There is market failure at the heart of the City: The lack of superfast broadband July 27, 2014 Information technology has revolutionised the way that business is done in the City over recent decades. Cross border transactions are now completed with a click of a button. New models of finance such as crowdfunding are increasingly popular. Smartphones and cloud computing are making remote working a reality. These developments are reshaping the way that [...]
Sky Europe: What will BSkyB’s new TV empire look like? July 25, 2014 Sky Europe, as BSkyB has now been dubbed after buying up its Italian and German counterparts for between £5bn and £7bn, will span six countries and reach 20 million customers. With the purchase, total revenue across the new company will exceed the £10bn mark, largely driven by UK operations, and “synergies” as they say (read [...]
BSkyB share price slides on £5.3bn deal for Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia July 25, 2014 BSkyB's share price opened 3 per cent lower this morning after announcing a long-awaited £5.3bn deal to acquire European pay TV operators Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, creating one of the biggest pay TV operators in Europe. BSkyB has offered £2.9bn in cash for 21st Century Fox’s 57.4 per [...]
Sky’s European merger to start in coming days July 23, 2014 BSKYB is expected to announce a multi-billion pound deal tomorrow to take over its sister companies in Italy and Germany, creating a new pay-TV empire in Europe. The so-called Sky Europe deal will see BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia combined to create one of Europe’s largest pay-TV operators, with over 19m subscribers across the [...]
TalkTalk retains TV crown as its user base soars July 23, 2014 TALKTALK’S YouView TV offering continues to outpace the growth of both BT’s and Sky’s TV services, adding 185,000 subscribers in the first quarter and taking its TV customer base to more than 1.1m. The FTSE 250-listed firm reported its sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth during the three months to 30 June, with total [...]
BSkyB built its empire on live football – ignoring that could cost it dear July 23, 2014 WHEN BSkyB reports its results tomorrow, most expect them to be well received. The fast-moving satellite group will likely report strong profits and growth prospects, and will have much to say about innovative new products like Sky Go, Sky Store and Now TV, all intended to make it easier to consume its broadening content. However, [...]
Bottom Line: Not such a funny old game if Sky take eyes off the ball July 21, 2014 Football can be damn expensive, these days. As a season ticket holder at one of London’s clubs (clue: the one with more league titles than the rest put together) I am well aware of how costs have escalated during the Premier League era. For fans like myself, the price of following top flight football is now [...]
BT One Phone puts BT back in mobile business July 17, 2014 BT is ambitiously launching itself back into the competitive mobile market with its One Phone mobile business service after escaping more than a decade ago when it sold off O2. The cloud-based service connects the landline and mobile calls of business users using a BT sim card. It means calls to numbers for office landlines [...]
The World Cup is over… here’s how to fill the gaping void July 15, 2014 The fat lady has finally sung, and the England squad has had plenty of time to settle back to reality. Here are some ways to keep yourself busy without Messi and co to entertain you: The Honourable WomanBBC2, Thursdays, 9pmThe Honourable Woman is the BBC’s big summer blockbuster, starring none other than Hollywood megastar Maggie [...]
BT set to launch mobile offering for businesses July 14, 2014 Telecoms giant BT will this week start paving the way for a re-entry to the consumer mobile phones market when it launches a mobile offering targeting its existing 900,000 small and medium-sized business (SME) customers. BT yesterday sent out invites for Thursday’s event at the BT Tower where it will reveal pricing and packages for [...]