Satellite News

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Satellite users are being warned to check their bank statements carefully, after it emerged that a company named Satcov is trying to fraudulently charge to a number of accounts.

The charges are often brought where no existing agreement is in place, and where an agreement is already in force, extra amounts are being charged.

Since Feb 2009 they have been reported as:
- taking 10-times the correct monthly payment (£65 instead of £6.50),
- taking extra payments (typically £49.95)
- setting up Direct Debits on customer accounts without authorisation
Satcov offers expensive warranty cover on satellite boxes, not least Sky satellite receivers.

However, a rising number of complaints are being aired that they are being debited for a service they have not agreed to - or had cancelled years ago - whereas people with existing subscriptions are seeing their bank account wiped of extra funds.

It is also being reported that Satcov are now setting up Direct Debits under the name “Play” with a reference number afterwards that appears to be a phone number - 08716 641400.
If anyone finds that their bank account or credit card has been charged by Satcov without authorisation, or for incorrect amounts, they are recommended to take the matter up with their bank immediately for a refund.

Satcov is believed to be formed from Satellite Direct UK Ltd, which was successfully prosecuted by Sky for misleading sales practices, after the company claimed an association with Sky.

The director of Satellite Direct UK Ltd, David Reynolds, was also prosecuted last year for fraud and money laundering.
Satcov remains unavailable for comment, with their phone number providing the message “This service has been temporarily suspended”.

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The BBC will have to invest thousands of pounds in upgrading the sets of shows such as EastEnders and The Apprentice in preparation for high definition, it has emerged.

As more BBC shows are being broadcast in high definition, the corporation is reportedly concerned that wear and tear on sets will be visible to viewers in the sharper, clearer picture.

It was previously revealed that the next series of The Apprentice will be filmed in HD, which could air in 2010, if this does not clash with the general election after Alan Sugar took up his new post in the House of Lords.

In preparation for this, thousands of pounds will now have to be spent on improving sets such as the boardroom so that the show looks presentable in HD.

"Those Perspex sheets that we use to make the glass walls are about eight years old now, and they are quite scuffed and scratched. Any dust, fingerprints or smears on them are definitely going to show," Cath Pater-Lanucki, who worked on the set, told The Independent.

"If we go to HD, I think we'd have to replace all the Perspex on the set and we would literally have to have a props man on set the whole time polishing surfaces."

According to Pater-Lanucki, each of the 60 Perspex sheets would cost around £300 to replace, which would feed into an estimated £40,000 cost of producing The Apprentice in HD.

"My worry is that they're not going to put the budgets up accordingly," she added. "I don't think the reality has really hit anyone."

In preparation for its HD debut on Monday, the entire set of Dragons' Den at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire had to be repainted, production designer Nik Callan has revealed.

"Every brick you see on the Den is painted - we had to have every single one done," he said. "Realistically, it costs thousands of pounds to upgrade a set for HD, and productions have got to allow for it."

In response, a BBC spokesman said: "The move to HD for programmes is a key priority for the BBC and very much part of our long-term planning, including all cost implications. We have detailed advance discussions with productions that are due to make the move, to ensure that the transition is as smooth and as cost effective as possible.

"With 19 million HD-ready TVs sold so far, and as we move towards a time when all programmes will be made in HD, it's important that the BBC helps lead these changes to deliver the very best service for our audiences."

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The UK based set top box manufacturer Pace has finally launched its highly advanced multiroom digital video recorder or DVR.

This new technology connects set top boxes around the home without the need for any wiring, therefore making it much easier for consumers to receive digital TV in other parts of the home.

This is the first product capable of connecting the entire home to digital TV to enter the market.

It will also allow each TV connected to it to make full use of the dual tuner HD DVR function, which clearly demonstrates just how advanced this system is.

Using NAS technology the device is capable of supporting nine HD streams at once, while allowing for six HD programmes to be recorded all at the same time.

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Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has ordered that the proposed lashing for a female LBC journalist based in the country be cancelled.

Saudi Arabia’s Information Ministry spokesman on Monday said King Abdullah ordered that the 60 lashes sentence for Rozanna al-Yami be dropped. She was charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, considered a taboo subject.

But the case is not fully over. The Ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza said the king ordered that her case and that of another woman journalist - also accused of involvement in the programme - be referred to an Information Ministry committee.

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Estonia’s leading cable operator Starman has become the first in the country to offer a package of full HD channels in Dolby 5.1 stereo sound.

The channels are Nat Geo HD, Eurosport HD, History HD, Rush HD and Arte HD and will cost EEK99 (€6.32) a month to receive.

They will be joined by Eurosport2 HD in the New Year. Starman, which also operates the DTT platform ZUUMtv, claims its services are received in 560,000 homes.

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German music channels Classica and Deluxe Music will distribute their HDTV channels from November 1 via satellite on Astra. The encrypted transmissions on orbital position 23.5° East target platform operators who want to include the channels in their offers.

Unitel Classica HD and Deluxe Lounge HD are the first two channels to use the new HDTV feeding service provided by Astra’s technical subsidiary APS Astra Platform Services for cable, IPTV and other digital platform operators. The deployment of the channels to viewers, marketing and customer care lies in the hands of individual platform operators.

Unitil now, Deluxe Lounge HD was only available on Kabel BW’s cable network in federal state Baden-Wurttemberg, while Unitel Classica HD was not present in Europe.

“We are pleased to have found with Unitel Classica HD and Deluxe Lounge HD two channels as co-operation partners for the launch and are convinced that many further content providers will follow their example”, said Wolfgang Elsäßer, managing director of Astra Deutschland, in Munich. “For rights holders the HD distribution service on 23.5 degrees East offers an attractive possibility to deploy their exclusive content in Germany and beyond and to create new revenue sources.”

(Source: Rapid TV News)

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Dusk in Kourou, French Guiana, on Oct 29 saw a giant Ariane 5 rocket flawlessly deliver two important satellites into orbit: NSS-12, for SES World Skies, and Thor 6 for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting.

As this is written the launch was performing “nominally” which is rocket engineering-speak for “OK”.

NSS-12 was built by Space Systems/Loral, and is the largest member of the SES fleet with a total of 84 transponders (40 in C-band, and 48 in Ku-band), and weighed a massive 6 tonnes.

Thor 6 is a somewhat smaller ‘bird’ with an extremely respectable 36 Ku-band transponders, and the craft was built by Thales Alenia Space.


Rapid TV News

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Arab Radio & Television (ART), the major Middle East pay-TV broadcaster, is rumoured to have “sold” its numerous sports rights to Qatar-based Al Jazeera Sports. These are rumours, but from normally reliable sources.

In fact, the reports have been around for the best part of two weeks, and included claims that ART had been “bought” by Al Jazeera, to these current stories that ART has sold its extensive collection of sports rights. The sum mentioned is $2bn, and our sources say that Al Jazeera’s staffers are celebrating the move.

We must stress that the reports are unconfirmed, and might be off the mark. The deal could, for example, just be a sub-licensing deal which gives Al Jazeera access to ART sports programming, or a variation on this theme.


Rapid TV News 2009

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Rapid TV News has been reporting on the – frequently complex – information that has come our way regarding the sale of Arab Radio & Television’s sports rights to Qatar-based Al Jazeera Sports. The picture is now getting clearer.

A preliminary agreement has been signed in Doha between ART and Al Jazeera, where 6 sports channels from ART will go to Al Jazeera, which already has 8 sports channels.

The negotiations have been going on for the best part of a year, although ramped up a gear over the past month or two. Terms have not been disclosed but payments well in excess of $1bn will now flow to ART. Indeed, some of our well-informed sources put the sum at more than $2bn, which is not unreasonable when one considers what’s involved.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with a formal contract to be signed when ART’s owner Sheikh Salah Kamel returns to the region from Germany where he is undergoing medical treatment.

The Middle East is football crazy, where international soccer, national soccer and club soccer totally dominate the pay-TV market. ART will evidently continue to transmit its remaining bouquet of channels to subscribers, although there are local concerns over longer-term job prospects in Amman, Jordan, where ART’s sports operation were based in a brand new management and play-out HQ as part of Jordan’s Media City. ART plays out about 65 channels from Amman.

In essence Al Jazeera gets the exclusive content of 6 ART channels although there are questions as to whether some of the minor Arab soccer leagues are part of the transfer. The Jordanian, Syrian and Sudanese leagues may not be transferred to Al Jazeera.

The agreement will leave ART Sport with only one channel "El Ahly" which covers Egypt’s Number 1 soccer club. Sheikh Saleh owns 49% of the channel’s shares.

Al Jazeera’s sports division already holds the exclusive rights in the region for major football leagues such as the Italian Serie A, Spain’s La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. The network’s 8 sports channels also televise the top leagues in Brazil and Argentina besides the Summer Olympics and other major events including French Open and Masters Series tennis, motorcycling’s MotoGP series and the NBA from the US.

Al Jazeera bought the rights for the Champions League (2009 to 2012) this year beating off tough competition from ART, Orbit and Showtime. The new deal is expected to make Al Jazeera the exclusive regional rights-holder of next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

Al Jazeera claims 1m existing subscribers, and has made no secret of its intent to drive this forward to 3m over the next year or two.

Coincidentally, Doha, Qatar’s capital city, is bidding to host the 2022 FIFA soccer World Cup.

Rapid TV News 2009

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Kudelski Group has won its battle to acquire the portion of middleware business OpenTV it didn’t already own.

Kudelski is paying $1.55 a share to pick up most of the 60% of stock that it doesn’t already control. By the closing time of the formal tender offer (11pm New York time, Nov 12) it had acceptances from “approximately” 60% of independent shareholders, and consequently controlled about 91% of OpenTV, thus passing the threshold where the bid becomes mandatory.

Kudelski says it will now recognise the remaining shares which need to be tendered ahead of this Friday, Nov 20.

The company says it will delist OpenTV from the Nasdaq “at the appropriate time”.

Rapid TV News 2009

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Kudelski Group has won its battle to acquire the portion of middleware business OpenTV it didn’t already own.

Kudelski is paying $1.55 a share to pick up most of the 60% of stock that it doesn’t already control. By the closing time of the formal tender offer (11pm New York time, Nov 12) it had acceptances from “approximately” 60% of independent shareholders, and consequently controlled about 91% of OpenTV, thus passing the threshold where the bid becomes mandatory.

Kudelski says it will now recognise the remaining shares which need to be tendered ahead of this Friday, Nov 20.

The company says it will delist OpenTV from the Nasdaq “at the appropriate time”.

Rapid TV News 2009

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Intersputnik Transfers Frequency Rights for AMOS 5 Satellite

International Organization of Space Communications Intersputnik has transferred its rights for the use of frequencies assigned at 17 degrees east to Israeli satellite operator Spacecom and specifically for its planned AMOS 5 satellite . The agreement was concluded for 15 years with the possibility of further extension.

Spacecom currently own and operates : AMOS-2 and AMOS-3 satellites located at 4 degrees west.

In July 2008 JSC-ISS - Reshetnev Company has contracted with Spacecom to supply the AMOS 5 satellite . The satellite is expected to be launch in late 2010 and positioned at 17 degrees east .

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Judges in Paris will decide on Nov. 17 whether one of the world’s largest satellite operators should be investigated for politically-motivated meddling with a client’s broadcasts.

The Paris Commerce Court held a hearing on Nov. 5 to look at the France-based satellite company Eutelsat’s actions last year that resulted in the termination of the signal of one of their clients, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), which broadcasts over mainland China.

Before using Eutelsat in 2004, NTDTV had previously lost contracts broadcasting over China with several satellite companies because of its penchant for reporting on topics deemed “sensitive” by Chinese authorities, including ethnic violence in Xinjiang, the poison milk scandal, the persecution of Falun Gong, and other human rights and religious freedom abuses.

International conventions on nonprofit broadcasters stipulate that satellite owners should provide a platform for them to reach countries around the world that they could not otherwise.

In 2005 Eutelsat refused to renew its contract with NTDTV, but later capitulated after international pressure.

In June 2008 NTDTV says that Eutelsat, with the excuse of technical difficulties, again terminated its broadcast into China. Eutelsat said one of their satellites lost power and the company needed to shut down several transponders, one of which carried NTDTV’s signal.

Groups concerned with press freedom saw it as an opportunistic attempt for Eutelsat to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese authorities.

“Eutelsat claims it was forced to suspend NTDTV on 16 June because of a technical problem but a recorded conversation with an employee of Eutelsat show it was a premeditated, politically-motivated decision violating the free flow of information and the convention under which Eutelsat operates,” the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Boarders .

In July 2009 NTDTV petitioned the Commerce Court in Paris to appoint experts to investigate Eutelsat’s actions. If the broadcaster can show there is merit to the case, the court will then assign an expert to investigate why Eutelsat stopped carrying the signal.

The night before the first hearing on Oct. 13 Eutelsat lawyers submitted boxes of defense materials to the NTDTV legal team. They requested it be postponed to Nov. 5 to give them time to review the materials before the case could proceed.

NTDTV legal counsel William Borden said that he was confident in their case. According to Borden, Eutelsat’s lawyers claimed they were not afraid of an expert investigation — but it was something they “definitely don’t want” to deal with.

“If Eutelsat is not afraid of an expert investigation and NTDTV will shoulder the independent investigation costs, then why would Eutelsat spend so much effort to obstruct the investigation?” Borden said.

NTDTV’s French spokesperson Isabelle Chaigneau said they were pleased with the trial thus far. “Our lawyers have a very convincing presentation and strong argument. I hope French law will safeguard justice, and reveal the real reason why Eutelsat disconnected NTDTV’s signal.”

Eutelsat lawyers declined to comment after the hearing

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A week ago (on Nov 9) we reported on the piracy problems Showtime Middle East was suffering in Bahrain (and elsewhere in the Gulf) from users of the ‘Dreambox’ card-sharing technology. Marc-Antoine d’Halluin, CEO of Orbit-Showtime, claimed that piracy was endemic in his region, and that the pay-TV broadcaster was fighting “for its survival”.

The local Gulf Daily News has since published letters from viewers. One viewer who claims he is a legitimate Showtime subscriber issues a strong warning to Mr d’Halluin, saying: “If Showtime loses the rights to Premiership football in May, which may then go to Abu Dhabi Television, I will be cancelling my subscription at once, and I'm sure a lot of other subscribers will do as well, as it's the only thing we really watch on the Orbit Showtime platform. The former Orbit bouquet in particular, for which Mr d'Halluin is responsible, is absolutely appalling. Having it on demand or in high definition isn't going to make a bit of difference to the quality on offer! What the television industry needs to do is open up international markets and stop cross-border protectionism. I would rather buy a Sky Sports Italia box and card, which has all the sport, movies and news that I require, but it is illegal to do so. So, as long as you continue to thrust rubbish at us and expect us to pay premium rates for it, then you can really have no complaints if we look elsewhere. Where is Rupert Murdoch when you need him? Surely there is a market for Sky Arabia?”

Another, (“John H”) says Mr d'Halluin should recall that the reason most people in Bahrain go for a Dreambox is for the price and not for the willingness to break the law, as he puts it. “How can you possibly compare getting all the channels for BD40 a year, while you have to pay for Orbit and Showtime alone? Most people who subscribe to Dreambox service have low wages to begin with, many under BD300 per month. They can't afford to have 10% of their monthly wages going to TV. Let the [TV] companies reduce their prices (Batelco [the local telephone company] has reduced its rates many times over the past few years), and the piracy will die down by itself. Reducing your prices does not necessarily mean a reduction in profits (which is the ultimate goal of any company).”

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Canal+ Group announced nine-month earnings (EBITA) of €754m, an increase of €133m (21.4%) , over the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008. Revenues rose 1.1% to reach €3.36bn.

EBITA growth was driven by Canal+ France and was notably due to price increases, cost reductions, and the full effect of TPS merger synergies. Over the past twelve months, suscriber net portfolio growth at Canal+ France was 177,000. Since the beginning of the year, 348,000 Canal+ analog subs were transferred to digital which brought Canal+’s digitalization rate to 90% up from 78% over one year.

Revenues from the group’s other operations increased too, primarily as a result of subscriber portfolio growth in Poland, rising ad revenues on news channel I>TELE and a strong performance at StudioCanal after Kinowelt’a integration in April 2008.