Spanish Cable operator Ono has said it will press ahead with its planned IPO while continuing to engage with Vodafone over a possible acquisition, it has been reported. Citing two people “with knowledge of the matter”, news agency Bloomberg reported that Ono will slow preparations for the IPO, agreed at a board meeting on Thursday, to give Vodafone the option to up its previous bid, which was in the region of €7bn.
Cable CEOs debated the future of convergence between their own networks and mobile services at Cable Congress in Amsterdam this week. Leading executives said that cable operators are becoming mobile companies as consumption of content migrates to mobile.
Verizon Communications on Tuesday agreed to acquire Intel Media, a business division dedicated to the development of Cloud TV products and services. The US carrier will incorporate the Intel-developed technologies into its next-generation video services through the Verizon FiOS fibre optic network and over the top to any device, including via LTE.
Japanese electronics giant Panasonic has joined forces with Mozilla to develop and promote Firefox OS as an open and HTML5-based platform for smart TVs.
Kit vendor Alcatel-Lucent has announced two deals to supply access technology for China Telecom and China Mobile’s LTE networks.
Operator group Telenor has launched its own TV service in Hungary. The operator’s MyTV service offers live TV streaming as well as video on demand, and can be accessed on all internet connected devices.
US operator Verizon has announced plans to acquire content delivery network provider EdgeCast. The boards of directors of both firms have approved the acquisition and hope to finalise the deal early 2014. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Google has launched a low-price wireless dongle designed to enable users to stream web content to their TV set.
The company said the Chromecast device is designed to “make it easy to bring your favourite online entertainment to the biggest screen in your house,” and is Google’s latest attempt to break into the living room on the back of its Google TV play.
Europe’s telecoms and media companies must embrace innovation in key areas such as mobile, cloud computing and big data, as well as forge strong strategic relationships with other industry players like content delivery networks, if they are to survive the current revenue squeeze, according to think tank IDATE.
Multimedia over coax (MoCA) helped drive the global home networking device market to $4.9bn in the second half of 2012, up five per cent on a sequential basis, according to US firm Infonetics Research.
Ericsson’s first quarter profits fell year on year to SEK1.2bn (€139m) from SEK8.8bn for the same period in 2012, largely due to the boost given to 1Q12 numbers by the firm’s exit from the Sony Ericsson device JV. While the vendor recorded a two per cent uptick in sales to SEK52bn it was hit by currency fluctuations and a disappointing performance from its network rollout business.
Swedish equipment manufacturer Ericsson has announced its intention to acquire the IT services capabilities of the Devoteam Telecom & Media operation in France.
Samsung’s CES 2013 press conference marked an important but subtle change in the rhetoric of the world’s largest TV panel manufacturer.
Web giant Google has offloaded the Motorola Home business, which primarily makes set top boxes (STBs), to US firm Arris, in which it will also take an ownership stake.
US online video service Netflix has released the latest data for broadband connections in the US which carry its streams, and they make some interesting reading, including the revelation that Google Fiber is now the most consistently fast ISP in the country.
By shifting innovation from its set top box product into the cloud, US cable TV provider Comcast has revolutionised its offering, according to Mark Hess, senior vice president at the company. Speaking in the keynotes on Wednesday morning, Hess said: “Years ago we were trapped in that set top box. We could never manage to get the innovation into the box.”
This year’s IBC event lacked a big, overarching theme, or new “wow” topic to get journalists, analysts and market-watchers foaming at the mouth. And that’s no bad thing. It’s the sign of a maturing industry, and as a result, the show retained a healthy focus on improving existing products and trying to get the big things – multiscreen, OTT, hybrid – right. Nevertheless, there was plenty on show that highlighted that the market remains miles away from anything resembling certainty.
Free-to-air DTH has been a small but persistent part of the TV landscape in the UK, as elsewhere – and despite competition from emerging connected-DTT providers, subscription-free satellite operator Freesat is not planning on departing from the stage any time soon. Its latest makeover creates further competition in what is becoming a crowded market for UK TV services.
The web TV offering from Google has landed on European shores two years after Google TV launched in the USA. Starting this week, Google TV devices will be available for pre-order in the UK through a partnership with Sony, which is integrating the application with its Internet Player hardware.
BT Vision, the digital TV based subscription service offered by UK incumbent BT, has purchased the rights to show Premier League football matches in the UK in a bumper deal that combined with BSkyB is worth £3.018 billion (US$ 4.68bn). The bold move, which enables BT to show 38 live games from the 2013-14 season saw it beat out competition from traditional pay-TV broadcast companies such as ESPN and is being viewed as a statement of intent from the UK telecoms company.
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