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Disney’s arrival won’t open the content floodgates for Hulu

Disney’s entrance last month into the Hulu fold marked another milestone in the young online-video service’s short history. The implications of the deal, which will see Disney TV shows and movies appear on Hulu for the first time, are serious and far-reaching. But the most obvious is that three of the four major US networks are now part of the service. If there were any lingering doubts that Hulu deserves its seat at the head table of US TV, they are now gone.

Norway offers DMB mobile TV for free

Norway’s three biggest broadcasters announced the successful launch of six free to air TV channels via DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) on Monday.

Mobile TV still one to watch?

Disagreements over standards adoption and the lack of a proven business model remain the principle-and considerable-obstacles to widespread adoption of Mobile TV. Mobile operators are wary of deploying Mobile TV services because the return on investment does not seem good enough. Some exceptions include Japan and South Korea, but the consumer behaviour in these markets […]

Advertising to help kick start mobile TV market

Mobile TV services are forecast to generate $1.5bn in revenues in 2008, rising to over $10bn in 2013, when nearly half the revenues will come from advertising. The figures were released Wednesday by industry analyst and telecoms.com parent Informa Telecoms & Media, which said that while the bulk of mobile TV revenues presently come from […]

Digital TV in 100 mil. homes in W. Europe

Digital TV is set to reach over 100 million homes in Western Europe by the end of the year, according to research released today. Industry analyst and telecoms.com parent Informa Telecoms & Media said that the number of digital homes in the region is set to rise from 104 million by the end of 2008, […]

Ofcom reveals plan for digital dividend

UK communications regulator Ofcom has set out detailed proposals for how it plans to release the valuable spectrum that will be freed up as a result of the switchover to digital television. The spectrum, known as the ‘digital dividend’, resides in the UHF band and is currently used for the delivery of analogue TV channels. […]

Sky forced to drop ITV holding

UK broadcaster BSkyB has been told to offload the majority of its holding in rival ITV, on recommendation from the Competition Commission. John Hutton, secretary of state for business and enterprise, said Sky must reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9 per cent to less than 7.5 per cent, and must not sell the shares […]

BT puts first 100Mbps fibre down

UK incumbent carrier BT has started its first deployment of fibre-optic cable, in the Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent. From August, around 10,000 homes on Land Securities’ 1,000 acre new build project and a number of commercial spaces in the area will have access to blistering 100Mbps broadband speeds. BT said that the service would allow […]

BT brings Vision to Xbox

Microsoft teamed up with UK incumbent telco BT on Monday, announcing a plan to deliver IPTV and HD movie services to Xbox 360 users. The partnership will enable BT Broadband customers to use an Xbox 360 to access the BT Vision IPTV service and its library of on demand content. The service will be made […]

Austria wakes up to mobile TV

Austrian viewers are, for the first time, watching TV on a mobile as Telekom Austria rolls-out a DVB-H pilot in association with its mobile arm, mobilkom Austria. The pilot, which started September 1 and runs till June 2007, will be viewed by 1000 users over the ‘mobile tv austria’ platform which covers central parts of […]

Sundance Kid shoots movies for mobile

The GSM Association (GSMA) on Wednesday announced a partnership with the independent filmmakers group, Sundance Institute, to put short films on mobile devices. Sundance Institute – founded by Robert Redford – has been working for and with independent filmmakers for over 25 years and have set up a dedicated unit, Sundance Film Festival: Global Short […]

AT&T intros another IPTV service

US carrier AT&T launched its Homezone service on Wednesday, going toe to toe with the country’s cable TV providers. The Homezone bundle combines Yahoo! broadband, AT&T’s DISH satellite television and wireless home networking services in a single device. The offering is available across the company’s broadband footprint as of today. The package delivers IPTV video […]

TDtv sparks interest in Europe

Adding yet more confusion to an already fragmented mobile TV market, 3UK, Telefonica and Vodafone on Wednesday joined Orange in a technical trial of TDtv, the 3G TD-CDMA-based Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) The trial of TDtv technology developed by US vendor IPWireless, is scheduled to run to the end of the year and […]

Analyst questions T-Mobile, EMI model

Following Monday’s announcement that Deutsche Telecom’s mobile arm, T-Mobile has partnered with EMI to trial an advertising supported mobile video service, at least one analyst believes the model could fall short. The trials will give selected customers access to free video content embedded with television-style advertising. However, Windsor Holden, senior analyst at Analysis, wonders whether […]

Mobile TV hits ad obstacle

UK broadcaster ITV is to simultaneously broadcast some of its most popular content to mobile handsets and TV sets, in partnership with 3G cellco 3 UK. The ITV1 channel will be available on the 3 network for £0.99 per day, while the ITV Play channel will be available for £0.49 per day. An all you […]

DoCoMo falls out with mobile TV users

Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo is scrambling to release a new version of its popular mobile TV handset after unscrupulous users found a loophole allowing them to watch free mobile TV. DoCoMo has had 1seg mobile terrestrial digital TV services available on the Panasonic P901iTV since April and is thought to have sold over 120,000 […]