On Demand Deutschland (ODD), the joint venture between On Demand Group (ODG) and Tele München Gruppe (TMG), has concluded a multiyear licensing agreement with Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to launch Warner TV, a new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) branded service which will provide theatrical motion pictures and TV content from Warner Bros. to viewers in […]

Virgin Media is launching its first targeted advertising trial on its VOD platform featuring advertisers such as Kelloggs and Royal Mail. Using ad insertion technology from SeaChange, ads will be inserted before and after on demand content in real time. Virgin Media’s trial, in its north London cable franchise, will match ads to programme genres, […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The battle over football TV rights between Sogecable, owner of Digital Plus, and Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, and the financial crisis are the main reasons behind a sharp drop of 45% in the number of ppv sales in the second quarter of the year. According to the CMT, […]

The European Commission has again written to the government for an explanation of UK authorities’ response to BT’s allegedly illegal secret trials of Phorm’s ISP adware system. Brussels still wants answers after a September letter from the UK goverment failed to address legal issues surrounding past deployments of the technology, and didn’t provide details about […]

Orange announced the details of the five new channels that are set to launch in France on November 13th as part of the Orange cinéma séries. The new channels include a main “feature film” channel, Orange cinemax, which is available in HD and includes the best of recent films and TV series shown for the […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid 12.4 million DTT devices have been sold in Spain, of which 88% are IDTVs, according to the latest report from Impulsa TDT. Every day 7.7 million people watch DTT, representing an average share of 17.4%, with more than 6 million homes having access to DTT, with a penetration of […]

A Freeview channel is to go up for auction. Arqiva, which holds the licence for two of the six multiplexes that make up the UK’s digital terrestrial TV platform, is calling for bidders by October 22, with the channel available from January.In 2005 Channel 4 paid about £10m (E12.8m) a year for its sixth slot […]

Premiere's chief marketing officer Oliver Kaltner is leaving the pay-TV operation after just three months in post. In a statement, Premiere said the Supervisory Board had accepted his resignation with immediate effect."I decided to leave Premiere immediately. It has been a very difficult decision for me leaving the company after just three months. I wish […]

The ITV executive chairman Michael Grade, has suggested it could drop its public service responsibilities and hand responsibility for regional news to a third party such as ITN. Grade reiterated that ITV would “prefer to remain a licensed PSB, if justified economically”, but outlined a possible scenario in which the broadcaster could drop its PSB […]

Bharti Airtel Limited has announced the launch of Airtel digital TV, its Direct To Home (DTH) Satellite TV service. The service will be available to customers through 21,000 retail points including Airtel Relationship Centres in 62 cities across the country. Manoj Kohli, CEO, said, "Today we are starting a new chapter in our journey, one […]