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A new documentary has claimed that Sir Cliff Richard lost out in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest because of a fix.

Producer Montse Fernandez Vila alleged that Spanish dictator Francisco Franco bought votes to ensure the Spanish entrant Massiel won the competition with the track 'La La La'.

Richard's song 'Congratulations', the favourite to win the music contest, came second.

Vila quotes Spanish TV presenter Jose Maria Inigo as saying: "It was a fix. Massiel won Eurovision with bought votes."

He claimed that Franco bribed judging panels to help boost Spain's international image. Eurovision no longer uses national juries and allows the public to vote.

Eurovision TV director Bjorn Erichsen said he couldn't "exclude" the possibility of a fix, but said there would be no investigation.

He told Reuters: "Just to make Cliff Richard a little happier and the Spanish winner a bit more unhappy?

"I don't think you should dig up old bodies to prove he was or wasn't the father. It's history."

En concreto, el acuerdo de Vodafone permitirá a los clientes de la operadora en Australia, República Checa, Egipto, Grecia, Italia, India, Portugal, Nueva Zelanda, Sudáfrica y Turquía usar el iPhone con la red del grupo británico, informó hoy Vodafone, que eludió dar detalles sobre si tendría acuerdos de exclusividad para la comercialización del dispositivo en algunos de estos países.

De esta forma, Vodafone sella su primer acuerdo para ofrecer el dispositivo de Apple, después de que el año pasado la filial europea de Telefónica, O2, se impusiera en el mercado británico, donde distribuye el iPhone en exclusiva.

Prueba del cambio de modelo que mantenía Apple de acuerdos de distribución en exclusiva es que Telecom Italia, participada por Telefónica, ha alcanzado también un acuerdo con la firma que preside Steve Jobs para ofrecer en Italia el iPhone, país donde también lo comercializará Vodafone.

En Europa, otros incumbentes como Deutsche Telekom y France Telecom son distribuidores del iPhone. En España está previsto que Telefónica anuncie en los próximos días el lanzamiento, en este caso en exclusiva, de este dispositivo antes del verano, aunque se desconoce si ofrecerá la versión 3G.

Italy has become the first country to sell the iPhone on a non-exclusive basis, suggesting that Apple's strategy of tying its device to one network in each territory may be unravelling.

This morning Vodafone and Telecom Italia announced that they had both won contracts to bring the iPhone to Italy later in the year - ending a year-long stretch in which only one operator had the right to the iPhone in each country.

Vodafone also said it had won the right to distribute the device in nine other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and India - a mobile market which is growing rapidly, but where the majority of customers are pre-pay rather than contract - a situation that does not suit Apple's revenue model.

Apple now faces the prospect that operators in other countries may revolt against its onerous terms, which are understood to involve the network sharing 10 per cent of revenues in return for the right distribute the iPhone exclusively for a two-year period.

"This is definitely a sign Apple is capitulating," Will Draper, an analyst at Execution, said. "The initial model was that Apple would give the iPhone to a network on an exclusive basis, but in Europe, where you have the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson selling sophisticated 3G devices, the iPhone simply isn't seen as such a premium product."

Apple is expected to announce a faster, 3G version of the iPhone next month.

Apple is understood to have shipped 600,000 iPhones to the three European operators which have won contracts to distribute the device - O2 in the UK, Orange in France, and T-Mobile in Germany - but so far demand has been disappointing, analysts said.

Last month, O2 was forced to cut the price of the device by more than a third - from £269 to £169 and T-Mobile made an even more drastic from €399 (£319) to €99 to get rid of unsold inventory.

The disappointing demand for the iPhone in Europe could be due to the device lacking the faster capabilities of 3G devices, analysts said. In the US, where 3G networks were less developed and where the device has sold well, the lack of 3G had been less of an issue.

"Apple is realising that it should be making the iPhone as widespread as possible - Vodafone having taken the view in Italy that it is not willing to share revenues for what will likely be a mediocre product," Mr Draper said.

The deal - which involves Vodafone distributing the iPhone in several other European countries, including the Czech Republic, Portugal, Egypt, Greece and Turkey - was not as sigificant for Vodafone as gaining the contract in one of the larger European markets such as Germany or the UK, he said.