Newsgroup: it.hobby.satellite-tv
Titolo: **** NOVITA' in Digitale e Cavo. ****

Ciao a tutti,
per chi già non le ricevesse, ecco alcune news inerenti questo NG.
P.S. DEM = Marco Tedesco
Saluti
PC
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SAT-ITALY (ITALIAN SATELLITE AND MEDIA NEWS) - 7 March 1997
TELEPIU TO LEASE DIGITAL RECEIVERS
The new managment of Telepiu is contemplating several strategies in order
to
increase the number of subscribers to its digital subscription package. One
of them is the leasing of digital receivers and this operation has already
started in Milan and in other cities of the province of Lombardy. The
digital boxes are being offered for 15,000 LIT (around 15 DEM) a month
which
equals 180,000 LIT (180 DEM a year). Subscribers can pay either every two
months or annualy. According to a Telepiu spokesman, "this is only a
limited
market experiment" and does not signify a definite market strategy.
The excessive cost of the digital receivers, which are sold at prices
ranging from 1,500 to 1,800 DEM is the principal obstacle to the
development
of the digital market in Italy. Currently, there are a little over 50,000
subscribers to the Telepiu Satellite service despite a rich offer of
Italian
language programming and live Italian league football.
The whole leasing operation is currently only in its test phase because it
is rather costly for Telepiu who has to subsidize the potential
subscribers.
According to some market experts, Telepiu has bought several thousand
digital receivers from Nokia and Grundig at the price of around 500 DEM
which in turn were turned ove to the satellite equipment dealers.
In parallel to this digital receiver offer, the package of channels that
form part of the Telepiu Satellite bouquet is to be relaunched. The monthly
subscription is around 57 DEM a month or 684 DEM for a whole year. For this
price subscribers get all the channels minus the live Italian football
league games. The announced Formula 1 service on five simoultaneous
channels
is set to start on March 9th and the subscription fee for all the season
will be around 150 DEM.
MANAGMENT SHAKEUP AT TELEPIU
The arrival of the new shareholders of Italian pay-TV network Telepiu,
French media giant Canal Plus (which owns 45% of the venture, inherited
from
NetHold) will profoundly shake up the existing management situation.
Recently, five managers in the marketing division were dismissed and in all
probability drastic personnel cuts are expected over the next few weeks.
Currently Telepiu has more than 1,000 employees and this figure is set to
be
halved.
With the takeover of Telepiu, Canal Plus has also inherited a debt of
around
400 million DEM (estimates up till the end of 1996) and a low subscriber
base of around 58,000 subscribers (compared to the 150,000 predicted in
previous market estimates). Canal Plus will probably try to use the same
strategy in Italy which proved a winner in France: by investing resources
into own movie productions, seeking to become one of the leading film
production companies in Italy. Because of this market strategy it is
possible the headquarters of the pay-TV network could move from Milan to
Rome (in order to be nearer to the film studio Cinecitta). The man who will
be responsible for the reorganization of Telepiu will be Marc Olivier,
previously responsible for the launch of the Polish Canal Plus service.
He has already announced the launch of an Italian version of the Disney
Channel (to start by the end of 1997) as well as a dedicated weather
channel, Il Canale Meteo. In a recent interview to Italian weekly
"L'Espresso", Mario Rasini, one of the key managers at Telepiu said that
they are contemplating the launch of a religious channel (in cooperation
with the Italian Catholic church), a music channel (in cooperation with the
Italian record companies) and other thematic channels (in cooperation with
RAI and Mediaset).  Italian TV market experts are convinced however that
there will also be changes in programming. The launch of the second sports
channel has been delayed and potential advertisers were offered a package
comprising Formula 1, Formula Indy, the Superbike championships which  has
now been reduced only to include the Formula 1 races. 
CABLE SLOW TO ARRIVE
Cable television is finally coming to Italy after a delay of several years.
The company in charge of cabling up Italy is called Stream (75% owned by
Stet and 25% by Telecom Italia). From January 1st, Italians who are
connected to Stream's fiber-optic cable network can finally enjoy the
benefits of pay-TV as well as near-video-on-demand services. The TV signals
which are broadcast via satellite are captured by Stream and then
distributed via the fiber-optic network.
The cable decoder is sold to subscribers at the price of around 1,400 DEM,
but as a promotional offer, Stream is offering the decoders free for one
year to subscribers. Viewers are offered several packages (or bouquets) of
channels with the basic package costing 120 DEM a year (it includes CNN,
Eurosport, EBN and Euronews as well as 23 DMX audio channels). The prices
for NVOD events varies from 0,5 to 6,5 DEM.
But there is a shadow looming upon the development of cable TV in Italy.
First of all, the number of households reached by the fiber-optic
technology
is still small compared to those using the old coaxial-cable technology.
Also, the cabling up of the principal 19 Italian cities is carrying on at a
snails pace. In Rome for example, all the time limits for cabling up the
center of the city, which were agreed with the City Hall have been
surpassed
by far.
----------------------

with the Italian Catholic church
Nooo !!!! Per carità...non se ne pò più !!!! Ma che Telepace con tutti
i canali Rai non bastano ??? :((
Comunque era ora che qualcosa si muovesse nell'audiovisivo di stò
paese...
-------Etre une heure, beau, beau...beau et con à la fois...--------
                                                      (Brel)

Fantastique !!!! Speriamo solo che ce la facciano !!!! :)
Incrociamo le dita. Sarebbe meraviglioso!
Se cominciano a mandare i programmi di cinecinema (film francesi) e
canal+ in italiano  (e un bel po di bei film italiani) mi abbono
immediatamente.
Ignazio
Over 40 HiRes images in my home page  
http://www.geocities.com/~puddu/