Online TV grows in Europe

Of the current broadband households in Western Europe, 28% watch TV shows online at least monthly, reports PR News Wire.

"HDTV ownership among broadband households is at or above 50% in several countries,” says Parks Associates vice-president and principal analyst Kurt Scherf. “Combining online activities with advanced CE is one point of convergence where companies with the right solution can offer real value to their customers,"

The Connections Europe Summit being held in Nice, France, on 31 March will include discussions about the IPTV uptake during its many sessions. The sessions include topics such as broadband and value-added services, the evolution of video services, digital media, connected CE, digital home services and customer support, and the future of consumer technologies.

More than 200 000 viewers worldwide were able to follow the ESL Pro Series Finals live on ESL TV using Octoshape's streaming technology, states Streaming Media.

Due to the high performance of the unique Octoshape gridcasting technology, more viewers could tune in to the ESL TV high-quality streams. ESL TV says the high-quality streaming from Octoshape is appreciated by the worldwide ESL audience.

In 2008 ESL TV did not only stream live 24/7, but also streamed live from a number of major events such as Intel Extreme Masters in Dubai and Montreal, WC3L Finals in China, and Dreamhack, the world's largest computer festival, held in Sweden.

Viaccess's mobile broadcasting solution has been selected by GlobeCast for use in a key trial platform to facilitate the commercial launch of this technology in Europe, says Press Echo.

The objective of this platform is to demonstrate both the viability of DVB-H as a mobile television standard as well as the expertise of GlobeCast as a technology integrator and end-to-end service provider for television bouquet operators.

According to Viaccess, it was selected for its track record in delivering mature and reliable solutions and on the basis of the wide interoperability testing plans that it conducted with all its partners. It says these provide the key technologies necessary to deploy an end-to-end mobile broadcast solution.