RTL says that compared to an exceptional first quarter in 2010, when Western European TV advertising markets were thriving, the picture in the first three months of 2011 was mixed. While advertising revenue in the Netherlands (TV) and France (TV and radio) grew significantly year-on-year, the German TV advertising market was down in the first […]
A video-on-demand service is set to make its debut in South Africa. VOD:TV, formed by the SouthTel Group, is promising to offer the latest movies and TV series before Multichoice-owned DStv, The service won’t offer live TV itself, but will allow subscribers to download and store content to the PVR for later viewing. Roughly half […]
BBC Monitoring is carrying a Press Trust of India report saying that Pakistan’s media regulatory watchdog has barred live broadcasts by major foreign television channels from the garrison city of Abbottabad, where Osama Bin-Ladin was killed by US forces, in an apparent bid to clamp down on coverage of the incident. The Pakistan Electronic Media […]
Yahsat is the Abu Dhabi satellite operator which saw its first craft, Yahsat 1A, launched on an Ariane rocket in April, and is now contemplating ordering a third satellite. Yahsat already has its second satellite under construction for launch this coming winter. Yahsat CEO Jassem Al Zaabi says his business is doing very well in […]
Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has warned Grand Prix teams that it would be “suicidal” for them if the sport moved to News Corporation’s subscription channels as part of a takeover deal. According to Ecclestone, who holds the sport’s commercial rights, teams would lose huge sponsorship interest if coverage was no longer on mass […]
Growing sales of Internet-enabled or connected TVs will help push video service providers to move more quickly to develop offerings that combine elements of conventional pay-TV with over-the-top (OTT) Internet video in an effort to maintain service revenues, but the migration path to hybrid video is uncertain at this point, according to the latest report […]
According to Value Partners, a managing consultancy firm in the Middle East specialising in media and telco trends, the continued growth in video on demand (VoD) in the Middle East delivered over the Internet is inevitable as consumers are increasingly expected to control their viewing. Value Partners suggests that growth in demand for VoD calls […]
India’s giant Hathway Cable & Datacom is to launch its HDTV bouquet this June in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. IT will roll out to other cities and regions shortly thereafter, said the company. Subscribers will need a new cable receiver box which will contain NDS encryption and Middleware. K. Jayaraman, MD & CEO, Hathway […]
Sky has hired BBC executive Anne Mensah as the new head of drama for its Sky entertainment channels. Mensah, BBC head of independent drama commissioning, replaces Elaine Pyke, who was promoted to director of programmes for Sky Atlantic earlier this month. She will oversee drama commissioning for Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts and Sky Movies. […]
NHK Worlds HDTV feed has launched on the BSkyB and Freesat platforms over the UK. GlobeCast is providing re-encoding, uplink, and capacity on Eutelsat’s Eurobird 1 satellite, bringing the channel to a new community of over 10 million Sky subscribers, and over a million Freesat viewers. Available on BSkyB EPG channel 507, NHK World HD […]