Advanced Television

Business

Sky Italia first profits

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Sky Italia is set to turn a profit for the first time since launch in Italy in 1991 under the brand Tele+. The results of parent News Corp reveal that profits were up from E32 million in H1 2006 to E164 million in the first six months of this year. […]

October 19, 2007

FCC to lift ownership rules?

The head of the Federal Communications Commission has revealed a plan to relax the media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next […]

October 19, 2007

Bank of Ireland US Media appointment

Bank of Ireland has confirmed the appointment of Michele Roller to its US Media Finance team in a move that demonstrates the Bank's continued commitment to strengthening its North American offering. Michele Roller, Director, will focus on the provision of debt funding solutions for companies in the media sector, offering senior and mezzanine financing to […]

October 19, 2007

Nokia buys Enpocket

Nokia has agreed to buy US mobile advertising firm Enpocket. Nokia claims that the move will allow it to accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business, taking advantage of Enpocket’s platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators.

October 18, 2007

Ofcom not sympathetic to HD spectrum claims

The UK regulator’s chief executive Ed Richards said he was not persuaded that TV should be allowed to use the “digital dividend” for high-definition programming. Instead, he spoke of the “golden opportunity” of using more efficient MPEG4 compression and the DVBT2 broadcast standard to squeeze HD channels into the existing Freeview band. Ofcom is consulting […]

October 18, 2007

Cablevision on brink

The Dolan's plan to take Cablevision private is on the brink as ClearBridge Advisors, the largest institutional shareholder in declares it plans to vote against the Dolan family’s $10.6 billion (E7.4bn) bid. A defeat would end a two-year struggle by the Dolans to take private the company, which owns cable systems and the New York […]

October 18, 2007

Spain MNOs 'uncompetitive'

Spain’s competition watchdog has launched a probe of the country’s three largest mobile-phone operators for possible collusion, Spain’s Consumer and Users Organisation said. The National Competition Commission is investigating whether Telefonica’s Movistar, Vodafone and France Telecom’s Orange co-ordinated a rise in their tariffs in March. All three raised tariffs to compensate for the banning of […]

October 18, 2007

Ericsson crash on profits warning

Having apparently been outperforming many of its rivals dust during the past year and a half, the world's leading telecommunications equipment maker issued a sales and profit warning. It said its operating profit for the third quarter of 2007 was expected to be down 36 per cent compared with the same period last year. It […]

October 18, 2007

Echostar shares up on AT&T speculation

EchoStar Communications Corp shares rose 4 per cent on speculation that US telco giant AT&T could buy the satellite television provider within a year. Echostar’s television service would complement AT&T’s efforts to expand a high-speed fibre network it is building to sell TV services to better compete with cable and telecommunications rivals.

October 18, 2007

Sky-ITV inquiry delayed

The Competition Commission has extended the timetable for completing its inquiry into BSkyB’s £940 million (E1.3bn) purchase of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV until next year. It had intended to hand over the results of its inquiry to John Hutton, the secretary of state for business enterprise and regulatory reform, by November 7. […]

October 18, 2007