Creative dropped 20% today because analysts were disappointing
with their "flat" prospect for the next two quarters and
were alarmed with their dropping audio revenues and increased
graphics/video revenues. The analysts obviously believed that
graphics is much more volatile while Creative used to have 50% of revenue in audio now drop to below 40%. Diamond/Aureal obviously
is gaining some market share. I don't know the impact on ESS.
Aureal is such a company that the number of shares is more than the
cash in the bank.
The following press release announces C-Cube to enter a market for Internet over TV that broadcasts over the DVB standard.
It is quite easy to add DVB support, transport layer and MAC
onto any MPEG2 decoder chip.
It is not easy to get a customer in this market segment.
Therefore this is something worthwhile for CUBE to send out
press release.
Steve
--------------------------------------------------------------
C-Cube Wins Canal+ Web-enabled Digital Set-top Platform
Europe's Largest Digital Pay-Television Company Partners with C-Cube to Deliver
Internet-over-TV
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 1999--C-Cube Microsystems (Nasdaq:CUBE - news) announced today that its
new digital video set-top box solutions have been selected by Canal+, Europe's largest digital pay-television service, as the core
engines for its new MediaWeb platform.
The MediaWeb platform delivers leading-edge multimedia applications to the television, including interactive program guides,
advertising, Internet browsing, video-on-demand, home banking, online shopping and software download to a personal computer.
C-Cube continues to build on its strong relationship with CANAL+ by delivering the first silicon platform to enable
Internet-over-TV. C-Cube's new AViA@TV and AViA-A/V solutions are the first of their kind to bring digital television and the
Internet to the consumer-priced digital set-top.
''Consumers are looking for the next level of services and functionality from their television,'' said Henri Joubaud, Senior
Vice-President of Technology at CANAL+. ''C-Cube's AViA@TV and AViA-A/V technology ensures that our MediaWeb
set-top box will support these advanced, interactive applications, delivering on our promise of compelling interactive entertainment
and services for our subscribers.''
With over three and a half million digital subscribers, Canal+ is Europe's leading provider of digital pay-television services. It
delivers digital television via satellite in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Poland. Canal+ will tell its OEM set-top
box manufacturers that it recommends C-Cube's AViA@TV and AViA-A/V integrated circuits because they allow development
of set-top boxes that fully comply with CANAL+'s MediaWeb platform for digital video and interactive television applications.
Two C-Cube Solutions Chosen for MediaWeb
As the foundation of the MediaWeb platform, the AViA@TV delivers market-leading interactive applications and supports the
following advanced features:
MPEG-2 demultiplexing; -- DVB descrambling; -- Multi-planar graphics; -- Flicker Filter(TM); -- Two-way networking with
integrated media access controller
(MAC); -- High-speed central processing unit (CPU).
The AViA-A/V delivers MPEG-2 video and audio decoding and supports the following advanced features:
-- MPEG-2 video and audio decoding;
-- Automated video and audio synchronization;
-- Dolby Digital(TM) (AC-3) decoding;
-- Microcoded architecture.
About CANAL+ and CANAL+ Technologies
CANAL+ is Europe's leading pay-television company with world-class expertise in programming for premium and theme channels
and in distribution, with marketing capabilities and subscriber management systems, scrambling and access control technology.
Four years of sustained initiatives in new technologies came to fruition in 1996 with the launch in France of Canalsatellite, Europe's
first commercial digital TV service. Thanks to its integrated presence in every aspect of the television business, CANAL+ is a
major player in the European media industry with revenues in excess of FRF 14 billion.
CANAL+ Technologies is the technology arm of the CANAL+ group. CANAL+ Technologies is the developer of the digital
conditional access system MediaGuard, as well as the digital broadcast interactive system, MediaHighway. CANAL+
Technologies is some three hundred professionals strong with worldwide system integration capabilities. It most recently deployed
the UK's Ondigital service, the world's first terrestrial digital broadcaster. |
