The Middle East has around 30 all-news channels, with plenty more in the offing, including BSkyB’s upcoming Arabic-language service launching early next year. To that number must now be added a proposed Lebanese-Syrian all-news channel, called Al-Khamisah (“the fifth”). Launch date is October 1, at least for a ‘soft launch’ service, with a full-scale launch […]
Rentrak, a specialist in multi-screen media measurement serving the advertising, television and movie industries, has signed an exclusive, long-term multi-platform VoD reporting agreement with Digital+, the Spanish broadband TV provider. Digital+ (PRISA Group’s audiovisual holding company) was the first company to introduce interactive systems, including digital television and VoD, and is now leading the charge […]
SmartLabs, a Russian expert in the IPTV services delivery platform market, has started to deploy the large-scale unified IPTV platform for the Rostelecom service subscribers in all Russian Federation regions. Within the project, all separate IPTV platforms currently run in the regions will be replaced with the unified IPTV platform based on SmartLabs products. The […]
Following comments made earlier in the year by BBC Director General Mark Thompson that an international version of the iPlayer app would be made available later in 2011 for “a small number of dollars per month, definitely fewer than ten”, BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, has confirmed that it is now offering audiences across […]
Hollywood film studios can claim a significant win in their ongoing fight against online piracy, after the UK High Court ruled that dominant telco and leading ISP BT must block access to an illegal file-sharing website. BT users will no longer be able to download illegally films and TV shows for free from Newzbin2. The […]
The European Court of Justice has dismissed the appeal brought by broadcaster Mediaset and confirmed that the Italian contributions for the purchase of digital terrestrial decoders, granted in 2004 and 2005 and totalling €220 million, constitute state aid incompatible with the common market. After the 2004 budget, which had introduced the incentive, rival broadcasters Europe […]
Irish telco eircom has announced Phase 1 of a plan to upgrade significantly Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure by rolling out fibre-based access technologies delivering superfast broadband to customers. Separately, the company also announced it will launch television services in 2012. The company intends to serve 100,000 premises by summer 2012 in Phase 1 of a planned […]
Following comments made July 27 by UK commercial broadcaster ITV as it reported its Interim Results that it was seeking to drive new revenue streams by exploiting its content across multiple platforms, free and pay, satellite operator SES Astra has revealed that ITV has signed a long-term agreement for satellite capacity. The agreement provides for […]
In a surprise next career move that has so far seen him work for digital media giants such as the BBC and Microsoft, Johnston Press plc, one of the leading regional media groups in the UK and Ireland, has revealed that Ashley Highfield will join the Company as its new Chief Executive and as a […]
BT has surpassed 600,000 subscribers for its BT Vision hybrid DTT/IPTV service it confirmed in its Q2 results – up from 575,000 customers three months previously. The UK telco also added 71,000 customers to its superfast broadband service ‘BT Infinity’ in the second quarter of 2011, bringing the total to over 200,000, and its superfast […]