ANGA COM 2015 opens exhibitor registration

Companies wanting to exhibit at German cable, satellite and broadband trade fair ANGA COM 2015 can now register for space at the show.

The registration documents are available on website www.angacom.de. The ANGA COM exhibition and conference will take place June 9-11, 2015 in Cologne.

This year, 450 exhibitors and more than 17,000 visitors (50% international) attended the show – an increase by 1.5% compared with 2013.

ANGA COM 2015 will focus on topics such as DOCSIS, VOD, personalised TV, media home gateways, recommendation engines, Ultra HD, connected TV, multiscreen and TV everywhere. The call for papers for the conference is open until September 30, 2014.

Tanzanian operator CGL chooses CryptoGuard

Tanzanian operator CGL chooses CryptoGuard as content security partner for their CAS and SMS

MOTALA — Dar es Salaam based operator Content Generation Ltd (CGL) has decided to implement CryptoGuard CAS and SMS and becomes the first Tanzanian operator to use the Swedish security and business system CryptoGuard.

Tanzanian operator CGL and the Swedish CAS and SMS vendor CryptoGuard has come to an agreement that allows CGL to use CryptoGuard to encrypt their TV content. John Hayghaimo Ag CEO – Content Generation Ltd says:
“We at CGL are excited to work with CryptoGuard as they are cost effective, while also providing a package including CAS, SMS & EPG unlike others. CryptoGuard system empowers end users to be self-reliant as they provide wide range of configurations which can be applied to the system by the end user enabling our viewers to enjoy high quality digital programming and value added services.”

The digitisation is going on around the globe and Africa is a big merging market with a lot of growing economies all over the continent.
“We have worked purposefully and continuously on the African market for a couple of years now and we are happy to see that we are following the plan” says Jesper Stål, Sales director of CryptoGuard and continues “CGL is an ideal customer since we have designed our system to suit operators with mixed distribution forms. CGL wanted a system where they can use same CAS and SMS for both DVB-T and DVB-S. Mixed distribution networks suits CryptoGuard CAS perfect, since you can manage multiple distribution forms simultaneously without making any additional installations or settings to the CAS server.”

India re-schedules Phase III and IV cable TV switch over dates

NEW DELHI — India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has officially announced new dates for the phasing out of analogue cable TV in the country.

The digitization of India’s cable TV sector has been taking place in 4 phases with the first two already complete. Phase III has now been moved form 30th September 2014 to 31st December 2015, and Phase IV from 31st December 2014 to 31st December 2016.

Migration to Digital Addressable Cable TV Systems:

                                                                       Sunset date for
Phase      Areas                                                       Analog Cable TV
---------  ----------------------------------------------------------  ---------------
Phase I    Four Metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai                   31.10.2012
Phase II   Cities with a population more than one million (38 cities)       31.03.2013
Phase III  All Urban areas (Municipal Corporation/Municipalities)           31.12.2015
Phase IV   Rest of India                                                    31.12.2016

Russia ends 1H 2014 with 36.4 million pay TV subscribers

iKS-Consulting has released its analysis of the Russian pay TV market at the end of the first half of 2014. Compared with the same point in 2013, the number of pay TV subscribers increased by 10% to exceed 36.4 million, with IPTV growing fastest. Household penetration was 65%, up from 59% a year earlier.

In the country as a whole, there were seven operators with a subscriber base in excess of 1 million households. Tricolor TV had the largest reach with over 10.5 million subscribers. In Moscow, the leading pay TV operator was Rostelecom with more than 3.2 million subscribers.

Operators with a subscriber base of over 1 million – Subscribers (1000s)

  Company        1H2014  1H2013  Growth
                 ------  ------  ------
1 Tricolor TV    10,560   9,500     11%
2 Rostelecom      7,705   6,897     12%
3 ER-Telecom      2,650   2,379     11%
4 MTS             2,595   2,806     -8%
5 Orion Express   2,320   1,360     71%
6 Akado           1,129   1,114      1%
7 VimpelCom       1,061   1,013      5%

Top 5 pay-TV operators in Moscow – Subscribers (1000s)

  Company        1H2014  1H2013  Growth
                 ------  ------  ------
1 Rostelecom      3,219   3,143      2%
2 Akado           1,016   1,014      0%
3 Tricolor TV       568     542      5%
4 VimpelCom         196     173     13%
5 NTV Plus          156     155      0%

By technology, cable TV had the largest share at 50%, though this is down from 54% at the end of the first half of 2013. Both satellite and IPTV took market share from cable TV. Satellite TV ended the first half with 14 million subscribers, with IPTV growing by 29% to 4.1 million.

Pay-TV market share by technology

Technology    1H2014  1H2013  Growth
              ------  ------  ------
Cable TV         50%     54%      4%
Satellite TV     38%     36%     18%
IPTV             11%     10%     29%

iKS-Consulting expects that in 2018, satellite will have taken 40% of the market, IPTV 12%, with cable TV reducing to 48%. Household penetration is expectedd to reach 72%.

Russian operators face distribution hikes

Operators distributing TV channels in Russia may find themselves being charged significantly more from the beginning of next year, when new legislation banning advertising on most thematic channels comes into effect.

Kommersant reports that Viasat, whose revenues in Russia exceed R500 million (€10.2 million) each year, has already warned about increasing its fees by almost a half.

Its thematic channels are among popular in Russia, being watched each month by around 20 million viewers.

Recently, the Moscow-based cable operator Akado withdrew four Europort channels from its offer, apparently due to the high fees it was being charged for them.

New DTT player in Ukraine

The Ukrainian regulator (National Council) has awarded a DTT licence to Karpat TV.

It allows the company to offer multichannel services, in the frequency range 11.7-12.5 GHz, employing MITRIS technology, for a period of 10 years.

The National Council initially advertised the licence at the beginning of this year.

It only received one submission, from Karpat TV, and decided to approve it following a board meeting on September 11.

Karpat TV will provide viewers in the Carpathian region of Ukraine with up to 32 channels.

Telekom Romania opts for Viaccess-Orca

The newly named Telekom Romania has selected Viaccess-Orca’s Voyage TV Everywhere solution for its upcoming IPTV and multiscreen service Telekom TV.

The service will also use technology supplied by Cap Gemini, Friendly Technologies, Broadpeak, Harmonic, Accedo, and Zenterio, with the latter’s operating system served on KAONMEDIA’s set-top boxes.

According to Nikola Beckers, CEO of Telekom Romania, “To provide a superior multiscreen service to potentially millions of subscribers across Romania, we needed a TV Everywhere solution that offers unparalleled levels of interactivity and personalisation. Unifying the service delivery across different networks by using a single converged system was also important.

“Viaccess-Orca’s Voyage solution enables us to offer a compelling personalised television experience on every screen. Our customers can create favorite channels lists, bookmark movies or channels, set up reminders, and record preferred content on all connected devices.”

Prior to deploying Viaccess-Orca’s Voyage, Telekom Romania was using multiple infrastructure silos for its TV offers.
Voyage supports all types of TV and video service delivery modes on all devices with any business model.

François Moreau de Saint Martin, CEO of Viaccess-Orca, said: “Utilising our Voyage-TV Everywhere solution, Telekom Romania can provide subscribers with a personalized television experience that flows seamlessly from one screen to another, regardless of device type.

“As Telekom Romania grows, our Voyage solution will enable the operator to further enrich its customers’ journey into content experience.”

Telekom Romania is the new brand name used by Romtelecom and Cosmote.

Conax provides pay TV security for Millicom's Tigo DTH in LatAm

Conax providing Millicom Tigo Star brand with robust pay-TV revenue assurance in LatAm

• Providing a highly reliable and scalable foundation for future growth, including easy expansion for additional business models such as multiscreen and multi-network content delivery

AMSTERDAM — IBC Expo — Conax, part of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) and a leader in total service protection for pay-for-media, content owners and entertainment services, today announced it is providing the international telecommunications and media company, Millicom, with content protection for its expanding cable and satellite Pay TV operations under the Tigo Star brand. Conax has entered a Supply Agreement with Millicom for its Tigo DTH LatAm operations. Millicom has deployed the Conax Contego Broadcast™ highly scalable and unified security back-end for future-oriented, total service protection and harmonized services for its operations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Bolivia which launched in recent months.

Tigo has seen significant development of its Satellite and Cable operations in the past 12 months.

In LatAm, Millicom operations serve over 700 thousand pay-TV subscribers in Latin America and are growing rapidly. Conax’ flexible, intuitive and scalable Conax Contego™ security back-end is providing operational simplicity for Tigo and can enable smooth integration of additional services.

“We chose security partner Conax because its technology is robust, scalable and integrates seamlessly into our cable and satellite platforms,” said Luciano Marino, Millicom’s VP Cable, Home and Digital Media.

“We are delighted to be working with Millicom to help their operators realize the delivery of affordable, available and accessible products and services, securely, while reducing the complexity of content protection,” says Rohit Mehra, VP Americas, Conax. Conax is providing Millicom with a a highly reliable and scalable foundation for future growth, including easy expansion to additional business models such as multiscreen and multi-network content delivery for solutions that help enable digital TV operators to think beyond silo-based conditional access approaches – and beyond managed networks for an enhanced consumer experience.

Telekom Austria eyes DTH expansion

Telekom Austria is planning to make its white label DTH service more widely available.

Speaking exclusively toBroadband TV News, company executives said it would launch in one more market in the next few weeks and two further markets in the next six months.

Stanislav Georgiev, group wholesale, head of group media & content, said that the company had opted for Eutelsat’s 16 degrees East as it is a young satellite position with very high potential. In terms of its offer, there are over 20 channels in the pipeline, 10 of which are in HD, to be uplinked in the next month.

This was the first of a three-part strategy for its white label product, the second being convergence, using DTH as an additional pay-TV instrument and third being an open platform, allowing new platforms to launch in an affordable way.

Nikola Francetic, group wholesale, head of group media, content & broadcast, said that Telekom Austria had recently set up a group level operation. While this was to use the scale of the TV business across the region, it was not centralising everything.

Looking to the future, he added that convergence would be a cornerstone of the company’s strategy, with a “key ingredient” being placing more emphasis on content.

Francetic also said he expected to see more consolidation in the market in the next one to two years.

SMiT and Verimatrix combine for CI+ demo

SMiT and Verimatrix are staging a joint demonstration that shows the new features of the CI+ standard.

IP delivery and multi stream features are being supported by Verimatrix’s highest level of client security technology.

CI+ 1.4, developed within the DVB, extends the routing and decryption of premium protected content delivered over IP to a network interface. This enables service providers and network operators to provide a single CICAM that can receive and decrypt both broadcast and IP-delivered content offerings with a single standard form factor device.

“The close working relationship between SMiT and Verimatrix has provided a large range of CA module solutions to our customers and partners,” said Mr. Yanrong Li, Vice President in product development of SMiT.

“In June, there was the first advanced security cardless CAM for Verimatrix, and now this project. The IPTV CAM based on CI+ 1.4 will both open a door for IP service from CAM, connected TV and CAM, which will provide our customers with excellent IP service options.”

“Developing ViewRight cardless CI+ CAM devices in conjunction with industry leader SMiT enables a new class of revenue security solutions, helping operators transition to more modern hybrid and IP network architectures that support connected TVs and other devices,” said Petr Peterka, CTO, Verimatrix. The product helps existing operators deploy a wider variety of client devices and promises to open up a wide range of new digital TV business models.”

MTS begins DTH launch preparations

Russia’s MTS is making preparations to launch a DTH platform this autumn.

Quoting an industry source, ITAR-TASS andAKTR report that the telco has ordered a test batch of 5,000 dishes, with the first batch to be used consisting of 30,000.

Meanwhile, another (senior) source said he expects the launch will take place in the next 2-3 months.

MTS, on the other hand, has refused to confirm or deny that preparations for the DTH launch are now under way.

Although MTS is already a provider of pay-TV services, it employs DCB-C and FTTB in the regions and IPTV and GPON in Moscow. Its pay-TV subscriber total, according to iKS Consulting, fell by 12% to 2.57 million in 2013.

Zeonbud starts to decode channels

The Ukrainian DTT operator Zeonbud has decoded 15 TV channels that form part of its offer.

According to ProIT, they are part of the Universal Service Programme (UPU) and include New Channel, STB, TET, IT-1, Ukraina, Mega, M1, K-1, Inter, ICTV, 5 Kanal, 2+2 and 1+1.

Although Zeonbud has taken the action following a ruling by the regulator, its compliance is so far only partial.

Indeed, the company says it impossible to decode all the channels and it has decoded different channels on different multiplexes.

The regulator (National Council) believes that such an action creates unequal conditions for channels that are still encrypted.

M7 Group chooses Viaccess-Orca CAS

The M7 Group has chosen Viaccess-Orca CAS to secure its DTH services across seven European countries.

Using Prime Sentinel card-based conditional access system (CAS), M7 Group will deliver premium content to subscribers’ set-top boxes (STBs). At the moment, M7 uses various CA systems and it is not quite clear howe the new agreement will impact thee encryption systems.

“M7 Group operates a variety of DTH and IPTV services across Europe, including Skylink for the Czech and Slovak market, AustriaSat in Austria and Hungary, CanalDigitaal and Online.nl in The Netherlands, and TV Vlaanderen and Télésat in Belgium. As part of our overall strategy, we wanted to deploy a consistent ecosystem to reduce operational complexity and costs,” said Marco Visser, CEO at M7 Group.

“Viaccess-Orca has provided us with an innovative, flexible, and cost-effective solution for content protection. By supporting flexible configuration and offering pay-as-you-grow scalability, the chosen Viaccess-Orca solution lowers our overall operational expenses, while guaranteeing us a future proof content security solution of our content.”

Viaccess-Orca’s Prime Sentinel CAS provides advanced security for a wide range of TV service models including live TV, catch-up, PVR, and video-on-demand. M7 subscribers’ rights management will be provided through Expert Sentinel, a VO service off-loading operational actions from the operators and allowing them to focus on selling and optimizing their service offering.

In addition to content protection solutions from Viaccess-Orca, M7 Group has deployed a new ecosystem that includes STB hardware and chipsets from various industry partners. Prime Sentinel has been pre-integrated with Zenterio OS, which is served on Kaonmedia’s hybrid DTH/OTT IPTV STBs — a zapper and a PVR — providing M7 Group with a unique and flexible ready-to-deploy solution fitting all its markets.

“Viaccess-Orca and our ecosystem partners have provided M7 Group with a versatile, scalable, and secure television solution that can be deployed with a short time to market,” said François Moreau de Saint Martin, CEO of Viaccess-Orca.

“Unlike other content security solutions, our Prime Sentinel CAS supports multiple business models and advanced STB chipsets features including Multi-CA. By providing operators with increased flexibility, our solution reduces capital and operating expenses, while protecting their revenue streams.”

Australian government urges broadcasters to switch to MPEG-4

Malcolm Turnbill, Australian Communication Minister, has urged commercial television broadcasters to migrate to MPEG-4 video compression standard as it would free-up 21 MHz of spectrum.

“We are keen to encourage commercial and national broadcasters to commence their transition to MPEG-4-only broadcasting, with the aim that every service would move to an MPEG-4 standard. The government expects that a transition such as this would be industry managed,” said Turnbull.

Turnbull has indicated that the broadcasters would retain this spare spectrum for their own use. The spectrum would be shared between the channels.

Turnbull has also stated that the sixth channel of spectrum which is used in some locations for community TV broadcasts – would be freed up for a potential second digital dividend auction after the end of 2015.

Singapore’s CLSA buys minority stake in Hathway for INR 1.50 bn

Indian multi-system operator, Hathway Cable and Datacom, has received over INR 1.50 billion investment from Singapore-based equity firm, CLSA Global Market (CLSA), for a minority stake. CLSA has purchased over 47,00,000 equity shares at INR 320 per share.

“We are raising fresh capital of INR 150.40 crore (INR 1.50 billion). This will be used for broadband expansion, part-retirement of debt and corporate expenses,” said Jagdish Kumar, Managing Director and CEO of Hathway Cable & Datacom.

Hathway had got approval from its shareholders to raise over INR 16 billion through borrowing against paid-up equity and free reserve.

Analogue TV caught up in German cable

More than one third (37%) of cable customers in Germany still solely watch analogue television, resembling 6.2 million households, according to the digitalisation report 2014 released by the German media authorities.

In particular older citizens and low-income households are among the analogue TV users. 11.2 million of the 17.9 million cable households now use digital TV, corresponding with a share of 63% (2013: 56%). More than 3 million cable customers have signed up for the HD versions of the commercial free-to-air channels which are offered for an additional monthly subscription fee.

In total, the digital TV share among the German TV households now amounts to 84% (2013: 81%). All of the analogue households are cable subscribers as that’s the last infrastructure still offering analogue television.

The reach of the different distribution infrastructures remains almost unchanged. Each holding a share of slightly over 46% of the TV households, cable and satellite remain in the top positions. DTT slightly dropped from 11% to 10% of the TV households. In total, 3.9 million households receive DTT of which 2 million use DTT as their sole TV reception method.

DTT is particularly popular in regions in which both public and commercial TV channels are offered with the reach climbing to 17% of the TV households in these areas. If DTT reception via PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and TV receivers in cars is included, the reach rises to 26%.

IPTV remains unchanged at 5% of the TV households, corresponding with 1.9 million households.

45% of the German population now watches video content through the internet. 22% do this using a connected TV set hooked up to the internet (Smart TV). 23% of the TV households have an internet-capable TV set, an increase by 46% compared with last year.

15% of the households have connected their TV set directly or indirectly – for example through a set-top-box or a games console – to the internet, corresponding with 5.7 million households. Video consumption through the internet is on the rise mainly on Smart TV sets (+61%) and on tablets (+88%).

Most video-on-demand (VOD) consumers (58%) use the public and commercial broadcasters’ catch-up TV portals (Mediatheken) followed by video portals (25%) and online video stores (21%) such as maxdome, Watchever and Amazon Instant Video.

43% of the TV viewers use a second screen in parallel to TV consumption, for example a smartphone, laptop or tablet. E-Mail and instant messaging (72%) are most used during TV consumption, followed by current news and information (59%) and social networks (51%). Only 27% of the second screen users access content accompanying the TV programme they are currently watching.

For many users, the second screen is in fact already the first screen. Asked which screen they devote most of their attention to during parallel usage, 38% say it’s their smartphone, tablet or laptop. 35% still mainly follow the happenings on the TV screen.

For the digitalisation report 2014, market research company TNS Infratest interviewed more than 6,000 people representing the characteristics of the German population. The study can be downloaded in both German and English-language free of charge in PDF format on the media authorities’ website.

Nagra Anycast and OpenTV selected by DEN Networks

Nagra Anycast and OpenTV solutions selected by DEN Networks in India

• India’s largest MSO selects NAGRA’s market leading technologies to enable new generation of advanced DTV services
• NAGRA anyCAST content protection and OpenTV middleware will enable fast time-to-market of new services while enabling the secure delivery of the operator’s premium content
• Selection marks the expansion of NAGRA in the Indian market with solutions that support the operator’s growing market reach

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — NAGRA, the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) digital TV business and the world’s leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions, announced today that DEN Networks, India’s largest cable provider, has selected NAGRA anyCAST content protection and OpenTV middleware to support the growing demand for digital TV services in the region and enable their next generation pay-TV offering. This selection marks a significant milestone in NAGRA’s expansion in India.

“DEN Networks is paving the way for a new generation of digital TV services in a region where consumers are hungry for new services and premium entertainment,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, Senior Vice President, Asia. “Our solutions will help DEN Networks bring a new generation of services to market quickly and efficiently, while ensuring the security of their content and providing a fresh and exciting viewing experience to subscribers. We look forward to supporting DEN Networks as they pursue their digitization efforts.”

NAGRA provides DEN Networks with a fast-time to market solution based on NAGRA’s best-of-breed technologies. It boasts built-in features powered by OpenTV middleware to enable entry-level DTV services while allowing the operator to increase revenue through advanced advertising and PVR. It also includes an intuitive user interface that addresses India’s multi-lingual landscape and is ready-to-deploy on multiple chipsets. Content security is maintained through NAGRA anyCAST, the company’s latest unified security services platform, supporting everything from basic Free-To-View to next-generation 4K services using the industry’s most advanced CAS and DRM technologies.

Teleste makes headway in Ukraine

Teleste, working in partnership with DEPS, has deployed its Luminato headend platform for the Ukrainian OTT service OLL.TV.

As a result, the latter will be able to increase the number of channels it broadcasts this year to 250.

Commenting on the development, Hanno Narjus, SVP of video and broadband solutions for Teleste, said: “We are pleased to support our close partner DEPS with the deployment of the Luminato headend platform for OLL.TV’s new OTT service. We can be confident that our solution fulfills the customer’s expectations for high service quality and ensures that the growing Ukrainian internet video audience can enjoy a seamless and rich service experience”.

“OLL.TV is the only service provider in Ukraine whose service also includes retransmission of regional Ukrainian TV channels in such a large scale, fulfilling the license and judicial requirements”, added Mykola Nazarov, technical director for OLL.TV. “We are pleased that Teleste and DEPS can provide us with a powerful solution for serving our subscribers with both regional and international TV content.”

“We are thrilled to continue our long-term partnership with Teleste to promote the expansion of OTT delivery in Ukraine”, said Yevheniy Yevtushenko, business development director for DEPS. “As a system integrator, DEPS aims at providing our customers products and solutions that best meet their service requirements. Teleste Luminato provides us a reliable, easy-to-manage headend solution that can be effortlessly fitted to the customer’s line-up.”

Bulsatcom to launch own satellite

Bulgaria will soon have its own dedicated satellite, providing DTH services to the country.

Bulgaria Sat, an affiliate of Bulsatcom, has commissioned Space Systems/Loral (SSL) to build the craft that will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 2016.

The satellite, known as BulgariaSat-1,will be equipped with two Ku-band FSS transponders and 30 Ku-band BBS transponders for fixed satellite and advanced TV services, such as HDTV. It’s based on the SSL 1300 satellite platform that has been used by operators including Intelsat and DirecTV.

It will have a working life of at least 15 years.

“We selected SSL to manufacture our first satellite early on, based on its history of success and reliability,” said Maxim Zayakov, chief executive officer of Bulgaria Sat.  “SSL has been an excellent partner in helping us bring this project to fruition.”

SSL assisted Bulgaria Sat in obtaining all of the financing for the satellite, including export credit financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Analogue TV caught up in German cable

More than one third (37%) of cable customers in Germany still solely watch analogue television, resembling 6.2 million households, according to the digitalisation report 2014 released by the German media authorities.

In particular older citizens and low-income households are among the analogue TV users. 11.2 million of the 17.9 million cable households now use digital TV, corresponding with a share of 63% (2013: 56%). More than 3 million cable customers have signed up for the HD versions of the commercial free-to-air channels which are offered for an additional monthly subscription fee.

In total, the digital TV share among the German TV households now amounts to 84% (2013: 81%). All of the analogue households are cable subscribers as that’s the last infrastructure still offering analogue television.

The reach of the different distribution infrastructures remains almost unchanged. Each holding a share of slightly over 46% of the TV households, cable and satellite remain in the top positions. DTT slightly dropped from 11% to 10% of the TV households. In total, 3.9 million households receive DTT of which 2 million use DTT as their sole TV reception method.

DTT is particularly popular in regions in which both public and commercial TV channels are offered with the reach climbing to 17% of the TV households in these areas. If DTT reception via PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and TV receivers in cars is included, the reach rises to 26%.

IPTV remains unchanged at 5% of the TV households, corresponding with 1.9 million households.

45% of the German population now watches video content through the internet. 22% do this using a connected TV set hooked up to the internet (Smart TV). 23% of the TV households have an internet-capable TV set, an increase by 46% compared with last year.

15% of the households have connected their TV set directly or indirectly – for example through a set-top-box or a games console – to the internet, corresponding with 5.7 million households. Video consumption through the internet is on the rise mainly on Smart TV sets (+61%) and on tablets (+88%).

Most video-on-demand (VOD) consumers (58%) use the public and commercial broadcasters’ catch-up TV portals (Mediatheken) followed by video portals (25%) and online video stores (21%) such as maxdome, Watchever and Amazon Instant Video.

43% of the TV viewers use a second screen in parallel to TV consumption, for example a smartphone, laptop or tablet. E-Mail and instant messaging (72%) are most used during TV consumption, followed by current news and information (59%) and social networks (51%). Only 27% of the second screen users access content accompanying the TV programme they are currently watching.

For many users, the second screen is in fact already the first screen. Asked which screen they devote most of their attention to during parallel usage, 38% say it’s their smartphone, tablet or laptop. 35% still mainly follow the happenings on the TV screen.

For the digitalisation report 2014, market research company TNS Infratest interviewed more than 6,000 people representing the characteristics of the German population. The study can be downloaded in both German and English-language free of charge in PDF format on the media authorities’ website.

Samsung set for huge UHD expansion

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Samsung Electronics has announced major expansion plans for its UHD content offer. They will see the introduction of VOD services, live broadcasting, a UHD video pack, new download services and partnerships with such major content providers as Amazon, Netflix, maxdome, Wuaki.tv and CHILI.

According to Samsung, it will launch Amazon’s UHD VOD service globally in October.

It has also expanded Netflix’s UHD VOD Service into Europe, following a successful launch in March in the US and other countries.

Samsung is also reinforcing its partnerships with major European content providers, including VOD service, maxdome and TV and film streaming services Wuaki.tv, and CHILI to secure more UHD content.

Samsung Electronics has been focusing its efforts on providing more UHD content in the European market.

It has also been working with partners in the industry to develop a solution for secure UHD content distribution.

Through cooperation with the Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA), whose founding members include SanDisk, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, it will be able to provide Hollywood studios’ content to consumers via a download service.

Samsung has partnered in RTP and PT in Portugal to offer live streaming of World Cup warm-up matches in UHD, while in South Korea live UHD broadcasting has been made available to the public.

In April, it launched a service that allowed viewers to watch live UHD broadcasting without a STB, in partnership with the cable operator CJ Hello Vision.

It will also work with CNM and T-Broad to launch a UHD broadcast service before the end of this year.

In addition, people who own a Samsung UHD HU9000 TVs are able to use a B TV app to watch 20 UHD VOD titles with a subscription to SK Broadband.

Samsung is in addition taking the lead in creating UHD content by working with l Hollywood studios.

In July, in partnership with 20th Century Fox and Paramount, it launched a UHD Video Pack, a 500GB drive pre-loaded with a total of 40 titles in UHD picture quality.

Robert King, VP of consumer electronics for Samsung UK& Ireland, said: “The popularity of UHD content is really starting to grow. Key to maintaining this and giving consumers what they want is wide variety and choices that reflect their bespoke interest.

“We are pleased to expand the array of UHD content that our consumers can enjoy on our ultra-immersive Curved UHD TVs.”

Eutelsat and partners to show HbbTV-based Push VOD at IBC 2014

Monday, September 8th, 2014 

Eutelsat and Industry Partners Set the Scene for Push Video on Demand Services Using the HbbTV v2.0 Standard

• A practical and standardised route to optimising bandwidth for VOD services

PARIS — IBC2014 — Eutelsat Communications (Paris:ETL) (NYSE Euronext Paris: ETL), MStar Semiconductor, Aston and Quadrille Ingénierie announce they have combined their skills to implement and validate Push Video-On-Demand (VOD) services using the HbbTV(1) v2.0 standard. The four companies will partner on showing the performance of an end-to-end HbbTV-based Push VOD system at IBC 2014.

Push VOD in a few words

Push VOD is a technology used to deliver Video-on-Demand services by broadcasting content to consumer devices. A push VOD system uses local storage (generally the Set Top Box) to host a range of content. It enables users to enjoy the benefits of interactivity by selecting and watching downloaded content as and when they want, immediately with no buffering. The content is usually deleted after a predefined period to create space for fresh content updates. The newest generation of Set Top Boxes includes storage of up to two terabytes, equivalent to over 500 hours of HD content.

Push VOD is already a preferred route for TV platforms to delivering true VOD services when users lack a high quality Internet connection. It also optimises videostreaming infrastructure by enabling broadcasters to deliver content to Set Top Boxes in a single push, satellite being one of the most efficient delivery technologies.

Push VOD and the HbbTV standard

Push VOD functionalities have now been added to the latest version of the HbbTV standard, which will be published later this year and is expected to be standardised by ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) early 2015.

By integrating Push VOD into the HbbTV standard, the scene is set for faster and easier adoption of interactive services and smarter use of bandwidth that is increasingly absorbed by individual transmissions of video content. With this standard integrated into Set Top Boxes, a broader pathway is open for broadcasters to diversify their relationship with viewers, by for example monetising non-linear content and maximising the value of their catalogues.

Eutelsat and industry partners combining skills

Eutelsat, MStar Semiconductor, Aston and Quadrille Ingénierie have developed an end to end Push VOD system comprising:

• The back-end system able to prepare the content, present a catalogue of videos to end-user devices and transmit it over satellite in compliance with the transport protocol defined by HbbTV
• The first satellite Set Top Boxes integrating this new standard and able to receive and display HbbTV-based Push VOD services
• HbbTV applications leveraging these new Push VOD features

The technology has been integrated as a demonstrator into the HbbTV FRANSAT Connect Portal provided by the FRANSAT TV platform and is currently being tested by Arte and NRJ12. The system demonstrated at IBC protects the content with Marlin DRM from Intertrust to enable different models of monetisation, and is also compatible with other DRM solutions.

Eutelsat and Quadrille will demonstrate a full end-to-end system for the first time on their stands at IBC:

• Eutelsat stand: 1D59
• Quadrille stand: 2.B39b

1. HbbTV: Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (or “HbbTV”) is a global initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment services to consumers through connected TVs, set-top boxes and multiscreen devices. The HbbTV specification is developed by industry leaders to improve the video user experience for consumers by enabling innovative, interactive services over broadcast and broadband networks.

NEOTION unveils pay TV headless gateway concept for Smart TV clients

NEOTION DVBeacon, Pay-TV Headless Gateway Concept for Smart TV clients enabling TV reception, VOD, Multimedia, Multiscreen & Multiroom

AUBAGNE — NEOTION will demonstrate at IBC its latest Innovation, the DVBeacon Headless Gateway. DVBeacon Concept, a unique DVB device allowing Pay-TV operators to securely deliver all their content – Live TV/VOD/PVR/Advanced EPG – through a rich user experience to different screens – TVs/Tablets/Smartphones – everywhere in the house. This is as easy as launching an APP on Smart TV’s, mobile devices or for any legacy TV’s, by simply using an HDMI stick client.

DVBeacon, 2 DVB tuners, 1 Ethernet port, 2 USB ports
Smart Card reader: full ISO 7816-3 compliant
Size: 16 cm x 11 cm x 3 cm

Among the 15% of Smart TVs connected to the Internet, 6O% of consumers’ access Over-the Top (OTT) video services through their TV. The Smart TVs market forecasts an increase from 22 to 550 million units between 2012 and 2017. The DVBeacon’s concept relies on widely already deployed Smart TV technology, which provides an HTML5 browser and a secure Media Player (DTCP-IP). The combination of DVBeacon device, its TV Apps and a Smart TV presents an opportunity to create a new ecosystem, not yet explored. The DVBeacon does not even necessarily have to be connected to the Internet in order to propose VOD, operators’ services, applications & games from broadcast cloud or to explore/exploit the capabilities and the universe of a Smart TV.

Gregory Wieczorek, Neotion’s President and General Director said “We believe that the DVBeacon concept will allow Pay-TV operators to offer an increased user experience whilst creating new revenues from value added services. As a headless device, the DVBeacon would be future proof and able to continue to address UHD (4k) and beyond. The DVBeacon is a step closer to users being able to benefit from a complete home gateway solution”.

The DVBeacon demonstration has been set-up in partnership with EM-SYS, provider of the Media-OS, the Operating System for Digital TV and implementing AwoX’s leading reference DLNA solutions for streaming premium content in the home, over DTCP-IP secured link.

Please feel free to visit NEOTION booth at IBC, Hall 4 booth #B53, for a demonstration!

Dr Peng Telecom acquires 9.09% stake in Galaxy Internet TV

Dr Peng Telecom and Media will acquire 9.09% stake in Galaxy Internet TV for CNY 30 million (USD 4.88 million). This agreement will enable the companies to jointly expand their internet television services.

Dr Peng will support Galaxy by providing broadband network resources, technology support, marketing and promotional activities. And Galaxy Internet TV will facilitate Dr Peng to achieve nationwide layout and implementation for its internet TV ‘Cloud Management’ terminals.

Galaxy Internet TV is an OTT license and content service provider for OTT, Smart TV and other content streaming devices in China. The company was jointly set up by China National Radio, Jiangsu Radio Television Station and iQiyi.com. On August 27, Dr Peng had signed a capital injection agreement with the three shareholders of Galaxy.

Philippines regulator holds public hearing on shift to digital TV

Philippines broadcast regulator, National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), has invited the broadcasting industry for a public hearing on September 12 – to discuss about the migration plans to  digital terrestrial television. The commission has released the draft implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the transmission shift which is based on the Japanese standard.

The draft IRR includes channel planning, capital spending, frequency allocation and the specific steps that the industry must undertake during the shift from analogue broadcast service to digital, specifically the Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard of Japan. The regulator has said that it will assign a bandwidth of six megahertz to each authorized digital TV operator per service area.

“Applicants intending to provide digital TV services must have a minimum paid-up capitalization of PHP 50 million (USD 1.14 million) for the first service area and an additional subscribed capital of PHP 20 million (USD 459,982) for each additional service area,” said the NTC in the draft.

“An applicant must also prove that it has the technical capability to install, operate and maintain the proposed DTTB network. A duly enfranchised entity with no existing authorization to provide analogue TV service desiring to provide DTTB service shall file the requisite petition for each service area in which it intends to provide DTTB service,” added the draft.

Russian companies feel the squeeze

The capitalisation of public telcos and media companies in Russia has fallen significantly in the last two years.

Quoting Deloitte and Bloomberg, Kommersant reports that although it increased by more than 38 times over the last four years and amounted to $113.47 billion at the end of 2013, as of August it stood at $83.5 billion.

This was not only 26% down on eight months earlier but also 4% lower than in 2012.

The reasons for this contraction are put down to the rise of the dollar, worsening macroeconomic conditions and the political situation, specifically Ukraine.

Industry sources expect the telco sector will recover more quickly than the media, which has been hit by regulatory developments, including those related to advertising.

Multimedia gains digital TV customers

The Polish cable operator Multimedia Polska ended the second quarter with 353,000 subscribers to its digital TV services, or 9,000 more than three months earlier.

At the same time, analogue TV subscriber total fell by 12,000 over the same period to 327,000.

Digital TV ARPU amounted to PLN48.76 (€11.57), compared to PLN50.41 three months earlier, while analogue TV ARPU was PLN29.41 (PLN29.54) and premium programme ARPU PLN28.29 (PLN26.37).

Total TV revenues in Q2 were PLN86.904 million, of which digital TV accounted for 58% of the total.