Satellite TV News

March 16, 2010

Harrods and Currys fight over 3DTV claims

by David Allen

As the UK consumer prepares to go out and spend up to £3,000 pre-ordering a Sony 3D Television and the required equipment to produce a fantastic 3D image in the home, a row is emerging between suppliers. This row is nothing to do with price or service as the argument developing between top people's store Harrods and high street ...

March 15, 2010

NearEarth makes satellite predictions

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News The giant Satellite 2010 conflab opened today in Washington DC, and delegates were given some sound advice from the analysts at specialist consultancy NearEarth. NearEarth predicted their Top 10 expectations for the year ahead. Top of the list concerns satellite phone operator Iridium’s fresh financing. Iridium is looking for another $2.7bn to further develop its fleet. NearEarth ...

ITV HD to launch next month

by David Allen

Finally, ITV has decided to bite the high definition bullet and make ITV HD available on Sky+ HD & Virgin Media V+ making the channel available well in time for the football World Cup that kicks off in June. This will mean that ITV HD will also become visible on the electronic programme guides of Freeview and Freesat. Currently ...

BSkyB buy out on the cards?

by David Allen

Is a buy out of BSkyB on the cards? The market feels that something is in the pipeline as shares rose by a further 2.4 per cent, taking them up to 584p. This increase in value is buoyed by the continued speculation that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which already owns a thirty nine per cent stake in BSkyB, may ...

More HD channels for BSkyB

by David Allen

The satellite broadcaster BSkyB has announced two additions to the Sky+ HD service, with the launch of Sky Sports 4 HD and the Hallmark Channel HD. Sky Sports 4, which is the rebranded Sky Sport Xtra, will launch at the end of the month and offer around nine thousand hours worth of sport in high definition every year. BSkyB has ...

March 12, 2010

SES Astra says HD quality suffers when bit-rate is cut

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News This time next week SES Astra will unveil its latest data as to the number of homes viewing one or other of its satellites. The numbers will be good, but the number of HD channels now being offered in Europe is near-spectacular. But Astra admits there are complaints about too many broadcasters cutting their data-rates, leading to softer ...

Sky 3D Channel to be universal

by David Allen

When BSkyB first announced it would be bringing out a 3D TV Channel, it was feared that with the different formats available it would never work, but this is BSkyB and the broadcaster is not going to let a little thing like formats get in the way. Now it seems that the first 3D Channel in Europe will be ...

March 11, 2010

Inmarsat looking at L-Band

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News Andrew Sukawaty, CEO at Inmarsat, says the satellite operator is looking at its 5th Generation plans, and is considering L-Band and Ka-band for investment. “We really should be shot as a management team if we weren’t looking at this,” Sukawaty told Space News, a specialist trade newspaper. “But we have made no decisions. We need to consider spectrum ...

Dish Mexico misses DTH targets

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News Dish Mexico is a j-v between Echostar and MVS Telecommunications, and is seeking to acquire rival SatMex. Dish Mexico’s latest numbers are just out. Dish Mexico achieved 478,000 subs, as at Dec 31. While this might be seen as a perfectly acceptable result for a business that went live only a little over a year ago, the ...

Samsung 3D TVs launching soon

by David Allen

Samsung will be launching its version of the 3D television by the end of the month in the UK. The Korea-based firm confirmed the launch of the televisions and Blu-ray devices well in time for the start of the UK’s only 3D Channel from BSkyB. The company has joined forces with the DreamWorks Studio to include a copy of the ...

UK pay TV subscriptions increase

by David Allen

Once again, spending on digital television services has increased. To the end of 2009 the figure for subscription based services was £4.6 billion, which shows an increase of 6.4 per cent. According to Future Source Consulting, in total a staggering £19.7 billion was spent on media products, with pay TV taking around a quarter of that total. Packaged digital entertainment products ...

March 10, 2010

Dish seeks another ‘workaround’ for TiVo patents

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News With the threat of having to somehow or other isolate 8m DVR set-top boxes from their inner workings, Dish Network is reportedly seeking a workaround the pesky TiVo patents that control some of the Dish box’s functionality. A confidential technological solution has been filed March 9 with the Federal Court in Marshall, Texas, where the local judge ...

Sony shows off 3D TV details

by David Allen

Sony has joined the ranks of the 3D TV manufacturers with the launch of the NX800-based 3D televisions. The LX900's screen runs right to edge of the display, offering the viewer a beautiful looking television. The unit comes in 40”, 46”, 51” and 60” versions with an IR emitter built in and the TV actually comes with two pairs ...

ESPN says no to subscription rate cut

by David Allen

Within a few months the FA Premier League will have been won, the season will be finished and fans will be waiting for the next season to start, when digital TV sports provider ESPN will be showing just twenty three games from the league. For the season starting in September, ESPN will have its quota of live Premier League ...

Pay TV review due this month

by David Allen

The media regulator Ofcom is due to release the results of its Pay TV Review this month and, whatever the outcome, it is either going to upset BSkyB or the other digital television providers. The review is a record breaker, lasting longer than any other television consultation, probably because of the implications. At the end of the day it ...

March 9, 2010

BSkyB taking on more staff

by David Allen

One of the main ways for a business to retain customers is through excellent customer service, yet all companies at some point are guilty of offering bad customer service. It looks as if BSkyB is taking customer service very seriously, with plans to create over five hundred and fifty jobs at its new call centre in Stockport on ...

Germans to get 3D Football

by David Allen

Following the lead started by Sky Sports in the UK, BSkyB's sister company in Germany, Sky Deutschland, is planning to launch 3D coverage of live football matches. The 3D sporting event will take place on the 14th March and will cover the game between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburger SV. The live event will be produced by the German Football League ...

BSkyB shows off 3D TV on the road

by David Allen

Sky TV is taking 3D HDTV on the road over the next twelve months or so, as the broadcaster plans to showcase its 3D TV service at major shopping centres and malls around the UK. The first 3D TV Showcase will take place on the 12th March at the Westfield Shopping Centre in West London. The company will be showing ...

March 8, 2010

LG cancels UK 3D TV launch

by David Allen

In January, at the CES 2010 in Las Vegas, the air was filled with talk of 3D technology and the electrical giant LG was up there with the best of them, pitching its products to the world’s media. The LG LD920 3D TV was to be LG’s masterpiece, the flagship of the LG 3D TV fleet and yet now ...

IAAF signs UK TV rights deal with ESPN

by David Allen

The satellite sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed its second deal of the week. This time it is with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), to cover the World Indoor Athletics Championships in the Persian Gulf. The entire event from the Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar will be shown exclusively on the ESPN and ESPN HD channels between the ...

Astra takes control of Sirius

by David Allen

The leading direct-to-home satellite service provider, SES Astra, has taken complete control of the satellite fleet operator SES Sirius, following a deal that see SES Astra buying the remaining ten per cent of shares from the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) for an undisclosed fee. SES Astra has been a shareholder in SES Sirius since late 2000 when it acquired ...

Fifty to Eighty Million 3DTVs to be sold

by David Allen

According to recent research some fifty million to eighty million 3D Ready televisions will sold in 2015! This long-range expectation looks to be further proof that initial estimates that the 3D TV market would explode during the later part of this year were a little over optimistic. The research comes from two sources. The first, from Insight Media, suggests ...

March 7, 2010

Echostar loses patent war to TiVo

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

TiVo has won the latest round of its long-running ‘Time Warp’ patent action against Echostar/Dish. More than $300m is eventually likely to flow into TiVo’s bank account. But TiVo is just one problem facing Echostar. In action after action TiVo has won every round. Through the lower courts up to the most senior, judges ...

Televisa grows sales via satellite and cable

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

Growing sales in the cable, telecoms and satellite businesses of Mexico's biggest media company Televisa helped consolidated sales grow 9.1% in 2009, but free-to-air revenues were static. Sales grew to 52,352 million pesos (US$4,144 million) in 2009, in comparison with 47,972 million pesos in 2008. Subscribers to Sky increased by 143,000 of which 140,000 were ...

TVNZ enters Pay TV market

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

TVNZ, the state-owned New Zealand broadcaster, is making its first foray into pay-TV. Heartland will launch on Sky NZ Digital in June. Planned as an archive service, the channel will be available as part of Sky’s basic package. It will air 100% local content, with TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis saying TVNZ Heartland was ...

March 4, 2010

ZON follows into 3DTV

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

Portuguese pay-TV operator ZON is following the trend of Europe's main pay-TV operators by testing 3D transmissions. A 3D-dedicated channel will be broadcast in True 3D. A test channel screening movie trailers is already available to the operator's clients but only those equipped with the Zon Box terminal are able to get 3D. Film ...

Fuel TV to come to Europe

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

US-based television operator Fox Cable Networks has made its sports and lifestyle channel Fuel TV available to digital platform operators in Europe. Germany is the first international market entered by the channel with Eutelsat’s direct-to-cable platform KabelKiosk offering Fuel TV to its local distribution partners. The new addition forms part of KabelKiosk’s FamilyXL package ...

Samen TV: New satellite channel from Iran

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

Iran might be accused of jamming contentious satellite TV signals but that hasn’t stopped it planning a new channel for itself. Today (March 4) sees the start of Samen TV, backed by the Imam Abolhasan al-Reza Cultural-Artistic Institute, on satellite from Eutelsat’s Hotbird. BBC Monitoring quoted a member of the board of directors of the ...

UK wastes £52 billion on new tech

by David Allen

Gadgets and fads have always been a thing with UK consumers, but it seems that the levels of spending on gadgets that the consumer does not understand or use has reached epidemic levels, with an estimated £52 billion being wasted on technology. According to a survey of three thousand people by the technology magazine Stuff and the satellite TV ...

Shopping channel benefits from digital switchover

by David Allen

Despite the recession affecting retail stores in the high street, it seems that TV shopping has been benefiting from the digital switchover, with more consumers gaining access to the many shopping channels. For one of the largest television shopping channel QVC, sales during the fourth quarter more than doubled that of the annual increase, showing a 5.9 per ...

ESPN get the first euro Winter X Games

by David Allen

The satellite sports provider, ESPN, has announced that it has signed an agreement for the UK TV rights to the first ever Winter X Games in Europe. The competition will be taking place in the Tignes ski resort in France. This will be the first time the event has taken place outside of the US. The Winter X Games comprise ...

March 3, 2010

HP to pay BSkyB another £70 million

by David Allen

The satellite broadcaster BSkyB may have lost almost £350 million on the ITV share deal, but the company was soon £200 million better off following a court decision over the long running ERP software case. Now it seems that because the case lingered on for so long, BSkyB is entitled to a little more, in fact £70 million more, ...

Pace reports £1 billion in sales

by David Allen

The satellite and cable set-top-box maker, Pace, has announced that its sales have passed the £1 billion mark for the first time. However, it also warned that 2010 would be a slower year for the business. The company had sales of £1.13 billion in 2009 which produced a pre tax profit of £69.9 million. Pace has seen real growth ...

Sky Player gets more live TV

by David Allen

Sky Player, the online TV service provide by BSkyB, continues to expand its content by adding a further three channels this month. Once completed the choice of channels will have grown to thirty. Sky Player is now a real alternative to actually owning a set top box and satellite dish, especially as Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Movies Showcase ...

Astro picks Pace for HD STB deal

by David Allen

While the Saltaire-based set top box manufacturer Pace is riding high on the back of some great financial results, business goes on with the company signing a deal that will mean its set top boxes being sold in Asia. It has been announced the Malaysian satellite and phone company Astro has picked Pace to supply the broadcaster with HD ...

March 2, 2010

Second place for STB maker Pace

by David Allen

The Saltaire-based set top box manufacturer, Pace, is now the second largest supplier of satellite and cable television equipment in the world. According to research carried out by the Screen Digest, Pace has moved in front of Technicolor (formerly known as Thompson) and just behind the largest global supplier of set top boxes, Motorola. These figures come out just in ...

February 26, 2010

Sky Deutschland feeling the strain

by David Allen

The German pay TV satellite provider Sky Deutschland, which of course is controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is expecting to report a loss for 2010, but for the following year the broadcaster is expecting to see a profit. Sky Deutschland, which is the country’s largest pay TV operator, will be posting a loss of between 130 million and ...

Orange TV improves

by David Allen

Orange TV, part of the huge France Telecom organisation, has announced that its total European digital TV subscriber base has grown by a massive fifty three per cent to 3.217 million during the past year. In France, which is of course the key area for France Telecom, Orange TV performed well, showing an incredible forty seven per cent increase ...

Sky News wins at RTS Awards

by David Allen

The team behind Sky News are celebrating after being named the News Channel of the Year at the Royal Television Society award ceremony. In fact Sky News come away with four major prizes, including Alex Crawford being named TV Journalist of the Year and the chief correspondent for Sky News, Stuart Ramsay, and his news team winning an award ...

February 25, 2010

Canal Plus to go 3D

by David Allen

The pay TV satellite operator, Canal Plus, has plans to launch a full 3D Channel in France and it hopes to have this up and running by the end of the year. The broadcaster has been experiencing technical issues recently and there are many subscribers who would prefer to see the company iron out some of these issues before ...

Conservatives back ECB Ashes claims

by David Allen

While the “Crown Jewels” of sport have been decided upon, the way that sport is televised in the UK is still uncertain and with the media regulator Ofcom still deciding on how much BSkyB can sell its wholesale content for, the whole area of televised sport is up in the air. To make matters worse the shadow sports minister, ...

Sky Player gets more Virgin Media channels

by David Allen

According to Broadcastnow.co.uk the satellite broadcaster BSkyB has been busy signing up more channels for its online TV service known as Sky Player. The latest additions to the Sky Player will be the Virgin Media channels, Living and Bravo, which open up a whole new world for viewers of BSkyB content, although not necessarily through subscribing to the full ...

February 24, 2010

Ofcom bans Curry’s sponsorship of The Simpsons

by David Allen

Sponsored indents of popular TV shows appear before most TV shows these days, in fact this occurs so often now that they are almost accepted as part of the show. However, occasionally these tiny adverts, which are supposed to be relevant to the show and not be too much like a standard advert, have become just an extra advert. The ...

Philips TV goes 3D this summer

by David Allen

Not to be left out in the dark, the Dutch electronics giant, Philips, is planning a venture into the 3D HDTV market towards the end of August. This follows reports that the company is planning a 2010 launch for the Philips Cinema 21:9 3D television. The television was displayed at the IFA in 2009, but in Barcelona the company ...

CEO leaves Motorola set top box division

by David Allen

Things appeared to be moving in the right direction for Motorola, with the company making the decision to put the set top box business and the mobile phone division together and launch them off as separate entities. However, now all of these plans have been shaken up again with the boss of the Home Business, which builds the set ...

February 23, 2010

Eutelsat to launch with W3B with Arianespace

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

It seems like only yesterday that Eutelsat was being criticised by the French authorities for choosing to launch its W3B satellite upon a Chinese rocket, bypassing Arianespace. W3B was due to be lifted into orbit by a Chinese Long March rocket. Eutelsat has now changed its mind. W3B will now launch with Arianespace, but ...

Satellite mobile TV worth $11 billion

by Rapid TV News
Website: Rapid TV News

Satellite-delivered mobile TV has had a somewhat lacklustre performance to date. But a new study says that the satellite mobile TV market will soon be worth an impressive $11bn a year. Despite the limited audience and coverage of services, the market for mobile television is expected to witness rapid growth, providing potential opportunities for ...

Eurosport live on the iPhone

by David Allen

The European satellite sports broadcaster is offering sports fans the chance to watch Eurosport while on the move on their iPhones. The iPhone app allows the user to watch live sporting events over a Wi-Fi or 3G network connection. The so called Eurosport Player is a free download and gives UK users' access to British Eurosport and British Eurosport 2. ...

Sky TV app for Nokia handsets

by David Allen

It seems that these days applications for smartphones are the growing business and, as this offers broadcasters an additional channel to use, it is little wonder that BSkyB is pushing these apps out in super fast time. The latest app on the scene is the Sky TV app for Nokia phone users which will give the user access to ...

Pace partners with M7 for HD project

by David Allen

The UK-based set top box manufacturer, Pace, has announced that it has signed an agreement with the M7 Group which runs CanalDigitaal, TV Vlaanderen and TeleSAT in the Benelux region of Europe. Pace will be providing the pay-TV company with the latest HD TV set top box branded under the Philips name, but it will also carry the Pace ...

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