Advanced Television

Analyst: Africa to reach 51m pay-TV subs

Nearly 17 million pay TV subscribers will be added in Africa between 2020 and 2026 to take the total to 51 million, according to the Africa Pay TV Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. Nigeria will be close to 11 million, with South Africa bringing in another 9 million. “Multichoice had 15.51 million […]

January 4, 2021

BPI: Streaming now 80% of UK music consumption

Music consumption increased for a sixth year in 2020, with 155 million albums or their equivalent either streamed or purchased in 2020 – an 8.2 per cent rise on 2019, with growth led by streaming fuelled by label investment. There were some 139 billion audio streams – up by over a fifth – with nearly […]

January 4, 2021By Nik Roseveare

First Star titles revealed for Disney+

On February 23rd, Star will become the sixth brand to launch on SVoD platform Disney+, joining the line-up that already includes Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, National Geographic and Disney. Star will becomes the home for general entertainment on Disney+ and will double the amount of content available to watch on the service. It will host […]

January 4, 2021By Nik Roseveare

Airbus switching OneWeb production to UK?

OneWeb, the would-be broadband-by-satellite constellation backed by the UK and India, is contemplating switching its current Florida satellite production line to the UK. The Mail on Sunday reported that “executives behind OneWeb briefed civil servants” on the merits of moving satellite production from Florida to the UK. Currently satellite production takes place under a joint-venture […]

January 4, 2021By Chris Forrester

Discovery, Vodafone content deal

Multichannel programmer Discovery and multiplay telco Vodafone have signed a new long-term, multi-platform agreement in Europe under which Vodafone customers in 12 markets can continue to enjoy Discovery’s content portfolio. The parties will also collaborate on making SVoD service discovery+ available to existing Vodafone subscriber bases across Europe. The partnership covers  Vodafone’s TV and mobile […]

January 4, 2021

UK stays involved in European space strategy

While the Christmas Eve signature on the exit agreement between the UK and the European Union grabbed most of the headlines, the fact is that the Christmas to New Year period saw a number of other announcements made concerning future trade deals and agreements. Cynics might argue that the news had been buried by the […]

January 4, 2021

discovery+ goes live in the US

Discovery’s direct-to-consumer SVoD service discovery+ is now live in the US, with the company also announcing major new distribution agreements that it says will make the product one of the most widely-distributed streaming services at launch. discovery+ is available on the following platforms and devices: Amazon Fire TV streaming devices, Fire TV Edition smart TVs […]

January 4, 2021

China Satellite wants to raise $500m in IPO

China Satellite Communications (CSC), a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science & Technology, says it will sell shares to a group of investors totalling some 3.3 billion Yuan (about $506 million). Based in Beijing, the company says it will use the cash to invest in 3 satellite projects. After the cash-raising exercise China Aerospace will remain […]

January 4, 2021By Chris Forrester

Intelsat KEIP payments modified

Intelsat’s most senior staff received good news on December 22nd when the company’s bankruptcy court approved the request for a series of Key Employee Incentive Payments (KEIP) for 2021. But the court made some major adjustments to the core requests. The total three tier KEIP plan is trimmed downwards to $6,720,038 for the lower ‘Threshold’ […]

January 4, 2021By Chris Forrester

i24NEWS available in UAE via Etisalat

Etisalat, the UAE telecom group, has announced the launch of Israel-based network i24NEWS on eLife and Switch TV, to be included in the services basic package at no extra cost. This makes i24NEWS the first channel broadcast from Israel and available in the United Arab Emirates. The partnership between Etisalat and i24NEWS comes after the […]

January 4, 2021