According to market research company Dittberner, annual FTTH shipments were up 71 per cent in 2008. Q4 2008 shipments rose slightly, but still broke 3 million for the first time. The Japanese market remains the main driver for FTTH, adding a little over 700,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter to close in on 14.5 Million […]

British cable operator Virgin Media posted fourth-quarter revenue and operating cashflow in line with forecast, and said it had continued to show good resilience in the face of the downturn. Virgin Media said it had made 15,000 net new customer additions in the quarter, compared with 24,000 a year ago, and sold 185,500 products of […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s largest pay-TV group, Sogecable, hit a record E1.87 billion in revenues for 2008, but failed to stop the fall in subscribers as the company lost 30,000 pay-TV clients in its up-for-sale digital DTH platform Digital Plus on the year. Sogecable’s free-to-air channel Cuatro increased by 13.7 per cent […]

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has confirmed that its American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited SCTE Standards Program has begun to investigate the standardisation required for the carriage of next generation 3D content on cable networks. The SCTE Engineering Committee, which oversees the Society's development of technical standards covering all aspects of cable networks, […]

Broadband has transformed video viewing habits in Western Europe, where over 20 per cent of broadband households have watched a film or TV programme online in the past six months, according to international research firm Parks Associates, whose The Impact of Online Video in Europe , addresses these changes in viewing habits. European consumers are […]

Despite their relatively short market history, Telco IPTV providers are well-positioned, and lead in customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, according to a survey just published by analyst firm Strategy Analytics. Over 80 per cent of Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse television customers reported to be "very" or "extremely" satisfied with their provider. Cable customers, on […]

Comcast Corporation, America's largest cable TV provider, said that its fourth-quarter earnings fell 32 percent, hit by a $600 million write-down of its investment in the Clearwire Corporation, the wireless technology provider. Comcast's revenue and adjusted earnings were ahead of estimates, however, helped by growth in Comcast's video segment. In the fourth quarter Comcast earned […]

Time Warner Cable shifted some key management positions in anticipation of its planned split with parent Time Warner Inc., naming CEO Glenn Britt to the additional position of chairman. The company received the necessary government approvals for the split earlier this month and said it expected to complete the split by the end of the […]

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 […]