Kabel Deutschland (KDG), Europe’s largest cable company, is set to cut debt faster than markets expected and would like to absorb two smaller domestic rivals, according to Adrian von Hammerstein, chief executive. Rapidly improving sales of superfast broadband on top of basic cable television have given KDG sufficient cash flow growth to consider shareholder returns, […]
BT is launching a nationwide survey dubbed ‘Race to Infinity’ to see how much potential demand there is for optical fibre broadband. BT claims that this will identify “hot spots” where the demand for fibre is high. BT will have brought fibre broadband within reach of four million premises by the end of 2010, but […]
The Walt Disney Company has split up its underperforming Internet and gaming division bringing in two outsiders to lead the businesses. James A. Pitaro, vice president of Yahoo Media, and John Pleasants, chief executive of Playdom, the social gaming company that Disney bought in July, were named co-presidents of the Disney Interactive Media Group. Pitaro, […]
Portugal Telecom has added an interactive and a karaoke channel to its pay-TV service ‘Meo’. The interactive channel, called ‘TVI Secret Story’, enables viewers to watch everything that happens in the house 24/7 via four cameras placed in different rooms. Using the green button, users can select which camera feed they want to see, and […]
At least two more potential bidders are interested in the 50 per cent of UKTV that the BBC does not own. Virgin Media is looking to sell its 50 per cent stake of the portfolio of channels, which includes popular British channels such as ‘Dave’, ‘Watch’ and ‘Gold’. BBC Worldwide is holding onto its 50 […]
As anticipated the European Commission has ruled that the TV taxes levied by the French and Spanish governments on telcos to support their respective public national broadcasters and compensate for the removal of advertising, are incompatible with EU law. The EC has ruled taxes levied on telco operators must be directly linked to covering the […]
Sky has unveiled plans to launch Sky Atlantic HD in early 2011. Following Sky and HBO’s multi-year output deal announced in July, Sky Atlantic HD will air all of HBO’s new series exclusively in the UK and Ireland. Old and new content from HBO will also be offered to Sky customers via Sky’s on-demand platforms, […]
Marc-Antoine d’Halluin, the head of the struggling Middle East pay-TV network Orbit Showtime Network, has quit. He himself confirmed his departure to a local newspaper, saying he will stay in Dubai for the time being. He is reportedly being replaced by David Butorac, until a year ago CEO at Australia’s WIN Corp. Butorac left WIN, […]
A report from user experience consultancy Webcredible says that the BBC iPlayer is leading major UK broadcasters in the VoD usability stakes with a score of 88 per cent, followed by Scottish broadcaster STV with its STV Player coming in second with 76 per cent Sky Player scored just 55 per cent, with admittedly a […]
Online access to public services could be put at risk by a purely market-driven approach to net neutrality, claims the Communications Consumer Panel in its response to consultations from Ofcom and the European Commission. If content providers have to pay ISPs for guaranteed bandwidth “This would improve the quality of service for consumers who want […]