Italy’s Antitrust Authority is to launch an investigation to see if Sky Italia has abused its dominant position in the acquisition of rights to broadcast the 2010 and 2014 World Cup, in pay-TV mode for all broadcasting platforms. The action is based on a complaint by Mediaset from May 2010 in which it denounced the […]
European copyright rules are out of date and require a major overhaul, European Union Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes told the Forum d’Avignon. According to Kroes, those who will prosper in the digital age are those who understand that convergence is one of the keys. “The convergence of media provides an incredible opportunity […]
The Ashes highlights are likely to be screened on terrestrial television after all, after ITV made a late bid to land the rights from Cricket Australia. BBC has consistently declined to place a bid, arguing that the £1 million (E1.14m) price tag was too high. There was also a scheduling issue: the contract for live […]
The carriage fee stand-off between Cablevision and Fox, came to an end at the weekend. Cablevision will pay an increased rate to carry Fox programming – though terms of the new deal were not disclosed. Fox had withheld its three public stations and three cable stations from Cablevision since October 16th, when the deadline for […]
Dish Network and Fox Networks, have confirmed a wide-ranging distribution agreement to provide the third-largest video distributor in the US with continued access to programming from Fox Broadcasting and Fox local television stations in major cities. The agreement also included carriage of FX, National Geographic Channel, and Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, which were restored […]
Youku, China’s largest video hosting site, has partnered with Disney to begin streaming the studio’s TV shows. The videos are subtitled in Chinese. The agreement with Disney comes as Chinese video hosting sites are moving away from showing illegally uploaded content. Chinese users continue to upload pirated popular American TV shows and movies to sites […]
Microsoft has confirmed an agreement with Canal Plus to deliver live programming to owners of Xbox 360 games consoles in France. French Xbox 360 owners will be able to utilise their console as a decoder for all Canal Plus premium channels, as well as a bouquet of CanalSat thematic channels. Users will also be able […]
Discovery Communications has confirmed new programming deals with European third party broadcasters to air a combined 200 hours of content from across Discovery’s portfolio of networks. In France, an output deal has been negotiated with TF1’s free digital terrestrial channels NT1 and TMC to air the latest seasons of popular Discovery series Deadliest Catch and […]
The Premier League has embarked on a long-awaited court action to prove pubs using foreign signals to show English Premier League games are breaking the law. Karen Murphy, a Portsmouth landlady purchased a Greek system through an importer and paid an annual subscription. The Premier League, which sells its rights exclusively to Sky in the […]
In line with its aims of becoming one of the world’s first global 360 degree live music brands, Swiss-based iConcerts has brokered a distribution and co-production deal with China DTV Production Company Limited, a division of CCTV (China Central Television). The multi-faceted collaboration starting this Autumn, will see China DTV Production’s digital music channel broadcast […]