Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian media conglomerate Media Prima Berhad has been forced to scale back overseas expansion plans, and shift away from "expensive" acquisition targets such as television companies. Media Prima, which owns all of Malaysia's free-to-air TV stations including TV3, ntv7 and 8TV, created a private equity fund in April this year to fuel aggressive regional growth. However, Media Prima International's group CEO Farid Ridzuan has said that the company will now adopt a more prudent … [Read more...] about Media Prima scales back regional expansion
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Hong Kong’s ATV appoints ex-telco execs
Hong Kong - The SAR's second-placed terrestrial broadcaster, Asia Television (ATV) has appointed City Telecom chairman Ricky Wong as its chief executive officer; and former PCCW director Linus Cheung as executive chairman. Partly owned by ABN Amro, ATV is upping its digital offering in its efforts to gain market share from Television Broadcasts (TVB) which commanded around 73 percent of TV advertising revenues in 2007. Wong replaces Louis Rajkumar Page. Cheung, former executive director and … [Read more...] about Hong Kong’s ATV appoints ex-telco execs
TVB lays off staff, freezes pay
Hong Kong - 212 ‘non-artistes' were to receive termination letters last week at Hong Kong's dominant commercial broadcaster TVB. Confirmed by the external affairs department, cutbacks are put down to a need to maintain competitiveness and prepare for the challenges ahead. None of TVB's stars, popular not just in the SAR but with Chinese-speaking audiences across the region, will lose their jobs at this time but their pay has been frozen. A spokesperson said that production would be … [Read more...] about TVB lays off staff, freezes pay
STAR plays host to Taiwan’s 45th Golden Horse Awards
Hong Kong/Taipei - STAR played producer and host broadcaster of the 45th Golden Horse Awards and its preceding red carpet show in Taichung City, Taiwan on December 6. "It is a huge honour to once again play host to the Golden Horse Awards," said Paul Aiello, CEO of STAR. "STAR has been a strong supporter of the Asian film industry - from actively acquiring Bollywood and Chinese film titles for broadcast across our network to setting up Fox STAR Studios, a joint venture with 20th Century Fox to … [Read more...] about STAR plays host to Taiwan’s 45th Golden Horse Awards
Playing catch-up
featured as a Big Interview, as part of MIPCOM 2008’s Broadband Video Summit, director of future media and technology at the BBC Erik Huggers shared some facts about the BBC iPlayer. The BBC iPlayer is available on PC, Mac, Linux, Virgin Media, Apple iPhone and iPod touch and Nintendo Wii. Since its marketing launch in December 2007, there have been over 180 million requests (as of October 2008) to stream or download BBC TV programmes via BBC iPlayer. Huggers said the 20-22 minute average … [Read more...] about Playing catch-up
Asia animators – from providers to co-producers
mipcom 2008 saw a session on animation co-production in Asia, in which a number of senior executives outlined their co-production experiences with major Western studios. International division manager at Toei Animation Kenji Ebato; CEO Synergy Media Eugene Kang; Jonathan Wang, CEO of Greatdreams Cartoon Group: and Lei Wang, deputy director, TV Drama Center at Shanghai Media Group were generally optimistic, with panelists looking to debunk certain preconceptions about working with Asian studios. … [Read more...] about Asia animators – from providers to co-producers