French tycoons plot media buying spree with €250m blank-cheque firm July 14, 2021 Two of France’s best-known business figures have teamed up to launch a new blank-cheque firm that will target deals in the media and entertainment industry. The holding companies of billionaire Francois Pinault’s family and banker Matthieu Pigasse today announced the launch of I2PO, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) that will list in Paris. The [...]
Tate Modern to turn into walk-in mass vaccine hub July 13, 2021 The Tate Modern will turn into a mass walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre this Friday night, offering first and second Pfizer jabs to anyone over 18. The iconic venue will be hosting the pop-up vaccine site in its Turbine Hall, offering Londoners exclusive access to galleries for the night and a unique setting to get protected [...]
Daily Mail: Lord Rothermere’s take-private bid is a bold step forward into the past July 13, 2021 It’s rare that a routine stock market announcement ruffles feathers, but when Daily Mail and General Trust, the parent company behind the Mail newspaper titles, yesterday revealed that Lord Rothermere was weighing up a bid to take the media group private, it succeeded in doing just that. It’s a complicated deal that relies on the [...]
UK entertainment and media industry to lead western Europe by 2025 July 13, 2021 The UK’s entertainment and media industry is forecast to become the largest in western Europe by 2025 following a rapid rebound in the aftermath of the pandemic. The sector has suffered a major setback due to Covid, with total revenue falling five per cent in 2020 due to the impact of lockdowns on cinema, live [...]
Rothermere family prepares £810m bid to take Daily Mail group private July 13, 2021 The Rothermere family is weighing up a bid to take the parent company behind the Daily Mail private following a potential sale of one of its business divisions. In a statement yesterday Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said the family, which founded the newspaper, was preparing a takeover offer that would value the slimmed-down [...]
Unopened copy of Nintendo Super Mario 64 sells for… £1 million July 12, 2021 An unopened copy of Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 has sold at auction for just over £1.12m. Heritage Auctions in Dallas said that the 1996 game sold on Sunday, breaking its previous record price for the sale of a single video game. A spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry about who purchased the game. [...]
Euro 2020: TV audience hits 31m as England lose on penalties July 12, 2021 Just under 31m people tuned into England’s Euro 2020 final loss last night, making the heart-wrenching fixture one of the largest TV audiences ever recorded. Viewer numbers peaked at 30.95m during the tense penalty shootout against Italy at Wembley, which was broadcast on both the BBC and ITV. An average of 29.85m people watched across [...]
Labour calls for resignation of Number 10 ally on BBC board July 10, 2021 The Labour Party has called for the resignation of a BBC director and Number 10 ally after it emerged that he had tried to block a senior editorial appointment. The FT reported that Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s former communications director, warned the broadcaster after Jess Brammar, former editor of HuffPost UK and deputy editor of BBC Newsnight, [...]
TV legend Jonathan ‘Jono’ Coleman dies aged 65 of prostate cancer July 10, 2021 Tributes have been paid to radio and television presenter Jonathan Coleman who has died with prostate cancer. The 65-year-old passed away peacefully on Friday with his wife and two children by his side, his family said. Coleman, who was born in London, had a successful broadcasting career in both the UK and Australia. The popular, [...]
Murdoch shuts down aggregation site Knewz after 18 months July 9, 2021 Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has shut down its news aggregation site Knewz after just 18 months, saying it had failed to pull in a profit. News Corp set up Knewz in January 2020 in a bid to claw back advertising revenue from Google. The site, which had a garish yellow backdrop, aggregated news articles from [...]