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Wired: ‘In difficult times, it’s good to prepare for better times,’ says Frieder C. Löhrer, Loewe’s chief executive. His company seems to have taken this attitude to heart, expanding its network of premium TV stores across the UK at a time when the green shoots of recovery are barely out of the ground.

This autumn Loewe plans to open six new stores, moving out of London into Manchester, Sheffield, the Lake District and beyond.

The company’s home market, Germany, remains its most profitable, but Loewe believes that the UK, Europe’s biggest TV market, is a natural home for its high-end, design-led TVs.

In particular, they have their eyes on the upcoming Olympics as a driver of demand for high quality sound and picture, not only for home viewers but also for designer and boutique hotels.

Loewe is very much the Apple of the TV world, offering status-symbol sets at considerably higher prices than the competition. The designs are minimalistic – all smooth edges and hidden buttons and cables. The aim, the company says, is that TVs shouls be as attractive from the back as they are from the front, so they can be placed in the middle of a room.

Features range from the practical to the plain extravagant: a light sensor measures the ambient light of the room and dims the screen to suit, for example, or you can buy (expensive) matching furniture specially designed to fit with your TV.

So how does this high-end company see the future of TV? It shares the view of other manufacturers that 3DTV is not on the immediate horizon, and that hybrid internet TVs are likely to be the next development. From next year, the company’s products will include an internet browser, and the YouTube function already found on some models will be upgraded to YouTube XL.

They are also considering implementing the BBC’s iPlayer, although this may depend on the company’s success in the UK. There are no immediate plans to introduce OLED screens, although engineers are working on it for future models.

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Wired: The final text of the UK government’s Digital Britain Report has been released. The report is, according to its authors, the government’s “strategic vision for ensuring that the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.”

PaidContent has done a cracking summary of the 275 page report, highlighting three main issues:

1. There will be a new fund to pay for the development of high-speed broadband networks.
2. There are no plans to create a ‘Three-strikes and you’re out law’ to punish those downloaders who violate copyright law.
3. There no plans to make it easier for newspapers to consolidate by relaxing media ownership laws.

The Guardian also has exhaustive coverage of the detailed report, and leads with a piece by Charles Arthur highlighting the report’s idea that OFCOM should be given powers to ensure that internet service providers reduce illegal file-sharing on their networks by 70%.

Wired.co.uk’s media correspondent Peter Kirwan will cover the report in Wired’s media blog, The Great Transition, tommorow.

In the mean time you can read the full text of report at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Web site here.

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Home Cinema Choice: Samsung has claimed the number one TV position in the UK for the second year running.

Latest Gfk data released make Samsung the number one brand in overall sales, with a 23.8 per cent market share (up from just 0.7 per cent in 2000).

Andy Griffiths, VP of CE for Samsung UK is predictably thrilled: ‘It just shows that Samsung’s offering in this market is stronger than ever.’

Samsung is expected to be the first brand to release LED LCD TVs into the UK featuring Yahoo’s new TV widget platform.

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Home Cinema Choice: More than a million TVs were sold in the UK during October compared to the same period last year, according to new sales data released by market analysts GfK. 

The UK’s move to digital switch-over, plus heavy discounting and the credit crunch are all credited with the massive sales boom.

Explains David Scott, chief executive of Digital UK, the body coordinating Britain’s switch to digital TV: ‘With household budgets under pressure, the extra channels and features that come with digital TV offer great value entertainment. It’s also good news that in opting to buy digital, more households than ever are ready for the switch to digital TV which will affect more than five million homes next year.’

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HEXUS.lifestyle: Despite current high-street prices dropping dramatically in an effort to entice customers ahead of the Christmas season, retailers may soon face further gloom as Asia’s biggest TV manufacturers plan to raise prices.

Sony, one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of consumer TVs, has stated that the plummeting value of the pound against the yen has left it unable to maintain current pricing. In a statement regarding forthcoming price increases, it announced last month that “it is likely that the vast majority of products affected will see increases of less than 33 per cent” and added that “Sony does not believe that it will be alone in taking this form of action”.

Following on from Sony’s announcement, Sharp yesterday announced plans for a 10 per cent price increase and other big-name Asian brands such as Panasonic and Samsung are expected to follow suit.

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HD News: Research published by the TV industry regulator OFCOM details how the UK has embraced the High Definition (HD) and digital revolution.

The UK leads the world with an impressive 86% of UK households now hosting digital TV’s as their main viewing set. The US and France followed with a 70% and 66% take up respectively.

Although High Definition subscribers in the US and Canada accounted for a massive world wide take up of 87% (7.9 million of the total) the UK accounts for over half of the remaining 1.2 million HD subsriptions making it a clear leader in Europe.

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icWales: As the latest reports reveal more people in Wales are enjoying broadband than ever and satellite TV is more popular here than in any other part of the UK, Tim Lewis looks at what’s pushing the buttons of technology-savvy consumers

THERE is no longer a “digital divide” between rural parts of Wales and those living in urban areas, according to the latest statistics.

A newly-published survey by regulator Ofcom shows Wales is leading the way in the growth in consumption of some technologies.

It revealed Welsh people watch more satellite TV than the rest of the UK with 79% taking a satellite service, 14% higher than the UK average of 65%.

They also listen to more radio than any other part of the UK, 24.4 hours per week compared to a UK average of 23.5 hours.

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The Register: The UK’s top broadcasters have fessed up to working together on a single system for distributing TV online. ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC’s commercial tentacle said today that they aim to launch the joint service on an unspecified date next year.

Details are scarce in yesterday’s announcement, but we’re promised “an exciting collection of over 10,000 hours of the very best of the UK broadcasters’ current and archive programming”. We’ve known about the project, codenamed “Project Kangaroo”, for some months now. The launch name hasn’t been revealed yet.

A Channel 4 spokeswoman said it will likely be similar to 4OD, where catch-up streaming is free, and download to rent or own are paid for. She said the existing 4OD PC client offering will be superceded by software built for the new system.

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Reuters UK: Britons are sending around 1.2 billion text messages a week, 25 percent more than a year ago, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA).The MDA said texters sent almost 5 billion messages during September — five times more than in the whole of 1999 — from 69 million registered handsets.

MDA Chairman Mike Short said more businesses were turning to mobiles while the cost of messaging was falling.

“The UK text volumes show no real signs of abating and the UK sits within the top six of the global league of countries sending text messages,” he said in a statement.

“While the trend towards operators offering ‘all-you-can-eat’ tariffs increases, this will act as a catalyst for consumers’ passion for all things mobile.”

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Guardian Unlimited: The mobile phone operator 3 is working with the online calls firm Skype on a cheap handset that will bring free mobile internet calls to the mass market. 

It has teamed up with a far eastern handset manufacturer to produce a phone, to be launched this year for pre-pay and contract customers. It will allow the UK’s estimated 2.5 million Skype users to make free calls and send texts. 3 has been working with Skype, owned by eBay, for well over a year, and already offers the service on its niche X Series platform.

While some phone companies such as 3 are looking to “mobilise” online services such as Skype to improve usage and revenues, other firms are looking to services such as advertising. One start-up, Blyk, offers British 16-24 year olds free texts and calls if they accept mobile adverts.

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The Press Association: More than four-fifths of UK homes now have digital TV, new figures show.

Digital TV is now installed in 85% of UK households (21.4 million), an unprecedented 13% year-on-year increase.

The figures were unveiled by communications regulator Ofcom in the run-up to the digital switchover.

The process begins next month when Whitehaven in Cumbria becomes the first region to switch off the analogue signal.

Analogue TV is expected to have become completely redundant by 2012 following the switchover process.

The second quarter (April to June) of this year saw 1.9 million Freeview boxes being sold, with 2.9 million homes now viewing TV on at least one Freeview device.

Sky grew its customer base by 77,000 during the same three months, to nearly 8.1 million, according to the Digital Television Progress Report.

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: “More than four in five UK households are now enjoying the benefits of digital television.

“It’s extremely encouraging that we are continuing to see the market grow strongly with less than a month until Whitehaven becomes the first place to fully switch to digital television.”

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Guardian: The Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs, yesterday confirmed that the company’s much-hyped mobile handset, the iPhone, will go on sale to British customers in November.

At a press conference held at the company’s flagship London store, Mr Jobs announced that the iPhone – a mobile with built-in iPod and internet capabilities – would be available for €390, plus the cost of a contract.

He also confirmed, as expected, that the sole operator in the UK will be O2.

“We’re coming to the UK and we wanted to pick the best carrier for the iPhone,” Mr Jobs told assembled journalists.

“We were fortunate that we could talk to all of them. Today we’re announcing that we’re going with O2 and we’re really excited about it.”

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