Advanced Television

Broadband

India: Cable TV digitalisation deferred 4 months

The intended digitalisation of cable TV services in four Indian ‘metros’ will now be extended four months beyond the scheduled July 1 introduction, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has confirmed. The decision to defer the plan for switchover from analogue to digitalised signals follows the realisation that the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and […]

June 21, 2012By Colin Mann

BT final ISP to block Pirate Bay

BT has become the UK’s final major Internet service provider to block The Pirate Bay, following a high court order for ISPs to censor the torrent-sharing site. In April 2012, the British High Court forced six major providers to block access to the website. BT asked for more time to respond to the court order, […]

June 21, 2012

Sky’s Darcey: NOW TV may be on YouView

Mike Darcey, BSkyB’s COO, has admitted the pay-TV operator’s planned OTT service ‘Now TV’ could be carried on open IPTV platform YouView, scheduled for launch later in the summer of 2012. Although BSkyB had expressed concern that public money had been used to support a project for which he felt the market should determine a […]

June 20, 2012By Colin Mann

IPTV penetration reaches 15%

Data from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Pay-TV Research Service show that IPTV penetration of telcos’ worldwide broadband subscribers reached 15 per cent in Q1 2012, equivalent to 67 million subscribers and 8 per cent of the world’s 812 million pay-TV subscribers. However, widely differing IPTV and pay-TV penetration rates by region point to radically different IPTV growth […]

June 20, 2012

New corporate identity for Liberty Global

International cable operator Liberty Global has revealed a refreshed corporate identity and vision, summarised by ‘Connect. Discover. Be Free’. With operations in 13 countries, Liberty Global connects 20 million households to the digital world – which it describes as “a world of quality, convenience and infinite choice”. As part of this global initiative, all corporate […]

June 19, 2012

Simulmedia, TiVo address audience fragmentation problem

Targeted television advertising specialist Simulmedia and DVR pioneer TiVo have expanded their set-top box data partnership deploying datasets better to address what is seen as TV’s growing audience fragmentation problem. Simulmedia will use TiVo’s anonymous, aggregated, second-by-second set-top-box data to expand Simulmedia’s endemic client base beyond tune-in/promotional advertisers and drive cost-effective reach across all advertiser […]

June 19, 2012

Analyst: Cable TV resisting online threat

According to Bernstein Research, US cable television providers are generally resisting the threat from online services, although the latter have added viewers and services. One factor that has helped maintain cable subscriber levels is that certain programming such as live sport, is not available online, with other shows that are online not easily streamed to […]

June 18, 2012By Colin Mann

TV Everywhere from Disney, Comcast

Comcast and Disney/ABC Television Group have confirmed that Xfinity TV customers can now access three new authenticated TV+ products – WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney XD and WATCH Disney Junior – at home or on-the-go – via a suite of new apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and online at WATCHDisneyChannel.com, WATCHDisneyXD.com and WATCHDisneyJunior.com. […]

June 18, 2012

Netgem into Mobility with PlugnSurf buy

Netgem has confirmed its acquisition of PlugnSurf – a company that has developed and marketed the WOBE, the first mobile connectivity device to incorporate a patented technology for automatic off-loading between mobile data (3G/4G) and WiFi networks. The integration of PlugnSurf will expand Netgem’s existing product offer. It will allow Netgem to help telecom operators […]

June 18, 2012

Newtec breaks 500 Mbps barrier

Newtec has ushered in a new era of bandwidth efficiency by breaking the 0.5 Gbps two-way throughput over a 72 MHz transponder on a Eutelsat satellite. Testing was performed at Eutelsat’s teleport in Rambouillet and carried out in several steps to validate different market application scenarios. In the two-way high speed backbone tests, Newtec combined […]

June 18, 2012