The first-ever Entertainment Content Protection Summit in Los Angeles saw keynote speaker Taylor Hackford describe piracy as one of the most threatening issues that has hit the movie industry in its entire history, and call Google an “enabler” of illegal downloading. Hackford, president of the Directors Guild of America, stressed the need to stop piracy, […]
The UK Government has revealed plans to spend £830 million (€979m) in an effort to give the UK the best broadband network in Europe by 2015. An action plan – Britain’s Superfast Broadband Future – published by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, sets out the ambition to create a ‘digital hub’ in every community in the […]
Shortly after announcing a series of measures better to protect against copyright infringement, Google has revealed it is to acquire digital media solutions provider Widevine with the intention of improving access to video content across the web. According to Mario Queiroz, Google’s VP of Product Management, with rapidly improving broadband and wireless speeds, more powerful […]
Google is to make major changes to the way it deals with copyright infringement on its search engine in the coming months, aimed at making it tougher for websites that flaunt the law and making it harder to find pirated content. Noting that there are more than one trillion unique URLs on the Web and […]
US-based digital media services provider Encompass Digital Media is to acquire the global content distribution business of Ascent Media Corporation for some $120 million, including approximately $113 million in cash and the assumption of certain indebtedness and obligations totalling approximately $7 million. The deal creates a major global provider of mission-critical outsourced media services to […]
Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo and media group Softbank Corp are among six companies vying to provide a new broadcasting service for portable digital devices. The prospective operators have declared their intentions to the Communications Ministry, which is finalising details such as the number of service providers to be chosen in 2011, prior to service launch […]
TV viewing figures reveal that people in the UK watched an average of 27 hours, 34 minutes of live, linear TV each a week during July to September 2010 (3 hours, 56 minutes a day), with growth across every age group. This represents an increase of 1 hour, 50 minutes on the same period last […]
Video search-engine operator blinkx is hoping it will be available on UK IPTV platform YouView when it launches in 2011, and has initiated discussions to that end. “We know the YouView team very well and we are involved in the various processes they currently have running with the tech teams,” blinkx founder and chief executive […]
UK consumers are some of the earliest adopters of new communications technologies, according to research from UK regulator Ofcom. They are among the best connected for broadband, mobile and digital TV and the UK has seen the fastest growth in smartphone take-up. UK consumers are also enjoying lower prices for communications services than many consumers […]
France’s Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) has issued a request for expressions of interest in the broadcast of audiovisual media services on demand (SMAD) on digital terrestrial television, with the aim of the platform providing the public with access to a richer and more diverse audiovisual offer. The CSA will authorise either one or several […]