Orange France has reported a 66 per cent growth in pay-TV customers across its IPTV and satellite platforms in Europe last year, rising from 1.2 million at the end of 2007 to 2.1 million by the end of 2008. The France-Telecom company had the majority of these customers, or 1.9 million, in France, with 201,000 […]
German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 cut its 2008 dividend and initiated a new cost-saving programme after its SBS arm and poor advertising markets propelled it to a net loss. The company said it was writing off E180 million against SBS for which it paid E3.3 billion in 2007. For 2008 the Group's consolidated revenues were E3.054 billion […]
ITV the UK commercial channel has reported a worse than expected loss of £2.7bn (E3bn) after massive write downs on its assets. Its operating profit was £167m down 41% on 2007 with virtually all the damage done in the second half with a collapse of advertising revenue. ITV estimates Q1 09 advertising will be down […]
The Kudelski Group, owner of Nagravision, has announced its 2008 annual results. It says the introduction of new generation security solutions at several Digital TV accounts together with the migration of some of the Group's largest accounts to the service model had a strong effect upon the Group 2008 results. In 2008, the Group delivered […]
Howard Stringer, Sony chief executive officer, will replace Ryoji Chubachi as president in a move to give the C.E.O. a freer hand in restructuring the struggling electronics giant. Mr. Stringer, 67, will retain his existing title of chairman and C.E.O., Sony said in a statement. Chubachi, 61, will become vice chairman responsible for product quality […]
John Linwood, who left his senior executive role at Yahoo last month, will join the BBC as its new chief technology officer. Linwood will be responsible for maintenance of the corporation’s technical infrastructure and new corporate IT requirements. Chief technology officer is a new role at the BBC, created as part of a restructure of […]
Shares in Premiere slumped as it emerged its former owner Leo Kirch had won the rights to market Bundesliga football for the next six years. Kirch, now aged 81, saw his media empire implode in 2002 in Germany's then largest bankruptcy. Kirch is still suing Deutsche Bank for E1.6 billion over the collapse of his […]
French media giant Vivendi posted a loss in the fourth quarter as falling stock markets forced it to write down the value of its stake in film and television powerhouse NBC Universal. Vivendi reported a net loss of E1.38 billion in the fourth quarter after writing down its 20 per cent stake in the joint […]
The credibility of a deal between BT and Channel 4 has a gained a little after the broadcaster’s chairman said he would welcome talks that could offer a solution to its £150 million (E169m) funding shortfall. Luke Johnson, Channel 4’s chairman, is reported to have said that a tie-up with BT’s television subsidiary BT Vision […]
Dish Network has reported its fourth-quarter profit rose 24 per cent, but the second placed US DTH provider lost more than 100,000 subscribers. Dish Network earned $217 million for the three months ended December 31st, up from $175 million a year earlier. Sales rose 1 per cent to $2.92 billion from $2.89 billion. During the […]