Advanced Television

Funding

Sky Zero Footprint Fund returns for 2025

Sky Media has announced the return of an expanded Sky Zero Footprint Fund for 2025. After taking a year off to refine the initiative, the fund is back with a new format and renewed commitment to drive change for a better planet through the power of advertising. Once again, Sky Media, the advertising arm of […]

February 28, 2025

SES hit by ratings downgrade

It’s not been a good month for European satellite operators. Recent weeks have seen Paris-based Eutelsat suffer negative comments and a much-depressed share price. Now it is Luxembourg’s SES which is hurting. Ratings agency Moody’s cut its outlook on SES to “negative” (from “stable”) and that the operator’s long-term debt (rated Baa3) would be “under […]

February 19, 2025

UK 2024 production spend £4.7bn

Official film and high-end TV (HETV) production statistics from the British Film Institute (BFI) show that production in the UK continues to generate billions for the UK economy. Recovering from the global impact of 2023’s US SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, inward investment spend in the UK generated by film and HETV production during 2024 reached […]

February 6, 2025

StackAdapt raises $235m

StackAdapt, the AI-powered programmatic advertising platform, has announced a $235 million (€226.4m) equity funding round. Led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the round also saw participation from Intrepid Growth Partners and four other investors. This funding values StackAdapt at approximately $2.5 billion, with annual revenues of […]

February 5, 2025

Largo.ai closes funds with Stallone

Largo.ai, the AI-driven analytics platform for the film, TV and advertising industries, has secured $7.5 million (€7.2m) funding with Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone among the new backers. Co-led by Los Angeles-based TI Capital and Switzerland and Los Angeles-based QBIT Capital, the ‘A’ funding round participants include Boston’s Atreides Management, former Vice Chairman and Chief Operating […]

February 3, 2025

EnSilica awarded £10.3m funding from UK Space Agency Award

EnSilica, a chip maker of mixed signal ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), has been awarded £10.38 million (€12.4m) funding over the next three years from the UK Space Agency for a development project under its Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme. EnSilica put forward in its application a business case supported by letters of […]

February 3, 2025

MPs call for BBC World Service funding certainty

Three UK House of Commons Select Committees – the Culture, Media and Sport, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees – have called on the Government to sufficiently resource the BBC World Service so that it is less reliant on the licence fee and short-term funding cycles. The letter calls on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development […]

January 31, 2025By Colin Mann

France: Canal+ film investment threat

Canal+ Group has threatened to reduce its €220 million annual movie investment in France in light of the fresh windowing agreement between Disney+ and the industry. “This offer is no longer on the table today. From my point of view, it will necessarily drop, the question is by how much,” stated CEO Maxime Saada, at […]

January 30, 2025From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

UK Government invests £20m in Orbex

The UK government has invested £20 million (€23.8m) for an equity stake in Orbex Space, a start-up rocket launcher. This current round of fund-raising (the ‘D’ round) has also seen cash put up by Denmark’s EIFO fund, as well as Octopus Ventures and others. The UK cash comes from its Department for Science, Innovation & […]

January 29, 2025By Chris Forrester

SES borrows €125m for O3b

The European Investment Bank’s global arm, EIB Global, has signed a €125 million loan agreement with satellite operator SES to fund three satellites of its second-generation medium Earth orbit (MEO) system O3b mPOWER. SES has already launched eight of 13 O3b mPOWER satellites, which operate 8,000 kms away from the Earth, delivering high throughput and […]

January 29, 2025By Chris Forrester