A January 3rd report covered by BBC Monitoring says that recent Chinese clamp downs on entertainment and variety shows enforced by the Chinese media regulator (SARFT) has seen two-thirds of the shows vanish from viewer’s screens. Some 34 satellite channels are affected according to the country’s top broadcasting watchdog. Out have gone talent contents, talk […]
From time to time our editorial staff has wished to recognise a major achievement in our industry. We talk amongst ourselves about some major accomplishments during the year, and this is the result: The year’s Top 5 most notable activities recognised. They might not be the Oscars or the Emmys, but they are no less […]
This not a story about a nervous and excessively prudish maiden. It is about the mildly amusing consequences of trying to make your software just a little bit too clever for its own good, and aiming to be the blandest on the block. Virgin Media has, along with most media outlets, decided to try and […]
ITV is doing well in the ratings and might well enjoy a bumper holiday season helped by Christmas specials of shows like Downton Abbey. But a report from the media department at investment bankers Morgan Stanley suggests that 2012 is going to be extremely tough for the network. ITV itself is assuming a flat 2012 […]
To make the point that if you are in the STB business you are in the ‘box business’, I was going to headline this piece ‘BS and basics in the brown goods business’, but I figured there were probably too few people out there who now remember that’s what we used to call all the […]
Investment bankers Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, suggest that Sky Deutschland is “likely to announce a News Corp-backed [investment raising] before the end of 2011.” The extra cash is needed to make a strong bid for the upcoming sale of Bundesliga TV rights for the 2013-14 seasons, and is likely to be […]
Intelsat, the world’s largest satellite operator, has filed an application with US regulators to transfer its various assets to a new company following on from an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which it intends to make in the near future. No date for the IPO has been set. The FCC filing says that Intelsat will end […]
“Triple play” for rocket launch company Arianespace means having three sizes of rockets available to it, and thus enabling the company to launch any size of cargoes from smaller, Earth-observation satellites right up to heavyweight 20-tonne missions to the International Space Station. The smaller rockets take the shape of its Soyuz and Vega rocket systems, […]
Last week, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital said its Thailand production lines were beginning to return to normal. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the floods severely impacted October’s supply chain of many other classes of consumer electronics items. “As flood waters progressively travelled from the northern region southwards and inundated Central […]
Power without responsibility is an accusation traditionally levelled at the British Press: it makes and breaks governments and destroys innocent people’s lives without fear of the consequences. Some argue this is the price you pay for a free press. Certainly the press in the UK is relatively economically robust compared to other European countries and […]