A total of 15 companies have applied for cable and wireless broadcast licences in Montenegro. However, only one (Broadband Montenegro) has expressed an interest in providing services in all of the country’s 21 municipalities and another (Telekabi) in all but five. According to the Serbian news agency Beta, the Slovenian company BBS has a 20% […]
Hot Bird passes 1,000 channels
Eutelsat Communications has said it has broken the barrier of 1,000 video channels in the Hotbird satellite neighbourhood, which grew by 273 channels over the past two years to over 1,050 at end December 2006. The company also announced headline results of its two-year survey of satellite and cable homes. Set up in 1994, the […]
Next step for T-DMB in Korea
T-DMB will be made available across South Korea starting in the first half of this year, according to Arirang News. The service was launched by Korean broadcasters in late 2005, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan area. Through it, a number of TV channels can be viewed on mobile phones and other hand-held devices from manufacturers […]
Musical chairs in Slovakia
The Slovak commercial station Joj has been bought by J&T Media Enterprises from Grabofal Group for an undisclosed fee. At the same time, Grabofal Group has gained control of TA3 from J&T Finance Group. In the former case, J&T Media Enterprises has become the owner of Joj by buying both its licence holder (Mac TV) […]
Canal+ chooses Astra over Eutelsat
Canal+ has chosen the Astra satellite system to distribute its premium channel and pay-TV packages following the merger with former rival TPS. Although around two thirds of the combined entity’s subscribers had their satellite dishes pointed towards the Astra satellite at 19 degrees East it had been thought that Gallic pride might favour Paris-based Eutelsat. […]
Clover’s Week: Licensing hours
Will the BBC’s commitment to digital switchover waiver under the new licence fee settlement? Julian Clover reports There is no doubting that the BBC has thrown itself fully behind the digital switchover process. First by launching new digital channels and later by bailing the government out of a major policy failure when ITV Digital went […]
TV2 Sport faces competition probe
Denmark’s competition authority has opened an investigation into the new Viasat-TV2 joint venture sports channel TV2 Sport. The new channel has been priced at DKr25 (€3.35), four times that of Viasat Sport 1, which has been effectively replaced by TV2 Sport. The Danish Cable Television Association (FDA) says that the channel is taking advantage of […]
Sistema eyes Telecom Italia
Sistema is preparing to buy into Telecom Italia. According to reports in both Russia’s Kommersant and the Italian agency Mergermarket, the Russian company will shortly enter talks with the Pirelli Group, which through its 80% stake in the Olimpia finance company holds an 18% stake in Telecom Italia. A deal between the two parties, which […]
Chris Dziadul Reports: Deal or no deal?
Chris Dziadul looks at proposed, completed and doubtful deals across the region The news that Russia’s Sistema may be about to buy into one of Western Europe’s most powerful multimedia companies should come as no surprise. Securing even a minority stake in Telecom Italia, which is valued at around $60 billion (€46.3 billion) and has […]
Motive secures Elion deal
The leading Estonian telco and IT provider Elion has opted for the Internet Helper high-speed data solution from Motive. It will be used by the company in the rollout of new broadband services for its residential and business customers. Elion is owned by Eesti Telekom and operates an IPTV service known as DigiTV that currently […]