Advanced Television

Boeing sues Sea Launch for $350m

Three days ago Sea Launch suffered an embarrassment when $300 million-worth of satellite failed just 40 seconds after lift-off. Now, to add to the injury, former partner Boeing is suing Sea Launch for $350 million which follows on from Sea Launch’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2009.   The action was started in a Los […]

February 5, 2013By Chris Forrester

Research: Free streaming makes inroads with traditional viewers

According to global information company,The NPD Group, while traditional pay TV operators and broadcast networks still dominate the consumer television landscape, new options are emerging, from subscription video on demand (SVoD), to electronic sell-through (EST), to free TV streaming. According to the firm, while SVoD drives the most online TV streams by far, the incidence […]

February 5, 2013

SES HD+ passes 1m subs

SES’s HD+ venture is making considerable progress in Germany. SES says that during 2012 it more than doubled its paying subscriber base from 404,123 to 944,993. That number has continued to grow through January and has now passed the 1 million mark.  SES says that its total number of active subscribers (paying, or in a […]

February 5, 2013By Chris Forrester

Airtel’s DTV operation up 450,000 subs

India’s DTH market continues to impress observers with its subscriber gains. The latest operator to unveil its numbers is telco giant Bharti, where its Airtel DTH division saw net subscriber numbers rise 439,000 during the most recent quarter-year (to December 31st), which is well ahead of last year’s 55,000. All its other key metrics were […]

February 5, 2013By Chris Forrester

Sony Entertainment Television for Germany

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks is launching a German version of its channel, Sony Entertainment Television, for the first time.  The new channel will broadcast in Germany from Spring 2013 following a carriage deal brokered between SPT Networks Germany and Deutsche Telekom. Sony Entertainment Television will be part of Deutsche Telekom’s IPTV Service, Entertain. Sony […]

February 5, 2013

Sirius-XM 24m subs

No wonder John Malone wanted total control of pay-radio operator Sirius-XM. Its numbers continue to impress, with Q4 and full year results. Subscribers stand at 23.9 million, subscription revenues for the year grew 13 per cent to $3.4 billion and free cashflow is up 71 percent to $709 million. For the pre-holiday period Sirius-XM activated […]

February 5, 2013by Chris Forrester

CDN Roundtable 2013

Service providers are under increasing competitive pressure to provide the consumer with the ultimate service in terms of QoE, flexibility and functionality. A TV provider can no longer be a passive carrier of content but must be an active intermediary, and the CDN is central to this process. Three leading practitioners discuss the developing role […]

February 5, 2013

Super Bowl most-watched US TV broadcast ever?

Baltimore Ravens’ win over the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl is on course to become the most-watched programme in US television history despite its black out. Early viewing figures for the game, which lasted more than four hours, suggested a 48.1 rating – i.e. an average of 48.1 per cent of US TV […]

February 5, 2013

Irdeto, Nagra and M7 investigation results in convictions

A Belgian court has convicted two men charged with running an illegal l piracy operation aimed at Pay TV. The men, from Belgium and the Netherlands, have been sentenced by the Court of Tongeren to 12 months imprisonment, of which 6 months are suspended. The pirates were also ordered to pay a fine of €5,500 […]

February 5, 2013

Talk Talk: 10,000 YouView subs a week

YouView is estimated to have up to 230,000 subscribers six months after launch, with TalkTalk revealing that it is seeing demand running at more than 10,000 sign-ups per week. This contrasts with reportedly very slow sales through retailers. The joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva and TalkTalk finally began […]

February 5, 2013