Rapid TV News

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• News Corp tightens grip on Sky Deutschland

  Sky Deutschland wants to expand its supervisory board, opening the door for main shareholder News Corp to gain more influence on the German pay-TV operator.

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• Satellite 2010 opening predictions

  The giant Satellite 2010 conflab opened today in Washington DC, and delegates were given some sound advice from the analysts at specialist consultancy NearEarth. NearEarth predicted their Top 10 expectations for the year ahead.

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• Argentina will start ISDB in April

  Argentina will start transmitting digital TV next month using the ISDB standard.

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• iPhone has changed ‘Lean Back’ TV argument

  Viewers are increasingly demanding in how their watch their TV. No longer is it a simple argument between ‘lean back’ TV viewing and ‘lean forward’ interactive-type video consumption. A Rapid TV News expert panel on IPTV says the argument that online usage would ‘cannibalise’ TV watching was no longer relevant.

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• Canal+ inks VOD deal with MK2

  Canal+ has inked a video-on-demand deal for its Canal+ Play VOD service with movie group MK2 that includes content from every branch of the movie industry.

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• German women’s channel to launch May 7

  German TV group ProSiebenSat.1 has unveiled the launch date of its women’s channel Sixx. The new venture will go on air on May 7, channel head Katja Hofem-Best announced during the presentation of its programmes.

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• Spain's analogue TV share at lowest ever

  With the arrival of DTT in Spain where the national analogue switch off will take place on April 2, the audiences for analogue television continue to drop.

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• ViaSat wins O3b deal, dominates Ka-band

  The Ka-band is a range of frequencies that satellite operators are increasingly interested in, especially for satellite-delivered broadband. Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat craft will launch later this year in and with ViaSat supplying the ground-based segment. Now ViaSat has won a contract from O3b, in which SES holds a significant stake.

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• New German hunting and fishing channel

  German TV company HV Fernsehbetriebs GmbH wants to set up a thematic television channel for hunters and fishermen. An application for a broadcast licence for the venture dubbed Waidwerk was lodged at Berlin-based media authority MABB.

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• Easter treat for KidsCo

  KidsCo, the fast-growing children’s channel, will introduce a new set of idents for Easter.

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