Philip Hunter

France’s competition commission has decided to make a detailed examination of the 2006 merger between DTH operators TPS and Canal Satellite.

As flooding in Thailand’s industrial heartland at last subsides, the impact of the lost disk drive production is being felt throughout the broadcast distribution chain.

European standards for connected TV are still fragmented, but outside the UK at least public broadcasters are rallying around HbbTV for hybrid services.

In the UK, BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) has set up a new forum to work out how to measure online TV audiences and integrate the information with linear viewing figures.

With public funding across the European Union under severe pressure during the current debt crisis, telcos and cable operators are being urged to seek private funding for building out fiber networks.

Microwave technology vendor Bluwan is lobbying European regulators and operators to look at virgin 40 GHz spectrum to meet exploding demand for mobile backhaul fuelled by video.

The UK government is considering closing a loophole that lets people evade the licence fee by watching only in catch-up mode.

Alcatel-Lucent warns that restrictive regulations are causing Europe to fall behind North America and Asia-Pacific the emerging multiscreen era.

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance highlights recent growth in Europe.

The European Broadcasting Union agrees with the Amaury Sport Organization that major cycling events will be shown on free-to-air analog channels until at least 2015.

How to monetize multiplatform services is one of the big issues at London’s IPTV World Forum this week.

Shortage of studio space combined with plenty of cheap fiber will encourage broadcasters to edit remotely via bandwidth networks at the London Olympics next year.

The HomeGrid Forum claims to have made a breakthrough in data and video transmission.

The Norwegian Web-browser vendor Opera Software will demonstrate TVs and set-top boxes enabled with HTML5 and HbbTV at IPTV World Forum in London, March 22-23.

The European Broadcast Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe met in Vienna to plan joint activities on media independence.

A report by Research and Markets highlights the intense competition in one of Europe’s most affluent digital media markets.

Cisco’s European CTO for video technology argues that over-the-top service providers need to integrate unicast and multicast delivery to support large numbers of users.

Swiss Telco Swisscom has chosen a content recommendation engine from Jinni of Israel for its IPTV service “Swisscom TV,” with the promise of recommendations based on taste and mood.

GET of Norway and Poland’s Multimedia Polska are the latest European MSOs up for sale with Liberty Global’s UPC among the favorites to acquire both.

The Ukrainian National Council on Television and Radio has introduced new must-carry rules for the country’s cable operators.

The UK’s leading IPTV operator BT Vision has increased its subscriber base by 23 percent over the last year despite getting the most customer complaints.