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 [...]
Pets at Home groomed for market debut November 12, 2013 FINANCE firm KKR has fired the starting gun on a £1.5bn stock market listing of UK pet store Pets at Home. The Wall Street group, which took over Pets at Home in 2010, has asked Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Nomura to draw up plans to sell its stake in the company [...]
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 [...]
Glaxo slumps as heart drug misses study goal November 12, 2013 AN EXPERIMENTAL GlaxoSmithKline drug, designed to fight heart disease in a new way, has failed to meet its main goal in a major late-stage clinical study, dealing a blow to one of the company’s biggest new treatment hopes. Darapladib’s inability to reduce the overall risk of heart attacks and strokes in the first of two [...]
Mix it up: Stir in a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down November 12, 2013 @philip_salter Flourishing species ultimately perish, rising civilisations fall in the end, and conquering nations are eventually defeated; but human beings – at least as long as we walk this planet – will always want to get drunk. Though getting inebriated is a constant, the way we imbibe changes over space and time. And, like everything [...]
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 [...]
Metro boss gets extra fee bonus November 12, 2013 METRO Bank’s boss is to earn extra cash for finding new branch premises for the lender, it emerged yesterday, on top of his salary. Founder and chairman Vernon Hill is paid £75,000 per year, and gains up to £175,000 more a year for finding new offices. The figure came out in a fundraising prospectus seen [...]
Why Spain’s financial future is rosier than Italy’s November 11, 2013 Spain's fiscal prospects are brighter than Italy's, says Capital Economics' European economist Ben May. Although Italy's budget deficit is a fair amount better than Spain's, and the latter still faces some tough economic challenges, Spanish public finances are, in other respects, in something of a "healthier position". The medium-term outlook for the public finances remains "pretty [...]
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 [...]
BT defends £897m deal for Champions League rights November 11, 2013 THE BATTLE between Sky and BT for dominance in televised sport came to a head this weekend with the surprise announcement that Champions League matches will be shown exclusively on BT Sport from 2015 as part of a £900m investment by the telecoms giant. New chief executive Gavin Patterson defended the huge price tag, more [...]