TOP NEWS
* British Telecom and another undisclosed player have secured rights to air the Premier League at a discounted price, London's The Daily Telegraph reports, citing sources. The English football league has reportedly been unable to meet reserve prices for the two packages in a February auction.
* Qualcomm Inc. has filed an appeal with the European Union General Court to dismiss the €997 million fine imposed by the European Union's antitrust regulators, Reuters reports, citing a filing in the European Commission's Official Journal. Qualcomm contested that the ruling, pertaining to Qualcomm's deal with Apple Inc. to exclusively use its chips in iPhones and iPads, had errors in procedures and law.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* Twitter Inc. is overhauling its global content partnerships group as part of plans to enable "increased efficiency around the world and better align with our global strategy and vision," Variety reports, citing an internal memo by Kay Madati, Twitter's global head of content partnerships. Theo Luke will serve as interim head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
* German online retailer Zalando SE has announced its expansion to Ireland and the Czech Republic in the summer. In addition, the company seeks to launch additional language versions of its site in Germany and Switzerland to broaden access.
* Global TV sports producer and distributor Sunset+Vine Productions Ltd. said it has been tapped to become the host broadcaster of the 35th European Athletics Indoor Championships taking place March 2019 in Glasgow, Scotland. Under the deal, Sunset+Vine will produce the World Feed for the championships.
UK AND IRELAND
* Investors at British Telecom are said to be doubting CEO Gavin Patterson's leadership capabilities following setbacks in the company in the recent years, the Financial Times reports, citing statements from five shareholders. One of the investors is said to have raised management concerns with BT Chairman Jan du Plessis and another shareholder has requested a meeting with the chairman to discuss a similar concern.
*The U.K.'s Home Office said that it eyes to introduce a new law that would implement stricter offenses on terrorism and to consider the operation of terrorists online. The planned legislation is targeted to include offenses for repeatedly viewing streamed extremist video content online. Currently, U.K. laws consider downloading and storing extremist content as an offense, according to London's Financial Times.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Vodafone Deutschland Gmbh has won rail company Deutsche Bahn AG as a new major customer of its network technology. The transport company will connect its corporate locations to the network, according to the Vodafone Group PLC unit.
* German radio platform radio.de GmbH is now an official StreamOn partner for Deutsche Telekom AG. StreamOn users will have access to about 30,000 German and international radio stations and podcasts.
FRANCE
* Developer and mobile game publisher GameLoft SE announced that it will launch "Asphalt 9: Legends" worldwide this summer on iOS, Google Play and Microsoft Store. The new mobile game is the latest addition to the Asphalt franchise.
* With a team of 140 journalists, Agence France Presse SA announced it will produce nearly 2,000 broadcast and web videos for the FIFA World Cup in French, English, Spanish, Portugese and Arabic. It will also offer up to 1,200 photos and about 200 stories every day, as well as around 600 infographics and 15 videographics.
* France's Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen announced government proposals for public broadcasting reform, including a refocus to digital, rethinking of terrestrial channels, as well as the end of France 4 youth radio broadcasts, reports CB News.
NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG
* Qualcomm may face legal action from its bondholders after the chipmaker said that it will not compensate them for the delay in the closing of the NXP Semiconductors NV deal, London's Financial Times reports. Qualcomm's investors bought $2.75 billion of bonds to for the NXP acquisition and expected to be returned at a 1% premium if the transaction fails to close by June 1.
* Orange SA unit Orange Belgium announced that it has appointed Stefan Slavnicu as its chief technology officer, effective September. The Romanian national, who is currently working as the CTO at Orange Romania, will succeed Gabriel Flichy.
* Belgian consumer organization Test Aankoop announced that it has collected 14,000 signatures for a class action against Facebook Inc.over misuse of consumer data. Test Aankoop is demanding a financial compensation of at least €200 per person.
* The Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs will likely postpone the 5G frequency auction which was planned for end-2019, Tweakers reports, based on a letter by State Secretary Mona Keijzer. According to Keijzer, the European Commission should first decide on T-Mobile Netherlands' intended takeover of Tele2 AB unit Tele2 Netherlands, as an acquisition could have major consequences for the auction. T-Mobile Netherlands is a unit of Deutsche Telekom.
* TV channel Disney XD 24/7 will stop broadcasting in the Netherlands, effective July 31, TotaalTV reports. The children's TV channel will reportedly remain available 14 hours per day in a shared channel in the basic package of Dutch TV providers.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* The Swedish government disagrees with Telia Co. AB's plans to acquire the television business of Bonnier AB, which owns Sweden's largest commercial TV channel TV4 (SE), Svenska Dagbladet reports, citing sources. The government, which owns a 37% stake in Telia, is worried that the acquisition would have a negative impact on the media sector and would rather have Telia spend more money on dividend payments, the sources said.
* Swedish biometrics company Fingerprint Cards AB announced that it is planning further cost reduction measures. The measures, which include reducing the number of full-time positions by 179, will yield savings of 350 million Swedish kronor. The company also announced writedowns of 336 million Swedish kronor.
* U.S. fiber network company Greenlight Networks LLC will deploy Nokia Corp.'s XGS-PON fiber technology in Rochester, N.Y., according to a news release. Nokia said that the technology will provide residential and business customers with symmetrical broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* Ericsson's Ericsson España SA completed the sale of Excellence Field Factory to network services provider Ezentis for €7 million in cash and €22.5 million in shares, Telecompaper reports. As part of the deal, Ericsson will become Ezentis' lead shareholder with a stake of about 9.6%.
* Italian telecom infrastructure company Retelit SpA has completed the deployment of what it claims to be the country's first 200-Gbps telecom transport backbone network, Telecompaper reports, citing a statement. The network covers a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers.
* Spanish thematic 4K TV channel All Flamenco is eyeing future expansion into Europe, America and Asia through pay TV platforms, Advanced Television reports. The channel, currently available via Orange España and other cable networks, is also seeking carriage deals with Vodafone España SAU and Telefónica SA's Movistar Plus.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Serbia Broadband has completed the integration of its technical and service operations with cable operator Ikom, which it acquired in September 2016, Broadband TV News reports.
* Poland's National Broadcasting Council, or KRRiT, is set to launch tenders for local multiplexes for digital radio standard DAB+ across the country, Telecompaper reports. KRRiT has requested the awarding of 47 frequencies in 34 locations across Poland.
FEATURED NEWS
Data Dispatch: UK, Spain to lead online video revenue growth amid EU push for new OTT rules:
M&A Replay: European deals: Liberty Global/Ziggo deal reapproved; Nokia closes Withings sale: The European Commission has reapproved Liberty Global's acquisition of Dutch cable operator Ziggo, while tech giant Nokia completed the sale of its digital health business Withings.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Economics of TV & Film: AMC Networks steadily expanding content offerings: As the pay TV market continues to contract in total subs, networks turn toward programming investment in order to show their value. Total programming costs for AMC Networks more than tripled between 2009 and 2017.
Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.
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