Forthnet, Greece’s largest pay-TV provider, is speeding up talks with creditors on refinancing, according to CEO Panos Papadopoulos. The company, which is the subject of two separate bids from Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone is considering issuing a €100 million convertible bond, Papadopoulos revealed in an interview. “For the last few weeks, we have been in […]
EchoStar Corporation has reported total revenue of $799 million (€712m) for the quarter ended March 31st 2015 compared to $826 million for the corresponding period in 2014. The seller of set-top boxes and provider of satellite services reported net income attributable to EchoStar common stock of $33.4 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.36 […]
South Africa’s ICASA regulator has fined On Digital Media (trading now as StarSat, and earlier as TopTV) with a Rand 25,000 (about $2100) penalty for showing ‘adult’ content without permission. The fine has to be paid by the end of June. The ruling came about following a complaint by the Justice Alliance of South Africa, […]
Belgacom reported better-than-expected core profit for the first quarter, as profit margins in its fixed and mobile businesses expanded. The Belgian telco, which offers services consumers under the Proximus brand, said revenue per user increased for its home broadband, TV and mobile products and more mobile customers chose to have a monthly contract over a […]
YipTV has launched a $14.99 a month subscription service for the US with 50 international entertainment, news and sports channels from Central and South America. The company is targeting the nearly 40 million foreign nationals in the US with OTT programming from international sources. Yip plans to increase channel counts relatively quickly to nearly 150. […]
Nobody would blame CBS and Viacom mogul Sumner Redstone for looking to retire. At 91 years-of-age anyone might expect him to step aside and leave the running of his global business to either of two extremely competent senior managers, or even his daughter Shari Redstone, to succeed him. One of the challenges is that CBS […]
Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat will declare its Q3 revenues on May 12th, and the expectations are that its organic growth (before currency fluctuations) will come in at about 4 per cent up at around €369 million (€338 million this time last year). Observers suggest that Eutelsat will, in particular, enjoy solid growth in its video […]
Ofcom has approved a request from ESTV, the owner of London Live, to maintain the hours of first run, local programming it currently broadcasts for this year and subsequent years, rather than have to increase them as promised. ESTV is committed to broadcast eight hours of first run, local programming per day in its first […]
ESPN, the global sports content brand, has named Publicitas the exclusive representative of its TV and digital media advertising portfolio in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Arab Emirates as ESPN looks to enhance its advertising sales solutions across the EMEA region. Publicitas is a global media services company owned by the AURELIUS group; the […]
The proposed introduction of a Digital Single Market for Europe could see a move to towards pan-European media players bringing scale to the negotiating table when buying programming rights, according to Martyn Whistler, EY’s Lead Media & Entertainment Analyst. “We know audiences want to access their content wherever and whenever they want. Being constrained by […]