UK pay-TV and broadband telco Virgin Media clocked its first annual profit in 2011, as its TV set top boxes continued to be an engine of video on-demand viewership.

BT (NYSE: BT) signed up 39,000 customers to its Vision hybrid Freeview/IPTV service between September and December, taking it to 679,000. Now, with its relaunch on YouView still delayed, BT is taking it upon itself to relaunch the service’s platform.

BSkyB’s financials are still improving, but the company is now flaunting a range of new internet upgrades to try containing subscriber growth slow-down and potential threats from newcomers.

BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) is acting to head off rising City concerns about the threat from over-the-top connected TV services, by announcing it will launch, by the summer, its own such service that does not require a satellite subscription.

The UK’s leading pay-TV provider BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) is taking a significant step to improve its PVR box’s new IP on-demand TV service by adding catch-up TV services from the BBC and ITV.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) expects overseas losses to double in just three months, as it spends more and more on vital local video content and marketing.

Last week’s CES event brought a clutch of announcements around interactive TV services—specifically around more content getting pushed to devices. That points to growing attention to the medium: will advertising follow?

In its war with Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), Amazon’s Lovefilm has licensed U.S. TV shows from ABC (NYSE: DIS) Studios through Disney UK under the “ABC TV On-Demand” VOD brand.

Is 2012 the year of the Smart TV? Manufacturers would have us believe that.

The much-delayed video-on-demand service YouView spent almost £20 ($30.89)m in its first nine months of operation and paid more than £1 ($1.54)m to staff.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings tells paidContent the company has emerged from the “pain” of a consumer and investor backlash, after last year’s botched attempts at splitting the company.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) fancies bidding against News Corp-controlled BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) for Hollywood movies and TV shows, even though international roll-out losses are set to exceed $70 million this quarter alone, CEO Reed Hastings tells paidContent.

Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) executives launched the service in the UK and Ireland on Monday morning with pricepoints of £5.99 ($7.79) and €6.99 ($8.89) for unlimited online movie and TV subscription streaming, forcing rival Lovefilm to to restructure and discount its digital pricing.

Content owners are upping their roll-out on to connected TVs, which represent a great new distribution opportunity. Here are some of the latest…

News Corp.‘s newly-owned Shine Group is acquiring ChannelFlip, an independent online TV and video producer that has successfully developed brand-funded short-form formats.

Amazon’s Lovefilm is extending existing deals with ITV (LSE: ITV) and BBC Worldwide to gain a larger catalogue of their shows for online streaming, as it begins to defend against Netflix’s imminent UK arrival.

News reports (Mail Online, Telegraph.co.uk) that *Apple* and *Google* may bid for 2013-16 Premier League live broadcast rights are almost certainly wide of the post.

The European Commission says 2011 progress against its digital agenda ambitions has been “mixed”.

Online video is becoming a fast-growing business in China, as well as the west.