The US Department of Justice will join the Federal Communications Commission in reviewing Comcast’s $30 billion deal to take control of General Electric’s NBC Universal. Comcast’s proposed deal with General Electric for NBC Universal would hand the country’s number 1 cable operator control of a major broadcast network, 26 TV stations, several cable channels and […]

A TV ad for Sky has been banned for suggesting that the switchover to digital TV sets would be technologically complex if consumers did not sign up with the satellite broadcaster. The ASA said that because the ad pushed Sky+ as the way to “become digital” with BSkyB, whereas in fact it was not necessary […]

Jerry Levin, who sold Time Warner for AOL shares inflated by the dotcom boom, has marked the 10th anniversary of the disastrous $164 billion deal with a call for today's corporate titans to accept responsibility for the recent financial crisis. The former Time Warner chief executive, who had avoided apologising for the billions of dollars […]

Creditors of indebted German cable company Orion have agreed a deal that will see Tele Columbus, one of its operating companies, sold to a new company. Shareholders of Orion will sell their shares in Tele Columbus to a special purpose vehicle funded by the company's lenders in exchange for E2.5 million according to various reports. […]

Hong Kong-based telecommunications services provider City Telecom is seeking a television licence. The company has submitted a licence application for a ‘Domestic Free Television Programme Service’ in Hong Kong. City Telecom plans to transmit television signals via the fibre network of wholly-owned subsidiary HKBN and interconnect to the existing common in-building coaxial cable distribution system […]

The BBC Trust has given its provisional approval to the BBC’s involvement in Project Canvas, saying that the likely public value of the proposal justifies any potential negative market impact. There were more than 800 written consultation responses from individuals and industry stakeholders, and the Trust also spoke to more than 60 industry stakeholders and […]

News Corp has said it will raise its stake in German pay TV operator Sky Deutschland AG to 45.4 per cent. News Corp will pay between E110 million E120 million for up to 49 million newly issued shares in the company in January. Its previous stake was just under 40 per cent.

Motorola’s sell off its set top box unit has ignited serious interest from major private equity firms. Motorola is reported to be selling the unit that had $10.1 billion in sales in 2008. Reuters reports that Bain Capital, TPG Capital, Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners have put in bids for the unit. There’s also […]

Netflix has been sued in a class-action claim because of what plaintiffs say were privacy violations stemming from a contest that used customers’ ratings to help improve the movie-rental service’s recommendation system. The company also tweaked its website to make its videostreaming service slightly more prominent. Claimants are seeking $2,500 each for the estimated 2.5 […]

Irdeto, the CA/DRM specialist, has acquired Philips Electronics’ full suite of white-box cryptology patents, patent applications, software and knowledge, to significantly booster its existing IP portfolio for its Irdeto Cloakware solution.