Donald Trump spends up to eight hours a day watching TV, according to NYT profile of President December 10, 2017 Donald Trump spends as much as eight hours a day watching television, according to a profile of the US President published in the New York Times revealing more about the way he consumes media. Sources told the newspaper that they estimate he watches at least four hours of television a day “and sometimes as much [...]
Tory rural broadband promise under threat: BT Openreach talks close to collapse November 19, 2017 A Tory pledge to deliver better broadband to 1.4m rural homes is under threat of being delayed by years. Talks between Openreach and the government to agree on a £600m investment by the BT infrastructure arm are close to collapse, according to reports by the Sunday Telegraph. If an agreement with Openreach over its voluntary [...]
SSE teams up with Thames Water to lay fibre broadband in London’s Victorian sewer network November 14, 2017 A leading broadband provider believes it has hit the ideas jackpot in the battle to boost Britain’s broadband internet: it wants to lay fibre optic cables in London’s vast sewer network. Energy giant SSE, which has an established broadband infrastructure offering, has teamed up with Thames Water. It plans to tuck fibre cabling 10 metres [...]
London has been named the most popular city for Middle Eastern investment November 8, 2017 Middle Eastern investors are continuing to plough more money into London commercial property than any other city in the world, according to a new report from real estate investors CBRE. In the 12 months between April 2016 and 2017, London attracted $1.68bn (£1.28bn) from the Middle East – strides ahead of New York at $820m [...]
Time to treat Google and Facebook as the media giants they really are October 17, 2017 The boss of WPP, Sir Martin Sorrell, has views on a wide range of topics, from the global economy, to Brexit, to the advertising world. One of his views is that Facebook and Google are media companies, and should be seen as such. And in this, he is absolutely right. Read more: Dow Jones newswire [...]
21st Century Fox’s Sky takeover will be referred to CMA for in-depth investigation, culture secretary Karen Bradley confirms September 14, 2017 The culture secretary this morning confirmed she will refer Fox’s bid for Sky to the competition regulator for an in-depth, phase two investigation. Karen Bradley said she will refer the bid on the grounds of both media plurality and broadcasting standards. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now have 24 weeks to report back [...]
TalkTalk fined by data watchdog for putting 21,000 sets of customer data at risk of being accessed by scammers August 10, 2017 TalkTalk has been fined by the UK’s information regulator after 21,000 sets of customer data were at risk of falling into the hands of scammers and fraudsters. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) slapped the FTSE 250 firm with a £100,000 fine. Personal information was at risk after an Indian firm TalkTalk used to resolve complaints [...]
Netflix and Britain: We’re now a nation of 40m binge watchers, but BBC, ITV and Channel 4 beats US streaming rivals Ofcom Communications Market Report 2017 finds August 3, 2017 Britain is now a nation of binge watchers, as 40m of us watch more than one episode at a time, new research reveals. But traditional broadcasters remain more popular for satisfying that appetite than Netflix from which the watching habit sprung. More than three quarters of UK adults watch a back-to-back episode on catch-up or [...]
RBS’ mis-selling fine is certain to highlight American hypocrisy, Worldpay’s bid invitation and no rush for the new Ofcom chair July 7, 2017 It was hard to suppress a laugh last week at the sanctimonious angst of corporate America at the fine doled out by Brussels over Google’s anti-competitive behaviour by favouring its shopping service over those of rivals. Those Europeans, came the wailing from across the Atlantic, are extracting money from flagship US companies with little justification. [...]
Royal Mail retires pensions scheme: The what, why and how of delivering a credible deal for postal workers May 14, 2017 The Royal Mail will deliver its full-year results on Thursday, three and a half years after the London listing of 501-year-old firm. Perhaps the biggest millstone around the company’s neck is its gigantic final salary pension plan that services 90,000 of Royal Mail’s 160,000 employees. In January Royal Mail revealed plans to shut down the [...]