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Canal+ Group/M7 M&A deal; Roku in UK; executive exit at Spotify

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TOP NEWS

* The European Commission has approved CANAL+ Group's acquisition of M7 Group SA for more than €1 billion, TVB Europe reports. The transaction to acquire the Luxembourg-based satellite pay TV and free-to-air operator from Astorg Partners is expected to close in the coming days.

* Roku Inc. will start selling its first smart TVs in the U.K. later this fall in partnership with China's Hisense Electric Co. Ltd., CEO Andrew Wood announced at the IFA tech conference in Berlin. The television software developer will be looking to capitalize on the U.K.'s growing appetite for streaming and Europe's adoption of smart TVs.

* Nick Holmsten, Spotify AB's head of music, is stepping down from his position and will transition to an advisory role, Variety reports. Jeremy Erlich and Marian Dicus will oversee the music department until a replacement is found. Meanwhile, Spotify tapped David Rhodes as a consultant to help the company in its push into news and podcast programming. Rhodes, who stepped down as president of CBS News Inc. in January, is reportedly expected to help the Swedish audio streaming platform sign up news organizations to partner with for podcasts.

UK AND IRELAND

* British independent media association Pact revealed in its 2019 Pact UK Television Census that commissioning income in the U.K. from international subscription video-on-demand platforms, such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video, increased by 87% from 2017 to about £280 million. Including local players, such as the British Broadcasting Corp.'s iPlayer, Channel 4 (UK)'s All4, Channel 5 (UK)'s My5 and ITV PLC's ITVHub, this would translate to about £328 million in SVOD commissioning income.

* BBC Studios Ltd. announced it has merged its Asian operations with that of Australia and New Zealand. BBC Studios will form an Asia-Pacific regional business, which will be led by Jon Penn, who was appointed executive vice president of the newly created business unit.

* The BBC has teamed up with technology companies, such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC and Microsoft Corp., as well as news publishers, such as Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, to fight fake news.

* British regulator Ofcom reappointed three nonexecutive directors to Channel 4's board. Paul Geddes and Roly Keating will serve for three years, starting Dec. 5, while Stewart Purvis will serve for one year, effective Sept. 1.

* A group of shareholders including Onex Corp., Baring Private Equity Asia and their fund affiliates are selling 34.5 million ordinary shares of Clarivate Analytics PLC at a price of $16.00 apiece. The secondary offering, set to close Sept. 10, comes with a 30‑day option for the underwriters to buy up to 5.175 million additional shares of the insights and analytics provider.

* Spanish soccer league La Liga could finalize a new TV rights deal for the U.K. and Ireland before Sept. 13, during the current season's fourth weekend, Advanced Television reports, quoting La Liga President Javier Tebas' statement to SportsPro.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Red Arrow Studios International GmbH's Studio71 acquired more than 50 connected TV, or CTV, applications from Unreel Entertainment LLC for an undisclosed sum. Studio71's newly acquired apps, such as gaming app Level One and Throttle.TV, will help the company extend its advertising network to streaming programming, according to a news release. Red Arrow is a ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE media company.

* Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure will relinquish earnings from 5G auctions to allow Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone Group PLC's Vodafone Deutschland Gmbh, Telefónica SA's Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG and United Internet AG's 1&1 Drillisch AG to construct about 1,400 new mobile phone masts, reports Manager Magazin.

* Technology companies, including WhatsApp Inc. and Google, may have collected user data unlawfully, according to Focus. No information on user approval was given in the terms and conditions.

* Axel Springer SE is hesitant to respond to a report about planned job cuts at its newspapers Die Welt and Bild, reports Reuters. The company said it was working on a future strategy that included investments and cost savings.

FRANCE

* Bouygues Telecom SA filed a claim before the Paris commercial court in May against Iliad's Free for about €170 million, L'Expansion reports, citing sources. The accusation of misleading sales practices on the Freebox Delta box came as a counter-attack in a long drawn battle that started in 2015.

* French SVOD platform Salto, a joint venture between TF1 Group SA, Groupe M6 and France Télévisions SA, will not be initially available via internet providers' decoders, Numerama reports. M6 CEO Nicolas de Tavernost said at an industry event that the platform will be accessible directly to consumers.

* French competition regulator Autorité de la concurrence found that Altice France SA complied with its commitments to competition concerns on the sale of CompleTel SAS's DSL network. The case has therefore been closed. Altice Europe owns Altice France.

* Iliad is under scrutiny for distributing share awards worth about €55.3 million to five top executives, Financial Times reports. The payouts come as Iliad is under pressure to turn around performance.

* Telecoms regulator ARCEP said it met with the European Commission and the representatives of 15 EU member states to outline the planned terms and procedure for the award of the 3490 GHz - 3800 GHz band in France. The plan will now be submitted to the government before launching the spectrum award procedure.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Proximus board Chairman Stefaan De Clerck urged an increase of the fixed salary ceiling of €650,000 at companies including his own, after Dominique Leroy, the company's CEO, announced her resignation, reports De Tijd.

* Ziggo NV has stopped supplying its own events channel to digital subscribers since Sept. 2, reports TotaalTV.

* Netherlands-headquartered chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV has unveiled a microcontroller-based solution for adding offline face and expression recognition capabilities to smart homes, commercial and industrial devices.

* Microsoft has integrated TomTom NV's navigation technology into its connected vehicle platform, the Dutch company said. The integration came after the U.S. tech giant named TomTom to be a location data provider for its mapping services across various offerings.

* Tech entrepreneur Eugène Tuijnman will become a major shareholder in Hilversum-based ICT service provider SLTN Inter Access, reports Computable. SLTN Inter Access was 60% owned by Rabo Investments BV, which will sell the stake to Tuijnman and ING Corporate Investments BV.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Nokia Corp. said it is working with Smart Communications Inc. of the Philippines to bring Industry 4.0 to Southeast Asia. The PLDT Inc. unit and Nokia recently made a live 5G standalone video call.

* The new Danish association of TV providers, Danske Mediedistributører, said that political interventions are needed to strengthen the Danish television business. The association said that Danish-produced content should not be made available on services like YouTube and Facebook Inc., which will only benefit foreign owners.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* Telefónica is considering a sale of its unit in Ecuador, which is valued at between €600 million and €800 million, Telecompaper reports, citing sources mentioned by El Economista. Millicom International Cellular SA and Entel Chile could reportedly bid for the asset.

* A new Italian government in office is not expected to affect a planned merger of Telecom Italia SpA and Enel Open Fiber SPA's broadband networks, Reuters reports, citing Open Fiber Chairman Franco Bassanini. However, Enel SpA CEO Francesco Starace said the integration is not a top priority, according to a separate Reuters report.

* Mediapro unit The Mediapro Studio, together with HBO Asia and Hulu Japan, have begun filming in the Canary Islands for their international co-production titled "The Head," Rapid TV News reports. The survival thriller, directed by Jorge Dorado, will premiere in Asia as an HBO Asia original series.

* Spanish operator MásMóvil Ibercom SA is preparing the launch of a consumer loans service for its subscribers in October, through a partnership with financial services provider Cetelem España, Telecompaper reports, citing Expansión.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Google and Facebook published political ads on their platforms during the Sept. 8 regional elections in Russia, despite a ban under the country's laws, Reuters reports, quoting Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor.

* Orange SA unit Orange Moldova SA rolled out a Voice over LTE service dubbed Apel 4G +, Telecompaper reports. The Orange unit also introduced phones from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. that support the technology.

* Marcin Cichy, president of Polish telecom watchdog Office of Electronic Communications, said the country's electromagnetic radiation standards could hinder 5G development, Telecompaper reports, citing Telko.in. Cichy said telcos would not be interested in participating in 5G spectrum auctions if Poland's radiation standards do not match average EU levels.

FEATURED NEWS

The Best Of: Editor's picks: Fall box office preview; UK broadcasters' advertising showdown: Stories about theaters eyeing an uptick after a soft summer and U.K. broadcasters targeting big tech's stronghold in advertising showdown are featured in the editor's technology, media and telecommunications top picks for the week ended Sept. 6.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Technology: Global streaming media device sales forecast to flatten in 5-year outlook: Streaming media player and stick shipments grew 10.3% to an estimated 65.8 million in 2018, but increasing saturation in North America and competition from smart TVs are expected to cut into demand.

Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, Charlotte van Hek and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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