Philip Hunter

Increased UK viewing of live linear TV and associated adverts is giving a boost to commercial TV operators.

JPEG 2000 and the MPEG-4 10-bit profile have emerged as contending encoding technologies for European operators.

The BBC has cut online services but maintains investment in Canvas and iPlayer.

San Francisco private equity firm Vector Capital Corp. has emerged as a contender to buy a majority stake in French film and video production equipment maker Technicolor SA.

TiVo’s European business boosted the DVR specialist’s subscriber base by 524,000 to 2.5 million in the year ending April 30.

Italian Telco Fastweb is planning to close down its IPTV service by November 2012, according to local reports.

A French project kicks off this week to cut the bandwidth needed for future ultra HD transmissions.

Another step on the way to Ultra HD (UHDTV) services has been taken by the EBU.

Viaplay claims to be first pay TV operator to combine OTT streaming and DTT with seamless channel change.

Norwegian content security specialist Conax has teamed up with Cubiware and MPS Broadband to add to the growing list of pre-integrated ecosystem options for pay TV operators.

Kabel Deutschland has broadband speeds of 4.7Gb/s, fast enough to download a full HD movie in about 20 seconds.

Europe did not pull its weight for the official launch last week of IPv6, the Internet’s second and final version of the IP protocol.

Figures from Portugal and Poland indicate continued growth for IPTV despite Eurozone problems.

The EBU last week held a conference about media freedom in Azerbaijan, which is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest this month, but this has not defused criticisms from human rights organizations.

Conditional access vendor Nagravision expects cost of OTT delivery over CDNs to tumble and reach tipping point when it becomes cheaper than satellite within a few years.

Although surveys differ widely over usage of smart TVs in Europe they agree it is set for lift off.

Operators and broadcasters are struggling to get to grips with social TV.

UPC Poland has launched a service allowing up to 12 sports channels to be shown simultaneously.

The dramatic conclusion to the UK premier league season was great news for the clubs, but less so in the short term for broadcasters faced with having to pay even more for rights as a result.

Hybrid HbbTV services are ready for deployment in Poland following commitment from Samsung.

The BBC is playing catch up with U.S. counterparts by adding live restart to its iPlayer.

Just a week after the UK’s hybrid TV platform YouView finally launched, an industry group released an alternative specification based on HbbTV.

The London Olympics marks the end of standard definition for premium sports in Europe.

The BBC’s online video service, iPlayer, has come out top in a survey of UK brands by polling organization YouGov.