A number of the six major film studios named by the European Commission as having licensing agreements with Sky UK that may be in breach of EU competition rules have responded to the EC’s ‘Statement of Objections’, with Disney saying the impact of the Commission’s analysis was “destructive of consumer value”, and confirming it would […]
AT&T lost 22,000 U-verse TV subscribers in Q2, compared to 190,000 net adds in the same quarter a year ago. The US telco, which ended Q2 with 5.97 million video subs, blamed typical “seasonality” over cord-cutting, alongside the decision to target promotions to more profitable, higher-value subscribers. “On the U-verse video side, the first point […]
In a further consolidation of the Spanish cable market, Basque Country-based operator Euskaltel has bought Galician R Cable for €1.155 billion to create a large regional cable group in the north of Spain – with the companies retaining their own brands – with a network of 725,000 km and over 715,000 subscribers. Euskaltel has offered […]
Discovery Communications is to acquire full ownership of sports broadcaster Eurosport for €491 million from TF1 Group, which has announced it will exercise a put option on its 49 per cent ownership stake as part of the companies’ previous 2012 agreement. “Discovery Communications is excited to expand and deepen our investment in Eurosport as we […]
MTG, the Nordic pay-TV broadcaster, saw sales of SEK1.49 billion (€159m) in the second quarter, up 3 per cent year-on-year. EBIT was flat at SEK185 million. Pay-TV in the emerging markets saw revenue growth of 12 per cent to SEK303 due in part to the consolidation of Trace, which helped lift wholesale mini-pay channel sales […]
India’s Videocon d2h pay-TV operator has upped the number of HD channels to 37. It has added Star Movies Select HD and Fox Life HD to its existing portfolio. Videocon d2h says this part of a drive to boost its HD offerings to 50 channels “shortly”. “We have been relentless in our pursuit to gratify […]
Americans are eschewing cable and satellite service in favour of a variety of ‘Over The Top’ video options according to a new survey that shows nearly half of consumers already using streaming video service such as Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime and Hulu. The Zogby Analytics survey commissioned by CALinnovates,
India’s Bharti Airtel Digital TV intends making more of its own set-top boxes. The plan is to support the nation’s ‘Make in India’ project and to make goods and products locally in order to save imports and the duties on imported boxes. Shashi Arora, CEO, DTH/Media, Bharti Airtel said: “We are proud to partner with […]
BT has announced details of its new BT TV Ultra HD package, which includes Europe’s very first live sports Ultra HD (4K) channel, BT Sport Ultra HD, and the company’s new BT TV Ultra HD set top box. The new channel will launch with its first live broadcast being the FA Community Shield match at […]
UK comms regulator Ofcom has outlined the challenges facing the UK in ensuring that consumers and businesses receive high-quality digital communications services over the next decade and beyond. Among the issues to be addressed are bundled media services offered over different platforms by the same operator which may present risks to competition. Ofcom’s Strategic Review […]