News and Analysis
Belgium on must-carry final warning
The European Commission has issued a final warning to Belgium over the application of must carry rules imposed on cable companies in the capital, Brussels. The action comes as the EC begins a new round of infringement proceeding for EU Telecoms Rules. Read the story »
US cable operators to supply digital to analogue boxes
With increasing demand for bandwidth on cable networks, there will come a time when operators will want to switch off analogue distribution. What is more, with HD channels and broadband access needing more capacity, it will probably be sooner than later. Read the story »
NorDig publishes HD specs
NorDig, the technical grouping that oversees digital broadcast standards in the Nordic market, has published the first edition of its HD specifications. Requirements to NorDig compliant IRDs for reception of HDTV builds on the existing set of specifications known as the NorDig Unified Requirements for Integrated Receiver Decoders. Read the story »
Canal Digital faces subscriber squeeze
Heavy competition from rival platforms put further pressure on Canal Digital in the first quarter. Although Telenor Satellite Broadcasting describes subscriber numbers as “stable”, the number watching services on the One West slot fell by 18,000 to 1,124,000 in the three months to March 31, 2008. Read the story »
French TV platforms – an overview of DTT and DTH
France has an interesting digital TV market with DTT, DTH, cable and IPTV all present. According to the most recent Digital Barometer from TDF, DTT is the most widely available service, with 22.9% of all homes having at least one digital terrestrial tuner. Digital DTH with a subscription is meanwhile the choice of 14.9% of homes, IPTV 8.6%, digital cable 5.7% and FTA DTH 4.1%. Read the story »
UPC claims success with day and date VOD titles
UPC Nederland has been very successful with the first trial of day & date VOD titles, which include recent blockbusters such as Harry Potter, Ocean’s 13 and 300 from Warner Home Video. Made available at the same time as their DVD release, the movies generated sales up to three times regular VOD buys for similar titles. Read the story »
BBC iPlayer not the only girl in town
For all the talk of the iPlayer, it might be thought that the BBC’s internet-based on demand service was the only such product available. From the CTO panel at the Cable Congress (Madrid, April 23-25) it became clear that European cablenets are all grappling with the problem of how to handle these so-called Over the Top services and at the same time managing the upgrade of their networks to handle these and other upgrades including the provision of VOD. Read the story »
Marketing cable, the local way
There is certainly no one size fits marketing strategy cable operators can adopt in tempting their subscribers to switch from analogue to digital offers. Read the story »
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European cable set for rollercoaster ride
DATA. Although Europe’s cable industry is in many respects a laggard compared to that in the US, it is expected to undergo a swift migration to digital in the next few years. Read the story »
One third of second sets converted
Secondary TV sets are still lagging behind in the conversion to digital television reception. In the UK, 14.2 million sets have now been converted out of an installed base of around 34.4 million. Read the story »
Dutch digital homes expected to reach 50% by year-end
DATA: By the end of 2007, the number of Dutch digital homes had reached 3,044,000. This represented a growth of 10% per quarter, or 40% on the whole of last year. At the end of December 2006, the number of digital homes was 2,186,000. Read the story »
Virgin Media adds subs, not profit
The tenure of Neil Berkett as the acting CEO of Virgin Media has seen a key strategy change put in place. Rather than being an entertainer the cablenet is concentrating on the pipe, going against the grain of the European operators that it is now benchmarking itself against, though taking advantage of the UK’s appetite for increasingly greater broadband speeds. Read the story »
Events Diary
- May 14, 2008 - May 16, 2008
Future TV Show 2008
Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
Web: www.futuretvevent.com
- May 18, 2008 - May 21, 2008
NCTA - The Cable Show
Morial Convention Center, New Orleans
Web: http://2008.thecableshow.com
- May 23, 2008 17:30 - 20:00
Broadband TV 2.0
Jurys Inn, 101 Stroudley Road, Brighton BN1 4DJ
Web: http://www.use8.net/index.php?pmctsys=us8&pmshow=theevent
- May 27, 2008 - May 30, 2008
ANGA Cable 2008
Cologne, Germany
Web: http://www.angacable.de
- June 5, 2008 - June 7, 2008
Driving Digital Content: Generating Revenues and Engaging the Consumer
London, UK
A two-day event focusing on the business opportunities presented by the continued rise of digital content delivery and its impact upon the wider industry.
www.uands.com/ddc08 <http://www.uands.com/ddc08>
- June 8, 2008 - June 12, 2008
Banff World Television Festival
The Fairmont Banff Springs, Banff, Canada
Web: http://www.banff2008.com/


