Saturday, March 20, 2010
   
Text Size

Market

Orange and HMV team up for Mobile Games store

News

The HMV Mobile Games service is a phone games store which is about to launch in conjunction with Orange.

The store, scheduled to be opened a week today, will initially offer some 400 games for Java enabled handsets on any network, not just Orange.

Prices will start at just £1, running up to a fiver, and some of the latest titles will be available in translated-to-mobile versions. Fifa Manager 10, for example (this will presumably be the sort of game which fetches the premium price).

Or if you prefer old classics you might go for a bit of pill-popping with Pac Man, which we’d imagine would be more budget friendly on the old pocket.

Access to the store will be granted to those who text “HMV” to 87010 to receive a link, when it opens for business next Friday.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

 

Facebook clarifies panic button issue

News

The Facebook and CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) panic button story has taken another twist today.

If you were reading Techwatch yesterday, you might have seen our story about the social networking site being criticised for not incorporating the CEOP panic button.

If you’ve missed this story, the panic feature is a highly visible button that allows a child to click and directly report any offensive or inappropriate material to CEOP.

After Facebook had a meeting with the Home Secretary, the government declared that the site had “no objection in principle” to installing the button.

This was taken to mean that Facebook had bowed to pressure over the affair. However, the site has clarified its intentions today.

In actual fact, Facebook is saying that it is considering adopting the panic button, but it will be placed in the safety centre section of the site, and not on every page as CEOP would like.

As The Register points out, Facebook believes the button wouldn’t be a positive step forward, as it could be detrimental in giving parents a false sense of security that the site is perfectly safe. Which isn’t the case, CEOP button or no CEOP button.

The issue will be discussed further at a meeting between Facebook and CEOP in America next month.

However, it would seem that the social networking site isn’t for budging when it comes to the issue of having the panic button installed site-wide.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

 

Palm losing cash hand over fist

News

Californian based smartphone manufacturer Palm has announced substantial losses in its third quarter results.

The company’s coffers were emptied to the tune of a $22 million net loss in the three month period.

Lacklustre sales of Palm’s phones, which include the Palm Pre, are to blame for the loss.

And those disappointing sales figures are at least partly due to the rise of Android phones, which are currently gobbling up market share. Not to mention the continuing strong performance of the likes of the iPhone and Blackberry.

According to the FT, analysts expected Palm to shift 600,000 smartphones in the third fiscal quarter, but the company only managed to push through 408,000.

It’s all gloomy news for Palm, and the company’s shares fell again on its airing. Palm’s share value has almost halved since the start of 2010.

No doubt there are some sweaty palms in the boardroom, as it begins to look increasingly likely that newer phones the Palm Pre and Pixi aren’t going to have the impact they hoped for.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

   

CASBAA focuses on Vietnam’s pay-TV market

News

Website: Rapid TV News

Asian pay-TV industry body/lobby group the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) is turning its attention to the high-growth market of Vietnam.

All be it starting from a low base, Vietnam has enjoyed pay-TV growth of almost 400% from 2006 to 2009.

CASBAA has organised a Vietnam Pay-TV Industry Seminar in Hanoi on April 28.

Themed “Pay-TV on the Rise”, the one-day programme will gather both domestic and international broadcasters, platforms, telcos, technology and service providers, as well as government officials to examine the business models and challenges for this burgeoning Vietnamese sector.

CASBAA said exponential growth is expected to continue and that it was eager to promote Vietnam’s pay-TV sector.

“It is one of the most exciting developing markets in the Asia Pacific with huge business potential.

We should not miss these opportunities,” said Simon Twiston Davies , CEO of CASBAA.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

 

Technicolor ready to offer Broadcast 3D

News

Website: Rapid TV News

Technicolor’s Chiswick, West London, play-out facility can now handle 3D material, a ‘first’ claims the company.

Technicolor says it has developed its Broadcast 3D service offering to ensure optimal viewing and distribution technologies are being used.

The company is now ready to offer this service to its cable, television, and satellite network service provider clients.

“With the availability of 3D televisions, we are very excited to be the first to offer this new Broadcast 3D service to our customers,” commented Chuck Parker, president of Technicolor’s Digital Content Delivery business.

“Broadcast 3D is a natural extension of the many services we’re already providing, including upstream in production and post production, as well as delivering the highest quality 3D images to theatres and to the home via Blu-ray Disc, broadcast, and digital delivery.”

Technicolor says it is able to manage live or pre-recorded content, from post production through encoding for satellite, cable, IPTV or terrestrial distribution.

The company is also able to generate logos and other visual effects for 3D broadcasts.

The Broadcast 3D transmission suite at Technicolor’s Chiswick Park offices features equipment from Sensio, Orad and Miranda.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

   

Ono moves from loss to €50 profit

News

Website: Rapid TV News

Spain’s main cable operator Ono can celebrate its recent positive economic results in the middle of the current deep crisis.

The company ended last year with a net profit of €50 million compared with losses of €26 million in 2008.

Ono also surpassed its expectations for EBITDA, ending the period with €730 million compared with €701 million for the previous year, a growth of 4.2%.

The forecasts of the company at the beginning of that period were an EBITDA between €680 and €720 million.

However the operator’s revenues went down to €1,510 million, 5.6% less compared with the previous year due to the economic crisis, and an accompanying decrease in telephony and pay-TV consumption.

Ono had 1,902,000 residential subscribers at the end of last year, a decrease of 17,000 clients in relation to the same month the previous year.

But the company’s management are continuing the policy to push the market of triple play clients or combined services of telephony, pay-TV and the internet.

So 36% of its client base asked for these services in Q4 last year, compared with 34% in the same period the previous year.

But the operator registered a strong growth in the number of clients in broadband internet with a total of 1,326,000 at the end of last year, growth of 3.4%, compared with 1,283,000 at the end of the previous year.

So 72.6% of the company’s client base have this type of service.

As for Ono’s pay-TV service, the company had 6.2% fewer clients last year meaning a total of 975,000 subscribers.

This downturn corresponds to the operator’s basic TV services while the premium TV services registered better results in the number of clients.

So the downturn in the number of TV subscribers made the operator bet more on getting new clients to its telephony and broadband services.

As for the operator’s fibre optics network, at the end of last year it had more than 7 million homes connected, an increase of 41,000 homes.

According to Jonathan Cumming, Ono’s financial director the 2009 results “show that in spite of the difficult economic situation last year the company overtook its forecasts in terms of EBITDA, operative cash flow and free cash flow.”

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

 

Sogecable wants pay-TV on DTT

News

Website: Rapid TV News

Spain’s main audiovisual group, Prisa’s Sogecable, is planning the launch of a pay-DTT operator as a complementary service to its satellite pay-TV operator Digital+.

This future new pay-TV operator will be an individual service to that of Abertis Telecom’s Premium TDT offer, which currently only offers premium soccer channel Gol TV.

That channel’s owner, Mediapro, recently announced its own pay-DTT operator launch. So apparently there will be two pay-TV operators in Spain.

With Sogecable’s new project the producer wants to directly compete with Telefónica’s DSL pay-TV operator Imagenio, cable operator Ono and the country’s other IPTV offerings from Jazztel and Orange.

In order to initiate the new project Sogecable will include the two digital channels allocated to its national free-to-air network Cuatro, which it has agreed to sell to Mediaset’s national private free-to-air network
Telecinco in return for 18% of the capital of the new group.

According to this agreement Telecinco has given Sogecable the management of its pay-TV offering once the two groups are merged.

According to the newspaper Expansión, Prisa is working to have its pay-DTT channels ready for next September once new channels have been added to Gol TV.

But going with a different technology would mean commercial problems so Sogecable could be forced to adopt Abertis Telecom’s chosen technology for its new pay-DTT operator.

Abertis adopted Nagravision and Irdeto conditional accesses.

A total of 270,000 pay-DTT boxes have been sold so far in Spain, all under the TDT Premium standard led by Abertis.

But taking account of the expectations of the pay-DTT market, retailers bought nearly 1.5 million of these boxes. Now it is time to commercialize them.

With the same pay-DTT box the user will be able to get different offerings.

Sogecable’s new pay-DTT offering could cost around €15 monthly according to some company sources, which is the same price as Gol TV’s.

With an averge monthly price of €40, Prisa’s satellite pay-TV operator Digital+ is Prisa’s main income source.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

   

Star withdraws Tata Sky JV proposals

News

Website: Rapid TV News

A plan by News Corp’s Star India to up its stake in Indian DTH operator Tata Sky has run into regulatory trouble.

India’s government has reportedly decided not to support Star’s proposal to create a joint venture vehicle with the Tata Group through which Star would increase its stake in the operator.

Star has withdrawn its JV proposal from consideration by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

While Star may return to the idea at a later date, government concerns that such a move will dilute Indian control of the platform will not be easily assuaged.

Star currently owns 20% of Tata Sky, with the Tata Group holding 70% and Temasek Holdings 10%.

The proposal had envisaged Star buying 49% in the JV, which would then purchase a 20% stake in Tata Sky, giving Star an additional 9.8% in the operator.

However, Star would have held equal voting rights to Tata, thought to be one of the government’s main concerns over the deal.

Foreign investment rules were recently amended, with the government now allowing foreign stakes in DTH operators to rise above 20% if the investment is made through an Indian owned and controlled company.

Read more: Techwatch Tech News: Digital & Satellite TV, 3DTV, HDTV, IPTV, Cable, Computers, Games, Mobile Phones, Broadband, Internet, Telecoms and Wireless

 

Technicolor launches 3D broadcast services

News

Technicolor has launched the first independent broadcast services platform ready to broadcast 3D channels out of its Chiswick facility in London.

Read more: Digital TV Group News

   

Page 1 of 10

Newsletters

Sign up for our free Newsletter.
Newsletter


Receive HTML?

Login

News Feed

Follow us

facebook tweet linkedin

Are you Listed Yet?

FREE Business listing for registered members. Click here