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Sky and TalkTalk are itching for Ofcom to break up BT and Openreach
Back in 2006, Ofcom forced BT to set up Openreach, a separate division that manages its network infrastructure across the UK. The agreement struck between the pair was designed to give rival telephone and internet service providers (ISPs) equal access to BT's wide-reaching network of copper and fibre cables, promoting much-needed competition and, as a result, lower prices and better services for the consumer. Now, Sky and TalkTalk are urging Ofcom to split up BT and Openreach once and for all.
Sky director teases BT following record Premier League TV rights auction
Earlier this week, the Premier League announced the winners of its latest TV rights auction. As expected, Sky and BT were the (only) big winners, paying a whopping £5.14 billion for coverage over the next three seasons. The following morning, Sky's shares took a hit, with investors seemingly unhappy at the fact the company paid almost £4.2 billion for 126 live games, 70 percent more than the previous auction. In comparison, BT paid £960 million, an increase of just 18 percent.
Virgin Media's investing £3 billion to bring broadband to 4 million more homes
While Virgin Media has consistently beat BT's broadband speeds, the cable supplier's growth has been hampered by availability. BT's copper and fibre networks blanket most of the UK, whereas Virgin Media's coverage remains limited to specific towns and cities. In August, it said it would connect 100,000 more London homes as part of its biggest ever expansion, but it appears that was just the start. Today, with help from its parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media announced that it will invest £3 billion to bring its services to 4 million more British homes and businesses.
Sky and BT just spent a record £5.14 billion on Premier League TV rights
It's safe to say that there's a lot of money in Premier League football. Clubs are profitable businesses in their own right, but a large share of its revenue is provided by investments for live TV rights. Over the past week, Sky and BT, who have locked horns over high-profile competitions in the past, joined a number of other parties behind closed doors to bid on the TV rights for the three seasons from 2016-17. It took longer expected, but we now know where we'll be watching all 168 live matches next season and that the two main parties involved paid a record sum to secure them.
BT confirms it's bought EE for £12.5 billion
It's been nearly a decade, but BT is officially returning to mobile. After months of talks, the landline and broadband giant has confirmed it will pay £12.5 billion to acquire EE, the UK's biggest operator. In an announcement, BT said it intends to provide customers with "innovative, seamless services that combine the power of fibre broadband with wi-fi and advanced mobile capabilities," targeting EE customers that don't already use its broadband services and delivering 4G connectivity to BT customers for the first time.
Expect Sky and BT to launch new 4K boxes sooner rather than later
It's no secret that BT is after Sky's sports broadcasting crown -- it's already taken away Sky's access to Champions League coverage and will soon go toe-to-toe with its rival again to spend big on more live Premier League matches. While it isn't quite as dominant as its rival in terms of customers, Sky deems BT a credible enough threat that it will reportedly bring forward the launch of its new 4K set-top box to ensure it doesn't lose subscribers when those major European football broadcasts vanish. That's according to The Telegraph, which says the broadcaster will debut a new internet-connected 4K set-top box in the Spring. It's meant to be capable of sharing streams to smartphones and tablets, allowing access to recorded programmes while a user in on the move -- similar to EE's new TV hardware.
BT says faster broadband is coming, but it could take 10 years
Everyone in the UK wants super-fast broadband in their home. The most reliable and effective solution right now is fibre, which every internet provider uses as the backbone for their network nationwide. But there's a problem -- the fibre often stops at the street cabinet, and many customers are limited by the slower copper cables running up their driveways. While fibre can be installed for the final leg, it's expensive, so companies such as BT are looking for new ways to give their traditional copper a speed boost. One approach is "G.fast," a technology that uses a wider frequency band to increase performance. It works best over shorter distances, although rural homes can still be supported via remote nodes and distribution points, which bring the fibre connection closer to the property.
Sky and Virgin Media have a lot to say about how much sport should be on TV
There's never been more sport for Brits to watch on TV. That should be cause for celebration, but there's a problem: broadcasters are fighting for the rights to show different leagues and tournaments, which is locking sports away behind different satellite and internet TV services. Want to watch every Premier League fixture? You'll have to fork out for both BT Sport and Sky Sports, or make do with the highlights on Match of the Day. There's even talk of the rugby Six Nations competition going pay TV only.
BT scores more football with Sky Sports 1 and 2 on YouView
While BT is focused on extending its own sports coverage, the company is well aware that Sky Sports plays a major role in coaxing consumers to choose its competitor's TV packages. After striking a blow against its rival in the courts last month, BT is hoping to level the playing field by introducing Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 channels on its YouView boxes. Combined with BT Sport, the new package means that BT TV subscribers (with YouView hardware) can now watch all of the 154 Premier League matches broadcast live in the UK each season. The change also means that BT can finally retire its Vision+ boxes, which already support Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, and switch completely to YouView hardware. The two channels will be offered to BT customers for £22 per month, or individually for £16.50 per month, and BT says Vision+ users can upgrade to a YouView+ box for £35 at the end of their contract. Of course, this isn't everything Sky has to offer sports fans, but these two new channels could be enough to persuade football addicts contemplating a switch.
BT confirms talks to acquire EE for £12.5 billion
After weeks of speculation linking it with the acquisition of one of the UK's two biggest mobile carriers, BT has finally confirmed that EE will be the subject of its affection. The telecoms giant announced today that it has entered "exclusive negotiations" with a view to buying the Orange and Deutsche Telekom joint-venture for £12.5 billion. BT says the deal will allow it to "accelerate its existing mobility strategy" and re-enter the mobile market after it sold off O2 for £17.7 billion almost a decade ago.
Three UK owner considers fighting BT to buy EE or O2
It's no secret that BT is eyeing a return to the mobile market, by way of either EE or O2, but its movement may have come at a cost. According to Reuters, BT's intentions have caught of attention of Hutchison Whampoa, owner of the UK's fourth biggest operator Three, which is now said to be readying a bid for one of the two mobile providers. BT will reportedly decide its course of action in the coming weeks, which could prompt rival bids from Chinese company.
BT is in talks to buy back O2
Following in the footsteps of Take That, S Club 7 and 5ive, BT appears determined to get the band back together. The company has confirmed to us that it is in talks with European communications giant Telefonića to buy back O2, almost a decade after it sold the operator for £17.7 billion. It's no secret that BT is currently readying its own mobile service (with a little help from EE), but according to to Spanish news site El Confidencial, it could be willing to hand over a 20 percent stake as part of a "strategic alliance" between the pair.
Ofcom probe could lead to more live Premier League matches on TV
Less than half of all Premier League matches are broadcast live in the UK, and Virgin Media believes that simply isn't good enough. After filing a complaint in September, Ofcom has agreed to investigate whether the low number of televised fixtures is breaching competition law and leading to higher prices for customers and broadcasters. At the moment, the Premier League sells live TV rights for 154 games (out of 380 each season) through a handful of different match bundles. Sky used to dominate this bidding war, but in recent years BT has muscled in by spending big on a couple of the League's key packages.
Tesco teams up with BT to make its free in-store WiFi faster
Tesco's finances might not be holding up too well as of late, but from technological standpoint, the company is certainly ticking all the right boxes. After it debuted the impressive Hudl2 tablet last month, the supermarket giant is now switching its focus to better connecting its customers. Today, Tesco switched live free superfast BT WiFi inside 806 of its stores, replacing the old service powered by O2 and ramping up speeds to 76Mb in available areas. By upgrading its connectivity, the company hopes you'll download more Clubcard vouchers, obtain product information and look up recipes while doing your weekly shop. More importantly, it could also provide a welcome backup for when you encounter those dreaded mobile signal blackspots in some of its branches.
BT Sport claims it's now in more pubs than Sky Sports
A few years ago, if you were a pub landlord and wanted to provide your customers with live sports coverage, you'd just stump up the cash for Sky Sports and be done with it. However, now that BT Sport has emerged as a genuine alternative, publicans have more choice over what they can show. The telecoms giant is often keen to gloat when it has one over its rival, so it's today sharing news that its sport channels are now live in more UK pubs than Sky Sports. According to an independent survey, BT Sport is now live in 7,200 public houses, making up 30 percent of its total commercial subscriptions.
BT admits it's not even close to hitting its original fibre broadband target
When BT first set out plans to connect Britain with fibre optic broadband, it wanted to get 25 percent of homes on its network online without using old copper cables. That meant fibre optic wires running straight into your home, rather than just to your local cabinet on the street, where BT's aging infrastructure has to make the final push. Alas, the company's plans didn't pan out and it eventually resorted to its copper network to get fibre connections in more homes in a shorter space of time. However, that means slower downloads; while BT's fibre-to-your-door can get you speeds of up to 300 Mbps, its copper lines top out at 80 Mbps (although it could theoretically get a whole lot faster).
BT, HTC and EE develop tech that can pinpoint 999 calls to within metres
Every second counts for the emergency services. So to speed up response times, a new system developed by BT, HTC and EE can now pinpoint the location of a distress call to within just 30 metres or less (down from several kilometres). As soon as you dial 999, a text message with your position is sent to the operator in one of BT's call centres, verified and forwarded to the relevant emergency service. It should help police officers, paramedics and fire fighters arrive at the scene quicker, and assist the 330,000 emergency callers each year who are unable to speak on the phone. Right now, the feature is (unsurprisingly) only supported on EE's network and a selection of HTC phones, but it's hoped the technology will be picked up by other UK networks and handset makers in the future.
Court rules that Sky must offer Sky Sports channels to BT YouView customers
Sky and BT may now be locked in a battle over sports broadcast rights for their own services, but for more than four years, the two have also been fighting over Sky Sports broadcasts. Today, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) finally brought things closer to a resolution, after it ruled that BT must be allowed to offer its rival's sports channels to YouView customers for the first time. Ofcom had previously ruled that Sky must offer Sky Sports 1 and 2 at a 23 percent wholesale discount, but the case dragged on through the courts while BT readied its own sports TV service. Sky says it will fight the interim ruling, noting that BT is now in a significantly stronger position than it was four years ago. It also hopes that the landscape will shift once again when Ofcom concludes a new review on how companies offer wholesale channels. BT says it "looks forward" to offering the channels to YouView customers "very shortly," allowing it to join Virgin Media in broadcasting all of the remaining live Premiership football matches this season.
Netflix is coming to BT TV YouView boxes
BT today announced its second quarter financial results, but it's not the facts and figures we're interested in, as thrilling as they may be. All but hidden among tables and text is the news that BT's hooked up with Netflix, and pretty soon, the video streaming service will be available on the YouView set-top boxes of BT TV customers. When exactly, we're not sure, though BT told us it'll have additional info to share "in the coming weeks." What's more, to minimize fuss, you'll be able to tag a Netflix subscription onto your normal BT bill. Rumor had it that TalkTalk, which also uses YouView boxes, was in discussions with Netflix, too, so we'd be extremely surprised if TalkTalk didn't make an identical announcement soon. Whether YouView boxes purchased from the company itself will get access to the streaming service is another matter entirely, as direct-to-provider billing might have been key to sealing the deal.
YouView boxes finally granted the BBC's new iPlayer and red button features
The BBC's extensively redesigned iPlayer has been gradually lumbering its way onto different compatible devices since it was first launched earlier this year. YouView's hybrid Freeview/IPTV set-top boxes have, until now, been sorely neglected, which is somewhat strange given the BBC is one of YouView's principal investors. Well, better late than never, the new iPlayer has finally started rolling out to YouView set-top boxes, alongside the addition of the BBC's Connected Red Button features. If you're in possession of a YouView- or BT-issued box made by Humax (Huawei's also built a few), then these goodies will show up shortly, if not today. TalkTalk customers, however, are still playing the waiting game, though they can expect to receive the updates "in due course."
