Advanced Television

RAI

EBU adds Davie, Marchand, Soldi to exec board

Tim Davie (BBC), Gilles Marchand (SRG SSR) and Marinella Soldi (Rai) have been elected to the EBU Executive Board. The new board members were elected by the Directors General of fellow broadcasters at the EBU’s 87th General Assembly in Geneva. The Board is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the EBU’s strategy and policies. Davie […]

December 3, 2021

IBC cancels in-person event

In a brief statement issued mid-afternoon, IBC announced that the in-person IBC2021 event scheduled to take place on December 3rd – 6th at The RAI in Amsterdam has been cancelled. The move follows growing concerns about the Covid-19 situation in The Netherlands, which has deteriorated over the past week, and feedback from the IBC exhibitor […]

November 23, 2021

IBC exhibitors vote with feet

Late on November 17th, Irdeto – perhaps significantly a Netherlands-based company – became the first in our sector to declare it was pulling out of IBC 2021. It was soon followed by Viaccess-Orca. By Friday afternoon (November 19th) they had been joined by Broadpeak, Black Magic, DVB, Grass Valley, Xytech and more. Synamedia, still in […]

November 19, 2021

IBC 2021 is on, hours cut

This year’s IBC show is going ahead as scheduled. The event organisers have issued a statement saying: “Following close examination of new Covid protocols from the Dutch government and consultation with key IBC stakeholders, IBC is firmly set on delivering a safe and valuable event at the RAI, Amsterdam on 3-6 December that will re-engage […]

November 16, 2021

IBC ‘still on’ despite lockdown

On November 12th, the Dutch government announced a three-week partial lockdown throughout The Netherlands in response to rising Covid-19 infections. The restrictions will run until December 3rd, which is scheduled to be the first day of this year’s IBC event – due to be held at the RAI in Amsterdam through to December 6th. RAI […]

November 15, 2021

Italy: FTA prime time TV viewing at 18 year low

An average of 23.1 million Italians watched free-to-air TV in the 20:30 to 22:30 time slot during October 2021, a drop of 2.5 million on the same month last year. This means that less than 40 per cent of the total population were watching free-to-air TV in prime time, the lowest figure in 18 years, […]

November 4, 2021From Branislav Pekic in Rome

IBC free to attend

Organisers of content and technology event IBC have announced a comprehensive content programme for the 2021 edition, which for the first time will be free for all to access. Attendees can watch the sessions in person in Amsterdam or online via IBC Digital, which will launch on October 21st. This year’s content programme will focus […]

September 30, 2021By Colin Mann

Italy: NAGRA watermarking for RAI

NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company and independent provider of content protection and multiscreen TV solutions, has announced that Radio Televisione Italiana (RAI), the Italian national public broadcasting company, is leveraging NAGRA’s NexGuard forensic watermarking and Anti-Piracy Services Platform to protect its streaming content and related advertising revenues. “Our watermarking-based anti-piracy solutions are essential for RAI […]

September 29, 2021

RAI to switch most TV channels to MPEG-4 on Oct 20

Italian public broadcaster RAI will discontinue DVB-T MPEG-2 broadcasts for nine of its thematic TV channels from October 20th. The change will affect Rai 4, Rai 5, Rai Movie, Rai Yoyo, Rai Sport+ HD, Rai Storia, Rai Gulp, Rai Premium and Rai Scuola, which will all switch to DVB-T MPEG-4 encoding. For the time being, […]

September 20, 2021From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Italy: Netflix concerned over investment obligations

Netflix has expressed concern over plans by the Italian government to double the investment obligations in Italian and European programmes. The changes are laid out in the draft legislative decree that transposes the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive. Instead of 12.5 per cent of net revenue, as is currently the case, OTT players will have […]

September 3, 2021From Branislav Pekic in Rome