Sky swoops for majority stake in Bake Off firm July 21, 2014 BROADCASTING group Sky has taken a 70 per cent stake in independent production company Love Productions, the firm behind shows such as The Great British Bake Off. Love was founded in 2004 by Richard McKerrow and Anna Beattie, and last year its Great British Bake Off became BBC Two’s most-watched programme in a decade, with [...]
Dazzling performance at World Cup boosts ITV’s bottom line July 30, 2014 Broadcaster ITV yesterday saw its profits rocket 40 per cent over the past six months, as the media giant was boosted by the World Cup and an uptick in advertising. ITV’s total revenue leapt six per cent to £1.38bn, helped by growth in broadcast and online advertising as well as original content sales from its [...]
BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch is set on change July 7, 2014 Chief executive Jeremy Darroch tells David Hellier how he is bent on encouraging even more people to fall in love with Sky Talking about the way BSkyB has changed over the years, its chief executive Jeremy Darroch says: “You don’t keep being successful by doing things in the same way.” As he speaks, [...]
Sky Europe: What will BSkyB’s new TV empire look like? July 25, 2014 Sky Europe, as BSkyB has now been dubbed after buying up its Italian and German counterparts for between £5bn and £7bn, will span six countries and reach 20 million customers. With the purchase, total revenue across the new company will exceed the £10bn mark, largely driven by UK operations, and “synergies” as they say (read [...]
Philips needs solid numbers if he’s to see through his three-year plan – Bottom Line September 11, 2014 So you’ve had a row with your other half, and the next day, with the ensuing awkwardness still lingering, your eyes drift towards the posh chocolates in Waitrose. Combine ’em with some flowers, you reckon – chuck in a faux-sentimental card and maybe even a two-day break in Bruges – and hey presto, problem solved. [...]
ITV share price soars as Liberty Global picks up £481m stake July 17, 2014 Liberty Global, the owner of large swathes of European cable TV infrastructure including Virgin Media, yesterday bought a 6.4 per cent stake in ITV from BSkyB for £481m. ITV’s shares rose 6.15 per cent yesterday on hopes that Liberty might look to make a wider bid for the rest of the broadcaster’s stock. [...]
Clocks change 2014: Does it make financial sense to switch from BST to GMT? October 25, 2014 British Summer Time (BST) officially comes to an end tomorrow. The clocks go back an hour at 1am on 26 October, heralding the onset of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) where mornings get brighter, but evenings get darker earlier. However, while an extra hour in bed is a welcome bonus for the weekend, the [...]
Listen to Peter Thiel: Politicians must embrace the fact there’s no money left September 25, 2014 MORE must cost less. In his new book Zero to One, entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel observes that the dream of globalisation – expanding the affluent consumption habits of the western middle class to more and more of the world – demands we also commit to radical technological innovation in order to reduce that lifestyle’s [...]
Britain’s biggest media groups are now top US takeover targets August 21, 2014 Multi-billion dollar takeovers threaten Britain’s largest media and television groups, the boss of Channel 4 warned last night. Liberty Global’s interest in ITV, in which the US-listed group recently bought a 6.4 per cent stake, and Rupert Murdoch’s ongoing fascination in upping his 39 per cent stake in the now pan-European BSkyB empire were top [...]
Travelex rides online wave to better earnings August 28, 2014 EXCHANGING foreign bank notes at the airport is a ritual for many travellers, but more jet-setters are now ordering holiday cash online, Travelex boss Peter Jackson said yesterday. The foreign exchange specialist, with 1,500 shops around the world, said global online and mobile sales rose 24 per cent this year, with nearly 40 per cent [...]