From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain's largest pay TV group Sogecable and Mediapro, main shareholder in commercial TV channel La Sexta, have signed an agreement to bring an end to their fierce war over TV football rights that has taken them to Courts. The three years deal will allow Sogecable-controlled digital DTH platform Digital […]
SeaChange International, provider of software and hardware solutions for VOD television, has announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended April 30th, 2009. Total revenues for the quarter were $48.9 million, which was $3.5 million or 8per cent higher than total revenues of $45.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Net […]
The French pay-TV operator Canal+ will test a special 'weekend subscription' this autumn. CEO Bertrand Méheut said the subscription will cost around E15 a month, about half the usual price for a package from Friday evening to late Sunday night. Méheut also said there are 6.2 million households subscribing to either the Canal+ or the […]
The BBC is developing an audience measurement tool which will provide insight into how audiences 'pick and mix' content across a variety of viewing platforms. The new Cross Media Insight system will factor in all time-shifted and online viewing. It will be designed to count repeats, iPlayer figures, recorded programmes, red-button, mobile-access and viewings via […]
Orange is to launch a VOD site in France called Welles (after Orson Welles), offering "mid-tail" recent archive shows. Most videos (500,000 at launch) will be ad-supported but some premium content is planned.
Zeng Peixian, deputy director of the Radio, Film & TV Administration of Guangdong Province, has revealed that DTV subscribers in Guangdong now number 5.17 million. Digital conversion work in county levels and above in Guangdong province is expected to be essentially completed by the end of 2009. Digital subscribers currently number over 1 million each […]
A central plank of the Digital Britain report – that the BBC license fee must help public broadcasting outside the BBC – has, as expected been shot down by the BBC. Sir Michael Lyons said: "We recognise that there is work to do in never bigger than it needs to be. But we must also […]
A footnote in the Digital Britain report recommends £30m (E36m) be set aside for research by its Technology Strategy Board (one of several new bodies it recommends to take up tasks outlined in the Report). One of the TSB's priorities is collaborative research on a consolidated micropayment scheme for VOD. While its preamble to the […]
The "Video in Demand" Asian satellite services report, released by CASBAA, shows a 9 per cent market growth in 2008/2009 with some 1,370 transponders currently in use across the region. This was the highest growth rate reported over the last eight years by CASBAA and partner Euroconsult of France. Despite some high regulatory barriers, several […]
Interactive advertising is responsible for $300 billion of economic activity in the US, according to a study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The advertising-supported Internet represents 2.1 per cent of the total US gross domestic product (GDP). It directly employs more than 1.2 million Americans with above-average wages in jobs that did not […]