During last week’s unsuccessful court hearing in Johannesburg by a minority (0.7 per cent) shareholder of On Digital Media (ODM), it emerged that the court-appointed business rescue practitioner believed that the applicant, Atchuthanandan Nadaraja Moodley, was being deliberately funded by rivals in order to “ensure the business [of ODM] was permanently removed from the market”. […]
In a further setback for its business operations, US copyright officials have informed Internet TV streaming service Aereo that they do not consider it to be a ‘cable company’ under the terms of copyright law. Aereo suspended its operations June 28 following the Supreme Court copyright decision in favour of US broadcasters and has suggested […]
Mexico, along with most other Central and South American nations, is booming as far as pay-TV subscriptions are concerned. Sky Mexico, for example, has just reported that it has 6.36 million subscribers at the end of June, up an impressive 12.6 per cent year-on-year. Sky Mexico during its Q2 trading added a net 203,000 subs […]
Satellite TV provider Sky Italia heads the Italian TV market in revenue terms, ending 2013 with a turnover of €2.6 billion, a drop of 3.5 per cent on the previous year, according to the annual report of the Communications Authority (AgCom). The bulk of Sky Italia’s revenue came from pay-TV (€2.3 billion), accounting for a […]
The European Audiovisual Observatory has published the second volume of the 2013 edition of its Yearbook. This is the 19th edition of this reference publication and provides figures and analyses on the position of the European audiovisual industry on the global market, on the developments of distribution platforms, television services and on-demand audiovisual services and […]
In advance of fully-audited global viewing figures for the FIFA World Cup on the night of July 13th, TV broadcasters around the world have joined in celebrating an outstanding set of results from the tournament. The group matches had already set new TV records in a number of markets, from Belgium to the US. Sales […]
Chinese digital pay-TV firm StarTimes Media has confirmed a $80 million investment to set up the group’s Africa headquarters with a completion date set for the end of 2015. Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts and Culture Hassan Wario said the government remains committed to progressively easing the way of doing business in the country, […]
Virgin Media has unveiled its new ‘Season Ticket’ offer. Available to new and existing customers until the close of the transfer widow at the end of August, the Season Ticket gives ten months access to Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports 3, Sky Sports 4 and Sky Sports 5 for a one-off upfront […]
US Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) has urged key federal regulators to take a close look at AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV and determine if the deal is in consumers’ best interests. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), Franken asked the regulators to examine AT&T’s commitment to […]
July 25th sees BSkyB unveil its Q4 and end-of-year results. Investment banker Nomura expects modest quarterly growth in net subscribers by about 68,000 (80,000 same period last year) and churn to hold steady at some 11 per cent and close to the previous quarter. Nomura’s media analyst Matthew Walker is forecasting lower broadband growth than […]