The new owners of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay say users will be paid for sharing files. Global Gaming Factory's (GGF) CEO Hans Pandeya told the BBC that the only way to beat illegal file-sharing was to make something more attractive. “We’re talking about next-gen file sharing so you can create revenue from storage and […]

Viacom's Paramount Pictures studio is seeking to merge its home entertainment division with a rival and is in advanced talks with Sony Pictures and News Corporation's Fox studio, signalling that Hollywood could soon see a wave of consolidation. The negotiations follow an industry-wide slump in DVD sales, the entertainment sector's most profitable revenue stream. Sales […]

Trading blows over Ofcom's plan to regulate pay-TV market prices has started. Mike Darcey, the chief operating officer at BSkyB, has accused public service broadcasters, industry regulators and politicians of breeding a “culture of dependency” that has failed to allow the UK TV industry to explore new business models. Darcey told the Institute of Economic […]

Publicly listed Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X (says it wants to buy The Pirate Bay for SEK60 million (£4.7 million) and will begin compensating copyright owners for material its users find and download. The Bay's founders get half the money in cash and half in new GFF shares. This comes a day after […]

ESPN, which last week acquired its first live English Premier League (EPL) TV rights, has secured its presence on Freeview and is expected to launch a high- definition version of its soon-to-launch EPL channel on Sky. Broadcasting on Freeview pay-TV service Top Up TV, ESPN America is using a channel previously occupied by Setanta, which […]

Setanta’s founders and MCD boss Denis Desmond are expected to take full control of the sports giant’s Irish business after agreeing a buyout with original investors, including Doughty Hanson and Goldman Sachs. The deal comes as secured debt holders, who are owed E220 million by Setanta, consider fresh “commercial terms” offered by the Irish team. […]

The world’s highest profile file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay (TPB), has lifted the lid on its new video sharing website, The Video Bay. Billed as a rival to YouTube, the service will offer unrestricted video content, in violation of copyright. In April, a court in Sweden jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay and ordered […]

BSkyB has reacted furiously to Ofcom's proposition to force them to sell its sports and premium movie rights to other platforms at regulated prices. Ofcom said such a move may be a “most appropriate way of ensuring fair and effective competition”. BSkyB has immediately rejected the proposal, saying it will “use all available legal avenues”, […]

As both sides await a judge's ruling over the legality of RealNetworks’ DVD copying software RealDVD, the major studios have filed a new complaint, charging that RealNetworks lied in court about circumventing DVD copy protections. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) asked the Judge to include in the court record five patent filings by […]

Comcast and Time Warner announce a partnership on the “TV Everywhere” initiative. Both companies have been leading proponents of the “authentication” online concept, intended to reinforce the pay-TV model by including access to programming delivered via the Internet as part of the monthly subscription. But until now, they’ve taken different approaches. Time Warner' TV Everywhere […]