TOP NEWS
* Talpa Holding NV, the media company of John de Mol, has agreed to sell its stake in Telegraaf Media Groep NV to Belgian publisher Mediahuis NV. Mediahuis, which also owns Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, was engaged in a battle with Talpa for TMG's control earlier this year. Talpa later agreed not to pursue the takeover.
* Sweden's Spotify AB and China's Tencent Music Entertainment Group are in talks to swap stakes of up to 10% in each other, ahead of their expected public flotations in 2018, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The sources said a deal would offer big returns to the two companies' respective IPOs, while also enabling them to team up for future licensing deals with major music labels.
UK AND IRELAND
* Facebook Inc. opened its new central London office in Rathbone Place, off Oxford Street, that will serve as its largest computer engineering base outside the U.S., London's The Daily Telegraph reports. The seven-story, 247,000-square-foot office will also house technology startups, the Dec. 4 report noted.
* British Telecom has been facing criticism from regulators and telecom operators in the U.K. over Openreach's plan to increase the cost of its wholesale broadband services by £7 a month, London's The Daily Telegraph reports. The move by the British network company is in line with its planned network upgrade that is expected to be delivered by mid-2020.
* U.K. National Cyber Security Centre Director Ciaran Martin has advised departmental permanent secretaries to ban the use of Russian-made antivirus software in systems that contain critical information and would harm national security if accessed by the Russian government, Reuters reports. The cybersecurity agency is in talks with Kaspersky Lab Inc. for the development of a system that would review the potential use of its antivirus products in the U.K.
* Ireland's Commission for Communications Regulation has slapped fines totaling to about €11,500 to Vodafone Ireland Ltd. over four cases where the Vodafone Group Plc unit incorrectly overcharging customers, Dublin's The Irish Times reports. The telecom operator entered an early guilty plea and agreed to provide remedy to the affected consumers.
* Ofcom announced that it has opened a public consultation on its proposals for the regulation of the Wholesale Local Access market. The consultation will close Jan. 12, 2018, and the British regulator expects to reveal its final decision in early 2018.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* The German NDR Rundfunkrat has agreed with the 2018 business plan for the broadcaster in a Dec. 1 meeting. Expenditures were calculated to be €1.2 billion while income was only €1.1 billion. In sum, the broadcasting council predicts a deficit of €120 million.
* Marieke Reimann, assistant editor in chief at German newspaper Zeit subsidiary ze.tt will be taking over the role of editor-in-chief as of 2018, reports Meedia. Reimann will succeed Sebastian Horn who will move on to Zeit Online.
FRANCE
* Altice NV announced that it has agreed to sell its Swiss businesses green.ch AG and Green Datacenter AG to InfraVia Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close in early 2018 and will bring Altice at an enterprise value of about CHF214 million.
* SFR Group SA's senior executives suffered a vote of no confidence from the company's works council, Les Echos reports. Employee representatives expressed their concern about the future of the media group and the urgent need for investments in customer service, network improvement and business development.
* Orange SA announced the release of OCast mirroring software as open source. The feature can be added by telecom operators or mobile app developers without licenses fees and offers users the ability to play video and control playback from their mobile devices via set-top boxes, TV Sticks or smart TVs.
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
* BTG, the Dutch ICT and telecommunications trade association, has chosen Eric Reij to be its new chairman. Reij will succeed Jan van Alphen.
* Global technology and engineering service provider Sogeti has appointed Dennis Hielkema chief sales officer for the Dutch division. Hielkema, who will be part of the management team, has been with the company since 1998.
* Ton van Dijk, the former director of the Dutch public broadcasting agency NPO, has argued for a complete revision of the Dutch public broadcasting system in an interview with AD. According to van Dijk, all separate broadcasters should be joined into one large media organization to counter budget problems.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Canadian smartphone company BlackBerry Ltd. announced that it has been ordered by the International Court of Arbitration to pay $137 million to Nokia Corp., to settle a payment dispute. The court found that BlackBerry had failed to make certain payments under a patent license agreement. BlackBerry also said it will still pursue a separate infringement case against Nokia. In response, Nokia said it was pleased with the decision. The Finnish company also said that it continues to believe that BlackBerry's claims of patent infringement are without merit.
* Swedish e-sports platform Esportal announced that it is acquiring gaming center Inferno Online in Stockholm.
* Swedish operator AllTele announced that the company name will be changed to A3 Allmänna IT- och Telekomaktiebolaget following a Dec. 1 extraordinary general meeting. The change of name comes after AllTele's merger with IP phone and cloud company T3.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* Orange struck an exclusive content deal for its transactional video-on-demand platform in Spain with Sony Pictures Television Inc., Rapid TV News reports. Under the agreement, Orange España will add some of the Sony Corp. unit's films in 4K/Ultra HD quality to the Orange Videoclub service.
* Telecom Italia SpA's board is set to discuss options for its fixed-line network as CEO Amos Genish presents his 2018-20 business plan Dec. 5, Reuters reports, citing sources. The telco's board could reportedly give CEO Amos Genish a formal mandate to explore options for the network, including its split from the company.
* MásMóvil Ibercom SA's Yoigo is rolling out a 1-Gbps fiber broadband service for residential and business customers Dec. 13, Telecompaper reports, citing Xataka Movil. The launch follows rollouts of similar services by rival operators Vodafone España SAU and Orange España.
* Alexandre Matos is joining Altice Portugal SA as CFO, effective immediately, Digital TV Europe reports. Matos will replace Gustavo Monteiro, who has served as Altice Portugal's interim finance chief since April.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Russia's Mobile TeleSystems PJSC is set to offer Microsoft Azure services from its own data centers from the beginning of 2018, following a deal with Microsoft Corp., Telecompaper reports, citing Cnews.ru. Under the agreement, MTS plans to install the Microsoft Azure Stack system at its data centers.
* Czech pay-TV operator DIGI CZ sro rolled out a seven-day catch-up service for its customers who have Digi TV satellite or Digi2 Go mobile subscriptions, Broadband TV News reports. The service also offers access to more than 100 TV channels over the internet.
* Croatian operators VIPNET and Metronet launched a combined brand covering telecom and ICT services for business customers, Telecompaper reports. The rollout of Vip Metronet Business Solutions, which will be available nationwide, follows Vipnet's takeover of Metronet.
* Telekom Slovenije d d is testing its Internet of Things services using narrowband IoT technology, Telecompaper reports. The telco also plans to establish IoT test environments in the Slovenian cities of Ljubljana and Maribor, according to the report.
FEATURED NEWS
The Best Of: Media & Comm, editor's picks: Comcast's net neutrality page; NBC host fired: Stories about changes to Comcast's corporate net neutrality page and the firing of "Today" show host Matt Lauer are among the media and communications editor's top five picks for the week ended Dec. 1.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Economics of TV & Film: Budget battles for 1-hour drama series continue: Scripted one-hour dramas in our analysis range from $2.1 million to $15.0 million per episode.
Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, 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.
