The upcoming US presidential inauguration will be broadcast in Europe in high definition for the first time ever following "unprecedented demand" from broadcasters.
Eurovision is to offer European broadcasters access to full HDTV coverage of the ceremony, Barack Obama’s speech and motorcade beamed from cameras on location in Washington DC.
High Definition TV News
Various members of Sling Media’s top management, including several founders, have announced their departure from the company.
The move follows Echostar’s acquisition of Sling for USD $380 million in 2007.
Imagination Technologies has announced a new graphics processor IP core – the PowerVR SGX543.
The UK-based company is the designer of the PowerVR MBX hardware used in the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Its new four-pipeline SGX543 is expected to be able to support HD resolution video and graphics output.
US consumer spending on packaged home entertainment – rental and sales of DVD and high-def disc formats – fell by 5.5 per cent in 2008, to USD $22.4 billion, according to the Digital Entertainment Group.
Spending on DVD purchases fell more dramatically than the total, declining by 9 per cent, to about USD $14.5 billion, and the shipment of DVD units was down almost 15 per cent in 2008 to 1.4 Billion
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Freesat doubled sales of its satellite packages in the last quarter of 2008.
Emma Scott, MD of the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television service, said high definition content from the BBC and ITV have helped drive sales.
Yahoo has agreed deals with a host of big-name HDTV makers, including Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio, that will result in their sets supporting Yahoo’s online service.
The alliances put Yahoo firmly at the forefront of the drive towards the convergence of the Internet and TV.
Panasonic has unveiled the first portable Blu-ray player at CES in Las Vegas.
The DMP-B15 features an 8.9-inch WSVGA display and along with the ability to play Blu-ray discs it also has access (via
Ethernet connection to the Internet) to VIERA CAST. Fully Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compliant it also features an SD card.
Internet television viewership is increasing rapidly in the US due to better content and improved viewing quality, according to Move Networks.
The Internet TV service provider has released figures showing it streamed more than 100 million hours of high definition content and over 180 million total hours of content in 2008.
Roku has agreed a deal that will give its set-top box users access to Amazon’s video on demand (VOD) content.
The agreement means owners of Roku digital video players will be able to instantly purchase, rent and watch digital movies and TV episodes from the Amazon service.
LG Electronics has announced the first broadband-enabled HDTVs with Netflix streaming software embedded directly in the set.
The new LCD and plasma “broadband HDTVs” will be able to show Netflix’s library of movies, TV episodes and HD content directly on the set without needing an external device.