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Traditional tv channel has a brighter future

26 November 2009 | By Raymond Snoddy

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A clever piece of software that allows old-school broadcasters to compete with the likes of Sky has gone on trial in Italy

They may not realise it yet, but one day the likes of ITVs Michael Grade and WPPs Sir Martin Sorrell could end up feeling grateful to Andre Vanyi-Robin and Giuseppe Flores-DArcais.

In case you are not aware of Vanyi-Robin and Flores-DArcais, the Barcelona-based pair may have found a way of shifting the media balance in favour of terrestrial free-to-air broadcasters while offering advertisers precisely targeted TV ads.

Vanyi-Robin, who has an IT background, and Flores-DArcais, a lawyer, were involved in Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licences in Spain and started to explore how to get more out of Freeview-style digital terrestrial television. After all, with most of the developed world moving over to digital in the next five years more than 1 billion homes will soon be upgrading their TV receiving equipment and in the market for new television offerings.

What they have come up with is a software system that appears to get round the limited capacity on DTT and makes it much easier to offer video-on-demand, catch-up TV such as the iPlayer, high definition and targeted advertising.

The BESTv system uses the existing broadcast signal to continuously download movies, programmes and ads to the hard disc of a DTT box. It is downloaded in the form of data packages, rather like Teletext, and therefore does not affect the channel capacity of the DTT system.

The development allows traditional broadcasters to extend their reach by offering on-demand programmes or pay-TV. With no subscription required, they could compete on cost at the lower end of the market with the likes of Sky, BT or Virgin Media.

Of course people are always coming out of garages with new ideas that either fade away or are absorbed by the mainstream. But this is not pie-in-the-sky. A limited trial to 2,000 homes has been running in Barcelona for some time and last week Silvio Berlusconis Mediaset combined with Italian national broadcaster RAI to launch a national digital terrestrial pay-TV service.

The service, which uses BESTv software, is designed to counter the growing power of Rupert Murdochs Sky Italia and is aimed at those viewers unwilling or unable to pay large TV subscription packages.

Before long there should be hard evidence from Italy on whether pay-TV packages on DTT are going to take off or not. But if it does, it is claimed that over time the marketing budget for the new Italian service could be as high as 1bn (895m).

AIM-listed British company Motive Television has worldwide distribution rights for the technology - apart from Spain and Italy - and chief executive Len Fertig says he now plans to target the UK market.

The UK may be a very different market to that of Italy, but the high penetration of DTT would suggest that there is at least the potential for further services beyond Top-up TV. And Fertig, who launched the Nova commercial television channel in the Czech Republic, claims any broadcaster can extend their DTT offering for little more than the cost of a 200,000 server.

He also points out that the system enables appropriate ads to be downloaded with particular genres of programming. As a result, it could give a leg up for smaller, specialist broadcasters like S4C or even GMTV. S4C could draw on its library of Welsh language programmes and GMTV would be able to make its style of programmes easily available outside its limited broadcast hours.

But like Italy, it is difficult to say whether it will it take off in the UK. The history of subscription DTT in this country is colourful to say the least - the embarrassing 1bn failure of ITV Digital cleared the way for the spectacular success of Freeview. With the benefit of hindsight the mistakes made by ITV Digital were all too obvious - vastly over-paying for second-tier sports rights and trying to go head-to-head with Sky.

But things have moved on and something more gentle and economical that goes under the radar, but provides a new modest stream of revenue to replace some of the cash lost to the internet, might just make it.

Perhaps it is time to start thinking about the next stage of Freeview and one that can add iPlayer, VoD and HD+ targeted ads without the need for a broadband subscription. Vanyi-Robin and Flores-DArcais might have helped to sustain the future of the traditional television channel.

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It's just pump and dump spam, why dont you include a hit meter
and you will just see just how much you are wasting your time.

Are you working for a bucket shop because most of the stock you
push are just loss making rubbish ?

SMG BesTV, NBA Partner on IPTV Programming
LMTW, 10/20/09

Shanghai Media Group (SMG) IPTV company BesTV announced the launch of a strategic partnership with the NBA yesterday. BesTV will receive broadcast rights to all NBA preseason, regular season, postseason, and final games for the next four years, which it will broadcast - as many as 14 matches per day - in high definition for its subscribers. Once the partnership takes effect, BesTV users will be able to watch NBA matches via IPTV or via mobile television.

Keywords: sports, mobile phone TV, NBA, IPTV, programming, television, BesTV, broadcasting rights

New deal a boon for NBA fansBy Ma Zhenhuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-20 10:11 Comments(0) PrintMail
SHANGHAI: Viewers in China will soon be able to enjoy NBA games live through IPTV due to the launch of a partnership between NBA China and the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) yesterday.

The deal will bring NBA League Pass, a subscription service which provides comprehensive NBA coverage during the season, to China, and it will be available in high-definition on BesTV, the IPTV platform of SMG.

"SMG has been a terrific partner and we are pleased to expand our relationship with them," said Tim Chen, CEO of NBA China. "The demand for NBA programming in China continues to rise and, for the first time, fans in China will be able to watch live HD NBA games through NBA League Pass subscription with BesTV."

Though a subscription charge for the new service has not been finalized, Li Huaiyu, chief operations officer of BesTV, said he hoped Chinese fans would be able to subscribe to the service by the end of this month and said it should be available in the form of pay-per-view or packages.

The charge for a season package in the US is $199 .

Li estimated there could be more than 500,000 subscribers to the service by May 1 next year, when the Shanghai World Expo 2010 will be convened.

Yesterday's launch also saw congratulatory messages from Chinese players Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, via video, and NBA great Scottie Pippen.

"I'm so excited that Chinese viewers will be able to watch live high-definition games of the NBA," said Pippen, a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, who flew into Shanghai to witness the birth of the new service.

In March, 2005, SMG was issued the first national IPTV operation license and permitted to use BesTV as its IPTV service code. SMG signed an IPTV partnership agreement with China Telecom and China Netcom. IPTV business operations and trial services were launched in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Shanxi and other locations, covering more than 70 percent of Chinese mainland. Up to July, IPTV subscribers in Chinese mainland numbered more than 2 million.


(China Daily 10/20/2009 page22

Another name !

And you are attmepting the pump and dump on advfn now under the
name "buystock"

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/traditional-tv-channel-has-a-brighter-future/3007141.article

Monday, 21 December 2009

keep taking the pills advfn/buystock are you telling me advfn are buying stock in MTV.nice ??????

i suppose advfn could be buying into mtv they are similar in the media.well done if true rdg

William it's you that needs the pills !

You are constantly spamming good sites with pointless threads trying to
pump and dump awful aim stocks with terrible fundamentals, Mtv is just
the new Tadpole, always losing money and raising more funds with deeply
discounted placings !

Nobody is reading your spam william, nobody is interested, so many of
you stocks end in suspension, pushing bucket stocks for what reason ?

Once again i feel fully justified in warning others...if others actually read
your awful spam threads william that you are one of the biggest dangers
to a new investor by trying to suck into people into awful stocks.

I think you have exceeded your own expectations this time, usually the bad
news hits within a month and not a few days this time.

http://www.bestv.net/english/about-us/

Virgin Media's £3bn network expansion plan is running badly behind schedule, threatening the growth targets of its parent company, the pan-European cable giant Liberty Global. Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reveal that in June the Project Lighting scheme fell 61pc short of its goal for connecting new homes. - Telegraph