The UK House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee is warning the Government that it risks failing to meet its revised-down target for gigabit-capable broadband in the face of considerable challenges to infrastructure roll-out. Evidence to the ‘Broadband and the road to 5G inquiry’ found little confidence that nationwide gigabit-capable broadband by 2025 […]

The US Congress has passed a Covid-19 stimulus bill which contains an anti-piracy proposal that would punish for-profit, illegal streaming services with felony penalties of up to 10 years in jail. The proposal came from Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who sought to increase the penalty for operating a for-profit illegal streaming service. The bipartisan legislation […]

Despite suggestions that the multiplay telco was set to lose its rights amid rumours of disagreement over price, BT Sport and Premiership Rugby have renewed their longstanding broadcast partnership and BT Sport will continue as the home of Gallagher Premiership Rugby in the UK for the next four years. BT Sport subscribers will continue to […]

In 2019, the top-10 US movies earned 69.2 per cent of their total box office gross revenue in the first two weeks of release, according to the latest report – Movie Windows – Adapting for the Future – from consultancy firm Omdia. This compares to 63.1 per cent for the films ranked between 41 and […]

In presenting an overview of the changing TV and media landscape, Tristan Veale, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting has questioned whether shifting content consumption habits will lead to an SVoD future at the expense of traditional pay-TV. “Consumers inform content creators of their preferences by voting with their money,” he notes . “Globally, pay-TV subscription […]

UK digital infrastructure provider Openreach is claiming to have bucked the prevailing economic trend by creating 5,300  new UK-based engineering jobs, to be filled during 2021. The new roles, located in communities throughout the country, will enable the company to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, whilst building and connecting customers to its […]

The continued strength of the video streaming market is confirmed by the latest analysis from Strategy Analytics’ TV and Media Strategies research. The report, Q3 2020 Global VOD Service Competitor Review, found that the annual increase in global SVoD subscriptions in Q3 2020 reached 217.6 million, the highest ever, beating the previous record of 211.7 […]

With BritBox, its joint venture SVoD service with ITV successfully established as a source of drama and entertainment for North American viewers, BBC Studios, the Corporation’s commercial arm  – is set to launch a new, ad-free subscription streaming channel, BBC SELECT, in early 2021 on Amazon Prime Video Channels and the Apple TV app. BBC […]

Enhancing the platform’s hybrid offering, UK free to air satellite TV service Freesat has confirmed that Amazon Prime Video is joining its portfolio of content on its latest set-top boxes. Existing Prime Video customers will be able to open the app through Freesat to access movies and TV shows, including Amazon Original Series such as […]

The Premier League and beIN Media Group have announced a major new rights deal that will see beIN Sports as the Premier League’s official broadcast partner in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) until 2025. The deal is for the 2022-2025 rights cycle and means beIN Sports can broadcast all 380 matches live in […]