Advanced Television

4K Film Festival for Spain

Satellite operator Hispasat is organising an international 4K Film Festival for short movies. Hispasat says its competition is open to films produced in any country and genre, with a maximum duration of 20 minutes as long as they are shot in 4K format. The call for entries began July 14 and runs to September 23. […]

July 17, 2015By Chris Forrester

Next-gen Slingbox enhances mobile viewing

Sling Media, a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corp, has unveiled the Slingbox M2 — a new entertainment experience designed to meet the ongoing shift in consumers’ television viewing habits. With the Slingbox M2 bundle, Sling Media says that today’s ultra-connected generation will have uncompromised access to their live and recorded home TV content from […]

July 17, 2015

FIC exits MundoFox JV

RCN Television Group (RCN) has purchased the entire interest of its joint-venture partner, FOX International Channels (FIC), in the US Spanish language broadcast network, MundoFox. MundoFox was launched in the autumn of 2012 as the third national broadcast television network catering to the US Hispanic market from one of the major broadcasting companies in the […]

July 17, 2015

HBO NOW available on Amazon Fire tablets

Amazon has confirmed that HBO NOW – the broadcaster’s OTT service – is available on Fire tablets, and will be available on Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick in the coming weeks. “If there’s one thing Fire TV and Fire tablet customers are telling us, it’s that they love to watch their favourite movies […]

July 17, 2015

BT reveals Ultra HD prices

BT has announced details of its new BT TV Ultra HD package, which includes Europe’s very first live sports Ultra HD (4K) channel, BT Sport Ultra HD, and the company’s new BT TV Ultra HD set top box. The new channel will launch with its first live broadcast being the FA Community Shield match at […]

July 17, 2015

Tele Columbus acquires PrimaCom for €711m

In a further consolidation of the German broadband cable sector Tele Columbus Group, the third largest German cable network operator, has entered into an agreement to acquire PrimaCom Holding GmbH, the fourth largest German cable network operator, for a total consideration of €711 million on a cash and debt free basis. The combination of two […]

July 16, 2015

Digital video at tipping point, DVDs remain resilient

Figures presented by the British Video Association (BVA) at the bi-annual Insight Forum, hosted by the BVA and supported by Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) and Digital Entertainment Group Europe (DEG Europe) indicate that while the digital home entertainment market is at crucial mass market tipping point, physical product continues to hold its own and show […]

July 16, 2015By Colin Mann

Government begins debate on the future of BBC

The UK Government has issued a Consultation ‘Green Paper’ in which it has set out the topics for debate as part of the process to review the BBC’s Royal Charter to make sure it remains a valued public broadcaster. The BBC’s initial response was that that the Green Paper would appear to herald a much […]

July 16, 2015

Review body recommends continued licence fee criminal enforcement

An independent review looking at the current sanctions in place for failure to hold a TV licence in the UK has found that the current system of criminal enforcement should be maintained, at least under the present system of licence fee collection. It concludes that the current system is appropriate and fair, and represents value […]

July 16, 2015

Netflix passes 65m subs, higher prices planned

Streaming giant Netflix saw subscriber additions rise nearly 94 per cent year on year to about 3.3 million in the second quarter, beating the company’s forecast of 2.5 million. The service now boasts 65 million global subscribers – with 42 million of those in the US. Netflix posted revenue of $1.64 billion (€1.5bn), an increase […]

July 16, 2015