Cablevision is close to an agreement to buy the Sundance Channel, jointly owned by NBC Universal, CBS, and actor Robert Redford, in a cash and stock deal valued at close to $500 million. A purchase of Sundance will strengthen Cablevision’s position in the independent-film programming arena as the cable operator already owns another film channel, […]
DirecTV netted 275,000 customers during the three-month period, taking its customer count past the 17 million mark. DirecTV cited its ongoing HD programming push for part of the success, with CEO Chase Carey saying the company’s strategy “of offering the best television experience to higher quality customers continues to drive superior financial results.” In addition […]
Channel 4 has hired BBC Worldwide’s director of digital ventures, Daniel Heaf, to work on interactive projects across its radio, TV and online output. Heaf, who was previously head of new media at BBC Radio 1 and the corporation’s BBC Teens brand Switch, becomes head of new media, 4 Radio and multimedia entertainment.
News Corp’s social-networking website MySpace failed to hit its revenue target this year as advertisers struggle to judge the commercial value of making on-line friends. News Corp revealed that its Fox Interactive Media arm, which includes MySpace, will miss its goal of an 80 per cent increase in revenue by “about 10 per cent”. The […]
Italian broadband operator Fastweb reduced its net loss and added clients in the first three months of the year and left open the possibility it will bid for Italian rival Tiscali. The net loss narrowed 47 percent to E11 million from a year ago. EBITDA rose 15 per cent to E112.5 million as sales rose […]
France Telecom posted first-quarter sales of E13.03billion, up 1.4 per cent year-on-year, with EDITDA up to E4.79 billion from E4.66 billion. Finance director Gervais Pellissier also confirmed the group was still interested in acquiring Nordic operator TeliaSonera, but added no negotiations were currently taking place
Deutsche Telekom posted first quarter net income almost doubled at €924m, thanks in part to the sale of its media and broadcast unit to French group TDF, with revenue slipping 3.1 per cent to E15 billion.
DirecTV's first-quarter net income rose 10 per cent amid higher net subscriber additions and a lower subscriber cancellation rate. The company reported net income of $371 million, up from $336 million, a year earlier. Revenue rose 17 per cent to $4.59 billion. DirecTV said US net subscriber additions rose 17 per cent to 275,000, putting […]
From Branislav Pekic in Rome Portugal's ZON Multimédia has added 13,400 new clients for its pay-TV service ZON TV Cabo in the first quarter of this year, representing a 60.3 per cent increase of net additions on the same period in 2007. The percentage of subscribers to the digital service “Funtastic Life” rose from 20 […]
Days after getting new owners TV Guide is back on the block. It would be the fourth change in control during the last decade for TV Guide. Last week, the Macrovision Solutions Corporation completed a $2.8 billion takeover of Gemstar-TV Guide, the magazine's publisher. The new owner has made clear that it is interested in […]