Arqiva has completed the £25 million acquisition of BT’s satellite broadcast services business. The transaction, which creates one of the world’s largest satellite and media solutions businesses, includes long term customer contracts, operations and personnel in the United States, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Also included are teleports in the UK, Paris, Washington and Los [...]
Virgin Media launches DTT box
April 2, 2007 12.01 Europe/London By
Virgin Media is to extend its ‘free’ digital TV offer into non-cabled areas. The company has contracted Bridgend-based Tvonics to manufacture a Virgin-branded set-top box that will be capable of receiving the 40 or so channels on the UK DTT system. Tvonics, which also supplies the UK retail chain Currys has designed Virgin a new [...]
ADB in Flemish set-top deal
April 2, 2007 11.43 Europe/London By
ADB has announced it will be supplying digital cable boxes into the Belgian market after an agreement with the In.Di cable consortium in Flanders. ADB will be supplying two products, the IND-5800C interactive cable STB and an advanced digital video recorder (DVR) the IND-5810CX, both of which will be compatible with high definition television that [...]
GE takes AsiaSat stake
April 2, 2007 11.30 Europe/London By
General Electric Company has taken a 34.1% stake in AsiaSat. It follows last week’s exchange transaction and transfer of shares between GE and SES. GE received both cash and SES’s 34.1% economic interest in AsiaSat. CITIC Group, AsiaSat’s founding shareholder, continues to hold 34.8% in AsiaSat. The two companies have equal voting rights in the [...]
CEE ad market set to grow
April 2, 2007 09.50 Europe/London By
ZenithOptimedia has identified Central and Eastern Europe as one of two regions containing the world’s fastest growing ad markets. It expects Moldova’s ad market to expand by 185.7% between 2005-9, while those in Romania, Russia and Slovakia will grow by 160.4%, 143.2% and 106.4% respectively. The value of the ad market in Central and Europe, [...]
Polish TVP heads the pack
April 2, 2007 06.27 Europe/London By
According to data produced by AGB Nielsen Media Research, the public broadcaster TVP was the most watched station in Poland in Q1 2007. Its first national channel TVP1 commanded an audience share of 24.38% among viewers aged 4+ and 21.34% of those in the 16-49 age group, while TVP2 claimed 18.85% and 17.56% respectively. However, [...]
Polish football in HD
April 2, 2007 05.37 Europe/London By
The Polish DTH platform n is to transmit its first-ever local football match in HD this Tuesday (April 3). A Polish cup tie between Lech Poznan and Korona Kielce, it will appear on the proprietary channel Nsport and will be followed by a further transmission a week later. N, which is owned by ITI Group, [...]
Sky increases pressure on third party channels
April 1, 2007 16.46 Europe/London By
Sky is once again looking to reduce the amount of money it pays to third party channels on its DTH platform. The Sunday Telegraph reports that Sky has already pushed through a reduction in the amount of carriage fees paid to Viacom, which controls the MTV channels, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy, and is currently in [...]
Increased demand eases Intelsat losses
April 1, 2007 16.36 Europe/London By
Intelsat says that it is targeting a renewed global demand for satellite services. The company reported revenue of $543.2 million and a net loss of $63.4 million for the quarter ending December 31, 2006 and annual revenues of $1.7 billion and a net loss of $368.7 million. The loss includes an asset impairment charge after [...]
Universal invests in Trace TV
April 1, 2007 16.21 Europe/London By
Universal Music Group (UMG) is to take a stake in the French urban music channel Trace TV. UMG will become a global strategic investor in the company, and receive a seat on the board, though the actual financial terms of the relationship have not been released. “Universal’s strategy is to become actively involved in all [...]
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Digital TV Eastern Europe NEW REPORT by Simon Murray of Digital TV Research. 2012 is a watershed year for Eastern Europe as the number of digital homes for 15 forecast countries will exceed the analogue total for the first time. This electronically-delivered,150-page report comes in three parts, a PDF file and two Excel workbooks. Countries covered include Russia and Ukraine.