Viacom cut its full-year profit forecast on Friday as the softening economy has clouded its ability to make accurate advertising projections. CBS also expects full year profit to fall in the mid-teens range and it will write down the value of its licenses by $14bn. Later, National Amusements, an entity that controls executive chairman Sumner […]
Legal music downloads have outstripped pirated tracks for the first time in the UK, according to a survey by Entertainment Media Research (EMR). The EMR survey of 1,500 consumers found that 51% legally purchased digital downloads. It’s the first time this figure outweighed the number of those who download illegally, which fell to 39% from […]
Silicon Valley's most successful VC Sequoia Capital called an emergency meeting for its portfolio companies and is bringing back messages it sent to entrepreneurs in 2000. Sequoia partners presented a long analysis of how the United States economy got to this point. It is not a "normal crisis," they warned, and it will take a […]
UK's Channel 4 has abandoned its entire radio project, dealing a huge blow to the future of the DAB sector, as it seeks to make £100m (E128m) in savings. C4 said it would close its radio division with the loss of up to 15 jobs, saving an estimated £10m in 2009. The broadcaster was to […]
RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media are combining to launch a DTH platform called Tivu, to support Italy's DTT sector. RAI and Mediaset will own 48% each with Telecom Italia taking 4%. The launch could be as soon as March 2009. All three companies already hold capacity on the Eutelsat Hot Bird, the same satellite […]
The European Commission has again written to the government for an explanation of UK authorities’ response to BT’s allegedly illegal secret trials of Phorm’s ISP adware system. Brussels still wants answers after a September letter from the UK goverment failed to address legal issues surrounding past deployments of the technology, and didn’t provide details about […]
Vice director Wang Lian of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT)’s department of technology said at the China Digital TV Forum 2008 that 33 cities and regions across China had completed DTV conversion projects as of August of this year, bringing the number of digital cable subscribers nationwide to more than 40 […]
Bharti Airtel Limited has announced the launch of Airtel digital TV, its Direct To Home (DTH) Satellite TV service. The service will be available to customers through 21,000 retail points including Airtel Relationship Centres in 62 cities across the country. Manoj Kohli, CEO, said, "Today we are starting a new chapter in our journey, one […]
ZenithOptimedia’s optimistic predictions for online is holding steady. The Publicis Groupe media buyer’s latest forecast expects global internet ad spend to grow 26.7 per cent and break through the 10 per cent share barrier this year, a year earlier than Zenith predicted just three months ago. By 2010 Zenith predicts online will attract 13.6 per […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Germany's RTL is eyeing the possiblity of entering the Serbian TV market and is currently in negotiations with TV Avala, one of the holders of a national TV license. Some local media reports have even gone as far as to claim that as of October 6, RTL has become the […]