http://www.screendigest.com/rss/ en-gb Copyright: (C) Screen Digest 240 Over 2,400 digital screens were installed across Europe in the period September to end December 2011 bringing the active digital screen base to over 18,500 as at Q4 2011. It was also the third consecutive quarter more 2D screens were installed than 3D, following 3D's usurping as the main driver of roll-out, a trend first set in motion in Q2 2011. Q4 also marked the turning point for European screens which became majority digital. There are now 16 territories with the majority of screens digitised, up from 11 in Q3(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212b/2012_02_digital_and_3d_cinema_market_trends_in_europe_q4_2011/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212b/2012_02_digital_and_3d_cinema_market_trends_in_europe_q4_2011/view.html 2012-02-02 The last 14 months have seen a surge in companies buying patent portfolios in the technology, media and telecoms industry. Starting in late 2010 with the purchase of 882 patents from Novell by a Microsoft-led consortium there have been almost $20bn of patent-related spend from just a handful of major IT and mobile companies. In early 2012 Intel entered the fray with a $120m purchase of 360 video-related patents from RealNetworks. But regulators may be about to respond to the constant sparing as the European Commission starts antitrust reviews over Samsung's mobile claims to prevent innovation from being stiffled.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212a/2012_02_the_battle_for_patents/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212a/2012_02_the_battle_for_patents/view.html 2012-02-02 Although the retail sales shift from DVDs to BDs has been slower than studios and CE merchants would have liked, BD continues to enjoy strong growth in household penetration. In the first few years of its rollout, BD households were weighted toward PS3 game machines, as was the case with DVD and the original PlayStations. But in 2010 dedicated BD set-top households pulled into the lead, and most of the growth in overall BD household penetration in 2011 was due to the addition of BD set-tops. The steady growth in BD sales and BD set-top penetration has prompted studios to release more of their most sought-after library titles, setting up what we hope will become a virtuous cycle.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212c/2012_02_slow_but_steady_bd_sales_growth_lags_big_increases_in_bd_households/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/201212c/2012_02_slow_but_steady_bd_sales_growth_lags_big_increases_in_bd_households/view.html 2012-02-02 Australian online video rental subscription company Quickflix is extending its streaming service WatchNow to Samsung IETVs, Blu-ray Disc (BD) players and the Galaxy line of Android tablets and smartphones....(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_02_quickflix_launches_on_samsung_devices/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_02_quickflix_launches_on_samsung_devices/view.html 2012-02-02 In its financial reports for the fourth quarter of 2011, Japanese company Toshiba posted a loss of „10.6bn ($138.7m; ?105.2m) amongst total revenues of „1.4tn ($18.3bn; ?13.8bn). The...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_japan_tv_slump_hits_toshiba/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_japan_tv_slump_hits_toshiba/view.html 2012-02-01 Hitachi Ltd. plans to end in-house production of television sets in Japan.  Both overcrowding in the market and strengthening of the yen have made it difficult for the company to compete in a low profit...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_hitachi_to_end_tv_manufacturing_in_japan/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_hitachi_to_end_tv_manufacturing_in_japan/view.html 2012-01-31 UltraViolet, the consortium of media, technology and retail companies established to make available a standard for video-playback inter-operability between devices and apps from diverse enablers, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas January 10 that it had registered 750,000 user accounts by year-end 2011. More importantly, it announced progress on most of the critical challenges it faces (see our "First UltraViolet discs hit US market", 12/16/11): obtaining retailer support, providing consumers living room access to their UV collections, putting existing disc collections into the UV cloud, and having third parties develop white-label front-ends easing entry for lots of service providers.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/2012031a/2012_01_ultraviolet_brings_amazon_partly_on_board_adds_disc-to-digital_functionality/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/2012031a/2012_01_ultraviolet_brings_amazon_partly_on_board_adds_disc-to-digital_functionality/view.html 2012-01-31 BSkyB saw net additions of core TV households for the year to end of 2011 more than half against the previous year, but put more weight behind multiscreen and out-of-home access to drive future growth,...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_sky_pushes_multiscreen_as_core_tv_business_slows/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_sky_pushes_multiscreen_as_core_tv_business_slows/view.html 2012-01-31