The planned video-on-demand joint venture service from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, is set for a June launch. The news leaked after the BBC asked DoubleClick, the online advertising technology provider, to ask its aency clients to attend a briefing. ITV or Channel 4 will sell the ads for the venture that will act […]

Disney-ABC Television Group announced a deal with its Affiliate Association that expands the network’s ability to make content available on an on-demand basis through cable, DBS and Telco distributors. The agreement allows local affiliates to participate in the “fast-forwarding disabled” VOD offering through local advertising sales opportunities. Additionally, this landmark agreement lifts ABC’s re-purposing restrictions, […]

SES Astra and French pay-TV group CANAL+ have revealed that the digital terrestrial free-TV offer TNTSAT has sold 350,000 receivers to French households. TNTSAT is a service for French TV viewers offering the whole range of terrestrial digital free-TV channels over the Astra satellites, and allowing a 100 per cent-coverage of the French territory.

SecureMedia, player in content protection software for secure video and multimedia delivery over IP networks, has confirmed that Vodafone Iceland has implemented and deployed the Encryptonite ONE System, protecting its next generation end-to-end IPTV offering. Vodafone Iceland offers mobile, fixed-line, FTTH and ADSL/ Internet services to individuals and companies throughout the country. Adding to this […]

News Corp has increased its stake in German pay television operator Premiere to nearly 20 per cent. The company acquired an initial stake of 14.6 per cent in January from German cable operator Unity Media for $422.5 million in cash. Premiere has more than 4 million subscribers in Germany and Austria.

A majority of marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective in the past two years, but marketers are interested in exploring new ad formats and new forms of video commercials, according to the fourth biennial TV & Technology survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research. Sixty-two per cent of […]

NBC Universal is adjusting its traditional approach to television ad sales to cater to customers who are increasingly using the internet, mobile phones and other devices to reach consumers. The company will scrap the “up-front” presentation in May, and in its place it will hold a “spotlight” event focusing less on specific programmes than on […]

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have unveiled a partnership to produce AntennaWeb.org, an online antenna mapping programme designed to help consumers and electronics retailers determine the proper outdoor antenna to use in order to receive free local broadcast channels. The tool is particularly valuable to consumers as the […]

At the end of 2007, a survey by the European Audiovisual Observatory and the French Government’s Media Development Department found 258 VoD services in operation in the 24 European countries covered, compared with 142 services at the end of December 2006. This upsurge in the number of services is largely explained by the fact that […]

Cablevision Mexico has become the first digital cable television company to enhance its video-on-demand operations with SeaChange flash memory storage and streaming. Mexico’s largest digital cable operator has switched on SeaChange International’s MediaServer Flash Memory Streamers, seamlessly extending Cablevision ‘s SeaChange Axiom software and disk-based server operations.