The UK government is to invest £85 million (€120m) a year in enhancing BBC services around the world including in Russia, North Korea, the Middle East and Ethiopia. The money is to help “build the global reach of the World Service” to half a billion people and “increase access to news and information”. The government […]
Spanish broadcast infrastructure company Cellnex Telecom is launching a cloud-based 4K distribution platform as part of project called PLEASE. The project aims to boost the development of UHD content by making a distribution platform available using a cloud-based system to support UHD TV resolution through the MPEG-DASH standard. The platform will also use the H.265/HEVC […]
French media and TV group NextRadio TV, which owns news and discovery channels BFM TV and RMC Découverte, has received approval from French TV and competition authorities (the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel et Autorité de la Concurrence) for its planned takeover by multinational cable, fibre, telecommunications, content and media company Altice. On July 27th, Alain […]
Parks Associates has published the results of its consumer research project Connected Consumer in Europe, which surveyed broadband households in the UK, Germany, Spain, and France to track adoption and future purchase plans of IoT, smart home, and connected entertainment solutions. The project found that approximately 9 per cent of these Western European broadband households […]
The mystery over the problems at the Israeli-owned Amos-5 satellite has deepened. It emerged that the satellite is still at its assigned orbital position of 17 degrees East. The spacecraft dramatically went silent at 4.44am (UTC) on November 21st. However, Space-Communications, which owns the satellite, now says it had “no information” on the precise nature […]
Findings from the New Media Forecasts report from ZenithOptimedia suggest that 66.5 per cent of individuals in key digital markets will have a smartphone by the end of 2018. In 47 leading countries, smartphone penetration rose from 41.6 per cent in 2013 to 49.5 per cent in 2014, and it will reach 55.7 per cent […]
The introduction of digital TV, and not helped by an economic downturn, has led to the end of life for some 400 satellite and cable channels this past year in Thailand. The latest data from the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) reveals that 40 per cent of the 1,092 broadcasting licences […]
Mexico City’s analogue TV transmissions will go dark on December 17th, according to the country’s Federal Telecoms Institute (IFT). The nation’s second-largest city, Guadalajara, will have gone dark the day prior, on December 16th. With these two major cities switching to all-digital transmission the nation’s transition to digital TV is near-complete. The IFT regulator said […]
Despite issuing a 260-page report which studies in some depth the impact of forcing French news channel LCI (La Chaîne Info) into a free-to-air service along with a similar situation for M6-owned Paris Premiere, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) says it will continue to consult with the parties involved. The CSA is scheduled to […]
Nigeria is looking to fully embrace digital TV and to use the growth in channels to springboard a “vibrant media economy”. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, speaking in Lagos on November 21st, said the nation’s TV coverage would be 100 per cent digital by the end of next year, up from 49 per cent at the […]