Opening up access to online content is a good start in ending fragmentation in the digital Single Market, according to Neelie Kroes, the EU Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda. Speaking at a London event on ‘Building a Digital Single Market: Delivering Benefits of the Digital Economy to Europe’s Citizens’, she said that “every gap, […]
MediaCAT the firm that organised ISP warning letters to download ‘pirates’ in the UK has ceased trading. This follows the resignation of ACS Law the firm it used for legal letters that became embroiled in the leaking of recipient’s personal details. The business model was that the revenue from the fines be split between MediaCat […]
The 2011 Super Bowl broke US TV ratings records for the second year running on Sunday, with the climax of the American football season watched by an average of 111 million viewers on the Fox network. Sunday’s 45th Super Bowl beat last year’s CBS record audience by 4.5 million. Advertisers paid a record $3 million […]
Three men have been charged with defrauding TV giant Virgin Media of up to £40 million (€47.6m). The trio have been accused of importing 44,000 digital receivers which could be made to pick up channels without paying a fee to Virgin. The Crown Prosecution Service said the boxes would be sent electronic messages which would […]
The acquisition by Digital Plus of pay-TV rights to the European Champions League from 2012 is a hard blow for Mediapro’s pay DTT channel Gol TV, current holder of the rights. Digital+ has acquired the rights to live and delayed action from all of the competition’s matches, with the exception of the Tuesday first-match pick. […]
Sky’s business model creates a “virtuous circle” that aids the broadcaster’s ability to innovate, according to COO Mike Darcey. He told the Broadcasting Press Guild that “more content investment is going in. It’s being done in a way that drives subscriber acquisition and retention. That in turn drives revenue forward, which in turn provides more […]
BSkyB COO Mike Darcey implied the broadcaster and Virgin Media are still some way apart on price as they negotiate a carriage fee for the new Sky Atlantic channel. Darcey said “I think it was offered at a very reasonable price,” but clearly Virgin disagree. Sky Atlantic launched on satellite on February 1st, offering a […]
Negotiations between Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell and BSkyB over the Channel 5 news service have recommenced after rival news organisations apparently bid to take over the news supply contract and undercut Sky News. Desmond has indicated he wants to end Sky’s five-year contract to supply the broadcaster’s news bulletins before it expires in 2012 […]
The European Court of Justice has been advised that BSkyB (and other pay operators across Europe) or rights holders cannot stop pubs (or anyone else) subscribing to foreign TV channels no matter they may carry programmes that another broadcaster has the domestic rights to. The immediate implication is that BSkyB and the English Premier League […]
Amazon is developing a film streaming service to compete directly with Netflix following its full acquisition of LoveFilm. Initially the company is planning to bundle access to the service with Amazon Prime, a premium service that guarantees Amazon customers unlimited free shipping in return for a sign up fee. The news seems to have been […]