canal+

Macrovision--the company which last year acquired the US's dominant EPG developer, Gemstar-TV Guide, and which recently announced that it would change its name to Rovi, as part of a complete revamp of its brand identity--has signed multi-year EPG patent-licensing agreements with French pay-TV operator, Canal+ Group, and with Swiss set-top box vendor, Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB).

Following a similar deal with UK pay-TV provider, BSkyB, that was announced earlier this month (see the article posted on itvt.com, June 11th), Microsoft on Monday announced a deal with French pay-TV provider, Canal+, that the companies say will make a range of Canal+'s live and VOD content--including over 3,000 on-demand films, as well as TV shows and soccer games--available to France's approximately 1 million Xbox 360 users via Microsoft's Xbox LIVE content service.

UK-based set-top box manufacturer, Pace, has delivered a PVR- equipped hybrid satellite/IP HDTV set-top to French pay-TV operator, Canal+. Dubbed +Le Cube, the new box features an Ethernet port that Canal+ can use to deliver VOD services; and a 320GB hard disk, capable of recording up to 100 hours of HD programming (note: according to Pace, the hard drive has been engineered to be very quiet). The box also supports USB and HDMI, and has Dolby Digital audio outputs. Its IP connection is designed to allow progressive downloads of VOD content, wherein that content is buffered onto the hard disk.

--MediaHighway Middleware Lets Canal+ Subs Transform HD STB's into DVR's

News Corp.-owned conditional access and interactive TV technology
provider, NDS, has generated a fair amount of ITV-related news over
the past few weeks. Among the highlights: