According to projections from SNL Kagan, the market for high-definition televisions is expected to pick-up in the second half of 2009 and maintain momentum into 2010. SNL Kagan projects 2009 HDTV sales will reach 29.0 million units, up from an estimated 26.2 million in 2008, as consumers react to lower average retail prices for HDTV sets and to pent-up demand. [...]
Next-generation Interactive Programme Guides (IPG) are emerging that help consumers wade through a proliferation of TV programmes, movies, concerts and sporting events. As Internet Content and User Generated Content (UGC) migrate onto TVs and other video-capable devices, IPGs are transforming into Content and Service Discovery Guides (CSDGs), reports In-Stat. “A truly valuable CSDG will be personalizsd so that it can [...]
Telefonica plans to commercially launch an IPTV video-on-demand service in Argentina in March 2010. The service will be based on its Speedy broadband technology. Expected to compete with Cablevision’s pay-per-view offering, the VOD service content will include movies, series, children’s content, documentaries and music concerts. The service will initially be available to Telefonica’s Speedy subscribers in the capital and Greater [...]
The former Channel Five chief executive David Elstein has accused the BBC of “inverse Sarkozy syndrome: trying to seem smaller without actually becoming smaller”. Elstein renewed his call – first made in a 2004 report by the Broadcasting Policy Group, which he chairs – for the BBC to be funded by a voluntary subscription. He pointed to the success of [...]
Lord Mandelson has repeated that illegal filesharing posed a threat to Britain’s creative industries and it was vital for such industries to be allowed to flourish, but emphasised filesharers could have their Internet connections cut off for short periods, but only as a last resort. ISPs had reacted angrily to Mandelson's enthusiastic support for the three-strikes policy and the fact [...]
Tony Ball, the former Sky chief offered the job of chief executive of ITV almost a month ago, has pulled out of the process. ITV said in a statement that its executive chairman Michael Grade, who was to become non-executive, will leave the company once a new non-executive chairman has been appointed, a process it added was well advanced. Ball [...]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian public broadcaster RAI is planning to relaunch its offer of thematic channels, as part of a project that will be presented to the General Director and the Board of Directors by the end of the year. Speaking on the margins of the Prix Italia in Turin, Deputy Director General, Giancarlo Leone, said that they [...]
Intel’s chief technology officer has predicted that by 2015 more than 12 billion devices will be capable of connecting to 500 billion hours of TV and video content. He said “TV is out of the box and off the wall…TV will remain at the centre of our lives and you will be able to watch what you want where you [...]
Set top boxes for Project Canvas, the IP catch-up TV initiative from the BBC, ITV, Five and BT, are scheduled to be available in shops by December of next year. Richard Halton, IPTV programme director at the BBC, confirmed that, barring regulatory problems, the first Project Canvas set-top products “will be on sale by Christmas 2010″. Halton also confirmed talks [...]
Panasonic Corporation has developed a 50-inch Full HD 3D compatible plasma display panel (PDP) and high-precision active shutter glasses that enable the viewing of theatre-quality, true-to-life 3D images in the living rooms. Aiming to bring full HD 3D TVs to the market in 2010, the company has stepped up its efforts in developing the related technology. Prototype full HD 3D [...]
