Advanced Television

TN to produce Setanta Sports News

UK commercial TV news provider ITN is to produce Setanta Sports News when it goes on air later this year. The channel, backed by Setanta Sports and Virgin Media, will be made available to the its three million digital TV subscribers. ITN was brought on board after sports production house TWI pulled out of the […]

September 14, 2007

Technetix buys Foentel

UK Cable component supplier Technetix has bought its Spanish equivalent Foentel. It is the intention of Technetix to merge this business with its existing Spanish operation Tratec Telecom España, broadening the depth and reach of its world class engineering solutions and integrated supply chain business within Spain. Technetix bought Tratec of The Netherlands last year. […]

September 14, 2007

STAR and Ericsson Indian mobile TV

STAR India's mobile entertainment division, and mobile handset company Sony Ericsson have confirmed a partnership to bring mobile content services to Sony Ericsson users. Under the agreement, the recently launched PLUS mobile service from STAR's mobile entertainment division will be exclusively pre-embedded on a range of Sony Ericsson phones in India.

September 14, 2007

Philips HDTV for Canalsat

Philips has been selected by Canalsat to supply high definition set-top boxes to the French digital satellite operator. From October, Canalsat subscribers will be given Philips dual HD digital satellite receivers, allowing them to access a range of entertainment, including sport and movies, as well as new interactive services for accessing on-demand content. In addition, […]

September 14, 2007

Movistar launches flat fee mobile TV

Movistar launches flat fee mobile TV From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain's Telefonica is making a full-frontal assault on mobile TV through its MNO Movistar, launching a flat fee of E5 per month for a 3G mobile TV offer of 26 TV channels. The TV service will provided under a free promotion until January […]

September 13, 2007

SKT, T-Systems JV

SK Telecom, South Korea’s top mobile operator, has reached a preliminary deal with T-Systems, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, to jointly enter the mobile broadcasting market in Europe and Asia. “SK Telecom and T-Systems are planning to cooperate on a variety of mobile TV technologies,” SK Telecom said. SK Telecom has been looking to overseas […]

September 13, 2007

Spain: pay-TV on DTT?

From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish TV networks are considering launching pay-TV services and content on the free-to-air digital terrestrial platform following the Italy’s example. They have been making a technical trial in Extremadura, west of Spain, aimed at knowing what type of content the consumer would be interested in and testing technology. […]

September 13, 2007

FCC sets cable requirement for digital switchover

US communications regulators have approved new rules designed to ensure that cable television subscribers who own analogue TV sets will still have access to local broadcast TV channels following the digital switchover in 2009. The FCC voted to endorse rules that require cable operators to continue carrying local broadcast channels that can be viewed on […]

September 13, 2007

iTunes movie rentals?

Apple is said to be talking with major Hollywood studios about adding 30-day rentals to its iTunes online media store. Apple is believed to be working towards starting the new service some time in the fall which would offer a 30-day rental for $2.99. A deal would allow iPod users to watch movies during the […]

September 13, 2007

China narrows final mobile TV spec to CMMB, TDBM

Du Baichuan, former CTO of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has confirmed that “China will have two mobile TV standards by the end of this year: CMMB and TDBM”. CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) is based on a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network, originally developed by China’s Academy of Broadcast Science and […]

September 13, 2007