Akimbo abandons set-top box strategy



Akimbo, the US internet-delivered video-on-demand service, is abandoning its set-top box strategy and repositioning itself as a content aggregation partner for IPTV operators.

"We simply want to be in everyone's box," said Akimbo chief executive Thomas Frank as he confirmed Akimbo was quitting its set-top box deal with RCA.

Frank hinted the company Akimbo might be a partner with Apple and its Apple TV device, which bridges the once-separated worlds of personal computer-based content and the TV.

"I could see Apple as a partner, but meanwhile there are other boxes," added Frank.

Last June Akimbo raised $15.5m in an investment round that saw Cisco and AT&T become backers with venture capital group Blueprint Ventures.

Gemstar-TV Guide licences EPG for IPTV



Gemstar-TV Guide International is to licence its patented electronic programme guide (EPG) and related technology to US telecommunications group Verizon. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Verizon operates the fibre-optic-delivered IPTV service, FiOS, in the US. Last week it announced it had gained an additional 141,000 FiOS customers in the first three months of 2007, taking its total FiOS subscriber base to 348,000 subscribers.

Gemstar-TV Guide said it would collaborate with Verizon to enable FiOS TV customers to remotely schedule recordings on FiOS digital video recorders using TV Guide listings.

Rich Battista, chief executive officer of Gemstar-TV Guide said: "We are pleased to have this patent license agreement in place with Verizon, our first with a telco video provider."

DISH Network(TM) Launches Cinemax HD



EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) and its DISH Network(TM) satellite TV service today announced the launch of Cinemax HD. The new channel brings DISH Network's total national HD channel lineup to 32 channels the most in the payTV industry today.

DISH Network subscribers to Cinemax HD will be able to view the upcoming summer lineup of movies including the "See It Saturday" titles: XMen: The Last Stand, Superman Returns, Lady in the Water, Miami Vice and The Departed. With 98% of its primetime programming schedule in true HD each year, Cinemax HD also features Cinemax Reel Life, the awardwinning original documentary series that showcases some of the best and most thoughtprovoking documentaries of our time.

"Cinemax HD is a premier channel for movies and original programming, now broadcasting in the stunning clarity and vivid surround sound of high definition," said Eric Sahl, senior vice president of Programming for DISH Network. "Not only is DISH Network adding to its marketleading HD offering, but we're giving movie buffs even more reason to want high definition."

"We are excited that DISH Network is adding Cinemax to its lineup of HD channels," said Janice Aull, senior vice president and general manager, Affiliate Sales at Home Box Office. "Now, DISH Network's subscribers will have the opportunity to view the incredible variety of film entertainment that Cinemax offers yearround in crystal clear high definition."

Cinemax HD is located on DISH Network Channel 9458 and is available to customers who subscribe to DishHD programming, only a $20 addon to digital definition programming packages. DISH Network's DishHD offers customers more than 200 hours per day of HD content from the nation's top programmers. Cinemax HD will mirror programming from the primary Cinemax channel.

Subscribers who sign up now with DISH Network can get an industryleading, award winning HD/DVR, the ViP622 DVR, at no upfront cost and can select from exciting alldigital standard definition (SD) and HD programming packages.

New and existing subscribers can sign up for DISH Network's DishDVR Advantage, an allinclusive TV package with more than 200 alldigital SD channels, local channels where available, a stateoftheart DVR serving two TV's and free standard professional installation with no extra fees for one low price of $49.99.

Astra 1L and Galaxy 17 in orbit



Ariane 5 delivered a record performance during Arianespace's second heavy-lift flight of 2007, deploying two large telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit .

Launched from the ELA-3 complex at Europe's Spaceport, the Ariane 5 orbited ASTRA 1L for SES ASTRA and Galaxy 17 for Intelsat – marking the 18th consecutive success for Arianespace's workhorse launch vehicle.

"This comes less than two months after our previous success, which demonstrates our consistent launch tempo," said Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall. "We have launched six Ariane 5s and two Soyuz in less than twelve months, establishing Arianespace as the world reference for the launch services industry."

The customers for today's mission are key international satellite communications companies, and both are long-time users of Arianespace launch services.

* The 26th SES satellite launched by Ariane, and the 45th for Intelsat

"Astra 1L is the ninth satellite we have launched for SES Astra and the 26th for the SES family," Le Gall added in post-launch comments from the Spaceport's Jupiter mission center. "Just last December, we orbited AMC-18, and now - five months later - it was Astra 1L's turn. In addition, we will launch AMC-21 next year."

The ASTRA 1L platform is equipped with 29 Ku-band and 2 Ka-band transponders, will be located at 19.2° East, ASTRA's prime orbital position for delivering broadcast services to continental Europe, where it will also transmit the increasing number of HDTV channels. The new satellite will allow SES ASTRA to move its satellite ASTRA 2C from 19.2° East to 28.2° East, in order to meet the high demand for capacity from the U.K. and Irish markets. It will also extend the ASTRA coverage from the Canary Islands in the West to the Russian border in the East and further strengthen SES ASTRA`s unique in-orbit back-up scheme.

Intelsat is a loyal Arianespace customer as well, and the 4,100-kg. Galaxy 17 spacecraft orbited today become the organization's 45th satellite to use an Ariane launcher since 1983. Fitted with 24- Ku-band and 24 C-band transponders, Galaxy 17 is designed to provide television and telephony services for North America.

"More than 60 percent of Intelsat satellites have been launched by Arianespace, and this fall, we will launch two more satellites for Intelsat," Le Gall added. "I want to thank Intelsat for the confidence it has had in our company from the very beginning."

Today's flight lofted a total mass estimated at just over 9,400 kg. – a record performance for a mission to standard geostationary transfer orbit. This included the weight of the two satellite payloads, their integration hardware, as well as Ariane 5's multiple deployment system that enables the launcher to perform its efficient dual-spacecraft launches.

The mission originally had been scheduled for May 3, but was delayed 24 hours by high-altitude winds over French Guiana, which exceeded the established safety margins. The weather cooperated for tonight's launch – even providing a break in the rainy conditions that allowed the launcher's initial ascent to be viewed, including separation of the Ariane 5's two solid boosters approximately 2 min. 20 sec. into the flight.

* A symbolic mission for international space cooperation

In his post-launch comments, Le Gall also acknowledged the symbolic importance of today's mission for international space activity - as the European-built Ariane 5 carried both European and American satellite payloads. He said this illustrates the common objectives of Europe and the United States in space, and noted the cooperation will be extended in the future with Ariane 5's launch of the European ATV re-supply spacecraft to the International Space Station.

"I am very pleased and honored to welcome tonight a U.S. delegation led by my personal friend, Mike Griffin, the NASA Administrator," Le Gall said. "This delegation is visiting our facility in preparation for the historic ATV launch."

Le Gall also announced Arianespace's upcoming missions. The first will be in the next few weeks, when Arianespace affiliate Starsem launches a Soyuz vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome with the Globalstar 1R payload. This will be followed in August by another heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission from Europe's Spaceport, which is to carry the SPACEWAY 3 and B-SAT 3A satellites.

DirecTV Sues Comcast Over HDTV Ad Campaign



DirecTV filed suit against Comcast over its national ad campaign, which claims that satellite customers believe the cable operator’s HDTV picture quality is better than satellite’s.

The nine-page suit charged Comcast with false advertising and deceptive trade practices for a print, radio and Internet ad campaign the nation’s largest cable company kicked off in early May. The complaint was filed May 7 in Chicago in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The action asks that Comcast be enjoined from “engaging in any further false advertising and promotion,” that it be ordered to retract and correct its “misleading” claims and that it pay unspecified damages to DirecTV.

The lawsuit cited the text in Comcast’s print ads, which said, “Comcast wins the HD Picture Challenge. Satellite customers agree: HD looks better with Comcast.”

Comcast’s claims are based on a survey that it commissioned from Frank N. Magid Associates. That March poll found that in side-by-side comparisons, “Two-thirds of satellite customers expressing a preference between Comcast and DirecTV and between Comcast and Dish Network said Comcast delivered a better HD image.”

DirecTV’s complaint challenged those findings.

“The Magid survey upon which Comcast relies does not provide or sufficiently substantiate the propositions for which Comcast cites the survey,” the suit said. “Comcast’s advertising and promotional claims, including the aforementioned, are literally false.”

On Friday, Comcast defended its ads.

“We are aware of the [DirecTV] complaint,” Comcast spokesman Jenni Moyer said. “We have not yet been served. And we stand behind the results of our survey.”

Two outside companies helped to validate third-party Magid findings: Accenture, a management- and technology-consulting company, oversaw the technical aspects of the test, while Loeb & Loeb, a national law firm, provided legal guidance on the survey process.

DirecTV’s suit isn’t the only litigation that’s been filed over HDTV ads: DirecTV is being sued over its TV spots. Time Warner Cable filed a false-advertising suit against DirecTV that is currently pending in U.S. District Court in New York.

France Telecom files Canall+ complaint


France Telecom has confirmed that it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Canall+. It claims the pay-TV operator has failed to comply with some of the 59 commitments it made to the French ministry of finance during the approval process for its merger with TPS last year. Canall is also accused of anti-competitive behaviour in the French TV market where it is now the only provider of premium channels.

The antagonism between the two giants of the French media stems from France Telecom’s involvement in IPTV.

Sky scraps Sky+ subscription charge



Sky has announced on the Digital Spy forums that it will scrap the £10 monthly subscription charge for its Sky+ PVR service from July 1.

The announcement by the Sky+ team confirms that the Sky+ charge "will be removed for all Sky Digital customers subscribed to any Sky Digital package" at the start of July. Sky HD customers are not affected, as the £10 Sky+ fee is already "waived", and should a Sky+ owner cease subscribing to a Sky Digital package they will have to resume paying the £10 per month charge to continue to access the Sky+ functionality.

Sky told our forum members: "Many of you have said that you want Sky+, but to get it, it needs to be more affordable. We believe that by removing the Sky+ subscription cost for Sky Digital customers, it will mean that more of you are able to enjoy the benefits of Sky+."

Virgin snubs BSkyB peace deal



Virgin Media customers will remain without shows such as Lost and 24 after the cable group rebuffed a fresh attempt by BSkyB to end the acrimonious row over how much Sky charges for its basic channels.

The BSkyB chief executive, James Murdoch, wrote last week to his counterpart at Virgin Media, Steve Burch, suggesting the companies "meet in the middle", after Sky demanded nearly £10m more than Virgin was willing to pay for channels such as Sky One and Sky News.

Sky's final offer when the two sides were negotiating in February was around £40m a year for its channels, while Virgin refused to pay more than £30m.

Mr Murdoch proposed a deal pitched at around £35m as a "straightforward solution" to break the deadlock that has deprived Virgin's 3.4 million cable TV customers of Sky's basic channels since the beginning of March.

"As you will appreciate, this represents a significant ceding of value to Virgin Media on our part," Mr Murdoch wrote.

However, Mr Burch turned down the proposal, accusing Sky of withdrawing its channels from the cable platform after demanding "an extreme and anti-competitive price".

He said Sky's proposed reduction in the amount it would charge "does not make it fair or lawful nor does it promote good faith discussions".

Responding in a letter today, Mr Murdoch accused Virgin of failing to make a "meaningful engagement" with Sky's attempt to resolve the dispute.

"Disappointingly, we can only conclude that you are not genuinely interested in offering Sky's channels to your customers, preferring to continue to deny Sky access to your network as a means of pursuing wider corporate goals, simultaneously harming Sky commercially by denying us wholesale subscription and advertising revenues."

Sky said Virgin had tabled no offer for the channels since February 22, a week before the previous carriage deal ran out and Sky One and other services disappeared from the cable operator's network.

The dispute has been the most visible sign of the acrimony that has developed between the two companies since Sky bought a 17.9% stake in ITV in November, thwarting Virgin's plans to take over the commercial broadcaster.

Virgin has taken its complaint about Sky's carriage charges to the high court, accusing Sky of trying to weaken and ultimately eliminate it with anti-competitive behaviour.

But both sides have admitted the row is damaging them. Sky has forecast it will lose £60m a year in carriage fees and advertising revenues, while Virgin said last week it could lose TV customers in the second quarter of its financial year because of the dispute.

At the company's first quarter results last week, Mr Burch defended his decision to reject Sky's terms.

"When we looked at the cost of what they were asking and what they were demanding and the collective issues we had with Sky ... it was really the only decision we could make," he said.

"We are not cavalier about this - we are comfortable we made the right decision economically for the business and we believe in the long term we made the right decision for the customer."

BBC claims World record



The BBC said today it’s combined international news services attracted a record global weekly audience of over 233 million during 2006/7, according to independent surveys. The global audience figure for the combined services of BBC World Service radio, BBC World television and the BBC’s international online news service bbcnews.com is up 23 million from 210 million last year. Many people used more than one service.

The figures breaks down as follows: BBC World Service’s weekly radio audience estimate is 183 million, up 20 million on last year. BBC World now has an estimated audience of 76 million viewers a week; up from 65 million in 2005/6.

The BBC’s international news websites attracted a record 763 million page impressions in March 2007, up from 546 million compared to March 2006. There were a record 38.5 million unique online users across the globe during March 2007, up from 32.8 million a year ago.

BBC World saw substantial growth in audiences in the Africa, Canada, Egypt, India, Pakistan and the USA. The BBC said it had compiled these figures from several independent sources, but did not name them individually.

ANGA Cable Kicks off with a New Exhibitor and Conference Record


In its ninth year, ANGA Cable continues its line of success: The event will open tomorrow with 367 exhibitors from 31 countries - an increase of almost 20 percent in comparison to last year. Due to improved space allocation, net exhibition space has been expanded by twelve percent to 9,887 sqm. The event has also significantly strengthened its international character: a record high of 60 percent of the companies come from abroad (2006: 53 percent). This means that ANGA Cable has managed to further strengthen its position as leading market place for cable and satellite in Europe. During the three days of the event 9,000 trade visitors are expected.

"Triple Play as the mega trend pushes the European broadband markets as well as our trade fair", said Thomas Braun, President of ANGA Verband Deutscher Kabelnetzbetreiber (Association of German CATV Operators). "Not least due to cable networks’ upgrading with optical fibre the terms cable and broadband will remain inseparable from each other. As of 2008 we want to emphasize this convergence of network technologies with the new subtitle "Trade Fair for Cable, Broadband and Satellite"."

In Focus: Systems Solutions and Standards for Triple Play Services

The Triple Play of data, voice and video will be the main focus of the exhibition. The event provides an overview of all major transmission technologies for DVB-, HDTV-, and IP-based communications services. This includes Next Generation Networks, DOCSIS 3.0, IPTV as well as hybrid systems solutions dealing with "DVB meets IP".

Tomorrow's "Strategy Summit", starting 10.00 am, will centre around with the current discussion about digital programme platforms, featuring prominent speakers. The heads of network operators of UnityMedia, Orion Cable, SES Astra and of ANGA will discuss current issues with representatives of Premiere, VPRT, ZDF and the state media authority of Berlin-Brandenburg; among the topics will be simulcast, encryption and analogue switch-off as well as taking stock and looking into the future of transmission of the German Bundesliga soccer league.

On Tuesday afternoon there will follow a panel, featuring ARD, Astra, Eutelsat, and RTL, about the future platform satellite concepts. Then, legal experts from Kabel Deutschland, Premiere, T-Online, VPRT, and the state media authorities will discuss current issues of digital platform regulation. Among the issues will be media law regulations for EPGs, encryption systems and must-carry-rules. During the technology panels top level representatives from the USA, Great Britain, the Low Countries and Germany will present their views with regards to the future of cable and Triple / Quad Play.

Wednesday will start with another highlight at 09.30 am. For the first time there will be a technology summit with high-ranking representatives from systems providers and network operators EWT, Hanse-Net, PrimaCom, and @Home (NL) discussing the different transmission paths’ capacities and outlook. There will follow another international panel discussing current migration concepts for the digital switchover, featuring Cablecom (Switzerland), Kabel Baden-Württemberg, Liwest (Austria) und Telenet (Belgium). The second day will close on an expert panel on legal issues of IPTV and Video on Demand as well as on the perennial issue of copyright, with a first-hand account from the responsible director at the GEMA (society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights).

The two strategy panels on Thursday will be dedicated to new programme offerings for CATV operators and to the "key issues" Conditional Access, DRM, and certification. Experts from Astra, Conax, MTV Networks, Nagravision, NDS, QVC, TESC, and Turner Broadcasting will participate.

Convention: 10 Technology and Crafts Panels with more than 40 Broadband Experts

"DVB meets IP" is the slogan for two of ANGA Cable Convention's five technology panels on the second and third day of the event. Further topics on the agenda include innovations for Triple Play offers as well as DOCSIS 3.0, DVB-S2, hybrid DVB-IP set-top-boxes and Video-on-Demand. On the third day there will be two events tailored to the target group trade / skilled trade. All in all there will be six presentations, freely accessible for all trade fair visitors, dealing with the topics “How to Earn Money with Services in Cable Networks” and “Saving Money by delivering the expected quality”.

"Last year there were nearly 1,000 visitors attending the conference. As we have seen yet another increase in pre-registrations we are positive that ANGA Cable Convention will again prove to be a unique magnet for trade visitors from all over Europe - and from even further," said Braun.

Battle for Primacom begins



Kabel Deutschland KDG has increased its share in cable operator Primacom AG to 18.6%, the company announced last Friday. The cable operator bought 2.92 million shares from private investor Wolfgang Preuss at 12 euro each making the deal worth 35 million euro and putting the total value of Primacom at over 245 million euro. KDG already owned a small interest in the operator.

The battle for Primacom has now begun. The acquisition gives KDG an advantage in taking control in Primacom. Orion Cable is the other interested party in taking full control of Primacom; they already own around 26 % of the shares. Orion also owns the cable operators TeleColumbus and EWT. Primacom serves over 920,000 homes in various parts of the country.

Unity Media to integrate networks



During a press conference this Tuesday at the Anga Cable in Cologne German cable operator Unity Media will announce the integration of its three networks, ish, iesy and TeleColumbus West. The new name of the integrated networks will be unitymedia. The networks cover about 5 million homes in the states of Nordrhine Westfalia and Hesse.

Last the German association of housing corporations (Verband der Wohnungswirtschaft) announced it has entered into an agreement with Unity Media in which the operator will give a better understanding of its costs structure when raising prices of its services. The association represents 460 corporations and 1.3 million households.

The agreement will also cover the distribution of ethnic bouquets in order to combat “the jungle of satellite dishes”, as the corporations call the growing number of dishes in their estates.

Dutch RTL channels go widescreen

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The three RTL Nederland channels are to start transmitting all programming and commercials on their three channels RTL4, RTL5 and RTL7 in 16:9 widescreen from June 1. According to RTL more than 50% of all Dutch households now have widescreen TV sets.

SBS Broadcasting is believed to be following suit, as the main commercial broadcasters have decided to launch at the same time, mainly to accommodate advertisers. However, John de Mol’s Tien already started full 16:9 broadcasts on March 1.

Public broadcasters have as yet not decided on a date when all channels will go widescreen. Last year there was much controversy over their decision to broadcast the football games of the World Cup in regular 4:3 format.

Showtime to Air Mixed-Martial-Arts Card on Pay TV, PPV



Showtime will look to raise the profile of its mixed-martial-arts franchise with a June 2 hybrid pay television/pay-per-view event card.

The Showtime pay TV service will air two fights from the eight-bout event, beginning at 9 p.m., with three other live matches available via PPV for $34.95 one hour later.

In addition, the network launched a four-part weekly reality series aimed at generating awareness for the card, according to Ken Hershman, senior vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports and Event.

“We want to build the audience for this event, whether people watch the Showtime event and buy the PPV, just buy the PPV or just watch Showtime,” Hershman added. “We want to give them as many possible options as we can to watch as many fights and build this franchise.”

It’s the first time Showtime has offered split coverage of the same fight card on both premium and PPV. The event is the second mixed-martial-arts fight card under Showtime’s partnership with Pro Elite. Hershman said its Feb. 10 combat-sports event drew more than 1 million households between the premiere and the replays.

“We were very happy … that was a tremendous start for us,” he added.

Hershman would not project how well the event would perform on Showtime, but he hopes to generate at least 100,000 buys. PPV events from mixed-martial-arts genre-leader Ultimate Fighting Championship typically average 300,000-500,000 buys per month.

To help create exposure for the event, Showtime this past Monday began airing a four-part series dubbed Countdown to Dynamite!!!. Much like HBO’s De La Hoya-Mayweather 24/7 reality series, Countdown to Dynamite!!! profiles the fighters on the card while detailing the matchups, according to Hershman.

“This is a good introduction again in developing the knowledge base of what the sport is about and what you’ll see on June 2,” he added.

Although the network is currently engaged with mixed martial arts, Hershman said it hasn’t stepped out of the squared circle. The network will continue to offer its monthly Showtime Championship Boxing series, as well as its Showbox franchise featuring up-and-coming fighters.

But the network has no plans to offer a PPV-boxing event in the near future, he said, adding, “We are always looking [for boxing events].”

Satellite news 26.05.07

News

Twin carriage for TV4 HD

TV4 Sweden will launch its new high definition channel next Monday (May 28) with distribution on the Canal Digital DTH platform and Com Hem on cable. The channel will commence broadcasting at 21.00 with the series premier of the new series of Kiefer Sutherland's spy hokum 24. The broadcaster will also be showing series including Numbers and The Ghost Whisperer in the HD format. In partnership with Canal Digital and TV2 Norway and TV2 Denmark, TV4 will also screen the Euro 2008 football championships in HD format.

Disney brings Cinemagic to CanalSat

Disney Cinemagic is joining the CanalSat line up in France this September. The channel will be accompanied by a +1 hour time shifted version. It's ten years since Disney Channel first launched in France on the former Canal Satellite Numerique platform. Disney Channel (and its +1 version), Toon Disney and Disney Playhouse are all available in the French market. Cinemagic screens a number of classic Disney movies together with titles from the more recent Disney Pixar library. These include Finding Nemo, Toy Story and The Aristocats. CanalSat and Disney also have plans to launch a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in the French market that will feature the best of Disney's children's programmes.

Battle for Primacom begins

Kabel Deutschland has increased its share in cable operator Primacom to 18.6%, the company announced last Friday. The cable operator bought 2.92 million shares from private investor Wolfgang Preuss at €12 each making the deal worth €35 million and putting the total value of Primacom at over €245m. KDG already owned a small interest in the operator. The acquisition gives KDG an advantage in taking control of Primacom. Orion Cable is the other party interested in taking full control of Primacom; it already owns around 26% of the shares. Orion also owns the cable operators TeleColumbus and EWT. Primacom serves over 920,000 homes in various parts of the country.

France Telecom files Canal+ complaint

France Telecom has confirmed that it has filed a complaint with the European Commission against Canal+. It claims the pay-TV operator has failed to comply with some of the 59 commitments it made to the French ministry of finance during the approval process for its merger with TPS last year. Canal is also accused of anti-competitive behaviour in the French TV market where it is now the only provider of premium channels. The antagonism between the two giants of the French media stems from France Telecom's involvement in IPTV.

Virgin rejects Sky compromise

BSkyB's latest attempts to restore the carriage of its basic channels to Virgin Media customers have been rejected by the cable operator. In letters written by BSkyB CEO James Murdoch to his opposite number at Virgin Steve Burch, seen by Broadband TV News, BSkyB suggests the two companies split the difference on Virgin's last offer to Sky. The amount in question is around £5 million per year. The Sky branded basic channels Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News have been absent from Virgin since March - a move that has already resulted in a fall in subscribers to the cablenet. Burch formally rejected the BSkyB offer in writing on Thursday evening (May 17), prompting the second letter from Murdoch, also made public.

Walloon cable consolidates, approaches Flemish Telenet

A preliminary settlement worth €503 million has been signed following a verbal agreement reached on May 11 that will see VOO (the joint venture between Brutele and ALE-Teledis) acquire the eight other Walloon operators from their current owners, municipalities and Belgian utility Electrabel. According to local sources, the deal involves the €475 million pricetag agreed upon in March, plus the assumption of €38 million of debt. The deal stalled last month over disagreement as to who should carry the risk of any claims from the Flemish MSO Telenet, which was excluded from the bidding last autumn.

BSkyB drops £10 Sky+ fee

BSkyB is abandoning the £10 subscription fee to the Sky+ digital video recorder. The fee had been levied to customers who did not subscribe to two or more premium channels. Originally the fee was charged to all customers regardless of which subscription packages they held. It is hoped that that the removal of the fee will encourage take-up of the device, which recently topped the two million subscriber mark. Customers will now be charged £9.99 for the box. The £10 fee will now only be charged when subscribers are no longer receiving any Sky package and wish to continue to use the Sky+ functionality.

July launch for UPC Ireland DVR

UPC Ireland is to introduce a digital video recorder for its customers in July. The Thomson-manufactured unit will have a storage capacity of 160GB - equating to around 80 hours of recording time. The unit, which features the OpenTV middleware, carries the regular DVR features including live pause and series link. There are also plans for an HD box that will be manufactured by Philips and a video on demand service, both of which are likely to launch before the end of the year.

Greece goes for digital catch-up

Greece has launched a multimedia campaign designed to close the digital gap with the rest of the EU by 2009. Known as Digital Greece, it will last 15 months and receive its funding - put at €4 million - from the EU-subsidised Information Society programme. Although the take up of broadband Internet is growing rapidly in Greece, the penetration (4.6 per 100 of the population as of the end of 2006, according to the OECD) is one of the lowest in Europe as a whole, let alone the EU. At the other end of the scale, Denmark (31.9%), Netherlands (31.8%) and Iceland (29.7%) occupied the top three slots at the end of 2006.

Cisco for Zesko

Zesko, the combination of Dutch cable operators Casema, Essent Kabelcom and Multikabel, has chosen the Cisco/Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8455DVB high-def PVR set-top box to launch digital on-demand services in The Netherlands. This is the first MPEG-4/H.264 product for the European cable market from the company. The announcement heralds Cisco's first entry into the Dutch retail market for cable tuners. The product was on show in Cologne running the software for French operator Canal Numérique. Cisco expects to show the Dutch interface at this year's IBC in Amsterdam. The STB will integrate the EPG, PVR functionality and on-demand content in a single user interface.

A2B introduces multibox for DSO

Swedish manufacturer A2B has announced the introduction of a new consumer product to help ease the digital switch over process for multi dwelling houses, bed and breakfast accomodation and small hotels. The so-called Multibox 6T will be distributed and installed in the UK by Eurosat, the country's largest installer of Sky dishes. The Multibox 6T receives up to six digital channels and converts them into six analogue television channels with NICAM stereo, which can be viewed with any standard television set, videorecorder or HDD recorder.

TeleColumbus and Nagravision join EuroCableLabs

EuroCableLabs has announced that the German cable TV operator Tele Columbus Group has joined its membership. Additionally, Nagravision has joined the EuroCableLabs Associate Supporter programme. EuroCableLabs membership is exclusive to European cable TV operators. Via the Associate Supporter programme, EuroCableLabs offers vendors a platform to exchange knowledge within the cable industry and to contribute towards the development of future broadband cable technologies. EuroCableLabs membership includes all the leading cable TV operators in Europe.

Unitymedia to introduce €30 flatrate

German cable operator Unitymedia, the new name for ish, iesy and Tele Columbus West (see BTN passim) are to introduce a new entry level triple play subscription for €30 a month on June 5. The offer includes 6 Mbps broadband access, free telephony to the German fixed network and a basic bouquet of 73 digital TV channels. During a press conference CEO Parm Sandhu said the company is progressing well with upgrading the networks. Of the total of 8.5 million homes passed some 5.7 million will be able to access full triple play by year-end. Unitymedia now has five million basic cable subscribers of which 491,600 are digital homes. In addition some 400,000 homes take digital pay TV from Premiere.

Eutelsat Kabelkiosk to expand services

New content and bouquets are part of the extended services that the German Eutelsat Kabelkiosk is offering to small and medium sized cable operators in the country. With immediate effect a package of 15 pay radio channels from Technisat is being offered, including special thematic channels as well as the spoken word, said managing director Martina Rutenbeck at the Anga Cable. A new German sports channel offering handball, volleyball and other sports as well as "fun sports" will be added, but Rutenbeck could not name the channel at this moment. Polish programming from ITVN is being beefed up and will now have its own dedicated transponder. The cultural K3 channel from Rhineland Palatina is the first regional channel to be added to the line-up.