Freesat, the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television provider, has launched a new on-screen TV guide, available in its next generation Freesat+ boxes. Bal Samra, Chairman of Freesat, said the service had become “a force to be reckoned with” since its launch in 2008, and suggested the next-generation guide, called <free time>, was a “great step […]
Spain’s digital DTH platform, Canal Plus, owned by Prisa, is launching a new application on its iPlus set-top-box that will allow subscribers to use a personal content recommendation system in line with their likes and interests. Developed by Jinni, the new app will enable users to select and watch their own content as well as […]
ThinkAnalytics has launched ThinkMovies and ThinkTV, two enhanced metadata libraries that integrate with ThinkAnalytics’ Recommendations Engine to further aid intelligent navigation and personalised discovery and ultimately raise ARPU and improve customer satisfaction & loyalty. These modules represent the largest sources of pre-tagged metadata for movies and TV and are the latest tools to help pay-TV […]
UK supermarket retailer Sainsbury’s has licensed digital entertainment technologist Rovi Corporation to power a new digital video service for Sainsbury’s Entertainment. This puts in competition with market leader Tesco, and follows electronics group Dixons Retail’s KnowHow Movies service, which also relies on Rovi. Expected to launch later this year, the new service will offer video […]
Netflix has launched a new ‘post-play’ experience which makes viewing multiple TV episodes easier, by minimising the credits post show and cueing up the next episode. The next episode will start to play in 15 seconds if nothing is done. Users can also stop it to get more information or select another episode. The experience […]
UK digital broadcaster Sky has unveiled an update to the Sky+ app for iPad which allows Sky TV customers to use their iPad as a remote control. Sky customers will be able to take even more control of their main TV experience through the app, using it to change channels as well as pause, play […]
The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of pay-TV technology specialist NDS Group by Cisco Systems. The Commission’s investigation confirmed that the merged entity would continue to face competition from a number of strong competitors and that customers, namely pay-TV providers, would continue to have alternative suppliers in all […]
Pay-TV companies are struggling to keep up with video experiences enabled by connected TVs and iPads, according to analyst firm ABI Resesarch. Their situation, caused by a slow-moving business model, as well as serving less technically savvy consumers, is exacerbated by suffering a hardware disadvantage as they rely on set-top boxes that are typically a […]
Jinni, the mood based discovery engine for movies and TV shows, announced its partnership with Swisscom for integration into On Demand and live TV. The Swisscom service will offer its customers an intuitive, user-centric guide to seamlessly integrate discovery, content recommendations and viewing. “We believe that integrating Jinni’s semantic engine into our content platforms, in […]
Telefonica in an attempt to boost pay TV consumption, has launched a new mobile application that will inform viewers about just released films available on Movistar Imagenio, its VoD service Videoclub or on DTT. Called POPCHA!, the app is accessible free of charge through Apple Store to be used initially in iphones but with plans […]