Virgin Media has spent $300 million on buying in and cancelling its own NYSE-issued stock. On November 11th the $300 million was issued to Goldman Sachs as part of Virgin’s capital return scheme. This purchase is part of a Board-approved plan to spend a total of £875 million (about $1.4bn) on buying back its own […]
Telefonica has signed a strategic partnership with Quantenna Communications, a specialist in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi networking for whole home entertainment. The partnership sees Telefonica making a strategic equity investment in Quantenna which gives it access to the latest Quantenna technology for the deployment of high performance video services to the home. Quantenna has the networking expertise […]
Spanish telcos, pay-TV operators and TV broadcasters will have to pay more to cover RTVE’s losses. The Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has ruled that the funds already provided do not meet the approved legal taxes on revenues of 0.9 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively imposed on those players to finance […]
UK VoD service SeeSaw appears to have closed for good, following an initial planned closure in June. The company’s website simply says: “Thanks for your support but SeeSaw is no longer available.” Broadcast transmission infrastructure specialist Arqiva, which acquired the aborted Project Kangaroo from it founding partners BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, put […]
The European Commission has proposed to spend almost €9.2 billion from 2014 to 2020 on pan-European projects to give EU citizens and businesses access to high-speed broadband networks and the services that run on them. The funding, part of the proposed Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), would take the form of both equity and debt instruments […]
Cable Europe, the association for Europe’s MSOs was swift to react to Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ recommendation to the European Parliament that €9 billion be spent on broadband infrastructure between 2014 and 2020 through the Connecting Europe Facility. Caroline Van Weede, Managing Director, Cable Europe says: “There is a case for state aid funding to make […]
The future of the US cartoon series The Simpsons is in doubt after 20th Century Fox Television said it could no longer afford to produce the show without its voice actors taking a huge pay cut. US reports say the company wants 45 per cent pay cuts. “We believe this brilliant series can and should […]
PCCW in Hong Kong is looking to raise as much as 10bn Hong Kong dollars ($1.3bn) in a share sale. The company said it was planning to spin off its telecom unit into a publicly traded trust. A major slice of the money raised will be used to pay off the firm’s debts. “The directors […]
Kabel Deutschland says it will buy in some $60 million-worth of its own stock, in the period beginning today September 19 and ending January 31st. The shares will be cancelled. Based on K-D’s closing price of €37.58 as at last Wednesday, the decision would mean about 1.8 per cent of K-D’s outstanding share capital would […]
SeeSaw, the UK VoD service, has yet to receive the investment promised as part of its spin-off to Criterion Partners from Arqiva – and platform controller John Keeling, commercial director Matt Rennie and product director Richard Dines all quit yesterday. Criterion acquired a majority of SeeSaw from Arqiva this summer, but investment promised by Weston […]