The European Commission is referring Spain to the Court of Justice under Article 108(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The move follows Spain’s failure to recover subsidies it granted to finance the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) in remote areas of, respectively, Castilla-la-Mancha and the rest […]
A £440 million (€521m) windfall will help up to 600,000 extra homes and businesses get superfast broadband under the UK Government’s flagship rollout scheme. Funding has been unlocked to give more properties in the hardest-to-reach parts of the UK the quick and reliable internet connections which are a vital part of modern life. The cash […]
Channel Islands-based OneWeb has raised $1.2 billion (€1.14bn) from Japan’s Softbank in a new funding round. OneWeb is planning to build a super-constellation of 640 broadband and data satellites to supply Internet-by-satellite connectivity to the planet. It already has manufacturing agreements in place with Airbus Group, and the plan is to start launching these satellites […]
A study conducted ahead of the Parliamentary debate about the BBC’s Royal Charter reveals the British public’s attitude towards the BBC, particularly the licence fee. The study, by research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, shows that 71 per cent of people feel the BBC is important to them personally and 71 per cent are satisfied […]
Liberty Media Corporation has entered into agreements with certain third party investors to commit $1.55 billion (€1.46bn) in subscriptions for newly issued shares of its Series C Liberty Media common stock (LMCK) at a price of $25.00 per share in connection with its acquisition of Formula 1. The third parties are Coatue Management, the D. […]
Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by leading global investment firm KKR has acquired a significant minority stake in Amagi Media Labs, a specialist in targeted TV advertising and cloud-based TV broadcast infrastructure. Premji Invest, the investment arm of Azim Premji, (an existing shareholder) is also participating in this combination of primary and secondary $35 […]
A broadband fund of at least €500 million has been announced to contribute to delivering an inclusive Gigabit Society for Europe and prevent a new Gigabit-divide from the outset. The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) revealed the new fund designed to boost the amounts invested in broadband network infrastructure across underserved areas […]
Edge Investments, the specialist investment house focused on the creative industries sector, has backed open video platform and growing British media technology company Newsflare. Edge will invest £2.4 million (€2.86m) for a significant minority shareholding and a seat on the board. Newsflare is a video marketplace platform for video creators, licensing UGC video to some […]
The UK’s Community Channel has been bought through a crowd-funding scheme which attracted almost £400,000 (€336k) in donations. Its backers say it is the first supporter-owned TV channel in the world dedicated to benefitting the community. A new CEO has been appointed and a board of directors appointed from UK broadcast giant Sky, publicly owned […]
Back on July 1st the Italian government revised its TV licensing system. It lowered the annual fee from €113 to €100 and legislated that the fee had to be collected through the electricity or gas utility bills. Prior to this change it had been estimated that between 25-30 per cent of Italian homes evaded the […]