TOP NEWS
* Swedish-founded Spotify Ltd. is considering plans for a direct listing as early as September and is seeking a public valuation of more than $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Under the plan, the music-streaming service would register its shares on a U.S. exchange and let them trade freely, without raising any new money or using underwriters to place new blocks of stock.
* ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE's Puls 4 acquired Austrian media group ATV from Tele München Fernseh GmbH & Co. KG, after regulators in Germany and Austria approved the transaction, according to a news release. ATV will remain a television channel although some functions will be combined. About 70 jobs will be cut at ATV later in 2017, DWDL reports.
PAN-EUROPEAN
UK AND IRELAND
* Amazon.com Inc. launched in the U.K. its redesigned Amazon Fire TV Stick, which is integrated with a voice remote featuring digital assistant Alexa. The e-commerce giant also rolled out a free software update that will enable access to Alexa on all Fire TV devices across Britain.
* BBC Worldwide Ltd. struck several licensing deals for its programs across Africa, effective in the first part of 2017. The agreements were reached with Southeast Asian subscription video-on-demand platform iflix, Vodacom Group Ltd. and MTN Group Ltd., among others. BBC Worldwide is the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corp.
* British telecom and media regulator Ofcom is pushing for greater accessibility of on-demand program services for people with hearing and sight impairments, according to a statement.
* Daily Mail and General Trust plc, which publishes the Daily Mail, appointed Tim Collier as group CFO, effective May 2. Collier, who will also sit on DMGT's board as an executive director, will replace Stephen Daintith, who has stepped down. Adrian Perry was named interim CFO prior to Collier's assumption of duties.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* The Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf affirmed an earlier ruling by the German Federal Cartel Office that prohibiting distributors the use of price comparison sites was unlawful, Digitalfernsehen reports.
* Facebook Inc. is offering randomly chosen users in Germany and 13 other countries an additional tool in their news feed to find fake news as part of a pilot project, Handelsblatt reports. In Germany, the social network is collaborating with specialist organizations Klicksafe, Correctiv, Deutschland Sicher im Netz and Stiftung Digitale Chancen.
* Several local newspaper publishers in Germany are taking radio station Radio Bremen to court over content published on radiobremen.de, because they deem it to be illegal, Horizont reports. The Federal High Court of Justice had ruled in 2015 that radio and television stations could not publish content where text rather than audio and video was the prominent element.
FRANCE
* Altice NV is launching a cookery brand in June, comprising a TV channel, magazine, digital and mobile versions. With an exclusive partnership with RTL Group's FremantleMedia Ltd. and Jamie Oliver for France and Portugal, MY Cuisine will be distributed exclusively by SFR Group in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and will also be available in Francophone Africa and Switzerland.
* Bouygues SA Chairman and CEO Martin Bouygues refused to resume negotiations on a possible consolidation of the telecom market, Le Monde reports. While talks for the sale of Bouygues Telecom to Orange SA were officially called off, Patrick Drahi, founder and controlling shareholder of Altice, and Orange Chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard unsuccessfully tried to lure Bouygues back to the table between November 2016 and March 2017, according to the report.
* Vincent Bolloré has notified the European Commission that his family group will soon have exclusive control of Vivendi SA, Reuters reports. The Bolloré group, which owns 20.65% of Vivendi's capital, will benefit from double-voting rights at the next shareholders meeting on April 25 and is expected to have a total 29% of the voting rights on this date, which will put it in a position to obtain a majority of votes.
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
* Dutch provider Delta finalized forming its management, after it appointed Marco Visser as its new CEO on March 1, according to an official statement. Delta, which since March is owned by EQT Partners, has strengthened the management team with four people with expertise in the fields of finance, telecommunications, technique, IT and energy.
* Dutch digital kiosk Blendle landed new investments from Financial Times owner Nikkei and Amsterdam investment company INKEF Capital, a year after the service was launched in the U.S., Nu.nl reports. Blendle, which has more than 80 employees, gained investment of €3 million from the The New York Times and German publisher Axel Springer SE in 2014 and was then valued at €13 million.
* Dutch service providers Telecombinatie Zakelijk and dean one announced that they have signed up for a new partnership, Connexieb2b reports. Telecombinatie Zakelijk will offer dean one's services under its business portfolio, thereby enhancing dean one's partner network.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Six Norwegian mobile operators, including Komplett Mobil, want the country's government to impose stricter operating rules on Telenor ASA, Dagens Næringsliv reports. Operators complain that Telenor is using unfair pricing to block their growth.
* Amazon bought the Amazon.se domain in Sweden from a Stockholm graphics designer, Di Digital reports. The Amazon.se domain was registered in 1997.
* Telia Co. AB acquired Swedish fiber network company SalaNet AB, Telia said in a statement. Telia will, under the purchase deal, assume full responsibility for operating and developing SalaNet's fiber network in Sala that serves 2,700 customers.
* Teracom Group AB signed a multiyear deal with 24 Solutions covering the installation of infrastructure at Teracom's data center at Kaknästornet, Stockholm, Teracom said. Teracom is a Swedish wholesale broadcasting transmission provider.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* The Italian market regulator summoned Assogestioni, Telecom Italia SpA's minority shareholder, following reports that the group met with Vivendi prior to the May shareholder meeting, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. Assogestioni, which represents investors in Italy, has filed five candidates for the Italian operator's board, according to a separate Reuters report.
* Greece is looking for a financial adviser for the sale of a 5% stake in OTE, doing business as Cosmote SA, Reuters reports, citing the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund SA. Deutsche Telekom AG holds a stake in Cosmote.
* Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. will broadcast the Food Network channel in Italy on free-to-air channel LCN 33, beginning May 8, Advanced Television reports.
* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Alipay Internet Technology Co. Ltd. teamed up with Italian bank UniCredit to enable the use of payment system Alipay in Italy, Telecompaper reports. Alipay has a 120,000-merchant network in the country.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Liberty Global plc's UPC Poland is bringing TVN SA's Replay TV service to its subscribers, allowing them to watch select TV programs from TVN for up to seven days following the linear airing, Digital TV Europe reports. UPC is also adding new channels from Scripps' Polish unit.
* Lithuania's Radio and Television Commission is suspending Russian channel TVCI for a month, after a Jan. 27 broadcast that showed biased and defamatory content, Broadband TV News reports. The decision will take effect after the authorization of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court.
FEATURED NEWS
The Communicator: Comcast's wireless future: Comcast unveiled its Xfinity Mobile wireless service, but industry observers are divided on its near-term and long-term prospects.
Twitter joins peers in opening location data to advertisers: The social media platform gave brands access to location data in Direct Messages, following similar moves in Facebook's Messenger and Google Maps.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Consumer Insights: Millennials love Apple: Millennials were not only more likely to use Apple devices compared to older respondents, but they were also more likely to use multiple Apple devices, according to our latest U.S. survey.
Multichannel Trends: Pricing and packaging: Early 2017 marketing shies away from skinny bundle: The skinny bundle has yet to occupy a high profile with traditional service providers, according to a sampling of published offerings from major U.S. cable, telco and DBS services.
Sylvia Edwards Davis, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Charlotte van Hek and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription.