With some analysts doubting Setanta's future after it failed to renew both its Premiere League packages, Access Industries, which is headed by the Russian-born US citizen Len Blavatnik, is understood to have acquired a stake of about 3%. Blavatnik’s petrochemicals business, Lyondell Basell filed for bankruptcy protection last month owing $26bn. Royal Bank of Scotland […]

Cable operator UPC Netherlands' video-on-demand service saw over 34 million requests from subscribers last year, the first full year of the service's operation. UPC said that about 50% of customers used the service on a monthly basis in the second half of the year, up from 40% in the first half. At the end of […]

RTL, the Germany-based owners of Channel Five, has offered to set up a government-appointed editorial board as part of merger plan with Channel 4. Five’s chief executive, Dawn Airey, told The Guardian that the independent editorial board would monitor the output of both channels if the two broadcasters were allowed to merge. The board would […]

News International is investigating working with News Corp sites such as Sky and MySpace, to create a behavioural targeting network across its properties. The creation of such a network would allow News International titles, such as The Times and The Sun to share data on reader behaviour and enable brands to target across both News […]

BskyB followed up securing a further three years of live Premier League football with a vitriolic response to media regulator Ofcom's consultation on the UK pay-TV market, accusing it of “serious flaws” and “perverse conclusions.” Responding to Ofcom’s second Consultation Document on pay TV which was published last September and said: "Retail competition that we […]

After weeks of debate, US Congress has confirmed it will give consumers four more months to prepare for the upcoming transition from analogue to digital television broadcasting. The House voted 264-158 to postpone the shutdown of analogue TV signals to June 12th, to address growing concerns that too many Americans won’t be ready by the […]

Online DVD company Netflix has said that one million Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console users have activated Netflix’s movie streaming service in the past three months since the two companies formed a partnership. Netflix said the Xbox LIVE community has watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes through its Watch Instantly video […]

comScore has released data from its Video Metrix service showing that US Internet users viewed a record 14.3 billion online videos during December, representing an increase of 13 per cent versus the previous month. YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for 49 per cent of the incremental gain in videos viewed versus November. In December, […]

News Corp-owned Italian pay-TV operator Sky Italia added 322,000 net subscribers in 2008 for a total subscriber base of 4.7 million. It reported second quarter operating income of US$10m down $52m year-on-year. New Corp said marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and increased sports programming costs hit net income. News Corp's operating income for the second […]

From Colin Mann in London The UK's Competition Commission has decided to block the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between the BBC through BBC Worldwide Limited (BBCW), ITV plc (ITV) and Channel Four Television Corporation (C4)—UKVOD, also known as 'Project Kangaroo'. It has concluded that none of the other remedies proposed could remove […]