Ofcom has wasted no time getting out its consultation on Sky's pay-TV on Freeview plans. Ofcom said the Sky proposal would increase choice and availability of pay-TV services on the platform, but it could block other providers of pay-TV from operating on Freeview, which has limited capacity, while strengthening Sky's dominance of the pay-TV market […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s dominant telco Telefonica is making a full-frontal assault on the pay-TV market in the last quarter of the year. The company is launching an enhanced version of its IPTV service Imagenio, with the addition of new channels -planning to reach 200 by year end-, including a HDTV service, […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s largest cable company ONO is the market leader in terms of audience ratings in the Spanish pay-TV market. The company pulled in an average share of 7.4 per cent in September, well ahead of Digital Plus, with 4.06 per cent, or Imagenio and other pay-TV operators, with 5.17 […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid The booming IPTV market is boosting the growth of the pay-TV in Spain. Over the last year, pay-TV captured 275,000 new clients up to a total of 3.5 million pay-TV subscribers in the country, with a penetration rate of 22.3 per cent, according to the latest report produced by […]

Chellomedia, the European content division of Liberty Global, and HIT Entertainment, independent children's entertainment producer and rights owner, have confirmed a joint venture to launch an international pre-school TV channel. At the same time, Chellomedia has separately acquired JimJam, the leading pre-school channel, which is currently available in Italy on the Sky Italia platform. Together, […]

Modern Times Group (MTG) is restructuring the Viasat DTH satellite pay-TV offerings in Scandinavia. Viewers will now have more than 20 different options of how they structure their pay-TV channel packages. Subscribers will be able to choose between three thematic packages of broad entertainment channels, international documentary and news channels, and children's and music channels, […]

Spain’s Sogecable, is getting into broadband and voice telephony in an attempt to bolster its subscriber base and boost the country’s lagging pay TV sector. From November it will join forces with telco Telefonica to offer triple-play package Trio Plus, which includes its satellite service Digital Plus. By late September, Sogecable also will launch iPlus, […]

Arsenal and Setanta have signed a six-year deal for a club channel to be screened on the satellite broadcaster, providing the Premier League club with a new income stream for delayed rights to its matches. The deal mirrors a similar agreement made between Setanta and Liverpool in July, which sees the club’s exclusive channel launched […]

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has confirmed the winning bidders of the new commercial satellite and cable subscription broadcasting licences. The only surprise was the withdrawal of Sentech from the race, as it was expected that pay-television giant MultiChoice would win and so would Telkom Media which is expected to be MultiChoice's […]

From Branislav Pekic in Rome Portuguese pay-TV operator TV Cabo will launch 15 new channels by the end of the year, taking the total number to 103. Currently, TV Cabo offers its subscribers a total of 87 channels (65 basic, 9 Premium and 13 radio stations) and all of the new channels. Among the new […]