Germany DVB-T2 PC Dongle, designed & made by SMIT

German transmitter network operator Media Broadcast will make the USB TV stick for reception of the next-generation DVB-T2/HEVC-based DTT platform including the encrypted Freenet TV service available from retailers and www.freenet.tv from March 23, 2017.

This was announced by Klaus Steffens, director of Freenet TV technology at Media Broadcast, during a press conference. The German DVB-T2 platform will launch with around 40 public and commercial TV channels on March 29, 2017.

Compared with cable, satellite and IPTV, mobile and portable reception, for example on the balcony, on a campsite or in the car, is one of the key benefits of terrestrial broadcast technology, in Steffens’ view. No data volume is used up as no mobile network is being used. The USB TV stick will be available for PCs, laptops and Mac computers at a recommended consumer retail price of €59.99.

The USB 2.0-based dongle will bring the DVB-T2 TV channels, an electronic programme guide (EPG), teletext and subtitles to the screen. In mid-2017, OTT channels using IP streaming will be added. Further new features to be included at a later stage are time-shifted television and a TV recording function, according to Steffens.

Freenet TV will be available at no charge for 1 month with the USB TV stick, afterwards it will cost the standard fee of €69 per year. This will be a separate subscription. Viewers already holding a Freenet TV subscription for the TV set won’t be able to also use it for the USB TV stick.

The stick will not be paired with the hardware, hence it can be used with different computers and laptops. Freenet TV can’t yet be received on smartphones and tablets, but solutions for mobile devices are being looked into.

Kerstin Köder, Head of Freenet TV at Media Broadcast, announced two further channels launching on the Freenet TV platform: German entertainment channel Tele 5 and news channel N24. In total, 17 of the 20 commercial channels to be aboard are now known. This includes the free-to-air channels of the two large TV groups RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 as well as Sport1, DMAX and Eurosport 1. All channels will be offered in Full HD resolution and thereby in higher quality than on cable, satellite and IPTV. The DVB-T2 line-up will also include Bibel TV and QVC offered unencrypted and around 20 also unencrypted channels from the public broadcasters in Full HD format.

Reception of Freenet TV on the TV set will cost €69 per year with the first three months offered at no charge. The fee applies to each reception device. Collective family or household subscriptions won’t be offered at launch, said Köder, but such options are being evaluated.

Internet-based add-on service Freenet TV Connect will launch alongside Freenet TV on March 29, 2017; its predecessor Multithek will be closed in return. The OTT service will bring further TV channels onto the TV screens of DVB-T2 households integrated into the channel listing together with the terrestrial channels. The line-up will comprise, for example, Spiegel TV, Euronews, Bloomberg TV, CNN, France 24, NHK World, eoTV, rheinmaintv, QVC plus and 1-2-3.tv. A Freenet TV subscription will not be required to receive the IP streaming channels.

Freenet TV Connect will include a personalised start screen on which viewers can place their favourite content for quick accessibility. The integrated EPG will provide programme details and the possibility to directly tune into the TV channels. Through a collaboration with Radioplayer.de, Freenet TV Connect will also offer more than 600 radio stations. The portfolio will also feature catch-up services and apps.

For usage, viewers need a HbbTV 1.5-compliant smart TV set with integrated DVB-T2/Freenet TV reception or a Freenet TV set-top-box carrying the Freenet TV Connect logo. The internet connection should have a minimum bandwidth of 3Mbps.

Freenet TV Connect will in future also be able to host subscription services such as pay-TV or video-on-demand with the technical preparations being underway, said Steffens, adding that the hybrid streaming service will also provide the pathway for Ultra HD/4K content to reach DVB-T2 households in future.

DVB-T2 will be rolled out in the night from 28 to 29 March 2017 across a total of 70 transmitter sites, 44 of them also offering Freenet TV, explained Steffens. In this so-called Magic Night more than 200 technicians from Media Broadcast will be on site at the locations. The deployment will continue: By 2018, Freenet TV is scheduled to be available on 61 transmitter sites, reaching 80% of the German population.

Media Broadcast will accompany the DVB-T2 rollout throughout the night in a blog, reporting live which transmitters sites are currently being converted. Viewers are recommended to conduct a channel search on their DVB-T2 reception device the next day to access the new channels.

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Econet Media Selects Verimatrix Cardless Security for its Alternative Video Services across Sub Saharan Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TV Connect Africa 2016 (Booth #TV7) -- Verimatrix, the specialist in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-network, multi-screen digital TV services around the globe, today announced that Econet Media has selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) platform to secure its Kwesé TV service. As part of the initial rollout of its services portfolio, Verimatrix is providing revenue security for the Kwesé app and Kwesé Free Sports channel.

Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-network, multi-screen digital TV services and is recognized as the global number one in revenue security for connected video devices. www.verimatrix.com

Kwesé TV has been developed to provide African consumers with a compelling alternative to the existing TV services in the region. Today, consumers can access premium live sports content, including the English Premier League, National Basketball Association (NBA), Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC) and the National Football League (NFL), among others, on Android and iOS mobile devices through the app, FTA set-top boxes, and digital TVs with a built-in set-top box.

"It's an exciting time to be in the broadcasting and media industry in Africa, especially as viewers are looking for increased choice and quality in their programming, as well as more convenient access. We aim to fill the existing gap in the market by providing viewers across the African continent with premium quality content," said Joseph Hundah, Chief Executive Officer of Econet Media. "We recognize that we need to select the right partners in order for us to achieve our objectives, and security is an important aspect of our business. Verimatrix provides us with a scalable and cost-effective security solution."

The VCAS platform and its cardless security solutions are highly flexible to ensure that multi-network and hybrid video delivery can be easily combined with traditional broadcast content. This enables the delivery of on-demand services in a cost-efficient manner. With the VCAS architecture hybrid offerings are just as secure as linear services, and operators gain flexible configuration options to help them stay a step ahead of potential pirates.

"Econet has taken a unique approach to the African TV market with the disruptive Kwesé TV offering, and we are thrilled to be the security partner of choice for the region's freshest premium entertainment platform," said Steve Oetegenn, president of Verimatrix. "VCAS supports Kwesé TV's modern, cost effective approach to video delivery as it is designed to future proof the network by enabling Econet to add more advanced features on the same security platform as their service grows."

Verimatrix will illustrate how security solutions are at the core of all key monetization strategies for pay-TV and Internet video service at TV Connect Africa 2016 Booth #TV7, 15-17 November in Cape Town, South Africa. Geir Bjørndal, VP International Strategy, Sales Middle East and Africa, will present a lunchtime Masterclass session to show operators in Africa how to get started with interactive services over IP. For additional information or to book an appointment with Verimatrix during the show, please visit www.verimatrix.com/TVConnectAfrica2016.

About Econet MediaA subsidiary company of the globally networked Econet Group founded by Executive Chairman Strive Masiyiwa, Econet Media is a dynamic content business driving the development of Kwesé, a fresh new television brand. Created for Sub-Saharan African audiences, Kwesé is inspired by the 'TV everywhere' revolution. As such, a range of Kwesé products will be made available on satellite and internet based platforms, including video-on-demand and mobile options. Focused on providing premium, affordable, exclusive viewing choices, Kwesé products will offer sports, music, movies, series, kids, lifestyle, faith, news and other programming. Consumers will also benefit from the infrastructural strength of Econet Media sister companies, Liquid Telecom and Econet Wireless. Their expertise and capacity in the areas of mobile and fixed telephony services, broadband, internet, satellite and fibre optic networks will be utilized to establish Kwesé products.  In addition, Econet Media have invested intensively to build its own operational assets. www.kwese.com.

Colombia kicks off phase 3 of DTT deployment

Through an $11 million investment, Colombia has kicked off the third phase of its DTT deployment plan, which will bring the digital TV to nearly 88% of the population.

According to the public media authority RTVC, the money will be invested in acquiring, installing and switching on DVB-T2 equipment. The project includes the building of 15 stations that will increase DTT coverage to 87.7% over the next year, aiming for 92% coverage by 2018. However, the initial DTT schedule planned to take the digital signal to the entire population by the end of 2015, a goal that has been continuously postponed.

“We intend DTT to arrive to 100% of Colombians, which is why we are now carrying this new deployment phase, which will give many towns access to more content, better quality and high definition TV,” said John Jairo Ocampo, manager, RTVC.

The 15 new stations will be built in the areas of Bañaderos, Buenaventura, Buenavista, Cerro Azul, Cerro Carepa, El Ruíz, Galeras, Jurisdicciones, La Rusia, Leticia, Martinica, Mirador, Montezuma, Munchique and Saboyá.

Colombia's switch-off is scheduled for 2019, but telecom and TV authorities intend to reach total coverage much sooner to ensure families have the digital technology they need before the analogue signal disappears.

Film and series make up 61% of all pay on demand in Europe

Films and TV fiction are clearly the main driver for on-demand services, according to figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

The European Audiovisual Observatory’s MAVISE Database has just undergone a major overhaul with TV and VoD data in 37 countries being completely up-dated, and the figures below are from the database, which is now current up to October 2016. The freely available data can be accessed here.

Pay on demand services specialised in film and TV fiction account for two-thirds of all pay-on demand services in Europe, compared with only 14% of TV channels.

The breakdown of pay on-demand services established in Europe by genre shows that 61% of all on-demand services offer movies and TV series, 12% is generalist, 9% adult, 6% children’s programming and the remaining 12% other types of programming.

These figures are taken from MAVISE – the European Audiovisual Observatory’s free access TV and VoD database. This newly revamped database includes free profile data on TV channels and on-demand services in 41 European countries plus Morocco.

A breakdown of the main pay on-demand services active in Europe by distribution shows that over 60% of the 723 main pay-on demand services established and active in Europe identified by the Observatory are available online, whereas almost 40% are operated by the main TV distributors on their managed networks. Among the pay-on demand services, transactional services (TVOD) – 416 – outnumber subscription services (SVOD) – 307.

The breakdown of TV channels established in Europe by genre shows that among thematic channels, Fiction, Sport, Entertainment are the most prevailing genres. Only 9% of the 5 462 international and national TV channels established in Europe are generalist.

The share of international and national channels established in Europe available on DTT by genre shows that about 22% of international and national TV channels established in Europe are available in Digital Terrestrial Television (free or pay) in at least one country in Europe. Generalist channels access more easily to DTT: close to 46% of generalist channels established in Europe are available on DTT.

ABS and Sarana Media Vision to launch FreeViewSat DTH in Indonesia

Tuesday, November 8th, 2016 

ABS Announces Partnership With PT Sarana Media Vision To Launch New Indonesian DTH FreeViewSat Platform

MACAU — Leading satellite operator ABS has announced today that it will partner with PT Sarana Media Vision (SMV), using SMV’s DTH license to launch a consumer FreeView satellite service – FreeViewSat – across Indonesia in January 2017. The service will be called SMV FreeViewSat and will initially broadcast over 60 television channels via the ABS-2, ABS-2A and ABS-6 satellites in both Ku and C-band.

For the first time in Indonesia, a free-to-view platform will be available throughout the entire country, allowing advertisers the opportunity to reach the full potential of the Indonesian audience.

The FreeViewSat model will promote maximum distribution and the cost of the STB & dish will be less than US$35. Customer will only need to make this one-time purchase to enjoy all the TV channels on the platform (with no monthly recurring subscription fees).

Tom Choi, CEO of ABS commented that “SMV’s FreeViewSat will be very attractive for Indonesia by providing great quality international and unique domestic programming to the entire country. The goal is to deliver high quality entertainment and educational content affordably to all. For the first time, everybody, not only the affluent or those in the urban areas, will be able to receive high quality programming for free, with just a one-time purchase of a set-top box and dish. FreeViewSat will also give advertisers the first real opportunity to reach the whole population of Indonesia, even in rural areas. ABS is delighted to be partnering and supporting this worthwhile venture.’’

At launch in January, FreeViewSat will carry at least 30 local Free-to-Air channels and more than 30 high quality international channels. The number of channels will continue to grow to over 100 channels in the first 6 to 12 months as new and interesting content is added.

FreeViewSat will be available via 75cm Ku band dishes from 75E on ABS-2 and ABS-2A, and via 1.6m C-band antennas from 159E on ABS-6 simultaneously, so that consumers have the choice of small dishes, or larger ones with better rain protection. Since Indonesia already has over 10 million C-band antennas installed, the adoption rate is expected to be rapid.

ABS has selected the ABV conditional access and middleware system, along with Ali Corp chips for its Set-Top Boxes.

Confirmed channels for launch include:

TV9 Nusantara, TVRI Nasional, DAAI TV, TV One, ANTV, Metro TV, Trans 7, Trans TV, SCTV, Indosair, Kompas TV, Net TV, Bali TV.

H2, Bloomberg TV, France 24, Fix and Foxi Channel, Action Hollywood Movies, Pulse TV, Al Jazeera English, CCTV-News, CCTV-4, CCTV-9, Russia Today, MediaCorp Channel, Landscape HD, TRACE Urban and TRACE Sports Stars, B4U Music, B4U Movies, NDTV 247 and NDTV Good Times, and many more.

MultiChoice launches ARRIS HD PVR with HEVC for streaming

Thursday, November 10th, 2016 

MultiChoice Launches New ARRIS HD PVR with HEVC for Enhanced Streaming Services

• HEVC technology to improve quality and value of MultiChoice’s on-demand streaming experiences in Africa

SUWANEE, Ga. — South African pay television provider MultiChoice recently launched the new DStv Explora 2 decoder from ARRIS International plc (NASDAQ: ARRS) to customers in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The flagship decoder is the fourth generation of HD PVR devices that ARRIS and MultiChoice have launched together and makes it easier for customers to access MultiChoice’s growing on demand services. In the future, its HEVC technology will reduce the bandwidth needed to stream or download shows, helping to lower the data charges that customers incur when streaming or downloading content from one of the DStv services.

The device features a streamlined hard drive and ships with a new remote control that features motion-sensor back-lit buttons and a dedicated ShowMax button.

“We invest in technology that enables us to offer our customers the leap in entertainment at the best value,” said Gerdus van Eeden, Group CTO Naspers: Video Entertainment Segment. “We’ve collaborated with ARRIS on our HD PVR decoders for nearly a decade, and we’re confident in their ability to deliver advanced technology to make tomorrow’s entertainment more accessible today. The DStv Explora 2 will help us to offer our customers a wider range of entertainment which they can stream or download to watch when they are read.”

“ARRIS and MultiChoice have a long-term partnership, and we’ve built on this by designing another set-top for MultiChoice that uniquely addresses the needs of their customers,” said Steve McCaffery, Managing Director of International Sales and Business Operations for ARRIS. “Fitting their new HD PVR platform with HEVC was an elegant solution for delivering their full range of HD content. In addition, our global scale development expertise coupled with our established local presence enabled us to continue manufacturing the set-tops locally in South Africa, which represents our reciprocal investment in the region.”

Join ARRIS at TV Connect Africa, 15-17 November in Hall 4, stand TV19. ARRIS will be showcasing the future of broadband and video for the African market, including: Wi-Fi for inside and outside the home; HEVC encoding; IP video delivery and ARRIS’s broad range of set-tops and gateways.

Canal+ France subscribers down 542k; International up 505k in year to end-3Q 2016

PARIS — Vivendi’s Supervisory Board met today under the chairmanship of Vincent Bolloré and reviewed the Group’s Condensed Financial Statements for the first nine months of 2016, which were approved by the Management Board on November 7, 2016.

Canal+ Group

Canal+ Group revenues amounted to €3,902 million, down 3.3% compared to the first nine months of 2015 (-2.7% at constant currency and perimeter). Canal+ Group had a total of 11 million individual subscribers, a year-on-year decrease of 19,000. The international subscriber base continued to grow strongly, notably in Africa. In mainland France, the number of subscribers continued to decline to 5.4 million as of September 30, 2016.

Revenues from pay-TV operations in mainland France were impacted by the lower subscriber base, despite a slight increase in ARPU. International pay-TV revenues increased thanks to the growth in the individual subscriber base, notably in Africa where Canal+ Group added 505,000 subscribers since September 30, 2015.

                         September 30,  September 30,
                                  2015           2016  Change
                         -------------  -------------  ------
Individual subscribers          11,024         11,005     -19
  Mainland France                5,926          5,384    -542
  International                  5,098          5,621    +523
    Poland                       2,084          2,093      +9
    Overseas                       492            500      +8
    Africa                       1,744          2,249    +505
    Vietnam                        778            779      +1


Subscriptions                   15,438         15,473     +35
  Mainland France*               9,315          8,720    -595
    o/w CanalPlay                  774            620    -154
  International                  6,123          6,753    +630

* Individual and collective subscriptions with commitment and without commitment (Canal+, CanalSat, CanalPlay).

The transformation plan at Canal+ in France is well underway

To boost its subscriber base, Canal+ Group has redesigned its offers and its distribution model in France.

It has entered into strategic partnerships with Free and Orange to offer a bouquet of themed channels to be included in their triple-play packages. This new distribution strategy enables Canal+ Group to considerably expand its subscriber base in France while increasing the exposure of the channels being distributed.

Canal+ Group also introduced completely overhauled offers to be launched on November 15, 2016. The Canal+ channel will become the gateway to all new Canal offers. Subscribers will be able to modularly add themed packages to the Canal+ channel, including movies and series channels, sports channels and/or the Canal+ channels. All of these offers will be available with or without commitment. Canal+ Group will also launch a commitment-free premium offer available only on PCs, tablets and smartphones.

In parallel, Canal+ Group is pursuing the implementation of its €300 million cost optimization plan for Canal+ in France. The full effects of the plan are expected to be realized in 2018, with savings of around €60 to €80 million to be achieved in 2016.