Advanced Television

Funding

BBC ups arts and music investment

The BBC is reshaping its arts and music content teams and upping investements to drive bigger reach and impact across the UK. BBC Two will increase its resources for arts and music, whilst BBC Four becomes the home of arts and music performance and will bring together collections of distinctive content from the BBC’s archive. […]

March 26, 2021

MPs: ‘Government has no options on licence fee’

The Government’s failure to enable a viable and alternative form of funding for the BBC means it will be forced to rely on the TV licence fee for the term of the next Charter, according to a cross-party group of MPs. In a wide-ranging Report, The future of public service broadcasting, the House of Commons […]

March 25, 2021By Colin Mann

Openreach hits 4.5m full fibre premises target

UK digital infrastructure provider Openreach has hit its first target of making Full Fibre broadband technology available to 4.5 million premises across the UK by the end of March 2021, meaning millions of families, businesses and public sector organisations can now order ultrafast, ultra-reliable connectivity from a host of competing Communications Providers. Despite the huge […]

March 25, 2021By Colin Mann

ITV invests in what3words

Following the announcement of ITV AdVentures Invest, a Media for Equity initiative, ITV has now concluded its first investment in what3words Limited. what3words is a uniquely accessible location service, which has divided the world into a grid of 3 metre squares, giving each its own three-word identifier: a what3words address.  For example, the front door […]

March 25, 2021

ViacomCBS wants $3bn streaming war chest

ViacomCBS plans to sell $3 billion (€2.5bn) in stock to invest in streaming. The group launched its D2C streaming service Paramount+ earlier this month, and in 2019 it bought Pluto TV, an ad supported streaming platform. A year ago, after Viacom and CBS were re-combined, ViacomCBS shares traded at $11.28. They were $36 in December […]

March 23, 2021

UK launches £5bn ‘Project Gigabit’

More than one million hard to reach homes and businesses in the UK will have next generation gigabit broadband built to them in the first phase of a £5 billion (€5.84bn) government infrastructure project. Up to 510,000 homes and businesses in Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Tees Valley will be […]

March 19, 2021By Colin Mann

Mediapro on the brink?

Spain’s TV group Mediapro is reportedly set to request a €300 million financial rescue package from the public investment bank SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales) to solve its economic problems brought on by the pandemic. The TV group, with 5,000 workers in the country and 3,000 outside, must fulfil criteria that it is a […]

March 16, 2021From David Del Valle in Madrid

Speedcast exits Chapter 11

International satellite communications specialist Speedcast has emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. The Australian-headquartered business, in a statement, said: “[Speedcast] has emerged from the Chapter 11 process under new ownership with no secured debt and a healthy cash balance. Speedcast successfully completed the comprehensive restructuring on March 11th after receiving a $500 million equity […]

March 15, 2021By Chris Forrester

Disruptel announces $1.15m seed round

Disruptel, the interactive TV and voice assistant innovator, has announced the completion of a $1.15 million (€0.96m) seed funding round. PJC and Progress Ventures led the round, with the backing of notable industry investors and advisors including Mike Baker, co-founder and former CEO of DataXu (acquired by Roku in 2019), Adam Cheyer, voice assistant expert […]

March 15, 2021

BBC plans commercial income boost

The BBC has set out its ambition to ‘build commercial income’ – one of four top priorities set out by Tim Davie in his first week as Director-General, and now underway to modernise the BBC and offer better value to every licence fee payer. As well as an ambition to build commercial income, these priorities […]

March 11, 2021By Colin Mann