Advanced Television

ISP

Netflix: “Your service is being slowed by Verizon”

The NYT reports that a journalist streaming a show on Netflix noticed an on-screen message from the company blaming Verizon for congestion that was slowing the stream. The journalist, Yuri Victor, a designer and developer at Vox Media, posted a message on Twitter on Tuesday with a screen shot of the Netflix message, which read: […]

June 5, 2014

Com Hem €622m IPO prospectus

Following the May 23rd announcement of its intention to float, Swedish triple-play operator Com Hem has published its prospectus and revealed the price range for its Initial Public Offering of its shares and listing on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. •    The Company is raising gross proceeds of SEK 5,670 million (€622m) (assuming the over-allotment option is […]

June 4, 2014By Colin Mann

Customer satisfaction up for pay-TV and ISPs

Subscription television and Internet Service Providers are the most improved products or services for the first quarter of 2014, according to the latest results of the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK). Airlines, mobile phones, and landlines also make gains, driving the national level of customer satisfaction up 0.1 per cent to 75.6 on a 0-100 […]

June 4, 2014

Torrentz online 24 hours after police shutdown

Torrentz.eu, one of the largest search engines for downloads on file-sharing websites, was taken offline by the City of London police for linking to pirated content on May 26th. Torrentz.eu was already blocked in the UK by a number of British ISPs, having been blacklisted in October 2013 alongside 20 other file-sharing sites, but the […]

May 28, 2014

Cox to offer residential gigabit speeds

Cox Communications – the third-ranked US cable MSO – has revealed plans to roll out gigabit Internet speeds across its markets nationwide. The company will start with new residential construction projects and new and existing neighbourhoods in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Omaha. In all Cox locations, the company will begin market-wide deployment of gigabit speeds […]

May 23, 2014

Google: No charge for speed

Google has declared it will not strike deals for its Google Fiber network to “prioritise” the performance of services like Netflix or YouTube. In an official Google Fiber blog, director of network engineering Jeffrey Burgan said that Google is open to peering and co-location deals for its developing fibre network(s), but said it will not […]

May 22, 2014

Telcos trump pay-TV in US satisfaction index

Subscription TV and Internet service providers (ISPs) sink to the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index in its annual measure of communications industries. According to the latest ACSI results, ISPs drop 3.1 per cent to an ACSI score of 63 on a 100-point scale, while subscription TV falls 4.4 per cent to 65. These […]

May 20, 2014

AT&T acquires DirecTV for $48.5bn

In a move set to create a content distribution leader across mobile, video and broadband platforms, with unparalleled video content distribution scale in the US, AT&T and DirecTV have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire DirecTV in a stock-and-cash transaction for $95 per share based on AT&T’s Friday closing price. The […]

May 19, 2014By Colin Mann and Chris Forrester

FCC approves ‘Open Internet’ plan

The US Federal Communications Commission has voted in favour of progressing a proposal that could see Internet Service Providers charging Web sites for higher-quality delivery of their content to American consumers. The FCC will now open the proposal to a total 120 days of public comment. Final rules, aimed for the end of the year, […]

May 16, 2014By Colin Mann

TalkTalk passes 1m TV subs

TalkTalk has passed one million pay-TV subscribers, making it the UK’s fastest-growing television service, adding more customers than all the other pay-TV operators combined. “Our strategy for growth is delivering,” said chief executive Dido Harding. “We continue to grow faster than all the other UK TV operators put together and are confident that in time, […]

May 15, 2014