From Colin Mann in London The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together hundreds of hours of television programmes in one place. The service is set to go live in 2008 and will offer viewers access to current shows and archive material. Plans will have to […]

Warner Bros has announced it will be launching a number of branded, video-on-demand, non-linear channels on a subscription- and advertiser-supported basis over a variety of global delivery platforms. The on-demand and broadband models make financial sense, says Jeffrey Schlesinger, Warner Bros International's president. “The costs here are much lower than creating a linear channel. You […]

Private Media Group is set to launch its content with additional European IPTV operators in Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Portugal before the end of the year. The platform operators in these countries include leading telecoms which all offer Triple-Play featuring IPTV based Video-On-Demand. Berth Milton, CEO of Private Media Group commented: “With launches […]

Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal's chief executive, has warned that Apple's iTunes digital media store was undermining the ability of traditional media companies to sell their content online at profitable rates, and he urged them to take a stand. “We know that Apple has destroyed the music business – in terms of pricing – and if […]

ITV DVD has signed an agreement to make more than 300 features from its movie library available for download to own and download to rent via the British online retailer Coolroom. Films from ITV DVD's library will be available to consumers from £0.99 (E1.4) both on Coolroom's download store on www.coolroom.com and on Coolroom's IPTV […]

EchoStar is offering a 'push and pull' video on demand (VOD) service as part of its recently launched IPTV platform, ViP-TV. The launch of ViP-TV was announced earlier this week. The VOD content for ViP-TV is based on EchoStar’s existing VOD service, which is currently offered to DISH Network satellite TV subscribers. Because it is […]

Channel 4's On-Demand service 4oD has inked a deal with FX, the Fox-owned entertainment channel. The deal, only the second third-party deal Channel 4 has struck after its agreement with National Geographic, will see a range of programming available to download and watch from November 26 via a dedicated FX-branded area on 4oD. FX has […]

UK broadcaster Five is set to expand its online TV download offering in the new year. Five intends to move away from making paid for content viewable in a 14-day window and to instead offer an ad-suppoorted VOD service. The broadcaster is also reportedly looking into gaining carriage on a pay-TV platform such as Virgin […]

New research from Vividas reveals that issues including complicated set up, slow to download files and crashing content are cited as a major barrier to consumer take-up of watching video online. The research also shows that poor picture quality and incomplete downloads cost a quarter of broadcasters up to £10,000 (E14.5k) in customer refunds and […]

ITN is making its mobile news and entertainment content available for free to ipod users and other portable video players. The deal will allow customers to download ITN's latest news and entertainment programming from Apple's iTunes. The service will be funded by a short pre-roll advertisement on each download.