UK cable group NTL has been cleared by a US Bankruptcy Court to begin the financial and organisational restructure of the business, which previously sat on top of a £12 billion debt mountain (see NTL Revenues Fall Slightly As Recapitalisation Approaches). The company’s emergence from the US’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection will allow it to… Continue reading NTL Is Cleared For Reorganisation

Analysts at Merrill Lynch have slightly downgraded their 2003 forecasts for US and global advertising growth, warning that further downgrades are more likely than upgrades. The broker says that in its previous forecasts in June it was modestly raising the figures, believing this was an err on the conservative side. Now, it is reducing the… Continue reading Merrill Lynch Lowers 2003 US And Global Ad Forecasts

Cordiant Communications is expected to name David Hearn, head of its Bates Worldwide unit, as group chief executive, replacing Michael Bungey, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It is expected that Bungey’s departure will be announced tomorrow, along with the group’s financial results (see Bungey Expected To Leave Cordiant Comms). Cordiant has… Continue reading Hearn Expected To Succeed Bungey At Cordiant

Telewest Communications’ planned disposal of its 16.9% stake in Glasgow-based media group, SMG, has been passed by shareholders at the cable company’s Extraordinary General Meeting. Cob Stenham, chairman of Telewest said: “Any disposal of our interest in SMG would form part of our efforts to address the Group’s funding position. We wish to preserve the… Continue reading Telewest Set For SMG Disposal, Denies More Redundancies

Less than one third of mobile phone users plan to upgrade their phones to third generation (3G) enabled units, throwing further clouds over the supposed new wave of revenue for the telecoms industry (see Insight Analysis: 3G Promises Unfulfilled). A new report from A.T. Kearney and Cambridge Business School has found that whilst 61% of… Continue reading 3G Is A Turn-Off With Consumers, Finds Study

Almost half of all homes in the US, Canada and Latin America region will have switched to digital television (DTV) by 2007, according to a new forward-looking report from Zenith Optimedia Group. According to a report by the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC), the Television In The Americas To 2007 study shows that whilst DTV… Continue reading TV In Americas Outlook To 2007 From Zenith Optimedia

Future Network, the troubled games and specialist publishing group, has moved into the black in the first half of this year, with a pre-tax profit of £0.9 million, compared to a loss of £106.8 million for the same period last year. The group describes the first half as demonstrating ‘important progress’. “The business is debt-free,… Continue reading Future Network Moves Into The Black In First Half

First half earnings at pan-European broadcasting group, RTL, were down by 23.0% due to the very weak television advertising market in Europe, the group announced this morning. Group revenue rose by 5.1% to E2.1 billion, but underlying revenue fell by 2.0%. RTL sees continued difficulties in the advertising market conditions, with the German market down… Continue reading RTL Sees No Ad Improvement As Earnings Tumble

Half of UK business were online in 2001, according to the first stage of results from the Office for National Statistics’ 2001 e-commerce survey of 12,000 businesses. The report shows that the larger a business, the more likely it is to be online: 46% of the smallest businesses use the Net, compared with 98% of… Continue reading Half Of UK Business Online In 2001, Finds ONS

Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 98.7 million units in the second quarter of 2002, up 0.8% year on year, according to Gartner Dataquest. Analysts said there are signs that the mobile phone industry has reached a point of stability and is positioned for stronger growth, following a relatively subdued period. Nokia continued to dominate worldwide… Continue reading Mobile Phone Sales Start To Pick Up In Q2, Says Dataquest