The chances of BT spending £1.5bn (E1.7bn) on a superfast broadband network have increased after Ofcom said its rules would not prevent the telecoms operator from securing an adequate return on its investment. Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, told the FT the planned regulatory regime for BT's network would not be an "obstacle". Since […]

Charter Communications said it had reached an agreement in principle with a debt holders committee on terms of a financial restructuring, to be done under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, to reduce Charter's debt by about $8 billion. The cable operator, controlled by Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen, said in a statement it would file for Chapter […]

Cable Europe, the industry representing Europe's cable industry, has expressed disappointment at a European Commission decision to allow the Dutch communications regulator, OPTA, to impose new regulatory rules on cable operators (See Daily News 11/02/09). The Commission has effectively approved a move by the Dutch regulator to mandate cable operators to allow third party services […]

The European Commission has backed plans from Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA to open up the country's cable TV market. OPTA plans to force the country's four largest cable operators Ziggo, UPC, Delta and CAIW to open up their digital networks to third parties. According to OPTA, the regulations are needed to boost competition in the […]

Research firm Light Reading has compiled a report that scopes out the types of cross-platform services that cable operators may roll out, focusing on service features and the emerging technologies that will support them. Even though it will cost more to implement new technologies, cable operators are likely to move to cross-platform technologies to improve […]

KDG achieved 11% growth in digital subs to 846,300 out of its nine million TV subs. KDG had 1,240,700 internet and telephony RGUs at year end, up 105.2% year-on-year, with 163,200 added during the final quarter. Internet customers were 624,700, while phone customers numbered 616,000. The company had 11.386m RGUs in total at the end […]

The latest UPC viewer survey says many have trouble reading text on TV and a zoom facility would be useful. The fifth annual UPC Television Survey, conducted in 11 European countries, focussed on accessibility. The main issues of Europeans regarding visibility of texts on the TV screen are related to the contrast between screen text […]

UPC Austria is to invest E100 million in DOCSIS 3.0 development to improve connection speeds across Austria. The triple-play provider said it would begin to increase the speed of Internet access through the chello, student, classic and plus portals by 100 Mbits and reduce prices on 2nd February. UPC Austria chief Thomas Hintze said 2008 […]

Comcast together with Disney-ABC Domestic Television, has announced the launch of the subscription video on demand service, Disney Family Movies. The service, which showcases classic and contemporary Disney family movies from one of the world's largest film libraries, is now available to Comcast digital customers. Disney Family Movies gives customers unlimited access to approximately 20 […]

As expected, Cablevision has ditched carriage of the VOOM networks, replacing the high-def channels with content from the big three premium programmers. The New York-area MSO said it is serving more than 1.3 million HD customers, penetrating 50 percent of all its digital TV households, the cable operator said. Cablevision said it is delivering access […]