Global shipments of camera phones are set to climb from 19 million in 2002 to almost 300 million in 2007 but wireless operators will only extract full potential from these devices if they address subscriber wants and needs, according to a report from IDC. New handsets with embedded cameras have galvanised the mobile market with… Continue reading Camera Phone Suppliers Crave Customer Satisfaction

ITV has unveiled its new board and management structure following the Competition Commission’s decision to allow its £4 billion merger with limited behavioural conditions (see ITV Cleared To Merge With Sales Houses Intact). Upon completion of the merger, Michael Green, who currently heads up Carlton, will become chairman, while Charles Allen the chairman of Granada,… Continue reading ITV Unveils New Board

Having gained approval for their much anticipated merger (see ITV Cleared To Merge With Sales Houses Intact) SMG has called on Carlton and Granada to sell their controlling stake in GMTV. The Scottish media company, which owns Grampian and Scottish TV, has a 25% stake in GMTV and has expressed a desire to increase its… Continue reading ITV Giants Urged To Sell GMTV Stake

The US private equity firm Hellman & Friedman has bought a 19.5% stake in Axel Springer from Deutsche Bank in a deal worth €350 million. Axel Springer is the largest newspaper group in Europe and publishes the German dailies, Bild and Die Welt. Deutsche Bank acquired a 40% stake in the company last year after… Continue reading Deutsche Bank Finds Buyer For Springer Stake

Despite the admission that “predicting media inflation is not unlike forecasting the weather a year ahead”, David Fletcher, head of Mediaedge:cia‘s MediaLab, has decided to have a go at calling the next couple of years in MediaLab’s latest Adstats report. Taking ‘life in one hand and a cup of tea leaves in the other’, Fletcher… Continue reading UK Media Inflation Forecasts From Mediaedge:cia

Data-centric networks will be in 28% of US households and the number of nodes (devices connected to networks) is expected to top 100 million by the end of 2008. Parks Associates reports that 9.9 million home networks were in existence at the end of last year. This indicates that the number more than doubled from… Continue reading Home Is Where The Network Is, Says Parks Associates

Total US magazine advertising revenues rose by 6.3% year on year in September, closing at $1.9 billion, according to new figures from the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). However, advertising pages were down 4.5% to 23,952. In the year to date, advertising revenue closed at $12.9 billion, an increase of 9.0% while advertising pages were up… Continue reading US Magazine Revenues Rise 6.3% In September

There will not be a revival in worldwide advertising until the fourth quarter of 2004 at the earliest, according to the head of advertising group Havas. In an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos, Alain de Pouzilhac said that the market will continue to lack visibility in the coming months. He forecasts 3% to… Continue reading Market Must Wait For Ad Recovery, Says Havas Chief

ITV’s largest commercial rivals are understood to be launching discussions to consider consolidating their advertising sales houses to counteract the threat of a combined Carlton and Granada. Channel 4, Five, BSkyB, Interactive Digital Sales and a number of other broadcasters are pondering whether to combine their advertising sales houses operations to compete more effectively with… Continue reading ITV Rivals Pushed Towards Sales House Consolidation

It has been cable operators, not incumbent telecommunications companies, that have driven the growth of broadband internet access, according to a new report on global broadband developments. The study was carried out by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in order to review the broadband policy experiences of selected countries from the Organisation for Economic… Continue reading UK Lags Behind In Broadband Uptake, Finds FCC