Satellite news 19.04.04
News
DISSAPOINTING VIEWERSHIP FIGURES FOR BBC CHANNELS
Although it has spent millions on the launch of
digital channels such as BBC3 and News 24, the BBC's
'reach' - the number of viewers tuning in for at least
15 minutes a week - has dropped steadily in recent
years. In the first quarter of this year the BBC's TV
channels reached just 89% of households, down from
94.2% in 1995, according to BARB figures reported by
The Guardian. That means 11% of the UK's 55.2 million
TV viewers - or 6 million people - do not watch any
BBC channel for at least a quarter of an hour a week.
A BBC spokesman said the figures were affected by the
changes in the television landscape over the past
decade. "In 1995, multichannel had 15% reach with
about 100 channels, now it's 44% with over 300
channels, including Channel Five," the spokesman said.
The spokesman added that other traditional
broadcasters, such as ITV and Channel 4, had also lost
reach over the same period. The Barb figures show that
younger viewers are shunning the BBC's channels more
than their older counterparts, with reach at its
lowest for 16 to 34-year-olds, just 81.8% of whom
watched BBC services. By contrast, 95.6% of adults
over 55 watch the BBC's channels, 6.6% above the
average for all age groups. Reach is at its lowest for
digital arts channel BBC4, which attracted only 2.8%
of households, closely followed by the News 24 news
channel, with 3.5% reach. Youth station BBC3 reached
7% of households, while children's channels Cbeebies
and CBBC scored 5.9% and 3.1% respectively.
MORE4 TO LAUNCH IN 2005
Channel 4 is putting £90 million behind a series of
new ventures, including the launch of several digital
channels. According to "The Times", a number of new
digital channels are to be launched this year, with
comedy, music and factual-themed stations all being
considered. Rob Woodward, commercial director of
Channel 4, has said it has not yet been decided
whether the channels will be free to air or
subscription based. However, he has confirmed that an
advertising-financed channel, More 4, will be the
first to be launched early next year. The channel will
be aimed at older ABC1 viewers and will be carried on
digital terrestrial service Freeview as well as
satellite TV.
BS*yB SEEKS NEW REVENUE STREAMS
An inevitable slowdown in subscriber growth means
BS*yB needs new strategies and new products if revenue
is to keep increasing, according to a report by Dow
Jones. The satellite broadcaster aims to lift its
current 7.2 million subscribers to 8 million by the
end of 2005. Around 11 million U.K. households have
access to pay-TV via BS*yB or cable operators Telewest
Communications and NTL. And in the past 18 months,
around 3 million households have bought a set-top box
for less than £100 that gives access to Freeview, a
free-to-air digital service broadcast from existing
terrestrial transmitters. To sustain subscriber growth
beyond 8 million customers, BS*yB plans to target
non-digital households, while existing digital
viewers, it hopes, may even make the switch. Already
around 55% of its customers take top-tier packages,
leaving limited opportunities for further upselling.
Interactive TV services such as gambling, on the other
hand, though once seen as a big revenue generator,
have proved to be something of a disappointment. Other
offerings include the S*y+ Personal Video Recorder, an
innovative hard disk device which lets the viewer
watch, pause and rewind any program on any channel
once it has been broadcast, or simply record a choice
of programs automatically for later viewing. BS*yB has
invested some £20 million in relaunching the product
and hopes to boost take-up three-fold to around
300,000 by the middle of 2004. At the end of 2003,
around 250,000 customers subscribed to S*y+.
PREMIER LEAGUE SIGNS OVERSEAS RIGHTS DEALS
The FA Premier League has concluded a string of deals
with overseas media firms worth £290 million. The
deals bring the league's total for its upcoming
contracts to £1.6 billion, matching the cash it made
from its existing contracts. Chief executive Richard
Scudamore announced on April 16 that it has made £290
million for the three-year deals with overseas
broadcasters from the start of next season, a £112
million increase on its last batch of deals in 2001.
News Corp and Disney joint venture ESPN Star Sports
paid £96 million for the rights to show live matches
in Asia, while Cable TV paid £55 million for exclusive
Hong Kong rights.
E U R O P E
TV WITHOUT FRONTIERS LAUNCHED
Television stations in Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and
Austria on April 13 launched a joint television
project called "Television Without Borders". The
project comes under a directive of the EU Council and
is to cover a regional market of two million viewers.
Topics will include the economy, culture, science,
society, environmental protection and sports.
E! SIGNS CARRIAGE DEALS
E! International Network has expanded its reach with
its first-ever long-term carriage deals in Germany,
with Kabel Deutschland, and Switzerland, on cablecom.
"These first deals in Germany and Switzerland
represent an important benchmark in our global
strategy," noted Kevin MacLellan, the senior VP of
international at E! Networks, "and mark the next phase
of our E! International Network rollout with localized
versions into the non-English speaking territories of
Western Europe." In Germany, E! will be available on
KDG's digital tier, while cablecom will offer the
channel as part of its "Family Package" on the digital
tier. The German-language feed of E! will launch next
month. In addition, E! has signed a carriage deal with
CYTA, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority, which
is launching its new television via DSL service this
month. The E! International Network is now available
in 23 countries, including the U.K., New Zealand, the
Netherlands, and Indonesia.
FRANCE
CANAL PLUS REVENUE DOWN
Pay-TV group Canal Plus said on April 13 that its
Canal Plus premium channel had posted total revenue of
?1.4 billion for the year ended December 31, a 2.8%
drop from the previous year. The Canal Plus channel,
which depends on subscriptions for 94% of its revenue,
lost 110,000 subscribers in 2003, in line with
previously announced figures. New subscriptions rose
about 10% to 450,700, increasing the channel's total
subscriber base to 4.7 million, the company said.
Shareholders will receive a dividend of ?0.21 per
share, a 5% increase over last year's dividend, the
Vivendi Universal subsidiary said. This represents an
increase of 5% from 2002, and is subject to approval
at a board meeting in May. The total subscription
portfolio, which includes Mediaoverseas customers who
receive Canal+ programmes, stood at 4,906,936 at
December 31. Total home subscriptions amounted to 4.3
million down 2.8 per cent. At the same time,
institutional subscriptions increased by around 7% to
387,412.
RUSSIA
GLOBECAST EXPANDS CHANNEL ONE'S REACH
GlobeCast has added Channel One Russia Worldwide
Network to its DTH platform on HOT BIRD, bringing the
channel to some 98 million homes across Europe,
Northern Africa and the Middle East. GlobeCast's
HOTBIRD will beam Channel One to about 38 countries
and 99 per cent of cable operators across Western
Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Channel
One Russia Worldwide Network is the international
service from Russian broadcaster Channel One, formerly
known as ORT.
SWEDEN
MGM SIGNS DEAL WITH TV4
MGM Networks, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., and
TV4, Sweden's leading commercial broadcaster, have
signed an agreement under which MGM Networks will
provide an MGM-branded film block every Monday night
on the TV4 Film Channel, as well as a long-term supply
of movies that will air across the channel. The TV4
Film Channel is scheduled to debut this month, and
will be available to cable, satellite and DTT
subscribers throughout Sweden. The channel and the MGM
Block will feature films in their original language
with Swedish subtitling. Following the channel's
launch, additional distribution opportunities will be
explored in Norway, Denmark and Finland. On the air
since 1991, and with a commercial market share of more
than 50% of the viewing, TV4 is the market-leading
commercial broadcaster in Sweden. Besides operating
the TV4 channel, TV4 operates the TV4 Plus and TV4
Meditv channels. In a related development, ATG
Broadcast, has expanded the play out facilities at TV4
Sweden to enable transmission of TV4 Film. The project
centered on the expansion by ATG Broadcast of routing
and output chain infrastructure installed for TV4
Sport which went on air in January 2003. Additional to
TV4 Sport and the network's main channel, TV4 Film
will be accessible throughout Scandinavia by a
combination of terrestrial and satellite delivery.
SWITZERLAND
SWISSCOM TO DELIVER DIGITAL TV TO CABLERS
Swisscom Broadcast, a subsidiary of the Swisscom
Group, has announced it is to offer premium digital
TV, which will be offered to a TV audience through
local cable network operators (CNOs); though the CNOs
will be free to operate as they wish. The premium
digital TV is programmed to offer an array of new
channels and personal programming choice to consumers.
It will be broadcast and received in a similar way to
analogue TV, via cable and satellite. Since the
majority of Swiss households already receive TV
programming via DVB-C (Digital Video
Broadcasting-Cable), the company has focused on that
medium.
Regards Satdude.
