Bahrain-based Orbit and Dubai's Showtime Arabia are merging between the two rival pay-TV businesses. The new company is an "equal partnership" between Orbit, up until now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid Group, and Showtime Arabia/Gulf-DTH which was owned by Kuwait's KIPCO and Viacom. The new business will offer new packages to viewers […]

Senators have voted through the 'Hadopi 2' law, which will allow judges to impose punishments on those found to have made illegal downloads. The law is a complement to the Hadopi (the internet watchdog) 1 law, setting up a new body for Internet piracy. It was originally proposed that this law would allow for the […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The two largest pay-TV groups in Spain, Sogecable (more than 2 million subscribers) and Ono (over 1 million subs) have issued appeals against the Government’s Royal Decree bill that will allow pay TV services through digital terrestrial TV. Both argue that it breaks competition rules. For Ono, the bill […]

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has announced a new direction in the battle against pay-TV piracy in the Philippines. A breakthrough settlement by Turtle Cable, an infringing cable operator in Camarines Sur, is underpinned by a legally binding undertaking to refrain from broadcasting unauthorised TV programming and exclusively distribute legally authorised […]

UK AIM-listed TV-and-web gaming vendor NetPlayTV is aiming to raise £12.8 million (E14.8m), to strengthen its balance sheet and finance further growth, by offering nearly 30 percent of its equity through a new share offer. The firm bought Bingos.com, acquired Rubberduck's mobile quiz subscribers and Pitch Gaming's database, secured a Sky EPG slot and took […]

European media commissioner Viviane Reding has set out her vision for a "Digital Europe", with four key points including a plea to resolve the legislative impasse caused by opposition to "three strikes" plans. On speeding the DSO she says: "The United States as a whole switched to digital TV last month. I call therefore on […]

Plans to merge the three former Deutsche Telekom cable nets in Germany are shelved admits Kabel Deutschland CEO Adrian von Hammerstein. The German monopoly commission Bundeskartellamt has outlawed the proposal. Kabel Deutschland will turn its attention to buying Level 4 operators that are distributors for the KDG product. The operator has also expressed interest in […]

Mike Volpi, less than a week after stepping down as CEO of the struggling Joost, has surfaced as a partner at venture capital firm Index Ventures. Index was one of the investors in the $45 million round for Joost, which helps explain why Volpi is staying on as chairman while the company, which failed to […]

Pace has reported that the company is on target to meet management expectations for the six months ended 30th June 2009. Neil Gaydon, Chief Executive Officer commented: "Pace has continued to capitalise on its excellent position in the growing global market for digital TV technology. The strong operating performance anticipated for the full year that […]

Packet Video the mobile video and software company has sold about a 35 percent stake in the company to Japanese mobile giant DoCoMo. The all-cash deal is intended to "strengthen DoCoMo's position in advanced music and video services in Japan," it said.