Nat Geo Wild has been issued with a licence from Ofcom for its new Nat Geo Wild channel. The new channel will launch on March 1 and will be available in around 12 million households in Europe, Israel and South Africa, replacing Adventure 1. Nat Geo Wild is perceived as Nat Geo’s answer to Discovery […]
ASA rejects Sky HD complaint
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rejected complaints that claimed that advertisements for Sky HD were inaccurate. The advertisements promised viewers “the biggest revolution in television viewing since colour superseded black and white” and “four times the detail”. BSkyB explained that 100% of the content on its HD channels were in HD, though that it […]
MTV’s Barry joins BT Vision
Another senior staff member has left MTV’s London office. Michael Barry, previously managing director of the music and youth networks channels in the UK and Ireland, is to join BT Vision as director of programming. Barry will take up his post in April and will report to Marc Watson, commercial director at the IPTV network. […]
Sky Italia up again
Sky Italia improved its second quarter figures, reducing its operating loss to $12 million, compared to $53 million a year ago. The improvement is a reflection of an increase in subscriber additions, which added 432,000 year-on-year, bringing the total to 4.03 million at the end of the quarter. The company added 200,000 on the quarter, […]
Worldspace confirms European shutdown
Worldspace has confirmed the withdrawal of its subscription service to listeners from its North-West Beam with effect from December 1, 2007. The move comes ahead of the operator’s introduction of its mobile digital satellite radio. Worldspace has now withdrawn the sale of new subscriptions to listeners in Europe and North Africa that would have tuned […]
Digital Rapids provides Flextech encoding
Flextech Television, the content division of the soon to be Virgin Media, has installed Digital Rapids’ StreamZ for its VOD and Mobile Encoding. The system will be operated by the New Media department at Flextech’s London facility and has been integrated into the company network with its media storage accessible to their edit platforms, primarily […]
HBO launches East Europe SVOD
CABLE CONGRESS – AMSTERDAM. Home Box Office is bringing its subscription video on demand service to Central and East Europe. Speaking during the Cable and Content session, Linda Jensen, CEO, HBO, Central and East Europe said that HBO Digital will roll out in the next few weeks, although she didn’t name which market. Poland, Hungary, […]
Broadband the most important pipe
CABLE CONGRESS – AMSTERDAM. Broadband Internet remains a vital part of the cable operator’s armoury. According to Duco Sickinghe, CEO of Belgium’s Telenet, Internet is by far the most important product line and this year revenue from telephony will surpass analogue cable. Sickinghe said that the purchase of the Flemish Canal+ channels subsequently paid back […]
Ready, Steady, Cable
CABLE CONGRESS – AMSTERDAM. The congress theme is That’s Entertainment, and under the watchful eye of BBC Prime’s Ainsley Harriot at the Convention Factory we were. The celebrity chef, turned presenter, guided Cable Europe president Manuel Cubero through the first course. As an appetiser guests were shown clips to BBC shows, not under the Prime […]
Cable Europe seeks regulatory harmony
CABLE CONGRESS – AMSTERDAM. Certain European member states still believe their markets are different and require special legislation. That’s the view of Cable Europe vice president Manuel Kohnstamm, addressing a press briefing at the Cable Congress in Amsterdam. Kohnstamm said that Cable Europe was working with the European Commission, where it could, in order to […]