Viacom reported a 16 per cent gain in fourth-quarter earnings as it benefited from DVD sales and a strong performance at its core cable television division. Viacom earned $559.5 million, compared with $480.8 million during the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped 19 per cent to $4.25 billion. Philippe Dauman, Viacom's chief executive, said […]
The Belgian incumbent has claimed 305,319 year end subs for its Belgacom TV IPTV service, adding 165,654 new homes in 2007. ARPU vice was E16.10 a month. The digital subs total puts it not far behind main cable operator Telenet with about 400,000 digital homes. Total digital penetration now stands at 22 per cent.
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Portugal Telecom has signed up 21,000 so far for its IPTV service, 15,000 of which were added in the last three months of 2007. According to PT vice president, Zeinal Bava, the expansion of the IPTV service will be one of the priorities during 2008, together with the launch of […]
Cablevision Systems says it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter from a loss a year ago as it added more Internet and phone customers. Cablevision earned $6.6 million in the quarter, compared with a loss of $23.9 million a year ago. Revenues rose 10.8 per cent to $1.84 billion from $1.66 billion.
The UK Premier League has won High Court injunctions against three websites accused of illegally streaming its live football matches over the net. The sites had been re-distributing signals from rightsholders like Sky Sports. It's been a growing problem for the league over the last few years as the global audience grows for the English […]
Virgin Media added 61,100 new cable TV customers in the final quarter claiming its best growth for seven years. It added a net figure of 24,400 new customers during the period. This was up from 13,000 in the previous quarter. The churn fell by 0.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent. It also added 106,200 […]
Channel 4 could be given a stake in the BBC’s commercial arm and launch a series of joint ventures with public bodies under radical plans being considered to plug a £100 million (E139m) funding gap. The Guardian reported that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is examining a proposal for Channel 4 and […]
News Corp has confirmed the completion of an approximate $11 billion deal that gives Liberty Media control of the DirecTV satellite television business. As part of the deal, Liberty has agreed to exchange the 16 per cent stake it had built up in News Corp for the company's 41 per cent holding of DirecTV, three […]
ITV has hired former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham to replace Simon Shaps as director of television. Fincham quit the BBC in the row over editing a programme trail in a misleading way. The company has also extended Michael Grade’s reign as executive chairman by an extra year to the end of 2010. Dawn Airey, the […]
The Pakistani government has lifted a national ban on visiting YouTube. Late last week, the country ordered Pakistani ISPs to block the video-sharing website because of content deemed offensive to Islam. But now the restrictions have been lifted after a national outcry. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has told ISPs to allow access to the site; […]