BSkyB is lobbying to have the list of sporting events reserved for free-to-air television abolished in an ongoing government review. Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said Sky would argue for a situation where the World Cup or the Olympics could be shown on pay TV, with sports bodies free to decide where to sell their rights […]
Virgin Media has appointed UBS bank to advise it on a sale of its television channels businesses that could be worth up to £500 million (E560m). Virgin Media Television includes Virgin's 50 per cent stake in the cable channels business UKTV. The sale will be partly dependent on the outcome of a political debate going […]
Pro-Bel and Snell & Wilcox have announced the merger of their businesses, and the creation of a new joint company. The deal, which combines the strengths of two market leading innovators in the broadcast technology industry, creates a formidable competitor in the digital media sector. The combined company has two thousand active customers in more […]
Internet provider Tiscali said talks with BSkyB over the sale of its UK assets have ended. Tiscali said it was “de facto impossible” to proceed with the discussions because of the impact of the continuing economic downturn. As a result, Tiscali said it would miss an interest payment on its debt as it seeks to […]
Malcolm Wall, the chief executive of Virgin Media’s content business, is leaving the business. His departure comes as Virgin Media is said to be preparing for the sell-off of its TV channels business. Virgin Media Television’s 50% stake in UKTV could also potentially be folded into a new commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and […]
Content security provider Conax, has reported 36 per cent revenue growth in 2008 based on global sales of its smart card security solutions. Conax‚ success is highlighted by strong growth in leading industry markets Europe, India, China and Latin America. Conax is today the third largest provider of content security globally for digital TV. In […]
Orange France has reported a 66 per cent growth in pay-TV customers across its IPTV and satellite platforms in Europe last year, rising from 1.2 million at the end of 2007 to 2.1 million by the end of 2008. The France-Telecom company had the majority of these customers, or 1.9 million, in France, with 201,000 […]
BskyB has bluntly blamed C4 for bieng the architect of its own demise. In an unforgiving response to comms minister Lord Carter's interim Digital Report, it claims Channel 4 has wasted millions of pounds on failed business ventures and could be profitable if it was better run. BskyB says C4 wasted £270m (E309m) on “unprofitable […]
ITV the UK commercial channel has reported a worse than expected loss of £2.7bn (E3bn) after massive write downs on its assets. Its operating profit was £167m down 41% on 2007 with virtually all the damage done in the second half with a collapse of advertising revenue. ITV estimates Q1 09 advertising will be down […]
German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 cut its 2008 dividend and initiated a new cost-saving programme after its SBS arm and poor advertising markets propelled it to a net loss. The company said it was writing off E180 million against SBS for which it paid E3.3 billion in 2007. For 2008 the Group's consolidated revenues were E3.054 billion […]