A class action against News Corp has been filed by disgruntled shareholders in New York’s Southern District Court. The suit brought against News Corp, News International, and certain directors including Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, Les Hinton and Rebekah Brooks, alleges that the individuals violated the US Securities Exchange Act. Brooks’ lawyers, in an 18-page submission, […]
The BBC has announced that Paul Dempsey will become interim Chief Executive Officer of BBC Worldwide from December until incoming CEO Tim Davie’s arrival next year. Dempsey, currently Managing Director for Consumer Products at BBC Worldwide, will oversee the BBC’s commercial arm from December 1st until Tim Davie hands over his duties as Acting Director-General […]
Liberty Global has announced that Will Moerer has taken the newly created position of Vice President of Sport1 and Film1. Moerer is currently the general manager at Sport1; he will now also take up Film1 in his management responsibilities. Moerer will be in charge of the commercial and strategic activities of both channel packages. Film1 […]
The BBC Trust has appointed (Lord) Tony Hall, former BBC chief of news and current CEO of the Royal Opera House, as the new Director General replacing George Entwistle, who resigned in the wake of the Savile and McAlpine scandals. Hall was made a Lord in light of his role with several public and charitable […]
There has been a consensus since the hapless George Entwistle was assisted onto his sword point a couple of weeks ago that the BBC should appoint an outsider as the new DG. All senior insiders were, to some extent or other, either tainted by the events that brought poor George down, or had no editorial […]
The UK’s cross-media ownership rules currently forbids any newspaper group which has more than 20 per cent share of the British newspaper market from owning either a “Channel 3/ITV” licence or a stake in a Channel 3 broadcaster greater than 20 per cent. It was these rules that scuppered News Corp’s plans to acquire a […]
The Association for International Broadcasting has appointed Amitabh Srivastava as its regional head in South Asia. This appointment is the first of a series of expansions of AIB’s work in a number of regions of the world. As regional head, Srivastava will oversee the growth of AIB’s membership in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, […]
Sky Deutschland has received a positive ruling from Germany’s tax authorities regarding its ability to preserve tax losses in the event of a change in shareholder structure of the group. The news might further open the door for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to increase its 49.9 per cent holding in Sky Deutschland, and perhaps lead […]
International Launch Services (ILS) has seen its president and CEO Frank McKenna unexpectedly leave the company, with no explanation offered. A few hours after his departure ILS successfully launched EchoStar 16 into orbit from its launch site in Kazakhstan. The ILS launch was flawless, and should further help restore confidence in the launch system which […]
Netflix boss Reed Hastings claims that on-line giant Amazon is losing between $500 million and $1 billion acquiring and streaming video content. Hastings told Dow Jones he has calculated the numbers based on the established cost of content deals fought over when Netflix directly competes with Amazon for content rights. Netflix is on record as […]