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Satellite news 04.05.04
News
UK
BBC WANTS SATELLITE FTA PLATFORM
The BBC on April 26 called for the introduction of a
satellite version of Freeview after warning the
government that it will miss its target for switching
off the analogue television signal. The corporation
said government intervention backed by millions of
pounds of public money would be needed to convert the
country to digital TV by 2010. Creating a fourth
platform alongside Freeview, BS*yB and cable will be
vital to meeting that deadline, said the BBC in a
report submitted to the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport. The government plans to abandon the
analogue signal when digital penetration reaches 95%
of households. That milestone will be reached in 2013
if the task is left in the hands of the market,
according to BBC estimates. In a report that was
critical of official preparations so far for
switchover, the corporation called on the government
to set a clear timetable for analogue switch-off and
to establish an independent organisation dedicated to
coordinating the conversion to digital TV. Andy
Duncan, the BBC's director of marketing and
communications, urged the government to underwrite the
cost of converting broadcasters' TV transmitters to a
digital network. He admitted such a move could cost
hundreds of millions of pounds, but said the BBC and
commercial stations would need extra cash to run two
different transmission systems. The most radical
proposal was for the creation of a free-to-air
satellite TV service, dubbed "freesat" in industry
circles. The concept has been endorsed by media
regulator Ofcom, which issued a report on digital
switchover this month. A "freesat" service will be
needed in the post-analogue future to reach viewers
who cannot receive cable or Freeview or do not want
pay-TV through BS*yB. The BBC said the government
should work with BS*yB, Channel 4, Five and ITV to
produce a free-to-air satellite service.
AUSTRALIAN CHANNEL TO LAUNCH
A new digital television channel featuring Australian
soap operas, mini-series, kids' series and TV movies
is set to launch in the U.K. later this year. Darren
Gray, the head of programming for the new channel,
called Aussie Gold, said that the network would
"specialize in screening classic and more recent
Aussie soaps and dramas.
ITV TAKES OVER CONTROL OF ITV NEWS CHANNEL
UK commercial broadcaster ITV has secured full
ownership of its 24-hour news service by acquiring NTL
Europe's stake in the venture. ITV has bought NTL's
35% stake after the ITV News Channel reported its
third consecutive year of audience growth. The digital
network draws in a weekly average of 2.4 million
viewers.
BBC TO BOOST ARTS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS OUTPUT
In the run up to Charter renewal and after Ofcom's
call for the BBC to be a pillar of public service
broadcasting, the Corporation has pledged to lift the
number of arts, current affairs and documentary
programmes in peaktime across all its networks.
Details of the new initiative include a further 10
primetime hours of current affairs on BBC1 this year
(lifting the total to 90 hours) plus a continued
emphasis on consumer programming within its factual
output. A pledge to keep BBC1 repeats below 10% of
output was also made. Also in the year ahead, BBC2
will increase its commitment to current affairs by 10
further hours, and will usher in a new focus on
documentaries, tackling issues like terrorism,
disability and parenting. On the BBC's digital-only
networks, BBC3 is developing a 7 O'clock News weekday
programme, while BBC4 will launch a new programme for
analysis of UK and world media.
BBC LAUNCHES PET TV SERVICE
Pet TV is a service digital viewers can access by
pressing the interactive red button on their remotes,
for a week-long run from May 1. It is being billed by
the BBC as an attempt to find out what sort of TV
programmes, sounds and images animals respond to. The
interactive TV service will consist of a looped series
of images and sounds, including clips of snooker balls
rolling across the green baize, frisbees flying
through the air, cat toys and cartoon characters such
as Top Cat. The service will also offer clips from
more traditional TV fare, such as EastEnders,
Neighbours, The Muppet Show and Animal Hospital. Pet
TV can be tried out on dogs, cats, birds and even
fish, according to the BBC. Pet TV is a spin-off from
BBC1 show Test Your Pet, which is to be broadcast on
Saturday night at 18:00. The service will be available
to viewers with Freeview, S*y Digital or digital cable
TV.
NTL SUPPORTS THE COMMUNITY CHANNEL
ntl is the latest media company to give its support to
The Community Channel - the UK's only not-for profit
TV station - by donating a slot from 10:00 to 16:00.
ntl customers who currently receive the "local"
channel 14 in their package will now be able to access
The Community Channel. Owned by the Media Trust, a
registered charity, the Community Channel enjoys the
support of the whole media industry. Through a range
of lively, innovative and thought- provoking
programming the channel helps the charity and
voluntary sectors increase their profile, recruit
volunteers and raise funds. It also provides a place
where viewers can have their voice heard and find out
how to get involved in community and charity
activities. Trustees of the charity include Michael
Green (chair), Mark Thompson (CEO 4), Jon Snow, Tony
Ball and Greg Dyke. Core funding is from the Home
Office Active Communities Unit (ACU) and Lottery
Community Fund and it has received cross-industry
support worth in excess of £1 million.
BS*yB OPTS FOR TANDBERG
Tandberg Television announced that it has secured an
order from BS*yB to provide the broadcaster with a
range of digital compression solutions. The deal will
see BS*yB introduce a new Tandberg Television MPEG-2
head-end installation with 16 compression systems for
its Advanced Technology Centre, which is being created
to supplement BS*yB's existing broadcast facilities.
The companies share a 10-year plus track record based
on co-operation and trust and their engineering teams
have worked closely together to pioneer digital pay-TV
satellite technologies and services. BS*yB was one of
the early adopters of Tandberg's MPEG-2 encoders
during the 1990's. As part of the contract Tandberg
Television will provide end-to-end systems based on
its industry leading MPEG-2 compression engine. The 16
compression systems will each contain Tandberg E5710
encoders, MX5640 multiplexers and TT1220 receivers, as
well as control and monitoring.
BBC SNATCHES TV RACING DEAL
The BBC announced on April 30 that it has signed new
agreements with the Racecourse Holdings Trust (RHT)
and Royal Ascot to broadcast racing from The Grand
National, The Derby and Royal Ascot until 2010. The
new contracts, for both television and radio, will
cover racing from Ascot, Aintree and Epsom.
Negotiations will now commence in respect of the BBC's
other racing.
AVANTI LAUNCHES MUSIC VIDEO CHANNEL
Avanti Communications has launched its own music video
channel called MVN (Music Video Network). The channel
is intended to respond to consumer demand and replace
audio entertainment with multi-media imagery and
uninterrupted audio as well as in-store entertainment
and branding experiences. Several independent bars
have already purchased MVN making it a commercial
success. MVN grew out of two projects funded by ESA:
IMPSAT (In-Store Multimedia Platform for Shared Access
to Telecoms) and ABARIS (Advanced Broadcast
Architecture for Retail Internet Services). Demand
from clients in the pub market, who were asking for a
generic music video channel, prompted Avanti to come
up with the idea and adding a range of additional
features like advertising, private branding and local
messaging which are essential for that market.
Avanti's successful silent channel, 'Magnetic'
currently reaches 320 bars.
E U R O P E
CZECH REPUBLIC
TV OCKO MOVES TO ASTRA 1
SES ASTRA and Stanice O, a media company based in
Prague, have teamed up or the free-to-air digital
distribution of Czech channel TV Óèko. TV Óèko is
Czech Republic's first dedicated music and lifestyle
channel with a strong emphasis on Czech and Slovak
music. Starting May 1, TV Óèko will be broadcasting
free-to-air via the ASTRA satellite system at 19.2
degrees East (ASTRA 2C, transponder 57, 10,832 GHz/H,
SR 22000, FEC 5/6), currently reaching over 28 million
DTH households in 30 European countries.
FRANCE
TF1 REPORTS GOOD QUARTER
Commercial TV network TF1 posted improved
first-quarter results on April 29, with the group's
consolidated revenue increasing 6% to €717.6 million
from a year earlier. A 6.1% increase to €425.1 million
in advertising revenue for the TF1 free-to-air premium
channel buoyed the results, reflecting growth in the
French food, cosmetics, telecommunications industries,
and the lifting of an advertising ban on the press
sector in January.
GERMANY
REVENUES UP AT TELE MUNCHEN
Tele Munchen Group on April 26 reported record
revenues for 2003 of €217 million - an increase of
20.5% over last year - despite continuing losses from
its fledgling channel Tele 5 and Austrian web ATVplus.
The privately held group, 55% owned by Herbert Kloiber
and 45% by Munich-based licensing company EM.TV, did
not release profit figures, however. In an interview
with German daily Die Welt, Kloiber said company's
film and DVD license business generated the lion's
share of sales. Tele Munchen's also collected revenue
from its 30% stake in RTL 2, which has been enjoying
success with a new year-long version of "Big Brother"
and other reality formats like "Frauentausch," a "Wife
Swap" clone. Tele Munchen is planning to launch on the
new digital platform being built by German cabler
Kabel Deutschland, which is in the process of taking
over all of Germany's regional cable companies.
ARD OPTS FOR SCIENTIFIC-ATLANTA TO REPLACE EQUIPMENT
ARD-Sternpunkte has selected a complete transport
hardware and software solution from Scientific-Atlanta
Europe (S-A) to restore its German Direct-to-Home
DVB-S play out system located at Hessischer Rundfunk
to state-of-the-art status. ARD's new play out centre
delivers less complicated operations for greater
efficiency at Hessischer Rundfunk, plus enhanced video
quality for viewers. The new system, mainly based on
S-A's Continuum DVP D9030 encoders and Pegasus
multiplexers, provides ARD-Sternpunkte with enhanced
bandwidth efficiency and expanded flexibility combined
with a customized operating and management concept. In
addition to the Continuum and Pegasus products, the
system installed at ARD-Sternpunkte is also using S-A
digital decoders and receivers, and redundancy
switches to help deliver reliable service. The
free-to-air ARD public broadcast signal is available
across Europe via the ASTRA satellite system.
SABAN INCREASES PROSIEBENSAT.1 STAKE
Haim Saban has increased his company's share in German
broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 from 72% to 75.1%
following a capital increase completed on April 28
that raised €282 million. The capital increase is part
of a comprehensive refinancing plan. ProSiebenSat.1
increased its existing shares by more than 24 million
to nearly 219 million. Half the shares are listed
preferred stock and half are unlisted common stock,
which carry voting rights. Fellow shareholding group
Sat.1 Beteiligung, made up of publisher Axel Springer
and the bankrupt Kirch Media, hold 24.9% of both
common and preferred stock, while Saban holds 75.1% of
the voting shares.
SUPER RTL POSTS PROFIT
Super RTL said on April 28 that it had a profit of
€10.4 million last year, 125% higher than the
year-earlier figure of €4.6 million. Advertising
revenue in the first quarter of 2004 was up 30.5%,
significantly better than the improved German
television advertising market figure of 6.8% reported
by Nielsen Media Research. Super RTL managing director
Claude Schmit said he expects this year's profit to
reach at least €15 million, adding that the extra
money will be invested in new youth programming. In
August, Super RTL will launch the "world's first
football show for young people," called "Toggo United
-- The Football Show" with the cooperation of German
football star Marco Bode.
HUNGARY
MTV FACES INSOLVENCY
Hungarian Television (MTV) may go insolvent in May,
according to the board of the MTV Public Foundation.
In line with this announcement, the board has not
authorized contracts for future shows or indeed any of
its current programming, and is looking to present the
financial woes of the station to Parliament. The board
is trying to persuade Parliament to unfreeze MTV's Ft
1.3 billion share of a previously allocated grant for
public broadcasters for 2004. This amount would stave
off MTV's financial meltdown merely for one or two
months.
IRELAND
RTE SIGNS OUTPUT DEAL WITH UNIVERSAL
RTE Ireland has signed a new acquisitions deal with
Universal. The deal runs to 43 films including hits
such as About A Boy, The Bourne Identity, 8 Mile and
The Pianist. The list also includes recent re-runs
such as Notting Hill and The Mummy, also classics The
Day Of The Jackal, Smokey & the Bandit, and Scarface.
On the series front, the RTE/Universal deal also
renews Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent,
plus series 2 of Monk, and library series such as The
Rockford Files and Murder She Wrote.
ITALY
MEDIA BILL FINALLY APPROVED
More than a year after it was first presented in
parliament, a bitterly-contested media law received
final approval on April 30 in the Italian Senate. The
move comes amid claims by the centre-left opposition
that the legislation was tailor-made for Premier
Silvio Berlusconi's business empire. The law was
revamped after a presidential veto in December, and
the new version was passed in the Chamber of Deputies
last month. Berlusconi's conservative forces in the
Senate passed the legislation in a 142-91 vote, with
one abstention. The opposition contends that the
legislation is designed to protect Berlusconi's
interests and increase his grip on the media.
Centre-left politicians also say the new version
ignores the issues raised by President Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi, who refused to sign the law on grounds that it
could lead to single companies dominating Italian
media. Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri, who
drafted the bill, said the law will open up the
Italian market by introducing digital television.
According to the constitution, the president must sign
a law before it goes into force. The president can
only reject legislation once, so Ciampi must now
accept the law.
POLAND
BBC PRIME SIGNS CABLE DEALS
Aster Group, a cable platform that serves 265,000
customers, primarily in Warsaw, has begun carrying the
BBC Prime channel. The entertainment channel has been
added to Aster's basic package, boosting BBC Prime's
reach in the country to 1.8 million homes. The channel
is already carried across Poland by cablers UPC
Telewizja Kablowa, MultiMedia and Stream. BBC Prime,
which features shows like Top of the Pops, EastEnders
and The Weakest Link, reaches more than 14 million
subscribers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
via cable and satellite.
ROMANIA
PRO CINEMA ON THE AIR
Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) on April
27 announced the successful launch of PRO Cinema, its
third national network in Romania. PRO Cinema
premiered with initial distribution in 60 percent of
cable systems in Romania, and the network expects to
achieve full cable distribution within 3 months. PRO
Cinema focuses solely on quality films and series
targeted at an upwardly mobile urban adult audience
and is supported by both advertising and cable
subscriptions. The network complements CME's
market-leading Romanian broadcast group that includes
PRO TV and TV Acasa, which ranked first and third
respectively among urban adults during prime time in
2003. The launch of PRO Cinema follows CME's recent
announcement that it has increased its ownership of
the Romanian group to 80 per cent. Seventy-five per
cent of Romanian cable companies, including the three
biggest operators, have already agreed to distribute
PRO Cinema throughout the country. Romania's cable
television systems currently reach 57 per cent of the
country, with an 82 per cent reach of the greater
urban areas.
Regards Satdude.
News
UK
BBC WANTS SATELLITE FTA PLATFORM
The BBC on April 26 called for the introduction of a
satellite version of Freeview after warning the
government that it will miss its target for switching
off the analogue television signal. The corporation
said government intervention backed by millions of
pounds of public money would be needed to convert the
country to digital TV by 2010. Creating a fourth
platform alongside Freeview, BS*yB and cable will be
vital to meeting that deadline, said the BBC in a
report submitted to the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport. The government plans to abandon the
analogue signal when digital penetration reaches 95%
of households. That milestone will be reached in 2013
if the task is left in the hands of the market,
according to BBC estimates. In a report that was
critical of official preparations so far for
switchover, the corporation called on the government
to set a clear timetable for analogue switch-off and
to establish an independent organisation dedicated to
coordinating the conversion to digital TV. Andy
Duncan, the BBC's director of marketing and
communications, urged the government to underwrite the
cost of converting broadcasters' TV transmitters to a
digital network. He admitted such a move could cost
hundreds of millions of pounds, but said the BBC and
commercial stations would need extra cash to run two
different transmission systems. The most radical
proposal was for the creation of a free-to-air
satellite TV service, dubbed "freesat" in industry
circles. The concept has been endorsed by media
regulator Ofcom, which issued a report on digital
switchover this month. A "freesat" service will be
needed in the post-analogue future to reach viewers
who cannot receive cable or Freeview or do not want
pay-TV through BS*yB. The BBC said the government
should work with BS*yB, Channel 4, Five and ITV to
produce a free-to-air satellite service.
AUSTRALIAN CHANNEL TO LAUNCH
A new digital television channel featuring Australian
soap operas, mini-series, kids' series and TV movies
is set to launch in the U.K. later this year. Darren
Gray, the head of programming for the new channel,
called Aussie Gold, said that the network would
"specialize in screening classic and more recent
Aussie soaps and dramas.
ITV TAKES OVER CONTROL OF ITV NEWS CHANNEL
UK commercial broadcaster ITV has secured full
ownership of its 24-hour news service by acquiring NTL
Europe's stake in the venture. ITV has bought NTL's
35% stake after the ITV News Channel reported its
third consecutive year of audience growth. The digital
network draws in a weekly average of 2.4 million
viewers.
BBC TO BOOST ARTS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS OUTPUT
In the run up to Charter renewal and after Ofcom's
call for the BBC to be a pillar of public service
broadcasting, the Corporation has pledged to lift the
number of arts, current affairs and documentary
programmes in peaktime across all its networks.
Details of the new initiative include a further 10
primetime hours of current affairs on BBC1 this year
(lifting the total to 90 hours) plus a continued
emphasis on consumer programming within its factual
output. A pledge to keep BBC1 repeats below 10% of
output was also made. Also in the year ahead, BBC2
will increase its commitment to current affairs by 10
further hours, and will usher in a new focus on
documentaries, tackling issues like terrorism,
disability and parenting. On the BBC's digital-only
networks, BBC3 is developing a 7 O'clock News weekday
programme, while BBC4 will launch a new programme for
analysis of UK and world media.
BBC LAUNCHES PET TV SERVICE
Pet TV is a service digital viewers can access by
pressing the interactive red button on their remotes,
for a week-long run from May 1. It is being billed by
the BBC as an attempt to find out what sort of TV
programmes, sounds and images animals respond to. The
interactive TV service will consist of a looped series
of images and sounds, including clips of snooker balls
rolling across the green baize, frisbees flying
through the air, cat toys and cartoon characters such
as Top Cat. The service will also offer clips from
more traditional TV fare, such as EastEnders,
Neighbours, The Muppet Show and Animal Hospital. Pet
TV can be tried out on dogs, cats, birds and even
fish, according to the BBC. Pet TV is a spin-off from
BBC1 show Test Your Pet, which is to be broadcast on
Saturday night at 18:00. The service will be available
to viewers with Freeview, S*y Digital or digital cable
TV.
NTL SUPPORTS THE COMMUNITY CHANNEL
ntl is the latest media company to give its support to
The Community Channel - the UK's only not-for profit
TV station - by donating a slot from 10:00 to 16:00.
ntl customers who currently receive the "local"
channel 14 in their package will now be able to access
The Community Channel. Owned by the Media Trust, a
registered charity, the Community Channel enjoys the
support of the whole media industry. Through a range
of lively, innovative and thought- provoking
programming the channel helps the charity and
voluntary sectors increase their profile, recruit
volunteers and raise funds. It also provides a place
where viewers can have their voice heard and find out
how to get involved in community and charity
activities. Trustees of the charity include Michael
Green (chair), Mark Thompson (CEO 4), Jon Snow, Tony
Ball and Greg Dyke. Core funding is from the Home
Office Active Communities Unit (ACU) and Lottery
Community Fund and it has received cross-industry
support worth in excess of £1 million.
BS*yB OPTS FOR TANDBERG
Tandberg Television announced that it has secured an
order from BS*yB to provide the broadcaster with a
range of digital compression solutions. The deal will
see BS*yB introduce a new Tandberg Television MPEG-2
head-end installation with 16 compression systems for
its Advanced Technology Centre, which is being created
to supplement BS*yB's existing broadcast facilities.
The companies share a 10-year plus track record based
on co-operation and trust and their engineering teams
have worked closely together to pioneer digital pay-TV
satellite technologies and services. BS*yB was one of
the early adopters of Tandberg's MPEG-2 encoders
during the 1990's. As part of the contract Tandberg
Television will provide end-to-end systems based on
its industry leading MPEG-2 compression engine. The 16
compression systems will each contain Tandberg E5710
encoders, MX5640 multiplexers and TT1220 receivers, as
well as control and monitoring.
BBC SNATCHES TV RACING DEAL
The BBC announced on April 30 that it has signed new
agreements with the Racecourse Holdings Trust (RHT)
and Royal Ascot to broadcast racing from The Grand
National, The Derby and Royal Ascot until 2010. The
new contracts, for both television and radio, will
cover racing from Ascot, Aintree and Epsom.
Negotiations will now commence in respect of the BBC's
other racing.
AVANTI LAUNCHES MUSIC VIDEO CHANNEL
Avanti Communications has launched its own music video
channel called MVN (Music Video Network). The channel
is intended to respond to consumer demand and replace
audio entertainment with multi-media imagery and
uninterrupted audio as well as in-store entertainment
and branding experiences. Several independent bars
have already purchased MVN making it a commercial
success. MVN grew out of two projects funded by ESA:
IMPSAT (In-Store Multimedia Platform for Shared Access
to Telecoms) and ABARIS (Advanced Broadcast
Architecture for Retail Internet Services). Demand
from clients in the pub market, who were asking for a
generic music video channel, prompted Avanti to come
up with the idea and adding a range of additional
features like advertising, private branding and local
messaging which are essential for that market.
Avanti's successful silent channel, 'Magnetic'
currently reaches 320 bars.
E U R O P E
CZECH REPUBLIC
TV OCKO MOVES TO ASTRA 1
SES ASTRA and Stanice O, a media company based in
Prague, have teamed up or the free-to-air digital
distribution of Czech channel TV Óèko. TV Óèko is
Czech Republic's first dedicated music and lifestyle
channel with a strong emphasis on Czech and Slovak
music. Starting May 1, TV Óèko will be broadcasting
free-to-air via the ASTRA satellite system at 19.2
degrees East (ASTRA 2C, transponder 57, 10,832 GHz/H,
SR 22000, FEC 5/6), currently reaching over 28 million
DTH households in 30 European countries.
FRANCE
TF1 REPORTS GOOD QUARTER
Commercial TV network TF1 posted improved
first-quarter results on April 29, with the group's
consolidated revenue increasing 6% to €717.6 million
from a year earlier. A 6.1% increase to €425.1 million
in advertising revenue for the TF1 free-to-air premium
channel buoyed the results, reflecting growth in the
French food, cosmetics, telecommunications industries,
and the lifting of an advertising ban on the press
sector in January.
GERMANY
REVENUES UP AT TELE MUNCHEN
Tele Munchen Group on April 26 reported record
revenues for 2003 of €217 million - an increase of
20.5% over last year - despite continuing losses from
its fledgling channel Tele 5 and Austrian web ATVplus.
The privately held group, 55% owned by Herbert Kloiber
and 45% by Munich-based licensing company EM.TV, did
not release profit figures, however. In an interview
with German daily Die Welt, Kloiber said company's
film and DVD license business generated the lion's
share of sales. Tele Munchen's also collected revenue
from its 30% stake in RTL 2, which has been enjoying
success with a new year-long version of "Big Brother"
and other reality formats like "Frauentausch," a "Wife
Swap" clone. Tele Munchen is planning to launch on the
new digital platform being built by German cabler
Kabel Deutschland, which is in the process of taking
over all of Germany's regional cable companies.
ARD OPTS FOR SCIENTIFIC-ATLANTA TO REPLACE EQUIPMENT
ARD-Sternpunkte has selected a complete transport
hardware and software solution from Scientific-Atlanta
Europe (S-A) to restore its German Direct-to-Home
DVB-S play out system located at Hessischer Rundfunk
to state-of-the-art status. ARD's new play out centre
delivers less complicated operations for greater
efficiency at Hessischer Rundfunk, plus enhanced video
quality for viewers. The new system, mainly based on
S-A's Continuum DVP D9030 encoders and Pegasus
multiplexers, provides ARD-Sternpunkte with enhanced
bandwidth efficiency and expanded flexibility combined
with a customized operating and management concept. In
addition to the Continuum and Pegasus products, the
system installed at ARD-Sternpunkte is also using S-A
digital decoders and receivers, and redundancy
switches to help deliver reliable service. The
free-to-air ARD public broadcast signal is available
across Europe via the ASTRA satellite system.
SABAN INCREASES PROSIEBENSAT.1 STAKE
Haim Saban has increased his company's share in German
broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 from 72% to 75.1%
following a capital increase completed on April 28
that raised €282 million. The capital increase is part
of a comprehensive refinancing plan. ProSiebenSat.1
increased its existing shares by more than 24 million
to nearly 219 million. Half the shares are listed
preferred stock and half are unlisted common stock,
which carry voting rights. Fellow shareholding group
Sat.1 Beteiligung, made up of publisher Axel Springer
and the bankrupt Kirch Media, hold 24.9% of both
common and preferred stock, while Saban holds 75.1% of
the voting shares.
SUPER RTL POSTS PROFIT
Super RTL said on April 28 that it had a profit of
€10.4 million last year, 125% higher than the
year-earlier figure of €4.6 million. Advertising
revenue in the first quarter of 2004 was up 30.5%,
significantly better than the improved German
television advertising market figure of 6.8% reported
by Nielsen Media Research. Super RTL managing director
Claude Schmit said he expects this year's profit to
reach at least €15 million, adding that the extra
money will be invested in new youth programming. In
August, Super RTL will launch the "world's first
football show for young people," called "Toggo United
-- The Football Show" with the cooperation of German
football star Marco Bode.
HUNGARY
MTV FACES INSOLVENCY
Hungarian Television (MTV) may go insolvent in May,
according to the board of the MTV Public Foundation.
In line with this announcement, the board has not
authorized contracts for future shows or indeed any of
its current programming, and is looking to present the
financial woes of the station to Parliament. The board
is trying to persuade Parliament to unfreeze MTV's Ft
1.3 billion share of a previously allocated grant for
public broadcasters for 2004. This amount would stave
off MTV's financial meltdown merely for one or two
months.
IRELAND
RTE SIGNS OUTPUT DEAL WITH UNIVERSAL
RTE Ireland has signed a new acquisitions deal with
Universal. The deal runs to 43 films including hits
such as About A Boy, The Bourne Identity, 8 Mile and
The Pianist. The list also includes recent re-runs
such as Notting Hill and The Mummy, also classics The
Day Of The Jackal, Smokey & the Bandit, and Scarface.
On the series front, the RTE/Universal deal also
renews Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent,
plus series 2 of Monk, and library series such as The
Rockford Files and Murder She Wrote.
ITALY
MEDIA BILL FINALLY APPROVED
More than a year after it was first presented in
parliament, a bitterly-contested media law received
final approval on April 30 in the Italian Senate. The
move comes amid claims by the centre-left opposition
that the legislation was tailor-made for Premier
Silvio Berlusconi's business empire. The law was
revamped after a presidential veto in December, and
the new version was passed in the Chamber of Deputies
last month. Berlusconi's conservative forces in the
Senate passed the legislation in a 142-91 vote, with
one abstention. The opposition contends that the
legislation is designed to protect Berlusconi's
interests and increase his grip on the media.
Centre-left politicians also say the new version
ignores the issues raised by President Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi, who refused to sign the law on grounds that it
could lead to single companies dominating Italian
media. Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri, who
drafted the bill, said the law will open up the
Italian market by introducing digital television.
According to the constitution, the president must sign
a law before it goes into force. The president can
only reject legislation once, so Ciampi must now
accept the law.
POLAND
BBC PRIME SIGNS CABLE DEALS
Aster Group, a cable platform that serves 265,000
customers, primarily in Warsaw, has begun carrying the
BBC Prime channel. The entertainment channel has been
added to Aster's basic package, boosting BBC Prime's
reach in the country to 1.8 million homes. The channel
is already carried across Poland by cablers UPC
Telewizja Kablowa, MultiMedia and Stream. BBC Prime,
which features shows like Top of the Pops, EastEnders
and The Weakest Link, reaches more than 14 million
subscribers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
via cable and satellite.
ROMANIA
PRO CINEMA ON THE AIR
Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) on April
27 announced the successful launch of PRO Cinema, its
third national network in Romania. PRO Cinema
premiered with initial distribution in 60 percent of
cable systems in Romania, and the network expects to
achieve full cable distribution within 3 months. PRO
Cinema focuses solely on quality films and series
targeted at an upwardly mobile urban adult audience
and is supported by both advertising and cable
subscriptions. The network complements CME's
market-leading Romanian broadcast group that includes
PRO TV and TV Acasa, which ranked first and third
respectively among urban adults during prime time in
2003. The launch of PRO Cinema follows CME's recent
announcement that it has increased its ownership of
the Romanian group to 80 per cent. Seventy-five per
cent of Romanian cable companies, including the three
biggest operators, have already agreed to distribute
PRO Cinema throughout the country. Romania's cable
television systems currently reach 57 per cent of the
country, with an 82 per cent reach of the greater
urban areas.
Regards Satdude.