UK regulator Ofcom has reached out to all stakeholders to find out what they want to do with the Analog Switch Off spectrum the UK will have in UHF next year, it has called for responses by June and published a likely Digital Dividend Review framework with the spectrum from 470 MHz to 800 MHz broken up into four segments, two for more wireless broadband and two to replace Digital Terrestrial and take it into HD and 3D services.
When we wrote about Dish taking over Blockbuster paying $320 million for the privilege, we noted that it would take over 1,700 stores. Now papers filed with the court show that Dish will keep between 500 and 600 of those stores, and so will close some 1,100 more stores. Blockbuster has fallen from 5,000 US stores at its height. The Dallas based corporate HQ appears to be on the block too, but full plans have yet to be disclosed by Dish.
Apple is asking a federal Judge to dismiss a consumer antitrust suit claiming that it forced consumers into limited choices by tying iPods to its iTunes store. Of course it is this tying that took Apple to number one in the online charts and sold millions of devices and built its empire ‘ so perhaps dismissing it would be just accepting that Apple’s DRM lock in using Fairplay was legal, when perhaps it wasn’t. Obviously the fact that Apple takes DRM free music now means that it no longer runs this lock-in, but surely it built it its fortune at the expense of rivals. To us it is open and shut, DRM-free music was only available in 2007, and you have to ask if Apple was dominant in online music by that time (which it was). In which case, it was continued by a monopoly and there will be consequences.
Google reported revenues of $8.58 billion for the current quarter up 27%, operating income was $2.8 billion which is 33% of revenues up from $2.49 billion last time. This brought net income of $2.3 billion, compared to $1.96 billion last year. 69% of revenue came from Google owned sites up 32% over 2010. AdSense revenues were $2.43 billion up 19% from 2010. Finally international revenues were $4.57 billion, 53% of the total.
IHS Screen Digest says that Blu-ray Discs for 3D (BD3D) will rise 533% in 2011 across the four markets of the US, UK, Germany and France. 3D Blu-ray in these territories will reach $213.9 million this year, up from $33.8 million in 2010. In 2011 7.5 million BD3Ds will be sold, compared to 1.1 million titles sold last year.
By 2014, BD3D consumer spending is projected to reach $909 million, slightly more than four times the figure anticipated at the end of 2011.
TeliaSonera says that it has increased its IPTV pay TV homes to 473,000 in Sweden, up 23,000; to 238,000 in Finland up 20,000; up 7,000 to 138,000 in Lithuania; up 4,000 to 129,000 in Estonia and up 20,000 to 190,000 in Latvia. It seems the smaller the country is, the more subscribers it has. It still only has 6,000 in Norway, up 1,000 and has only risen from 5,000 to 10,000 in Denmark. In all it says that it is up 59,000 in the quarter, but that doesn’t add up if you put all the elements together, unless it sold something off.
Modern Times Group which owns ViaSat with satellite and IPTV paid and free TV services, finished its first quarter with sales up 10% to 3,125 million Swedish Krona ($510 million). It puts it down to a strong Scandinavian TV advertising market to drive its free to air TV business, while pay TV also managed a 10% increase in revenues and better margins.
AT&T is offering a new $270 up front incentive for cable customers to switch to its U-Verse service in the US, offering $45 a month for 6 months. AT&T says it’s the fastest growing TV service in the country ‘ we’re not surprised if it’s giving it away.
India’s regulator the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has come out with recommendations on ‘Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Policy’ placing different levels of Indian labor involvement and ownership in making telecoms goods, into different categories of device. The idea is to create a home industry big enough to service about 50% of the county’s demands by 2020 up from 3% now. The three categories are Domestic Manufactured Products, Indian Manufactured products and Indian Products where Indian companies hold the intellectual property. India plans to give Domestic Manufactured Product, where the supplier has less than a certain turnover, government subsidy and equity capital. Domestic product is hoped to meet 80% of telecom requirements by 2020. We’re not sure what GATT may say about that.
Verizon has a new version of FiOS, its hybrid fiber/IPTV television service, with more than 25 upgrades to the FiOS Media Guide, the addition of 3D software to detect 3D programming automatically. The DVR will be enhanced to add chaptering, a multi-hub DVR, eSATA external storage devices and ‘play all’ and ‘delete all’ options.
US home gateway firm Entone said this week that Granby Telephone will deploy Entone’s Amulet IPTV Receivers and Janus Media Hubs for its high-definition (HD) IPTV service rollout in Granby, Missouri.
US researcher In-Stat says that worldwide set top box revenues were up in 4Q10 over 4Q09 with revenues of $5.7 billion compared to $5.3 billion. It said there was a significant migration from SD to HD in in North America and Asia/Pacific and regions like the Middle East and Latin America have had a surge in SD boxes. In the US satellite set top box unit shipments approached 18 million in 2010. In IPTV it said that Cisco was number one, Motorola second, Samsung 3rd and Netgem 4th. It seems to have forgotten Pace and Technicolor.
European Netflix-alike LoveFilm, now owned by Amazon, has announced a deal with Disney UK and Ireland to provide ‘a selection’ of titles from Disney for online delivery via the LoveFilm player on PCs, in-home connected devices and on the PlayStation 3 gaming platform. It’s the first major deal Disney has made with an OTT partner outside the US, the company claims.
Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Group has agreed to sell its TV and print operations in the Netherlands and its TV business in Belgium for €1.23 billion to a consortium including Finnish publisher Sanoma and investment company Talpa in the Netherlands and Corelio and Waterman & Waterman for Belgium. The production business in the Netherlands and Belgium is not included in the transaction and will remain part of ProSiebenSat.1 Group.