In a landmark case, leading Aussie ISP iiNet has formally defended itself against claims by movie studios that it willingly permitted customers to download movies illegally. In the Federal Court Australia’s third largest ISP – which could face millions in damages – argued the case was “like suing the electricity company for things people do […]
BskyB followed up securing a further three years of live Premier League football with a vitriolic response to media regulator Ofcom's consultation on the UK pay-TV market, accusing it of “serious flaws” and “perverse conclusions.” Responding to Ofcom’s second Consultation Document on pay TV which was published last September and said: "Retail competition that we […]
The Australian Federal Court has made final orders in a case brought by Telstra to enforce Telstra’s exclusive right to broadcast AFL (Australian Football League) content on mobile phones and over the internet. Telstra and the AFL had brought the case against News Limited, whose newspaper subsidiaries unlawfully posted hyperlinks to AFL video files on […]
News Corp-owned Italian pay-TV operator Sky Italia added 322,000 net subscribers in 2008 for a total subscriber base of 4.7 million. It reported second quarter operating income of US$10m down $52m year-on-year. New Corp said marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and increased sports programming costs hit net income. News Corp's operating income for the second […]
From Colin Mann in London The UK's Competition Commission has decided to block the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between the BBC through BBC Worldwide Limited (BBCW), ITV plc (ITV) and Channel Four Television Corporation (C4)—UKVOD, also known as 'Project Kangaroo'. It has concluded that none of the other remedies proposed could remove […]
Milan based BS Private Equity and BS Investimenti are to acquire Tiscali’s international network business for E47 million. Parent group Tiscali has been in play for much of the last year, with BSkyB still believed to be in negotiations regarding the purchase of its UK activities with a price tag of up to £500 million. […]
Time Warner has reported a $16 billion operating loss for 2008, blaming it mainly on a $24.2 billion writedown of the value of assets. A year earlier, the owner of internet firm AOL, Warner Bros movie studios and CNN made an operating profit of $8.9 billion. Fourth-quarter operating loss amounted to $22.2 billion, down from […]
News Corp's DTH pay-TV and TV networks boosted an otherwise lacklustre set of results that saw $953m operating income for the first quarter against $1.05bn a year ago. SKY Italia generated operating income of $165 million, an improvement of $117 million versus a year ago with net subscriber additions of 359,000 over the past 12 […]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) Worldwide Television operation has named Ian Hogg Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific territory. In his new role, Hogg will oversee the distribution of MGM film and television properties on a variety of platforms including pay-TV, basic, free TV and digital media in the Asia- Pacific region.
The US Senate has unanimously passed another bill to delay the national transition to digital television. Earlier this week, the Senate passed another bill delaying the DTV transition, but the measure failed in the House of Representatives. The bill is essentially the same that previously passed the Senate, but with a few minor modifications from […]