News

Import licenses for Thai STBs?

July 12, 2012 – The request came after the broadcasting committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission on Monday approved the draft rules to import, produce and distribute set-top boxes to pay-television operators. The draft will go before a public hearing and be put into effect soon.

Niran Tangpiroontham, managing director of Infosat Intertrade and president of the Satellite Dish Club, told The Nation that the NBTC should design two types of licences. One would be for importers, distributors and producers of satellite TV set-top boxes and related parts. The other would be for pay-TV service providers.

Pay-TV service providers must also be required to obtain the licence for importing, producing and distributing satellite TV receivers if they want to have their own type of receiver, he said.

 

Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Different-types-of-licence-urged-for-importers-pay-30186077.html

Thailand gets more and better digital programs

July 13, 2012 – Thailand continues to make headlines as the country works to upgrade its broadcasting networks to accommodate new digital technology and HD content.

True Visions subscription TVs will be blacked out late Sunday night to Monday morning when the largest subscription TV operator will make major upgrade to its clients’ receivers to accommodate 17 more High Definition channels.

Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/True-Visions-to-be-blacked-out-late-Sunday-night-30186005.html

Meanwhile, Cable Thai Holding (CTH), a joint venture of local cable television operators, will invest 8 billion baht over the next two years to bolster its broadcasting network capacity ahead of the upcoming transition to digital TV.

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/302038/cth-adds-capacity-for-digital

Aereo clears for live broadcast

July 13, 2012 – Aereo, the start-up that takes live TV programming and sends it to mobile devices in New York, can continue with its service, despite objections from major broadcasters who argue that expansion can threaten the free broadcasting of events such as the Super Bowl, a judge ruled Wednesday.

US District Judge Alison Nathan said she understood how the service provided by the company, Aereo, may be unfair to broadcasters, but said the law left her no choice but to reject a request by News Corp.’s Fox and other broadcasters to stop its broadcasts.

Aereo alllows customers capture over-the-air broadcasts for viewing on iPhones, iPads and computers for $12 a month. A copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and others, accused Aereo of copying and retransmitting their programming over the Internet unlawfully.

 

Read more:http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/07/12/judge-clears-aereo-for-live-tv-broadcasts/

The ad skipping threat

July 12, 2012 – Even though DISH Network’s introduction of an STB with an automatic ad-skipping feature has prompted a furious legal response, the function could become so popular with consumers that it may prove difficult to take away.

According to a research note by IHS Screen DigestDISH’s AutoHop feature in its Hopper set-top boxes — which will allow consumers to automatically skip ads during playback on a digital video recorder (DVR) when viewing broadcast network programming — may just be a ploy to cut retrans fees, but it could represent a fundamental threat to the advertising revenue that drives their business.

As a result, there has been a swarm of lawsuits and dire warnings of mass commercial failure for the television industry should advertising be taken out of the equation. After widespread industry rumblings against the feature and ongoing investment in such things, DISH, the third largest pay-TV operator in the US, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, asking for a declaratory judgment that the feature is legal and does not infringe on copyrights. Three broadcasters have responded with lawsuits of their own.

Read more: http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2012071223010/ad-skip-genie-well-and-truly-out-of-the-bottle-analyst-asserts.html?utm_source=newsletter_729&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rapid-tv-news-current-edition-1207

Mobile video getting hot in India

July 13 – Mobile internet TV is one of the biggest growth areas in India. A recent survey conducted by Google in partnership with IPSOS and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) found that a third of Indian smartphone users watch TV on their smartphone.

TV household penetration in India has hit 65% and is as much as 88% in urban regions. This shows tremendous opportunities for live over-the-top (OTT) content and mobile internet TV for those households that currently have no existing terrestrial infrastructure, cable or satellite services. The operators know this and realize the potential of the market, so why haven’t more of them rolled out mobile video services?

Read more: http://www.telecomasia.net/content/mobile-video-getting-hot-india?section=TOP+STORIES&utm_source=silverpop&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=&utm_campaign=telecomasia

Wealth TV arrives in Asia

July 13, 2012 – Envivio, a provider of live and on-demand multi-screen IP video processing and delivery solutions, has revealed that WealthTV, an independent cable TV network based in the US, has selected Envivio encoding solutions to extend its broadcast service to Asia. WealthTV is using Envivio Muse iTV encoding software on the Envivio 4Caster appliance for HD content distribution of its live broadcast services to TVs, PCs and other mobile devices.

 

Read more: http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/07/12/envivio-takes-wealthtv-to-asia/

Mobile content worth US$18.6bn

July 13, 2012 – According to a market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global mobile content market was worth $6.5 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $18.6 billion in 2017, growing at a CAGR of 19 per cent from 2011 to 2017. Mobile games are expected to be the largest market segment at $11.4 billion in 2017.

In the overall global market, the US mobile content market was the largest regional market with a revenue share of 30.3 per cent in 2011. Moreover, faster adoption of mobile content in the region will significantly increase the market share of the US to 41 per cent in 2017.

Read more: http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/07/12/mobile-content-worth-18-6bn-in-2017/

India: Pay-TV piracy hurts

July 11, 2012 – Internet has opened a world of opportunity but absence of an efficient regulatory framework has led to it being used at times for distribution of pirated content and copyright infringement, causing revenue and viewer losses to Indian broadcasters such as Star, Sony, Colors and Zee.

A host of companies such as Reliable TV, a US-based IPTV firm; www.mast.tv, www.idesitv.com are allegedly relaying Indian television channels illegally without paying any subscription fees.

 

Read more: http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_pay-tv-piracy-hurts-indian-broadcasters_1713341

SES announces industry’s first SAT-IP converter certification

ses123
Luxembourg, 12 July 2012- SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today the certification of the industry’s first SAT-IP converter by Inverto Digital Labs, a Luxembourg-based developer and marketer of consumer and professional broadcast reception products. SAT-IP is a new standard and trademark developed and supported by SES. With SAT-IP, satellite-delivered programmes are converted into Internet Protocol (IP) standard at the point of reception in the home. Households can therefore receive, via their wired or wireless in-home Internet distribution system, the full satellite line-up not only on the TV screen but also on a large range of IP-devices such as smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs – with different programmes on different devices at the same time. The SAT-IP converter from Inverto is the first of its kind to be certified according to the new standard.

“SAT-IP is a quantum leap in satellite reception and will make it even more competitive with other reception modes,” said Thomas Wrede, Vice President Reception Systems at SES. “With SAT-IP, we can fulfill the consumer need to serve a multitude of platforms at home with an excellent satellite signal quality and a variety of content. Satellite TV anywhere in the home, on tablet devices, smartphones, PCs or smart TVs: that is the revolution of SAT-IP.”

Wrede continued: “The industry’s high interest in the SAT-IP protocol shows that it is a significant step towards the interoperability of devices, allowing the convergence of TV on a multitude of platforms and satisfying the changing watching habits, of younger audiences in particular. SES offers the certification of SAT-IP devices to all manufacturers and invites them as partners to participate in the creation of this new reception mode.”

“The Inverto MULTIBOX SAT-IP converter enables viewing of content which was previously limited to the TV set and the living room on other client devices that have been purchased by consumers in great numbers in recent years. It also offers opportunities to operators to both reduce total ownership cost by eliminating the need for tuner-based set-top boxes and substantially enrich services with companion devices,” said Thierry Abraham, Chief Technology Officer and Director of Engineering of Inverto.

SAT-IP will be shown at the SES booth at IBC, Amsterdam, 7 – 11 September.

For further information:

Find the SAT-IP network diagram:
http://www.ses.com/11737222/sat-ip-network.pdf

Watch the SAT-IP presentation at the Industry Days 2012:
http://www.ses.com/satip

Download more footage:
http://www.ses.com/11915163/sat-ip

Contact:

Markus Payer
Market Communication & PR
Tel. +352 710 725 500
Markus.Payer@ses.com

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Blog: http://en.ses.com/4243715/blog

Find pictures and videos under: http://www.ses.com/4245221/library

About SES

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 51 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.

SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.