Advanced Television

DTH/Satellite

Indian Dish TV spends to acquire new customers

Dish TV, India’s number one direct-to-home (DTH) company, will invest an estimated Rs 1,600 crore (E25m) in 2009-10 to acquire new customers and improve back-end operations. The company which is close to achieving the 5 million subscriber-mark said it hopes to touch 8 million subscribers by the end of 2010. Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, […]

January 21, 2009

Mediaset, RAI prepare freesat platform

Leading Italian broadcasters Rai and Mediaset, together with Telecom Italia Media, are to launch a free-to-air satellite platform in June. The venture is expected to employ Eutelsat’s Hot Bird satellite – already widely used by Italian DTH broadcasters. Unveiling the service, Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri said the joint venture would boost competition with Sky Italia.

January 21, 2009

Jail sentence for pirating Digital Plus

David Del Valle in Madrid A Spanish Court in the North of the Country has sentenced a hotelier to six months in jail and to pay E20,000 for pirating Sogecable-controlled pay-TV platform Digital Plus. It is the first jail conviction in the country, but, possibly not the last one as there are 15 legal proceedings […]

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

Orange triple-play get Canal+ satellite

Orange and Canal+ have signed a multi-year agreement to allow Orange triple play customers who are not eligible for TV by ADSL to subscribe to Canal+ and/or Canalsat, as well as Foot+ by satellite. In 2009, Orange triple play customers with satellite TV will be able to receive these offers directly on a single ADSL/satellite […]

January 7, 2009

Tata Sky reaches 3m

NDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has revealed that Tata Sky, provider of Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite pay-TV services in India, has achieved a major milestone in reaching 3 million subscribers within a period of just 27 months. The latest 1 million subscribers were gained in just seven months. The Tata Sky platform is […]

December 17, 2008

SES Americom IP-Prime fails

SES Americom will cease providing its IP-Prime service, which provides a complete IPTV programming transport solution to North American telcos, by July 31st 2009, due to “slow adoption” of IPTV in the region as well as the “difficult market outlook” for the service. IP-Prime offers a range of programming in standard- and high-definition for North […]

December 16, 2008

MVS, EchoStar form Dish Mexico

MVS Comunicaciones, a Mexican telecommunications conglomerate, and EchoStar have formed a joint venture, Dish Mexico that will launch Dish satellite TV service across Mexico. EchoStar is providing satellite capacity and uplink facilities for transmitting the service. Additionally, EchoStar is contributing digital satellite TV equipment including a small 20-inch dish antenna, satellite receiver, remote control and […]

November 27, 2008

Cyfrowy Polsat launches EchoStar HD STBs

EchoStar Europe, supplier of applications and connected device solutions to the digital television industry, has confirmed that its advanced, high definition set-top box has been introduced by Cyfrowy Polsat, the largest Polish satellite television platform serving 2.4 million subscribers in Poland. The launch of the DBS-7100HD product enriches the digital satellite TV operator's offer of […]

November 25, 2008

Vudu launches advanced on-demand box

Vudu has debuted the Vudu XL2, a new Internet movie player designed specifically for professional home theatre installations. In addition to providing access to hundreds of titles in Vudu’s proprietary HDX format and with a large HD library available on-demand, the XL2 will allow home theatre owners to choose from more than 10,000 titles for […]

November 20, 2008