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News in Brief

TOTAL US TV and video revenue over the next five years will be much like the previous five years in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, running primarily flat, according to a new report from The Diffusion Group. Overall TV and video spending has seen minor growth since 2004, rising from $195 billion to $213 billion in 2013. This constitutes an increase of only 9% during a 10-year period, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only +1%. Total TV and video spending rose only 3% from 2010 to 2013.

RECENT research by Ipsos suggests that almost 30% of the UK population is active in some form of piracy, either through streaming content online or buying counterfeit DVDs. Such theft costs the UK audiovisual industries about £500m a year.

SINGAPORE'S Parliament has approved a Bill introducing a civil law procedure for website blocking. Legislators approved the third reading of the Copyright Amendment Bill on 8 July and the website blocking measures will now come into force when the President signs the Bill into law. Under the new legislation, rights owners can obtain injunctions from the Singapore High Court that would require ISPs to block users' access to websites that flagrantly infringe copyright law.

IF PHYSICAL media is dying then someone forget to tell Shout! Factory. Born ten years ago out of the original Rhino Records crew, Shout! Factory is the pop culture geek squad of home video and has carved out niches - from horror and science fiction to cult movies to classic TV. Last year, the company released over 300 titles on Blu-ray and DVD, including remastered John Carpenter special editions and a boxset of Bruce Lee films on Blu-ray and DVD. Coming up in 2014 is a deluxe set of 16 Werner Herzog films on Blu-ray (slated for the end of July) and a complete Halloween boxset.

THE MAJORITY of UK cinemas have banned Google Glass, over fears that wearers could use the headset to illegally record films. The Cinema Exhibitors Association (CEA), which represents around 90% of the UK?s cinemas, has said that it will ask customers not to wear the device at all in auditoriums. Google Glass went on sale in the UK earlier this month for £1,000 (€1250), following its commercial launch in the US in May.

A SIGNIFICANT step in the road to Ultra High Definition TV services was taken with the approval of the DVB-UHDTV Phase 1 specification at the 77th meeting of the DVB Steering Board in Geneva. The specification includes an HEVC Profile for DVB broadcasting services that draws, from the options available with HEVC, those that will match the requirements for delivery of UHDTV Phase 1 and other formats. The specification updates ETSI TS 101 154 (Specification for the use of Video and Audio Coding in Broadcasting Applications based on the MPEG-2 Transport Stream).