Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is preparing to make a bid for DirecTV, the largest US satellite operator, according to reports emanating from Wall Street. The Observer claims that Murdoch is tieing up loose ends ahead of $7 billion offer for the broadcaster that would represent the media mogul’s first foray into the American satellite market.… Continue reading Murdoch Set To Swoop For DirecTV

Around 41% of UK home internet users also have access to the web at their workplace, with approximately the same proportion (40%) using the Net at home, according to research from AOL/RoperASW, as reported by eMarketer. The study questioned around 500 home internet users in the UK, France and Germany. The three-country total shows that… Continue reading European Home And Work Internet Use Figures From AOL/RoperASW

US business to business (B2B) print advertising witnessed a turnaround in fortunes in January, with spend rising by 2.9% year on year to $619.1 billion, according to the latest figures from American Business Media (ABM). The group says the growth supports its forecast of a 3% rise in B2B print adspend for the first quarter… Continue reading US B2B Print Advertising Picks Up In January

A total of 1.53 billion person to person text messages were sent across the UK’s four GSM networks during February, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA). The figures show that 78 million romantic text messages were sent on Valentine’s Day, taking the daily average for the month to 55 million,… Continue reading 1.5 Billion Text Messages Sent In February

The BBC will meet with BSkyB today in an attempt to negotiate the cost of keeping its channels listed in their current position on the satellite broadcaster’s electronic programme guide. Last week the BBC announced its intention to withdraw from the BSkyB service to begin broadcasting to Sky homes from a different satellite, in a… Continue reading BBC Seeks Satellite Listings Agreement With Sky

UK magazine group, Highbury House, has this morning confirmed the acquisition of Front publisher, Cabal Communications, for up to £10 million (see Highbury House To Buy Cabal Comms, As Profits Rise 9%). As announced earlier this week, at the time of Highbury’s financial results, the group will pay £8.0 million upfront in cash and shares,… Continue reading Highbury House Confirms Cabal Acquisition

BSkyB has signed a new, five year, £600 million credit facility which is being used to cancel its existing £750 million facility, the group said today. The satellite broadcaster says that total available facilities are now valued at £800 million. This will reduce to £600 million from June 2004, in line with the anticipated reduced… Continue reading BSkyB Signs New

Initiative Media‘s global, country by country advertising forecasts for 2003 are shown here in full for reference. Reports on the UK figures can be found UK Advertising Forecasts From Initiative Media; global figures are Global Advertising To Grow 4.5% In 2003, Says Initiative and the US figures are US Adspend To Rise 3.5% In 2003,… Continue reading Global Country By Country 2003 Ad Forecasts From Initiative Media

Worldwide B2B e-commerce revenues will top $1.4 trillion by the end of this year, according to E-Commerce Trade and B2B Exchanges, a new study from eMarketer. The report claims that many B2B exchanges increased recurring revenues last year and will see further growth in 2003. “Industry leaders from the technology industry have led the way… Continue reading B2B E-Commerce To Be A Trillion Dollar Industry In 2003

Online console gaming subscriptions will be worth $650 million in the US by 2007, according to a new report from In-Stat/MDR. The group says that there is some ‘real money’ to be made in the online gaming industry and that broadband service providers particularly would do well to act soon to make the most of… Continue reading US Online Gaming Subs To Reach $650m In 2007