Advanced Television

FTA

Research: ABC tops ‘Must Keep’ TV brands

ABC is back on top as the leading ‘must keep’ TV brand in the US and even potential cord-cutters have their list of networks and cable channels they can’t do without, according to the latest edition of  Solutions Research Group’s ‘Must Keep TV’ report. The fourth edition of the independent tracking survey is based on […]

May 16, 2011

Murdoch exercises Rotana option

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has boosted its stake in Arabic music-to-films broadcaster Rotana Media Group. A year ago, News Corp bought nine per cent of Rotana, which is owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed, and with that purchase struck a deal which gave News Corp an option to double its stake within 18 months. News […]

May 16, 2011By Chris Forrester

Ads power ITV upwards, player goes mobile

An interim statement from ITV reveals revenues up 11 per cent in Q1 to £500 million (€569m) driven by the strong advertising market with its take up 12 per cent, ahead of the market growth of 10 per cent. Viewing figures were also up, 3 per cent on ITV 1 and 11 per cent across […]

May 11, 2011

F1 chief: Pay-TV suicidal

Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has warned Grand Prix teams that it would be “suicidal” for them if the sport moved to News Corporation’s subscription channels as part of a takeover deal. According to Ecclestone, who holds the sport’s commercial rights, teams would lose huge sponsorship interest if coverage was no longer on mass […]

May 9, 2011By Colin Mann

Uruguay has 500,000 pay-TV subs

According to official numbers from Uruguay’s communications regulator, the nation had 491,000 pay-TV subs at the end of last year, up 9.5 per cent on 2009. This represents a 36.5 per cent penetration. Clarin Group-owned cable outfit Cablevision has a 25 per cent market share in the city of Montevideo, although only about 10 per […]

May 4, 2011By Chris Forrester

Don’t write off TV just yet!

The expectation from ‘cord cutters’ that TV can be safely dispensed with seem at best premature, and at worst foolish, especially if last Friday’s Royal Wedding are any guide. Yahoo gleefully reported that 40,000 requests per second were being made for footage of William and Kate. That’s a praiseworthy number, and as far as Yahoo […]

May 2, 2011By Chris Forrester

News Corp eyes F1

News Corp is understood to be considering joining a consortium bid for Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, reports the Financial Times, quoting people familiar with the matter. The sport has been owned since 2005 by CVC Capital Partners. Although there has been no indication that the private equity group is looking to sell, there […]

April 20, 2011By Colin Mann

Live stream hole in BBC licensing

The BBC will be disappointed that its launch of an iPlayer app for iPad and Android was firstly leaked by its own staff and has now been overshadowed in the press by reports that it has no way of stopping licence fee evaders watching live TV on their devices. A report in The Telegraph points […]

February 10, 2011

Comcast completes NBCU deal

Comcast Corporation and General Electric have closed their transaction to create a joint venture, NBCUniversal, LLC. Under the terms of the transaction, GE contributed to the joint venture NBC Universal, Inc.’s businesses, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks, and unconsolidated investments. Comcast contributed its cable networks, including E!, Versus and the […]

January 31, 2011

New technologies help boost TV viewing

UK commercial broadcasters’ marketing body Thinkbox has revealed that live, linear TV viewing figures in the UK for 2010 were the highest since records began. According to new figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB), in 2010 the average TV viewer watched 28 hours, 15 minutes of live, linear TV a week (4 hours, […]

January 27, 2011By Colin Mann