MPs will hear from senior executives on Netflix’s role as the leading SVoD service in the UK in an inquiry into the future of public service broadcasting and the impact of streaming services. The session of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on September 15th will focus on Netflix’s relationships with […]
AT&T is struggling to find a potential buyer for its DirecTV Latin American satellite DTH business which trades as Vrio. Bloomberg reports that AT&T’s CEO John Stankey is looking to dump non-essential and non-performing divisions under the AT&T umbrella. It lists the AT&T divisions now up for sale and which includes the whole or part […]
TikTok has until September 15th to find an American buyer for its US operations, and that will not change. “There will be no extension of the TikTok deadline,” US President Donald Trump stated. Trump has previously given ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the video-sharing app, 45 days to sell it. If ByteDance doesn’t sell the […]
European broadcasting giants Vivendi and Mediaset seem to have tired of legal manoeuvres and have started talking to each other. An article in French newspaper Le Figaro reports that Vivendi and Mediaset have opened communications in an attempt to put an end to a four-year long dispute between them. According to a report from investment […]
A man who pleaded guilty to supplying set-top-boxes which illegally provided access to premium pay-TV content has been jailed for two years, in the latest in a series of actions designed to crackdown on illegal streaming. Paul Jaques, of West Yorkshire, sold around 2,500 of the illegal devices, with accompanying illicit subscriptions. Between 2015 and […]
Barney Francis, the former MD of Sky Sports, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of WePlay, the performance marketing agency for the sports industry. Francis spent 10 years at the helm of Sky Sports before becoming CEO of Comcast’s Future Sport division in 2019, tasked with identifying global growth opportunities within sport’s changing landscape. […]
Investment bank Jefferies has initiated coverage of Israeli telco and broadcaster Bezeq and giving the company a ‘Buy’ rating. Jefferies confirms that Bezeq, which supplies fixed-line and cellular telephony and is the 100 per cent owner of pay-TV operator YES TV, will launch its fibre network later this year following a change to Israeli regulations […]
German broadcasting giant ProSieben, speaking at Deutsche Bank’s 2020 European TMT Conference, confirmed that Q2 this year was “tough” in terms of ad-revenues, although July (down 20 per cent) and August (“slightly positive”) could indicate a return to better times for the final 4 months of the year. Deputy Group CFO Ralf Gierig, addressing the […]
RTL-owned production giant Fremantle says that out of some 200 of its TV productions that were closed down during the Covid-19 lockdowns, around 80 per cent have restarted or been completed. RTL Group CFO Björn Bauer, speaking at Deutsche Bank’s 2020 European TMT Conference, told delegates that 2021 should see demand being strong from streaming […]
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President and CEO Gordon Smith has announced that the 2021 NAB Show has been rescheduled for October. When NAB called off the 2020 event scheduled for April, show organisers said they were reviewing options for an event later in 2020, subsequently announcing April 11th to April 14th for the 2021 […]