Advanced Television

Netflix attracts 100,000 subs in France

Netflix has already attracted 100,000 subscribers in France in the 15 days after its launch, according to daily Le Figaro. But the majority of subscribers are still presumably benefiting from the first month being free of charge, and more accurate figures for paying subscribers will start as of mid-October. Even so, Le Figaro draws the […]

October 1, 2014From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

UK: 88% of TV viewed is live

January to June viewing figures for 2014 from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) and the UK TV broadcasters reveal that viewers in the UK watched an average of 3 hours, 47 minutes a day of TV. This breaks down as 3 hours, 43 minutes of linear TV on a TV set plus 4 minutes […]

October 1, 2014

US cinemas block Netflix movie plan

As reported yesterday, Netflix has teamed with giant cinema-screen operator IMAX and the Weinstein studio to make a follow-up to martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – with the deal seeing Netflix stream the movie on the same day as its theatrical release. But the plan started to fall apart on September 30th when […]

October 1, 2014By Chris Forrester

Spain’s pay-TV spend up

Spanish pay-TV is seeing signs of recovery with Spaniards spending more money on services. The latest report from Ontsi reveals that in the first quarter of the year the total pay-TV spend amounted to €279 million, up €9 million in comparison with the previous quarter. Each household with a pay-TV service spent an average of […]

October 1, 2014From David Del Valle in Madrid

Comcast debuts cloud DVR

Comcast subscribers in the San Francisco Bay Area can now stream their DVR recordings to their iOS or Android devices, no matter where they are. The feature requires the company’s newer X1 set-top boxes, however the service is powered by Comcast’s cloud DVR, which could make set-top boxes obsolete altogether. X1 users can also watch […]

October 1, 2014

Internet usage fuels rise of FOMO

Internet use and dependence has risen to a point where ‘Fear of Missing Out’ or FOMO, often associated with modern technologies and social networking services, has become a global phenomenon. Over 2.5 billion people are connected to the Internet today, that’s a third of the world’s population. By 2020, the number of connected devices is […]

October 1, 2014

Public support for wireless net neutrality rules

The US Internet Association has released a nationwide survey demonstrating strong support for net neutrality protections for wireless Internet users. Nearly 90 per cent of respondents say they do not favour wireless carriers creating fast and slow lanes for the Internet, while more than two-thirds say that wireless Internet providers should not be able to […]

October 1, 2014

New Brazilian DTH operator launches

Brazilian ISP Unotel Telecom has launched a DTH service. Long-expected (it first announced the scheme back in 2012), the service has signed up some 180 local retail partners across Brazil to help promote the package. Unotel claims it has about 3.5 million corporate and residential customers hooked up to its 16,000 km fibre-optic network, and […]

October 1, 2014By Chris Forrester

HbbTV 2.0 test RFI

The HbbTV Association, a global initiative dedicated to providing an open standard for the delivery of broadcast and broadband services through connected TVs and set-top boxes, has issued a Request For Information (RFI) soliciting members of the industry to comment on and register to receive a Request For Proposal (RFP) to be issued at a […]

October 1, 2014

Nickelodeon VoD exclusive on Viaplay

MTG’s Viaplay has secured the exclusive stand-alone VoD rights to programming from children’s entertainment brand Nickelodeon in the Nordic region until 2020. Effective immediately, all Viaplay subscribers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland will have exclusive access to animations and live action series from Viacom’s Nickelodeon. Top titles include all seasons of kids’ animated favourites […]

October 1, 2014