TiVo has filed complaints in the US District Court against AT&T and Verizon Communications for infringement of three TiVo patents – 'Multimedia Time Warping System', 'System for Time Shifting Multimedia Content Streams', and 'Automatic Playback Overshoot Correction System'. The complaints seek damages for past infringement and a permanent injunction, similar to that issued by the […]

Talks between TF1 and M6 and pay-TV platforms about carriage of their respective thematic channels have reached a deadlock say reports. DTH operator Canal Plus currently holds exclusive rights to the channels, including Histoire, TV Breizh, Ushuaia TV, Odyssee, Serie Club and Eurosport, for which it pays approximately E60m. The broadcasters have offered their channels […]

NBC Universal has appointed Denise O’Donoghue, co-founder and former joint managing director of UK-based Hat Trick Productions, as head of its international production division. She has a brief to grow the business aggressively both organically and through acquisition.

There is uncertainty surrounding the purchase of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay by Swedish-based Global Gaming Factory (GGF). Trading in GGF shares has been suspended and there are reports that the firm’s chairman – Magnus Bergman – has resigned. GGF paid £4.7 million (E5.4m) to take over The Pirate Bay in June. The Swedish stock […]

Bridge Technologies, developers of the satellite-to-set-top box monitoring solution for IPTV operators, have announced that Tor Karstensen has joined the company as marketing and design executive. Karstensen will assume overall responsibility for the visual identity and branding of Bridge Technologies. Karstensen has a wide-ranging base of experience in visual branding and online presence development for […]

After two years as the head of the audio and music section of the BBC's future media and technology department, James Cridland is leaving. Cridland joined the BBC in 2007 as part of a round of appointments by the then head of BBC future media and technology, Ashley Highfield. He joined the BBC after serving […]

The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to launch an investigation into how the habits and personal information of web users are used to target Internet advertising. Competition regulators said they had been prompted to launch the study, which could ultimately lead to an industry code of practice, because of a need to “update […]

PCCW has reported its first-half net profit edged lower as revenue from telecommunications services declined due to the weakening Hong Kong economy. The dominant telco said its net profit for the six months ended June 30 was HK$654 million Hong Kong dollars ($83.8 million), down 0.3 per cent from HK$656 million a year earlier. Revenue […]

Com Hem the Swedish MSO reported an 11% revenue increase in the second quarter. Digital television subscriptions increased by 4%, passing the half million at 504,000. Pay-TV subscribers on the analogue network continued to fall to 60,400 from 77,300, with migration to digital. Fast internet grew subs were up by 0.3% to 513,100 and telephony […]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, crumbling under the weight of a $3.7 billion loan, has ousted its CEO, Harry E. Sloan, in favour of the turnaround expert Stephen F. Cooper, who ran Enron during its bankruptcy. Once the most powerful studios in Hollywood, MGM has not released a movie since "Valkyrie" in December and will release only one film […]