Station Film has signed a partnership deal with Academy Films, London. Station will represent Academy's directors in the U.S. for commercials and digital content. And Academy, in turn, will represent Station's directors in London. Station thus now offers such Academy directors as Jonathan Glazer, Si & Ad, Seb Edwards, Frederic Planchon, Walter Stern, Nick Gordon, Tony Barry, Kim Gehrig and Conkerco to the American ad market. This infusion of visualists complements a core Station roster comprised largely of comedy and performance directors….Independent sales rep Denise Blate Roederer has taken on the East Coast territory for Chelsea and its new Pulse @Chelsea division….Shari L. Shankewitz has joined William Morris Endeavor's production department as a commercial and music video agent. Joining her are cinematographers Giles Dunning, Richard Henkels and Steve McGehee, and production designers Ged Clarke, Jeffrey Everett and Regan Jackson for exclusive representation….
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