Satellite radio operator ONDAS Media has been officially registered as an operator by the Spanish regulatory authority CMT (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones). The licence will allow ONDAS to operate its planned subscription service across the European Union. “ONDAS Media requires various spectrum allocation and operational licences for the launch of its satellite radio […]
UPDATE: BBC Prime stays on HOT
Israel’s cable platform HOT has reached a last minute agreement with BBC Prime to keep the entertainment channel on the network. New contracts have also been established with Hallmark, Eurosport News and National Geographic’s Adventure One. The agreements followed a heated period of negotiations after content costs spiralled to NIS800 million (€146m) in 2006. HOT […]
Homechoice could fall to BT
BT has emerged as a potential bidder for the UK assets of Tiscali, the Italian telco which last year acquired Video Networks’ Homechoice business. The Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore says that BT has begun talks with investment bank Merrill Lynch to discuss the acquisition. Homechoice has around 46,000 subscribers in London and Hertfordshire […]
Podcasting to cars from old Ku-birds
In a remarkable announcement, the satellite operator SES, European Space Agency ESA and German avionics research institute DLR have claimed there is such a thing as spent Ku-band satellites sitting idle in orbit, without any use or purpose. So why not use them to offer mobile radio services to cars for ‘many more years’? The […]
Jazztel in VOD launch
Spanish IPTV provider Jazztel has launched a new video on demand service. Videoclub went live in December and uses a bank of 50 video servers provided by Kasenna. The system uses Kasenna’s MediaBase Video Server platform and vFusion content distribution server software to optimise the storage between the centralised server and streaming edge servers. Jazztelia […]
Eutelsat takes Abertis on board
The board at satellite operator Eutelsat Communications has today appointed four new members, following the acquisition of 32% of its share capital by Abertis Telecom. The Abertis representatives replace board members representing the previous owners of Abertis Eutelsat stake. Abertis Telecom acquired its share of the Paris-based satellite operator from Nebozzo (Texas Pacífic Group and […]
KPN to sell tower business to TDF
KPN is selling its network of 23 large transmission towers to French broadcast transmission specialists TDF (Telediffusion de France). In addition, one tower will remain the property of KPN, but will be managed by TDF. So far, no financial details have been disclosed. Prior to the Dutch national analogue switch-off, overnight on Sunday December 10 […]
TV Vlaanderen claims 30,000 households
Flemish DTH operator claims 30,000 households connected since their official launch in June, 2006. “These strong results show there is a need for an independent Flemish provider for digital television, ” said Kurt Pauwels, general manager of TV Vlaanderen, “This means we have reached already our goal for the first twelve months. We are confident […]
StarNordic buys FastTV stake
StarNordic has become a part owner of the Norwegian IPTV operation FastTV.net. The alliance means that StarNordic will now be able to target housing and aerial associations used to analogue TV with a digital IPTV offering from FastTV. At the same time FastTV will now be able to provide Internet and telecoms services using the […]
Hot Bird passes 1,000 channels
Eutelsat Communications has said it has broken the barrier of 1,000 video channels in the Hotbird satellite neighbourhood, which grew by 273 channels over the past two years to over 1,050 at end December 2006. The company also announced headline results of its two-year survey of satellite and cable homes. Set up in 1994, the […]