FiOS TV customers now enjoy even more home entertainment choices as Verizon has expanded its video-on-demand offer with programmes from CBS, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Ovation TV and more. Verizon has also announced new VOD content that features college basketball tournament programming.

From Colin Mann in London In a surprise move, the BBC has secured the television rights to show Formula One in the UK from the 2009 season. The five-year deal marks the return of the sport to BBC screens 12 years after rival commercial broadcaster ITV began broadcasting Grands Prix. A new five-year exclusive deal […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Italian public broadcaster RAI is to launch a dedicated channel for teenagers on digital terrestrial and satellite by the end of June. RaiSat director, Carlo Freccero, said that Rai Quattro will be the “iPod of RAI viewers”. He added that the programme schedule has already been defined, but that the […]

Italian antitrust officials are set to probe into the competition-related aspects of a new law that dictates how Italian football television coverage is shared. The investigation is the latest in a series of moves against the controversial law, which was passed in January, just before the collapse of the Italian government led by Romano Prodi. […]

Sky scooped the majority of the TV rights to Champions League football until 2012, after tabling a blockbuster bid estimated at more than £240 million (E333m). UEFA made the announcement after the broadcaster comprehensively outbid three rivals in order to secure exclusive rights to all but one match per round of games from the start […]

Mexican television giant Grupo Televisa and Telemundo, General Electric’s Spanish-language broadcaster, have reached a content-sharing deal in Mexico, opening the door to an eventual broader alliance in the key US Hispanic market. Under terms of the deal, Telemundo will broadcast its entertainment programming on a Televisa TV station in Mexico. Televisa will also carry a […]

A consortium including Bob Geldof’s independent production company, Ten Alps, and ITN is to retain the Teachers TV digital television contract after being named as the government’s preferred supplier. Education Digital 2 is now in final talks with the Department for Children, Schools and Families over the £50 million (E70m) five-year contract to provide news, […]

Virgin Media will launch Arsenal TV on its TV platform on 18th March. The channel will be free for all Virgin Media’s XL TV customers, and included as part of the Setanta Sports pack for TV customers on M or L packages. Arsenal TV will show all Arsenal football matches in full, as well as […]

ITV has signed a one-year deal to show F1 races simulcast on its broadband TV service. Practice and qualifying sessions will also be simulcast, with each Grand Prix available to view for 30 subsequent days via ITV.com’s catch-up TV service.

News Corp is reportedly launching two English-language satellite TV channels in the Middle East. News Corp is planning a film channel, potentially called Fox Movies, and a drama channel, according to Variety. The free-to-air satellite channels are to be launched later this year in partnership with Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire who has […]