The game that matters… BT Sport reaches for the Sky – Brand Index August 19, 2014 Following on from my column last week covering the home broadband market, I analyse another area in which BT has expanded in to – live broadcasts of Premier League matches. Clubs are making the most of the massive money they receive from TV in order to bolster their squads. The two main domestic football broadcasters, [...]
Top RAC staff in line for £300m listing windfall August 17, 2014 SENIOR executives at RAC are set to share a windfall of up to £300m if the breakdown recovery service decides to push ahead with its expected float next month. Plans to list on the London Stock Exchange would put the group’s top managers in line to benefit from their combined 15 per cent stake in [...]
More pubs than ever are picking BT Sport over rival Sky Sports August 17, 2014 More pubs now subscribe to BT Sport than Sky Sports, according to the former state monopoly, as its £2bn investment in building a sports TV empire continues. In May, BT said more than 19,000 pubs, clubs and commercial properties had signed up for its sports service, putting BT neck-and-neck with Sky Sports, BT’s consumer division [...]
London Report: FTSE is bolstered by doveish Bank data and thin trading August 13, 2014 THE FTSE yesterday ended slightly higher in thin trade, boosted by a doveish message from the Bank of England. Britain’s leading index closed 24.26 points higher, or 0.4 per cent, at 6,656.68 points after a choppy session marked by low trading activity. Shares in G4S, the world’s biggest security company, led advances, up 5.3 per [...]
Keep burglars at bay with this home security tech August 13, 2014 Thousands of us are preparing to head for the hills for the last few weeks of summer, squeezing in a few precious days of R&R before the long slog towards Christmas. But leaving a home full of laptops and expensive jewellery can be a persistant niggle – and replacing them in the event of a [...]
BT’s student ad series shows broadband rivals Virgin and EE how to switch on – Brand Index August 12, 2014 The battle to dominate the home broadband market continues unabated, with the main industry players going to ever increasing lengths to ensure that they win the hearts and minds of consumers. Here, I assess three of the main protagonists in the sector: EE, Virgin Media, and BT. The market is changing rapidly due to technological [...]
Saxo boss Lars Seier Christensen opens Pandora’s box with jewellery startup investment August 12, 2014 Saxo Bank’s chief exec Lars Seier Christensen has got chins wagging in the Danish press. The banking boss has made a personal investment into jewellery startup Endless Jewelry – a company run by well-known Danish entrepreneur Jesper Nielsen. Nielsen made his name as a reseller of jewellery brand Pandora. He sold his Pandora distributorship for [...]
Online retailers to reap £740m as superfast fibre broadband rolls out across UK August 10, 2014 Superfast broadband is set to support Britain’s online retailers by boosting sales by as much as £740m a year, according to research carried out by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). British shoppers already on superfast internet spend an average of 3.1 per cent, or £23 per year, more than shoppers on slower [...]
Philip Hampton is being lined up to replace Sir Christopher Gent as GSK’s next chairman August 7, 2014 Sir Philip Hampton is being lined up to take the role of chairman at Britain’s biggest drug company Glaxosmithkline after exiting Royal Bank of Scotland, Sky News reports. It’s said that Hampton will join GSK as early as next month as a non-executive director or deputy chairman, moving into the chairman’s seat by 2015. GSK’s [...]
BT misses out on £500m deal August 5, 2014 BRITISH Telecom (BT) has been passed over for a lucrative government communications contract, worth up to £500m, to upgrade the network used by the emergency services. BT was bidding to supply police, fire and ambulance workers with telecoms services for the next seven years, and building and maintaining the network’s sites for 15 years. Incumbent [...]