Advanced Television

Catch Up

UKTV Play launches on Freesat

Freesat, the UK’s subscription-free satellite TV platform, has added catch-up service UKTV Play to its on demand offering. Freesat customers can now watch shows from Dave, Yesterday, Really and Drama via the UKTV Play app or directly via the rollback TV guide. UKTV Play is a free VoD service giving viewers access to exclusive UKTV […]

September 14, 2018

BBC R&D solves iPlayer World Cup ‘lag’

Football fans have reason to cheer – BBC Research & Development (R&D) has managed to solve the problem of delays when people watch live Internet streams rather than a TV broadcast. In a new prototype being demonstrated at the IBC in Amsterdam, the team will show how the gap between an Internet-delivered live stream and […]

September 13, 2018Colin Mann @ IBC

Summer of sport boosts iPlayer requests

Sports fans helped BBC iPlayer get off to a flying start this summer. The second half of the FIFA World Cup and Wimbledon helped BBC iPlayer grow 19 per cent year-on-year in July, with requests reaching 281 million for the month. Given the amount of sport available to watch, July was inevitably a big month […]

September 7, 2018

BVB-TV relaunched

German sports club Borussia Dortmund has relaunched its own OTT platform, BVB-TV. The club’s new partner and end-to-end solution provider, Sportradar, will provide fans with a platform that hosts both free video content, as well as a subscription service for premium content, which is accessible for €1.99 per month. The OTT platform will also host […]

August 7, 2018

UKTV/Virgin dispute: No resolution

The carriage dispute between multichannel programmer UKTV and multiplay operator Virgin Media remains unresolved, despite it appearing that a deal had been reached between the pair. The failure to reach agreement on a renewal saw 10 channels (including the five free-to-air channels such as Dave) replaced on Virgin TV at 00:01 on July 22nd. A statement […]

August 6, 2018By Colin Mann

Australia: SVoD subs up 54% YoY

The Australian SVoD market continues to grow strongly, reaching 9.1 million subscriptions at the end of June 2018 – a year-on-year increase of 54 per cent, according to research from emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte. Over the same period, SVoD revenues in Australia grew substantially (up 90 per cent) reaching over A$700 mililon at the […]

July 30, 2018

Research: Virgin likely to lose TV subs after UKTV blackout  

Virgin Media customers say they are more likely to cancel their TV subscriptions because of the withdrawal of the UKTV channels, according to independent research conducted by research firm Kantar TNS, which provides evidence

July 26, 2018By Colin Mann

Australia: Nine acquires Fairfax

Australia’s Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media Limited have entered into a Scheme Implementation Agreement under which the companies will merge to establish Nine as one of Australia’s leading independent media companies. The Proposed Transaction will, subject to required approvals, be implemented by Nine acquiring all Fairfax shares in a deal valued at A$4 billion (€2.5bn). […]

July 26, 2018

BBC: Green button programme restart

The BBC says it has made it even easier for viewers to make sure they never miss a moment of BBC TV shows. A new function lets TV viewers with a connected and capable smart TV start watching programmes from the beginning, whilst they’re still being broadcast, simply by pressing the green button on their […]

July 26, 2018

ITV H1 revenues up 8%; plans D2C boost

ITV, the UK commercial broadcaster, has reported total external revenue up 8 per cent at £1.5 billion (2017: £1.4 billion) with non-advertising revenues up 14 per cent at £958 million (2017: £837 million). Total ITV Studios revenue up 16 per cent at £803 million (2017: £692 million), including £12 million of unfavourable currency impact. ITV […]

July 25, 2018