Advanced Television

VOD

iPlayer delivers record performance

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 […]

January 8, 2009

ITV join Virgin catch-up

UK cable operator Virgin Media has secured a deal with ITV to show some of the broadcaster’s programming through its on-demand service. ITV will make 40 hours of its programming from channels ITV 1, 2, 3 and 4 available each week. Programmes will be available for seven days after they are broadcast. Some 500 hours […]

January 8, 2009

Tudou sued for copyright infringement

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 […]

January 7, 2009

Netflix, LG movies direct

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 […]

January 2, 2009

blinkx offers rich metadata solution

Video search engine blinkx has unveiled an Enhanced Metadata Enrichment solution for publishers, as part of the blinkx Advanced Media Platform. Based on patent-protected technology, the blinkx Advanced Media Platform enables media publishers and aggregators to manage and monetise video content to its greatest potential. “An Enhanced Metadata Enrichment solution does more than just help […]

December 18, 2008

ITV Catch Up now ITV Player

ITV is changing the name of its on demand player to ITV Player. The move is part of the broadcaster's aim to create a recognisable brand as their content becomes available on other platforms and coincides with a recent deal with BT to show ITV content on their video-on-demand (VOD) service BT Vision. The re-brand, […]

December 8, 2008

Blinkx still after MIVA

Despite dropping its pursuit of pay-per-click ad network MIVA last month after being rebuffed, Blinkx's now restarted the reverse-takeover bid after recording strong earnings last week ($19 million), the new bid is far less than the$41 million first offered back in August, but is still 108 percent up on MIVA's Tuesday close. MIVA's share price […]

November 20, 2008

Hulu looks to international

Hulu, the video website owned by News Corp and NBC Universal, hopes to expand internationally and is interested in Britain, France, Germany and Japan. Peter Smith, President of NBC Universal International, told reporters that his firm would love to roll out the online video joint venture further but that there were no concrete plans to […]

November 18, 2008

ITV catch-up for BT Vision

ITV has signed an agreement with BT to supply a range of current and library programming to customers of BT's digital TV service, BT Vision – ITV's first deal of this type with a VOD operator. BT Vision customers will also be able to enjoy a range of library content on demand.

November 18, 2008

BBC Future shuffle

BBC Future Media & Technology director Erik Huggers and chief operating officer Kerstin Mogull are shuffling personell, in what looks like further multimedia integration and a response to BBC.co.uk overspending. Anthony Rose, who was brought in from KaZaA last year as head of media technology, becomes controller of the Vision & Online Media Group. User […]

November 13, 2008