Bottom Line: Crozier’s acquisition spree pays off as viewers rush to tune in November 19, 2013 WHEN BSkyB lost the battle for the next set of Champions League rights to newcomer BT Sport, little was made of the fact that Sky’s partner in the last bid – ITV – had also lost out. While its rivals were squabbling about football viewers, ITV was getting on with things; namely bedding in the string [...]
BT’s Liv Garfield to take top role at Severn Trent November 18, 2013 LIV GARFIELD is leaving BT to take up the chief executive role at FTSE 100-listed water company Severn Trent, the companies announced yesterday. Garfield is currently chief executive of BT’s Openreach division, where she oversaw the telecoms firm’s £2.5bn commercial roll-out of fibre broadband across the country. She starts her new role in spring 2014, [...]
Severn Trent appoints BT Openreach CEO Liv Garfield November 18, 2013 Liv Garfield is to become the new chief executive officer (CEO) of water company Severn Trent. She will be stepping down as CEO of Openreach, BT's local access network division, in the spring of next year. During her time at BT, Garfield oversaw the £2.5bn commercial roll-out of fibre broadband, as well as pushing the [...]
Sky chief to address Champions League defeat at City conference November 18, 2013 SKY CHIEF executive Jeremy Darroch will address the company’s take on the recent upheaval of TV sport on Wednesday, City A.M. understands, after BT recently won exclusive rights for Champions League football from 2015. Up until now Sky has played down the importance of Champions League content to Sky Sport, as accounting for only three [...]
United score big as commercial and TV deals drive record results November 14, 2013 THE BOOM in income for English football’s top clubs is showing no sign of slowing down, with Manchester United raking in nearly £100m in its first three months of a new fiscal year. Releasing its first quarter results yesterday, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward also said that the new £900m BT deal to show the European Champions League [...]
Woodford tops market again November 14, 2013 EDINBURGH Investment Trust, the fund led by star manager Neil Woodford, yesterday said it had beaten the market average after a boost from shares in BT. The value of investments in the £1.3bn fund’s investments rose 4.4 per cent versus the FTSE All Share average of 3.8 per cent for the six months ending September, [...]
Letters to the Editor – 14/11 – Greenbelt, Premier league bid, Best of Twitter November 13, 2013 Greenbelt [Re: The Greenbelt sacred cow: It pens in the poor for no environmental gain, yesterday] I agree 100 per cent with the author. Support for the Greenbelt is strong among those over 60. In many cases, these people bought property between the 1960s and 1980s, when prices were often below £50,000 in today’s money. [...]
Exclusive: Shearer: I fear fans will be victims of pay TV war November 13, 2013 FORMER England captain Alan Shearer fears ordinary supporters are in danger of being priced out of football following BT Sport’s blockbusting £900m acquisition of Champions League broadcast rights. From 2015 British fans will have to subscribe to both BT and Sky in order to watch their clubs in all major competitions, meaning they are likely [...]
TV succeeding for TalkTalk despite losses November 12, 2013 TALKTALK fell into the red during the six months to 30 September as the telecoms operator invested in new customer growth and yesterday dismissed battles over TV sports rights as “not our fight”. The strategy appears to have been successful. TalkTalk boasted yesterday an additional 167,000 TV customer signups in the last quarter alone, putting [...]
London Report: Banking stocks stop FTSE index edging ahead November 12, 2013 FINANCIAL stocks kept a lid on the FTSE 100 yesterday after Goldman Sachs downgraded Royal Bank of Scotland. While the FTSE 100 closed little changed, banks and insurers combined to take 6.1 points off the index, handing back most of the gains they made in the previous session. Partly state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland fell [...]