The European Commission has determined the French plan for a tax on telecom operators to finance public broadcaster France Télévisions is an administrative charge incompatible with European law, and has opened infringement proceedings against France. The Government has two months to reply to make representations.
BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, should be forced to pay as £60 million (E69m) a year for the right to use the BBC brand, according to Pact, the independent producers’ trade body. Pact is also calling for BBC Worldwide to lose its preferential status in bidding for rights to the corporation’s programming, in a […]
A study from ORC examining US consumer awareness, has revealed that nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) now have an HDTV in their home, and another 12 per cent are looking to purchase one within the next two years. This brings the potential market penetration to nearly three out of four households.
Online movie rental outfit Netflix has reported results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009. Netflix ended the fourth quarter of 2009 with approximately 12,268,000 total subscribers, representing 31 per cent year-over-year growth from 9,390,000 total subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 and 10 per cent sequential growth […]
China Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), China’s national operator of CMMB mobile TV, CBC general manager Sun Chaohui revealed that CBC and China Mobile will officially launch mobile phone TV service in early February. CBC and China Mobile signed an agreement to cooperate by promoting CMMB service on TD-SCDMA handsets in May of last year. Although CMMB-enabled […]
Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, a division of Discovery Communications, has confirmed the launch of its two new channels Discovery Science and Discovery Turbo in India. The new networks will initially air on the Tata Sky DTH platform, but will soon be available on both analogue and digital platforms across the country.
Spacecom, the AMOS satellite fleet operator, has confirmed that the AMOS-5i satellite has reached its 17° East orbital position and has begun commercial service. With clients from Africa, Europe and the Middle East already on board, the AMOS-5i satellite enables Spacecom to start serving the growing African market with C-band and Ku-band capacity. AMOS-5i is […]
On February 1st, Swisscom will add four new HD channels to the three channels currently offered by the telco's Swisscom TV IPTV service. German channels ARD and ZDF and Austrian channel Servus TV will be available free of charge as part of the basic package from Swisscom TV plus.
Vecima Networks, a provider of equipment providing broadband access to cable, wireless and telephony networks, has signed a multi-year worldwide supply agreement with a major networking company to private label and exclusively sell a platform providing secure High Definition HD video. Vecima will retain the rights to sell the platform directly to a single leading […]
Harmonic has confirmed that US cable MSO Insight Communications has deployed a full complement of Harmonic's digital video technologies for an extensive network upgrade, including SD and HD encoders. Harmonic's fully integrated, IP-based solutions enable Insight to reduce capital expenses, power consumption, and system operating costs, while delivering high video quality and an expanded service […]