Bob Zitter, EVP and CTO of Home Box Office (HBO) and Daniel Danker, General Manager of On Demand at the BBC, leading industry players in the OTT space, are set to deliver keynotes at next month’s TV Connect in London. The conference and exhibition, now in its ninth year, has evolved to reflect the changing nature of the converging connected entertainment ecosystem, which increasingly looks towards services, content and user-experience, rather than just technology, to drive the market.

Liberty Global, Inc. said on Thursday it posted a loss of $331 million, or $1.27 per share, on the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to a profit of $322.8 million, or $1.21 per share, during the same period last year.

The international cable TV and Internet provider controlled by media mogul John Malone, however, posted a full-year 2012 net profit of $323 million, or $1.21 per share, on revenues of $10.3 billion, a 6 percent increase from 2011.

Western Europe leads adoption of new media technology as smartphone penetration rises 27% a year according to a new ZenithOptimedia study of 19 advanced markets. ZenithOptimedia tracked the adoption of three new media technologies – IPTV, smartphones and tablets – and forecast their penetration to 2015.

Among the findings of the study include:

- Smartphone penetration to double from 36% in 2012 to 72% in 2015

Eutelsat Communications reported revenues of $848.71 (euro 633.6) million and net income of US$ 239.13 (euro 178.5) million for the first half of fiscal year 2012-2013 cementing its position as one of the world’s biggest satellite operators.

Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat Communications, said he is pleased with the company’s robust results with revenue growth of over 5% and an EBITDA margin exceeding 79%. He said the company’s record backlog of €5.4 billion underscores Eutelsat’s long term visibility on revenues and cash flows.

Arabsat has signed an agreement with the Hellenic Telecommunication Organization (OTE;), one of the largest telecom groups in South Eastern Europe, for the acquisition of its 99.05% equity participation in Hellas-Sat Consortium Ltd.The share purchase agreement was signed upon an aggregate consideration of €208 million  (US$ 280 mil).

The purchase price represents 99.05%, of:

• An enterprise value of Hellas-Sat, amounting to €157 million, which corresponds to 7 times the EBITDA of Hellas Sat for 2012, and

Liberty Global is set to acquire UK-based Virgin Media in a stock and cash merger valued at about US$ 23.3 billion creating one of the world’s leading broadband communications company covering 47 million homes and serving 25 million customers across 14 countries.

As part of a broader initiative to prevent signal interference, GVF today announced that it is working with the organizers of Cabsat in Dubai to highlight satellite communications equipment that has been tested and approved in co-ordination with a global product-certification initiative.

There are a total of 6 exhibitors with approved products at Cabsat. Those technologies will have demonstrated compliance with GVF-coordinated industry standards, which encourage integrity in equipment design, production, and performance.

SES announced today that its German HD platform HD+ now exceeds one million paying households. For the full year of 2012, HD+ more than doubled the number of paying customers, from 404,123 to 944,993. HD PLUS expects a growth rate of 25 percent for paying customers in 2013.

When writing under a leaden winter UK sky during January the subject of CABSAT in the rather warmer month of March in the UAE is a very easy one to turn to, and indeed there’s much on the critical agenda on which to be informed. Thus, this year GVF has a very busy CABSAT week, focused on both the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (DICEC) and the GVF/MenaNets Training Facility in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.

Espial® Group Inc. a provider of  on-demand TV software and solutions, today announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of ANT plc ("ANT"). After initially entering into a co-operation agreement with ANT on Nov. 30, 2012, Espial has purchased all of the outstanding shares of ANT in exchange for all cash consideration of £0.205 per outstanding share. The acquisition values the issued ordinary share capital of ANT at approximately £5 million.