UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB has agreed to purchase Telefónica UK’s consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony assets for £180m ($270m), making it the second-largest provider in the UK broadband market.
Today’s news – that the BBC’s iPlayer, its market-shaping catch-up service, will now be available on TV to subscribers of Sky – is not without irony, given the steady stream of anti-BBC spin we’ve heard from the pay-TV operator (and its newspaper siblings) over the years. Neutral observers of the two UK media giants are more used to seeing them slug it out, like Waldorf and Stadtler, only without the affection.
UK broadcaster BSkyB has been told to offload the majority of its holding in rival ITV, on recommendation from the Competition Commission. John Hutton, secretary of state for business and enterprise, said Sky must reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9 per cent to less than 7.5 per cent, and must not sell the shares [...]
The ongoing spat between Virgin Media and BSkyB has prompted UK communications regulator, Ofcom, to launch a competition probe into the pay TV industry. Ofcom said Tuesday it has received requests from Virgin, BT, Setanta and Top Up TV, to investigate the pay TV market and to consider whether to make a market reference to [...]
UK broadcaster BSkyB launched a triple play bundle into the market on Tuesday, offering TV, phone and broadband for £26 per month, plus an extra £11 line rental. The launch of “See, Speak, Surf” will be backed by a major advertising campaign and is available to 70 per cent of UK households. The broadband is [...]
Broadcast giant BSkyB has expanded its mobile footprint with the announcement on Thursday that it has agreed to make its Sky Mobile TV service available to subscribers of the 3 UK network. 3′s customers will be able to receive up to 27 Sky Mobile TV channels including live news, sport, music, entertainment and documentaries. Subscribers [...]
Consolidation, convergence and competitionCalls for consolidation in the European mobile market grow louder by the week and four-operator markets look increasingly challenged. Now, those mobile operators that have already built scale seem to be suggesting that there is no option but to expand yet further through diversification.
It is testament to Telstra’s aggressive approach to mobile broadband that an operator in a country of just over 23 million people should rank in the top ten operators worldwide in terms of LTE subscriber numbers. Mike Wright, Telstra’s executive director for networks and access technologies talks to Telecoms.com about the firm’s plans for further enhancing its LTE operation with fresh spectrum and LTE-Advanced capabilities.
Jonathan Bell, VP of Marketing at OpenCloud, discusses how policy and pricing are just two dimensions along which telecoms operators can differentiate their propositions. By adding a third dimension, the service behaviour itself, operators can define and bring true innovation to the market that surpasses the traditional approaches of the past, he says.
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With summer supposedly fast approaching, many look to trim some fat and get in shape for the sunny months. The Informer has never been a huge fan of gyms; in fact his favourite machine in the gym is the one that sells chocolate. Telefonica’s UK arm O2, is one business that is looking to get lean for the holidays, though, and this week it announced that it is to trim 3,500 UK employees.