The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced a new framework for large integrated companies that will allow them to innovate and respond to new opportunities in a fast-changing environment. The CRTC is also establishing measures to eliminate the potential for these companies to harm their competitors or restrict consumer choice. “Given the size […]
France’s Autorité de la concurrence (Competition Authority) has declared that the Canal Plus Group has not complied with a number of commitments – some deemed essential – made at the acquisition of rival pay-TV platform TPS in 2006. It has withdrawn the decision to authorise the transaction, obliging the parties to notify the operation again […]
Wadah Khanfar, the highly regarded director general of Al Jazeera resigned unexpectedly on September 20th. He used ‘twitter’ to tell followers that his goal had been to establish the news channel as a global media leader and that his target had been met. Khanfar had been at the Doha-based channel for eight years. He will […]
A coalition of US film and television companies has written to every member of the Senate, urging them to pass online piracy measure the PROTECT IP Act (short for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011). The letter was signed by the Motion Picture Association of America […]
Media Audits International (MAI), the international arm of US-based Cable Audit Associates (CAA), is launching its first European countrywide audit in the Netherlands this month, representing over 40 channels in the region. MAI’s deal in the Netherlands heralds the first comprehensive audit of transactional content in the territory. As the need for content management grows […]
Spain’s largest cable company ONO looks likely to acquire regional cable operator Telecable that operates in the Spanish regions of Asturias and Extremadura with around 160,000 subscribers. The operation, led by the French bank Societe General, is to be concluded before the end of this month. In the race to acquire the company there is […]
Alongside the announcement of the renaming of the DVD rental service, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted a long ‘mea culpa’ blog. Here it is full: I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the […]
US pay-radio broadcaster Sirius-XM is in great shape and in formal guidance is predicting a double-digit revenue increase for 2012. CEO Mel Karmazin told a Bank of America conference last week that he’d like to use Sirius’s growing cash pile to help fund a suitable acquisition – but there wasn’t much about! Instead, his Board […]
Private equity fund Permira has cancelled its plans to sell All3Media. UBS had been appointed last March to find a buyer. All3Media is best known for producing hit shows such as Shameless and Skins. Permira had reportedly been looking for about £750 million to £800 million for All3Media, and while plenty of would-be buyers conducted […]
Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Commission has decided to modify its Digital TV broadcasting transition policy first established in 2004, and is now backing a gradual analogue blackout programme, which is expected to be completed in 2016. The Commission estimates that about US$1.3 billion should be assigned to subsidise the transition to digital broadcasting. According to its […]