Euronews, the pan-European channel provider, is hoping to do deals with satellite pay-TV operators in the United States as it bids to expand the reach of its news services, Philippe Cayla, Euronews CEO told Satellite News. “At the moment, we are considering being in the United States,” he said. “There are two major operators there. We are discussing with them to find an agreement with them soon.”

As well as potential deals with Echostar and DirecTV, Euronews hopes to tie up a number of other deals with satellite pay-TV operators, Cayla said. “In South America, we are in discussions, but we are not yet on satellite,” he said. “In Europe, we are on every bouquet. We only don’t have a deal with a Nordic DTH platform, but we have made a deal with a Swedish company, TV4 Factor, so we are partnering with them on Sirius. In Africa, we are everywhere except South Africa itself. In Asia, we are still short on a couple of satellite platforms, so we hope to reach some agreements there. We are maybe on 10 operators there. We are going to be on the Australian DTH platform, but we need to do other deals there as well.”

Expandings In IP Arena

While Euornews is looking to do deals with satellite pay-TV operators, the channel provider has been busy working with new platforms to boost its reach. The channel provider is now on 10 Internet Protocol (IP) TV networks and trying to build a successful business. As well as working with telcos such as France Telecom and being part of their IPTV offer, Euronews also has been doing deals to have its content available to computer users.

“We have made two major breakthroughs this year,” Cayla said. “We have been part of two offers for live television, one is with Realnetworks and the other one is with Greengrass, a U.K.-based company. With Realnetworks, we are in seven languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian). With Greengrass, we are only in English. With both of those, we are on a pay basis. There are different schemes. In part of Realnetworks, we are part of Superpass, so customers pay 17.50 euros ($22.40) a month and have access to much content. In the case of Greengrass, you buy credits and this gives you the right to watch a channel for a subsequent amount of time.”

With telcos, Euronews may look to add a video-on-demand element to its services, which would mean they are enhanced services compared to satellite. Cayla said, “I think everyone has been frustrated by the high cost of cable and satellite technology,” he said. “Interactive services need to be broadcast in a carousel form, which means they have to be broadcast to subscribers 100 percent of the time. They are retrieved by the decoder on a case-by-case basis. I think with IPTV technology, this problem can be solved.

“With IPTV technology, you have a dedicated line between the switching center and the subscriber. In this case, you just send the appropriate data to the subscriber. You just send them what they want. I think the technology used by Free and Neuf Telecom for example, will make it much easier and less costly. We are going to study what we can do with them, including video on demand.”

New Business Models

With the proliferation of new platforms and the consumer having more choice to access content, it is putting more pressure on companies such as Euronews in terms of finding the right models. Cayla admits the company needs a balancing act to be successful.

“We have a combined business model between subscription and advertising,” Cayla said. “My sense is that the future will go more toward advertising than subscription, but it will be a slow process. With new technologies, you start with subscription, but in time, when you increase your subscribers, you switch to an advertising model. We are happy with both today, which is the case for cable and satellite. For IPTV, it is mainly a subscription model. I think in the future, it will develop in an advertising model as well.”

One of the other main questions facing the company is when it might move to high definition (HD). The move to HD signals is beginning in earnest in Europe, but Cayla believes it will be a little while before Euronews moves to HD. “We have no plans, as we need to have the agencies using HD first,” he said. “So that is Reuters, VTU, ITN, EBU, etc.; If they don’t produce HD pictures, we are not going to broadcast because we would need to have 100 percent of our pictures in HD in order to go with this. We cannot have half of the pictures in HD and the other half in [standard definition]. For news channels, we are at the end of the HD chain. You need other journalists using HD cameras all over the world for a news channel like us to be using HD.”

In terms of how the digital television landscape will change in Europe throughout the next 12 months, Cayla said, “Digital television is expanding all over the world. Satellite is strong in many countries. DTT is doing well. In Germany, cable and satellite are very strong, so for DTT the future is not certain. In France, there has been a good expansion of DTT because of the weakness of cable and satellite. For DTT, it very much depends on cable and satellite. If they are weak, it very much has a future, especially the [free-to- air] side of DTT. Every market is different. In five to 10 years, everyone will be digital and it will be a combination of DTT, cable and satellite. But it will be different on a country-by-country basis. There may also be [free-to-air] satellite offering, which is more interesting.”

–Mark Holmes

Contact, Lydie Bonvallet, Euronews, e-mail, [email protected]