With the backing of the French Tennis Federation, Orange and France Télévisions, the Tournament's official partners, will be offering the French Open men’s final live and in 3D on cinema screens in France and Spain. Orange and France Télévisions will be capturing the final in 3D thanks to five stereoscopic cameras set up around the […]
Pay TV broadcaster Setanta, currently losing an estimated £100 million (E115m) a year, is considering a radical switch of its business model that would mean ditching its subscribers in order to become a wholesale supplier of programmes, including Premier League football, to broadcasters such as British Sky Broadcasting and BT Vision. Setanta, with 1.2 million […]
Sky has reportedly tabled a £160m (E183m) bid to buy Virgin Media’s seven digital TV channels – this is said to be 60% more than any offer made by rival bidders including Channel 4, RTL, Time Warner and NBC Universal. The seven channels are Living, Living Two, Bravo, Bravo Two, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot and Virgin1. […]
Illegal downloading levels have hit record levels and are costing the UK economy and media owners £120 billion (E137bn) a year, according to a government advisor group. Its research apparently shows that seven million people in the UK are regularly downloading music and other content from illegal sites, according to The Strategic Advisory Board For […]
To cut costs ITV is considering a radical plan that could see it share hit dinosaur drama Primeval with a rival broadcaster to spread the cost of the effects-heavy series.The Guardian reports that the production company behind Primeval, Impossible Pictures, has presented ITV with a proposal that could see the fourth series premiere on a […]
In a bizarre juxtaposition of brand names, Virgin Media's Richard Branson is said to be mulling a bid for Private Media, owner of the Playboy brand. A number of PE firms have reportedly balked at Playboy Enterprises' $300 million asking price, but Richard Branson's name has been increasingly mentioned as a prospective buyer. The company […]
Unions on both sides of the Atlantic are joining forces with media companies to lobby for tougher action against piracy, as rising unemployment levels focus their attention on the threat to members' jobs and incomes from copyright breaches. Representatives from media unions, including the the Federation of Entertainment Unions and the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and […]
The Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) has released key findings from a commissioned survey on piracy deterrence. The study, conducted by Interpret, aimed to determine whether the inclusion of Digital Serial Numbers (DSNs) in online content would deter illegal file sharing. The results showed that DSNs would deter illegal downloading among 33 per cent of the […]
Broadband content – including the deluge of made-for-the Web videos – will need “content aggregators” to package programming for viewers, Liberty Media Chairman John Malone said. “We’d love to be the aggregator; so would the cable industry,” he said, citing the historic parallel of Home Box Office assembling a roster of films to create the […]
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman has called for governments around the world to increase efforts to protect intellectual property. Glickman noted that dealing with escalating IP theft is especially needed during these difficult economic times as the creative industries generate millions of jobs each year, including 2.5 million jobs […]