N O R T H A M E R I C A
CANADA
BELL EXPRESSVU TOPS 1,3 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
Bell ExpressVu, Canada's largest satellite TV service, reported that it
added 83,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. That took the service's
total to 1.304 million subscribers at the end of 2002. In late December,
BCE said it expects Bell ExpressVu to finish 2003 with between 1.45 million to 1.55 million customers. Meanwhile, Bell ExpressVu, has launched a subscription-based iTV service that provides the winning numbers and other information for all the country’s national, regional and provincial lotteries. i-Lottery is the fifth subscription-based iTV service the
company has launched following LudiTV games, i Weather, i Trivia and i
Horoscope. Viewers pay C$0.50 (US$0.32) a month for access, with the first two months free.
UNITED STATES
MORE THAN 700 TV STATIONS BROADCASTING IN DIGITAL
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) says that a total of 733 US television stations are now broadcasting in digital. In a press release,
the NAB says that
DTV signals are now being transmitted in 179 markets that include 96.69% of US TV households. In addition, 70.76% of the more than 106 million US TV households are in markets with five or more broadcasters airing DTV, and 36.55% are in markets with eight or more broadcasters sending digital signals.
NBC TO COVER OLYMPICS 24 HOURS A DAY
NBC unveiled its 2004 Summer Olympics plans on February 5, saying that for the first time there will be 24-hour coverage of the Athens, Greece, event, including the Olympics' initial carriage on the
Spanish-language network Telemundo and NBC's newly acquired Bravo cable network. NBC said it will carry 806.5 total hours, nearly doubling the coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Of that amount, 11 hours a day over 17 days will include reruns of earlier coverage. The Games begin August 13, 2004, though Telemundo and MSNBC will carry preliminary football events August 11-12, 2004. NBC made an unusually early announcement on its coverage, 550 days before the event, because it is gearing up its ad sales efforts and was fearful its plans would be leaked to the media.
DIRECTV TO CARRY NBA ALL-STAR GAME IN HD TECHNOLOGY
DIRECTV will offer this weekend's 2003 NBA All-Star Game and All-Star
Saturday Night Activities in high-definition (HDTV). A joint production of
TNT and NBA TV, the league's 24-hour digital television network, this is
the first time the NBA All-Star game will be shown in HDTV. The weekend
telecasts will be available on DIRECTV channel 198 at no charge and will
begin Saturday, February 8, at 8 p.m. (ET) with the NBA All-Star Saturday
Night activities presented by America Online. The 2003 NBA All-Star Game Coverage begins Sunday, February 9, at 8 p.m. (ET) with the NBA Opening Ceremony.
SBC IN TALKS TO BUY DIRECTV
SBC Communications has entered into talks to buy Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV home-satellite unit, a deal that could be worth more than $10 billion, the New York Times reported on February 7. Citing sources close to the talks, the Times said General Motors Corp. was the one to approach SBC first in an attempt to bring in another bidder to compete against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. In 2001, Mr. Murdoch lost out on a bid to acquire the satellite broadcaster when Hughes agreed to be acquired by EchoStar Communications instead. Late last year, however, federal antitrust regulators rejected the EchoStar deal, spurring Mr. Murdoch to get back into talks with GM, Hughes' parent. In early January, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said he hoped to announce the fate of Hughes over the next 30 to 60 days. DirecTV had 9.5 million U.S. subscribers as of December 31.
TURNER CAN’T AFFORD TO RE-BUY CNN
Ted Turner, said on a CBS '60 Minutes' interview that he can't afford to
buy its Cable News Network division and he opposes a merger of the network with Walt Disney Co's ABC News. "Just merging the two organizations has a lot of challenges," Turner was reported as saying. "The potential pitfalls and opportunities for disagreements exceed whatever benefits could be gained." However, he said that he is in no financial position to buy CNN he admitted he had lost over €7 billion on the disastrous merger of AOL and Time Warner in the US. Turner, who is AOL Time Warner's largest individual shareholder, said last week he'd resign as Vice Chairman of the company.
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