Advanced Television

OTT

Netflix introduces recommendations feature

Netflix has launched a new social recommendation feature that allows its subscribers to recommend easily and privately, the shows they love to the people they care about. Writing in the Netflix blog, Cameron Johnson, director of product innovation at Netflix, says: “When you finish watching something you’ll be asked if you know anyone else who’d […]

September 3, 2014By Colin Mann

NOW TV on Chromecast, adds ITV Encore

BSkyB has confirmed that its NOW TV OTT service is available on Google’s media streaming device Chromecast. Sky says the arrival of NOW TV to Chromecast offers customers another new way to enjoy the latest blockbuster movies, live action from all Sky Sports channels and must-see shows on 13 of the best pay-TV channels from […]

September 3, 2014

Oz FreeviewPlus finally launches

Originally scheduled for launch in the first half of 2014, but delayed as a result of technical issues, Australian DTT platform Freeview has finally launched its FreeviewPlus HbbTV service. In what Freeview describes as a new era in Australian free-to-air TV, the new service will provides access to more content and services from the Freeview […]

September 3, 2014By Colin Mann

DASH Industry Forum gaining momentum

DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF), the major advocacy body catalysing the adoption of DASH as the new standard OTT adaptive bit rate delivery of media to any device, announced today that their membership has grown to 74 member companies, now including Google, from the original six founding charter members in 2012. “The adoption of DASH has […]

September 3, 2014

DCC Labs joins HbbTV

DCC Labs has become a member of Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV), a global initiative defining specifications that streamline and accelerate deployment of IPTV services. DCC Labs strive to improve the video user experience for consumers by empowering TV operators with state-of-the-art solutions. As such, for several years DCC Labs had been an active member […]

September 3, 2014

Netflix targets 30% French market in 5 years

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, speaking to French daily newspapers, has said the company is aiming to capture 10 per cent of French subscribing households within two to five years, and one third from five to 10 years from now. The service launches in France on September 15th. This despite, so far, failing to agree a […]

September 2, 2014From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

Dutch digital TV market now 6.7m

The number of digital TV connections in the Netherlands grew by 0.8 per cent during the second quarter of 2014 to 6.76 million on June 30th 2014. Digital TV was used by 87.7 per cent of TV subscribers in the Netherlands, including 3.73 million cable subscribers who also have analogue TV connections.  The total TV […]

September 2, 2014

Sky Deutschland on grid with Formula E

German pay-TV operator Sky Deutschland has secured the exclusive live broadcasting rights for the FIA Formula E Championship, the electric single-seater car race series inaugurated by motorsport’s governing body . Sky will broadcast live all races of the series, which begins in Beijing on 13 September. Apart from the exclusive TV broadcasting rights, the agreement […]

September 1, 2014By Colin Mann

Netflix pays $2m per episode for The Blacklist

From September 6th, the first season of NBC’s The Blacklist will be available to stream on Netflix. Netflix has entered into what is understood to be the “biggest subscription video-on-demand deal” in history according to Deadline, with Sony Pictures TV receiving $2 million per episode for Season 1, and all future seasons of the series […]

August 29, 2014

MStar licenses CryptoFirewall

MStar Semiconductor, a semiconductor company for display and digital home solutions, has licensed the Cryptography Research CryptoFirewall security core for integration into its connected TV solution chips. The CryptoFirewall core will provide operators and OTT distributors utilising MStar-based connected TVs with strong hardware security to protect content and services against piracy. “Increasingly, consumers want the […]

August 29, 2014