Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in an earnings call that it is exploring the possibility of “launching a global NBC-Sky news channel later this year.” He said Comcast was moving ahead to combine key NBCUniversal and Sky assets, including some European TV channels and global content distribution businesses as well as to collaborate more closely […]
Comcast is reportedly in talks to sell its stake in US streaming service Hulu to The Walt Disney Company. The news comes a little over a week after Hulu bought back wireless carrier AT&T’s stake for $1.43 billion. If it acquires Comcast’s stake, Disney would hold a 90 per cent share in Hulu. As Disney […]
With April 26th marking World Intellectual Property Day, Yousef Al-Obaidly, chief executive of beIN Media Group, has taken the opportunity to call on the UK government to intervene in the illegal broadcasting dispute involving Saudi Arabia-based beoutQ. Writing in London freesheet City A.M., Al-Obaidly suggests the gathering storm of state-backed piracy is high on the […]
In a major governmental escalation of the global battle against the theft of world sport and entertainment by the Saudi Arabia-based pirate operation beoutQ, the US Government has published two reports that directly condemned and called for an end to the rampant Saudi-based piracy operation. The UK Government was also directly challenged in UK Parliament […]
Spain’s pay-TV revenues in 2018 remained flat as a result of the price war between the rival platforms. The latest data from the CNMC reveals that the Spanish platforms only improved their revenues by 1.2 per cent in 2018, despite the growth of 210,000 subscribers to 6.78 million. Overall, platforms made €2.16 billion in revenues […]
SES Q1 numbers (to March 31st) showed overall revenues down 2.3 per cent at €489.6 million, with its Video division suffering badly with revenues down 7.3 per cent. The operator’s Network division continues to perform well with revenues up 5.4 per cent. US Video revenues showed a similar decline where it is heavily involved in […]
In an attempt to extend its customer base and gain new subscribers from its competitors, Movistar is launching an OTT service specifically targeting other platforms customers. Launching in June, the new OTT service will include a selection of Movistar Plus pay-TV offers such as Movistar Series and Seriesmania, #0 channel, the sports channel #Vamos = […]
An analysis of DirecTV’s NOW low-cost US pay-TV bundle shows that any gains made last year have all but evaporated in the past few months. DirecTV NOW reported on April 24th that it had lost 83,000 customers since January. It still has some 1.5 million subscribers on its books, about the same number as a […]
Awe-inspiring talents, unusual objects, strange phenomena and mind-boggling feats are explored in Travel Channel’s reboot of the iconic series, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” premiering on June 9th. Hosted and executive produced by actor Bruce Campbell, the 10-episode, hour-long series is inspired by Robert Ripley’s obsession with the awesome and his keen eye for what […]
Last week Intelsat declared its IS-29e as a “total loss”. Analysts at Northern Sky Research (NSR) said that writing off 12 years of near-guaranteed revenue (and adding 6552 kgs of space debris to the crucially important geostationary orbital arc) is an overall bitter pill for Intelsat. The satellite was not insured. NSR said that while […]