France's National Assembly has approved a bill which requires ISPs to disconnect users who have been caught three times illegally downloading copyright files. The "Creation and Internet" bill was passed by a vote of 296 to 233 by the lower house and will now go before the Senate for final approval. The bill, backed by […]
According to the 'Beijing Economic and Informatization Commission,' Beijing will soon implement information infrastructure upgrade plans that will see the government invest an estimated RMB 100 billion (E11bn) between 2009 and 2012. The funds will be used primarily for improving high-speed network capacity, upgrading broadband Internet access standards, and promoting Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) services. By 2012, […]
Channel 4, Time Warner and BSkyB have been shortlisted as potential buyers of Virgin Media’s wholly owned VMtv channels Virgin 1, Bravo and Living. Virgin Media intends to sell the channels separately from its joint venture with BBC Worldwide, UKTV, which will be sold at a later stage. The BBC has denied interest in purchasing […]
German pay-TV station Premiere will change its brand name to Sky despite heavy write-downs on the Premiere brand name. Premiere will trade under the Sky name as do other pay-TV stations partly or fully owned by News Corp. News Corp. has a 30.5 per cent stake in Premiere, and it fully owns Sky Italia and […]
Brightcove the online video platform, has revealed that Discovery Networks Germany has chosen the Brightcove platform to publish and distribute advertising-supported long and short-form video content across its DMAX.de Web property. Building on its long standing relationship with Discovery Communications in the US, Brightcove will enable Discovery Germany to showcase promotional clips as well as […]
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) has awarded the digital terrestrial television (DTT) licence that was recently abandoned by Boxer to the One Vision consortium, made up of TV3, Setanta, Arqiva and Eircom. The consortium was the second-placed applicant for the DTT contracts, which were awarded last year. In April it emerged that the Boxer […]
Finishing up a dismal earnings season for media, News Corp reported a 70 per cent drop in net income to $300 million, excluding one-time events, and a 16 per cent drop in revenue to $7.37 billion for the quarter ended March 31st. Non-broadcast channels were the one bright spot with increased affiliate revenue for Fox […]
DirecTV has reported that first-quarter earnings fell 46 per cent even as subscriber growth hit a four-year high. Chief Executive Chase Carey said he expects intense competition to continue in the pay-TV business, as providers fight for consumers who have become more sensitive to price. Still, he predicted that customers will cut their spending to […]
Video search engine blinkx has struck a deal with interactive TV company Miniweb that will see its services become available on digital set-top boxes in the UK. The deal will significantly widen the audience for blinkx’s search offering, which indexes a range of online video content, including content from YouTube and the various web TV […]
The Channel 4 chief executive, Andy Duncan, has told MPs that he expects to have an agreement on a partnership with BBC Worldwide signed within weeks. Duncan told the culture, media and sport committee that a memorandum of understanding with the corporation’s commercial arm would be signed before the government publishes its final Digital Britain […]