Taiwan market: kbro aims to digitize 25% of cable TV users by end of 2012

[Friday 10 August 2012] kbro, a major MSO (multi-system operator of cable TV services) in Taiwan, has 216,000 subscribers to its digital cable TV service, accounting for about 20% of all subscribers, and aims to hike the proportion to 25% by the end of 2012, according to the company.

In line with increasing the penetration of its digital subscribers, kbro plans to procure nearly two million digital set-top boxes (STBs) from Taiwan-based makers over the next two years, with unit procurement costs estimated at NT$3,500-4,000 (US$117-133), the company said.

Read more: http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120810PD203.html

Apple Pitches Set-Top-Box Partnership to Cable Operators

August 16m, 2012 – Apple has held talks with big U.S. cable operators, including Time Warner Cable, about letting pay TV subscribers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live television and other content, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It said Apple CEO Tim Cook met with TW Cable CEO Glenn Britt during last month’s Allen & Co. media mogul gathering in Sun Valley, Idaho to discuss the idea.

The discussions mark Apple’s latest attempt to create a foothold in consumers’ living rooms and play a bigger role in the TV industry. Instead of looking to license content from entertainment companies and compete with pay TV players, it seems now focused on partnering with established providers.

Read more: http://movies.yahoo.com/news/apple-pitches-set-top-box-partnership-cable-operators-153619400.html

The trouble with television ratings
Does Indian tv industry have what it takes to fix the ratings mess?

August 17, 2012 – “If ratings go, there will be anarchy. Let us put plan B into place,” says Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS, the company that owns ABP News and other channels. It sums up what everyone — broadcasters, advertisers, analysts and investors — thinks needs to be done in the wake of the ratings controversy.

Ever since NDTV filed a lawsuit against Nielsen Holdings late last month, alleging the latter brought out corrupt data, there has been continuous babble. Now, as the noise peters out, the feeling within the Rs 33,000-crore Indian television business is, “How can we rapidly migrate from here?” says Sunil Lulla, managing director and CEO, Times Television Network. Advertisers echo that sentiment. Says Sanjay Tripathy, executive vice-president, HDFC Life Insurance, “It is high time we built confidence in the process.”

How should one do so? Should it be by doing what NDTV wants: Suspending ratings data brought out by the Nielsen-Kantar joint venture TAM Media Research till it fixes the problems? That is what happened in Turkey last year. In India, nobody likes the idea because Rs 11,600 crore of TV ad revenues hang in the balance. “As a planning metric, TAM continues to hold,” maintains Satyajit Sen, CEO, Zenith Optimedia.

Read more: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/the-troubletelevision-ratings/483475/

August 16, 2012 – Subscription TV (STV) has increased reach in week 32 by 3% in peak hour and 2% from 2am-2am, compared to the same time last year (STLY). Share of viewing is spread across the following genres: 36.2% other STV (includes Foxtel’s broadcast of the London 2012 Olympic Games across eight channels), 15% light entertainment, 11.4% sport, 8.6% documentary, 7.9% children’s, 6.3% lifestyle, 5.9% movies, 5.7% drama, 1.5% news and 1.5% music.

Read more: http://www.content-technology.com/asiapacificnews/?p=3031&utm_source=C%2BT-Mail+AsiaPacific-17-08-12&utm_campaign=C%2BTmail+17-08-12&utm_medium=email

Haslingden Stepping Down as President of News Corp.’s Fox

August 15, 2012 – Fox Networks President and Chief Operating Officer David Haslingden will step down at the end of the year to return to his native Australia, the latest management change before parent News Corp. (NWSA) splits in two.

Haslingden, 50, who has served as president of Fox Networks since January 2011, plans to spend more time with his family, News Corp. said today in a statement.

“My family is by far my greatest love, and being away from them for almost two years is long enough,” Haslingden said in the statement. “I’m delighted to be on my way home.”

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-15/haslingden-steps-down-as-president-of-news-corp-dot-s-fox

August 15, 2012 – Apple continued its slow creep to total tablet domination, shipping 17 million iPad 2 and new iPad tablets in Q2–a 44% increase from the previous quarter. That spurred an 11.5% increase in iPad market share, giving it 70% of the media tablet market, according to research firm IHS iSuppli.

Korean giant Samsung came in at No. 2, with a 9.2% share in Q2, down from 10.8% the prior quarter. It shipped 2.25 million units in the period, bringing the total to about 13 million total Android-based tablets to date.

Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire commands a third-place 4.2% share, after shipping 1 million units in Q2. Asus has a 2.8% share and Barnes & Noble’s Nook came in fifth at 1.9%.

Read more: http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2012081523563/apple-ipad-surges-to-70-market-share.html?utm_source=newsletter_763&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rapid-tv-news-current-edition-150812#ixzz23h8MrMkl

August 10, 2012 – Multi Channels Asia (MCA) has secured a carriage agreement with the Malaysian cable operator Asian Broadcasting Network (ABN) for eight channels, including NDTV 24/7.

Also included in the pact are Bloomberg Television, KidsCo, NDTV Good Times, NDTV India and Outdoor Channel as well as Havoc 24 and Motorvision. ABN will be delivering these eight services for pay TV in Malaysia.

Read more: http://worldscreen.com/articles/display/2012-8-10-mca-abn-malaysia

2012-08-14: Video infrastructure market generated $32 billion revenues for technology vendors in 2011.

The revenue is likely to grow by over 7 percent per year to reach $45 billion by 2016.

Revenues from client hardware and software segment (comprised primarily of set-top boxes, residential gateways and associated software) will remain relatively flat at around $14 billion per year.

Read more: http://telecomlead.com/inner-page-details.php?id=10884&block=Tower

Aug 13 2012 – Google has announced changes to its search algorithms designed better to identify legitimate, quality sources of content. Writing in the official Google Search blog, Amit Singhal, SVP, Engineering, says the company aims to provide a great experience for its users and has developed over 200 signals to ensure its search algorithms deliver the best possible results.

“Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices we receive for any given site. Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily – whether it’s a song previewed on NPR’s music website, a TV show on Hulu or new music streamed from Spotify,” he wrote.

Read more: http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/08/13/google-search-to-boost-legitimate-content/

August 15, 2012 – Pay-TV operator TrueVisions has joined hands with PSI Holding Co, a satellite TV provider, to compete in the satellite receiver industry by launching the new PSI-True TV satellite box.

Ong-ard Prapakamol, chief commercial officer of TrueVisions, said the company is entering the free-to-air satellite receiver business in order to penetrate the lower-income market.

“We have been talking about the development of the box for several months, and now is a good moment to roll it out as a new season of English Premier League football will kick off soon,” he said.

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/telecom/307681/true-and-psi-team-up-for-satellite-scheme