PARIS (April 5, 2012) — A group including many of the world’s biggest commercial satellite fleet operators has written the Indian government to protest a proposed new tax that would slap a 10 percent royalty fee on foreign satellite communications services and make the fee retroactive to cover the last 36 years.

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, India’s minister of finance. Credit: World Econofmic Forum photo by Eric Miller

The group says the new tax, if approved by India’s parliament as part of a broad Indian government search for ways to reduce the government deficit, will cripple Indian broadcast and other communications at a time when India faces a shortage of domestic satellite bandwidth.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.spacenews.com/policy/120405-sat-operators-protest-indian-tax.html

April 7, 2012 – Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英), a pioneer of animated news, plans to sell his Taiwanese business after allegedly suffering huge losses on the operation’s TV branch, a report said yesterday.

Photo: AFP

The chairman of Hong Kong-listed Next Media Ltd (壹傳媒集團) has entrusted an unnamed investment bank with selling the business, which also includes the Apple Daily newspaper and Next Magazine, for US$500 million, the -Chinese-language China Times said.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/04/07/2003529708

(Mar, 2012) The distinction between a ‘lean forward’ and ‘lean back’ medium apparently began with interactive television. The terms have commonly been used by hand-wavers such as marketing people, media theorists, and futurists. The distinction has very little real scientific basis. There isn’t any clear idea what these terms really mean.

Still, there’s something going on here. Jakob Nielsen, in studies of reading via print versus the web, found major differences between the two. To the question of “How readers read on the web,” Nielsen answers: “They don’t.”

According to Nielsen, “People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.”

Read more at Johnny Holland

Inside the rustic Seabreeze Tavern along the beach in Aptos, the remote controls for three TVs rest on the bar. Owner and manager Rich McInnis leaves them there for the “regulars,” who have carte blanche to choose what they want to watch as long as they keep drinking beer.

One night in April 2009, a click from one of those remotes landed McInnis in a legal quagmire over piracy accusations that is repeating itself in federal courts across the country.

A tavern regular decided to order a United Fighting Championship bout, without the Seabreeze paying the commercial fee for a pay-per-view event. McInnis wound up months later staring at a lawsuit that asked him to fork over $160,000 in damages for an event that ordinarily would cost about $800.

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.mercurynews.com/tv/ci_20152147/sports-promoters-unleash-piracy-lawsuits-against-bay-area?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com

March 21, 2012 – The regulator’s proposal to halve advertising duration puts the television industry in a spot.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposal last week to halve ad duration on pay television channels has stirred up a hornet’s nest in the media industry.

While a discussion paper floated by the regulator says ad duration should be capped at six minutes every hour to provide clutter-free viewing experience to television audiences, industry stakeholders have questioned the viability of operating under such regulations.

To read the full article, please visit http://www.sify.com/finance/ad-brake-for-pay-tv-channels-news-default-mdvaFlidfjj.html

New Delhi (March 21, 2012): Rivalry between cable operators and DTH companies has come to the fore with growing instances of DTH jammers being used in parts of Mumbai and Delhi NCR to distort DTH signals. DTH firms like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Reliance Big TV, Videocon D2H and Airtel Digital TV have detected fresh cases of DTH jammers causing disruption of services in Mumbai.

The DTH Operators Association of India (DOAOI), which represents all DTH companies, has described the use of jammers as a threat to the national spectrum. In a strong worded letter sent to the department of telecommunications (DoT), Mumbai Police, and other security agencies, the DOAOI said, “This illegal activity has serious ramifications for the security communications as this can be used to disturb the RF spectrum.”

To view the complete article, please visit http://www.financialexpress.com/news/cable-operators-distort-signals-using-jammers-dth-companies-cry-foul/926229/

Space Data Association Recognized by World Space Risk Forum and Society of Satellite Professionals International

WASHINGTON (14th March, 2012)—The Space Data Association (SDA), established by commercial satellite operators to improve the safety and efficiency of space operations, has been awarded the “Innovation in Industry Collaboration on the Safe Use of Space” award by the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). The award, which was presented at SSPI’s annual Stellar Reception on 13th March, will be added to the “Space Risk Management Award” which the SDA received from the World Space Risk Forum 2012 during their recent event in Dubai, UAE; the SDA was honored for its outstanding cooperative efforts to reduce the risk of satellite operations.

The SDA’s Space Data Center (SDC) provides full conjunction assessment (CA) capability and is developing data-sharing in support of radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation. The SDC provides CA processing for more than 65% of all operational satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). SDA took the opportunity of the Satellite 2012 show to host its first SDA User Group meeting on the 12th March in Washington, DC. The all-day event incorporated discussions on improving industry best practices for CA and RFI mitigation, system demonstrations, as well as discussions with 3rd part data providers, prospective members and other industry bodies.

SDA Chairman Stewart Sanders says, “We formed the SDA because we saw a need for improvements in the integrity of satellite operations in order to ensure the preservation of the physical environment we all operate in, as well as to reduce the effect of service affecting RF interference. We are delighted to be recognized by our peers for the significant progress we have made in both of these areas and we hope this industry endorsement will serve as a further signal of the value of our continued efforts.”

The SDA plans additional features for the Space Data Center and is pursuing data-sharing agreements to improve the scope and quality of data available to its membership.

About SDA

The Space Data Association Limited (SDA) is a non-profit international association of satellite operators that supports the controlled, reliable and efficient sharing of data critical to the safety and integrity of the space environment and the RF spectrum. It maintains the Space Data Center, a database of high-accuracy orbital information, which is operated by Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) of Exton, PA. Established in the Isle of Man, its executive members are Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Intelsat and SES. The SDA is open to all satellite operators and other participants. Membership information can be found at www.space-data.org.

Press contact
Vanessa O Connor / Tel. : + 33 1 53 98 37 91 / voconnor@eutelsat.fr

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(March 15, 2012) – While its relevance in the realm of traditional linear television is more questionable than ever, the CW’s youthful, digitally literate core audience renders the network an important signpost on where the distribution of TV on emerging platforms is headed. And if the CW’s decision this week to collapse the digital debut of its shows on its CWTV.com platform from 75 hours to just eight hours is any indication, it all seems headed back to square one.

As first reported by Variety Wednesday, CW is going to begin streaming series including The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl just eight hours after their debut on linear TV. The network explained the move as an attempt to ward off digital piracy—it said 20 percent of streams for its shows were facilitated by unauthorized sources. The network said 50 percent of that illegal viewing comes within the first three days after broadcast.

To view the complete article, please visit http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/cws-face-streaming-says-piracy-211917466.html

(March 13, 2012) – Chinese Internet television company Youku and Internet video company Tudou Holdings have signed a definitive merger agreement for Tudou to combine with Youku in a 100 per cent stock-for-stock transaction.

Upon completion, the combined entity will be named ‘Youku Tudou Inc’. Youku’s ADSs will continue to be listed on the NYSE under the symbol ‘YOKU’.

To view the complete article, please visit http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/03/13/youku-tudou-create-chinas-leading-online-video-company/