Canal+ has filed a complaint with French antitrust authorities against France Telecom’s Orange, accusing the carrier of unfair competition in bundling its Internet, telephone and other services to attract customers. The complaint, filed with France’s Autorite de la Competition, accuses Orange of taking advantage of its control over the broadband market by tying its cable […]
The chances of BT spending £1.5bn (E1.7bn) on a superfast broadband network have increased after Ofcom said its rules would not prevent the telecoms operator from securing an adequate return on its investment. Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, told the FT the planned regulatory regime for BT's network would not be an "obstacle". Since […]
Modern Times Group (MTG) reported revenues of SEK13.166bn (E1.22bn) for the year to December 2008, up 16% year-on-year. Group operating income after non-recurring items was SEK2.598bn, up 28%. The Viasat Broadcasting had revenue of SEK3.018bn in the fourth quarter, up 17% year-on-year. Nordic free-to-air channels turned in revenue of SEK1.053bn in the fourth quarter, up […]
Charter Communications said it had reached an agreement in principle with a debt holders committee on terms of a financial restructuring, to be done under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, to reduce Charter's debt by about $8 billion. The cable operator, controlled by Microsoft's co-founder, Paul Allen, said in a statement it would file for Chapter […]
French IPTV operator Iliad boosted ARPU for its Free service to E36.90 during the fourth quarter of 2008. The operator said its record ARPU figure to-date was partly down to the launch of new services, including the Multi-TV Freebox in September. It introduced two new high-definition channels, France 2 and M6, and HD content on […]
Israeli internet TV tech provider Tvinci has completed its first round of $1.6 million led by private investors. The Tel Aviv-based company is also looking for a second round in order to expand sales into other territories. Tvinci offers turnkey video customization tools to both mobile and pay-TV operators, and counts MSN and MTVN, including […]
Cable Europe, the industry representing Europe's cable industry, has expressed disappointment at a European Commission decision to allow the Dutch communications regulator, OPTA, to impose new regulatory rules on cable operators (See Daily News 11/02/09). The Commission has effectively approved a move by the Dutch regulator to mandate cable operators to allow third party services […]
Telenor Broadcast's Canal Digital added 12,000 DTH subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2008, ending the year with 1.113 million, down slightly from 1.131 million in 2007. The number of cable households increased by 5,000 in the three months to December 31, ending the year at 746,000, compared with 705,000 in 2007. Canal Digital posted […]
TeliaSonera had 867,000 TV subscribers, including 477,000 IPTV subscribers, at the end of last year. The IPTV base grew by 99,000 in the course of the year, while its overall TV subscriber base grew by 98,000. The company saw IPTV growth of 27,000 in the fourth quarter, including 4,000 in Sweden. Telia's Swedish IPTV base […]
Sky has announced that Chase Carey, CEO of DirecTV, has resigned as a non-executive director to be replaced by Tom Mockridge. Mockridge is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Sky Italia and Chief Executive, European Television of News Corporation where he oversees News Corporation’s television operations in Europe, outside the UK.