Disney halts Russian businesses; Deutsche Telekom starts tower sale process

TOP NEWS IN TMT

* Walt Disney Co. is preparing to pause its additional businesses in Russia, including content and product licensing, Disney Cruise Line activities, local content productions and linear channels, Dow Jones Newswires reported. This follows Disney's earlier move to delay the release of its films in Russian movie theaters.

* Deutsche Telekom AG launched the sale process for its towers units, with bids expected to come in the next two weeks, Reuters reported, citing three sources. The deal could value the operator's 40,600 towers at about €18 billion.

➤ Big Tech cloud providers face mounting pressure to exit Russia

As Big Tech cloud providers weigh shutting down access to their digital infrastructure for Russian entities, analysts predict the impact will be felt most by private enterprises in Russia. Some humanitarian groups urged caution.

➤ Economics of Internet: European OTT video subscriber update, year-end 2021

This is a quarterly consolidated over-the-top video subscription data for 18 European markets.

READ MORE about the market reaction and industry impact of the evolving situation in Russia and Ukraine in our new Issue in Focus.

TECHNOLOGY

* Russia prohibited exports of equipment for telecommunications, vehicles, electronics and medical purposes, among others, until the end of the year to retaliate against sanctions, according to Reuters.

* Clearview AI Inc. received a fine of €20 million from Italy's data protection agency, which found that the facial recognition software developer had been tracking Italian citizens, TechCrunch reported, citing a statement from the regulator.

* British Telecom struck a five-year partnership with Google Cloud to enhance its digital transformation across the U.K.

* A supervisory body for police information study found that Belgian police used Clearview AI's facial recognition software on more occasions than was initially stated by police officials, Tweakers reported. Key police officials were reportedly aware of 78 cases where Clearview AI was used but only reported two cases.

* T-Systems International GmbH is increasing its reach in Europe, offering three cloud regions with a service availability of 99.95%.

INTERNET & OTT

* Meta Platforms Inc. will temporarily allow exceptions to its policy on political expressions amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Meta, however, will still not allow posts calling for violence against Russian civilians. In response, the Russian embassy in the U.S. called on the U.S. government to stop Meta's "extremist activities," Reuters reported.

* Twitter Inc. will label posts from the state media in Belarus and limit the dissemination of these posts in an effort to tackle misinformation, according to Reuters.

* In more Twitter news, the social media platform also deleted tweets from the Russian embassy in the U.K. on Russia's airstrike on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, for violating the platform's policy against the denial of violent events, Reuters reported, citing a spokesperson.

* Google halted the billing system for Google Play in Russia, while YouTube LLC suspended all payments-based services in the country, TechCrunch reported.

* Netflix Inc. hiked its prices in the U.K. by £2 to £10.99 for a standard plan, while the same plan in Ireland will now cost €14.99, Reuters reported, citing a company spokesperson. Netflix will also invest more than €200 million in French original content in 2022, according to TBI Vision.

* Comcast Corp. and Paramount Global's streaming joint venture SkyShowtime unveiled new appointments to its leadership team with Francesca Pierce named as CFO, Richard Howard as chief marketing officer and Josh Snow as chief product officer.

* Norwegian commercial public broadcaster TV 2 entered an agreement with Disney's Nordic and Baltic operations, granting Norwegian subscribers access to the Disney+ streaming platform through TV2's Play streamer.

MEDIA

* Sony Group Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment Inc. suspended its Russian operations, calling for "an end to the violence" in Ukraine, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

* ITV PLC named Andrew Cosslett chairman, effective September, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Cosslett replaces Peter Bazalgette.

* Sky Studios Ltd. named Sam Hoyle as executive producer and Tilly Coulson as head of development for its U.K. drama commissioning team.

* Sweden's Modern Times Group Mtg AB appointed Lasse Pilgaard CFO.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Turkey Wealth Fund Management Co. agreed to acquire 55% of Türk Telekomünikasyon Anonim Şirketi from LYY Telekomünikasyon AS for $1.65 billion.

* Nokia Oyj completed a successful 25 Gbps fiber broadband trial with Hrvatski Telekom in Croatia.

* BT Sport and EE Ltd. announced new sports and performing arts watching experiences under a joint project called 5G Edge-XR, which uses 5G for the experiences.

* Amsterdam-based VEON Ltd. prepaid its loan worth 30 billion Russian rubles with VTB Bank PJSC. The operator has no other outstanding loans with the bank.

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Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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