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 […]

Johannes Larcher, senior vice president at Hulu, has confirmed that the service will be coming to the UK with an expected launch date in September, but didn’t specify which UK media companies would provide content for the service. "We are talking to everyone. The UK is our number one priority in terms of international expansion. […]

Joost the much-hyped OTT video provider is dropping its consumer proposition and reinventing as a "cost-effective" white-label video provider. Along the way it is cutting many staff possibly preparing for a sale as a technology company rather than an entertainment platform. Mike Volpi its high profile CEO is stepping down although will remain as chairman. […]

The online web-based TV services of the four major US TV networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox – together with Hulu, the joint venture between NBC, News Corp and Disney, accounted for a combined 53 per cent of an ad-supported US online TV market that generated $448 million in revenues in 2008. The remaining […]

Tiscali director of television Simon Hunt has backed BT's recent call for broadcasters to pay for the online distribution of their content. “The example I always come back to is the BBC and satellite. The BBC spends a lot of money on Sky so we can watch its programmes at home. It also spends a […]

The Q1 2009 Global Digital Media Index (DMI) from the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies Service shows that along with the worsened economic environment, digital media revenue growth continues to drop since Q1 2008. The Digital Media Index grew only 0.9 per cent in Q1 2009 on a seasonally adjusted annual TTM basis, down from […]

Nielsen Online has released overall online video usage and top online brands ranked by video streams for May 2009. Compared to the same month in 2008, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were up, led by a 49 per cent growth in time per viewer. YouTube was far and away […]

French independent labels collecting society SPPF has filed a lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement. The producers’ body said that more than 100 music videos from its catalogue, which had been taken down by YouTube in 2008 following SPPF’s request, were again available on the service in some form. SPPF is now seeking E10 million […]

The BBC Trust has delayed its decision on the go-ahead of the BBC lead Project Canvas as it calls on more detail from BBC executives and their partners BT and ITV. The Trust, which had decided there was no need for a commercial impact assessment, was due to make a decision in July, however all […]

Broadband content – including the deluge of made-for-the Web videos – will need “content aggregators” to package programming for viewers, Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said. “We’d love to be the aggregator; so would the cable industry,” he said, citing the historic parallel of Home Box Office assembling a roster of films to create the […]