The French government plans to cut off Internet access for constant offenders of download piracy. The penalty is part of a range of measures to deal with the unauthorised copying of music and video online proposed by the French Ministry of Culture including watermarking content, tracking surfers' activities, and creating a registry of those accused […]

Setanta Sports has raised an extra E130 million to finance its assault on BSkyB’s dominance of football coverage. The funding has come from a share issue to existing backers – including Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital, the private equity firms, and Goldman Sachs – and will be used to bid for rights acquisitions such as […]

The Federal Communications Commission has granted ViaSat blanket authority for domestic operation of up to 1,000 earth stations aboard commercial aircraft. The agency said the earth stations will provide Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service using standard Ku-band frequency ranges to link with leased transponders on the AMC-6 satellite. According to FCC documents, the ViaSat aircraft earth […]

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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]