News Corporation has acquired a 14.58 per cent stake in German pay-TV operator Premiere, in a E287 million cash deal, making it the company’s biggest single shareholder. The shares were acquired from Unitymedia, Germany’s second largest cable MSO, which took the holding in February 2007 as part of a deal which enabled Premiere to show […]
Satellite operators Eutelsat has selected EADS Astrium to deliver its first satellite operating exclusively in Ka-band frequencies. The satellite will form the cornerstone of a major new satellite infrastructure programme designed to expand significantly capacity for consumer broadband services across Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, while providing new opportunities for local and regional television markets. […]
blinkx has formed a partnership with ITN Source, one of the world’s leading providers of professional video content, to give blinkx viewers direct access to ITN Source’s market-leading collection of moving image libraries and stock footage on the Web. Leveraging its unique AdHoc platform, blinkx will also place contextually relevant advertising against the footage, and […]
NBC Universal has taken a major stake of around 30 per cent in NDTV's UK arm in a deal rumoured to be worth $100 million. The stake is in NDTV Networks Plc, the UK-registered company which owns five subsidiaries of NDTV: NDTV Imagine Limited, NDTV Lifestyle Limited, NDTV Convergence Limited and NDTV Labs Limited and […]
Sky has until February 25th to decide whether to appeal the Competition Commission’s ruling that it must sell more than half its stake in ITV, a decision that was endorsed by the government this week. Sky said it will recognise a £343 million (E460m) impairment charge on the whole 17.9 per cent stake in its […]
From Colin Mann in London UK Business and Enterprise Secretary John Hutton has ordered BSkyB to reduce its 17.9 per cent holding in ITV to a level below 7.5 per cent, having concurred with the Competition Commission’s decision that the transaction resulted in a substantial lessening of competition within the UK market for all television. […]
German media group Bertelsmann said it decided not to buy the remaining 10 per cent of European broadcaster RTL Group it does not already own because of legal uncertainties. But Bertelsmann retains the right to increase its stake in RTL and to consider all options to reach its aim to delist RTL shares from the […]
US investment fund Carlyle is set to acquire a 35 per cent stake in French cable operator Numericable, formerly known as Noos, and which has almost total dominance in the French market. Numericable’s current shareholders are Altice with a 30 per cent stake and Cinven with 70 per cent. In a joint statement, the three […]
From Colin Mann in London The UK's anti-trust watchdog, the Competition Commission has recommended that BSkyB should be forced to sell some of the 17.9 per cent stake in ITV it acquired in November 2006. The regulator has recommended to Business Secretary John Hutton that BSkyB should either sell all of its shares or cut […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish media group Prisa, owner of newspaper El Pais, has launched a bid for the rest of Sogecable, Spain’s largest pay-TV group, that it does not already own, valuing the pay-TV operator, owner of Digital DTH platform Digital Plus and premium channel Canal Plus, at E3.8 billion. Prisa […]