Paramount Pictures International has agreed to help fund European cinemas which are installing new generation projectors. Hollywood studios and exhibitors have tussled over who should bear the cost of the upgrade, with cinema owners arguing that studios should pay a “virtual print fee” as it will be cheaper for them to distribute their films electronically […]

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 […]

The head of Ofcom’s independent consumer panel has sent letters to the bosses of the UK’s top six broadband providers asking why customers often fail to get the connection speeds they are promised. The enquiry to BT, Tiscali and TalkTalk “follows increasing consumer concern about broadband speeds”. Broadband providers often say they offer speeds “up […]

NBC Universal has agreed to pay $925 million (E652m) for Oxygen Media, the independent cable television channel for women launched seven years ago by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. It marks NBC's latest move to tap into the cable sector. Executives hope they can cross-promote NBC’s traditional broadcast network, cable services and Internet portals, and believe […]

Richard Desmond, owner of the UK's Daily Express newspaper, has confirmed plans to sell a majority stake in his adult television business, assumed to be a prelude to an IPO of the newspaper business. The plans for a placing of shares in Portland Television, which is responsible for pay TV channels ranging from Red Hot-branded […]

BBC One controller Peter Fincham has resigned following the publication of a report into footage that distorted the actions of the Queen. A trailer for the documentary, A Year With The Queen, appeared to show her storming out of a photo session. Fincham told the press it showed her “walking out in a huff”. But […]

Ofcom has wasted no time getting out its consultation on Sky's pay-TV on Freeview plans. Ofcom said the Sky proposal would increase choice and availability of pay-TV services on the platform, but it could block other providers of pay-TV from operating on Freeview, which has limited capacity, while strengthening Sky's dominance of the pay-TV market […]

Google 'could do a better job' at preventing illegally copied video from appearing on its YouTube site, Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp, told the FT. The comments come ahead of News Corp's launch this month of Hulu, a site for professionally produced video with NBC Universal. Chernin said there was […]

Echoing comments from News Corp and Viacom, the chief executive of NBC Universal said piracy of copyright movies, music and other goods is “getting worse, not better” and urged the Justice Department to step up enforcement. “We need … to move intellectual property enforcement up the agenda of the federal government,” Jeff Zucker said in […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome In order to boost the transition to digital terrestrial, Italy's Communications Ministry passed a new decree linked to the 2008 Budget. It establishes that the last analogue TV set in Italy will be sold in June 2009, although manufacturers will have to stop supplying analogue TV sets to distributers by […]