Maria Miller, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has welcomed the November 26th afternoon of launch of the UK’s first local TV channel – Estuary TV- in the northern coastal town of Grimsby. She said that local television was an important part of a connected society. “Viewers consistently say they want local TV […]
A new Scottish Broadcasting Service funded by the Scottish share of BBC licence fee income could be established if the nation votes for independence in next year’s referendum. The Scottish National party said in its 600+ page independence policy paper that it would institute the SBS as a joint venture with the BBC, replacing BBC […]
Two weeks after shaking the pay-TV and free-to-air coverage enjoyed by BSkyB and ITV, BT Sport has cemented its position as the UK home of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League after winning co-exclusive on demand online and mobile clip rights to all 350 matches per season. The clip rights are shared with […]
A week after it lost the rights to live coverage of UEFA Champions League football, UK commercial PSB ITV has revealed that it will show highlights of Champions League and Europa League matches until 2018 after agreeing a new deal with UEFA. The deal guarantees coverage of the two competitions on free-to-air television for three […]
Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel is to lobby the federal government for a number of top sporting fixtures not played on Australian soil to be taken off a list of events which protects live broadcasts of major sporting events on free-to-air TV, seeking a shake-up of the government’s approach to future sports rights deals. Such events […]
Internet TV streaming service FilmOn is suing Chicago-based WWCI, licensee of PBS station WTTW which on November 12th accused the operation of copyright infringement. FilmOn contends that Congress and the courts have always protected an individual’s right to privately perform copyrighted audiovisual works, noting that this right has been challenged countless times by copyright holders […]
Technical changes to prepare for the first of a new wave of local TV services on Freeview have been completed by Digital UK ahead of its launch on November 26th. Working in conjunction with multiplex operator Comux, Digital UK has successfully integrated the new service into the terrestrial TV network. Programme and scheduling information for […]
The X-Factor has been renewed by several key free-to-air broadcasters and the show’s distributor, FremantleMedia, has agreed deals for four more local versions of the music competition series. New deals for The X-Factor include recommissions from Seven Network in Australia, DR1 in Denmark, TVN in Poland, Channel One in Russia and TV3 in Lithuania have […]
Despite the sharp fall in the number of subscribers (down 8 per cent in 2012), pay-TV companies are performing better than free-to-air (FTA) channels in terms of revenues. Total revenues in pay-TV grew by 3 per cent in 2012 against a 15 per cent decrease in FTA channels in 2012, according to UTECA, the private […]
Sky is to show highlights of the Ashes through Pick – its free-to-air channel. A one-hour highlights programme will be shown at 10pm every day following each Test, ODI and T20 matches. Stephen Ladlow, Pick channel director, said: “The Ashes is always compelling viewing and making the highlights available on Pick will give many more […]