Advanced Television

NENT Group extends Premier League rights

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), the Nordic streaming company, has extended its exclusive rights to Premier League football in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland in a new six year deal that runs from 2022 to 2028. Anders Jensen, NENT Group President and CEO, commented: “I am thrilled with this new and extended agreement that once […]

February 6, 2020

Vodafone ‘encouraged’ by converged progress

Vodafone reports converged offers in markets where it merged with Liberty Global last year have added over 10 per cent to revenue. Excluding the VodafoneZiggo JV with Liberty Global in the Netherlands, Vodafone had 24.7 million fixed broadband customers, including 21 million ‘next-gen network’ customers, seven million converged customers and 22 million TV customers in […]

February 6, 2020

WWE sees record Q4; Network subs down 10%

WWE has reported that Q4 revenues increased 18 per cent to $322.8 million (€294m) – the highest quarterly revenue in the company’s history. Full year revenues reached $960.4 million – also a company record. SmackDown, one of the company’s weekly flagship TV shows, successfully transitioned to FOX Broadcast in the US during Q4, where viewership […]

February 6, 2020By Nik Roseveare

MTG record Q4 revenue; eSports boost

Modern Times Group (MTG) has released its Q4 2019 and full year financial results showing record sales in the fourth quarter while making progress on its strategy to become even more commercial and product relevant in esport and gaming. “Throughout 2019, we have continued to develop our business verticals – esports and gaming – with […]

February 6, 2020

Successful raid on Bulgarian IPTV pirates

Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, has supported a massive crackdown on illegal IPTV distributors in an operation executed by the Cybercrime Unit of the Bulgarian General Directorate Combating Organised Crime (Главна Дирекция Борба с Организираната Престъпност) of the Ministry of Interior and led by the Bulgarian Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation. […]

February 6, 2020By Colin Mann

Research: Movies heighten brand engagement

As Hollywood prepares for this year’s Oscars ceremony, insights from The Trade Desk highlight the power of film to inspire consumer behaviour, creating engagement opportunities for brands that extend well beyond awards season. The Trade Desk analysed conversion rates around the release dates of some of this year’s biggest hits – both on Netflix and […]

February 6, 2020

Intertrust, Friend MTS extend streaming piracy fight

DRM technology specialist Intertrust and content protection service provider Friend MTS are extending their partnership agreement that enhances Intertrust’s ExpressPlay content protection platform with Friend MTS anti-piracy and watermarking technology services. Now, an additional layer of protection is introduced that is complementary to the ExpressPlay content security suite, which features ExpressPlay DRM and ExpressPlay XCA. […]

February 6, 2020By Colin Mann

ESPN Digital reports record 2019

In 2019, ESPN Digital achieved its best year on record with an average of 95.5 million unique visitors per month, up +14 per cent year-over-year and 25.2 million more than the next closest competitor (+36 per cent over CBS Sports). This included its best month ever in September with an all-time high 109.3 million unique […]

February 6, 2020

Eutelsat downgraded by bank

Eutelsat has been downgraded from ‘Buy’ to ‘Neutral’ by analysts at investment bank Exane/BNPP with the satellite operator’s ‘top line’ trends remaining under pressure. The FCC is set to reveal details of its C-band restructuring plan today (February 6th). Analyst Sami Kassab, in a 27-page report, reminds investors that Eutelsat’s share price has fallen 25 […]

February 6, 2020

Report: Average budget of European movies is €2m

Based on the actual budget analysis of 576 European live-action fiction films released in 2017, this is probably the largest pan-European data sample available to date on the financing of European fiction films. This report is the fruit of a major collaboration project between the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in […]

February 6, 2020