Media and information group, Reuters, has this morning posted a pre-tax loss of £88 million, with profits hit hard by losses at Instinet, the company’s electronic securities trading division. The figures cover the six months to 30 June 2002. Instinet saw operating losses of £5 million on revenues down by 38% year on year; the… Continue reading Reuters Tumbles Into H2 Loss, Hit By Instinet

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared Clear Channel UK’s acquisition of Scottish Radio Holdings’ outdoor advertising business, Score Outdoor, it was announced this afternoon. The deal was agreed in May for an initial price of £33.5 million cash (see Score Outdoor Sale To Create Third Force In UK Market).

Jean-René Fourtou, the new chief executive of Vivendi Universal, yesterday met with senior management for a strategic review amid speculation that he is planning to sell off parts of the debt-ridden media group. Vivendi is some E16.7 billion in arrears and talks over a financial rescue package are ongoing. Nonetheless, the FT reports that the… Continue reading Vivendi Assesses Break Up Options

US interactive spending by the consumer and business-to-business sectors is set to double in the next four years, according to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Spending on direct marketing with interactive media is set to reach $8.4 billion in 2006, an increase from the projected $4.04 billion for 2002. In the meantime, interactive media sales… Continue reading US Companies Turning To Interactive Marketing, Says DMA

Advertising and sponsorship on the internet is being allocated higher budgets by a majority of UK marketers in the second quarter of 2002, according to an analysis of data released by the Institute Of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) last week in its Bellwether Report (see Insight Analysis: Bellwether May Show Slowly Returning Confidence). In the… Continue reading Insight Analysis: Internet Remains A Very Small Proportion Of UK Marketing Budgets

The number of broadband households more than doubled during 2001, according to a new study from eMarketer. The report, Broadband & Dial-Up Access, claims that subscribers to the high speed service increased from 15 million in 2000 to 32.5 million by the end of 2001. Further expansion is anticipated with the worldwide broadband population expected… Continue reading Far East To Drive Broadband Uptake, Says eMarketer

Reports in the weekend press suggest that SMG is considering selling its television arm, which includes both Scottish TV and Grampian TV. According to the Independent on Sunday, SMG is looking to reduce substantial debts and sees the television interests as valuable assets which could raise over £400 million. Carlton Communications has already been linked… Continue reading SMG May Offload TV Business

The two commercial French television stations, TF1 and M6 are set to complete their takeover of the country’s second largest satellite operator, TPS. The duo are buying the 25% stake of the company owned by the utilities group, Suez for E160 million. TF1 will now have a two-thirds share in TPS with M6 owning the… Continue reading French TV Groups Swoop For TPS

US radio advertising revenues are expected to rise by 3.0%-4.0% in Q2 2002 and by 8.0%-10.0% in Q3, boosted by comparisons with the post 11 September period of last year, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. The broker says that July radio spend started strongly, with the beginning of the month showing high single-digit growth,… Continue reading US Radio And TV Revenues Showing Pick-Up

Business to business (B2B) media in the US remains in a slump as we move into the second half of 2002, according to an analysis by PBI Media’s MIN. The group reports that the expected pick-up in advertising pages and revenues has yet to emerge. Forecasts from Veronis Suhler Stevenson predict that B2B magazine revenues… Continue reading US B2B Mags Show Continued Slump Into Second Half