Happy New Year to all our readers

Unidentified attackers set fire to a private television station in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo today after smashing editing equipment, police said. About a dozen men stormed the Siyatha television studious in Colombo and exploded a petrol bomb after systematically destroying equipment inside the news room studios, a journalist from the station said. “The […]

Irish public broadcaster RTÉ has received the government go-ahead for its plans to introduce digital terrestrial television (DTT) across Ireland. A week after it emerged that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is to shelve the commercial tender for DTT, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said yesterday that RTÉ would push ahead with its €70m scheme. […]

Text of report published by Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror website on 29 July An investigation is under way as to how an illegal radio station operating from Beruwala managed to broadcast its programmes island-wide via the FM frequencies, officials told Daily Mirror online. According to police sources the radio station was operating from a mosque [...] […]

Armed men cut television and radio signals owned by the opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one media head in Kinshasa said yesterday. “Men in plain clothes but armed” ordered staff at the broadcasting centre to cut the signal for Canal Kin Television (CKTV), Canal Congo Television (CCTV) and Radio Liberty Kinshasa (RALIK), the [...] […]

The public service broadcaster Slovak Television (STV) has been told it will have to reduce its costs. It was challenged to do so by the Supervisory Commission of STV because of lower advertising revenues and lower collection of concessionaire fees paid by viewers. The broadcaster reports rising costs of preparations to switch from analogue to digital. [...] […]

Microsoft is going to showcase its new Kinect motion control system for the Xbox console at theme parks and events across the UK, so the public can try before they buy. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can get yourself down to the Kinect Galleries in Covent Garden, London. This [...] […]

Apple’s next-gen smartphone is now being flogged by T-Mobile in the UK. You can pick up the 16GB and 32GB variants of the handset in black since yesterday, although on contract only as PAYG options aren’t yet available. They are “coming soon”, according to the website. Unfortunately we’re not going to get too excited about the prospect [...] […]

Samsung has confirmed that its iPad challenger, the Galaxy tablet, will be out this quarter. In other words, before the end of September, Reuters reports. The Android based tablet will come sporting a 7 inch screen, so a bit more compact than Apple’s magical effort. It’s also likely to be running a 1.2GHz processor, backed up by [...] […]

Sky Sports 1 and 2 will be available on BT Vision this weekend and, with the price starting at £6.99 a month for one channel, this might give the service the boost it badly needs. Hybrid Freeview/IPTV service, BT Vision, gained only 14,000 new customers in the second quarter, its worst performance for two years. [...] […]

Ireland is to step firmly in the digital era with plans announced to roll-out digital terrestrial television (DTT) by 31 December 2012, when the analogue signal will be switched off. Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan today revealed a €70 million investment to bring DTT to everyone in Ireland. A new terrestrial network will serve 98% [...] […]