Twentieth Century Fox has signed an agreement giving BT video-on-demand rights to a range of new and classic movie titles for BT's digital TV service, BT Vision. From 15th December 2008, BT Vision customers can enjoy, on demand, hit movies from the Twentieth Century Fox library. All Twentieth Century Fox movies on BT Vision will […]
UPC Ireland and Nagravision have reached a settlement of court proceedings against an illegal distributor. This brings to a conclusion a prolonged investigation which originally commenced in November 2006. Operation Gaelic, a covert investigation, revealed an extensive distribution network in Ireland managed by Thomas Roddy which involved the sale of illegal digital boxes and distribution […]
Viacom's MTV Networks International has announced the second wave of countries to launch its first ever international high definition service dedicated to music and kids, MTVNHD (MTV Networks High Definition). The 24-hour, English language channel will premiere before the end of 2008 in ten new countries including the UK (through Sky) and Israel (HOT) and […]
The Al Jazeera Network has launched its English and Arabic news channels on Turksat’s new digital cable platform. The launch of the Al Jazeera channels on Turksat will substantially increase Al Jazeera's presence in this important market where the Network already broadcasts to over eight million households. "The continued expansion of our reach in Turkey […]
Premiere has won the pay-TV rights to Bundesliga football in Germany, Austria and Switzerland through to the end of the 2012 season. The exclusive deal covers live and highlights rights for cable, satellite and the internet at a cost of E225 million for in 2009/10 rising to E275 million in 2012/13. Premiere CEO Mark Williams […]
Disney is fighting a piracy war over its recent film Wall-E against a company that its venture capital arm invested in. The infringing company, 56.com, a Chinese video sharing site that’s similar to YouTube, hosted several full-length bootlegs of Wall-E that were freely available on the company’s site. The bootlegs were added by users of […]
Hollywood studio Warner Brothers will end its home video and DVD business in South Korea at the end of the year due to rampant piracy. The US producer of film and television entertainment will instead focus on its digital distribution ‘pre-DVD’ business. It is the last remaining Hollywood company to withdraw its home entertainment business […]
Representatives from UEFA and four pay broadcasters have stood side by side in the English High Court to push for the chance to have their say in the European test case on foreign satellite football. The Football Association, Setanta, BSkyB, Canal + and the Motion Picture Association have applied for a late intervention into the […]
YouTube will show full-length television shows and films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s archives in its latest step to boost advertising revenue by adding professional programing. The new partnerships put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp and NBC Universal. YouTube in October forged a similar partnership with CBS to […]
Rupert Murdoch has sharply cut forecasts for News Corp, predicting lower ad revenue will see it suffer double-digit declines in operating income for this fiscal year, rather than the 4-6 per cent growth previously forecast. News Corp said it expects a low to mid-teens percentage drop in operating profit from the $5.13 billion it recorded […]