To cut costs ITV is considering a radical plan that could see it share hit dinosaur drama Primeval with a rival broadcaster to spread the cost of the effects-heavy series.The Guardian reports that the production company behind Primeval, Impossible Pictures, has presented ITV with a proposal that could see the fourth series premiere on a […]
Shanghai Media Group, China's second-largest broadcaster, is planning to spin off several units and list them over the coming two years, in a push for further reform of the country's state-owned media. Li Ruigang, SMG president, said the group, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government and had revenues of Rmb6bn ($875m) last year, […]
Russian VC Digital Sky has put $200m into Facebook preference shares valuing the social net at a nominal $10bn, down from the $15bn represented by Microsoft's investment 18 months ago, but, considering market conditions and the fact Facebook won't breakeven until next year at the earliest, still very high. Both sides also claimed that –despite […]
Joanna Shields is leaving her post as head of people networks at AOL 14 months after the group paid – in its own words – 'a generouos' $850m for Bebo, where she was CEO. AOL said Shields will stay on as an advisor to AOL on its acquisitions and new ventures. …
From Colin Mann in Cologne Interactive TV playout systems specialist Strategy & Technology has developed the first applications to be shown to bring streaming video from the Internet to the TV under broadcaster control using the latest MHEG-5 middleware specifications. Working in collaboration with set-top box manufacturer Humax, S&T has enhanced its RedKey 2 technology […]
From Colin Mann in Cologne Spanish TV signal specialist Televes has unveiled the DAT HD, which it claims is the first 'intelligent' antenna developed specifically for Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and the future High Definition Television (HDTV). The DAT HD has been developed by taking into account the particular characteristics of the digital signal, in […]
Microsoft has launched Microsoft Mediaroom with virtualisation, making Mediaroom the first IPTV platform to offer virtualisation support. Mediaroom with virtualisation can deliver up to a sixfold reduction in the number of physical servers required to support a full-featured IPTV service, significantly reducing hardware and management costs and speeding time to market for Mediaroom customers by […]
From Colin Mann in Cologne German cable operator Kabel BW has chosen NDS's MediaHighway middleware, XTV integrated digital video recorder (DVR) technology and an NDS video on demand (VOD) solution for the introduction of new entertainment services. The deployments are designed to enable Kabel BW to manage efficiently its entire STB population and seamlessly introduce […]
From Colin Mann in Cologne Digital TV product, service and IP provider S3 revealed at ANGA Cable that its StormTest product has been licensed by UK digital satellite service BSkyB to automate testing of its set-top boxes (STBs). The client/server architecture built into the product design can support remote testing, on-site testing and field testing […]
Harmonic has confirmed that SK Broadband, Korea's leading integrated telecommunications company, has deployed Harmonic's Direct-2-Edge (D2E) solution, encompassing Harmonic's NSG 9000 universal edgeQAMs and D2E control software for the world's largest commercial launch of cable IPTV to date. The landmark deployment enables SK Broadband to provide a uniform broadcast IPTV service across its cable, xDSL, […]