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 [...]
Premier League bids to hit £5bn November 12, 2013 War between BSkyB and BT for TV football rights set to escalate THE COST of broadcasting Premier League matches is set to soar as soon as next year, as competition over the coveted rights intensifies between BSkyB and rival BT. After Sky’s sports dominance was challenged over the weekend by BT’s knockout £900m bid to [...]
Liga and Serie A beat English in TV cash grab November 11, 2013 PREMIER League chairmen may be licking their lips at the prospect of BT Sport’s vast investment trickling down to their clubs, but for now England’s top teams are being left in the shade by Spanish and even Italian teams when it comes to income from television rights. Real Madrid (€178m) rake in the most broadcast [...]
London Report: BT and Shire lift FTSE as markets remain bullish November 11, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 rose yesterday, boosted by signs of a strengthening global economy and major deals for pharma group Shire and telecoms group BT. Shire rose to an all-time high after beating competitors to buy ViroPharma, in a $4.2bn deal implying a 64 per cent premium to the stock price of the US rare diseases [...]
Letters to the Editor – 12/11 – Greenbelt benefits, Best of Twitter November 11, 2013 Greenbelt benefits [Re: The Greenbelt sacred cow: It pens in the poor for no environmental gain, yesterday] Professor Anne Powers (LSE) estimates that there are sufficient brownfield sites across London to provide the necessary housing for the next 20 years. Surely we should be looking at how we design affordable housing, in areas that are [...]
BSkyB shares fall on BT Champions League news, but did BT pay too much? November 11, 2013 BSkyB is dragging the FTSE 100 down 4.4 points, as it shares dropped more than eight per cent this morning, after rival BT won the exclusive broadcasting rights to Champions and Europa League football matches. BT Sport will be the home of UEFA from 2015-2018, in a £900m deal announced on Saturday. BT has agreed to [...]