ESPN has extended its contract with the NFL by eight years in a record $15.2 billion deal that keeps live American football on Walt Disney’s sports cable television network. The deal covers ESPN’s prized Monday Night Football slot, one of the network’s most lucrative series and an enduring hit advertisers keen to target young male […]
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and the country’s Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (IPO) have revealed a joint initiative against the menace of piracy in the electronic media. According to PEMRA, the unhindered influx of pirated content on broadcast media and cable TV in Pakistan is not only posing a serious regulatory challenge but […]
Pay-TV channel Starz has called off talks to renew its streaming deal with Netflix, in a move that could deprive the online video service of one of its key sources of movies. Starz has original programming but also distribution rights for movies from studios such as Disney and Sony. Although Netflix has brokered several deals […]
Criterion Capital Partners, the new owner of SeeSaw, has lost a key content deal with Channel 4, meaning shows such as The Inbetweeners and Peep Show are no longer available on the online TV service. Criterion Capital Partners, which also bought former AOL asset Bebo, took a 75 per cent stake in SeeSaw from owner […]
LoveFilm, the DVD postal subscription service that currently covers the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, might target new territories with a digital only service. LoveFilm says it would consider a streaming only service for certain markets. The criterion would include the expansion of the connected TV market and the availability of rights; a UK streaming only […]
BBC World Wide has developed a video-on-demand app for Facebook that will allow users of the website to rent a limited number of Top Gear episodes using Facebook Credits. The corporation is initially offering three episodes for rent – at a cost of 15 Facebook Credits each, the equivalent of 93p. Once rented, episodes will […]
Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt will tell the audience at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week that “Google needs you” according to The Guardian. In the annual MacTaggart lecture Schmidt is expected to say Google wants to help the industry and draw a line under a history of fraught legal actions with studios and broadcasters over […]
Universal Pictures has confirmed that cult movie The Big Lebowski is available for rent on the Facebook social network. A 48-hour rental window can be set up for 30 Facebook credits or $3. The movie is only available to consumers in the United States. As an R-rated film, it can only be rented by Facebook […]
The UK’s Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally found that Sky’s control over pay-TV movie rights in the UK is restricting competition between pay-TV providers, leading to higher prices and reduced choice and innovation for subscribers. Sky has for many years held exclusively the rights to the movies of all six major Hollywood studios in the […]
Vibrant TV is claimed to be a new type of channel. Backed in part by Chicago-based media buying agency Zephyr Media, the FTA channel says it will showcase internationally produced lifestyle, series, sports and kids programming. The channel will be available on satellite and terrestrially. Dan Zifkin, CEO of Zephyr, says the network will launch […]