In a move that may benefit the potential takeover of English Premier League football club Newcastle United by Saudi interests, the kingdom’s IP body, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP), has announced its intention to block 231 websites that it says violate regulations and rights. The announcement follows a damning report from the World […]
French media group Mediawan has announced a raft of deals, including the acquisition of Lagardere Studios, as part of a broader expansion laid out by its founders, who will also establish a new holding company for the business. Mediawan said its planned takeover valued Lagardere Studios at around €100 million, as parent company Lagardere restructures […]
By April 2020, Netflix had almost 183 million subscribers with a breakdown showing it touched 69 million subs in the US and Canada, 58.7 million in EMEA, 34.3 million in Latin-America and 19.8 million in Asia-Pacific. If Netflix were to continue its Q1 trajectory, it could have as many as
Sky Deutschland has announced a major new content plan to that it says will “shakeup TV in Germany and take Sky into a new era”. Sky will deliver its plan through a combination of partnerships and development of its entertainment, movies and sports offering – and it starts with an extension of Sky’s deal with […]
Both Intelsat and FCC filed their C-band accelerated spectrum transition plans with the FCC on June 19th. The schemes outline how their clients will be moved in order to free up spectrum for the FCC’s 5G adoption. The plans show how some 3,500 cable head-ends and 13,500 Earth stations will have 60,000 blocking filters changed […]
The first ever live Premier League match to air on terrestrial television attracted a peak audience of nearly 4 million on June 20th. The game between Bournemouth and Crystal Palace on BBC One pulled in 3.9 million viewers, making up almost a quarter of the UK’s TV audience. In addition to its live TV audience, […]
Peter Faricy, who left Amazon to head up Discovery’s direct-to-consumer business, has resigned from the company. Discovery has launched a small D2C businesses in the US, but has struggled to come up with a streaming strategy as others flocked to OTT services. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Faricy won’t be replaced and that Avi Saxena, […]
Financially troubled South African public broadcaster SABC says it has issued notices to some 600 staff warning them of possible redundancies. SABC is reorganising itself with the aim of dramatically trimming costs. It has been warned by the country’s government that there’s no more cash available for bailouts. A new set of financial conditions has […]
While Covid-19 lockdown has prompted a positive shift in UK households’ digital activity, concerns around data privacy and security breaches alongside broadband reliability issues have created underlying levels of anxiety – according to an EY report. The survey of 2,500 UK consumers, conducted between May 27th and June 1st, outlines the challenges and opportunities facing […]
The BBC is setting out the first in a new series of bold steps to transform its programming and better represent the public it serves. The BBC’s Creative Diversity Commitment – the biggest financial investment to on-air inclusion in the industry – will prioritise £100 million (€110m) of existing commissioning budget over three years (from […]