Arqiva wants an investment partner for its online TV aggregator SeeSaw. The service, built on the legacy Project Kangaroo platform bought from the BBC, provides content from BBC, C4, Five and independents. Arqiva wants a partner to accelerate development of the service that has made little impact in the face of BBC iPlayer and ITV […]
The BBC’s Director of Future Media & Technology, Erik Huggers, is to leave the corporation at the end of February to become Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, based at its Silicon Valley headquarters in California. He replaces interim General Manager Brad Daniels. BBC Director General Mark Thompson said that […]
The BBC iPlayer notched up 145 million requests for programmes in December, breaking its own record for the third month in a row. In December 2009, the catch-up service attracted 114 million requests. But last month, Top Gear was the most popular show with the two Christmas specials being watched almost 1.3 million times each. […]
Kabel Baden-Württemberg, one of Germany’s largest cable television operators, has rolled out on-demand television services based on video back office software and systems integration from SeaChange/eventIS, a subsidiary of SeaChange International. Dubbed “Videothek”, the on-demand service is now live to 2.3 million Kabel BW subscribers across Southwestern Germany, offering hundreds of films and series with […]
Hong Kong telco PCCW has launched its new pay-per-view movie on-demand service branded ‘now Video Express’. The service is available on its IPTV platform ‘now TV’ and offers the movies from major Hollywood studios including Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Titles will be offered both in high-definition and in standard-definition, with some to […]
LOVEFiLM and Ocado kick start 2011 with a 12-month contract that will see the supermarket giant direct marketing to LOVEFiLM’s sizeable and well-suited customer base. LOVEFiLM, Europe’s largest subscription service streaming movies and TV episodes over the internet and sending DVDs by post, will distribute uniquely branded inserts direct to customers’ doorsteps via rental titles […]
BT’S pay-TV ambitions have been dealt a blow with the delay of a new and potentially ground-breaking service to bring VOD to Freeview. The launch of the YouView service will be delayed six months beyond the summer according to reports in the Daily Mail. The paper says technical problems and discord between the partners mean […]
Premium VOD and piracy rank the two biggest challenges facing movie theatre owners in 2011, according to John Fithian, CEO of National Association of Theatre Owners. Speaking in a conference call hosted by MKM Partners, Fithian said studio efforts to bolster declining home entertainment disc sales through premium VOD presents a greater risk to the […]
Orange Switzerland will launch its ‘Orange CineHome’ service on January 17th, enabling its mobile customers to access a range of films and TV shows on their television through a dedicated set-top box with broadband connection. The service will offer unlimited access to the Warner Bros TV film and TV series catalogue as well as unlimited […]
The BBC Trust has concluded provisionally that on-demand BBC programmes should only be made available to TV platform operators through the BBC iPlayer, and should not be made available on a programme-by-programme basis. The BBC iPlayer should be made available in standard formats that the great majority of other TV operators can readily adopt, the […]