Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
In most legal systems, the primary copyright enforcement mechanism is for the copyright owner to bring a civil action against an alleged infringer. Critics have complained that, given widespread online... Read more...
Czech authoring and post-production facility Brickbox Digital Media and International Digital Management (IDM) – in which Brickbox had previously purchased a significant stake – have been acquired... Read more...
Kai Uwe Marner has become the new chairman of the Blu-ray Group Germany, taking over from Thilo Röhrig who oversaw the Blu-ray format’s development since the Group’s formation in 2007... Read more...
Combining two of the most popular services – mobile and television – has always been an attractive proposition. Once seen as a massive opportunity by operators and broadcasters, mobile video has fallen... Read more...
The British Video Association will blow 30 candles at its Annual General Meeting and reception on 2 November at the BAFTA venue in London. The event, celebrating the past and future of the home entertainment... Read more...
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group has acquired the business and assets of ITFC, a leading provider of post-production, content management, authoring, media access and asset management services to the... Read more...
Dallas-based giant video rental chain Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after months of market uncertainty and accumulated debts. In its bankruptcy petition filed in federal court... Read more...
The High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) master key protecting Blu-ray drives and many other devices, which had been leaked and posted on the Internet last week, has been confirmed as legitimate... Read more...
The UK’s BBC is in discussions with Japanese public broadcaster NHK about how its Super Hi-Vision system could be used at the London Olympics, according to BBC 2012 Olympic Games director Roger Mosey... Read more...
At IBC in Amsterdam, South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) showcased its 'Real-Sense 4D Experience System.' The system – which DVD Intelligence tested – provides... Read more...
A survey commissioned by Rovi (formerly Macrovision) to better understand TV consumption in the UK has found that viewers have shifted their TV watching behavior, based on the introduction of entertainment... Read more...
Changes in France’s release windows (Chronologie des médias) which shortens the time between the theatrical exhibition of a film and its availability on DVD, Blu-ray or VOD has been responsible... Read more...
If one goes by this year’s hottest products on display at IFA – Berlin’s annual consumer electronics extravaganza – the CE industry expects you to put expensive 3D hardware under the Christmas... Read more...
Belgian police announced a European raid in 14 countries leading to 10 arrests related to copyrighted movies and music shared online through four different organized groups... Read more...
The DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C) consisting of nine leading developers of DVD technology and formats announced that it has revised its worldwide patent licensing programme beginning on and after 1 January... Read more...
Reversing on appeal a lower court ruling, Switzerland’s Supreme Court says Logistep’s collection of IP addresses of suspected file-sharers for sale to copyright holders to pursue copyright infringement... 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.
