Advanced Television

Rights

Apple TV signs sport deals

Apple TV customers in the US will be able to watch Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games after the company confirmed deals with the sports leagues, in a sign that cable companies will face more online competition. The NBA will offer two packages to Apple TV users. For $65 per season, customers can […]

March 10, 2011

Google fined for copyright breach

A Paris’ appeal court has found against Google on four counts in a case brought by several content rights owners. Google was ordered to pay €430,000 damages and court costs. The material – which included Arte and Canal Plus co-productions – appeared in Google searches and Google video even after the plaintiffs had notified the […]

March 10, 2011

Tudou brings Disney shows to China

Tudou, the China’s online video website, has made an agreement with Disney Media Distribution to bring popular US TV series including “Desperate Housewives”, “Cougar Town” and “Lost” to its online video audience. Complete episodes and all seasons of Disney TV series will be available on Tudou.com in HD format and with Chinese subtitles. Audiences will […]

March 4, 2011

Warner Bros: Remove ownership friction

The movie industry needs to move more quickly in introducing business models, according to Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group. “The lack of speed to introduce innovative business models within the film industry is frustrating,” he told delegates at the FT Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference in London, revealing that Warner is looking […]

March 3, 2011By Colin Mann

Canada court: Broadcasters can claim carriage fees

The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has cleared the way for broadcasters to charge cable and satellite providers for carrying their programmes. The CRTC had asked the court to rule on whether it had the right to establish a regime whereby broadcasters could attach a value to their signals. In a 2-1 ruling, the court […]

March 1, 2011

BravaHDTV joins Bouygues in France

“BravaHDTV”, the First Pan-European Opera and Culture HD channel, has been added to the High Definition TV packages of the French DSL provider Bouygues Telecom. It is the latest addition to BravaHDTV’s footprint in France, which already included the ADSL operators SFR and FREE/Alice, the cable platform Numericable and the digital satellite and DSL pay […]

February 28, 2011

Catch Media snares Motorola Mobility money

Motorola Mobility Ventures, the investment arm of Motorola Mobility Holdings, is to make a strategic investment in Catch Media, the provider of a patented licensed digital rights locker platform – Play Anywhere. Catch Media’s patented registry, tracking, routing and clearinghouse technology, together with its post-acquisition licence, provides retailers, carriers and consumer electronics vendors the ability […]

February 25, 2011

Studios lose iiNet appeal

A group of 34 movie studios has lost its appeal against an Australian Federal Court judgment involving Internet Service Provider iiNet. A 2010 ruling found it was impossible to hold iiNet responsible for its users illegally downloading movies and television shows. The studios had tried to prove iiNet not only failed to take steps to […]

February 24, 2011By Colin Mann

CBS and Netflix licensing agreement

CBS and Netflix have announced a two-year, non-exclusive licensing agreement that will allow select TV shows from CBS’s library as well as full seasons of classics to be streamed instantly from Netflix. CBS retains an option to extend the agreement for up to two additional years. Beginning in early April, dozens of shows from CBS […]

February 23, 2011

Captain TV launches on Omneon

Harmonic has announced that Captain TV, a 24-hour news and entertainment TV channel based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, has installed an Omneon media storage and processing platform to support its file-based broadcast operations. The new channel broadcasts movies, daily soaps, awareness programmes, news, and other entertainment programming, including Tamil movies, as well as English […]

February 23, 2011