Despite being financed by Zimbabwe’s richest private individual, Strive Masiyiwa, Kwese TV has closed. It was launched as a potential rival to South Africa’s MultiChoice/DStv operation, but Econet Wireless will shut its African pay-television unit due to the country’s economic condition and shortage of foreign currency, group CEO Douglas Mboweni announced. “The third-party content providers […]
Vivendi has confirmed that Naspers-backed Tencent is in “preliminary negotiations” to acquire a 10 per cent stake in Universal Music Group (and assuming UMG has an overall €30 billion value). A release from Vivendi has various key statements, which investment bank Exane/BNPP says are: – Tencent to acquire 10 per cent stake in UMG at […]
South African technology and media conglomerate Naspers had planned a listing on the Amsterdam Euronext bourse earlier this year, but pulled the plan because of a technical glitch – formal pre-listing documents were not sent to the correct addresses. It is ready to start again, and says its new European company ‘Prosus’ will be presented […]
Two years ago, UK-based transmission specialist Arqiva was contemplating a £6 billion (€6.5bn) IPO, but now reports are circulating that its owners are contemplating breaking the company up into its various divisions and possible disposals. Arqiva is responsible for transmitting the UK’s terrestrial television and radio signals. Its satellite uplinking business – which has struggled […]
Thaicom, Thailand’s first satellite operator has announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30th 2019. Thaicom reported a net profit decrease compared to the previous quarter and the same quarter of last year due to the recognition of several extra expenses. Thaicom reported revenue from sales and services for Q2/2019 of THB […]
San Francisco-based Dolby Labs is to spend an extra $350 million (€312.7m) to buy back shares for cancellation. This takes the total amount to be spent on repurchases this financial year to $415 million. CEO Kevin Yeaman told investors that its Q3 total revenues were $302.2 million ($214.8 million last year). Licensing and royalty income […]
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) – a global coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing online piracy – has obtained a permanent injunction against SetTVNow, a piracy outfit that was illegally feeding over 500 television channels to its users via online streaming or set-top devices. “SetTVNow and other piracy outfits […]
BBC Studios has brought its international sales and distribution business, encompassing content sales, branded services and ancillaries, together into a single global distribution group with Paul Dempsey taking the role of President, Global Distribution. Dempsey will relocate to New York and have responsibility for BBC Studios’ overall sales and distribution strategy, key customer management and […]
Twitch, Amazon’s popular video game streaming platform has lost one of its biggest stars having seen him jump ship to rival site Mixer, owned by Microsoft. Tyler Blevins, known more commonly online as ‘Ninja’, had amounted 14.7 million followers on Twitch, mostly through playing Fortnite – and presumably playing it well. Ninja will kick off […]
India’s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has already brought criminal actions against a number of former ISRO/Antrix staff in connection with alleged corruption between ISRO and Antrix. Antrix was the commercial arm of India’s State Research Organisation which supplies and controls all satellite active over India. In 2005 Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia quite legitimately entered into […]