RTL Group has reported half year to June revenue up 3.4 per cent to €2.751 billion, reflecting higher TV advertising revenues in key territories plus growing revenue from FremantleMedia. First-half EBITA was up 3.7 per cent to €557 million, reaching its highest level yet, mainly driven by higher profit contributions from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, Groupe […]
Pay TV providers are preparing to offer viewers premium VOD offerings new releases expected to cost $25-$30 and showing about two months after a movie’s theater premiere and two months before release to DVD, premium channels (such as HBO), and video services (such as Netflix). Premium VOD is one of a handful of new […]
Spanish pay-TV platform Digital Plus has put an end to its pay-per-view live sports offer and has increased instead the number of football matches broadcast on its premium channel Canal Plus to 22 matches per season from 16. The platform has also launched a new channel, Canal Plus Liga 2, with four football matches each […]
The French administration is considering delaying the launch of new DTT channels in order to introduce the DVB-T2 standard offering more bandwidth efficiency and bringing France into line with the UK and Italy. The Ministry of Industry has told Brussels it may bring in the new standard, says the French press. It will mean a […]
UK pay TV revenues are fast reaching maturity, so operators must find other revenue streams to ensure growth, according to a new report from Digital TV Research. UK pay TV revenues are forecast to reach US$9.3 billion in 2011, up by US$3.3 billion on 2006. However, revenues are only expected to climb by another US$250 […]
Reversing previous declines in market share, iTunes in the first half of 2010 managed to extend its leadership position in the US online movie market, according to the new IHS Screen Digest Media Research analysis provider IHS iTunes’ share of US consumer spending for movie electronic sell-through (EST) and Internet video on demand (iVOD) rose […]
Iran has launched ‘Hispan TV’, a global satellite news channel that is initially beaming its content to Latin America and in particular to Venezuela and the other Latino countries some of which have close political ties with Iran. BBC Monitoring is reporting that Hispan TV is part of the state-funded Press TV operation which […]
If you restrict legal access to your content does that increase piracy? Yes, says TorrentFreak revealing that since Fox Network restricted its shows to an eight-day catch up on Hulu and Fox.com, illegal downloads of those shows has more than doubled. The torrent news Web site tracked several popular Fox shows–including Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef–on […]
Greek telco OTE is defying the country’s economic crisis and going ahead with plans for a new pay TV offer via satellite in September. The Conn-X satellite TV offering will be cheaper than the current package from rival Nova, currently available on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird satellite position at 13° East. The OTE Conn-X bouquet will […]
Miramax is set to become the latest film studio to sell movies on Facebook, with a movie rental app on the social network. Users will also be able to watch the movies on an iPad through a browser-based player, with Miramax suggesting that a stand alone iPad app could come later. Miramax eXperience will open […]