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 [...]
Entertainment One boosted by film acquisition November 19, 2013 ENTERTAINMENT One, the film and television distributor, reported record revenue growth of more than 65 per cent yesterday after the company’s acquisition of its largest Canadian competitor was completed in January. “It’s been transformational for the business,” chief executive Darren Throop told City AM. Throop said the purchase of Alliance Film is on track to [...]
Tie Rack set to shut UK shops by end of year November 19, 2013 Tie Rack's UK presence is to be wound up. The owners of the high street name will begin closing the chain's 44 UK stores on Wednesday, reports Mark Kleinman, City editor at Sky News. The closures could threaten up to 200 jobs. Sky News' sources said that a closing-down sale is expected to start on [...]
Tories are spreading the ashes of party modernisation – and it’s a good thing November 18, 2013 AS I watched Sky News over breakfast yesterday, the discussion turned to a new venture from Prince Charles, dubbed a charity to help charities. As the discussants outlined the idea’s potential merits, presenter Eamonn Holmes wryly asked: “What was that similar thing David Cameron was pushing before the last election? The Big Society or something?” [...]
Rolls Royce wins $5bn and $300m engine orders from Etihad and Qatar Airways November 18, 2013 Rolls Royce said this morning that it has won a $5bn (£3.1bn) order from Etihad Airways for Trent XWB engines to power 50 Airbus A350 aircraft, along with a $300m (£251.32m) order from Qatar Airways for Trent 700 engines to power five Airbus A330 freighter aircraft. The announcements come on the first day of the [...]
Bottom Line: Results to show benefit of planning ahead November 18, 2013 LAST week, EasyJet revealed that it had finished testing its volcano-busting aircraft sensors, allowing planes to dodge ash clouds and keep flying after eruptions like the one that crippled European airspace in 2010. The experiment, which required EasyJet and its partners to throw a metric tonne of ash into the sky before flying four planes [...]
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 [...]
Chile: the most varied country in the world November 17, 2013 From mountains to desert, Ashwin Bhardwaj is enchanted by the diverse delights of Chile AT UNIVERSITY, we teased our Geographer housemate for doing a degree in “colouring in.” But we secretly envied his trips to exotic corners of the globe, digging ice cores and monitoring volcanoes. Visualising geography is difficult in England as this green [...]
The Long View: UK leadership of the international space race isn’t entirely out-of-this-world November 14, 2013 WHO SAYS the sky has to be the limit? Britain’s space industry has ambitions to become a global leader. The sector’s new growth plan, announced this week, includes establishing a British spaceport within five years. It wants our 6.5 per cent share of the global space market in 2010 to be 8 per cent by [...]
Costa owner Whitbread looks for Habgood successor November 14, 2013 Whitbread, the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, is on a hunt for a successor to Anthony Habgood, reports Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman. The FTSE 100 group, which also owns Beefeater and Table Table, has brought in headhunters to find a new chairman. Habgood, who also chairs Reed Elsevier, is likely to [...]