Our headline is not quite correct in that NDS was ordered by the Santa Ana jury in the Echostar vs NDS piracy case to pay just $1000 in damages. NDS’ attorney’s said NDS had been completely vindicated on the whole lawsuit, and few could argue with that.
It seems satellite operators can do no wrong as far as HDTV is concerned. Eutelsat May 14 unveiled some impressive revenue numbers, helped by increased demand for HDTV.
Intelsat is not yet profitable, not helped by $313m-worth of restructuring costs, but its overall revenues were up 11% (to $572.7m) in the quarter to March 31st.
Canal+ has renewed its programming agreement with Disney-ABC International Television and signed up a multi-year partnership for movies from NewLine Cinema.
Five channels from Asia’s Star TV will be available to US cable operators immediately following a deal between Star and a subsidiary of US cabler Comcast.
There is a trend toward higher definition (HD) video online. A report carried out by online applications provider Akamai Technologies and market intelligence firm Broadband Directions found that there is substantial near-term interest in launching HD broadband video.
By the end of 2007, fixed line broadband penetration as a percentage of total population ranged from eight per cent in Qatar to a mere 0.02% in Sudan in the Arab World. But these numbers, while seeming low, hide much higher access to broadband services, says a report.
Video on demand specialist SeaChange has launched its Axiom-on-Demand, Ver 5 which besides time-shifting of content brings social networking opportunities as well as advanced advertising and gaming to TV sets.
Quite how the regulators might handle the promised RASD-TV is open to debate, but Western Sahara’s breakaway Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (RASD) is about to launch a satellite channel.
The New York State Theater is revamping its facilities to incorporate a state-of-the-art video and audio system that will provide for the increasingly important media needs of its dance and opera companies.
