ITV’s chairman Michael Grade has confirmed the broadcaster’s desire to remain a public service broadcaster, but with a number of key conditions to allow the organisation to remain competitive.Speaking before the Lord’s PSB Committee hearing yesterday, Grade outlined ITV’s views towards last week’s public service broadcasting review conducted by Ofcom (see Ofcom rejects top-slicing the… Continue reading Grade tells Lords his requirements for ITV’s future

This analysis is comparing the weekly reach of the breakfast shows of the London stations and not the time slots. Heart 106.2 FM’s and Magic 105.4’s breakfast shows currently run from 6am-9am, while 95.8 Capital Radio’s runs from 6am-10am.Johnny Vaughan’s 95.8 Capital Radio breakfast show remained on top in Q4 2008, with a weekly reach… Continue reading 95.8 Capital Radio has London’s most popular breakfast show

ITV’s chairman Michael Grade said the commercial broadcaster will survive the economic downturn, despite being “severely challenged” as a result of ad revenue cuts.Speaking to the Lords Committee this morning, Grade said the industry as a whole is “facing a very serious reduction in ad spend”, which has had an impact on broadcasting and accelerated… Continue reading Michael Grade: “We will survive”

Sky is set to reduce the cost of its Sky+ HD set-top box and take on 1000 more staff in a bid to get more people to sign up for high definition TV.The satellite broadcaster added 171,000 customers in the second quarter of 2008, taking its total customer base to 9.2 million – over 50%… Continue reading Sky booms in the economic downturn

As the industry contemplates the future of television following Ofcom’s PSB review and ahead of the imminent publication of Lord Carter’s ‘Digital Britain’ report, new figures show that broadcast TV viewing reached a record high last year.TV viewing figures from BARB show that the average person watched 26 hours and 18 minutes of TV each… Continue reading TV viewing reaches a record high

The Financial Times has launched a mobile version of its website, in a bid to attract younger users, following the news that FT.com reached the 1 million user mark for the first time.The website, which will be available to mobile users at m.ft.com, will be consistent with the new FT.com design but will offer a… Continue reading FT.com launches new mobile version of website

TV ad spend is predicted to fall from £3.46 billion in 2007 to £2.81 billion in 2010, despite record numbers of TV viewers, according to new research by Enders Analysis.The findings show that the first three months of this year could be down by as much as 20%, with ITV performing in line with the… Continue reading TV ad spend down despite increase in viewers

ITV1’s Unforgiven finale attracted more than 6.7 million peak viewers at 9pm last night, well ahead of its rival’s peak-time ratings.More than 6.5 million average viewers tuned in to see the conclusion to ITV1’s popular three-part drama, with Suranne Jones, securing the channel with a 26.3% audience share.Meanwhile, BBC One’s Motorway Cops: A Traffic Cops… Continue reading Last Unforgiven pulls in 6.7 million viewers

The London Evening Standard‘s new owners plan to invest £25 million in to the struggling title over the next three years, according to Evgeny Lebedev.Speaking for the first time since the acquisition of London’s evening paper, Alexander Lebedev’s son said he plans to increase coverage of arts, culture and business in a bid to increase… Continue reading Evening Standard set for £25m investment

Sales of Freeview+ reached record highs in the final quarter of 2008 despite the downturn, with more than two Freeview+ boxes being sold every minute in December.Freeview+ sales have now reached over 900,000, up by around 118% compared to December last year, according to new figures from Freeview.More than 17.2 million homes now have access… Continue reading Freeview+ sales soar