Satellite News

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German antenna and transmission specialists Kathrein is buying TechnoTrend GmbH. The company, based near Munich, will be absorbed into Kathrein subsidiary Gorler Telekom.


“The new company TechnoTrend Gorler GmbH brings Kathrein also a new area of business – the innovative DVB receiver technologies,” emphasises Prof. Anton Kathrein, who heads up the company. "Offering innovative digital receivers, we will in future use the potential of both companies on a worldwide scale. The TechnoTrend brand will continue to exist and be integrated in our international sales activities. And we will concentrate the know-how and development capacities available in the Kathrein Group on this field in the new company in order to create more vigour.”

One of the managing executives of TechnoTrend Gorler will be Thomas Gerlach, former CEO of TechnoTrend GmbH. The development and sales of digital set-top boxes will continue to be carried out at the existing TechnoTrend sites in Erfurt and Unterfoehring near Munich. After prior restructuring measures, the employees of the former TechnoTrend GmbH will be offered jobs in the new company. Gorler Telekom has taken over major parts of the TechnoTrend GmbH assets and in particular all relevant patent rights. Under the new name TechnoTrend Gorler GmbH and with several of the TechnoTrend GmbH staff they will enter the market without delay.

“With this takeover we are sending out a positive signal in economically difficult times and we are securing skilled jobs in Thuringia and Bavaria,” explains Prof. Kathrein.

Kathrein is a company operating on the international market in antenna and communications technology. The Kathrein Group, at the top of which is Kathrein Werke KG, currently incorporates 58 subsidiary and associate companies, including four production facilities in Rosenheim and a further twelve production sites on five continents. The group employs a workforce of over 6,500. Turnover in 2008 was in excess of €1.3bn. Two thirds of this is generated abroad, says the company.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN is reportedly facing higher costs of TV rights, amid falling ad-revenues. Currently ESPN’s portfolio of channels generates some US$4.1bn in operating income to Disney’s coffers.


Last year ESPN paid about US$2.2bn for assorted rights ranging from NASCAR coverage to (US) National Football League (NFL) games. The Wall Street Journal says ESPN is paying extra to hold onto its traditional coverage rights.

For example, ESPN has had to cough up almost double last year for this season’s NFL coverage, and generally TV rights are costing broadcasters about 20% more – with most experts predicting that the credit crunch is having no affect on the prices charged.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Ukrainian media regulator - the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has allowed four Russian channels broadcasting in the area of his country. Kanałte These Zoopark, Ocean-TV, Phoenix Cinema + TV, and Topshop.


1 November 2008 lifted a ban on the presence on the Ukrainian market of Russian channels: Channel One, RTR-Planeta, Ren-TV and International TVts with Channel One, and Ren-TV have only a provisional license.

Ukraine has not agreed in advance to the provision of the channel due to the advertising and "rusyfikację" country. The truth is that Ukraine is still a lot of people speak Russian, especially in the east of the country, and many older people have never learned the Ukrainian language.

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French satellite operator Eutelsat has a problem. Its telecommunications satellite Eurobird 9A, which began its work on Tuesday morning, 24 February 2009, is not available in the European part of Russia, like its predecessor, Eurobird 9, which was replaced by a new satellite.


Currently, viewers in Russia's satellite record very weak signal, or its total absence from the position 9 ° E and are looking for the cause of the problem.

Eurobird 9A services all over the already-a satellite Eurobird 9 In position 9 ° E there were situations in which certain operators, in spite of hiring capacity, can not properly transmit their signals through the satellite. The problem lies in the incorrect configuration of the satellite.

The situation of the most affected Platform Platform for HD and DV. The operator of these services put on its website that in the next few days is the necessary configuration finished Eurobird satellites 9A. This should lead to the adjustment range for the western part of Russia.

* Source: Sun-digest.com

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TVP (Polish Television) made some unexpected changes on its transponders on Astra 1KR satellite (19,2E). One of the transponders was switched to DVB-S2 and all TVP channels were transferred to MPEG-4. On DVB-S2 frequency there are 11 SD channels and 1 HD - TVP HD. At the same time, TVP HD is no longer available in DVB-S.


Four channels on tp. 53 (10,773 GHz, pol. H, SR: 22000, FEC: 5/6, DVB-S):
- TVP 1 (517/700/517/17105, encoding: Videoguard)
- TVP 2 (518/710/518/17106, encoding: Videoguard)
- TVP Info (519/720/519/17107, chosen programmes encoded in Videoguard)
- TVP Sport (520/730/520/17108, encoding: Videoguard)

TVP HD is no longer available on tp. 53. Transonder 59 (10,862 GHz, pol. H) has been switched to DVB-S2, SR 22000, FEC 5/6, modulation 8PSK.

Full package of TVP channels is available in MPEG-4 on the released transponder:
- TVP 1 (512/650/512/7100; encoding: Videoguard)
- TVP 2 (513/660/513/7101; encoding: Videoguard)
- TVP Info (514/670/514/7102; chosen programmes encoded in Videoguard)
- TVP Sport (515/680/515/7103; encoding: Videoguard)
- TV Polonia (516/690/516/7104; FTA)
- TVP Historia (517/700/517/7105; FTA)
- TVP Kultura (518/710/518/7106; FTA)
- Test3 - Belsat TV (519/720/7107; FTA)
- INT6 - feed channel (520/730/520/7108; encoding: Videoguard)
- Test1 (521/740/521/7109; encoding: Videoguard)
- Test2 (522/750/522/7110; encoding: Videoguard)
- TVP HD (530/850/530/7130; encoding: Videoguard)

This new form of transmission (in MPEG-4) can be used to facilitate the distribution of these channels for DVB-T transmitters. So far, the signal has been sent to the test multiplexes by fibre.

* source: Inf. w?asna

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It has yet to be formally announced but Eutelsat has reportedly picked China’s controversial Long March rocket to launch a new satellite. The United States forbids the use of any US-made components on Chinese rockets.


The US rules mean that China, for the best part of 10 years, has been limited in the services it can offer and its clients have been drawn from the minor tier of operators such as Nigeria, Venezuela and some Asian nations.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Eutelsat craft is entirely built from non-US sourced components by Thales-Alenia, a Franco-Italian joint-venture.

The newspaper reports that Eutelsat will save about 40% of the $100m or so launch costs by using the Chinese system. The satellite is reportedly due for launch later next year.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Freesat’s technology offer is beginning to improve. While there are now a growing number of appealing receivers able to deliver – and record – HDTV, Panasonic says it will combine a Blu-ray recording device with built-in Freesat tuners.
Panasonic’s snappily-named DMR-BS850 has all the bells and whistles needed for satellite reception, plus Firewire and the BD-live function, with a half-Terabyte hard drive. Its twin-Freesat tuners means users can watch one channel while recording another.

Freesat’s latest data shows that some 250,000 homes are turning in to Freesat signals, and MD Emma Scott says this is terrific in barely 9 months of activity. “Our research shows a third of viewers watch more programming once they see it in HD. It’s an evolution in quality, like going from black and white to colour.”

But perhaps an even more appealing attraction will take Freesat boxes to a completely new level. Panasonic, at the London launch of its Blu-ray/Freesat combo let slip that the BBC’s massively popular iPlayer functionality will be added to Freesat devices later this year using its built-in Ethernet port. Panasonic spokesman Matthew Billing says the iPlayer would arrive once a sheer “lack of manpower” at the BBC had been overcome. “The iPlayer will appear on Freesat this year,” he confirmed.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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International technology company NDS considers the new generation of common interface (CI), CI+, to be safe, but too expensive. “The CI+ consortium has announced a royalty regime that seems extraordinarily expensive,” CEO Abe Peled (left) told German industry publication VDI-Nachrichten. “We think that for the same money that a CI+ module would cost, you could get a reasonably good set-top box.”


Peled stated that NDS was a “big supporter” of the DVB standard CPCM (Content Protection and Copy Management) which enables similar functions to CI+ without the cost associated with a separate module. “You can also achieve the same effect as intended for CI+ with Simulcrypt, which we have successfully demonstrated.”

Peled cited the US cable card, which NDS has supported from the outset, as a good example: “This is comparable to CI+ but the US cable companies tried to move to a different solution of embedded CI instead of a separate module.”

According to Peled, NDS does not support the incumbent CI modules because the interface between the module and the box was not secure. “For CI+ we have no security concern, but it is expensive.” He added that, however, “we support CI+, if our customers request it”.

Meanwhile, NDS has won Middleware contracts from TeleColumbus and PrimaCom. NDS will supply its MediaHighway product to manage the cable operator’s set-top boxes. NDS says MediaHighway now has a leadership position as the “pre-eminent” supplier of Middleware in German pay-TV.

TeleColumbus and PrimaCom are already using NDS’ VideoGuard conditional access system. TeleColumbus and PrimaCom are grouped together and are Germany’s third-largest cable operator with some 3.5m homes.

Markus Schmid, CEO of Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, explained: “Following our choice of NDS VideoGuard, we now have also selected its MediaHighway middleware in order to benefit from an end-to-end solution with NDS as one of our main technology partners. NDS middleware offers many advantages to us, fulfilling the core requirement for centralised and efficient management of our STB population, currently being deployed in many independent networks which have widely varying headend technology. Based on these two world market-leading solutions from NDS, we look forward to introducing the next generation of digital services to enhance the TV experience for our subscribers – and provide a best-in-class technology infrastructure for our content and programming partners.”

Yves Padrines, Vice President, Business Development at NDS and General Manager NDS GmbH, said: “We are proud to announce that with Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, one of the leading cable groups in the German market has decided to select MediaHighway middleware to enhance their businesses and we look forward to supporting the Group in its upcoming initiatives.” He continued: “This announcement further strengthens the position of NDS and MediaHighway in the German market. We are gratified that Germany’s pay-TV innovators have entrusted NDS technology to help them deliver a superior viewing experience to their audiences.”
NDS sees strong growth potential in the German market: “We believe that Germany is a fantastic market for pay-TV via satellite and cable,” Peled told VDI-Nachrichten.

“As consolidation among the operators moves on, investment in new technologies makes sense,” said Peled. “We are convinced that viewers will increasingly select new features such as HDTV or hybrid personal video recorders, with the result that pay-TV will offer them a more engaging TV experience than just free-TV. US and UK figures show that subscriber numbers do substantially increase thanks to HD,” he explained.

NDS plans to strengthen its market position mainly through technological innovations, continuing to invest in new technologies: “We will particularly focus on hybrid set-top box technologies that can connect the viewer to both broadband and TV content, and our next generation middleware, that supports these hybrid devices,” Peled said.

Peled added that the company is also investing in the field of targeted advertising with its new solutions portfolio NDS Dynamic. “This area will evolve over the next five years and become increasingly interesting with the growth in the number of broadband-enabled boxes deployed. With viewers enabled to receive targeted ads that are relevant to them, for example localised ads for people living in Munich or Hamburg, the free-TV channels will also want to participate proactively in pay-TV because it allows them to do more effective advertising.”

NDS offers encryption system VideoGuard and middleware MediaHighway, amongst other solutions. In Germany, the company has won pay-TV operator Premiere, cable companies Kabel BW and Tele Columbus and IPTV operator Arcor as customers.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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John Porter, CEO of Australian pay-TV platform Austar, said yesterday that 2009 would be “a challenging year for everyone” but added that the subscription TV business was “a marathon, not a sprint.”


In a statement accompanying Austar’s full year 2008 results, Porter said that “even if growth slows compared to 2008, we will continue to build our earnings for the years to come. One of our greatest opportunities is the depth of knowledge we hold about our market. We understand the challenges facing regional Australia, we understand the likes and dislikes of our customers. Through that deep understanding, we will continue to adjust our product, our promotions and our marketing to make sure that we still meet our earnings requirements but are as flexible as possible to meet the needs of existing and potential customers.”

Austar would still achieve double digit EBITDA growth in 2009, Porter asserted. EBITDA growth in 2008 stood at 20%, rising to A$209 million. That reflected, said the company, an 11% increase in revenue to A$632 million but only a 4% increase in poerating expenses to A$141 million. Profit was up 7% at A$114 million.

Porter said: “We believe that the key to success in this current environment is prudent investment in growth, while focusing on cost control and continual improvement in how we operate our business. EBITDA growth of 20 percent while keeping our operating cost increases to four percent is evidence of our ability to achieve operating leverage.”

Subscriber numbers rose by 51,484 to 720,270. Of these, 72,719 – 12% - take the MyStar PVR service which launched in February 2008, exceeding expectations.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Spain's satellite operator Hispasat has hosted in Madrid, over two days, more than fifty professionals from the main companies and organizations of the European audiovisual sector during the VIII European HDTV Meetng, supported by the European Commission.


Participants included SES Astra, the BBC, CARTV, EBU, Eutelsat, Impulsa TDT, Mediaset RAI, PT Comunicaçoes, Premiere, RTVE, Sky Italia, Sogecable, Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales, SVT, TV3 and ZDF.

Executives debated the future both of high definition TV in the continent and of new technologies such as 3D and ultra definition TV (Super High Vision).

During these meetings the participants highlighted the importance of HDTV in the present economic situation since this technology maintains a "strong" appeal for European economic development. Numerous European operators also presented their own progresses in the HDTV field.

Since its beginning Hispasat has represented Spain's HDTV Forum in the corresponding European Forum. The satellite operator prides itself on the innovation and the quality services provided by HDTV and 3D TV as differentiating elements placing satellite solutions at the forefront.

Hispasat already transmits several HD channels on Sogecable's pay TV operator Digital+ and Portuguese operators ZON TV Cabo and Meo Sat. Also the company is working on other HD projects such as Proyecto Palco HD co-financed by the country's Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Turkey’s leading media mogul is Aydin Dogan and he has heavily criticised the nation’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing Mr Erdogan of muzzling negative comment and becoming increasingly intolerant of critical voices.


Dogan Holdings controls 3 mainstream TV channels, as well as partnering CNN in the CNN-Turk news station. Dogan also own 7 newspapers including Hurriyet and Milliyet, as well as 28 magazines.

Mr Dogan’s history with the ruling AK Party is strained, given that he was also hit with a massive $500m fine recently for alleged tax avoidance, which is denied and being contested. Dogan says the fine was out of all proportion to what was a minor and routine tax examination.

“Mr. Erdogan came to power using democracy. He is a product of democracy, but he can accept democracy only for himself," said Aydin Dogan, speaking to the Wall Street Journal yesterday. "He cannot accept side components of democracy such as free media."

Dogan said seven of his companies are being investigated by tax inspectors. Relations with the government, he told the WSJ, first "went haywire" early last year when his media outlets reported on the business dealings of Mr. Erdogan's son and family members. Dogan's newspapers started digging into a criminal case in Germany involving a Turkish charity accused of funneling funds to Mr. Erdogan's AK Party.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Spain's national public broadcaster RTVE is working hard to set up the country's first cultural channel to be called Cultural.es. A DTT channel created by the country's Ministry of Culture and RTVE, the channel will start tests in April with official transmissions set to begin a year after, coinciding with national analogue switch off.


The new channel will offer all about Spain's cultural activity and it will not only be transmitted in Spanish but in the country's other official languages, Vasque, Catalan and Galician.

RTVE will manage the channel and it will include in its yearly budget the necessary amounts for its running either from its own activities or from other collborators such as cultural associations.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Foxtel CEO Kim Williams yesterday echoed words from his counterpart at Austar earlier in the week, saying that the months ahead “appear confronting for the country and Australian business generally and this will inevitably provide Foxtel with challenges to maintain its growth momentum.”


While subscriptions rose 7% last year to reach 1.449 million at the end of December, (1.591 million including wholesale customers), Williams said the platform would need to offer new services to respond to the current challenges. These would be added progressively during the year, he said.

“The services will include a range of new channels, enhanced ways to navigate the Foxtel universe of channels and the introduction of Foxtel by Broadband. Foxtel’s broadband offer will allow subscribers to watch Foxtel on-line, exclusive events as well as shows from Foxtel’s most popular channels.”

Financially, Foxtel remains strong with leverage of 1.8 times EBITDA, no debt falling due until mid-2012 and a strongly hedged position against the fall in the Australian dollar.

EBITDA for the half-year to the end of 2008 was A$196 million, an increase of 19% on the same period the previous year. Revenue was A$908 million, up 13%, with subscription revenue up 11% to A$762 million.

Foxtel said that despite the economic climate, new subscriber additions were in line with the same period in 2007 with churn 0.2% lower at 13.3%. Nearly 45% of subscribers take the top pack and over one-third now take Foxtel iQ, with two-thirds of new subs in the half-year taking an iQ subscription. However, Foxtel HD+ signed up only 85,000 subscribers in the half-year.

© Rapid TV News 2009

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Cyfrowy Polsat unveils HD/receiver strategy


By Chris Dziadul | February 27, 2009

The Polish DTH platform Cyfrowy Polsat has outlined its plans for this year.

Speaking to Wirtualne Media, its president Dominik Libicki said that the service would introduce a five-channel HD package in the next few months.

At present the HD channels Cyfrowy Polsat offers are found in SD packages.

Libicki added that the platform would also introduce a HD receiver with a hard disk this autumn.

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UPC hits Polish digital ton


By Chris Dziadul | February 27, 2009

UPC’s digital cable rollout in Central and Eastern Europe has reached another milestone, with its Polish service reaching 100,000 subscribers.

Launched last May, it was reported only earlier this week to have ended 2008 with 79,100 subscribers.