market, more than doubling our number of households”.

Maxime Lombardini, managing director ILIAD is very pleased with this new collaboration with the group Fox International Channels. “These three new prestigious channels available for all our TV subscribers are strengthening the attractiveness of the Freebox TV offer”.

The three channels now distributed by Free are also available on Canalsat and Numericable, historical partners of Fox International Channels.

Ukraine set for pay-DTT

The Ukrainian DTT operator Zeonbud is set to launch a pay-TV service offering viewers 20, mostly foreign channels.

According to ProIT and AKTR, it has been undertaking trials and will give a debut to the service – which will cost UAH35 (€3.09) a month to receive – in the first quarter.

Significantly, Zeonbud is expected to use a different business model to that for its FTA DTT offer, paying for the channels rather than receiving a payment for them.

In that respect, the pay-DTT service would operate on the same basis as cable and DTH platforms in the country.

Zeonbud first revealed plans to launch a pay-DTT operation at the end of 2012, with a launch predicted for Q1 2013.

Reaction to the possibility such a service have been mixed in the local pay-TV industry, with some fearing it and others, among them Viasat, welcoming the prospect of competition.

Zeonbud currently offers its viewers a total of 32 channels on four multiplexes.

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Netflix set for “substantial European expansion”

Netflix has no plans to introduce advertising and is at the same time is reluctant to provide specifics about what it terms are its “substantial” expansion plans in Europe for later this year.

Speaking in a conference call accompanying the company’s latest set of results, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that it remains committed to retaining its ad-free model, for at least the next two years.

Asked for more details about what Netflix terms “a substantial European expansion” later this year and rumours that this may include France and Germany, Hastings refused to be drawn on specifics.

However, he added that, “what we’ve seen in the UK is that there can be very strong players like the BBc iPlayer, Lovefilm and Sky and we can still build a very successful business.”

Asked about STB integrations in Europe, Hastings spoke positively about the Virgin Media/TiVo arrangement and said this could be replicated to other markets Netflix operates in.

However, he refused to confirm whether Netflix in the UK had yet reached profitability.

Netflix as a whole ended 2013 with over 44 million members and expects the total to rise to 48 million this quarter.

On the international front, it gained 1.74 million members in Q4 2013 to end the year with 10.93 million.

Its total net income in Q4 was $48 million – a figure it expects to match this quarter.

Commenting on the performance of its European operations, the company said: “We’re making great progress internationally, with strong member growth and contribution profit/loss improving sequentially in all of our markets (with the exception of the Netherlands as it had its first full quarter of operations and thus loss in Q4). We saw healthy growth in net additions of 1.74 million in Q4 to end the year at 10.93 million members, slightly above our guidance. As anticipated, Q4 net additions were down slightly from the prior year Q4, as we launched four Nordic markets in Q4 2012 versus the relatively smaller Netherlands launch in Q3 2013.”

Regarding its substantial European expansion, it added: “Our success this year in international net additions and shrinking contribution losses confirms our belief that there is a big international opportunity for Netflix.”

The company has also started to advertise a number of jobs for its yet to be opened office in Amsterdam. Netflix is recruiting a team of eight people, mainly for legal, marketing and PR including a Senior Manager Europe Media.

NPD Group retracts pay-TV release

The NPD Group has retracted a press release about the number of pay-TV and SVOD subscribers in the US.

In the document, the research firm said that it found the number of subscribers to networks such as HBO and Showtime has gone down, while SVOD number from Netflix and the like were up.

However, the premium broadcasters protested and said the figures from the NPD group were not correct. As a result of these protest, the company retracted the release and issued the following statement.

“The data used for the press release pertains to aggregate results for all premium TV channels and does indicate that the overall number of subscribers has declined, based on a representative sample of the US population. However, upon further examination of the results, there is data supporting the conclusion that individual subscribers are either subscribing to more channels, or adding channels over time. In that case, faithful premium channel subscribers are becoming more so – which would be consistent with the subscription increases being reported by individual channels.”

CTH wants 3 million subscribers by 2016

Cable Thai Holdings (CTH), one of the top pay TV operators in Thailand has announced that it has revised its business strategies going forward and will be looking at targetting at least three million subscribers by 2016. The company plans on striking necessary deals with other players in order to achieve its goal.

CTH chairman Vichai Thongtang said, “We are discussing with several leading satellite TV platforms plans to reach 14 million households. CTH has reached a partnership with PSI Holdings, the largest satellite TV provider, to carry CTH’s programmes including the English Premier League matches to PSI customers.”

According to CTH, the partnership with PSI Holdings will provide CTH with exclusive pay per view content that will be available through PSI O2 Digital HD STBs. The company hopes to get 1 million subscribers through the deal with PSI Holdings.

NTC says Philippines’ 2015 deadline unlikely

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Philippines has noted that if the process of shifting from analogue to digital television only starts in 2014, then the country is unlikely to meet its deadline for complete digitisation by 2015.

NTC chief Gamaliel Cordoba said, “If we are going to start by 2014, that should be too short. Right now, we are already putting together the IRR. We are doing that all with the stakeholders, including other government agencies. We need to thresh out all the issues before we issue the IRR. We would give them enough time for the transition.”

The country will be joining  other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States in going digital. What also may not come as a surprise is the fact the country will be adopting the system developed by Japan. It will be using Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) system. This system will help the country reach out to its citizens when there are natural disasters and that’s one of the reasons it was chosen in the first place.

India： Phase III, Phase IV deadlines clubbed together

Not only is the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (MIB) planning on keeping with the final digitisation date for India, the ministry will also most likely club the deadlines for both Phase III and Phase IV together and make it December 31, 2014.
On January 21, 2014, television industry stakeholders including I&B Minister Manish Tewari, Secretary Bimal Julka and Joint Secretary – Broadcasting Supriya Sahu came together for a meeting discussing the ongoing digitsation process in India. A task force member has been quoted, “It was a normal meeting. We discussed about the issues that were still to be tackled in the first two phases of digitisation. Also mentioned was the single deadline for the remaining two phases of digitisation.”
India is in the midst of digitisation. And according to the ministry, the first two phases of digitisation, which encompassed of four cities and then 38 cities respectively have been successfully completed. However the process has also led to problems between LCOs and MSOs in these regions.

KCCL talks expansion

Kerala Communicators cable (KCCL), is a public limited firm and is an initiative of cable TV operators in Kerala under the umbrella of cable operator association (COA). There are 3068 operators with KCCL of this 2500 operators are shareholders. The group mainly focuses on digitizing rural regions of Kerala while covering entire 14 districts. KCCL operators represent 70% of cable TV services in the south western Indian state of Kerala.

The group procures digital STBs from Coship, My Box and Logic Eastern. KCCL’s Executive Director Nasir Hassan Anwar states that firm is one among the first few MSOs that supported indigenous STB procurement and there are no common middleware that is being used by the group’s operators. Currently KCCL’s headend is being designed to provide IPTV solutions as well.

KCCL is also emerging into broadband and has tied up with RailTel for transportation of signals to the last mile operators. KCCL in tie up with “RailWire Corporation of India Ltd”, a Railtel Venture, is on testing Phase to provide broadband connectivity to the state’s inhabitants and has connected 5000 households so far. KCCL operators are also involved with Kerala Government’s E district project connecting panchayath offices.

KCCL offers 200 digital channels in MPEG 2 format, 40 channels in MPEG 4 and 18 HD channels along with 17 audio channels. KCCL procures CAS from Conax. Recently KCCL entered into pilot project for deploying Conax’s cardless solutions. This pilot project involves upgrading KCCL’s existing Conax Contego security back end to include Conax cardless CA and deploys Coship’s STBs with chipsets from ALi Corporation.

Tricolor TV restructures

The leading Russian DTH platform Tricolor TV has announced a number of managerial appointments.

Pavel Basov, who joined the company in April 2011 as director for commercial and business development, is now its general director.

According to Tricolor TV, the challenges he now faces include the implementation of the recently announced ‘5D’ strategy and reaching 20 million subscribers by the end of this year.

As part of what is a new company structure, Vyacheslav Mordachev has meanwhile become its president. In his new position, he will supervise cooperation with Tricolor TV’s strategic partners, authorities and shareholders, as well as advise on business development.

Mordachev joined Tricolor TV in 2006, or a year after its launch, as CEO.

Japan makes terrestrial 8k test

Japanese public broadcaster NHK has carried out a successful terrestrial trial of its Super Hi-Vision 8k format.

The UHF test was conducted by  Science & Technology Research Laboratories from its facility in Hitoyoshi, southern Japan, with the signal successfully received some 27 kilometers away.

The broadcaster is running a number of public viewings of the 8k format during the upcoming Sochi Olympics. Skating will be shown live to audiences at the NHK Fureai Hall in Shibuya, while at the NHK Nagoya Station, footage of the Sochi Olympics and other 8K contents will be shown to commemorate the 60th anniversary of television broadcasting in Nagoya.

Super Hi-Vision has been in development by NHK since 1995. The 8K format has 7,680 by 4,320 pixels, four times the resolution of 4K and 16 times that of the current HD format.

100,000 subscribers for Georgia's MagtiSat

MagtiSat, Georgia’s first domestic direct-to-home (DTH) satellite platform broadcast via ASTRA, celebrates its second birthday with more than 100,000 customers across the country and 3 new in-house digital TV channels exclusively available to MagtiSat subscribers

TBILISI/LUXEMBOURG — SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) and MagtiCom, a mobile and telecommunications company in Georgia, announced today that after 2 years of operating MagtiSat, the first domestic DTH platform in Georgia, the company already has more than 100,000 subscribers and their number is constantly growing. MagtiSat is broadcast by ASTRA’s 1G satellite (31.5 degrees East).

To mark the second year of its successful operations, MagtiSat has launched 3 new in-house cinema channels—“Magti Hit”, “Magti Kino” and “Chveni Magti”:

• Magti Hit screens the most popular movie hits of the 21st century in Georgian and in HD.
• Magti Kino features the most popular and high-earning films of the past 20 years in Georgian.
• Chveni Magti broadcasts masterpieces of Georgian feature and documentary films.

MagtiSat currently offers subscribers more than 100 channels in standard definition (SD) and 6 in high definition (HD) within different programme packages.

Thanks to satellite broadcasting provided by the ASTRA satellite owned and operated by SES, MagtiSat is available all over Georgia, including in the country’s mountain regions. Two years on the market has shown that demand for satellite TV broadcasting is significant in Georgia—not only in the regions, where other telecommunications networks are either difficult to deploy or not cost-effective, but also in the country’s capital, where digital terrestrial TV and IPTV solutions are present.

Based upon global trends and strong demand for high-quality digital broadcasting in Georgia and in the region as a whole, MagtiCom and SES built an uplink station in late 2013. With an antenna radius of 6.3 metres and weighing in at over 6 tonnes, this satellite ground station is unique in Georgia in terms of power and operational output, and is one of the largest in the entire Caucasus region.

Mr Irakli Lobzhanidze, MagtiCom’s Marketing Director: ’We are proud to announce today that the number of MagtiSat subscribers has grown three-fold over the past year and has reached around 115,000. According to our data, we became the country’s largest pay-TV operator in a mere two years. We believe that the secret of our success is our country-wide world-class satellite TV coverage, the unique content we offer and great customer service.’

Mr Håkan Sjödin, SES’s Vice President (Sales) for Scandinavia, the Baltic and Eastern Europe: ’We would like to congratulate our partner MagtiCom for the great results they have achieved in only 2 years, and are proud to be part of their success. This year we are planning to launch ASTRA 5B, a new satellite which will extend SES’ transponder capacity and geographical reach across Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. We hope that this launch will increase our successful co-operation with MagtiCom, and that together we will implement new, thriving projects which will reveal the benefits and potential of satellite broadcasting to all.’

Dish TV India adds 220,000 subscribers in 4Q 2013

NOIDA, India — Dish TV India Limited (Dishtv) (BSE: 532839, NSE: DISHTV) today reported third quarter fiscal 2014 standalone operating revenues of Rs. 6,128 million, recording 9.9% growth over the corresponding period last fiscal.

220 thousand subscribers were added in the quarter ended December 31, 2013 taking the company’s net subscriber base to 11.2 million at the end of the period.

Dish TV India Limited continues to be the largest DTH Company in India and the Asia Pacific region and is one of the largest DTH platforms in the World.

More: Financial Results

Satcom sector in India to grow at over 6% per year

Euroconsult Presents Premier Report on India Satcom Value Chain & Markets

• Satcom sector in India to grow at over 6% per year driven by DTH pay-TV, VSAT networks and cellular backhaul markets

PARIS, MONTREAL, WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to Euroconsult’s newly released report, “India Satcom Markets 2014”, India’s satellite communication sector has experienced significant growth over the past five years driven by explosive demand from DTH pay-TV platforms and growing telecommunication needs in the country. The satcom value chain is strongly influenced by the Indian Space and Research Organization (ISRO) that is present all along the satcom value chain including for satellite manufacturing, launch, satellite operations, regulations and partially for services.

On the manufacturing level, roughly half of the country’s satellite manufacturing sector spending is currently dedicated to developing communications satellites. “While ISRO dominates the satcom manufacturing landscape, outsourcing to foreign and national companies will continue to provide growth opportunities for a number of players with hundreds of millions of dollars to be outsourced from 2013-2021,” said Deepu Krishnan, Senior Consultant at Euroconsult.

Satellite capacity demand from DTH broadcasting grew at a CAGR of over 7% from 2008-2013, now representing 32% of the country’s total commercial satellite capacity usage. TV distribution services to cable operators and VSAT enterprise networks have equally seen growing demand in recent years, leading to an increasing number of players now operating in the country’s teleport and VSAT service market. In particular the cellular backhaul market has begun to see strong take-up in India with the arrival of HTS systems such as IpStar, but also government backed networks connecting schools, remote villages, etc., are currently growing with increasing capacity needs. Alongside satellite services, the annual satellite ground equipment market has also seen growth, generating $40 million in equipment revenue in 2012, dominated by international ground terminal manufacturers.

While domestic operator ISRO/Antrix enjoys significant regulatory advantages in the market, only a proportion of the commercial demand for satellite capacity is being met by domestic capacity today, with the majority being provided by foreign satellite operators. Regulatory barriers and capacity supply constraints still challenge market growth.

“Changes in the country’s satcom policy, which is expected to be released in 2014, should bring positive changes and contribute to additional growth in satcom markets over the coming years, in particular for services using Ku-band capacity from foreign operators,” said Krishnan. In total, demand for regular C- and Ku-band capacity is expected to grow at 6% p.a. between 2013 and 2023 in addition to new demand for satcom services using HTS systems that should see strong take up towards the end of the decade.

Fox International Channels poaches pay TV exec for Europe

Fox International Channels Southern Europe and Africa has appointed Vera Pinto Pereira to become its COO.

The job is a new role. Based in FIC’s Lisbon office, Pinto Pereira will work on developing new business opportunities and maintaining existing affiliate partner relationships. She will report into FIC Southern Europe and Africa’s executive VP Adam Theiler and work closely with EVP, affiliate distribution, FIC Europe & Africa Georgina Twiss.

Pinto Pereira joins 21st Century Fox-owned FIC from Portuguese pay TV platform MEO, where she was TV service director. She is credited with building MEO into one of Portugal’s leading operators.

Theiler called her an “innovator and a pioneer of the pay TV sector in Portugal” and said she would be “instrumental in defining our strategic path forward across territories in different stages of development”.

Her appointment comes after the exit of long term FIC channels executive Jason Thorp in December, which handed FIC Europe and Africa president and COO Diego Londono his responsibilities.

140 million STBs needed in India to complete digitisation

For India to successfully go from analogue to digital TV, a total of 140 million STBs will be seeded in order to complete digitisation. The Information and Broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka noted that the number was for all four phases of digitisation.

Bimal Julka said, “A total of 140 million STBs are required to achieve complete digitisation by 2014. Digitisation has already been successfully completed in 42 cities in the first two phases. Around 30 million STBs have been seeded. About 110 million STBs are required to be seeded in the remaining two phases. The Indian industry has sufficient capacity to meet this demand. There is a huge opportunity for the Indian industry and also from the employment-generation perspective”

According to the government currently the first two phases of digitisation have been successfully completed and achieved by the deadlines. The ministry has also noted that the digitisation process has not been put on hold for any reason. Currently the third phase of digitisation is going on. The government in the country hopes to complete the process at the latest by December 2014.

HbbTV: a new perspective

HbbTV is no longer a European phenomenon, with interest growing strongly in other parts of the world, according to Dr Klaus Illgner-Fehns, MD, IRT and chairman of the HbbTV consortium.

However, speaking at the HbbTV Summit in Warsaw, he provided strong evidence of how developed it is in Germany.

Speaking generally, he also revealed that the target to publish the specification for HbbTV V2 is this year.

According to Illgner-Fehns, HbbTV is already established in a number of European countries including Germany, France, Spain and Benelux, with trials taking place is several others including Russia and Portugal.

Elsewhere, there is interest in the US and Brazil, many trials are taking place in China and regular services will start in Australia this year. In Germany, over 90% of the broadcast market supports it, there are over 70 apps on air and in 2013 90% of smart TVs had HbbTV and there were 5.5 million devices sold, with the connection rate of 70%.

All told, there are now 10 million devices with HbbTV equipment in the country.

A study by SevenOne Media (Sat 1, ProSieben and Kanal Eins) showed that the usage of unique HbbTV devices grew by 380% between November 2012 and November 2013.

HbbTV apps extend across a growing range of areas in Germany including gaming.

Second screen is meanwhile supported by a service operated by ARD.

The HbbTV consortium was established in 2010 and already has over 60 members.

Illgner-Fehns pointed out that the introduction of HbbTV 1.5 in 2012 was now making it possible for broadcasters to offer VOD services on a commercial basis.

Exset to launch DMS 2.0 in India

Exset India, which is operated by Exset BV, the Netherlands based broadcast solutions company, has announced that it will be launching a new Digital Monetisation System – DMS 2.0 in January at an event in India. The launch will take place during Convergence India, which will take place between January 21 and January 23.

Jonathan McKee, Head of DMS Product Development, said, “We also keep the power in the back end because network operators are providing access to third-parties who they have sold bandwidth to – government departments, newspapers, local advertisers and so on – and DMS Publisher has to provide strict control and management. This is both in terms of not overloading networks with data that will compromise video performance but also in terms of preventing the publishing of offensive material.”

Exset’s DMS solution is something that is already being deployed by several top MSOs in India. Andrew Pons, Global Director of Sales and Marketing, said, “There will be editors spread across multiple third-parties with whom an operator has secured deals. Within those organisations there will probably be two or three people with ultimate access/content review and then editors/uploaders below them. The final step is the ultimate approval to publish and that stays with the operator thereby if something offensive is uploaded, the operator can prevent it being broadcast. A lot of DMS 2.0 is about making that workflow efficient and easy-to-use with better managed services tools. We have worked very hard to create a friendly user interface in order to encourage usage. We are very proud of it.”

Quickflix subscriber base grows by 10%

Quickflix, online entertainment and media company, from Australia continues to rack in impressive subscriber numbers with each quarter. The company has just announced that for the December quarter, it added 10,000 new customers and the total number of active customers has increased by 10%. It now stands at 120,800.

In terms of active paying customers, the growth rate stands at 4%. The company now has 102,248 paying customers to its name.  Stephen Langsford, the founder of online platform said, “New platforms launched during this period including the PlayStation 4, LG smart TVs, TiVo and Amazon Kindle Fire added to the demand.” He also noted that the company is looking to sign several big licensing deals in a period of the next couple of weeks that will bring in more eyeballs.

Quickflix has been doing really well in Australia in the past year. However 2014 might see it facing a fresh round of challenges. Persistent rumours have been making rounds in the Australian media that online platform giant, Netflix might be making its debut in the country.

Deloitte predicts pay-TV will double up

Deloitte predicts by the end of 2014 the number of wordlwide homes with double or more pay-TV subscriptions will grow to 50 million homes.

The additional subscriptions generate about £3 billion (€3.6bn) in revenues. Over the coming years, the number of households with multiple subscriptions should continue rising, as more content owners and aggregators, including platform owners such as cable and satellite providers, make their content portfolios available via subscription video-on-demand (SVOD). A further stimulus to the market will be the increasing availability of inexpensive HDMI dongles, which connect TV sets to the Web.

This trend is counter to historical expectations of cord cutting, whereby households would either drop their pay-television subscription altogether, or replace their platform-based subscription with a SVOD package.

Cord cutting has been anticipated for the past decade: in surveys, a significant proportion of pay-TV subscribers have signaled their intent to cease subscribing, yet year after year these intentions have failed to materialise, and the base of pay-TV subscribers has remained constant or even continued to rise in many countries, even in markets with a high pay-TV base such as North America, where over 90% of homes have pay-television.

SVOD seems to be a supplement to platform-based pay-television, not a replacement.

Hungarian DTT offer grows

Antenna Hungária will add the channel RTL ll to its DTT line-up on January 21.

Initially, it will be placed in the MinDig TV service, where it will be free to watch, for a period of two weeks until February 4.

Subsequently, it will form part of the Family package in the pay-DTT service MinDig TV Extra.

MinDig TV was launched in December 2008 and MinDigTV Extra followed in May 2010.

The latter is now one of the most success pay-DTT operations in CEE.

Nepal to get IPTV services

Two separate companies – Orient Digital Media and Subisu Cable Net – are currently on a race to become the first companies to introduce IPTV services in Nepal. This would be the first time such a service was operated out of the country.

Subisu CEO Sudhir Parajuli noted that the company hopes to launch the services as early as March of this year. He further added, “We are hopeful to get the government permission within a week and currently the company is currently working on the packages to be offered.” Subisu is one of the top internet providers in Nepal. Orient on the other hand had acquired the permission from the government nearly eight months ago but it has not started it services yet.

In case of Subisu, it is planning on launching a 15 channel IPTV service as of right now. The licence that was already given to Orient was under the condition that the company should start its services within 18 months of having acquired the licence. State-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) is also in the process of launching its own IPTV service but the plans are at a nascent stage.

Tata Sky responds to MIB notice

Days after India’s Information and Broadcasting ministry slapped a notice on top DTH player Tata Sky for not carrying all the mandatory DD channels in its bouquet, the player has shot back saying it’s working its hardest to get all channels on air. However it does not have enough transponders as the the ministry itself has not been able to approve them on time.

Tata Sky CEO Harit Nagpal said, “Our licence with Doordarshan was to carry eight channels but we were carrying 15 since our customers wanted them. We have been running pillar to post to get capacity but no one has been helping us.” He also noted that the company has been struggling to get extra transponders from MIB.

Nagpal also noted, “I am ready to carry the 24 channels that the government says I should but I need time to figure out how to do it. Capacity creation takes time. There are only two ways to create capacity- either get more transponders or remove channels. If I remove channels, customers may not be too happy with it.” Tata Sky was not the only player that was issued notices. Reliance and Sun Direct have also been given notices by the government.

Videocon to set up new STB manufacturing plant

Videocon Industries in India has announced that it will be setting up a new STB manufacturing unit in the country. The unit will be up and running by the end of 2014 and will have the capacity to manufacture 1 million STBs on an annual basis.

In a recent interview to the Press Trust of India, Videocon Industries Director Anirudh Dhoot said, “We will set up another plant that will have a production capacity of 1 million units annually by end of 2014. We want to do more. We have not decided but we are evaluating either setting it up in Punjab or Madhya Pradesh. We have seen huge growth in demand for STBs. In October, we increased production capacity of existing STB plant from 7 lakh to 10 lakh i.e. 1 million.”

Videocon d2h, which is one of the fastest growing DTH players in India is operated under Videocon industries. The unit will be able to address the huge increase in the demand for STBs in the country with the onset of the final phases of digitisation. Currently the first two phases are already complete and the government is keen on completing with the process by the end of 2014.

ITI sells asset, launches news channel

Poland’s ITI Group has sold its 100% interest the football club Legia Warszawa for an undisclosed fee.

According to ITI Group, it has been acquired by Dariusz Mioduski (80%), hitherto a member of the company’s supervisory board, and Boguslaw Lesnodorski (20%), Legia’s president and CEO for the last year.

Separately, ITI Group has announced the successful launch of the news-based channel TVN24 Biznes i Swiat (‘Business and World’) by TVN.

TVN already operates the news-based channel TVN24.

Technicolor in global Telefonica deal

Technicolor has signed a new agreement with Telefonica for the global deployment of set-top boxes.

Initially Technicolor will concentrate on Telefonica’s Latin American markets in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

The box in question is Technicolor’s MediaPlay HD satellite and cable set-top Boxes featuring Wi-Fi connectivity and MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 (H.264) video codecs in both standard and high definition. The hybrid boxes are also enabled to provide PVR functionality.

Francois Rossiensky, Senior Vice President for Connected Home EMEA, Technicolor, said: “Our focus on portraying the set-top box as a hub of innovation has been key in Telefonica’s partners’ selection process. Telefonica’s trust has fuelled our team’s motivation to achieve the delivery of large quantities of future proof and robust solutions in the space of a few months.”

Telefonica plans to run a mix of broadcast and internet video, VOD, internet browsing and timeshifted TV.

Russia expands DTT coverage

Russia’s second DTT multiplex is now broadcasting in St Petersburg and Leningrad region.

The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS) announced the launch over the holiday period, following on from its debut in Moscow in early December.

Prior to that, it had only been available on a trial basis in a number of smaller locations including Sochi, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk.

Viewers in St Petersburg and surrounding area can now watch 20 digital TV channels for no monthly fee.

HKTV seeking judicial review

Ricky Wong, the CEO of Hong Kong Television Network Limited, is not giving up on his dream of getting a free to air licence for HKTV from the Hong Kong government. It has been confirmed that Ricky Wong has filed an application for a judicial review. The decision for not giving HKTV an FTA licence was announced on October 15, 2013

While City Telecom’s Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) wasn’t given a licence, I-Cable’s Fantastic TV and Hong Kong Television Entertainment (HKTVE) backed by pay TV giant, PCCW have been given in-principle licences. At the time when the decision was announced, there was strong support from both the industry and the public who took to the streets protesting the government’s decision.

HKTV meanwhile has announced other plans to keep afloat as it tries for FTA licence. The company has announced that it will be soon launching a new online platform and that it will be similar to Hulu and Netflix. Ricky Wong has noted that it will be anywhere between three and five channels launched through that platform.

Pepsi and MTV team up to launch new channel

Viacom’s music platform, MTV and PepsiCo’s flagship soft drink, Pepsi have come together to launch a youth channel under the MTV banner in India. The launch which is yet to be officially confirmed will have both MTV and Pepsi’s logos on the screen and will target the youth.

This would be the first time such a deal has been struck between a soft drink company and a music platform. Senior executives from both companies for now have confirmed that such a deal is in fact in the cards. A senior official from MTV has been quoted, “MTV has grown its franchise with several brand extensions, including niche channels. In a pay-TV environment, it is a profitable business model. Given our strong legacy, this is a good time to launch another MTV channel.”

MTV is a global brand but was launched in India in 1996. It is the ongoing digitisation drive in India that has allowed for several niche channels to crop up in the country in the last one year.

India's KCCL deploys Cardless security from Conax on ALi chipset

KCCL launches Cardless security solution from Conax including latest chip technology from ALi

• New project is enabling KCCL’s 3000 independent cable TV networks to expand their Conax Contego™ security hub to include Cardless CA clients and drive rapid digitization in South India

MUMBAI, India — Conax, a leading global provider of solutions for securing digital video content distribution on all networks and devices, today announced that Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd has entered a pilot project to deploy the new Conax Cardless solution launched in September at IBC Expo. KCCL is a consortium of over 3000 independent cable TV networks in Kerala, South India. The pilot project includes an upgrade of KCCL’s existing Conax Contego™ security back-end to include support for the new Conax Cardless secure CA client. The solution consists of Conax Cardless CA and uses Coship STBs with secure chipsets from ALi Corporation, seamlessly complementing the existing card-based STB population. Coship is one of the vendors in a portfolio of licensed STB partners for the Conax Cardless offering.

KCCL operators represent 70% of cable TV services in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala – a region with a population of 33 million people. The enhanced Conax Contego security hub will empower KCCL network operators to easily operate both Smart Card and Cardless clients and differentiate between security requirements of diverse consumer groups and content. Now KCCL will be able to offer a cost efficient solution for targeting low ARPU segments and enabling rapid digitization – as well as reducing churn.

Through a strategic partnership with ALi Corporation, the Conax solution will provide KCCL with a highly secure Cardless solution utilizing a unique combination of hardware (security) and software security; for a revolutionary level of protection not available in pure software solutions. The secure software is executed within a purpose-built hardware protected environment (Secure Execution Environment) within the ALi chipset, the main CPU in the set-top-box level of protection. KCCL has chosen to deploy Conax security evaluated set-top-boxes from Coship. To enable rapid development of the cardless set-top-boxes from Coship and other STB vendors, Conax and ALi are providing a reference design with an embedded Conax Cardless security core.

Mr. Nassir Hassan Anwar, Director, KCCL, “We are pleased to further strengthen our relationship with security partner Conax based on the Conax brand value, long experience and reliability in India, 24/7 support, flexibility of operations and open policy for STB selection. Upgrading KCCL’s security back-end to include Conax Cardless, using Ali chipsets and Coship STBs, will allow member operators to easily create new product offerings using cards or cardless clients based on varied consumer groups. The Conax solution will continue to enable KCCL operators with a future-proof, secure roadmap.”

The combined solution will enable KCCL to capture new business in the next phase of digitization in South India, while expanding their platform for additional business models and content offerings. The Conax Contego solution will also provide KCCL with easy upgrade for integrating future offerings such as VOD, multiscreen and over-the-top content viewing.

Tom Jahr, EVP Products & Partner, Conax, “Conax is very proud that KCCL, a forward-thinking consortium with a unique business model and vision for the future, has chosen to partner in the Conax Cardless pilot deployment. Our aim is to enable KCCL to benefit from the best of both worlds, employing the cardless solution for low-end video content and smart card security for premium content. With the new solution, Conax is providing KCCL with the comprehensive and flexible tools for developing secure business models and capturing future growth.”

Tony Chang, General Manager of International Business Unit, ALi Corporation, “Only a few months after the launch of Conax Cardless security solution at IBC including the latest generation of ALi’s secure cable STB SoC, we are proud that KCCL has chosen Conax Contego supporting both Smart Card and Cardless clients with ALi’s secure chipsets. Using the reference design provided by ALi and Conax, we are pleased that Coship was able to rapidly deploy a cardless STB, thus together we are enabling KCCL to rapidly respond to different market needs. This also further confirms the technical leadership of ALi’s secure chipset solutions in both standard and high definition, as well as the partnership with Conax on delivering cost effective cardless solutions to the low APRU segment.”