Advanced Television

Cable

DT to bid for Tele Columbus?

Deutsche Telekom may bid for regional cable company Tele Columbus – Germany’s third largest cable provider with 3.7 million connected households –  to shore up its position in its key home market against competition from rivals Liberty Global and Kabel Deutschland, according to  Reuters. By acquiring Tele Columbus, Deutsche Telekom would prevent it from falling […]

April 13, 2012

Liberty Global carriage deal for ESPN

Liberty Global’s European cable operations  in Germany (Unitymedia and Kabel BW), Netherlands (UPC), Austria (UPC) and Switzerland (upc cablecom) have reached agreements with ESPN for carriage of sports channels. With a combination of renewals and new launches, ESPN America HD, ESPN America and ESPN Classic will be available to European households that get their television […]

April 12, 2012

RESEARCH: W Europe digital TV conversion slows

Western Europe will not reach full digital TV penetration until 2017, despite penetration being as high as 85 per cent by end-2011, according to a new report from Digital TV Research (DTVR). In fact, only two of the 15 countries covered in the Digital TV Western Europe report had fully converted to digital by end-2011, […]

April 11, 2012

Corruption alleged in Aster Cable sale

Aster Cable, a failing cable company in the Dominican Republic, was recently sold via auction to Consorcio Energético Punta Cana-Macao (CEPM). CEPM paid US$27 million for the business, although most observers expected the sale to achieve around US$44 million. Aster had been in administration for the past three years. Now the local Justice and Transparency […]

April 11, 2012By Chris Forrester

Foxtel cleared for Austar acquisition

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will not oppose the proposed A$1.9 billion acquisition of Austar by Foxtel after accepting court-enforceable undertakings from Foxtel. Austar shareholders voted March 30 to approve the deal. “This is a great outcome for consumers because we will now be able to create a company of scale that will deliver […]

April 10, 2012

Asheridge Custom Headend Panel

Asheridge Communications is extending its reach further into operators Headends, with a range custom splitting and combining panels. Created during close consultations between Asheridge Engineers and operators, this range of high performance modular passives can be adapted to almost any configuration in the network.   Potential examples of applications are: test point, splitting and combining, […]

March 30, 2012

KDG to bid for Tele Columbus?

German cable network operator Kabel Deutschland is weighing up competitor Tele Columbus as a potential takeover target, German newspaper FAZ has reported. Kabel Deutschland are studying Tele Columbus’s accounts, the newspaper reports. Two years ago the company nearly collapsed under the burden of its debts but was able to continue following a partial debt waiver […]

March 26, 2012

US pay TV subs are cord-shaving

The evidence is mounting that even though cable TV customers are not cutting the cord en masse, they are cutting back. Research from Altman Vilandrie & Co, suggests that about 20 per cent of consumers now shave pay TV services, spending progressively less on their packages as more of what they want to watch becomes […]

March 23, 2012

Oprah struggles with OWN channel

Oprah Winfrey, not for the first time, is discovering that having your name above the station’s door is no guarantee of success. Her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) has been on air in the US since the start of last year, but losses continue.  Winfrey assumed the CEO and Chief Creative Officer role last summer. She […]

March 21, 2012By Chris Forrester