Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US – representing about 94 per cent of the market – acquired over 5.4 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2008. Annual net broadband additions were down compared to the 8.5 million in 2007, and the peak of […]

Talking before a UK Parliamentary committee Comms Minister Lord Carter continued to hint net neutrality would not be a foundation of his Digital Britain report. Having already assured BT its investment in NGN would be recognised and protected, he said "Our emerging view is that it is not unreasonable for a network provider to be […]

Rogers Communication says proposals for a levy on Internet service providers in order to help fund Canadian content online would be illegal. Internet service providers (ISPs) have argued against a tax on Internet services or broadband revenues to support the production of Canadian content for Web consumption. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is […]

Google’s online video site, YouTube, has confirmed it will block all music videos to British users after it was unable to reach a rights deal with the main songwriters’ collection society. The world’s largest video sharing site said PRS for Music, a British collection society that collects royalties on behalf of nearly 50,000 composers, was […]

Belgium's dominant telco Belgacom TV has reported growth in 2008 exceeded that of the previous year, with the company adding 201,000 new subscribers. Growth peaked in the fourth quarter of the year, with the company adding 63,000 IPTV subscribers in the three-month period. By the end of 2008, the company had a 30 per cent […]

Virgin Media has appointed UBS bank to advise it on a sale of its television channels businesses that could be worth up to £500 million (E560m). Virgin Media Television includes Virgin's 50 per cent stake in the cable channels business UKTV. The sale will be partly dependent on the outcome of a political debate going […]

Internet provider Tiscali said talks with BSkyB over the sale of its UK assets have ended. Tiscali said it was “de facto impossible” to proceed with the discussions because of the impact of the continuing economic downturn. As a result, Tiscali said it would miss an interest payment on its debt as it seeks to […]

UPC Broadband has announced a reorganisation and streamlining of its Central European operations. From the end of March the regional management group overseeing UPC’s six operating businesses in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be closed down. The affected operating businesses will now report directly to Gene Musselman, President and COO […]

UK Media watchdog Ofcom has confirmed that April will see the first release of its broadband speed league table, which will reveal the real-world performance of UK ISPs. It will be based off the same system that allowed Ofcom to report the country’s average downstream speed of 3.6Mbps in January. ………….

Malcolm Wall, the chief executive of Virgin Media’s content business, is leaving the business. His departure comes as Virgin Media is said to be preparing for the sell-off of its TV channels business. Virgin Media Television’s 50% stake in UKTV could also potentially be folded into a new commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and […]