Wednesday March 10th
Samsung have announced the start of 3D TV at home is here, they are going to start selling their new range of 3D enabled sets by the end of March.
These sets work by the viewer wearing a special pair of 3d glasses, the sets start with 2 pairs but it should be easy to get more glasses for viewing.
Currently expect the sets to start quite expensive, but as the technology matures and becomes more readily available the price will fall.
A lot of films are due to be presented in 3D this year, following the huge success of Avatar last year. Combining this with Sky announcing trials of sports events in 3D, and Sony and FIFA coming to an agreement to film 25 world cup games in 3D, 2010 is the year for 3D to take off.
Wednesday February 3rd
Virgin Media have enjoyed a massive increase in traffic to their on demand service over the past 12 months. Posting a staggering 750 million tv and movie requests during the 12 months of 2009.
This is a 50% increase on the previous years figures, which just backs up how crucial on demand services are going to be during the coming years.
Virgin Media helped to pioneer on demand TV as we have it now in the UK, driving the service to their customer base via their cable infrastructure and set top boxes. This allows users to watch the content without the need for a computer near by, a major advantage as users like the big screen experience.
However, Virgin is currently limited in that it can only supply on demand content to users on its cable network, it was rumored they have been looking into an IPTV based system that could potentially be brought to any UK household.
Sunday January 24th
The BBC has been granted provisional approval to introduce a DRM system into the upcoming High Definition Freeview Service. While the system is currently being trialed, it hasn't officially launched yet.
The BBC believes that having no copy protection on the platform would pose a barrier to getting content onto the network, believing that providers wouldn't want their work to be broadcast in HD free to be copied especially with DVD burners and hard disk recorders so readily available now.
Having DRM on the High Definition service, will allow the BBC to impose limits on what you can and can't do with the service however, which some viewers will not like.
While the decision isn't final yet, it is likely to be unless some serious objections are made by April 5th.
Friday January 22nd
Sky TV has announced that it plans to broadcast football matches in 3D before the end of the year. The broadcaster has already started testing the technology by filming in 3D at various stadiums across the country ready to roll out the technology further.
To watch the 3D content, viewers will need a Sky HD box and a 3D compatible TV along with a set of 3D glasses. This does limit how effective it may be within a pub or large social environment but at home viewers will be able to see it too.
Sports will probably make up a large part of 3D content to start with on Sky, until there is more content available, made for 3D.
Sunday January 17th
BT has said today that it wants to start a price war over sports content provided to the consumer by offering consumers access to the premium sports content at a lower cost than its competitors.
It is waiting for a judgement from Ofcom as to whether the wholesale price of the premium content provided by Sky must be reduced to allow fair competition across platforms.
If Ofcom force Sky to reduce the fees they charge other provides, this could start a price war between them to get and keep viewers. It would allow both BT and Virgin Media, along with others, to slash their prices to their users.
This could benefit viewers all round, by offering more competition and thus more choice for where to access the premium content. Currently Sky hold most of the viewers, more than double that of BT and Virgin Media combined.