Citing sources “familiar with the plans,” the LATimes is reporting that Sony Pictures Television is set to launch two new movie channels by the end of 2010.
The first channel, dubbed Sony Pictures Movies HD for now, would be the company’s first cable channel completely devoted to movies
Says television analyst Derek Baine: “They have been very successful internationally with their channels, but in the U.S. they have not had the leverage of the other media conglomerates, which have a bunch of different cable channels. Perhaps they are doing this because the market to sell movies to broadcast and cable networks has been so bad.”
The channel has a tentative launch date of October 1st.
Sony’s venture would be very similar to the popular Universal HD and MGM HD channels that are currently available to most cable subscribers.
The second channel would be the widely popular FearNet station, which is a joint venture between Comcast, Sony and Lionsgate. FearNet is currently available as a VOD channel through Comcast, FioS, and Cox and offers a plethora of horror films.
Result for: conglomerate
The European Commission has cleared the proposed merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, a deal that would create the largest mobile operator in the United Kingdom. The Commission cleared the merger after Orange and T-Mobile agreed to make changes to ensure competition in the market and to give up some of the wireless spectrum that would be allocated to the new company.
“I am happy that we managed to resolve the competition issues in this case quickly in close cooperation with the Member State concerned,” European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement. The Commission had raised concerns about the merger, in particular what effect it would have on 3UK, owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
“With the merger… there will be only four players in the UK, hence the concerns about the fate of 3UK,” it said,” the commission said.
“In order to address the competition concerns… the parties concluded a revised agreement with 3UK which will secure its position as a competitive force on the market. The Commission concluded that the commitments offered by the parties remedy the identified competition concerns.”
Result for: conglomerate
The European Commission (EC) is set to approve a merger between Orange and T-Mobile, which will create the largest mobile phone company in the United Kingdom. A request from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Commission to launch its own independent investigation spurred both operators into action to alleviate any concerns that regulators might have with the merger.
Among the concerns were the dominant share the new company would have over the scarce wireless spectrum and what the merger would have meant to the UK’s smallest mobile phone network; 3. Despite being the smallest network in the UK, 3 can be credited with driving price competition in the UK in recent years.
In order to fend off a lengthy competition-probe in the UK, T-Mobile and Orange came to a deal with 3, which is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
Under the new deal, 3 will get access to 3,000 more mast sites across the UK. This would bring its total access to 16,000 sites and give it the largest 3G network in the United Kingdom. As for concerns about the wireless spectrum, T-Mobile and Orange agreed that the new mobile network would give back a quarter of the spectrum allotted to it for use by rivals to provide wireless broadband services.
The OFT’s main concern appeared to be the effect the merger would have on the 3 network, and so it would appear the European Commission has resolved all major concerns from a competition stand-point. The EC had until March 1 to respond to the OFT request.
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