David Rehr, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, has announced plans to step down from his post immediately. Janet McGregor, NAB’s CEO and CFO, will handle Rehr’s duties until a successor is named. Rehr, who came to the NAB from the National Beer Wholesalers Association in 2005, has had a rough run at the […]
The Federal Communications Commission wants US broadcasters to suspend regular programming and instead show a public-service ad about the digital transition for three five-minute periods on May 21st as part of an effort to make sure Americans are ready for the switch. The US was originally scheduled to switch to digital-only TV on February 17th, […]
A weaker than expected performance by its films at the box office and through DVD sales depressed Disney's second-quarter profits. Operating income at Disney's studio business fell 97 per cent to $13 million. The recession also continued to depress earnings in other parts of the group, with advertising down at Disney's ABC television network. But […]
Sky’s managing director of sport and news, Vic Wakeling is to retire at the end of June after 20 years with the company. He leaves after 15 years as head of Sky Sports. Barney Francis has been promoted from within Sky Sports to take over Wakeling’s role and will report to Sky chief executive Jeremy […]
The European Commission's proposed telecoms reforms, which include the three strikes proposals for abusive downloaders, will now have to go into the conciliation process after the European Parliament again refused to discard an amendment that would force governments to get court permission before disconnecting illegal downloaders of copyright material. MEPs in September put forward an […]
Sales slightly down and losses increasing on Q1 to £123m (E138m) from £109m last time were the bad news while increased ARPU (£42.29 v £41.95) and a record low churn of 1.1% were the good news. Revenue for the quarter was £935.7m against £947.3m last time. But the underlying fall in broadband sign-ons – down […]
The beleaguered pay-TV sports operation has appointed ex Emap CEO Robin Miller as its new chairman as it seeks new financing after losing a tranche of Premier League matches. It badly needs to raise £100m (E113m) of new investment and will seek to have investors back a new business plan concentrating on its position in […]
Norwegian teleco Telenor has reported a 65 per cent decline in first quarter net profits compared with a year earlier, hurt largely by its stake in Russian mobile operator VimpelCom. The group said net profit for the January through March period was 1.62 billion kroner ($248m) compared to 4.57 billion kroner a year earlier. Revenues […]
DirecTV will merge with John Malone's Liberty Entertainment to simplify its ownership structure and improve its ability to pursue deals; specifically making itself a more attractive target for one of the big telcos. Liberty Entertainment will be spun off from Liberty Media as previously announced, and will now include 54 per cent of the stock […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid Pay-TV group Sogecable is facing a new shake-out following the resignation of its CEO Javier Diez de Polanco, soon after Prisa, parent company of Sogecable, re-organised the management team of the TV division. Bad financial results and the failed sale of DTH platform Digital Plus, burdened with debts, are […]