Advanced Television

Broadcast

TV advertising gloom ahead

Just when European TV broadcasters thought the advertising downturn was well and truly over, it seems there may be rocky times ahead. A report from investment bankers Morgan Stanley suggests that March ad-sales bookings were poor, and the forward inventory of sold ad-minutes looks increasingly shaky for some players. “There has been little detail on […]

May 5, 2011By Chris Forrester

Brazil wins 650,000 new pay-TV subs

Brazil’s National Telecoms Agency says the nation’s Q1 pay-TV numbers grew by a net 650,000, of which 243,000 signed up in March. Most of these new pay-TV viewers were captured by DTH satellite (548,000 for DTH, 121,000 for cable).  There was a loss of some 19,000 from MMDS systems. Satellite now has a 48.2 per […]

May 5, 2011By Chris Forrester

Netflix: A war with cable would kill us

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings fears that getting too large will start “an Armageddon” with cable networks. Hastings talked about Netflix’s “niche” philosophy of staying “not too big, not too small” — in a discussion at the Wired Business Conference in New York City. “We’ve consistently said getting into current season TV or newer movies would […]

May 4, 2011

Warner Bros buys Flixster

Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group is to acquire Flixster, a movie discovery application company with over 25 million worldwide users per month. The acquisition also includes Rotten Tomatoes, a website devoted to film reviews, information and news. Under the terms of the deal, Flixster will continue to operate independently and will expand its services beyond […]

May 4, 2011

Spain to finance DTT retuning

The Ministry of Industry is to devote €800 million to finance DTT retuning following the re-allocation of DTT multiplexes’ frequencies as a result of the so-called digital dividend. That amount will be allocated from the public tenders to allocate the digital dividend with which the Government plans to collect between €1.5 billion to €2 billion. […]

May 4, 2011From David Del Valle in Madrid

Just 39,000 cut Comcast cord as NBCU consolidated

Comcast lost 39,000 cable television subscribers in the first quarter as its video subscriber count slipped to 22.76 million, similar to that of Netflix which recently achieved 22.8 million US customers. The three per cent dip in overall video subscribers was less than analysts expected and marked the company’s narrowest loss in years. It came […]

May 4, 2011

Time Warner profit sinks on box office bombs

Time Warner announced lower first quarter profits despite higher revenues from its TV business because of lower earnings at is movie unit. Net income was $653 million down 10 per cent from $725 million a year ago. Revenues rose 6 per cent to $6.7 billion. Advertising revenues were up 20 per cent, driven by a […]

May 4, 2011

Google on TV

Google is making a very rare move into advertising on TV. The ads, in the US, are for its Chrome browser. It believes that people who use its Chrome Web browser will be more likely to keep using Google search. The 90-second ads show off Chrome, which it introduced in 2008. “As people look for […]

May 4, 2011

Major glitch for new Intelsat

Intelsat’s ‘New Dawn’ satellite launched April 22 but has a major in-orbit problem. One of a pair of C-Band reflector antennas has failed to open. Intelsat has decided to pause an attempt to open the second antenna while attempts are made to dislodge the jammed device. New Dawn is intended to serve Africa. Unfortunately, this […]

May 4, 2011By Chris Forrester

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