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 […]

Cox Communications has decided to sell a majority stake in the Travel Channel in an auction expected to value the cable network at $600 million or more and break the drought in media industry deal-making. Scripps Networks Interactive, owner of the Food Network, is widely seen as the front-runner in an auction likely to test […]

Markus Schmid, CEO and President of the Tele Columbus Group, is leaving the company at his own request. Michael Buhl, CFO of the Tele Columbus Group, will temporarily assume the position of president of the Management Board. Markus Schmid led the company for over two years through a phase of strategic reorientation, first as Managing […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian consumers association Altroconsumo has lodged a complaint to the country's Communications Authority (Agcom), the Antitrust Authority, and to the European commissioners for Competition and the Information Society, regarding the issue of encryption of the satellite broadcasts of Italian public broadcaster RAI. According to Altroconsumo, in the period between April […]

BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, saw yearly revenue hit £1bn (E1.16bn) for the first time, but profit fell because of write offs on Kangaroo and damage from the collapse of its video distribution JV with Woolworths. In the year to 31 March, revenue rose 9.5%, while profits were just £85.7m. BBC Worldwide made more […]

The European Commission has launched a consultation to determine how to better work together at EU level to get the most from the DSO opportunity. The consultation will run until 4 September 2009. “The digital dividend comes at a critical moment when we want to connect all parts of Europe to high-speed broadband, ensure high […]