Digital TV News: Inception

Kaltura to migrate Cellcom TV to the Cloud
Sep 29, 2020 – Kaltura has been selected by Cellcom Israel to power Cellcom TV, the largest OTT TV service in Israel, with over 250,000 subscribing households. The service will be fully cloud-based and hosted on Amazon Web Services.
News categories: Kaltura, Cellcom, Nuno Sanches, Atara Litvak Shacham, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Israel, Streaming

Sky Italia renews capacity contract with Eutelsat
Sep 2, 2020 – Eutelsat (Paris: ETL) and Sky Italia have agreed a renewal of Sky's capacity contract at Eutelsat's HOTBIRD position. The multi-year contract represents a secured backlog of circa €450 million for Eutelsat.
News categories: Eutelsat, Sky Italia, Rodolphe Belmer, Maximo Ibarra, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Italy, Satellite

HEVC Advance releases draft VVC Licensing Program Overview
Aug 20, 2020 – HEVC Advance has announced the release of a draft VVC Licensing Program Overview. The Licensing Program, covering both VVC and HEVC, would establish the Advance Licensing Platform for Video Codecs.
News categories: HEVC Advance, Peter Moller, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Licensing, Media Player, Patent, Worldwide

BluTV DTH launches in Brazil on EUTELSAT 65 West A
Aug 10, 2020 – 1Sat Telecomunicaçoes has launched BluTV, a DTH platform dedicated to the Brazilian market, on EUTELSAT 65 West A (Paris:ETL). BluTV’s basic offer will include over 100 channels, broadcast in a mix of SD and HD.
News categories: Eutelsat, BluTV, Philippe Oliva, Stephane Frappat, Brazil, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Satellite

SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2020 to take place virtually
Jun 9, 2020 – SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2020 will take place virtually Oct. 12-16, marking the first all-digital presentation of the largest cable telecommunications and technology event in the Americas since its inception in 1983.
News categories: SCTE•ISBE, Cable-Tec Expo, Tom Adams, Tony Werner, Cable TV, CableTecExpo, COVID-19, Digital TV, USA

Comcast, Charter and ViacomCBS announce Blockgraph partnership
May 29, 2020 – Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Charter (NASDAQ: CHTR) and ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) have agreed to take equal ownership of Blockgraph. The joint venture is focused on ushering in a new way of using audience data for advanced TV and premium video advertising.
News categories: Blockgraph, Comcast Advertising, Charter Communications, ViacomCBS, Jason Manningham, Marcien Jenckes, David Kline, John Halley, Advertising, Big Data, Digital TV, MandA, USA

Pandemic-induced decline in display driver IC demand temporarily alleviates tight supply
Apr 13, 2020 – According to TrendForce, disappointing 1Q20 shipments by panel manufacturers, combined with continued acceleration of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and the U.S., resulted in a reduction of proposed TV panel purchases in 2Q20 by several major TV brands.
News categories: TrendForce, Asia, COVID-19, Digital TV, Market Research, Semiconductor, Smart TV, Worldwide

Eros partners with NBCUniversal to launch Eros Now Prime
Mar 23, 2020 – Eros International (NYSE: EROS) has announced that Eros Now has entered into a content deal with NBCUniversal and will launch Eros Now Prime, a stand-alone English content offering with over 2,000 hours of programming.
News categories: Eros International, NBCUniversal, Digital TV, India, Streaming

Ocean Blue Software releases CI Plus 2.0 Host software stack
Nov 20, 2019 – Ocean Blue Software (OBS) has prepared an update to its CI Plus Host software stack for TVs and Set Top Boxes. The latest release includes support for version 2.0 of the specification which targets new USB form factor Conditional Access Modules (CAMs).
News categories: Ocean Blue Software, Paul Martin, CAM, Content Protection, Digital TV, Middleware, Set Top Box, Smart TV, Worldwide