NEW YORK—Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that its streaming service Max, will see its first European launches beginning May 21.

On May 21, Max will become available across the Nordics, Iberia, and Central and Eastern Europe. Launches will follow closely after in Poland, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium. 

France and Belgium are the first new countries where WBD has launched its streaming service in over two years. 

These launches mean Max will be available in 25 countries in Europe and 65 countries and territories worldwide after launching in the U.S. in May 2023, and launching in Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this year, the company said. 

“Max is the streaming home of Warner Bros. Discovery and builds on our long heritage in Europe, bringing together an incredible breadth and depth of culture-defining entertainment from our services and networks, all in one place,” said JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery. “The unrivaled content we’ve got on Max from ‘House of the Dragon’ to Olympic Games Paris 2024 and beyond means whatever your mood or the occasion, Max has something great for everyone, every time.”

WBD also reported that the launch of Max in Europe will be marked by the return of the highly anticipated HBO Original “House of the Dragon,” which premiers on Max in Europe on June 17. 

In terms of content, the company said that Max will offer more than double the amount of content currently available on HBO Max. 

This summer, Max will also be the only place to stream every live moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 in the 25 European countries where Max will be available. Paris 2024 will be included in all subscription plans, ensuring all customers will gain complete access to the biggest sporting event in the world.

A Sports Add-On for Max will offer subscribers extensive coverage of major international and European sports including every tennis Grand Slam – Australian Open, Roland-Garros, The Championships, Wimbledon and the US Open, cycling’s three Grand Tours – Giro d’Italia, La Vuelta a España, and the Tour de France in addition to the Tour de France Femmes, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and every major winter sports World Championship and World Cup events. Rights vary between countries.

A selection of flagship live linear networks will also be available on Max in some countries in select plans including CNN International in France and Poland, TVN in Poland, TV Norge in Norway, Kanal 5 in Sweden and Eurosport in all countries.

Max will offer a choice of different plans, plus a Sports Add-On which may be added to any base plan. Full details about pricing will be announced in the coming weeks and will vary country by country.

Basic with Ads plan will be available first in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, France and Belgium before expanding to others. 

WBD said that existing HBO Max subscribers will be able to discover the new experience on Max while keeping their current profiles, and viewing history.

LONDON—New data is showing rapid growth in free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), particularly in Europe, with a 99.97% in ad impressions in Q3 2022 compared to a year earlier  and a 51% pop in hours of Viewing, according to Amagi. 

The growth comes at a time when many of the major streaming players are looking to expand their international footprints and to expand their ad-supported streaming offerings. 

"Recent global events have contributed to a difficult economic climate in Europe and across the world. Against this backdrop, the FAST sector has displayed the type of strong performance our Global FAST Report Edition 5 had predicted," said Srinivasan KA, co-founder and chief revenue officer, Amagi. "We see FAST continuing to accelerate in a challenging macro environment, and we anticipate the trend to continue, making it an attractive time for content owners to get into this market."

Amagi reported that Western Europe now has 70% CTV coverage and gaining ground on the US whose coverage is about 80%. 

In Central and Eastern Europe, this figure stands below 50% though this is still fueling a huge FAST viewership spike of over 1,500% across these regions in Q3 2022 when compared to Q3 2021.

The U.K. is the most advanced country when it comes to CTV adoption with rates as high as ~85%, making it possible to reach almost 94% of internet users via connected devices, Amagi reported. 

Amagi Analytics showed between Q3 2022 and Q3 2021, the total hours of viewing grew by 37.44%, while ad impressions saw an impressive 60.80% rise.

The researcher noted that the growth is being driven by three factors: the higher cost of living driving audiences to cheaper or free sources of high-quality content which FAST readily offers; the ever-improving quality of content available on FAST platforms; and the entry of more prominent content brands into the FAST landscape.

In terms of the total hours of viewing for the top seven European countries, Amagi reported that France with 120.77% growth and Italy with 111.54% growth both were up by triple digits in Q3 2022 over the same period in 2021. 

In terms of ad impressions for the same period, Italy tops the list with 501.98% year-on-year growth, France is second at 312.66%, Spain is at 260.06%, Austria at 124.23%, and the Netherlands at 106.23% making up the Top 5.

The data is from Amagi’s Quarterly Global FAST Report. It aggregates data from the company's proprietary viewership and ad analytics platform, Amagi Analytics, which brings together data and insights from 50+ platforms and over 2,000 channels that run on Amagi's SSAI platform, Amagi Thunderstorm. These findings are further supplemented by data gathered from the Amagi Consumer Survey October 2022 – an online survey of ~600 UK households who watched TV at least once in the previous week.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Federal Communications Commission has announced that it is renewing and expanding its work with its European counterparts and that it has signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

The MOU, which was signed by FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Sept. 12 includes plans for information sharing and cooperation as well as a new focus on combating unwanted robocalls and plans to work together on the promotion of next-generation communications for 5G, 6G and beyond. 

It builds on previous MOUs between the FCC and BEREC from March 2012 and July 2018.

“Our broadband and communications technology goals will be better achieved by working collaboratively with our partners and informed by lessons learned around the world,” said Rosenworcel. “Today’s Memorandum of Understanding reflects this spirit as the United States and Europe prepare for the next generation of telecommunications.  I look forward to working closely with my European counterparts for the good of consumers, the economy, and our shared future.”

The MOU outlines how the FCC and BEREC will engage in regular information exchanges, including the sharing of the technical skill sets and best practices, and conduct bilateral meetings, seminars, and workshops to facilitate actions in their respective home countries around topics of mutual interest, the FCC said. 

Those topics of mutual interest include: 

• Cooperation on electronic communications regulatory policy and other relevant topics related to the digital economy in the common interest of both organizations;
• Encouraging and accelerating investment in broadband infrastructure deployment;
• Promotion of 5G, 6G, and beyond;
• Market shaping and competition aspects of spectrum management;
• Sustainability in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector; 
• Robocall and other automated calls’ mitigation and prevention.

LOS ANGELES—HBO Max has launched in 15 additional European countries, including the Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, making the WarnerMedia streaming platform available in 61 territories across Europe, the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.

Later this year HBO Max will expand to a further six countries – Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The platform launches with a promotion offering all customers in Central and Eastern Europe and Portugal more than 30% off the monthly price for the lifetime of their subscription. 

In the Netherlands, HBO Max launches with two tiers, both at 50% off the regular monthly subscription price for the life of the subscription. A monthly subscription to the standard tier (with HD 1080p, 4K, three concurrent streams, 30 downloads) is €3.99 and a monthly subscription to the basic tier (with HD 720p, one concurrent stream, five downloads) is €2.99.

“From today, HBO Max is streaming in 21 European countries with Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal and the Netherlands joining the Nordics, Spain and Andorra where we launched the platform last year,” said Christina Sulebakk, general manager, HBO Max EMEA. “Central and Eastern Europe is where it all began for our European business back in 1991 with our first linear channels and we’re pleased that today, more than 30 years later, we’re bringing fans in the region a completely new way to access all their favorite entertainment.”

The 15 countries where HBO Max launched today are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

HBO Max launched in the U.S. in May 2020 and is rapidly rolling out globally. In June 2021, it became available in 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean and in October 2021 it arrived in Europe, launching in the Nordics, Spain, and Andorra.

AMSTERDAM—HBO Max has confirmed that the second wave of European launches in 15 additional countries in Europe will take place on March 8. 

HBO Max is currently live in 46 territories across the Americas and Europe, with that rising to 61 with these launches. HBO Max is going global as part of a phased roll out and later this year will expand to a further six European countries including Greece and Turkey.

The 15 countries are: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.  

“HBO Max is a new streaming experience offering the very best entertainment, movies, original series and kids programming from Warner Bros., HBO, DC, Cartoon Network, Max Originals and more,” explained Christina Sulebakk, general manager, HBO Max EMEA. “We are thrilled to confirm that on March 8th, HBO Max is arriving in 15 additional European countries as we continue making the platform available across the continent and beyond.”

WATERLOO, Ontario—Dejero has announced deals for a number of new European rental partners as part of its strategy to provide its products for live video and real-time data through rental companies across the region.

Amid the pandemic, broadcasters and production companies have had to adjust their workflows for remote production to accommodate restrictions in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“As organizations come through the other side of the pandemic, many are re-evaluating their strategy, workflows and processes and are looking to trial new reliable and cost-effective methods to deliver high quality video, as well as implementing more reliable back-up systems for mission-critical operations,” explains Rob Waters, director of sales EMEA and APAC. “Having local representation on the ground to enable this, whilst many travel restrictions are still in place, is key to serving local broadcasters, commercial production companies, public safety bodies and other organizations in the longer term.”

This has led Dejero to establish rental partnerships with AV Pro and Centron in Austria, Kaptures in France, Profen in Turkey, Tividoo in Germany, Wired Broadcast and P&C Communications in the U.K., and Villrich Broadcast in the Netherlands.

All partners will offer Dejero products like the EnGo mobile transmitters and Gateway network aggregation devices.

For more information, visit www.dejero.com.  

EMERYVILLE, Calif.—Nielsen-owned company Gracenote is bringing its Electronic Program Guides for OTT to Europe in its latest expansion, the company announced on Thursday.

With recent reports detailing that 45% of U.S. viewers in 2019 subscribed to three or more streaming services, Gracenote looks to offer assistance to on-demand video streaming services, Smart TV makers and cable and satellite operators with delivering next-gen content navigation, search and discovery capabilities.

“While much of the focus in the ‘Streaming Wars’ conversation has been on the largest catalogs and original content, the winners will also understand how to successfully integrate with a diverse set of video platforms,” said Simon Adams, chief product officer at Gracenote.

To help meet these goals, Gracenote provides interested parties with the following services: 

• Unique Gracenote IDs, which provide connectivity between related content assets to power universal search capabilities across different services; 
• Deep descriptive metadata to enable intuitive content navigation and recommendations based on advanced video descriptors like mood, theme, setting and character attributes; 
• Custom content imagery to populate OTT guide interfaces and carousels with images for visual navigation; and 
• Streaming service feeds that provide deep linking, audio/video quality, content availability and a critical data structure required to integrate a streaming service into mobile, set-top boxes and Smart TVs.

With its expansion into Europe, Gracenote offers coverage of more than 200 catalogs in 13 markets across North America, Europe, Latin America and APAC.

LiveU has announced plans to expand its hybrid global IP satellite service, which works in combination with its HEVC bonding technology.

Increasing the range of options, the new solution, based on Eutelsat's KA-SAT, will allow customers to use satellite or cellular connectivity seamlessly, streamlining both the billing structure and workflow.

LiveU offer its customers in Europe Ka satellite airtime in combination with its current cellular roaming data packages. Using this hybrid solution, the connectivity choice is made automatically based on a combination of signal strength and cost-effectiveness. LiveU will be working with Eutelsat whose KA-SAT satellite wide beam footprint extends across Europe and parts of North Africa.

The collaboration utilises NewsSpotter, Eutelsat’s Satellite News Gathering (SNG) product. NewsSpotter provides native bidirectional IP connectivity, facilitating integration with modern news production and media content management workflows. LiveU’s LU600 HEVC solution is a fully bundled service with a single-point-of-contact for support and with a range of packages available.

“This is a truly integrated service offering, bringing together the best of both worlds via market leaders in their respective fields,” said Zion Eilam, regional VP sales (EMEA), LiveU. “Making this as seamless and effortless as possible for our customers was essential, ensuring that they can concentrate on bringing high-quality live content to their viewers. Partnering with Eutelsat has achieved that, complementing our existing hybrid Ku-satellite service solution.”

Gerry O’Sullivan, executive vice president, Global TV and Video with Eutelsat, added: “Undoubtedly the contribution market, especially news, has changed significantly in recent years, with speed of deployment and mobility – at realistic price points – increasingly taking centre stage. NewsSpotter was a clear response to that and this collaboration with LiveU is the natural next step.”

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND – Timeline Television’s UHD 1, Europe’s first UHD/4K OB truck built to provide content for BT Sport, has installed a 40-fader Artemis console from Calrec. Timeline chose the Artemis for its large fader count in a small foot-print, minimum setup time, and the console’s ability to overcome complications in embedding audio and encoding/embedding Dolby E in 4K video.

Calrec's Artemis console

The Artemis console features Hydra2 routing, which enables integration with the truck’s infrastructure. The integration extends Timeline’s existing Hydra2 network at BT Sport, where three Artemis consoles network to a central Hydra2 router core. In addition, the Artemis processes 5.1 audio, offers redundancy, and features loudness metering and ‘look-ahead’ limiters to help mix engineers meet EBU R128 requirements.

The UHD1 truck recently covered its first broadcast event, the FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium in London on Aug. 2.