Author: Scott

Noggin Launching on Prime Video

Nick Jr’s learning subscription service Noggin is launching on Amazon Prime Video Channels, as an add-on subscription. The service will be available on all devices with access to the Prime Video app.

Noggin is aimed at pre-school children, and offers educational content based around popular children’s characters, such as Dora the Explorer.

The existing service More Milkshake is being merged into Noggin, and will continue to exist as a separate brand.

The service will cost an additional £2.99 on top of the Prime subscription fee.

BBC Remains Most Used Media Organisation

According to the BBC’s annual report from April 2019 to March 2020, the BBC is still the most used media organisation in the UK, with 41 million users a day.

90% of the population use the BBC each week, and this grew to 94% in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The BBC iPlayer recorded a record 4.8 billion requests to stream programmes during the period covered by the report.

Police Warn Illegal Streaming Service Users

Norfolk and Suffolk Constabulary Cyber, Intelligence and Serious Organised Crime Directorate have issued warning notices to the users of a pirate streaming service. The users were all believed to be customers of GE Hosting.

The notice warns users of the penalties for using such a service, and is believed to be the first of its kind. If the notice is ignored, investigation and prosecution may follow.

The move follows ongoing action against against illegal streaming services across the UK.

Sky Sports Cricket on YouTube

From today (21st September 2020), Sky Sports is streaming all 5 matches of the T20 Women’s Cricket series between England and the West Indies for free.

The coverage is available on the Sky Sports YouTube channel, in addition to live coverage on the Sky Sports Cricket Channel.

This is the schedule:

  • 21st September: 1st Vitality IT20 at 6.30pm
  • 23rd September: 2nd Vitality IT20 at 6.30pm
  • 26th September: 3rd Vitality IT20 at 1pm
  • 28th September: 4th Vitality IT20 at 6.30pm
  • 30th September: 5th Vitality IT20 at 6.30pm

Sky Arts Now on Freeview

As previously reported, Sky Arts has now gone free-to-air. The channel is available on Sky, Freesat, Freeview, and Virgin Media, and shows arts and culture based programmes.

Sky Arts is now available on Freeview channel 11, and has achieved a prominent position on the EPG due to number swapping with other Sky owned channels.

This means that the channel is close to channels from public service broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, who already show arts and culture based programmes.

Funding for Rural Broadband

An additional £22 million is being invested into the UK Government’s broadband voucher scheme. This subsidises the cost of installing high speed internet connections to homes and businesses in rural areas of England.

This will benefit streaming services, as more people will have broadband capable of accessing these services.

£90 million worth of vouchers have already been issued since May 2019.

BritBox Added to Freesat

The BritBox streaming service has been added to Freesat. The app is now available on the latest generation of 4K compatible receivers. Availability on older devices is not known.

An internet connection is required to use the app.

BritBox allows users to access archive and premium content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 on-demand, for a monthly subscription.

ZEE TV and ZEE Cinema to Close

Asian TV channels ZEE TV and ZEE Cinema are expected to close at the end of the year. Both are currently available on Sky (satellite) and Virgin Media (cable).

The move is subject to the renegotiation of commercial contracts, as these don’t expire until 2021. Zee had already closed its other services, including ZEE TV HD and ZEE Punjabi

Like Disney with Disney+, ZEE is focussing its efforts on its online streaming platform, in this case ZEE5.

Two Year Jail Term for Pirate Device Seller

A man has been jailed for two years after selling devices to allow illegal access to premium streamed content.

The man from West Yorkshire sold 2,500 such devices, with accompanying illicit subscriptions, between 2015 and 2019. He made £200,000 selling the devices on both ebay and through his website.

The devices allowed users to bypass subscriptions to premium sports, film, and TV content.