Europe Digital TV News

Russia's NTV-Plus to move completely to MPEG-4
Feb 8, 2016 – Russian satellite TV operator NTV-Plus has announced that it plans to convert all of its remaining MPEG-2 channels to MPEG-4. The transition will occur between the 3rd of March and the 25th of June this year.
News categories: NTV-Plus, Digital TV, Russia, Satellite, Set Top Box

Spain's Pay TV subscribers down 44,000 in 2Q 2015
Feb 5, 2016 – Spain’s Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has published telecommunications and audiovisual statistics for the country for the second quarter of 2015. In the quarter, total pay TV subscribers fell by 44,000 to 5.35 million, driven by a 150,000 reduction in satellite TV subscribers.
News categories: CNMC, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Satellite, Spain, Subscribers, Terrestrial

Gazprom media and Pladform to create video platform in Russia
Feb 4, 2016 – Gazprom-Media has announced its intention to acquire 33.3% stake in Pladform. It is planning to create a new company based on Pladform to which Gazprom will pass on the Rutube brand and website.
News categories: Gazprom, Pladform, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Vadim Fedotov, Armen Gulinyan, MandA, Russia, Streaming

Freesat now available in 1.93 million homes
Feb 4, 2016 – Freesat has announced a strong final quarter to 2015, with the addition of 36,000 new homes in the three months to December 2015. After adding 61,000 homes over the course of 2015, Freesat is now available in over 1.93 million households in the UK.
News categories: Freesat, Alistair Thom, Results, Satellite, Set Top Box, UK

Swisscom TV adds 166,000 subscribers in 2015
Feb 4, 2016 – Swisscom has released its results report for 2015. The number of Swisscom TV access lines rose year-on-year by 166,000 or 14.2% to 1.33 million, over 60% of which use the cloud-based service Swisscom TV 2.0.
News categories: Swisscom, IPTV, Results, Subscribers, Switzerland

Vodafone adds 200,000 TV customers in 4Q 2015
Feb 4, 2016 – Vodafone has released a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2015. The company ended the year with 9.4 million TV customers up from 9.2 million at the end of September.
News categories: Vodafone, Cable TV, Germany, IPTV, Results, Spain, Subscribers

EU proposes to move 700MHz UHF band to mobile services
Feb 2, 2016 – The European Commission has presented a proposal to make more spectrum available for mobile services in the 700 MHz band (694-790 MHz) by 2020. Currently, this band is mainly used for TV broadcasting.
News categories: European Commission, Andrus Ansip, Günther H. Oettinger, Content Distribution, Digital TV, EU, Regulation, Terrestrial

Samsung UK Smart TV hub attracting 2.5 million weekly visitors
Feb 1, 2016 – Samsung has announced that its Smart TV platform has now passed the 2.5 million weekly unique users mark in the UK – a 33% increase in users over the past six months.
News categories: Samsung, Rhian James, Apps, Market Research, Smart TV, Streaming, UK

>50% Smart TV penetration in major TV markets by 2019
Feb 1, 2016 – By 2019, more than 50% of TV households in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany will have smart TVs, according to IHS (NYSE: IHS). Smart TV household penetration in Japan has already reached 50%.
News categories: IHS Inc, Hisakazu Torii, Asia, Brazil, Digital TV, Europe, Market Research, Smart TV, Streaming, USA