Celebrities like Kanye West and Taylor Swift need to learn that we really don’t care what they think October 16, 2018 Taylor Swift, look what you made me do. Swifty has been a hallowed island of political neutrality in a sea of bad blood. But she’s now come out as a mid-term Democrat, and the love story is over. Maybe one day historians will look back and admire how Bob Geldof’s support for a People’s Vote [...]
Disney moves to pacify EU regulators with concessions on $71bn Fox deal October 15, 2018 Walt Disney has made commitments it hopes will please European regulators, allowing its acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox to go ahead. The concessions, filed Friday with the European Commission, will be considered by EU antitrust authorities, before a decision is reached by 6 November. Read more: Fox and Disney to sell minority Sky stake to Comcast [...]
Tech giants stumble as Wall Street fails to recover from nightmare week October 15, 2018 The big five US tech companies dropped over $30bn (£23bn) from their market value yesterday as Wall Street struggled to bounce back from a nightmare week. Netflix recovered slightly after an initial three per cent drop when the share’s target price was slashed by Raymond James and Goldman Sachs. Read more: Snap to challenge Netflix [...]
The Scotsman publisher Johnston Press puts itself up for sale as it tries to tackle huge £220m debt pile October 11, 2018 Struggling publisher Johnston Press’s share price dropped over seven per cent today on the news that it was putting itself up for sale. The newspaper group behind the ‘i’ newspaper, The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, amid 200 regional titles, has a towering pile of debt totalling £220m that it must pay off by 1 June [...]
Snap to challenge Netflix in new turn to original scripted content October 10, 2018 Snap has today announced it has expanded into the realms of original content, with 12 new shows lined up from the creators of popular TV shows such as Riverdale and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Each of the 12 series will release new episodes daily, and be monetised by up to six seconds of unskippable advertisements. [...]
James Murdoch quits Sky as Comcast officially confirms takeover of media titan October 9, 2018 James Murdoch has resigned from Sky's board after Comcast confirmed it was now officially the owner of the UK media titan. The chief exec of 21st Century Fox Murdoch stepped down from the board alongside six other directors after Comcast said it had officially acquired 75 per cent of Sky's share capital. The chance of Comcast [...]
Screen industries bring £7.9bn into UK economy as tax relief drives TV and film production October 9, 2018 Tax relief in the UK creative industries has driven a spend of £7.9bn a year into the British economy, research out today has shown. The British Film Institute (BFI) said tax relief across industries such as film, high-end TV and video games led to the huge spend in 2016, rising from £2.7bn the year before and [...]
ITV ditches plans to move back into South Bank headquarters October 9, 2018 Broadcaster ITV has ditched plans to move back into its headquarters on London's South Bank, it confirmed today. The firm's chief exec Carolyn McCall has instead decided to put the building up for sale. ITV originally moved out of its South Bank site and into a separate London facility in 2017, with plans to move [...]
Could YouTube star Joe Sugg win Strictly Come Dancing? October 8, 2018 When Strictly Come Dancing unveiled its 2018 lineup, I imagine there would have been more than a couple of blank faces at the name Joe Sugg. While reality stars frequently feature on the show, Sugg is the first social media celebrity to ever appear. But if Strictly’s core fanbase aren’t familiar with him, plenty of [...]
F1 video game-maker Codemasters accelerates towards full-year targets October 8, 2018 Recently listed gaming firm Codemasters today told investors it was on track to meet its full-year targets as it made £39.7m in revenue in the six months to 30 September 2018. The maker of the official F1 video games said digital sales as a proportion of its revenue rose to 53 per cent, amounting to [...]