The UK House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has endorsed the appointment of Lord (Terry) Burns as the new Chair of Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, following a hearing before the DCMS members. Burns, the Government’s preferred candidate for the role, will replace Dame Patricia Hodgson in January 2018. It is a […]
Samsung Electronics and Amazon Prime Video have confirmed that the entire Prime Video HDR library is now available in HDR10+, the new open standard that leverages dynamic metadata to produce enhanced contrast and colours on an expanded range of televisions. The Prime Video HDR10+ catalogue includes hundreds of hours of content such as Prime Originals […]
Spanish private TV Association UTECA is set to ask Cellnex, an Abertis subsidiary, to reduce the high bill it pays for the distribution of DTT channels – above all for small DTT operators. The Association is finalising a proposal to be submitted to Cellnex to change the calculation of the DTT fee to a fixed […]
It has been reported that Permira-backed Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is involved in a major argument with South Korea’s government over KoreaSat-3/ABS-7. ABS announced it had “bought” KoreaSat-3 on May 24th 2010 from Korea Telecom (KT). Specialty trade news-site Space Intel Report says that ABS was fearful in 2013 that its plans to buy KoreaSat-3 […]
Troubled satellite operator Avanti Communications has restructured a considerable portion of its debt, converted the bulk into equity and at the same time extending its borrowings. The new refinancing is a classic ‘debt for equity’ deal, Working capital improves but at a much lower rate of interest (from 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent). […]
PBS America, the British TV channel from America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has launched on Freeview channel 94. The announcements marks Freeview’s 12th and final channel launch of 2017. Since launching in the UK, PBS America has carved out a niche in factual programming, including showcasing the American public service broadcaster’s multi-award-winning Nova, Frontline and […]
The move by the Walt Disney Co to acquire much of the Murdoch family’s 21st Century Fox movie-to-TV empire very much looks like happening this week. The deal has been valued as costing Disney some $60 billion (€51bn). Comcast dropped out of the rumoured bidding process for Fox on December 10th. Various sources say the […]
TiVo has released the 19th edition of its quarterly Video Trends Report, covering key topics across pay-TV, OTT, TV network apps, streaming devices, smart home devices, and content discovery. Based on a survey of over 3,000 consumers, the report illuminates many insights, including: 1. The Future of Pay-TV According to Consumers – As the video […]
Data from analyst firm Juniper Research has found that SVoD services, provided by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, will drive a surge in OTT revenues to reach $120 billion (€102bn) in 2022, up from $64 billion in 2017. The research also found that over a quarter of global households will subscribe to SVoD services […]
The vice president and managing director of Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, has proposed the introduction of an advertising cap on its main rival, public broadcaster RAI. In an interview for daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, he pointed out that RAI is a “hybrid” broadcaster, living off both the TV licence fee and […]