US encoder, transcoder and cloud encoding company Elemental has won a deal with Foxtel to encode and transcode its multiscreen services in Australia for on-demand and catch up TV. The deal covers 50 channels of video for the Foxtel Go OTT and TV Everywhere services.
UK set top maker Amino Technologies and Greece’s Intracom Telecom say they have jointly been awarded a follow on contract to provide IPTV set tops to an unnamed but major South Eastern European operator working across several countries. The set top supports both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 and uses http live streaming (HLS) for internet delivered content, something Amino has been a specialist in for some time, and it will use the Intracom CDN.
Vivendi is getting ready to float France’s second largest mobile operator SFR. The company bought the 44% of SFR that it did not own from Vodafone in April 2011 for almost €8 billion and immediately got into problems with the operator, as Iliad’s Free introduced a price war in cellular in France. SFR was put up for sale at the time, but with no buyers now looks to remove any damage it can do to Vivendi’s balance sheet, but going public. Timing however will be at the end of 2014 or in early 2015, so it has time yet to hurt Vivendi.
The Indian Government plans to reduce or entirely eliminate the cap it has on foreign ownership on in telecommunications companies. The aim is to pull in some investors to take on its stubborn cable sector and rationalize and consolidate it. It will also do the same in defense. Previously foreigners had to keep 26% of telecoms companies inside Indian hands, and this will fall to zero. Defense companies will still need to hold 51% inside India. The move will also help with accelerating investment in cellular and DTH companies, but that was largely not a problem anyway. Expect some US and European companies to buy out their partners over the coming year or so.
Vodafone has launched two variations on the same mass market smartphone that it is calling the Smart III, and it follows on from its Smart II range. It is a 3G HSDPA Android phone with a 1GHz processor, 5 MP camera and 4GB of storage, has a high resolution 4-inch touch screen and prices start are €60. Vodafone will also introduce a version with an NFC chip built in and the phone has a range of Vodafone apps to help customers manage their digital lives and keep personal information secure with simple one-click backups.
Multi-screen measurement company Rentrak, has announced a multi-year local TV ratings contract with Rockfleet Broadcasting in the US for three stations, local affiliates of ABC, FOX and NBC. This will be Rentrak’s 100th client.
Commercial satellite provider Space Systems Loral, said it was selected to provide a communications satellite to Sky Perfect JSAT, a satellite operator based in Japan, which already has 16 satellites. The satellite will have 26 C-band transponders and 18 Ku-band. C-band will be used for broadcast and data networks and the Ku-band for high-speed connectivity for maritime, aviation and exploration.
US researcher Strategy Analytics has a new mobile media forecast, ‘Global Mobile Media Forecast: 2001-2017,’ and this predicts spending by consumers on mobile media through a handset (which excludes tablet spend). This says it will rise from $161 billion in 2012 to exceed $200 billion by 2017. Data revenue among operators accounted for $100 billion, or 62.5% of total mobile media spend in 2012, on web browsing, games, apps, video and social media services.
The Greek government for some bizarre reason has shut down the local public broadcaster ERT and fired its entire staff. One suspects that there is a certain amount of revenge going on here for unsympathetic coverage. A smaller organization will be put back on the air in a few days, it says. But of course those cuts could have been carried without taking the channels off the air and thousands of people are now protesting outside the ERT headquarters. Given that it runs on license fee revenue, perhaps this is more about recalcitrant overspending, than output. Its budget will be reset at €100 million from €300 million.
DisplaySearch says that smartphones and handheld devices are moving rapidly to higher resolution and that over 200 pixels per inch is the new norm and will account for 54% of unit share in 2013. There will be with 24% of unit share at 300 ppi and even higher resolution panels are expected to emerge up to 400 to 500 ppi.
Mountain View California based Anvato says that it offers the world’s first end-to-end digital video supply-chain platform for TV broadcasters, and it has just landed a deal to run live and on-demand video for 31 Gray Television broadcast stations. Gray is one of the largest CBS affiliates in the US and will use the Anvato Media Content Platform to manage all rich-media online content from live capture ingestion to live encoding, editing, publishing and distribution, and on-demand video monetization.
The board of Clearwire in the US has recommended to shareholders that they accept the improved offer from Dish to buy the company, over one previously recommended from Sprint, which already holds more than 50% of its stock. The Board is echoing the recommendation of its Special Committee made up of independent, non-Sprint-affiliated directors, which unanimously recommended that stockholders accept the offer. Dish has now extended the deadline for acceptance to July 2nd.
Sigma Designs came back from the brink with a profitable quarter and 19% revenue growth for its Q1 figures to May 4th. Revenues were $52.5 million, up $8.3 million from the previous quarter and up $12.3 million or 31% from last year. It still made a loss but this was $4.5 million, compared to $35.2 million for the previous quarter and $13.7 million for the year ago quarter. The company, which makes set top and connectivity chips and which has been one of the main drivers of the G.hn standard, said recent highlights included new Z-Wave products, improved shipment of new HomePlugAV chips and Z-Wave components to AT&T’s Digital Life program, and also it began shipments of Mediaroom certified set top SoCs to key OEMs. A number of Chinese companies have also taken its G.hn components to work in powerline network adapters.
Thomson Video Networks today announced a new range of headend systems tailored to the specific needs of cable operators in India. Based on the common Indian channel lineup, each system is designed to provide the appropriate level of encoding for a particular channel format using its ViBE VS7000 and ViBE EM1000 encoders.
SoftBank has raised its offer for Sprint Nextel to $21.6 billion putting the ball back in Dish’s court to make the next bid. This offer has more cash in it and we understand is being taken more seriously than its first offer by US investors, but it will transfer more ownership to Softbank, well over the 70% that was originally suggested.
Cox Communications at the Cable show says it is considering licensing Comcast’s Reference Design Kit (RDK) to help speed the rollout of advanced digital cable services. Comcast unveiled the RDK, as an open-source software platform last year and so far some 70 technology vendors have licensed it, but only Liberty Global among MSOs have followed suit until now.
Time Warner Cable says it has the TWC TV application, available for free this summer, working on Samsung Smart TVs, giving access to 5,000 Video On Demand assets from nearly 100 networks.