Advanced Television

Pay TV

iPad: Sky News fee, BBC 2m streams, Time Warner overwhelmed

The iPad, and the PC tablets that follow in its wake, are hitting the top of broadcaster agendas. Sky News has announced the launch of its first iPad app. For now it is free but will be restricted to Sky subscribers later in the year. “Sky subscribers will get it as part of their package, […]

March 17, 2011

US pay sector reverses subs loss

The US multichannel sector succeeded in reversing two consecutive quarters of video subscriber losses to achieve positive net adds in the fourth-quarter 2010. The combined gain of 65,000 customers, though weaker than year-ago results, helped boost the industry to a full-year increase of 211,000 customers, according to SNL Kagan estimates of total US video subscribers […]

March 16, 2011

NDS extends contract with DirecTV

NDS has renewed its agreement with DirecTV, the US satellite pay-TV operator, to continue to deliver STB software and DVR technology to DirecTV US and DirecTV Latin America through January 2016. The contract sees the extension of the relationship between NDS and DirecTV to supply set-top box software across the platform, originally established in 2005. […]

March 16, 2011

Viaccess for NTV-PLUS

Viaccess is providing its scalable and flexible advanced content protection and rights management solution to NTV-PLUS as the satellite provider enters the IPTV market. NTV-PLUS, the first DTH provider and leader of pay TV market in Russia will deliver IPTV services aimed at Russian broadband operators. Partnering with Viaccess, NTV-PLUS will address both IPTV and […]

March 16, 2011

ESPN study shows zero loss to cord cutters

Just 0.18 per cent of US households “cut the cord” between the fourth quarter 2010 and first quarter 2011, according to ESPN analysis of Nielsen households. This study defines “cord-cutters” as multichannel homes with a high-speed Internet connection that drop their cable/telco/satellite subscriptions, but retain their broadband connection to watch television. The current rate of […]

March 15, 2011

MSOs are most profitable media companies

In a study on the growth and profitability of the media and entertainment industry released by Ernst & Young, cable operators showed the highest profitability among all media and entertainment sectors, and interactive media was the fastest growing sector within the industry. The report also reveals that, despite current perceptions, the media and entertainment industry […]

March 15, 2011

Sky Deutschland and Tele Columbus triple play

Sky Deutschland and Tele Columbus have agreed to expand their existing cooperation and make the Sky packages available in an attractive Triple Play offering. With this, the Tele Columbus customers have easy access to Sky programming: the joint offer comprises a 6 MBit Internet-and telephone flat rate, Tele Columbus basic digital TV package and the […]

March 15, 2011

Pay-TV grows 15.2% in Venezuela

At the end of 2010, pay-TV, either via cable or satellite, grew 15.2 per cent (333,000) over the year in Venezuela and reached a total of 2.52 million homes. Some 37 per cent of all Venezuelan homes now subscribe to pay-TV. The subscriber base grew from 2,192,519 in December 2009 to 2,526,050 in 2010. In […]

March 11, 2011By Chris Forrester

News Corp: “We don’t have to do [Sky] deal”

In the opening skirmish of the ‘spin wars’ that will characterise negotiations, Chase Carey, Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man at News Corp, told delegates at Deutsche Bank’s Media & Telecoms conference that while News Corp wanted to do the deal to buy the remaining 61 per cent in BSkyB that it did not already own, but […]

March 8, 2011By Chris Forrester

BSkyB: “Fair price is £9.50”

Fidelity Investments, one of the smaller investors in BSkyB, says a fair price for its holdings would be 950p (€1.1) a share, and letting it be known that News Corp should dig deeper into its pockets and pay a big premium over the offer price of 700p already on the table. BSkyB’s share price was […]

March 7, 2011By Chris Forrester