The European Commission's proposed telecoms reforms, which include the three strikes proposals for abusive downloaders, will now have to go into the conciliation process after the European Parliament again refused to discard an amendment that would force governments to get court permission before disconnecting illegal downloaders of copyright material. MEPs in September put forward an […]
A weaker than expected performance by its films at the box office and through DVD sales depressed Disney's second-quarter profits. Operating income at Disney's studio business fell 97 per cent to $13 million. The recession also continued to depress earnings in other parts of the group, with advertising down at Disney's ABC television network. But […]
Looking to expand the parameters of its Socialthing social networking news feed service, AOL announced plans to integrate the platform across the sites of Warner Bros. Television Group another unit of Time Warner. The service, acquired by AOL last summer, is designed to help users trace the Internet activity of friends. WBTVG will use the […]
Pangea Media, a media platform for youth media and marketing professionals, has released the results of a jointly developed survey which tracked television consumption and viewing preferences of almost 2,000 of Pangea Media’s tween/teen users. The survey found that tweens/teens watch an average of five to 10 hours of TV content a week and prefer […]
DirecTV will merge with John Malone's Liberty Entertainment to simplify its ownership structure and improve its ability to pursue deals; specifically making itself a more attractive target for one of the big telcos. Liberty Entertainment will be spun off from Liberty Media as previously announced, and will now include 54 per cent of the stock […]
Discovery Communications reported an $8 million increase in first quarter revenues to $817 million, outstripping analysts expectations for the period and posting $119 million in profit. The company reported only $34 million in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Discovery even bucked the advertising slump, posting a two percent increase in ad revenues. As […]
Bezeq Israel Telecom has said it would merge with satellite TV unit YES. Bezeq, Israel’s largest telco, said it will raise its stake in YES to 58 per cent from 49.8 per cent after agreeing to a number of conditions set by Israel’s antitrust court. Final approval is dependent on Israel’s Supreme Court, which is […]
Viacom profits fell 34 per cent in the first quarter, hurt by a global advertising spending slowdown. The company reported first quarter net profit of $177m, down from $270m, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7 per cent to $2.91bn. Advertising at Viacom's cable networks, which as a sector is considered the most resilient compared with […]
Toy maker Hasbro has formed a joint venture with Discovery Communications to create a TV network with original programming based on Hasbro brands. Hasbro has licensed its brands for a variety of different entertainments. Under terms of the deal, Hasbro will pay Discovery $300 million in cash for a 50 per cent share in the […]
The US has added Canada to its “priority watch list” of countries where Internet piracy flourishes, reflecting a tough new line in the Obama administration over the Harper government’s failure to deliver on promises of new copyright laws. Canada joins a dozen countries – including Algeria, China, Russia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Venezuela – criticised by […]