Top News
* 21st Century Fox Inc. urged regulators in the U.K. and the European Union to probe into Comcast Corp.'s takeover offer for Sky plc, London's The Daily Telegraph reports. Fox CFO John Nallen has called for in-depth investigations into the bid's structure and into Comcast's compliance record with broadcasting and antitrust standards.
* Univision Communications Inc. CEO Randy Falco plans to retire at the end of 2018. In a statement, Univision Chairman Haim Saban said the board "reluctantly agreed" to Falco's wishes, but asked him to assist with the company's restructuring efforts in 2019 and to consult on a transition to new leadership. Falco's decision comes a day after Univision parent Univision Holdings Inc. asked to withdraw its proposed IPO "due to prevailing market conditions."
* Facing heightened competition from Netflix Inc. and YouTube, Nickelodeon/Nick At Nite (US) opened the upfront presentation season with a big commitment to new content. Specifically, the Viacom Inc.-owned network said it will offer more than 800 new episodes of new and returning series, a 20% jump from last season and a major uptick from the 300 fresh installments it offered five years ago.
Technology
* Snap Inc. is planning its largest round of job cuts since the company went public, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The layoffs will affect about 10% of Snap's engineering team. Snap also made job cuts in January.
* Facebook Inc.'s Oculus Rift virtual-reality headsets stopped working for users on March 7 due to an issue with the device's software certification. Oculus has since resolved the matter with a software update, according to a post on the company's official forums.
* Amazon.com Inc. fixed an issue in its Alexa voice-based digital assistant that triggered random laughing noises from the company's Echo home speakers. An Amazon spokeswoman told Bloomberg News that a software update stops the voice assistant from mistakenly hearing the phrase "Alexa, laugh,"which under normal circumstances would result in the chuckling that Echo users were randomly hearing.
Broadcast
* Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. amended its deal to acquire Tribune Media Co. stations, cutting Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York, Pa., from the markets where it aimed to own two of the top four stations. According to a copy of the amended filing obtained by Multichannel News, Sinclair now plans to sell one of the two stations in that market instead of seeking an exemption.
Film & TV
* Josh Goldstine, the president of marketing at Universal, was let go from the NBCUniversal Media LLC studio following a three-week review into alleged inappropriate conduct, Variety reports. Michael Moses, the co-president of marketing at the studio, will oversee the staff following Goldstine's dismissal.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng rose 1.52% to 30,654.52 and the Nikkei 225 gained 0.54% to 21,368.07.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.07% to 7,162.67 and the Euronext 100 gained 0.51% to 1,017.82.
On the macro front
The EIA Natural Gas Report, Fed Balance Sheet, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, Quarterly Services Survey and the Jobless Claims are due out today.
Featured news
The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific: Samsung to export India-made phones; SK Telecom, Macquarie team up in ADT bid: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to start exporting India-made smartphones, while SK Telecom Co. Ltd. teamed up with Macquarie Infrastructure and Assets in a bid to buy security platform provider ADT Caps.
Hires and Fires: Cincinnati Bell chairman to step down; CenturyLink names lead director: Phil Cox will step down as chairman of Cincinnati Bell Inc.'s board prior to the 2019 annual shareholders' meeting. CenturyLink Inc. appointed Bruce Hanks lead independent director of the company.
UK advertising watchdog cracks down on secondary ticketing websites: The U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority has taken action against four large resellers as part of a sector-wide investigation over misleading pricing information in online event ticketing.
Fox Sports snags LatAm deal; Televisa, Amazon ink content tie-up: In this monthly Latin American video spotlight 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.
M&A Replay: Asia-Pacific: Foxtel-Fox Sports merger proceeds; Reliance buying Eros stake: News Corp. and Telstra Corp. Ltd. will combine Foxtel and Fox Sports Australia into a new company, while Reliance Industries agreed to buy a 5% equity stake in Eros International through a subsidiary.
The Daily Dose Europe: Fox fights back on Comcast's Sky bid; RTL Group to launch VOD services: Fox is urging competition regulators to pursue in-depth probes against Comcast over the latter's bid for pay TV giant Sky, while RTL Group unveiled plans to launch on-demand services in Belgium, Croatia and Hungary.
Featured research
Economics of Internet: Profile: HOOQ (Singapore): Backed by Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Singtel, SVOD provider HOOQ has initially focused on rolling out in emerging markets where the latter's affiliates are present.
Global Multichannel: China broadband market outlook: fiber to boost revenue growth despite low ARPUs: China constitutes the world's largest fixed-line broadband market, with 350.4 million residential and corporate subscribers at year-end 2017 reported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Economics of Networks: Can home shopping networks compete with Amazon?: The combined company housing QVC and HSN released fourth-quarter earnings showing mixed results.
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