From Colin Mann in Cologne Unity Media, Germany's second largest German cable TV operator is seeking new takeover targets to compete more effectively with dominant telco Deutsche Telecom. “We expect a consolidation in the market,” said, Gene Musselman, the new head of Unity Media, who is also a senior European manager for Unity Media parent […]

Vodafone, Wind and Swisscom's Fastweb are collaborating to build a rival Italian broadband network to Telecom Italia's The three Italian operators are preparing to launch a E2.5 billion broadband network plan. Under the five-year plan, the telcos are aiming to replace the traditional copper network by building a superfast broadband network in 15 cities. The […]

The FCC considers broadband service a sort of hybrid between an information service and a utility and that it has sufficient power to regulate Internet traffic under existing law, despite recent court cases that say it doesn't. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that the FCC had exceeded its authority by telling Comcast the […]

From Colin Mann in Cologne Manuel Kohnstamm, Managing Director, Public Policy and Communications at Liberty Global has revealed that the global cable operator's strategy moving forward is to concentrate on accelerating broadband cable's speed advantage over telco DSL and developing interactive digital television (iDTV) services. Recognising that the cable industry's success in rolling out high-speed […]

From Colin Mann in Cologne Investment in high-speed broadband networks should applauded, not punished, according to Thomas Braun, President of ANGA Association of Cable Operators. Delivering the welcome address at the opening of the ANGA Cable Trade Fair, Braun noted that although cable had perhaps been late in developing its networks, it had made great […]

Dutch ISP Ziggo, the country's largest, is facing court action for its refusal to block subscriber access to Swedish BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay. It insists that it's simply a conduit to the Internet and shouldn't be forced to filter the results, especially considering there's no legal basis for such a request. “We are […]

From Colin Mann in Cologne German cable MSO Kabel BW has selected EuroDOCSIS 3.0 solutions from Motorola to offer personalised media experiences to customers in cities in the German federal state Baden-Wuerttemberg, with broadband speeds of currently up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). Kabel BW currently has over 2.3 million customers The extended services […]

Yankee Group has identified a new category of consumer: the coax-cutter. These consumers cut off their pay TV services and use their PCs, gaming consoles and other connected devices to access video programming instead. One in eight consumers are set to join their ranks in the next 12 months. Yankee Group reports that the number […]

German regional cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has announced its key performance indicators (KPIs) for the year ended 31 March 2010, reporting a 3.6 per cent year-on-year rise in total revenue generating units (RGUs) to 12.048 million. However, total direct subscribers fell to 7.47 million, down by 33,000 from the previous year primarily due to […]

Cable Europe is taking the opportunity of the launch the European Commission investigation into transparency in the collective management of copyright, to call for a full scale review of the rules that govern relationships between rights owners, collecting societies and users of copyright content across Europe. “The cable industry calls on the Commission to take […]