The worldwide pay TV channel RTL International is closing its doors, as owner Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, a German media company, has decided that the channel cannot compete against illegal streaming sites. RTL International only launched in January last year for German speaking audiences in regions such as the US, Canada, Africa, Australia, and more, showing shows from RTL, Vox, RTL Nitro and n-tv.
UK regulator Ofcom has determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Plusnet, part of British Telecom, has been overcharging customers for broadband and telephony services, following an investigation. This relates to services between March 2008 and September 2015, and includes allegations that it continued to charge some consumers after they had canceled its services.
NorDig, a digital TV technical specifications group in the Nordics and Ireland, has released new specifications for supporting the adoption of HbbTV 2 (hybrid broadcast broadband TV). The UK and Italy are the only other countries to have so far adopted the standard, which includes enhanced dynamic ad insertion support, improved accessibility, better cross-device viewing and standardized UHD delivery with HEVC. Open standards body The HbbTV Association has applauded the move.
Indian IT technology company Wipro has announced that its digital TV middleware for in-car TV reception systems has been customized for the Japanese automotive market. OEMs of in-vehicle infotainment systems can use the middleware for enabling broadcast TV in their cars. Wipro says features include Antenna Diversity, Background Scans, Service Presets, One Touch Support, and Error Concealment.
Comcast has teamed up with ABC Television and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to provide its Xfinity X1 pay TV subscribers with more than 1,500 hours of content from this year’s Oscars. It will include live streams from backstage and the red carpet, plus interactive voice commands.
Multiscreen video player provider NexStreaming has released a player SDK for apps based on Tizen, the open source operating system mainly used on Indian phones, as well as smartwatches. The NexPlayer is now available on Samsung Tizen Smart TVs, Android set tops, Android smartphones and tablets, iOS and Android TVs. It includes features such as closed captioning, ABR, multiple audio tracks, Playready DRM and time-shifting.
Liberty Media is seeking to refinance its $3.15 billion loan under the interests of Delta Topco, the Liberty subsidiary which holds its newly acquired Formula One assets. Certain subsidiaries of Delta Topco intend to repay up to $300 million.
Satellite services provider SES said that there were more than 2.1 million subscribers to HD+ in 2016, the German HD satellite TV package, a 15% rise from the previous year. An additional 850,000 households are also running the free trial, according to SES.
The display market is forecast to grow to $169.17 billion by 2022, rising from $106.41 billion in 2015, according to a new research report from MarketsandMarkets. The report covers display technology (LED-backlit LCD, OLED, QD-LED, E-Paper), display type (flat, flexible, transparent), application (smartphone and tablet, TV and digital signage, PC monitor and laptop), and geography. Between 2016 and 2022, the market will have a CAGR of 7.5%, according to the research.
AT&T Fiber customers in the Columbia area can now receive a 1Gbps connection speed. It plans to reach 12.5 million locations by mid-2019, including 650,000 apartments and condo units.
Nokia has received a patent infringement suit from BlackBerry, for allegedly unlawfully using 11 BlackBerry patents in its Flexi Multiradio base stations, radio network controllers and Liquid Radio software – patents which are apparently essential to the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) telecoms organization.
Nearly 50% of mobile phone users globally use the devices purely for making voice calls and sending SMS, but this is forecast to shrink to 29% by 2030 as the availability of OTT apps increases, according to the latest Global Mobile Engagement Index (GMEI) from GSMA Intelligence.
DirecTV and ESPN have completed the nationwide roll out of the ESPN App on DirecTV set tops, following the initial launch in December 2016. DirecTV set top users can access VoD content and live streaming from ESPN3, SEC Network+ and ACC Network Extra.
NBC Universal has purchased a 25% stake in Euronews for $30 million, part of a strategy to bolster NBC News to better compete with CNN in the international market. On the same day as the deal, the European Commission signed a four year extension deal to continue funding Euronews with an estimated €25 million ($26.6 million) a year of EU money.
Chilean cable operator VTR, a Liberty Global subsidiary, has reported a 138% year-on-year increase in views on its VoD service, plus an 11% customer increase. VTR’s cloud-based VoD service uses ActiveVideo’s CloudTV GuideCast to virtualize set top functions.
Verizon could finalize a revised deal for Yahoo by the end of this week, rumored to be paying in the region of $250 million to $350 million less than the original $4.83 billion price tag, according to Reuters.