America's DirecTV and EchoStar are likely to see their customer growth fall significantly over the next five years, a new report from Pike Fischer suggests. The DTH providers, which together have more than 30 million subscribers, may be relying too heavily on their partnerships with telephone companies to gain new customers according to the report […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome From November 10, Italy's leading national broadcasters RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media will extend their digital transmissions to the entire island of Sardinia. DTT tests were launched in March in Cagliari which saw each of the three broadcasters transmitting one of their channels (Rai Due, Rete4 and Qoob) exclusively […]
Sky has announced details of its plans to offer broadband, telephone and digital terrestrial television services under a new brand to customers across the UK. It says the new business will operate under the Picnic brand and will offer customers a variety of flexible options to combine the services that they want. Sky claims key […]
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will lift television's share of the global advertising market to record levels next year, despite the medium losing market share in North America and parts of Europe, reports the global media buying and planning group ZenithOptimedia. According to Zenith's World Advertising Expenditure Forecast, worldwide television advertising spending in 2008 will […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s largest cable company ONO is the market leader in terms of audience ratings in the Spanish pay-TV market. The company pulled in an average share of 7.4 per cent in September, well ahead of Digital Plus, with 4.06 per cent, or Imagenio and other pay-TV operators, with 5.17 […]
Polish cable operator Multimedia Polska has launched the first VOD service in the country. The service is initially available in the cities of Gdynia, Kalisz, Lublin, Lódz, Olsztyn and Torun, which together account for around 90 per cent, or 450,000 homes, of its subscriber base. The library currently consists of 600 titles, though the total […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The booming IPTV market is boosting the growth of the pay-TV in Spain. Over the last year, pay-TV captured 275,000 new clients up to a total of 3.5 million pay-TV subscribers in the country, with a penetration rate of 22.3 per cent, according to the latest report produced by […]
Chellomedia, the European content division of Liberty Global, and HIT Entertainment, independent children's entertainment producer and rights owner, have confirmed a joint venture to launch an international pre-school TV channel. At the same time, Chellomedia has separately acquired JimJam, the leading pre-school channel, which is currently available in Italy on the Sky Italia platform. Together, […]
Modern Times Group (MTG) is restructuring the Viasat DTH satellite pay-TV offerings in Scandinavia. Viewers will now have more than 20 different options of how they structure their pay-TV channel packages. Subscribers will be able to choose between three thematic packages of broad entertainment channels, international documentary and news channels, and children's and music channels, […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome A total of 83 million households, out of a total of 166 million in 20 Western European countries, receive digital TV services, according to the latest survey conducted by the Milan-based e-Media Institute. At the end of June 2007, the number of families capable of receiving digital TV services represented […]