The number of pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe increased by 1 million in 2012 to 94.1 million, and will climb by another million in 2013, according to a report from Digital TV Research. This comes despite pay-TV subscriptions falling in Italy (down by 482,000) and Spain (down by 350,000) in 2012. Italy and Spain will […]
Malaysia’s Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has picked three potential bidders to create the nation’s digital terrestrial TV system. The shortlisted bidders, drawn from 8 initial applicants, are: i-Media Broadcasting Solutions, Puncak Semangat, and Redtone Network – and each have submitted final proposed business plans. The MCMC regulator will announce the winning bidder in the […]
Romania’s broadcasting landscape has shifted with the launch of Freesat, a new TV platform available from the Eutelsat 16A satellite. Freesat is a DTH platform of Standard Digital and High Definition channels available for a yearly subscription of only 99 lei (€23) and a one-off investment in a conditional access smartcard. It assembles Romania’s most […]
The existence of 17 DTT channels has been thrown put into question. The Supreme Court may consider invalidating the licences of another 8 DTT channels that were awarded by the previous Administration without a public tender, extending the total number of affected TV channels to 17. The company Infraestructuras y Gestion 2002, which took the […]
South Africa’s much delayed roll out of digital terrestrial TV is happening, insists the nation’s Minister of Communications. Dina Pule told South Africa’s parliament that more than 80 per cent of the population would be able to receive DTT signals by the end of the year. Pule was presenting his ministry’s budget to parliament, and […]
Cuba will start testing its Chinese version of digital terrestrial TV in June, Cuba has adopted China’s Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast standard (DTMB) and will start testing in “real conditions” around Havana, the capital. As part of the tests the Communications Ministry will be distributing set-top box decoders to various neighbourhoods to ensure adequate transmissions […]
Portugal’s National Communications Authority (Anacom) has published the final decision on the evolution of the DTT network, with the goal of improving the quality of service. The decision implements a proposal that was submitted to public consultation in March this year. The regulator thus confirms a change of the DTT network configuration, which will become […]
The Spanish government is considering calling a fresh public tender to award the nine DTT licences that were recently revoked following the Supreme Court ruling that the licences were invalid as they were granted by the the previous Administration without a public tender. In the new public tender, the Administration would give priority to those […]
Pay-TV business in Spain is not going well. In the first quarter of the year the pay-TV market lost 98,000 subscribers as a whole with the financial crisis, higher taxes and less money in consumers’ hands being the main reasons behind the sharp fall. The leading pay-TV operator Canal Plus lost 28,000 subs to 1.69 […]
Rapid conversion means that the number of digital homes in Eastern Europe will nearly double between 2012 and 2018, bringing the total to 121 million, according to a report from Digital TV Research. The Digital TV Eastern Europe report estimates that 13 million digital TV homes will be added in 2013 alone. Digital TV penetration […]