BBC charter review opens with trust broken and money running out December 16, 2025 The government has fired the starting gun on a charter review that will determine how the BBC is governed, funded, and held to account. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy on Tuesday launched the formal review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, setting out a broad consultation on trust and long-term funding as audience behaviour continues to shift [...]
US puts UK tech deal on ice after Budget digital tax move December 16, 2025 Washington has paused the flagship US-UK tech pact just weeks after Rachel Reeves doubled down on Britain’s digital services tax in her Autumn Budget, sharpening fears that the levy has become a pressure point in wider trade talks with Trump’s administration. The so-called Tech Prosperity Deal, unveiled during Trump’s state visit back in September and [...]
Private landowner sends Lime an £8k bill as e-bike row escalates December 16, 2025 A London property firm has invoiced Lime nearly £8,000 for removing, storing and returning dockless e-bikes left on its private land, City AM understands, amid struggles to contain the capital’s bike clutter problem. Russell Gray, director of property firm Shiva Ltd, personally returned around ten Lime bikes to the firm’s depot on Thursday, handing staff [...]
Mickey Mouse puts copyright woes to bed with Disney-OpenAI deal December 16, 2025 Disney’s $1bn investment in OpenAI, coupled with a three year licensing deal for over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters on Sora, constitutes a seismic shift in how Hollywood thinks about content creation and copyright. Last week’s announcement, long anticipated since CEO Bog Iger hinted at AI plans, marks the first time a [...]
Ofcom targets BT and Three as summer outages exposed emergency call risk December 15, 2025 The UK’s telecoms regulator has launched investigations into BT and Three after network failures this summer left customers unable to make calls, including to the emergency services. Ofcom said on Monday that the probes will assess whether the two operators complied with their legal dutiesm after separate incidents caused nationwide disruption. Telecoms giant BT notified [...]
F1 fans left furious after Viagogo ticket failure December 15, 2025 Dozens of Formula 1 fans who spent enormous sums, including one couple who spent £16,173, have been left furious after Viagogo tickets failed to deliver promised entry to the Abu Dhabi post-race concerts, City AM understands. The concerts – headlined by Benson Boone, Metallica, Post Malone and Katy Perry – were explicitly advertised on the [...]
US sets AI standard, leaving Britain on the back foot December 13, 2025 When Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office this week to sign off on a national AI framework, he delivered a global message. The US has committed to one standardised, federally regulated set of rules for AI. The executive order sweeps away the threat of 50 different state-level approaches to regulating AI – a scenario [...]
What could digital exams mean for British pupils? December 12, 2025 By the end of the decade, British pupils could be swapping pens for keyboards in GCSE and A Levels, marking the biggest change to exams in a generation. Ofqual has launched a 12-week consultation on regulating on-screen assessments, showing that digital exams are no longer a distant idea. Under the proposals, each exam board would [...]
Runware raises $50M to accelerate AI media generation December 12, 2025 London-based startup Runware has raised $50m in a Series A round led by Dawn Capital, as companies rush to leverage potential productivity gains from AI-powered image, video, and audio tools. Other investors included Speedinvest, Comcast Ventures, and existing backers like Insight Partners, a16z Speedrun, Zero Prime Ventures, and Begin Capital. Founded in 2023 by Flaviu [...]
Big Tech cashes in on £1 trillion ad market boom December 11, 2025 The global ad market is booming, with spend forecast to reach $1.19 (£1.04) trillion in 2025, up 8.9 per cent from last year, according to WARC’s recent report. Growth is projected to accelerate to $1.30 trillion in 2026 and $1.40 trillion by 2027, a doubling in size since the pandemic. But while the market is [...]
