TOP NEWS
* Facebook Inc. has suspended the accounts of Strategic Communication Laboratories and its political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica for violating the platform's policies over handling of personal data, the company's vice president and deputy general counsel, Paul Grewal, said in a blog post. The move came after Facebook learned that the data passed on to the two entities by University of Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan were not actually destroyed after the policy violation was discovered in 2015. Kogan was able to get the personal data from a now-removed app called thisisyourdigitallife. Grewal has denied claims that the incident was a data breach.
* Nokia Corp. said it completed the acquisition of Seattle-based software company Unium Inc., which specializes in residential Wi-Fi applications and will operate under Nokia's fixed networks group.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin opposes a proposed European Union regulation that would levy a tax on mostly U.S.-based digital businesses, calling the so-called digital tax harmful and redundant, The Wall Street Journal reports.
* Facebook will expand the roll out of Facebook Lite in Europe in the U.K., France, Germany and Ireland on March 22, Reuters reports. Facebook Lite launched in 2015 and targets areas with low or limited internet connection.
UK AND IRELAND
* British Culture Secretary Matt Hancock told London's The Daily Telegraph in an interview that tech giants such as Facebook and Alphabet Inc. unit Google Inc. could face tougher regulation to ensure proper handling of personal data and accurate tax payments.
* Dominique Delport, Vivendi SA's president for content and Havas SA's global managing director, is in talks with VICE Media LLC to become the U.S. company's head of international operations beginning May, Variety reports. Delport is anticipated to be assigned at VICE's London office and will report to recently appointed CEO Nancy Dubuc, the report said, citing sources.
* Fiona Phillips, a former host at ITV Plc's now-defunct morning show "GMTV," revealed in her column for the Daily Mirror that she was paid considerably less than her then co-presenter Eamonn Holmes. Meanwhile, former tennis champion Martina Navratilova has criticised the British Broadcasting Corp. after she learned that her fellow tennis pundit John McEnroe is paid up to £199,999 in contrast to her salary of about £15,000 for commentating at for the Wimbledon tennis championships, Dublin's Irish Independent reports.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA U.K.
* A German court has ruled that operators of open and free public Wi-Fi networks in Germany must be held liable for copyright infringements committed before an amendment to Germany's Telemedia Act did away with provider liability, Telecompaper reports, citing TelTarif.
FRANCE
* The president of Condé Nast France since 2006, Xavier Romatet, has resigned, CB News reports. According to reports, he may join a future project to merge the press activities currently under discussion between Lagardère SCA unit Lagardère Active SAS, Mondadori and Marie Claire.
* Iliad SA has released a statement of transactions of its own shares from March 12 to March 16. All transactions were completed under the repurchase program authorized by the annual shareholders' meeting held May 17, 2017.
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
* Following plans to change Altice NV's name to Altice Europe and separate the business from Altice USA Inc., the company reported its financial results for 2017.
* Dutch public broadcaster NOS has extended its agreement with Eredivisie Media & Marketing for the broadcasting of the summaries of the Dutch football league, or Eredivisie, NOS reports. The agreement has been extended for three seasons until the 2021-22 period.
* Telecom and ICT reseller BTC has entered into a partnership with Main Mezzanine Capital for the strategic support and financing of its growth strategy. Alongside focusing on growing the number of consultants, the collaboration will aim to expand BTC's product and services portfolio.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Ericsson AB restated its consolidated income statements for each quarter of 2017 and full year 2016 due to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards 15. The restatement had a positive effect on net sales and income for 2017 and a negative impact on net sales and income for 2016.
* The Danish government has secured a majority in parliament for massive cuts in the budgets of public broadcaster DR. The television license fee will be abolished, and the broadcaster will be financed through taxation. DR's budgets will be cut by 20% by 2023. The government did not say how the budget cuts will affect the broadcaster's output.
* Finnish telecom regulator Ficora said it has received an application for a TV programming license from Eurosport SAS. The regulator is now inviting other parties to submit applications for a free-standing concession in the available network capacity until April 15.
* Swedish digital book service Nextory AB said it has raised 51 million Swedish kronor, in order to finance its rapid growth strategy. Among the investors are LK Finans AB, Industrifonden and ACACIA. Nextory had a growth in sales of 275%, and tripled its customer base, in 2017.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* Telecom Italia SpA's majority shareholder Vivendi said it will examine Elliott Management Corp.'s comments "with an open mind." The activist hedge fund has earlier requested for a board shakeup at the telco. Its parent Elliott Advisers also sent a letter to the Italian operator's shareholders calling for a "truly independent" board, explaining that the "poor stewardship under the Vivendi-controlled board has resulted in deeply troubling corporate governance issues," Reuters reports.
* Italian regulator Agcom approved Mediapro's acquisition of broadcasting rights for the 2018 to 2021 seasons of Serie A, Telecompaper reports. Agcom, however, did not allow the Spanish broadcaster to set up its own Serie A channel, but only agreed for Mediapro to sell the rights to other companies. The Italian soccer league earlier accepted the Spanish broadcaster's offer to pay €1.05 billion a year.
* Mediapro has also been chosen as the media partner of Spanish football associations La Liga and Real Federación Española de Fútbol for the implementation of the video assistant referee, Rapid TV News reports. The system is anticipated to be fully operational for the 2018-2019 season, given that it gets approval from the International Football Association Board.
* Vodafone España SAU will begin to offer virtual reality experiences to its subscribers using 4G services, Digital TV Europe reports. The Vodafone Group Plc unit is using the Multi-access Edge Computing technology to enable VR in its applications.
* Greece has failed to receive bids for its tender to sell a 5% stake in OTE SA, Reuters reports. The state has invited Deutsche Telekom AG, which owns 40% in the Greek operator, to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire the shares.
* Spain's Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia has begun a probe against public broadcaster RTVE for allegedly broadcasting advertising without approval, Rapid TV News reports. The regulator will look into advertisements ran in RTVE linear channels La 1, La 2, 24 Horas and Teledeporte during December 2017 and January 2018.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Vladimir Putin has been elected for another six years as Russia's president, Reuters reports. In a widely anticipated outcome, an exit poll by VTsIOM showed Putin had won 73.9% of the vote, according to Reuters. Russia's Central Election Commission, commenting after nearly a third of the votes had been counted, also put Putin at about 73%.
* Russian mobile virtual network operator VK Mobile, a joint venture between MegaFon and VKontakte Ltd., has stopped operations, Telecompaper reports, citing MegaFon chief commercial officer Vlad Volfson's statement to Cnews.ru. MegaFon said the MVNO had low subscribers.
* Orange Polska SA and T-Mobile Polska, through their joint venture JV Networks, plan to upgrade their spectrum dedicated to LTE, which is expected to provide speeds up to 438 Mbps, Telecompaper reports.
* Sergei Anokhin has been appointed as Rostelecom PJSC's senior vice president and CFO,. Anokhin will be in charge of a number of tasks, including managing procurement activities and implementing projects.
* After delays in the approval process, Ukraine will begin with its plan to digitize its broadcasts in April to May 2019, Broadband TV News reports. The shut down of the analog broadcasts will have three stages and will begin in a certain area in August.
FEATURED NEWS
Q&A: Fox exec: Studios have a 'new interest' in developing shows for social: Scott Norville, Fox's vice president of digital audience development, said in an interview that while monetization and infrastructure issues remain, traditional media companies are taking the range of possibilities on social media seriously.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Wireless Investor: 28 GHz spectrum currently the most popular for global 5G trials: With the pace of new 5G trial announcements for both fixed and mobile deployments picking up, the spectrum ranges being used for those trials are also proliferating.
Technology: Update: OTT vendors in use: In an effort to remain abreast of the relationships between over-the-top service providers and their complex vendor ecosystem, Kagan has updated its OTT vendor-in-use product.
Daniela Latini, Amanda Kelly, Charlotte van Hek and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription.
