The European Commission's proposed telecoms reforms, which include the three strikes proposals for abusive downloaders, will now have to go into the conciliation process after the European Parliament again refused to discard an amendment that would force governments to get court permission before disconnecting illegal downloaders of copyright material. MEPs in September put forward an […]
Virgin Media has started a customer pilot to test real-world deployment of 200Mb speeds. The 200Mb pilot is believed to be the fastest implementation of DOCSIS3 technology in the world, running faster than services offered in Japan and the US, which currently reach 160Mb and 101Mb respectively. Following successful lab trials, the pilot has started […]
A weaker than expected performance by its films at the box office and through DVD sales depressed Disney's second-quarter profits. Operating income at Disney's studio business fell 97 per cent to $13 million. The recession also continued to depress earnings in other parts of the group, with advertising down at Disney's ABC television network. But […]
Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive, has warned that the broadcaster faced the worst economic conditions in its history as he unveiled an extra 10 per cent cut in editorial budgets. Duncan said advertising revenue will be down 18 per cent year on year in the first half of 2009. Channel 4 cut 200 […]
Sales slightly down and losses increasing on Q1 to £123m (E138m) from £109m last time were the bad news while increased ARPU (£42.29 v £41.95) and a record low churn of 1.1% were the good news. Revenue for the quarter was £935.7m against £947.3m last time. But the underlying fall in broadband sign-ons – down […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Pay-TV group Sogecable is facing a new shake-out following the resignation of its CEO Javier Diez de Polanco, soon after Prisa, parent company of Sogecable, re-organised the management team of the TV division. Bad financial results and the failed sale of DTH platform Digital Plus, burdened with debts, are […]
DirecTV will merge with John Malone's Liberty Entertainment to simplify its ownership structure and improve its ability to pursue deals; specifically making itself a more attractive target for one of the big telcos. Liberty Entertainment will be spun off from Liberty Media as previously announced, and will now include 54 per cent of the stock […]
Google and Apple are being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission over a possible breach of US anti-trust laws, according to reports. The FTC is scrutinising the working relationship between the two companies, specifically the influence of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Apple Corporate Director Arthur Levinson, both of whom sit on each other's […]
The beleaguered pay-TV sports operation has appointed ex Emap CEO Robin Miller as its new chairman as it seeks new financing after losing a tranche of Premier League matches. It badly needs to raise £100m (E113m) of new investment and will seek to have investors back a new business plan concentrating on its position in […]
Discovery Communications reported an $8 million increase in first quarter revenues to $817 million, outstripping analysts expectations for the period and posting $119 million in profit. The company reported only $34 million in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Discovery even bucked the advertising slump, posting a two percent increase in ad revenues. As […]