08-09 - TELE-satellite International Magazine

MEDIA
E U R O P E
E U R O P E
Satellite & Broadband News
Edited by
Branislav Pekic
ASTRA 5A SATELLITE SWITCHED OFF
Following a technical incident in January this year,
SES Astra had to put Astra 5A out of service and
end the spacecraft’s mission. A team of technical
experts and engineers since then succeeded in
removing the satellite from the geostationary orbit
and move it into a higher, secure orbit outside the
geostationary ring. SES Astra moved its Astra 2C
satellite to 23.5 degrees East, the orbital position
formerly occupied by Astra 5A, in order to resume
the services for customers from that position.
EUTELSAT W2A SATELLITE OPERATIONAL
The Eutelsat W2A satellite, launched on April 3,
became fully operational in mid-May. The Ku and
C-band W2A satellite almost triples resources at
Eutelsat’s 10 degrees East position, which is one
of the most longstanding locations in Europe and
Africa for professional video, data and Internet
services. With W2A’s entry into service Eutelsat
has also introduced a new mission comprising 10
C-band transponders. Centred over the African
continent, the C-band footprint takes in large
parts of the Middle East and central Asia to the
East and stretches across to Latin America in the
West. Following this redeployment Eutelsat’s W1
satellite has been repositioned to 4 degrees East
where it operates under the name Eurobird 4A.
AUSTRIA
TELEKOM AUSTRIA TOPS
75.000 IPTV CUSTOMERS
Telekom Austria has celebrated reaching the
75.000th customer for its IPTV service aonTV.
The operator had 63.800 subscribers to the
service by the end of last year, and reports that
the platform’s footprint now covers 65% of all
households in the country. The service offers
63 linear channels on its basic tier, as well as
over 300 on-demand movies, and the option to
subscribe to a number of premium channels.
BELGIUM
BELGACOM INTRODUCES
NEW IPTV PACKAGE
Belgacom has introduced a new package called
Belgacom TV Comfort, which replaces the
‘Classic+’ package and includes the ‘Comfort
View’ feature set (Pause TV, Rewind and Record).
The new package costs EUR 12.50 per month,
with 75 SD channels available in Wallonia, 82
available in Flanders and 90 available in Brussels,
plus five HD channels: eén HD, Canvas HD,
vtm HD, TF1 HD and France 2 HD. Rental of
the set-top box, offering HD reception plus PVR
features, costs EUR 6 per month. Belgacom had
506.000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008.
CROATIA
ISKON LAUNCHES IPTV SERVICE
Iskon, a subsidiary of Croatian incumbent operator
T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT), has launched an
IPTV service called Iskon.TV, initially available
in nine cities: Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Pula,
Osijek, Velika Gorica, Samobor, Opatija and
Solin. The service features over 40 channels,
whilst double- and triple-play packages bundling
internet access and telephony are available, as
well as a number of converged services such
as telephone Caller ID on the TV screen.
T-HT RECORDS HUGE INCREASE
IN IPTV SUBSCRIBERS
T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT) reached 150.953
subscribers to its IPTV service MAXtv by the end of
the first quarter of this year, up a whopping 167.9%
from the 56.355 customers registered at the end of
March 2008. The strong growth was supported by
the new standalone MAXtv service, which does not
require a broadband subscription. MAXtv features
blockbuster films from studios including Warner
Bros, Paramount Pictures, NBC Universal as well
as numerous local and international TV channels.
DREAMPARK TO DELIVER
IPTV MIDDLEWARE
IPTV middleware provider Dreampark has delivered
its Dreamgallery middleware to Croatian system
integrator CS Computer Systems. The system
was deployed for OiV, a Croatian state-owned
nationwide broadcasting and channel aggregation
organization. CS Computer Systems, with a
broad customer base in the broadcast industry, will
offer Dreampark’s IPTV middleware and provide
system integration services to its customers. The
first operator contract is signed and the system
was successfully delivered in February 2009.
FRANCE
FRENCH IPTV SUBSCRIBERS
TOP 6.2 MILLION
French telecoms regulator ARCEP has revealed
that 6.2 million French homes now have IPTV
subscriptions - an increase of 36.8%. Figures
indicate that 37% of all DSL subscribers in the
country took TV as part of their broadband connection
at the end of last year. France Telecom was
France’s largest IPTV provider, with its Orange TV
brand boasting 2.2 million digital TV subscribers.
TNT HD CHANNELS INTRODUCE
DOLBY DIGITAL
Dolby Digital Plus has become the sole audio
stream for three leading high-definition terrestrial
channels broadcast on France’s national Television
Numerique Terrestre HD (TBT HD) platform.
The TNT HD multiplex R5 carries channels TF1
HD, France 2 HD and M6 HD and the introduction
of Dolby Digital Plus allows broadcasters to
release valuable bandwidth to further improve
the quality of the HD video transmissions.
ORANGE SPORT REMAINS EXCLUSIVE
TO FRANCE TELECOM
A French appeals court has told France Telecom
it can keep exclusivity on its Orange Sport IPTV
channel. After IPTV rivals SFR and Iliad brought
a case in February, the Paris Commercial Court
had ruled that Orange had an unfair competitive
advantage because the service is only available
to Orange’s ADSL internet subscribers. But
in June it overturned that decision, meaning it
gets to retain a package of exclusive live French
league football, However, France’s anti-trust
authority is set to make its own ruling on the sport
channel as well as Orange’s cinema channel.
GERMANY
KIRCH GETS IPTV BUNDESLIGA RIGHTS
Leo Kirch’s Constantin Medien Group has acquired
IPTV and mobile rights to top league Bundesliga
football for the next four seasons as part of a
sub-licensing deal with Deutsche Telekom. The
entertainment and sports conglomerate, previously
known as EM.Sport, is launching its own
108 TELE-satellite — Broadband & Fiber-Optic — 08-09/2009 — www.TELE-satellite.com
channel to broadcast all 612 football matches of
the Bundesliga’s first and second leagues and will
distribute its own live program as part of a feed-in
agreement via Entertain, Deutsche Telekom’s
IPTV service, as well as other mobile platforms.
DEUTSCHE TELEKOM WITH
448.000 IPTV SUBSCRIBERS
Deutsche Telekom sold 600.000 subscriptions
to its German IPTV service T-Home Entertain by
the end of the first quarter of this year, compared
to 480.000 at the end of last year, with 448,000
subscriptions being in operation by the end of
March. Deutsche Telekom has also revealed that it
is planning to expand the number of linear channels
available to its German IPTV subscribers, and
from this summer will enable them to read emails,
listen to music, and view personal media including
photos and video, all via the IPTV platform.
SES ASTRA LAUNCHES NEW HD OFFER
SES Astra launched a new TV offer in High
Definition in Germany during June. The first
programmes which will be part of the HD+ offer
are the commercial channels RTL and VOX.
Relevant agreements have been signed with the
Media Group RTL Germany. RTL has contracted
additional long-term transponder capacity for the
transmission of the new HD programmes from
Astra’s orbital position 19.2 degrees East. The
launch of HD+ is foreseen for late autumn.
ITALY
TELECOM ITALIA REACHES
365.000 IPTV SUBSCRIBERS
Telecom Italia had reached 365.000 subscribers for
its IPTV service Alice Home TV by the end of the
first quarter of this year, adding 36.000 customers
in the three-month period. The operator is set
to become the biggest IPTV player in Italy this
year, finally overtaking rival Fastweb, according
to a new report from Pyramid Research. The
report indicates that FastWeb had a 46 per cent
share of the Italian IPTV market at the end of
2008. With the number of Italian IPTV subscribers
totaling 863.000 at the end of last year, that
puts FastWeb’s customer base at almost 400.000.
Telecom Italia, meanwhile, ended the year with
329,000 IPTV customers, giving it a market share
of 38 percent. The third main Italian IPTV player
is Wind, which ended 2008 with about 80.000 TV
customers, giving it a 10 percent market share.
LATVIA
LATTELCOM INTRODUCES FTTP
CONNECTIONS IN RIGA
Lattelecom has started offering ultra-fast Internet
connections to a limited number of homes
in the capital city of Riga, delivered via its new
fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. The new
services are available to around 100 homes in
the district of Zolitude, offering speeds of up to
100 Mbps. The new ultra-fast connections also
support Lattelecom’s IPTV service Lattelecom
Interactive TV, including multi-room services
and high-definition content. Lattelecom enjoyed
a fourfold increase in the number of subscribers
to its IPTV service during 2008, although
the company did not divulge actual figures.
NETHERLANDS
KPN ARRIVES TO 835.000 PAY-
TV SUBSCRIBERS
KPN added 60.000 subscribers to its pay-TV
services (delivered via IPTV, DTT and mobile)
in the first quarter of this year to reach 835.000
by the end of March, giving the company a 12%
share of the Dutch TV market. ARPU for its TV