The French competition authority has found that exclusive distribution agreements for pay TV content via triple play services should be restricted as they harm competition among ISPs and restrict consumer choice. The authority, whose advice was sought by the ministry of the economy, recommended that legislation be drafted to allow exclusive deals only for one […]
A U.S. judge dismissed some damages claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and YouTube.com but left open the possibility that non-U.S. based rights owners could seek damages for live broadcasts, if they prevail. A group of sports and music copyright holders, led by the UK Premier League, had argued that foreign works were […]
BSkyB and ESPN have struck a £65m (E75m) deal with the Scottish Premier League to air 60 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League matches each season across the UK and Ireland. The deal will last until the end of season 2011/12 with the SPL having an option to extend for a further two seasons. Lex Gold, […]
Cox Communications has decided to sell a majority stake in the Travel Channel in an auction expected to value the cable network at $600 million or more and break the drought in media industry deal-making. Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of the Food Network, is widely seen as the front-runner in an auction likely to test […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish Competition Authorities have proposed to limit to three years (until 2012) the current contracts for football TV rights in a move to avoid dominant positions in the a market that generates around E1 billon a year. The measure would directly affect Mediapro, shareholder in La Sexta, that […]
Walt Disney Company has agreed to a management buy-out of its Jetix channels in Italy. The management team, led by MD Francesco Nespega has established Switchover Media to take control of two Disney-owned channels in the territory. The deal comes as Disney continues its Jetix rebranding effort across Europe, dropped the boy-skewing channel’s name in […]
US telco Verizon has launched the Widget Bazaar applications store as part of its ‘FiOS TV’ service – which includes a Facebook and Twitter widgets, and Internet Video on TV. The company also plans to offer an open development platform to permit developers to write interactive FiOS TV applications that will be available through the […]
Rangers and Celtic football clubs are in talks to acquire the live UK rights to air Scottish Premier League football. The collapse of previous SPL UK rights holder Setanta means the rights are effectively back on the market Speculation has been rife that the SPL has been conducting talks with Sky and ESPN over a […]
KyLinTV, the Chinese IPTV platform, has partnered with Phoenix China News and Entertainment to deliver a range of Chinese TV channels to the European market. KyLinTV Europe will offer over 20 Chinese TV channels from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, including Phoenix CNE, Phoenix InfoNews, CCTV-9, MASTV and Sun TV. Based in New […]
According to the UK digital music firm Music Ally, in January this year only 17 per cent of web users said they regularly downloaded music from illegal file-sharing sources on the web, compared to 22 per cent in December 2007. When it comes to teens, the fall has increased with just 26 per cent of […]