Advanced Television

Apple revamps TV as Jobs admits disappointment

Apple overhauled key elements of its online video strategy following an admission by Steve Jobs that the company's early efforts had been a disappointment. He confirmed earlier reports of a new online rental service for movies and a revamp of the Apple TV set-top box so that viewers can stream movies direct from the internet, […]

January 17, 2008

Oprah TV

Oprah Winfrey will soon be getting her own television network. Winfrey and Discovery Communications said that they would jointly create OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a cable television channel to make its debut in 2009 on what is now the Discovery Health Channel. Discovery Health is available in more than 70 million homes. The new […]

January 17, 2008

Broadcasters align to expand French mobile TV

French broadcasters Canal Plus Group, TF1 and M6 have entered into an alliance with a number of other French TV firms in an attempt to expand the country's mobile TV market. The trio have signed a mobile TV charter along with AB Groups, Bollore, LagardereActive, NextRadioTV and NRJ Groupe. The alliance's remit calls for the […]

January 17, 2008

Viasat goes HD

Modern Times Group has confirmed that Viasat Broadcasting has launched its HDTV offering on its Nordic Satellite pay-TV platform, including two Viasat-branded premium HDTV channels – TV1000 HD and Viasat Sport HD. The initial line up of Viasat's HDTV channels consists of TV1000 HD and National Geographic Channel HD in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland […]

January 16, 2008

MTV Adria for sale, CME interested

From Branislav Pekic in Rome US media group CME has emerged as the frontrunner for the acquisition of regional music channel MTV Adria, according to local media reports. CME already owns MTV Romania, as well as commercial broadcasters in Croatia (Nova TV), Slovenia (Pop TV, Kanal A), Romania (Pro TV, Acasa TV, Sport.ro), Slovakia (Markiza, […]

January 16, 2008

Samsung in bribery probe

Samsung, the world's biggest memory chip maker, has reported a fall in 2007 profit as lower chip prices overshadowed the strong performance of the flat panel display and telecoms businesses. The results were announced as a team of special investigators raided the headquarters of Samsung Group as part of an independent probe into bribery allegations. […]

January 16, 2008

Toshiba slashes prices to shore up HD DVD

Toshiba announced an aggressive campaign to bolster its HD DVD movie disc format against Sony-backed Blu-ray technology, cutting prices on players to as low as $149.99. The HD DVD camp suffered a serious blow when Warner Bros. Entertainment said it would stop publishing movies on HD DVD in May, to focus on Blu-ray and regular […]

January 16, 2008

F.O. on YouTube

The Foreign Office is to launch a public relations offensive targeted at British and foreign youth, with the help of its own YouTube video channel. The Foreign Office channel has been functioning experimentally since September, broadcasting the off-the-cuff thoughts of the foreign secretary, David Miliband, observations from ambassadors and junior staffers alike and vivid travel […]

January 16, 2008

IFC VOD on cable

The Independent Film Channel is launching a new video-on-demand platform for independent films on some major cable systems. Festival Direct will be an on-demand service on Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Charter Communications. Viewers will get to choose from films that have premiered at film festivals around the world, including Cannes, […]

January 16, 2008

Sky boosts Anytime

Sky is to launch its first TV ad promoting Sky Anytime on-demand service as part of a multimillion-pound campaign for Sky Movies. The TV ad for the Sky Anytime PC service, which uses the tagline “Nobody likes watching the clock”, features the Billie Holiday song Any Old Time. BSkyB has created a series of three […]

January 16, 2008