Advanced Television

IPG

​Eutelsat launches Sat.tv EPG

Eutelsat Communications has successfully launched Sat.tv, its enhanced Electronic Programme Guide for FTA channels. The service is already operating at the 7/8° West position, serving over 56 million Arabic-speaking homes across the Middle East and North Africa and is being progressively deployed at other Eutelsat video neighbourhoods. Sat.tv runs on low-cost set-top boxes and is […]

November 3, 2020

Freeview Play rolls out Accessible TV Guide

Freeview has started the roll-out of its Accessible TV Guide, available on Channel 555 through Freeview Play devices. Freeview says this is the first time that a dedicated solution to make television easily accessible to people with visual or hearing impairments has been made available on a UK TV platform. Freeview’s Accessible TV Guide will […]

October 30, 2020

Tata Sky partners with Accedo to develop UI

Accedo has worked with Tata Sky, India’s leading content distribution platform to develop the user interface for its latest offering, Tata Sky Binge+ Smart Set-top Box. The Android TV enabled device provides content from Linear Television and a host of OTT apps onto a television screen. Tata Sky Binge+ provides a unified interface to help customers discover content seamlessly […]

September 8, 2020

Netflix now speaks Malay

Netflix has launched its user interface (UI) in Bahasa Melayu. This enables members to navigate the UI, read title names and synopses, and watch shows and movies with Bahasa Melayu subtitles and dubs. “Netflix believes in giving members control over their entire entertainment experience, and we are delighted that they are now able to choose […]

August 28, 2020

Fire TV adds Text Banner for visually impaired

Amazon has unveiled Text Banner for Fire TV, a new assistive technology designed for customers with a narrow field of vision, including eye conditions like macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa. Text Banner consolidates onscreen text into a compact, written banner that appears in a fixed location on the screen. The entire Fire TV user […]

August 18, 2020

Arqiva supports Freeview Play metadata migration

UK communications infrastructure and media services company Arqiva has created a cloud-based metadata management system for Digital UK, the organisation that leads the development of the UK’s biggest TV platform, Freeview. This system supports the migration of the Freeview Play service information platform to a highly-scalable public cloud infrastructure. The solution aggregates, manages and delivers […]

July 27, 2020

Eutelsat reinvents FTA EPGs

The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) has been around in one form or another on pay-TV and certain Freesat-type platforms for as long as digital TV has been a reality. But how does a satellite operator handle around 1,000 free-to-air channels from hundreds of broadcasters and provide a common EPG that can work extremely successfully across […]

July 21, 2020By Chris Forrester

Sky Q upgrade as Disney+ goes HDR

Sky Q is adding a raft of new features in the biggest change to the set-top-box since launch. A new expanded view UI, new show and sports centres, intuitive smart buttons and improved voice discovery will make it easier for users to browse, find and watch content. It’s HDR content is also growing, with Disney+ […]

July 8, 2020

Finders are Keepers – the EUROMEDIA UI and Search debate

Viewers have dozens of choices of content providers and thousands of choices of pieces of content. No wonder the quality of the UI and the search and discovery deployed by a provider can be crucial in determining QoE and, thereby, churn levels. What are the remaining impediments – technical and commercial – to universal search? […]

July 1, 2020

BBC’s Beeb voice assistant goes beta

Beeb, the new voice assistant from the BBC, first announced in August 2019, is to be made available in  an early version to UK-based members of Microsoft’s Windows Insider Programme, a community of people who regularly test out new technology. In a Blog Post, Grace Boswood, COO, BBC Design + Engineering, says that since its […]

June 3, 2020By Colin Mann