Advanced Television

OTT

ITV and Hulu content and equity deal?

ITV and Hulu are to sign a deal allowing the platform to distribute full-length ITV shows- some exclusively. As part of the deal ITV will gain an equity stake in Hulu UK, understood to be about 25%. Hulu’s parent company is owned equally by Disney, NBC Universal, Providence Equity and News Corp. ITV is the […]

November 13, 2009

Sky Player on Freeview, Canvas compromise?

Sky has announced a deal that places Sky Player on set-top boxes made by IP Vision who's FetchTV hybrid DTT/IP STP has a built-in PVR, and offers BBC iPlayer, C 4 VOD, Sky Sports News, Discovery Channel and CNN. The box, called Freeview+ is priced at £219 (E237). While not significant in volume terms, the […]

October 16, 2009

33%+ of Aussies have or would download illegally

More than a third of Australians admit they either illegally download movies off the Internet or have thought about doing so. A survey of consumers’ movie rental, downloading and pay TV viewing habits has revealed a significant slice of the population prefer accessing their entertainment through the back door. The national survey by DVD rental […]

October 16, 2009

C4 on You Tube

YouTube is close to a deal with Channel 4 that will lead to the majority of the broadcaster's content being available on the site. Like the recent deal with IPC, Channel 4 is being granted the rights to sell its own advertising around the content and share the revenues with YouTube. Such a deal would […]

October 12, 2009

You Tube 'knew' of Viacom breech

According to reports in the US internal YouTube e-mails, handed over in the preliminary discovery phase of the pending court action brought by Viacom, indicate that YouTube managers were aware of unauthorized content on the site and chose not to remove it. If true this would harm You Tube's defence that it cannot be responsible […]

October 7, 2009

Veoh not liable for pirated video

A federal judge in the US has ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbour provisions protected Veoh, the video-sharing site – from liability for hosting pirated clips uploaded by users. “The DMCA does not place the burden of ferreting out infringement on the service provider,” the judge said. Universal Music had sued Veoh […]

September 16, 2009

Hulu to go part-pay?

Two of the partners in Hulu — News Corp. and NBC Universal hinted at an investor conference that they are investigating the possibility of further monetizing the online video venture, including charging a subscription for the service. “Are we looking at it with a view toward adding subscription services and pay per view? Yes we […]

September 16, 2009

AT&T video portal

AT&T has publicly launched the beta version of a video portal — which serves up free TV shows and movies to any Internet user, and promises even more to U-verse TV customers — with content from more than a dozen programming partners. The site, http://entertainment.att.net/tv, promises U-verse TV customers “bonus content” if they log in […]

September 8, 2009

YouTube to offer pay movies?

YouTube is reportedly in negotiations with major Hollywood studios for a deal that would see full-length movies on the service. It would put YouTube, owned by Google, in direct competition with services from Netflix, Amazon and Apple, which allow users to buy or rent movies online. YouTube, which already offers some older movies on its […]

September 8, 2009

Ten Sports Launches India's First, Streaming Cricket Portal

Ten Sports, the most watched sports channel in Indian and NBC Universal Digital Solutions (NBCUDS), have an agreed to develop and launch a free, cricket-focused multiplatform sports portal targeting the region's fast growing digital audience. The site will debut with live Webcast coverage of the much anticipated Compaq Cup, the tri-angular cricket series between India, […]

September 5, 2009