Prominent UK businessman Allan Leighton is to take over as Chairman of STB maker Pace, which recently gained number one ranking among set-top box manufacturers, but which has also attracted adverse analyst comments following profits warnings. Leighton formerly headed supermarket chain Asda, but came to prominence during his tenure as chairman of Royal Mail. He is also a non-executive director [...]
Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset has confirmed a July 2nd launch date for its new free-to-air digital terrestrial TV channel Italia 2. Directed by Luca Tiraboschi, the new channel will have a target audience of young males aged 15 to 35 years, with a programme schedule relying heavily on American TV series. In the afternoon, Italia 2 will air series such [...]
RTL has formed an alliance with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Broadcast Network as the pan-European broadcaster enters into Asia at a time when growth in its core markets is flagging. The European group, which said in March that it was looking to secure a deal with a local partner in India, said the two had agreed to form a new joint [...]
French satellite rocket launcher Arianespace is urging Europe’s governments to make a commitment to an updated Ariane rocket in order to build a suitable next-generation system. Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO at Arianespace, told a meeting of space journalists that the USA, China, Russia, India and Japan are all busy preparing next-generation vehicles. He added that it would take up to [...]
Several channels from the Orbit Showtime Network have been affected by fire at its Dubai transmission centre. OSN confirmed the event Sunday morning, saying a “small fire” and subsequent power failure resulted in “many channels” not being broadcast. Local retransmissions on the ‘Du’ DSL system were also affected. According to local sources the fire started in the Uninterruptable Power Supply [...]
The head of Australia’s second-largest telco says the proposed merger of pay-TV services Austar and Foxtel could raise competition concerns regarding content. According to Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) needs to look carefully at the proposed deal, announced May 26 . “Optus is a company that is frequently the spokesperson for the competitive [...]
Telecom New Zealand and Sky, the country’s leading pay-TV operator, have struck a new commercial agreement that will enable Telecom to sell all of Sky’s television services to its customers alongside their home line, mobile and broadband products. Alan Gourdie, Chief Executive of Telecom Retail, said the new agreement with Sky would further strengthen the company’s ‘bundle’ products with new [...]
Eutelsat Communications has announced the commercial entry into service of its KA-Sat High Throughput Satellite, marking the official launch of its new-generation Tooway broadband service. Eutelsat’s high-capacity all Ka-band system, combining satellite and on-ground infrastructure, opens a new chapter in the market for satellite-based IP services. As a powerful new platform for delivering high-bandwidth services to users beyond range of [...]
Cukurova Holding’s owner Mehmet Emin Karamehmet has received an additional 500 million Turkish Lira tax fine for his cable and satellite TV broadcasting company DigiTurk. This latest event in a long-running saga brings his total tax obligations in Turkey to 2.2 billion liras, say local reports. The latest claim covers a period from 2005-2009 and covers alleged non payments of [...]
Four and a half years after it entered the television business, Swisscom has signed up its 500,000th TV customer. At the same time, the telecoms provider is expanding its TV service. From July the Swisscom TV-Guide app will also be available for Android devices, while the free Swisscom TV air app for iPad will also be launched in the [...]
