http://www.screendigest.com/rss/ en-gb Copyright: (C) Screen Digest 240 SureWest Communications has agreed to be acquired by Consolidated Communications, a rural telecom operator, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $340.9m. Consolidated Communications, currently serving in...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_02_consolidated_buys_surewest_as_smaller_operators_continue_to_bulk_up/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_02_consolidated_buys_surewest_as_smaller_operators_continue_to_bulk_up/view.html 2012-02-08 Time Warner Cable (TWC), the 2nd largest cable operator in the U.S., posted a fourth quarter residential video decline of 129,000 subscribers, or 1.1 per cent of its basic subscriber base. This is an...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_time_warner_cable_video_revenue_flat_broadband_up_profits_way_up/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_time_warner_cable_video_revenue_flat_broadband_up_profits_way_up/view.html 2012-01-27 Verizon added 194,000 FiOS video subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the IPTV operator's subscriber base to 4.17m, up a respectable 20 percent from 2010 when it ended the year at 3.47m. For...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_verizon_maintains_fios_momentum_with_4q_full-year_video_subscriber_gains/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2012_01_verizon_maintains_fios_momentum_with_4q_full-year_video_subscriber_gains/view.html 2012-01-26 Regional Sports Network Madison Square Garden (MSG) Networks went off the air for Time Warner Cable (TWC) subscribers as of 1 Jan after both parties failed to come to terms over carriage fee rate increases....(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/Time_Warner_Cable_blacks_out_MSG_Networks/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/Time_Warner_Cable_blacks_out_MSG_Networks/view.html 2012-01-04 Pay TV operators were able to minimise subscriber loss in the third quarter of 2011, compared to a year earlier. After posting a net subscriber loss of 54,000 last year, net declines were only 9,000 in the same quarter this year. The improvement is largely due to better cable video retention strategies, and stronger performance in the satellite segment. In contrast, the IPTV segment's growth has shown signs of slowing down. This market monitor examines the third-quarter results in the context of the long-term trends in our US pay TV projection model.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111123a/2011_11_state_of_the_us_pay_tv_operator_market/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111123a/2011_11_state_of_the_us_pay_tv_operator_market/view.html 2011-12-23 Warner Home Video launched the first UltraViolet-enabled Blu-ray Disc (BD) titles in the US in October with a UK launch confirmed for 26 December and Canada next in line. Studios expect to expand the frequency of UltraViolet (UV) discs to the point that, by the holiday sales season of 2012, most major theatrical releases will come to these markets on UV-compliant discs. As a first step, the studios have clearly been smart in focusing on the initial delivery of UV rights via discs, on which US consumers will spend $9.2bn this year anyway, rather than via downloads, on which they will spend just $667m. Trying to maintain the value in the physical space is clearly a key short term strategic priority.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111116b/2011_12_first_ultraviolet_discs_hit_the_us_market/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111116b/2011_12_first_ultraviolet_discs_hit_the_us_market/view.html 2011-12-16 While pay TV operators, networks and investors worry about the potential of cord-cutting, cord-shaving or cord-avoidance (various ways for consumers to limit their spending on pay TV subscriptions), the reality is that consumers are generally keeping their pay TV subscriptions and finding other areas to cut back their entertainment spending-mainly by cutting back on their purchasing of physical discs. The digitization of both networks and physical media since the early 1990s, created a video entertainment business that generated more than $100bn ($101bn to be exact) for the first time in 2010. But growth has slowed markedly in recent years, as a flattening picture for transactional spending post 2004, went negative in 2008-2010.(subscription content) http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111114a/2011_12_the_big_picture_on_video_entertainment_spending/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/reports/20111114a/2011_12_the_big_picture_on_video_entertainment_spending/view.html 2011-12-14   When the NFL announced that it would keep a stable of games - including the Thanksgiving Day game - for its NFL Network many thought that it was a precursor to moving games away from the likes of...(free content) http://www.screendigest.com/news/2011_12_nfl_network_scores_with_%20Thanksgiving_Day_game/view.html http://www.screendigest.com/news/2011_12_nfl_network_scores_with_%20Thanksgiving_Day_game/view.html 2011-12-05