AMC Networks announced has hired Stephanie Mitchko as the company’s Executive Vice President, Global Media Operations & Technology, reporting to AMC Networks CEO Kristin Dolan. In this new role at the company, Mitchko will provide strategic leadership across the company’s global technology and operations business including information technology, media and broadcast operations, content delivery, cybersecurity, […]

Charterhouse Capital Partners (CCP) has agreed to take a majority stake in Two Circles in a deal worth a reported $300 million (€273m). The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024. The business will continue to be led by CEO and co-founder, Gareth Balch, alongside the current management team, and the […]

Charter Communications and The Walt Disney Company have announced that the ad-supported version of Disney+ is now available in all Spectrum TV Select packages in the US at no additional cost. As part of the two companies’  new distribution agreement, Charter video customers can immediately begin streaming entertainment from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and […]

Global pay-TV penetration will see its first-ever yearly decline in 2024, according to research by Ampere Analysis. The drop will follow pay-TV penetration peaking at 60.3 per cent in Q4 2023 according to the research, which forecasts that by 2028 global pay-TV penetration will have fallen by almost four percentage points. In North America, pay-TV […]

Charter Communications has revealed that its Spectrum brand has lost 320,000 TV subs in the third quarter of 2023. It also reported that it paid out $68 million in customer credits due to its carriage dispute with Disney that led to a blackout. “We continue to make significant progress against the multi-year strategic initiatives we […]

Walt Disney and Charter Communications have agreed to end a dispute over fees and terms after a 10-day ‘go dark’ stand-off. Disney will now allow Charter to offer some of its ad-supported streaming channels — including Disney+ and ESPN+ — to its customers as part of a ‘wholesale’ arrangement. Full programming has been restored to […]

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish says the stand-off between Charter and Disney is an “inevitable” consequence of the trends in DTC and pay-TV and their apparent incompatibility. He says ralationships have to “modernise” and says his company is a good example. “Frankly, it wasn’t a surprise, the exact timing was, but it was inevitable that something […]

Going dark is an extreme, but not very unusual, tactic when MSOs are negotiating package carriage deals with content companies. So far, so what? as Charter – America’s #2 cable operator – dims the lights on Disney’s channels as contract talks drag. What is different, is that Charter hasn’t shied away from (quite the opposite) […]

Charter Communications, where top Disney channels are blacked out from its 14.7 million US subscribers, sees its talks with Disney as a chance to fix a broken TV model. “Disney and Charter have the opportunity to work together on transforming the industry for the long-term benefit of both companies and consumers — but we are […]

Findings from Leichtman Research Group indicate that the largest pay-TV providers in the US – representing about 92 per cent of the market – lost about 5,880,000 net video subscribers in 2022, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 4,700,000 in 2021.The top pay-TV providers now account for about 70.2 million subscribers – […]