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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stoctrash who wrote (33025)	5/8/1998 2:31:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

BDB needs to get some boxes in the hands of consumers to make money............................................... newsalert.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOCUS-UK's BDB airs forecast for digital TV launch Reuters Story - May 08, 1998 08:21 %GB %LEI %PUB %ENT %TEL GAA.L CCM.L BSY.L BT.L V%REUTER P%RTR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jump to first matched term(rewrites with added details, background) By Jeff Daeschner LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - British TV firms Granada Group Plc and Carlton Communications Plc said on Friday they were on track to launch digital TV in the fourth quarter, forecasting strong profits from the venture. Disclosing their first detailed forecasts, company officials highlighted the perceived advantages of their terrestrial TV venture, British Digital Broadcasting (BDB), over its satellite and cable rivals. With the launch of digital TV this year, British viewers will be able to plug into a plethora of channels offering sharper images and CD-quality sound compared to the five standard channels that most consumers currently watch. Three digital TV groups will be vying for viewers' subscription fees, with terrestrial broadcaster BDB and satellite company BSkyB seen as the biggest rivals in the race to dominate the pay-TV market. In their first formal presentation to analysts, BDB officials said they expected their venture to break even at just under two million subscribers. A BDB statement gave no indication when the company might reach that level. "It will make profits of more than 100 million pounds ($165 million) with three million subscribers, and with five million subscribers, that figure rises to 250 million pounds," BDB chief executive Stephen Grabiner said in his statement after the meeting. Shares in the media companies were little changed after the news, with Carlton up 8.0 pence at 515, Granada down 11 pence at 1072, and BSkyB off 7.0 pence at 413 by 1130 GMT. BDB's launch will offer at least 15 channels with a capacity of up to 30 compared to the 200-channel satellite service that BSkyB plans to begin rolling out next month. However, BDB's terrestrial service will be available over viewers' existing TV sets and aerials, whereas consumers will have to buy a new satellite dish to receive BSkyB's channels. Regardless of which service they choose, though, viewers will need to buy a set-top decoding box for about 200 pounds to get the new digital channels. BDB said a recent poll by research firm NOP found that consumers most interested in taking up digital TV were five times more likely to subscribe to terrestrial rather than satellite services. The research also indicated that up to one million people were prepared within the first year to pay 199 pounds for a set-top box. He added that BDB's core package of 12 channels would be priced below BSkyB's current "big basic" package and the price points of many cable mini-packages. Grabiner said BDB could offer some 45 channels "in a short number of years," due in part to encoder and multiplexer equipment supplied by California-based Divicom. BDB planned a "very significant" marketing spend ahead of the launch, backed by promotion on the free-to-air services of Britain's major broadcasters. "This in itself is worth about 100 million pounds in advertising spend -- that's more than some of Britain's biggest brands spend on TV advertising in any given year," Grabiner said. BDB also said it would develop a call centre with British Telecommunications Plc to manage customer service.