Advanced Television

Digital Radio

Spotify premium subs up 40%

Spotify, the music streaming service, has reported its Q2 results. The company said the quarter was largely in line with expectations, with some metrics performing at the high end of its guidance range. In a statement, Spotify said: “We finished the quarter with 180 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) and 83 million Premium Subscribers, up […]

July 27, 2018

SiriusXM increases numbers

Pay-radio operator SiriusXM has had a good Q2 adding almost a half-million net new subscribers during the year and seeing churn reach its lowest-ever rate. “Self-pay subscribers exceeded 28 million for the first time ever, and our total paid subscriber base reached a record 33.5 million. There is, without a doubt, a tailwind from the […]

July 26, 2018By Chris Forrester

Wimbledon audio streaming a success

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), hosts of The Wimbledon Tennis Championships, has streamed live audio coverage of matches to social media for the first time, registering almost 750,000 views and generating direct engagement with just under 60,000 fans. The Wimbledon Radio Channel, Wimbledon’s live radio broadcast of The Championships, produced by IMG and […]

July 26, 2018

WorldDAB Aftermarket Devices Working Group

WorldDAB has created a new Working Group, focused on the performance and user experience of aftermarket devices for DAB+ in the car. The Aftermarket Devices Working Group (ADWG) brings together broadcasters, device and antenna manufacturers, plus experts from the automotive industry, in an important collaboration for digital radio in the car. The chairman of the […]

July 26, 2018

Italian media market worth €14.75bn

The Italian media sector in 2017 achieved a turnover of €14.75 billion, down 0.9 per cent year-on-year, with TV and radio contributing €8.95 billion (-2 per cent). In the TV segment, revenues from free-to-air TV reached €4.93 billion (-3.5 per cent), while pay-TV was worth €3.38 billion (-0.2 per cent), the later dominated by Sky […]

July 13, 2018From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Naspers/Tencent to spin-off music business

Tencent, China’s largest social media and gaming business, is to spin off its music division (Tencent Music Entertainment).  South Africa’s media conglomerate Naspers owns 31 per cent of Tencent. The announcement, made in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, said there would be an initial public offering and subsequent reports suggest that the […]

July 12, 2018By Chris Forrester

EBU welcomes must-carry Code provisions

The EBU has welcomed a vote in the European Parliament vote that will update existing must-carry rules and provide for a wider choice of free-to-air radio content while on the move. The vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) formally endorsed a political deal in trilogue on a new EU […]

July 11, 2018

Kagan: Gray-Raycom deal boosts US broadcast M&A

US broadcast station mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volume reached $5.11 billion (€4.38bn) in the second quarter of 2018, as tracked by Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is the largest quarterly deal volume since the second quarter of 2007. Ninety-eight per cent of the volume ($5.01 billion) is attributable to […]

July 4, 2018

YouTube launches paid services in UK

YouTube has launched two new streaming services – YouTube Music and YouTube Premium – in the UK and 12 other new countries. YouTube Music will enable users to listen to tracks as well as watch music videos and discover new artists through a new standalone app. A Music Premium subscription will cost £9.99 a month […]

June 19, 2018

DAB+ accelerates in France

After Paris, Marseille and Nice, DAB+ is now available in Lille and in the Hauts-de-France region with the launch of 51 stations. On-air radio is continuing its transition to digital, as part of the trend in Europe. This is an ambitious national deployment plan being driven by the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA – Superior […]

June 19, 2018