Virgin Media Extends Smart Broadband Support to Full Customer Base
Virgin Media is extending its smart‑support broadband service to its entire customer base at no additional charge. The 24/7 diagnostics platform continuously monitors speed and connectivity, enabling the company to identify and often resolve issues before they affect users. In the pilot phase, 330,000 customers experienced faster speeds and more than two‑thirds reported no connectivity drops, while overall broadband usage rose 8% year‑on‑year. The service also proactively suggests Wi‑Fi pods or hub upgrades and can schedule engineer visits when needed.
FreeWheel Launches AI Tools for Premium Video Ad Transactions
Comcast‑owned FreeWheel unveiled an AI agent infrastructure to automate premium video ad transactions, anchored by its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server and a suite of Intelligence tools. The MCP Server provides a secure layer for AI agents to connect directly...
Sky Offers ‘Taste of Hayu’ Ahead of July Launch
Sky has begun a “Taste of Hayu” preview, making more than 150 on‑demand episodes from ten reality franchises available to most TV customers via Sky’s platforms. The early offering excludes Sky Q Essentials and Basic tiers, while the full Hayu...
Sport Klub to Exit Bosnia as Arena Sport Expands Lineup
Sport Klub channels will cease broadcasting in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 April 2025, replaced by an expanded suite of Arena Sport services. The change follows Telekom Srbija’s February 2025 acquisition of Sport Klub’s rights, licences and assets from United Group across the Western Balkans....
EBU Warns Lithuania’s LRT Reforms Threaten Broadcaster Independence
The European Broadcasting Union and nearly thirty media organisations have warned that Lithuania’s proposed public service media law reforms could jeopardise LRT’s independence and financial sustainability. The draft includes a three‑year funding freeze, reduced tax‑based allocations, tighter revenue caps, and...
DVB World 2026 Explores Shift to IP and DVB-I Rollout
DVB World 2026 in Amsterdam highlighted the broadcast sector’s shift toward IP‑centric delivery, with DVB‑I positioned as the key standard linking traditional broadcast, broadband and OTT services. The event announced concrete rollout plans, including a nationwide deployment in New Zealand, a...
Germany Defines Framework for DVB-I Rollout
Deutsche TV‑Plattform (DTVP) has released Germany’s first DVB‑I Implementation Profile, concluding a two‑year development effort led by a task force chaired by Frank Heineberg of RTL Deutschland and Remo Vogel of rbb/ARD. The profile defines how linear television can be...
Freely Appoints Synapse TV for Showcase Channel Operations
Freely has appointed Synapse TV to create and operate its Freely Showcase service on channel 100 of the Freely streaming platform. The IP‑only channel, available exclusively to Freely subscribers, will feature platform highlights, feature updates, and how‑to content to aid discovery....
Sky Media Opens Premium VOD Inventory to Programmatic Buying Through DV360
Sky Media announced that its premium video‑on‑demand (VOD) inventory is now available through Google Display & Video 360 (DV360), extending programmatic access across Sky’s owned and partner channels. The offering includes entertainment, drama, sport and news assets such as Sky Atlantic,...
ARD Launches New Audio App ARD Sounds
ARD launched ARD Sounds on 9 March 2026, a free app that consolidates radio, podcasts, on‑demand audio and live sport from Germany’s public‑service broadcasters. The platform replaces the ARD Audiothek and has already been installed on 5.6 million devices worldwide. It offers extensive...
Canal+ and PPF Consider Taking Viaplay Private
Canal+ and PPF, each holding roughly 29.3% of Viaplay after a €0.36 billion recapitalisation, are exploring a joint move to take the Nordic streamer private. The proposal would give the two investors close to 60% combined control, consolidating their influence over...
Vivacom Adds BBC First and BBC Earth to EON in Bulgaria
Vivacom has expanded its EON television platform in Bulgaria by adding BBC First and BBC Earth. BBC First, positioned as a Bulgarian premiere, joins the EON Premium package on channel 63, delivering British drama and crime series such as *Death...
Comcast Partners with NVIDIA to Test AI Applications at the Network Edge
Comcast is partnering with NVIDIA to run field trials that place NVIDIA GPUs inside its distributed edge network, enabling AI inference close to 65 million U.S. homes and businesses. The tests will evaluate use cases such as household‑level personalized video ads,...
STV Revenue Falls 6% Amid Advertising Weakness
STV reported a 6% drop in group revenue to £176.9 million for 2025, with advertising revenue falling 10% to £89.3 million and adjusted operating profit plunging 44% to £11.6 million. The decline was driven by weaker national linear ad sales, while studios revenue...
Ofcom Complaints Remain Steady – EE Tops Pay-TV Complaints League
Ofcom’s Q3 2025 report shows consumer complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay‑TV services remained broadly unchanged from the previous quarter. EE topped the pay‑TV complaint league while its broadband complaint level stayed flat. TalkTalk led landline grievances and saw an...
Sky Integrates Disney+ Into Sky TV Subscriptions
Sky has integrated Disney+ into its core TV subscription, offering the Standard with Ads tier (valued at £5.99 per month) at no extra charge to eligible customers. The service is now accessible via Sky Glass, Sky Stream, and Sky Q,...
Eutelsat Ends Express AT1 and AT2 Capacity Deals After Satellite Disruption
Eutelsat has terminated its capacity contracts on the Russian‑owned Express AT1 and Express AT2 satellites after Express AT1 failed on March 4 and Express AT2 is being relocated from 140° East. The leases had complemented Eutelsat’s own 36° East fleet (Eutelsat 36C/36D). The company estimates the terminations will...
Portugal Pay-TV Growth Hits 19-Year Low; Fibre Passes 70%
Portugal ended 2025 with 4.7 million pay‑TV subscribers, a modest 0.5 % year‑on‑year increase – the slowest growth since 2006. Residential customers accounted for 88.3 % of the base, rising to 4.1 million, while non‑residential connections grew 2.3 % to 546,000. Fibre‑to‑the‑home remained dominant, delivering...
Sportdigital Acquires Rights to AFC Women’s Asian Cup
German broadcaster Sportdigital has secured broadcast rights to the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, beginning coverage with the quarter‑finals in Australia. The 12‑team tournament also serves as the Asian qualification pathway for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, granting direct berths...
Rakuten TV Enterprise Launches LIVE CTV Event Series
Rakuten TV Enterprise has launched LIVE, a new European event series focused on connected TV and streaming executives. The inaugural edition will take place in Madrid on March 17, gathering over 150 senior leaders from advertising, media agencies, platforms, studios...
US Streamers Take 75% of Europe’s Online Viewing, Says Mediavision
U.S. streaming services now account for about 75% of online video viewing across Europe, according to Mediavision and the Digital Production Partnership. Local platforms collectively hold only around 25% of the market, with notable variation—Finland’s domestic services capture 43% while...
NBCUniversal Promotes Gus O’Brien to Lead International Networks and DTC
NBCUniversal Media Group promoted Gus O’Brien to president of International Networks and Direct‑to‑Consumer, effective April 1, succeeding veteran Ken Bettsteller who moves to an advisory role. O’Brien previously served as managing director for Latin America, overseeing joint ventures and the launch...
YES Selects Synamedia Iris for Advanced Advertising Rollout
Israeli pay‑TV operator YES, part of the Bezeq Group, has chosen Synamedia Iris to power advanced advertising across its linear TV and streaming services. The Iris platform will enable addressable, server‑side ad insertion that unifies delivery on set‑top boxes and...
Pluto TV Renews Modus Super Series International Pairs Darts Event
Pluto TV has renewed its partnership with the Modus Super Series to broadcast the third edition of the International Pairs darts tournament. The event streams live and free on Pluto TV’s dedicated MODUS Super Series Darts channel from April 20‑25, reaching...
Polsat Box Go Adds 23 Channels as Package Prices Increase
Polsat Box Go has expanded its streaming catalogue by adding 23 new TV channels, pushing the total offering to almost 200 services. The new lineup includes a mix of public broadcaster TVP channels and TVN Warner Bros Discovery assets such as TVN24, TVN Turbo and...
Prima Group Appoints Jan Wykrytowicz to Lead Prima+ VOD
Prima Group has appointed Jan Wykrytowicz as director of VOD and commercial services, effective April 1. In the newly created role he will lead the development of the prima+ streaming platform, expand subscription services, digital products and strategic partnerships, and devise new...
BeIN Sports Appeals Ruling in Ligue 1 Payment Dispute
beIN Sports has appealed a Paris Commercial Court ruling that ordered it to pay roughly €15 million to LFP Media for its Saturday Ligue 1 rights package. The broadcaster had withheld €4.71 million from each of three €18 million installments, arguing that contractual restrictions...
BetWright Takes Sponsorship on Sky Sports Racing
BetWright, a UK‑licensed online bookmaker launched in December 2024, has signed a sponsorship deal with Sky Sports Racing. The agreement places BetWright branding on idents during the channel’s live horse‑racing broadcasts across the UK and Ireland. The partnership is the latest in a...
Wedotv BIG Stories and Wedotv Movies Launch on Freeview UK
wedotv has introduced its documentary channel wedotv BIG stories on Freeview UK, occupying channel 275, while wedotv movies now broadcasts as a full DTT channel on slot 98. Both services are built on Synapse’s FAST architecture, server‑side ad insertion and...
ORF Director General Weißmann Resigns After Allegations
Roland Weißmann stepped down as Director General of Austria’s public broadcaster ORF after a staff member accused him of sexual harassment, allegations he denies. The ORF Foundation Council will install Radio Director Ingrid Thurnher as interim chief, with a plenary...
Czech TV Viewing Rises as Out-of-Home Data Added to Official Measurement
Czech television viewing jumped sharply in February after Atmedia introduced a new audience metric that adds out‑of‑home consumption. Average daily viewing rose to 4 hours 11 minutes, a 10% year‑on‑year increase. Out‑of‑home viewing accounted for about 7% of total time but drove roughly...
Aferian Shares Suspended as Company Prepares for Sale
Aferian has suspended its AIM‑listed shares as it moves toward a pre‑pack administration and the sale of its operating subsidiaries, 24i and Amino, to a single buyer. The transaction, backed by senior lenders, is expected to close within days and...
Music Box Expands Into Africa with AzamTV
Music Box Television has signed a distribution deal with AzamTV, bringing its Music Box Hits and Music Box Dance channels to nine East and Southern African countries. The channels launch in Full HD across AzamTV’s IPTV, OTT and DTH satellite...
Konodrac Launches Smart TV Self-Promotion Platform
Spanish tech firm Konodrac has introduced Smart Self-Promotions, an automated platform that turns traditional TV self-promotion into data-driven campaigns for linear, HbbTV and OTT environments. The solution leverages census-level audience data to segment viewers, deliver interactive calls-to-action, and provide full-funnel...
AccuWeather NOW Launches on Samsung TV Plus in US
AccuWeather has launched its free, ad‑supported streaming channel AccuWeather NOW on Samsung TV Plus in the United States, adding the service to Samsung’s FAST platform that now exceeds 100 million monthly active users worldwide. The channel delivers 24‑hour weather programming, including forecasts, severe‑weather...
Synamedia and Asport Team up for Games of the Future Live Streaming
Synamedia teamed with Swiss sports‑tech firm Asport to stream the Games of the Future in Abu Dhabi, a hybrid event merging physical sport, esports and digital games. Using Synamedia’s Quortex SaaS platform, Asport delivered over 200 live streams across YouTube,...
MFE Sets New International Top Management Structure
MFE‑MediaForEurope has restructured its top management, appointing Pier Silvio Berlusconi as Chairman and Group CEO while retaining Fedele Confalonieri as Statutory Chairperson. The new model replaces a vertical holding‑company layout with a horizontal structure that centralises staff functions at the...
ARD and ZDF to Close Linear TV Channels Under Reform Treaty
German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF will overhaul their linear TV portfolio under a reformed national broadcast treaty, shutting down ARD alpha, tagesschau24 and ONE by December 31 2026. The restructure consolidates remaining services into three jointly‑operated channels—phoenix for news, neo for...
CH Media Adds RTL+ to Oneplus in Swiss Streaming Partnership
Swiss media group CH Media will embed German streaming service RTL+ into its oneplus platform on 23 March 2026, creating a bundled offering that also includes Paramount+ and a slate of Swiss originals. The integration delivers selected RTL+ titles—reality, drama and family...
Handball-Bundesliga Selects Dyn Media to Upgrade International Streaming Service
The Handball-Bundesliga has appointed Dyn Media to take over the technical development of its international streaming service, HBL TV, starting summer 2026. The league’s OTT platform, already available in over 80 countries, will expand to more than 100 markets where...
Peter Kail Becomes New CEO of Canal+ Austria
Canal+ Österreich has named Vienna‑born Peter Kail as its new chief executive. Kail, who rose from managing director at Eviso Austria to director of telecom partnerships at Canal+ International, will steer growth in the Austrian pay‑TV market. The appointment follows a leadership...
Bosnia State Broadcaster BHRT Halts Programming in Funding Crisis Protest
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s state broadcaster BHRT stopped all TV and radio output on 26 February, displaying a black screen and a warning about a possible shutdown. The halt stems from a deep funding crisis: licence‑fee revenues collected by the country’s entities...
Telia and Viaplay Sign New Multi-Year Content Agreement
Telia and Viaplay have signed a multi‑year content agreement to bolster Telia’s TV and streaming proposition in Sweden. The deal secures long‑term access to Viaplay’s extensive library of international series, local entertainment and premium live‑sport rights, including UEFA Champions League...
RTÉ Completes Sale of GAAGO Stake
RTÉ has finalized the sale of its 50% stake in GAAGO to the GAA, receiving €3 million. The transaction, agreed in principle in February 2025, now has all regulatory approvals. RTÉ will reinvest the proceeds into regional studios in Cork, Limerick...
Martijn Van Hout to Depart Canal+ After 22 Years
Martijn van Hout will leave Canal+ at the end of February, ending a 22‑year tenure that included roles as Country Manager DACH and Managing Director of Canal+ Austria. He launched HD Austria in 2010, grew it into a full pay‑TV...
Warner Bros. Discovery Targets Further HBO Max Growth
Warner Bros. Discovery announced it will shift its reporting focus from raw subscriber counts to monetisation metrics as it pushes HBO Max’s global expansion. The company currently serves 132 million streaming users and projects more than 140 million by the end of...
RTL Deutschland Seals Sony Pictures Deal for RTL+ and Free-TV
RTL Deutschland has signed a new agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment Deutschland, delivering a substantial package of Sony films to its streaming platform RTL+ and free‑TV channels. The deal covers the second pay‑window, granting RTL+ early and exclusive access to...
Stingray Launches FAST Channels on Whale TV+
Stingray has launched a suite of free ad‑supported streaming (FAST) channels on Whale TV+, the free streaming platform operated by Singapore‑based Whale TV. The new lineup includes eight video channels—covering nature, wellness, art and ambience—and four audio channels ranging from...
ITV and Disney Expand Partnership with Primetime Hulu Originals Window
ITV and Disney have deepened their UK partnership by adding an exclusive primetime linear window for two Hulu Original dramas on ITV1. The arrangement builds on the Disney+‑ITVX content‑sharing deal launched in July 2025 and introduces a branded slot called...
RTL+ and HBO Max Launch Joint Streaming Bundle in Austria
German broadcaster RTL Deutschland and Warner Bros. Discovery have merged RTL+ and HBO Max into a single, cancellable subscription for Austrian consumers. The bundle offers two tiers—a ad‑supported option at €11.99 and an ad‑free version at €17.99—both discounted from the standalone prices. An introductory...
