Wednesday Papers: BBC agrees funding cut of £340m - other news

Financial Times

* The BBC has stunned its staff by agreeing to a funding cut of at least £340 million, or one-10th of the licence fee, equivalent to the budget of all of its national radio stations combined.

* YouView, the internet-TV joint venture, is free to launch next year after Ofcom rejected complaints from small start-ups and large broadcasters that it would harm competition.

* The manufacturing sector lost momentum in the past three months, but the slowdown is not expected to deepen in the remainder of 2010, figures from the CBI suggest.

* The number of deposits on new homes during the first four weeks of the autumn were 14% below the corresponding period in 2008, when the market was badly hit, and only half 2007 levels, a survey, conducted weekly by the Home Builders Federation, showed.

* Bellway, which on Tuesday reported a swing back to pre-tax profit for the 12 months to July 31, also said the slower than expected trading meant it was lowering its sales targets for 2011; the housebuilders reported a full-year pre-tax profit of £44.4 million, bouncing back from a loss of £36.6 million in 2009.

* Omnicom, the second-largest marketing group by revenues, on Tuesday reported like-for-like revenue growth of 6.7 per cent in the third quarter to $2.99 billion, its strongest performance in the year to date.

* The Serious Fraud Office has dropped its investigation into Sports Direct and JJB Sports, bringing to a close a 13-month process.

* Underlying revenues at National Express Group's UK coach business were up by 4% year-to-date, and 7% higher in its rail business; the firms said that it was aiming to reach its target of saving $40 million of costs by the end of next year.

* Russian oligarch Victor Vekselberg and two Austrian investors have agreed to pay Swiss authorities SFr10 million ($10.4 million) to settle allegations of a breach of disclosure rules during the building of a stake in Swiss industrial group Sulzer.

* Oil will break the triple-digit barrier by the end of next year. according to Goldman Sachs.

* Whitbread profits surge to £150 million in the first half.