Advanced Television

VOD

ODG and Inview launch VOD on connected TVs

On Demand Group, the global VOD aggregator and subsidiary of SeaChange, and Inview Technology (Inview), have announced an agreement to launch both transactional VOD and subscription VOD services on millions of connected TV sets in major European countries, starting in Italy in the second quarter of this year. Inview’s NEELiX platform is incorporated in millions […]

February 21, 2011

Pre-pay cards for Meo VOD rentals

Portugal Telecom has launched pre-pay cards as a new way for subscribers of its Meo IPTV service to pay for VOD rentals. The cards are available to buy from Portugal Telecom’s website, its retail stores and authorised resellers, with values of €5 or €10, valid for a three-month period.  Once purchased they can be loaded […]

February 21, 2011

Sony help RAI set up first Italian “Catch-up TV”

Italian public broadcaster RAI has signed an agreement with Sony, the first of its type in Italy, for the deployment of Web content within the Bravia Internet Video platform. This will open the doors for the creation of the first Italian “Catch-up TV”, allowing viewers to view a selection of programmes available on RAI’s website […]

February 18, 2011From Branislav Pekic in Rome

iPlayer links with VOD partners

Users of the BBC’s iPlayer service are now able to search for shows from a range of other broadcasters and other on-demand content providers. Through metadata-sharing partnerships, users can now find programmes from ITV, Channel 4, S4C, Five, SeeSaw.com and new partner MSN Video Player, directly from the BBC iPlayer website. The initiative comes some […]

February 18, 2011By Colin Mann

Online video delivers 47.1% growth

Professional video produced, published and hosted by US online-only media brands rose by 47.1 per cent in 2010 to 72.3 billion views, the highest annual growth rate seen since 2007, according to a report published by AccuStream Research. Growth in 2010 was driven in part by increased episodic TV viewing (over 10 billion total long-form […]

February 18, 2011

Redbox going head-to-head with Netflix

Redbox is preparing to challenge Netflix head-on, the kiosk DVD rental company has confirmed. Redbox President Mitch Lowe said his company’s forthcoming digital option will be a subscription-based Internet streaming service. A single monthly fee would allow users to access movies on multiple devices and access discs through kiosks.

February 17, 2011

TV industry must focus on monetising, enhancing content

In a multiplatform world, where the consumer is king, keeping viewers satisfied while finding a way to monetise content is the biggest challenge facing programmers today. That was the verdict from the ‘State of the TV Industry’ panel at the 2011 TV Summit hosted by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation and Variety. […]

February 16, 2011

Netflix gains and engages viewers

Online video viewing data for January showed a 45 per cent increase in time spent on video in the US, and underscored that Netflix’s streaming video service continues to build momentum. Netflix has become the only paid video service to be a top 10 video site on the Internet when looking at total number of […]

February 16, 2011

Lionsgate, Studiocanal, Miramax distribution deal

Lionsgate, the film entertainment studio, Studiocanal and Miramax have entered into a worldwide home entertainment distribution deal. Under the long-term deal, Lionsgate and Studiocanal will distribute more than 550 titles from the Miramax film library via DVD, Blu-ray, EST and Internet VOD, in addition to cable VOD internationally. Lionsgate will partner with leading international distributor […]

February 15, 2011

BBC: iPlayer’s future is mobile

Over 162 million requests were made for iPlayer programmes last month, a 12 per cent increase on December and a 35 per cent jump on January 2010. Just over 100 million of these requests were made online – but for Daniel Danker, head of on-demand, the future is mobile. “The ratio of growth we’re seeing […]

February 14, 2011