Advanced Television

VOD

VOD in 50% US homes by 2016

The revised year-end 2016 forecast for DVR Subscriber Households now stands at 61.8 million (50 per cent of TV households), up from 37.9 million (32 per cent of TV households) as of the end of Q3 2010. By 2016, it is expected that VOD (redefined to include OTT services like Netflix, Vudu and Hulu) will […]

January 27, 2011

Netflix: We are content’s friend

Netflix is the content business’s friend. That was the message from the company’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos, speaking at NATPE. He characterised Netflix’s relationship with studios as “very strong,” and Sarandos acknowledged there is “a lot of anxiety” about the dramatic shifts in customer demand for more on-demand viewing and the question of how […]

January 26, 2011

Pragmatus sues MSOs over VOD patents

A patent holding company called Pragmatus is suing six of the largest MSOs for infringing two patents that describe storage-retrieval-playback systems that sufficiently generic they can describe any VOD system. Named in the suit are Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, along with various other associated organisations […]

January 26, 2011

Fitness on Fetch

IP Vision has revealed that leading health and fitness channel Fitness TV is the latest addition to its FetchTV platform, the UK’s first commercial hybrid OTT/IPTV service for consumers. Fitness TV is available immediately to FetchTV viewers for just £1.99 per month as well as via pay-per-view on demand. Fitness TV is the UK’s first […]

January 21, 2011

Viewster Boxee’s first premium VOD provider

Viewster, the premium digital movie and TV content service from DIVA AG, has been announced as the first global provider of premium VOD content to Boxee. Viewster will be Boxee’s first global premium VOD provider, and also its first 3D provider outside the US “Right now, Boxee is one of the hottest and most exciting […]

January 21, 2011

RerunCentral.com streaming library

RerunCentral.com has launched to provide consumers an easy route to discovering TV shows to watch online. The site presents pre-screened links to TV shows watchable at popular Internet destinations such as Hulu, Crackle, and TVLand. Users then click to the exact location of legal studio-produced online videos which can be instantly streamed and are often […]

January 21, 2011

Online TV: Users aging, Social networking not important

SideReel, the independent online TV destination, has released results from an online video survey of 1800+ users. Conducted in December 2010, the survey identifies usage patterns in the areas of social media, Web TV, and the use of connected devices. “People are mixing new technologies with familiar ones to get a personalised TV experience that […]

January 20, 2011

Arqiva wants SeeSaw backer

Arqiva wants an investment partner for its online TV aggregator SeeSaw. The service, built on the legacy Project Kangaroo platform bought from the BBC, provides content from BBC, C4, Five and independents. Arqiva wants a partner to accelerate development of the service that has made little impact in the face of BBC iPlayer and ITV […]

January 19, 2011

BBC’s Huggers quits for Intel

The BBC’s Director of Future Media & Technology, Erik Huggers, is to leave the corporation at the end of February to become Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, based at its Silicon Valley headquarters in California. He replaces interim General Manager Brad Daniels. BBC Director General Mark Thompson said that […]

January 19, 2011by Colin Mann

Record month for iPlayer

The BBC iPlayer notched up 145 million requests for programmes in December, breaking its own record for the third month in a row. In December 2009, the catch-up service attracted 114 million requests. But last month, Top Gear was the most popular show with the two Christmas specials being watched almost 1.3 million times each. […]

January 19, 2011