Advanced Television

Turner Italia closes successful year

Turner Italia has ended a successful 2018 for its kids channels in the Italian market. The broadcaster has a total of four channels – two free-to-air and two subscription based. Boing and Cartoonito are broadcast nationally FTA on DTT in partnership with Italian broadcaster RTI Mediaset, while Cartoon Network and Boomerang are distributed via pay-TV […]

January 14, 2019From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Ofcom study: How different groups use comms services

Differences in how certain groups use communications services are explained in regulator Ofcom’s latest Access and Inclusion research report. The report looks at how affordability, take-up and engagement with telecoms, TV and postal services compares across different groups. It focuses on people whose use of different services and devices could be affected by factors such […]

January 14, 2019

UKTV enhances VoD app

Britain’s biggest multichannel broadcaster, UKTV, has announced an update of its VoD service UKTV Play. The new generation app is available immediately on iOS, Android and Amazon FireOS. Tom Davidson, UKTV’s General Manager for UKTV Play said: “UKTV Play is focusing on delivering the most personalised viewing experience in the marketplace. Our investment in machine […]

January 14, 2019

Entertainment trade body urges HMV survival

Industry trade body the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) has responded to the news that UK entertainment retailer HMV has entered administration for the second time in six years, listing five reasons that point out the importance to the sector of its continued existence: The physical disc market is more resilient than headlines suggest. […]

January 14, 2019By Colin Mann

Poland: “We need unified view on Huawei”

Polish interior minister Joachim Brudziński has called for the EU and NATO to take a “joint stance” on whether to exclude Chinese equipment vendor Huawei from their markets. The call follows one of Huawei’s employees being arrested in Poland on spying charges. A former Polish security official was also arrested. Huawei has since sacked the […]

January 14, 2019

Canada: Shaw increases profit

Canada’s Shaw Communications has reported a 68.5 per cent surge in quarterly profit, as more subscribers signed up for the telecom company’s wireless services. Telecom service providers in Canada, including Shaw Communications, have started investing heavily in the next generation 5G network, to attract data-hungry customers: Shaw successfully completed its first 5G technical trials in […]

January 14, 2019

Jones new COBA chair

A+E Networks’ UK head Heather Jones has been elected chair of the Commercial Broadcasters Association (COBA), the industry body for multichannel broadcasters. As chair, Jones will lead COBA’s board in setting the strategy of the association and overseeing the work of its executive. She will serve as chair of COBA for a two-year period and […]

January 14, 2019

Multichoice scraps Nigerian OTT scheme

Multichoice says it will not launch an OTT service in Nigeria “despite demands for a service”. The company’s Chief Customer Office, Martin Mabutho, says that the broadcaster will stick to a monthly payment subscription scheme. He explained that the system’s channels did not belong to Multichoice and that “slashing our prices in half” would not […]

January 14, 2019By Chris Forrester

Worried Arianespace kicks off 2019 campaign on Feb 5

Arianespace has taken delivery of its next mission’s second satellite (India’s GSAT-31) which will join Saudi Arabia’s HellasSat-4 craft which arrived a few days ago. The Ariane 5 launch is currently scheduled for February 5th (weather permitting). The launch also starts another year of launch campaigns for Arianespace which reported a flat 2018 in terms […]

January 14, 2019

Alita battles for Moments Worth Paying For

Alita: Battle Angel, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment from visionary filmmakers James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, has become the latest film to receive an exclusive trailer as part of pro-copyright education body The Industry Trust for IP Awareness’s Moments Worth Paying For campaign. “You can’t bring a story like Alita to life without […]

January 14, 2019By Colin Mann