Advanced Television

Business

Sumitomo seeks J:COM stake

Sumitomo, the Japanese trading house, has launched a Y122 billion ($1.4bn) tender offer for shares in Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) to secure its position as the leading shareholder in Japan's biggest cable television operator after KDDI bought a large stake. The offer sets the stage for a rare hostile battle between blue-chip Japanese corporations. Yoshio Osawa, […]

February 16, 2010

ETSI adopts GEM/MHP

Global digital standards body the DVB has confirmed that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has formally adopted as standards the new release versions of the MHP 1.2.2 (Multimedia Home Platform) and GEM 1.2.2 (Globally Executable MHP) specifications. This marks the culmination of the refactoring work that makes GEM a self-contained specification. GEM now takes […]

February 16, 2010

Sogecable fined E44m for failure to supply rival

A Spanish court has ordered Sogecable to pay compensation of E43.94 million for its refusal to offer its premium channels to the cable operator Auna. The Madrid judge ruled Sogecable had been in breach of conract for its refusal to sell movie channel Gran Vía and Cable Sport to the cablenet in contravention of an […]

February 15, 2010

Viasat up 21,000

Viasat has added an additional 21,000 premium subscribers in the fourth quarter, across its DTH and IPTV platforms. Turnover increased by 6 per cent on the year to SEK 4076 billion, up 4 per cent year on year. However, a charge on Bulgaria's Nova Televizia of SEK 3.352 billion took MTG into a fourth quarter […]

February 15, 2010

Viasat up 21,000

Viasat has added an additional 21,000 premium subscribers in the fourth quarter, across its DTH and IPTV platforms. Turnover increased by 6 per cent on the year to SEK 4076 billion, up 4 per cent year on year. However, a charge on Bulgaria's Nova Televizia of SEK 3.352 billion took MTG into a fourth quarter […]

February 12, 2010

Disney reports Q1 profit

The Walt Disney Company has reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates as TV revenue rose and theme-park results stabilised. Net income totalled $844 million compared with $845 million a year earlier, when a gain on the sale of TV stations boosted results. Disney's revenue from digital operations exceeded $2 billion in 2009, Bob Iger, […]

February 11, 2010

VCs bid for KDG

BC Partners and CVC Capital Partners have made a joint E5.5bn bid for Kabel Deutschland. The Carlyle Group, Advent International and Bain Capital are each also thought to have submitted separate bids for KDG which is owned by Providence Equity Partners, reports FT. Bankers say they are prepared to provide between E3.5 billion and E4bn […]

February 11, 2010

Premier League boosts mio TV

SingTel, Singapore’s largest telco, added 29,000 new mio TV customers for the three months ended December 31st, the same quarter it outbid rival StarHub to score the exclusive right to broadcast the 2010 to 2013 seasons of Premier League football. The 23 per cent increase is the biggest quarterly gain it has recorded since the […]

February 11, 2010

Harris appoints Morris

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has named P. Harris Morris as president of the company's Broadcast Communications business. Previously, Morris served as vice president and general manager of the Media and Workflow area of the Broadcast Communications business. Before joining Harris Corporation in January 2008, Morris served as chief strategy officer […]

February 11, 2010

Some UK product placement OK

UK Broadcasters will soon be able to accept payment for featuring branded goods in their programmes for the first time. Ben Bradshaw, the culture minister, said the government would legislate to allow TV product placement, calling it an “important departure”. Estimates of the annual revenue generated for broadcasters such as ITV from product placement range […]

February 10, 2010