s share prices continue to tumble at Pearson, both Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and ABN Amro have downgraded their outlooks for the media group. Much of the fall in Pearson’s figures comes from European broadcaster RTL, in which Pearson holds a 22% stake. RTL yesterday reported an interim loss of ₏2.2 billion (see RTL Postpones… Continue reading Pearson Downgraded As FT And RTL Outlooks Deteriorate

The number of internet advertisements in Great Britain fell slightly month on month for July, by 2.1% from 13,719 to 13,433, according to Lemonad. The number of advertisers and campaigns also declined slightly according to the figures. Since December last year the number of internet ads has declined by 5.4%. There was a peak in… Continue reading Online Advertising Trends From Lemonad

Pan-European free-to-air broadcaster, RTL, has this morning released interim financial results in line with expectations, saying that core businesses are ‘performing strongly in difficult advertising market conditions’. Nevertheless, analysts at ABN Amro are expecting to downgraded their full-year 2001 forecasts for the group, given the poor advertising visibility in the European broadcasting sub-sector. Pre-tax loss… Continue reading RTL Postpones Float As Results Are Hit By Ad Slowdown

Havas Advertising has once again extended the deadline on its offer to buying agency Tempus. The original 541p-per-share offer made by Havas (see Tempus Shares Soar On Havas Takeover Reports) expired at the beginning of the month (see Havas Moves In On Tempus)and was extended until 17th September. Havas has now extended this deadline to… Continue reading Havas Extends Deadline On Tempus Offer Once Again

Jack Myers, chief economist at Myers Reports, says that last week’s devastating attack on the US could have serious negative short-term affects on the media there, but will most likely have positive long-term implications for several media companies. A few weeks ago Myers published a worse case scenario set of advertising forecasts for 2001, predicting… Continue reading Worse Case Scenario Gets Worse, Says Myers Reports

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics have revealed an unexpected rise in inflation, which exceeded the Government’s target level of 2.5% for the first time in over two years. The underlying rate of inflation was 2.6% during August, up 4% points on the previous month. Falling car and petrol prices are thought… Continue reading Inflation Rate Reaches Unexpected High

Scottish Radio Holdings’ (SRH) Score Press has sold the Title Media division and its subsidiary Ireland on Sunday Ltd, which publishes the Ireland on Sunday newspaper, to Associated Newspapers for £7.4 million cash, the company announced this morning. SRH, which has built up a portfolio of 41 local weekly titles over the last six years,… Continue reading Scottish Radio Sells Ireland On Sunday To Associated

Shares in Carlton Communications were down by 29p (13.5%) by midday today, whilst Granada stock was off 9Âźp (9.1%), following downgrades to ITV recovery forecasts by both HSBC and ABN Amro. “The summer has passed and the slowdown in ITV advertising continues unabated,” says ABN. The broker is now forecasting a 15% decline in ITV’s… Continue reading ITV Downgraded Again, Carlton And Granada Stock Falls

The US Federal Reserve has just announced a 0.5% point cut in interest rates in what is a concerted move to prop up trading on Wall Street today. The cut, from 3.5% to 3.0%, came only one hour before trading is set to resume. Investors around the world will still be looking anxiously toward Wall… Continue reading Insight Analysis: Can Traders Stabilise The Market As Wall Street Reopens?

For media stocks the short- to medium-term situation is now looking even worse than it did before the tragedy in the US, when there was already a worry of impending full-scale recession. Advertising levels are likely to drop as media devote much of their space to coverage of the events now unfolding in the States… Continue reading Insight Analysis: Media Stocks Show Across The Board Declines As Outlook Deteriorates