Tuesday newspaper round-up: Household bills, OpenAI, BBC
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 01 Apr 2025
(Sharecast News) - Millions of households are bracing themselves for a raft of price increases across a range of bills - from energy and water to car tax and the TV licence - that take effect on Tuesday. With so many costs rising at once - prompting some to label this month "awful April" - the government is facing fresh calls to take action to limit the impact of some of the increases. The Liberal Democrats claimed ministers needed to "get a grip" on energy bills. - Guardian
OpenAI said it had raised $40bn in a funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300bn - the biggest capital-raising session ever for a startup. It comes in a partnership with the Japanese investment group SoftBank and "enables us to push the frontiers of AI research even further," OpenAI announced, adding it would "pave the way toward AGI (artificial general intelligence)" for which "massive computing power is essential". - Guardian
The BBC is to spend £150m less on new shows in the coming year as it warned of an "unprecedented" funding challenge for British television. The public service broadcaster said it plans to spend just over £2.5bn on programming in the current financial year, down from almost £2.7bn last year. It follows industry-wide warnings of a funding crisis for British programmes amid growing competition from streaming rivals such as Netflix. - Telegraph
Almost £8bn has been wiped off the value of the world's biggest drugmakers after America's leading vaccine official was ousted by Robert F Kennedy Jr. Shares in Moderna, Pfizer and GSK all fell on Monday amid concerns over the shock exit of Dr Peter Marks from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Moderna tumbled by as much as 13pc in early trade in New York, while Pfizer was down by 1.5pc. In London, AstraZeneca and GSK were also down by 2pc respectively. Shares in Taysha Gene Thepies, Solid Biosciences and Sarepta Theraputics also fell. - Telegraph
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group believes there are "no more major hurdles to overcome" before it can begin operating trains through the Channel Tunnel after the rail regulator said there was enough space for rival operators to use Eurostar's London depot. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said that Temple Mills maintenance depot in northeast London would be able to accommodate additional trains after its receipt of an independent report on the issue. - The Times
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