Moves by European public sector broadcasters to expand their activities into new areas, such as mobile TV and video on demand, could be subject to more prior scrutiny under revisions to controversial proposals published by Brussels. The European Commission is in the process of revising its 2001 guidelines for applying EU state aid rules to […]
KIT digital, a global provider of IP-based video enablement technologies, has acquired the assets and assumed certain current liabilities of London-based Narrowstep , an Internet TV platform company supporting content providers, broadcasters, telcos and other corporations. The acquisition expands KIT digital's client delivery capabilities – particularly in live-streaming, long-form delivery and delivery using the Microsoft […]
Virgin Media has appointed its first head of music in a bid to develop its music strategy including new services across mobile, TV and online. Richard Wheeler is joining the company from Orange UK where he was head of music and film partnerships.
Reliance Communications (RCom) has confirmed the appointment of Sanjay Behl as the company's CEO for DTH and IPTV businesses operating under Big TV brand name. Behl currently serves as RCom Group Head Brand and Marketing Operations. He will continue to oversee the current responsibilities as well. Behl's association with RCom dates back to 2005 and […]
Irish sports pay broadcaster Setanta has held a fresh round of talks with private equity firms in a bid to raise up to £100 million (E110m) following the pay-television company's failure to retain both its Premier League football rights packages beyond 2010. In February, Setanta won the auction for only one of the six available […]
An MPs committee has heavily criticized the BBC's commercial arm for damaging independent company's business with an aggressive sales tactics and a low priority on the bottom line. It was particularly scathing of the recent acquisition of the Lonely Planet guides. The committee was also deeply sceptical about the proposed tie up between BBC Worldwide […]
According to German press reports the federal compeition authorities are set to block any putitive merger of the country's major operators. There has been much specualtion that the major three networks, KDG, Unity and Kabel BW – all owned by private equity and all derived from the former Deutsche Telekom network – want to 're-merge' […]
Virgin Media has bought a 9.9 percent stake in AIM-listed interactive gaming company NetPlay TV as part of a deal that gives NetPlay the rights to produce VMED's Challenge Jackpot gaming website, TV channel and online games until 2013. The TV channel is currently available on Virgin On Demand, Sky and for three hours a […]
The Chinese government has ordered a crackdown on online video and audio content which could result in a tightening of internet censorship and limit the broadcasting of western films and entertainment programmes on the web. In a notice published on its website earlier this week, the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) published […]
Playboy TV’s UK operation has been fined £22,500 (E24,700) by Ofcom for broadcasting what it termed explicit adult content free-to-air. The fine applies to its Playboy One service, which broadcast as an unencrypted, free-to-air channel until September. Seven programmes broadcast between September 2007 and December 2007 were investigated by Ofcom and it concluded that “the […]