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

Richard Desmond, owner of Express Newspapers and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail & General Trust could be ruled out for the race to buy the Telegraph Group amid concerns they could face investigation by competition authorities. Both newspaper groups have shown an interest in the owner of the Telegraph titles, which is expected to be put… Continue reading Big Guns Could Be Ruled Out Of Race For Telegraph Titles

Revenues at the Wireless Group have risen by 24% during September, October and November, with the company’s flagship talkSPORT jumping by 28%, 42% and 38% respectively. In a trading statement released this morning, the company said that the local radio stations saw revenues up by 11% in September, 23% in October and 19% in November.… Continue reading Wireless Group Shares Rally On 24% Revenue Growth

UBC Media, the UK radio group, says that advertising revenues have shown a marked improvement in the last few months of its first half, but claims that trading conditions remain challenging despite a stronger performance since September. The group managed to reduce its pre-tax losses for the six months 30 September from £1.0 million last… Continue reading UBC Media Sees Ad Revenue Improvements As Losses Fall

Online music sales are unlikely to drive a revival in the music industry and revenues will continue to fall for the time being, according to a study by Informa Media Group. The report, entitled The Global Music Industry, claims that the value of global music sales will drop for the fourth year in a row… Continue reading Record Companies Cannot Bank On Digital Sales

The development of the UK’s digital audio broadcasting (DAB) sector is gathering pace, according to radio station and programme production company, UBC Media. The group today predicted that sales of DAB digital radios will have more than doubled over 2002’s 175,000 by the end of this year. Whilst the sale of 350,000 or so sets… Continue reading UBC Media Puts Faith In Radio’s Digital Future