Advanced Television

ISP

UK ISPs block 21 torrent sites

The latest measures to combat digital piracy in the UK has come into force with a court order from BPI asking ISPs to block 21 sites that link to infringing material. “We asked the sites to stop infringing copyright but unfortunately they did not and we were left with little choice but to apply to […]

October 30, 2013

BT TV à la carte options

BT has stepped up its efforts to attract TV customers with a major launch of new channels and by offering customers the chance to build their own TV package made up of just the content they actually want to watch. BT’s core Entertainment pack – £7 (€8.21) a month – includes 18 popular pay TV […]

October 28, 2013

Telenor buys Tele2 network

Telenor Sweden says it is continuing its commitment in broadband and television services buying Tele2 Sweden (Tele2) fibre and cable business serving the consumer market for a cash sum of SEK 775 million (€91.4m). In 2012, the acquired company had reported revenues of SEK 530 million. The acquisition includes a portfolio of about 370,000 households […]

October 23, 2013

“Strong start” for BSkyB

BSkyB unveiled a strong set of numbers for its first quarter-year’s results with plenty of highlights to keep the market happy. Top line headlines included revenues up 7 per cent (to £1.843 million) and 800,000 new paid-for ‘subscription products’ which is a 50 per cent uplift on a year ago. Sky enjoyed 111,000 new broadband […]

October 17, 2013By Chris Forrester

UK ISPs asked to record piracy data

UK broadband providers are being asked to create a database of customers illegally downloading music, films and books, which could be used to disconnect or prosecute persistent offenders. BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB and TalkTalk are being approached by music and film companies to agree a voluntary code for policing illegal downloading. Negotiations have been under […]

September 2, 2013

BT Vision will fail

Harsh? I don’t think so. Forget everything else, if a provider can’t do better than a voice loop telling you a lie about when the broadband service will be restored, it has no business pretending to be a TV service provider. There are, of course, plenty of question marks over a strategy that sees a […]

August 15, 2013

YouView seeks multi-device expansion

Open IPTV platform YouView – backed by a consortium of the UK’s broadcasters and telco providers – is looking to develop the service beyond its set-top box-based launch, reports the FT. Sources suggest that some shareholders are keen to extend service across a range of devices, including connected TV sets, smartphones and tablets. Any such […]

July 29, 2013By Colin Mann

Record results for BSkyB

As if to give two fingers to arch-rival BT, BSkyB detailed a very long list of record financial and operational achievements in its 12-months (to June 30th) statement early on Friday morning (July 26th). It also introduced a new number, one that echoed cable’s old Revenue Generating Units, but in Sky terms it translates to […]

July 26, 2013By Chris Forrester

Premier League blocks illegal stream website

The English Premier League has secured a High Court order requiring ISPs to block football streaming site First Row Sports. The High Court ruled that the website, which didn’t host any live streams directly, was acting jointly with third party streaming services that broadcast public live footage of Premier League football matches. A Premier League […]

July 17, 2013

France drops ‘3 strikes’ piracy law

The French anti-piracy law that disconnected those suspected of illegal file-sharing after ‘3 strikes’has been overturned and replaced with a system of automatic fines. The “Hadopi law” succumbed to the pressure of the entertainment industry and would disconnect those suspected of online piracy. Users were first sent two written warnings, in what was called a […]

July 10, 2013