Technology Business

After months of speculation, it has been finally confirmed that the UK private equity firm, BC Partners has purchased 76% of the premier satellite operator Intelsat for an impressive $16.4bn, which includes debt of $11.4bn.

The industry association for international broadcasting, AIB announced its third annual Media Excellence Awards on 19 June.

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation, (SAMRO), has signed a reciprocal representation agreement with the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Society (AMCOS) for administration of mechanical rights in Australia and New Zealand.

The 4th Abuja International Film Festival 2007 will take place from 25 - 28 September in Nigeria.

The MTV "Staying Alive’ commercial, directed by Brent Harris of Egg Films and produced for Y&R New York, has won two highly-coveted AICP Awards for art direction and public service.

The pay TV market in the Middle East and North Africa will grow by 36% over the next five years, according to new research publishedon 15 June. The fourth edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s Middle East and Africa TV report shows that the region’s 4.5 million pay TV subscribers at end-2006 will grow to 6.1 million in 2012. Much of the growth will come from Israel and Turkey, who will account for 4.2 million pay TV homes between them at end-2012.

To honour filmmakers who have invested their creative capacities into noteworthy cinematic works, the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), which takes place from 20 June to 1 July, will once again present a range of awards to some of the films appearing at the festival.

Digital media technologies and the resultant change in the global broadcast landscape were some of the focuses at the Screen Africa Talent & Technology Conference which ran in Johannesburg concurrent to the Mediatech Africa Exhibition from 12 to 13 June.

Sentech is proud to announce the appointment of Beverly Ngwenya as its Chief Operations Officer. Frans Lindeque, a veteran in the satellite telecommunication industry has been acting COO for some time.

According to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, advertising spending in the US fell 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year, mostly as a result of a decrease in spending on network TV.