Advanced Television

Cable

UPC invest in high-speed Internet

UPC Austria is to invest E100 million in DOCSIS 3.0 development to improve connection speeds across Austria. The triple-play provider said it would begin to increase the speed of Internet access through the chello, student, classic and plus portals by 100 Mbits and reduce prices on 2nd February. UPC Austria chief Thomas Hintze said 2008 […]

January 29, 2009

UPC: viewers want zoom…

The latest UPC viewer survey says many have trouble reading text on TV and a zoom facility would be useful. The fifth annual UPC Television Survey, conducted in 11 European countries, focussed on accessibility. The main issues of Europeans regarding visibility of texts on the TV screen are related to the contrast between screen text […]

January 29, 2009

Comcast launches Disney on demand

Comcast together with Disney-ABC Domestic Television, has announced the launch of the subscription video on demand service, Disney Family Movies. The service, which showcases classic and contemporary Disney family movies from one of the world's largest film libraries, is now available to Comcast digital customers. Disney Family Movies gives customers unlimited access to approximately 20 […]

January 29, 2009

Voom out at Cablevision

As expected, Cablevision has ditched carriage of the VOOM networks, replacing the high-def channels with content from the big three premium programmers. The New York-area MSO said it is serving more than 1.3 million HD customers, penetrating 50 percent of all its digital TV households, the cable operator said. Cablevision said it is delivering access […]

January 23, 2009

Virgin may re-list in London

Virgin Media is considering whether to delist on New York's Nasdaq – a legacy of its ntl past – in favour of listing back at home in the UK, as part of a review of company finances. "Our new CFO is looking at our capital structure, including how we are listed and what our dividend […]

January 21, 2009

Time Warner writes down $25bn

Time Warner announced it will record some $25 billion in write-downs for the fourth quarter, with nearly $15 billion of it coming from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner, which owns 85% of the cable company but has been planning to spin off the stake to shareholders, said beyond the cable business, the write-downs will involve […]

January 8, 2009

Poland DTH overtakes cable

The number of DTH subscribers in Poland has exceeded the number of cable subscribers for the first time. According to figures from Wirtualne Media, there were a total of 4.7 million subscribers to DTH services as the end of December, over 40 per cent more than a year earlier. The number cable homes in the […]

January 8, 2009

Viacom channels off TW Cable in dispute

Time Warner Cable subscribers may not have Viacom channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 and 15 other networks for the New Year as they are set to go dark as part of a license agreement renewal dispute between the two companies. Viacom asked Time Warner Cable for an increase of just under 25 cents […]

January 2, 2009

Numericable, Orange, SFR to roll out fibre in France

Numericable, Orange and SFR signed an agreement setting out the conditions for sharing fibre optic cables in buildings installed by either of them. The companies agreed to implement a 'single mode' solution in zones where they currently deploy, or soon plan to deploy, their networks. Each residence will be equipped with a special fibre allocated […]

December 19, 2008

Cable freezes digital migration

The US cable industry has agreed to halt the transition of nearly all channels from analogue to digital tiers during the first two months of 2009 to minimise potential consumer confusion about the federally mandated switch-off of over-the-air analogue TV signals on February 17, 2009. National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) president Kyle McSlarrow revealed […]

December 18, 2008