Euromedia May June | Page 13

LG reveals STB strategy

At Liberty Global ’ s First Quarter 2016 Results conference , the company revealed its strategy for next-generation set-top box deployment across its markets .

Mike Fries , president and CEO , said that to take advantage of scale , LG was developing faster , cheaper and smarter devices , such as EOS , a project name for its cloud-based set-topbox that it was going to be trialling later in 2016 . “ It ’ s going to be faster , cheaper , provide more functionality than today ’ s Horizon box . We also have a new Wi-Fi router , we call it the connect box , which is now live in all European markets and sets us even farther apart from the competition by providing faster , more reliable in-home signals , and up to 1 gigabit speeds ,” he claimed .

In terms of the UK , where Virgin Media has a successful TiVo-based STB deployment , Fries said that EOS was a set-top intended to roll out everywhere at some point , including in the UK market , and that there was a TiVo interim plan , or medium-range plan in the UK .

Tom Mockridge , CEO , Virgin Media , said the operator was committed in the second half of 2016 to deploying EOS in the UK , and would put some TiVo software on it . “ But that will give us a lot more functionality for our customers . We are very confident with the .... relaunch that we have coming through this year , that we ’ ve remained very competitive with Sky . So far , we have seen very little impact from the Sky Q , which of course is a very expensive decoder . And we are focused on improving the offering we have there , and EOS is going to be a big part of that .”

Balan Nair , chief technology officer , confirmed that the new box would be 4K . “ It ’ s a pretty high-powered box that we ’ ll get a refreshed UI on it , in later this year . And then , in the following years , our goal is to get Horizon across all of Europe . And the EOS box , this new 4K box , that ’ s going to be the engine for the next generation video for Liberty ,” he stated .

EU warned against copyright reform

Audiences across the EU will lose out substantially if the European Commission presses ahead with plans to erode the territorial exploitation of film and television rights , according to a report released at the Cannes Film Festival .

Changes to copyright and other initiatives at the EU level could result in substantially lower levels of investment in TV and film content , with consumer welfare losses worth up to € 9.3 billion a year , as a result of those consumers losing access to content they currently enjoy , being charged more , or being priced out completely . The findings appear in a major new study compiled by economic consultancy Oxera and media consultancy Oliver & Ohlbaum .

The EU proposals - outlined in the European Commission ’ s Digital Single Market strategy in 2015 – would erode the established territorial exploitation of TV and film rights in Europe . But the report , The impact of cross-border access to audiovisual content on EU consumers , warns that rather than improving consumer choice , eroding territorial exploitation would lead to an enormous cost to audiences as well as to the European creative economy , threatening cultural diversity both in production and distribution , thus reducing the volume and quality of original content on offer in the EU .

Key findings of the report include : l Up to 48 % less local TV content in certain genres and 37 % less local film production would be produced , with the most marginal / risky content at particular risk of being dropped l All types of content – international , European and independent local productions – would be negatively affected , threatening cultural diversity l Even content that still gets made could suffer from reduced production values , impacting the quality of content available to consumers l Consumers would face higher prices ( with some being priced out altogether ) or lose access to content they currently enjoy

Freesat OK ’ d for live pay sports

UK subscription-free satellite TV service Freesat has been cleared by the BBC Trust to offer live pay sports services delivered via broadband . The decision will help to progress Freesat ’ s negotiations with content providers and increases the likelihood that Sky ’ s OTT ‘ pay-lite ’ NOW TV will be available on the platform .

The BBC Trust decision comes as Freesat continues to expand its content offering to bring the most attractive line-up of programming to its customers . With a focus on integrated content delivered via broadcast and

broadband , Freesat already offers more than 200 channels and a number of leading on demand services – such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer .

“ This is a really important development for Freesat which will significantly impact our content offering ,” stated Alistair Thom , managing director of Freesat . “ We ’ re here to provide a compelling subscription-free TV service , and believe our

“ This is a really viewers should important have the option development for to watch a wide

Freesat which will variety of TV programmes and significantly events without impact our being tied down content offering .” to a contract . We

will continue innovating to provide a brilliant , subscriptionfree service for our ever-growing number of viewers .”

Freesat is jointly-owned by the BBC and ITV , which means the BBC Trust ’ s approval is required for the new step of adding live pay sports coverage . The satellite platform is now available in over 1.93m households and is watched by more than 4m viewers every week .

Streaming service Netflix launched on Freesat Humax set-top-boxes in December 2015 , and Wuaki . tv launched in April 2016 , ensuring customers continue to enjoy a broad selection of content through the connected TV platform .

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