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Google News in France; ARM, Huawei continue business; job cuts at Telefónica

The Daily Dose LIVE returns to the City of London on Tuesday, Oct.1! Join us for a timely panel discussion over breakfast on the vulnerabilities facing corporate Europe in a period of deep political, policy and economic uncertainty. Register today to secure your place at this popular breakfast event.

TOP NEWS

* The French government disagrees with Google LLC's decision to not pay and strike deals with European publishers operating in France for the right to show content on its service, in compliance with the European Union's new copyright directive, London's Financial Times reports. The Alphabet Inc. unit's move will result in changes in the way news results appear in search engines in France so that content no longer displays an overview of content or "snippets" for free, unless otherwise indicated by publishers. France Minister of Culture Franck Riester also said Google's statement on the issue of compensation is "not acceptable."

* U.K.-based semiconductor design company ARM Holdings PLC confirmed that it will work with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. on current and future chip architectures, following earlier reports it may suspend business with the Chinese company.

* Telefónica SA is close to finalizing its plans to cut about 4,100 jobs across its Spanish workforce, Telecompaper reports, citing sources mentioned by Expansión. The telco is expected to sign a collective agreement with trade unions by the week's end.

PAN-EUROPEAN

* Amazon.com Inc. introduced a new line-up of Echo devices and the latest addition to its eero mesh Wi-Fi system, along with new programs and features. Amazon also unveiled a newer version of eero, a mesh Wi-Fi system that replaces an existing router to extend Wi-Fi coverage at home. Now available for U.S. customers, the new eero will soon be available in Europe. Customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. will be able to try the new eero and eero Pro in early November.

UK AND IRELAND

* Virgin Media Television Ltd.'s entertainment program "Xposé" will stop airing as part of the channel's revamp, Irish Independent reports. Virgin Media's move comes at the same time as the company decides to focus on live programming and utilize its new multimillion-euro studio facility. Liberty Global PLC owns Virgin Media Television.

* Channel 4 (UK) appointed Matt Risley as head of its digital content unit in its national headquarters in Leeds, which will be opened in October, according to a news release. The digital content unit will be the state-owned channel's new in-house digital agency.

* British regulator Ofcom challenged operators, such as British Telecom, Sky Ltd. and TalkTalk Telecom Group PLC, to offer fairer prices to broadband customers who are out of contract, by giving them the same deals as new customers.

* Accenture PLC appointed Simon Eaves as group chief executive for its Products operating group, effective Oct. 1. Eaves succeeds Sander van't Noordende, who will remain with the company until Dec. 31.

* Jeff Henry is stepping down as the CEO of U.K. publishing company Archant Ltd., Press Gazette reports, citing an internal email. Archant COO and CFO Brian McCarthy is also stepping down. Archant Chairman Simon Bax will take the newly created role of executive chairman.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Telekom AG won exclusive broadcast rights to the 2024 UEFA European Championship, with the deal expected to be signed this week, Digital TV Europe reports, citing Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The rights deal covers 51 matches in the country that the telco will air on its Magenta TV platform.

* UPC Schweiz began offering gigabit fiber internet services across its entire footprint in Switzerland, including both urban and rural areas. UPC will also include the service in a new offering for small businesses and self-employed customers that will be launched "in the coming weeks."

* Siemens AG will be cutting fewer roles than the previously planned lay off of about 1,400 employees in Germany, reports Handelsblatt. The number has been reduced to 1,100.

FRANCE

* France's Minister of Culture Franck Riester would like to create a French version of the British Broadcasting Corp., reports Les Echos. A public broadcasting holding company to be called France Media is intended to be created and would comprise of broadcasting companies France Télévisions SA, Radio France Internationale SA, France Médias Monde SA and the National Audiovisual Institute. The proposal must now have the approval of the French regulator Conseil Supérieur de L'audiovisuel and the parliamentary culture commission.

* After losing about 167,000 subscribers since the beginning of the year, Vivendi SA unit Canal+ Group expects the decrease to continue in France, Univers Freebox reports, citing Jean-Christophe Thiery, the chairman of supervisory board at Canal+. As a result, Canal + Group revenues are inevitably falling, down 2.2%.

* Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. subsidiary Aniplex Inc. merged its anime streaming businesses, Wakanim SARL in France and Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd. in Australia, with Sony Pictures Television Inc.'s U.S.-based FUNimation Entertainment Ltd. unit. The deal will see the formation of a joint venture to be owned by Aniplex and Sony Pictures Television.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Banijay Group SAS unit Zodiak Belgium named Dirk Ver Hoeye as its new CFO, effective Oct. 1. Ver Hoeye previously was CEO at Belgian production company Dedsit.

* An agreement between Dutch public broadcaster NPO and Netflix Inc. to coproduce Dutch content could be unpromising, because the streaming giant believes that the board of NPO wants to stick to its own rules for broadcasting rights, NRC reports. Netflix and NPO reportedly cannot agree on the so-called broadcast windows, that determine which party can broadcast what content and when.

* Jan-Willem van Engelen will leave his role as channel manager of Dutch public-service radio NPO Radio 2 and NPO Radio 5 at the end of January 2020, Broadcast Magazine reports. NPO has reported the position as a vacancy on its site.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Ericsson booked a provision of 12 billion Swedish kronor for the third quarter in relation to corruption investigations by U.S. authorities. The investigations revealed violations of the company's code of ethics and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

* IMINT Image Intelligence AB launched its version 3.5 of Vidhance video enhancement software platform, which incorporates new products and improvements, and bolsters IMINT's digitally driven intelligent sensor and data analysis offerings.

* Global Scanning A/S will pursue early redemption of existing bonds. The redemption is connected to the company's new facility agreement, incorporating a 235 million kronor term loan, with Scandinavian Credit Fund I AB.

* Elisa Oyj partnered with LG U+ to jointly develop automation for 5G networks. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on the collaboration in February.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* Euskaltel SA is eyeing a "small piece" of a growing telecom market in Spain, Telecompaper reports. The regional cable operator plans to launch expansion initiatives and a TV-led convergent offering throughout the territory.

* Telefónica's open innovation hub network Wayra is teaming up with tech accelerator TheVentureCity to invest in Latin American startups focused on areas such as the internet of things, video, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence or machine learning, according to a statement.

* Sky Italia SRL named Simone Lo Nostro as its new chief commercial officer, effective Oct. 1, Telecompaper reports, citing a statement. Lo Nostro previously worked for companies in the energy sector.

EASTERN EUROPE

* BC Partners and Providence Equity Partners Inc. are making a play for Bulgarian telecom operator Vivacom, Broadband TV News reported, citing sources mentioned by Capital. Ten investors expressed interest in buying Vivacom, but the telecom operator has so far received three binding offers and one did not meet the requirements.

* Mobile operator Bite Latvia will acquire a stake in Latvian cable operator Baltcom for an undisclosed sum, Telecompaper reports, citing Db.lv. The deal is subject to approval by the Latvian antitrust regulator.

* Portuguese company Omip - Operador Do Mercado Ibérico De Energia SA and Austria's Martes Specure submitted bids to deploy an IT system for the 5G spectrum auction in Poland, Telecompaper reports, citing Telko.in. The auction will cover frequencies in the 3.4-3.8 GHz band.

* Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor targets to complete the pilot launch of an independent domestic internet in mid-October, Telecompaper reports, citing TASS. The country's major mobile operators participated in the tests.

* Estonian TV and radio network operator AS Levira and automated sports production solutions provider Pixellott Ltd. struck a production deal with the Estonian and Latvian Basketball Associations. The agreement covers the live-streaming of all Paf Estonian-Latvian Basketball League games, Women's Baltic League ELITE and International Division games.

* Tomas Rysavy will assume the role of director of the customer experience and transformation division at T-Mobile Czech Republic as and Slovak Telekom on Oct. 1, Broadband TV News reports. Rysavy is taking over from Peter Skodny who is stepping down by year-end.

* Hrvatski Telekom repurchased 520 shares on Sept. 23 and another 1,228 shares on Sept. 24 under its treasury share buyback program. Following the repurchases, the Croatian operator now holds 411,480 treasury shares or about 0.51% of the company's share capital.

FEATURED NEWS

YouTube CEO says spinoff from parent Alphabet would not benefit consumers: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said at an industry event that her company benefits from Google's technology to scale machine learning.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Technology: IBC 2019: Preparing for 8K production: While 4K still has a long way to go before it overtakes HD as the most common distribution resolution, equipment providers are ramping up their announcements and trials of 8K products as seen at IBC in September.

Technology: IBC 2019: Set-top boxes still in play: During IBC, held in Amsterdam from Sept. 13-17, a lot of attention was paid to a part of the video ecosystem often seen as either outdated or soon-to-disappear: the set-top box.

Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Marieke Pijnappels and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report.

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