Bahrain-based Orbit and Dubai's Showtime Arabia are merging between the two rival pay-TV businesses. The new company is an "equal partnership" between Orbit, up until now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid Group, and Showtime Arabia/Gulf-DTH which was owned by Kuwait's KIPCO and Viacom. The new business will offer new packages to viewers […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome The introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television by 2012 will require between E87 million and E115 million, according to the Strategy for the Switchover from Analogue to Digital Broadcasting which has been adopted by the Serbian Government. Digital broadcasting equipment alone will require some E75 million, a sum which Serbia hopes […]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said the DTH subscriber base has swelled to more than 13 million in the country, indicating an increased penetration of the service. TRAI said “total number of reported registered Direct to Home (DTH) subscribers served by five private DTH operators, offering paid service, had gone up to […]

Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse (owner of Talk Talk and Tiscali UK) is studying whether its Talk Talk phone and broadband business should expand Tiscali's TV service and whether that would be via Canvas or the existing platform. Carphone completed its deal to buy Tiscali's UK assets for £236m (E275m) last week, including […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish Competition Authorities have proposed to limit to three years (until 2012) the current contracts for football TV rights in a move to avoid dominant positions in the a market that generates around E1 billon a year. The measure would directly affect Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, that […]

Sky Deutscheland has terminated its distribution contact with Deutsche Telekom for the its IPTV platform. The 'T-Entertainment' branded service will is no loner available through Sky, though both companies have acknowledged that the possibility of further talks remains. Premiere announced plans to rebrand as Sky Deutschland in April, which has since seen the two pay-TV […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The two largest pay-TV groups in Spain, Sogecable (more than 2 million subscribers) and Ono (over 1 million subs) have issued appeals against the Government’s Royal Decree bill that will allow pay TV services through digital terrestrial TV. Both argue that it breaks competition rules. For Ono, the bill […]

NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker has said that while the overall marketplace is still challenged, he thinks it may have bottomed out. "It's still quite uncertain and we don't really see the full recovery we are all hoping for," he said. "It's still tough out there, but I think we have seen a bottom. Our […]

Netflix has formed a partnership with Sony Electronics that will enable Netflix subscribers to instantly watch movies streamed from Netflix on Sony Bravia models compatible with Sony’s Bravia Internet video link module. Launching in Autumn, Netflix members on an unlimited plan can use the service to instantly watch more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes […]

Wells Fargo Securities has estimated that the digital transition added about 653,000 new subscribers to cable, satellite and telco companies, but said that cable operators, which reaped big benefits from the transition in the first quarter, won’t likely see another big boost from the federal initiative until the third quarter. Analyst Marci Ryvicker estimated that […]