Advanced Television

Russia’s REN TV to go international

BBC Monitoring is reporting that Moscow-based REN TV is to add two more TV channels, REN TV International and Military Secret. According to the company, the international version of REN TV (REN TV International) is a specially licensed version of REN TV specifically designed for a Russian-speaking audience abroad. The content of the channel will […]

December 2, 2014By Chris Forrester

Albrecht to step down as Millicom CEO

Millicom, the telco and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America, has announced that Hans-Holger Albrecht has informed the Board of Directors of his intention to step down as President and CEO of Millicom at year-end. The Board of Directors has already initiated a search process for Albrecht’s successor.  A committee comprising the […]

December 2, 2014

Vodafone to buy blinkbox?

UK based MNO Vodafone is considering buying the Tesco-owned video and music streaming service blinkbox to give it access to content as it gears up to become a quad-play operator. Reports emerged in early October that the UK supermarket retailer was planning to sell off or shut down the loss-making operation, which has struggled to […]

December 1, 2014By Colin Mann

2m Spaniards could lose DTT

Around 4 per cent of Spain’s population could be left without DTT after the migration has been completed on January 1st. Operators and the administration fear that 1,860,000 Spaniards who live in areas with geographical difficulties (for example villages between mountains) may end up out of DTT reach when the digital migration is completed unless […]

December 1, 2014From David Del Valle in Madrid

Over half of UK ad-spend to be digital

The UK is set to become the first country in the world where more than half of all advertising-spend goes on digital media. Group M, the advertising media company, has forecast that the total UK ad market will

December 1, 2014

FBI probes Sony Pictures leak

Five films distributed by Sony Pictures appear to have been leaked online following a reported cyber-attack on the company last month. The FBI has been called in. Among the titles is a remake of classic film Annie starring Cameron Diaz, which is not scheduled for release until December 19th.  The company was reported to have […]

December 1, 2014

Could Sky fall to Vodafone?

The market is full of rumours that this or that that telephony operator wants to buy, merge or somehow absorb a rival or two, especially if that rival has TV-related assets. Widely talked about are discussions between Vodafone and Liberty Global’s European operations. BT (the former British Telecom, and which used to own cellular operator […]

December 1, 2014

53 websites added to UK piracy blacklist

The UK High Court has added 53 file-sharing websites to a list of those to be blocked by Internet Service Providers for facilitating copyright infringement. Sites listed include BitSoup, watchseries.lt, Stream TV, IP Torrents, Isohunt, Sumotorrent, Torrentdb, Torrentfunk, Torrentz, Tor Movies, Warez BB and Rapid Moviez. The total number of blocked sites now totals 93 […]

December 1, 2014By Colin Mann

Altice in exclusive Portugal Telecom negotiations

Multinational cable and telecommunications company Altice has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Oi to agree the purchase of the Portuguese assets of Portugal Telecom. Altice’s fully-financed, binding offer values Portugal Telecom at an enterprise value of €7.4 billion on a cash and debt-free free basis which includes €500 million consideration related to the future […]

December 1, 2014

Over 500m multichannel homes in Asia Pacific

According to CASBAA’s updated Asia Pacific Multichannel TV Advertising 2015 book, the Asia Pacific now boasts over 500 million multichannel homes across the region. “Our latest report reinforces the

December 1, 2014