Walt Disney Company has agreed to a management buy-out of its Jetix channels in Italy. The management team, led by MD Francesco Nespega has established Switchover Media to take control of two Disney-owned channels in the territory. The deal comes as Disney continues its Jetix rebranding effort across Europe, dropped the boy-skewing channel’s name in […]
US telco Verizon has launched the Widget Bazaar applications store as part of its ‘FiOS TV’ service – which includes a Facebook and Twitter widgets, and Internet Video on TV. The company also plans to offer an open development platform to permit developers to write interactive FiOS TV applications that will be available through the […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian consumers association Altroconsumo has lodged a complaint to the country's Communications Authority (Agcom), the Antitrust Authority, and to the European commissioners for Competition and the Information Society, regarding the issue of encryption of the satellite broadcasts of Italian public broadcaster RAI. According to Altroconsumo, in the period between April […]
Rangers and Celtic football clubs are in talks to acquire the live UK rights to air Scottish Premier League football. The collapse of previous SPL UK rights holder Setanta means the rights are effectively back on the market Speculation has been rife that the SPL has been conducting talks with Sky and ESPN over a […]
KyLinTV, the Chinese IPTV platform, has partnered with Phoenix China News and Entertainment to deliver a range of Chinese TV channels to the European market. KyLinTV Europe will offer over 20 Chinese TV channels from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, including Phoenix CNE, Phoenix InfoNews, CCTV-9, MASTV and Sun TV. Based in New […]
According to the UK digital music firm Music Ally, in January this year only 17 per cent of web users said they regularly downloaded music from illegal file-sharing sources on the web, compared to 22 per cent in December 2007. When it comes to teens, the fall has increased with just 26 per cent of […]
Frank N. Magid Associates, specialist in research-based consultation, and Metacafe, the independent online video site, have released survey results revealing consumer behaviour and preferences in online video viewing. The survey found that short professional videos are among those most regularly watched online, and well over one-third of consumers (37 per cent) who watch these clips […]
BT Ireland and UPC Ireland are being taken to court by the big four music labels Universal, Warner, Sony and EMI, over illegal downloads and file sharing. The operators have been issued with a plenary summons by the four main record labels with a hearing for both scheduled on July 6th. The case stems from […]
The BBC’s director of new media and technology Erik Huggers says that the future for free-to-air digital platforms like Freesat and Freeview is ‘unclear’ – suggesting that only IPTV and Project Canvas venture will give consumers the services and features that they need. Huggers said that, despite work on adding HD to Freeview and continued […]
Ben Bradshaw, the new Culture Secretary, has diluted a pledge to cut the volume of Internet music piracy by 70 per cent in the next two years. A promise had been made in July 2008 to reduce "file sharing by 70 per cent in two to three years" as part of a three-way agreement between […]