Advanced Television

Business

Ennals jogs off

Ford Ennals, chief executive of Digital UK, the body overseeing the digital switchover, is stepping down. Ennals is leaving to become president of Cole Hann, the footwear and leather-goods division of Nike. The move is a return to the US for Ennals, who was previously a senior vice-president of worldwide marketing at Reebok. Ennals sought […]

November 23, 2007

Ofcom DTT proposals

UK Media regulator Ofcom has revealed proposals for a significant upgrade of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) that will offer more channels and new services. The proposed upgrade will create capacity allowing high definition television channels on DTT – on which Freeview operates – as early as 2009. It says the proposals would deliver significant benefits […]

November 22, 2007

AT&T tight lipped on Echostar

Wall Street rumours about a potential takeover of the second-biggest US satellite operator have abounded, peaking this week with TheStreet.com saying AT&T was preparing a takeover bid worth as much as $26 billion (E17.5m) and that both companies have been in talks. The reports sent Echostar's share price, depressed by recent disappointing quarterly results, soaring. […]

November 22, 2007

Ericsson goes on falling

Ericsson, the Swedish telco supplier, lost another 11 per cent market value on Tuesday after it told an investors fourth-quarter earnings would come in at the lower end of expectations. It issued a shock profit warning last month. That warning wiped out a quarter of the Swedish company's market capitalisation – about $15 billion (E10.1) […]

November 22, 2007

ROK acquires Fun Little Movies

ROK Entertainment Group, the UK-based mobile technologies company, has acquired a 51 per cent controlling interest in Los Angeles-based Fun Little Movies (FLM) for a combination of cash and shares in the company. Under the terms of the agreement, ROK and FLM will jointly offer made-for-mobile content, such as comedy short films, to network operators […]

November 22, 2007

Candover profits on GET

UK buyout firm Candover has agreed to sell Norwegian cable television company GET for 5.8 billion crowns (E0.7bn)) to a group of buyers led by rivals Quadrangle and GS Capital Partners. The private equity firm bought the business, which provides its services to 370,000 households in Oslo and Southern Norway, for 3.6 billion crowns in […]

November 21, 2007

Richardson joins UDcast

UDcast, provider of IP over broadcast and satellite, has announced that David Richardson has joined the company as vice president of corporate and business development. Richardson was previously the Director of Business Development for NDS in North America.

November 20, 2007

Spain’s ONO E186m loss

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s largest cable company ONO has declared a loss of E186 million in the first nine months of the year as a result of the extra costs for the acquisition of its former rival Auna. However it achieved well EBITDA of E480 million, up 17.8 per cent, and with […]

November 20, 2007

Gisby for C4

Channel 4 has confirmed former Yahoo! executive John Gisby as its first dedicated director of new media and technology. Gisby will be responsible for expanding Channel 4’s presence in online digital media and growing revenue. In the new role, which now incorporates technology, Gisby will report direct to Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan and […]

November 20, 2007

FCC must rule on ISP P2P traffic control

A distributor of online video content has filed a complaint with the US Federal Communications Commission, asking the agency to stop broadband providers from blocking or slowing P2P traffic. The petition filed by Vuze, which uses the BitTorrent to distribute Web content, asks the FCC to set rules for network management by ISPs. Vuze’s filing […]

November 19, 2007