Finishing up a dismal earnings season for media, News Corp reported a 70 per cent drop in net income to $300 million, excluding one-time events, and a 16 per cent drop in revenue to $7.37 billion for the quarter ended March 31st. Non-broadcast channels were the one bright spot with increased affiliate revenue for Fox […]
European broadcaster RTL said sales dropped 11 per cent in the first quarter due to a continued TV advertising slump and core profit shrunk more than 50 per cent on restructuring and start up costs. RTL, owned by media giant Bertelsmann, reported that revenue in the first three months of the year fell to E1.188 […]
David Rehr, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, has announced plans to step down from his post immediately. Janet McGregor, NAB’s CEO and CFO, will handle Rehr’s duties until a successor is named. Rehr, who came to the NAB from the National Beer Wholesalers Association in 2005, has had a rough run at the […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italy's Communications Authority (AgCom) has initiated an investigation on the number of digital terrestrial TV channels operated by the broadcasters in respect of the quota of 20 per cent per group. According to an initial inquiry, it emerges that commercial broadcaster Mediaset accounts for 14 out of the 42 national […]
US satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp has posted better than expected quarterly profit, despite losing 94,000 subscribers. Net income rose to $312.7 million from $258.6 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.1 per cent to $2.91 billion. Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen, attributed the subscriber loss to the weak economic environment, as well as […]
All3Media International, one of the UK's leading independent distribution companies, has announced the appointment of Selma Turajlic as Head of Interactive Media and Licensing. Turajlic's role will be to further develop interactive elements within formats and programmes and exploit opportunities in interactive, merchandising and licensing. Initial focus will be given to broadcast related interactivity, mobile […]
BSkyB has heavily criticised the BBC Trust’s decision not to conduct a full market impact review of Project Canvas, the broadband TV joint venture with ITV and BT, and says the Trust needs to demonstrate it is genuinely independent of the service it is meant to regulate. Sky also believes the project, which aims to […]
Channel 4, Time Warner and BSkyB have been shortlisted as potential buyers of Virgin Media’s wholly owned VMtv channels Virgin 1, Bravo and Living. Virgin Media intends to sell the channels separately from its joint venture with BBC Worldwide, UKTV, which will be sold at a later stage. The BBC has denied interest in purchasing […]
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has awarded the digital terrestrial television (DTT) licence that was recently abandoned by Boxer to the One Vision consortium, made up of TV3, Setanta, Arqiva and Eircom. The consortium was the second-placed applicant for the DTT contracts, which were awarded last year. In April it emerged that the Boxer […]
The European Commission's proposed telecoms reforms, which include the three strikes proposals for abusive downloaders, will now have to go into the conciliation process after the European Parliament again refused to discard an amendment that would force governments to get court permission before disconnecting illegal downloaders of copyright material. MEPs in September put forward an […]