Fears have emerged that the peak funding of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia could balloon beyond A$44 billion, as construction companies urged the government to pare back the reach of its ambitious fibre footprint so it can meet its budget. The warnings follow a tumultuous week inside NBN headquarters in which a number […]
Vice is preparing to announce investment partnerships with Tom Freston, MTV’s co-founder; WPP, the giant media conglomerate; and the Raine Group, a boutique investment firm. To help it expand, Vice has also enlisted William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and its chief executive, Ari Emanuel, to represent the company. “We’ve kind of been on the periphery for […]
The BBC World Service is to receive a “significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and Internet services in countries including Iran and China. In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that […]
RGB Networks, the expert in high-capacity multi-screen video delivery solutions, has been recognised by The Wall Street Journal as one of America’s “50 most promising venture-backed companies” in its second annual Next Big Thing list. RGB did very well in this year’s ranking, beating over 5,000 contenders to place thirteenth overall. The 50 companies on […]
TiVo shares fell back 3.4 per cent (to $8.75) after telling shareholders that it was offering $120 million in convertible senior notes to investment institutions. The notes are due 2016. Worryingly for shareholders, TiVo said it would use the fresh cash for R&D but also to fund its ongoing litigation and challenges to its intellectual […]
Web-TV company Boxee has secured a new round of financing for $16.5 million in Series C financing from both new and existing investors. New investors include Tel Aviv-based Pitango Venture Capital and New York-based SoftBank Capital. Pitango’s managing general partner Isaac Hillel will also join Boxee’s board of directors. Previous investors in Boxee include Spark […]
Italian pay-DTT broadcaster Dahlia TV is off-air as new investors failed to materialise a month after it entered liquidation. A statement on the company’s website announced: “Dahlia TV and his team are sorry to report that, despite all the efforts made in recent months to offer the best service and repay the trust its own […]
Motorola Mobility Ventures, the investment arm of Motorola Mobility Holdings, is to make a strategic investment in Catch Media, the provider of a patented licensed digital rights locker platform – Play Anywhere. Catch Media’s patented registry, tracking, routing and clearinghouse technology, together with its post-acquisition licence, provides retailers, carriers and consumer electronics vendors the ability […]
Vivendi is claiming a major legal victory after a US judge limited the number of shareholders who can pursue it over alleged false financial statements relating to the Seagram / Canal Plus merger in 2000. The company said the decision would reduce the damages it could potentially face by 80 per cent from a figure […]
CTIA – The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) have submitted a white paper to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) demonstrating that the auction of 120 MHz of under-utilised broadcast television spectrum will produce more than $33 billion in net proceeds for the US Treasury. In addition to providing the US government with […]