Disney has joined News Corp and NBC Universal as a partner in Hulu.com. Disney did not reveal the stake it had purchased in Hulu but reports suggest it had bought a 30 per cent share of the venture launched in 2007. The addition of Disney, which owns US TV network ABC, to the Hulu line-up […]
Toy maker Hasbro has formed a joint venture with Discovery Communications to create a TV network with original programming based on Hasbro brands. Hasbro has licensed its brands for a variety of different entertainments. Under terms of the deal, Hasbro will pay Discovery $300 million in cash for a 50 per cent share in the […]
Australia's biggest investment bank, Macquarie Group, has reported its first fall in full-year profits in 17 years. Net profit in the year to 31 March fell by 52% to A$871m ($635m). It also cut A$2.5bn ($1.8 billion) from the value of its assets because of the global financial crisis. The bank said it had cash […]
French authorities have pushed back a tender for a fourth 3G mobile operating licence in order to examine the terms and conditions of the award. The move follows warnings from incumbents that they would seek redress in the courts if the price set by the government for the concession is too low. French Secretary of […]
Comcast reported improving subscriber losses and nearly doubling its free cash flow for the quarter. Comcast said it lost 78,000 subscribers in the period – slightly worse than the 57,000 lost in the first quarter of 2008 but better than analyst consensus estimates of a 171,000 subscriber loss. Revenue rose 5.3% to $8.8 billion and […]
The US has added Canada to its “priority watch list” of countries where Internet piracy flourishes, reflecting a tough new line in the Obama administration over the Harper government’s failure to deliver on promises of new copyright laws. Canada joins a dozen countries – including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela – criticised by […]
The BBC and Virgin Media have confirmed the launch of high definition content on BBC iPlayer on Virgin Media. Virgin Media’s TV customers are now able to watch a selection of popular BBC programming. Virgin Media is the first TV platform to make BBC iPlayer available in full screen picture quality, directly to its TV […]
Croatian telco T-Hrvatski Telekom (T-HT) has reported a total of 150,953 subscribers to its IPTV service ‘MAXtv’ at the end of the first quarter of 2009, up 167.9 per cent from the 56,355 customers registered at the end of the same period in 2008. The telco noted that this strong growth was supported by the […]
BSkyB has delivered profit gains in the last quarter as more customers signed up for its high-definition digital services. Pre-tax profits rose 13% to £63m (E70m) between January and March. It added 243,000 customers for its Sky+HD service, but with churn the net gain down to 80,000 new customers. Revenue was up to £1.4bn, from […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcasting in Portugal started on April 29th on a total of 29 locations, representing a 40 per cent population coverage. Portugal Telecom, which has been selected as the network operator, managed to launch the service in more than the 10-12 regions originally announced. The free-to-air DTT […]