The highly touted web-based drama series “quarterlife” proved a network television flop in its NBC debut, drawing the network’s worst ratings for its time slot in at least 20 years, Nielsen Media Research reported. NBC had high hopes for the made-for-Internet series, a show about young adults designed to appeal to the very audience group […]

Internet video firm Akimbo, which initially positioned itself as a content aggregator, is now introducing a turnkey service aimed at content companies that want to deliver video-on-demand through their own web sites. Akimbo is billing its new B2B product — which includes a consumer programme guide, download manager, content-publishing system and advertising- and program-rights-management capabilities […]

Korean broadcasters will stop transmitting analogue TV signals by December 31, 2012. A special committee on broadcasting and communication at the National Assembly approved a bill that confirmed the deadline. After the date, TV will only be transmitted via digital signals. The Ministry of Information and Communication and the Korean Broadcasting Commission first proposed the […]

Zon Multimedia SGPS will be allowed to bid to operate pay-TV channels in Portugal’s digital terrestrial television (DTT) tender if it does so as a minority stakeholder in a consortium, according to a director at telecoms regulator Anacom. According to the Anacom director, Zon has been excluded from bidding on its own for the pay-TV […]

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 […]