The private equity owners of ProSiebenSat.1 have sold €196 million of preference shares in the German television broadcaster, highlighting a sharp recovery at the company that had been considered a potential write-off during the economic crisis. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira, which bought a controlling stake in ProSieben four years ago in a deal valuing […]
UK VC Index Ventures, home of Mike Volpi former CDEO of Joost, is opening an office in San Francisco. Volpi says Index has invested in more than 58 companies which started in the US and 35 European companies that conduct business in America. Index investments include OpenX, Flipboard, Last.fm, Stardoll, Mind Candy, Go Try It […]
Jeremy Hunt, UK Culture Secretary, admitted that whatever decision he took on referring the News Corp BSkyB bid to the Competition Commission it was bound to be judicially challenged by the ‘losing’ side. He refused to give a timetable for his decision but said: “”This is a very, very hot potato and I’m aware of […]
The BBC Trust has concluded provisionally that on-demand BBC programmes should only be made available to TV platform operators through the BBC iPlayer, and should not be made available on a programme-by-programme basis. The BBC iPlayer should be made available in standard formats that the great majority of other TV operators can readily adopt, the […]
ITV can look forward to relief from its most onerous regulation after Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, said changes in government responsibility gave him power to reform or abolish it. After telling a London audience that he was unsympathetic to contract rights renewal – a limit on how much ITV can charge advertisers for its […]
French IPTV STB manufacturer Netgem has reported consolidated sales down 9 percent to €27.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, with French revenues down 21 per cent to €21.4 million and international sales up 1.8 times to €6.3 million. Over the full year, Netgem’s revenues grew by 3 per cent to €134.9 million, including […]
NDS, provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has signed an agreement pursuant to which funds managed by Vitruvian Partners will back a management buyout of OpenBet, an NDS subsidiary and provider of online gaming and betting technology and software solutions. Vitruvian and management will acquire OpenBet for a cash consideration of £208 million (€248m). […]
RGB Networks, the leader in high-capacity three screen video delivery solutions, today announced its outstanding company and financial achievements for 2010, which position the company for continued success in 2011. RGB achieved record growth in 2010 with a 60 percent increase in shipments over 2009 and was profitable in the year. The company ended 2010 […]
A merged Comcast and NBC would have to abide by tailored ‘net neutrality conditions’ for at least seven years, according to leaked details from the FCC’s proposed terms for approval of the deal. Regardless of what happens with national neutrality rules, the newco would be banned from blocking or throttling rival content as well as […]
Sky Deutschland has turned the corner on declining subscriber numbers, but wants to support the upturn with more investment in HD. Controlling shareholder News Corp has agreed to increase the cash injection agreed in the summer from €340 million to €400 million. Sky added 131,000 subs in Q4 2010 and 183,00 for the year as […]