Ulster Television (UTV) significantly outperformed the ITV Network during the calendar year, despite the period representing the ‘worst advertising downturn in living memory’, chairman John McGuckian will tell the company’s AGM today. UTV ended the year on a record share of ITV advertising, according to the statement. In Q1 2002, ITV’s ad revenues were down… Continue reading Ulster TV Outperforms ITV, But Outlook Remains Unclear

An advertising recovery is ‘brewing’ but is ‘percolating’ slowly, according to Lauren Rich Fine, an advertising and publishing analyst with Merrill Lynch. The broker says that most media (in the US) are doing better than it had expected, although this still represents a ‘crawling out of the hole dug last year, rather than true incremental… Continue reading Slow Ad Growth Percolating, Says Merrill Lynch

Pre-tax profits at the Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) fell by 9% to £65.2 million in the half-year ended 31 March 2002, the group announced this morning. Turnover fell by 1% to £950.0 million. DMGT says that weaknesses in the world’s principal economies have had an negative impact on most advertisers. “The downturn has… Continue reading DMGT Profits Dip 9% In First Half

Interim results released by Granada this morning revealed net advertising revenue down 12% for the first half of 2002 and the company said that the market outlook remained unclear. Advertising revenues are set to rise for May (14%), June (7%) and July (6%), thanks to the boost in advertising provided by the World Cup. Granada… Continue reading Granada Profits Hit By Ad Downturn, No Outlook Beyond July

The UK consumer businesses saw surprisingly buoyant advertising revenues in March, but this has not continued, according to the first half financial results of Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), which were released this morning (see DMGT Profits Dip 9% In First Half). The company says that April proved to be a tough market for… Continue reading DMGT Sees No 2002 Ad Improvement

There is still no visible end to the current slump in advertising spend, said Europe’s largest newspaper publisher, Axel Springer, according to a report from the World Advertising Research Centre. The report cites Springer’s CEO, Mathias Döpfner, as saying it is the biggest crisis to hit print media since the Second World War. The company’s… Continue reading Axel Springer Sees No End To Ad Slump

Current radio trading in the UK remains uncertain despite a degree of stabilisation in the advertising decline, according to analysts at Merrill Lynch. UK trading appears erratic on a monthly basis with no definitive pick up, says the broker. “March was very strong (possibly boosted by an early Easter) while April was poor (the inverse… Continue reading UK Radio Trading Remains ‘Erratic’, Recovery Expected In H2

European digital television (DTV) will show solid growth over the coming years, despite ‘recent market turmoil’, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics (SA). Despite the high profile failures of ITV Digital in the UK and Quiero in Spain, Strategy Analytics says that digital terrestrial TV (DTT) will continued to play a ‘limited role’,… Continue reading European Digital TV Will Show Solid Growth Despite Setbacks

United Business Media’s US high-tech publishing division, CMP Media, has published advertising data for April which show volumes down 20.7% compared to a market down 36.1%. This is the latest in a trend of decline for the US technology publishing advertising market which has seen volumes fall by 41.1% in the year to date; CMP’s… Continue reading CMP Outperform High-Tech Market, But Ad Volumes Down 21% In April

UK magazine and website publishing group, Future Network, has cleared its debt burden, chairman Roger Parry told the company’s AGM this morning. The news follows a tough financial period for Future which was forced to close publications and reduce headcount in order to make cost savings (see Games Mags Recovery Could Drag Future Out Of… Continue reading Future Network Shakes Off Debt