Foxtel’s Kim Williams Takes the Fight Up to “Old Television”, Government and the ABC
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The CEO of Foxtel, Kim Williams, has made a major speech today calling for a rapid and fundamental alteration to the way in which the television industry is regulated.

Speaking at the Network Insights Conference in Sydney, Williams took the fight up to commercial free to air television and to the ABC, suggesting that regulations and government practices that favour them are the last bastions of the pre-1980s protected Australian economy. Read the speech here.

He called for government funding for Australian content to be made contestable, rather than being given only to the public broadcasters, and argued that the new era of multiple channels means there is less justification for taxpayer funded broadcasting. The ABC should be limited only to things the market cannot provide, he said.

Over the last year, the ABC Managing Director Mark Scott has emerged as one of the thought leaders of the Australian media industry. Kim Williams is the only other media executive who can truly claim that title. (News Limited CEO John Hartigan is a distant third.) Williams is smart, dynamic and forward thinking and, as he said in his speech today, can genuinely claim to have been a leader of innovation.

Today’s speech is another blow in what I have previously described as one of the most important battles of the new media century – between those who want to make us pay for content (think News Limited and Foxtel) and public broadcasters.

But Williams also has government and commercial free to air broadcasters in his sites. Television, he says, is the last industry not to be deregulated in the interests of a dynamic economy.

Television sits today like a protected island in an ocean of economic freedom – much like one of those side-stepped Pacific Islands 25 years after the end of World War Two, where the ragged, grey-bearded Japanese soldier still stands guard with his rusty bayonet, waiting for the Americans to land, because no one’s told him his side has already lost the war.

He drew an analogy with the industrial revolution and the invention of the steam locomotive.

Now imagine an alternative scenario for the birth of railways. Having constructed a new network, the protectionists came along and said: “Look,what about the companies that run the horse-drawn train industryClick here to enlarge They’v been around for centuries. They may not be as profitable as they used to be,but they have employee jobs and shareholders to protect; they know how the old system works; and they are slower, quieter and less dangerous. We should give them preferential use of the network and keep the steam locomotives on a few branch lines only, preferably somewhere like northern Wales. It’s the best outcome for the majority. The result would have been predictable: there would have been no industrial revolution.

Williams argued against prohibitions on a fourth television network, and attacked limitiations such as the anti-siphoning regime, that tied up key sporting events for free to air television. He said:

You can’t change the delivery system and not change the regulatory framework; you can’t adopt a medium that is all about consumer power but keep the consumer powerless; you’re ether in the analogue world or the digital world, the past or the present – you can’t be in both.

There are interesting echoes, here, of Mark Scott’s recent speech in which he described the shift of power from media emperors to the audience. But Williams paints Foxtel, unfettered market competition and the coming of the National Broadband Network as the liberators of the audience, with little role for public broadcasting.

Without Foxtel Australians would only have five stations to watch, because te old channels participants rather than leaders in the digital economy – would never have expanded their offering.

Williams argued today that the ABC content is no longer unique. Foxtel provides high quality public interest content, including the A-PAC public affairs channel.

The content mightn’t have huge ratings but its very existence guarantees freedom of speech.

Just like the ABC, he said, Foxtel will introduce an advertising free children’s channel, and its Ovation channel already offers ”more operas, plays, ballets and orchestras than you can poke a conductor’s baton at.”

If there is public money available for new worthwhile Australian content, then Foxtel is happy to commission it on a contestable basis with the ABC and others:

And let us remember that while the ABC is a much loved institution and at its best a good broadcaster, Aunty is not Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. The ABC does not have a monopoly on wisdom or commitment to Australian content.

Williams suggested that more creative ways are needed to protect Australian content, including using some of the digital dividend money made available through the sale of spectrum once the analogue signal is switched off. Once again, there are echoes here of the ABC approach. Auntie’s Director of Television, Kim Dalton, made a similar case just a few weeks ago, focusing on the content production industry. There is no doubt about it. Both Foxtel and the ABC grasp the challenges of the age. But they have different solutions. Dalton wanted increased regulation over mobile devices and other new services. Williams wants the money, but without the regulation.

Williams believes the ABC has a very limited place in the deregulated industry he would like to see. He says he is not against public funding of broadcasting, but that in the digital age the ABC should not merely replicate what the private sector is doing, or “crowd out market driven creativity and innovation.”

The ABC’s programming was once both unique and special – today it remains special but it is no longer unique.

Williams concluded by calling for a government review of broadcasting regulation to be brought forward, and for the new regime to be technology and provider neutral. Spectrum, he said, should be auctioned off before analogue switch off, and the prohibition on a fourth television network removed.

Two weeks ago, when I wrote about Mark Scott’s plans to make the ABC a dominant regional and international presence, I predicted that we would soon see return fire from the pay television sector. This is it.

But it is more than that. In this speech and other recent public pronouncements, Williams is claiming for Foxtel the mantle that Scott would like to drape over the ABC – as chief innovator, provider of quality niche content, and industry leader.

Both sides of this debate naturally fail to acknowledge their weaknesses. Foxtel has yet to penetrate the majority of Australian homes, and the National Broadband Network is about to bring much more choice to Australian consumers. Commercial free to air is not the only television sector facing fundamental challenges to its business model.

And, despite being willing to provide channels such as A-PAC for free as part of its public relations campaign, the majority of Foxtel’s quality niche content has to be paid for, which raises obvious issues of equity.

As well, the particular nature of public broadcasting means that there are innovations that come naturally to the ABC – such as the recently announced ABC Open, in which professional content makers help the audience to tell their own stories – that are more difficult for a commercial organisation.

On the other hand, there is no denying that taxpayer funded broadcasting, which was once justified by the scarcity of quality content, must today find new justifications. Scott has pitched Auntie’s continued claim on the public purse as being about innovation and audience power without the need to worry about commercial returns, safeguards for the existence of quality journalism and Australian content in an era of market failure, and a trustworthy safe guarder of Australia’s enlightened self interest.

Williams is taking him on.

Expect more soon.

Maori TV considers ad-free World Cup games
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Rugby fans could see all 48 games at the 2011 Rugby World Cup without advertisements under plans being considered by Maori Television.

Maori TV chief executive Jim Mather said ad-free coverage of the 16 live and 32 delayed games the broadcaster will show could help it regain the initiative after its bid for exclusive free-to-air rights was blocked by the Government.

Prime Minister John Key has brokered a joint bid that will see Maori TV show all the games, but share some of the live matches with Television New Zealand and TV3.

The International Rugby Board is understood to be close to accepting the bid, which involves up to $3 million of taxpayer funds.

Mr Mather told Parliament's Maori affairs committee yesterday he was disappointed the Government had stepped in to stop Maori TV's exclusive bid, which would have been funded using $3 million from Te Puni Kokiri.

He said the veto amounted to "political management" of Maori TV's editorial and commercial independence, and had undermined an important initiative to get more Kiwis watching the network.

But the broadcaster is considering ways to maximise its share of World Cup viewers.

"Quite aside from what we're expecting to do – give this a very specific Maori and Polynesia/Pacific flavour ... we also expect the fact that [showing] all 48 games uninterrupted, no ads, would be quite a compelling reason for many viewers to watch our particular broadcast," Mr Mather said.

"We haven't made that decision yet, but those are the sorts of things that we're considering at this time."

Under the joint bid, Maori TV will get the rights to all 16 live free-to-air games, but will share the final, third place playoff, semi- and quarterfinals with TVNZ and TV3.

TVNZ will also share the opening ceremony and opening game between the All Blacks and Tonga, with Maori TV and TV3 sharing the All Blacks-France pool game.

The deal gives the other two broadcasters nine live games each.

Maori TV will air delayed coverage of the remaining 32 games. Every match will be shown live on Sky, meaning some games will beon four networks at the same time.

A spokeswoman for TVNZ said last night it was too soon to say if it would consider ad-free cover.

Mr Key yesterday rejected Mr Mather's claim that the Government stepping in to stop the exclusive Maori TV bid was political interference. "The reality is that once you've got taxpayer dollars involved, which is exactly the case here .. . then I think it is a political event."

A TV3 spokesman said it would never show ads while live rugby was being played, but had to show them during the halftime breaks as it was a commercial operator funded by advertising.


StarHub Launches Free Russian Channel
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Singapore – StarHub today announced that it will launch a new 24-hour English-language news channel, Russia Today, at 12 midnight on 1 December 2009. StarHub will be the first pay TV operator in Singapore to offer viewers here round-the-clock news and infotainment programmes from a Russian perspective.

Russia Today is delivered ‘live’ from Moscow by GlobeCast via satellite to StarHub’s pay TV platform. GlobeCast also represents Russia Today’s channel distribution across the region. Available on StarHub TV Channel 174, Russia Today is the sixth channel to join StarHub’s existing tier of Complimentary International Channels. The other channels in this tier are Arirang TV, Australia Network, Deutsche Welle, KBS World and TVRI.

“StarHub is delighted to offer our StarHub TV customers with comprehensive, credible and in-depth news coverage with a fresh perspective from Russia. Always on the lookout for quality programmes from across the globe to present to our valued customers, StarHub once again breaks the barriers by offering Russia Today to customers at no extra charge,” said Ms Ong Bee Lian, StarHub’s Vice President of Home Solutions.

Russia Today’s content line-up covers a wide array of genres including news, entertainment, arts, technology and business. The channel’s correspondents around the world has won numerous journalism awards including the Silver World Medal for Best News Documentary from New York Festivals, the Special Jury Award in the Best Creative Feature category at Media Excellence Awards in London and Russia’s most prestigious broadcasting award TEFI in the Best News Anchor category.

Russia Today will offer:

News – The latest reports covering everything happening in Russia - live reporting, news reports, exclusive interviews and more.

Business Today – Features exclusive interviews with heads of major companies and includes in-depth analysis of current business trends, expert commentary, equity surveys and stock market analysis.

Entertainment Today – With the latest news from the world of culture and art, focusing on stories culturally related to Russia such as new films, theatrical productions, important exhibitions, plays, festivals and concerts.

Sports – Sports News reflects the most important Russian and world events in the world of sport.

In Context - Russia’s Today’s week in review programme that focuses on major news stories, taking them further with in-depth analysis and commentary.

XL Reports - XL Reports introduce Russia's traditions and culture while exposing outdated myths and stereotypes, bringing to life Russia's rich heritage, it's varied wildlife, its special cuisine, its vibrant nightlife.

Spotlight – An in-depth, daily interview programme which focuses on current events in Russia and across the world. The respected Russian journalist, Aleksandr Gurnov speaks to people from a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds, including politics, academia, the arts and science


Russia willing to build Colombian satellite
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The Russian consortium Intersputnik ISS is the only one to volunteer to construct and commission the Colombian satellite, it was announced Tuesday.

The consortiums Telesat of Canada and SES New Skies of the Netherlands declined to participate in the process on the grounds that the policies established by Colombia's government were too demanding and there was too much risk involved in submitting a proposal in Colombian pesos.

The Viceminister of Communications stated that the government will carefully review the Russian proposal in order to assess whether it meets Colombian requirements, reported news station Caracol.

The Viceminister indicated that if the proposal does comply with demands made for the national satellite then proceedings will take place at the start of December to secure a contract with the Russians.

The government has designated an alleged half a billion pesos for the project and is expecting to close a deal for its construction by December 21.

There are those who are concerned that Colombia's aerospace career could end up in the hands of the Russians and not the United States - who are Colombia's main military allies - but should the proposal be confirmed and signed the Ministry of Communications stated that the satelite would be launched into orbit during the first half of 2012.

WBU: Global HD Satellite Feeds Increasingly Seamless
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Testing Program Finds Streams to Be Interoperable

An 18-month interoperability testing program of HD satellite feeds by the World Broadcasting Unions-International Satellite Operations Group, has found that that the industry has made great strides in transmitting MPEG-4 HD video feeds via satellite using encoders and decoders from different vendors.
The program, which involved 12 major equipment vendors and a variety of HD formats, found that 83% of the tests produced an "unconditional pass" for the transmission of high-definition content.

Slightly higher success rates of 86% to 87% were achieved for 720p and 1080i feeds at either 10.3 Megabits per second or 20 Mbps with MPEG-4 compression.
"Many customers are downlinking signals from multiple sources and therefore multiple encoders," said Jack Vickers, product manager for receivers and decoders at Sencore, one of the vendors with a product that performed well in the tests. "MPEG-4 is almost a necessity, especially for HD over satellite for bandwidth efficiency. So it is important for customers to be able to choose a decoding MPEG-4 solution that fits well across the gamut."
This was the first MPEG-4 HD test the WBU-ISOG group had run, so past comparisons of product interoperability were not possible.
"I would speculate, however, that we've come a very long way," Vickers said. "Overall, I was impressed with the test results, because most of the vendors didn't have any real issues operating with one another."

The test was also important because it gives vendors an opportunity to improve their product and make them better able to work with other encoders and decoders, Vickers noted. Besides the overall results, he said, Sencore was particularly pleased with low latency rates of its products and their performance in the lip-synch tests.

"We were one of the top three in latency," Vickers said, which is extremely important for live news and sports feeds.
Still, the test indicated some notable areas that vendors will need to address in the future, particularly in formats that offer the highest-quality HD feed.
The tests found that six of the 10 encoder vendors and three of the nine decoder vendors did not support the higher-bit-rate 38 Mbps feeds that offer the best HD quality.

There are presently just a handful of vendors that offer H.264 solutions for 4:2:2 chroma sub-sampling, which offers a better-quality image than the widely available 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling encoders and decoders.
In the test, seven encoder vendors did not support 4:2:2 and eight decoder vendors did not support 4:2:2. There was only one successful test for 38 Mpbs at the 4:2:2 chroma.

Vickers noted that the group would like to hold additional tests for the 4:2:2 products as they become available over the next year.
"The silicon that will lead to those solutions is just now becoming cost effective," Vickers said. "It is something that is definitely on our road map [and] I think next year you will see some large announcements [from the major vendors] entering the market" with those features.
Vendors involved in the tests included ADTEC, ATEME, Cisco Systems, Comtech TV, Evertz Microsystems, Fujitsu, Harmonic, International Datacasting, NTT Electronics Corporation, Sencore, Tandberg Television and Thomson Grass Valley.