Mediaset, the Italian television group, is understood to have re-entered the auction for Kirch Media, the German media division of the collapsed Kirch empire (see News Corp Out Of The Running For Kirch, Says Report). According to the Financial Times, Mediaset has joined a consortium bid involving leading French broadcaster TF1 and US billionaire investor,… Continue reading Mediaset Rejoins KirchMedia Auction
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Channel 4 and Channel 5 are understood to be preparing to approach competition regulators to prevent the creation of a single ITV on the grounds that it will control too much of the TV advertising market. Carlton and Granada announced plans to merge earlier this month ending a period of intense speculation about the future… Continue reading Rival Commercial Broadcasters Challenge ITV Merger
Consumers’ use of the internet to handle billing and account management is set to reach a 45% penetration of the US adult population by 2005, according to forecasts from Gartner Dataquest. The report shows that 22% of US adults will be using online billing and account systems by the end of this year, up from… Continue reading Online Billing Systems To Become Increasingly Popular
US broadband service providers attracted 1.3 million new subscribers during the second quarter of 2002, according to a new study from Jupiter Media. Approximately 13.1 million households or 21% of all online households now connect to the internet using a high speed connection. In the report, Broadband User Segmentation: Understanding and Targeting the Broadband Audience,… Continue reading Broadband In 13 Million US Homes, Says Jupiter
Less than half of all UK employers know how long their staff are online and in many cases, employees are free to use the internet for non-work purposes. These are the conclusions of a new report from the ISP Star Internet. The survey found that only 43% of bosses were aware of the amount of… Continue reading Employers In The Dark On Internet Usage
Vivendi Universal has entered discussions with its bankers in an attempt to secure the funding necessary to take control of Cegetel, the French telecoms firm. A report in the Financial Times claimed that the indebted media group plans to head off a challenge from Vodafone and launch a bid for BT’s 26% stake in Cegetel.… Continue reading Vivendi Seeks New Funds For Cegetel Bid
Premiere, the German pay-TV operator that was held responsible for the collapse of the Kirch Group, has announced a sharp fall in third quarter losses as it attempts to attract a buyer (see Struggling Premiere Goes Under The Hammer). A cost cutting programme instigated by chief executive Georg Kofler saw net losses go down by… Continue reading Premiere Boss Steadies The Ship
ITV Digital, the defunct pay-TV operator, has been put into liquidation and the trail of creditors which includes BSkyB, the Football League and Crown Castle International will see little of the £1.25 billion due to them. Liquidator Grant Thornton has valued the company’s remaining assets at £27.3 million, a paltry sum compared with the £1… Continue reading ITV Digital Creditors Lose More Than £1 Billion
Trinity Mirror’s revamp of the Mirror and other main national titles is unlikely to result in any substantial increase in circulation, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. Responding to a Trinity Mirror analyst meeting last night, the broker says that whilst the rationale behind the strategy is sound (adding that something does need to be… Continue reading Mirror Revamp Unlikely To Bear Fruit In Declining Sector, Say Analysts
There was some good news for the US newspaper advertising sector yesterday as two major publishers reported positive results for the third quarter of the year. The New York Times Company (NYTC) talked of a steady improvement in advertising and circulation revenues and posted profits up 35% on ad revenues up 3.6% during September; circulation… Continue reading US Newspaper Groups See Ad Pick-Up In Q3