The tentative advertising recovery in the US is continuing, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. However, growth is not strong and universal; rather, there are fits and starts between the different media, with share of adspend being moved around between them. The broker says that television and cable network advertising currently seems to be drawing… Continue reading US Ad Recovery Remains Tentative And Slow, Says Merrill Lynch

US business to business (B2B) print advertising declined again during May this year, with revenues down by 1.1% and ad pages down by 5.9% year on year. The latest figures from American Business Media (ABM) also show that in the year to May spending was up slightly by 0.7%, whilst pages have declined by 4.4%.… Continue reading US B2B Print Ad Revenues Dip 1.1% In May

Shipments of mobile handsets increased by almost a fifth in the second quarter of 2003, according to the latest figures from IDC. The firm’s Worldwide Handset QView shows that global shipments rose by 19.2% year on year to 118.3 million units. This represented an increase of 6.7% over the first quarter total (see Global Handset… Continue reading Growing Demand For Handsets In Second Quarter

Revenues at Vivendi Universal fell by 14% in the three months to June, raising doubts about the price tag put on the company’s US entertainment unit. Turnover was down to €6.10 billion from €7.08 billion in the the second quarter last year, with the decline blamed on asset disposals and the falling value of the… Continue reading Vivendi Reports Sharp Revenue Drop

After months of twists and turns the saga of WPP’s £266 million takeover of Cordiant Communications finally closed today, as the deal was formally completed this morning. The takeover was approved by shareholders earlier this month, although rebel stakeholder, Active Value, succeeded in removing Cordiant’s chief executive, chairman and finance director from the board (see… Continue reading WPP Completes Cordiant Acquisition

Highbury Housee Communications shareholders have approved the group’s £32 million acquisition of video game magazine publisher, Paragon Publishing (see Highbury House To Buy Paragon Publishing For £32m). Highbury says that the deal will create one of the UK’s leading special interest consumer publishers and the third largest publicly-quoted consumer magazine publishing group. As part of… Continue reading Shareholders Approve Highbury’s £32m Paragon Acquisition

The downturn in the global recording industry and the current lack of legitimate download services have prompted Jupiter Research to cut its forecast for online music spending. Internet sales of recorded music fell sharply during 2002 with unlicensed file sharing widely held to be responsible (see Online Music Sales Hit A Low Note). More than… Continue reading Online Music Market Growing Slowly

The Wireless LAN market will double in size in the space of five years, according to a new study from Dell’Oro Group. The market research firm estimates that WLAN revenues will increase from $1.5 billion in 2002 to $3.1 billion in 2007, with all product categories contributing to this growth. The report indicates that most… Continue reading WLAN Market To Exceed $3 Billion By 2008, Says Report

Multichannel television commanded a greater share of viewing than ITV1 in Q2 for the first time in a quarterly period, according to the latest IPA Trends In Television report. The figures show that multichannel stations took a 23.9% share of all viewing across Q2, whilst ITV1 dipped to 23.6% – its lowest figure on the… Continue reading Multichannel Passes ITV1 In Q2 Share Of Viewing

BSkyB has sold its 9.9% stake in Chelsea Football Club to Roman Abramovich, the Russian oil billionaire for an undisclosed amount. The satellite broadcaster has already written off most of its £40 million investment in Chelsea which is now almost wholly owned by Mr Abramovich. According to The Times, BSkyB will receive £5.9 million for… Continue reading BSkyB Cuts Its Losses In Chelsea