The departure of News Corporation's long serving COO Peter Chernin could lead to James Murdoch moving to join his father in the US sooner than many expected.Chernin, who has run New Corp’s Fox film and TV studios and broadcasting business for the past 12 years has been the counterweight in the Murdoch family-controlled business empire. […]

British cable operator Virgin Media posted fourth-quarter revenue and operating cashflow in line with forecast, and said it had continued to show good resilience in the face of the downturn. Virgin Media said it had made 15,000 net new customer additions in the quarter, compared with 24,000 a year ago, and sold 185,500 products of […]

OpenTV has announced financial results for its fourth quarter and full year ended December 31st, 2008. OpenTV moved from a $5.2 million net loss in 2007 to a $9.6 million profit in 2008 on revenues of $116.5m against $110m in 2007. "2008 marked the first profitable year in OpenTV's history. We exceeded both our revenue […]

Ofcom has received two applications from the PSBs who are eligible to apply for capacity sufficient for a fourth High Definition service on Multiplex B. The applicants are Five and a joint bid from Channel 4 and Welsh-language broadcaster S4C. Ofcom is now considering both applications and expects to publish its decision in April 2009. […]

Former BBC3 controller Stuart Murphy has been appointed as the director of programmes at Sky1. Murphy, who is currently creative director at independent production house Twofour, maker of Sky1’s Noel’s HQ, will replace Richard Woolfe, who is moving to head Channel Five.

Turkey's biggest media group has fallen foul of the authorities incurring a $408m tax fine at a time when its advertising revenues are set to weaken and its parent company wants to use its cash to expand in other sectors. Dogan Yayin, which owns TV channels and daily newspapers disclosed the fine, which is bigger […]

Sirius XM is weighing up a refinancing offer from Liberty Media ahead of today’s deadline to repay $175m in bonds to EchoStar which was using the debt’s leverage in an attempt to take over the US satellite radio company. Liberty Media is offering a senior secured loan that will allow the bonds to be redeemed. […]

The European Commission is set to delay proposals to tackle online piracy until the end of its current mandate, following heavy pressure from telecoms companies and consumer organisations. Lobbies from the music sector and the wider online content production industry have been pushing for a range of initiatives to reduce Internet piracy in Europe. Brussels […]

ITV is understood to have put the social networking website Friends Reunited up for sale as it faces a cash crisis amid plunging revenue. ITV snapped up Friends Reunited in 2005, before Grade arrived, in a £120m (E134m) deal. Under the terms of the deal, ITV was to pay a further £55m this year and […]

John Malone's Liberty Media has offered $250m in a senior secured loan as the first step in a "multi-stage" deal to rescue Sirius XM ahead of an imminent debt deadline, the companies said in a statement. The deal offered by Liberty involves a debt for equity swap and leaves Liberty, which controls DirecTV with a […]