Spanish pay-TV platform Movistar+ is considering creating a new channel to carry sports content exclusively. Movistar+ launched its first channel consisting of original productions, #0, in Feb. '16. The platform's execs "are currently immersed in the evaluation of the project's budget" (EL CONFIDENCIAL DIGITAL, 5/8).
Spanish multimedia group Mediapro will "appeal an Italian judge's decision to cancel its tender" for the TV broadcasting rights of Serie A, the company said. Mediapro is "trying to on-sell the rights" but a Milan judge canceled the tender this week, saying it breached antitrust rules. The Italian unit of broadcaster Sky "challenged the terms of the tender." Mediapro said that it analyzed the judge's decision and believed its tender "was in line with Italian regulations" and with the contract it had signed with Serie A (REUTERS, 5/10).
Vodafone agreed to pay $21.8B to buy Liberty Global’s assets in Germany and eastern Europe to "take the fight to rivals with a broader range of superfast cable TV, broadband and mobile services." The world’s second-largest mobile operator "struck a deal" with Liberty after "years of on-off talks to become a European force to challenge the dominance of former monopolies such as Deutsche Telekom" (REUTERS, 5/9). Deutsche Telekom criticized Vodafone's deal to buy Liberty Global operations, but the German market leader "stopped short of calling for regulators to block it" (REUTERS, 5/9).
BT “launched its most significant overhaul in a decade” after revealing 13,000 managerial and administrative job cuts and a plan to leave its historic home -- “a stone’s throw” from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The company plans to strip £1.5B ($2B) in costs from the business and bolster its investment in full fiber and 5G networks to "deal with political and regulatory pressure." The company said that it would hire an extra 6,000 engineers to “speed up its rollout of faster broadband networks, which offsets the broader job cuts” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 5/10).
Formula 1 partnered with FanVision Entertainment to create F1 Vision, an immersive spectator technology which allows grand prix attendees to dive deeper into the event experience with a state-of-the-art handheld device. F1 Vision combines each race’s live broadcast and replay highlights, direct audio feeds allowing the user to listen to live driver and team communications and the radio broadcast. F1 Vision also taps into the F1 timing system, providing fans with real-time race data and statistics (F1).
