The BBC has launched a new version of its homepage in beta. The emphasis is shifted from news, sport and weather to the iPlayer, which was still in its infancy when the current homepage was launched in 2008. The new site is clearly built for the tablet age. The entire homepage fits inside the screen […]
US telco SureWest Communications has upgraded its VoD service, enabling it to launch an on-screen commerce application branded ‘Watch & Buy’ that enables subscribers to purchase DVDs and Blu-ray discs for home delivery. The telco has upgraded its VoD platform to the latest generation of SeaChange International’s VoD software applications platform, VoDlink 5.0. SureWest will […]
DVD rental and streaming business Netflix is rebranding its DVD by mail service and adding the option of game rentals to its existing services. Netflix Co-Founder and CEO Reed Hastings announced the changes in a blog post which aimed to appease customers who had been left with a bitter taste in their mouth after the […]
Alongside the announcement of the renaming of the DVD rental service, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted a long ‘mea culpa’ blog. Here it is full: I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the […]
Microsoft is still hopeful of releasing Xbox Live TV before the year is through, Steve Ballmer, the company’s CEO has said. Balmer told a developer’s conference that, although the service continues to be in the planning stages, hopes are still high for a 2011 launch. He said: “Having all of that content is right on, […]
Viewers logging on to watch the popular costume drama Downton Abbey found only three ads on a loop in place of the WW1 upmarket soap. There was also an apology for ‘technical difficulties.’ ITV continues to plagued by glitches in its multi-screen strategy; the mobile stream crashed in the first England game of the Rugby […]
Netflix has admitted the price hikes announced this summer have hit subs harder than it predicted. It said it now expects to have 24 million domestic subscribers at the end of the third quarter, below its earlier expectation of 25 million and the 24.6 million US customers it had at the end of the second […]
Over-the-top programming could help moderate rising programming costs in the future, Cablevision Systems chief operating officer Tom Rutledge has said. “The rich [channel] package we provide is extremely valuable to customers and there is pricing power in that package,” Rutledge said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch event. “On the other hand, you have […]
SeeSaw, the UK VoD service, has yet to receive the investment promised as part of its spin-off to Criterion Partners from Arqiva – and platform controller John Keeling, commercial director Matt Rennie and product director Richard Dines all quit yesterday. Criterion acquired a majority of SeeSaw from Arqiva this summer, but investment promised by Weston […]
The RTL chief executive, Gerhard Zeiler, explained that the broadcaster had not done a deal with Hulu because its US owners would not allow the company to sell its own advertising. Zeiler told the Royal Television Society that aggregators such as Hulu, which is owned by US media companies News Corporation, NBC Universal, Disney and […]