From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has requested that the European Court in Luxembourg annuls the decision of the European Commission regarding the illegality of state subsidies for the acquisition of DTT decoders. At question is the European Commission's decision of 2007, that subsidies awarded by Italy for the years 2004 and […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain's largest pay TV group Sogecable and Mediapro, main shareholder in commercial TV channel La Sexta, have signed an agreement to bring an end to their fierce war over TV football rights that has taken them to Courts. The three years deal will allow Sogecable-controlled digital DTH platform Digital […]

Zeng Peixian, deputy director of the Radio, Film & TV Administration of Guangdong Province, has revealed that DTV subscribers in Guangdong now number 5.17 million. Digital conversion work in county levels and above in Guangdong province is expected to be essentially completed by the end of 2009. Digital subscribers currently number over 1 million each […]

SeaChange International, provider of software and hardware solutions for VOD television, has announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended April 30th, 2009. Total revenues for the quarter were $48.9 million, which was $3.5 million or 8per cent higher than total revenues of $45.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Net […]

Orange is to launch a VOD site in France called Welles (after Orson Welles), offering "mid-tail" recent archive shows. Most videos (500,000 at launch) will be ad-supported but some premium content is planned.

Phorm, the ad technology company, posted a pre-tax loss of $49.8m in 2008, up from $32.8m in 2007. However, the company insisted the launch of its controversial behavioural ad targeting technology in the UK is on track. The company said that as at 31 December 2008, the company had net assets of $22.4m, with cash […]

With the European Union's economy showing signs of recovery, television sales in the region are expected to rise in 2009 as consumers continue to snap up LCD-TVs, according to iSuppli Corp. "Television sales in Europe will rise to 51.97 million units in 2009, up 3.4 per cent from 50.2 million in 2008," said Riddhi Patel, […]

myvideorights.com (MVR), the independent rights management company in the UK, has inked an agreement with YouTube that allows it to sell advertising in and around its content on the site. Under the deal, MVR who generate some 10,000,000 VOD views a month on YouTube alone, has the right to sell a range of advertising units […]

A central plank of the Digital Britain report – that the BBC license fee must help public broadcasting outside the BBC – has, as expected been shot down by the BBC. Sir Michael Lyons said: "We recognise that there is work to do in never bigger than it needs to be. But we must also […]

DirecTV will be able to provide advertisers with relevant local television advertising for the first time, using software developed by INVIDI Technologies Corporation, a specialist in advanced television advertising solutions. INVIDI's Advatar software, in combination with DirecTV's digital set-top boxes, will allow relevant local television advertising a based on geographic location and will position TV […]