Advanced Television

Business

blinkx reports strong growth

Video search engine blinkx has reported positive financial results for the period ended 30 September 2007. Gross profit for the first half of 2008 was $2.2 million (E1.5m), with a gross margin of 74 per cent and daily searches have grown by 280 per cent. Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, said: “We are […]

October 30, 2007

SES Q3 results

SES has reported on its financial performance for the three months ended 30 September 2007. Revenue was E406.9 million. Operating profit was E175.9 million and Net profit was E138.8million Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES, commented: “Despite the introduction of additional satellite capacity via the move of ASTRA 2C to 28.2 degrees East, the […]

October 30, 2007

No subsidies for DTV in North Rhine-Westphalia

The European Commission has decided that plans to finance part of the fees commercial broadcasters pay for the transmission of their programmes on the DVB-T network in North Rhine-Westphalia are not compatible with the EC state aid rules. The Commission said it fully supported the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting, however, the proposed measures […]

October 26, 2007

Comcast sales up, earnings flat

Comcast earnings fell sharply in the third quarter in the context of a year-earlier gain related to its acquisition of cable systems from Adelphia Communications. Comcast’s net income fell 54 per cent to $560 million (E391m), compared with $1.22 billion, a year earlier. Most of the profit decline came from a year-earlier gain of $669 […]

October 26, 2007

Microsoft stake in Facebook

Microsoft has beaten off competition from Google to pay $240 million for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook that values the popular social networking site at $15 billion. Microsoft will also sell internet ads for Facebook outside the United States as part of the deal that took several weeks of negotiating. Microsoft already provides […]

October 26, 2007

ASA cans Sky ad

The UK ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has banned a Sky advert following complaints over the claim that new and existing customers get equally good deals with the company. The advert claimed that Virgin Media’s policy was to give better deals to new customers, stated: “At Sky we think it’s wrong to advertise attractive sounding prices […]

October 25, 2007

Digiturk hopes for $550m in IPO

Digiturk, Turkey’s largest digital television broadcaster, plans to raise as much as $550 million (E386m) in an IPO of 25 per cent of its business. The company is controlled by Istanbul conglomerate Cukurova and Providence Equity Partners. The pair are selling down their holding from 100 to 75 per cent. The Turkish media sector is […]

October 24, 2007

ITU contemplate digital television spectrum

The US has led calls to allocate a significant chunk of the radio frequency spectrum for use by digital television. On the opening day the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), US delegation leader Richard Russell said it was important that countries identify sections or ‘bands’ of wavelengths to be used exclusively for advanced wireless services. The […]

October 24, 2007

Eutelsat Q1 sales up 6%

Eutelsat Communications said sales jumped 6.2 per cent to E211.9 million in its first quarter to September from E199.5 million a year earlier thanks to “the continuing good performance of our markets.” For the year to June 2008, Eutelsat reiterated targets of sales of E840-850 million and an EBITDA margin of more than 77.5 per […]

October 24, 2007

Gilat assesses bids

Gilat the Israeli satellite network group, is evaluating interest from several strategic and private equity buyers in buying the company. The company, which is listed on Nasdaq in the US and in Israel, could fetch more than $500m in a sale. Bids are due at the end of this week. Participating in the auction are […]

October 23, 2007