Broadcast regulator ramps up diversity pressure on BBC October 11, 2016 The broadcast regulator’s chief executive has ramped up pressure on the BBC over diversity. Ofcom’s Sharon White also said that although the corporation holds a “special status” in public life, it will not receive “special treatment” when the body begins overseeing the broadcaster next year. Read more: BBC’s £60m hotel bill: 2016 on track to [...]
How gambling and betting companies have taken over the Premier League’s shirts October 8, 2016 Football fans might have noticed a recurring theme on this year's Premier League shirts — gambling. More Premier League teams are sponsored by gambling companies than ever before this season, with exactly half of the division's teams displaying logos for online casinos or bookmakers on their shirts. England's top tier was 10 years old before Fulham became the [...]
Mobile is the invisible infrastructure that can drive the economy in post-Brexit Britain October 6, 2016 This week’s State of Mobile Networks report served as a timely reminder of the importance that people and businesses across the UK place on mobile connectivity, particularly superfast 4G. But it also acts as a wake-up call to the fact Britain could be left behind in the global digital race and miss out on an [...]
Picks of the day: The three stories to read today October 6, 2016 If you’ve been trawling through the internet looking for something interesting to read, look no further. We’ve put together the top stories people are talking about today in bite-sized form, just to make your life that bit easier. Check out our 3 at 3. Swear words have been ranked Ofcom has done what no-one asked [...]
How sweary is your trading floor? All British swearwords have officially been ranked according to offensiveness October 6, 2016 If you work on a trading floor, some of these might sound familiar – but now research by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, has ranked British swearwords according to their severity. Because it's vital we know… No prizes for guessing what the worst word in the English language is, although two variations of one word (in the [...]
London speeds to the top of 4G mobile ranking October 5, 2016 Londoners are almost twice as likely to get a 4G mobile signal than the rest of the country, a new report suggests. The capital is a long way ahead of other regions, with 70 per cent 4G coverage, compared to just 35 per cent in Wales. This may not be surprising to many, with coverage [...]
Sports and second screens: How stadium designers and broadcasters are dealing with the smartphone revolution October 5, 2016 Pep Guardiola isn't the only figure in elite sports for whom the prevalence of smartphone use has disrupted business as usual The Manchester City manager has cut off 3g and Wi-Fi connection from the club's training complex in order to pull his players' gaze away from screen and back onto the team. Yet for broadcasters, rights holders, club [...]
TalkTalk is jumping before it’s pushed and has done away with separate line rental charges October 3, 2016 TalkTalk has moved to scrap separate line rental charges in a system reboot that it hopes will go some way to repairing the damage to its reputation caused by its data breach last year. Following in the footsteps of Vodafone in August TalkTalk will move to a single combined monthly price. It announced it would make the change [...]
Negotiations over the largest pension deficit in the FTSE 100 could be made worse by an Openreach spin-off October 2, 2016 BT's mammoth pension scheme deficit is threatening to derail Ofcom's plans to make its broadband infrastructure arm Openreach more independent from the telecoms giant. A consultation on the future of Openreach is due to close on Tuesday after attracting over 75,000 responses. Investors and analysts are deeply concerned that separating it from BT could cause significant issues for the group when it comes to [...]
BT, TalkTalk, and Vodafone all perform badly in latest set of Ofcom complaints data September 28, 2016 Telecoms watchdog Ofcom has revealed the best and the worst performers when it comes to customer complaints for broadband, landlines, mobile, and pay TV. Complaints figures are presented per 100,000 customers and covers the three-month period from April to June 2016. BT topped the list of broadband complaints, followed by its subsidiary Plusnet, with 26 and 23 respectively. The industry [...]