2007 |
Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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January |
Dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc hardware and software are introduced. |
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February |
EMI Group merges Capitol Records and Virgin Records to form Capitol Music Group. |
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March 1 |
Companies within the DuPont group open a house near Brussels, Belgium as a showcase for ideas about future technology. The project—called Living Tomorrow, the House of the Future—has a website that offers an online tour. |
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May 14 |
Privately-held shares in Dutch television production company Endemol (75 per cent) are acquired from Telefónica by a consortium including Italian media company Mediaset and Cyrte, an investment company in which Endemol's found John de Mol is the principal shareholder. By 6 August the consortium has bought up 99.54 per cent of Endemol's shares and asks for the company to be delisted on the Euronext exchange. |
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June 29 |
A 3D advert for energy drink Red Bull is screened in 742 cinemas in London and the south-east of England. |
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June |
Video rental chain Blockbuster is to stock only Blu-ray Disc (BD) software in its 1,700 stores and not HD DVD. |
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July 1 |
Cyfra+ launches a regular high-definition television package of three channels in Poland. |
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July |
British Telecom decides to close its BT Movie wholesale broadcast entertainment service, which has achieved fewer than 10,000 subscribers in 10 months, even after a £2.5m advertising campaign. |
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August |
Paramount and DreamWorks announce that they are to support only the HD DVD format of high-definition video discs and not Blu-ray Disc. |
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September |
UK audiovisual retailer Virgin Megastores is sold in a management buyout and renamed Zavvi. |
> 2008 December 24 |
September |
US satellite television broadcaster DirecTV adds 40 more channels to its high-definition line-up, bringing the total to around 70 and triggering a 'big bang' expansion of HD broadcasting in the US. |
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October 17 |
Cyfrowy Polsat soft-launches its first high-definition satellite television channel, Polsat Sport HD. |
> 2008 |
October |
UTV becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of a new holding company, UTV Media, which incorporates the enterprise's radio and other interests. |
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November 9 |
UK pay TV broadcaster BSkyB launches Sky Real Lives channel. |
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November |
Cablecom, a subsidiary of Liberty Global, introduces a three-channel high-definition television service in Switzerland. |
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December 2 |
Digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmissions started in São Paulo. The system offers standard- and high-definition transmissions and fixed, mobile and portable television reception. |
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December 31 |
Digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmissions are started in Hong Kong by ATV and TVB. |
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December |
Channel Four Television launches 4HD, the first simulcast high-definition channel from a UK public broadcaster. |
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December |
HD Suisse, the first high-definition channel, is broadcast in Switzerland via the Eutelsat Hot Bird 8 satellite (transponder 85) by the four language-based public broadcasters, SF, TSR, TSI and TvR. |
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UK's five national television channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel Four, Five) account for 63 per cent of viewing time. Other channels, with the remaining 37 per cent, take £1.1bn in advertising revenue. The national channels (excluding the BBC) take £2.4bn from advertising sales. |
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For the first time, all six major Hollywood studios each gross more than $1bn at the US box office. |
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UK's Vue Entertainment cinema chain is sold in a £350m management buyout with investment firm Cavendish Square Partners (a joint venture between Lloyds Banking Group and private equity group Coller Capital) owning 29 per cent and hedge fund Och-Ziff 20 per cent. |
> 2010 November 8 |
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Shipments of VHS video recorders in Japan fall to 280,000. |
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Parliament in Iran approves the death penalty for anyone involved in making pornographic films. |
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