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This month > Editor’s note Digital TV Europe
July/August 2009
Issue no 287
Silver reflections
Published By:
Informa Telecoms & Media
Mortimer House
37-41 Mortimer Street
London W1T 3JH
Welcome
to our 25th anniversary issue. Digital TV Europe
was launched as a regular magazine (then of
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5000
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7017 4953
course called Cable & Satellite Europe) in the same year as Europe’s first over-
Website: www.digitaltveurope.net
the-air pay-TV channel, Canal Plus. In the quarter-century since then we
have seen and reported on the dramatic expansion of multichannel pay-TV
Editor Stuart Thomson
to the multi-billion euro industry that exists today. We have followed the
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5314
emergence of the internet as a mass-market phenomenon in the 1990s and
Email: stuart.thomson@informa.com
the explosive growth in broadband penetration in the first decade of the 21st
Deputy Editor Graham Pomphrey
century, driven by intense competition between cable and telecom operators and a seemingly
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7017 5293 inexaustible appetite for bandwidth by consumers. We have reported on the launch and mass-
Email: graham.pomphrey@informa.com
adoption of digital TV (both as a premium cable and satellite pay-TV and as a free over-the-air
service). We have covered the birth of high-definition TV and digital video recording, of video-
Contributing Editors
Stewart Clarke, Julia Glotz
on-demand, voice-over-IP and much else besides.
We have also followed the rise (and in some cases the fall) of major global media corporations,
Contributors the faltering early steps and subsequent seemingly unstoppable success of BSkyB, the dotcom
Angela Balakrishnan, Kate Bulkley, Salma
boom and crash and the financial meltdown of the European cable business, the rise of telco TV
Conway, Nick Flaherty, Andy Fry, Farah Jifri,
and the great crash of 2008-09.
Peter White
In this special anniversary issue of Digital TV Europe we look back (with the help of a group
Correspondents
of leading industry figures) on the highs and lows of our 25 years covering the business, and try
France: Julien Alliot; Germany: Dieter to identify some of the themes that will dominate the years to come.
Brockmeyer; Italy: Branislav Pekic; Portugal:
Elsewhere in this issue, we cover some of today’s key trends. Competition between broadband
Nuno Cintra Torres; Spain: David Del Valle
service providers and demand for additional bandwidth driven by the online consumption of
Advertisement Director Katrina Coyne
video is pushing telcos and cable operators alike to invest in next-generation broadband net-
Email: katrina.coyne@informa.com
works. In this issue of Digital TV Europe, we look at some of the technology choices available,
and try to assess their relative merits.
International Sales Manager
The economic situation, the rise of the internet and increased competition generally are put-
Patricia Arescy
ting ever-greater pressures on established broadcasters to streamline and cut the costs of deliv-
Email: patricia.arescy@informa.com
ering their services. Also in this issue we look at some of the ways in which automation of play-
Art Director Matthew Humberstone
out and the development of IT-centric broadcasting infrastructure can help.
Finally in this issue of Digital TV Europe, we look at some of the key technologies on show at
Publisher Lydia Blackwood
this year’s IBC that are likely to enable the next phase of the evolution of TV. ●
Managing Director Ian Hemming
Printing Wyndeham Grange, West Sussex
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© Informa UK Ltd 2009
All rights reserved
Reproduction without permission
Stuart Thomson, Editor
is prohibited
stuart.thomson@informa.com
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.net
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