Advanced Television

Business

KDG adds subs

Kabel Deutschland (KDG) added 127,300 digital premium pay TV subscribers in the year to September 30 for a total of 1,135,300. ARPU reached €13.08 for its fiscal second quarter, up from €11.88 a year earlier. In the quarter KDG added 64,000 internet and phone customers, taking the company’s total to 1.21 million. The company’s overall […]

November 16, 2010

Discovery buying UKTV?

On the heels of buying the BBC out of its international business, Discovery now seems the favourite to buy UKTV from Virgin Media. The channel line up has been on the block for some time, and not for the first time, but reports say the same old problems in closing a deal persist: the complexity […]

November 16, 2010

Content King only if you own it

ITV’s revenues and profits are resurgent, proving again that it has the world’s simplest business model and that you are just unlucky if you end up running it (or any other FTA commercial channel) in an advertising down turn. But the new management team says it doesn’t want to ride its luck and has set […]

November 16, 2010

ONO: Profits up, subscribers down

Spain’s largest cable company ONO ended the third quarter of the year with 948,000 TV subs, down 1.9 per cent against the previous quarter and 3 per cent lower than last year with a loss of 29,000 in a year. The fall in its TV subscribers (TV customers represent 52.4 per cent of its total […]

November 16, 2010From David Del Valle in Madrid

EU: No to Net Neutrality laws

Neelie Kroes the European Commission’s Vice president for the Digital Agenda says the EU won’t pass laws for net neutrality. Speaking at a Net Neutrality Summit in Brussels, Kroes said: “In general, providers have upheld the principle of open access and end users may access most of the applications and services of their choice.” She […]

November 15, 2010

Comcast, NBC merger conditions

Federal regulators in the US have told Comcast and NBC Universal that they have concerns the proposed merger will harm competition.  The Justice Department’s antitrust division and Federal Communications Commission are expected to approve the merger on the condition the companies agree to allow competitors – such as Time Warner Cable, Dish Network and even […]

November 15, 2010

Discovery buys BBC stake for $156m

BBC Worldwide has sold its 50 per cent share in its global TV channels joint venture with Discovery for $156 million. The sale comes nearly 12 months after a BBC Trust review said the corporation’s commercial arm should sell its non-BBC branded international channels. The BBC sold its 20 per cent interest in Animal Planet […]

November 15, 2010

Polsat buys out parent company

Cyfrowy Polsat SA, Poland’s biggest satellite television broadcaster, has agreed to buy Telewizja Polsat SA, its parent company which is also controlled by billionaire Zygmunt Solorz-Zak  , for 3.75 billion zloty ($1.3bn). Cyfrowy will pay 2.6 billion zloty in cash and the rest in the form of 80 million new shares valued at 14.37 zloty […]

November 15, 2010

Ex Ofcom man calls for Comms reform

Former Ofcom partner and ITN CEO, Stewart Purvis, has called for quick action on ITV, a reversal of European regulation, and relaxation of advertising and impartiality rules, in a speech delivered for the RTS (Royal Television Society) Fleming Memorial Lecture 2010. Entitled ‘Calling Time on Analogue Regulation – an agenda for the next Communications Act,’ […]

November 12, 2010From Colin Mann in London

ABC and 3D movies lift Disney

An advertising rebound at its ABC television network, as well as the strong box-office performance of Toy Story 3, has lifted Walt Disney’s full-year earnings. However, the media group missed expectations for the fourth quarter due to a timing shift in the recognition of revenues at its ESPN sports channel. Net income for the 12 […]

November 12, 2010