TOP NEWS
*Vivendi SA lost itsappeal in a shareholder class-action lawsuit that accused the company ofdefrauding investors, Reuters reports.Vivendi saidit "strongly disagrees" with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the SecondCircuit's decision and will analyze its options, including seeking furtherreview before the Court of Appeals and filing a petition for review with theU.S. Supreme Court.
*Facebook Inc. willappeal against an order by the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection andFreedom of Information to stop collecting and storing data of its GermanWhatsApp Inc users, Reutersreports.The watchdog said the social networking giant breached data protection law andhad not secured effective approval from WhatsApp users in the country.
UK ANDIRELAND
*British BroadcastingCorp.'s BBC WorldwideLtd. launched BBC Player in Asia, World Screen reports.The multigenre SVOD service will be available in Singapore exclusively tosubscribers of StarHubLtd.'s pay TV platform. StarHub is a unit of .
*Arirang TV, an English-language network in South Korea, launched its 24-hourbroadcast in the U.K. on satellite TV platforms 's and , E Daily reports.
*Nigerian film studio Rok Studios will debut its Nollywood channel Rok in theU.K. via Sky TV, Advanced Television reports.The 24-hour channel, which launches Sept. 29, will feature thousands of hoursof African movies and original series.
*British telecom watchdog Ofcom calledon the country's 20 million Android smartphone users to participate in aresearch project for the mobile industry. Participants are asked to downloadthe Ofcom mobile research app, which will measure mobile coverage, reliabilityof voice calls, mobile broadband performance and users' experience and habits,among other data.
, SWITZERLAND ANDAUSTRIA
*Car manufacturers Audi, BMW and Daimler are collaborating with tech firmsEricsson AB,Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.,Nokia, Intel Corp.and Qualcomm to establish the 5G Automotive Association, Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung reports.The group plans to push the development of technology for self-driving cars.
*Vodafone Group Plcaims to improve its internet service in Germany by bringing a speed of 400 Mbpsto 60% of households in areas with cable coverage by the end of 2016,Digitalfernsehen reports.The mobile phone provider will focus on both urban and rural areas.
*German Federal Justice Minister Heiko Maas is demanding that social mediacompanies like Facebook be obliged to do more against hate speech online sothat such acts can be prosecuted, reportsFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Maassaid where self-commitment of these companies is not enough, there could belegal intervention.
*Sky is launching its Sky+ Pro Receivers in Germany and Austria in October,according to a news release.Customers will be able to view football games live in ultra-HD on the newchannels Sky Sport Bundesliga UHD and Sky Sport UHD.
*Liberty Global plc'sUnitymedia plans toimprove the speed of its cable network in Germany by reducing ping times, reportsPC Games Hardware. The company didnot reveal when and how its customers would benefit from the planned networkoptimization.
FRANCE
*French video game publisher Ubisoft acquiredKetchapp, a publisher of free-to-play games for mobile and tablets, for anundisclosed sum. With the acquisition, Ubisoft becomes the fourth-largestmobile game publisher in terms of number of downloads. Since its creation in2014, Ketchapp games have been downloaded nearly 700 million times.
*Orange Digital Ventures will participate in SecBI, a leading developer ofadvanced cybersecurity threat detection solutions, according to a statementfrom Orange SA.Orange Digital Ventures identifies and funds early-stage start-ups.
*France Télévisions SAappointedLaurent-Eric Le Lay director of sports, replacing Daniel Bilalian. Reporting toCaroline Got, Le Lay will be responsible for sports editorial and policy withinthe entire group and in all media. Le Lay previously served as chairman and CEOof TF1 Publicité.
*Iliad SA's Free announced the launchof a new package called Freebox Revolution with TV by CANAL Panorama, whichincludes access to Canal PlusSA's myCANAL app. With myCANAL, subscribers can access more than100 channels for live viewing and more than 8,000 content items on demandacross a variety of devices.
NETHERLANDS,BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
*Telegraaf Media Groep released plans to implement cost reductions amounting toup to €90 million by 2019, Nu.nl reports.TMG reportedly seeks to increase its profit margin to at least 10% from 1.3%after the restructuring, which is estimated to cost between €30 million and €40million.
*KPN NV begantransferring public regional broadcasts to HD quality, Media Magazine reports.Only subscribers to KPN's interactive TV have access to the HD broadcasts,which were earlier exclusively available on apps and websites of regional broadcasters.
*Dutch TV platform CanalDigitaal launched new channel eSportsTV on Sept. 27,Broadcast Magazine reports.The channel provides viewers with eSports-related content 24/7.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
*Netflix Inc. ChiefContent Officer Ted Sarandos joined Spotify Ltd.'s board, Variety reports.In 2015, Spotify appointed former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy as CFO.
*China Unicom securedan exclusive partnership with NokiaCorp. for the high-end core router CR-B for three years with thelarge-capacity core router platform 7950 Extensible Routing System, c114 reports. The system canmeet future capacity demands in China and support the country's nationalbroadband plan.
*Swedish newspaper publisher Stampen AB hopes to bring in one or more newlenders, such as Collector Bank, to refinance its loans. Stampen, which is inreceivership, owes banks SEB, Nordea and Handelsbanken 380 million Swedishkronor, reportsDagens Industri.
*Telia Co. AB andTelenor ASA may beinterested in signing deals with media companies such as and , Dagens Industri reports.Telia and Telenor could be looking to either acquire equity positions in, orform partnerships with, Nordic media content providers, according to thereport.
*TV2 is not looking to become a content provider to Snapchat's news serviceDiscover, since the latter's business model lacks the capacity to deliver gainsfor the media group, e24.no reports.Snapchat could reportedly sign partnerships with other Norwegian media groupslike VG, Aller Media and Aftenposten.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
*Telefónica SA isplanning to narrow the price range for the public of its infrastructure unitTelxius, following demand from investors, Bloomberg News reports,citing people familiar with the matter. Institutional investors are reportedlyinterested in buying shares at the low end of the range of €12 to €15 per share.
*Euskaltel SA inked adeal to use the almost 11,000 towers owned by Telefónica's infrastructure armTelxius in Spain, according to a newsrelease. The agreement will enable the Spanish cable operator to expand thecoverage of its 4G network.
*Amazon.com Inc.'sSpanish unit and supermarket chain Dia struck a partnership to launch a freshfood sales trial in a Dia store in Madrid, Telecompaper reports,citing Alimarket. The store will reportedly have an area with workers preparingfresh food orders made by Amazon customers.
*ZTE Corp.'s managingdirector for Italy Kun Hu said his company is aiming to grow its revenue in theItalian market to €500 million within five years, Telecompaper reports,citing Il Sole 24 Ore. Hu added thatZTE is considering the establishment of a research center in Italy, accordingto the report.
EASTERN EUROPE
*The Ljubljana Higher Court annulled a decision to initiate compulsorysettlement proceedings against Planet TV's owner Antenna TV SL, returning thecase to the Court of First Instance, Telecompaper reports,citing STA. The court ruling will reportedly allow the Slovenian broadcaster tocontinue normal operations.
*Witold Kolodziejski, the new chairman of Poland's National BroadcastingCouncil, or KRRiT, said the agency will focus on completing the digitization ofTV, developing digital radio and the European Commission's audiovisualdirective, Telecompaper reports,citing Newseria Biznes. Kolodziejski added that KRRiT will at least initiate amerger with the Office of Electronic Communications, or UKE, during his term.
FEATURED NEWS
: In this feature, S&P Global MarketIntelligence provides a roundup of news related to over-the-top,video-on-demand and other online video initiatives in different Asian markets.
: In this bi-weeklyfeature, S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a roundup of significantrecent regulatory events in Europe.
: In this feature, S&P Global Market Intelligencepresents a bi-weekly global roundup of the latest developments in technology.
: S&P GlobalMarket Intelligence presents a roundup of recent programming announcements fromvarious networks and online video platforms, including Comedy Centralgreenlighting comedy "Problematic with Moshe Kasher" and the premiereof TLC's "Kindred Spirits" on Oct. 21.
: After decades of big cable and wireless providersbattling each other over regulations and services, the two largest U.S. cableTV operators are getting ready to offer limited wireless services in 2017 bypartnering with one of the biggest wireless carriers.
: FormerTreasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Former U.K. Chancellor of the ExchequerGeorge Osborne said ultra-loose monetary policy has increased risk and thatpolicymakers face a tough task in normalizing policy.
FEATURED RESEARCH
: Urban LTE densification, reduced red tapearound site construction and 5G's expected use of millimeter spectrum arepoised to make the next 10 years the decade of the small cell.
: Deals were signed between TribuneMedia and DISH as well as Comcast and AT&T since our last update, and RapidBroadcasting and DISH ended an eight-month video signal disruption.
: The 2016 NAB RadioShow in Nashville carried a more optimistic vibe than the shows of previousyears and registered its highest attendance since 2010.
: The year 2015 was a pretty good onefor most motion picture distributors as domestic box office reached new heightswith growth during every season of the box office calendar, leading to a 6.8%increase in total year-end box office to $11.01 billion.
Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappelsand Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorialdeadline of 7 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription.