In an unexpected turn on June 12th, Clearwire declined the rival bid from existing majority owner Sprint Nextel and instead selected the rival Charlie Ergen bid via his Dish Network pay-TV operation. Late on June 12th in a regulatory filing Clearwire urged its stockholders to accept the Dish bid which is worth $4.40 a share, and well ahead of Sprint’s [...]
India is a land of broadcasting superlatives where millions are signing up to pay-TV each year, but a survey by SNL Kagan says that of the six major DTH broadcasters Videocon DTH is not just the nation’s fastest growing, but is the world’s leader in terms of net new subscribers. According to SNL Kagan Videocon DTH added 2.33 million subs [...]
Global pay-tv households will reach nearly 1 billion by 2018, up from 772 million in 2012 and 814 million in 2013. According to the Digital TV World Household Forecasts report, the Asia Pacific region will contribute 59 per cent (587 million) of the global total by 2018. Based on forecasts for 97 countries by Digital TV Research, China will have [...]
GlobeCast and SES are providing services to Orange Romania for the launch of a high-quality direct-to-home satellite TV package this month. The package will use multiple transponders on Astra’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position and will be broadcast in the DVB-S2 and MPEG4 technical standards. GlobeCast will provide contribution, encryption, and encoding for SD and HD channels in the package. [...]
In its Q1 Cross Platform Report Nielsen says that, despite a small dip on last year, traditional live TV remains dominant while streaming and mobile video use is growing but still small in comparison. “Still vibrant, traditional TV is thriving as viewers continue to go to their sets for entertainment and information that appeals to them. In fact, traditional TV [...]
Brazilian telco giant Oi has leased a large per centage of Ku-band capacity on board SES-6, which successfully launched on June 3. Oi explained that the new capacity will allow it to expand its pay-TV line-up and in particular give additional emphasis to HDTV. Oi’s director of operations James Meaney says that the extra capacity secured from SES is in [...]
A senior Saudi Culture and Information Ministry official has announced plans to license private satellite television channels in the Kingdom. “The regulatory process in the media sector will be complete with the licensing of private satellite channels,” said Riyad bin Kamal Najm, chairman of the Commission for Audio and Visual Media. Speaking at Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Najm [...]
The number of pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe increased by 1 million in 2012 to 94.1 million, and will climb by another million in 2013, according to a report from Digital TV Research. This comes despite pay-TV subscriptions falling in Italy (down by 482,000) and Spain (down by 350,000) in 2012. Italy and Spain will experience further falls in 2013, [...]
SES-6, a new satellite serving South and North America, as well as Europe, was only launched on June 4th but is already proving a commercial success. SES says it has sold a large slice of the craft’s available capacity to a Brazilian DTH operator, ‘Oi’ as part of a “significant long-term capacity agreement”. The ‘Oi’ logo was on display on [...]
Nigeria’s Copyright Commission has supplied evidence against a number of local TV pirates responsible for relaying DStv signals to around 500 homes in the town of Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State. Mr Ubong Obot has been arrested and charged with illegally transmitting the broadcast signals of MultiChoice/DStv. Obot was allegedly installing kit for a cost of Naira 5000 and [...]
