Advanced Television

Canal Satellite Réunion boosts pay platform

Eutelsat has clinched a multi-year contract with Canal Satellite Réunion, which is a subsidiary of Canal Overseas (Canal + Group). The capacity on Eutelsat’s W2 satellite will support the expansion of the Canal Satellite Réunion pay-TV platform which broadcasts channels and services to satellite homes in Reunion Island and surrounding islands in the Indian Ocean. […]

November 28, 2007

Widevine Korean patent

Widevine Technologies, provider of downloadable content protection, forensic watermarking and digital copy protection solutions, has revealed that the Republic of Korea Intellectual Property Office has issued a new patent which provides intellectual property protection for next generation content protection. The new patent is intended to provide a licensed solution for next generation content protection systems […]

November 28, 2007

Multimedia mobiles set to surpass TV shipments

According to research consultancy MultiMedia Intelligence, worldwide unit shipments of multimedia feature rich mobile phones will exceed 300 million units in 2008, outnumbering shipments of TV sets. Multimedia phones have at least 1 megapixal image capture, MP3 audio, video Playback, Java, USB, Bluetooth, 16-bit screen colour, QVGA resolution, WAP and MMS. Revenue from these handsets […]

November 28, 2007

EU will regulate behavioural ads

The European Union expects to regulate online behavioral targeting next year, as protests over privacy concerns are stirring a potential backlash against recent marketing enhancements by social networks like Facebook. Reuters reported that the EU's data protection commission, known as the Article 29 Working Party, is preparing to devote time to the kinds of information […]

November 27, 2007

FCC chief hunts votes on cable

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is reportedly struggling to find enough support from agency commissioners to regulate cable television companies more tightly. The five-member commission is set to vote today on a report, proposed by Kevin Martin that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding […]

November 27, 2007

France disconnecting pirates

The French government plans to cut off Internet access for constant offenders of download piracy. The penalty is part of a range of measures to deal with the unauthorised copying of music and video online proposed by the French Ministry of Culture including watermarking content, tracking surfers' activities, and creating a registry of those accused […]

November 27, 2007

Setanta raises football finances

Setanta Sports has raised an extra E130 million to finance its assault on BSkyB’s dominance of football coverage. The funding has come from a share issue to existing backers – including Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital, the private equity firms, and Goldman Sachs – and will be used to bid for rights acquisitions such as […]

November 27, 2007

Spain’s broadband quadruples

From David Del Valle in Madrid The broadband market is growing strongly with plans to reach 8.2 million broadband Internet lines by the end of the year, a penetration rate of 18.4 per cent, against 2.1 million connections back in 2003. Approximately 57 per cent of households in Spain are expected to have broadband services […]

November 27, 2007

FCC OKs broadband for airplanes

The Federal Communications Commission has granted ViaSat blanket authority for domestic operation of up to 1,000 earth stations aboard commercial aircraft. The agency said the earth stations will provide Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service using standard Ku-band frequency ranges to link with leased transponders on the AMC-6 satellite. According to FCC documents, the ViaSat aircraft earth […]

November 27, 2007

CASBAA applauds C-band ruling

The Asia Pacific pay-TV industry has hailed an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) decision on the preservation of C-band spectrum for satellite TV services in Asia as “a long-awaited positive outcome on a contentious issue”. According to the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA), the decision taken by the United Nations-led ITU World Radio […]

November 27, 2007