Advanced Television

OTT

Ofcom OKs YouView

Ofcom has confirmed that it will not open an investigation into YouView (formerly known as ‘Project Canvas’) under the Competition Act following complaints made by Virgin Media and IPVision. Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said: “Ofcom’s view is that consumers’ interests will not be served by opening an investigation. It would be premature at the current […]

October 19, 2010

Find Any Film on YouView

Find Any Film, an on-demand movies search website backed by the UK Film Council, has confirmed its support for new IPTV platform YouView. The site, which enables UK film fans to watch, buy, download and rent movies, sees YouView as the “first major opportunity to be on a mainstream TV platform and reach out directly […]

October 13, 2010

Research: iPlayer tops usability chart

A report from user experience consultancy Webcredible says that the BBC iPlayer is leading major UK broadcasters in the VoD usability stakes with a score of 88 per cent, followed by Scottish broadcaster STV with its STV Player coming in second with 76 per cent Sky Player scored just 55 per cent, with admittedly a […]

October 1, 2010

YouView: ‘killing off rivals’

YouView, the VOD service born from a partnership between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, TalkTalk, BT, Channel 5 and Arqiva, is strangling investment in rival Internet TV services, according to a report by the corporate finance firm Avista Partners. And Electra Entertainment, a company that provides online TV services to clients including Tesco, has told […]

September 28, 2010

KidsCo in CEE

KidsCo, the international children’s channel has secured an exclusive distribution agreement with Russian distribution agency, Pleiades Multimedia, to represent the channel across Russia, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia. Pleiades Multimedia will market KidsCo’s content for cable TV distribution, VOD and linear TV on cable and IPTV. The deal follows the channel’s strategic expansion into Central Eastern […]

September 22, 2010

Rovi and Apple tie for IPG

Rovi, has announced a multiyear patent-licensing agreement with Apple. Apple is gearing up to ship Apple TV, a device that will let users rent TV shows and movies and play back content purchased through iTunes, starting later this month for a list price of $99. Rovi claims to have an intellectual-property portfolio comprising more than […]

September 21, 2010

Neovia to process payments for FilmFlex

Neovia Financial, the alternative payments business, has confirmed that FilmFlex is to use the Neovia Payment Network to process all online payments for its recently launched broadband VOD service. FilmFlex is using the NetBanx gateway, part of the Neovia Payment Network, to process all payments for its new packaged streaming service. The win builds on […]

September 20, 2010

Discovery: TV Everywhere has to be monetised

Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav said that he would embrace online delivery of content if it could be monetised. Discovery has been slow to embrace online content delivery, instead opting to use its web sites to deliver snippets of video aimed at driving viewership of its TV channels. “Our deals provide that distributors have the […]

September 17, 2010

Canvas becomes YouView

Following its incorporation as YouView TV Ltd at the end of last week, Project Canvas, the proposed joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, Talk Talk and Arqiva to build a standards based, open Internet-connected TV environment, is being rebranded as YouView, and has launched a new website – www.youview.com – […]

September 16, 2010
BBC iPlayer

BBC launches ‘social’ iPlayer

The revamped iPlayer service features a new design that makes it easier to find television programmes, personalisation tools, so that users can tailor-make their viewing experience, and social networking integration, to enable Facebook and Twitter. “A main theme here is personalisation,” said James Hewines, iPlayer product lead. “Simply put, that means a way to get […]

September 6, 2010