Advanced Television

Broadband

US Cable super fast by 2013 and will get stimulus

US Cable companies, which have begun to deploy new technology that will enable them to deliver faster Internet speeds to customers, should have the enhanced broadband service available to nearly all of their customers within the next five years, according to a forecast by market research provider Pike & Fischer. DOCSIS 3.0 will help cable […]

March 16, 2009

Canadian cable providers debate distribution

Rogers Communication says proposals for a levy on Internet service providers in order to help fund Canadian content online would be illegal. Internet service providers (ISPs) have argued against a tax on Internet services or broadband revenues to support the production of Canadian content for Web consumption. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is […]

March 12, 2009

YouTube blocks UK music videos

Google’s online video site, YouTube, has confirmed it will block all music videos to British users after it was unable to reach a rights deal with the main songwriters’ collection society. The world’s largest video sharing site said PRS for Music, a British collection society that collects royalties on behalf of nearly 50,000 composers, was […]

March 12, 2009

Broadband CPE market dips

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research has released the fourth quarter edition of its Broadband CPE and Subscribers report. “In the fourth quarter of 2008, a slowdown in broadband subscriber growth caused worldwide manufacturer revenue to decline five per cent for DSL CPE, and two per cent for cable CPE. 2009 will be a challenging […]

March 12, 2009

5.4m add broadband from top telcos

Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US – representing about 94 per cent of the market – acquired over 5.4 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2008. Annual net broadband additions were down compared to the 8.5 million in 2007, and the peak of […]

March 12, 2009

Carter not 'net neutral'

Talking before a UK Parliamentary committee Comms Minister Lord Carter continued to hint net neutrality would not be a foundation of his Digital Britain report. Having already assured BT its investment in NGN would be recognised and protected, he said "Our emerging view is that it is not unreasonable for a network provider to be […]

March 12, 2009

Belgacom reports solid 2008

Belgium's dominant telco Belgacom TV has reported growth in 2008 exceeded that of the previous year, with the company adding 201,000 new subscribers. Growth peaked in the fourth quarter of the year, with the company adding 63,000 IPTV subscribers in the three-month period. By the end of 2008, the company had a 30 per cent […]

March 11, 2009

Virgin appoints UBS to oversee sales

Virgin Media has appointed UBS bank to advise it on a sale of its television channels businesses that could be worth up to £500 million (E560m). Virgin Media Television includes Virgin's 50 per cent stake in the cable channels business UKTV. The sale will be partly dependent on the outcome of a political debate going […]

March 11, 2009

Tiscali sale to BSkyB abandoned

Internet provider Tiscali said talks with BSkyB over the sale of its UK assets have ended. Tiscali said it was “de facto impossible” to proceed with the discussions because of the impact of the continuing economic downturn. As a result, Tiscali said it would miss an interest payment on its debt as it seeks to […]

March 11, 2009

UPC slims in CE

UPC Broadband has announced a reorganisation and streamlining of its Central European operations. From the end of March the regional management group overseeing UPC’s six operating businesses in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be closed down. The affected operating businesses will now report directly to Gene Musselman, President and COO […]

March 11, 2009