ALLIANCE TO OFFER EUROPE PAY TV.Byline: Nathaniel C. Nash The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times In the most significant venture to date aimed at tapping the potentially huge European pay television market, Rupert Murdoch and his British Sky Broadcasting British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB — formerly two companies, Sky Television and BSB) is a company that operates Sky Digital, a subscription television service in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It produces TV content, and owns several TV channels. Group teamed Wednesday with three of Europe's largest media groups to offer digital pay television throughout the continent, in particular to German- and French-speaking countries. The partners in the alliance, which will link British Sky Broadcasting with Bertelsmann AG Bertelsmann AG German media company. Beginning as a religious printer and publisher in 1835, the company grew steadily over the next century. Though virtually destroyed by Allied bombing in 1945, it recovered quickly after World War II. of Germany and Havas SA and Canal Plus of France, said Wednesday that they planned to invest almost $1 billion to develop theme-oriented channels for European audiences, either through existing pay television channels or possibly through stations that the group will establish. "The future of pay TV in Europe is offering a bouquet bouquet a structure resembling a cluster of flowers. of theme channels, such as a prime movie channel, a documentary channel
A documentary channel is a specialty television channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. , a children's channel and a health channel," said Nikolaus Formanek, head of corporate communication for Bertelsmann TV/Film Europe. "That is what the alliance is all about. We will be a content provider primarily, but if we have to we will establish our own channels." Murdoch's News Corp. owns a controlling 40 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting, or B Sky B, which has 5.1 million subscribers in Britain and penetrates all the nation's cable-wired homes. The commercial television market in France, Germany and the French- and German-speaking regions of Europe Europe is often divided into regions due to geographical, cultural or historical criteria. Some common divisions are as follows. Directional divisions Groupings by compass directions are the hardest to define in Europe, since (among other issues) the pure geographical criteria , which include Switzerland, Austria and parts of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, is estimated to have revenues of more than $10 billion a year. Analysts have said that within a decade more than half that revenue could flow through pay television. |
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