10 September, 2015 AMSTERDAM – Telstra today announced the rebrand of recently acquired business, Globecast Australia, to Telstra Broadcast Services, unveiling the new brand at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam.

The move cements Telstra’s commitment to providing deeper capabilities in media services for customers in the broadcasting industry. Telstra Broadcast Services offers its global customer base media delivery over Satellite platforms, including direct to home Satellite transmission and IPTV managed services; IP streaming and encoding; Satellite monitoring and disaster recovery. It has also developed live point-of-view miniature camera technology which is used extensively at sporting events through its Globecam business.

Read more at satprnews

Satellites are increasingly being built with electric thrusters in order to save the large amounts of propellant needed to get to orbit. The downside is that the satellite then takes months instead of weeks to get to its final orbit. The satellite is thus less heavy at launch, and is less-expensive.

Read more at Advanced Television

Telstra has announced the rebrand of recently acquired business, Globecast Australia, to Telstra Broadcast Services, unveiling the new brand at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) in Amsterdam.

The move cements Telstra’s commitment to providing deeper capabilities in media services for customers in the broadcasting industry. Telstra Broadcast Services offers its global customer base media delivery over satellite platforms, including direct to home satellite transmission and IPTV managed services; IP streaming and encoding; satellite monitoring and disaster recovery. It has also developed live point-of-view miniature camera technology which is used extensively at sporting events through its Globecam business.

Read more at Content-Technology

Alibaba Group and NBCUniversal International have sealed a multi-year content agreement. NBCUniversal has licensed a slate of movie titles from Universal Pictures for Alibaba’s video-on-demand service, TMall Box Office.

“This partnership will continue to increase our reach in the market, as well as driving additional revenues for us in Asia. NBCUniversal is committed to licensing high-quality programming to Chinese platforms in order to provide great entertainment experiences to the Chinese audience,” said Kevin MacLellan, Chairman of NBCUniversal International.

Read more at NexTV Asia

Sony Six, the sportscaster from Multi-Screen Media, will air the Floyd Mayweather Jr. against WBA welterweight interim champion, Andre Berto. The match will be aired live on 13 September at 5:30 am IST.

The sports channel has partnered with Fight Sports for the match, which will be available exclusively to subscribers of Sony Six and Sony Six HD.

“We are committed towards driving and building a differentiated offering, and this fight is a definitive addition in making Sony Six truly ‘the Home of Fight Sports’. Boxing, as a sport promises sheer inimitable thrills and it’s that innate quality of the sport that is resonating with our viewers who are hungry for such high intensity action. We are absolutely thrilled to bring to our viewers in India, what can clearly be defined as the most-awaited fight of the year,” said Prasana Krishnan, Sony Six and Sony Kix business head, according to Indiantelevision.

Read more at NexTV India

Viacom International has introduced Viacom Play Plex, which is a suite of mobile TV apps that will enable its distributors deliver Viacom content to smartphone and tablet users.

The media company said that the apps will be available in all the 180 countries in which it has TV channels, including India. According to media reports, the Viacom Play Plex will have a separate app for each of the media conglomerate’s International TV channels, such as Comedy Central, MTV Nickelodeon among others.

The mobile TV Apps will also let users watch live TV on their smart-devices as well as access games of Nick Play. Viacom is reportedly launching the apps by Q4 of 2015 and is looking for distribution partners, including network operators for the OTT platform.

Read more at NexTV India

Bermuda, 10th September 2015 – The revolutionary ABS-3A satellite is now in full commercial use. The satellite started service on 31st August 2015 to serve the Americas, Africa, Europe and the Middle East regions.

Launched on 1st March 2015, the ABS-3A satellite built by Boeing has performed even better than expected having arrived ahead of schedule. In-Orbit tests have been successfully completed and the satellite became fully operational on 31st August 2015.
ABS-3A features 48 C and Ku-band active transponders (96 x 36 MHz equivalent) and is equipped with high performance beams to support the rapidly growing markets in the Americas and Africa as well as the European and Middle East regions. ABS-3A provides expansion capacity to reach markets servicing high-growth data, video, mobility and government applications.

“ABS’ innovative design and procurement approach for satellites is designed to provide the best possible economics to our customers. ABS-3A and along with ABS-2A, launching in early 2016, will deliver these exceptional economics on current next-generation satellites. Both ABS-3A and 2A will further strengthen and solidify our global expansion and offer flexible capacity to our growing fleet,” commented Tom Choi, CEO of ABS. “We look forward to serving diverse markets using increasingly innovative and affordable solutions for many of ABS’ current and future customers.”

“With a successful launch, testing and execution of orbit operations, we were able to deliver the first 702SP to ABS about one month earlier than planned,” said Mark Spiwak, president, Boeing Satellite Systems International. “The 702SP product line was designed to bring the latest technology into the hands of customers seeking adaptable and affordable solutions. In addition, the 702SP’s patented dual-launch capability helps customers share launch costs, which can significantly lower overall expenses for a satellite owner.”

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About ABS:
ABS is one of the fastest growing global satellite operators in the world. ABS offers a complete range of tailored solutions including broadcasting, data and telecommunication services to broadcasters, service providers, enterprises and government organizations.

ABS operates a fleet of satellites; ABS-2, ABS-3, AB-3A, ABS-4/Mobisat-1, ABS-6 and, ABS-7. The satellite fleet covers 80% of the world’s population across the Americas, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, CIS and Russia.

The new satellites: ABS-2A and ABS-8 are planned to launch in early 2016 and late 2017 respectively.ABS plans to add more satellites in the next 2-3 years to its growing fleet.

Headquartered in Bermuda, ABS has offices in the United States, Dubai, South Africa, Germany, Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong. ABS is majority owned by funds managed by the European Private Equity firm Permira. The Permira funds acquired ABS in 2010.

For more information, visit www.absatellite.com

New services by ViewQwest won’t dent its market share.

StarHub will continue to lead Singapore’s pay TV market despite internet service provider ViewQwest’s recent foray into the pay TV space.

According to BMI Research, the new product is unlikely to affect StarHub’s pay TV market share because 60% of the telco’s customers subscribe to at least two services under the so-called Hubbing strategy.

Read more at Singapore Business Review

IBC Expo, Amsterdam, September 9th, 2015: Conax, part of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD:S), and a leader in total service protection for digital TV and entertainment services via broadcast, broadband and connected devices, today announced the launch of Conax Connected Access – next generation security client for IPTV supported by highly flexible Conax Contego™ security hub. Conax Connected Access is based on a single CAS/DRM client technology to securely and cost-effectively deliver any content, over any network and to any device; a unique, hybrid content protection client for connected devices including set-top boxes providing ultimate flexibility for all types of services such as Live TV, on-demand, PVR, Electronic Sell Through (EST) and Download-to-Go (DTG).

Part of the new Conax “Access” brand family of security clients, Conax Connected Access is leveraging the strength of a unique cooperation between Kudelski Group sister company NAGRA and Conax engineers for this unique IPTV security core. Conax has tailored Connected Access to also accommodate existing Conax IPTV regimes. The new Conax security client for IPTV will be available from Q1 2016. Further details will be available at IBC Expo at the Conax booth (#1.C81 in Hall 1).

An industry media briefing highlighting details of Conax Connected Access will be held Sept. 11th at 1 pm at the Conax booth at IBC Expo.

The Conax unified security client both reduces maintenance and increases security by seamlessly governing client security across broadcast, IPTV and OTT services, through a comprehensive end-to-end content protection environment that elegantly plugs into the Conax Contego™ unified security hub.

Through its modular security concept, Conax Connected Access safeguards premium content over a wide variety of devices by flexibly employing the device security infrastructure, ranging from the Kudelski Group’s unique and widely proliferated hardware root of trust, over Trusted Execution Environments (TEE’s) and up to software-only secure player implementations to ensure that operators can reach any device with the highest level of security achievable.

Conax Connected Access™ is ideal for new operators moving into pay TV operation based on IP connectivity, as well as existing broadcast operators going IP through technologies like Docsis 3.x, xPON, FTTx, 3G/4G or FTE. Based on the Conax Contego™ unified security hub, the operator is exceptionally equipped to support all modes of operation, with possibilities such as using a common CPE/STB to handle both new and existing distribution platforms.

-“This unique IPTV client is excellent proof of synergies coming to fruition with Conax engineers successfully leveraging Kudelski group core technology. We are inspired by working with the Group entities and the tremendous pool of shared expertise,” says Tom Jahr, EVP Products at Conax. The advanced hybrid approach provided by the joint strength of the Kudelski Group companies and Conax Connected Access supersedes legacy solutions available on the market today.”

-“The concept of a complete content security environment has been reconceptualised to create a single unified framework for safeguarding Broadcast, OTT, IPTV and connected home content. Built with state of the art software security, the flexible architecture will elegantly leverage stronger hardware security where available. The Conax Connected Access client is another stellar example of the ongoing cross-technology synergies including Conax and Kudelski Group companies,” continues Jahr.

Pre-book a meeting at info@conax.com, or stop by the Conax booth for more details of Conax’ expanded IPTV offering at IBC Expo 2015: Conax booth #1.C81 in Hall 1 of the RAI Convention Centre, September 11-15, 2015, in Amsterdam.

About Conax
A part of the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD:S), Conax is a leading global specialist in total service protection for digital TV and entertainment services via broadcast, broadband and connected devices. The Conax Contego™ unified security hub provides telcos, cable, satellite, IP, mobile, terrestrial and broadband operations with an innovative portfolio of flexible and cost-efficient solutions to deliver premium content securely. Conax’ future-ready technology offers modular, fast-time-to-market solutions that enable easy entry into a world of secure multiscreen, multi-DRM content delivery. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, ISO 9001 & 27001 certified Conax technology enables secure content revenues for 400 operators in 85 countries globally. For more information, please visit www.conax.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Conax media contact
Leslie Johnsen
Head of Public Relations & Communications, Conax
Mob: +47 41 45 80 43
leslie.johnsen@conax.com