08-09 - TELE-satellite International Magazine
08-09 - TELE-satellite International Magazine
08-09 - TELE-satellite International Magazine
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MEDIA<br />
Satellite & Broadband News<br />
– within university campuses. The acquisition<br />
will see Freewire launching in the<br />
US and Scandinavia later this year.<br />
BBC HD AVAILABLE ON VIRGIN TV<br />
Content from the BBC HD channel has been made<br />
available to Virgin Media subscribers via the public<br />
broadcaster’s iPlayer online catch-up service. The<br />
agreement between the BBC and Virgin Media<br />
TV means customers with an HD V+ set-top box<br />
and HD-ready television will now be able to watch<br />
BBC HD content and on-demand. The BBC added<br />
its HD channel to the iPlayer service in April.<br />
VIRGIN MEDIA PREPARES 200<br />
MBPS BROADBAND<br />
Virgin Media is doing its best to keep ahead of the<br />
demands of new technology and is testing 200<br />
Mbps broadband in Ashford, Kent. The company<br />
is preparing for an expected demand in the future<br />
for streaming TV in HD and 3D formats, and playing<br />
3D computer games. Virgin is carrying out a<br />
six month pilot scheme in Ashford, and will test<br />
3D and HD TV services, video conferencing and<br />
home video surveillance. The 200 Mbps service<br />
is believed to be the fastest in the world, followed<br />
by 160 Mbps in Japan and 101 Mbps in the US.<br />
SKY+ HD DVR IN OVER ONE MILLION HOMES<br />
BSkyB has announced that its Sky+ HD service has<br />
now been deployed in over a million Sky households<br />
(1,022 million, compared to 465,000 this time<br />
last year), following record sales in the first three<br />
months of 20<strong>09</strong>. The Sky+ DVR service (which is<br />
powered by technologies from NDS and OpenTV)<br />
added 406.000 net new subscribers during the<br />
quarter and is now in over 5 million homes.<br />
FREEVIEW TO GO HD FOR WORLD CUP<br />
Ilse Howling, the managing director of Freeview,<br />
has disclosed that the roll-out of Freeview HD,<br />
which was originally set to launch in line with the<br />
switchover timetable, has been brought forward.<br />
Some 40 per cent of homes in the UK will have<br />
access to Freeview HD for the football tournament<br />
in South Africa next June. Plans for the<br />
roll-out of the BBC’s iPlayer on Freeview are<br />
also ahead of schedule, with expectations that<br />
iPlayer-enabled Freeview boxes will be available<br />
later this year. Howling also said that almost<br />
14 million homes have HD ready televisions.<br />
N O R T H A M E R I C A<br />
CANADA<br />
619.000 HDTV SUBSCRIBERS<br />
FOR ROGERS CABLE<br />
Rogers Cable has announced that its digital cable<br />
subscriber base grew by 11.5% in the last year to<br />
1.59 million subscribers. In addition, the company<br />
announced significant growth in the number of<br />
HDTV subscribers. In the first three months of<br />
the year, the number of HDTV subscribers at<br />
Rogers climbed 9% to 619,000 households.<br />
TELUS TOPS 100.000 SUBSCRIBERS<br />
FOR TELUS TV<br />
Telus passed 100.000 subscribers for its IPTV<br />
service Telus TV in April, as it continues to rollout<br />
infrastructure and supporting marketing campaigns<br />
for the IPTV service in Alberta, British Colombia<br />
and Eastern Quebec. Since launching the service,<br />
the company has added 33 HD channels, PVR<br />
features with up to 60 hours of HD recording, and<br />
high-definition on-demand titles, and through a<br />
concerted investment programme is also expanding<br />
HD coverage of its network. Telus also revealed<br />
that it intends to launch Telus Satellite TV later this<br />
year, enabling the company to extend the footprint<br />
of its multi-play services to more than 90% of<br />
households across British Colombia and Alberta.<br />
UNITED STATES<br />
CENTURYTEL TO EXPAND IPTV SERVICE<br />
CenturyTel is expanding its IPTV service to more<br />
communities within its service footprint, testing the<br />
market to determine if it will do a full-scale rollout<br />
of IPTV services in the territory it got through its<br />
acquisition of Embarq last year. CenturyTel, which<br />
has been operating a pilot IPTV program in La<br />
Crosse, Wisconsin, for the past four years, said<br />
it plans to extend the service beyond that area<br />
by using bonded ASDL2+ broadband lines.<br />
DISH NETWORK, CABLEVISION<br />
ADD HDTV CHANNELS<br />
Dish Network has introduced a number of new HD<br />
channels, claiming it now offers more HD services<br />
than any other US provider. Dish’s total number<br />
of HD offerings now exceeds 140. The new feeds<br />
are for FX, Speed, Logo, Max TV and Fashion<br />
TV. For its part, Cablevision has reached 100 HD<br />
channels throughout their markets by June. New HD
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