Advanced Television

STB

India: STB deadline won’t be extended

Ruling out an extension of the deadline for digitisation of cable television beyond October 31st, India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has said Delhi is lagging behind other cities in this process. Soni has met with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and asked her to ensure that all households having cable TV connection install […]

October 1, 2012

Google TV France arrives on Sony

Google TV has launched on Sony’s €200 STB in France. The STB can be connected by ethernet or WiFi and for €299 consumers can chose a device with integrated Blu-ray player. Earlier in the year, Google and Sony announced plans to launch the Internet Player in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico and Netherlands, as well […]

September 28, 2012

Espial powers Mitsubishi STB

The Espial TV Browser has been selected to power Mitsubishi Electric’s latest STBs deployed by NTT Plala, a specialist in the Japanese IPTV market, to deliver a more compelling IPTV service to its customers. Leveraging a sophisticated range of features and technologies, the Espial TV Browser enables NTT Plala to distribute customised, interactive IP video-on-demand […]

September 25, 2012

Cisco VP: STBs will die in a decade

Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Video & Collaboration Group, predicts that Internet TVs and other consumer IP devices will be powerful and ubiquitous enough within about 10 years to receive any pay-TV service directly – eliminating the need for service providers to deploy set-top boxes. The hardware side of the equation is […]

September 21, 2012

YouView £10m campaign

YouView’s £10 million (€12.4m) launch advertising campaign broke this weekend, as the long-delayed service attempts to convince consumers that it represents the future of TV. The launch campaign will focus heavily on TV advertising. Spots were bought during ITV1’s The X Factor on Saturday with ads running simultaneously on Channel 4 and Channel 5, supported […]

September 21, 2012

BT offers ‘free’ £299 YouView box

BT  will offer a free YouView set top box with no TV subscription to all new BT Infinity customers. Broadband customers not in an Infinity enabled area will also be able to get a free YouView box when they subscribe to TV Essential, starting at £4 per month (€5). YouView from BT will be available […]

September 20, 2012

OSN Plus HD for MENA

Middle East and North Africa pay-TV network OSN has launched OSN Plus HD, claimed as the region’s first Internet-enabled satellite receiver and recorder with full 3D and HD capabilities. OSN Plus HD also offers an online Video on Demand library. At launch, over 500 programmes will be available to download including family and kids genres, […]

September 17, 2012

Pace out as BT turns to Humax

BT has had to turn to Humax to acquire additional set-top boxes for the delayed launch of its YouView Internet TV service after rejecting those provided by Pace, its chosen supplier. The Financial Times is reporting this morning that the boxes being supplied by Pace did not meet BT’s requirements. BT’s decision will be a […]

September 14, 2012

Global STB shipments to hit record high this year

Multimedia Research Group (MRG) has released its latest forecast on the worldwide set-top box market, revealing that 2012 will see a record high for global STB shipments. Demand for digital STB products is rising, particularly in Asia, Latin America, and a number of countries in Europe.  Mike Paxton, Senior Analyst at MRG explains “The expansion […]

September 10, 2012

Freesat+ gets interactive with Opera

Humax has showcased its web-ready Freesat+ box at IBC 2012. With the implementation of the Opera Devices Software Development Kit (SDK), Humax’s Freesat+ box provides Freesat’s newly launched service, free time, a HTML5-based backwards EPG. Through free time, viewers can navigate back through the EPG and choose to watch content on-demand. The Opera Devices SDK […]

September 10, 2012Colin Mann @ IBC