APSCC 2011 Satellite Conference & Exhibition: All Eyes on Satellites

Seoul, Korea/ April 25, 2011 – APSCC will hold its annual Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications, Broadcasting and Space Conference and Exhibition (APSCC 2011), an international festival of the satellite and the space-related industries, from September 27 to 29 in Bali, Indonesia. This is the 14th annual conference of APSCC and the first one taking place in Indonesia –triggering the attention of the satellite industry for business activities to the Southeast-Asian region.

Over the last decade, the APSCC annual event has earned a reputation in the satellite industry as the prime event not only in Asia but also worldwide regarding both its contents and its volume. A series of panel sessions and presentations along with an accompanying exhibition will ensure that the conference has broad appeal across the satellite and space arena.

Themed “All Eyes on Satellites”, the APSCC 2011 Satellite Conference and Exhibition will not only focuses on opportunities in the mainstream markets – commercial, broadcasting, and policy – but will also dig deeper than ever before into providing fresh data, keen market intelligence and the strategies to achieve new levels of business development.

Delegates of the event consists of satellite operators, broadcasters, manufacturers, service providers, financing professionals, government regulators, users and academics including key players in the satellite and space-related fields including the most influential executives of the industry.

Hosted by the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC), APSCC 2011 will represent an unparalleled opportunity to reach the highly targeted selection of satellite professionals for business promotion and information exchange. The event will also offer premium opportunities to network with senior executives as well as administrators from the Indonesian satellite industry. www.apscc.or.kr/apscc2011.html

About APSCC

APSCC (Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council) is a membership base non-profit international organization representing all sectors of satellite and space-industries including satellite service providers, manufacturers, launch service providers, risk management companies, broadcasters, and government organizations. APSCC membership is open to any organization involved in the satellite industry with interests in the Asia-Pacific. The objective of the Organization is to promote communications and broadcasting via satellite as well as outer space activities in the region through conferences, forums, workshops as well as exhibitions for the socioeconomic welfare of the region. www.apscc.or.kr.

Anna Kim
Membership & External Communications
Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC)
Suite T-1602 Poonglim Iwantplus
255-1 Seohyeon-dong, Bundang-gu
Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, 463-862 Korea
Tel:       +82 31 783 6246
Mobile:   +82 10 7277 7977
Fax:       +82 31 783 6249
Email:    anna@apscc.or.kr

NEW DELHI (April 19, 2011): The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the order of the broadcast tribunal TDSATsetting aside Trai’s notification fixing 35% of the rates paid by cable operators for TV channels and raised the same to 42%. 

A bench comprising justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik stayed the order of the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which had set aside Trai’s notification of July 21, fixing the price. 

Read the full article at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/SC-raises-rates-for-DTH-operators/articleshow/8023065.cms

Changhong mulls JV for STB manufacture in India

Indiantelevision.com Team
(5 April 2011 10:50 pm)

MUMBAI: The $7.5-billion China-headquartered Changhong Group is considering setting up a joint venture company to manufacture set-top boxes (STBs) in India.

The manufacturing base, the location of which is yet to be firmed up, will be set up within a year.

“Even if we set up a joint venture, we will have a controlling stake. We may also decide to do it on our own,” says Sichuan Changhong Network Technologies country manager for India Martin Jiang.

Changhong Group manufactures the STBs through its subsidiary company Sichuan Changhong Network Technologies.

The company plans to have a base that would be able to sell two million STBs a year in India’s rapidly growing digital market.

But why manufacture in India when China is known for scale of economies? “There is a need to set up base and service the market from India. We are also looking at local players for contract manufacturing,” says Jiang.

The manufacturing base could be either in Mumbai or in Delhi. The company already has an office in Mumbai and supplies STBs to clients like InCablenet and Manthan.

“We started in 2008-end and have already sold three million STBs in the Indian market,” says Jiang.

The company’s China unit has a manufacturing capacity of 12 million boxes.

Source: http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k11/apr/apr33.php

Video-on-demand (VOD) has established itself rapidly as a mainstay in pay-TV homes and will become an even faster growing entity for providers as it integrates over the top (OTT) streams.

In “On-demand Services Business Models: Video, Games & Over-the-Top – 2011 edition,” IMS Research estimates that at the end of 2010, 13.2% of the world’s digital pay-TV subscribers were requesting VOD content via their set-top box (STB).

Furthermore the analyst  forecasts that going forward this figure will increase rapidly so that the number of pay-TV households using VOD services will triple from 53.9 million at the end of 2010 to 157.3 million at the end of 2015.

The current growth resulted in 2010 operators generating $4.3 billion in on-demand revenues, with traditional closed-network VOD accounting for 99.5% of this figure. IMS Research forecasts that in 2016, closed-network VOD’s share will decrease to 94% of total on-demand revenues generated by pay-TV operators globally.

Commented Anna Hunt, principal analyst and report author: “There is much interest from pay-TV operators in new revenue streams, so games on-demand and OTT integration into set-tops are getting quite a bit of attention. Nevertheless, traditional VOD services offering TV shows and movies will continue to be the main drivers for growth in on-demand revenues.”

Read more: VOD households to triple by 2015 to break 150 million barrier | News | Rapid TV News http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2011032911215/vod-households-to-triple-by-2015-to-break-150-million-barrier.html#ixzz1IAWpHv7z

Foxtel and Austar are considering controversial moves to reduce their advertising volumes as part of plans to differentiate pay TV from free-to-air multichannels and reignite subscriber take-up.

Austar chief executive John Porter blamed free-to-air TV networks for “abusing” content and that one way pay TV could stand apart from free TV was to reduce the level of advertising interference on pay channels with “low or ad-free channels”.

To read the complete article, please visit http://www.adnews.com.au/news/pay-tv-to-cut-ad-clutter

Taiwan’s cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill that will lift restrictions on local cable television operators branching out to different service areas.

For a full English-language report of this development, read the article at: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/03/25/295993/Bill-to.htm

New research from Informa Telecoms & Media has revealed the full extent of the phenomenal rise in online video to the point where the vexed questions of traffic throttling and net neutrality are becoming increasingly valid.Indeed even though it considers disputes over network video usage somewhat premature right now, Inform says that such concerns will be much more justifiable over the next few years and that so-called ‘bandwidth hogs’ will be online video viewers rather than peer-to-peer users.

In its new report, ‘Congestion up ahead? Internet traffic and service forecasts, 2010-2015′, Informa calculates that overall Internet traffic will grow at just under 50% each year so that by 2015 the volume will be about seven times greater than today at 1.26 million petabytes per year.

Not surprisingly, by 2015, video will be the largest online application.  Informa says that that in 2010, online video generated more traffic than peer-to-peer file-sharing for the first time ever and will grow far more quickly than peer-to-peer over the forecast period.

On what may be great news for consumer but a huge headache for network providers, Informa suggests that such consumption is the tip of the iceberg. It notes that the majority of video streams today are delivered at SD quality, to the PC. Because both HD, and delivery to connected TVs, will grow significantly over the forecast period, Informa deduces estimates that even if users watched no more video in 2015 than they do

in 2010, traffic will still have grown significantly. Pointedly, it adds that by 2015, HD video will likely have accounted for more traffic than SD video, while video direct to TVs will make up 10% of total traffic.

Even though the analyst’s most aggressive forecast assumes only a small shift in viewing in viewing from TV to online, Informa regards it as clear that even a relatively small shift will have a massive impact on traffic overall.

In a prediction that will worry content owners, Informa expects peer-to-peer to be a significant generator of video traffic, growing at around 30% each year over the forecast period, and it will continue to account for over 20% of total traffic. Informa regards it as clear that there is still a massive untapped market for peer-to-peer services in the developing Asian markets where there may be a big shift from physical, disk-based piracy to peer-to-peer usage.

Read more: Video drives online traffic boom to 2015 | News | Rapid TV News http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2011032111044/video-drives-online-traffic-boom-to-2015.html#ixzz1HI3On2eC

MUMBAI: The RTL Group is partnering with Reliance Broadcast Network to launch a portfolio of English-language networks in India that will have access to FremantleMedia’s deep library of content.

Reliance released details of the proposed 50-50 joint venture in a filing to Indian regulators yesterday. The partnership would begin with two English-language entertainment channels, focused on reality and action, with the possibly of looking at the lucrative Hindi-language entertainment. The portfolio will draw from FremantleMedia’s slate of content. 

The RTL partnership is similar to Reliance’s deal with CBS Studios International for three channels: Prime, a general-entertainment channel; Spark, for the 15-to-24 set; and Love, geared at women. 

Source: http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/28961

Michael K. Powell, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2001 to 2005 and a member of the FCC for eight years, has been appointed President & Chief Executive Officer of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA).

As CEO for NCTA, Powell will serve as the cable industry’s leading advocate, spokesman, and representative in its relationship with the US Congress, the Administration, the FCC, and other federal agencies. He will also manage the staff, programmes, and initiatives of the Association.

Powell currently is a senior advisor with Providence Equity Partners and Honorary Co-Chair of Broadband for America. He begins his tenure at NCTA on April 25 and succeeds outgoing NCTA President & CEO Kyle McSlarrow, who recently was named President, Comcast/NBC Universal, Washington, D.C.

Source: http://www.advanced-television.com/index.php/2011/03/16/powell-appointed-ncta/