MIB ISSUES PROVISIONAL MSO LICENCES TO HATHWAY AND SITI JOINT VENTURE

The joint venture companies of multi-system operators (MSO) Hathway Cable and Datacom and Siti Cable have received provisional MSO licences from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB). Hathway CCN Entertainment, the joint venture company of Hathway in Chhattisgarh has also received provisional licence for the state of Chhattisgarh.
The two registrations are part of the 38 new licences issued by the MIB in May which include two at the Pan-India level. Chennai-based Whitefield Communication and New Delhi-based Star Broadband have received Pan-India licences. Star Broadband earlier had permanent licence for Delhi.

Most of the registrations have been issued for digital addressable system (DAS) Phase III and IV areas in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

The ministry has also revised the areas of operation of two MSOs. Morena Cable Network, whose area of operation was limited to few areas in Madhya Pradesh, has got approval to operate in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

To recall, the total provisional MSO licences in the country stand at 647 while the permanent registrations are the same at 230, as on 24 May. These exclude the MSOs whose registrations have been revoked even though they have got a stay order against the cancellation.

Orion Express expands to Georgia

The Russian DTH platform Orion Express will become available in Georgia in the first half of June.

According to ComNews, it has entered into an agreement with the cable operator Super TV that will allow the latter to extend its services beyond the capital Tbilisi, to other parts of the country.

It adds that Orion Express is acting as a technical partner, providing a full range of broadcasting services including satellite capacity (Intelsat 15 and Horizons 2, both located at 85 degrees East), conditional access, technical services and subscription equipment.

It is also providing Chinese-manufactured hybrid (terrestrial and satellite) set-top boxes.

Zurba Chigogidze, the chairman of the board of director ast Super TV, said that it had considered offers of cooperation with several other satellite operators including Tricolor TV.

However, Orion Express was able to offer more flexible conditions and carry out the project in a shorter time.

Super TV is third largest provider of pay-TV services in Georgia after SilkNet and Global TV.

It currently provides over 150 TV channels to some 49,000 subscribers in Tbilisi.

New Eutelsat China CEO

Philippe Lin has been appointed the CEO of Eutelsat’s China office.

Lin has joined Eutelsat from Airbus China, where he was VP and chief representative for 15 years.

Prior to that, he held executive positions at Total, both in Beijing and Paris, and began his career in China working for amongst others, China’s Council for Promotion and International Trade.

Lin is a French national, a graduate of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, France’s Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) and Canada’s Ecole Nationale d’Administration Publique.

Russia eyes LTE TV services

Russia is looking into the possibility of launching TV services using LTE Broadcast technology.

Quoted by AKTR and RNS, Nikolai Nikiforov, the minister of communications and mass media, said that it is already undertaking tests employing the technology, which could theoretically allow for the switch off of analogue and digital broadcasts in certain areas.

This would free up frequencies that could be used to broadcast up to 20 HD channels and still retain capacity for mobile internet.

Although Nikiforov did not provide a launch date, he said that services woud be provided on a sound economic footing.

They could be received by up to 16.6 million households.

No support for smart TV apps from CE manufacturers

The Dutch consumers union Consumentenbond accuses CE manufacturers of failing to support apps for its smart TVs by putting the blame on the app developers.

The recent announcement by Microsoft that it is dropping support for its Skype smart TV app is an example of disappearing apps. At the time, Skype said it is leaving it up to smart TV manufacturers whether or not they decided to remove the app or service from their devices or continue to offer an unsupported version. Following the news, Samsung said it would drop the app on June 2, 2016 from its TV sets.

According to the Consumentenbond, buyers of new TV sets are looking for apps during the decision process. Three-quarters of the buyers expect the apps to run as long as the TV set functions. Some 9% already experienced disappearing apps, including RTL XL and YouTube.

The union said CE manufacturers should take their responsibility and offer continued support for its apps. In a statement, the union said “The evasive attitude of the TV manufacturers is very disappointing. We would like to see them take more responsibility for long-term availability of all the apps that are installed on the TV at the time of purchase. And in particular the apps with which they advertise actively. We are also pf the opinion that TV manufacturers should communicate this clearly in their advertising.”

In a recent survey among 8,000 consumers, the union found that about half of them own a smart TV, and three-quarters of them are actively using the apps. According to the research almost 30% of users younger than 35 years old use the apps daily, while a quarter of over-55s use it at least once a week.

The above chart shows smart TV app usage among different age groups – from left to right -,daily, a few times a week, a few times a month, a few times a year and never.

The research also found that, not surprisingly, apps that offer on-demand video are the most popular, with YouTube and Netflix popular among under-35s, and the app of the Dutch public broadcaster NPO more popular among older viewers. The top 5 apps is 1) Netflix; 2) NPO; 3) YouTube; 4) NOS and 5) RTL XL.

During the buying process, 60% said they were actively looking for the Netflix app, followed by Spotify (47%), NOS (42%), YouTube (42%) and NPO (41%).

Young Germans prefer Netflix

81% of Germans between 14 and 34 years of age use video-on-demand (VOD) services.

The most popular VOD provider is Netflix with a market share of 39%, followed by Amazon Prime Instant Video (36%), according to a survey by market research company Appinio among 5,488 Germans from 14 to 34 years of age. iTunes (23%), Sky Online (21%), maxdome (17%), Watchever (6%) and Videoload (3%) follow.

The selection of the two most popular VOD services differs regarding age: In the 20-24 age group, nearly one in two (48%) have opted for Netflix while less than a third (30%) of people above 30 years of age use it. The opposite is the case with Amazon Prime Instant Video: 30% of people between 14 and 19 years of age use it, rising to 39% in the 30-34 age group.

The largest part of the users watch VOD services through a TV set (57%). Nearly one in two (49%) use a smartphone followed by a desktop-PC (39%) and a tablet (32%).

The most important reason for signing up for a VOD service is the line-up of current movies and series, followed by an extensive movie library and a large series stock. Personal film recommendations and original-language content are less important, ranked 4 and 5.

Polish pay-TV’s future: contrasting views

Poland’s pay-TV market is effectively saturated and likely to contract by around 1% this year.

According to the findings of a report by PMR published by several local media sources, the market had around 11 million subscribers and was worth some PLN6 billion (€1.36 billion) in 2015, with pay-TV penetration being 75%.

It notes that the market is dominated by the DTH platforms Cyfrowy Polsat and nc+, which claim a combined share of some 50%. Both have lost around 1% of their subscriber bases each year, which are 8% lower than they were in 2013.

Looking to the future, the report expects these trends to continue and the two DTH platforms to remain the leading providers of pay-TV services in Poland.

However, in a critical analysis of the report’s findings, Satkurier makes the point that it does not take into account the likelihood of at least one new player – definitely IPTV, possibly linked with DTT, and a also DTH platform – entering the Polish pay-TV market this year.

Harmonic powers Airtel Digital TV's enhanced DTH HD offerings

Harmonic Video Infrastructure Powers Airtel Digital TV’s Enhanced DTH HD Offerings

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, today announced that Airtel Digital TV, the direct-to-home (DTH) arm of leading global telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel, has deployed a state-of-the-art compression headend solution from Harmonic to substantially improve the HD viewing experience for its customers.

The high-density, scalable and HEVC-upgradeable video infrastructure solutions from Harmonic will help Airtel Digital TV increase bandwidth efficiencies and significantly improve video quality while lowering operating expenses. The deployment enables Airtel Digital TV to expand its DTH HD portfolio to over 50 premium channels, making it one of the largest HD bouquets in India today.

“Harmonic’s compression solution allows Airtel Digital TV to deliver superior video quality at low bit rates while adapting to next-generation video compression standards such as HEVC,” said Dan Taylor, general manager, India, at Harmonic. “Our best-in-class video infrastructure solutions help customers like Airtel Digital TV reduce OPEX and drive new business growth by simplifying the launch of additional HD channels.”

Residing at the heart of the headend solution is Harmonic’s market-leading Electra™ X2 advanced media processor, which enables high-quality, low-bandwidth MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 encoding of SD and HD video content for live DTH services. Powered by the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine™, the Electra X2 media processors support a wide range of video formats and codecs for satellite delivery, including HEVC, simplifying operations and future upgrades for Bharti Airtel.

At Airtel Digital TV, the Electra X2 media processors will be integrated with Harmonic’s ProStream® 9100 stream processor and ProView™ 7100 integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), and controlled by Harmonic’s NMX™ video network management solution. As part of a unified headend, these solutions will enable Airtel Digital TV to address a vast array of content reception applications — from decoding, descrambling and multiplexing of multiple transport streams to MPEG-4 to MPEG-2 transcoding and statistical multiplexing, further increasing bandwidth efficiency and lowering the total cost of ownership.

Harmonic will demonstrate its industry-leading video infrastructure solutions at BroadcastAsia2016, May 31 to June 3 in Singapore, Stand 5C3-01.

Indonesia's Transvision selects ADB TV client software

Transvision, Indonesia’s Pay-TV platform to deploy ADB GraphyneTV user experience solution

• ADB’s state of the art user experience solution selected to deliver seamless experiences on any device
• GraphyneTV solution will unify access to Transvision content across broadcast and on-demand.

GENEVA, Switzerland — Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), a leading provider of solutions and services for multimedia convergence, today announces that its award winning pay-TV middleware and user experience software, GraphyneTV, has been selected by Transvision (formerly known as TelkomVision), one of the leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers in Indonesia. ADB’s GraphyneTV solution is a feature rich client device software suite with back-end components that enable operators to deliver video and other content across devices, providing an easy-to-use user interface which simplifies content selection, enjoyment, storage and transfer.

GraphyneTV will provide the ability to unify access to content across broadcast, on-demand and OTT; delivering a consistent and flawless experience for TVs, tablets, smartphones and personal computers alike. The solution was selected because of its capability to be deployed with the already pre-integrated backend solution, allowing Transvision to deliver a rich and engaging TV experience for its subscribers.

As one of the most innovative Pay-TV providers in the region, it is particularly important for Transvision to ensure that its TV services are differentiated within the Indonesian market. By integrating ADB’s technology, Transvision will be able to deliver a sophisticated yet easy-to-navigate user interface, and an entirely original offering to complement the high quality HD content it broadcasts.

“We pride ourselves in the individuality of our services, and hope to establish a new benchmark in the industry, revolutionising the way content is viewed,” said Hengkie Liwanto, President Director at Transvision. “ADB’s solution allows us to achieve this by ensuring we will be able to provide seamless content experiences, whilst continuing to be competitive by maintaining a low cost for our subscribers”.

This holistic approach will allow Transvision to further extend the offering with a host of services through ADB’s unified platform; including recommendation, monitoring and audience measurement, on-demand services and DVR remote scheduling as well as interactive advertising solution.

Peter Balchin, CEO at ADB added: “Indonesia is a very promising market that is highly competitive and seeing rapid growth. Our partnership with Transvision is just one example of the flexibility we can provide to service providers both in Indonesia and globally. The dynamic and easy-to-integrate benefits that GraphyneTV offers to operators can be utilised right across their service delivery portfolio.”

The first deployment of GraphyneTV for Transvision is due to launch later this year.

Videocon d2h adds 0.59 million net subscribers in 1Q 2016

• Record approximately 800,000 gross subscriber additions during the quarter ended March 31, 2016
• Gross and net subscribers increased by 2.65 million and 1.68 million subscribers, respectively, during the year
• Net subscribers base at 11.86 million

MUMBAI, India — Videocon d2h Limited (NASDAQ: VDTH) (“Videocon d2h” or the “Company”) announced its financial results for the year ended March 31, 2016.

The Company added 2.65 million gross subscribers and 1.68 million net subscribers during fiscal 2016. Net subscribers totaled 11.86 million as of March 31, 2016 (11.27 million at end-2015). Monthly churn came in at 0.73% for the year as compared to a monthly churn of 0.80% in fiscal 2015. Subscriber acquisition costs in the form of hardware subsidies were INR 1,776 per subscriber during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016.

Key operating metrics

                             Q4FY15  Q4FY16  % growth   FY15   FY16  % growth
                             ------  ------  --------  -----  -----  --------
Gross subscribers(million)    13.09   15.74     20.2%  13.09  15.74     20.2%
Net subscribers (million)     10.18   11.86     16.5%  10.18  11.86     16.5%
ARPU (INR)                      202     214      5.9%    196    207      5.6%
Churn (%)                     0.85%   0.58%            0.80%  0.73%

Commenting on the fiscal 2016 results and company outlook, Executive Chairman of Videocon d2h, Mr. Saurabh Dhoot, said “During the year, we accomplished numerous technological advancements, such as the development of HD Smart Connect Set Top Box, our new connected set-top box which allows customers to view normal DTH services as well as internet and over-the-top content and applications. This development demonstrates our expertise and innovation in creation, delivery and execution of technologically advanced products.”

Speaking on the business outlook for the DTH sector, Mr. Anil Khera, CEO of Videocon d2h, said “There have been a series of industry developments in fiscal 2016, which we believe will provide for growth opportunities in the DTH sector in India. The implementation of Phase III digitization of the Digital Addressable Cable TV System program of the Government of India that began in January 2016 was an example of such a development. It led to a surge in new subscriber additions for various distribution platforms. While the momentum slowed down as many state high courts issued a temporary stay order against digitization, we are still seeing higher subscriber additions from Phase III markets as compared to previous years.”

“In addition, the deadline for Phase IV digitization is December 31, 2016, which we believe covers approximately 80 million television homes.”

Sky Cable to launch DTH TV in the Philippines on SES satellites

Sky Cable Signs Deal with SES to Launch New Direct-to-Home Satellite TV in the Philippines

• Largest cable operator in the Philippine archipelago will use SES-9 and NSS-11 satellites to complement their existing TV offerings

LUXEMBOURG — SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today a multi-year, multi-transponder agreement with Sky Cable, the largest cable television provider in the Philippines. Sky Cable will be broadcasting direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV channels via SES satellites at 108.2 degrees East – the SES-9 and NSS-11 satellites.

The contracted capacity will enable Sky Cable to effectively roll out a nation-wide DTH satellite TV service across 251 cities and municipalities in the Philippine archipelago, complementing its existing cable offerings. The recently launched SES-9 is scheduled to enter service mid-year to provide incremental and replacement capacity at SES’s prime neighbourhood of 108.2 degrees East which reaches 22 million homes.

Sky Cable will be drawing on SES’s capabilities and global expertise of serving more than 40 DTH platforms worldwide hosted on SES’s comprehensive satellite network, to deliver high-quality content to homes across the Philippines. This includes broadcasting linear TV content to remote locations and islands that are underserved by terrestrial networks. Sky Cable currently offers cable TV services for 55 High Definition (HD) channels to 800,000 subscribers in 19 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

“The geography of the Philippines presents a unique set of challenges for fibre or terrestrial connectivity. Our satellites are able to overcome these limitations and provide comprehensive and high-powered coverage over the entire archipelago including under-connected areas in the Philippines. We are glad to support Sky Cable as they use both ground and space infrastructure to expand their TV audience reach,” says Deepak Mathur, Senior Vice President Commercial, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at SES. “This latest contract on SES-9 shows the continued momentum of serving our prime DTH neighbourhoods on our largest satellite dedicated for Asia-Pacific.”

Antonio S Ventosa, COO of SkyCable, said, “We are pleased to tap SES’s global expertise and extensive satellite footprint as we venture into providing satellite TV services for our growing subscriber base. We are confident that with our partnership with SES, we will be able to deliver content seamlessly to potential new customers all across the country.”

SES and K-NET partner to provide DTH and DTT to West Africa Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

SES Platform Services and K-NET Partner to Provide Quality Satellite Channels for West Africa

• New partnership will accelerate the digital switchover process and strengthen SES’s leading role in providing free-to-air, direct-to-home services

LUXEMBOURG — SES S.A. (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG), a world-leading satellite operator, today announced that SES Platform Services (SES PS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, has strengthened its partnership with K-NET, an ICT and Telecoms platform services company based in Ghana, to create a joint venture. The new partnership will contract SES capacity, SES PS’s and K-NET’s services, and aim to bring high picture quality content to the homes of millions of viewers by strengthening the direct-to-home (DTH) platform and also providing digital terrestrial television (DTT) services via SES’s prime orbital position at 28.2 degrees East.

The joint venture will use SES’s high-powered satellite capacity, K-NET’s highly-efficient teleport services and SES PS’s reliable video platform services. This partnership will offer a unified bouquet of high quality free-to-air (FTA) and free-to-view (FTV) channels, from all over West Africa, as well as some popular international channels, to millions of viewers in the region.

The partnership will ensure that consumers, especially in Ghana where 98%[1] of satellite households are serviced by SES satellites, receive newer and higher quality viewing formats and also have access to connected services when they become available.

Wilfried Urner, CEO of SES Platform Services, said, “We are proud to be K-NET’s partner of choice. We are at the forefront of the provision of FTA and FTV channels in the sub region and driving further DTH penetration in various West African countries. The partnership will further accelerate the globalisation of SES’s video business, increase our channel growth and establish us as a world-leading next generation video and media service provider.”

Richard Hlomador, Chairman of K-Net says, “We have worked with SES since 2001 and are pleased to be able to extend our partnership with SES Platform Services. We have built a robust DTH platform, and delivering content in consistently high-quality is a top priority for us. This makes SES Platform Services the ideal partner of choice.”

Slovakia set for DVB-T2 move

Slovakia’s fourth DTT multiplex will start the switch to DVB-T2 on June 28.

Speaking to Zive, Zsolt Nagy, the technical director of the national transmission company Towercom, said that viewers would begin to see changes on their screens from the beginning of September.

The fourth multiplex carries the pay-DTT service Plustelka and Nagy added that none of its channels were likely to be dropped following the transition.

Indeed, new ones, some in HD, may be added as the multiplex’s capacity is increased from 22 Mbps to 36 Mbps.

Nagy also said that as most viewers will have to replace their set-top boxes to continue receiving Plustelka, Towercom has prepared a special offer providing one at a discounted price.

The fourth multiplex currently covers around 80% of Slovakia and Nagy also said he expected to cost of receiving the basic Plustelka package to remain unchanged at €5.99 a month.

There are at present no plans to move the country’s other multiplexes to DVB-T2.

Significantly, Markiza TV, Slovakia’s leading broadcaster, has a DVB-T distribution contract valid until the end of this year. At this stage it remains to be seen if it will be extended.

Only around 10% of Slovak households use DTT as the their main source of TV reception.

IHS: Pay-TV booms in Middle East

2015 was the year of growth for the pay-TV market in the Middle East and North Africa region, according to a new report from IHS.

The report, entitled Middle East and North Africa Pay TV Market Monitor, says the number of pay-TV households jumped 10 percent in 2015 to 4.95 million. In the 13 countries covered by the annual report, revenues from pay-TV passed the billion-euro mark for the first time.

Revenues from primary households’ subscriptions grew 37%, from €852 million in 2014 to €1.17 billion in 2015, the report noted. “Pay-TV in the Middle East and North Africa region is growing rapidly and faster than any other region we analyse,” said Constantinos Papavassilopoulos, senior analyst, IHS Technology.

IHS forecasts that pay-TV subscribers will increase to 6.54 million by the end of 2020, up 32 percent on the end of 2015 and representing a CAGR of 6% over the five-year period.

IHS expects that the positive drive of the pay-TV market will continue persistently for the next five years, with revenues almost doubling to just over €2 billion in that time frame. The growth will be due to the enhanced level of competition between the major operators, the introduction of TV Audience Ratings Systems in the Gulf States, the expansion of fibre networks, which facilitate the offering of premium pay-TV services and the growth of the SVoD OTT services.

The opening of the Iranian TV market, a largely untapped market for pay-TV business, is providing a wealth of opportunities for the regional operators. According to local data sources, 71% of TV household in Tehran are equipped with a satellite dish. But there are still barriers to be surpassed.

“The online-video market is very nascent,” Papavassilopoulos said. “IHS put broadband penetration at 56% of households at the end 2015. However, due to the Iranian government policy of regulating access to the internet for its citizens, broadband speeds are lower than in neighboring Arab states. Content will also have to be carefully chosen to appeal to the Iranian audience. Simply repurposing content that was made for wider Arabic audiences will not work for Iran.”

There is optimism both inside Iran and internationally that the lifting of sanctions will put added pressure on the government to relieve some of these restrictions, according to the IHS report. IHS forecasts that TV advertising revenues can grow from $275 million in 2015 to $627 million in 2020 if the normalisation of trade between Iran and the rest of the world continues. “The TV market would benefit hugely,” Papavassilopoulos said. “Our forecast figures would represent a healthy CAGR of 18%.”

Smart TV shipments exceed 100 million units in 2015

China Dominates Smart TV Market as North America Surges, IHS Says

• For the first time, smart TV shipments exceeded 100 million units in 2015

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Worldwide shipments of smart TVs in the fourth quarter of 2015 reached 48.5 percent of all TV sets shipped in the quarter. In all, 34.2 million smart TVs were shipped in the fourth quarter, contributing to shipments breaking the 100 million mark for the first time in 2015, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the leading global source of critical information and insight. Smart TV shipments will reach 109 million in 2016, rising to 134 million in 2020.

“Consumers increasingly regard smart functions as essential,” said Paul Gray, principal analyst, IHS Technology. “The market dynamic has shifted from seeding the market to self-sustaining demand for built-in internet streaming functions.”

More than three-quarters of televisions in China were shipped with smart functionality in 2015, while in North America the popularity of the feature surged from 36 percent to 48 percent. The popularity of Netflix and other services is reinforcing demand in North America, according to the IHS Technology TV Design and Features Tracker.

It is a mixed picture in other regions. Latin America continues to strongly increase smart TV shipments, despite a depressed television market. Penetration was diluted by basic TV sets, to subsidize Mexico’s digital switchover. Excluding such sets, more than half of TVs shipped in Latin America in the fourth quarter of 2015 included smart features. Japan and Europe appear to have reached a plateau, with small declines in 2015, largely due to the end of aggressive promotion campaigns by TV brands and a shortage of good local content.

“Smart TV will continue to grow at a more gradual rate,” Gray said. “China, the dominant engine of smart TV growth, has little extra room to grow. Other developed markets are increasingly saturated, while lack of broadband internet connections remains an issue in emerging regions.”

Event News

• NAB Show 2016
• TVConnect 2016

Related News

• Anatel
• Brazil
• Cable TV
• IPTV
• Market Research
• MMDS
• Satellite
• Subscribers

Bookmark

• Facebook
• del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Google

Pay TV subscriptions in Brazil down 162,000 in 1Q 2016

(TV paga atinge 18,95 milhões de assinantes em março de 2016)

Friday, May 20th, 2016 

According to Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel), the country’s pay TV subscriber base ended March 2016 at 18.95 million, with 162 thousand subscribers being lost in the quarter to leave the total 813 thousand down on one year before.

In the quarter, satellite lost 209 thousand subscribers, to finish with 1.1 million fewer than at the end of March 2015. This was somewhat compensated by growth in cable which added 228 thousand subscribers and FTTH which added 68 thousand subscribers over the year.

Pay TV subscribers by technology

           1Q 2015     2Q 2015     3Q 2015     4Q 2015     1Q 2016
        ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
DTH     12,009,855  11,802,679  11,588,145  11,113,160  10,904,369
Cable    7,629,671   7,698,786   7,760,025   7,817,218   7,857,207
FTTH       111,202     129,635     153,320     170,763     179,049
MMDS        11,291      11,034      10,854       9,479       8,814
Others       3,253       3,253       3,253       3,253       2,917
        ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
Total   19,765,272  19,645,387  19,515,597  19,113,873  18,952,356

Pay TV subscribers by operator

Company                           1Q 2015     2Q 2015     3Q 2015     4Q 2015     1Q 2016
-----------------------------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
Telecom Americas               10,266,150  10,158,522  10,133,097   9,897,528   9,849,554
SKY/AT&T                        5,684,252   5,654,592   5,537,956   5,443,885   5,342,404
Telefônica                      1,719,494   1,795,688   1,836,994   1,780,539   1,780,140
Oi                              1,232,185   1,183,966   1,170,538   1,168,667   1,180,531
Blue                              159,743     159,146     156,307     152,328     144,607
NossaTV                           129,522     128,755     130,443     129,770     128,764
Algar (CTBC Telecom)              117,760     113,218     108,721     106,572     103,749
Cabo                               48,378      48,972      50,321      49,627      50,494
Prefeitura de Londrina/Copel        2,785       2,631           -           -           -
Others                            405,003     399,897     391,220     384,957     372,113
-----------------------------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------  ----------
TOTAL                          19,765,272  19,645,387  19,515,597  19,113,873  18,952,356

TRAI REPORTS DROP IN INACTIVE DTH SUBSCRIBERS

Priscilla Tirvengadum | May 19, 2016

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reports that the total inactive subscriber base of the six private direct-to-home (DTH) operators shortened dramatically for the quarter ended 31 December 2015. The inactive subscriber base shrank to 28.82 million for the quarter ended 31 December. In the previous quarter, the inactive subscriber base as reported by TRAI stood at 40.42 million.

The data is based on the information submitted by DTH operators through quarterly performance monitoring reports (PMR). The total registered DTH subscriber base increased to 84.8 million from 81.47 million in the previous quarter. The active subscriber base climbed to 55.98 million from 41.05 million in the trailing quarter. This means that active subscribers are about 66% of the total DTH subscriber base compared to 50.39% in the previous quarter ended 30 September. The inactive subscriber, which was at an all-time high of 49.61%, fell to 34%.

As per the TRAI report, the total DTH subscriber addition during the December quarter was 3.33 million. During the same period, the two listed DTH operators, Dish TV and Videocon d2h, added 400,000 and 430,000 net subscribers, according to their third quarter of FY16 earnings announcement. Airtel Digital TV, which is part of Bharti Airtel, added 530,000 net subscribers. Reliance Digital TV had added 100,000 subscribers. It did not reveal whether it reported net or gross subscribers.

At present, apart from the free DTH service of Doordarshan, there are six private DTH operators, namely Dish TV, Tata Sky, Sun Direct, Reliance Digital TV, Videocon d2h and Airtel Digital TV.

Netflix in Romania: the first figures

Netflix was accessed by 163,637 Romanian users via PCs in January, its first month of operation in the country.

This, according to information provided to Media Expres by Gemius, was double the total number watching voyo.ro, a similar service operated by CME’s Pro TV.

In its case, it claimed 63,067 PC users, with the figure rising to 88,255 once tablet and mobile usage was factored in.

In January, Netflix had an online reach of 2.2% in Romania, compared to voyo.ro’s 0.85%.

Netflix entered CEE at the beginning of his year and there have so far been few indications as to how well it is performing in the region other than in Poland.

Broadband TV News recently reported on its performance in the latter in the period January- March.

MTS grows pay-TV business

Russia’s MTS ended the first quarter with 2,745,000 pay-TV subscribers in its home market.

Although the total was unchanged on three months earlier, it was up from 2,719,000 in the same period in 2015.

The company notes in its latest set of results that year-on-year growth in B2C reflects the success of its GPON project, together with the development of the pay-TV market in Moscow in Q1 2016.

Its share of the B2C broadband market in the Russian capital in the first quarter was 31.3%, compared to 28.5% a year earlier.

Meanwhile, its share of the B2C pay-TV market increased from 19.1% to 26.1% over the same period.

Digital terrestrial remains king in Spain

The total number of TV subscribers in Spain has reached 5.53 million at the end of 2015, an increase of 106,000 subscribers over the previous quarter.

According to Spain’s regulator CNMC TV services via XDSL / FTTH grew by 145,000 and cable TV grew with 83,000 subscribers.

With regards to the mode of reception, terrestrial TV rules with 80.7% of the total audience share, bit pay and free-to-air TV, followed by 16.2% for IPTV and cable and just 3% by satellite.

According to figures from Kantar, average viewing time in the fourth quarter of 2015 was 243 minutes, just four minutes less than in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Audience shares of the three main terrestrial broadcasters, Mediaset, Atresmedia and TVE accounted for 30.1%, 28.1% and 16.3% of audience share respectively.

SITI CABLE ACQUIRES 50% STAKE IN MSO ASSAM

Siti Cable acquired 50% stake in Assam-based independent multi-system operator (MSO) Axom Communications & Cable (ACC). The acquisition is made through Siti Cable’s subsidiary Indian Cable Net Company Ltd (ICNCL. ACC, which is now an equal Joint Venture between the two companies will be named ACC Siti.

“Siti Cable has acquired 50% in Axom. We have acquired this company through ICNCL. We have three directors from our side and they will have two directors. The JV is already operational,” ICNCL director Suresh Sethiya told TelevisionPost.

ICNCL has operations in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. It didn’t have operations in the northeast. “We are present in most of East India like Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha. Northeast was the missing piece. Now we have presence there as well,” Sethiya noted.

On the other hand, Sanjive Narain, Director of ACC said: “It’s a 50:50 JV with Siti Cable. They have acquired 50% share in our company. The JV is called ACT Siti Cable.”

According to Narain, the partnership with Siti will help with faster expansion. The JV is targeting over one million subscribers in the northeast. In digital addressable system (DAS) Phase III, Axom has seeded 300,000 set-top boxes (STBs) in Assam.

“We did a JV to expand faster. In Phase III, we have seeded 300,000 STBs. We are targeting about a million subscribers in the next two years from northeast,” added Narain.

Exset and Newland target cable operators in Pakistan

Exset Continues DMS Integration With Newland Set-tops To Drive Pakistan Cable Digital Transition

THE NETHERLANDS — Exset, pioneers of TV ecosystems for enhanced digital TV services, has today announced that it’s now directly selling the latest version of its Value Added Service DMS ecosystem integrated with Newland set-top boxes to cable operators in Pakistan.

The Pakistan cable industry is facing challenges as it moves from an analogue to digital infrastructure. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) current analogue switch-off date is the end of September 2016. Exset has successfully integrated its DMS middleware with set-top boxes from Newland to create a value-added services ecosystem designed to power this digital transition and to open up new opportunities for Pakistani cable operators.

Mahmood Ulhaq, Exset’s Director of Business Development, Asia said,” With our experience as Exset in other countries, and in the wider television industry, we believe the most powerful factor of the move to digital are the opportunities that it opens up for viewers, advertisers and cable operators alike. If deployed correctly, digital cable will add real value. But there are challenges and that’s where DMS and Exset come in.”

Designed specifically to deliver new revenue streams for operators in an ever more challenging market, DMS offers monetised services over and above video. DMS enables subscription fees – and set-top box costs – to be kept very low, vital in driving the successful migration to digital across the country.

DMS includes multiple value-add services: fully integrated EPG ad-insertion; interactive blue button ad service; push VoD – operators can pre-load their most popular content to the viewer’s set-top box; USB-based PVR capabilities; ‘Red Button’ interactive services – providing additional magazine services (weather, news, and sports, for example) at the touch of a button on the remote, or opening up additional video from a programme stream.

Ulhaq said, “What’s required in Pakistan, as in other countries in transition, is a holistic approach to digital cable, both technologically – which we provide – and from a business perspective. It requires multiple parties – operators, advertisers, technology suppliers, the regulator and monitoring companies – operating together and those are the parties with which Exset is working to drive opportunities forwards.”

Exset is exhibiting on the Rentak Setia booth 4A1-03 at Broadcast Asia 2016.

Brazil's Unifique selects Irdeto to secure cable and FTTH networks

Unifique Selects Irdeto to Secure Premium Content Delivery over Cable and Fiber-to-the-Home Networks

• Irdeto to Support Digitization of Unifique Analog Cable Operation and Deployment of Services through IPTV

SAO PAULO — Irdeto, a world leader in digital platform security, today announced that Unifique Franquias Ltda has selected Irdeto Cloaked CA to scale and digitize services across its cable and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. With Irdeto Cloaked CA, Unifique is now able to securely deploy a unified solution across their cable and FTTH networks, digitalize their analog cable operations and deploy TV services through internet protocol television (IPTV) on their FTTH network.

Following strong growth on the integration of a number of local Brazilian ISPs, Unifique required a software security solution that was both flexible and easy to deploy. Irdeto Cloaked CA, a cardless CA solution, enables both IPTV and DVB-C, and helps Unifique accomplish this goal while also allowing them to offer a single set-top box for all networks. The solution significantly reduces total cost of ownership by eliminating logistical costs that are traditionally associated with physical smart cards and allows Unifique to innovate quicker.

“We are committed to providing our customers with premium service and high-quality content, and to make this possible, we needed a robust solution that provided scalability for our IPTV network,” said Erolf Schotten, COO at Unifique. “We were running a number of independent networks that needed to be harmonized. Irdeto’s Cloaked CA solution allowed us the security robustness we needed and the flexibility to deploy one STB model for all networks, ensuring that we provide our customers with an optimal experience as we continue to grow and innovate.”

To assure content owners that their assets are protected against theft or viewing in unauthorized territories, operators like Unifique must deploy a CA solution with uncompromising security. Irdeto Cloaked CA uses an innovative software security client as an alternative to smart cards for protecting digital TV content. The solution has been successfully deployed across the globe and is designed for pay TV operators and broadcasters who want to offer digital services to their customers using a future-proof conditional access solution with built-in security renewability.

“The rapid expansion of the broadband and fiber-to-the-home infrastructure in Brazil requires pay TV operators like Unifique to implement security solutions that do not slow them down and enable them to innovate,” said Alexandra Larsson, regional sales director for Latin America. “Irdeto Cloaked CA provides Unifique with a solution that reduces total cost of ownership by eliminating the need to swap in new chipsets for every network and security update or new subscription package offering. This flexibility is critical as operators strive to provide their customers with the premium content and services they desire.”

Chinese VOD service set for Russia

The Chinese company LeEco will launch an on demand service in Russia this September.

Furthermore, reports ComNews, it will begin to sell smartphones and smart TVs.

LeEco already operates a VOD service, likened to Netflix, in China that has around 850 million viewers each month.

It will offer Russian audiences both Chinese and Hollywood movies, TV series, music video and sports broadcasts, as well as its own content.

Furthermore, it is interested in securing the rights to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Russia.

Although LeEco’s platform will not offer programming in the local language initially, it will in due.

Outside its home market, LeEco is also present in the US and India.

Vodafone TV reaches 9.5 million

Vodafone says it now has 9.5 million TV subscribers – though not implicit in its statement, the majority will be from its acquired cable networks in Germany and Spain.

In its financial results published Tuesday, the telco confirmed field trials for TV services in the UK and Italy later this year.

1.3 million new broadband customers have been added in the past 12 months taking the total to 13.4 million. Of these 6.4 million take a high speed service over fibre or cable.

Vodafone One, the converged service in Spain that combines mobile services with the cable services of Ono, acquired in 2014. 1.5 million customers now subscribe to that service.

In November the similar Vodafone Red One launched in Germany this time combining mobile with high speed broadband on the Kabel Deutschland cable network; as of 31 March 2016 the product had gained 54,000 customers.

Gazprom targets online video market

Russia’s Gazprom Media has completed the acquisition of a 33.3% stake in Pledform, paving the way for the launch of what could become one of Russia’s leading online video platforms.

In a statement, Gazprom Media says that the two parties have created a joint venture named Ruform.

This will effectively see Rutube, which is owned by Gazprom Media, team up with Pledform to create a new online video platform.

It adds that Russia’s video internet advertising market was work R5.3 billion (€71.5 million) in 2015, with Rutube and Pledform accounting for 8% and 14% respectively.

With the market projected to grow by 15% this year, the new platform’s share could be around 26%.

Rube generated over 4.4 billion views in Russia and abroad in 2015, while Pledform had about 6 billion views.

Views are projected to grow by 3% on PCs and 20% on mobile devices this year.

Steady progress for Cyfrowy Polsat

Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat had 4.560,267 contracted pay-TV subscribers, of whom 957,952 opted for Multiroom, as of the end of Q1.

The total represented respective increases of 3.5% and 9.5% on the same period last year.

ARPU for contracted services, which also included mobile telephony and internet, amounted to PLN87 (€19.66), up 1.4% on the previous year, while churn per customer was 0.3 percentage points higher at 9.8%.

In the pre-paid sector, the pay-TV subscriber total fell by 46% over the year to 35,754.

The company, which operates Poland’s leading DTH platform, notes that the saturation of its customer base with multiplay services is systematically growing. As of March 31, each of its customers had an average of 2.16 active contract services, up 5.9% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, its smartDOM programme had almost 1.09 million customers as of the end of Q1, buying a total of 3.22 million RGUs.

Cyfrowy Polsat’s revenues in Q1 amounted to PLN2,364 million (2015: PLN2,329 million). Its net profit was PLN178.5 million (PLN170.8 million).

Meanwhile, Wirtualne Media reports that Polsat plans to launch two more channels this year.

Quoting Maciej Stec, a member of the board at Cyfrowy Polsat, it adds that Polsat Docu and Polsat Reality will have general content and that their actual launch dates will be determined by when it can secure content for them.

Three-quarters of global TV households are now digital

Three-quarters of the world’s TV households are digital

Source: Digital TV Research Ltd

Global digital penetration climbed from 40.4% of TV households at end-2010 to 74.6% by end-2015, according to the latest edition of the Digital TV World Databook. About 584 million digital TV homes were added in 138 countries between 2010 and 2015. This doubled the digital TV household total to 1,170 million.

From the 584 million digital homes added between 2010 and 2015, 156 million came from primary DTT [homes taking DTT but not subscribing to cable, satellite TV or IPTV]. Digital cable contributed a further 231 million. There were more pay IPTV additions (88 million) than pay satellite TV ones (67 million). However, there were still 398 million analog TV households (terrestrial and cable) by end-2015, although this was down from 863 million at end-2010.

From the digital TV households additions between 2010 and 2015, 381 million were in the Asia Pacific region; more than doubling its total to 608 million. China became the largest digital TV household nation in 2010, rising to 339 million digital TV homes (29% of the world’s total) by end-2015.

The number of pay TV households (analog and digital) reached 907 million by 2015, up from 716 million in 2010. Asia Pacific increased by 126 million – or two-thirds of the global additions – during this period to bring its total to 520 million.

The number of global digital pay TV subscribers doubled from 382 million in 2010 to 771 million in 2015.

China had the most pay TV subs, at 264 million by end-2015 (up by 69 million on 2010). India added a further 32 million pay TV subs.

Pay TV revenues [subscriptions and PPV revenues from movies and TV episodes] reached $206 billion in 2015, up by 19.4% from $172 billion in 2010. The US recorded pay TV revenues nearly ten times as high as second placed China.