Sky’s costs soar as battle with BT Sport weighs May 1, 2014 BSKYB’S battle with BT continued to take its toll on the pay-TV broadcaster during the nine months to March as profits tumbled 8.5 per cent to £910m amid higher advertising and programming costs. While the broadcaster added 74,000 new television customers during the three months to March, its total customer base grew by only 68,000, [...]
BT extends free TV sport offering until 2015 for its 5m subscribers April 30, 2014 BT’S BROADBAND customers will get free BT Sport channels for another year after the company said it has no plans to charge over the next sporting season. The telecoms giant yesterday announced that its sports coverage, for which it has invested around £2bn on securing sporting rights, will continue to be free for new and [...]
BT poaches Sky exec to lead TV and sport push April 7, 2014 TELECOMS giant BT has hired a veteran Sky executive to head up its TV and Sport operations, just two weeks after the division underwent a restructuring that pushed its former television chief out. BT will announce today that Sky Italia’s commercial chief Delia Bushell will join the company in July as manager of BT TV [...]
Key BT TV chief leaves in media division revamp March 26, 2014 BT’S TELEVISION chief, Marc Watson, an instrumental player in BT’s multi-million pound assault on the Pay-TV market, will leave the firm as part of a revamp of the telecoms giant’s media divisions. Watson took over BT TV in 2007 and played a central role in the negotiations to secure key sporting rights – including the [...]
Pictures: BT chief Gavin Patterson abseils down BT Tower March 10, 2014 When Gavin Patterson took on the role of chief executive of BT back in June 2013, we’d wager he didn’t expect his tenure at the top to involve abseiling down BT’s famous totem, the BT Tower. But sure enough, this morning, Gavin Patterson stepped into a harness, plonked on a hard hat and took [...]
Former HSBC exec named as BT Openreach’s next chief executive January 13, 2014 BT ANNOUNCED yesterday that Joe Garner will take up the role of chief executive of its infrastructure business Openreach in February, replacing Liv Garfield, who is leaving to become chief executive of Severn Trent. Garner previously worked at Procter & Gamble and as UK chief at HSBC, where he helped lead the bank through the [...]
EE deal could see BT heading back to mobile October 10, 2013 BT IS poised to move back into the consumer mobile market after signing a deal to use EE’s network yesterday, 11 years after selling off its BT Cellnet business. Yesterday’s agreement will initially allow BT to provide mobile service to its 250,000 corporate customers using EE’s network, and could allow BT to offer a consumer service [...]
BT is right to take a risk on faster broadband network July 16, 2008 BT’s announcement that it will spend £1.5bn upgrading Britain’s broadband network has unnerved investors, especially as it is funding the investment by suspending its shareholder buyback programme. But it’s important to remember that, in the long term, delaying this decision would have been worse for the company. Falling Behind The firm is falling behind its [...]
BT gambles on need for speed July 16, 2008 Telecoms firm BT yesterday announced it was suspending its shareholder buyback scheme to invest £1.5bn in faster broadband for 10m homes by 2012. The programme will be Britain’s largest ever investment in fibre optic cabling, which can deliver potential speeds up to 100Mbps, compared to the UK average of 4Mbps. But some analysts questioned whether [...]