The break up of on- and offline media giant AOL Time Warner will not be recommended by a three-month strategic review of the company, to be presented to the Board this week, according to a report in this morning’s Financial Times. The paper says that there have been calls for the merger between America Online… Continue reading AOL Time Warner Review Will Not Recommend Break-Up, Says FT

Market information group, Taylor Nelson Sofres, is entering into a joint venture with one of Greece’s leading information and consulting services companies, ICAP A.E., the company announced this morning. The joint venture company, to be known as TNS ICAP A.E., will provide market information to clients in sectors including consumer, telecoms, automotive, banking and finance.… Continue reading Taylor Nelson Enters Greek Joint Venture

Based on ‘continuing positive market indications’, mainly from the upfront advertising bookings which commenced in earnest this today, Jack Myers Report has published revised and slightly more positive US forecasts both for the autumn upfront and for the calendar years 2002 and 2003. The more optimistic outlook comes just a month after Myers found evidence… Continue reading Myers Upgrades US Ad Forecasts Following Promising Upfronts

According to the latest figures from Nielsen//NetRatings, the number of home internet users has grown by about 7% between Q4 2002 when at-home net users totalled 498.2 million (see Online Population Continues To Grow) and Q1 2002 when the figure reached 531.3 million. The report First Quarter 2002 Global Internet Trends also revealed that email… Continue reading Global Home Internet Population Keeps Growing

Executives in the UK radio sector had been planning for consolidation from within the industry in order to achieve audience growth and revenue enhancement through cross-selling and cost-reduction, a radio dinner held by analysts at Merrill Lynch was told. However, the broker believes that the prospect of a small number of pure UK radio groupings… Continue reading UK Radio: Cross Media Synergies More Likely Than Consolidation, Say Analysts

BSkyB added 171,000 satellite subscribers to its service in the first quarter of 2002, bringing the total to 5.9 million, the company announced in its interim financial results this morning. Sky Digital is now by far the dominant digital, pay-TV operator in the UK in terms of subscriber numbers, following the close of ITV Digital… Continue reading BSkyB Shows Good Growth In Q1, No Plans For Radio Or TV Expansion

Total magazine advertising revenue for April was $1,530,036,790, a 2.5% decrease on last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Ad pages for April were 20,317, down 10.8% on last year. April revenue increased 11% over that of March and year-to-date advertising revenue decreased by 5.0%, closing at $4,815,804,645. Total ad pages were 66,906,… Continue reading US Magazine Revenue Falls 2.5% in April

The advertising and public relations market place remains ‘very weak’ according to a trading statement from Chime Communications posted this morning. In its preliminary announcement in March, Chime said that market conditions had not improved (see No Recovery Until Second Half Says Chime Communications) and this has continued to be the case for the first… Continue reading Chime Sees ‘Very Weak’ Market Conditions

Chrysalis Radio has outperformed the rest of the radio industry, the group said this morning announcing its interim financial results. Overall radio revenues were flat at £22.7 million for the six months to 28 February 2002. This compares to a 12% decline for the industry over the same period, said Chrysalis. Pre-tax profit swung into… Continue reading Chrysalis Sees Stronger Radio Revenues, Outlook Remains Uncertain

Trinity Mirror said it has pulled out of the deal to sell eight weekly titles to Johnston Press (see Deadline For Johnston/Trinity Decision Extended). Trinity received consent from the Department of Trade and Industry on 3 May to transfer four East Midland local papers the sale of a further four papers was blocked. Consequently, Trinity… Continue reading Trinity Mirror Backs Out Of Sale Of Titles To Johnston Press