NEWS BYTES...

The Sky Digibox from fifth manufacturer Sony is about to be released following long delays and reported disagreements between Sony and Sky. Sony’s VTX-S760U is the first receiver for Sky’s digital satellite service to come from outside the original gang of four manufacturers – Pace, Grundig, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Amstrad – announced for the launch of Sky Digital in 1998. The row was apparently over the receiver’s capabilities. Sony was keen to see its machine distinguished from the rest by a superior specification – but BSkyB, which has the final say in these matters, has insisted that all Digiboxes are functionally identical.
The VTX-S760U was to have included a control system for other Sony equipment but that has been abandoned (not least because BSkyB also insisted that there was no price premium attached to the Sony box) and the digital audio outputs which Sony had designed into the receiver now look like being disabled by software. However, the Sky Guide EPG in the VTX- S760U does include A-Z and genre listings of channels, not seen before in Sky’s innumerable updates of the EPG in existing machines, although this feature will presumably appear in the other units in due course. The Sony VTX-S760U is expected to be available by July.

Echostar Communications Corp said last week that it has begun shipping its high-definition television direct-broadcast satellite receiver to retailers. The suggested retail price for the Dish 6000 is $499.

German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere World has confirmed that it intends to end the transmission of its analogue channel in 2001, as announced more than a year ago. However, the exact date – either summer or autumn – still hasn’t been finalised. According to spokesman Hartmut Schultz, it depends on the swiftness of the conversion of analogue viewers to digital subscribers.

German publishing house Axel Springer Verlag is to sell its stake in Sat 1, Germany’s second most watched commercial television channel after RTL, for around DM 1.8 billion next year to media entrepreneur Leo Kirch. According to industry sources, Spinger’s board last week approved the sale of the 41 per cent stake. The largest part of the money will be paid in cash while a smaller part might be paid in form of a stake in the free-TV holding planned by Kirch Group, incorporating Sat 1, Pro Sieben, Kabel 1 and N24. Kirch Group, which owns 40.08 per cent in Springer, previously held 51 per cent in the Berlin-based general interest channel. The Hamburg-based publishing house intends to invest the money generated by the sale into its multimedia and Internet business.

Sender Freies Berlin (SFB), the Berlin-based affiliate of public broadcaster ARD, has delayed the analogue launch of its regional TV channel B1 on the Astra satellite system (19.2 degrees East) to spring 2001. “On April 16, 2001 we’ll launch on Astra and transmit daily from 18.00 to 02.00 CET”, said SFB spokeswoman Marie-Luise Schmitt. She pointed out that further details “are not available at this time”. Originally, it was intended that B1 which so far only transmits within ARD’s digital package on Astra, is made available to analogue DTH homes at the end of this year. It is not known whether the delay is related to the recent announcement by German regional TV channel B.TV to launch an analogue satellite service on Astra for German DTH viewers at the beginning of July.

ONdigital, the UK digital terrestrial broadcaster, reportedly will hold an IPO this autumn, with a suggested value of some pounds2 billion. However, the first stage is expected to be the resolving of the exact make up of the ITV Network, with Carlton and Granada both seeking regulatory approval to take over the third major ITV contractor, United News & Media. Once that situation is cleared, then a float is more likely. Granada Media issued a pathfinder prospectus in London on Monday June 26, ahead of a full prospectus for its own IPO to be issued early in July.

MTV Italia is to open a new studio in Rome this autumn from where it will broadcast a new one-hour programme. Previously all Italian- originated shows have come from Milan. It is planned that in the future up to a half of MTV Italia’s pro-grammes will come from the Rome studio.

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