BBC pays Sarah Montague £400,000 in equal pay dispute January 20, 2020 Radio presenter Sarah Montague today revealed that she won £400,000 and an apology from the BBC for being paid “unequally” over many years. Montague, who hosts Radio 4’s World at One, said she secured the settlement last year after a “long period of stressful negotiations”. In a series of tweets this morning, the veteran journalist [...]
Gambling companies used schools data on 28m children January 19, 2020 UK betting companies have gained access to a database containing information on roughly 28m children in a huge breach of sensitive government data. The firms have used the trove of data, which contains names, ages and addresses of children aged 14 and above in schools and colleges across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to boost [...]
Former BBC boss warns licence fee overhaul would ‘delegitimise’ service January 19, 2020 The former director general of the BBC has warned that any move to overhaul the licence fee would “delegitimise” the broadcaster. Mark Thompson, who left the BBC in 2012 to take over as chief executive of the New York Times, said proposals to decriminalise no-payment of the licence fee would have a “pretty negative” impact [...]
Former ITV boss Adam Crozier in talks to chair Kantar January 19, 2020 The former chief executive of ITV is in discussions to take over as chairman of market research giant Kantar. Adam Crozier, who led the broadcaster for seven years to 2017, has been approached about the role by Bain, which bought a majority stake in Kantar from WPP for $4bn (£3.2bn) last year. A source close [...]
Netflix shows to remain on Sky after media firms ink new multi-year content deal January 19, 2020 Sky today said it has signed a new multi-year agreement with Netflix to keep the US streaming service’s programming on its pay-TV network. The two companies said the extended deal builds on a “successful partnership built over the past two years”, with Sky customers already able to access Netflix hits such as Sex Education through [...]
Ukraine opens investigation into alleged surveillance of US ambassador January 16, 2020 Ukraine has said it will open a criminal investigation into allegations that the former US ambassador to Ukraine was put under surveillance by people working for President Donald Trump. In a statement today the Ministry of Internal Affairs said it was aware of materials published by investigators “related to possible illegal surveillance on the former [...]
M&C Saatchi merges with sister agency Lida after accounting crisis January 16, 2020 M&C Saatchi today announced it will absorb sister marketing agency Lida, as the troubled advertising firm looks to recover from a catastrophic accounting crisis. The media giant said the newly merged agency will offer a range of fields, including tech, partnership marketing, customer experience and data analytics. A period of voluntary redundancy at both M&C [...]
Amazon says UK tech tax could hit small businesses January 16, 2020 Amazon’s UK boss has played down concerns about a new tech tax, but warned the move could raise costs for small businesses using its platform. The government’s 11 March Budget is expected to include a digital services tax, which will charge a two per cent levy on the UK revenue of technology companies. Douglas Gurr, [...]
Sky boss calls for ‘urgency’ over social media regulation January 16, 2020 The UK should “inject some urgency” into its plans for a new internet regulator due to the societal damage caused by unchecked internet platforms, the boss of Sky has said. Jeremy Darroch called for ministers to tackle so-called online harms, warning that the “promise of self-regulation hasn’t worked”. “We only need to look back to [...]
British spooks ‘unlawfully collected data’ from telecoms firms January 16, 2020 The collection of communications data from telecoms firms by the UK’s security agencies breached EU law, a top lawyer has concluded. National security laws allow bodies such as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to force mobile firms such as Vodafone and O2 to hand over data on customers. But in a preliminary opinion Campos Sanchez Bordona, [...]
