Vivendi Universal, the indebted French media conglomerate, is set to receive a fillip in the shape of a E2.5 billion advance. This should satisfy creditors in the near future although the company’s long term prospects remain uncertain, according to a report in yesterday’s Observer newspaper. It is believed that a consortium of banks including BNP… Continue reading Vivendi To Be Thrown Financial Lifeline

Advertising conditions in the UK are beginning to improve, with ITV’s revenues showing some stable growth for the first time in many months (see Outlook Improves For ITV Advertising) and the year now predicted by the Advertising Association (AA) to show positive overall growth. In revised figures the AA is now expecting 2002 to turn… Continue reading UK Media Outlook From Merrill Lynch

Broadband take-up in the UK has more than doubled since the start of 2002, according to new figures released by Oftel. The telecoms regulator revealed that by the end of June, 709,000 consumers and small and medium-sized businesses had signed up for a broadband connection. This represents a major increase from December 2001 when there… Continue reading Broadband Britain A Step Closer, Says Report

ITV advertising revenues for July and August are continuing to look strong, after a boost in spending received by the Network during the World Cup last month (see Forecasts). With the recovery holding out for the foreseeable future, analysts at Merrill Lynch are upgrading their outlook for Carlton Communications and Granada. The broker is now… Continue reading Outlook Improves For ITV Advertising

As expected, the French publishing company Hachette Filipacchi has completed the acquisition of Attic Futura from the Australian printing group PMP in a deal worth £40 million (see Attic Futura Set To Go Continental). Attic Futura publishes six titles including the market leading teen title Sugar and the fortnightly gossip magazine Inside Soap. The company… Continue reading Hachette Buys Attic Futura For

Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal has posted a 13.9% fall in revenues, after being hit by what CEO Peter R. Kann describes as the most difficult global advertising environment of the last 30 years. Second quarter revenues came in at $417.0 million, down by 13.9% on the $484.1 million posted in the… Continue reading Dow Jones Continues To Feel Ad Sting

Figures from French publishing group, Lagardere, suggest that there is no recovery in advertising levels for US magazines, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. Lagardere has magazine publishing and other media operations in a number of regions around the world, so its figures provide some degree of yardstick by which to measure various markets. Merrill… Continue reading Lagardere Shows Poor Revenue At US Mags, No Improvement Before October

The 2002 projections issued by Universal McCann this week follow the trend of recent studies predicting a limited revival in advertising market conditions. Robert Coen, director of forecasting at the global media agency, anticipates an increase of 2.1% in US adspend and there is growing confidence about prospects for next year. In fact, Coen has… Continue reading Coen Predicts ‘Modest’ Adspend Growth

Broadband internet subscriptions in France topped the half-million mark during 2001, according to the country’s telecom regulator, ART. The number of subscriptions for broadband services trebled from 200,000 to 600,000 last year. One in ten Internet subscriptions in France are now for broadband connections. ART also found that Internet access costs fell by almost two-thirds… Continue reading Broadband Internet Taking Off In France

EMAP chairman, Adam Broadbent, today delivered a confident trading update to the company’s AGM, saying that trading expectations for the full year are achievable. In the group’s year-end results, released in May, EMAP stated that was cautiously optimistic for the full year performance of its businesses (see EMAP ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ On Future Trading). With the… Continue reading Consumer Mags Advertising Resilient, Radio Still Down At EMAP