Despite unit shipments remaining relatively flat over the last year, worldwide set top box revenues were actually up in Q4 2010 over Q4 2009. Total revenues for the quarter were $5.7 billion as compared to $5.3 billion in the same period the previous year, according to In-Stat. “Even though overall growth in the market was […]
The European Court of Justice has agreed with British Sky Broadcasting and overturned the UK tax authority’s classification of a PVR and, thereby, exempted it from import duty. The Inland Revenue had classified PVRs as recording devices subject to 13.9 per cent import duty (virtually all PVRs are made in China). However, the ECJ in […]
Lyfe Communications, a technology expert in the development of next generation media services, has completed software development of a virtual Set Top Box (vSTB), and are creating a program to deploy that technology in trials with partner operators. Greg Smith, CEO of Lyfe Communications commented: “We have blended industry accepted conditional access security with standard […]
Virgin Media has confirmed that a new TiVo box is on its way – with a lower cost 500GB STB arriving to accompany the service in May. The current TiVo offering is a 1TB box, available only to customers on the XL TV package, but the 500GB box will be available to all Virgin Media […]
All BT Vision subscribers will be able to access the BBC iPlayer service via their TVs by June says iPlayer product manager Gideon Summerfield. Recently the BBC has released a version of the player for Freeview HD boxes that conform to the D-Book 6.2.1 specification powered by MHEG-5 middleware. The BBC has also certified the […]
Market researcher Infonetics Research has released its fourth quarter 2010 ‘Cable, Satellite, IPTV, and OTT STBss and Subscribers’ market share and forecast report. “In the fourth quarter of 2010, we witnessed the dramatic growth of over-the-top services, as service providers and equipment vendors hit the ‘sweet spot’ for pricing. However, these services continue to complement […]
Roku has confirmed that the Roku XD player is now available for purchase at Best Buy stores nationwide and at BestBuy.com. The announcement marks the first time the streaming player has been made available through retail channels in the US. The Roku XD has a list price of $79.99 and is available at Best Buy […]
EchoStar Europe have unveilled their SlingLoaded HDS-600RS, a HD digital video recorder (DVR) to combine Freesat+ features with Sling Media’s place-shifting ability, enabling TV anywhere, on all popular smartphones and tablets. The SlingLoaded feature enables users to watch and manage their live and recorded TV remotely anytime, anywhere, via 3G or Wi-Fi, with no additional […]
AirTies, the wireless networking vendor, has revealed the company’s new media player application which runs on AirTies’ set-top boxes as a retail user experience or provided as a valued added service to enrich third party User Interface offered by a service provider. The application is able to browse and play audio, video and photos from […]
EchoStar Europe has supplied a new HD, satellite STB to Telefónica in Chile. The new product will enable consumers to access an array of digital television services including HD channels. The cost effective, twin-tuner HDS-600 ships with software that enables the consumer to upgrade to digital video recording (DVR) using an external USB hard disk […]