Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
The Blu-Ray Disc License Entity, a group led by Sony, released the licensing requirements for the Content Protection Systems for the BD-ROM media, hardware and related software. The Content Protection... Read more...
Motion Picture Association of America Chairman & CEO Dan Glickman joined the US Chamber of Commerce and several business and association executives of the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (... Read more...
Cinram International Inc. today announced that it has shipped the first next-generation HD DVD titles, which include Million Dollar Baby, Phantom of the Opera and The Last Samurai to US retailers. The... Read more...
French distributors BAC Films will release titles on HD VMD following a deal with the red-laser HD format developer New Medim Enterprises. Films to be released include Pulp Fiction, Le Caiman, Planete... Read more...
Kidlington, Oxfordshire-based Databiz (UK) Ltd has been acquired by Germany’s premier replicator Optical Disc Service (ODS) GmbH, through a UK-based subsidiary ODS Business Services... Read more...
The Philippines Optical Media Board (OMB) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) recently launched a new MPA-produced anti-piracy movie trailer in Manila, in conjunction with the preview screening of... Read more...
Industry expert Klaus Schiffer (picture) has been appointed to the position of General Manager of DaTARIUS’ newly-created Optimization business unit... Read more...
Worldwide consumer spending on filmed entertainment through 2011 is forecast to grow at an annual rate of 4.9% to $103.3 billion from $81.2 billion in 2006, with the Asia-Pacific region growing fastest... Read more...
DGP, the Soho, London-based DVD and post production facility, has announced its expansion into audio post production after opening a suite of audio studios... Read more...
Samsung has announced that it will compete head on with its Korean rival LG with the introduction of a dual HD DVD/ Blu-ray player... Read more...
The DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C) announced Friday that the minimum royalty for DVD-R discs for eligible licensees will be reduced to 4.5 US cents per disc... Read more...
Danish packaging manufacturer Scanavo is opening a new production facility for its lead product SteelBook in Ohio, USA, as part of the joint-venture with Glud & Marstrand Group... Read more...
The European Commission cleared Sony and NEC to set up an optical disc-drive joint venture. EU regulators said the deal would not significantly change competition in optical disc-drive markets as the ... Read more...
Sony’s new Blu-ray player, the BDP-S300, is now shipping to major US consumer electronics retailers and specialist dealers for a list price of $499 – $100 lower than the $599 pricetag announced in... Read more...
Cramlington, Newcastle-based Europa Magnetics, the European operation of CMC Magnetics Corporation, a leading producer of data storage media, has ceased all optical disc manufacturing activities... Read more...
According to Bloomberg reports, Randy Waynick, senior vice president of Sony’s US home products division, reckons the number of stand-alone Blu-ray players hitting the stores in the US in 2007 will ... 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.
