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To: BillyG who wrote (26544)	12/11/1997 8:23:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Divx to hit Europe.......................................... ijumpstart.com DVD Europe 1998 Launch Looks to Be in Trouble <Picture><Picture><Picture> A couple of spanners have been thrown into the works of the planned European launch of DVD. In addition to the industry's failure to reach an agreement on several technical issues, it now looks likely that it will have a competitor when it finally does launch. Divx - the pay-per-view system based on DVD technology - is to launch in Europe and its backers are talking with potential partners in France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, our sister publication Inside Multimedia (IM) has learned. The European launch is expected to occur on a country-by-country basis sometime in 1999. When the concept was launched in the United States in September by Digital Video Express, it immediately provoked a vitriolic response from worried video store owners and ardent defenders of DVD. Divx executives, however, profess to be shocked by the adverse publicity the project has engendered, telling IM that its timing - to release at the same time as DVD hitting the streets - was "unfortunate." They said the Divx concept was conceived long before DVD was even invented. They claim that they are merely trying to give the consumers a "better mousetrap," and bemoan the fact that when DVD fails to meet its lofty sales expectations this year then Divx will be used as the whipping boy. The executives scoffed at the idea that their technology will undermine sales of DVD. They said Divx would be a complement to the VCR, not a replacement for it. They also laughed off the idea that retail video is an endangered species. They believe that the VCR will be around for the next 30 years and DVD will not slow or replace it. They also argue that their business model is more consumer friendly than open DVD - giving the single-view renter a lower priced product - albeit on a higher-priced player. When Divx starts to roll out next Spring, the street price of Divx discs will be around $4.50, compared with rental of non-Divx discs at a likely $3.50. The attraction is that you get to keep the disc - you do not have to make that return trip to the rental store. Furthermore, you can view the disc anytime you want, on payment of an additional fee.

To: BillyG who wrote (26544)	12/11/1997 8:51:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Time-Warner buys some Canel Satellite............................. ijumpstart.com Warner to take stake in Canal Satellite <Picture><Picture><Picture> Warner Bros. is paying nearly Pounds 41 million for a 10 per cent stake in Canal Satellite, the Canal Plus-backed French digital satellite service - putting a total value of more than Pounds 400 million on the service. The Hollywood studio is exercising an option to buy its stake on a rights issue which it acquired in the summer and would have expired at the end of this year. Currently, Canal Satellite is 70 per cent owned by Canal Plus, with Pathe holding 20 per cent and Compagnie Generale des Eaux (CGE) owning the remaining 10 per cent. Generale des Eaux, however, is expected to sell its stake to the other shareholders (at a considerably higher price than Warner is paying for its stake), leaving the company with the same ownership balance as before, with Warner taking the place of the utility. Warner Bros. was tipped for the CGE stake in September, when Canal Plus took a controlling interest in the France's biggest cable operator Compagnie Generale de Videocommunication (CGV), a subsidiary of Compagnie Generale des Eaux (CGE) (EMB&F, Sept. 22). Terms of the Sept. 9 deal have Canal Plus raising its 20 per cent stake to 76.6 per cent, with CGV taking 15 per cent and French bank Societe Generale making up the final 8.4 per cent. After making the deal, Canal Plus hinted that it would bring in an "international partner" - which - as expected - has turned out to be Warner Bros. At the time, industry sources believed Warner Bros. was angling for a 35 per cent stake. The Warner Bros./Canal Plus relationship extends further. Warner Bros. started its relationship with Canal Plus when the French pay-TV operator was first set up in 1984. Canal Plus duly became the majority shareholder of CGV at the beginning of November. Denis Olivennes, formerly a senior executive at Air France, is to join the management of Canal Plus as executive vice president, assistant to the chairman on December 1 and will serve as chief operating officer of CGV. According to sources close to Canal Plus, it is not expected that Warner's involvement in the satellite venture will have any significant impact on Canal Satellite's management and programming. This is seen as the best way for Warner to establish an ownership presence in Europe. Canal Plus' revenue for the first nine months of 1997 was up 16.2 per cent at Fr9,541 million, excluding revenue from theme channels and part-owned foreign subsidiaries (except Canal Plus Horizons and Nethold. Subscription revenue rose 10.3 per cent, with Canal Satellite doing particularly well (up 46 per cent at Fr 647 million). The service is expected to top the 700,000 subscriber mark by the end of the year. The Nethold channels in Scandinavia and Benelux, which were consolidated at the beginning of April, contributed Fr424 million in subscription revenues.