The audit office will investigate the auction, which took more than £1 billion less than the government had predicted. However, the rationale for the government’s forecast remains highly questionable. Read more »
The U.K.’s legal deposit rules, which require publishers to submit copies of all publications to national and other major libraries, have been updated to cover everything from blogs to tweets. Read more at paidContent »
The operator, which is still the only one in the U.K. to offer LTE, has launched a three-month promotion where passengers of some black cabs will get to surf through a 4G connection for free. Read more »
Masabi is a U.K. startup specializing and cloud-based smartphone ticketing technologies for public transit, and it just landed a $2.8 million strategic investment led by Bill Ford’s Fontinalis Venutures. Read more »
PayPal’s Here mobile payments service is bound for Europe, launching first in the U.K. over the next few months. Instead of the card-swiper used in the U.S., Europe will get a new Chip & PIN device. Read more »
EE, Vodafone, Three, O2 and BT have all won spectrum in the auction, which the regulator Ofcom says will lead to full 4G coverage by the end of 2017. Read more »
A British man has found some sympathy in the courts because Google did not delete false comments about him made on Blogger fast enough. Does his case open a backdoor to internet regulation? Read more »
A new Kickstarter project aims to fund the production of model trains for an extremely niche group of people. The way this is being made possible offers an insight into the future of manufacturing. Read more »
The much-delayed UK spectrum auction is underway. It remains to be seen how EE’s decision to cut its premium 4G pricing yesterday, just months after launching the service, affects the outcome. Read more »
Britain’s tech community is fretting again over the dominance of young white men on the conference circuit. But events veteran Mel Kirk says that forcing diversity ignores the deep skews in the industry itself. Read more »
A string of offensive hashtag memes in France has spurred the government to announce a consultation on hate speech with Twitter. It could mark a watershed for the country’s approach to social media — but it’s not just Paris that has a problem. We all do. Read more »
It will soon become legal in the UK to copy music from a CD to an iPod, show copyrighted texts on an interactive whiteboard and use copyrighted works in a parody. In other words, this reform was sorely needed. Read more »
The UK’s director of public prosecutions has published provisional social media guidelines for the country’s police and courts, reminding them that there’s a difference between bad taste and serious threats. Read more »
Five years after its $280 million acquisition, the music service is still struggling to turn a profit for CBS, if latest efforts to tactically abandon and charge for royalty-incurring personalised radio are anything to go by. Read more at paidContent »
Four years ago developer Matt Biddulph jokingly coined ‘Silicon Roundabout’ as a description of East London’s small but growing startup scene — now it’s become the de facto term for the area around Old Street. Here he recounts how a moment of mirth turned into a meme. Read more »
The British government’s constant adulation of the London startup scene reached its culmination this week with the news of a huge new redevelopment project. But the reality is that many of Britain’s smartest innovators are locked inside government and the rest look increasingly like poseurs. Read more »
In a world of £9.99 tablet newspaper subscriptions, two UK red-tops are ditching their cover price entirely for their debut iPad editions. Does this free digital move point the way for the industry? Read more at paidContent »
TV advertising remains healthy, but platform operators want a bigger slice of the pie. Next year, some will introduce targeted advertising to their set top boxes, promising greater granularity and more effectiveness to marketers. Read more at paidContent »
Weblogs and social channels not affiliated with newspapers can breathe a sigh of relief. Tweets and blogs don’t have enough heft to be considered ‘news’ media like print, says the judge leading recommendations to heighten UK ‘press’ standards. Read more at paidContent »
People don’t expect trustworthy online journalism like they do in print, says the judge making recommendations about British media. His view may seem antiquated to some, but it may see digital publishers dodge new regulation. Read more at paidContent »
The nine-month-long inquiry in to British press standards says newspapers’ ethical standards have caused ‘havoc’, so a new self-regulator is required to hold them to better account. Read more at paidContent »
A U.S. election bump lifts the newspaper above the venerable broadcaster, as the two British news orgs vie for American readers. But closer inspection shows the BBC remains the more popular brand. Read more at paidContent »
The app, which is similar to WillCall but focused on a wider variety of events, intends to take its curated approach to last-minute event booking international next year. Read more »
As it launches a new weekly tech magazine on iPad, publisher Future puts some numbers on impressive tablet magazine gains, but overall revenue is slightly down. Read more at paidContent »
The European Commission has green-lit a vast chunk of UK state aid for a rural deployment of superfast connectivity. Most of it will probably go to one company – BT – but at least the countryside is finally set to get decent broadband. Read more »
Details of the transaction are unclear for now, but the academic social network ResearchGate has just announced the acquisition of a fellow German operation. It remains to be seen how this will firm up its offering against key rival Mendeley. Read more »
Online video is hot. So the media vehicle run by News Corp’s former COO is now investing in Base 79, a company that populates online video channels and apps for content owners. Read more at paidContent »
Vodafone is already trialing 1000 small cells in the UK, and starting next year it plans to expand its use of tiny base station technology into its other global networks. Vodafone is still cautious though about small cells’ immediate impact. Read more »
The new Android flagship took minutes to sell out in the UK and Germany, but the Google Play Store makes it look as though it never even went on sale. The company needs to work on its retail mechanisms. Read more »
Google tells angry MPs that it doesn’t pay more UK tax because it doesn’t do any innovation in the country. Maybe someone should tell that to Google’s 350 London engineers, who it has previously credited with helping develop AdSense. Read more »
London has relied heavily on the financial sector over the last few decades, but that industry’s importance is waning. An influential think tank says it’s tech startups that will need to pick up the slack. Read more »
TV and tech folk nowadays talk the same language. But, as London’s eastern Tech City neighborhood gains attention, envious western broadcasters fight back with their own newly-named space. Read more at paidContent »
Online earnings are falling despite booming audiences at leading UK news publisher Trinity Mirror, caught in a confluence of circumstances that prompt the big question — does content pay? Read more at paidContent »
Virgin Media is the latest TV platform operator to launch on-the-go viewing and in-home remote controlling in a combined iPhone and iPad app. It’s a welcome and belated addition, but some features still depend on ye olde wires. Read more at paidContent »
SpringboardIoT, a new accelerator program focused on startups working on hardware and the Internet of Things, has launched in the UK. The scheme’s founder joins forces with an experienced insider to explain why it’s a necessary and useful development. Read more »
ARM, Neul and CSR have joined hands with Cable & Wireless Worldwide to push adoption of the Weightless wireless standard. Meanwhile, ARM and Neul are also backing an internet-of-things accelerator program, with the help of Unilever and Raspberry Pi. Read more »
UK commercial broadcaster ITV has long funded its free shows with advertising. Three years after declaring its intention to charge online, it is now finally publicly testing a paid VOD service. Read more at paidContent »
From the death spiral of ad downturn, digital audience migration and a thousand cuts, one man emerges to try some long-expected consolidation in the local news market. But can the proposed Local World company get going? Read more at paidContent »
Amazon’s global content strategy is becoming a step broader and more integrated through greater distribution for its Kindle range and inclusion of its video service Lovefilm on UK devices. Read more at paidContent »
Going digital-only may not suit all publishers yet, but some organisations for which paper publishing has been a means to an end are now increasingly going digital. Latest is a title on which homeless people depend for an income. Read more at paidContent »
