Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
The German video industry seems to be weathering the tough economic climate as it reports sales of over 47 million discs in the first half of this year, up from 44.7 million units in the first half of... Read more...
The Blu-ray Disc Association announced plans to incorporate 3D into the Blu-ray Disc format. “The rapid and enthusiastic consumer adoption of Blu-ray Disc, coupled with the format’s technical capabilities... Read more...
Clear-Vu, a US-based provider of media security packaging, has announced the completed acquisition of the brand and related assets of its main rival, Nexpak Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy in ... Read more...
Sonic Solutions unveiled a new lineup for its professional Blu-ray Disc authoring, compression, and quality assurance products. The new BD product line features workgroup systems optimised for emerging... Read more...
The British Video Association is set to launch a £1 million campaign on behalf of the major studios. The campaign will raise awareness of the benefits of the Blu-ray format and the movie releases on ... Read more...
The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) announced that it has redefined its organisation and practices, with immediate effect. The restructuring involves a considerable revision to both the DEG’s mission... Read more...
Further to UK Intellectual property minister David Lammy's defence of the British government’s revised plans to disconnect the most persistent illegal file-sharers as reported in ATV News, he is facing... Read more...
Uden, Netherlands-based Lithorade BV has taken over all paper print activities from arvato digital services in Forbach, France, strenghtening its strategy of growth on the European market... Read more...
Social networks and mobile applications are putting immense pressure on content owners to quickly roll out mobile content services that provide affordable and exhaustive content selections over-the-... Read more...
Seattle-based RealNetworks’ RealDVD software violates federal anti-piracy law and goes against a contract RealNetworks signed to gain keys to unscramble DVDs, US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel... Read more...
Given the strategy shift towards greater communication with the consumers, not just industry players, the Blu-ray Disc Association has launched Blu-ray Disc Reporter, the European blog of the BDA Association... Read more...
In 2009, Blu-ray title prices have declined rapidly and the pricing gap is narrowing, according to Futuresource Consulting’s price tracking service. The service shows that in February the average Blu... Read more...
Barely a month after briefing Bloomberg on the restructuring of the company to contain losses incurred owing to a lower-than expected Blu-ray replication line take-up market, Singulus CEO Stefan Baustert... Read more...
German replicator and solution provider CDA Datenträger Albrechts introduces its new fluorescent discs in time for the GamesCom Fair. The so-called POPdisc attracts attention with its eye-catching luminance... Read more...
MPEG LA has filed enforcement actions against Haier America Trading, Haier Group, and HAIM for infringement of patents used in digital televisions... Read more...
Canadian replicator Cinram’s second quarter 2009 results fell 22% to $301 million compared with $386.3 million in the second quarter of 2008. For the first six months of 2009, revenue dropped to $604... 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.
