The BBC announced that iPlayer has delivered record end of year figures. December 2008 saw 41million requests to view BBC TV programmes via BBC iPlayer, the biggest month since launch in December 2007. This compared to just over 35 million requests in November 2008. The total number of requests for the year now stands at […]
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, taking over from Bill Gates in his first CES keynote, said one of the biggest areas of opportunity for the consumer-electronics industry — even given the current economic recession — is to converge the capabilities of PCs, phones and TVs. "In the future you will be able to connect to information […]
David Del Valle in Madrid A Spanish Court in the North of the Country has sentenced a hotelier to six months in jail and to pay E20,000 for pirating Sogecable-controlled pay-TV platform Digital Plus. It is the first jail conviction in the country, but, possibly not the last one as there are 15 legal proceedings […]
French broadcaster TF1 is discussing the sale of its 50% stake in news channel France 24 with French authorities who are their partners. TF1 could receive about E2 million, significantly less than it had hoped to recoup. It would 'sell' the stake to government holding company Audiovisuel Exterieur de la France. The parties said that […]
French viewers have for the first time watched prime-time television without advert breaks, as President Nicolas Sarkozy’s media reforms get under way, but journalists at the national stations are threatening to strike. Advertising is now banned on French public television between 20.00hrs and 0600hrs and will be phased out altogether by 2011. It is part […]
Orange and Canal+ have signed a multi-year agreement to allow Orange triple play customers who are not eligible for TV by ADSL to subscribe to Canal+ and/or Canalsat, as well as Foot+ by satellite. In 2009, Orange triple play customers with satellite TV will be able to receive these offers directly on a single ADSL/satellite […]
The National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) is putting new DTV-to-analogue converter box coupon applications on a waiting list, having already run up against its statutory maximum of $1.34 billion funding limit. That means anyone down that list won’t get their boxes in time for the Feb. 17 transition date. “On Sunday, Jan 4, NTIA […]
Over 80 copyright holders including video portal Joy.cn, film distributor PolyBona Film, and record label Orange Sky Entertainment have formed an anti-piracy alliance, and are suing China's largest video-sharing site Tudou. In May 2008, Joy.cn filed suit against Tudou for unauthorised use of its video content, which Tudou resolved in November with an out-of-court settlement […]
Netflix and LG Electronics will soon introduce TV sets that can screen Netflix movies directly from the Web without an external box. Netflix, which is seeking to equip all home-entertainment screens with instant movie-viewing capability, also announced other partnerships, including one with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to embed the movie software in its game consoles. Netflix […]
Enensys Technologies and GoldSpot Media have successfully integrated their solution to enable Mobile TV service providers to deploy targeted and interactive advertising in DVB-H. Enensys DVB-H head-end technology and GoldSpot's Cue Zones ad solution help Mobile TV service providers develop predictable and profitable advertising business cases to supplement subscription revenues. ………….