Investment banker Morgan Stanley says there are about 45 bidders now in the battle to win various transmission rights to cover Germany’s Bundesliga soccer. The big hitters, Sky Deutschland and Deutsche Telekom, are at the front of the process and it is not yet clear whether Qatari interests via Al Jazeera have entered a bid. […]
Canal Plus has proposed to the Competition Authority seven commitments over three years in the hope the regulator will grant permission for its acquisition of Bollore’s free-to-air TV channels Direct 8 and Direct Star. C+ proposals include non-discrimination for advertising and broadcasting rights for Studio Canal films, separate negotiations between its premium and free-to-air […]
Chellomedia’s OBN, its Bosnian FTA joint venture channel, has won the rights to broadcast the UEFA Champions League for the next three seasons starting with the new Season 2012-2013. OBN has won a competitive bid, and acquired the exclusive first pick of the Wednesday night matches as well as the highlights, Semi-Finals and Final. Champions […]
Channel 4’s VOD platform 4oD had 45 million views in February, bringing total year-to-date views to 93 million, 10 per cent year-on-year, says the broadcaster. There were 4.3 million unique 4oD users during the month, each spending an average of two hours watching content. Most watched was Skins, Hollyoaks, Desperate Housewives and Shameless all featuring […]
Samsung and SES are to partner to provide free satellite TV services for six countries in Africa. In an effort to drive digitalisation, the free service will be available on high-end Samsung LED TVs, and will provide access to 60 free-to-air TV channels (30 English and 30 French). The TVs are fitted with built-in satellite […]
The social and political turmoil that has rocked the Middle East and North Africa region has resulted in liberalisation measures which will open up the pay-TV sector, according to research firm Digital TV Research. Digital TV penetration for the 16 countries covered in its Digital TV Middle East & North Africa report is already approaching […]
UK public service commercial broadcaster Channel 4 is launching a new service – 4seven – the first new channel for the broadcaster since 2005. Delivering a keynote speech at the FT Digital Media Conference in London, David Abraham, Channel 4 Chief Executive, described the channel as containing “the noisiest bits of Channel 4”. Launching across […]
Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) and Spanish media group Vocento have reached an agreement to launch in April Paramount Channel on Spain’s DTT platform as an FTA channel on frequency previously used by the former TV channel La 10. Paramount Channel will offer movies from the archives of Paramount Pictures with genres including drama, comedy, action, […]
Content protection and multiscreen television solutions provider Nagra has formed a strategic partnership with Spanish infrastructure and telecommunications services firm abertis telecom to launch a cloud-based service aimed at pay-TV service providers and free-to-air broadcasters seeking to deploy affordable multiscreen television with fast time-to-market. The service claims it is setting a new benchmark in the […]
Connect TV, a broadband-supplied portfolio of TV channels, launches this weekend to UK viewers with Freeview HD or Smart TV functionality, and are broadband-enabled. Connect TV has embraced MHEG functionality and uses a batch of dedicated channel numbers on the EPG. Some of the TV services are already generating around 200,000 streams a month. CEO […]