Bafta Awards: Sky production push pays off as Chernobyl leads nominations June 4, 2020 Hit Sky series Chernobyl has picked up 14 nominations at the Bafta Television Awards 2020 as the media giant reaps the rewards of its production push. The critically-acclaimed miniseries, which is based on the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, led the field at this year’s awards. It is now one of the [...]
Channel 4 to air Hollyoaks on Snapchat as it targets young viewers June 4, 2020 Channel 4 today said it will air Hollyoaks on Snapchat as part of a fresh deal to bring more than 300 episodes of its TV programmes to the social media app over the next year. From today the broadcaster will show short-form edits of the soap opera favourite on Snapchat’s Discover section. The Undateables, The [...]
Hipgnosis shares jump as lockdown streaming boosts music catalogue June 3, 2020 Shares in Hipgnosis rose sharply today after the music royalties investment firm said the continued growth of streaming had pushed up the value of its song portfolio. The London-listed company reported better-than-expected revenue of £64.7m in the year to the end of March, while net asset value grew 17.7 per cent. Shares in Hipgnosis jumped [...]
Warner Music raises $1.9bn in biggest US listing this year June 3, 2020 Warner Music Group today said it had raised $1.93bn (£1.5bn) from its initial public offering (IPO), marking Wall Street’s largest listing this year. The record label had planned to price its IPO yesterday, but postponed it by a day to mark Black Out Tuesday, a global social media event to show support for racial justice. [...]
Evening Standard appoints media veteran Charles Yardley as new chief executive June 3, 2020 The Evening Standard today said it has appointed veteran media executive Charles Yardley as its new chief executive following the surprise departure of Mike Soutar. In April the London newspaper said Soutar would step down at the end of May after just six months in the role, citing the boss’ decision to “pursue other business [...]
News Group hit with 45 new phone hacking claims June 2, 2020 Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers has been hit with 45 new phone hacking legal claims in the last week, court filings reveal. The Sun-owner has had 85 claims issued against it for phone hacking since May 2018, data from litigation analytics company Solomonic shows. The latest batch of claimants includes Hollywood star Johnny Depp, TV [...]
Spectator to return furlough money as sales hit 87,000 June 2, 2020 The Spectator today said it will return the money it used to furlough staff to the government after a rise in sales helped bolster the company’s balance sheet during the Covid-19 crisis. The weekly magazine said that while it had suffered a hit to revenue from advertising, events and newsstand sales as a result of [...]
Times Radio adds Mariella Frostrup to line-up as it unveils launch date June 2, 2020 Times Radio today added veteran broadcaster Mariella Frostrup to its roster of presenters as it revealed the new talk radio station will hit the airwaves on 29 June. Former BBC Radio 4 presenter and TV regular Frostrup will host afternoon shows on Monday to Thursdays, while 5 Live veteran Phil Williams will present evening shows [...]
Twitter flags Trump tweet for ‘glorifying violence’ as row escalates May 29, 2020 Twitter today said that one of Donald Trump’s tweets had broken its rules about “glorifying violence”, marking the latest salvo in an escalating feud between social media firms and the US president. “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” Trump tweeted, in reference to protests over the [...]
Trump to sign executive order about social media amid Twitter spat May 28, 2020 US President Donald Trump will today sign an executive order on social media firms, the White House has said. The move comes after the president became embroiled in a dispute with Twitter, which marked one of his tweets with a fact check warning over its inaccurate claims. Trump yesterday threatened to shut down social media [...]