France's broadcasting regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), has issued a call for bids to broadcast a High Definition pay-TV service on one of the country's digital terrestrial multiplexes. The opportunity is available to all pay-TV services currently authorised on DTT who wish to replace their current Standard Definition broadcast with HD. Bids will […]

More than 40 enterprises will join forces to create the China Terrestrial Digital HDTV IPR Protection Alliance on January 31st. The alliance will have the mandate to manage patents for the Chinese standard for terrestrial digital HDTV, and could potentially become a body like the IGRS (Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing) Working Group by setting […]

Gemstar, the News Corp controlled TV listings company, has initiated patent litigation proceedings against Virgin Media in the English High Court. Gemstar allege that the Virgin companies infringe three of Gemstar's European patents, including techniques for providing certain interactive programme guides (IPGs), and for handling recordings from IPGs. We have worked diligently to license Virgin […]

BBC Worldwide is in talks with international broadcasters in relation to launching local on-demand media players, similar to its Kangaroo joint venture with ITV and Channel 4. The US, Australia and Germany are likely targets. A BBC Worldwide spokeswoman insisted any international venture would be separate to the Kangaroo system, but added the BBC would […]

The Nielsen Company has confirmed the commercial launch of Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics, (NORA), a measurement service that aggregates and anonymously reports on video-on-demand (VOD) usage based on real time transactions collected at the set-top box level. At launch, Comcast will be providing VOD data for the NORA service, covering January 1, 2007 […]

From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris The French broadcasting regulator CSA received 32 candidates for the 13 mobile TV DVB-H frequencies by the closing time for applications. Many of the proposals come from existing channels broadcast on traditional platforms (DTT, cable, satellite, IPTV). In addition there were some created specifically for the mobile platform; whether mobile […]

Italy’s communications authority said a deal has been reached between all TV operators in the Sardinia region on how to switchover to DTT. Sardinia is the first of Italy’s 20 regions to organise a switchover and the authority said it hopes Sardinia will set an example for the switch from analogue, due to be completed […]

FOX Channels has released its 2007 year-end ratings results for Italy, a market that saw continued growth in pay TV last year. FOX's 12-channel strong entertainment and factual bouquet continued to be one of Sky Italia's key drivers. The group topped all other comparable networks with its growth contribution reaching 36 per cent of Sky's […]

BT Vision has signed with Disney-ABC to give its customers more than 650 episodes of popular television shows, such as LOST and Ugly Betty, on a pay-per-view basis from 29p (E0.39) each . Customers can also get unlimited access to the shows as part of the firm’s £6 per month TV Pack subscription or the […]

The head of the Federal Communications Commission expressed concern that the credit crunch could hinder bidders in an upcoming government auction of wireless airwaves. Chairman Kevin Martin said that he was “concerned that the overall economic conditions could end up impacting the auction.” Martin’s comments came less than a week after a key potential bidder […]