SBS Discovery Media has agreed a deal to acquire Swedish channel TV11 from the TV4 Group as it continues to expand its footprint across Scandinavia. The channel will join flagship Kanal 5 and its sister channel Kanal 9 in SBS Discovery’s portfolio of Swedish channels. Jonas Sjögren, CEO of Sweden for SBS Discovery Media, commented: “The purchase of TV11 underscores [...]
Time Warner Cable is considering taking a stake in US streaming service Hulu, for which owners News Corp and Disney are accepting bids, according to a Bloomberg report. TW Cable would be a fourth owner, alongside NBC Universal, which has a non-controlling interest in the venture in accordance with a condition of its acquisition by Comcast. TW Cable joins a [...]
Arqiva has acquired Selective Media – the UK-based WiFi media specialist. Arqiva acquired a 50 per cent share in the business as part of its acquisition of Spectrum Interactive last year, but has now acquired the remaining 50 per cent. Selective Media specialises in providing targeted advertising campaigns across the whole of Arqiva’s WiFi network. The company can offer on-line [...]
Baidu, the Chinese language Internet search provider, is buying the online video business of Internet video provider PPS for $370 million to create China’s largest online video platform by number of mobile users and video viewing time. Baidu and PPS expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2013, subject to customary closing conditions. Upon completion of the [...]
China’s EKT (Eagle Kingdom Technologies), a supplier of advanced STB solutions and iP4 (iP4.tv GmbH), a developer of advanced STB middleware called solidTV, have joined forces in a merger that sees a seamless integration of the iP4.tv STB middleware and the Advanced Hardware solutions from EKT. The merger allows EKT to offer cost effective solutions ranging from Zappers through to [...]
Samsung has acquired up MOVL, a company known for smart TV games and its TV app development platform. Samsung acquired the Atlanta-based startup last month but hasn’t been reported until now. Terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. A MOVL spokesperson released the following statement: “In April 2013, two years after inception, MOVL has officially joined forces with Samsung. We [...]
Swiss telco Swisscom has reported net revenues fell 2.4 per cent in the first quarter as record customer growth failed to offset weakening market prices. First quarter net profits fell 12.4 per cent to 390 million Swiss francs ($420.3 million). Swisscom TV connections increased by 205,000 (31.3 per cent) year-on-year to 860,000. Meanwhile, Swisscom has increased its stake in Cinetrade [...]
A decision made this week to see South Africa’s TopTV sold to China-backed StarTimes group is likely to be challenged in the courts. Multichoice-backed consortium Dynamic TV, which submitted its own robust and well-funded take-over bid for TopTV on April 29, had tried to block the shareholder vote on April 30th and saying that they were prepared to start funding [...]
Lagardere’s chief executive has said he is prepared to consider buying Vivendi SA’s 80 per cent stake in pay-TV company Canal Plus France, according to an interview by French newspaper Le Monde. “I’m ready to look at buying the 80 per cent they have and listing it on the stock exchange in favorable conditions,” Arnaud Lagardere says in the interview. [...]
Yahoo has dropped its bid for Dailymotion due to objections by the French government, according to reports. Yahoo had been in talks to buy a 75 per cent stake in Dailymotion, owned by France-Telecom Orange, in a deal that would have valued the video website at $300 million. But French government officials raised concerns that the country would lose control [...]
