Sky’s managing director of sport and news, Vic Wakeling is to retire at the end of June after 20 years with the company. He leaves after 15 years as head of Sky Sports. Barney Francis has been promoted from within Sky Sports to take over Wakeling’s role and will report to Sky chief executive Jeremy […]
Sales slightly down and losses increasing on Q1 to £123m (E138m) from £109m last time were the bad news while increased ARPU (£42.29 v £41.95) and a record low churn of 1.1% were the good news. Revenue for the quarter was £935.7m against £947.3m last time. But the underlying fall in broadband sign-ons – down […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Pay-TV group Sogecable is facing a new shake-out following the resignation of its CEO Javier Diez de Polanco, soon after Prisa, parent company of Sogecable, re-organised the management team of the TV division. Bad financial results and the failed sale of DTH platform Digital Plus, burdened with debts, are […]
DirecTV will merge with John Malone's Liberty Entertainment to simplify its ownership structure and improve its ability to pursue deals; specifically making itself a more attractive target for one of the big telcos. Liberty Entertainment will be spun off from Liberty Media as previously announced, and will now include 54 per cent of the stock […]
Google and Apple are being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission over a possible breach of US anti-trust laws, according to reports. The FTC is scrutinising the working relationship between the two companies, specifically the influence of Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Apple Corporate Director Arthur Levinson, both of whom sit on each other's […]
The beleaguered pay-TV sports operation has appointed ex Emap CEO Robin Miller as its new chairman as it seeks new financing after losing a tranche of Premier League matches. It badly needs to raise £100m (E113m) of new investment and will seek to have investors back a new business plan concentrating on its position in […]
Discovery Communications reported an $8 million increase in first quarter revenues to $817 million, outstripping analysts expectations for the period and posting $119 million in profit. The company reported only $34 million in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Discovery even bucked the advertising slump, posting a two percent increase in ad revenues. As […]
Norwegian teleco Telenor has reported a 65 per cent decline in first quarter net profits compared with a year earlier, hurt largely by its stake in Russian mobile operator VimpelCom. The group said net profit for the January through March period was 1.62 billion kroner ($248m) compared to 4.57 billion kroner a year earlier. Revenues […]
Viacom profits fell 34 per cent in the first quarter, hurt by a global advertising spending slowdown. The company reported first quarter net profit of $177m, down from $270m, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7 per cent to $2.91bn. Advertising at Viacom's cable networks, which as a sector is considered the most resilient compared with […]
The board of directors of struggling satellite radio provider Sirius XM has approved a “stockholder rights plan” that would effectively prevent the weakened company from hostile takeovers. According to the terms of the plan, known in financial circles as a poison pill, any attempt to buy up more than 4.9 per cent of Sirius’ stock […]