TV
Once Carter goes, whither Digital Britain?
Digital Britain: 245 pages of “outcomes, proposals, roadmaps and recommendations” on the UK’s digital future. On top of that, there’s the promise of a dozen further consultations and new non-governmental bodies.
Despite all this bureaucracy, communications minister Stephen Carter’s report has mapped out a clear vision of Britain’s digital future.
European Commission sees sense on mobile-TV ‘tax’
I have almost lost count of how many stories and comment pieces of the “mobile TV suffers yet another blow” variety I have written over the last months. So it is refreshing finally to be able to write about some good news amid all the DVB-H debris and reports of DMB launches without phones.
As we report in New Media Markets this week, the European Commission’s tax directorate has done the sensible thing and abandoned proposals to reclassify high-end mobile phones that enable reception of television signals – a move that would have triggered a very recession-unfriendly import duty of up to 14%.
Global IPTV subscriptions exceed 20 million
According to research completed ahead of the IPTV World Forum, which opens at Olympia, London on Wednesday, Informa Telecoms & Media announces that global IPTV subscriptions reached the 20 million mark at the end of 2008. The 90 networks which have disclosed numbers to Informa Telecoms & Media account for 19.98 million subscriptions, and estimates for a further 20 networks take the total to 20.12 million. IPTV is now active in nearly 60 countries.
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Give It Away Now
We’re entering a recession, budgets are being slashed, people laid off and there is little positive sentiment to be found. Exactly the scenario in which the savvy content owner should prove they are ahead of the curve… and start giving away their content.
To 3D or not to 3D…
If the future is as crystal clear as the market for high-definition televisions has indicated, how long will it be before 3D images start bursting through our screens? Not that long, it would appear. Read more »
Is online video the Holy Grail for content owners?
The UK online-video advertising market is expected to be worth £35 million this year – just one per cent of total online advertising spending.
TV: Playing the Game
Factual giant National Geographic has become the latest TV company to launch a fully-fledged video game business, a move that marks the growing importance of gaming to traditional TV businesses.
Orange lays ground work for Apple-style app store for IPTV
I had an interesting conversation yesterday afternoon with Steve Glagow, the leader of Orange Partner, the ambitious third-party developer programme of France Telecom. And he confirmed to me that Orange was planning to do something we suspected an operator might try sooner or later: build an Apple-style app store for IPTV.
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BBC to hop out of Kangaroo?
The UK Competition Commission doesn’t much like the look of Kangaroo, the proposed video-on-demand venture between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, believing that it will have too much power in the nascent VOD market. The question now is whether the Beeb, the dominant partner, will want to go to the bother of rejigging Kangaroo. Read more »
WLTM: Big media seeks small indie for profitable relationship
The economic downturn won’t, it seems, put an end to larger producers, distributors and broadcasters hoovering up indie programme makers.
Last week, as UK indie RDF finalised its £52 million management buyout, a raft of Big Media companies were scouting for indie producers, with several deals in the offing.
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