Advanced Television

Telefonica launches multi-screen interactive ad service

From David Del Valle at MWC in Barcelona Spain’s Telefonica is launching a multi-screen interactive advertising service covering mobile, Internet and TV that will enable advertisers to insert their ads into programmes, all tailored to the channel in question, and allow users to watch the ads and get more information if requested. The service is […]

February 19, 2009

Turkey fines Dogan $400m

Turkey's biggest media group has fallen foul of the authorities incurring a $408m tax fine at a time when its advertising revenues are set to weaken and its parent company wants to use its cash to expand in other sectors. Dogan Yayin, which owns TV channels and daily newspapers disclosed the fine, which is bigger […]

February 19, 2009

MEF launches Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative

MEF (Mobile Entertainment Forum) has launched its global 'Smart Pipe Enablers Initiative' to create an industry-wide framework that will lay the foundation for the next generation of mobile entertainment services. The impact of this initiative will be more useful services, taken up faster by the industry. Smart Pipe Enabler Services are to be provided by […]

February 19, 2009

Premiere promo FTA

Germany's Premiere wants a FTA channel, called Premiere Vitrine, to promote its pay TV services, and has applied to the Bavarian media authority for a licence. Premiere has struggled to make premium pay-TV a success in a country with over 30 FTA channels. Premiere closed Giga TV, a previous attempt at a stand-alone FTA channel.

February 19, 2009

Gloomy outlook for TF1

French broadcaster TF1 has spooked investors with a gloomy outlook as the economy worsens and it slashed its dividend, sending shares in the country's leading commercial broadcaster down by as much as 18 per cent. TF1 said that 2009 sales would fall 9 per cent, three times more than analysts expected, and that it would […]

February 19, 2009

ITV sells JFMG to Arqiva

ITV is continuing to sell off non-core assets, striking a deal to offload a 70% stake in spectrum management company JFMG to transmission outfit Arqiva for £1m (E1.13m) in cash. The sale is being carried out by ITV Network Limited, in which ITV owns a 90.1% share. Arqiva now owns all of JFMG, providing access […]

February 19, 2009

TW Cable shuffles management

Time Warner Cable shifted some key management positions in anticipation of its planned split with parent Time Warner Inc., naming CEO Glenn Britt to the additional position of chairman. The company received the necessary government approvals for the split earlier this month and said it expected to complete the split by the end of the […]

February 19, 2009

Free boosts HD content

ANT has confirmed that Chunghwa Telecom has chosen the ANT Galio Browser as the user interface platform upon which to develop a successor to Chunghwa Telecom's successful Multimedia on Demand (MOD) Service. The existing MOD Service provides Taiwanese consumers with a range of multimedia services such as broadcast TV channels, on-demand movies and interactive services […]

February 19, 2009

Chunghwa Telecom selects ANT browser

ANT has confirmed that Chunghwa Telecom has chosen the ANT Galio Browser as the user interface platform upon which to develop a successor to Chunghwa Telecom's successful Multimedia on Demand (MOD) Service. The existing MOD Service provides Taiwanese consumers with a range of multimedia services such as broadcast TV channels, on-demand movies and interactive services […]

February 19, 2009

Discovery ID for Russia

Discovery Networks EMEA, a division of media company Discovery Communications, has revealed that Investigation Discovery (ID), a 24-hour crime and investigation channel, will launch in Russia in April 2009. This marks the first continental European launch for ID, which rolled out in the UK in January 2009 following its US debut in January 2008.

February 19, 2009