Week 34 in Telecoms, Internet & Media

CORPORATE

• BT: Sky: preparing to defend against takeover approaches from industry rivals & buyout firms
• Orange
• Rumor: Orange RO to acquire fixed ops from Telekom Romania (formerly Romtelecom; OTE (DT 40%) 54%, state 46%), state to own 20% of merged entity
• Orange PL establishes FiberCo (open access), to sell stake to investor to expands FTTH by 1.7m HH
• TIM: Minister opposes single national BB network be controlled by TIM - TIM to accept <50% stake
• Euskaltel: Rumor: considers sale of network
• SpaceX raises $1.9b
• ViacomCBS: Rumor: to sell CNET to Red Ventures, $500m; Simon & Schuster and CBS Building also for sale
• DAZN: To raise $1b for global expansion, possibly through IPO (by merging with special purpose acquisition company) or sale of Japan unit
• Take-Two Interactive: Acquires Playdots (mobile games studio), $192m
• Google: Rumor: to invest $150-200m in ShareChat (social media, India); Microsoft also interested
• Amazon
• Reuters: AWS to invest in Rackspace (cloud services, helps companies migrate their data to AWS or GCP or Azure or VMware; listed, Apollo majority)
• To create 3500 new tech & corporate jobs (AWS, Alexa, Amazon Advertising, Amazon Fashion, OpsTech, Amazon Fresh, etc) in 6 US cities: Dallas (600), Detroit (100), Denver (100), New York (Manhattan, 2000), Phoenix (500), San Diego (200); to invest $1.4b
• To add 11 sites to support fulfillment & delivery in Phoenix metro area by end 2020, 3000 jobs
• Facebook
• Instagram integrates Facebook Messenger to replace DM
• To require Oculus users to sign in with Facebook account, to remove support for separate Oculus accounts from Oct 2020 until 230101
• Bytedance
• FT: Oracle interested in TikTok (ByteDance) ops in US, Canada, Australia, NZ, working with existing US investors (General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital); ByteDance will not sell Europe, India ops; Microsoft, Twitter also interested - POTUS Trump supports Oracle bid
• Business Insider: hiring 357 in US (NY, LA, Mountain View)
• Bloomberg: Alphabet interested in minority stake (through consortium)

VIDEO

• Netflix
• Ends free trial (1 mo) in DE
• Tests shuffle button Play Something [see 200714]
• Plans drive-into experience in LA (in groups of 24 cars, from 59 $/car)  based on Stgranger Things sets; with Fever (event platform) & Secret Cinema (prodco)
• Apple: Launches promo for Apple TV+ subs (5 $/mo) in US: CBS All Access (stand-alone 11 $/mo) + Showtime (stand-alone 10 $/mo) for 10 $/mo; compatible with Family Sharing (max 6)
• Google: Rumor: to add Kaleidoscope (streaming video hub) to Chrome browser
• MultiChoice
• Showmax Pro (450 ZAR/mo; 2 streams, HD) & Showmax Pro Mobile (225 ZAR/mo; 1 stream, SD) launch in ZA: additional content (music channels, news, live sports)
• Plans to offer DStv streaming service stand-alone, bundled with BB from ISP partners

• Comcast: Peacock adds original sports talk show & sports channel NBC Sports on Peacock 200824
• Walt Disney: Disney+ to expand to Latam 201117
• AMC Networks: Expands Shudder to Australia (5.83 AUD/mo) & NZ (6.67 NZD/mo) (already in US, Canada, UK, IE, DE)
• Mediapro: Téléfoot launches; adds app for Samsung smart TVs
• Telenet: SBS Belgium (= DVM = Telenet) plans free streaming service Play

OTHER SERVICES

• Talkmore (= Telenor sub-brand in NO, mobile-only) to resell electricity (fixed fee + variable fee)
• Telegram (v 7.0) adds video calling
• Nvidia launches GeForce Now (cloud gaming) on Chrome OS in Chrome browser (beta)
• Snap: Trials feature allowing Snapchat users to share Snap Originals, Shows & Publisher Stories with friends off platform using easily shareable links; rumor: to rebrand personalized content feed For You to Spotlight
• Bytedance: Distr deal with UnitedMasters (400k artists): TikTok users to to distribute their music directly to other music streaming platforms from within the TikTok app

NETWORKS

Fixed

• National Broadband Ireland to launch 2020, minimum speed 500 Mb/s; wholesale-only, target 537k premises unserved by fiber; to launch in Carrigaline (County Cork) first; retail price to be ~40 EUR/mo
• Virgin Media IE plans nationwide (941k HP) gigabit service, 85 EUR/mo

5G

• Vodafone UK expands 5G to Swansea
• Verizon abandons plan for 5G surcharge of 10 $/mo
• Beeline (= VEON) launches 5G pilot in St Petersburg, with Nokia, Qualcomm - Awaits regulatory and legal basis before applying for 5G license
• StarHub launches 5G trial (NSA, 2100 MHz band) until 210216, with Nokia: max 660 Mb/s, with smartphones, no additional fee for Mobile+ and Biz+ subs, coverage 53% (target 70% by Sep 2020), full launch 2021; to add SA 5G in 3.5 GHz band ,id 2021
• Inmarsat demos 5G satellite NB-IoT, with MediaTek; to be contributed to 3GPP's Release 17
• Orange ES (and  MasMovil via roaming) plans 5G launch Sep 2020
• Ooredoo Oman expands FWA over 5G
• Verizon partners with Twitch (Amazon) for gaming
• Vodafone DE plans smart port (autonomous passenger ferries, port logistics, sailing events) in Kiel Inner Fjord
• Cricket Wireless (AT&T sub-brand) launches 5G for unlimited subs (from 60 $/mo) or Simply Data subs; with Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphone
• Verizon to expand 5G UWB to Indianapolis for Indianapolis 500 (in-field 360 degree camera viewpoints in AR), with NBC Sports

REGULATORY

Spectrum

• Subtel (Chile) plans 5G auction: 700 MHz (2x10 MHz), AWS = 1800 & 2100 MHz (2x15 MHz), 3.5 GHz (150 MHz), 26 GHz (400 MHz), valid 30 yr, consultation until 200928, application until 201019, auction to start 201020
• BNA (DE) publishes Frequency Compass for spectrum available from 260101 (extension of 800, 1800, 2600 licenses) & 340101 (additional 700, 800, 1800, 1500 spectrum)
• Telia Lithuania plans 3G-2100 switch-off from Aug 2020, to also close 4G-900 by YE 2022

Platforms

• Google: Mary Carr (CALS) sues Google Play Store for monopolizing the market for Android apps, foreclosing competition in mobile app distribution
• Facebook
• Restricted >10k accounts (Facebook & Instagram) linked to QAnon, US militia (block QAnon accounts from running ads, selling products or using other monetization features); removed 100s of QAnon groups - POTUS Trump praises Qanon supporters
• Avaaz report: health misinformation spread to 3.8b views in year to mid 2020 (peak in April 2020: 460m views; 42 pages act as key drivers for engagement) - Hearing at India’s parliamentary panel 200902 on content moderation bias
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before FTC for possible antitrust investigation
• Proposes data (photos, videos) portability (FTC hearing 200922)
• Apple
• Letter from trade body Digital Content Next (NYT, WaPo, WSJ, etc): call for lower App Store fees, asks for conditions to be granted lower fees (such as Amazon Prime Video paying 15%)
• Apple to terminate Epic Games developer accounts (incl Unreal Engine creation tools) 200828, Epic sues (temporary restraining order) to prevent [see 200813] - Apple claims Epic asked for special deal
• Twitter: National Concerned Supervisory Authorities object to Irish DPC (Data Privacy Commission) proposed fine for data privacy breach
• Bytedance
• TikTok removed >380k videos, 64k comments for hate speech, banned >1300 users
• TikTok plans to sue US gvt over Executive Orders banning business dealings with Bytedance 45 days after 200806 & banning TikTiok from US 90 days after 200814
• Reddit: Banned 7k sub-reddits (reduced hateful content 18%) 

Platforms general

• US Department of Commerce adds 38 Huawei affiliates to Entity List (imposes a license requirement for products set for export)
• Noyb (Max Schrems) files 101 complaints against European companies, Google & Facebook in EU & US for transfering data despite Provacy Shield invalidated    
• Taiwan to ban Chinese video streaming services (iQiyi, Tencent WeTV) from 200903 for violating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area; Taiwan claims 4 Chinese hacking groups targeted 10 Taiwan gvt agencies (incl 6k email accounts)
• Shorenstein Center (Harvard) proposes new US tech regulator