Former OpenTV chairman and CEO Jim Chiddix has emerged as the vice chairman of broadband access equipment supplier Vyyo. Chiddix, whose career also includes a 15-year tenure as CTO of Time Warner Cable, is joined by fellow cable veteran Wayne Davis as CEO of the company. Davis takes over from Davidi Gilo who will remain [...]
KDG increases basic digital to 102 channels
March 27, 2007 10.03 Europe/London By
German cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) is to introduce 26 new channels to its basic digital line-up bringing the total number of channels available to 102. The increased number is only available on the upgraded parts of its network, about 8.6 million households across the country and including cities such as Berlin, Bremen and Hanover. [...]
UPC Czech ups the ante
March 27, 2007 09.32 Europe/London By
UPC plans an almost four-fold increase in the Internet access speeds it offers in the Czech Republic from the beginning of April. As a result, they will now start at 2Mbit/s, allowing the company to compete more effectively with ADSL providers such as Telefonica O2. The combined UPC/Karneval operation currently has 200,000 Internet customers, while [...]
Walloon cable consolidates
March 26, 2007 16.01 Europe/London By
VOO, a consortium of Brutélé and ALE, is to acquire the other eight cable operators in the French-speaking half of Belgium in a deal worth at least €475 million. The operators are controlled by the municipalities in partnership with utility company Electrabel, now owned by France’s Suez. Attempts to create a single Walloon triple-play provider, [...]
Ethnic bouquets for ish and iesy
March 26, 2007 07.07 Europe/London By
German cable operators ish and iesy have introduced three foreign language bouquets. Launched on Friday (March 23) the bouquets are for Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian viewers. The Serb package is called Pink consists of Pink Extra, Pink Plus and Pink Radio and costs €15.90 a month. The Croatian offer is called Tividi Croatia and contains [...]
Greek IPTV market takes off, Vivodi launches service
March 23, 2007 17.59 Europe/London By
Vivodi Telecom has said its ‘cable TV by Vivodi’ service is now up and running. Using a MEDIAstream platform supplied by MCOM, a leading Greek company in television technology over IP networks, it offers both live TV and VOD services via an ADSL2+ network. Vivodi also claims the network to be the largest privately owned [...]
US court: no network-DVR for Cablevision
March 23, 2007 16.58 Europe/London By
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that Cablevision will not be allowed to roll out a network-based DVR. The decision comes as blow to operators who have wanted to deploy such services rather than have DVRs in the home. “We are disappointed by the judge’s decision and continue [...]
Dutch launch for Comedy Central
March 23, 2007 16.06 Europe/London By
Viacom’s Comedy Central will launch in The Netherlands on April 30. The channel will broadcast in the evenings only in a channel share with the Dutch version of Nickelodeon and will be available on cable, satellite, DTT and IPTV. Following Germany and Poland this is the third localised version of Comedy Central in Continental Europe. [...]
Last Tango for Luxembourg’s T.TV
March 22, 2007 08.59 Europe/London By
Luxembourg broadcaster T.TV (Tango TV) has closed and the station and its assets have been put up for sale. Broadcasts at the Tele2 venture ceased last Friday (March 16) amid reports that the company had racked up losses of €18 million. The entertainment channel launched in February 2002 as a competitor to the national broadcaster [...]
Multimedia/TPSA ink deal
March 22, 2007 07.30 Europe/London By
The Polish MSO Multimedia Polska is reported to have signed a fixed line telephony interconnection agreement with the country’s incumbent telco TPSA. It will come into effect on July 1 and be valid indefinitely. Multimedia Polska is Poland’s third largest cable operator, claiming 575,000 subscribers as of the end of last year.
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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.