The Open IPTV Forum has added eleven new members at a recent meeting held at the headquarters of Telefónica in Madrid, and reports that the first release of its new specifications are close to completion. The new members are Fastweb, Swisscom, Access Company, BeeTV, Digital Fountain, Intel, InterTrust Technologies Corporation, Motorola, Opera Software, Thomson and […]
Virgin Media that promoted broadband download times for TV shows and music has been banned after rival internet provider BT complained to the advertising regulator that the speeds quoted were inaccurate. The national press ad, which ran with the headline Hate To Wait, featured a table with download times for TV shows and music tracks […]
Israel's Antitrust Authority is said to be concerned that Bezeq – the national carrier in Israel – would close YES if it is allowed to purchase control in the DTH platform. The Authority believes Bezeq would prefer to concentrate on the development of its IPTV service. However, the Restrictive Trade Practices Tribunal has judged that […]
The decision to refer Kangaroo to competition authorities – a move much welcomed by Sky – has seen ITV's share price hit a new low of around 45p bringing Sky's loss on its 17.9 per cent stake close to £650 million (E866m).
DISH Network, the US satellite television provider, said it has received notice that phone operator AT&T is ending their agreement at the end of the year to sell TV, phone and Internet packages. AT&T and DISH have had a joint marketing agreement since July 2003 to sell the “triple-play” package in AT&T regions. AT&T said […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome The Italian Government and the country's Communications Authority (AgCom) is aiming to bring forward the complete switchover from analogue to digital, which is currently planned for the end of 2012. Announcing plans to present a plan for the complete national switchover by September 9, Italy's Undersecretary for Economic Development responsible […]
Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific in Australia, a unit of media company Discovery Communications, has confirmed that Discovery HD has launched as one of the five dedicated 24/7 HD channels offered by FOXTEL's new service, FOXTEL HD +. Discovery HD first launched in the Asia-Pacific region in 2005 and is now available in 17 international markets.
French cable company Numericable has added HD content from CinePlay, TF1 Vision and I-Concerts o its Video Club VOD service. Prices for HD titles are E4.99 for brand new titles, E3.99 for library titles and E2.99 for individual programmes from TF1. Viewers need to have Numericable's Cablebox HD in order to view the VOD programmes […]
Blockbuster has withdrawn its offer to buy US electronics retailer Circuit City, citing difficult market conditions. Blockbuster said the bid, which valued the retailer at more than $1 billion was no longer in its best interests. Last month, Circuit City said its sales had fallen by 11 per cent in the three months to the […]
Widevine Technologies has announced that leading Lithuanian multichannel television, telephone and Internet service provider Viginta has selected Widevine Cypher to secure content delivered over DTT, hybrid QAM (cable) and IPTV deployments. This marks the first time downloadable conditional access and DRM has been implemented in a one way DTT network, drastically reducing the time and […]