Advanced Television

Telco

EU OKs RTVE tax

The European Court of Justice has denied the European Commission’s appeal against the Spanish public broadcaster tax, one month after it approved the same model in France. Telco companies will have to keep on investing 0.7 per cent of their revenues in financing the public broadcaster. This is a boost to RTVE and a setback […]

August 27, 2013From David Del Valle in Madrid

Zon-Optimus merger green light

Portugal’s Competition Authority has issued a final decision, stating its agreement to the merger between triple-play provider Zon Multimedia and mobile telephony operator Optimus. The decision confirms the draft decision that includes the commitments made by both parties. Among other things, Optimus will extend the duration of the network sharing agreement with Vodafone Portugal; Optimus […]

August 27, 2013From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Research: US telcos well-placed to offer digital lifestyle packages

As the popularity of Internet entertainment services grows among consumers, digital lifestyle providers face customer retention challenges and seek to extend bundled service offerings, according to the J.D. Power 2013 Digital Lifestyle Study. The study, now in its second year, examines consumer brand loyalty, propensity to subscribe to digital lifestyle products and preferences for aggregation […]

August 22, 2013

Swisscom TV connections up 30%

Swisscom has posted a fall in net revenue of CHF 25 million (0.4 per cent) to CHF 5,596 million in the first half of 2013, while EBITDA was down by CHF 122 million (5.5 per cent) to CHF 2,102 million. At constant exchange rates and excluding hubbing revenues from Fastweb (wholesale revenues from interconnection services) […]

August 7, 2013

BT Sport goes live

August 1st at 18.00 BST marks the launch of BT Sport, the three-channel service from the telco that is taking the game to Sky in terms of premium sports coverage in the UK. On launch day, the service will be free for anyone with Freeview, TV from BT or Sky. The new BT Sport website, […]

August 1, 2013By Colin Mann

Green light for Zon-Optimus merger

Portugal’s Competition Authority – Autoridade da Concorrência – has approved a merger between quad-play provider Zon Multimedia and Sonaecom’s mobile unit Optimus. The two companies said that they have been informed of the Authority’s non-opposition to the consolidation process, with the confirmation of the previously announced five conditions. The conditions include: Optimus extends the duration […]

August 1, 2013From Branislav Pekic in Rome

BT splits BT Retail in two

BT Retail is to split into two separate businesses, BT Consumer and BT Business. The move will take effect from September. BT says the split will enable the company to better serve its customers and focus even more on delivering its strategic priorities. These include ‘Driving broadband-based consumer services’ and ‘Being the brand for business […]

July 30, 2013

YouView seeks multi-device expansion

Open IPTV platform YouView – backed by a consortium of the UK’s broadcasters and telco providers – is looking to develop the service beyond its set-top box-based launch, reports the FT. Sources suggest that some shareholders are keen to extend service across a range of devices, including connected TV sets, smartphones and tablets. Any such […]

July 29, 2013By Colin Mann

BT Sport: Half a million households pre-launch

Ian Livingston, the outgoing Chief Executive of BT, has revealed that the telco’s forthcoming BT Sport service has already attracted over 500,000 customers prior to its August 1st launch. Commenting on BT’s Q1 results, Livingston said: “It is early days but we are very pleased with the strong start in BT Sport. More than half […]

July 25, 2013By Colin Mann

Digiturk bidding battle hots up

Turk Telekom confirmed that it had made an offer to acquire 53 per cent of Turkish pay-TV operator Digiturk. However, it is widely reported that other Turkish media conglomerates, including Dogan Holdings as well as Dogus Group, have also expressed interest in Digiturk. News Corp and Liberty Global are also said to be interested. Digiturk […]

July 24, 2013By Chris Forrester