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UK conditionally approves Fox-Sky deal; Channel 4, VICE ink content tie-up

TOP NEWS

* The British government conditionally approved 21st Century Fox Inc.'s proposed £11.7 billion takeover of Sky PLC while it said it will not intervene in Comcast Corp.'s rival bid for the British pay TV giant. The decision means the two media giants could go head to head in a bidding war.

* Channel 4 (UK)'s video-on-demand platform All 4 will offer content from VICE Media LLC under a partnership between the companies, according to a news release. A VICE-branded hub will be available on the platform later in 2018, which will offer about 700 hours of content from VICE.

PAN-EUROPEAN

* European Union member states and lawmakers have come to an agreement to cap the rates of calling from one EU state to another, Reuters reports. Calling rates will be capped at 19 euro cents per minute, while each text message should be at most 6 euro cents.

UK AND IRELAND

* Vodafone Group PLC has entered into an agreement with Amazon.com Inc. to integrate Amazon Prime Video in the operator's mobile plan, Digital TV Europe reports. Subscribers of Vodafone's Red Entertainment plan will have an option to select Prime Video as their entertainment option.

* SoftBank Group Corp. said unit ARM Holdings PLC is ceding control of its Chinese business Arm Technology (China) Co. Ltd. to a new joint venture with a group of undisclosed direct investors. As part of the deal, the British chipmaker, through ARM Ltd., will sell its 51% stake in Arm China to the investor group for $775.2 million. ARM will thus hold the remaining 49%.

* British Broadcasting Corp. announced that it plans to develop a new site in East London, including a proposal to build new music studios, that will allow the company to record and broadcast more live music.

* Cambridge Analytica LLC's former CEO, Alexander Nix, allegedly withdrew about $8 million from the company before its collapse, London's the Financial Times reports, citing sources. Investors of the company who funded a rebranding for Cambridge Analytica are said to be pressuring Nix to repay the money.

* Gibtelecom Ltd., a telecom operator in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, launched a digital entertainment service named Sofi, Advanced Television reports. The platform will offer access to, among others, Rakuten Inc.'s streaming service Rakuten TV, music streaming platform Deezer SA and preschool learning and entertainment app Hopster.

* CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings PLC shareholders have approved the company's proposed acquisition by Connect Infrastructure Bidco Ltd., according to a news release. The majority of the shareholders approved the scheme document that sets the deal's terms.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that an operator of a Facebook Inc. fan page also has a responsibility to protect the page visitors' personal data, Reuters reports. The ruling is in response to a German fan page which used Facebook to store cookies on the page visitors' hard drives with the intention of collecting personal data. Germany's regulator has demanded the operator of the page to deactivate the page given the collection of personal information, but the operator contended that the action must be brought against the social media company.

* Kerstin Nerge has been named CEO of German TV production company Herr P. GmbH, reports DWDL.

* SAP SE has announced a new suite of applications for consumer management. The new offering, called SAP C/4HANA, is a data management solution that lets companies organize their customer data.

FRANCE

* Lagardere SCA announced that Hachette Livre has created an e-education department with Celia Rosentraub as its director. The new department will focus on the group's digital transformation in educational publishing.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Telenet announced the introduction of Telenet Tinx, an internet of things service for business customers, which is said to include standard and custom solutions using the Telenet NB-IoT network and later the LTE-M network. The operator also introduced voice over LTE and voice over Wi-Fi services for the consumer market, which will function as a complement to calling over 2G and 3G.

* The Dutch parliament voiced its concerns on 5G network development in the Netherlands, emphasizing that the country cannot permit to fall behind in this field, NOS reports. The parliamentary discussion was triggered by an earlier message from the Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs that a 5G frequency auction would most likely be postponed.

* Belgian public broadcaster VRT NV's online streaming service VRT NU will soon launch an app for smartphone and tablet, De Tijd reports, citing statements by Flemish Minister for media, Sven Gatz. VRT NU's online platform, which has about 1.12 million registered users, more than a year ago, but has been lacking mobile applications.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Norwegian telecom regulator Nkom said it has given Telenor ASA a fine of 7 million Norwegian kroner and ordered the company to stop its win-back marketing to mobile customers. Norwegian electronic communications regulations prohibit operators from targeting customers that are changing mobile operators. Telenor was ordered to change its marketing practices earlier this year, but has not followed the order, Nkom said.

* Swedish podcast platform company Acast AB is planning for a public listing in the fall of 2018, Breakit reports, citing documents it has gained access to. At the same time, one of the company's founders, Karl Rosander, announced that he is leaving the company's board.

* Telia Co. AB announced that its new open data center in Helsinki, Finland, started its operations. The center is carrier-neutral and will provide services for both Finnish and international companies, and will form a platform for robotics, IoT and 5G services.

* Telia also said that it has joined forces with Ericsson and the Swedish KTH Royal Institute of Technology to boost 5G development in Sweden. The three will build an environment for testing and development of 5G networks at the KTH campus.

* U.S.-based communications provider Frontier Communications Corp. will deploy Nokia Corp.'s XGS-PON technology to deliver faster broadband speeds. The new services will initially focus on Dallas/Fort Worth in Texas, but will later expand to the rest of the state, as well as Florida and California, Nokia said.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* Italian soccer league Serie A has rejected Mediapro's €1.6 billion guarantee to retain broadcast rights to Serie A games in the country, Digital TV Europe reports. The league said the Spanish broadcaster's guarantee was against its requirements since it was made by third parties, namely Mediapro's parent Imagina Media Audiovisual SL and the latter's key shareholder Orient Hontai Capital. Serie A thus began a new bidding process for the rights covering the 2018-21 period, Reuters reports.

* Portuguese software development platform Outsystems Inc. has raised $360 million from private equity firms KKR & Co. LP and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in a funding round that values the software company at more than $1 billion. OutSystems will use the funds raised to further expand its business as well as invest in research efforts on software automation.

* Spanish toll road operator Abertis Infraestructuras SA sold a 4.1% holding in its towers operator Cellnex Telecom SA for €213 million via an accelerated bookbuild offer, Telecompaper reports.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Latvian cable operator Baltcom rolled out Open TV, a new multiscreen over-the-top service that enables users to watch 38 live and archive channels as well as films and series on demand, Digital TV Europe reports.

* Russian national operator Rostelecom PJSC has former a 50:50 pay TV joint venture with the National Media Group, Broadband TV News reports, citing CNews and AKTR. The new venture will be involved in producing and acquiring content as well as in launching and distributing TV channels.

* Mobile operator MegaFon acquired safe city systems provider Project Investment Technologies from Russian systems integrator Technoserv Group for an undisclosed sum, Telecompaper reports, citing a statement.

* UPC Hungary has tapped video solutions provider Agama Technologies AB to improve the quality of its video services, according to a news release. The Liberty Global PLC unit will deploy Agama's video assurance platform on its head-end and network.

* Vodafone Romania SA has struck a wholesale deal to launch fixed internet and TV services via Telekom Romania's urban fiber optic network, Telecompaper reports.

FEATURED NEWS

As federal internet of things legislation proves elusive, US states push ahead: As connected devices proliferate, U.S. federal and state legislators are grappling with how to regulate the rapidly evolving internet of things for security and privacy concerns.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of Internet: State of Italian Online Video: Subscription: Italy, Europe's fourth-largest economy by GDP, is still behind its western European peers in both multichannel and broadband uptake.

Anne Freier, Amanda Kelly, Koen Pijnappels and Esben Svendsen contributed to this report.

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