* Telenor ASA HAS completed the €1.5 billion acquisition of a 54% stake in Finnish telecom operator DNA Oyj. The deal triggers a mandatory public tender offer for the outstanding shares. The cash consideration per share to be offered in the mandatory tender offer will be €20.90, which is the same price as in the transactions with Finda and PHP.
* Amazon Studios has almost finished appointing its first set of country-based commissioners for original content across Europe, TBI Vision reports, quoting director of European originals Georgia Brown. The Amazon.com Inc. unit has so far named nonscripted content commissioners Nicole Morganti in Italy, Nikolas Diringer in Germany, Thomas Dubois in France and Oscar Prol in Spain. Philip Pratt will handle scripted and unscripted content in Germany.
* Orange Espagne SAU and Mediapro's production outfit The Mediapro Studio will jointly produce the Orange SA unit's first original Spanish series on the Orange TV platform. The Mediapro Studio-owned company 100 Balas will produce the gender-based series, which is set to begin filming in the autumn.
PAN-EUROPEAN
* The European Commission is looking into placing regulations to protect European Union citizens over the use of their facial recognition data, London's Financial Times reports, citing senior EC officials. The news comes after the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office last week launched an investigation into the use of live facial recognition in King's Cross, London.
* Comcast Corp.-owned Sky Ltd. has announced a licensing agreement with Blue Ant Media Inc. to access content from Love Nature. The shows from Love Nature will be available on Sky in Europe, including the U.K., later this year.
UK AND IRELAND
* Sky unveiled new channels Sky Crime and Sky Comedy, which will launch in October 2019 and February 2020, respectively. They will be available on Sky's linear service without an additional charge and will also be available on NOW TV.
* Banijay Group SAS unit Banijay Rights Ltd. has entered into a first-look development deal with Tigerlily Productions. The agreement covers Tigerlily's scripted programming for the U.K. and international markets.
* Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google LLC's London-based artificial intelligence lab, Deepmind Technologies Ltd., has been placed on leave following the company's controversies on its work with the National Health Service's patient data information, U.K.'s The Daily Telegraph reports. Alphabet Inc. owns Google.
* Manchester United and football-focused organization Kick It Out will meet with Twitter Inc. officials to discuss the social network's to address online racism toward soccer players in the U.K., London's The Guardian reports. The planned discussion comes after players received racist comments on Twitter.
* U.K. production company Fugitive Studios has appointed Nordic Entertainment Group AB formats Vice President Merrily Ross to become Fugitive's nonscripted content executive vice president, effective Sept. 1, TBI Vision reports. Ross will work with Anthony Kimble, who launched the division in March.
* Former ITV Studios Global Entertainment executive Ronan Hand has been appointed as Asylum Entertainment LLC's senior vice president of global content and will take charge of the company's new office in London, TBI Vision reports. ITV PLC owns ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Sky Deutschland GmbH announced a distribution deal with Onefootball which allows app users to live stream the second Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal soccer games. Customers will be able to access the games via Sky and the Onefootball app.
* Telefónica SA unit Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG has ceased operations of its Next subsidiary, reports Handelsblatt. The Next project, launched around three years ago, was supposed to serve as a laboratory for future business models.
* Vodafone Group PLC's Vodafone Deutschland GmbH launched a 5G-optimized cloud gaming platform in partnership with Hatch Entertainment. The Hatch Cloud Gaming app will be available via the Google Play Store, with the premium version to be available to Vodafone customers for free for three months.
FRANCE
* French marketing company Publicis Groupe SA purchased New Zealand-based independent customer experience agency Affinity ID Ltd. for an undisclosed amount, StopPress reports. The deal will see the agency relaunching as Digitas Affinity ID.
* French cloud and cybersecurity specialist Atos Public Safety LLC announced a five-year $198 million contract with the State of California to transform the 911 emergency system to leading-edge broadband communication platforms to advance emergency services for the public.
* SFR's low-cost brand RED simplified its offering going from four packages to just one with no duration commitment, Univers Freebox reports. The single 40 GB package at €10 per month can be customized with add ons in data and/or roaming with a total of six combinations for prices ranging from €10 to €25. Altice Europe's Altice France SA owns SFR.
NETHERLANDS,
* The European Court of Justice has ruled that Skype Communications SARL's SkypeOut service falls in the category of public and electronic communication service and therefore has to be registered with a regulator, such as the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets. Since the decision, Skype has registered itself with the ACM.
* Ziggo NV and Liberty Global PLC have been blocking the use of the UPC Horizon TV app for watching live TV channels and video-on-demand coming from Ziggo on Android TV media players, reports TotaalTV. With the UPC Horizon TV app, it was possible, until yesterday, to watch almost all online features of Ziggo GO on Android TV devices such as the media players Nvidia Shield TV and Xiaomi Mi Box.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* The European Commission approved Ericsson's proposed acquisition of antenna and filter assets owned by Kathrein SE, a Germany-based communications technologies solutions provider, according to a statement.
* Information tech company DXC Technology Co. acquired Syscom to enhance its security operations and service management capabilities. The acquisition expands DXC's presence in Norway and its ability to lead Norwegian clients across the public sector and commercial industries in digital transformation, according to a news release.
* Taihe Music Group partnered with Sweden-based music publisher The Kennel to form a new production company for Chinese musicians, 36Kr reports. Meanwhile, Taihe launched DMH, a digital music distribution platform.
* Swedish audio book streaming service Storytel AB said that it has signed an agreement with publishing house Bonnierförlagen AB.
* TDC A/S said that its infrastructure subsidiary TDC NetCo is extending its existing cooperation agreement with Bornholm's fiber network company BornFiber. The deal includes transmission to the Danish island of Bornholm, which is situated in the Baltic Sea, via TDC NetCo's submarine cable and IP transit for traffic from BornFiber's customers.
* Ice Group ASA reported smartphone service revenue of 319 million Norwegian kroner in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 16% from the same quarter last year. Smartphone subscriptions grew by about 79,000 in the quarter, about 58,000 of which came from the acquisition of Komplett Mobil.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
* Vivendi SA intends to block plans by Mediaset SpA to create a Dutch holding company for its assets, Bloomberg News reports, citing sources. The French media group may reportedly be able to use the remaining 9.6% stake in Mediaset when it votes against the proposal, since the other shares are held by an independent trust. Mediaset investors will gather Sept. 4 to vote on the plan.
* Altice Portugal ended its contract with Infraestruturas de Portugal SA unit IPTelecom after delays caused by the lack of "necessary conditions" to implement the deal, Telecompaper reports, citing Lusa.
* Spanish operator MásMóvil Ibercom SA is in talks to form a tie-up with Orange on global 5G and fiber-to-the-home network services, Advanced Television reports, citing Expansión. A deal would see the two companies sharing mobile networks in big cities, providing a roaming discount and acquiring fiber-optic networks.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Google, Apple Inc. and Firefox browser maker Mozilla Corp. move to block Kazakhstan's plans for an internet surveillance system using their browsers, Reuters reports. The Kazakh government earlier said it halted the system's rollout, which supposedly aimed to protect Kazakh users from cyberthreats.
* Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska SA struck a deal with Monolith Films Sp. zoo to secure exclusive rights to content from film producers such as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. and StudioCanal SA, Broadband TV News reports.
* Aleksandr Tkachenko stepped down as general director of Ukraine's 1+1 media group to pursue a career in politics, Broadband TV News reports, citing Telektrikika.
FEATURED NEWS
Data Dispatch: ViacomCBS set to lead media conglomerates in US ad sales: As a merged entity, ViacomCBS would have unseated NBCUniversal for most domestic ad sales chart in the quarter ended June 30.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Economics of Internet: State of Vietnamese online video: subscription: Subscription over-the-top services have yet to make strong inroads in Vietnam given the availability and preference for free content as well as the abundance of illegal streaming services.
Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, Charlotte van Hek and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.
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