Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
The MEDIA-TECH Association along with the support of the Blu-ray Disc Association will present this new forum showcasing the creative aspect of the Blu-ray format and how it can turn into business opportunities... Read more...
DVD/BD authoring tool developer NetBlender has launched the industry's first comprehensive Blu-ray Authoring Certification programme. The new NetBlender Certified Blu-ray Professional (NCBP) programme... Read more...
Universal Studios Home Entertainment announced the introduction of dual-format disc containing both Blu-ray and DVD versions of some of Hollywood's most iconic films. The new "flipper" discs will launch... Read more...
Czech disc and packaging manufacturer GZ Digital Media plans to launch the first production plant for Blu-ray discs in Central Europe... Read more...
The new Chinese home-grown high-definition disc format CBHD can now be bought in the UK. Online import retailer GBAX is selling a CBHD player – the THBD1008 model – manufactured by Chinese electronics... Read more...
The anti-mafia District Attorney office (DDA) in Naples last week arrested more than 40 suspects at the conclusion of a three-year investigation into the counterfeiting of copyright protected goods by... Read more...
The global market for alternative content in cinemas is forecast to be worth over half a billion dollars by 2014 ($526m), rising from $45.7m in 2008, according to a new report by Screen Digest. The USA... Read more...
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, is kicking off the 3D television drive, with the goal of having television stations... Read more...
Blu-ray player sales are running close to three times 2008’s figure, says Futuresource in their second quarterly report, and they are expected to hit nearly three quarters of a million units by the ... Read more...
DGP and Rainbow, the two companies acquired by Gareth Mullaney earlier this year, are to be rebranded as The Mews. Rainbow moved into DGPs Greek Street premises in London in May, and the two companies... Read more...
Swedish packaging concept company JakeBox recently announced that Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has acquired the first JakeBox licence in Japan. "Origami is one of the traditional crafts in Japan, and there... Read more...
The Federal Association of Music Manufacturers has announced that German police successfully raided a clandestine CD factory and seized 50,000 counterfeit discs. Police detained a suspect who stands accused... Read more...
Users of the Apple iPhone are among the heaviest users of digital content and are also more willing than any other consumer to pay for a wide range of types of content, according to findings in this year... Read more...
China Hualu Group, a state-run maker of optical storage, recording and playback products in China, recently launched its new Blu-ray Disc recorder with a 500GB HHD, the HMC9502, for sale bundled with ... Read more...
The film piracy industry in India is worth Rs15bn ($325m) and its profits are being used to fund terrorism in the country, Harish Dayani, chief executive of CD/DVD manufacturer Moser Baer said last week... Read more...
A Beijing man accused of exporting more than 6,000 DVDs of popular US movies in North America and Europe between 2006 and last year, has been charged with copyright infringement and could be sentenced... 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.
