Shares in publisher Future drop as chief executive takes £15m bonus November 27, 2019 Shares in publishing firm Future dropped as much as 10 per cent today after boss Zillah Byng-Thorne cashed in a bumper £14.6m bonus. In a regulatory filing Future said that Byng-Thorne had sold roughly 1.04m shares priced at £14 each. Chief financial officer Penny Ladkin-Brand pocketed £7.7m after offloading 550,000 shares. Read more: Boss of [...]
UK households to splash out an extra £600m on streaming November 27, 2019 British households are willing to pay an additional £600m each year to stream their favourite films and TV shows following the arrival of a spate of new services, new research has revealed. While Netflix, Amazon Prime and Now TV have so far held dominant positions in the UK, they will soon be competing with the [...]
Top Sky exec calls for regulatory overhaul as he takes swipe at ‘anachronistic’ ITV November 26, 2019 A senior Sky executive has called for a radical overhaul of broadcast regulation to adapt to the streaming age as he took a swipe at ITV’s “anachronistic” business model. David Wheeldon, Sky’s group director of policy and public affairs, said regulator Ofcom’s approach was “not particularly radical” and would not help public service broadcasters fulfil [...]
King of the Jungle: I’m a Celebrity takes ratings top spot in boost for ITV November 25, 2019 The first episode of the new series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here has nabbed the top spot for the most watched programme of the year in a major boost for ITV. Read more: Rugby World Cup audiences help push ITV ad revenue higher Consolidated viewing figures, which include catch-up and online [...]
Boss of publisher Future set for £18m payday after shares surge November 25, 2019 The boss of the publisher behind Tech Radar and Four Four Two is set to pocket an £18m bonus after overseeing a twentyfold increase in the firm’s share price in the last five years. Zillah Byng-Thorne, chief executive of Future, is in line to receive roughly 1.25m shares through a long-term incentive plan after guiding [...]
Netflix down: Streaming giant apologises as outages hit users across the globe November 21, 2019 Netflix users were less than chilled this afternoon as outages left them unable to watch their favourite films and TV shows. Read more: BBC chairman hits back at suggestions of Netflix-style subscription model More than a thousand users across the US and Europe reported difficulties loading videos, according to tracking site Down Detector. Scores of [...]
McLaren tycoon Ron Dennis takes stake in music streaming firm Roxi November 21, 2019 McLaren founder and British F1 tycoon Ron Dennis has taken a stake in Roxi, the British music firm hoping to take on streaming giants such as Spotify. Roxi today announced that Dennis has taken a 10 per cent stake in the firm, which has a number of celebrity backers including Robbie Williams, Sheryl Crow and [...]
Publishers look to new revenue sources amid squeeze on digital advertising November 20, 2019 Online publishers are shifting their focus to new sources of revenue as income from digital advertising continues to decline. Digital publishing revenue slipped 3.7 per cent to £113.1m in the second quarter, according to figures released by the Association for Online Publishing (AOP) and Deloitte. Read more: Digital ad group Ozone signs up Stylist as [...]
UK music industry brings £5bn to economy thanks to boom in live shows November 20, 2019 The UK music industry contributed £5.2bn to the economy last year, boosted by sell-out live performances by hit acts such as Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa. The live music sector contributed £1.1bn of this sum, up 10 per cent on the previous year, according to figures published today by industry body UK Music. Read [...]
BBC chairman hits back at suggestions of Netflix-style subscription model November 20, 2019 Replacing the BBC’s licence fee with a Netflix-style subscription model would destroy its ability to serve everyone, the corporation’s chairman has said. Sir David Clementi urged advocates of a subscription service to be “realistic” and recognise that the broadcaster’s “principle of universality would be lost”. Read more: BBC signs on-demand deal with Sky as it [...]