Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Ultra-high-definition televisions (UHD TVs) continued to make slow and steady inroads throughout the world, but their share of the overall flat-panel TV market remained minimal by the end of May, suggesting... Read more...
According to research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), short-term demand for 4K/Ultra-HD televisions is hindered by two simple, but structurally important fundamentals: a widespread lack of awareness among... Read more...
German authorities have discovered what they claim is possibly Europe's largest underground pressing plant for CDs, DVDs and vinyl records. The state prosecutor at Würzburg's Economic Crime department... Read more...
Packaging specialist Novobox has released its futurepak line for the home entertainment industry. Already more than 20 Hollywood blockbuster movies are distributed in various territories using the company... Read more...
This year, digital video in Sweden is on track to account for more than half of home video spend, making it the first market to reach the digital tipping point, according to the latest research from Futuresource... Read more...
The Industry Trust for IP Awareness and the British Video Association have laid out plans to restructure, integrating key functions "to focus greater resource on shared challenges." Following an extensive... Read more...
If you thought North Korea was impervious to western entertainment technology, think again. The seclusive Communist state released a promotional video highlighting visitor experiences at the recently-... Read more...
It is an article of faith in the environmental community that the sooner we get rid of packaged media - whose manufacture produces quantities of CO2 - and switch to eco-friendly video streaming the better... Read more...
In a consolidation move, Toronto-headquartered global packaged media supply chain provider Cinram is relocating its replication activities to the US, thus ending 40 years of disc manufacturing presence... Read more...
The 21st edition of the British Video Association's Yearbook, just published, reveals that more than 22 million people bought a video on DVD or Blu-ray Disc in 2013, compared with just 3.3 million... Read more...
Sony DADC won a contract to provide supply chain services to Universal Music UK from its state-of-the-art Enfield Distribution Centre The multi-year agreement, which will become operational in 2015, will... Read more...
The DVD Copy Control Association has reached a settlement agreement with home server developer Kaleidescape that will result in the end of long-standing litigation over Kaleidescape?s use of the Content... Read more...
As the entertainment and media (E&M) industry continues its digital shift, advertising growth is outpacing consumer spending, according to Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2014-2018, PwC'... Read more...
Satisfaction with UltraViolet has grown since The NPD Group's Wave 1 report in August 2013 - when 32% of UV users said they were "very satisfied." The figure rose to 46% in the February 2014 Wave 2 report... Read more...
Launched in 2008, online music service Spotify announced that it has reached 10 million paying subscribers. Most of Spotify's 40 million users in 56 countries choose to listen to the advertising-supported... Read more...
Overall TV and video entertainment spend in France is expected to reach €7.9bn by 2018, averaging 1% annual growth between 2014 and 2018, according to the latest research from Futuresource Consulting... Read more...
Back to business!
Even though our website activities were on the back burner for over a year while we reshaped our operations, professionals from nearly 50 countries have kept logging in to tap into fifteen years of archives that uniquely chronicle the birth, the life, but not yet the death, of packaged media.
Though our service brief has been including coverage of new content delivery channels for several years, there is still enough activity on the DVD and Blu-ray Disc front – globally – on which to focus our reporting energy, especially as 4K UHD seems to be gathering pace.
While our company, Globalcom Ltd, remains based in the UK, we are running the website afresh from South Korea! Always looking for new challenges and a desire to share widely the knowledge gained, I took up a faculty position at Hannam University’s Linton School of Global Business (in Daejeon) where I teach globalization and communication technology courses.
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TECHNICOLOR has posted its results for the full year 2016. Group revenues increased by 34.8% at constant currency, reflecting the change in scale of Connected Home and Entertainment Services. The two segments combined recorded revenue growth of 48.2% year-on-year at constant rate resulting from the contribution of the acquisitions completed in 2015 and double digit organic growth in Production Services activities.
VODAFONE SPAIN is launching a new 4K TV service with 5 TV channels (10 by year end ) and VoD content for subscribers with convergent packages, like Vodafone One. The five new channels are Odisea 4K, Festival 4K, FunBox UHD, Insight TV and Slow Channel – and one 4K transmission of the best football match of La Liga every week. The company will be the first in the country to offer 4K VoD content with 850 titles including films, TV series and documentaries.
APPLE will make its first forays into original content in the “next few months”, according to Eddy Cue, the company’s SVP of internet software and services. Speaking at the Code Media conference in California, Cue revealed that Carpool Karaoke and Planet Of The Apps will become available “in most countries in the world” on Apple TV. Mac and iOS devices as part of Apple Music, the company’s subscription music offering.
MPEG LA ANNOUNCED that several patent owners in MPEG LA’s AVC Patent Portfolio License have filed patent enforcement actions in the Landgericht Düsseldorf, Germany, against both Huawei Technologies Deutschland GmbH and ZTE Deutschland GmbH for infringing patents essential to the AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard used in mobile devices and other products. According to the complaints, Huawei and ZTE offer mobile phone products in Germany, which use patent-protected AVC methods without licenses with the individual patent holders or a portfolio license that includes these patents offered by MPEG LA. The suits seek monetary damages and injunctions.
DELUXE is to close its UK restoration operation at the end of March with the potential loss of 12 jobs.Recent projects worked on include the nine surviving silent Alfred Hitchcock films for the BFI. In 2015, the department won the Best Archive Restoration award at the 2015 Focal International Awards for its work on Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection for Arrow Films. The division was formed in 2011 through the merger of Deluxe Digital London (DDL) and Deluxe 142’s restoration operations following Deluxe’s acquisition of Ascent Media. Deluxe said it would maintain its restoration facilities in Madrid, Spain and Los Angeles, US.
MOBILE and desktop video consumption are running virtually neck-and-neck, with 86% of consumers saying they watch video on smartphones and other mobile devices, compared to 70% on desktops, AOL found in a fresh study that tracked usage trends across seven global regions. Additionally, 57% of consumers watch videos on a mobile phone every day, compared to 58% on desktops and laptops.
