TV News

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Ekioh and WIZTIVI in Argentinian cable deployment

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Ekioh and WIZTIVI have partnered for a new low-cost deployment for the Argentinian cable operator Telecentro.

TIMELESSUI, WIZTIVI’s HTML5 UI Product was ported onto Ekioh’s TV browser and YouTube added to the operator’s portfolio.

Wiztivi collaborated with Ekioh to integrate TIMELESSUI with its TV browser and create a turn-key solution. Wiztivi’s team optimised all the components of the UI, including the careful use of transitions and animations for a low memory environment.

TIMELESSUI’s is an off the shelf UI product designed to meet pay-TV operators’ TTM requirements. It provides a browser agnostic UI which helps unify the User Experience. The Ekioh TV browser is a highly resource efficient WebKit based browser designed to deliver excellent results on the most cost effective hardware.

“The combination of the TIMELESSUI and the Ekioh TV Browser makes a very compelling market proposition”, said Stephen Reeder, Commercial Director at Ekioh. “The Wiztivi team share our passion for customer focus and we look forward to continuing to work together for Telecentro and other operators who want to take advantage of the joint solution.”

The combination of the two company’s technologies provides pay-TV operators with an extremely responsive HTML5 based solution including an EPG for live TV, on demand services and 3rd party apps, all of which can be deployed a short period of time in a cost constrained environment.

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Kai-Christian Borchers, 3SS: Android TV strategy comes with risk

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Kai-Christian Borchers, managing director of German multiscreen software solutions provider 3 Screen Solutions (3SS), has warned platform operators that adopting Android TV-based set-top-boxes, which is a growing trend, may come with long term risk for industry players.

An increasing number of OTT and video providers are opting for Android TV as this makes the Google Play store with its many apps including Netflix available to their customers, Borchers told Broadband TV News. Less development effort is also necessary with Android boxes compared with many market alternatives.

Since the move from Marshmallow to Nougat, Android TV contains many features platform operators require, said Borchers, but he added there is one thing to keep in mind when choosing Android TV, and is that Google may have its own competitive longer term strategy.

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The amount of data collected from Android TV-based systems, for example regarding popularity of content and viewer behaviour, could be used by Google to enter any given market with rival services, for example an OTT platform carrying TV channels, live sports or video-on-demand content.

Google’s streaming services could also have easy access to consumer households through the Android TV-based reception devices, competing with the services offered by the local platform operator, explains Borchers.

With 3Ready, 3SS offers platform operators an in-house developed white-label multiscreen solution for linear and non-linear streaming services. All major operating systems such as Android, iOS, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV are covered through natively built apps.

The company’s customers include Vodafone Kabel Deutschland, Swisscom, ProSiebenSat.1, maxdome, SES and Red Bull.

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Netflix to add HDR support for mobile viewing soon

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At first, it will only be available on the LG G6, but the tech should come to other smartphones - including the Samsung Galaxy S8 - soon after.
One of the LG G6's main selling points is the fact you can watch shows and films in HDR, but annoyingly there's a distinct lack of HDR content available at the moment. That looks set to change, as Netflix will offer HDR content in version 5.0 of its Android app.

This was spotted on the Netflix help page, via GSMArena.

At the moment, the only compatible device listed is the LG G6. But hopefully it should come to the HDR-enabled Samsung Galaxy S8 soon too.

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Amazon previously announced it would offer HDR content for the S8 via its Amazon Prime Video streaming service, but it's yet to confirm a date.

There's no word on when version 5.0 of the Netflix app will launch. All Netflix will say is it's "coming soon".

According to the same help page, support for Dolby Vision is also coming soon, presumably in the same version of the app. Dolby Vision is another version of HDR - a few 4K Blu-rays have been announced that will use the technology, including Despicable Me and Power Rangers. The LG G6 was the first smartphone announced that is Dolby Vision-compatible.

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Global pay-TV subs to reach 1.09 billion
Digital TV Research forecasts 134 million additional pay-TV subscribers between 2016 and 2022 to take the total 1.09 billion. Based on forecasts for 138 countries, the number of pay-TV subscribers will pass the 1 billion mark in early 2018.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Doom mongers in the US have been predicting the demise of pay-TV for some time. Although the US is losing pay-TV subs, there is still a lot of life left in the sector. Furthermore, they are ignoring the rest of the world. Asia Pacific will add 92 million subs between 2016 and 2022 – and Sub-Saharan Africa will double its total.”

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Excluding analogue cable TV, the Global Pay TV Subscriber Forecasts report concludes that digital pay-TV growth is really impressive – rocketing from 380 million subscribers in 2010 to 852 million at end-2016 and 1,088 million by 2022.

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China will continue to supply about a third of the world’s pay-TV subscribers. India will bring in another 16% of the total by 2022. Therefore, China and India together will provide nearly half the world’s pay-TV subscribers.

Pay-TV subscriber counts will double in 26 countries between 2016 and 2022. However, pay-TV subscriber numbers will fall in a further 18 countries.

Murray added: “We believe that the worst of the losses in now over for North America, with “only” 5 million fewer subscribers forecast between 2016 and 2022.”

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Best 4K OLED TV deals

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OLED TVs don't tend to come cheap, but you'll be surprised at just how much you can save on some of our favourite models...
We've been impressed by the OLED TVs we've seen so far, and with Sony launching new OLED TVs in 2017 Read more at https://www.whathifi.com/news/best-4k-oled-tv-deals#2RYymeP2m2i4V4Lt.99, it looks set to be the TV tech to beat.

LG and Panasonic have been the only serious players so far, but that doesn't mean you can't already find some hot deals on OLED TVs...

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Stranger Things Season 3 Casts Francesca Reale in Key Role

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Stranger Things season 3 has cast Francesca Reale as a character central to the show’s latest mystery. Filming on season 3 began in late April, with both longtime cast members (Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour) and the breakouts from season 2 (Sadie Sink as Max, Priah Ferguson as Lucas’ sister Erica) present and accounted for. Among the newcomers joining them in season 3 are seasoned veterans Cary Elwes and Jake Busey, as well as relative unknown Maya Thurman Hawke, aka. Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke’s daughter.

Netflix’s Stranger Things season 1 marketing focused heavily on the show’s original mystery storyline, which concerned the disappearance of young Will Byers in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. When the series took off in popularity thereafter, it allowed the marketing for season 2 to be more enigmatic about everything from the fates of certain characters to what Stranger Things 2 (as season 2 is officially titled) is even about. Marketing for season 3 is expected to be even more secretive by comparison, what with the season 2 finale offering few hints about what to expect on the show next (other than something involving the Mind Flayer, aka. Shadow Monster).
According to Deadline, Reale is playing a recurring role in Stranger Things season 3 as Heather, a popular lifeguard at the Hawkins community pool. Details beyond that are being kept under lock and key, though Deadline says Heather will be “the centerpiece” of a dark mystery in season 3. Reale, for her part, is already a member of the Netflix television community thanks to her role on the comedy TV series Haters Back Off! (which was cancelled last year after two seasons).

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It’s not clear if Heather is “popular” in general or with Stranger Things‘ young heroes in particular. Most of the show’s non-adult main characters will be entering their messy teen years in season 3, so it’s possible one or more of them will develop romantic feelings for Hawkins’ local lifeguard. Deadline further describes the Heather role as being a “major” recurring one in addition to being central to the season’s mystery (or one of them), so either way she should amount to more than a minor (read: throwaway) love interest for someone else.

Whereas Stranger Things drew heavily from Steven Spielberg and Stephen King’s 1980s work for inspiration in its first two seasons, season 3 may yet expand its reach to other popular ’80s titles. The show’s young leads are growing up quickly, so it’s possible season 3 will take some of its cues from ’80s teen dramas (think John Hughes movies) and combine them with its sci-fi/horror elements, in order to reflect that. This would also explain why the series is adding multiple recurring teenaged characters (played by Hawke and Reale) to the mix this season.

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Agents of SHIELD Teases The Potential Death of Fan-Favorite Agent

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Possible spoilers ahead for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

A new poster for the next episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “The Force of Gravity,” hints at the possible death of a popular, long-serving agent. In last week’s offering, Glenn Talbot’s new gravity-based superpowers unsurprisingly went to his head, as the former general struck a deal with some shady aliens and decided that the best way to save the world from Thanos was to mine the Earth’s core for more Gravitonium, so that he might take down the Infinity Gauntlet-clad Titan alone.

Unfortunately, Glenn’s plan is destined to go horribly wrong, as the S.H.I.E.L.D. team’s jaunt into the future earlier this season saw them witness an Earth shattered apart by the so-called “Destroyer of Worlds” – almost certainly Talbot. This means that before they can attempt a return to Earth to help the Avengers out with Thanos, Coulson and the gang must deal with Talbot and his new friends in The Confederacy but must do so without the aid of Daisy Johnson, who has been taken captive.
It now seems that Daisy may not be the only agent that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be losing, as a new poster for this week’s episode points towards the possible demise of Agent May. As revealed by CBR, the ad features the faces of Agent Melinda May and The Confederacy’s Qovas. Crucially, however, the poster comes with the tagline “Only One Will Survive.”

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This ad follows on from the recently released trailer for “The Force of Gravity” which includes a scene of May going toe-to-toe with the imposing alien. However, that footage made the battle look like a reasonably standard action sequence and certainly didn’t hint at the same potentially explosive outcome as this latest poster.

Of course, the most likely victor in this showdown is Agent May and with only two episodes remaining of the current season, probability dictates Qovas will be dispatched by his Earthling opponent and it is in fact him the poster is referring to. This seems especially likely as the episode’s trailer focuses heavily on Coulson looking dangerously close to death, rather than May.

However, it’s also impossible to rule out a shock death for Melinda May in this week’s episode. As previously mentioned, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 is almost complete and there’s no word yet on whether or not another run will be green-lit. As such, it’s certainly possible that ABC could’ve quietly told AoS‘s showrunners not to bother planning ahead and that numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could be set for a grisly death in a final blaze of glory before the show ultimately bows out. After all, the season finale is called “The End.”

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HbbTV-based “Netflix rival” debuts in Spain

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According to El Economista, LovesTV is a DTT platform based on HbbTV technology that aims to eventually include all of the country’s public and autonomous DTT channels.

It adds the fact that the platform uses HbbTV allows the DTT channels to be offered with an additional layer of digital information, thereby having functionalities traditionally associated with internet platforms.

Its features include an EPG, seven-day catch-up, recommendations, and parental control. It also includes apps, with RTVE, for instance, giving access to those for RTVE, Clan TVE, Playz and 4K RTVE.

Accessing LovesTV requires a smart TV, internet connection and terrestrial antenna.

Speaking at the platform’s launch and quoted by El Peri?dico, Albert Cuatrecasas, director of the HbbTV technology provider Cellnex Spain, said: “There are currently more than two million smart TVs (in Spain), although it is expected to exceed five million by 2020”.

He added that the platform represented a “quantum leap in the user experience”, comparable in importance to the transition from, analogue to digital TV or the launch of HD services.

Cuatrecasas also said that LovesTV technology is installed in some of the models of the main smart TV manufacturers free of charge, since this is part of the standard for DTT in Spain.

As previously reported by Broadband TV News, plans to launch LovesTV were first announced in May this year.

LovesTV won the Judges’ Grand Prix Prize at this year’s HbbTV Symposium and Awards, which took place in Berlin. (See picture below)

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TDF expands UHD trial on DTT

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The French media authority CSA has authorised TDF to operate a third pilot channel to broadcast in Ultra High Definition (UHD/4k) in ?le-de-France, Nantes and Toulouse.

Channel 83 is in addition to channels 81 and 82, already in service since 2014, broadcast on DTT frequency channels 26, 35 or 29 respectively.

This new project confirms that the migration movement towards UHD is now well underway at the industrial level. This development is a central element of the DTT modernisation announced by the CSA and supported by TDF, by the time of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

For the past five years, TDF has been conducting tests via its Eiffel Tower facilities. DTT channels 81, 82 and now 83 are pilot channels broadcast in UHD quality. In May 2018, this experimental mode was extended to the ?le-de-France region as well as Nantes and Toulouse. Several “multi-city” experiments have been carried out on DTT for viewers equipped with a UHD and DVB-T2/HEVC television set.

In partnership with manufacturers in the audiovisual sector, television channels and other partners such as the French Tennis Federation, TDF broadcasts signals incorporating the latest enhancement technologies – whether WCG (Wide Color Gamut for the colour palette), HDR (High Dynamic Range for contrasts) and soon HFR (High Frame Rate for movement restitution).
At the same time, viewers are gradually renewing their reception stations. The CSA notes, in the course of its consultation, that the migration movement towards UHD is now well under way at the industrial level.

In 2017, 31% of television sales in France were UHD models. The television fleet, which was significantly renewed from 2011 to 2016 following the switch from analogue to DTT and then to HD, has now entered a new phase of renewal.

As part of the UHD broadcasting experiments, Ateme, a TDF partner, is managing the improved digital compression of images. The compression gains achieved through improvements in the implementation of the HEVC standard have made it possible to consider the launch of a third UHD channel (reduction of the throughput required for UHD multiplex from 40 Mbit/s to 33 Mbit/s and encoding of variable-rate channels).

The UHD images of these experiments, filmed in SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), were provided by The Explorer, INA and St Thomas Production. A work of conversion and optimisation of these images in the HDR10 format, was carried out upstream thanks to the technology developed by the Institute of Technological Research B<>COM, thus demonstrating the maturity of this new format.

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Discovery sells Polish TV station

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TVN Discovery Polska has sold the broadcaster NTL Radomsko to Michal Winnicki Entertainment (MWE) for an undisclosed fee.

According to Presserwis, 95% has been acquired directly by MWE, with the remaining 5% being sold to MEW Teleport, a subsidiary of MWE.

Aside from a TV station of the same name, NTL Radmosko operates a local digital TV multiplex (MUX L3) covering the Lodz and Silesian voivodships.