Tag: Liberty Global

  • John Malone steps down from Warner Bros Discovery board, takes up chair emeritus role

    John Malone steps down from Warner Bros Discovery board, takes up chair emeritus role

    MUMBAI: Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has announced that media veteran John C Malone will not seek re-election to its board at the 2025 annual meeting of stockholders. Instead, he will step into the role of chair emeritus, a move that keeps him close to the action but without the formalities of a board seat. He has been associated with Discovery since 2008 and is an independent director of WBD. 

    Malone, a titan of the cable and media world, has long been a strategic force behind the company. WBD boss David Zaslav was effusive in his praise, calling him “one of the most brilliant strategic minds our industry has ever known” and crediting him with helping to steer Discovery and, later, Warner Bros. Discovery through an era of rapid transformation.

    “John’s insights have been invaluable. He has shaped our strategy, helped us tackle industry-defining challenges and seize game-changing opportunities,” said Zaslav. “I look forward to continuing this journey with him.”

    Board chair Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr echoed the sentiment, calling Malone “instrumental” in guiding WBD’s strategy through an evolving media landscape.

    For his part, Malone remains bullish on the company’s future. “The board and management team have made WBD more resilient, agile and positioned for profitable growth,” he said. “I look forward to staying involved—not just as a significant shareholder but as a trusted voice as the company explores strategic and structural opportunities ahead.”

    Malone’s departure makes room for Anton Levy, who WBD plans to nominate for election. Post-meeting, the board will have 13 members, 12 of them independent.  

    Malone meanwhile continues as chairman of the board and interim chief executive officer of Liberty Media Corp and Liberty Broadband Corp, and chairman of the board of Liberty Global.

  • ThinkAnalytics launches ThinkContextualAI  high privacy ad solution

    ThinkAnalytics launches ThinkContextualAI high privacy ad solution

    MUMBAI: If you think about, privacy is becoming increasingly important online what with GDPR and all the regulations which apply.

    AI driven video discovery, viewer insights, targeted advertising solutions provider ThinkAnalytics thought about it. The company has launched ThinkContextualAI, a contextual advertising solution that raises the bar for privacy-first, audience-aligned advertising. The solution complements ThinkAnalytics’ broader ThinkAdvertising offerings which have been instrumental in redefining ad targeting across connected TV (CTV)  platforms.

    Combining its  two decades of expertise in viewer behavior and advanced AI technology, ThinkContextualAI leverages a proprietary ontology of more than 40,000 metadata tags, crafted to decode not only what content is about but why it resonates with individual viewers.

    With this insight, ThinkContextualAI allows CTV advertisers to engage with audiences without invasive tracking, ensuring that content signals like genre and sub-genre are mapped to a known ontology so that they can be leveraged consistently by supply side platforms (SSPs).
     
    As fragmentation increases, privacy regulations tighten and personal data access diminishes, advertisers face mounting challenges to engage with audiences. Traditional contextual advertising solutions often fall short, either lacking nuance or failing to capture the true mood and engagement factors of content. In addition, SSPs  are seeing up to 11 million similar but different titled genres and subgenres, meaning buyers can’t reliably buy content-based audiences.

    ThinkContextualAI meets this untapped need, enabling advertisers to target viewers with unmatched precision by moving beyond simple context to align ad placements with themes and emotions.
     
    “Our 40,000+ metadata tags represent not only the subjects of content but also why viewers connect with it,” says ThinkAnalytics CTO & founder Peter Docherty. “This unique capability allows advertisers to achieve a new level of relevance and resonance in ad placement, benefiting both viewer engagement and campaign performance. We worked closely in partnership with customers to ensure this solution meets advertisers’ needs across diverse markets in an evolving regulatory environment.”
     
    ThinkContextualAI empowers advertisers with advanced contextual targeting capabilities, including:

    * Premium Audience Segmentation: advertisers can reach high-value segments like luxury lifestyle and travel enthusiasts without using personal data.
    * Scalable Content Understanding: Scale across vast content libraries with consistent, high-quality categorisation, to enhance the impact of advertising campaigns.
    * Privacy-Safe Solutions: Deploy ad campaigns that are compliant with global privacy standards, helping advertisers maintain audience trust while maximising results.

    ThinkContextualAI offers measurable improvements in campaign effectiveness and user experience:

    * Improved Ad Recall: Drive higher ad recall through genuine content-ad alignment.
    * Increased Viewer Satisfaction: Maintain ad relevance, increasing viewer engagement.
    * Enhanced ROI: Maximize ROI with targeted, privacy-safe placements.
    * Reduced Ad Waste: Minimise irrelevant placements, ensuring efficient ad spend.

    With over 85 service providers serving approximately 475 million subscribers in 47 languages, and generating eight billion recommendations per day, ThinkAnalytics is amongst the largest independent content discovery platform. Its clients include Liberty Global, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, DirecTV, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Bell Media, BritBox International, Crunchyroll, Astro, Intigral, MBC, OSN, Proximus, Rogers, Sky Mexico, Tata Play, TELUS, and Mediacorp.

  • Sony Pictures Television acquires Netherlands’ Film 1 channels

    Sony Pictures Television acquires Netherlands’ Film 1 channels

    NEW DELHI: Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPT) has acquired the Film1 group in the Netherlands from Liberty Global.

     

    Under the deal, SPT will fully own and operate the five premium pay-TV channels under the Film1 umbrella along with its Film1 Go service, pending regulatory approval.

     

    The five Film1 channels include Film1 Premiere, Film1 Action, Film1 Comedy & Kids, Film1 Spotlight and Film1 Sundance, as well as the Film1 Go OTT service.

     

    All five Film1 channels will continue to be carried on Liberty Global’s Ziggo and UPC cable tv platforms in the Netherlands.

     

    “The acquisition of Film1 marks a key move  into the Dutch market and underlines our continued commitment to grow our highly successful and diverse suite of channels across Europe. Film1 complements and expands our successful Networks portfolio and we are looking forward to working with all our partners to continue to build on the success of the Film1 proposition,” said SPT executive vice president, Networks, Western Europe Kate Marsh.

     

    “When approaching the sale of Film1 as part of the group’s acquisition of Ziggo, we wanted to ensure the new owner would be focused on building on a strong portfolio of channels. We are pleased that Film1 will be in good hands under Sony’s ownership,” added Liberty Global media investments group president Niall Curran.

  • Comcast, TWC likely to close acquisition deal

    Comcast, TWC likely to close acquisition deal

    MUMBAI: Time Warner Cable and Comcast Corp are likely to close an acquisition deal that could be worth $58 billion. It is learnt that the duo are in informal discussion for the same.

     

    Several pay TV operators have showed interest in acquiring Time Warner Cable. While so far it was Charter Communications that was eyeing the operator, now several media reports are hinting towards a possible acquisition by Comcast.

     

    Charter has been on the hunt for an acquisition, as John Malone, who controls 27 per cent in the company through Liberty Global, looks to bootstrap Charter’s growth. With 4.3 million subscribers, mergers and acquisitions has become an ongoing strategy for Charter. It should be noted that earlier in the year, Charter bought Optimum West from Cablevision for $1.6 billion.

     

    Media reports suggest that Comcast and Charter could, however, buy Time Warner Cable together, and divide its holdings, as they did with Adelphia Communications back in 2006. Comcast could take the New York City operation and gain a more valuable presence there, while Charter could gain dominance in LA.

     

    Consolidation in the cable industry is likely as MSOs look to gain enough size to have a card to play against content owners regarding programming costs considering that no media company could be economically viable if they lose 33 per cent of the country’s pay-TV subscribers.

     

    One way or another, TWC will likely be bought by someone. It lost 306,000 video subscribers in the third quarter after a month-long blackout of CBS and Showtime in a retransmission dispute.

     

    TWC currently has 11 million customers, and Comcast has 21 million; together, they would serve about a third of the nation’s pay-TV subscribers.

  • Metrological Application Platform gets backing from Liberty Global

     

    MUMBAI: Innovative software developer Metrological Group has announced that it has received financial backing from new strategic investor Liberty Global, the leading international cable operator. This strategic investment will help Metrological extend its technology platform across multiple industry verticals and geographic markets.

     

    Metrological Application Platform is a key component of Horizon TV, Liberty Global’s revolutionary media and entertainment platform which has been successfully launched in four of its country operations since September 2012. Liberty Global has launched over 125 apps on the platform to date and continues to grow. Rotterdam-based Metrological has been in partnership with Liberty Global since 2010 and was recognised last year as one of the company’s most important suppliers. 

     

    As part of the investment transaction, Liberty Global Ventures director Sander Vonk will join the board of Metrological. The other members of the board are Robert Jan Lijdsman, advisor at Allen & Overy, Walter Blom, independent advisor and former CFO of Ziggo and Estro Group, and Erwin van Dommelen, Managing Partner at Merapar.

     

    “Our investment in Metrological is testimony to its cutting edge technology and great contribution to our Horizon TV platform,‘‘ said Liberty Global executive VP and CTO Balan Nair. “We believe that Metrological is well positioned to address the growing needs of the telecom industry for flexible solutions such as their app platform.’’ 

     

    “Liberty Global‘s investment reflects the strength of our innovations in the market and with our customers‘‘, said Metrological CTO Albert Dahan. “This enables us to bring our business to the next level.‘‘