Blu-ray Disc player household penetration is up to 12.3 million in the US for the first quarter of 2009, a 71 per cent gain year over year, according to a survey.
Research firm Centris also found that the number of American households with an HDTV is up to 50.5 million - a gain of 33 per cent from the first quarter of 2008.

It's taken a while but HDTV seems to have firmly established itself in the UK - underlined by the latest surge in subscriber numbers for BSkyB.
The satellite broadcaster has seen its HD base leap to more than one million subscribers - up 32 per cent on the previous quarter and more than double the 465,000 who signed up last year.

The worldwide market for pay-Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television rose significantly in 2008, with an estimated 18 per cent rise in subscriptions, reports In-Stat.
It suggests the primary reason for this increase was strong growth in the Indian market, which more than doubled to about 9 million subscribers at the end of 2008.

Freesat doubled sales of its satellite packages in the last quarter of 2008.
Emma Scott, MD of the UK's free-to-air digital satellite television service, said high definition content from the BBC and ITV have helped drive sales.

XStreamHD has successfully tested a transport system that delivers Full HD movies, music, and games directly to subscriber homes via satellite.
The system, tested on the AMC-16 satellite at 85 degrees west longitude, will be able to provide content throughout North America.

The Blu-ray Disc Association doesn’t take kindly to satellite and cable providers claiming their products deliver high definition picture and sound “equal” to that delivered by Blu-ray Disc.
hdtv.biz-news.com spoke to video compression provider ATEME about its plans to deliver video of Blu-ray quality and beyond

Dish Network is claiming a pay-TV industry first with its announcement that it is to transmit all standard and HDTV programming in the MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding Standard.
Always keen to stress any competitive advantage over its rivals, the satellite provider asserts this is just the latest in a series of market-leading offerings.

ITV director of group development and strategy Carolyn Fairbairn will succeed Tim Davie as chairman of the UK’s free-to-air digital satellite television service Freesat in September.
Davie, currently the BBC’s director of marketing, communications and audiences, will relinquish the Freesat when he becomes the corporation’s new director of audio and music.

Sky+ HD was taken by 33,000 new customers in the UK over the last three months, pushing the premium high-definition PVR to a total customer base of nearly 500,000.
Publishing results for its full financial year, Sky said it had 8.98m subscribers in total with net customer additions over the last three months coming in ahead of analyst expectations at 92,000.

Cable, satellite and IPTV providers will be able to pack more HD video onto limited bandwidth using technology developed by NextIO and Broadcast International.
The companies have teamed up to combine NextIO’s ExpressConnect solution and BI’s ultra-high speed video compression technology.
By combining the technologies it will be possible for video providers to deliver live HDTV at compression levels four to six times higher than is currently possible.

The digital revolution is sweeping the UK but viewers appear unwilling to pay for the limited range of HD channels on offer.
UK households with digital televisions as their main set now account for 87.2 per cent of the total, according to a study by Ofcom.
The survey by the independent communications industry regulator reveals how the digital TV market is divided up between the three main forms – digital terrestrial television (DTT), satellite and cable television.

BY 2015 nobody will refer to “high definition” TV because HD will be the standard form of free television everywhere.
But the HD broadcast offering in Europe will largely remain patchy during the intervening transition period, according to a report by Screen Digest.
The study says HDTV will mainly develop as a pay TV product in Europe over the next five years - and mostly as a satellite product.

Seventy-five per cent of pay TV operators in Asia have, or expect to have, HDTV programming by the end of 2008.
But the lack of substantial HDTV content – both local and international – is seen as being the most important roadblock for developing the HDTV sector in the region.
These are among of the findings of a survey carried out for MEASAT Satellite Systems by Euroconsult into the development of high definition television in the Asia-Pacific region.
The study, which was conducted during May, polled the rationale, benefits, challenges and expectations of HDTV amongst the regions’ leading pay TV
operators.
A total of 25 operators in 15 markets, collectively serving more than 24 million subscribers, were interviewed.

The UK’s ITV network has launched its HD service on Freesat by broadcasting the opening games from Euro 2008.
Freesat is a subscription-free, digital satellite TV service from ITV and the BBC.
Viewers can see all the games the BBC has rights to in high definition on Virgin Media and Sky, but ITV announced that its debut HD programmes would be matches on the opening few days of the football tournament.
The first HD offering from ITV was the Portugal v Turkey match on Saturday.

Intelsat, Ltd., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, has appointed its Chief Executive Officer, David McGlade, as acting Chief Financial Officer.
The announcment follows the resignation of Jeffrey Freimark from the position of CFO, a move that was effective from June 5. He is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Mr McGlade will also continue to serve as CEO while an external search for a permanent CFO is carried out.