Bottom Line: Broadcaster is back on track but new boss faces fresh challenges April 7, 2014 THERE were fears last month that with BT’s TV head Marc Watson making a snap departure, the company wouldn’t be prepared for the upcoming Premier League bidding process that Watson played a key role in leading in 2012. The appointment of Delia Bushell should calm those worries. Bushell is highly regarded by her peers at [...]
French bidding kicks off for football rights April 7, 2014 BIDDING for the Champions League football television rights in France is expected to start today, a process likely to be watched closely by UK broadcasters BT and BSkyB as they prepare for the upcoming Premier League auction early next year. Qatar-owned Al Jazeera, via its sport channel beIN Sports, and Canal Plus, owned by Vivendi, [...]
BSkyB faces “significant risks” over Premier League auction April 3, 2014 HSBC has reiterated its bearish position on BSkyB with an "underweight" rating. The bank expects concerns over the Premier League rights auction will resurface resulting in significant risks to BSkyB. Despite a rise of 8.2 per cent in BSkyB's share price since the beginning of 2014 HSBC believe that once the bidding begins for the [...]
Best of the Brokers for 02 April 2014 April 1, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com TESCO Espirito Santo sticks to its “sell” rating for the retailer ahead of full-year results on 16 April, and cuts its fair value from 315p to 265p. The broker thinks that while Tesco’s operational problems are fixable, it reckons the firm could fail [...]
The tech whizz who still has faith in the trusty telephone March 30, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to Paul Lees, the ex-BT programme manager who co-founded the conference call firm for SMEs Powwownow WANDER down any street and it will instantly become clear just how far the telecoms industry has changed in the past decade. A growing minority of households has now gone mobile-only, in Britain and elsewhere. But [...]
Key BT TV chief leaves in media division revamp March 26, 2014 BT’S TELEVISION chief, Marc Watson, an instrumental player in BT’s multi-million pound assault on the Pay-TV market, will leave the firm as part of a revamp of the telecoms giant’s media divisions. Watson took over BT TV in 2007 and played a central role in the negotiations to secure key sporting rights – including the [...]
City Moves for 18 March 2014 | Who’s switching jobs March 17, 2014 Management Consultancies Association Chris Cooper has been elected president of the Management Consultancies Association. He is currently head of Challenge Consulting. Cooper has previously held positions at BDO and OASiS. Nikko Asset Management The asset management firm has announced the appointment of Al Clark as global head of multi-asset. Clark has over 20 years’ experience [...]
End to Euro rugby row in sight as clubs and unions close in on deal March 17, 2014 EUROPEAN club rugby looks all but certain to remain on the calendar next season amid growing optimism that a deal to establish a successor to the Heineken Cup will be signed this week. Officials representing clubs and the unions of the Six Nations met for further talks in Paris yesterday in an attempt to finalise [...]
Pictures: BT chief Gavin Patterson abseils down BT Tower March 10, 2014 When Gavin Patterson took on the role of chief executive of BT back in June 2013, we’d wager he didn’t expect his tenure at the top to involve abseiling down BT’s famous totem, the BT Tower. But sure enough, this morning, Gavin Patterson stepped into a harness, plonked on a hard hat and took [...]
Downloads to be ultra-fast at Virgin Media February 27, 2014 VIRGIN Media customers can now download a high definition movie in just four minutes after the cable broadband provider increased its service’s top speeds to 152Mb, double BT and Sky’s top consumer broadband speeds of 76Mb. Virgin’s ultrafast speed will not come at any additional cost for existing customers of Virgin’s fastest service, who will [...]