Investors embraced China Digital TV Holding Co.’s IPO last week, more than doubling the value of the company’s shares in the first hour of trading. After opening at a high of $37.50, well over double the IPO price of $16 per share, the stock has traded only as low as $29.04. China Digital provides conditional […]
Sky is calling a halt to new channels on its platform in a move that is bound to lead to bidding battles between companies seeking valuable slots on its electronic programming guide (EPG). Sky has said that it will “cease to take further applications for places in the EPG launch queue” and will proceed with […]
From David del Valle in Madrid According to Pro DTT Association, Impulsa TDT, in September more than 330,000 DTT devices were sold in the country reaching up to a total of 6,111,859 units, with sales in the first eight months of the year similar to those in the whole 2006. Spaniards prefer the Integrated Digital […]
Research by Attentional into the viewing habits of Sky+ subscribers suggests owners of digital TV recorders watch less television. Attentional says people-meters used by viewing measurement panels show they actually watch less TV. “Sky+ users are lighter viewers than the average Sky viewer, they tend to be relatively prosperous and such people simply watch less […]
Ofcom has wasted no time getting out its consultation on Sky's pay-TV on Freeview plans. Ofcom said the Sky proposal would increase choice and availability of pay-TV services on the platform, but it could block other providers of pay-TV from operating on Freeview, which has limited capacity, while strengthening Sky's dominance of the pay-TV market […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome In order to boost the transition to digital terrestrial, Italy's Communications Ministry passed a new decree linked to the 2008 Budget. It establishes that the last analogue TV set in Italy will be sold in June 2009, although manufacturers will have to stop supplying analogue TV sets to distributers by […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s dominant telco Telefonica is making a full-frontal assault on the pay-TV market in the last quarter of the year. The company is launching an enhanced version of its IPTV service Imagenio, with the addition of new channels -planning to reach 200 by year end-, including a HDTV service, […]
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 […]