Advanced Television

Broadcast

ATVOD cuts fees 5%

Following a consultation, ATVOD, the much criticised self-regulation body for UK VoD providers, has cut its annual fees by 5.5 per cent. Commercial VoD publishers will no longer pay a flat fee of £2,900 but will have a a sliding rate based on revenue, thought this will be on the parent company not the website […]

June 29, 2011

EchoStar: The Ergen shopping list

EchoStar co-founder Charlie Ergen is famously careful with his cash, actions which have helped the former poker player to build his net worth to some $7 billion and a position as the 51st richest American (according to Forbes). But suddenly he is on a spending spree.  In April this year (via sister company Dish Network) […]

June 29, 2011

Philippines urged to adopt DVB-T2

A joint delegation of digital TV standards consortium DVB and European Union representatives has met with The Philippines’ National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to present the technical superiority of DVB-T2 over what it describes as the ‘dated’ Japanese ISDB-T system. The economic advantages and the benefits of the economies of scale were also set out. The […]

June 29, 2011By Colin Mann

SFR embeds Google for VoD search

SFR, the French telco and pay-TV provider, is using Google for a new search engine for linear and on-demand content. It has also announced plans to add a new catch-up TV service. SFR will use the Google Search Appliance to enable its Neufbox Evolution to search programmes and linear channels and on-demand services. When it […]

June 29, 2011

Lords: Ofcom should handle BBC complaints

UK media regulator Ofcom, rather than the BBC, should have the final say over complaints about impartiality and accuracy in the corporation’s programmes, according to a House of Lords committee report. The communications committee’s inquiry into BBC governance and regulation also said “the convoluted and overly complicated complaints process at the BBC” must be improved. […]

June 29, 2011

BT welcomes ruling on Virgin advertising

BT has welcomed the ASA’s ruling on Virgin Media’s “Stop the Broadband Con” campaign. Virgin’s campaign was judged to have misled consumers on eight counts, contained six examples of exaggeration, failed to substantiate its claims on five counts and denigrated the industry.

June 29, 2011

Spain: Pay TV subs up, revenues down

Spanish pay-TV gained subscribers in 2010 but failed to increase its total revenues, according to the latest report from the CMT (Telecommunications Market Commission). The number of pay TV subs grew by 7.7 per cent to 4.5 million, 10.4 per cent to 5 million including mobile TV. Pay DTT, cable and IPTV were the winners […]

June 28, 2011From David Del Valle in Madrid

Pay-TV must embrace online video

ABI Research has released the first part of its “Technology Barometer: Digital Living” study which surveyed 2000 consumers in the US about consumer electronic products in their households, home networking, and connected devices. Despite the attention given to-cord cutting, this trend has not generated the momentum some expected: in this survey only 10 per cent […]

June 28, 2011

Italy: La 7 up for sale

Telecom Italia says that merchant bank Mediobanca is looking for buyers of TV network La 7. La 7 is Italy’s third-largest network after RAI and Mediaset, but has been losing money for years. The channel is 77 per cent owned by Telecom Italia. However, the network continues to invest and has a 3.5 per cent […]

June 28, 2011By Chris Forrester

Youku signs PPV deal with Warner Bros

China’s Youku has agreed with Warner Bros Entertainment’s local joint venture to offer pay per view movies on its newly launched online paid content platform. Under a three-year agreement with Warner Bros, Youku will add between 400 to 450 Warner Bros movies to its Youku Premium library. Youku Premium, which was officially this week, began […]

June 28, 2011