Cox Communications has decided to sell a majority stake in the Travel Channel in an auction expected to value the cable network at $600 million or more and break the drought in media industry deal-making. Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of the Food Network, is widely seen as the front-runner in an auction likely to test […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian consumers association Altroconsumo has lodged a complaint to the country's Communications Authority (Agcom), the Antitrust Authority, and to the European commissioners for Competition and the Information Society, regarding the issue of encryption of the satellite broadcasts of Italian public broadcaster RAI. According to Altroconsumo, in the period between April […]

ESPN Star Sports (ESS) has appointed Jon Lefebvre as its new Vice President, Sales Operations and Strategy. He will be based in Singapore and will report directly to Charles Less, Senior Vice President, Advertising and Multimedia Sales. Prior to his move to Singapore, Lefebvre was based in Australia where he ran J&M international, a boutique […]

The European Commission has launched a consultation to determine how to better work together at EU level to get the most from the DSO opportunity. The consultation will run until 4 September 2009. “The digital dividend comes at a critical moment when we want to connect all parts of Europe to high-speed broadband, ensure high […]

Bahrain-based Orbit and Dubai's Showtime Arabia are merging between the two rival pay-TV businesses. The new company is an "equal partnership" between Orbit, up until now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid Group, and Showtime Arabia/Gulf-DTH which was owned by Kuwait's KIPCO and Viacom. The new business will offer new packages to viewers […]

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has announced that the mission of its IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF) will be expanded to include the standardised delivery of Internet-sourced content over an IPTV network. Until this time, the IIF has concentrated on delivery of a TV service over a managed IP network. The IIF is a […]

The BBC Worldwide chief executive, John Smith, is confident a deal to form a joint venture with Channel 4 will be signed within weeks following the tabling of a new streamlined proposal that he claims has gained traction with both parties. Smith said the new proposition would pull in parts of Channel 4’s operation, including […]

Walt Disney Company has agreed to a management buy-out of its Jetix channels in Italy. The management team, led by MD Francesco Nespega has established Switchover Media to take control of two Disney-owned channels in the territory. The deal comes as Disney continues its Jetix rebranding effort across Europe, dropped the boy-skewing channel’s name in […]

BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, saw yearly revenue hit £1bn (E1.16bn) for the first time, but profit fell because of write offs on Kangaroo and damage from the collapse of its video distribution JV with Woolworths. In the year to 31 March, revenue rose 9.5%, while profits were just £85.7m. BBC Worldwide made more […]

Senators have voted through the 'Hadopi 2' law, which will allow judges to impose punishments on those found to have made illegal downloads. The law is a complement to the Hadopi (the internet watchdog) 1 law, setting up a new body for Internet piracy. It was originally proposed that this law would allow for the […]