In a move it says will enhance its next-generation video-delivery platform, US multi-play operator AT&T plans to acquire OTT video and TV Everywhere services specialist Quickplay Media from Madison Dearborn Partners. The acquisition builds on the companies’ existing relationship. Quickplay’s platform currently supports AT&T’s U-verse TV Everywhere offering and will support the streaming offers — […]
Telefónica’s 56 per cent stake in Canal Plus has cost €724.5 million, the high end of a price range agreed by both companies, who initially calculated a cost of between €688.2 million and €724.5 million. The deeds of the operation have been signed with this ‘better price’ for media group Prisa – which sold the […]
Competition watchdogs at the European Commission have blocked the sale of Telefónica’s O2 UK mobile operator to CK Hutchison, the owner of mobile company Three. The planned deal was worth £10.3 billion, and would have left the UK with just three major mobile phone network operators. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager expressed strong concerns about the […]
Piksel, a leader in building online video businesses, has confirmed the acquisition of Lingospot to augment Piksel’s know-how in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) for video. The acquisition adds Lingospot’s metadata extraction services to the Piksel Palette, cementing Piksel’s position as a champion for next-generation video analysis powering intuitive search, recommendations, and discovery. “It’s […]
In a move that strengthens its programmatic video capabilities, FreeWheel, a Comcast Platform Services company and provider of premium video ad management solutions for the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, is to acquire StickyADS.tv, a leading video supply-side platform (SSP) that offers premium publishers software to build, run and operate their own private exchange. […]
In-flight entertainment supplier Global Eagle Entertainment (GEE) is buying teleport and satellite communications business EMC in a $550 million deal announced May 9th. The deal, which is expected to close during Q3, is the latest move for GEE which has mopped up nine other businesses over the past year or two, including IFE entertainment specialists […]
With the briefest of announcements, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirmed May 6th that it had approved — with conditions — the Application filed by Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Advance/Newhouse Partnership to transfer control of certain licences and authorisations from Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to Charter Communications. It said that […]
French press reports over the weekend suggest that Vivendi is looking to sell its i>Télé free-to-air news channel. The channel provides 24/7 national and global news and is the second-most watched news channel (after BFM-TV) and ahead of LCI. The reports are firmly denied by Canal Plus Group. The rumours suggest that Vivendi is looking […]
Two giant India cable MSOs are reportedly in exploratory merger talks. Siti Cable, owned by Subhash Chandra/Essel Group (which also owns the Dish TV/Zee broadcasting empire) is already one of India’s largest cable operators with about 7.8 million connected homes. The talks are with DEN Networks, which has a subscriber base of some 8.5 million […]
Adobe is to acquire privately held Livefyre, a content curation and audience engagement company. The Livefyre platform gives brands and publishers access to billions of pieces of user generated content that can be streamed in real-time right to their sites, ads, emails, TV, digital billboards, and apps. With the planned integration of Livefyre into Adobe […]