Premiere has said it now has 225,000 customers for its Push-VOD service Premiere Direkt Plus, which it launched in 2005. The system uses a Humax PVR, where a special partition of the hard disk is reserved for the sevice. Premiere downloads a number number of movies overnight, which are available for viewing. All content is [...]
Czech TV to offer video service
November 1, 2007 12.39 Europe/London By
The Czech public broadcaster CT will shortly start to offer viewers the chance to watch videos of its output over the Internet, according to local reports. They will be available for a period of three days, with the cost per programme starting at CZK9 (€0.33). CT already offers videos of football matches through its fotbalzive.ct24.cz
WDR launches on-demand portal
October 29, 2007 12.31 Europe/London By
Germany’s largest regional public broadcaster WDR has launched its own on-demand (VOD) portal – or Mediathek – for catch-up viewing. The service will not only offer all regional video newscasts but also include audio from its various regional and local radio stations in the state of Nord Rhine-Westphalia. People will be able to comment on [...]
FX in 4oD download deal
October 26, 2007 08.34 Europe/London By
Channel 4 has struck a third party deal with News Corp-owned FX that will see programming from the channel made available to download from 4oD. It follows similar deals with National Geographic Channel and ABC-Disney. FX will provide 4oD with around 30 hours of programming per month from shows including Kenny vs Spenny, Charlie Jade, [...]
Step forward for Lithuanian VOD
October 23, 2007 12.05 Europe/London By
Sky+ driving TV viewing
October 18, 2007 11.28 Europe/London By
Personal Video Recorders can increase viewing time in some demographic groups, according to a new report from Attentional. Adults aged 16-34 with the Sky+ box watch slightly more television between 21.00 and 22.00 than their peers in Sky homes that do not have the technology. Entertainment Channels, such as Sky One, are likely to experience [...]
Premiere establishes On Demand subsidiary
October 11, 2007 11.28 Europe/London By
The German pay-TV operator Premiere has established the Premiere On Demand GmbH subsidiary to market and sell all on demand programming, including the current PPV service Premiere Direkt. Last Wednesday, the German media monopoly commission KEK gave the green light for the new venture. At present the Premiere Direkt offers up to 20 different Hollywood [...]
RTL Germany: online video turnover is peanuts
October 10, 2007 07.12 Europe/London By
BBWF – BERLIN. Turnover from the online video business “is peanuts”, according to Sushal Bijganath, MD of RTL Online, speaking during his keynote presentation at the Broadband World Forum. RTL is Germany’s main commercial broadcaster with five channels, an audience share of between 30 and 33% and a 44% share of Germany’s television advertising market. It enjoyed [...]
Virgin to show Channel 4 HD on VOD
October 8, 2007 09.58 Europe/London By
Virgin Media is to introduce high definition content from Channel 4 into its on demand service. The programmes will be made available free of charge for seven days after transmission as part of the 4oD service. The agreement also opens the possibility for Channel 4’s projected HD service also being made available over the cablenet. [...]
BigBang for BigBand as revenue expectations deflate
September 28, 2007 18.12 Europe/London By
Switched digital video and data head-end equipment vendor Bigband Networks has warned that its Q3 revenues will be in the $35-39 million range,as opposed to the expected $54-58 million. The lowered revenue guidance follows a profit warning issued at the beginning of August when the vendor announced its Q2 and H1 results. As a result of [...]
