TowerOne.com

BSkyB the UK Satellite caster has reportedly increased its stake in Shine Group to 11.3% for an undisclosed sum. The deal has reportedly increased Sky’s shareholding from 2.88% to 11.3%.

Shine was founded by Elisabeth Murdoch shortly after she stepped down as MD of Sky Networks in 2000. It is thought that Sky, owned by Murdoch’s father Rupert, has held a stake for some time. Following acquisitive activity, Shine is now one of the largest UK indies and has been valued at up to £250m (US$500m).

Shine Ltd is an integrated media company that, through its subsidiaries, carries out film and television production, brand marketing and rights expoitation.

Shine TV and Films makes a range of programmes for UK, US and international broadcasters. The company conducts drama, entertainment, factual, features and format entertainment programming and has been involved in programmes such as Channel 4’s “100 Greatest…” series, BBC 2’s Masterchef Goes Large and Channel 4’s drama series Sugar Rush. The company aims to be a dynamic, creative and trustworthy supplier of franchise television to all buyers and strives to create television that will reach the audience in multiple ways, through interactive communcations, books, music or DVDs.

Shine’s brand marketing and venture programming company, Shine:M, is a joint venture between Shine and WPP. It is intended to bring together the TV and film activities of Shine and the media capabilities of WPP’s media investment management companies. Clients will be able to create, own and commercially exploit their own television formats through distribution, marketing, licensing and retailing.

Shine aims to benefit from and capitalise on its management team’s knowledge, expertise and contacts within the media industry.

Original Story 

Tags: 3i Group, BSkyB, Shine, Sony Corp, WPP

It is nearly the end of the year and the annual ‘battle of the consoles’ is well underway. This year has been particularly interesting as it is the first full year since the launch of three major console platforms: Microsoft’s Xbox360, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3. In the run-up to Christmas I thought I would take a look at the current standings, and oh boy, the trends are interesting.

Taking the cumulative volume sales for each console (thanks to vgchartz.com), Nintendo appear to be wiping the floor with Microsoft and Sony.

Looking at global sales, the Wii stands at 15.81million against Xbox360 at 14.28million and PS3 at 6.94million, this despite the fact that the Xbox360 has over a hundred weeks of sales to its credit whilst the wii has been available for only half that time. The sales growth of the PS3 almost exactly mirrors that of the Xbox360

Looking at sales in America alone, the picture will be a tad more comforting to microsoft, but not much. The Xbox360 has outsold thye PS3 over a comparable period, I guess largely because when the Xbox360 launched there wasn’t a comparable console on the market. The PS3 is battling in a more competitive market. But, the Wii is outselling them both. After 52 weeks of sales, the Wii has reached 6.94million units, which is more than the combined total of the Xbox360 and the PS3 (3.475m and 2.342m respectively).

In Europe the Wii is still king, but the PS3 is beating the Xbox360 into third place over a comparable period.

This is all very interesting but what does it mean? Well my take on it is this. First of all, assuming the current rate of sales continues, sales of the Nintendo Wii will exceed the combined total of Xbox360 and PS3 sales in less than a year (34 weeks by my calculation). [Read more]

Tags: Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Corp

It is reported that Sony have made 1million unit sales in Japan of the new PSP handheld gaming and entertainment device in the two months since launch. when launched three years ago, the original PSP took an extra two weeks to reach the million mark in Japan. The new PSP is lighter and slimmer and is aimed squarely at the very successful Nintendo DS.

Tags: Nintendo, Sony Corp