* Apple Inc. argued the European Commission's order for it to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland "defies reality and common sense" as court hearings began for its appeal of the 2016 ruling. The company's lawyer Daniel Beard told the EU General Court in Luxembourg — Europe's second-highest court — that the tech firm is the world's biggest taxpayer.
* Facebook Inc. moderators told of the psychological impact of being exposed to graphic content for long hours and receiving poor pay, despite the firm's pledge to improve working conditions for its contractors, London's The Guardian reports. The social media giant has about 15,000 content reviewers in countries including Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, the Philippines and the U.S.
* Netflix Inc. unveiled details of its new Danish original series, "Equinox," which is based on the podcast "Equinox 1985." Production on the six-part thriller series will begin later in the year.
* Swedish investment firm Kinnevik AB will propose the distribution of its entire stake in Millicom International Cellular SA to its shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting. The shareholding with a total value of about 19 billion Swedish kronor.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* Sports streaming platform DAZN unveiled its virtual production facility intended to enhance its global broadcast infrastructure and to scale-up its global production output. DAZN's first hub opens in Madrid, Spain, with 12 virtual production suites, while its broadcasting center in Leeds, U.K., will be connected to the virtual production environment.
* Discovery Inc.'s pan-European sports network Eurosport acquired multiplatform rights to air the Laver Cup to more than 50 European markets, including Switzerland.
UK AND IRELAND
* Comcast Corp. unit Sky Ltd. is expanding its partnership with U.K. public service broadcaster Channel 4 (UK) to include advertising and increased content sharing. As part of the multiyear deal, Channel 4 will use Sky's AdSmart targeted ad service on its live TV channels.
* Fiber network operator CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings PLC named Steve Holliday as its nonexecutive chairman, effective immediately. Holliday was CEO of British utility company National Grid PLC.
* British Broadcasting Corp. Director-General Tony Hall said the launch of Walt Disney Co. and Apple's streaming services will usher in a "second wave of disruption" for the television industry, BBC News reports. Hall said the new platforms will mainly hit established market players such as Netflix and Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video.
* ARM Holdings PLC co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Mike Muller is retiring end-September, Bloomberg News reports. A spokesman for the U.K. chip designer said it was not immediately clear who would replace Muller.
* The BBC is switching off its text-based news and sport services on the TV red button in early 2020, Advanced Television reports. Audiences, however, will still be able to access other red button services, such as those related to content viewing.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Deutsche Telekom AG announced that six regional contacts had been added to represent the company's interests at the municipal level. The contacts will be responsible for their respective regions in the country and become a central point of contact for the telco's clients.
* Berlin-based entrepreneurs Silke and Holger Friedrich acquired newspapers Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Kurier from German media group M. DuMont Schauberg GmbH & Co. KG.
FRANCE
* Orange SA, PCCW Ltd. unit PCCW Global and PEACE agreed to deploy a new submarine cable, marking the arrival of the first Chinese private submarine cable in France. The cable will link France to Pakistan through a single landing point in Marseille by 2021.
* TF1 Group has appointed Thomas Follin as head of operational management of SALTO, the joint over-the-top platform of France Télévisions SA, Groupe M6 and TF1.
* Forbes Media CEO Mike Federle and founder/President Lucien Ebata announced the renewal of the Forbes Africa Francophone publishing license for the next 20 years, CB News reports. The agreement came after more than a year of negotiation.
NETHERLANDS,
* Liberty Global PLC-owned cable operator Telenet renewed its takeover proposal to Brussels-based intermunicipal company Brutélé SC, a co-shareholder of Walloon operator VOO, hoping the proposal would cross the sale of VOO to U.S.-based Providence Equity Partners LLC, De Tijd reports. A top executive at VOO co-shareholder Nethys reportedly signed an agreement with Providence to take over VOO.
* Dutch operator Ziggo NV will halt airing the CBBC (UK), CBeebies (UK) and BBC Four (UK) channels on Nov. 1 due to a new distribution agreement, TotaalTV reports. Rival telco KPN NV previously stopped transmitting the BBC-owned channels.
* Luxembourg-based M7 Group SA, owner of Canal Digitaal and TV Vlaanderen NV, will launch a smart-TV hybrid app in cooperation with Panasonic Corp., MediaMagazine reports. The app will allow Panasonic smart TV users to access both linear and non-linear content in HD and Ultra HD.
* Dutch DevOps platform Gitlab Inc. completed a $268 million series E funding round that pushed the company's valuation to $2.75 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and ICONIQ led the latest funding round, which also involved nine new investors.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* TDC A/S unit YouSee A/S concluded partnership deals with TV2, Nordisk Film A/S and C More Entertainment AB. The three partnerships are intended to offer YouSee's customers more choice and increased Danish content in film, news and sports.
* Ericsson said its smart factory in the Chinese city of Nanjing is now operational. Ericsson will use Nanjing's advanced offerings, including modernized cellular internet of things, Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence tools, to rapidly grow its business and revenues in China.
* Tom Craig left Tele2 AB, where he was executive vice president of the Swedish business. Tele2 said Craig's decision was based on family reasons. Fredrik Stenberg, Tele2's executive vice president of transformation and operational excellence, will replace Craig in an acting capacity.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* OTE, doing business as Cosmote SA, is eyeing to raise about €500 million, through a seven-year bond, Reuters reports. The Greek operator received offers of more than €2.25 billion since the issuance began Sept. 17, the report said, citing the International Financing Review.
* Enel Open Fiber SpA and Italian state lender Cassa depositi e prestiti SpA completed the construction of fiber-optic infrastructure in the southern Italian city of Bari, Telecompaper reports. The parties invested about €40 million for the infrastructure that now offers gigabit broadband services to about 147,000 homes. The service is being offered through the Enel SpA unit's agreements with Vodafone Group PLC unit Vodafone Italia SpA, Wind Tre SpA and Tiscali SpA.
EASTERN EUROPE
* United Media AS plans to roll out a new 24-hour channel, to be called Nova Sport, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Telecompaper reports, citing Anadolu Agency. Nova Sport will focus on providing broadcasts of soccer matches from the English Premier League, La Liga and the National Football League, as well as games from other sports including basketball and tennis.
* Russia's Mobile TeleSystems PJSC plans to sell application packages from Yandex NV to its customers, beginning October, Telecompaper reports. Meanwhile, MegaFon began offering the Yandex.Station smart speakers for a monthly fee of 399 Russian rubles, with a free one-year subscription to the Yandex.Plus service, according to a separate Telecompaper report.
* Czech Republic-based internet company Seznam.cz as appointed Dominik Kosorin as programmatic manager of the company's advertising unit, Telecompaper reports. Kosorin will report to Ondrej Krisica, Seznam's advertising unit head.
* The Belarusian government intends to modify an advertising law to ban commercials on foreign TV channels, Broadband TV News reports, citing TV News. Currently, foreign advertisers placing commercials on foreign TV channels, that are broadcast on cable networks in Belarus, do not carry the distribution costs for the commercials, the report said.
FEATURED NEWS
5G Focus: Huawei's potential sale; Ericsson's partnerships; rollout in Hungary: 5G Focus is a weekly global roundup of notable 5G trials, launches, use cases and major equipment supply contracts. It also features in-depth analysis of strategies, expansion plans, business models and other related initiatives.
M&A Replay: Comcast buys app developer; Spotify acquires audio production marketplace: U.S. cable giant Comcast acquired Dutch app developer Metrological, while music streaming service Spotify purchased audio production marketplace SoundBetter.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Wireless Investor: Carrier executives on rural, fixed 5G plans: Despite the poor propagation of 5G's earmarked spectrum (3.5 GHz and millimeter), nearly every one of the 56 global mobile network execs Kagan surveyed last month has plans to deploy 5G into rural areas. But the timelines differed.
Economics of Internet: See it in charts: US, international OTT, August 2019: View U.S. and international over-the-top video trends at a glance in PowerPoint format. Key charts summarize the status of subscription video, ad-supported video, video advertising and other top sector trends.
Technology: Q2'19 global smartphone shipments decline due to seasonality: Longer replacement cycles in saturated markets and general market seasonality resulted in declining worldwide smartphone shipments, but a few vendors found growth opportunities at others' expense.
Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Charlotte van Hek and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report.
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