Digital TV Europe was launched just over 40 years ago. Originally published as Cable & Satellite Europe, in those distant pre-internet days exclusively as a monthly print magazine, it provided news, features, analysis and data about the nascent multichannel TV industry.
Cable & Satellite Europe, morphing into Digital TV Europe, has therefore covered the European multichannel TV business almost from the beginning, Eutelsat having launched the first European direct-to-home satellite channel a couple of years before our first print issue appeared.
The title was around for the launch of Canal+’s terrestrial pay TV service, the launch of Sky TV by Rupert Murdoch and its doomed rival BSB, and the near simultaneous launches of Canal+/Bertelsmann/Kirch Group-backed services such as Premiere in Germany and Telepiù in Italy.
It also covered the flawed franchising and rollout of cable TV in the UK (and the debt-financed attempts to bring about its rational consolidation thereafter) as well as the evolution of cable in western Europe from a local utility model to a commercial multiplay one), and the rollout of pay TV in central and eastern Europe from the 1990s.
In signing off, I’d like to thank the wider DTVE team past and present, along with our external contributors and other Informa colleagues, for their commitment, enthusiasm and expertise in designing, populating and commercialising this website and associated resources (including our long-running print magazine).
It has been a privilege to work with the many fantastic people who have contributed over the years, and I’d like to give a special thanks to our current team – marketing manager Abigail Appiah, product manager Alba Bayes, sales manager Grazyna Gray, creative lead Matthew Humberstone and associate editor Melissa Kasule, along with colleagues from our sister title Television Business International – senior account manager Michael Callan, deputy editor Mark Layton and editor Richard Middleton.
Finally, I extend my thanks to our external industry partners, our clients and, not least, our readers, without whom we would never have lasted those incredible 40 years.
Statement regarding TBI Magazine
After more than 35 years of publication, Television Business International (TBI) is to close and will stop publishing new content from today.
TBI has documented everything from the emergence of pay TV to the decline of linear broadcasting and the ongoing drama caused by the shift to streaming.
Its archives are a treasure trove of history that reflect how the industry has transformed and how people have adapted along the way.
We thank you for your unwavering support and hope that you found insight and perhaps also entertainment in our coverage of what remains a fascinating, dynamic and vitally important global industry.
Farewell, we hope to see you soon in some other capacity and thank you for being a part of the TBI family.
