Pressure shifts back to Big Tech as Ofcom delays social media ban Tech Tech firms have been warned to strengthen protections for young people online after MPs rejected a proposal to ban under-16s from social media this week. Communications regulator Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have written to major platforms, asking for details of how they plan to improve safety measures for children. Companies like Facebook, [...]
Meta and Google face first trial over child safety claims Tech The world’s largest social media giants are heading into a series of lawsuits in the US, accusing them of harming children with their addictive algorithms. The opening arguments begin this week in LA County Superior Court in the first case to be heard in front of a jury, alleging that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube [...]
Big Tech cashes in on £1 trillion ad market boom The global ad market is booming, with spend forecast to reach $1.19 (£1.04) trillion in 2025, up 8.9 per cent from last year, according to WARC’s recent report. Growth is projected to accelerate to $1.30 trillion in 2026 and $1.40 trillion by 2027, a doubling in size since the pandemic. But while the market is [...]
Goalhanger profit soars as Gary Lineker-owned podcast firm attracts global audience December 9, 2025 Profit at Gary Lineker-owned production group Goalhanger has soared as the media group continued to build up a global audience for its portfolio of podcasts. The group’s retained earnings, a measure of the total profit accumulated since the firm was founded, more than tripled to £4.6m in the seven months to the end of December [...]
Piers Morgan lands $30m backing as Uncensored goes global December 6, 2025 Piers Morgan is closing in on roughly $30m (£22.5m) in new funding to expand his YouTube venture, Uncensored, into a fully fledged global media business. The deal would value the operation at about $130m (£97m). Sky News revealed that the new investors include US merchant bank The Raine Group, whose co-founder Joe Ravitch, a key [...]
Why sports media is entering its most disruptive decade yet November 22, 2025 There was a time when watching live sport meant one remote, one broadcaster, and one living room. That era is quickly passing. Sports media is undergoing its most significant transition since the shift from analogue to digital, only this time the change is being driven by fans rather than technology. Across Europe viewing habits are [...]
Streaming overtakes traditional sports broadcasting, spending $12.5bn in 2025 October 29, 2025 Streaming has overtaken traditional broadcast and cable TV viewing as its biggest players have increased investment in sports rights, according to a new report. Platforms such as Dazn have pumped significant funds into showing live sport, with the sector as a whole spending $12.5bn in 2025, up 25 per cent on last year. Streaming’s share [...]
Youtube bets on AI ads as viewing habits evolve October 5, 2025 Youtube has become a near-ubiquitous presence in UK homes, with 47.9m adults now using the platform across devices. Ipsos data shows the average viewer spends 78 minutes a day watching its content, with the platform leading in so-called ‘connected TV’ viewing ahead of traditional broadcasters and other streaming services. For brands, this scale is attractive: [...]
Why Big Tech’s rap sheet matters more than its product pipeline October 1, 2025 Big Tech has shifted from a focus on genuine innovation to a model of value extraction, where massive fines for manipulative and monopolistic practices are now treated as a routine cost of doing business, says Paul Armstrong Amazon’s $2.5bn fine for dark patterns and Google’s courtroom escape from monopoly charges reveal how much the industry [...]
Trump launches fresh tariffs as government shutdown looms September 30, 2025 In a frenetic 24 hours for the President, Donald Trump has launched fresh tariffs on the US’s trading partners as his government looks to be marching towards shutdown. The White House has said it will charge a 10 per cent tariff on foreign softwood lumber and timber, used in a wide variety of building materials, [...]