News Corp.

NDS and EchoStar documents published

Tom Burton — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:20 -0500

Key documents in EchoStar's $1 billion action against News Corporation's NDS encryption business have been published revealing the nefarious world of pay-TV piracy. Charlie Ergen's EchoStar is claiming NDS played a significant role in the cracking and subsequent publication of its encryption codes for the smart cards that protect it from piracy. Smart-card piracy is estimated to cost the subscriber-television industry up to $5 billion a year

The matter is due to be heard in the U.S. District Court in California, April 8, and is likely to see explosive revelations about practices associated with the secure-access industry. NDS has spent the last year trying to stop EchoStar from using internal NDS emails it claims were stolen, taken from an ex-NDS employee's car in the U.K. The Australian Financial Review has published a long piece detailing the espionage, deceit, theft and double-dealing associated with the business of access technologies. Smart cards protect about $25 billion in subscriber revenues a year. Also published are the EchoStar affidavits which are, of course, highly contested by News Corp.

French pay-TV provider Canal Plus also sued NDS for $1 billion but withdrew when News Corp. acquired its business.

For more:
- The murky world of pay-TV pirates AFR article
- Key documents are on a site run by a shareholder

Related article:
Korea launches IPTV with NDS Report

SPOTLIGHT: Joost struggling in video portal battle

Tom Burton — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:00 -0500

The resignation of CTO Dirk-Willem van Gulik, the surge in popularity of major competitor Hulu and with another dozen-plus players seeking prominence as an online TV portal, there is much speculation the online video aggregator may not survive. Primary issue is the lack of quality content partners which is limiting growth. A competitor, Veoh, recently began embedding Hulu clips which to date Hulu's two corporate owners News Corp. and NBC have not stopped. Joost requires a software download which limits its interactivity and leaves it vulnerable to well-funded portals with access to both content and marketing horsepower. NewTeeVee has some suggestions as to how Joost can survive. Report

Roo jumps out of P2P services

Tom Burton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:20 -0500

Troubled New York Video aggregator and IPTV operator, Roo Media, has closed the business services and P2P operations it bought from Wurld Media a year ago for $10 million. The closure comes as new boss and investor Isaza Tuzman has brought over three of his former Jump TV buddies to help focus the company on international opportunities. Tuzman has laid off 43 staff and is now crying poor with his CDN partners as he seeks to get Roo's streaming costs down. He is also moving Roo from its high cost Manhattan accommodation to an undisclosed location out of town.

News Corp. is a major client and 10 percent investor. Four non-executive directors left Roo in December amid allegations of improper payments and Wurld Media has also been mired in controversy with charges of larceny and a back pay action by staff.

For more:
- Messy Times for Roo Article
- Roo announces more restructuring Release

Content deals everywhere

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:59:10 -0500

The device space may be white hot, but there is similar feverish collaboration under way among the content players, with numerous media brands announcing distribution and alliance deals for the new year. Some are simple content swaps such as the New York Times and CNBC deal, others are platform deals such as Sony's decision to drive a number of ad-supported channels through Google's, YouTube.

Also significant was the Microsoft announcement of a partnership to make available ABC Disney and MGM programming through its Xbox 360 box. The programs will be available in both standard and high definition.

Samsung also announced a deal to enable Samsung P2 portable video users to download video content from Starz's Vongo service for mobile viewing.

But it was the decision of video aggregator Veoh to quietly integrate content from the News Corp/NBC video portal Hulu, which probably was most significant.

Hulu enables video to be embedded in any site and the move by Veoh to integrate Hulu content without any deal marks a further break down of the proprietary distribution model which has characterized the media industry for 50 years. The separation of distribution from creation has been under way for some time through RSS feeds and embedded media, but the move by Veoh will challenge traditional media companies like News and NBC who have in past vigorously defended their right to determine who will carry their content.

For More:
- The end of Exclusivity NewTeeVee Essay
- Microsoft to carry Disney and ABC Article
- NYT an CNBC to share content Article
- Samsung to work with Vongo Article

Related articles:
- Babelgum does a raft of content deals Report
- Joost gets Viacom content Report

To stream or download; that is the question

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:59:55 -0400

The story about Hanaro Telecom offering delayed downloads of TV shows caught my eye this week. Telcos across the country are sinking millions into infrastructure upgrades so they can offer IPTV, even as the other form of IPTV known as streaming threatens to cannibalize it on the very same infrastructure. Everyone knows video streaming has exploded far beyond the point of overkill. The proliferation of YouTube clones represents a venerable dynamic in the stodgy world of established media. 1) Do not innovate. 2) Let someone else innovate. 3) Copy what works and drive it into the ground. 4) Repeat cycle.

And so it is that NBC, having failed to make it's own streaming media site work, is taking a second crack at it with News Corp., parent of Fox. NBC once partnered with Microsoft. NBC needs to get a clue.

TV networks trying to wrench every last penny from programs are going to great lengths to make their own YouTubes, but with more grown-up players and long-form content. Some of these players are impressive, and some of the content is even worth a hoot, but data rates are what they are. People can only stand so much re-buffering. It's no different than the type of interference that caused millions of miles of coaxial cable to be laid across this country like a spider web. There's nothing quite like a spooky climax punctuated by picture freezes and audio drops.

Downloading is a viable alternative, even though U.S. data rates pale in comparison to those in Korea. I've been downloading feature-length films for a year. Sometimes it takes a while, but it's easy enough to start a download and do something else. I've also watched a few TV shows on the Web when I've missed the original telecast, but I've mostly given up on that because of buffering interruptions. If NBC would take its eyes off the competition and look at its audience for a minute, the suits would be pushing download promos at the end of every show and paying Nielsen to churn out combined ratings. Am I the only one who thinks this makes sense?

I hope you'll join me at IPTV Evolution next Monday, Sept. 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and let me know at dmcadams@fiercemarkets.com -D.

NBC exits iTunes, enters Hulu

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:59:50 -0400

The relationship between NBC and Apple is ending ingloriously. When the network said it wouldn't renew its iTunes contract, Apple responded by nixing the current NBC inventory.

The news emerged last week when NBC Universal decided to let its existing iTunes agreement expire in December. Apple came back the next day with the news that it wouldn't sell episodes of shows coming out this fall. The Los Angeles Times reports a pricing spat between the two. Apple said NBC wanted an increase that would raise the $1.99 retail episodic price by $3 to $4.99. NBC also is reported to have issues with Apple's capacity to protect content from piracy.

The falling out comes as NBC prepares to launch its joint-venture video site with News Corp., officially unveiled last week to the punishment of bloggers as "Hulu." The project formerly known as NewCo--originally scheduled for a launch by summer's end--is now expected to go beta in October.

At Hulu.com, CEO Jason Kilar explains the rationale for the name… "Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building." He left out "bankable," given that NBC's videos were some of the most popular video content on iTunes.

For More:
- Coverage from the Los Angeles Times is here
- Online Media Daily makes hay of Hulu here

Related Article
NBC takes twisted patch toward YouTubeville Report

NFL extends online exposure

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:59:20 -0400

A slew of traditional TV programmers have recently spilled content onto the Internet, including the National Football League. The NFL, which guards its content closely, is making the Sunday Ticket package on DirecTV available online in a SuperFan pack that costs $99 on top of the regular $269 TV fee.

Other networks taking shows online include B-movie cabler Starz Media, which is offering a platform for Japanese anime dubbed "Manga Ambitions," David Kaplan reports at PaidContent.org. Viacom is also said to be siphoning exclusive material from Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to Yahoo!, perhaps to show YouTube who's boss. Yahoo! also has NFL streaming rights, mostly for areas outside of the United States. The major broadcast networks also have online video plans percolating, including NewCo, the joint project of NBC and Fox parent, News Corp.

The strategy for preventing online TV from cannibalizing legacy distribution appears to be something along the lines of, "TV will eat itself."

For More:
- Eric Bangeman reports on the NFL Superfan package for ars technica here
- David Kaplan reports on various online TV endeavors here

Related Articles
NBC takes the twisted path toward YouTubeville Report

SPOTLIGHT: Korean telco launches IPTV

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:59:00 -0400

Seoul, Korea telecom KT picked up content protection technology from NDS (a News Corp. company) for its IPTV play, Mega TV. KT is already heavily into broadband provision, with 6.51 million subscribers for its Megapass service. KT is shooting for 300,000 TV subs by year end, and aims to complete nationwide fiber-to-the-home deployment by 2010. Press Release

News Corp. trades DirecTV for Liberty's stake

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:01:00 -0500

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, News Corp. is poised to buyback its second biggest shareholder's stake in the company in exchange for its 38.6 percent stake in DirecTV. The deal sees News Corp. buying Liberty Media's $11 billion stake in the media giant for News Corp.'s DirecTV assets. While the deal has been under negotiation for some months, sources say it may come to fruition soon. Reports indicate that DirecTV's soaring stock price may be a factor in the prolonged negotiations. It's no secret that most rural telcos view DirecTV as their prime competitor in the payTV skirmishes taking place across the U.S.

For more on the News Corp.-Liberty Media deal:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

News Corp. + WiMAX = IPTV?

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 20:01:30 -0400

News Corp. and its majority-owned DirecTV business are reportedly embarking on an ambitious plan to set up a nationwide WiMAX network in the U.S. through strategic partners. And one likely scenario involves Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless broadband company that recently raked in $900 million from Intel and Motorola to deploy WiMAX nationwide. Sources say News Corp. and DirecTV are in advanced talks with Clearwire for a project that could take at least two years and $2 billion to provide News Corp. and DirecTV with a valuable wireless interactive broadband loop the companies can use to sell content, goods, advertising and services directly to consumers.

Talk about a significantly better business case for WiMAX and for Clearwire, which is positioning itself as just another broadband service provider. With its valuable MySpace property, News Corp. has been rumored for some time to be interested in WiMAX, with some thinking it might build its own network or bid in the upcoming advanced wireless services auction. While the unidirectional problem for satellite TV operators has been discussed in the past, the WiMAX solution results in an IPTV play, and a wireless one at that. Any thoughts on this?

Stay tuned to FierceIPTV for updates, and for more:
- see this report from The Hollywood Reporter