DISH Network Corporation has been selected as the winning bidder in the bankruptcy court auction for substantially all of the assets of movie rental store Blockbuster, Inc. DISH Network’s winning bid was valued at approximately $320 million. After certain adjustments are made at closing of the transaction, including adjustments for available cash and inventory, DISH […]
Gene Zimmerman, president of Cobalt Digital has announced that Bob McAlpine has been named vice president of sales, North America. McAlpine, a well-respected industry veteran with over 35 years of sales management experience, will oversee Cobalt’s highly experienced US-based sales organisation. He will report to Chris Shaw who was simultaneously promoted to senior vice president […]
Music Choice Europe (MCE) is being bought by Montreal-based Stingray Digital. MCE currently has some 10 million subscribers listening to more than 70 commercial free audio services. Stingray Digital is a privately-held business, established in 2007 by Eric Bioyko and Alexandre Taillefer. In August last year it bought Concert TV, an interactive VOD service. Terms […]
Six Hollywood studios are suing an Internet movie-rental site, Zediva, claiming the Silicon Valley start-up infringes their copyright by streaming films over the web directly from DVD players. Zediva streams movies shortly after they are available on DVD – but weeks before legitimate sites such as Netflix have them available. Its members pay as little […]
Shares have climbed over five per cent in recent days as Wall Street gossip suggested that a federal court could be releasing positive news for TiVo any day now. At this stage any such gossip is just that, but investors would love to see a favourable end to TiVo’s very long-running patent dispute with Charlie […]
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 […]
A few weeks ago when pressed on whether Liberty Global would bid for Kabel BW, Shane O’Neill, chief strategy officer, deflected the question by stating Ziggo was a more prized target as ‘it is a much better fit.’ Two weeks ago Liberty beat out the competition to buy Kabel BW and now seems set to […]
Lawmakers from both parties in Congress are gathering at the Capitol with representatives from industry to once again denounce the effects of online piracy and counterfeiting on the US economy. “The Internet has regrettably become a cash-cow for the criminals and organised crime cartels who profit from digital piracy and counterfeit products,” said House Judiciary […]
Bell has completed its $3.2 billion acquisition of CTV and launched Bell Media, a new business unit encompassing all CTV and other Bell content assets. Bell Media has announced a package of top news, sports and entertainment content for Canada’s mobile providers. Bell fulfilled all regulatory, legal and other requirements to close the transaction, approximately […]
MSN’s international programming director Peter Bale will fill a new post of VP and GM of CNN International Digital. Bale will head up all non-US digital operations for CNN from London. Bale was online editorial director at Times Online from 2005 to 2007, before heading MSN UK for three years.