Tony Cohen, the chief executive of RTL subsidiary Fremantle Media, which co-produces The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, has accused the BBC’s commercial arm of “distorting the market” for British television producers operating overseas. Cohen told the Royal Television Society that BBC Worldwide pushed up the price of assets and properties for commercial rivals […]
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has confirmed his plans for yet another Arabic all-news channel. ‘Alarab’ is going to target Arabic viewers in the region and around the world, and will be a joint-venture between his Kingdom Holdings and Rotana group. Bloomberg TV will have a 5 hour financial news block on the channel. […]
Optus chief executive, Paul O’Sullivan, has urged the Australian government to create sharing provisions for digital content services provided over the National Broadband Network (NBN). He said that it was essential that rules were put in place so that “the guys with the biggest wallet” could not lock up content that allows telecommunication companies to […]
Visiware, a specialist in interactive television, has confirmed the launch of its Playin’TV games service on Bouygues Telecom’s Bbox. The games channel is available to all Bbox clients in France by pressing the “Welcome” button of the Bbox remote control and selecting the “Games” section, clients can access Playin’TV’s catalogue. The games are available without […]
Modern Times Group (MTG) will launch its third free-TV channel in Lithuania on October 3rd. The new entertainment channel – TV8 – is focused on 35+ year old women and will complement existing channels TV3 and TV6. TV8 will be available in more than 60 per cent of Lithuanian TV households from launch, via satellite […]
UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has countered suggestions that tackling the problem of material that is being unlawfully distributed online is an assault on the “freedom” of the Internet. He told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention that unlawfully distributing copyrighted material was “theft, and a direct assault on the freedoms and rights of creators […]
Usenet indexing site Newzbin2 is readying software it says will defeat attempts to stop people visiting it. At the beginning of summer BT was ordered to block access to Newzbin2 after legal action by the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The MPA alleged the member-only Newzbin2 site brings together pirated movies and music put on Usenet […]
The RTL chief executive, Gerhard Zeiler, explained that the broadcaster had not done a deal with Hulu because its US owners would not allow the company to sell its own advertising. Zeiler told the Royal Television Society that aggregators such as Hulu, which is owned by US media companies News Corporation, NBC Universal, Disney and […]
Telstra is threatening to tear up its new $153 million broadcast rights deal with the Australian Football League (AFL) after a copyright dispute erupted over rival Optus providing football telecasts to its Internet and mobile phone customers. Telstra chief executive David Thodey has told The Age that if a court allows Optus to continue showing […]
Video rights management specialists MyVideoRights has received a funding injection of £2.75 million, (€3.15m) and is re-branding to Base79. The cash injection was led by MMC Ventures, and will assist the firm’s international expansion. Based in London and New York, the company manages content for companies and artists including the Football Association, Mr Bean and […]