Lionesses final: Tax windfall expected from beer sales July 25, 2025 The Women’s Euro final this Sunday could bring a £5m boost to the UK economy, with an extra 1m pints expected to be poured as fans cheer on the Lionesses — but British pubgoers will pay over 10 times more in beer duty than their Spanish counterparts. New figures from the British Beer and Pub [...]
Rightmove profits rise amid rental and commercial property growth July 25, 2025 Britain’s largest property portal, Rightmove, posted a rise in revenue and profit on Friday, buoyed by estate agents upgrading marketing packages and growing demand across its rental and mortgage arms. The FTSE 100 firm told the market that revenue rose 10 per cent to £211.7m in the first half of 2025, up from £192.1m last [...]
UK’s AI vision faces infrastructure reality check July 25, 2025 The UK government has set ambitions to become a global leader in AI research, safety and commercialisation. Over £2.5bn has been committed to compute infrastructure, with new supercomputers being built in Edinburgh and Bristol, and “AI Growth Zones” being launched across regions including Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. But a growing chorus of voices [...]
Chatbots are growing fast – but search still rules the web July 24, 2025 While chatbots like ChatGPT are seeing explosive growth, they are still a long way from overtaking traditional search engines – and Google remains firmly control of how people find information online. A recent report found that between April 2024 and March 2025, visits to AI chatbots surged by nearly 81 per cent year on year, [...]
Paramount bags South Park in $1.5bn deal after fierce bidding war July 24, 2025 Paramount has inked a $1.5bn (£1.1bn) deal with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, bringing the long-running animated satire exclusively to its streaming platform Paramount+ after a drawn-out bidding war with rivals including HBO Max and Netflix. The five-year agreement grants Paramount+ streaming rights to all 26 previous seasons of the Emmy-winning show [...]
ITV beats expectations despite profits dip, as streaming and Studios deliver July 24, 2025 ITV has delivered half year results ahead of expectations, bolstering confidence in its turnaround strategy despite a sharp fall in profits. Growth in digital advertising and continued momentum at ITV Studios offset tough comparisons with last year’s advertising period during the men’s Euros. The FTSE 250 broadcaster reported a 31 per cent drop in group [...]
Vodafone growth boost as UK merger with Three starts to pay off July 24, 2025 Vodafone reported a solid start to its financial year, with growth in revenue and profits underpinned by the recent completion of its UK merger with Three, now consolidated into its results. The deal has created the UK’s largest mobile operator and delivered a double-digit boost to local revenues in the first quarter. “We are making [...]
Labour’s OpenAI deal lacks transparency July 24, 2025 The Labour government’s newly announced partnership with OpenAI has positioned the UK at the centre of a global discourse on the future of artificial intelligence in public services. The memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed on Tuesday by tech secretary Peter Kyle and OpenAI chief Sam Altman, sets out a framework for collaboration across sectors like [...]
Alphabet and Tesla to kick off pivotal week for the Magnificent Seven July 23, 2025 The high-stakes earnings season for the Magnificent Seven tech giants begins on Wednesday, as Tesla and Alphabet report after the closing bell. With both companies under pressure to justify elevated valuations and market leadership, their results could set the tone for the rest of the sector’s global heavyweights – and for equity markets more broadly. [...]
CMA targets Apple and Google’s market dominance to strengthen UK app market July 23, 2025 The UK’s competition watchdog has proposed a sweeping shake-up of the mobile app economy, with plans to designate Apple and Google as having “strategic market status” (SMS) – a move that could open the door to new rivals, lower development costs, and broadly loosen the tech giants’ tight grip on the mobile ecosystem. In a [...]
