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Pay TV

Analyst: 22% US homes non-pay-TV users

According to a report from analyst firm The Diffusion Group, the proportion of US broadband households not subscribing to a Legacy Pay-TV (LPTV) service has more than doubled in the past five years. In 2011, 9 per cent of the 85 million US broadband households qualified as Cord Nils (literally, ‘zero’ use of TV services […]

March 15, 2017

Africa pay-TV revenue to reach $6bn in 2021

According to data from Dataxis for the year ending 2016, Africa pay-TV subscribers stand at approximately 18.7 million subscribers which represent an increase of approximately 2 million subscribers compared to the previous year. Out of the 18.7 million subscribers, 14 million are DTH subscribers and the remaining represent mostly pay DTT with limited cable and […]

March 13, 2017

OSN adds 14 online channels

Dubai-based pay-TV operator is adding 14 live-streaming channels to its OSN Play ‘catch-up’ system. It takes the total to 32 channels and OSN says they will be more before this year is out. The move is another key ‘added value’ service for OSN, increasingly challenged by the MENA region’s OTT players. Moreover, the channels can […]

March 13, 2017By Chris Forrester

US pay-TV providers shed 1m subs in 2016

The top 10 television service providers in the US lost 937,000 television customers between them in 2016, according to the informitv Multiscreen Index. They collectively account for 88.69 million television customers. So that represents an annual subscriber loss of 1.05 per cent. Yet the number of television subscribers to the top 10 services actually rose […]

March 10, 2017

Leonardi takes Mediaset Premium helm

Mediaset has appointed Marco Leonardi as the new CEO of its under-performing pay-TV unit, Mediaset Premium. Leonardi, who currently holds the title of head of acquisition and sales rights at Mediaset, will replace Franco Ricci, who is leaving the company. Mediaset said the appointment is “part of its strategy of making the Mediaset Premium offering […]

March 10, 2017

CTA: Streaming viewers equal pay-TV subs

For the first time ever, the percentage of free or paid streaming video subscribers in the US (68 per cent) has caught up to the number of paid TV subscribers (67 per cent), according to research from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). The study, The Changing Landscape for Video and Content, also shows

March 9, 2017

Fox: “Government media plurality report flawed”

21st Century Fox has described officials at the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as being “simplistic” in their analysis of the potential impact of Fox’s bid to take over the 61 per cent of Sky that it does not already own, suggesting the basis for some of their initial findings was “seriously flawed”. […]

March 9, 2017By Colin Mann

TiVo: US consumers push back on pay-TV prices

TiVo has released the 16th edition of its quarterly Video Trends Report, covering key topics across pay-TV, VoD, PPV, OTT, TV Everywhere, streaming devices and content discovery. Based on a survey of over 3,100 consumers,

March 8, 2017

BT defends Euro football exclusivity

John Petter, CEO of BT’s Consumer division, has defended the telco’s securing of exclusive UK rights to Europe’s top club football competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. Currently, free-to-air broadcaster ITV shows highlights of Champions league games, with News Limited sharing clips rights with BT. Under the £1.2 billion (€1.38), three-year […]

March 8, 2017By Colin Mann

Kwesé TV brings ESPN back to Africa

Econet Media’s Kwesé Sports and ESPN has launched the ESPN channel on the Kwesé TV bouquet. This collaboration with Africa’s emerging home of premium sports marks the much anticipated return of ESPN to the African continent. The channel comes after the announcement of the long-term agreement between the two sports broadcasting powerhouses which confirmed Kwesé […]

March 8, 2017