Europe’s top antitrust official Neelie Kroes has said she will update and simplify EU rules on state aid for the information and communications technology sector to help nations roll out next-generation broadband networks. Broadband-for-all and next-generation networks are part of the European economic recovery plan. The new communication will explain in which cases and under […]

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire privately held Pure Digital Technologies. San Francisco-based Pure Digital, creator of the best-selling Flip Video brand is a specialist in developing consumer-friendly video solutions with mass-market appeal. “The acquisition of Pure Digital is key to Cisco's strategy to expand our momentum in the media-enabled home and to capture […]

The UK government's suggestion that the BBC should be part of the drive to make broadband universal in the UK would distort markets and distract the broadcaster from its main purpose in making programmes, BSkyB has suggested in its submission to the Digital Britain review headed by Lord Carter, the communications minister, BSkyB said the […]

From Nick Snow in Berlin The finance panel here at Cable Congress was a frank but fairly upbeat affair. It is no secret that with most MSOs controlled by highly leveraged private equity capex is going to be scarce. John Hahn of Providence (which has major positions in KDG and ONO) confirmed as much, “investment […]

Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), the largest multiple system operator in Japan based on the number of customers served, has announced that the total subscribing households as of February 28th, 2009 served by J:COM's 24 consolidated franchises reached approximately 3.18 million, up 478,700, or 17.7 per cent since February 29th, 2008.

From Nick Snow in Berlin Tony Ball, chairman of KDG, got the 50th Cable Congress underway by cheerfully admitting he had spent much of his career (at Sky) trying to make cable fail. Now, of course, he’s changed his mind and is particularly proud KDG has invested over E1bn in its network – with no […]

The broadcast MPEG encoder market grew in 2008, but growth will turn negative as the 2GHz relocation project in the US comes to an end, and the economy slumps. Overall, worldwide Real-Time Broadcast Encoder revenue will see a slight decline in 2009 mainly due to declining ASPs as units grow slightly. However, contraction will accelerate […]

Mobile phone company Orange has offered to set up a UK-wide broadband network to meet the ambitions of Lord Carter for universal access — in return for a share of the radio spectrum owned by Vodafone and O2. Orange, which has more than 1 million residential broadband users in the UK, made its proposals in […]

Holland's largest cable operator Ziggo has confirmed it is supporting the CI Plus standard for conditional access. The cableco says it wants to be ready before the first CI Plus devices. Samsung, Philips, Sony, LG are among those using the standard to bring integrated VOD to their TVs.

Virgin Media TV is to close its teenage pay-TV channel Trouble within months as Virgin gets ready to off-load its content business. Reports say it plans to close Trouble and launch a new version of its popular Living channel in its place. Virgin Media has appointed UBS to sell its content division for sale and […]