Eutelsat Communications has reported a 5.2% increased in revenues as the satellite operator recorded financials in line with its full year guidance. In the six months ending December 31, 2006, the Paris-based operator declared revenues of €415.3 million, compared to €394.9m in the same period in 2005. EBITDA was up 6% at €329.6m. Giuliano Berretta, […]
100+ complaints over Sky cable promos
Customers protesting at BSkyB’s call to action on the possible withdrawal of its channels from the Virgin Media platform have sent more than 100 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. The promotions have been carried on the dedicated cable feeds of BSkyB’s channels, including Sky One, Sky News and Sky Travel, amid heated negotiations over […]
First live demo of Alcatel’s Unlimited Mobile TV
3GSM CONGRESS – BARCELONA – Alcatel-Lucent shows the first demo of the proposed Unlimited Mobile TV service using the new DVB-SH standard, which combines satellite broadcasts in the S-band with terrestrial gap fillers. The prototype was made by Sagem, but Samsung will also produce a working model in the near future. With the system, which […]
JumpTV announces 11 new channels
JumpTV Inc, a broadcaster of ethnic television over the Internet, announced today that it has signed 11 new exclusive internet broadcast agreements with channels from Pakistan, Thailand, Lebanon, Nigeria and Benin, expanding its network to 270 channels from 70 countriues under license. Channels signed include: ORTB (Benin), Channels TV, Lagos TV and MiTV (Nigeria), Zam […]
Two options for local TV after switchover
Local TV services will need to compromise if their services are to continue after digital switchover. As part of the Digital Dividend Review, Ofcom has identified that local channels could either be interleaved into the national TV multiplexes or broadcast from separate local transmitters. Including local TV services into one of the existing multiplexes would […]
Digital coverage will match analogue reception
Ofcom has published details of the predicted coverage of the public service and commercial multiplexes following digital switchover. The UK regulator is predicting that the three DTT public service multiplexes will be available to 98.5% of UK households, representing 24.8 million people, and matching the current analogue coverage. The full six multiplexes will be available […]
Virgin acquires HBO VOD package
Virgin Media has announced a major content supply agreement with Home Box Office for a 50-hour package including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Entourage. The programmes, most of which are familiar to Channel 4 viewers, will be housed in a standalone HBO branded destination. This is the first time that the US pay-TV provider […]
Tele2 finally closes Versatel acquisition
In an extraordinary general meeting, Monday afternoon, shareholders approved a reverse take-over of Tele2’s Benelux assets, by Versatel. Tele2 acquired just over 80% of Versatel in the summer of 2005, for €1.34 billion. However the merger could not be completed due to minority shareholder resistance led by investment fund Centaurus. Monday morning the group that […]
ZDF: Germans want their mobile TV
3GSM WORLD CONGRESS – BARCELONA. 13% of the German population is interested in mobile TV, according to research on behalf of the ARD/ZDF-Medienkommission carried out in November, 2006. But they don’t necessarely want to watch it on their mobile phone: especially younger respondents said they also like this feature in their MP3 player or iPod. […]
EuroNews launches Mobile Video Alerts
3GSM WORLD CONGRESS – BARCELONA. EuroNews announced the launch of its breaking news Mobile Video Alerts service in cooperation with Comsys. EuroNews is starting the service, which will feature breaking news videos, at the end of February in France, soon to be followed in other languages for the different European markets. The service in France […]