Advanced Television

Premium

ITV unveils new ITV Player

ITV has unveiled its new ITV Player offering viewers the chance to rent content from ITV’s vast archive of programming, free from advertisements. Traditional catch-up content remains available at no charge, and will sit alongside the archive content. Effective immediately, every visitor to the ITV Player portal will be offered the chance to use and […]

October 29, 2012

HBO delays Nordic launch

HBO has delayed the launch of video and online distribution of its programming in four Scandinavian countries, giving a head start in the region to rival Netflix. HBO Nordic, the joint venture that runs the service, said that it had “slightly” pushed back the start date in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It did not […]

October 29, 2012

US entertainment spending up 1%

In advance of the important fourth ‘holiday’ quarter, where entertainment spending traditionally experiences an up-tick, US home entertainment trade body DEG: the Digital Entertainment Group has released Q3 figures that show overall consumer spending was up 1 per cent for the year, the industry strengthened by a 13 per cent growth in Blu-ray disc sales. […]

October 29, 2012

Lovefilm on Kindle

Amazon’s  Lovefilm has launched on Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD in the UK and Germany. Kindle owners can access Lovefilm content via a one-month free trial. The service on the allows users to create playlists of TV and movie content – and there is also a pause and resume function that allows users […]

October 25, 2012

KnowHow Movies on LG and Samsung TVs

A new range of LG and Samsung and Smart TVs will come pre-loaded with KnowHow Movies, the digital entertainment service from Dixons Retail, enabling users to enjoy an extensive library of new and classic films and TV shows with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. Having debuted on PCs and Macs earlier this year, the subscription-free […]

October 17, 2012

Netflix Scandinavia launches

Netflix has debuted in Denmark and will roll out in Norway and Finland shortly. The streaming service has also made its first content deal with Warner Bros, which had had a deal with C More. The agreement with Warner Bros is the only one for content in the first pay TV window. Netflix has also […]

October 16, 2012

Netflix launches in Sweden

Netflix, the Internet subscription service for films and TV programmes, has launches in Sweden the monthly price of 79kr (€9.10) A free, one-month trial of Netflix is available to everyone in Sweden by visiting Netflix.com. An extended trial is available for a limited time to Spotify paying subscribers as part of a launch partnership with […]

October 15, 2012

EC’s Kroes seeks single movie marketplace

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, has suggested that the European film industry should consider a single market that takes advantage of economies of scale, and reconsider release windows. Offering her thoughts on ‘Helping European films thrive’ as part of a Round Table on ‘Financing and distribution of European […]

October 10, 2012By Colin Mann

LoveFilm for France?

Amazon-owned LoveFilm could launch in France next March, Les Echos is reporting. The hint emerged during an official State Council hearing between France’s competition authority and media group Canal+ as part of the investigation into the TPS/CanalSat merger, which took place in 2006. While declaring that his group shouldn’t be prevented from licensing exclusive content, […]

October 10, 2012

Toys“R”Us goes to the movies

Toy and juvenile products retailer Toys“R”Us has become the latest US outlet to add video to its product portfolio with the launch of Toys“R”Us Movies, a digital entertainment service that provides families instant access to the movies and TV shows kids love. Available at ToysrusMovies.com, the service features more than 4,000 titles, specially selected to […]

October 5, 2012