MHP licence fees dropped for free-to-air broadcasters
Free-to-air broadcasters will no longer have to pay patent licence fees for using MHP interactive television middleware. The fees set by the patent pool administrator Via Licensing have been controversial and have partly accounted for the lack of widespread adoption of the DVB standard.

Win for Digisoft middleware in Thailand and China markets
Win Multimedia in Thailand has selected Digisoft TV from Ireland to provide its service delivery platform and middleware for IPTV services in the Thai and Chinese markets. Win Media is a subsidiary of Win Win Net Corporation based in Bankok. It plans to launch its service across 10,000 retail outlets in Thailand and China over the next year.

Broadband Britain remains a pipe dream rather than a vision
Britain risks its economic competitiveness as a result of lack of investment in next generation networks, but there is no clear business case to build new broadband infrastructure. That was the message from a conference of the self-appointed industry advisory body the Broadband Stakeholder Group held in London.

BBC plans web page for every programme it has ever made
The BBC is planning to provide a permanent web page for every episode of every programme it has ever broadcast. The ambitious proposal was outlined by Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Vision at the Banff World Television Festival in Canada. Separately, the BBC has outlined multi-million pound plans for a permanent multiplatform interactive sport service it is calling Mysportnow.

JumpTV and NeuLion to merge online video operations
Loss-making online television pioneers JumpTV and NeuLion are planning to merge. This will create a single operation covering a range of sports, international and religious channels, delivered on the web and to set-top boxes. The transaction is expected to be completed in the autumn. The merger is expected to result in around 60 job losses by the end of 2008.