FTSE 100 Live: Pound hits two month low after byelection, Flutter shares tumble February 27, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. We were treated to a whole host of corporate updates yesterday and investors in some of the City’s biggest blue-chips were handed plans for bumper returns. Aerospace giant Rolls-Royce revealed ambitions to dish out up to £9bn to shareholders through from 2026 to 2028. The [...]
Project Forge: Does the plan to save English rugby stack up? February 27, 2026 This morning a plan that could alter the future of club rugby in England is expected to be nodded through by the RFU Council. The plan, dubbed Project Forge, could be the tonic for a domestic game that is in need of revenue boost. Based on the various reports I have read this week on [...]
Universal handed £6m of taxpayer cash to film Hamnet despite raking in profits of £810m February 27, 2026 American filmmaking giant Universal was handed a £5.7 million government subsidy to make period drama Hamnet even though the studio generated £810 million in profit last year. The blockbuster’s cost to taxpayers is revealed in filings for the film which won the coveted honour of Outstanding British Film at the Baftas on Sunday. The heartbreaking [...]
UK media giants join forces to curb AI’s use of their journalism February 27, 2026 Sky News has teamed up with the BBC, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph to form a new coalition aimed at setting industry standards for how AI uses news content. The group, under the name the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights coalition (SPUR), has been launched in response to growing concern that [...]
Consumer confidence slips in latest setback for Labour February 27, 2026 Consumer confidence slipped slightly in February despite hopes of a turnaround, adding to fears the UK economy could slump this year. A closely-monitored survey conducted by the research firm GfK said consumer confidence dropped by three points to -19. The reading reflects dampened spirits among British consumers in what will likely worry Labour strategists keen [...]
Nearly 1m young Brits not in work as Reeves told to help youth February 26, 2026 The number of Neets, or young people not in education, employment or training, has increased to nearly 1m, official data has indicated, heightening fears over the long-term health of the UK economy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has suggested there were 957,000 people aged between 16 and 24 not working as of December in [...]
Birmingham driving service sector boom February 26, 2026 Birmingham has been at the front of a “service sector boom”, according to new research from Oxford Economics, helping to drive job creation across the wider region. The West Midlands combined authority (WMCA), which contains Britain’s second city, saw gross value added (GVA) in the services sector rise by an average of 4.2 per cent [...]
Premier League confirms streaming service – and it’s not called Premflix February 26, 2026 The Premier League is to launch a streaming platform in Singapore that could pave the way for a global direct-to-consumer “Premflix” product, CEO Richard Masters has confirmed. The long-rumoured new service, a collaboration with telco StarHub, is to be called Premier League + and show all 380 games live as well as magazine content, starting [...]
OpenAI backs London with hub expansion and new roles February 26, 2026 OpenAI is to make London its largest research hub outside the United States, in what ministers have hailed as a “huge vote of confidence” in the UK’s AI sector. The ChatGPT developer confirmed it will significantly expand its London operation, which currently employs around 30 researchers, though it declined to put a figure on how [...]
Formula 1 revenues soar to $4bn as sport cashes in on popularity February 26, 2026 Formula 1 is closing on annual revenues of $4bn after their recent accounts recorded a 14 per cent increase to $3.9bn. The healthy spike comes as Formula 1 parent company Liberty Media reported a rise in team payouts – by 11 per cent – to $1.4bn ahead of the 2026 season, which will see Cadillac [...]