Bundesliga International and Setanta Sports have agreed to an expansion of their broadcast rights partnership, which includes the renewal of 10 Eurasian markets and the additional inclusion of three Baltic territories. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Setanta Sports has been broadcasting the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,…

The production of TV series Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin contributed over €31 million to Germany’s GDP (‘Bruttoinlandsprodukt’) according to an economic impact study by Oxford Economics, commissioned by the MPA in cooperation with NBCUniversal and Studio Babelsberg. The production also created 700 local jobs (full-time and part-time) and supported more than 650 local businesses…

Hot beverage brand, Horlicks, is returning to TV screens for the first time in 20 years via AdSmart from Sky. The first month-long campaign will launches today [February 19th] with the commercial airing in 30-second slots. Utilising Sky Media’s addressable targeting technology, the campaign will reach specific audiences in Sky and Virgin households across the…

Prime Video has announced that BTS j-hope’s docuseries Hope on the Street, produced by HYBE, will be available on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide from March 28th. Episodes will be released weekly every Thursday and Friday. j-hope is a member of the celebrated K-[op group group BTS. Hope on the Street…

Piracy Shield, a new system designed to combat online piracy in Italy, became operational earlier this month and has since managed to block 528 IP addresses and 114 illegal sites. According to estimates by Italy’s Communications Authority (AgCom), this move has prevented around 100,000 households from illegally watching premium content. The system aims to protect…

Most observers do not expect there to be any resurrection of the Zee merger with Sony’s India assets. Consequently Zee Entertainment says it is to examine and review its entire structure. The aim is to focus on those divisions and elements that are the most profitable. CEO Punit Goenka told analysts that he would be…

Eutelsat’s CEO Eva Berneke, in a post-results Q&A with analysts on February 16th, said that she expected its Video DTH decline to slow. Revenues from Video – mostly DTH – had fallen 8 per cent during the 6-months to December 31st 2023. The loss was not helped by DigiTurk not renewing its contract with Eutelsat…

The EU’s giant IRIS2 broadband by satellite plan is already facing challenges. IRIS2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) is the European Union’s answer to “pressing challenge of tomorrow, offering enhanced communication capacities to governmental users, businesses, while ensuring high-speed internet broadband to cope with connectivity dead zones.” But there are problems for…

EchoStar, which now owns Dish Network, and having suffered two reversals in its plans to raise fresh borrowings, is now contemplating raising $3 billion (€2.78bn) by issuing debt which is backed by its spectrum assets. A report from Bloomberg says that EchoStar could issue new notes backed by 20 MHz of its AWS-4 terrestrial spectrum,…

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has acquired eight unscripted series for its linear networks in European markets, including two UK originals from Prime Video, Amazon Originals, The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, Seasons One and Two. Both series will air on Polish networks TTV and Metro, with The Grand Tour also set to air on TVN…