With just over two months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union, the BBC has yet to announce contingency plans to facilitate broadcasting to other European countries, including the Republic of Ireland. Meanwhile a number of international broadcasters have been making preparations to relocate their licences to other European territories.
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Netflix had 139 million paid memberships at the end of 2018, up 8.84 million in a quarter and up 28.62 million from the beginning of the year. That was a 33% increase on the 21.55 million subscribers added in 2017. Netflix is forecasting that it will have nearly 148 million subscribers by April 2019. For the first time, Netflix has reported viewing numbers.
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BritBox, the online video subscription joint venture between the BBC and ITV, announced that it has over half a million subscribers, doubling year on year, in its second year of operation. Representing the best of British television programming in North America, it still remains a minority interest compared to Netflix and Amazon.
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The future of television was on show at CES in Las Vegas. 8K displays were once again prominent, despite a dearth of programming to do them justice. Remember they said that about 4K, and some still do. The launch of the 8K Association promises to promote the benefits of 8K to the industry and consumers. Meanwhile Apple is extending its ecosystem to mainstream television manufacturers.
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Traditional television viewing on Christmas Day continues to diminish, with the top programmes attracting lower audiences than ever in the United Kingdom. For the first time we have official figures for viewing across four screens at Christmas, but they seem to do little to reduce the decline.
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IMDb, the movie information web site owned by Amazon, has launched a free online movie and television service, initially available in the United States. Known as Freedive, it is offered without subscription, supported by advertising, on the IMDb web site and on all Amazon Fire TV devices.
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