Publicly traded, Englewood, Colo.-based cable and communications company Liberty Media Corp. has completed its acquisition of Four Media Company (4MC), the Burbank-headquartered, publicly held firm that is parent to several post/visual effects facilities (i.e. Santa Monica-based R!OT; Company 3, Santa Monica; Encore Hollywood; Anderson Video, Universal City, Calif.; 4MC Asia, Singapore)….Actor/director Christopher Reeve has signed with New York-based TAG Pictures for representation as a commercial helmer….Director Joe Chapura has joined Sandbank Films, New York….Venice, Calif.-based Lux Pictures has entered into an agreement with Frontier Pictures, London. Per the deal, Lux will handle Frontier directors Michael Abel, Robert Dowling, Grey Lipley and Aernout Overbeeke in the U.S. Lux’s directorial lineup—including Tom Finerty, April Greiman, Michael Oblowitz, Hugo Pallete and Mitchell Walker—will be repped in the U.K. by Frontier….Animation director Graham Morris has signed with Los Angeles-based Duck Soup Studios for exclusive spot representation….Director Duncan Sharp has come aboard Marina del Rey, Calif.-based spot production house Life of Riley.…Robert Wherry, former managing director and head of East Coast sales for bicoastal HKM Productions, has become a partner in bicoastal Go Film, the shop founded by executive producer Jonathan Weinstein….Tim Cloherty and Peter Klinger have opened Sound of Science, a New York-based music and sound design company….
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More