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SAT-IBERIA 10.06.1998
SAT-IBERIA - Edition 6/98 - June 10th 1998
Satellite, cable and media news from Spain, Portugal and Latin America
Edited by Branislav Pekic (owner-sat-iberia@tags1.dn.net)
S P A I N A N D P O R T U G A L
DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TV
The Spanish Secretary of state for communications, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez
has said that the cost of renewing the television sets for receiving the
new digital terrestrial TV services is estimated at more than 1 billion
pesetas. Currently, there are 12 million TV households in Spain and they
will have to change their existing TV sets, following the approval of the
government decree (expected at the end of July) which regulates the
substitution of the current analogue with a digital transmission system by
the years 2000 and 2010. Rodriguez underlined that the introduction of
digital terrestrial television will mark an important phase in the history
of telecommunications in Spain because it will serve to "multiply the TV
offer and improve its quality and reception". However his optimism is not
divided by the private TV channels Antena 3, Tele 5 and Canal +, which have
already expressed their preoccupation because of the sudden urgency in
passing the new decree. They feel that the change in broadcast technology
imposes huge costs, with the renewal of the TV sets being just one of them,
and there is not a big enough advertising market in Spain which will be
able to finance the huge number of free-to-air digital channels which are
set to appear.
SES PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT
The president of Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES) which operates the
ASTRA satellites recently gave an interview to the Spanish daily "El Mundo"
in which spoke of his company's plans for the future. Romain Bausch said
that the ASTRA satellite system currently broadcasts 300 TV channels aimed
at 22 European countries. He added that Spain has become one of the TV
markets with most potential not only in Europe but also in the world.
According to him, satellite TV is penetrating very fast thanks to Canal
Satélite Digital (which uses the ASTRA satellites) and Vía Digital
(available on the rival Spanish satellite system HISPASAT).
Bausch said the survival of both digital platforms will be difficult but
will be possible if digital TV succeeds to capture 20-25% of Spanish
households. He gave the example of France where both digital platforms have
survived in a market, which counts 20 million households, which is double
the figure of Spain. The president of SES stressed the fact that they a
good relationship with HISPASAT and that both companies are currently
examining the possibility of some sort of co-operation.
BYE BYE IBERICA LINK
The organisers of the traditional satellite and cable trade exhibition
Iberica Link have announced that this year's event has been cancelled.
Globex, which has been organising the show for the past four years, said
that increased competition from similar events contributed to their decision.
SPANISH LEAGUE FOOTBALL ON TV
Each of the 21 football teams in the Spanish second division wants an
additional 50 million pesetas to the sum it already receives for the TV
rights for a period of the next five years. However, the proprietor of the
TV rights, Audiovisual Sports has announced that it will not increase the
sum without getting anything in return. The company has suggested that an
alternative solution could be the introduction of live pay-per view
coverage of a Second division game on Mondays. The interest of Audiovisual
Sport in televising a match on Mondays is obvious: on Sundays when all
matches are played at the same time, only one can be transmitted live and
the potential clients are divided. If one match is transmitted on Mondays,
all those who want to watch football will have to buy it.
In a separate development, Audivisual Sports has announced that the data
for the first season of pay-per-view football has not been encouraging. It
seems that only the football clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona have had
enough subscribers to cover costs and for some clubs the number of
subscribers does not pass the 1,000 figure. The TV rights for Spanish
league football were paid 38,000 million pesetas following a costly bidding
war between Canal Plus and Antena 3.
Audiovisual Sport owns all the TV rights up till the year 2003 and the two
digital platforms (Canal Satélite Digital and Vía Digital) will have to
reach an agreement if they want to market PPV football which could be
available on all digital platforms. Both platforms have suggested the
possibility of carrying as a pay-per-view event; at least one of the two
games, which will be, played between the Real Madrid and Barcelona clubs
next season. However the answer from the Spanish government has been
negative because they consider both matches "of public interest", i.e. they
form part of a list of major sporting events which have to be transmitted
in the clear.
SPANISH TV CHANNELS DEFINE MARKET AS "CHAOTIC"
The leading private TV channels Antena 3 and Tele 5 have recently defined
the regulation of the TV sector in Spain as "chaotic". The two channels
which are the founding members of the Union of Unscrambled Television
Channels (UTECA), which was formed back in February of this year, have
denounced government intervention in the sector and called for urgent
changes to the television laws which are currently in effect. The president
of Tele 5, Alejandro Echevarría called for a "modern audio-visual model"
which would bring Spain in line with other European countries. In order to
create strong media companies, according to Echevarría, it is necessary to
eliminate the 25% limit for the ownership of a TV channel by a single
subject. He added that the government should also allow private TV channels
to quote themselves on the stock exchange.
The UTECA members have also defended the coexistence of public and private
TV channels, but only if private TV channels are not put in a disadvantaged
position and if the public channels are not favoured through privileged
sources of financing. A survey has shown that while Antena 3 and Tele 5
together have an audience of 46% with a cost of 90,000 million pesetas, the
public broadcaster TVE obtains at most an average 25% share with
investments of 170,000 million pesetas. UTECA also feels that TVE is the
best financed public broadcaster in Europe and operates more channels than
it's counterparts.
NEW ADMINISTRATION FOR TVI
A consortium of media companies led by Sonae, Lusomundo (both from
Portugal) and Cisneros (Venezuela) have taken over the running of the
Portuguese private TV channel TVI. Also in the running for this deal were
Spanish private broadcaster Antena 3 Televisión and the Portuguese company
Media Capital. Before making any changes regarding the running or the
programming of TVI, the new management will first commission a study on the
viability of the channel.
The TVI channel was launched back in 1991 by several organisations closely
linked to the Portuguese Catholic Church. However, the channel has been
struggling due to a grave financial crisis as well as a falling audience
and the new management hopes to resolve these and other problems. The
Portuguese media group Sonae which is run by the businessman Belmiro de
Azevedo owns of the daily newspaper "Público" while Lusomundo is the
publisher of "Diario de Notícias" and "Jornal de Notícias". The Venezuelan
company Cisneros is based in Miami and has substantial investments in the
Latin American media market. According to the Spanish news agency EFE, the
entry of the Cisneros group into the Portuguese TV market has provoked a
political row. The leader of the opposition Socialdemocrats, Marcelo Rebelo
de Sousa, has said that the consortium formed by Cisneros, Sonae and
Lusomundo has been granted privileges by the government, which reduced the
interest on the debts of TVI which total 14,000 million pesetas.
In a separate development, the rival private TV network SIC, the public
broadcaster RTP and the Brazilian network TV Globo, together with the movie
distributor Lusomundo, recently launched two pay-per-view movie channels.
NEWS IN BRIEF
- Eduardo Zulueta has been taken over as the new director of programming
and content at the Spanish digital operator Vía Digital.
- The Spanish media group Sogecable has nominated Ele Juarez as it's
external consultant. Juarez has previously worked as director general at
the audio-visual branch of the Prisa media group and was responsible for
the launch of Canal Satélite Digital.
- Personnel changes also at Canal + where José Manuel Lorenzo (ex-Antena 3
TV) has been chosen as the new director general.
- The channels Outdoor Life and Speedvision are no longer available as part
of Vía Digital's Spanish bouquet.
LATIN-AMERICAN NEWS ROUNDUP
CISNEROS INVESTS IN ARGENTINA
The Venezuelan media company Cisneros is planning to buy a 15% stake of the
pay-TV interests held in Argentina by Citicorp Holdings, Telefónica
Internacional and Tele-Communications International Inc. (TINTA) which,
together, already have 1,4 million subscribers. Recently, Torneos y
Competencias (owned by Citicorp and TINTA) announced the acquisition of
Pramer which produces more than a dozen pay-TV channels in Argentina.
Cisneros already owns a 90% stake in Imagen Satelital, which operates 6
pay-TV channels and is negotiating the buyout of the Telefé network which
is operated by the publishing group Editorial Atlántida.
LATIN AMERICA BOOMING MARKET
According to a recent survey commissioned by the Strategis Group, the
number of cable and satellite households in Latin America is set to rise
form 13 million (last year's figures) to 57 million in the year 2007 (40%
of total households). The leading markets will be Brazil (18,3 million),
Mexico (11,3), Argentina (10,7), Colombia (3,3) and the Carribean area
(3,3). Direct-to-home (DTH) services are expected to bring in 28% of the
total subscribers to pay-TV by the year 2007.
TVA CASH BOOST
The Brazilian pay-TV operator and program distributor TVA has received a
cash boost of around 100 million dollars from the Abril media group. The
two companies jointly distribute several foreign channels such as HBO,
Cinemax, MTV, ESPN, Bravo and CMT to customers in Brazil.
GALAVISION TO LAUNCH DIGITAL BOUQUET
The Spanish language TV network Galavisión is planning to launch a digital
bouquet aimed at the Hispanic market in the U.S. Currently the network
owned by Univision Communications is distributed in around 8,6 million
households. Its parent company includes as its shareholders major media
groups such as Televisa (Mexico) and Venevisión (Venezuela) which both
operate several channels in Latin America. Recently, Liberty Media Group's
launched it's own Spanish language bouquet called "Canales ñ," made up of 7
TV channels. Liberty expects that Canales ñ will be received by 1/3 of all
Hispanic cable households in the next five years.
BASEBALL ON DIRECTV
DirecTV subscribers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean will be able
to watch more than 300 Major League games during this baseball season (2-3
games daily, including the playoffs and the World Series). This is the
second year DirecTV brings Major League Baseball to Latin America. The
programming is part of the Play Ball package, an offer of DirecTV Sports.
Since its launch in 1996, DirecTV has offered its subscribers an extensive
sports package that has included American football, basketball, boxing,
golf, tennis, baseball and soccer. Starting this August, DirecTV will offer
games from The First Division Spanish Soccer League.
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