Advanced Television

BBC launches Africa Eye

Africa Eye – a new documentary strand from the BBC – has launched with an in-depth investigation into the plague of addiction to cough mixture across Nigeria. The new strand will deliver up to 20 original and high-impact investigations from across Africa every year. Nisha Kapur, Commissioning Editor for TV said: “Africa Eye will promote […]

April 30, 2018

Adie to be awarded BAFTA Fellowship

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that Kate Adie OBE, the award-winning broadcast journalist and author, will be honoured with the Fellowship at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards. The ceremony will be held at the Royal Festival Hall in London, on May 13th. Awarded annually, the Fellowship is the […]

April 30, 2018

EU to set 30% quota for SVoD

A political agreement on the main elements of revised rules to apply to audiovisual media across Europe has been reached between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission that will likely see SVoD platforms such as Amazon and Netflix face a 30 per cent ‘made in Europe’ quota. The negotiations will officially conclude […]

April 27, 2018By Colin Mann

Ofcom: ‘BT must go fibre or fail’

Sharon White, Chief Executive, of UK comms regulator Ofcom, has warned incumbent telco BT to upgrade its copper network to fibre or risk fading away. Delivering closing remarks at an industry event in London on ‘Building a Full Fibre Future’, White told delegates – who included major investors, Chief Executives, a Secretary of State and […]

April 27, 2018By Colin Mann

Spain: Mediapro ‘must cut UEFA rights price’

Spanish pay-TV operators are increasingly putting pressure on Mediapro, holder of the Champions League and Europa League TV rights, to reduce the asking price for the football rights. Ángel Vilá, CEO of Telefónica, warned there exists “a real possibility” that his company will not acquire the Champions League rights for the next three seasons. He […]

April 27, 2018From David Del Valle in Madrid

SES Q1: ‘A solid start’

Satellite operator SES has reported what it describes as “solid” financial results for the three months ended March 31st 2018. Group revenue and EBITDA were delivered in line with the company’s expectations, with strong underlying revenue growth in SES Networks. “We have made a solid start to 2018 with our Q1 results in line with […]

April 27, 2018

EU reclaims Castilla-La Mancha DTT aid

The European Union’s Court of Justice has ruled that the €46 million financial aid given to the DTT extension in the Spanish Region of Castilla-La Mancha was illegal and discriminatory. The Court acknowledges that the EC was right when in 2014 it initially ruled that the aids were in breach of competition by benefiting DTT […]

April 27, 2018From David Del Valle in Madrid

Amazon boosted by AWS; ups Prime price

Amazon has reported that Q1 revenue grew 43 per cent year-on-year to $51 billion (€42.2bn). The company’s cloud-computing unit Amazon Web Services posted strong gains, registering a 49 per cent in sales over the previous year and generating $1.4 billion in operating income. The company has also announced that the cost of a Prime subscription – […]

April 27, 2018

India: Tata Sky, Netflix partnership

Indian DTH player Tata Sky and Netflix have entered into a strategic partnership which the pair say will give subscribers of both Tata Sky and Netflix easy access to a world of content through future Tata Sky platforms. Tata Sky subscribers will be able to browse and access the entire Netflix service, including TV shows, […]

April 27, 2018

SiriusXM beats expectations

Pay-radio operator SiriusXM added a net 330,000 new subscribers during its Q1 period, and this took its overall subscriber numbers to more than 33 million.  But the company said an international roll-out was unlikely. Revenue growth matched the expansion in numbers, with revenue up 5 per cent to 1.4 billion, and net income up an […]

April 27, 2018By Chris Forrester