Digital TV – Page 5 – Digital-Lifestyles

BT Vision – IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens

BT Vision - IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens You’ll probably remember that we broke the story back in September about the release date of BT’s then unnamed IPTV plus Freeview service. Today we learn that it’s to be called BT Vision – and that it’s release may have slipped slightly, from the ‘late summer 2006’ quoted by Andrew Burke to Autumn.

As we know … all new services like to claim a level of uniqueness, BT have latched on to it being the “world-first, combining access to digital-terrestrial channels through the aerial with broadband-powered video on demand” – translated? It’s got a Freeview tuner built in.

BT Vision - IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens BT’s also confirming that the box that will do all of these things is to be call the BT Hub. Its will use a software platform powered by Microsoft and that the set-top box is to be made by Philips.

Those interested in the service also have a chance to register at the BT Vision site.

BTW – Straw poll around the office. They’d better turn out some better content on BT Vision than that horrible Flash vision that accompanies the site. Argh – not exactly inspiring.

LCD TV Revenues Outstrip Cathode Ray TVs

LCD TV Revenues Outstrip Cathode Ray TVs It looks like the days of chunky, clunky cathode ray tube TVs are numbered as worldwide revenues from slimline LCD (liquid crystal displays) TVs surpassed those of cathode-ray (CRT) televisions in the fourth quarter last year.

Fuelled by football-crazy punters grabbing a gogglebox in time for the World Cup, revenues of LCD TVs in the last quarter sailed past $10 billion for the first time, with flat panel displays now commanding more than 50 percent of the global market.

The figures come from DisplaySearch, a US-based display market research firm, who recorded LCD TV revenues reaching $10.09 billion (£5.84bn, €8.4bn) in the fourth quarter last year, adding up to a hefty 54.3 percent increase from the previous quarter’s $6.48 billion (£3.75bn, €5.43bn).

But the trusty old cathode ray tube isn’t dead yet, with CRT TV sales rising 9.6 percent from the previous quarter, a modest jump from $6.88 billion in the third quarter to $7.46 billion (£4.32bn, €6.25bn) in the fourth quarter.

LCD TV Revenues Outstrip Cathode Ray TVs Sales were healthy for plasma-screen televisions, growing 31.3 percent to reach $5.29 billion in the same quarter, giving them the third-largest share of the market after LCD TVs and cathode-ray TVs.

Trailing in fourth place were projection TVs, notching up a 38.4 percent rise in sales revenue to net a record-breaking $2.87 billion.

Looking at the global TV market, the total volume revenues for the fourth quarter last year was estimated to reach $25.49 billion, with LCD TVs accounting for 39 percent, cathode-ray TVs 29 percent, Plasmas at 20 percent and projection TVs at 11 percent.

Commenting on the booming LCD sales, Ross Young, president and CEO of DisplaySearch said, “Now that LCD TVs have overtaken CRT TVs on a revenue basis, the next target for TFT LCD manufacturers is to overtake CRT TVs on a unit basis.”

LCD TV Revenues Outstrip Cathode Ray TVs Look out LCDs – here comes SED displays
Despite the healthy sales of LCD and plasma screens, it seems that there’s another new technology on the block to tempt upmarket TV-viewers.

Called SED – short for Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display – the technology is a result of a joint venture by Toshiba and Canon, who have described SED as a major industry milestone, “a once-in-50-years historical turning point for the TV industry, comparable to the initial introduction of CRT television”.

Thinner and more energy efficient than LCDs and plasma display panels, SED screens are reputed to deliver clear and vivid images thanks to a light-beaming technology similar to cathode-ray tube TVs.

The sets are due to be out in time for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, although some pundits are already suspecting that plummeting LCD/plasma prices may seriously damage SED TVs’ commercial prospects.

Cathode Ray Tube
SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display)

Mayday! Mayday! UK Digital TV Boxes In Trouble Again

Mayday! Mayday! Digital TV Boxes In Trouble Again For the second time in a fortnight, coastguards have been scrambled after a digital TV box sent out a signal on a wavelength used by ships in distress.

Mrs Donaldson, a 67 year old pensioner in Plymouth, Devon, came back from an evening at the cinema to find investigators waiting outside her door, “holding a massive antenna.”

After picking up the ‘distress’ signal from Mrs Donaldson’s Freeview box, two lifeboats and a police launch spent a fruitless three hours searching 20 miles of coastline looking for what they believed to be a mystery vessel in trouble.

Two weeks previously, a faulty TV digital box in Portsmouth resulted in a coastguard helicopter from RAF Kinloss being scrambled for a two hour search of the harbour area before the signal was traced to a household inland.

RAF spokesman Michael Mulford confirmed that the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre at Kinloss had detected the beacon – transmitting on the major emergency frequency – from one of five orbiting satellites.

Once the RAF had established that the source wasn’t coming from a nearby vessel or missing plane, they contacted Ofcom who were able to track the signal down to a household.

At the time, an Ofcom spokesman was reported as saying that the signal was a “real one-off”, adding that “digital boxes only receive signals.” When we spoke to Ofcom today, they claimed to have said it was ‘probably’ a one-off.

Beacons not boxes
The frequency used by the digital Freeview set-top box (officially called the Civil Distress Frequency) exactly matched the one reserved for emergency distress beacons.

These beacons are carried by ships, yachts and aircraft, and when they come into contact with water, automatically broadcast a signal that identifies the vessel and its location.

Will the digi-TV rollout be scuppered?
With Digital TV boxes being responsible for two major incidents in just two weeks, some serious issues are being raised for the proposed roll out of digital TV in the UK.

Ofcom officials told us that they think that only two boxes failing out of the ten million Freeview boxes already sold isn’t much of a problem.

But with the cost of the two wasted rescue operations exceeding what has been reported as £20,000, lifeboat crews have warned that such rogue signals could cost lives in the future.

Mayday! Mayday! Digital TV Boxes In Trouble Again An Ofcom spokesman explained that the faulty boxes are now being examined for malfunctioning components, adding: “Apparently any device capable of receiving a signal can also send a signal if it malfunctions. To the best of our knowledge these are the only two out of millions of Freeview users in the UK to have experienced this problem.”

Confusingly they said that they hoped to have the results of the tests in a ‘couple of weeks,’ but might not make the findings public. They refused to be drawn on who made the Distressing digi-box, or indeed if both boxes were made by the same company. They also wouldn’t reveal the price range of the offending box.

Meanwhile, it looks like they’ll be no shiny digital future for Mrs Donaldson who has said that she won’t be getting a replacement box as she would “hate to cause more bother”. Bless.

AJAX Alert: Opera Browser With AJAX To Sigma CE Chip Range

AJAX Alert: Opera with AJAX To Sigma CE Chip Range Web browser company Opera today announce they’re bring their Web browser with AJAX support to chips for use in Consumer Electronics (CE) applications.

It’s not long back that Opera made the decision to give their Web browser away after a long period of charging for it. A very brave and noble act many though – not a bad way to raise your profile we thought.

AJAX Alert: Opera with AJAX To Sigma CE Chip Range They’ve been putting their browsers on different platforms for a while, like the mini-browser for mobile phones they brought out back in August 05.

The reasoning behind the give-away move becomes clearer today as they announce that they’ve been working with US chip company Sigma Designs to bring their browser software to embedded hardware via Sigma’s SMP8630 family of chipsets.

Clearly looking to tread on Intel’s toes, Sigma say the SMP8630 family of chipsets can be used in digital media adapters, IPTV set-top boxes and networked DVD players that OEM’s may want to build.

To get to use the browser and the oh-so-desirable AJAX, OEM’s will need to get in touch with Opera to license their Software Development Kit (SDK). Once familiar with it they should be able to create some snazzy application.

So what’s so exciting about embedded Web browsing software? Their supports the darling of the hour buzzword – AJAX.

AJAX Alert: Opera with AJAX To Sigma CE Chip Range We’re sure you, dear reader, know what AJAX is, but just incase – it stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. This translates to being able to use a Web browser more like a computer-based application.

The most notable difference from a ‘normal’ Web app is information and updates can be carried out without needing reload the Web page each time. It’s an intergral part of the Web 2.0 landscape.

AJAX Alert: Opera with AJAX To Sigma CE Chip Range The most often cited example is Google’s Gmail.

We at Digital-Lifestyles see the rise of AJAX as the event that broke Microsoft’s domination of computers. So pretty significant really.

Expect this news to generate great excitement in the Blog-world.

Opera
Sigma
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Pressure Builds – No Christmas Cheer For BT

BT has been hit by two further blows, bringing into stark relief the height of the mountain it must climb to achieve its TV ambitions. Secondarily, drawing into sharp focus the changing landscape for domestic phone calling, as the competition begins to consolidate.

The bad news for the BT TV proposition, is that BSkyb has got its 8th millionth customer. These customers are, by and large, the sort of customer BT badly needs for its triple play TV offering to be a success. They’re high-delivering ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) viewers that will delight the beleaguered BT finances.

Sky’s achievement of the 8 million target is also likely to be a blow to the ambitious NTL. Expect little let up from Sky as it battles to reach the 10 million mark by 2010 and continues to push its Sky+ and multi-room offerings.

As competition hots-up, no pre-Christmas cheer for BT Separately, a consolidating Carphone Warehouse has been on the acquisition trail and agreed the purchase of Tele2’s UK and Ireland operations, and separately, Onetel.

The deal with Tele2, the Swedish telecoms company, at a price of £8.5 million plus the £2 million cost of a planned restructure, will add around 188,000 customers in the UK and a further 36,000 in Ireland to Carphone Warehouse.

The deal appears to makes sense for Carphone Warehouse, and they expect the transaction to add to their earnings in the current financial year. They intend to migrate the purchased companies customers onto its own network, under the TalkTalk brand.

As competition hots-up, no pre-Christmas cheer for BT The purchase of Onetel from Centrica for £132 million includes £37.1 million, while will be delivered if Centrica deliver a targeted number of customers in the next three years via its British Gas operations. The Carphone Warehouse will also pay Centrica an additional £22.2 million if higher sign-up targets are met.

Onetel’s residential customer portfolio is made up of 1.1 million Carrier Pre-Select (CPS), 250,000 indirect access, 60,000 broadband, 40,000 mobile. There are also 50,000 CPS business customers. Carphone Warehouse are upbeat about this purchase too, saying the acquisition will “increase current year pre-tax profits by approximately £4m, and next year’s pre-tax profits by approximately £20m.”

Here at Digital Lifestyles, we expect competition to be even fiercer in 2006 as both BSkyb and the Telcos battle to capture high spending subscribers.

Doctor Who Interactive TV Christmas Special Planned

Dr Who TV Christmas Special Goes Interactive The BBC is hoping to get Dr Who fans reaching for their red buttons en masse with a video-rich interactive TV application scheduled to run straight after the airing of the Christmas Day special (7:00PM GMT).

Dubbed “Attack of the Graske,” the application hopes to get sofa-loafing viewers taking part in an interactive adventure with the aim of preventing an evil alien creature, called the Graske, from taking over the earth.

Dr Who TV Christmas Special Goes Interactive It looks that the BBC has invested muchos cash into the venture, employing live-action video and “state-of-the-art” special effects produced at the high end visual effects studio, The Mill.

Christmas-pud gorged viewers will be tasked with using the arrow keys on their remote controls to perform a series of challenges which will test observation, dexterity, memory and – according to the BBC – their bravery.

There’ll also be an opportunity to fly around in the Tardis with the Doctor “on hand to give advice, encouragement, and even step in when things go wrong.”

Dr Who TV Christmas Special Goes Interactive Produced in Cardiff by BBC New Media and BBC Wales, producer Sophie Fante commented, “Attack of the Graske gives the viewer the unique opportunity to immerse themselves fully in the world of Doctor Who.”

“We aimed to make the challenge with the same scope and feel of the main series and, in ‘Attack of The Graske,’ the viewer finds themselves not only flying the Tardis with the Doctor but fighting the Graske on the planet Griffoth and hunting him out in Victorian London,” she added.

Filming the program involved creating an authentic Dickensian Christmas scene, complete with snow, in Cardiff.

Dr Who TV Christmas Special Goes Interactive We can’t wait to watch this latest installment of the highly rated Dr Who series and are hoping to witness another kind of winter wonderland the day after when the mighty Cardiff City FC take on Plymouth.

Dr Who

BT’s IPTV Content Deals: Too Little Too Late?

BT’s IPTV Content Deals: Too Little Too Late? In the week that BT and Sky both saw their triple play offerings potentially trumped by a possible NTL/Virgin ‘quadruple play’, BT chose to release details of its upcoming content deals with BBC Worldwide, Paramount and Warner Music Group.

Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT Retail, talked up the deals, “Whether you are a music fan, love films or hooked on drama you will get the best in entertainment when you want it. BT is defining next generation TV.”

BT’s IPTV Content Deals: Too Little Too Late? Against a backdrop of whispered rumours of delays with Microsoft’s IPTV Edition, the BT service is slated for launch next year.

BT’s TV service will piggyback on-demand programming, delivered by a high speed Internet connection to a Philips terrestrial Freeview receiver, and the PVR component of the box will hold 80 hours of downloaded programming.

The service will not be a monthly subscription like that of NTL and Sky, instead it will follow a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, where individual downloads and viewing can be charged.

An agreement with BBC Worldwide that covers on-demand rights for BBC programming and charges for viewing, will provoke controversy as the BBC is paid for by a universal levy on TV viewers in the UK.

Problems won’t be confined to BBC programmes if ITV programming is carried, advertisers are bound to be unhappy that time-shifting viewers will skip the paid for messages.

You might be able to tell that we’re not that excited about this deal. At least BT seems to recognise that viewers watch content rather than technology … or well negotiated deals.

With so many digital TV homes in the UK subscribed to Sky or cable, we’re just not sure if BT will be able to muscle into the Digital TV space.

A major question mark hanging over them is whether the content promised so far is enough to encourage current subscribers to switch or, even more difficult, if they can get the so called “digital refuseniks” to join BT’s TV.

65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TV

65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TV Ofcom has published its Digital Television Update for the third quarter of 2005, revealing that two thirds of UK households now watch digital television.

The figures show that digital television was viewed in 65.9% of UK households (up from 63.0% in the previous quarter), with 2.6% of households receiving television services via analogue cable, bringing the total receiving some form of multi-channel television to around 68.5%.

By the end of September 2005, the total number of households viewing digital television swelled by more than 760,000 to around 16.5 million, with more than 6.3 million free-to-view digital households (Freeview/free-to-view satellite).

65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TV The number of households with Freeview as their only source of digital television viewing was estimated at 5,775,000 – up by 600,000 homes during the quarter.

Sales of Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television or DTT) set-top boxes and televisions with integrated DTT tuners are booming, with more than one million sales registered during the quarter – a whopping 55% increase against the same quarter last year.

During the same period, BSkyB notched up another 48,000 subscribers, bringing its total number of UK subscribers to 7,472,000, with Ofcom estimating that there are also around 545,000 free-to-view digital satellite homes (this includes viewers who no longer fork out for a BSkyB subscription but still use the box for the freebie channels).

65.9% of UK Households Watching Digital TV Digital cable subscribers now account for more than 2.6 million of the total cable television homes, increasing by more than 43,300 in the quarter, while subscriptions to analogue and digital cable television decreased slightly to just below 3.3 million in the quarter (due to a fall in analogue cable subscribers outweighing the increase in digital cable subscriptions).

This healthy take-up of digital television will be encouraging news for the government who are committed to a digital switchover between 2008 and 2012.

Ofcom Digital Television Update – 2005 Q3 [pdf]

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why?

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why? The Digital-Lifestyles office is in a state of total confusion over major UK broadcaster, ITV, buying the Web Site, Friends Reunited (FR).

Our reaction when we initially heard of the deal was – What? Why? How much!?

It’s been widely reported that ITV is paying £120m + £55m in bonuses for FR. The site that has been running for four years, currently has 12m members and is expected to make revenues of £12.4m this year.

It’s not that we don’t think that businesses should appear to diversify. We’ve been clear that we think eBay’s purchase of Skype was genius. The major difference, beyond the value to the transaction, is that Skype is still growing.

What?
We think that FR has done an amazing sales job on ITV. It’s a site that would appear to be in decline rather than its ascendancy. Their expansion into Genes Reunited, Dating and Jobs Reunited would appear to point to them thinking the same.

If you look at why FR worked, we think it’s because there were generations of school leavers going their separate ways prior to the Internet, leading them a very limited means of contacting their previous peers.

ITV Buy Friends Reunited: Why? The school leavers departing since the wide use of the Internet, will not have to resort to third-party services – the majority of them will have an online presence, allowing direct contact, if desired.

Why?
ITV are suffering. The business that, when it was launched fifty years ago, was described as a ‘license to print money’ has gradually slipped to a low grade, trashy set of channels. It’s widely thought of as a bit of a joke with appalling programming.

70% of ITV’s revenues come from Ad sales on its flagship channel, ITV1. The word in media circles is that ITV1 is now struggling to sell ads, as the audience generally drops off (the exception to this being their recent reality show, ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here’), and goes down market.

ITV do have a huge advertising sales department that has been merged across all of its regions. Bringing FR into this sales force will give better economies for ITV, letting them squeeze additional profits from FR. It will also give ITV the chance of selling adverts across TV and the Web – extracting additional cash from the advertiser.

Another benefit will be letting ITV have access to the 12m members of FR, allowing them to expose the online FR audience to promotion of ITV’s programming, if they’re UK based. Later this can be expanded to on-demand sales.

When we sat around at Digital-Lifestyles to come up with other reasons, one that came up was the possible creation of a programming strand or, heaven forbid, whole channel covering the now-various services of FR. eg reality programming following a group of FR subscribers going through the steps to ‘reunited’, with the trial, tribulations and toe-curingly moments that it would entail.

The question we keep on coming back to is, Is this this really worth £10-£14.50 per FR member?

Even after ITV boss Charles Allen has tried to explain the deals advantages, we’re still not convinced.

This deal brings to mind ITV’s disastrous, misguided huge, £788m investment into ITV Digital – their attempt to take on BSkyB in the UK. The service collapsed in 2002, later to reborn as Freeview.

Vodafone Launches Global Mobile TV

Vodafone Launches Global Mobile TV Vodafone has started to roll out its global Mobile TV channels, serving up a feast of “world-class TV brands, pan-European sports coverage and leading entertainment and documentary programmes”.

The global Mobile TV channels will be widely available across Vodafone markets from this month and will include big hitting series like HBO’s “Sex and the City”, “Six Feet Under” and special mobile editions of the old favourite, ’24’ from Fox.

Sports fans will be kept amused on the move with Eurosport, UEFA Champions League and, err, Chilli TV (who?) channels, with the Vodafone service also carrying popular channels like MTV and Discovery.

“With a wide range of ‘good for TV’ handsets, an intuitive, easy to use service and a portfolio of instantly recognisable television brands and programming, the launch of global Mobile TV is a compelling proposition for our customers”, purred Peter Bamford, Chief Marketing Officer at Vodafone.

“Attracting world class content providers, such as Twentieth Century Fox Television and HBO, ensures the premium quality of this product and underpins our confidence in its widespread adoption,” he continued.

Vodafone Launches Global Mobile TV Vodafone say that their research into the market revealed that Mobile TV complemented television viewing habits at home and thus demonstrated a hearty appetite for the product amongst consumers.

Their study found that consumers want well-known TV brands and channels and like to “dip” in and out of television as a way of filling up free time (or skiving from work).

Sourced globally, the TV content will work with any 3G enabled handset and will complement existing domestic Mobile TV offerings in eight of Vodafone’s operating countries (namely, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and the UK) as well as associate and partner networks in Belgium, France, Switzerland and Austria.

Vodafone