News Corp-owned Italian pay-TV operator Sky Italia added 322,000 net subscribers in 2008 for a total subscriber base of 4.7 million. It reported second quarter operating income of US$10m down $52m year-on-year. New Corp said marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and increased sports programming costs hit net income. News Corp's operating income for the second […]
From Colin Mann in London The UK's Competition Commission has decided to block the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between the BBC through BBC Worldwide Limited (BBCW), ITV plc (ITV) and Channel Four Television Corporation (C4)—UKVOD, also known as 'Project Kangaroo'. It has concluded that none of the other remedies proposed could remove […]
Milan based BS Private Equity and BS Investimenti are to acquire Tiscali’s international network business for E47 million. Parent group Tiscali has been in play for much of the last year, with BSkyB still believed to be in negotiations regarding the purchase of its UK activities with a price tag of up to £500 million. […]
Time Warner has reported a $16 billion operating loss for 2008, blaming it mainly on a $24.2 billion writedown of the value of assets. A year earlier, the owner of internet firm AOL, Warner Bros movie studios and CNN made an operating profit of $8.9 billion. Fourth-quarter operating loss amounted to $22.2 billion, down from […]
News Corp's DTH pay-TV and TV networks boosted an otherwise lacklustre set of results that saw $953m operating income for the first quarter against $1.05bn a year ago. SKY Italia generated operating income of $165 million, an improvement of $117 million versus a year ago with net subscriber additions of 359,000 over the past 12 […]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) Worldwide Television operation has named Ian Hogg Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific territory. In his new role, Hogg will oversee the distribution of MGM film and television properties on a variety of platforms including pay-TV, basic, free TV and digital media in the Asia- Pacific region.
The US Senate has unanimously passed another bill to delay the national transition to digital television. Earlier this week, the Senate passed another bill delaying the DTV transition, but the measure failed in the House of Representatives. The bill is essentially the same that previously passed the Senate, but with a few minor modifications from […]
Atlas Venture, the VC house that's backed ShozU, Songbird, Moo and Dailymotion, is starting a new $283 million venture fund. But the firm is also restructuring, with Boston-based partner Ahmet Ozalp and London-based Martin Gibson leaving the company.
Internap Network Services, a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Eric Cooney president and chief executive officer, effective March 16th, 2009. Cooney was most recently president and chief executive officer of Tandberg Television, part of the Ericsson Group.
From Colin Mann in London The UK Government departments responsible for business and media have published a plan aimed at securing Britain's place at the forefront of the global digital economy. The interim report – produced by voluntary Steering Board of industry experts led by Stephen Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting – […]