US DBS leader DirecTV is spending $100 million a week buying in its own shares. As at June 30 it had $3.4 billion of authorised cash available to buy back its shares, and according to ratings agency Fitch, it expects DirecTV’s capital allocation strategy will continue to focus on its share repurchase programme while managing […]
In the second quarter of 2011 Sky Deutschland has reported improving trends across all key areas of the business. The customer base grew by 33,000 to a total of 2,759,000. Subscriber net growth over the first half of 2011 was 106,000, an increase of 100,000 compared to H1 2010. Gross additions for the quarter amounted […]
News Corporation took a 22 per cent hit to its quarter profits on the losses caused by the sale of MySpace. The effect of the closure of the News of the World won’t be seen until the next reporting period but, as today’s numbers make clear, newspapers don’t make a significant contribution to the whole. […]
Sky Italia added 57,000 new subscribers in the quarter to the end of June, taking its total to 4.97 million subs a new record. It added 230,000 customers over the year to June. News Corp numbers showed it subsidiary made fourth quarter operating income of $145 million up from $97 million for the same period […]
Slightly fewer than half of UK households today are “multiplay,” meaning that they take more than one entertainment or communication service from the same provider. A new report by analyst firm Strategy Analytics says that this number will grow to 67 per cent by 2016. While most bundles today are “double play,” comprising two services, […]
Dish Network’s quarterly profit fell short of market estimates as the satellite-TV provider lost subscribers, hurt by increased competition. For the second quarter, the second-largest satellite TV provider in the US posted a net income of $335 million, compared with $275 million a year earlier. Revenue grew 13 per cent to $3.59 billion. Dish’s net […]
Chello Central Europe has confirmed the launch of TV Paprika, JimJam and MGM on Romtelecom’s Dolce platform in Romania. The new deal will bring the three TV channels into hundreds of thousands of new households across the country. Romtelecom is one of the largest providers of television services, cable TV, DTH and IPTV in Romania […]
US satellite TV provider DirecTV reported second-quarter net income up 29 per cent, beating expectations, as it added 472,000 net new subscribers in Latin America. US subscriber growth was below forecasts at 26,000 – but the new additions were still enough to push the company beyond the milestone of 30 million subscribers. DirecTV reported earnings […]
Indian telco giant Bharti Airtel unveiled very strong 1Q number August 4 (period to June 30) with total revenues up 38.6 per cent. However, net profits fell 28 per cent, hit by investments and losses on its African subsidiaries, and higher taxes. Much of the growth came from its cellular telephony business. There was also […]
EchoStar-backed video retailer Blockbuster is to start a streaming video service for Mexico, rolling out the service to other Latino countries. No launch date was given, pending negotiations with studios and content owners. Rival Netflix is already committed to launching in the region by year-end. Edward Argüelles, Blockbuster’s General Director of Blockbuster in Mexico and […]