According to analyst firm Screen Digest's Head of TV, Guy Bisson, Sky TV's pay television business in the UK is well placed to weather a recession. Bisson believes the company will maintain its customer growth, control churn and maintain ARPU. Other pay-TV operators in Europe will not be so fortunate: Spain is already showing the […]
Cyfrowy Polsat, Poland's largest digital satellite pay television platform has launched mobile phone services, based on its own telecommunications infrastructure using network solutions from Nokia Siemens Networks. Under a five-year contract, Nokia Siemens Networks has supplied a complete MVNO platform, comprising packet core equipment, applications and network management tools as well as a broad range […]
Premiere has won the pay-TV rights to Bundesliga football in Germany, Austria and Switzerland through to the end of the 2012 season. The exclusive deal covers live and highlights rights for cable, satellite and the internet at a cost of E225 million for in 2009/10 rising to E275 million in 2012/13. Premiere CEO Mark Williams […]
From Branislav Pekic in RomeZon Multimédia remains the pay-TV market leader in Portugal, despite the fact that its market share dropped from 74.3 per cent to 71.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. According to the latest data from telecom market regulator Anacom, Cogeco-owned Cabovisão is second with a 13.5 per cent market […]
A report from research consultancy TDG predicts that console-affiliated media portals such as Microsoft's Xbox LIVE and Sony's PlayStation Network will soon become formidable competitors to incumbent Pay TV services. Leveraging broadband-enabled game consoles as Over-the-Top video platforms – thus bypassing cable and satellite TV operators – these companies will offer a compelling alternative to […]
From Branislav Pekic Rome Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has sold a total of 2.7 million pre-paid cards for the reception of its pay-TV service on digital terrestrial, Mediaset Premium, launched in 2005. This figure represents an increase of 100,000 smart cards since the end of June. Also, around 1.5 million Italian families subscribe to the […]
A consistent theme of this year's CASBAA convention was affirmation of the strong consumer base from which the Asian industry is working in late 2008. "We now have a customer-base of 300 million pay-TV connections across Asia Pacific creating a minimum annual turnover of more than $20 billion year," said Simon Twiston Davies, CEO of […]
A study exploring consumer attitudes towards pay-TV services, with particular emphasis on consumer perceptions of telcos as providers of TV services, has found that price of service and discounts are particularly important for attracting new subscribers. The Making TV Pay study marks the first survey to explore the mindset of pay-TV subscribers after the credit […]
The continuing costs related to the hacking of its encryption system took Premiere to its fourth consecutive quarterly loss in the third quarter. A negative EBITDA of E27.2 million in Q3 2008 compared to the positive E22m in the same quarter of last year. Increased costs on transmission, hardware and sales pushed operating costs up […]
Virgin Media has had a competition tribunal appeal rejected that, if upheld, could have resulted in rival pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB being forced to sell its entire 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. Last month Virgin Media lodged an appeal arguing that the Competition Commission failed to properly consider special rules governing the plurality of media […]