Philip Hunter

Asia will overtake Europe as the leading IPTV continent within two years.

The EBU is warning Hungary that a new media law threatens broadcast freedom.

UK communications regulator Ofcom will enforce EU guidelines for UK product placement starting March 1.

The EBU has built on its audio-over-IP standard to define interoperability requirements for intercom over IP.

HbbTV has been added to the NorDig specification covering the Nordic countries for IRDs (Integrated Receiver and Decoder), now known as hybridIRDs.

There were mixed feelings for BSkyB and Telco BT, the two winners of the bidding for English Premier League TV football rights, as they paid way more than they had budgeted for.

Germany’s cable operators have opened two fronts, against broadcasters over carriage rights, and with the regulator over mergers, consolidation and broadband unbundling.

Most of Europe has registered growth in pay TV subscriptions early in 2012, but not Italy and Spain.

The European Commission says that broadcasters will have to hand over another 200MHz of spectrum to mobile broadband.

The DVB’s version of digital terrestrial used in Europe is gaining ground in Asia Pacific following adoption in Singapore.

Philips and LG have teamed up to form Smart TV alliance and invited their competitors to join.

The European Broadcast Union and Advanced Media Workflow Association will unveil the new Framework for Interoperability of Media Services in TV Production at IBC 2011 in Amsterdam next month.

Sustainability and green issues will feature prominently at the upcoming IBC conference.

The European Broadcast Union (EBU) is urging its member countries to extend the current pan-cointinental rights regime for satellite and cable services to all forms of broadcast.

Click to purchase, advertising, betting and voting are key applications for companion screens.

Monaco Telecom is moving into the cloud with help of French IPTV STB maker Netgem.

Both the UK's leading pay TV operators BSkyB and Virgin Media have recently announced expansion plans for Wi-Fi that could end up delivering TV to homes as well as public places.

Unlike the U.S., France has a rule forbidding mention of commercial products in news programmes, but that has run into problems with Facebook and Twitter.

The Ericsson TV & Video Consumer Trend Report 2011 finds people are spending less time watching scheduled broadcast TV but are willing to pay for fresh content.

The Home Gateway Initiative is using its Chicago meeting this week to focus on reducing power consumption while ensuring quality of service within the connected home.

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.