Europe Digital TV News

DVB-T2/HEVC trial to begin in North-Rhine Westphalia
Aug 13, 2015 – Media Broadcast and German public broadcaster, WDR, have announced the start of a DVB-T2/HEVC trial in the region of North-Rhine Westphalia. The trial, covering both static and mobile reception, will begin on August 18th.
News categories: DVB-T2 HD Deutschland, WDR, MEDIA BROADCAST, Content Distribution, Digital TV, DVB-T2, Germany, Set Top Box, Smart TV, Terrestrial

Ruutu HbbTV 1.5 online video service launched in Finland
Aug 13, 2015 – A collaboration between Nelonen Media, Digita and Sofia Digital has brought the online video service 'Ruutu' to the Finnish terrestrial TV network. Viewers tuned to the Digita network with an HbbTV 1.5 activated receiver have been able to use the service since June 24th.
News categories: Nelonen Media, Digita, Sofia Digital, Ruutu, Kai Taka-Aho, Digital TV, Finland, HbbTV, Terrestrial

56% of UK TV homes had a connected TV at the end of 2014
Aug 6, 2015 – The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has published its annual Communications Market report for 2015. According to the survey, over half (56%) of UK TV homes had a TV connected to the internet, either via a set-top box or a smart TV, at the end of 2014.
News categories: Ofcom, Digital TV, Market Research, Set Top Box, Smart TV, Streaming, UK

UK's Freesat adds over 19,000 new homes in 1H 2015
Aug 6, 2015 – Freesat has continued its positive start to the year with strong take-up of Freetime, its connected TV service, which has seen a 200% year-on-year increase in new connected customers. Freetime sales grew by 48% year-on-year for the first six months of 2015.
News categories: Freesat, Alistair Thom, Digital TV, Market Research, Satellite, Set Top Box, UK

Slovakia ends 2014 with more than 1 million DTH subscribers
Aug 5, 2015 – According to Slovakia's communications regulator (RÚ), at the end of 2014 Slovakia had more than one million subscribers to pay TV via satellite. In addition there were 470 thousand subscribers to cable TV and 244 thousand to IPTV.
News categories: RÚ, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Market Research, Satellite, Slovakia, Subscribers

FOXXUM signs Smart TV agreement with UMC for SHARP brand
Aug 5, 2015 – The European SHARP license holder, UMC Slovakia, and FOXXUM have announced that they have signed an agreement under which FOXXUM will integrate its Smart TV Solution into all newly developed connected SHARP TVs sold in Europe.
News categories: FOXXUM, UMC Slovakia, Ronny Lutzi, Aslan Khabliev, Digital TV, Europe, Middleware, Smart TV

HbbTV places contracts for HbbTV 2.0 test suite
Jul 31, 2015 – The HbbTV Association has announced its selection of suppliers for the HbbTV 2.0 specification test suite. HbbTV has placed contracts with Digital TV Labs and RTRK for 500 test cases to be included in the test suite.
News categories: HbbTV Association, Digital TV Labs, RTRK, Digital TV, Europe, HbbTV, QoE, Set Top Box, Smart TV, Worldwide

BT TV adds 60,000 subscribers in 2Q 2015
Jul 30, 2015 – BT Group (BT.L) has announced its results for the first quarter to 30 June 2015. In the quarter, BT added 60,000 BT TV customers, taking its TV customer base to 1.2 million.
News categories: BT Group, IPTV, Results, Subscribers, UK

BSkyB adds 113,000 TV subscribers in 2Q 2015
Jul 29, 2015 – SKY plc has announced results for the twelve months ended 30 June 2015. In the UK and Ireland quarterly TV growth increased by 49% to 113,000. Sky confirmed that it is planning to deploy a European-wide set-top box.
News categories: Sky plc, Austria, Digital TV, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Middleware, Results, Satellite, Set Top Box, Subscribers, UK