TV advertising revenue in the UK totalled £5.27 billion (€6.76bn) in 2015, up 7.4 per cent on 2014, according to full year revenue figures provided to Thinkbox – the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK – by the UK commercial TV broadcasters. This is the sixth consecutive year that TV advertising revenue has […]
Last week’s Dish Network results tended to focus on founder Charlie Ergen’s statement that pay-TV was now a mature market. Indeed, overall his US pay-TV service Dish Network lost some 81,000 subscribers. But there’s an upside to the story. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Ergen’s new baby, Dish’s Sling TV ‘pay-TV lite’ streaming […]
Australian pay-TV operator Foxtel is planning to launch a TV streaming device in an effort to compete more effectively with OTT players such as Netflix. Any such initiative would pitch Foxtel against Telstra TV, the service owned by Foxtel’s 50 per cent shareholder Telstra. Foxtel’s other shareholder is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (Twenty-First Century Fox, […]
The six leading pay-TV services in the US gained 125,000 subscribers overall in the last quarter of 2015 but the informitv Multiscreen Index shows that they collectively lost 781,000 subscribers over the year: i.e. less than 1 per cent of their subscriber base. While 4 of the 6 leading services lost television subscribers over the […]
Canal+ and beIN SPORTS have confirmed they are in detailed talks to establish a partnership in the form of an exclusive distribution agreement. Under this agreement, all beIN SPORTS channels in France would be available through CANAL+ offers exclusively. It would cover a five-year period. Canal+ notes that the media sector in France has seen […]
As anticipated, the US’s Federal Communications Commission has approved a new rule that would allow consumers to swap cable set-top boxes for less expensive devices in what is seen as a major blow to cable operators who had lobbied vociferously against the proposed rulemaking. The 3-2 vote in favour was split along party lines. “Technology […]
Mediaset is not in talks with French media group Vivendi over a sale of the Italian broadcaster’s pay-TV unit, according to a Reuters report. Some Italian newspapers reported on Friday that Vivendi had been discussing a possible deal to acquire Mediaset Premium. But a Mediaset source told Reuters “No talks, nothing new”, adding excellent relations […]
Verizon is re-organising its “FiOS Custom TV” offer, launched last year, that lets viewers choose bundles of channels. The revamped offer has a choice of one of two packages with over 100 channels and three optional genre-specific packs, instead of a slim offering of 36 channels plus numerous a la carte add-ons. The first new […]
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications says the country is likely to have between 19 and 22 4K channels on air by 2018. Some Japanese broadcasters, notably JSAT’s SkyPerfecTV, are already transmitting UHD programming. The Ministry says that these 4K channels are a precursor to the even higher quality 8K ‘Super Hi Vision’ broadcasts […]
Vodafone Spain is breaking into the ADSL, XDSL and VDSL market with the launch of a new TV service next month in direct competition with Telefónica. The new TV service will be similar to that available to all its subscribers via fibre optic at the same cost. The company will distribute a new device compatible […]