Europe Digital TV News

SmartLabs equips Rostelecom-Ural with set-top boxes
Jun 17, 2011 – SmartLabs has announced that it has supplied the Urals subsidiary of Rostelecom with its SML-292 set-top boxes. Rostelecom-Ural provides IPTV services in the Urals Federal District and Perm regions under the 'Utel.TV' brand.
News categories: SmartLabs, Rostelecom, Digital TV, IPTV, Russia, Set Top Box

Mediaset Begins The First Beta Test Broadcast Of HbbTV In Spain
Jun 17, 2011 – Mediaset Spain (Madrid: TL5) has begun beta tests of its HbbTV technology through the technological development carried out by Telefónica (Madrid and NYSE: TEF), thus becoming a forerunner in implementing HbbTV in Spain.
News categories: Mediaset, Telefónica, Digital TV, HbbTV, IPTV, Middleware, Spain, Streaming

VimpelCom to trial IPTV in Kazakhstan
Jun 17, 2011 – VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) has completed a tender for IPTV equipment for use in the Russian regions and CIS countries. ZTE (SEHK:0763; Shanghai:000063) has been approved and will be used for a commercial IPTV pilot in Kazakhstan later this year.
News categories: VimpelCom, ZTE, Beeline, Content Distribution, Digital TV, IPTV, Kazakhstan, Russia

Telefónica to use Xbox as a set-top box in Spain
Jun 16, 2011 – According to Cinco Días, Telefónica (Madrid and NYSE: TEF) has signed an agreement with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to use Microsoft's Xbox games console as a television set-top box. Details are to be announced in a few weeks.
News categories: Xbox, Telefónica, Digital TV, Gaming, IPTV, Set Top Box, Spain

UPC leads in digital cable in Poland
Jun 13, 2011 – According to Poland's Chamber for Electronic Communication (PIKE), at the end of March 2011, UPC had the largest number of subscribers in Poland receiving digital cable TV, with a total of 408,000. Vectra was second with 331,000.
News categories: Polska Izba Komunikacji Elektronicznej, Cable TV, Market Research, Poland, Subscribers

ANT selected for Freesat branded satellite TV receivers
Jun 13, 2011 – ANT (LSE AIM: ANTP) has announced that Freesat, the UK Free-to-air satellite provider, has licensed ANT Galio for use in future Freesat branded satellite TV receivers.
News categories: ANT plc, Freesat, Digital TV, Middleware, Satellite, Set Top Box, UK

Global pay TV revenues reached US$155 billion in 2010
Jun 13, 2011 – About 338 million digital homes were added around the world between 2006 and 2010, according to a report from Digital TV Research. The Digital TV World Databook estimated that this took the digital TV household total for the countries covered to 576 million.
News categories: Digital TV Research Ltd, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Cable TV, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Digital TV, Finland, France, Germany, India, IPTV, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Market Research, Netherlands, Norway, Puerto Rico, Russia, Satellite, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Subscribers, Sweden, Switzerland, Terrestrial, Tunisia, UK, USA

Sky TV Goes Online and Mobile for all 10 million customers
Jun 10, 2011 – From next month, all Sky TV customers will have the opportunity to watch BSkyB (LSE:BSY) channels and programmes on PCs, laptops, mobiles and tablets at no extra charge.
News categories: BSkyB, Mobile, Satellite, Streaming, Tablet, UK

Netgem renews its contract with SFR for 3 years
Jun 9, 2011 – Netgem (Paris: NTG FP 7537; ETGM) has announced that it is extending its contract with French telecoms operator SFR (Paris:VIV). The agreement covers hardware, software, maintenance and services.
News categories: Netgem, SFR, France, IPTV, Middleware, Set Top Box