Advanced Television

Premier Rugby for Sky and Setanta

Premier Rugby has announced that live domestic television broadcast rights contracts had been agreed for the Guinness Premiership with Setanta and Sky Sports. The new 3 year deals will commence in the 2010/11 season and will see the number of live televised Guinness Premiership games more than double the current 33 to 69 a season. […]

December 15, 2008

Digital radio switchover by 2020?

The body set up by the government to secure the future of digital radio in the UK is expected to predict that switchover for the medium could be completed by 2020. The final report by the Digital Radio Working Group comes at the end of a series of meetings between representatives of commercial radio, the […]

December 15, 2008

Televisa bails out La Sexta

From David Del Valle in Madrid Mexican TV group Televisa is injecting an extra E52 million into the Spanish commercial network La Sexta, in which it has a 40 per cent share, taking its total investment of more than E265 million by the end of 2009. The injection forms part of a capital enlargement of […]

December 15, 2008

China to grant 3G licences

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology confirmed that the country will issue third generation (3G) mobile licences by the end of 2008 or early next year. Minister Li Yizhong said at a media briefing that China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom have prepared well for 3G licensing. “After the proper procedures, we will […]

December 15, 2008

Tudou streams 100m vids per day

Gary Wang, CEO of Chinese online video site Tudou, has revealed that YouTube clone Tudou currently serves more than 100 million videos a day and that the site has over 80 million unique viewers per month.

December 15, 2008

Entertainment-at-home services on the up

Parks Associates has reported that almost 66 per cent of US consumers have altered their spending habits in the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of the country’s deteriorating economic conditions. These changes have the greatest impact on entertainment spending outside the home, according to Digital Media Evolution, a consumer survey from Parks Associates, […]

December 15, 2008

Broadcast technology confidence falls

Confidence amongst senior executives in the supply side of the broadcast and media technology sector has declined markedly according to an IABM Industry Trends Survey. The survey, undertaken in conjunction with Ernst & Young polled the views of some 80 senior executives in IABM member companies around the world. According to IABM Chief Executive Officer […]

December 15, 2008

SCM and Hirsch to Merge

SCM Microsystems and Hirsch Electronics have entered into a definitive agreement to merge. The combination of SCM and Hirsch is expected to result in a new security products leader at a time of escalating market demand for converged security solutions leveraging smart cards and smart chip-enabled devices.

December 15, 2008

ITV websites prosper in 2008

ITV is preparing to overhaul its website next year to introduce more social media features and a greater emphasis on its most popular TV shows with a “fewer, bigger, better” strategy. “Project Penguin” will see ITV.com’s content management system restructured and new discussion and content-sharing features introduced, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal. This follows the rebranding of […]

December 11, 2008

Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members

The Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology and mobile players, has announced the membership of 14 additional companies. The new members are: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.

December 11, 2008