From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris Numericable, now the sole cable operator in France, made a series of announcements at its “back to work” press conference after the summer, to mark the launch of its optical fibre service. Numericable CEO Philippe Besnier said that cable is now better placed than ADSL operators in terms of both […]

NBC Universal and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp have confirmed the name of their new Web-based network of films and television shows as 'Hulu'.The name was chosen because it is short, easy to spell and rhymes with itself, project chief Jason Kilar said. Hulu will begin testing a private version in October, according to Kilar, a […]

TiVo said its second-quarter loss widened on a write down of inventory, but the company reiterated its goal of breaking even on an adjusted basis for fiscal 2008. The write downs cam as retailers switched more quickly than expected to the HD version. The company posted a net loss of $17.7 million (E12.9m) for the […]

High-definition video viewing is developing slower than the industry had expected, held back by a lack of HD content and competition between rival standards, according to Rudy Provoost, chief executive of electronics company Philips. Provoost said the Blu-ray format developed by Philips and Sony is prevailing in its battle with a competing format HD DVD […]

Deutsche Telekom is planning to expand its Internet-TV business in a move to stabilise its struggling fixed-line segment, chief executive Rene Obermann has revealed. The plan envisages the transmission of TV signals, which are already available over the company’s fibre high-speed Internet connection (VDSL), via an improved DSL connection, Obermann said. This would boost the […]

UK music publishers have agreed a deal with YouTube granting them royalty payments when their music is used on the site. Earlier this year YouTube reached revenue-share arrangements with each of the four majors record labels following its acquisition by Google. Now the MCPRS-PRS Alliance, which collects royalties on behalf of composers, song writers and […]

Dutch file-sharing service TorrentSpy has blocked US users from its search engines after a US court made an order requiring the firm to log users’ IP addresses and activity. TorrentSpy said it would rather block users than breach its privacy policy by passing on details.

Samsung Electronics is to supply set-top boxes to BSkyB. The deal will result in Samsung manufacturing set-top boxes for Sky, the first of which will be a High Definition box. HD is Sky’s fastest growing additional TV product, currently boasting 292,000 subscribers.

MultiChoice Africa, the leading pay-TV operator in sub-Saharan Africa, has boosted its capacity leases with Eutelsat Communications to support further expansion of its pay television and Internet services in sub-Saharan Africa. With the lease of four new Ku-band transponders on Eutelsat’s SESAT 1 satellite, MultiChoice Africa will be able to extend the range of digital […]

Internet technology specialists Opera have confirmed that Sony Electronics has selected the Opera browser for Sony’s new Bravia Internet Video Link, a module that attaches to the back of new Bravia televisions to access select free Internet video content. Opera will be used as the browser technology of the system and enable browsing of the […]