Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
For the first time, this year, more Blu-ray disc players will be sold in Germany than DVD players. Over two million Blu-ray-playback devices will be sold, compared to 1.7 million DVD players, according... Read more...
Some 140 professionals from 20 countries gathered at Hamburg for the 2nd Blu-ray Disc Academy, this year entirely devoted to most aspects of 3D. True to its mission, the event was an opportunity to take... Read more...
Unsurprisingly for a survey whose sample was provided by five manufacturers who are its members, the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) reveals, in its latest research, that 3DTV owners “overwhelmingly... Read more...
Broadcasters rate production of 3D content and channels as their lowest technology investment priority, and the lack of programming for consumers who have bought a 3D TV is set to continue, according ... Read more...
Singulus Technologies announces the sale of a “substantial” number of BLULINE II and CRYSTALLINE systems to long-standing customer Toronto-headquartered Cinram, which continues to invest significantly... Read more...
Sheffield-based ZOO Digital Group, a provider of software and software-led services for the filmed entertainment market, has signed a licensing agreement with Global Digital Media Xchange Inc. that will... Read more...
The private company entrusted to track Internet pirates for the French government agency HADOPI, set up last year to combat the illegal file-sharing of copyrighted material, has been hacked, raising concerns... Read more...
Informa Telecoms and Media forecasts that 22.2 million homes in the world will be watching 3DTV programming by the end of 2015. This figure represents just 1.6% of the world’s TV households, so significant... Read more...
Cinram’s 1Q 2011 results just out show a sharp fall in consolidated revenue to $176.7 million down from $298.6 million in the first quarter of 2010. First quarter pre-recorded multimedia revenue – ... Read more...
DVD sales have been falling since 2007, but the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has reported that sales in the US have fallen by a staggering 19% ($2.2bn) in the first quarter of this year. High-street... Read more...
If one goes by the British Video Association’s 2011 Awards night extravaganza that saw some 1,000 industry movers and shakers congregate at Old Billingsgate in London last week – hosted by comedy ... Read more...
Within six months, consumers awareness levels of 3D TVs and Blu-ray players has grown significantly, according to market research company The NPD Group's 'February 3D 360º Monitor... Read more...
Eleven employees from cinemas across the UK have been presented with awards totalling £2,900 for their efforts in preventing illegal recordings (so called ‘camcordings’) taking place. Heightened ... Read more...
Internet service-cum-telephony providers BT and TalkTalk have failed in their attempt to block the system of warnings and technical measures against copyright infringing filesharers, enshrined in the ... Read more...
US consumers are still using DVDs and Blu-ray Discs to watch movies more than all digital-video options combined, according to The NPD Group. Over the past three months, 77% of consumers reported watching... Read more...
Cinram has signed a new multi-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment under which it will continue to serve as the primary supplier for replication and distribution services for the... 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.
... Read More...
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.
