The UK government's revised, tougher plans to tackle online piracy have been dismissed as "grossly unfair" and "misconceived" by the leaders of ISPs who warn against creating an "extrajudicial kangaroo court" to cut off persistent P2P offenders. The CEOs of BT, and TalkTalk and Orange UK, wrote to The Times calling for a re-think on […]
Bids for a majority stake in the US Travel Channel have come in substantially ahead of initial expectations, with unexpected private equity interest adding to demand from media companies in the resilient cable television industry. Second-round offers indicate that a sale of the 65 per cent stake that Cox Communications put up for sale in […]
News Corp is said to be in talks to take a stake in Arab media and entertainment group Rotana, owned by the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Reports say News Corp is looking at a 20 percent stake. Rotana owns a film production company, a magazine (Rotana Magazine), television (Rotana TV), and seven music channels […]
News Corp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Prime Minister Berlusconi's Mediaset broadcasting group. News Corp's Sky Italia is suing two units of Mediaset, RTI and Publitalia its sales house, alleging they refused to let it buy advertising time. “News Corporation believes these companies have violated EC rules governing free competition, as well as Italian […]
Spain’s Telefonica is still interested in being a minority partner in the pay-TV group Digital+ the company’s chief operating officer Julio Linares has said. Telefonica previously tabled an offer for Prisa’s Digital+ along with the French group in partnership with Viviendi, but the bid was rejected by Prisa as being too low. Linares said Telefonica […]
In contrast to rival ISPs Sky has backed the content industry's calls to introduce suspension of service for suspected file-sharers. In response to this week's government request for proposals about how it should tackle file-sharing, Sky said it would apply technical measures to file-sharers' internet accounts provided they could be proved guilty. "It makes sense […]
Italian public broadcaster RAI risks being fined up to E90 million, or about 3 per cent of its annual turnover, for irregularities in procedures following the exit from DTH platform Sky Italia. Under examination is the continued encryption of its programmes on satellite which is prohibited by the rules of public service. At the moment, […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has for the first time surpassed RAI in terms of turnover thanks mainly to revenue from pay-TV. In 2008, Mediaset's turnover was up 9 per cent to E3.27 billion, while the public broadcaster saw a drop of 0.7 per cent to E3.21 billion. Additionally, RAI is […]
Aksh Optifibre plans to raise up to $20 million through a private placement to grow its IPTV and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business in India. The amount will be used to part finance Aksh's capex requirement as it plans to ramp up its subscriber base from 35,000 to 650,000 by March 2013. The company, […]
ARRIS has acquired certain assets of EG Technology, an Atlanta-based company for approximately $6.5 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Arris acquired EGT patents and video processing technology for digital networks, and will employ approximately 20-25 of the existing employees. The acquisition complements ARRIS video offerings by adding multi-functional, flexible, and scalable video processors […]