Advanced Television

Broadband

CMT dilutes Telefonica network obligations

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has freed Telefonica from the obligation of sharing its network with other operators for speeds over 30Mbps. Below that speed, the company will have to offer rivals a wholesale service, whether offered via the copper wire network or its new fibre optic network. It […]

January 27, 2009

Voom out at Cablevision

As expected, Cablevision has ditched carriage of the VOOM networks, replacing the high-def channels with content from the big three premium programmers. The New York-area MSO said it is serving more than 1.3 million HD customers, penetrating 50 percent of all its digital TV households, the cable operator said. Cablevision said it is delivering access […]

January 23, 2009

Portugal Telecom cross platform soccer

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Portugal Telecom will air live coverage of 16 games of the Portuguese Football League (Liga Sagres) simultaneously on TV (Meo), mobile phones (Meo Mobile) and on the Internet (Sapo portal). The partnership between Portugal Telecom, public broadcaster RTP and rights holder Sportinveste Multimédia will permit the transmission of the 16 […]

January 21, 2009

Virgin may re-list in London

Virgin Media is considering whether to delist on New York's Nasdaq – a legacy of its ntl past – in favour of listing back at home in the UK, as part of a review of company finances. "Our new CFO is looking at our capital structure, including how we are listed and what our dividend […]

January 21, 2009

Tektronix: Triple Play Testing

Unique to the test and monitoring industry, we speak the language of both broadcasters and service providers. Nearly every television show that airs in the world today passes through Tektronix video testing and monitoring equipment. We’ve won six Emmy awards for our technical contribution to the industry. We also have 30% of the world’s communications […]

January 19, 2009

UK will hand out spectrum in return for bandwidth

In further leaks of Ofcom's forthcoming 'Digital Britain' report, The Sunday Times says the auction of further UHF spectrum freed by switchover could be ditched – instead companies will be given spectrum in return for commitments to invest in broadband access. Dropping the long-planned auction might sacrifice £5bn (E6.3bn) of public income in favour of […]

January 19, 2009

Time Warner writes down $25bn

Time Warner announced it will record some $25 billion in write-downs for the fourth quarter, with nearly $15 billion of it coming from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner, which owns 85% of the cable company but has been planning to spin off the stake to shareholders, said beyond the cable business, the write-downs will involve […]

January 8, 2009

Blockbuster wants broadband deals

Blockbuster, the largest U.S. movie rental chain, is open to collaboration with telecom companies such as Verizon and AT&T as it expands into the video-on-demand business, chief executive officer Jim Keyes said. “As we move toward video-on-demand and pay-per-view, Blockbuster is well positioned not only to compete on our own, but also to partner with […]

January 8, 2009

Poland DTH overtakes cable

The number of DTH subscribers in Poland has exceeded the number of cable subscribers for the first time. According to figures from Wirtualne Media, there were a total of 4.7 million subscribers to DTH services as the end of December, over 40 per cent more than a year earlier. The number cable homes in the […]

January 8, 2009

Broadband speeds slower than advertised

The average UK broadband speed for consumers is 3.6 Megabits per second (Mbit/s), sufficient for many applications but well below advertised speeds, regulator Ofcom has reported. According to research based on 10 million separate tests of a range of suppliers’ services, broadband speeds via DSL and cable vary by time of day due to the […]

January 8, 2009