Why it’s time for Ofcom to red card the rising cost of watching live football on TV November 17, 2015 The ever-increasing cost of watching Premier League matches on live TV is hitting fans where it hurts. UK fans pay at least twice as much to watch half the games as fans in Europe. In Germany, France, Spain and Italy, all their live games are available to watch at a much lower cost than in [...]
BT: 12 year mobile gap at an end March 23, 2015 BT IS getting ready to reveal its plans for a relaunch into the mobile market this week amid ongoing opposition to its purchase of EE. The telecoms giant will be utilising EE’s network under the terms of a wholesale agreement struck prior to its £12.5bn bid for the mobile operator. Existing customers are expected to [...]
O2 – Three merger blocked by European Commission May 11, 2016 The European Commission competition regulator has blocked the planned takeover of O2 by Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison. The deal would have seen Telefonica’s O2 merge with Hutchison's UK network Three in a deal valued at £10.25bn. The tie up would have reduced the mobile operators in the UK to three, leaving just Vodafone and BT’s EE to challenge the merged [...]
Regulation pushes EE revenue down ahead of £12.5bn BT deal April 27, 2015 Revenue at mobile phone network EE dropped by 1.1 per cent in the three months to 31 March, down to £1.47bn, ahead of its £12.5bn takeover by BT. The group linked the decline in revenue to the impact of regulation, and said underlying revenue had improved by 0.3 per cent compared to the first quarter [...]
Britain sucked toward billion pound innovation funding Brexit black hole May 18, 2016 British business faces a billion pound funding black hole for research and development that risks leaving the nation trailing behind the rest of Europe when it comes to creating world leading technological and scientific innovation. More than a fifth of the UK’s £8bn competitive R&D funding in the last decade has come from Europe, but that [...]
City Moves for 4 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 4, 2016 LIDA Digital direct marketing agency LIDA has appointed Trefor Thomas, executive creative director of SapientNitro, as its chief creative officer – a newly created role. Trefor’s brief will be to focus on furthering the agency’s direct, digital brand and innovation capabilities, while continuing to gear up LIDA’s loyalty credentials across new platforms. He boasts over two [...]
Three-O2 deal: Virgin Media urges Europe to allow £10.5bn merger as Vodafone blasts Hutchison’s price freeze pledge February 5, 2016 Virgin Media has come out in support of the proposed £10.5bn deal between Three and O2, even as rival Vodafone blasts it as “re-monopolisation” of the telco market. Virgin is calling on the EU’s competition watchdog to approve the deal, following pledges made yesterday to open up the combined network to other players. A deal [...]
London tech heavyweights call for European talent to remain in the capital following Brexit vote June 30, 2016 The London tech community has called for non-UK Europeans working in the sector to stay following the country’s vote to quit the European Union. Russ Shaw, founder of lobby group Tech London Advocates (TLA), has gathered around 150 signatures, including the Mayor of London and the likes of entrepreneur and angel investor Sherry Coutu and co-chief executive of digital literacy [...]
Big businesses made a fuss over Bond, but go quiet on The Big Short January 20, 2016 Financiers are famed for their love of hard facts and logical outlook, but would London’s business folk rather daydream about being spies than take a history lesson? That seems to be the case as far as film tastes are concerned. Last year firms could barely contain themselves ahead of the release of latest Bond film [...]
Vodafone joins Apple and Google in slamming UK government’s Investigatory Powers Bill, warning that the snoopers’ charter risks undermining trust January 7, 2016 Vodafone has slammed the government’s so-called snoopers’ charter, warning that the proposed legislation to monitor communication risks undermining trust in British telco firms. Vodafone has expressed concern that authorities’ power to tap into and access its network would be a “major imposition on the freedom of an operator”. In a submission to the Draft Investigatory [...]