The previous contract between DirecTV Satellite service and Disney apparently expired earlier this year on September 30^th, and since then, as the two companies continued their negotiations, extensions to the contract were made in an effort to avoid any service interruptions or channel blackouts.

Right before the holiday week, Disney and DirecTV finally agreed on a multi-year distribution deal. DirecTV customers can access ABC, ESPN, and Disney Channel content on any device that has an internet connection. The plan is all part of Disney’s TV Everywhere service and both live streaming TV shows and video-on-demand (VOD) services will be included.

DirecTV, who currently has around 20 million subscribers in the U.S., has also added some additional program services that have been included in the new multi-year deal with Disney: The Longhorn network, (which is a channel that is committed to the full-time coverage of University of Texas sports) Univision, Fusion, (which is an ABC-run news channel) and a number of ESPN college sports channels.

Both companies are also exploring other possible avenues for what they are referring to as “over-the-top” services which they claim will be targeted towards TV customers who would like to be able to access streaming video without a subscription to a satellite and/or cable company.

Both DirecTV and Disney claim they plan to continue their joint venture into future developments in order to give DirecTV consumers an even wider range of viewing options that will be available both in the home and outside of the home.

In an era where most companies look to consolidate themselves and/or take other other companies, Sky has done both, in a move that unites Sky with Sky and Sky for one giant Sky.

More specifically, it is the British ‘BSkyB’ who are making the moves, taking over Sky Italia and taking on a controlling stake in Sky Deutschland for a unified company, with their first act after doing so being to remove the two Bs from their official name for the first time in 24 years of operation.

A move planned in July but delayed due to pan-continental legal problems, the company will now officially run under the overall guise of Sky, “Europe’s largest entertainment company”.

Taking over primary running operations from 21st Century Fox (who now have a 39.1% stake in the merged company), it is unclear as to whether satellite TV subscribers in those markets will see any changes such as collaborated or shared content, but it is believed that the sharing of executives and ideas will result in the ‘accelerated technological innovation‘ for the group as a whole.

James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox’s ‘co-chief operating officer’ summarised of the deal: “We have always believed that a combination of the European Skys would create enormous benefits for the combined business and for our shareholders. Ultimately, a pan-European Sky is good for customers, who will benefit from the accelerated technological innovation and enhanced customer experience made possible by a fully integrated business.”

Now claiming a total customer base of over 20 million across UK, Ireland (UK), Germany, Austria (Deutschland), and Italy (Italia) rather than ‘x million’ in an individual market, will Sky’s unified front see them build an even greater presence in their fully-controlled markets in Europe? Amongst other operations, for complete self-control, they still need to take Brasil, México, New Zealand…

British mobile service providers Vodafone, in a joint effort with satellite TV providers Sky, have created a deal designed to entice people to the former by using the latter – namely the latter’s ‘Now TV’ streaming platform.

Set to become a new option on the list of perks’ for any new customers of their ‘Red 4G’ mobile packages, Vodafone will look to offer the subscription-based streaming service at no added charge to their customers.

This primarily comes in the form of purchasing a £30 or £40 ‘Freedom TopUp’, which gives 4G users the incentive to pick up a ‘Now TV Entertainment Pass’ amongst the list of reward options. That pass, usually priced at £6.99 per month, offers users live and on-demand streaming of shows from the satellite TV provider’s participating entertainment networks, including Sky Atlantic, Comedy Central, and Gold, amongst others, whilst 4G customers will also recieve a free ‘Movies Pass’, covering Sky Movies content for new 4G customers with no extra charge.

It is noted that this move expands on a previous deal which had seen Red 4G customers able to choose between Netflix, Sky Sports, and music platform Spotify Premium as their benefit of preference upon taking one of the most powerful commercially-available mobile signals.

Continuing an expanding relationship between themselves both inside and out of each other’s sales pitches, will Sky and Vodafone’s promotional move have the intended effect, or will it struggle to even be the #1 pick amongst new 4G customers?

The Sky Go mobile streaming/catch-up service has just increased in size, with a recent update from the satellite broadcasters that sees 5 new channels introduced onto their platform.

Boosting the platform’s total number of networks to 70, Sky Go have introduced Channel 5, spin-off networks 5* and 5 USA, sports channel British Eurosport 2, and new female-targeted channel ITVBe.

Sky’s ‘brand director of TV products’ Luke Bradley-Jones said of the deal: “It’s great news for our 5.6 million Sky Go customers who can now get even more shows to watch including TOWIE and Big Brother. Sky Go lets our customers have even more flexibility to enjoy the TV they love, on their terms.”

Channel 5 ‘digital media director’ James Tatam noted: “We’re delighted Sky Go customers will be able to enjoy the incredible line up of programmes we’ve put together this autumn across Channel 5, 5* and 5USA, from Gotham to Can’t Pay, We’ll Take it Away and everything in between.”

Martin Goswami, ITV’s ‘director of pay & distribution’, added: “We are very excited to have launched ITVBe, our first new free-to-air channel in almost a decade, and are delighted to roll this out to Sky customers, expanding ITV’s portfolio of channels on the mobile TV service.”

The update is noted as being the first since the start of the summer, where ITV’s full selection of channels at the time (ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV) were introduced for streaming purposes, that new options have been included for the free-with-a-Sky subscription service,  (though the company also sells ‘Sky Go Extra’ at £5/month to double the simultaneous streams allowed from 2 to 4, amongst other price-locked features).

Claiming to have over 5.6m users at present, will any of the offerings be able to significantly boost Sky’s mobile streaming numbers?

Sky‘s efforts to dominate the UK’s video airwaves may have just broken the atmosphere and surpassed to the last planet in the galaxy, after they announced a $500,000 investment into a new American television technology start-up known as Pluto.TV.

Though it enters its name competing against a Disney dog and a dwarf planet for attention, Pluto.TV is aiming to become the biggest video aggregator around, taking video from all major internet sources before creating relevant TV channels from that content.

Though currently only doing so for a number of basic genres, the service will look to contain a network of all-encompassing different genres and categories, and possibly subcategories, emulating regular EPGs on TV platforms, albeit with the content all delivered by a single stream.

Operating across desktop and mobile devices at the time of Sky’s purchase, the British satellite broadcasting giants claim to have made the half-million move for research purposes perhaps more than a building investment, with a view to help the help Pluto.TV continue their work and ‘push innovation’ in the way of understanding how audiences consume TV and online content.

Sky’s ‘director of corporate business development’ Emma Lloyd said of the deal: “This partnership enables Sky to draw on the ground-breaking work Pluto.TV are doing to help viewers discover and enjoy the best of online TV through an intuitive and editorially rich TV platform. As we learn about new trends in the way people watch TV, we look forward to sharing our own expertise in content creation, packaging and promotion.”

Whether Pluto.tv will eventually become a household name after a fairly modest first major foreign investment will depend on hard work and/or innovation, but for the time being this is what they have got so far… in terms of ‘audience reaction’ at least: