Advanced Television

Business

Speedcast exits Chapter 11

International satellite communications specialist Speedcast has emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. The Australian-headquartered business, in a statement, said: “[Speedcast] has emerged from the Chapter 11 process under new ownership with no secured debt and a healthy cash balance. Speedcast successfully completed the comprehensive restructuring on March 11th after receiving a $500 million equity […]

March 15, 2021By Chris Forrester

LBCi wins court action against Prince Al-Waleed

Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal has lost another – and perhaps final – action against Pierre El-Daher in the long-running dispute concerning Beirut-based LBC International. The French Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Pierre El-Daher, who is chairman of LBCi. Numerous previous legal actions were also won by El-Daher until this latest court case which […]

March 15, 2021By Chris Forrester

Comcast Advertising appoints Midha

Comcast Advertising, a division of Comcast, has appointed Pooja Midha as its chief growth officer, a new role within the organisation. In this new position, Midha will oversee global marketing across Comcast Advertising, Effectv and FreeWheel, as well as Effectv’s newly launched sales development function. Midha and her team will build awareness for each company’s […]

March 15, 2021

Disruptel announces $1.15m seed round

Disruptel, the interactive TV and voice assistant innovator, has announced the completion of a $1.15 million (€0.96m) seed funding round. PJC and Progress Ventures led the round, with the backing of notable industry investors and advisors including Mike Baker, co-founder and former CEO of DataXu (acquired by Roku in 2019), Adam Cheyer, voice assistant expert […]

March 15, 2021

Netflix clamps down on password sharing

Netflix is testing a feature that asks viewers if they live in the same household as a subscriber, in a move that would seem to signal a crackdown on the widespread practice of sharing passwords with friends and family. A number of users have reported seeing a screen saying: “If you don’t live with the […]

March 12, 2021By Nik Roseveare

M6 sale attracts main French media groups  

French broadcaster M6’s share price jumped by 7.55 per cent to €19.38 on the morning of March 12th after leading French media groups submitted offers to acquire the commercial TV and radio group, with majority shareholder RTL Group confirming sale talks. Prospective buyers had until the evening of March 10th to declare their interest, according […]

March 12, 2021From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

French broadcasters win piracy damages

A French court has ordered five defendants to pay €7 million in damages to French broadcasters beIN Sports, Canal+ and RMC Sport, following the defendants’ convictions for operating illegal sports streaming websites targeting the broadcasters. The multi-million Euro damages award is one of the largest financial rulings issued by a French court following a piracy […]

March 12, 2021By Colin Mann

Industry Trust welcomes IP crime report

Pro-copyright consumer education body The Industry Trust for IP Awareness has welcomed the publication of a report, Taking the Profit Out of Intellectual Property Crime: Piracy and Organised Crime, supporting publisher the Royal United Service Institute’s (RUSI) position on the need for a whole-of-system coordination between government agencies and the private sector to aid the […]

March 12, 2021By Colin Mann

RTL sees strong rebound in TV advertising

RTL Group announces its audited results for the year ended December 31st 2020. Group revenue for the European TV giant decreased 9.5 per cent to €6.01 billion, mainly due to declining TV advertising markets across Europe in Q2 and lower content production revenue as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. Group revenue was down 6.8 […]

March 12, 2021

Telestream acquires Masstech

Telestream has announced its acquisition of Masstech. Telestream, a portfolio company of Genstar Capital, is a vertical market software business focused on the video space and is a global player in media workflow orchestration, media streaming and delivery technologies. The company’s 10th acquisition comes shortly after Telestream’s purchase of EcoDigital – another specialist in content […]

March 12, 2021