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Mediapro eyes sports rights deals; Vivendi's Bolloré to keep Italian investments

TOP NEWS

* Spanish broadcaster Mediapro is open to deals with other operators, including Vivendi SA unit Canal Plus Group SA, for the rights it won to French professional soccer league LFP, Digital TV Europe reports. Mediapro President Jaume Roures also said the company is considering a reciprocal deal with Altice France SA/SFR Group SA that owns UEFA Champions League rights.

* Vivendi's controlling owner Vincent Bolloré said his company will retain its investments in Italy despite experiencing several setbacks, Reuters reports. The French media group recently lost control over the board of Telecom Italia SpA, in which it holds a stake of about 24%.

PAN-EUROPEAN

* Apple Inc. declined an invitation from a European Parliament committee to attend a hearing on tax evasion June 21. In a letter addressed to the chair of the committee, Apple said it turned down the invitation because it does not want public commentary to prejudice the ongoing appeal against a European Commission order to pay up to €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. Sven Giegold, a German politician and Member of the European Parliament from Germany, tweeted a copy of the letter.

* The European Broadcasting Union has appointed Antonio Arcidiacono as its director of technology and innovation, effective Sept. 1, according to a news release. Arcidiacono will be replacing Simon Fell who stepped down from the role early in 2018.

UK AND IRELAND

* Cambridge Analytica LLC's revenues in 2017 fell to about $5.2 million, compared to about $25.3 million in 2016, according to the company's bankruptcy records, The Wall Street Journal reports. Cambridge Analytica also reported revenues of about $2.9 million from January until its May 31 filing.

* The British government plans to use technologies, such as data analytics and machine learning, as part of its new strategies to counter terrorism, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the recently appointed U.K. Interior Minister Sajid Javid. The government plans to coordinate with the private sector and the academe to implement the new strategies.

* Draper Esprit PLC, a venture capital firm listed both in London and Dublin, eyes to invest in two Irish technology companies in the next few months, The Irish Times reports, citing CEO Simon Cook. The firms also recently announced plans to raise about £176 million, which will be allotted in investment in technology companies.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Katarina Barley, the German federal minister of justice and consumer protection, has asked that messenger services such as Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp Inc. should open up communication with similar platforms to allow for cross-app communications.

* Director of German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk Tom Buhrow had suggested a joint platform with newspaper publishers for audio-visual content. The suggestion has been welcomed by the federal association of German newspaper publishers Bundesverband Deutschen Zeitungsverleger, reports Handelsblatt.

* RTL Group announced that Marc Haberland will be a new program manager for German radio studio RTL Radio Center Berlin.

FRANCE

* Orange SA has partnered with the department of Gironde on one of the largest departmental optical fiber deployment projects in France. Gironde Haut Méga aims to connect about 410,000 homes, businesses, public services and communities to fiber within six years, representing a €669 million investment, including €115 million in public financing.

* Radio France announced that its digital management teams have developed an audio player to be used on all the company's sites. The player will be inaugurated on France Médias Monde's new version of its Arabic-language radio website, Monte Carlo Doualiya in June, and will be deployed on all future RFI sites by 2019 in French and 13 other languages.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Telegraaf Media Groep NV is investigating the possibilities for selling website GeenStijl while maintaining ownership of connected video platform Dumpert, De Telegraaf writes. TMG CEO Marc Vangeel states that GeenStijl would be better off outside TMG and that the company is looking for interested parties.

* Dutch public broadcaster NPO states that all recently broadcasted content will remain freely accessible on online platform NPO Start. The statement comes in response to earlier announced plans by NPO to position content in a premium part of the online platform.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Dutch production company Talpa Media BV promoted managing director Maarten Meijs to COO, TBI Vision reports. Meijs will also sit on Talpa Media's board.

* Norwegian cable company Canal Digital Norge As announced that its customers will still have access to the channels from the TV2 media group, even though the companies are still discussing a new distribution deal. Canal Digital said that several important agreements have been made, but that some details are not yet solved.

* The finance ministers of three Nordic countries are opposing the European Commission's plans to impose a digital tax on the turnover of tech companies such as Facebook and Alphabet Inc. unit Google Inc., Reuters reports. In a joint statement, Sweden's Magdalena Andersson, Denmark's Kristian Jensen and Finland's Petteri Orpo have called for scrapping the plan as it could cause damage to the European economy.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* Talks between Mediapro and Spanish telecom operators were put on hold following the launch of the TV rights auction for Spanish soccer league La Liga, Advanced Television reports. Telcos will have until June 25 to submit their bids for the rights covering the next three seasons.

* Russian internet company Mail.ru Group Ltd. is in talks with telecom operator Turkcell on a partnership to offer email and social media services in Turkey, Telecompaper reports, citing Tdaily.ru.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Apple has approved an updated version of Russia-founded messaging service Telegram Messenger LLP, company CEO Pavel Durov confirmed in a tweet. Telegram, which was banned by the Russian government, said it risked violating new European data privacy laws prior to the update, Reuters reports.

* Russian over-the-top service ivi.ru Media Ltd. has suspended offering streamed channels after some major TV channels complained they are being distributed under a paid subscription without a contract, Broadband TV News reports, citing Kommersant.

* Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition has begun probing into PPF Group NV's proposed takeover of NOVA Broadcasting Group AD, Broadband TV News reports, citing Capital. The watchdog noted the horizontal overlap between the companies' activities in the online trading sector.

* Czech operator Dial Telecom as is set to acquire Casablanca INT sro's telecom division, beginning July 1, Telecompaper reports. The latter offers internet, data transmission and public telephone services, among others.

* Mobile TeleSystems PJSC's fixed operator unit MGTS named Paul Kuznetsov CEO, Telecompaper reports. The company also appointed Kirill Dmitriyev to be the new chairman of its management council.

* Croatia's Hrvatski Telekom secured exclusive rights to air national volleyball matches for the next three years, following a deal with the Croatian Volleyball Association, Digital TV Europe reports.

* Hrvatski Telekom also said it sealed a deal to sell its electric energy business to RWE Hrvatska doo. The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, is subject to regulatory clearance.

FEATURED NEWS

Marketweek: Disney shares fall amid battle for Fox, 'Roseanne' cancellation: Walt Disney shares ended May on a difficult note as the company's brewing bidding war over 21st Century Fox continued to escalate and as a social media controversy caused the company's ABC network to cancel its sitcom "Roseanne."

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: The state of DTT in Eastern Europe: Digital terrestrial television penetration in Eastern Europe is rising, reaching 30% of TV households at year-end 2017, up from 27.5% a year earlier. The total number of DTT households in the region is estimated at 42.2 million.

Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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