Tandberg Television, part of the Ericsson Group, has revealed that its MPEG-4 AVC video encoding and distribution systems have been chosen by Grupo Televisa to deliver programming across Mexico via satellite using DVB-S2 8PSK modulation. Migrating from MPEG-2, Televisa will become the first broadcaster in North America to move to an all MPEG-4 AVC distribution […]
A jury in a US District Court in California has exonerated NDS Group companies in the lawsuit brought by satellite operator EchoStar and Nagrastar, the joint venture between EchoStar and Kudelski Group. The level of damages claimed by the plaintiffs, widely reported as amounting to over $1 billion, has ultimately resulted in an award in […]
Sky has overhauled its online VOD service by adding streaming capabilities and rebranding it “Sky Player”. Sky said: “The online service will take on the Sky Player brand in recognition of the public's growing awareness of additional online video 'player' services.” In addition, Sky non-subscribers can now access the same Sky Player interface – Sky […]
A standards war for mobile TV in the UK became a real possibility with Qualcomm winning the latest Ofcom spectrum auction. Qualcomm UK Spectrum Ltd has been awarded spectrum in the L-band (1452-1492) for a licence fee of £8,334,000 (E1.04bn). Qualcomm has previously conducted UK tests in Cambridge and Manchester. Its proprietary Mediaflo system competes […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Telefonica has announced the launch of MASTV, a platform to distribute TV content for (analogue and digital) local TV channels aimed at capturing 10 per cent of more than 1,000 TV stations currently existing throughout Spain. Its subsidiary Telefonica Servicios Audiovisuales will distribute packages of TV content “at a […]
Belgium’s dominant telecom operator Belgacom has reported a worse than expected 3 per cent drop in first-quarter sales, but reiterated its financial targets for the whole of 2008. Belgacom’s first-quarter sales fell to E1.469 billion from E1.515 billion euros a year earlier. Belgacom said that price cuts imposed by European and local regulators were the […]
Two years after CBS and Time Warner combined their second-tier networks UPN and WB into the youth-oriented CW to pool young viewers prized by advertisers, the network’s hopes of surviving are looking increasingly bleak, reports the WSJ. The network has lost about 28 per cent of its target audience of 18 to 34 year olds […]
Sir Run Run Shaw, the centenarian founder and chairman of Hong Kong based Television Broadcasts, is in talks to sell his stake in the world's leading Chinese language broadcaster and has attracted interest from private equity groups including Bain Capital and Blackstone. TVB is by far Hong Kong's dominant TV station, with a big presence […]
Chinese conditional access (CA) systems provider China Digital TV Holding has announced its unaudited financial results for Q1 2008, with net revenues reaching $17.4 million, up 65.7 per cent year-on-year but down. Net income for the quarter came to $11.4 million, up 84.1 per cent year on year but down 11.5per cent quarter on quarter. […]
Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), the multiple system operator in Japan controlled by Liberty, has announced that the total subscribing households as of April 30, 2008 served by J:COM's 20 managed franchises reached approximately 2.85 million, up 180,000, or 6.7 per cent since April 30th, 2007. Combined revenue generating units for cable television, high-speed Internet access and […]