Thanks largely to stronger-than-expected global PC sales, Microsoft reported $6.48 billion in profit for the holiday quarter on sales of $16.37 billion, beating analyst estimates. Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell raised the company's sales and profit targets for the next two quarters — a sign that unlike Wall Street, Microsoft expects a comfortable start to […]
BBC Worldwide is in talks with international broadcasters in relation to launching local on-demand media players, similar to its Kangaroo joint venture with ITV and Channel 4. The US, Australia and Germany are likely targets. A BBC Worldwide spokeswoman insisted any international venture would be separate to the Kangaroo system, but added the BBC would […]
The Nielsen Company has confirmed the commercial launch of Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics, (NORA), a measurement service that aggregates and anonymously reports on video-on-demand (VOD) usage based on real time transactions collected at the set-top box level. At launch, Comcast will be providing VOD data for the NORA service, covering January 1, 2007 […]
Latens and TelCo Group, systems integrator in the Russian TV and telecommunications market, have signed a partnership agreement, and TelCo Group has integrated Latens CAS, with its eScentra middleware platform. The focus of this partnership will be on the sales and marketing of Latens and TelCo Group integrated solutions for Russia's IPTV, digital cable, satellite […]
A French civil court will rule on a request by pay-TV group Canal Plus to suspend a tender for the rights to broadcast France’s top flight football matches over the next four seasons. Canal Plus had already filed a first request with the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) to suspend the auction held by France’s […]
The French government is reportedly planning to impose an additional tax on the purchase of TVs, computers and mobile phones in a bid to help state broadcasters recover some of the shortfall – up to E1 billion – caused by the ban on advertising on public TV and radio mooted last week by President Sarkovsky. […]
PT Multimedia has acquired a 20 per cent stake in Potugese cable TV company TVTEL and will acquire the remaining 80 per cent from investment bank Caixa BI, subject to the approval of competition authorities.
BT Vision has signed with Disney-ABC to give its customers more than 650 episodes of popular television shows, such as LOST and Ugly Betty, on a pay-per-view basis from 29p (E0.39) each . Customers can also get unlimited access to the shows as part of the firm’s £6 per month TV Pack subscription or the […]
FOX Channels has released its 2007 year-end ratings results for Italy, a market that saw continued growth in pay TV last year. FOX's 12-channel strong entertainment and factual bouquet continued to be one of Sky Italia's key drivers. The group topped all other comparable networks with its growth contribution reaching 36 per cent of Sky's […]
From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris The French broadcasting regulator CSA received 32 candidates for the 13 mobile TV DVB-H frequencies by the closing time for applications. Many of the proposals come from existing channels broadcast on traditional platforms (DTT, cable, satellite, IPTV). In addition there were some created specifically for the mobile platform; whether mobile […]