TAIWAN
GETS HD DTH SERVICE
DishHD,
the new AsiaSat-EchoStar joint venture DTH company,
has started commercial service in June. With MPEG-4
format via AsiaSat 4's Ku-band Broadcast Satellite
Service (BSS) beam, DishHD offers more than 30 High
Definition (HD) channels to the Taiwan market.
DishHD
delivers a range of regional and international programming,
encompassing all genres, from sports, movies, entertainment,
news, music, dramas, documentary, to lifestyle, fashion,
food, science, cartoon and children programming.
DishHD's
DTH services are uplinked from AsiaSat Tai Po Earth
Station in Hong Kong where the traffic of the services
and AsiaSat's satellite fleet is monitored around
the clock.
VIETNAM
DTH STARTS ON ASIASAT 5
Vietnam
Multimedia Corporation (VTC) has begun delivering
a DTH bouquet of 90 TV channels on AsiaSat 5.
This
DTH service is distributed via AsiaSat 5's new Ku-band
Indochina spot beam which offers optimal DTH coverage
over Vietnam and neighbouring countries in the Indochina
region.
The
service offers a mix of HD and SD programming content
including more than 20 HD channels, VTC's local channels,
and many other popular local language and international
channels.
VTC
plans to grow its service to include up to 30 HD and
70 SD channels on its AsiaSat-5 DTH platform.
VTC, under the Ministry of Information and Communications
of Vietnam, is a large state-owned multimedia corporation
in Vietnam.
DEUTSCHE
TELEKOM TO LAUNCH 3DTV
Deutsche
Telekom plans to launch 3D content through its IPTV
service 'T-Home Entertain' from September. The new
content will be launched during the international
consumer electronics fair IFA held in Berlin in September.
The
STBs used to receive the T-Home Entertain service
are already capable of supporting 3DTV transmissions.
ZEE
CAFÉ IN UK
Zee
Entertainment Enterprises Ltd launched its 5th channel
in the UK from 15 July on the Sky platform. The channel
will have a mix of sports, news, current affairs,
business shows and Bengali and Marathi content.
ZEEL
COO (International Business) Bharat Ranga said, "The
UK is an extremely important territory for ZEE. We
have conducted in-depth research with the South Asian
audience and Zee Café is a direct result of
the gaps which were identified. Zee Cafe's male positioning
comes in the wake of all the Indian entertainment
channels targeting women. The channel will also feature
programmes for the substantial Bangladeshi community
in the UK, including popular shows from Zee Bangla.
"In
the current economic climate, we recognise that consumers
want value for money. Therefore, we are adding Zee
Café to our bouquet at no additional cost to
new or existing subscribers. In our 15th year, we
are delighted to give our subscribers even more quality
content at the same great price," says Zee Network
Europe business head Govind Shahi.
ATVA
TO FIGHT USA'S B'CASTERS
A coalition
of USA's consumer groups, cable operators, satellite
providers, telcos, and independent programmers have
formed a group namely American Television Alliance
(ATVA) to unitedly fight the showdown tactics and
brinksmanship of US broadcasters.
The
mission of the new coalition is to ensure consumers
are not harmed -- or their favorite shows held hostage
-- in negotiations for carriage of broadcast programming.
The
31-member ATVA coalition will focus on preventing
consumer confusion, disruption and ever increasing
rates that result from outdated rules governing these
carriage negotiations. Under the current law, broadcasters
are permitted to cut off their TV signals from video
service providers and consumers if they do not receive
the compensation they demand.
NASA
LAUNCHES HD CHANNEL
NASA
TV has launched a full-time High-Definition (DD) channel
featuring news and coverage of agency missions and
programs.
The
channel will include live coverage of space shuttles
and other spacecraft, a daily program covering the
activities of the International Space Station crew
and 'Video of the Earth' shots by the station crew.
The
channel will also deliver video file news feeds for
local stations, media conferences and lectures on
space-related subjects.
PAY
CHANNELS ON FREESAT?
Freesat
(The UK's equivalent to DD Direct+) already offers
its 1 million viewers more than 150 FTA channels.
It may add a pay TV tier for Sky Sports 1 and 2.
Emma
Scott, MD, said: "We are looking at pay television.
There is a lot of discussion around the Freesat and
pay television issues taking place at board level.
We haven't taken a final decision. My personal view
is that it would be odd for Freesat not to offer the
option as well." Unbundled pay television could
be "nirvana for some consumers", Scott said,
as "not everyone wants to subscribe to the full
pay package".
In
order to offer pay-TV services, however, Freesat would
require the approval of the BBC Trust, and, of course,
there may be a few problems with the brand name.
PAY-DTT
FOR FRANCE
France's
TV regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel
(CSA) has invited bids to run a pay-TVservice on the
R3 digital terrestrial multiplex.
Bids
must be submitted by October 15th, 2010, with public
hearings and selection scheduled for December 2010,
followed by service authorisation in January 2011.
Michel
Boyon, President of CSA, said that the body planned
to give pay-DTT another chance. "Pay-TV can meet
the expectations to which free channels are unable
to provide an appropriate response, " he said.
RUSSIAN
PAY-TV MARKET GROWING
Russia's
pay-TV market is likely to be worth $950 million this
year, $120 million more than in 2009.
The
number of pay-TV subscribers in the country is likely
to reach 16.3 million this year and then rise to 18
million in 2011 and over 22 million in 2014.
Although
the total pay-TV subscribers stood at 14.5 million
in 2009 and was almost 21% higher than a year earlier,
it was still equivalent to only just over 2% of the
world's total.
ARPU
in the Russian pay-TV market in 2009 meanwhile stood
at around $5. n
