BT, Amazon share European soccer's UK rights; Meta scraps Dutch datacenter plans

TOP NEWS IN TMT

* BT Group PLC secured exclusive live U.K. broadcast rights for the majority of the UEFA Champions League soccer matches and all UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League games for three more seasons from 2024 for £305 million a year, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.'s sports joint venture with BT Group will reportedly pay the rights costs less the deposit. BT has to split the Champions League matches with Amazon.com Inc., which is paying about £150 million a year for 17 games per season, according to a separate Dow Jones Newswires report.

* Meta Platforms Inc. will abandon the planned construction of its proposed €700 million datacenter in Zeewolde, the Netherlands, after activists, the Dutch lower house and others opposed the move, according to DataNews.

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TECHNOLOGY

* Amazon agreed with the European Commission to allow the EU and European Economic Area consumers to unsubscribe from Amazon Prime with just two clicks, using a clear "cancel button" after a complaint was filed in 2021 by the national consumer protection authorities.

* Japan's NEC Corp. agreed to acquire Dublin-based network solutions and system integration company Aspire Technology for an undisclosed amount.

* French IT company Capgemini SE reaffirmed it has no plans to acquire French peer Atos SE or any of its assets, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

* A group of U.K. members of the Parliament and Lords called on the government to prohibit the sale and use in the country of surveillance equipment from China's Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd. and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. Ltd. over alleged human rights violations in China, BBC News reported.

* Sweden's Proact IT Group AB completed the acquisition of German IT consultancy Sepago GmbH for a total purchase price of €16 million.

* German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG acquired Romania-based verification service provider NoBug Consulting SRL and Serbia's NoBug d.o.o. for an undisclosed sum.

* Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. tapped Swedish eye-tracking technology developer Tobii AB to provide eye-tracking technology for the PlayStation VR2 headset.

INTERNET & OTT

* Global sports streaming company DAZN Group Ltd. will increase its monthly price to €29.99 from €14.99 for existing customers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

* Amazon Prime Video premiered the documentary series "Race for the Planet" in the U.K. and Ireland. The series focuses on the inaugural season of the off-road racing series Extreme E.

* The U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education will invest £82 million to upgrade up to 3,000 primary schools across rural England to fast gigabit broadband.

* Turkey blocked the internet services of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle Aör and the websites of international broadcaster Voice of America, Broadband TV News reported.

* The Russian Parliament's lower chamber approved an amendment to its telecommunications law in the first reading, Telecompaper reported, citing Cnews.ru. The amendment aims to prevent cyberthreats from imported end-user terminals and satellite systems.

MEDIA

* Delphine Ernotte-Cunci and Petr Dvořák were reelected to serve a second two-year mandate as president and vice president, respectively, of the executive board of the European Broadcasting Union.

* The British Broadcasting Corp. unveiled updates on its impartiality plan, including the publication of its whistleblowing policy and the appointments of Caroline Daniel and Michael Prescott as external editorial experts, and said the first thematic review into the broadcaster's taxation and public spending output is due to be published later this year.

* French content producer FL Entertainment NV completed its business combination with Pegasus Entrepreneurial Acquisition Co. Europe BV. FL Entertainment's first day of trading on Euronext Amsterdam was July 1.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Norway-based field service provider Eltel Networks AS secured a project worth about €36 million to €40 million to upgrade Telenor ASA's telecommunications network with 5G technology. Eltel AB owns Eltel Networks.

* European Connectivity Networks AB, a network company co-owned by Sweden's Netmore Group AB and Polar Structure AB, rolled out its low-power, wide-area network in Denmark.

FILM & TV

* The BBC obtained the rights to broadcast the UEFA Champions League soccer highlights every Wednesday night on BBC platforms from 2024 for three years.

* Vivendi SE's CANAL+ Group acquired live broadcast rights to the two best matches of the UEFA Champions League each day. The French pay TV operator will also air highlights and the UEFA Super Cup match between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.

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Frances Espeso, Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Charlotte van Hek and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report.

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