Individual media Reference department
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2007 Chronokey Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references.


links and notes
  Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year  
January  Dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc hardware and software are introduced.  
February  EMI Group merges Capitol Records and Virgin Records to form Capitol Music Group.  
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.  
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.  
June 29  A 3D advert for energy drink Red Bull is screened in 742 cinemas in London and the south-east of England.  
June  Video rental chain Blockbuster is to stock only Blu-ray Disc (BD) software in its 1,700 stores and not HD DVD.  
July 1  Cyfra+ launches a regular high-definition television package of three channels in Poland.  
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.  
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.  
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.  
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.  
November 9  UK pay TV broadcaster BSkyB launches Sky Real Lives channel.  
November  Cablecom, a subsidiary of Liberty Global, introduces a three-channel high-definition television service in Switzerland.  
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.  
December 31  Digital terrestrial television (DTT) transmissions are started in Hong Kong by ATV and TVB.  
December  Channel Four Television launches 4HD, the first simulcast high-definition channel from a UK public broadcaster.  
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.  
•  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.  
•  For the first time, all six major Hollywood studios each gross more than $1bn at the US box office.  
•  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
•  Shipments of VHS video recorders in Japan fall to 280,000.  
•  Parliament in Iran approves the death penalty for anyone involved in making pornographic films.  
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Page updated 5 May 2011
© David Fisher