Microsoft has announced a major update for Xbox 360 consoles. It has signed up 40 media firms to provide both live and on-demand movie and TV services for the console. The update also lets people control their TVs by talking into the Kinect motion-control. The most noticeable change made by the update will be to […]
Internet-enabled TV devices, including Smart TVs, connected Blu-Ray players, game consoles, and streaming media players continue to grow their footprint within consumers’ homes. Already about 17 million US households currently own a connected TV, and ownership of streaming media players has nearly doubled since the end of 2010. Yet only a fraction of consumers that […]
Ericsson has supplied Tata Sky, an Indian DTH operator, with an advanced TV on-demand system that enables its eight million satellite subscribers to enjoy movies on-demand and catch-up TV. The deployment is one of the first in the world to be based on Ericsson’s Media Delivery Network (MDN), a media-centric solution for the distribution, delivery […]
The Spanish replica of Netflix is called Youzee. Controlled 75 per cent by the cinema company Yelmo, this online video store has launched its Beta service (with access only through invitation) with plans to become commercial in the first quarter of 2012. The platform distributes films and TV series for a monthly fee of E6.99 […]
UK on-demand streaming player LOVEFiLM has confirmed it will stop showing movies in Flash and will instead deploy Microsoft’s Silverlight platform after coming under pressure from Hollywood to utilise a more secure platform. “We’ve been asked to make this change by the studios who provide us with the films in the first place, because they’re […]
UK supermarket giant Tesco and its online video-on-demand subsidiary blinkbox have announced a new service where customers who purchase a DVD or Blu-ray will also own the movie online. The new service will be exclusive to customers enrolled in the store’s Clubcard loyalty scheme. Beginning on 2 December, with the launch of Harry Potter and […]
Telefonica’s IPTV service Movistar Imagenio (with over 800,000 subs) will be available from next week through Microsoft’s console Xbox 360 to the 160,000 existing users of the Xbox Live Gold (with a current potential reach of 1 million Xbox-equipped customers). The service is free of charge the first three months. Xbox 360 users will be […]
BBC Worldwide (BBCWW) is launching the international version of the iPlayer video-on-demand service in Canada, via a subscription iPad app, which features titles from the broadcaster’s library such as Walking with Dinosaurs and Top Gear. Initially, the Global iPlayer will be only available to Canadians via the iPad, and can be downloaded for free from […]
South Africa’s MultiChoice is having to delay the start of its DFStv BoxOffice Internet-based on-demand service. MultiChoice to early next year. The service had launched in more limited form on DStv’s satellite system earlier this year. At the initial launch DStv’s online boss John Kotsaftis spoke about the service extending itself to internet and broadband-connected […]
ComScore has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 184 million US Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 21.1 hours per viewer. The total US Internet audience viewed 42.6 billion videos, representing an all-time high. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as […]