UK Culture Secretary Karen Bradley has confirmed the reforms to the BBC that will require the organisation to be more open and transparent about its operations while making sure the public broadcaster continues to thrive in the future. The draft Royal Charter and the accompanying Framework Agreement set out the details of how the BBC […]
Rona Fairhead, the chair of the BBC Trust, has quit after Prime Minister Theresa May cancelled David Cameron’s reappointment of her to 2018 and insisted she reapply for the post along with others. Fairhead declined. Fairhead she would not put her name forward to become the chair of a powerful new governing board that will […]
ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have struck licensing deals with live streaming platform TVPlayer to simulcast the broadcasters’ free to air channels across a full range of devices including desktops, mobiles, tablets, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. The agreement sees TVPlayer licensing the Public Service Broadcasters’ free to air channels for the […]
From 360-degree movie trailers to the emergence of 4K TV services from Web and telecom players, global analyst firm CCS Insight, has revealed its expectations for the TV industry and the main highlights ahead of this year’s IBC event in Amsterdam. According to Paolo Pescatore, director of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, given the […]
Darren Childs, CEO of multi-channel programmer UKTV, has declared the service to be Britain’s fastest-growing broadcaster. Speaking at UKTV Live, its annual showcase event, at the BFI in London, Childs noted that the company had grown impacts by 40 per cent since 2010, and was home to two of the largest non-PSBs. “UKTV is now […]
Sky has invested €4 million in French OTT platform Molotov, which distributes free and pay-TV channels and content to consumers via a freemium model. This investment is part of a larger Molotov financing round and is the latest in a series of Sky investments in innovative start-up companies. Molotov was founded in 2014 by JeanDavid […]
Heathrow Express passengers will be kept up to date with a new BBC World News onboard service, launched on September 1, which will provide one-minute news and business bulletins on the 15-minute journey to and from Heathrow and Paddington. The bulletins will be delivered through the existing Express TV service, which are positioned on screens […]
Further expanding its presence across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Discovery Communications has formed a partnership with BHS Media. The partnership allows BHS Media to use Discovery’s content and branding to create and launch a brand new free-to-air lifestyle channel, Home & Health Farsi. With a proven track record of entertaining audiences across […]
Doordarshan’s Freedish is switching from MPEG2 to MPEG4 compression and this will allow the number of its FreeDish channels to expand from today’s 80 channels to an initial 104, and potentially 112. In its MPEG4 iteration viewers will need a ‘smart card’ to decode the soft-encrypted channels. Encoding services are coming from Bangalore-based ByDesign’s Indian […]
HGTV has expanded distribution in New Zealand launching on two new platforms. Effective immediately, HGTV will be available to all New Zealanders on Freeview Satellite and as part of SKY TV’s basic package. “The expanded distribution of HGTV reflects the demand for quality lifestyle programming in the region,” said Julia Baylis, General Manager of HGTV […]