From Branislav Pekic in Rome Portugal Telecom has been placed first by the commission that evaluated the bids for the DTT platform for pay-TV channels. Portuguese telecommunications sector regulator Anacom announced on June 27th that Portugal Telecom obtained 85 out of a total of 100 points, while Sweden's Airplus TV was awarded 57 points. The […]
BSkyB has said that the BBC should not be allowed to bid for Hollywood films or US TV series and that Channel 4’s claim of a potential £150 million (E187.5m) funding gap is “open to challenge”, in its submission to Ofcom’s second review of public service broadcasting. BSkyB said the BBC was obliged to focus […]
In a surprise move News Corp has made a deal to become the minority shareholder in its conditional access subsidiary NDS. Two newcos backed by private equity house Permira will take the business private. The plan is the Permira newcos will own 51 per cent while News will keep 49 per cent. The deal has […]
From Colin Mann in London The UK's trading watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading has referred the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between BBC Worldwide Limited, ITV plc and Channel 4 – also known as Project ‘Kangaroo’ – to the Competition Commission (CC) for further inquiry. The CC now has 24 weeks to […]
ViewCast, provider of streaming hardware and software solutions, has joined the Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative to deliver the next generation of .NET-based media over the Internet. By utilising Windows Media/VC-1 format, the ViewCast Niagara SCX encoding platform can deliver streaming video and audio content to users of Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in offering […]
From Colin Mann in London The UK's trading watchdog, the Office of Fair Trading has referred the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between BBC Worldwide Limited, ITV plc and Channel 4 – also known as Project ‘Kangaroo’ – to the Competition Commission (CC) for further inquiry. The CC now has 24 weeks to […]
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 […]
Virgin Media Television has agreed a deal with Alderney-based betting specialist, Two Way Gaming, which will see the broadcaster launch a sister channel to the long-established Challenge. The new channel, Challenge Jackpot will be broadcast on Virgin Media's UK cable network. The channel's output post-midnight will also be broadcast on Virgin1 and Bravo2, extending its […]
OpenV, China’s largest Chinese-language Internet TV and Video content provider has obtained from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television a Licence for Publishing Online Audio-Visual Programmes. Industry experts believe that the issuance of the Video License will accelerate standardisation of the online video industry while promoting market growth.
Sony will make a strong push into networked media and DTO services as it seeks to make the most of its hardware and software assets for growth. The company said it would aim to double revenues from the fast-growing markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China to 2 trillion yen (E11.7 billion) and invest 1.8 […]