TOP NEWS
* The European Commission announced that it has reapproved Liberty Global PLC's acquisition of Dutch cable operator Ziggo NV, subject to certain conditions. Liberty Global offered to remove "clauses in channel carriage agreements that limit broadcasters' ability to offer their channels and content over the internet" and to exclude such clauses in future channel carriage deals for a period of eight years from the decision.
* Broadcaster Mediapro has outbid Vivendi SA unit Canal Plus SA 's Canal+ for the 2020-2024 audiovisual rights for Ligue 1, the premier French soccer league, Advanced Television reports, citing the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The Spanish broadcaster, majority owned by Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital, bagged most of the broadcast packages offered by the soccer league.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* Zynga Inc. purchased privately held mobile game developer Gram Games Ltd. for $250 million in cash and a three-year earnout based on the team's achievement of profitability goals that align with Zynga's long-term growth plans. Gram Games has studios in London and Istanbul.
* A leak of personal data on the European Commission's website has revealed that the commission itself is not compliant with the recently implemented EU General Data Protection Regulation, London's The Daily Telegraph reports. An EC spokesman, however, said the commission was taking "all the necessary steps" to comply with the new data privacy law.
UK AND IRELAND
* Sky PLC will be restructuring the management structure of its entertainment segment following the departure of Sky One and Sky Living director Adam MacDonald, TBI Vision reports. Sky Entertainment Program Director Zai Bennett will now oversee strategic decisions for the channels and for the programming team.
* Alphabet Inc.'s Google Inc. will launch facial recognition video doorbell Nest Hello in the U.K., London's The Guardian reports. The Nest Hello will cost £229 and will be shipped beginning June 13.
* Channel 4 (UK) has shortlisted seven cities in its process in selecting its new headquarters. From the 30 pitches received by the British broadcaster, selection is now trimmed down to Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and the West Midlands.
* The British Broadcasting Corp. will conduct trial broadcasts of selected World Cup matches in Ultra HD, high dynamic range and virtual reality, Rapid TV News reports. Such broadcasts will be made available to users of the BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport VR app, respectively.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Deutsche Telekom AG's corporate arm T-Systems International GmbH said it is now offering SAP SE applications on Microsoft Corp.'s cloud platform Azure as part of its wider strategic partnership with Microsoft. T-Systems' offerings enable customers to integrate these SAP services with other Azure Cloud services as well as the Internet of Things.
* Edith Hlawati has been appointed the new chairwoman of the supervisory board of Telekom Austria Group, while Bettina Glatz-Kremsner and Daniela Lecuona Torras have been selected as new members of the Board. Telekom Austria is a unit of América Móvil SAB de CV.
FRANCE
* Orange SA is the official supplier and innovation partner of the 2018 French Open tennis tournament. New innovations include Holotennis broadcasts, an immersive backstage stadium tour and a tool that measures the crowd numbers on each court.
* During the French Open, France Télévisions SA will use professional 8K cameras and one of the first 8K monitors marketed in the world with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels for the first time. In addition, all matches from the Philippe-Chatrier court will be broadcast in Ultra HD.
* Microsoft has announced a partnership with French hospital Hospices Civils de Lyon. Using artificial intelligence and the cloud, several projects are already being deployed, from diagnostic assistance to voice recognition and other initiatives related to caregiver coordination and the implementation of predictive medicine.
* Facebook Inc. will launch its first "Facebook Community Boost" program to accelerate the growth of digital skills in France with a three-day event in Lille. The "Digital Boost" event on June 5 to 7 is part of a commitment made in January by Facebook to offer digital training to 65,000 people.
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
* Boston-based Iron Mountain Inc. paid €205 million to acquire the Dutch data center businesses of EvoSwitch Netherlands BV and EvoSwitch Global Services BV from EvoSwitch International BV. The two businesses, known as EvoSwitch NL, provide multitenant data center space and operate one of the largest colocation facilities centers in the Amsterdam metropolitan region.
* A court in The Hague has decided against the Dutch Consumers Authority in a case versus Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. on smartphone updates. According to the authority, Samsung failed to sufficiently update its smartphones, a claim the court has now rejected.
* Tele2 Netherlands has lost a lawsuit filed by consumer organization Consumenten Claim about wrongly advertising an all-in-one phone subscription as "free." According to a court in The Hague, the provider's promotion was unfair as it violated the legal rules for purchases on installment. T-Mobile Netherlands lost a similar lawsuit earlier in May.
* RTL Nederland is employing data scientists to limit the amount of unsubscribing customers from its video-on-demand app Videoland, Emerce reports. The Dutch broadcaster would use personalized advertising and targeted content to focus on specific customer's wishes.
* Sweden's Data Inspectorate is looking to extend the "right to be forgotten" rule worldwide. The DI has secured a limited delisting order against Google in court, confined to Google searches in Sweden.
* Hollywood film studios such as Walt Disney Co., Universal Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. are pressuring Telia Co. AB to block access to Pirate Bay, Dreamfilm and Fmovies, Affärsvärlden reports. Telia currently provides subscribers with unrestricted access to a number of pirate sites.
* Elisa Corp. will start building a 5G-ready network in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä in June. Elisa conducted network tests in February that conformed with 5G pre-standards. The telco expects to complete the 5G-ready network construction phase in August.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* Deutsche Telekom announced that it has completed the deal to acquire an additional 5% stake in Greek operator OTE SA for about €284 million. Following the deal to purchase additional stake from the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, the German company now owns 45% of OTE.
* AMC International Southern Europe will broadcast VR content on its documentary channel Odisea under an agreement with Dutch company Rooftop Immersive Studio, Digital TV Europe reports. Rooftop Immersive Studio will be aggregating aggregate factual-based VR content for the AMC Networks Inc. unit as part of the deal.
EASTERN EUROPE
* ER-Telecom, doing business under the he Dom.ru and Enforta brands, plans to deploy the LoRaWAN network in 62 cities in Russia by Mid-July, Telecompaper reports. The Russian operator has teamed up with internet of things company Actility SA to facilitate the project.
* The owner of futbolhd.tv has been fined about 160,000 Polish zlotys, together with a 10-month sentence and a three-year suspension, for illegally broadcasting sports content from Polish pay TV operator nc+, Broadband TV News reports. ITI Neovision holds the rights to nc+ sports content.
FEATURED NEWS
Tech Time: South Korea plans 9 trillion won tech boost; Tianjin invests in AI: South Korea seeks to invest 9 trillion South Korean won over the next five years in industries involving drones and artificial intelligence, while China's Tianjin municipality unveiled plans to invest 100 billion yuan in AI technology.
Telefónica inks Netflix tie-up for LatAm; Viacom unit bags LatAm deals: In this monthly feature, S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a roundup of news related to over-the-top, video-on-demand and other video initiatives in different Latin American markets.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Technology: Nintendo Switch drives game console sales to new levels: The success of the Nintendo Switch will drive global shipments of game consoles to about 52 million in 2018, while new consoles from Microsoft and Sony also continue to gain momentum.
Daniela Latini, Amanda Kelly, Charlotte van Hek and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report.
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