Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 03-10-2015] UAE-based satellite broadcasting company YahLive’s latest survey has revealed the viewing habits of the Farsi speaking community. Global market research company IPSOS conducted the survey, which consisted of several thousand interviews in Farsi. The survey found that content from YahLive, which services markets in the Middle East, North Africa, Southwest Asia and...

[Via Satellite 03-06-2015] Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation has established a new subsidiary to expand delivery of Japanese content to overseas audiences. Cool Japan Fund and Sky Perfect JSAT will invest in the new WakuWaku Japan Company. WakuWaku Japan was formerly a business product from Sky Perfect JSAT started in February 2014. It operated in Indonesia...

[Via Satellite 03-04-2015] Harmonic announced that Forthnet, the company that owns Nova, the largest pay-TV satellite platform in Greece, has chosen a high-end compression headend with video analytics from Harmonic to support its Direct-to-Home (DTH) SD/HD service. Harmonic’s local channel partner and system integrator OmniWave performed the installation. Nova is using Harmonic’s Electra encoders for...

[Via Satellite 03-02-2015] Indian Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator Tata Sky has initiated its first 4K broadcasts in the subcontinent. The company launched its 4K Set-Top-Box (STB) this January in advance of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Taking place from Feb. 14 to March 29, 2015, this is the first Ultra-HD 4K broadcast of the sporting event....

[Via Satellite 02-24-2015] The European TV platform operator M7 Group has signed a satellite capacity and distribution agreement with Prague-based CE Media for the distribution of the new Czech cooking and lifestyle channel MNAM tv. MNAM tv is distributed via Skylink, the M7-owned satellite TV platform at Astra 23.5 degrees east. It will reach more...

[Via Satellite 02-20-2015] Last year DirecTV’s Latin American subscriber base crested 19 million, growing to nearly match the number of subscribers in the United States. The company added 903,000 net new subscribers in Latin America during its 2014 fourth quarter, coming close to the stated goal of 1 million. On a conference call Feb. 19,...

[Via Satellite 02-18-2015] Satellite service provider M7 Group has grown to become one of the top five pay-TV operators in Europe. Following Sky, the company is the second largest cross-regional operator on the continent. Last year the acquisition of Eutelsat’s KabelKiosk direct-to-cable pay-TV platform opened up the German market, and by launching the Hungarian Direct-to-Home...

[Via Satellite 02-18-2015] New research from SES pegged the number of houses receiving HD television in Germany at 17.6 million in 2014, an increase of roughly 24 percent from 2013. The company’s own German HD platform HD+ surpassed 3 million households by the end of 2014, with 1.65 million paying for the service and another...

[Via Satellite 02-12-2015] SES has started simulcasting its Ultra-HD demonstration channel from the 19.2 degrees east orbital position to audiences in the U.K. and Ireland from the Astra 2E satellite at 28.2 degrees east. The channel is concurrently transmitting video content such as cityscapes, exotic animals and urban sports to emphasize the clarity of Ultra-HD....

[Via Satellite 02-10-2015] Continental Satellite (ConSat TV) has chosen Spacecom’s Amos 5 satellite at the 17 degrees orbital position to transmit for the Nigerian Direct-to-Home (DTH) provider over an Amos 5 Ku-beam. ConSat TV offers its digital Pay TV platform with more than 50 premium and local channels to Nigerian viewers. “The Nigerian TV market,...