Prime Time Olympics Coverage is Surprising Success for Network

August 8, 2012 – It’s more than a week into the London Olympics, and Twitter users are still hammering NBC for its tape-delayed coverage, its glitchy streaming online video, and the endless commercials in between and during the competition. But so far, the network’s coverage has been an unexpected success, ratings-wise.

NBC paid $1.2 billion for the U.S. rights to air the London Games, a crazy figure even compared to the 2008 Beijing Games, when it paid close to $900 million. But what may seem crazier is that NBC expected to lose about $200 million airing the Games this year.

Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/08/08/nbcfail-not-quite-prime-time-olympics-coverage-is-surprising-success-for-network/#ixzz231lr6dJ9

08-08-2012 – The latest video monetisation report from video technology firm FreeWheel has found that consumer viewership of professional video content on smartphones, tablets, and game consoles doubled in Q2 2012.

Furthermore, the report found that the soaring uptake in online video – hitting a record of over a billion video views – through this variety of connected devices was driving monetisation, with the market for video advertising continuing to expand at a faster rate than the viewing of content; video view volume increased 10% year-over-year while video ad volume increased 68% in the same time period.

Read more: http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2012080823466/online-video-view-pass-record-billion-mark-in-q2-2012-with-soaring-monetisation.html?utm_source=newsletter_756&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rapid-tv-news-current-edition-0808#ixzz230sNyXrv

August 7, 2012 – NSR’s Global Assessment of Satellite Supply & Demand, 9th Edition report has found that commercial satellite operators grew capacity leasing revenues by $635 million between 2010 and 2011 and are aggressively targeting new markets such as mobility and other high value services in order to maintain sustained revenue expansion for the coming years.

“The Ku-band market will continue to be the main growth engine for the commercial satellite market for the coming ten years”, noted Patrick M. French, NSR Senior Analyst and the report author. “The direct-to-home (DTH) TV market alone could add $1.4 billion in net new revenues by 2021 out of $4.3 billion expected in total for the Ku-band segment. Solid Ku-band revenue gains are also expected from the video distribution, enterprise data, commercial mobility and gov/mil verticals.”

Read more: http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/08/07/satellite-operators-continue-to-grow-capacity/

08/06/2012 – In case you didn’t notice, the entire TV and advertising worlds, their aunts, cousins and dogs, are up in arms over the NDTV Group’s $1.3 billion lawsuit-grenade that has landed right in the center of their incestuous world. From advertisers to TV channels to media buyers, everybody is taking part in the newspaper column equivalent of the candlelight solidarity march.

“Of course, we’ve known this for years now.”

“TAM data is utterly corrupted.”

“Just 8000-odd homes cannot represent India.”

It is as if every single person in the Rs.13,000 crore TV advertising kingdom woke up one fine day and decided to follow NDTV’s lead and publicly denounce their undisputed king for over a decade, TAM.

Except in this case, it is not just the emperor who was naked.

It is instead the entire kingdom.

To understand why, consider these criticisms of TAM data.

New Delhi (August 5, 2012): The Home and Information & Broadcasting ministries have raised security concerns over DIPP’s proposal to hike FDI cap in broadcasting services like Direct-to-Home and cable TV networks to a uniform 74 percent.

“There are some security issues involved in it, which the two ministries have raised. How to do the shareholders verification,” an official said.

One of the biggest concerns is how to prevent global media barons, who have a track record of exceeding their brief and influencing policies from entering the business, the official said.

Read more: http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/economy/fdi-in-broadcast-home-iandb-ministries-raise-security-concerns_57372.html

China TV cop says no to family conflict, historical hijinks

SHANGHAI (August 3, 2012) – Chinese television may get more boring after the country’s top broadcasting regulator issued six new guidelines banning remakes of foreign shows and demanding serials cut back on excessive family conflict and jokes in historical dramas.

China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the new guidelines recently and they were put into effect over the past few days, the state-run Beijing News reported.

Other guidelines include forbidding online games being adapted into television series and demanding that dramas on China’s Communist revolution – a staple of the Chinese airwaves – clearly distinguish between heroes and villains.

Read more: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/china-tv-cop-says-no-to-family-conflict-historical-hijinks_739675.html

August 2, 2012 – Enterprises and individuals who provide digital content on the internet but violate copyright regulations will be strictly penalized as of August 6, according to a new circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Under Circular No.07/2012/ TTLT, enterprises and individuals who want to post information with digital content will be required to have copyright certificates.

If digital information providers cannot show their copyright certificates, they will have to pay civil damages, including administrative fines or even criminal proceedings, in accordance with current legal regulations on copyright ownership and other relevant laws.

Read more: http://en.baomoi.com/Home/sciencetechnology/english.vovnews.vn/Ministry-eyes-online-copyright-violations/289847.epi

NHK brings forward Ultra-HD start date

Japan’s public broadcaster is targeting to start test transmissions of its advanced Ultra-HDTV format by 2016, some four years earlier than originally planned.

NHK’s director general for engineering, Dr Keiichi Kubota, delivered the news at a London demonstration of Super-HDTV held at London’s Olympic Park.

NHK, along with the BBC and other partners, are using the 2012 Olympics to capture and transmit test footage to viewers at the park and at other UK locations as well as to Tokyo and the USA.

Read more: http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/08/02/nhk-brings-forward-ultra-hd-start-date/

YOU On Demand Lands Paramount Titles for China

NEW YORK (August 1, 2012): China’s YOU On Demand has signed a deal with Paramount Pictures to offer the studio’s titles to its customers for on-demand viewing.

Paramount titles will be offered throughout the People’s Republic of China through YOU On Demand’s Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) services. Among the films headed to YOU On Demand through the new agreement are the Mission: Impossible franchise, Transformers, No Country for Old Men and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek.

Read more: http://worldscreen.com/articles/display/2012-8-1-you-on-demand-paramount-pictures

NBTC again bars obsolete set-top boxes

31/07/2012 – Imports of obsolete cable and satellite set-top boxes will again be banned to comply with the must-carry rule, warns the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).Some set-top boxes cannot decode the digital signal needed for pool programming under the must-carry rule, which took effect last week.

“The ban is intended to prevent future blackouts,” said Col Natee Sukonrat, the NBTC’s broadcasting chairman.

He admitted about 800,000 boxes or 5-10% of the households with cable in the country are blacked out from the Olympics.

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/305132/nbtc-again-bars-obsolete-set-top-boxes