Advanced Television

Cable

Altice ups stake in Numericable

Investment fund Altice has agreed to buy additional shares in French cable operator Numericable from private equity funds Cinven and Carlyle Group. This would increase its stake to 40 per cent from 30 per cent. The operation, which will give Altice a majority of votes on Numericable’s board of directors, is expected to be completed […]

November 18, 2013

The Simpsons record-breaking cable deal

Twenty-four seasons into its run, The Simpsons is finally headed to cable. In a competitive situation with five networks bidding, FXX has landed the exclusive US cable as well as VoD/non-linear rights to the longest-running comedy series in TV history. The deal also is set to make TV history as the priciest off-network pact ever, […]

November 18, 2013

BRIC markets boost global pay-TV subs

Worldwide pay-TV subscriber base surpassed 886.5 million at the end of 3Q 2013; a 6 per cent YoY increase, generating $ 62.6 billion service revenue in the third quarter, according to ABI Research’s new Pay TV ARPU and Revenues Market Data . “Emerging markets are key drivers of global growth in pay-TV subscribers as developed […]

November 14, 2013

Hulu seeks pay-TV bundle inclusion

Following the collapse mid-July of its owners’ plans to sell the operation and instead commit resources to enable it to achieve its maximum potential, US online entertainment service Hulu is now reported to be in talks to integrate the platform with established pay-TV operations. Hulu’s subscription service, Hulu Plus could be included as part of […]

November 13, 2013By Colin Mann

Liberty Global extends European pay-TV dominance

Pay-TV subscriptions for the 102 operators across 26 countries covered in a new report from Digital TV Research will increase from a collective 105.8 million in 2008 to 131.9 million in 2012 and onto 147.1 million by 2018. The European Pay TV Operator Forecasts report estimates that these operators represented 85 per cent of European […]

November 13, 2013

Kabel Deutschland back on growth track

Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable network operator, has released its consolidated financial results for the second quarter ended September 30th 2013. Highlights for the second quarter ended September 30th 2013 include: Premium TV recovery started with 55,000 RGU net adds quarter on quarter, resulting in a total of 2.1 million Premium TV RGUs. Internet & […]

November 11, 2013

Numericable boosted by IPO

Numericable, France’s largest cable operator, saw its stock rise after it market debut raised  about €652.2 million in the country’s biggest initial public offering in four years. The shares climbed as much as 10 per cent to €27.40 and traded at €27.10 in Paris. They were priced at €24.80, at the top of the offer […]

November 8, 2013

IPTV, cable TV subs on opposite trajectories

Findings from market research firm Infonetics Research’s 2nd edition Pay TV Subscriber Database, which tracks the cable video, satellite video and telco IPTV subscribers of over 140 service providers around the world, suggest that cable TV and IPTV subscriptions in North America and EMEA continue to move in opposite directions. According to Jeff Heynen, principal […]

November 8, 2013

Liberty Global up 4% in first Virgin quarter

Liberty Global, now including Virgin Media, has posted steady growth for Q3 with 314,000 subs adds (878,000 for the nine months YTD) and turnover up 4 per cent. The company has bought back $500 million of stock in the quarter bringing the total to $1 billion YTD. President and CEO Mike Fries commented, “The third […]

November 6, 2013

upc cablecom continues to grow

The first nine months of the year 2013 have been solid for upc cablecom with strong growth both in terms of revenue and 42,200 additional subscribers to Internet broadband. Switzerland’s largest provider of TV now has more than 2.5 million subscribers and will launch 500 Mbit/s Internet in Bern before the end of this year. […]

November 6, 2013