IN BRIEF
TV ADVERTISING
FORECAST
Despite concerns over the
longer term viability of TV
advertising, ovum’s latest
forecast shows that, on a
global basis, revenue growth
is expected to continue
through to 2020. The US$174bn
generated by TV advertising
in 2014 is expected to
increase to US$224bn in
2020. The Middle East &
Africa will be best
performer, growing at a
CAGR of 10.4% to reach TV
ad revenues of US$11bn by
2020, followed by Latin
America (CAGR of 8.4%,
US$26bn).
GESTURE
SENSING
According to HIS, the
market for gesture sensing
control user interfaces is set
to grow 10% year-on-year to
reach 1.8bn units in 2015.
While touch-screen
technology works well in
smartphones, tablets and
other mobile devices with
flat panel displays, Smart
TVs, on the other hand, are
not good candidates for
touch screens because they
are too far from viewers.
Gesture sensing control is
especially suitable for future
immersive augmented
reality and virtual reality
computing and will fill an
industry need gap.
STARTIMES DTH
GROWTH
African digital TV operator
StarTimes is using SES
Platform Services to distribute
TV channels for their DTH
subscribers across Sub-
Saharan Africa. Under the
multi-year agreement, SES
PS’ broadcast facility in
Germany provides signal
turnaround, video processing
and uplinking services for
StarTimes’ SD and HD
channels. StarTimes has
more than 5m DTT and DTH
subscribers across 16
countries in Africa and
provides English-language
TV content to viewers across
the region via SES-5.
Vizrt powers MediaCorp
WBU reaffirms position
for WRC-15
THE CHANNEL
|
MEDIA MARKETS
MediaCorp, Singapore’s leading
media company, is moving to a
brand new broadcast and
production campus which will
include two news production
studios. These facilities will be
powered and fully automated
through technology from Vizrt, a
leader in studio automation and
production tools for the digital
media industry.
MediaCorp’s new Viz Mosart
In the run-up to the World Radio
Conference (WRC-15) taking
place in Geneva in November,
the WBU, the coordinating body
for broadcasting unions who
represent broadcaster networks
across the globe, has reaffirmed
its position on Spectrum
Allocation. It says the use of
radio-frequency spectrum by
broadcasters remains the most
important vehicle for the efficient
and scalable delivery of high-
quality media content and
emergency alerting services to
both fixed and mobile audiences.
With regard to DTV
Broadcasting Service, the WBU
does not support any change to
the current spectrum allocations
at UHF frequencies (470 –694/
698 MHz). It says contiguous
spectrum should be allotted in
the bands assigned to the
broadcast service to allow for
the robust delivery of high-
quality media content, data and
signaling that meets or exceeds
the capabilities of current fixed
and mobile reception and display
devices as well as those that are
expected to be deployed in the
future.
With regard to satellite
distribution systems, the WBU
does not support any change to
the current spectrum allocations
at C-band or extended C-band
frequencies. The use of downlink
spectrum allocated at C-Band
(3.7 – 4.2 GHz) or extended C-
band in the Fixed-Satellite
Service (FSS) is essential to
broadcasters’ operations around
the world. Systems employing
this FSS band have been
extensively deployed over
decades, primarily for the
distribution of content from
network centres to affiliated
stations, cable head-ends and to
other receiving systems.
The WBU states that its
position has been supported by
spectrum studies both at UHF
and C-band frequencies which
have demonstrated that major
interference to broadcast
operations would result from
sharing in these bands with IMT.
These studies have been filed
with the ITU.
systems are the first Viz Mosart
solutions to be deployed in
Southeast Asia. Viz Mosart will
be integrated into the new
facility’s Vizrt graphics system
which is comprised of an
octopus newsroom computer
system, Snell Kahuna vision
mixers, EVS playout servers and
twinned Shotoku robotic
camera pedestals on the studio
floor. MediaCorp has also
upgraded much of its existing
Vizrt production graphics
platforms.
The design and the
implementation of the new
technology and production
systems is being supervised and
executed by local systems
integrator Qvest Media.
14
|
ISSUE 2 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
Newstag top
start-up
Stockholm-based Newstag, the
‘mobile-first’ video news service,
has been selected as one of 15
top start-ups in an international
contest to recognise the most
innovative use of mobile
technology in business. The
award forms part of Mobile
World Capital Barcelona’s
programme of entrepreneurship
designed to promote
international innovation in the
mobile ecosystem, called 4 Years
From Now (4YFN).
Alongside other finalists,
Newstag will be joining the 4YFN
delegation to exhibit at DLD Tel
Aviv this September.
Founder and Chairman
Camilla Dahlin-Andersson says
it’s a huge endorsement for the
company which launched a
public beta version of the
platform in mid-June 2015 and
has grown rapidly since, now
reaching a global audience of
users in more than 200 countries
consuming nearly 2m streams
per week. A part of Newstag’s
revenues are available for users
to allocate to charitable, NGo
and NPo partners.
Charities, NGos and agencies
joining this new media model
will also be able to provide video
news content to users on
international initiatives, using
the platform both to fundraise
and communicate.
