US advertising spend increased by 5.7% year on year in the third quarter of 2003, with ten out of twelve media categories reporting growth, according to new figures from Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen Monitor-Plus, which tracks trends in the media, claims that expenditure has been growing througout 2003. Adspend climbed by a modest 1.5% in… Continue reading US Adspend Continues To Grow, Says Nielsen

Online Christmas shopping is at least four times faster than high street shopping, according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group. This festive shopping season is set to be the biggest yet for online sellers and the e-retail industry is going to great lengths to promote the benefits of internet shopping. The IMRG estimates that… Continue reading Go Online For Xmas Shopping, Says IMRG

ITV partners Granada and Carlton Communications both announced rising profits today and hope to realise cost savings of £100 million from their imminent merger (see ITV Cleared To Merge With Sales Houses Intact). The two companies previously indicated that the tie-up would bring £55 million of annualised cost savings (see Carlton/Granada Move Closer To £2.6bn… Continue reading Granada And Carlton Reveal New Savings Target

Almost 30 million American homes will be banking online by the end of 2003 and the number is expected to almost double over the next five years, according to new forecasts from Jupiter Research. Internet banking is growing in popularity as consumers put aside security concerns and embrace the convenience and time saving advantages of… Continue reading Online Banking Winning New Fans

An increasing number of US consumers are abandoning their landlines in favour of wireless options, according to tech research firm MetaFacts. Recent legislation allows homes to switch their landline number to wireless carriers and it is estimated that 3.5% of PC-using homes no longer have an installed line. This is up from 2.4% in 2002… Continue reading More Americans Relying On Mobiles, Says Study

The White House and the US congress have reached a compromise in their dispute over new media ownership laws after the row threatened to scupper a major spending bill. Both parties have agreed to a 39% cap on the proportion of the national television audience that a single network can reach. The Republican-led Federal Communications… Continue reading Deal Reached On US Media Rules

Former Starcom Motive vice chairman, David Connolly, has been named as the independent adjudicator responsible for overseeing airtime sales at ITV following the merger of Carlton and Granada. His appointment was made by Ofcom and the Independent Television Commission and is mandated by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry as a pre-condition of… Continue reading Connolly To Oversee ITV Airtime Sales

Further evidence of a surge in internet advertising has been presented by the Online Publishers Association. The organisation claims that ad revenues among prominent online publishers rose by almost 50% in the third quarter of 2003. After two years of negative growth, US online advertising has turned the corner with revenues up by 14% to… Continue reading Internet Adspend On The Up And Up

The regional newspaper industry is in a strong position to maintain and grow profitability over the longer term, according to a new report published by Mintel this week. The Regional Newspapers report claims that the industry is in great shape due to its local focus, which allows it to provide news and information that is… Continue reading Research Claims Regional Press Is Set For Revenue Boost

The total number of person to person text messages sent across the UK’s four GSM networks during October surpassed all previous records to reach 1.8 billion, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association. The UK daily average for October stands at 58.5 million, which compares to 50 million in the same period… Continue reading Text Messages Reach Record Total During October