Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
The nine-member DVD6C Licensing Group announced that their authorised licensor, Toshiba, won an arbitration to collect royalties due from ChangZhou Xingqiu Electric, a Chinese manufacturer of consumer... Read more...
Initially announced for 2011, Disney Studio All Access, the all-in-one cloud-based multiplatform programme, will now launch "in the next several months," according to a studio spokesperson quoted by Variety... Read more...
It is the time lag between the theatrical release of a film in the US and its release in the international market that is feeding movie piracy, argue two academics, Brett Danaher from Wellesley College... Read more...
France's video market - DVD, Blu-ray, VOD - fell 2.7% in 2011 to Euro1.49 billion, down from Euro1.53 billion in 2010, according to domestic video publishers body, Syndicat de l'Edition Vidéo Num... Read more...
Thirty-five years after it released its first VCR, Panasonic is ending production of the VHS-format videocassette recorder. While it stopped producing VCRs for the domestic market only at the end of last... Read more...
While awareness has increased, consumers still lack a strong understanding of the benefits of video content digital lockers (ie. UltraViolet) or the rights that come with ownership, according to findings... Read more...
Asked during a call with financial analysts to provide an update on his roadmap with respect to KeyChest - his studio's own online locker - and possible support for UltraViolet, the system backed by most... Read more...
Next month, Cineworld Glasgow will be the first UK cinema to offer what could be described as a 4D experience: a 3D movie - Disney's Martian sci-fi fantasy adventure epic John Carter with movement... Read more...
Corel has acquired the Roxio product line from Rovi Corporation and, with it, expand its product portfolio to include Roxio's range of digital media and security solutions... Read more...
Fight over patent protection of silver alloy is not about to end if one goes by Target Technology Company's intention to defend its position "in all territories where the company has granted patents,"? ... Read more...
Despite the proliferation of video-enabled technology, consumers are spending more than ever on going to the cinema. IHS Screen Digest's RICHARD COOPER explores how feature film consumption is changing... Read more...
The MEDIA-TECH Association - the body representing the interests of independent optical disc manufacturers and associated service suppliers - will be addressing forcefully during 2012 the concerns of ... Read more...
At the 55th Steering Committee meeting on 26 January, DVD Forum members decided to put their organisation into hibernation. The 100-member industry body established in 1997 to launch the DVD format will... Read more...
Millenniata received the Visionary Product Consumer Storage device award during the Storage Visions 2012 conference at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show for its M-DISC permanent storage... Read more...
Cinram has signed a new multi-year manufacturing agreement with the Beckmann Group, extending their long term partnership with the UK-based content distributor... Read more...
CD/DVD/BD packaging company AGI Shorewood, the product of the merger last month between Atlas Holdings' AGI World and Shorewood Packaging, has confirmed plans to close its Welsh factory at Ebbw Vale, ... Read more...
Back to business!
Even though our website activities were on the back burner for over a year while we reshaped our operations, professionals from nearly 50 countries have kept logging in to tap into fifteen years of archives that uniquely chronicle the birth, the life, but not yet the death, of packaged media.
Though our service brief has been including coverage of new content delivery channels for several years, there is still enough activity on the DVD and Blu-ray Disc front – globally – on which to focus our reporting energy, especially as 4K UHD seems to be gathering pace.
While our company, Globalcom Ltd, remains based in the UK, we are running the website afresh from South Korea! Always looking for new challenges and a desire to share widely the knowledge gained, I took up a faculty position at Hannam University’s Linton School of Global Business (in Daejeon) where I teach globalization and communication technology courses.
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TECHNICOLOR has posted its results for the full year 2016. Group revenues increased by 34.8% at constant currency, reflecting the change in scale of Connected Home and Entertainment Services. The two segments combined recorded revenue growth of 48.2% year-on-year at constant rate resulting from the contribution of the acquisitions completed in 2015 and double digit organic growth in Production Services activities.
VODAFONE SPAIN is launching a new 4K TV service with 5 TV channels (10 by year end ) and VoD content for subscribers with convergent packages, like Vodafone One. The five new channels are Odisea 4K, Festival 4K, FunBox UHD, Insight TV and Slow Channel – and one 4K transmission of the best football match of La Liga every week. The company will be the first in the country to offer 4K VoD content with 850 titles including films, TV series and documentaries.
APPLE will make its first forays into original content in the “next few months”, according to Eddy Cue, the company’s SVP of internet software and services. Speaking at the Code Media conference in California, Cue revealed that Carpool Karaoke and Planet Of The Apps will become available “in most countries in the world” on Apple TV. Mac and iOS devices as part of Apple Music, the company’s subscription music offering.
MPEG LA ANNOUNCED that several patent owners in MPEG LA’s AVC Patent Portfolio License have filed patent enforcement actions in the Landgericht Düsseldorf, Germany, against both Huawei Technologies Deutschland GmbH and ZTE Deutschland GmbH for infringing patents essential to the AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard used in mobile devices and other products. According to the complaints, Huawei and ZTE offer mobile phone products in Germany, which use patent-protected AVC methods without licenses with the individual patent holders or a portfolio license that includes these patents offered by MPEG LA. The suits seek monetary damages and injunctions.
DELUXE is to close its UK restoration operation at the end of March with the potential loss of 12 jobs.Recent projects worked on include the nine surviving silent Alfred Hitchcock films for the BFI. In 2015, the department won the Best Archive Restoration award at the 2015 Focal International Awards for its work on Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection for Arrow Films. The division was formed in 2011 through the merger of Deluxe Digital London (DDL) and Deluxe 142’s restoration operations following Deluxe’s acquisition of Ascent Media. Deluxe said it would maintain its restoration facilities in Madrid, Spain and Los Angeles, US.
MOBILE and desktop video consumption are running virtually neck-and-neck, with 86% of consumers saying they watch video on smartphones and other mobile devices, compared to 70% on desktops, AOL found in a fresh study that tracked usage trends across seven global regions. Additionally, 57% of consumers watch videos on a mobile phone every day, compared to 58% on desktops and laptops.
