BSkyB has added a better-than-forecast 124,000 subscribers in the past three months, hitting a total of 9.4 million, boosted by price cuts and promotion for its high-definition TV service, with new customers joining at the fastest rate for five years. Announcing a four per cent rise in annual profits for the 12 months to the […]

NBC Universal has parted company with Ben Silverman, its colourful programming head, who leaves to form a new venture with Barry Diller's IAC media group. Silverman had made a name for himself with Reveille, the TV company he started, which brought UK TV formats to the US and turned them into ratings winners. He also […]

BSkyB is expected to announce 100,000 net additional subscriptions in its financial reporting today. This will bring the company's subscriber base to roughly 9.4 million, on target to hit the 10 million mark by Q3 2010. Despite a troubled economy, Sky has managed to hold on to—and indeed, grow—its subscriber base over the past year. […]

Kabel Deutschland reports growth in subs to digital TV, telephony and fast internet. In the three months to March 31, 2009 Germany's largest operator revealed the RGUs for internet and phone services had increased by 87.9% year-on-year to 1.42 million. The internet business contributed 707,500 and telephony 710,300. Some 70% of new customers are attracted […]

With its half year results Modern Times Group says net sales up 8% year on year to SEK 6,920. It had operating income of SEK 822 million when excluding income from the discontinued DTV Group in 2008 Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Market conditions remained tough in the second quarter with advertising […]

After an internal re-org the telco's CTO Matt Bross has left the company and returned to the US, seven years after joining. As well as leading the 21CN network project, Bross was also CEO of BT's Innovate division, which was merged with the Design division this month. BT hasn't announced a replacement though chief information […]

Virgin Media has apparently inserted a clause into the sale of VMtv and its 50% share in UKTV, preventing the buyer from selling them on to a company that is part or fully owned by News Corporation. But neither News Corp, nor associated companies such as BSkyB, are precluded from buying the assets directly from […]

Civolution, a provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetising media content, has acquired the Software & Technology Solutions (STS) watermarking business from Thomson. With this acquisition Civolution says it will be able to offer a broader and richer portfolio of content identification and tracking technologies to enhance its current technologies, products and […]

During the recent board meeting of AEPOC, Europe's Anti-piracy association for the protection of encrypted works and services, AEPOC discussed the "Pirate Bay" sentence in Sweden and the election of the "Pirate Party" into the European Parliament. AEPOC views the "success" of the Pirate Party, which questions the concept of intellectual property and copyright, and […]

Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette has said that its YouTube video site should be profitable in the not-too-distant future. “We’re really pleased both in terms of its revenue growth, which is really material to YouTube and, in the not long, too long distance future, we actually see a very profitable and good business for […]