PERTH broadcast solutions business Data & Commerce Ltd has announced a multi million dollar deal with Sky TV Turkey to provide digital television broadcasting infrastructure.
PERTH broadcast solutions business Data & Commerce Ltd has announced a multi million dollar deal with Sky TV Turkey to provide digital television broadcasting infrastructure.
In partnership with DCL, Sky TV will develop digital broadcasting in Turkey.
DCL managing director Jeff Chatfield said the deal would provide infrastructure for mobile digital television for transport vehicles and shopping centres in Turkey.
“The deal is to build a digital television broadcasting platform because they (Sky Television Turkey) want to deliver mobile television in buses,” Mr Chatfield said.
“This is a digital television application, in Australia it would be called datacasting.”
Sky TV Turkey is working to a very aggressive development timetable with a view to getting DCL’s DataOneT digital broadcasting platform up and running in just a couple of months.
“The initial part of the project is worth about $1.2 million and there could be other opportunities for us,” Mr Chatfield said.
“We have a strong commitment to the emerging digital broadcasting market and we see this as totally consistent with developing opportunities in broadcasting and digital spectrum.”
In addition to the traditional broadcasting business, DCL has established a wireless broadcasting business DataOne which was a business unit of Singapore-based Advent Television.
As owner of Melbourne radio station 3AK, DCL is also a traditional broadcaster in its own right.
Most recently, DCL announced an agreement with Goulburn Valley Broadcasters to merge 3AK with another Melbourne radio station, 3MP.
DCL claims the merger will deliver economies of scale for the radio stations through the sharing of operating costs.
It’s anticipated the total value of the savings achieved by the merger will add up to more than $1 million a year.
“The two stations share demographics and psychographics in Melbourne and they fit very well together as a duopoly,” Mr Chatfield said.
Currently the stations attract 20 per cent of the lucrative 40-plus age group and it’s hoped the merger will significantly increase this share of the market.
DCL claims the duopoly will deliver benefits for the stations’ advertisers, audience and shareholders.
Mr Chatfield said DCL now had substantial projects in both the high value end of broadcasting and the low value end of the infrastructure, which delivered the business a more reliable revenue stream.
“When we started out we were only in the digital television arena but it’s too risky on its own. Now we have continuous cash flow business so we’ve lowered the risk in it,’ he said.
DCL plans to continue to develop digital broadcasting technology to assist broadcasters to derive new profit lines from increased digital broadcast bandwidth.
