The Dolan family's effort to take Cablevision Systems private is being opposed by a large shareholder and a major proxy advisory firm. Mario Gabelli, a longtime media investor, said that the funds he controls would vote against the proposed transaction at a special shareholders' meeting scheduled for October 24th. Gabelli said he believed his clients […]

Paramount Pictures International has agreed to help fund European cinemas which are installing new generation projectors. Hollywood studios and exhibitors have tussled over who should bear the cost of the upgrade, with cinema owners arguing that studios should pay a “virtual print fee” as it will be cheaper for them to distribute their films electronically […]

Former Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston has joined a growing list of investors in Internet TV service Veoh Networks. Freston, who left Viacom a year ago, took part in the company’s Series C funding, which closed in August 2007, via his Firefly3 LLC firm. Former Paramount Pictures head Jonathan Dolgen was also amongst investors […]

Alcatel-Lucent plunges on warning Shares in Alcatel-Lucent fell by as much as 14 per cent in Paris after it shocked the market with its third proit warning this year. The group, formed last year from the E11.1 bn merger of France's Alcatel and Lucent of the US, said it was forced to slash its forecast […]

Italian broadcaster Mediaset posted first-half net profits up 2.5 per cent at E340.8m, on revenue 4.2 per cent higher at E2.08bn, citing higher revenues from its pay-per-view division and Spanish Gestevision Telecinco unit. Meanwhile Mediaset has reportedly reached an E800m content deal with Time Warner and Universal giving them rights to broadcast the studios' movies […]

TiVo said its second-quarter loss widened on a write down of inventory, but the company reiterated its goal of breaking even on an adjusted basis for fiscal 2008. The write downs cam as retailers switched more quickly than expected to the HD version. The company posted a net loss of $17.7 million (E12.9m) for the […]

Hong Kong telco PCCW, the world's leading IPTV provider, has reported stronger growth of its core telecom, media and ICT business segments in the first half of 2007 as the company reaps the benefits of quadruple-play. PCCW's lifted core revenues for the six months to June by 7 per cent year-on-year to HK$9,507m (E894m). Boosted […]

Belgacom reported profit that beat analyst estimates for the second quarter on higher sales of high-speed Internet access and raised its forecasts for mobile-phone and fixed-line revenue. Net income rose 12 per cent to E245 million a share, from E219 million a year earlier. The rising profit seems to validate Belgacom’s strategy of expanding its […]

Viacom Inc posted a better-than-expected profit, boosted by the film division. The New York-based owner of MTV Networks, Paramount movie studios and Nickelodeon cable channels said its second quarter profit fell less than 1 per cent to $434 million down from $437.3 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 13 per cent to $3.19 billion ahead […]