Satellite News

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The Greek government has decided to sell as further 5% stake in OTE to Deutsche Telekom.

According to Greek news sources, the move is in accordance with a deal struck last year obliging Deutsche Telekom to buy a further 5% in OTE at €27.5 a share proving the Greek state remains in control of the telco.

As a result of the deal, the state will collect €674 million plus and benefit by over €385 million due to the current OTE share price.

The sale, which raises Deutsche Telekom’s interest in OTE to 30% plus one share, is being strongly opposed by the Federation of OTE employees and PASOK political party.

Separately, it has been confirmed that OTE will participate in €2.1 million FTTH network project.

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Virgin Media has removed the three Sky Sports channels from its analogue cable as part of an ongoing shut down of the transmission over its cable network.

The majority of the cable operator's customers currently receive digital TV services, but there remains a small proportion still watching an analogue signal.

A region-by-region programme was launched a year ago to transfer customers receiving analogue services to new digital TV packages.

From the start of this month, this has resulted in the remaining analogue TV users no longer being able to receive Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 over their existing service.

In a statement, a Virgin Media spokesperson said the change has affected just 0.1% of the firm's TV customers.

"The majority of customers affected by this change will now be able to take advantage of digital TV services including Sky Sports and Sky Movies and enjoy over 165 digital TV channels, access to Virgin Media's pioneering on demand services - with over 4,600 hours of TV including 500 movies - as well as ultrafast fibre optic broadband," said the spokesperson.

According to Virgin, all customers affected by this change were contacted well in advance about the process of transferring to a digital service.

The spokesperson added: "A tiny percentage of customers who may be unable to receive digital cable services in their area will still be able to receive the rest of their analogue TV channels as before.

"Any customers that were paying for these channels will no longer be charged for this service."

Sky turned off its analogue satellite service back in 2001, while the UK's analogue terrestrial transmission is due to be shut down by 2013.

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French pay TV operator Canal+ is to offer customers a weekend-only subscription for half the amount it charges for its usual package.

Canal+ chief executive Bertrand Méheut told Le Monde that to assess demand, "Canal+ week-end" would offer a Friday evening to late Sunday night service priced at €15 per month.

6.2m homes take Canal+ and CanalSat with churn standing at 10.6%.

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Canal Digital is planning to introduce a new seven-day programme guide for its satellite subscribers before the end of the year.

The new system will go live in the autumn and includes functionality such as Series Link.

Though the market leader with over one million subscribers, Canal Digital was in danger of falling behind rival platforms including Viasat and Get, but it is hoped the new look will bring the Nordic platform up to speed.

Separately, Canal Digital’s cable customers in Norway have already received an upgrade to their guide. The new channel list moves HD channels to the appropriate categories in line with the operator’s pricing policy.

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Setanta has been left on the brink of collapse after losing its rights to 46 Premier League matches in the 2009-10 season.

The sports broadcaster failed to make a £30m payment to the Premier League after a rescue package with Len Blavatnik's Access Industries - which already holds a 3% stake in Setanta and controls Top Up TV - fell through.

In a statement, the League said: "The Premier League has been working with Setanta for some time to help them continue as the broadcaster of 46 UK Live Matches for the 2009/10 Season.

"The Premier League, in agreement with Setanta, stipulated that certain contractual requirements had to be met on or before Friday 19 June 2009 to allow the preparations for the 2009/10 season to continue unaffected.

"It is with considerable regret that we announce that Setanta has been unable to meet their obligations. As such the existing licence agreement between us has been terminated with immediate effect."

The League is now readvertising the package of 46 matches. Sky would be able to bid for up to 23 matches, as European regulations prevent it from holding all 46. It is thought that ESPN is interested in acquiring the package.

In a short statement tonight, Setanta said: "The Board of Setanta notes the statement issued earlier today by the Premier League and will consider its options over the weekend. In the meantime, Setanta’s sports channels continue on air."

Setanta is, at the time of publication, continuing to accept new subscriptions on the web.

Access Industries added: "Access believed that this proposal could potentially have secured the future of the broadcaster for its customers, employees and for football, provided certain conditions required to put the business on a long-term viable footing were met.

"Regrettably, despite intensive efforts on all sides over the past few days, and despite significant progress in a number of areas, there remain a number of issues which we have been unable to resolve within the time available.

"We are disappointed not to have been able to make this deal happen. Access remains committed to sports programming and will continue to explore opportunities in this area."