The acquisition by Digital Plus of pay-TV rights to the European Champions League from 2012 is a hard blow for Mediapro’s pay DTT channel Gol TV, current holder of the rights. Digital+ has acquired the rights to live and delayed action from all of the competition’s matches, with the exception of the Tuesday first-match pick. […]
In a rebuttal of Ofcom’s recommendation to Department of Culture Media Sport to refer to the Competition Commission its bid for BSkB, News Corporation has accused the regulator of producing a biased, seriously flawed and ‘tainted’ report. The Ofcom report and News Corporation’s submission to DCMS have been published today as the Secretary of State, […]
Confirming Ofcom’s recommendation of a referral, Hunt said that in accordance with his duties to meet relevant parties, he met with News Corporation on 6 January to set out the process that he would follow and briefly explain Ofcom’s conclusions. “Having informed them of the process I then wrote to News Corporation and BSkyB on […]
The BBC is to reduce spending at its Online division by 25 per cent with streamlined structure for the division and the cut of 360 posts from 1,600. Under the restructure BBC Online will be categorised into 10 areas: News, Sport, Weather, CBeebies, CBBC, Knowledge & Learning, Radio & Music, TV & iPlayer, Homepage and […]
Formerly fierce competitors for premium pay-TV subscribers, Bertrand Meheut, Chairman of the Canal+ Group, and Stéphane Richard, Chief Executive Officer of Orange, have announced a strategic partnership plan to bring the Orange cinema series package and TPS Star together under one joint venture. The business will be owned 50-50 by the two partners and managed […]
The BBC’s Director of Future Media & Technology, Erik Huggers, is to leave the corporation at the end of February to become Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Digital Home Group, based at its Silicon Valley headquarters in California. He replaces interim General Manager Brad Daniels. BBC Director General Mark Thompson said that […]
BT’S pay-TV ambitions have been dealt a blow with the delay of a new and potentially ground-breaking service to bring VOD to Freeview. The launch of the YouView service will be delayed six months beyond the summer according to reports in the Daily Mail. The paper says technical problems and discord between the partners mean […]
The global TV industry made a recovery in 2010, with revenues growing by 7.1 per cent to €289.2 billion after the stagnation of 2009, according to research group IDATE. According to its 21st World TV Markets report, the TV industry’s revenues grew by only 0.6 per cent in 2009 before rebounding last year. The US […]
Sky Deutschland has turned the corner on declining subscriber numbers, but wants to support the upturn with more investment in HD. Controlling shareholder News Corp has agreed to increase the cash injection agreed in the summer from €340 million to €400 million. Sky added 131,000 subs in Q4 2010 and 183,00 for the year as […]
It has emerged that senior executives of News Corp are seeking meetings with either ministers or civil servants responsible for clearing or blocking its attempt to take full control of BSkyB, which is seen as a likely indication that regulator Ofcom’s report to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt recommended a six-month investigation of the proposed bid. […]