Advanced Television

Funding

European pay-radio: Getting ready

The past couple of years have not been good for pay-radio’s prospects in Europe. We’ve seen the Worldspace catastrophe, now well over two years into its Chapter 11 bankruptcy (WS filed in October 2008) and with legal bills still running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. Worldspace’s European and other international operations […]

January 27, 2011

Tele Columbus completes restructure

The Tele Columbus Group, the leading German cable network operators, has successfully completed the financial restructuring process initiated in 2010. With expanded capital resources, the business is now better positioned in the competitive cable and telecommunication market. During the course of the restructuring agreement with lenders, debts were reduced by over €400 million. At the […]

January 19, 2011

Nielsen seeks $1.5bn in delayed IPO

Nielsen, the audience measurement and consumer tracking company, has revived plans for its initial public offering, but lowered its expectations of what it will be able to raise. The company, which was taken private in 2006, has confirmed it will look to sell 71.4 million shares, or 20 per cent of the company, at a […]

January 11, 2011

PrimaCom creditors set to take control

German cable operator PrimaCom, which filed for insolvency in June 2010 after its shareholders failed to reach an agreement with creditors regarding repayment of a €29.2 million loan, is now ready to be sold on to financial investors. In a debt-for-equity swap, PrimaCom’s lenders Alcentra Group, Avenue Capital Group, Tennenbaum Capital Partners and ING have […]

January 6, 2011

Technicolor must sell shares to pay debt

Technicolor has said that it will issue new shares worth about €213 million to pay back creditors after it failed to sell assets in its restructuring process fast enough. The group had issued about €265 million of debt in so-called disposal proceed notes (DPN) during its 18-month-long restructuring process in which it sought the protection […]

December 30, 2010

Hulu backs off IPO

Hulu, which has been tipped for a New Year IPO, is now said to be exploring alternative means of raising capital, including getting existing investors to inject more capital, says the WSJ. Many US reports have previously predicted the online video site was angling for an IPO to raise $200 million to $300 million – […]

December 21, 2010

Italy’s Dahlia TV faced with financial problems

Italian pay-TV operator Dahlia TV could see a capital increase or the arrival of new shareholders early in 2011. The platform owned by the Sweden’s AirPlus, which took over Telecom Italia Media’s pay-TV unit, La7 Cartapiù in spring 2009, is faced with liquidity problems, despite successfully concluding an E80 million refinancing package in August 2010. […]

December 20, 2010From Branislav Pekic in Rome

CPB announces funding for mobile DTV initiative

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has confirmed that it will provide public television stations in 20 US markets with funding to begin delivering mobile digital television programming by the end of 2011. With the help of more than $2 million in grants from CPB, stations can purchase and install mobile DTV equipment that will […]

December 16, 2010

BBC Trust unveils strategy

A new strategy to deliver more distinctive, high quality programmes, improved value for money and greater transparency for all audiences has been published by the BBC Trust, the body that sets BBC strategy and top-level budgets . Launching the final conclusions of the Strategy Review, BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons stressed that the BBC […]

December 15, 2010From Colin Mann in London

BBC warns of service closures

The BBC has admitted that TV, radio and online services could be at risk as the corporation seeks cost savings in the face of October’s licence fee settlement. Michael Lyons, the outgoing BBC Trust chairman, said he “could not rule out” the closure of certain services given the tough licence fee settlement, as he unveiled […]

December 14, 2010