All in all it has been a good year for content protection. This time last year, the Pirate Party (an off shoot of Pirate Bay) was the ‘talk of the town’ with its’ high-profile stand for piracy and its’ success in Euro elections. This year the party fell well short of the threshold for the […]
Television (and other software) piracy is rampant in Beirut and the surrounding region, with thousands of ‘informal’ cables strung between the cities and towns illegally delivering the very best in pay-TV for just a few dollars a month. Barely a penny goes to the official rights’ holders. That may be changing. A deal was […]
The Times of India summed up its take on the news that an Indian investor would be taking a major stake in the struggling MGM studio. “Mera naam hai Baand, James Baand”, is how Mr Bond’s introduction might work in Hindi. Whether the global entertainment community will be shaken or stirred by these reports […]
Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabia is quoting local sources saying that Orbit has prevaricated over paying its rent at Egypt’s Media Production City (EMPC). Orbit is now part of the Orbit Showtime Network but still produces content for its Arabic channels. The Al-Quds newspaper says the decision to close Orbit down was made on Saturday […]
It has not been the best of week for smaller satellite operators. Two are suffering problems with their satellites. Israel’s Spacecom has discovered that its Amos 5i (a second-hand satellite bought from AsiaSat at the end of last year) doesn’t have the fuel on board that it expected. The AsiaSat craft was designed to last […]
Go with the flow or fight your way upstream against the tide? It’s a question that challenges us all at various times, and one that is always relevant in digital media. In the September 2010 issue of Euromedia we focus on an area where maximising the flow is the aim – multiple screens means multiple […]
At this week’s EuroConsult satellite business week in Paris, one group of delegates will be smiling. It seems the all-important satellite insurance industry is looking likely to have a record year for profitability. Insurance giant Willis Inspace on September 3 reported that insurance premiums for the year are likely to approach $600m, and while there’s […]
Net Neutrality is, ironically, a matter on which nearly no one is neutral. When the Web was young the idea of equal access for all content and service providers was logical and easily accommodated. Then came video, which was magnitudes more bandwidth hungry than what had gone before. But there was still no question of […]
A few weeks ago Romain Bausch, the CEO of satellite operator SES, spoke ambitiously of further expansion for SES. He specifically mentioned two possible target operators: Intelsat, a similarly huge supplier of satellite capacity and services, and Telesat of Canada. Telesat is part-owned by Canadian pension interests and the investors behind Space Systems Loral. Evidently […]
The rise and rise of Avatar as far as the international box-office was concerned is all so long ago. That Avatar – and more recent Hollywood events – have raised the profile for 3D is undoubted. But there have also been critical 3D flops (but sometimes financial hits) such as Clash of the Titans, Cats […]