BT ramps up Sky rivalry with launch of two TV bolt-on packs October 28, 2013 BT has announced the launch of two new channel bolt-ons in addition to its core "Entertainment pack". At £3 a month each, the bolt-on offering HD Extra and Kids Extra are available to all cutstomers with BT Infinity who take the Entertainment pack. A deal was agreed with Sky a fortnight ago – allowing BT [...]
The Sky Sports boss who is set to resume the battle with BT October 28, 2013 The TV sports giant’s managing director Barney Francis tells David Hellier that the secret to success is to keep growing in the face of increasing competition WHEN you’re head of sport at a company like Sky, the satellite broadcaster where covering live elite sport is a major driver of the business, there’s barely time to [...]
London Report: RBS and Lloyds news leads raft of bank updates October 27, 2013 BANKING and financial results will be in the spotlight this week as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered, Lloyds, Standard Life and Barclays all publish figures. RBS third quarter numbers, to be published on Friday, are the first since Ross McEwan took over from Stephen Hester as chief executive. They are expected to show [...]
Unions relent but English clubs still set on rebel cup October 24, 2013 PREMIERSHIP Rugby chief Mark McCafferty has ruled out a compromise deal with Heineken Cup chiefs ERC despite the six unions involved in the row over the future of the European club game accepting his blueprint. Talks in Dublin ended yesterday with all unions agreeing on changes to the number of places available to the English, [...]
Former Arm man east joins BT board October 23, 2013 WARREN East, who stepped down as the boss of chipmaker Arm Holdings in March, was yesterday unveiled as the latest non-executive to join the board of BT. East, who led Arm through 12 years of expansion, will start at the telecoms group in February.
Ex-ARM boss joins BT as non-exec October 23, 2013 Warren East, the former CEO of Cambridge based chip designers ARM Holdings, will BT as a non-executive director. That appointment will take effect from 1 February (release). East led the creation of ARM's Design Consulting and Development Tools business, and when it went public in 1998 he took up the role of vice president of [...]
English and French wait on Celtic clubs’ call – for now October 21, 2013 But plans put in place should they have to go it alone ENGLISH and French clubs are refusing to set their Celtic counterparts an ultimatum to join a breakaway competition but have already started planning next season’s European club rugby without them. Premiership and Top14 chiefs have ruled out taking part in a tournament under [...]
BSkyB’s shares hit 12-year high on user growth October 17, 2013 SKY’S growing broadband and TV customer numbers during the three months to 30 September helped push the pay-TV giant’s share price to a 12-year high yesterday. Sky added 800,000 new paid-for subscriptions to its services during the quarter, boosted by 111,000 new broadband subscribers, which took the company to over 5m total broadband customers. Revenues [...]
Bottom Line: Costs bite but Premier commitment pays off October 17, 2013 NO MATTER who wins, wars are always expensive. When BT kicked off its bid to take on rival BSkyB with its own dedicated sports channels earlier this year, it sparked a bidding battle for Premier League football rights that sent prices soaring. Sky acknowledged the hit in its first quarter results yesterday as programming costs rose [...]
YouView signs up non-exec chair who was credited with saving NTL October 16, 2013 Streaming services company YouView has appointed Simon Duffy as a non-executive chairman. Duffy is no stranger to television services – he's widely credited for the rescue of debt-laden NTL (now Virgin Media) when he was executive vice chairman there. If you don't know it – YouView says that it's the UK's fastest growing TV platform, [...]