Advanced Television

FTA

Australia: Major Freeview Plus upgrade planned

Freeview Australia will launch a significant upgrade to its hybrid digital television service Freeview Plus platform in June 2017, offering a more simplified user experience and sophisticated look and feel for the catch-up service. The new platform will join the Freeview FV mobile app in Freeview’s suite of products that are designed to make watching […]

May 8, 2017

Isle of Man set for national TV channel

UK local TV licensee That’s Media Group has expressed interest in setting up a national TV channel on the Isle of Man. The announcement was made by Kent Walwin, Owner and Director of that’s Media Group, during the Celtic Media Festival at a panel – The Rock that Rocks – about building a new broadcast […]

May 4, 2017Colin Mann @ Celtic Media Festival

RTÉ’s Forbes: “Irish public media on precipice”

Dee Forbes, Director General of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the national public service broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland, has delivered a strong defence of public service broadcasting, in particular those broadcasters whose roles include safeguarding national tongues and identities. Delivering a Keynote Speech at the Celtic Media Festival in Douglas, the Isle of Man, […]

May 4, 2017Colin Mann @ Celtic Media Festival

Premiership Rugby on Channel 5

English Premiership Rugby matches will be shown live on terrestrial television for the first time in the competition’s history, as Premiership Rugby and Channel 5 unveil what they describe as a “landmark” four-year deal. The agreement will see UK commercial public service broadcaster Channel 5 (owned by Viacom International Media Networks) broadcast five live games […]

May 4, 2017

Fee collectors name BBC shows ‘worth the licence’

The top TV moments from shows most valued by licence fee payers have been revealed by TV Licensing, the collection of companies contracted by the BBC to administer the collection of television licence fees and enforcement of the television licensing system. Dancing bears from Planet Earth II topped the list of memorable TV moments Twitter […]

April 27, 2017

FCC’s Pai: ‘Next Gen TV standard a priority’

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has declared that teeing up the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard is a priority, suggesting it has the potential to let broadcasters offer much better service in a variety of ways. Addressing the NAB Show in Las Vegas, Pai noted that the convergence of Media, Entertainment, and Technology—the M.E.T. Effect—had created a […]

April 26, 2017By Colin Mann

Study: OTT to overtake linear TV within 5 years

Within the next five years, viewership hours of live-linear streaming OTT video will surpass those of traditional broadcast TV, according to close to 70 per cent of respondents in the 2017 OTT Video Services Study by Level 3 Communications, Streaming Media and Unisphere Research. The third annual survey on OTT trends was based on responses […]

April 20, 2017

UK consults on Channel 4 regional impact

The UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is launching a consultation to seek views on how public service broadcaster Channel 4 can most effectively contribute to regional economic growth, stimulate regional creative industries, and better serve regional audiences to deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society. Channel 4 Corporation (C4C) is […]

April 13, 2017By Colin Mann

Sony launches Italian FTA service Pop

Sony Pictures Television Networks’ first Italian free-to-air TV channel will launch on Thursday May 4th as Pop, the highly successful kids channel brand. Following SPTN’s acquisition of Neko TV (LCN 45) from Television Broadcasting System, the channel will be rebranded as Pop and launch with a slate of new and exclusive premieres. According to Sony, […]

April 13, 2017

TF1 ready to pull FTA channels from SFR and Canal OTT

French commercial media group TF1 is threatening to withdraw its FTA channels from the OTT platforms of some French IPTV operators, with an ultimatum given to SFR and Canal+ set for April 30th, daily Les Echos reports. Subscribers to Canal+ and SFR would not see free DTT channels TF1, TMC, NT1, HD1 and LCI on myCanal […]

April 12, 2017From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris