Frank N. Magid Associates, specialist in research-based consultation, and Metacafe, the independent online video site, have released survey results revealing consumer behaviour and preferences in online video viewing. The survey found that short professional videos are among those most regularly watched online, and well over one-third of consumers (37 per cent) who watch these clips […]

The BBC’s director of new media and technology Erik Huggers says that the future for free-to-air digital platforms like Freesat and Freeview is ‘unclear’ – suggesting that only IPTV and Project Canvas venture will give consumers the services and features that they need. Huggers said that, despite work on adding HD to Freeview and continued […]

Ben Bradshaw, the new Culture Secretary, has diluted a pledge to cut the volume of Internet music piracy by 70 per cent in the next two years. A promise had been made in July 2008 to reduce "file sharing by 70 per cent in two to three years" as part of a three-way agreement between […]

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 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 […]

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”, […]