Advanced Television

Spain: Sky’s Now TV launch imminent

The launch of Sky’s Now TV service in Spain is imminent, with its Spanish twitter teasing #llegaSky (“Sky arriving”). Sky is reportedly finalising plans to launch the on demand service in Spain over the next few weeks as a test bed for its expansion into other European countries. The service is currently available in the […]

September 4, 2017From David Del Valle in Madrid

Ultra HD Premium certification extended

The UHD Alliance (UHDA), the inter-industry group charged with fostering an ecosystem that fully realises and promotes the consumer benefits of Ultra HD with HDR entertainment technology, has confirmed the completion of the ULTRA HD PREMIUM specifications for additional content delivery devices such as Streaming Media Players, set-top boxes and Desktop PCs. The expansion of […]

September 4, 2017

Eutelsat files arbitration claim against Mexico

The case centres on a claim that in the early part of this year the Mexican government specifically reserved Eutelsat Americas satellite capacity without payment, and that Eutelsat is being further penalised.  In reality, the capacity has allegedly been “reserved” by Mexico’s government for some years, but without payment. The argument is being heard before […]

September 4, 2017By Chris Forrester

UK names 6 full-fibre trial areas

High speed fibre broadband is to be piloted in six  regions of the UK. The first stage of a £200 million (€218m) publicly funded scheme to help bring the UK’s fastest and most reliable broadband to businesses, schools and hospitals kicked off Sunday 3rd September with the launch of six local pilots. The projects will […]

September 4, 2017

London licensees fined for pirating Sky Sports

A licensee has been found guilty of three offences of dishonest reception of a television transmission by showing Sky Sports to customers without a commercial agreement from Sky. Jagdish Karsan Devshi of the Moonbay Restaurant in Wembley, London, entered a plea of guilty to the charges and was fined £1,026 (€1,118) per offence and ordered […]

September 4, 2017By Colin Mann

Star India pays over €2bn for IPL TV rights

Star India has agreed to pay 163.48 billion rupees (€2.15bn) for the TV and digital rights to Indian Premier League for the next five years, the country’s cricket board has confirmed. Sony, the only other bidder for the TV rights, offered 110.5 billion rupees but lost out to Star’s consolidated offer for the global rights […]

September 4, 2017

BT revamps BT TV app

Following the redesign of the BT TV YouView user experience earlier this year, BT has this week launched a new look BT TV app for smartphones and tablets. The BT Player experience is also available for laptops. The new app is available to all BT TV customers at no extra cost and lets them watch […]

September 4, 2017

Sharp debuts 8K at IFA

TV manufacturer Sharp used Berlin’s giant IFA consumer electronics show to introduce an 8K set, heralded as “the world’s first 8K-4K Direct-view LCD”. Labelled as the top-end of its Aquos range, the screen is capable of showing content in 8K, four-times the resolution of 4K, and using 7680 x 4320 pixels. Yoshihiro Hashimoto, managing executive […]

September 4, 2017By Chris Forrester

Alphasat Irish broadband by DTH goes bust

Alphasat Communications Ltd (of Ireland), which supplied broadband by satellite to customers in rural Ireland, has appointed liquidators. Alphasat, which was headed by former Irish football star turned pundit Niall Quinn, had a shareholder deficit of some €2.8 million, and creditors (in October 2015 when the last set of accounts were filed) of €3.5 million.  […]

September 4, 2017By Chris Forrester

More problems aboard Intelsat’s I-33 satellite

There are reports that Intelsat’s I-33 satellite is suffering another problem. What has been confirmed is that the satellite, launched in August 2016, has ‘lost’ about 3.5 years of its planned life in orbit. Intelsat is making a $78 million insurance claim because of the overall issues. CEO Stephen Spengler in September 2016 said that […]

September 4, 2017