What do you get an octogenarian billionaire for his birthday? How about the share of Sky he doesn’t already own? Well, luckily for him, it seems that for Rupert Murdoch 80 is the new 60, so he doesn’t need to be in a huge hurry to open his present. This is just as well because […]
Rupert Murdoch celebrates his 80th birthday a week from now on March 11 (he was born on March 11, 1931). It just could be that his birthday will see confirmation that his News Corp is given permission to acquire the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own. The prospects come about because […]
At the end of last year,[bitsontherun DgUlZZw6][bitsontherun DgUlZZw6] US cable giant Cablevision announced its plans to spin off its Rainbow Media Holdings programme-making and channel business. The scheme called for a distribution of new stock to existing shareholders and thus makes the move tax efficient. Rainbow’s channels are highly-regarded and include AMC (home of Mad […]
TV broadcasting in Russia has had a hard time, badly hurt by the advertising recession. One benchmark broadcaster is CTC Media which has had a roller-coaster ride this past two years. That position is changing – and fast. Bankers Morgan Stanley say Russia will enjoy one of the fastest advertising growth rates on the planet. […]
Now I’ve got your attention I’ll explain. A session here at Cable Congress posed the question what should operator’s digital home strategies be? No surprise that everybody nodded enthusiastically to enabling the home network, developing the Set Top as the home gateway and delivering ‘blow me away’ user interfaces. But panellists also admitted that this […]
Nilesat did itself no favours by dropping carriage of Arabic news channel Al Jazeera on January 30 at the height of the ‘People’s Revolution’ in Tahrir Square. At the time the blame was placed firmly at the door of Egypt’s powerful information ministry, and its minister Anas Al Fiki. He was speedily sacked, but not […]
The second annual international 3D Creative Arts Awards, organised by the International 3D Society, saw BSkyB win the coveted “best 3D-TV” award, for Sky’s steamy Dance, Dance, Dance show. Dance, Dance, Dance is a specially choreographed show (by Arlene Phillips) comprising six segments filmed in and around London. The six specially commissioned dances feature Bollywood, […]
A pub landlady in England is a hero to the (non-Murdoch) press when she wins a ‘victory’ in the European courts over whether she’s entitled to buy her Premiere League soccer for public viewing from a foreign supplier. It isn’t actually a win yet (just an opinion from the official court adviser) and, of course, […]
Last week’s Egyptian protests saw Al Jazeera’s signals from Nilesat terminated. The problem meant that Al Jazeera’s viewers had to search the sky for alternate transmissions over the Middle East, not least looking to Arabsat and Eutelsat. The loss of Al Jazeera’s signal meant that subscribers to the Orbit Showtime Network also lost their news […]
In the past few days, Sky Deutschland (SD) has resolved a troubling legal dispute with former investors by settling $20 million on them, and also seen News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch say last week that his investment in the German pay-TV operator was “starting to pay off”. A week ago, SD raised €165 million via a […]