Gone are shots of puddings and sweets as advertisers try to market other foods to stay within rules coming into force on 5 January

The festive season is traditionally a time of national culinary overindulgence but eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that this year’s crop of big-budget Christmas TV ads have been decidedly lean and sugar-free.

From Tesco and Waitrose to Marks & Spencer and Asda, the UK’s biggest exponents of extravagant festive food marketing have put their Christmas ads on a diet to comply with new regulations banning junk food products from appearing in TV ads before 9pm.

Japanese conglomerate raises to 80% its stake in firm that owns the intellectual property created by Charles Schulz

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Sony has taken control of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts franchise including Snoopy and Charlie Brown in a deal worth C$630m (£340m).

The Japanese conglomerate has bought 41% of Peanuts Holdings, which owns the intellectual property Schulz created, from the Canadian children’s entertainment company WildBrain.

Decision will pave the way for Netflix to proceed with buyout of film and TV group

Warner Bros Discovery is poised to tell shareholders to reject Paramount’s $108bn (£81bn) hostile bid, according to reports, clearing the way for Netflix to proceed with its buyout of the Hollywood film and TV group.

The board could announce a decision as early as Wednesday after Paramount Skydance – run by David Ellison and bankrolled by his billionaire father, Larry, who founded Oracle – went directly to shareholders with its rival offer almost two weeks ago.