OpenTV has reported a record growth in revenues driven by a 30% increase in revenues from its applications business. The middleware company has already seen benefits from last year’s acquisition by Kudelski, a recent deal with the French cablenet Numericable, seeing OpenTV middleware sit alongside the Kudelski conditional access technology. Significant deals have also been […]
Iliad to free Club following soaring profits
Iliad SA, the owner of France’s largest alternative broadband provider Free, says it has made an offer for Deutsche Telekom’s French internet business Club Internet. Serving 600,000 ADSL and 400,000 narrowband subscribers, the company has been valued at €340 million by the French bank Exane BNP Paribas. It seems that everyone is interested in buying […]
Spanish ONO goes into profit
Spanish cable operator ONO ended 2006 with over one million residential broadband subscribers. The cablenet, which also added 140,000 net new cable subscribers, increased the number of revenue generating units – the average amount of services taken by subscribers to 1.97 from 1.88. Net profitability was finally reached in the fourth quarter of 2006 recording […]
Mediaset sells 4.1 million pre-pay cards
Mediaset Premium, the Italian broadcasters digital terrestrial pay-per-view service, sold 1.1 million cards during its first year of operation. The service has been bolstered by a wide range of content that includes football from Serie A and Serie B, Grande Fratello (the Italian version of Big Brother), and a selection of premiering movies. 4.1 million […]
4Fun looks for funding
4Fun Media, the owner of the Polish participation TV channel 4Fun TV, has submitted the necessary paperwork to hold a floatation on the Warsaw stock exchange in the first half of this year. 4Fun Media recently signed a deal with Polsat that will see it produce programming for the national commercial station and is keen […]
Tandberg finds extra profit thanks to taxman
There has been a material change in Tandberg’s tax position. According to the digital TV technology vendor, its after tax profit in 2006 amounted to $82.9 million (€63.1 million ), as opposed to the $55.6 million reported on February 8 and $47.8 million in 2005. While there has been no actual change to the company’s […]
Swisscom confirms Fastweb bid
State-owned telco Swisscom has unveiled a €3.7 billion friendly cash bid for Italy’s Fastweb. Speculation about a possible bid emerged over the weekend with the broadband operator later asking for its shares to be temporarily suspended from the Italian stock exchange. “Italy is one of the most attractive broadband markets in Europe with significant expected […]
Fastweb suspends shares ahead of Swisscom takeover
Italian broadband and operator Fastweb has asked the Italian stock market regulator Consob to suspend trading in its shares on Monday. In the briefest of statements the company said Saturday that it would meet on Monday to “discuss potential strategic opportunities”. Telecoms group Swisscom has been linked with Fastweb over a potential all cash offer. […]
Telecom Italia in DTT rethink
Telecom Italia Media’s chief executive Antonio Campo dall’Orto has warned that the Italian government’s decision to delay analogue switch off from 2008 to 2012 had led the group to “re-think its DTT strategy.” Already the depreciation of the existing DTT network, purchased in 2005 and upgraded over the last year at a cost of over […]
SBS reports strong financial results
This morning SBS Broadcasting S.àr.l. announced strong financial results for the full-year 2006, with net revenue increasing by 14% to €1,003 million from €879.5 million in 2005. SBS’s recurring EBITDA surpassed previous record figures set in 2005 by 43% to €207 million, an increase of €62 million from 2005. The SBS Group has four main […]