Unity Media and EWT have agreed to terminate Unity’s option to purchase part of EWT’s business in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The option was granted in November to Unity’s subsidiaries ish and isey. The decision not to acquire the businesses followed a period of due diligence. Although Unity and EWT have agreed to potentially return [...]
Music Choice adds Unity Media
March 29, 2007 17.17 Europe/London By
Music Choice has extended its reach in the German market through a new deal with Unity Media. The premium audio service will be available to 5.1 million subscribers on the iesy and ish networks in the states of Hessen and North Rhine Westphalia. Although only around 360,700 customers receive the digital tiers in which Music [...]
UK’s WightCable North opts for NDS
March 29, 2007 11.10 Europe/London By
The UK cable operator WightCable North has selected NDS VideoGuard Express to replace its existing conditional access platform. WightCable North has a presence in the West of Scotland (Irvine, Troon and Kilmarnock) and North West of England (Carlisle, Lancaster and Morecambe), in the latter case through networks belonging to the former Omne Communications. Linked to [...]
Com Hem reaches Viasat digital agreement
March 29, 2007 10.00 Europe/London By
Popular Swedish channels TV3 and TV6 are to be added to Com Hem’s digital packages from April 2 after an agreement between the cablenet and content provider Viasat. The channels had previously only been available in analogue, a source of irritation for Com Hem’s digital subscribers, since the operator ceased the availability of combined analogue-digital [...]
Setanta extends Irish cable carriage
March 28, 2007 15.45 Europe/London By
Setanta Sports has extended its carriage agreement with UPC Ireland. The recently launched Setanta Golf Channel will be added to the UPC-owned NTL and Chorus networks, while the Setanta Ireland channel will be included in the Chorus basic package for the first time. The Setanta Golf Channel will be a part of the Setanta Premium [...]
In-Di launches HD on April 10
March 28, 2007 10.13 Europe/London By
The Flemish digital In-Di platform will launch its previously announced HD bouquet on April 10. The new service will comprise four HD channels: premium movies on Kinepolis TV, commercial broadcaster VTM, cultural channel Exqui and HD1, both from Euro 1080/Alfacam. The In-Di platform is a joint venture of the four cable companies that make up [...]
Orion Cable plans German shopping spree
March 28, 2007 07.14 Europe/London By
Orion Cable is to establish a €365 million debt facility through its parent company Escaline S.a r.l. The plan is to use the proceeses to purchase additional preference shares in Orion Cable and Escaline, repay existing debts, and finance the potential acquisition of other retail cable operators in Germany. In a statement the company named [...]
Liberty unveils digital plans
March 28, 2007 05.53 Europe/London By
According to local reports, Liberty Global has announced its UPC operations in Poland and Hungary will start rolling out digital TV services from 2008. They are likely to include HDTV, a PVR product and virtual VOD libraries, with reception equipment supplied by Philips and Thomson. Separately, a draft law to be presented in Poland next [...]
BTC ready for triple play
March 28, 2007 05.09 Europe/London By
The incumbent Bulgarian telco BTC has announced the completion of a Next Generation Transport Network (NGTN) employing Cisco technology that will allow it to offer triple play services. BTC ended 2006 with over 90,000 ADSL subscribers, and its fixed line and Internet customer total now stands at 2.5 million. All told, the company spent BGN345 [...]
Icelandic launch for The History Channel
March 27, 2007 17.14 Europe/London By
The History Channel is to launch in Iceland this Sunday (April 1). It will make its debut on the Skjarinn ADSL platform and cable system as part of the Scandinavian service that launched on February 1 this year. In Iceland the channel will broadcast in English. “We have been anticipating the launch of The History [...]
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Digital TV Eastern Europe NEW REPORT by Simon Murray of Digital TV Research. 2012 is a watershed year for Eastern Europe as the number of digital homes for 15 forecast countries will exceed the analogue total for the first time. This electronically-delivered,150-page report comes in three parts, a PDF file and two Excel workbooks. Countries covered include Russia and Ukraine.