The long awaited DVB-H license which Poland has been promising to issue since 2007 finally has two clear bidders now that the local regulator has it under way. The two bidders are called simply Mobile TV, a consortium of mobile players which have been running trials in Poland for over a year, including Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa, Polkomtel, PTK Centertel (an Orange affiliate) and P4. The other bidder is a local transmission company Zamosc, biding under the name Info TV-FM. After the mess that has ensued in Germany, where the local cellular operators were ignored, and in France, where the French broadcasters and cellcos tried to work together, what’s the betting that the pragmatic Polish will give the cellular operators what they want. The winner gets a first shot at a 6 year license to cover the biggest 31 cities in a country with 38.5 million people and on the verge of cellular saturation (everyone ‘s got one) and later the license will oblige the winner to go nationwide through 2023. We have always said that given the low penetration of pay TV in Poland that the DVB-H service is likely to be very cheap or free or else it will suffer slow take up.
As music shifts more rapidly to online sale, you may ask what is going to happen to retailers that only sell music and only sell it in its physical form. HMV in the UK has one answer, having tried and failed to join the online revolution a few years ago, it has borrowed £220 million ($324 million) and will place another 20 million ordinary shares to raise something like a further £24 million before costs ($35 million) through Citigroup, to raise a battle chest of $359 million to take it into live music. It has now bought into 11 live music venues including the Hammersmith Apollo and some of London’s favorite clubs in a new 50% joint venture with the MAMA group, as well as buying 14 provincial music stores from bankrupt rival Zavvi. The group is currently in music stores and book stores and has just cut 200 jobs, but presumably will extend its venues ownership to include live music sales. We’ll see, but it still looks very old tech to us.
Total subscribers to the two combined Korean mobile TV systems T-DMB and S-DMB (little similarity apart from the names) have now reached 17.25 million as at the end of 2008 according to a Korean News services the Yonhap News Agency citing officials of the Terrestrial-DMB Special Committee. T-DMB has reached 15.4 million, up around 70% on a year ago. We last had this at 14 million in June; and S-DMB has begun climbing again after a relatively static period, and has reached 1.85 million. The Beijing Olympics was key is accelerating these numbers it seems, and it was definitely the reason for S-DMB to climb. The committee has the top six cellular operators as members and this represents a 35% penetration for mobile TV devices in 3 years, many of which are not handsets.
US chip maker AMD said it will slash 1,100 jobs, around 9% of staff, as its collective semiconductor businesses all face falling demand, which the company blames on the global recession. It will also cut salaries across the board with senior executives leading by example, with cuts being between 10% and 15%. At CES last week AMD introduced its Dragon platform for delivering HD class gaming and video processing which it said was twice the value of its rivals, on its desktop PC platform using the new AMD Phenom II X4 processor which it said will lead to devices in the $900 range, which it says are $1,200 cheaper than equivalent systems from competitors. HP, Dell and Alienware are all backing the technology which features new video chips from its subsidiary ATI.
Sony Ericsson made a $240 million loss in the fourth quarter compared to a profit last year of $480 million, saying that sales fell through weak consumer demand. Sonly Ericsson shipped just 24.2 million handsets, having shipped over 30 million this time last year and 25.7 million last quarter. The loss came after restructuring charges of $166 million and an operating loss of $171 million. This was all on revenues of $3.75 billion compared to 4.85 billion a year earlier. Device average selling prices actually went up dramatically from last quarter to $156 from $140 per unit last quarter and $158 last year.
Dilithium, the transcoder specialist that offers all manner of video over cellular networks, announced this week that it can now support live video and VoD on Blackberry handsets, when they are on networks which use the Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA). That means it now supports devices from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch and finally Blackberry. DCA is a network installed system which supports most video formats and performs on-the-fly and on-demand transport, media formatting, and codec and bitrate adaptation for each handset.
UK cable operator Virgin Media can now show live Setanta Sports programming in VoD either 1 day or 12 hours after it has been broadcast. Setanta coverage includes UK soccer including Premiership games, the FA Cup and England international matches, as well as live boxing. Customers either have to pay £7 a month extra on the lower package tiers but it is included in Virgin’s top XL package.
China’s SARFT now says that it has completed deployment of its mobile TV system CMMB in 113 prefecture sized cities and has trials that will result in live deployments shortly in 37 more, taking it to 150 cities. Advanced TV News says China now has six chip manufacturers with CMMB products and 100 companies have launched over 200 CMMB mobile TV terminals.
Dishtv in India is celebrating the fact that 5 million homes, and 25 million people can now watch its direct to home satellite TV service which competes with Tata Sky, Digital TV, Big TV and DD DTH. Dishtv says that at the current rate it will pass 8 million subscribers by the end of 2010. It has acquired 3 million customers in just one year.
The departing FCC chairman Kevin Martin has initiated a new investigation and issued some fines against cable companies prior to departing his post. The incoming chairman is not obligated to follow through with them. One is into Comcast specifically and whether or not it has continued to deliberately slow down access to rival Internet phone services. Martin also issued fines of $500,000 after an investigation on ‘price gouging’ where analog channels when upgraded to digital were put in higher tariff bundles. This appears to be little more than a sulk from a departing executive who is clearing out his desk.
Sony Online Entertainment has bought PoxNora, an online collectible strategy game and other key assets, including staff and work in progress from its developer Tucson based Octopi. PoxNora combines traditional card games with turn-based strategy games.
Mobilkom, known for launching the first European NFC mobile ticketing and payment service, has signed up Austrian railways operator OEBB to test buying tickets by contactless mobile phone technology. Train tickets can be ordered over the phone and delivered over the phone network and validated and used through an NFC touch.
Itialian free satellite TV service, Tivu, being brought to market by Mediaset and public broadcaster RAI, has now set a June launch. Back in October the two made public their plans, jealous as they were of the 5 million or so pay TV customers that Sky Italia has managed to accrue in Italy using satellite. The service should be delivered though Eutelsat’s Hot Bird satellite, which is the one which Sky Italia uses.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the Shanghai Media Group in China are planning a new factory to churn out 500,000 Blu-ray disks a month. It is the first factory of its type in China and will be for the consumption of Chinese titles within the country.
Korean car and electronics giant Hyundai plans to bring its nascent handset operation to the UK, as a prelude to further international expansion. The company, even in the face of recession and UK mobile saturation, is currently in talks with operators and distributors and says it has set a target of 3% to 5% market share in the country by 2014. It also plans to launch in Korea and Hong Kong, and possibly China, soon. One product expected is a Windows Mobile smartphone, codenamed Blighty, which will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in February.
The US DISH Network says that it has partnered with A&E Network to bring the first 1080p TV series to any US pay TV VoD network. It says the resolution is comparable to a Blu-Ray disc. The drama in question is The Beast with Patrick Swayze. DISH Network subscribers with an MPEG-4 HD DVR receiver, and it requires a high definition TV capable of 1080p.