Broadcast (Cable TV, DTH Satellite, Terrestrial) News

EQT acquires Maltese telecom operator Melita
May 23, 2019 – EQT has signed an agreement to acquire Melita from Apax Partners and Fortino Capital. Melita services customers on Malta with mainly four types of products: Gigabit broadband services, mobile and fixed telephony as well as TV services.
News categories: Melita, EQT, Harald Rösch, Ulrich Köllensperger, Cable TV, Digital TV, Malta, MandA

Sky Deutschland adds multiroom box to Sky Q offering
May 23, 2019 – One year after the launch of Sky Q by Sky Deutschland, the company has added a Sky Q Mini Box for multiroom viewing and expanded platform support for the Sky Q app, so that customers can enjoy their Sky programming on even more devices at home.
News categories: Sky Deutschland, Julia Laukemann, Apps, Austria, Digital TV, Germany, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart Home

Openview STB activations growing at 35,000 per month
May 23, 2019 – eMedia Holdings has released results for the year ended 31 March 2019. Openview set-top box activations continue to grow at an average of 35,000 per month. At the end of the period, a total of 1,574,395 (2018: 1,149,217) boxes have been activated.
News categories: eMedia Holdings, Digital TV, Results, Satellite, South Africa, Subscribers

Telcos to dominate Western European pay TV
May 23, 2019 – Reflecting the rising importance of the telcos, IPTV is gaining subscribers in Western Europe at the expense of the other pay TV platforms. IPTV overtook satellite TV in 2015 and will be approaching cable by 2024, according to Digital TV Research.
News categories: Digital TV Research, Simon Murray, Cable TV, Digital TV, Europe, IPTV, Satellite, Subscribers, Terrestrial

Fraunhofer IIS licenses MPEG-H audio patents to LG
May 21, 2019 – Fraunhofer IIS has licensed its MPEG-H Audio patents to LG Electronics, allowing LG to produce products based on the standard. The MPEG-H Audio system is specified in TV broadcast standards such as ATSC 3.0 and DVB.
News categories: Fraunhofer IIS, LG Electronics, ATSC 3, Digital TV, Europe, Licensing, Patent, USA, Worldwide

AminoTV deployed on multi-tenant platform at DELTA and Caiway
May 21, 2019 – Amino has announced the first deployment of AminoTV on a multi-tenant platform at DELTA and Caiway in the Netherlands. This follows the acquisition of the two providers by EQT and their subsequent merger into DELTA Fiber.
News categories: Amino, DELTA Fiber, Donald McGarva, John Wittekamp, Cable TV, Content Distribution, Digital TV, IPTV, Middleware, Netherlands, Set Top Box

Beximco launches AKASH DTH in Bangladesh
May 16, 2019 – Beximco Communications has launched a DTH service in Bangladesh under the brand name AKASH. The service will be available from May 19 at authorised retails in 20 districts. AKASH includes a large bouquet of Bangladeshi and foreign TV channels.
News categories: Beximco, Bangladesh, Digital TV, Satellite

Pay TV subscribers in Romania up 3% in 2018
May 15, 2019 – According to ANCOM, in 2018 the number of pay TV subscribers in Romania grew by 3%, reaching a total of 7.64 million. The trend of previous years continued with subscribers shifting from satellite to cable and IPTV.
News categories: ANCOM, Sorin Grindeanu, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Satellite, Subscribers

Rostelecom pay TV subscribers up 3% YoY in 1Q 2019
May 15, 2019 – Rostelecom (MOEX: RTKM, RTKMP; OTCQX: ROSYY) has announced results for the first quarter of 2019. The number of pay-TV subscribers grew by 3% to 10.2 million households compared to the corresponding period of last year.
News categories: Rostelecom, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Results, Russia, Subscribers