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 […]
Technicolor, one of the main suppliers named as a provider of STBs for YouView has pulled out of the supply deal. The French manufacturer, the world’s number three by units sold, was slated as a supplier of budget STBs. Technicolor hasn’t said why it is dropping the deal, though producing at the cost required to […]
A newly-released SNL Kagan study reveals that 2010 was similar to 2009 in that the domestic box office hit a record high, once again, while the domestic video retail market was continuing its steady decline. Consumers are now opting to sign up for streaming and/or rental services, like Netflix. They are using VoD services more […]
The market’s view of SES’ May 12 results remains positive despite the potential inventory of more than 20 unsold transponders currently used to beam analogue channels to German viewers. There are also a few slippages in the upcoming six-satellite additions to the SES fleet this year. Indeed, investment bankers Morgan Stanley, in a note to […]
Weak first-quarter results at Telefonica showed the damage of the stagnant economy in Spain, with the numbers rescued by strong performance in Latin America. And worldwide the group added 9 per cent to its pay-TV subscriber base – 2.865 million compared to 2.613 million last March. Overall the group had a 2 per cent fall […]
Dish Network, the second- largest US satellite-television provider, is considering a video-on-demand service to offer Hollywood movies about eight weeks after they’re released, said an executive. The service would likely have terms “similar” to those of DirecTV, including a price tag of about $30, according to Tom Cullen, a Dish executive vice president. DirecTV, the […]
Western Europe posted over 182 million TV households at end-2010, 40 per cent of which are watching TV via terrestrial platforms, 27 per cent via cable and about 26 per cent through satellite, either free-to-air or through paid subscription. The IPTV subscriber base represented about 7 per cent of the total base. InfoCom expects that […]
Samsung has partnered with the UK’s Five to put the broadcaster’s catch-up TV app Five On Demand in its app store on Samsung Smart TVs. According to Samsung, Five is the first in a new range of partners including broadcasters, retailers and holiday companies that will be imminently announced for the Smart TV platform. The […]
World soccer’s governing bodies FIFA and UEFA have appealed against a European ruling that the World Cup and European Championships must be on free-to-air TV in the UK. In February, the European Court ruled the UK could keep the events on a of “a protected list” of events shown for free. It means the two […]
The German pay-TV provider added 73,000 new customers in the first three months of 2011, taking its total subs base to 2,726,000 for the end of March, up from 2,471,000 a year earlier and a step on the way to its challenging 3m target by this next year. Q1 revenues grew 15% YonY to €269.6 […]