Canal+ is to shift the focus of its operations in the Nordic region, moving from a centralised management towards the development of the pay-TV channel in the individual countries, and has appointed Caspar Berntzen as managing director for Canal+ in Finland. The 39-year old has previously been managing director of Egmont Entertainment/Nordisk Film in Finland [...]
Record audience for France24.com
July 30, 2007 14.40 Europe/London By
June was a record month for the France 24 website. The international news channel gained over three million unique visitors in the 10 countries measured by the Nielsen/NetRatings survey. Traffic on the website has increased steadily since the start of 2007 and has been characterised by the number of visitors from outside of France, which [...]
Solid Telefonica performance continues
July 30, 2007 11.13 Europe/London By
Telefónica has posted an across-the-board growth figures for the 12th consecutive quarter, with its revenues (10.6%), OIBDA (21.9%), OI (45.9%) and net profit in Q2 all significantly higher than three months earlier. As of the end of June the telco had a total of 4.2 million retail broadband access lines in Spain, or 36.8% more [...]
337,000 digital TV subs for KPN
July 30, 2007 10.44 Europe/London By
The Dutch incumbent telco KPN ended Q2 with 337,000 TV subscriptions, or 41,000 more than three months earlier. The year-on-year increase in the total was 47%. KPN has realized this growth by mainly improving the marketing and increasing the coverage of its DTT service Digitenne. KPN’s market share of the digital TV market at the [...]
Arqiva secures SDN network upgrade
July 30, 2007 10.19 Europe/London By
Arqiva has been awarded the contract to upgrade the SDN multiplex to a high power digital network. The contract is estimated to be worth some £500 million (€685m) over its 27-year term. The SDN multiplex is owned by ITV plc and carries channels including Five, S4C and QVC alongside Top Up TV’s pay-TV service. It [...]
Malone mulls Virgin bid
July 30, 2007 09.57 Europe/London By
US cable executive John Malone is considering entering the race to buy Virgin Media. In an interview with the Financial Times, the Liberty Global chairman said the company was currently “doing its homework”. Malone’s interest comes at a time when stock market pressures have begun to impact on the climate for a private equity bid. [...]
Polsat-Axel Springer set for talks
July 30, 2007 06.41 Europe/London By
The proposed sale of a 25.1% stake in the Polish national commercial station Polsat to Axel Springer is back in the spotlight. Although the deal looked done and dusted at the end of last year, the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) blocked it in April “for formal reasons”. Local reports indicate that [...]
New head for TeliaSonera
July 30, 2007 06.23 Europe/London By
Lars Nyberg has been appointed the new president and CEO of TeliaSonera. He currently holds either the chairmanship or directorship of several companies and will take up his new role on September 3. Anders Igel, TeliaSonera’s previous president and CEO, resigned in June.
EC approves BTC takeover
July 30, 2007 05.59 Europe/London By
The European Commission (EC) has approved the proposed take-over of the incumbent Bulgarian telco BTC by AIG Capital Partners. In its view, there are no competition concerns as AIG does not have any telco operations in its portfolio in the EEA and BTC is only active in the telco sector. Back in May AIG agreed [...]
TVP sell off mooted
July 30, 2007 05.45 Europe/London By
A member of its board of directors has suggested that the Polish public broadcaster TVP should be part privatised. Speaking to the local press, Robert Rynkun-Werner said that the sale of up to 49% of the station would both make its functioning more transparent and provide much-needed funds for digitalisation. Although the idea is nothing [...]
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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.