BERLIN: The German media giants ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer are said to be in talks regarding a potential merger, valued at 14.4 billion euros ($15.9 billion). ProSiebenSat.1 Media is Germany’s biggest commercial broadcaster, and Axel Springer is the country’s largest newspaper publisher. Together, the two companies delivered 2014 revenue of ...

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LONDON: A second season of the hit comedy series Yonderland is set to premiere on Sky 1 HD later this summer. Produced by Working Title Television, Yonderland first debuted on Sky 1 HD in November 2013. The new season is scheduled to begin airing on the channel on Monday, July ...

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MOSCOW: Modern Times Group (MTG) has received an offer from UTH Russia for the purchase of a 75 percent stake in CTC Media. The acquisition bid comes in response to the amendment to the Russian law “On Mass Media,” which will impose further restrictions on non-Russian ownership of Russian TV ...

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DUBLIN: Liberty Global's UPC Ireland has entered into an agreement with Doughty Hanson to acquire the commercial broadcaster TV3. The purchase price is 80 million euros ($87 million), with an additional contingent consideration of up to 7 million euros ($7.8 million) payable based on TV3 reaching certain targets. Once the ...

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PARIS: CANAL+ Group has elevated Maxime Saada, currently executive VP and head of pay TV, to the role of CEO, replacing Rodolphe Belmer. Belmer has officially been "relieved of his responsibilities," according to the company's supervisory board. Saada has held the executive VP and head of pay TV post at ...

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LONDON: The BBC has been ordered to take on the cost of providing free television licenses for those over the age of 75, a process that will be phased in from 2018-19 and fully implemented by 2020-21. U.K. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale announced the ruling earlier today that the BBC ...

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LONDON: Director-General Tony Hall has announced a set of changes to the structure and organization of the BBC that will result in the loss of more than 1,000 jobs, as it tries to compensate for its £150 million ($234.3 million) license-fee deficit. Hall said that the new measures being proposed ...

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LONDON: OTT TV and video revenues in Western Europe are set to increase by $9 billion between 2014 and 2020, with the U.K. as the largest contributor. According to a new report from Digital TV Research, the revenue total in Western Europe will reach $13.72 billion in 2020, up from ...

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LONDON: In its third review of public service TV broadcasting (PSB), Ofcom has raised concerns regarding the decreased spending on first-run U.K. children's programs and dramas. The review examines how the BBC, ITV, STV, UTV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C have fulfilled the purposes of public service broadcasting. Ofcom ...

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NEW YORK: SPI International and Vodafone Portugal have unveiled the launch of the FunBox 4K UHD channel on TV Net Voz, a leading Portuguese IPTV platform. Vodaphone Portugal has already begun offering some FunBox 4K content to its subscribers. Additional programming will become available in the coming months and will ...

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