Satellite news 30.03.05

Satdude

Satellite news 04.09.04

News

UK

NEW MOTHER AND BABY SERVICE ON S*y DIGITAL
BS*yB has launched what it describes as the UK's first
mother and baby information service on digital TV. New
and expectant parents will be able to access a range
of information about pregnancy and maternal care
through their TV via the Family Active service. The
service includes an instant messaging feature that
allows parents to contact each other and share
experiences by sending and receiving messages
on-screen, and allows users to search through an
information service. It also allows viewers to contact
a midwife direct with questions. Other features
include a searchable baby names directory and an
astrology guide.

TWI TO DISTRIBUTE PREMIER LEAGUE MATCHES GLOBALLY
TWI has been re-appointed by England's Football
Association Premier League to be its production
partner, producing and distributing all its matches of
the season for the overseas TV market. The
three-year-deal sees the creation of new venture FA
Premier League Productions, based in IMG division
TWI's UK production base in Chiswick, London. The new
venture will offer international licensees of the
Premier League all 380 matches of the season live via
satellite. It also covers annual production of 41
weekly preview shows and 33 highlight shows.

WILLIAM HILL TO LAUNCH DIGITAL TV CHANNEL
William Hill has appointed marketing communications
agency the Poulter Group to launch its digital betting
TV channel. The business is worth £250,000 for the
first year and is ongoing. The William Hill television
channel is scheduled to go live on S*y in October. It
will cover a range of sporting events and feature
betting opportunities, random numbers games and
virtual racing.

ITV GAMES SERVICE TO LAUNCH IN SEPTEMBER
GTV, the upcoming pay-per-play interactive games
service that the ITV network is launching on the UK's
S*y Digital, will go live next month, run by iTV
pioneer, PlayJam. OpenTV-owned PlayJam will manage the
service for ITV, has developed all games and is
managing all aspects of the service's broadcast.
Claiming to be the first UK terrestrial broadcaster to
offer its audience a tailor-made games service, ITV's
service will comprise of games based on various
programme brands, as well as non-ITV branded games.
GTV will offer S*y users quizzes, puzzles, pub- and
arcade-style games and payment goes through the user's
phone bill.

Europe

FRANCE

AL-MANAR TO APPLY FOR BROADCASTING RIGHTS
France's highest administrative body on August 20
ordered a Lebanese TV network linked to the
anti-Israel group Hezbollah to adhere to broadcast
regulations by October 1 or face being banned from
French airwaves. The Council of State said a decision
rests with France's media watchdog, the CSA, about
whether to give Al-Manar network a license it needs to
beam programs through a Paris-based satellite
broadcaster. The CSA had taken legal action to try to
force Al-Manar to halt broadcasts through the
satellite operator Eutelsat after Jewish groups
complained the network had aired an anti-Semitic
series. The Lebanese television station said it would
apply for broadcasting rights in France to avoid a
threatened ban.

E! TO LAUNCH ON CANAL SATELLITE
Entertainment news and lifestyle channel E! Networks
has signed a long-term distribution deal for the E!
International Network with Canalsatellite France,
which means the 24-hour entertainment network will now
be available in Europe's three largest television
markets, including Germany and Italy. "We look forward
to rolling out the next phase of the channel's
evolution in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe beginning
2005," said Kevin MacLellan, senior vp international
at E! Networks. Scheduled to launch in September, the
French language version of the E! International
Network will be carried on Channel 23 in the
Thematique DTH package, reaching France, Monaco and
Andorra. In addition E! will be available via Canal
Satelllite's new DSL service currently available in
Paris and Marseille.

BBC PRIME JOINS CANAL SATELLITE
BBC Prime, carrying drama, film and documentaries from
the UK public broadcaster, will launch on the French
pay-TV platform CanalSatellite from September 1.
CanalSatellite's 2.8 million subscribers will add to
the 19 million subscribers across Europe, the Middle
East and Africa. Programming includes Top of the Pops,
EastEnders and Weakest Link.

NEW PROGRAMS FOR CANAL PLUS
Pay-TV group Canal Plus on August 26 unveiled a slate
of ambitious new programming for its premium channel,
with the spotlight on premium movies, sports and news
programming. New programs include "La Semaine Du
Cinema" (The Week in Cinema), a half-hour
Sunday-afternoon slot devoted to French, American and
international cinema, with celebrity guests, trends,
events and the news of the week. Another film-related
slot that will air in December is "L'Evenementielle
Cinema" (Factual Cinema), during which a film
personality will discuss a film-related subject in
depth. "Avant Premiere" will feature films not yet
released in France, kicking off with Vadim Perelman's
"House of Sand and Fog" in October, while a "Making
of" slot starts September 12, with a behind-the-scenes
look at Steven Spielberg's latest work, "The
Terminal." The channel announced 14 new shows as well
as the return of U.S. programs "24" and "The Shield"
and two new offerings, "The L Word" and "Angels in
America." By the end of July, the channel's
subscribers stood at 4.88 million.

FRENCH GLOBAL ALL-NEWS CHANNEL BACK ON TRACK
France's plans for a global news channel, nicknamed
"CNN a la francaise," are back on track. Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier said on August 26 that plans
were on course for the TV network, personally backed
by President Jacques Chirac. International pubcasters
are concerned that their budgets will be slashed in
favour of the TF1-France Televisions joint project.

GERMANY

TV CHANNELS SHARE OLYMPIC COSTS
To help cut the cost of broadcasting rights for future
Olympic games, German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF
offered to share future coverage with commercial
broadcasting rivals. ZDF director Markus Schaechter
said he will begin negotiations in the coming weeks
with broadcasters interested in coverage of the 2006
winter games in Turin, Italy. Leading commercial
broadcaster RTL is the most likely candidate,
according to observers. ARD and ZDF already have
signed a similar cooperation agreement with RTL for
joint coverage of the 2006 soccer World Cup finals.

KDG GETS SUPPORT FOR CABLE DEAL
German cable giant Kabel Deutschland (KDG) won much-
needed industry support on August 26 as executives
from Universal Studios Networks Deutschland, MTV and
the state regulator from North Rhine-Westphalia backed
the group's expansion plans. Antitrust watchdogs are
concerned that KDG's $3.3 billion bid for three
regional cablers gives the group a cable monopoly.
Germany's main commercial broadcasters have lobbied
hard against the takeover, which would spur broadband
development nationwide and provide a platform for new
digital channels. Publicly, they have criticised KDG's
plans to encrypt transmission of terrestrial TV
channels, forcing households to get special access
cards for decoders to receive the outlets. For smaller
channels, such as USN's Sci Fi and 13th Street as well
as MTV, the cable expansion would provide greater
reach and more subscribers. KDG stands to grow from 10
million to more than 17 million homes if the deal is
approved.

BBC WORLD INCREASES GERMAN PRESENCE
The BBC's international news and current affairs
channel, BBC World is to double its penetration in
Germany, as Kabel Deutschland (KDG) goes nationwide.
BBC World will be included in KDG's main 24-channel
package, to be available from September, lifting the
platform's reach from 11 million cable homes to some
23 million. KDG's free digital cable offering, which
also includes public broadcasters ZDF and ARD, is
intended to drive Germany's digital uptake, in
anticipation of analogue switch-off in 2010. BBC World
also has a digital terrestrial frequency in the
Berlin/Brandenburg area, as well as in Italy, Sweden
and The Netherlands.

GREEN LIGHT FOR VIACOM-VIVA DEAL
Viacom said August 26 that it has finalized its
takeover of German music television group Viva Media,
taking a 75.8% stake in the Cologne, Germany-based TV
company for ?234 million. The deal, which has been
approved by German antitrust authorities, transfers
Time Warner's 30.6% Viva stake, Universal Music's
15.3% share and various smaller minority stakes to the
MTV parent. In a separate deal, Viacom acquired Time
Warner's 49% stake in Viva-TW joint venture Viva Plus,
an alternative-music cable channel.

IRELAND

COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS COULD GET SLICE OF LICENSE FEE
Commercial broadcasters will be able to bid for an
?12.9 million slice of the licence fee from August 23
to produce culture and adult literacy programmes. The
Broadcasting Funding Scheme was launched to encourage
more commercial and state broadcasters to record
aspects of the state's heritage which are
disappearing. The three-year scheme will be financed
through the allocation of 5% of the annual television
licence fee, which amounted to ?8.3 million in 2003.
The commission will be hearing submissions from
interested parties, including independent broadcasters
and the public, over the next five-weeks on how the
annual scheme should be run. The initial consultation
document contains a draft outline of the structures,
programme themes and the eligibility for the scheme.

AT THE RACES SIGNS RIGHTS DEAL
Horse Racing Ireland and the Association of Irish
Racecourses have concluded a media rights contract
with At The Races. The agreement, which started on
June 11, is a four-and-a-half-year deal and gives At
The Races exclusive non-terrestrial picture and
interactive betting rights in the United Kingdom and
Ireland. The arrangements will also allow ATR to
include Irish racing content, on an exclusive basis,
in any product delivered into international pool
betting outlets as well as in channel form to
international pay television platforms.

RUSSIA

NTV SEEKS TO BOOST RATINGS
NTV television is to become federal not only in status
but in broadcasting area, accessible to viewers in any
part of the country. To achieve this goal, the
channel's signal needs to cover approximately 15 per
cent of the territory of Russia or approximately 30
million people. According to Izvestiya, NTV programmes
may be seen today by the inhabitants of 85 per cent of
the country's territory (117 million people), whereas
the area of coverage of other federal broadcasters
Channel One and Rossiya amounts to 98 per cent.

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

NATIONAL FREQUENCIES FOR 6 TV NETWORKS
Six TV broadcasters in Serbia are to be licensed as
national networks. Serbia's minister for culture and
the media, Dragan Kojadinovic, said that there had
also been a proposal that another two Serbian and two
federal frequencies be reserved for coverage of the
entire territory of Serbia and Montenegro. The six
companies to be licensed for national networks are the
three channels of state media company Radio Television
Serbia, BK TV, TV Pink and B92. The decision is based
on the economic power and program quality of the six
stations, said the minister. Another two national
Serbian frequencies would be available for television
stations in the regions to buy time and thus present
programs to a national audience. Kojadinovic quoted
research claiming that the total annual expenditure on
advertising in Serbia is about ?65 million, most of it
divided among that strongest and most popular
television networks.

Spain

SOGECABLE IN MIDST OF MOVIE RIGHTS ROW
The Ministry of Economy has accused pay-TV company
Sogecable of hindering competition as a result of its
exclusive agreements with six US majors, Twentieth
Century Fox, Buena Vista, Universal Studios, Paramount
Pictures, Columbia Tristar and Warner Bros. According
to the Ministry, each of these contracts, because of
their duration and reach, represent "a restriction of
competition" and "hinder the access from other pay-TV
operators to the same contents which are regarded as
being essential for the service." The report is the
result of a claim filed on December 2002 by cable
operator ONO that accused Sogecable and US Majors of
breaking competition law as a result of their
exclusive agreements. Sogecable has already appealed
and now the case will be studied by the Court of
Competition Defence.

Regards Satdude.

Satdude

Satellite news 16.09.04

News

UNITED KINGDOM

HOMECHOICE IN TALKS WITH GOVERNMENT OVER DIGITAL TV
Video Networks, which relaunched its video-on-demand
television service HomeChoice in May, is in talks with
the Government about offering subsidised digital
television services to help the planned analogue
switch-off. The Government wants to turn off analogue
signals by 2012, when it hopes the nation's households
will have converted to digital TV, via cable,
satellite or ordinary aerials. But with existing
technology, this may not be possible. Over the summer,
Video Networks chief executive, Roger Lynch, has had
several meetings with Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of
State for Media, and BBC officials about how to reach
those households which may be unable - or unwilling -
to go digital. HomeChoice allows viewers to watch
television via broadband. As well as providing
internet access, it offers digital channels and
archived content - or "video on demand" - which is
"called down" the broadband network by the viewer.
With government help, Video Networks could launch a
slimmed-down, cheaper package of around 20 digital
channels which could be broadcast via telephone wires
as opposed to broadband, Lynch said. HomeChoice could
be useful in blocks of flats where ordinary
terrestrial aerials cannot be converted to Freeview
and satellite dishes cannot be fitted, he said.

BBC WORLDWIDE NOT FOR SALE
The BBC on September 8 dismissed reports that it is in
talks with big media groups including Time Warner,
Bertelsmann and the Walt Disney Co. to sell off its
commercial sales division BBC Worldwide.
Representatives for the public broadcaster poured cold
water on the suggestion that the $3 billion division
-- which includes three joint venture channels, a
program sales arm, a consumer magazine publishing
business and the international channels BBC America
and BBC World -- was being touted for sale. "BBC
Worldwide is categorically not for sale. There is no
question that we are asking anybody to table bids," a
spokeswoman said. UK press reports had mentioned that
the BBC had written to more than 25 potential bidders
and organisations interested in its commercial assets,
soliciting their views on the future of the business.

ITV3 TO LAUNCH ON NOVEMBER
ITV's over-35s station, ITV3, will launch on November
1 - but only Freeview customers, less than a third of
the total digital audience, will be able to tune in.
ITV has yet to sort out a slot for the channel with
cable giants NTL and Telewest and has been told by
BSkyB there is no space for it on the sky digital
satellite platform. The ITV chief executive, Charles
Allen, said today he was still in negotiations with
cable bosses but has yet to start talking to Sky about
a satellite slot. The limited distribution threatens
to get the new channel, which is costing £12 million a
year, off to a slow start. ITV is targeting the
over-35s with a mix of drama, films and repeated
entertainment shows. Allen said there would be three
"premium movies" a week on ITV3, as well as
behind-the-scenes programmes related to ITV1 shows.
Other programming will include repeats of Parkinson
and Today with Des and Mel, and omnibus editions of
The Bill. ITV is launching the channel to run
alongside its more youth-oriented ITV2 channel, where
the budget is being increased from £24 million to £48
million.

WILLIAM HILL TV TO LAUNCH INTERACTIVE TV
William Hill has announced that its new digital
interactive television service, Channel 425, will be
available, free to view, on the Sky platform from
October 6. The initial focus of the channel is to
capitalise on the strong fan base for UK greyhound
racing that has developed through Sky's coverage of
the sport in recent years with other betting
opportunities being provided by live US horseracing
and a number of simple random number generated
products. Initially set to show live greyhound racing
from Tuesday through to Saturday nights inclusive,
Channel 425 will launch with a series of minor
competitions from its two tracks at Brough Park and
Sunderland. The honour of screening the first race of
the new channel, the Welcome to Greyhound Racing On
Channel 425 Stakes (coincidentally worth £425 to the
winner), will fall to Sunderland. It is expected that
the channel will move to providing live greyhound
racing seven days a week within a matter of months and
talks are already underway to bring other live
sporting content to the channel as well.

ITV PROFITS UP
The broadcasting group ITV posted a 42-per cent
increase in half-year profits, with first-half
advertising revenues from all ITV channels improving
by 4.9% on 2003 and estimated to be up 5.5% in the
current quarter. Chief executive Charles Allen pledged
to raise the target from £100 million a year to £120
million but did not provide details of how the extra
savings would be achieved. ITV said operating profits
for the first half of 2004 rose 32% on a year earlier
to £123 million while bottom-line pre-tax profits came
in at £132 million. Meanwhile, ITV said on September 9
it did not intend to sell its stakes in SMG, the
Scottish broadcaster, GMTV, ITN and Ireland's TV3 as
part of an asset disposal likely to raise more than
£500 million.

NINE MILLION VIEWERS FOR BBC OLYMPIC COVERAGE
The BBC's interactive Olympics coverage reached 8.96
million users in satellite homes. The number
represents viewers that used the BBC interactive
Olympics service for more than a minute at some time
during the two week event. Senior BBC executives were
reportedly amazed by the figure, which compares very
favourably to the 4.1 million that accessed the
Wimbledon interactive service and 3.4 million that
sampled the interactive coverage of the Commonwealth
Games. The number is a significant gain on the 6.13
million users reported for the first week of the
Olympics. These numbers exclude digital terrestrial
and cable television for which interactive usage data
is currently unavailable. Some 7 million UK homes have
digital satellite television, while around 3.5 million
have digital terrestrial television, and about 2.5
million have digital cable.

E U R O P E

ZONE VISION SIGNS CARRIAGE DEALS
Zone Vision's has secured distribution on UPC in
Slovakia and MTIS in Belarus for both its Reality TV
and Romantica channels. In Hungary, European movie
channel Europa Europa has been added to the EMKTV and
UPC cable systems. In Russia, Reality TV will be
broadcast on UCN and Romanian cable operator Astral
has renewed its contract to carry both Reality TV and
Romantica. As a result of these agreements, the
channels will reach an additional 1.1 million
subscribers throughout the region. Zone Vision has
also signed a channel representation deal with BBC
Prime for Eastern Europe and recently secured a
distribution deal for the new channel in Romania.

BELGIUM

BELGACOM SEEKS FOOTBALL RIGHTS
Telecommunications operator Belgacom is considering
bidding for next season's Belgian domestic club
football rights, the country's professional football
league said on September 9. Belgacom plans to roll out
interactive digital television in 2005, broadcast
through fixed telephone lines. Most Belgians already
subscribe to a cable service. Belgacom spokesman Jan
Margot did not want to comment on a possible bid,
saying consumer trials of the new television service
were not due to start until November. "We are
targeting all possible partners. We will look at how
people will use (digital television) and what they are
willing to pay," he said. Belgian cable company
Telenet also plans to offer digital television.
Belgian soccer clubs raised ?15 million in 2002 from
the sale of three years of television rights but
Sterckx hopes to get significantly more this time. If
Belgacom submits a formal bid, it will face
established broadcasters including publicly owned RTBF
and VRT, Vivendi Universal's Canal Plus and Flemish
commercial channel VTM.

FRANCE

CANALSATELLITE EXPANDS DSL SERVICE
Harmonic Inc. on September 9 announced that
CanalSatellite, part of CANAL+ Group which is a
VivendiUniversal company, has deployed Harmonic's
high-performance digital video headend systems to
efficiently deliver premium programming for the
CANALSATDSL TV- over-ADSL service. The ultra-low
bit-rate capabilities of Harmonic's DiviCom MV 100
encoder make it possible for CanalSatellite, France's
leading satellite distribution and direct-to-home
broadcaster, to transport broadcast-quality video over
a variety of telecom transport networks. The recently
introduced CANALSATDSL service offers 80 channels of
broadcast-quality television to ADSL subscribers via
the IP and ATM backbone networks of their telecom
partners. CanalSatellite, a 66% Canal+ Group
subsidiary, is the leader in digital pay-TV in France
with 2.83 million subscriptions at the end of June
2004. CanalSatellite offers over 260 channels and
services across all genres -- cinema, sport and
information as well as channels for young adults and
children.

TPS SIGNS UP 1.5 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
Satellite pay-TV platform TPS had 1.56 million
subscribers as of 30 June this year, with sales up 8%
to ?282 million and a reduction of the debt of ?42
million during the 12 months to June 2004. The number
of subscribers to TPS-L, the ADSL delivered version of
the TPS bouquet which opened earlier this year, is
about 10,000 with an aim of reaching 50,000 by year
end. If achieved, this should bring the total number
of new clients to TPS to 100,000 in the year. The
entry level pay-TV package will remain at ?11 a month,
but a new movie package TPS Star Premium will cost
?19.50 a month.

FOX PURCHASES VOYAGE CHANNEL
Fox International Channels (FIC) has concluded the
acquisition of French travel channel Voyage from
Pathé. "We are delighted and proud that our business
in France has expanded with the acquisition of Voyage,
a very strong TV brand well capitalized upon by Pathé
and a fine example of high quality French-produced
television," noted David Haslingden, the CEO of FIC.

GERMANY

SES ASTRA AND PREMIERE TO LAUNCH HDTV CHANNELS
Premiere is to start broadcasting its first programmes
in high-definition TV format (HDTV) from 1 November
2005 onwards. The Munich-based pay-TV operator will
transmit HDTV content on three dedicated channels for
sport, film and documentaries. The programmes will be
broadcast in digital format via the ASTRA satellite
system at 19.2 degrees East. This has been agreed in
principle between Premiere and SES ASTRA. Premiere
also later intends to introduce its HDTV package on
cable networks. At present, the technical
specifications for HDTV receivers suitable for
Premiere are being set up. The marketing of HDTV
receivers suitable for Premiere is scheduled to begin
during the run-up to the Christmas season 2005.

HARMONIC ADOPTS HARMONIC DVB
Harmonic Inc. announced that Digital Playout Center
(DPC), a subsidiary of Premiere Fernsehen, has
deployed an integrated, standards-based content
protection and service management solution from
Harmonic. DPC, Germany's largest satellite
broadcaster, is using Harmonic's award-winning
Broadcast Network Gateway (BNG) and NMX Digital
Service Manager to increase the security and
availability of its digital TV service. This
DVB-compliant solution is compatible with DPC's
existing headend and customer premises equipment,
bringing greater operational control and flexibility
while ensuring a seamless customer experience. The
DPC, a subsidiary of Premiere Fernsehen, operates one
of the most modern transmission centers in Europe.
Today, the broadcast center transmits by satellite
more than 100 digital TV and radio channels as well as
data services for Premiere. In addition to
transporting content for Premiere, DPC also transmits
programming for ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Home Shopping
Europe HSE 24, German sport television DSF, use Tele
5, 9Live and many others.

HUNGARY

SBS TO LAUNCH SECOND TV CHANNEL
SBS Broadcasting will launch Irisz, its second
television channel in the Hungarian market, on
September 13, and will be broadcast from 18:00 to
23:00 on the Hungarian feed of Club, a television
channel dedicated to women's entertainment. Irisz will
initially reach approximately 680,000 homes through
cable carriage on UPC Hungary, Hungary's largest cable
operator, and other local networks. Irisz will be a
female entertainment channel broadcast in the
Hungarian language and focused on the key 18-49 female
audience. Its programming schedule will complement
Club's female focus and leverage SBS's Hungarian
library. Irisz will consist of a mixture of popular
local productions and international programming. The
channel will be programmed and broadcast under a Dutch
broadcasting license. Launched in 1999, Club is a
television channel dedicated to women's entertainment
and is available in 20 countries across Europe and in
nine languages.

TURKEY

DIGITURK OPTS FOR UNIVERSAL ELECTRONICS
Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) on September 9
announced it has entered into an agreement through its
wholly owned subsidiary Universal Electronics to
exclusively provide the Omega and Zapper remote
controls for DIGITURK's new interactive set-top box.
DIGITURK, the largest subscription satellite
television operator in Turkey, plans to distribute
these set-top boxes to customers starting in August.
DIGITURK broadcasts over the Eutelsat WA satellite
since the beginning of April 2000 and has more than
122 channels today. Since operations began in March
2000, DIGITURK has grown to over 700,000 subscribers,
with the total number of homes serviced in two years
exceeding 3 million.

SWEDEN

MTG FILES SUIT CANAL DIGITAL
Modern Times Group has filed suit against Sweden's
Canal Digital, alleging that the platform has been
carrying Viasat Broadcasting's TV3, ZTV and TV8
without authorization. Viasat has applied to the
Swedish Market Court, seeking to block Canal Digital
from using reference to the three channels in its
marketing materials. Swedish viewers who want access
to the three channels can subscribe to Boxer's digital
terrestrial television pay-TV package. Albrecht added,
"We launched a new offer in Sweden last week enabling
viewers to subscribe to Viasat's pay-TV services in
the most simple and inexpensive way ever. New
subscribers signing up for Viasat's premium pay-TV
package in Sweden, Viasat Gold, now receive a free
dish, a free digital decoder and free installation."

Regards Satdude.

Satdude

Satellite news 22.09.04

News

UK

OFCOM SETS ANALOGUE SWITCH-OFF DATE
The countdown to analogue switch-off could begin as
early as 2007 and terrestrial broadcasters must turn
off analogue signals by the end of 2012, media and
communications regulator Office of Communications
(Ofcom) said on September 14. About half the United
Kingdom's 22 million homes currently have some form of
digital television, but the announcement means that
second and third sets in many of these homes, as well
as the 11 million or so homes that have yet to adopt
any digital technology, will have to complete the
changeover process within seven years. "Progress has
been made in discussion between the government, Ofcom
and the public service broadcasters on the timing for
digital switch-over. ... 2012 may be the most
appropriate date for switch-over completion. This
could mean beginning the switching sequence as early
as 2007," Ofcom said in a statement.

BS*yB HANDS OVER MUSIC CHANNELS TO CHART SHOW
BS*yB said on September 14 that it had handed over the
running of its three branded-music channels to a rival
in a bid to reduce costs. Indie-themed Amp, rock
channel Scuzz and pop network Flaunt will now be
managed by music channel specialist Chart Show
Channels, following a review of the struggling brands
by S*y Networks program head Dawn Airey. CSC, which
operates pop channel Chart Show TV, retro channel the
Vault and Bollywood network B4, will manage editorial
content and the day-to-day running for the S*y
channels, but ownership will remain with the satellite
broadcaster.

BBC CRITICISED OVER TOO MUCH U.S. MOVIES
The BBC has come under attack for spending less than
£10 million on buying British films - out of a total
movie budget of more than £70 million. Film-makers on
September 14 accused the corporation of being biased
in favour of US movies over homegrown releases. In the
last financial year, out of 912 films shown on BBC1
and BBC2 only 180 of them were British, of which
two-thirds were more than 25 years old. Producers are
also calling on the BBC to increase its funding of
British feature films through its BBC Films arm, run
by Alan Yentob. The corporation spent around £10
million on UK film investment in the year to April
2004 - less than 0.4% of its licence fee income. The
BBC spent £9.9 million buying UK films in the 12
months to April 2004, down from £13.8 million in the
previous 12 months, according to research commissioned
from David Graham & Associates. Spending on American
films rose by more than 50% over the same period, from
£39.3 million to £61.5 million. Spending on films from
the rest of the world amounted to £1.8 million.

ITV SIGNS UP FOR ASTRA TRANSPONDERS
SES ASTRA has clinched an important two-transponder
deal with ITV, the UK's biggest commercial television
network. ITV, which already has three ASTRA
transponders, will use the additional capacity to
expand its digital offer including more regional and
interactive services. The agreement demonstrates the
strong UK demand for the 28.2 degrees orbital slot and
confirms SES ASTRA and Britain's position as the key
players in the European satellite market. ITV is the
biggest commercial television network in the UK and
ITV1 is Britain's most popular commercial TV channel
with an average weekly audience of 45 million. ITV1 is
also the UK's regional channel, broadcasting more than
6000 hours of original programming each year and
around half of this output is made outside the M25.
ITV2 is the company's younger entertainment channel
and in 2003 it was the UK's fastest growing digital
channel.

NTL BROADCAST TRANSMITS THE MOVE CHANNEL
NTL Broadcast has signed a five year deal with The
Move Channel to provide an end-to-end channel
management package that includes space segment on
Eurobird, providing access to S*y Digital. The Move
Channel therefore becomes NTL Broadcast's first
customer for it newly acquired Eurobird 1
direct-to-home capacity. The contract includes offices
and play out from NTL's Broadcast Media Centre, fibre
connectivity to the company's Winchester teleport,
uplinking and space segment. The new channel started
broadcasting on September 13. The Move Channel, a
venture of The Move Channel TV, will be a property
information channel on digital satellite, catering for
people needing information about properties and
related services. NTL Broadcast announced in June that
it had secured a transponder lease on the Eurobird 1
satellite located at the popular 28.5 degrees East
slot, enabling the company to offer competitive
end-to-end services to new channel entrants on the S*y
Digital platform. NTL Broadcast already operates
shared multiplexes on Transponders 13, 18, 22 and 37
on Astra 2A, and Transponder 17 on Astra 2B. In total,
the company provides full-time transmission for around
160 TV channels, increasingly adding play out and
other services from its Broadcast Media Centre at
Feltham in west London.

SCOTTISH BORDERS PREPARE FOR ANALOGUE SWITCH-OFF
Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Scottish
borders are to lose their normal TV service after
media watchdog Ofcom earmarked the region as the first
in Britain to have its analogue signal switched off
completely. It means that the regular over-the-air
analogue services will be phased out and only those
who are connected to digital services on satellite,
cable or the terrestrial digital service, Freeview
will be able to watch TV. The area - which covers the
western area of the British Isles from the north of
the Lake District in England to southern Scotland and
also includes the Isle of Man - has a population of
just 450,000 and includes just one major city,
Carlisle. Several areas had previously been mooted as
potential test beds for the switchover, including the
Channel Islands and south London. The border region
has almost certainly been chosen as the first to be
pencilled in for switchover because of its small
population and the fact that it is covered by distinct
transmitters that don't "bleed" into other regions. A
pilot project in Wales will see the residents of two
Carmarthenshire villages, Ferryside and Llansteffan,
become the first in Britain to have analogue
terrestrial transmissions switched off and replaced by
digital signals in Spring next year. The trial numbers
only several hundred houses and all those not
converted to digital sets will receive a Freeview
set-top box free of charge.

TALKSPORT TO LAUNCH TV CHANNEL
TalkSPORT is planning to launch a national TV service
on S*y Digital as radio stations continue their
migration onto the small screen. Kiss FM, Radio 1 and
other stations are fixtures on S*y and Freeview, but
only as audio services. TalkSPORT, the national AM
station owned by the Wireless Group, said it was in
talks with BS*yB to launch a TV channel by the end of
next month. Kelvin MacKenzie, chief executive of the
Wireless Group, said TalkSPORT TV will broadcast in a
daily six-hour slot initially, but hopes to launch a
24-hour service in the new year. The channel will cost
no more than £500,000 a year to run, reflecting a
stripped-down service that will broadcast live footage
of TalkSPORT presenters and pundits in the studio.
MacKenzie downplayed the company's TV ambitions,
describing the move as "a marketing tool".

CHANNEL 4 BUYS TWO TRANSPONDERS FROM ASTRA
SES ASTRA has further strengthened its position as the
UK's leading direct-to-home (DTH) satellite company
with a major two-transponder contract with Channel 4.
It is SES ASTRA's first direct deal with the British
terrestrial channel, and the transmission capacity
will be used across a variety of Channel 4's digital
channels as well as its extensive range of associated
interactive TV applications. Channel 4 was created by
Act of Parliament in 1982 and broadcasts across the
entire UK with the exception of some parts of Wales,
which are covered by the Welsh language S4C. It is
available on all digital platforms - terrestrial,
satellite and cable - and via conventional analogue
transmission. In addition to Channel 4, the Channel
Four Group runs a number of pay channels including the
E4 entertainment channel, E4+1 and three film
channels.

NTL GETS FIRST ASTRA TRANSPONDER
SES ASTRA has announced its first transponder contract
with the Broadcast division of communications giant
ntl. The agreement gives ntl additional capacity in
the rapidly expanding UK market for small channel
launches. The deal allows ntl to offer a seamless
one-stop-shop solution including studio facilities and
play out services from its Broadcast Media Centre at
Feltham, contribution links, and the ASTRA 28.2
degrees East satellite uplink and downlink. It will be
of particular interest to new broadcasters and
satellite channel start-ups. ntl's Broadcast division
uplinks around 150 services from three teleports in
London and Hampshire.

FREEVIEW VIEWERS UP 2%
Communications watchdog Ofcom has updated its digital
penetration figures for Q2 2004, with the overall
digital uptake rising 2% since the previous quarter to
55% of all UK homes. Digital TV is now in 13.7 million
homes, with 630,000 new households buying into the new
technology in the three months to June 30. Combined
with the 4% of homes still using analogue cable,
multichannel penetration stands at 59%. Platform-by
platform, uptake of free-to-air DTT service Freeview
increased by 12.1%, with the total number of
households receiving the BBC-backed service now
estimated to be around 3.89 million. Furthermore, the
number of free-to-air digital users rose to 4.2
million, an increase of 13.4% from the previous
quarter.

Regards Satdude.

Satdude

Satellite news 27.09.04

News

United Kingdom

BORDER TV TO BECOME ALL DIGITAL
Sparsely populated Border TV region has emerged as
favourite to be the digital television guinea pig for
the UK, but large parts of the area, including much of
West Cumbria, still cannot receive the digital
terrestrial signal. Thousands of TV sets and videos
would be rendered useless without digital Freeview
boxes when the analogue signal is turned off. And
research shows only 43 per cent of Cumbrian households
have satellite TV, which will continue work after the
switchover. Freeview boxes currently retail at
Ł50 upwards and one digital box will be needed
for each TV set in the home. This week it emerged that
the regular over-the-air analogue services will be
phased out nationwide by 2012. The Government has
always vowed not to switch off the analogue network
until the majority of homes have upgraded to digital.
But some believe the Border region will be used to
find out what level of uptake is politically
acceptable.

ITV SELLS THOMSON STAKE
ITV has sold its stake in Thomson, the French media
and information group. According to the Financial
Times, ITV has agreed to sell 5.5 per cent of Thomson,
with a book value of £162 million, to the investment
banks Citigroup and UBS. ITV said it will use the
proceeds to pay down its debt. This is ITV's second
sale of non-core businesses. The first was Carlton
Books in August.

CEEFAX CELEBRATES 30TH BIRTHDAY
The BBC's teletext service - Ceefax - celebrated its
30th anniversary this week. Launched on September 23,
1974, Ceefax was developed by BBC broadcast engineers
who were working on ways of providing subtitles for
the deaf. They found that a normal television picture
of 625 lines has "spare" lines at the top of the
picture that could be used to transmit words or
numbers. The first time the public heard the name
Ceefax - which stands for See-Facts - was late in
1972, in advance of the first experimental
transmissions. It went live in 1974 but one of the
early problems was it cost more than £300 to buy a
decoder and £700 for a new set. But as prices dropped,
demand grew and by 1985, the number of TV sets with
access to Ceefax was more than two million. The
service now has more than 20 million viewers a week.

FOOTBALL LEAGUE TO SUE OVER ITV DIGITAL DEAL
The Football League is launching legal action against
the solicitors who advised them on the ITV Digital
deal that fell apart in 2002. Many clubs outside the
top flight were left in financial limbo after ITV
Digital went into administration in March of that year
owing £178.5 million for the remaining two seasons of
its contract with the League. Some clubs ended up in
administration as a result and the League are now
suing law firm Hammonds Solicitors for alleged
negligence or breach of contract. Sir Brian Mawhinney,
the Football League chairman, has confirmed that High
Court proceedings have been issued against Hammonds,
previously known as Edge Ellison, the legal advisors
to the League during contract negotiations with ITV
Digital in 2000. The last legal action by the League
over the ITV Digital contract ended in defeat two
years ago when they failed in their efforts to make
ITV parent companies Carlton and Granada pay up
instead. The deal struck in June 2000 gave ONDigital
the right to broadcast Football League matches for
three seasons from 2001/2 but in the already-inflated
TV market it proved prohibitively costly. Television
audiences for matches were often outnumbered by crowds
at the games and the TV channel collapsed after less
than a season.

BT TAKES ON BS*yB
BT is to go head-to-head with BS*yB in the pay-TV
markets by launching its own digital set-top box in
conjunction with Freeview. The telecoms giant will
this week begin trials of the box, initally dubbed "BT
Freeview Plus", which will provide customers with
digital TV through a conventional TV aerial and
video-on-demand through a broadband internet
connection. It will become the central element in BT's
"new wave" strategy, which seeks to replace declining
revenues from traditional services, such as fixed-line
phonecalls, with new services such as broadband
Internet. The hybrid TV/internet device will cost
marginally more than existing Freeview boxes, which
retail at around £50. But customers will be able to
pay to download films and thousands of programmes
using their BT broadband internet connection. BT has
already secured the support of the BBC and a number of
other broadcasters for the service. TV stations that
already broadcast on Freeview include Channel 4, Five,
Ideal World, FTN, QVC, and the Community Channel.
Unlike the S*y Plus box, BT Freeview Plus will not
have a hard disk, so it will be able to record and
store downloaded programmes. Trials of BT Freeview
Plus will begin this week with just a few hundred
pre-selected customers. Subcribers will be slowly
built up over the next few months with a full
commercial launch planned for next summer.

INMEDIA LAUNCHES ADVERT CHANNEL
The Advert Channel has signed a three-year contract
with independent global communications company,
Inmedia, that will see Britain get its first 24 hour
TV station dedicated solely to airing adverts.
Broadcasting on the S*y digital satellite channel 694,
the Advert Channel is dedicated to bringing viewers
the best (and worst) TV adverts from around the world,
with a focus on adverts as a form of entertainment,
culture and from an artistic and creative aspect.
Programmes on the station will include Ad Chat, where
presenters will chat live about the top TV adverts;
Advert Focus, looking at ads making the news; Adverts
for You, featuring the adverts that make you laugh,
cry and those that are controversial; and Adverts
Today, a behind-the-scenes look at how top adverts are
made. Themed shows will focus on commercials of a
certain era and segments, such as ads from the 60's,
70's, 80's and 90's, late night adverts, sports and
celebrity adverts. The deal will ensure the smooth
delivery of the new channel's 24 hour programming to
S*y's 7.3 million subscribers using Inmedia's
fully-managed playout and satellite uplinking via its
Eurobird transponder.

E U R O P E


FRANCE

FOOTBALL TV RIGHTS PROCESS INITIATES
France's football league, the Ligue de Football
Professionnel, said potential bidders for rights to
broadcast top-flight French football matches over the
next three years have until the end of this month to
declare their interest in taking part in an upcoming
auction of the rights. In a legal notice posted on the
league's web site, the LFP said it will launch the
auction "in the next few weeks". The main contenders
for the rights are expected to be Canal Plus, Vivendi
Universal's pay-TV unit, and TPS, a digital TV
platform jointly-owned by TF1 and M6. Analysts say
fierce competition between the two main bidders could
push the price of the rights to over ?500 million.
Under the current deal, Canal Plus holds most of the
rights in a package worth around ?365 million.

FRENCH INTERESTED IN BRITISH DTT MODEL
A French government delegation met on September 22
British ministerial counterparts and broadcasters to
discuss applying UK's model for digital TV services in
France. Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the French culture
minister, is also due for talks at Ofcom, the media
regulator, over the timetable for switching off
analogue signals in favour of multi-channel digital TV
transmissions. The French government has set a target
to achieve 35 per cent digital TV penetration by March
2005, rising to 85 per cent by 2007.

GERMANY

KABEL DEUTSCHLAND DROPS TAKEOVER ATTEMPT
German cable giant Kabel Deutschland (KDG) said on
September 22 that it has dropped its $3.3 billion
takeover attempt of three regional cable companies
after failing to receive regulatory approval for the
deal. KDG had planned to buy out regional operators
Ish Iesy and Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg in a deal that
would have given the company a virtual monopoly on the
German market and up KDG's subscriber base from 7
million to 17 million customers. The deal appeared to
be dead after Germany's antitrust watchdog expressed
reservations in August. The authorities said they were
worried that KDG was not willing to invest enough to
develop high-speed Internet and cable telephony
services -- one of the main reasons the federal
watchdog rejected John Malone's bid for six German
cable networks two years ago. KDG had offered to
invest more than $2 billion over the next 10 years in
Internet and telephone services.

SABAN TO TAKE MAJORITY STAKE IN PROSIEBENSAT.1
Haim Saban will gain a majority stake in broadcaster
ProSiebenSat.1 following an agreement with media
company KirchMedia. The group of Saban and five
private equity firms will raise its stake to 50.5 per
cent from 37.6 per cent, as KirchMedia's unit Taurus
TV sells a 12.9 per cent stake to finance payments to
creditors Axel Springer and Universal Studios. Saban,
took control of ProSiebenSat.1 in August 2003 by
buying a 36 per cent stake, with 72 per cent of the
voting rights, from bankrupt KirchMedia. Meanwhile,
the administrator of KirchMedia announced that the
company's unit Taurus TV has ended insolvency
proceedings after reaching an agreement with
creditors. Universal Studios, owned by General
Electric, will receive a 'confidential payment,'
KirchMedia said. Europe's largest newspaper publisher
Axel Springer, will get 1.8 per cent of ProSiebenSat.1
shares from Kirch, increasing its stake in TV
broadcaster from 10.2 per cent to 12 per cent, as part
of a settlement and will also get ?60.3 million from
Kirch.

HISTORY AND NEW DISNEY CHANNELS PLANNED
After a general meeting of regional media regulators,
the AETN German subsidiary The History Channel has
obtained a licence to broadcast in the country. The
channel, which will be part of cable operator KDG's
digital bouquet, is launching September 27. KDG
reaches over 10 million homes of which currently
100,000 have subscribed to digital offers. In
addition, Disney's German unit has been licensed to
provide new thematic channels. Buena Vista Germany
intends to launch its classic animation channel 'Toon
Disney' and its pre-school offer 'Playhouse Disney',
after securing long term agreements with pay-TV
platforms.

ITALY

NEWS CORP TO BECOME SOLE OWNER OF S*y ITALIA
News Corp. Ltd should reach a deal on September 28 to
buy the remaining 20% of pay-TV broadcaster S*y Italia
it doesn't already own from Telecom Italia, a person
familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires.
"The two companies are working to close the deal on
September 28 for the agreed price of ?88 million," the
person said.

RUSSIA

CTC PREPARES SECOND NETWORK
The country's leading private commercial television
network, CTC, is set to spend $100 million on building
a new second-tier entertainment network. The
as-yet-unnamed network will target women viewers and a
broader age range than its current core youth
audience, CTC president and CEO Alexander RodnyanS*y
said on September 22. The new network -- which will
launch in the spring -- will be based around a core of
four stations recently purchased in Moscow, St.
Petersburg, Perm and Kazan, and comes as part of a
strategic market restructuring that includes a change
of name for the network's parent company from
StoryFirst Communications to CTC Media.

DIGITAL TV IN MOSCOW IN TWO YEARS
Digital television will come to Moscow in two years,
Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network
Director Gennady Sklyar said. He pointed out that
there was just one digital transmitter for channel 32
on the Ostankino television tower. However, Pavel
Komarov, the Deputy General Director of the Ostankino
television tower, noted that some 4 to 5 new digital
channels would be launched by the end of 2004. A $1
million transmitter for Channel One, which is capable
of broadcasting programs in digital format, was
launched on November 1, 2003. However, this
transmitter is not used in a digital mode since there
are no legal procedures on transferring from analogue
to digital television broadcast.

SPAIN

SOGECABLE TO INVEST IN SPANISH MOVIES
Pay-TV operator Sogecable said on September 21 that it
has reached landmark deals with some of the country's
independent distributors for specific titles to
complete its programming lineup. The deals end a
drought for acquisitions by the Spanish giant for
content from Spanish distributors brought on by the
backlog of titles after the merger of Sogecable and
rival platform Via Digital last year. The deals --
signed with Golem, Vertigo, Wanda, Musidora and Alta
Films -- are for as many as a dozen specific, already
released titles with distributors that Sogecable felt
are key to completing its quality programming slate.

PRISA TO INCREASE SOGECABLE STAKE
Media group Prisa confirmed it is going to raise its
shares in pay-TV group Sogecable up to 24 per cent
over the next months. Announcing the news, CEO Juan
Luis Cebrian, said that the move is aimed at "making
our presence in Sogecable the same as Telefonica", so
keeping the balance of power within the company.
Currently, Prisa holds 22 per cent in the pay-TV
group. Since the merger between the two digital DTH
platforms, Canal Satelite and Via Digital to create
Digital Plus, in June 2003, Prisa has increased its
shares several times, from the initial 16 per cent up
to the present 22 per cent.

SWEDEN

VIASAT SUCCESSFUL IN COURT AGAINST CANAL DIGITAL
Modern Times Group on September 23 announced that its
application to the Swedish Market Court for a court
injunction to prohibit Canal Digital from mentioning
Viasat's TV3, ZTV and TV8 entertainment channels in
its marketing material has had the desired result.
Canal Digital has notified the Market Court that it
has changed its marketing accordingly and has assured
the Court that the Viasat Channels will not be used in
future marketing campaigns or materials. No injunction
is therefore required at this time. The Viasat
channels therefore continue to be available only to
subscribers on the Viasat DTH satellite platform, the
Boxer digital terrestrial network in Sweden and cable
networks with which Viasat has agreements.

TURKEY

TRT MOST POPULAR TV CHANNEL
According to a public poll conducted by the
state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation
(TRT), they are the most watched television channel in
the country. The results of the face to face survey
conducted on 2,140 people in 15 cities in May and June
show that 97.3 per cent of people watch TV, and TRT
was the most watched channel with 17 per cent. Show TV
followed with 14.1 per cent, ATV with 13.9 per cent,
Kanal D with 13.1 and Star TV with 8.4 per cent. TRT
shows between 6 and 9 p.m. were the ones most watched,
with culture and magazine programs being the most
popular, noted the poll. Of those polled, 72.87 per
cent listed the travel documentary "Gezelim Gorelim"
as their favorite program on the channel, while the
local music show "Yorelerimiz Turkulerimiz" came
second with 64.49 per cent. The dramas on TRT were
also very popular among those polled. When asked what
type of programs they wanted to watch on TV, 18.6 per
cent said foreign movies and documentaries. More local
dramas came second with 18.1 per cent. When asked
about which news programs they watched, TRT was also
the most popular. TRT news programs were watched by 33
per cent, while ATV received 15, Kanal D 13.4 and Show
TV 11.6 per cent. Among channels that exclusively
broadcast news, NTV was the most popular with 48.3 per
cent, followed by CNN-Turk with 28.9 and TRT-2 with
15.8 per cent. When asked how trustworthy they found
the TV channels, participants' answer showed that the
TRT-1 was the most trusted, with 32.8 per cent,
followed by NTV (14 per cent), CNN-Turk (8.8 per
cent), ATV (7.7 per cent), Kanal 7 (7.1 per cent) and
TRT-2 (5.9 per cent).

Regards Satdude.

Satdude

Satellite news 04.10.04

News

UK

OFCOM PROPOSES NEW PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER
Media regulator Ofcom is proposing the introduction of
a new TV channel to broadcast public service
programmes in the UK. The new network could cost
around £300 million a year to run, the watchdog said.
Ofcom's ideas are set out in its second interim report
on public service broadcasting (PSB), with a final
review to be published at the end of the year. Channel
4 will be a "critical second provider" of public
service broadcasting alongside the BBC, Ofcom says.
Meanwhile ITV1 will be allowed to phase out its
regional non-news programmes, with some of those
responsibilities passing to the BBC. The BBC should
continue to be paid for through the licence fee "as
long as it retains broad public support" and
contributes to society. Ofcom says advertising and
direct government funding should be ruled out for the
BBC but says the nature of the TV licence fee could
change in the future. It suggests three "realistic"
ways to fund the new public service channel, as public
service broadcasting in general. Licence fee payers
could be charged an "enhanced" fee, taxpayers could
pay through a government grant or UK broadcasters
could be taxed on their turnover.

EEEZEE TV PLANS HOME SHOPPING VENTURE
Kleeneze, the home shopping specialist, has announced
an investment of some £4 million over two years in a
joint venture TV shopping channel carried on S*y
Digital channel 664. The channel, which the group has
branded eezee TV, will broadcast as a pre-recorded
channel until March 2005. In March 2005 eezee TV will
be re-launched as a live channel with 16 hours live
programming and 8 hours pre-recorded programming
daily, giving a 24-hour a day service. Kleeneze said
that the expansion into television shopping presents
significant cross-promotional and cross-selling
opportunities for the group. The joint venture
partner, JML, is a well-established retail distributor
and producer of promotional videos and has broadcast
the pre-recorded shopping channel under the name JML
Direct since 2002.

ITV SIGNS WARNER BROS OUTPUT DEAL
ITV has inked a volume deal with Warner Bros
International Television Distribution. ITV has
acquired feature films from Warner Bros' 2003, 2004
and 2005 theatrical slates including titles like Harry
Potter sequels The Chamber of Secrets & The Prisoner
of Azkaban, plus Matrix spin-offs Reloaded and
Revolutions. Also in the mixed bag are Scooby Doo and
Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, The Last Samurai,
Troy, Ocean's 11 and the upcoming Ocean's 12, The
Polar Express and Alexander. The deal includes library
titles like Unforgiven, The Fugitive, The Matrix,
Maverick, Lethal Weapon and Wild, Wild West. ITV3,
aimed at the over-35s, is due to start transmission on
November 1, airing UK reruns like Prime Suspect and
Cold Feet and US crime drama and feature films. US
drama imports already acquired for the network include
Crossing Jordan, LA Dragnet, Quincy and Karen Sisco.

BS*yB SEES DVR FUTURE
BS*yB is hoping digital video recorder technology
might help resolve the problem of the subscriber
growth stall. Figures out on September 28 suggest that
1 million U.K. households will be plugged into DVR
technology within the next year. Some 400,000 of
BS*yB's 7.4 million subscribers have S*y Plus boxes,
and S*y hopes to increase this number to 2.5 million
by 2010. Despite S*y's marketing push, however,
consumers are confused about the benefits of DVRs,
which allow viewers to record programs onto a hard
disc. According to Continental Research, less than
four in 10 people understand what DVRs are, with
awareness highest among young men in S*y Digital
homes. Meanwhile, S*y launched a new service enabling
S*y Plus boxes to record interactive programs.

BS*yB LAUNCHES BIGGEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IN YEARS
BS*yB unveiled its biggest advertising campaign in six
years on September 30 as it seeks to reverse slowing
subscriber growth and wrest back the initiative from
Freeview. John Florsheim, managing director of sales
and marketing at BS*yB, admitted previous advertising
campaigns had not won over the 11 million terrestrial
viewers in Britain. Freeview watchers and families
with nursery-age children - a prime BS*yB customer -
will be among the groups targeted by a three-month
push. The advertising blitz follows a strategic shift
ordered by James Murdoch, the chief executive, which
included raising the annual marketing budget by 50% to
£75 million. BS*yB is chasing subscriber targets of 8
million by next year and 10 million by 2010 amid a
marked slowdown in the growth of customer numbers.
BS*yB dominates the pay-TV market with 7.4 million
subscribers, with 90% of new customers buying top-tier
deals costing £39 to £41 per month. The group is now
targeting potential customers with cheaper packages,
previously a low priority. BS*yB added 66,000
customers in the first three months of 2004, but
disappointed the market when it gained 81,000
subscribers in the second quarter against expectations
of 100,000 to 130,000.

BBC COMPLETES SALE OF TECHNOLOGY UNIT TO SIEMENS
The BBC has completed the procurement for a 10-year
Technology Framework Contract (TFC) with Siemens
Business Services worth almost £2 billion. As part of
the landmark deal, Siemens Business Services has
acquired BBC Technology, a commercial subsidiary of
the BBC. BBC Technology will be renamed Siemens
Business Services Media Holdings. The BBC has received
approval for the sale from the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport and approval from the BBC
Governors for both the procurement and the sale. The
two-part deal covering both contract and acquisition -
the first of its kind in the media industry - means
Siemens Business Services will work closely with BBC
Technology Direction, the department responsible for
the BBC's technology strategy and development, to
deliver the BBC's technology services across the whole
corporation for the next 10 years. The BBC expects to
save around £30 million per annum over the life of the
contract.

BDA LAUNCHES PROPERTY CHANNEL
Production company BDA (Bruce Dunlop & Associates)
announced the launch of an entertainment-led property
channel on the S*y Platform. Real Estate TV will be
launched in October 2004 in the UK. Former Flextech
management board member Mark Dodd will be heading up
Real Estate TV in partnership with BDA. "In addition
to providing developers and agents with a new way to
market property not only in the UK, but across the
world, Real Estate TV differs from other dedicated
teleshopping channels by offering viewers a wide
selection of the latest editorial content, including
the channel's very own commissioned programmes, " the
company commented. Real Estate TV has also acquired
the programming rights for Property Rescue and the
exclusive rights to Location Location. Complementary
to the editorial content, Real Estate TV will also be
presenting a blend of teleshopping windows and spot
advertising. The interactive aspect of the channel
will be supported by Broadband and mobile telephone
services. The channel will air on S*y 18 hours a day,
from 6am to midnight, and negotiations to transmit the
channel over cable are underway with both NTL and
Telewest.

E U R O P E

ESPN SEEKS TO EXPAND IN EUROPE
The Walt Disney Company's ESPN sports television
network is in discussions with European broadcasters
to launch its first live channel in the region after
securing a beachhead with the introduction of its
Classic Sports platform Russell Wolff, managing
director of ESPN International, told The Times that
"we have had discussions, and are in discussions, with
a variety of people" to launch a live 24-hour ESPN
channel in Europe. The talks come as ESPN launches
ESPN Classic Sports on Germany's Kabel Deutschland,
taking its total audience across the region to more
than 14 million households in 37 countries. ESPN is
also in talks with BS*yB to broadcast the channel,
which replays footage from past sporting events. The
global expansion of ESPN is part of a broader strategy
at Disney to leverage the strength of its television
assets outside the US. Since 1995 Disney has launched
25 TV channels in 68 countries. Wolff said that Europe
was the last major market around the world where ESPN
did not have a live channel.

DENMARK

TV2 CHARLIE ON AIR
Commercial broadcaster TV2's new channel Charlie
launched on October 1 with a slew of drama titles
acquired from BBC Worldwide. Aimed at the 40+ crowd,
the channel will be carrying a mix of recent and
classic BBC series, from Pride & Prejudice and
Ballykissangel to Cambridge Spies and all seasons of
Monarch of the Glen and Judge John Deed. Other titles
included in the deal are: The Cazelets, Daniel
Deronda, The Way We Live Now, When the Boat Comes,
Take a Girl Like You, Wives and Daughters and Madame
Bovary. The volume deal with BBCWW follows TV2
Charlie's earlier deal with Granada International for
titles including Hornblower, Kavanagh QC, The Vice,
Jeeves & Wooster, The Brief, Moll Flanders, Catherine
Cookson titles, Peak Practice, The Hunt and Brideshead
Revisited. The new channel sits alongside the recently
launched TV2 Zulu, which is targeted towards the youth
market.

FRANCE

FIRST GAY TV STATION PREPARES FOR LAUNCH
Calling it "a giant leap for television, a small step
in high heels," organisers on September 27 launched
France's first TV channel aimed at gay, lesbian and
transgender audiences. PinkTV was unveiled in Paris,
where organisers believe most of the channel's
audience will be located. France estimates its gay
population to be about 3.5 million people. Accessible
by subscription and available in France via cable and
satellite starting October 25, PinkTV follows in the
footsteps of Canada's PrideVision, and gay channels in
the U.K. and Italy. Offering a mix of currant affairs
shows, films, documentaries, music programming and TV
series like the Canadian-produced Queer as Folk, the
channel has no plans to be militant, organisers said.
Pink TV will offer a slew of shows imported from
Britain and the United States, where gay programming
has become firmly established in the past few years.
Programmes will include "Metrosexuality", "Queer as
Folk" and "French and Saunders" -- all in English with
French subtitles. Gay opera and ballet and
documentaries will also be screened, as will interview
shows, notably one hosted by one of France's leading
news presenters, Claire Chazal.

GERMANY

DISNEY TO LAUNCH TWO CHANNELS ON CABLE PLATFORM
Playhouse Disney Channel and Toon Disney Channel are
set to launch in Germany on Kabel Deutschland's new
digital program platform Kabel Digital Home on
November 10. Playhouse Disney will be the first
dedicated preschool channel for Germany, featuring
shows like New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Stanley
and Bear in the Big Blue House. It will broadcast
daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Toon Disney will operate
for 24 hours a day with a slate of animated titles
such Disney's Recess and Disney's Kim Possible. The
German launches follow the two channels' previous
debuts in the UK, France and Spain. Alongside the
Disney offerings, KDG's new rival to Premiere will
also carry E! Entertainment, BBC Prime, Fashion TV,
13th Street, AXN, Sci-Fi, Kinowelt, History Channel,
Nat Geo, Planet, Extreme Sports, ESPN Classic Sports,
Sailing Channel, NASN, Motors TV, MTV Hits, MTV Dance,
VH1 Classic, Trace TV and Playboy TV.

FIRST PERSIAN TV CHANNEL STARTS BROADCASTING
Germany's first Farsi-language television station
"Mohajer International TV" has begun broadcasting a
24-hour test programme of music, dance, movies and
news. A spokesman said the digital station is
currently free to air on the Hotbird 6 satellite
system in Germany and hopes to broadcast to other
countries in Europe and the Middle East and eventually
Iran itself. He added that the station, in which a 50
per cent stake is held by Iranian businessman Hassan
Arpanahi, would like initially to reach the estimated
6,000 people from the Islamic Republic living in
Europe. He said the goal is to ultimately finance the
channel through advertising. Mohajer was given the
green light by German authorities to begin
broadcasting in July mainly because of its cultural
content, including programmes about music, the media,
film, lifestyle and cooking. It also has a documentary
show and news bulletins.

ESPN CLASSIC SPORT SIGNS CABLE DEAL
ESPN Classic Sport's English-language channel is now
available on Kabel Deutschland (KDG) in Germany. ESPN
Classic Sport, which will be included in KDG's new
digital home package, will transmit 24-hours a day,
seven days a week, offering German viewers a sporting
mix from Europe and around the world. It will also
feature a nightly two-hour German-language programming
block from 10pm, featuring some of Germany's greatest
athletes and most famous sporting moments. ESPN
Classic Sport already has distribution among
multi-channel homes in France and Italy (88 per cent
and 100 per cent, respectively) via affiliates such as
CanalSatellite, TPS, NOOS, FTC, UPC and S*y Italia.
ESPN Classic Sport is also available as a three-hour
branded block to 5.9 million subscribers in an
additional 11 European countries. In total, ESPN
Classic Sport programming can be seen in more than 14
million households in 37 countries.

NO-GO FOR KIRCH SUIT AGAINST DEUTSCHE BANK AND LIBERTY
MEDIA
A US court has thrown out a suit by former German
media mogul Leo Kirch against US cable operator
Liberty Media and German bank Deutsche Bank for
allegedly conspiring to bring about the downfall of
Kirch's media empire in 2002, Deutsche Bank revealed.
Kirch had filed a 39-page complaint with a court in
New York in January, accusing Deutsche Bank and
Liberty Media and their chairmen of plotting the
destruction of the Kirch Group in a bid to rid Liberty
Media of an unwelcome rival in the German cable
television market and secure hefty commissions for
Deutsche Bank. The complaint alleged that Liberty
Media and its chairman John Malone and Deutsche Bank
and its former chairman Rolf Breuer "conspired to
undermine a deal Kirch was negotiating to bring his
privately-owned group public by 2004". But the court
found that Kirch had failed to prove his case and
"dismissed (the suit) for failure to state a claim,"
according to a copy of the ruling made available by
Deutsche Bank. The conflict dates back to comments
made by Deutsche Bank's then chairman Breuer made on
television in 2002, in which he publicly questioned
the creditworthiness of the Kirch group. Soon
afterwards, banks refused to lend Kirch any more money
and KirchMedia, the main pillar of the Kirch Group,
filed for insolvency in April 2002.

PLAYBOY SIGNS CARRIAGE DEAL
Playboy TV International has reached a deal to launch
on KDG's Kabel Digital Home platform. Playboy TV will
air nightly from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Initially
available in English, the channel will add
German-dubbed programming over the course of its
rollout. The new platform launched on September 27.
Germany's Federal Cartel Office last week vetoed KDG's
plans to merge with three regional cable operators.
Operating cable services in 13 German states, with a
reach of more than 10m households, Munich-based KDG is
already Europe's biggest cable operator.

NEW HOME SHOPPING CHANNEL ON ASTRA
SES ASTRA and 1-2-3.TV have announced the launch of a
new concept in home shopping. On 1-2-3.TV, it is the
customers who decide the price of each product by
making an offer for each item by telephone. If that
offer is one of the highest received for the items
being presented, the purchase then takes place. The
new channel is available throughout Europe via ASTRA
19.2° East (transponder 47; downlink frequency
11170.75 MHz; horizontal polarisation) and in digital
(frequency 12.46050 GHz; horizontal polarisation,
symbol rate 27.5; FEC 3/4). In addition to managing
directors Dr. Andreas Büchelhofer and Henning
Schnepper, the company's shareholders include the
venture capital companies Wellington Partners, 3i,
Target Partners and Cuneo AG. 1-2-3.TV GmbH is hoping
to break even in its third financial year, by which
time it expects to have achieved approximately half a
million registered customers.

BBC PRIME ADDS GERMAN SUBSCRIBERS
BBC Prime expands in Germany with KDGBBC Worldwide,
the commercial consumer arm of the BBC, and Kabel
Deutschland (KDG), Germany's leading cable network,
have announced an agreement to provide carriage for
British entertainment channel, BBC Prime, across
Germany. BBC Prime has been selected by KDG for
inclusion in its new Kabel Digital HOME package,
launched this week in Munich, which heralds a major
push to drive digital uptake in Germany. BBC Prime is
broadcast to over 20 million subscribers across
Europe, the Middle East and Africa on cable and
satellite. This flagship British cable channel shows
the best of the BBC's award-winning programmes from
drama, comedy, children's, documentary, film, music,
lifestyle series and celebrity talkshows.

ITALY

NEWS CORP BECOMES SOLE OWNER OF S*y ITALIA
News Corp. on September 28 said that it agreed to buy
the 20 per cent of S*y Italia, the
satellite-television broadcaster that it does not
already own from Telecom Italia for ?88 million. The
deal comes as News Corp., the media conglomerate
controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family, seeks to
make S*y Italia break even next year. Telecom Italia
is selling non-core assets to meet its year-end target
of cutting its debt to below ?30 billion. News Corp.
formed S*y Italia, Italy's only satellite TV provider,
last year after buying rival Tele+ from Vivendi
Universal and merging it with Stream, as News Corp.'s
satellite channel was called. S*y Italia has 2.7
million subscribers. Telecom Italia, which runs two TV
stations in Italy, was prevented from exercising
management control over S*y Italia because of
antitrust rules approving News Corp.'s purchase of
Tele+.

THE NETHERLANDS

DE MOL BUYS DUTCH FOOTBALL TEAM TV RIGHTS
Dutch billionaire and media mogul John de Mol, through
his investment company Talpa Capital, has bought up
the rights to broadcast all six away games for the
Dutch team in the qualification rounds for the World
Cup in 2006. Talpa outbid Dutch broadcasters RTL
Netherlands, SBS Broadcasting and the Dutch public
broadcasters for the rights to the qualification
matches which all three other contenders said were too
expensive for them to take on. First broadcast of the
away games will be seen October 9, well before De
Mol's new venture is set to kick off. The six away
games for the Dutch team were said to have cost as
much as ?900,000 per game. .

CASEMA TO OFFER FREE DIGITAL TV CHANNELS
Cable operator Casema intends to add an additional 40
to 50 digital TV channels for free with the standard
analogue TV package as of January 1. With this offer,
Casema hopes to attract more customers to digital
television. At the moment, Casema has around 24,000
digital subscribers. In order to be able to watch the
free stations, customers will still need to buy a
digital receiver, which is available for between ?100
and ?200. Casema is aims for a penetration of digital
receivers of ten per cent by the end of 2005, and 80
per cent within five years. Casema is the third cable
operator in the Netherlands with 1.3 million
subscribers.

POLAND

TP PLANS DIGITAL PAY-TV SERVICE
In a few months TP will offer its customers digital TV
and thus will enter direct competition with cable
television operators. According to local press
reports, the company might offer its services 20-30%
cheaper than currently offered by the largest cable
operators. "We might pitch our offer in Q2 2005, with
a test phase probably beginning early next year," said
Mariusz Gaca, director of the multimedia division of
TP. A key advantage the phone company will have is its
range, as it will be able to enter the homes of
broadband Internet subscribers.

RUSSIA

MURDOCH SEEKS TO EXPAND INTO RUSSIA
Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, wants to
expand his operations into Russian television, where
he plans to create a pay-for-view platform and produce
TV programs, Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Marty
Pompadur, one of Murdoch's aides, who is currently on
a fact-finding mission in Russia. "We are looking for
other investments," Pompadur told the newspaper. "We
are looking to add to our radio and our outdoor
[advertising] holdings, and we are interested in
pay-TV and content." The company is considering
satellite, cable and broadband Internet as ways of
creating a pay-TV platform in Russia. As Russian
Internet news resource Newsru.com reported, in
November 2003 Murdoch was considering the possibility
of buying part of the shares in the Russian satellite
television company NTV Plus but the negotiations
brought no positive results.

Regards Satdude.

Satdude

Satellite news 12.10.04

News

UK

BBC PROGRAMMES IN THE S*Y
The BBC is in discussions with Boeing to start
providing airline passengers with live in-flight
television. The US aircraft maker plans to start
offering live TV next spring through its Connexion by
Boeing system which entered service with the German
flag carrier Lufthansa in May and has also been
selected by seven other airlines. Passengers will be
able to choose from four live channels supplied by
different broadcasters, by connecting their laptops to
an on-board internet service. As well as the BBC,
Boeing is also thought to have approached the US cable
television network CNN. One of the BBC programmes
which could be screened is the News 24 channel. The
Connexion service costs $29.95 for unlimited access on
long-haul flights of more than six hours. There is
also a pay-by-the-minute tariff.

FLEXTECH PLANS REALITY TV CHANNEL
Flextech, the programming arm of cable group Telewest,
is to launch a new channel specialising in reality and
entertainment TV. The group, which runs the UKTV
network in partnership with BBC Worldwide, is aiming
to launch Living TV 2 by the end of the year in a bid
to turn Living into the UK's "sixth" main TV channel.
The channel, already home to controversial shows such
as Extreme Makeover, said it intends to use the
channel to broadcast the latest reality shows and to
beef up coverage of its monthly TV events such as Most
Haunted Live.

BBC WORLD BEST EUROPEAN NEWS CHANNEL
BBC World has beat S*y News, EuroNews and Rai Med to
win Europe's Best News Channel at the Hot Bird awards,
which celebrate multichannel broadcasting in Europe.
The BBC was described as "the most complete and
exhaustive source of TV news in the year 2004" by an
independent panel of media journalists. Several
hundred television channels were eligible to enter the
Hot Bird TV Awards, organised by the satellite
operator Eutelsat, which took place at a ceremony in
Venice, Italy. BBC World was also named Best News
Channel at the Hot Bird TV awards in 1998 and in 2002,
specifically in recognition of its coverage of the
attacks on the US on September 11 2001. No other
channel has received the award three times.

BOOST FOR CHANNEL 4 - FIVE MERGER
Hopes of a merger between broadcasters Channel 4 and
Five have been boosted after the owners of Channel
Five said they were prepared to accept a minority
share of a combined group, The Times newspaper has
reported. "We are prepared to go to a minority
position in a combined company. The idea of 4 and Five
was not that we would take over Channel 4. Both
channels need to be bigger," Gerhard Zeiler, CEO of
European TV broadcaster RTL, which jointly owns Five
with UK-based United Business Media, was quoted as
saying in the October 5 edition of the newspaper. "I
think we will know by the end of the year whether this
deal can be done. It will only be done if both sides
are willing to say yes," Zeiler was quoted as saying.
The Times said Zeiler and the bosses of publicly owned
Channel 4 met for the first time last month.

BBC SECURES CELTIC RUGBY INTERNATIONALS
BBC has agreed a new five-year deal with the Celtic
Unions (Irish Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby
Union and Welsh Rugby Union), giving BBC exclusive
rights to show their Autumn Internationals on network
television from 2005-2009 inclusive. The deal
includes: all home rugby Internationals for Wales,
Scotland and Ireland; all matches against Regional
sides during the Autumn International period (or Six
Nations 'A' team Internationals); live Celtic Cup
rights for BBC Scotland and highlights rights for BBC
Northern Ireland (BBC Wales already have a separate
contract for the Celtic League games), with the Cup
Final to be shown on network television in
Grandstand*. Coupled with the Six Nations, BBC now has
all international rugby hosted in the UK until the end
of the decade, with the exception of the England
Autumn tests to which BBC currently has highlights
rights.

MEN & MOTORS UP FOR SALE?
ITV is in talks about the sale of its digital
channels, Plus and Men & Motors, as part of its
strategy to sell off its non-core assets to create a
more streamlined ITV. ITV holds a 50.5% stake in the
channels, which it co-owns with BS*yB as part of
Granada S*y Broadcasting. According to industry
insiders, ITV is hoping to sell its stake to S*y,
which will enable the satellite broadcaster to
increase its dominance in the men's market against
other digital channels including Flextech's Bravo.
Another option being mooted is a management buyout, if
staff could raise enough from a private investment
company. Men & Motors launched in 1997 as part of a
suite of joint ventures between Granada and BS*yB. It
has now been disbanded with its responsibility
absorbed into the main ITV Sales division.

DISCOVERY HOME & LEISURE SET FOR MAKEOVER
As part of a strategy to create a homogenised network
of international lifestyle channels, the Discovery
Home & Leisure is set for a name change and a
redefinition of its demographic focus towards the end
of 2005. The channel will be rebranded Discovery Real
Time to bring it in line with its sister networks,
currently rolling out worldwide. Real Time will be
aimed at men age 25-45, featuring practical
programming for men, centring on men's channel
regulars like motors, workshop activities, gadgets,
fitness and grooming. The channel is one of three
lifestyle channels currently being rolled out in
markets from India to Europe, besides Discovery Travel
& Living and Discovery Home & Health.

TG4 TARGETS ULSTER
The Irish language TV station TG4 is preparing to
broadcast officially from Northern Ireland, industry
sources have told The Belfast Telegraph. The channel,
known as Teilifis na Gaeilige, is thought to be
involved in preparatory work on the transmitter on
Divis Mountain. The plan to broadcast TG4 north of the
border has its roots in the Good Friday Agreement,
which called on the British Government to work with
the broadcasting authorities to explore "the scope for
achieving more widespread availability of Teilifis na
Gaeilige in Northern Ireland". Much of the land area
of the province already receives the channel as a
result of so-called overspill from southern
transmitters, but the most populous areas around
Belfast do not. The final go-ahead for the plans is
subject to approval from the EU and the holders to the
rights to some of the programmes broadcast on TG4.

E U R O P E

SBS PLANS TO EXPAND
SBS president and CEO Markus Tellenbach on October 4
outlined major new channel expansion plans and said
the terrestrial broadcast group is on the lookout for
acquisition and consolidation opportunities. SBS,
which operates 10 analogue terrestrial channels in
Central and Eastern Europe across a footprint of 140
million homes, said it plans to launch themed digital
channels in its key markets. Tellenbach said the
group, which spans 14 countries, also is exploring
opportunities to grow horizontally through possible
partnerships with free television partners.

GLOBECAST DELIVERS PAKISTAN TV TO EUROPEAN VIEWERS
GlobeCast has announced a long-term agreement with
Prime TV to deliver 24-hour Pakistani family channel
PTV Prime to subscribers in the UK, Ireland and
Europe. The deal sees GlobeCast providing an
end-to-end distribution service for the subscription
channel which will be available on GlobeCast's
direct-to-home platforms via Eurobird and Hot Bird. In
the UK and Ireland, PTV Prime will reach 7.5 million
people on S*y Digital. PTV Prime was the first 24-hour
Pakistani channel to launch in Europe and has
exclusive rights to broadcast state-owned Pakistan
Television (PTV) content outside Asia. Offering a mix
of family programming in English and Urdu, it features
programmes created specifically for European-based
Pakistanis, Urdu and Punjabi families as well as PTV
content. PTV Prime also airs live news bulletins nine
times daily from the PTV News Network in Asia. To
provide the feeds for the European news and
programming content, GlobeCast downlinks PTV News and
Pakistan TV from AsiaSat 3S in Singapore and backhauls
it over its global fibre network to London via
America. GlobeCast also provides an end-to-end managed
satellite distribution service which includes an
uplink from Brookmans Park to Eurobird and Hot Bird,
enabling the channel to reach a potential 100 million
viewers across the UK and Europe.

BULGARIA

CABLE PIRATES COULD GET FIVE YEAR JAIL SENTENCE
Bulgarians who connect to cable television networks
without a subscription could face imprisonment of up
to five years, according to local press reports.
Pirating the networks was penalized by fresh
amendments to the Penal Code, according to Magdalena
Georgieva, consultant at the national cable television
association "TV Club 2000". At the beginning of
October, operators in most of Bulgaria introduced
higher prices for their services. Capital Sofia saw an
increase of about 28% in monthly subscription prices,
which jumped from ?7 to ?9. Sofia's leading cable TV
providers have said the move was prompted partly by
boosted fees to the Bulgarian Telecommunications
Company (BTC). The telecom, on the contrary, said that
it hasn't charged the operators any different since
2002.

DENMARK

BBC FOOD SIGNS CABLE CARRIAGE DEAL
BBC Worldwide has signed a carriage deal with Danish
cable network TDC Kabel TV for its BBC Food network,
expanding the channel's reach by 650,000 subscriber
households. Miriam Igelsø Hvidt, the program director
at TDC, noted, "We have added BBC Food following its
huge popularity when it was trialled on our Wish
Channel. BBC Food is the only channel in Denmark fully
devoted to food and cooking, which is a very popular
nowadays. With many programs on BBC Food now subtitled
in Danish, the channel is even more attractive to our
customers." BBC Food will broadcast on TDC daily,
sharing with the newly launched TV2 Charlie channel on
TDC's Middle Package.

FRANCE

REVENUES DOWN AT CANAL PLUS
Canal Plus Group posted half-year revenues on October
1 of $906 million, slightly down from $919 million in
2003, while profits increased to $23.5 million from
$19.8 million the year before. For the first time
since 2000, Canal Plus saw a rise in subscriptions, to
4.88 million compared with 4.86 million in the first
half of 2003. Canal's exceptional income came in at
$3.7 million, a $32 million hike from the first half
of 2003 when the group posted an exceptional expense
of $28.5 million. The pay-TV group also said that
operating expenses had fallen in the first half of
2004 vs. the first half of last year, dropping from
$720.5 million to $709 million. On the downside, the
Vivendi Universal subsidiary said distribution fees
had risen from $139 million to $195 million.

CANAL+ BATTLES IT OUT FOR TV FOOTBALL RIGHTS
Canal Plus is ready to pull out all the stops to
obtain the maximum amount of football TV rights. Canal
Plus group chairman Bertrand Meheut told reporters on
October 7 that it had a lot of financial room to
manoeuvre in next month's auctions for the broadcast
rights to matches in France. The board of France's
Professional Football League will soon set the terms
for its call for bids for three seasons starting with
2005-06. The auction is expected to take place in
November, with the results made public by
mid-December. The most hotly-contested rights will be
live transmission of the top Ligue 1 matches and
pay-per-view broadcasting, which will be battled over
by Canal Plus and the TPS satellite network - owned 66
per cent by TF1 and 34 per cent by M6. Canal Plus
currently pays ?310 million per season for rights to
the first and third choice matches, pay-per-view and
the 'Jour de foot' programme, while TPS pays ?70
million for the second match and pay-per-view.

TF1 CONTESTS DTT BIDS
Leading commercial TV network TF1 has cited a
technicality to contest a decision by French broadcast
regulator the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel to
issue digital terrestrial television broadcast
licenses to six channels owned by rival commercial
broadcasters Canal Plus and Lagardere. Acting on a
complaint filed by TF1, a French public prosecutor has
appealed to the Conseil d'Etat, the country's highest
administrative authority, to challenge the CSA's
decision, taken in June 2003, according to French
business dailies La Tribune and Les Echos. The
prosecutor has upheld TF1's claim that the channels --
Sport Plus, iTelevision, MCM, Canal J, Cine Cinemas
and Planete