Premiere CEO Mark Williams has brought in execs from Sky Italia to try and rescue the floundering German pay TV group. Giovanni Brunelli, Marcello Maggioni and Gaetano Pannito have taken up executive positions at Premiere, with Brunelli named senior vp customer operations, Maggioni appointed senior vp sales and marketing and Pannito named vp sales. The […]
Channel change time and image quality are central to TV service suppliers in today's competitive market. Witbe carried out a study of digital TV services (via DSL, cable, FTTH, satellite and DTT), looking at 30 operators in 16 countries on 4 continents. The average channel change time measured using P+/P- was 1.9 seconds. If the […]
Virgin has been reprimanded by regulators for misleading consumers about its broadband speeds in a recent advertising campaign. In response to a complaint by Virgin's rival BSkyB, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled Virgin's print and poster advertisements did not make sufficiently clear that customers could experience connections below the advertised 20 megabits per second. Meanwhile, […]
From Colin Mann in Cannes Project Kangaroo, the joint venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, plans to launch in closed beta by the end of the year, CEO Ashley Highfield has said at MIPCOM: “With the Competition Committee’s blessing, we hope to launch in closed beta by Christmas time.” As to how Kangaroo […]
The switch of all U.S. televisions to digital will be messy, a federal communications official said urging broadcasters to step up local efforts to educate the public. Broadcasters have the most to lose if viewers’ screens fade to black when analogue signals are turned off, said Robert McDowell, a Republican on the five-member FCC, urging […]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has said that the FCC will propose allowing mobile unlicensed devices to operate in the white spaces between DTV channels. Martin said that he was proposing allowing devices with both remote-sensing and geo-location capabilities–like laptops and so-called smart radios–to operate in the DTV band so long as they can tap into […]
Fixed operators need to come up with strategies for dealing with a rapid and invasive expansion of mobile broadband into their core growth area, according to a new report, by Analysys Mason. The report forecasts that by 2013, 47% of European broadband subscriptions will use mobile networks and nearly a quarter of broadband-equipped sites will […]
Eurosport is launching a new VOD service including a catch-up TV offer that will include the best of Eurosport and Eurosport 2. The TF1-owned network is making available up to 4,000 hours of programming including premium events such as the Australian Open and US Open. The catch-up TV service will be available for up to […]
Digital cable subscribers have jumped 18 per cent to 16.3m in the first half of the year. Cable Europe, the cable industry association representing operators reaching more than 70m households, welcomed the figures as evidence that cable platforms can attract new customers for digital TV, internet and telephony services. Manuel Kohnstamm, President of Cable Europe, […]
Joost has debuted their Flash, web-only service. But the relaunch, moving away from a proprietary P2P platform, comes hot on the heels of the news that CBS, an investor in Joost, will begin releasing full length shows on YouTube. Joost, and its all-advertising model, must now compete head to head with Hulu, Veoh and others.