English football clubs’ shortage of success in Europe is a risk for BT May 14, 2015 Gavin Patterson’s BT, which bid a sky-high £897m for the live rights to Champions League football for the next three years, could see the attractiveness of its package diminished if English clubs continue to perform badly in the prestigious competition next year. Four Premier League teams qualify for the competition but there are fears [...]
TalkTalk chief Dido Harding pushes to split BT and Openreach as profit rises May 14, 2015 TalkTalk boss Dido Harding renewed her calls for the regulator to force BT to sell its telecoms network division Openreach yesterday, and said more competition in the market would lead to further investment. Harding made the comments while discussing TalkTalk’s results for the year to 31 March, which showed a 3.2 per cent rise [...]
BT awards chief Gavin Patterson £1.95m in shares May 13, 2015 BT chief executive Gavin Patterson yesterday took home 416,719 shares, as part of an incentive package. The shares were priced at £4.69, meaning Patterson’s bonus came to a total value of £1.95m. Other senior executives to benefit included group finance director Tony Chanmugam, who received 391,131 shares, and Luis Alvarez, the chief executive of BT [...]
BT share price up after profits rise 14 per cent May 7, 2015 BT’s share price has risen half a per cent, after the company revealed a 14 per cent jump in pre-tax profits, which rose to £2.6bn for the 12 months ending 31 March. The figures Despite the headline rise in profit, BT’s revenue fell two per cent to £17.9bn for the year and £4.6bn for the [...]
Regulation pushes EE revenue down ahead of £12.5bn BT deal April 27, 2015 Revenue at mobile phone network EE dropped by 1.1 per cent in the three months to 31 March, down to £1.47bn, ahead of its £12.5bn takeover by BT. The group linked the decline in revenue to the impact of regulation, and said underlying revenue had improved by 0.3 per cent compared to the first quarter [...]
Beware, Sid – Lloyds sale could be tricky April 19, 2015 A big retail offering of Lloyds shares is on the cards. Large-scale privatisation is back. David Cameron is promising a £4bn sale of Lloyds shares to retail customers, swapping one big government shareholder for thousands of individuals. An instant comparison is with the 1980s. Giant firms like BT, BP and British Gas were taken out [...]
Premier League clubs agree £1bn for good causes if TV rights deal remains after Ofcom investigation March 26, 2015 The Premier League yesterday conditioned a £1bn grant for a variety of good causes, including grassroots football, on its new bumper £5bn TV rights deal not being overturned by a regulatory investigation. The body that oversees England’s 20 elite football clubs says its offer will not stand if an investigation by Ofcom, instigated after a [...]
CityFibre asks watchdog to level playing field after BT-EE merger March 23, 2015 High speed fibre optic firm CityFibre has attacked BT, saying its planned acquisition of EE would “stifle innovation” and “deliver little tangible benefit for consumers”. CityFibre revealed the objection this morning, saying that it submitted a formal complaint to the Competition Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday. The company demanded Ofcom be allowed to enforce extra [...]
BT hits back at Ofcom over new broadband rule March 19, 2015 Telecoms giant BT slammed its industry regulator for taking a “lopsided” approach to the UK market. Industry watchdog Ofcom yesterday confirmed it was going ahead with a new pricing rule, coming into effect on 1 April. The rule means BT must maintain a sufficient margin between its wholesale and retail superfast broadband fees, in order [...]
BT fined £800,000 by Ofcom for deaf service failure March 17, 2015 British Telecom (BT) has been handed an £800,000 fine from media regulator Ofcom for failing to offer adequate services for hearing-impaired customers for five months. The fine relates to BT’s failure to bring in its Next Generation text relay system from between April and September 2014. The system translates voice-to-text on various devices, including PCs, [...]