BskyB has bluntly blamed C4 for bieng the architect of its own demise. In an unforgiving response to comms minister Lord Carter's interim Digital Report, it claims Channel 4 has wasted millions of pounds on failed business ventures and could be profitable if it was better run. BskyB says C4 wasted £270m (E309m) on “unprofitable […]
German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 cut its 2008 dividend and initiated a new cost-saving programme after its SBS arm and poor advertising markets propelled it to a net loss. The company said it was writing off E180 million against SBS for which it paid E3.3 billion in 2007. For 2008 the Group's consolidated revenues were E3.054 billion […]
ITV the UK commercial channel has reported a worse than expected loss of £2.7bn (E3bn) after massive write downs on its assets. Its operating profit was £167m down 41% on 2007 with virtually all the damage done in the second half with a collapse of advertising revenue. ITV estimates Q1 09 advertising will be down […]
Shares in Premiere slumped as it emerged its former owner Leo Kirch had won the rights to market Bundesliga football for the next six years. Kirch, now aged 81, saw his media empire implode in 2002 in Germany's then largest bankruptcy. Kirch is still suing Deutsche Bank for E1.6 billion over the collapse of his […]
The Kudelski Group, owner of Nagravision, has announced its 2008 annual results. It says the introduction of new generation security solutions at several Digital TV accounts together with the migration of some of the Group's largest accounts to the service model had a strong effect upon the Group 2008 results. In 2008, the Group delivered […]
French media giant Vivendi posted a loss in the fourth quarter as falling stock markets forced it to write down the value of its stake in film and television powerhouse NBC Universal. Vivendi reported a net loss of E1.38 billion in the fourth quarter after writing down its 20 per cent stake in the joint […]
Dish Network has reported its fourth-quarter profit rose 24 per cent, but the second placed US DTH provider lost more than 100,000 subscribers. Dish Network earned $217 million for the three months ended December 31st, up from $175 million a year earlier. Sales rose 1 per cent to $2.92 billion from $2.89 billion. During the […]
Deutsche Telekom, Europe's biggest telco, reported a fourth-quarter loss on an impairment charge and announced an overhaul of management and its structure to cut costs and increase market share. The loss narrowed to E730 million from E750 million a year earlier.
UK set-top box maker Pace said strong demand for high-definition pay TV helped it beat market expectations for 2008 and significantly raise expectations for 2009. The company, which makes devices for BSkyB, Canal + and Comcast posted adjusted pretax profit of £28.5 million (E31.7m) on sales of £745.5 million, and said it was paying its […]
Digital video recorder maker TiVo has reported a narrower quarterly loss than a year ago as cost cuts helped offset a 20 per cent decline in revenue. Although subscriber growth slowed, the company cut subscriber acquisition costs. TiVo said it is focused on having plenty of cash to weather the challenging economy. TiVo’s net loss […]