As expected, radio and sport internet company TeamTalk has acquired an 80% stake in the Atlantic 252 radio station. The interest has been sold by pan-European broadcaster RTL, with the remaining 20% in Atlantic held by Irish state broadcaster RTE. The acquisition of the Atlantic stake, for £2 million, represents a considerable addition to Teamtalk’s… Continue reading TeamTalk Takes 80% Stake In Atlantic 252

BSkyB has reached an agreement with German media group, Kirch Pay-TV, not to exercise its rights to sell its minority stake in Kirch until 2003, according to a report in this morning’s Financial Times. BSkyB, owned ultimately by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, holds a 22% stake in Kirch. It has the right to sell this… Continue reading BSkyB To Hold Off Sale Of Kirch Stake, Say Reports

Dow Jones, the US publishing group which owns the Wall Street Journal, has reported Q3 financials slightly ahead of previously lowered figures, but warned that the final quarter could be down on estimates if the current market conditions continues, as is expected. The WSJ has seen its advertising revenues substantially knocked so far this year… Continue reading Tough Ad Market Continues To Hit Dow Jones

NBC, the US broadcasting network owned by General Electric, has agreed to buy Hispanic broadcaster Telemundo for $2.7 billion (£1.9 billion) in stock and cash. The deal gives NBC a good foot-holding in the fast-growing Spanish language market.

Rupert Murdoch has said that his media company, News Corporation, will lose £69 million as a result of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Speaking at the company’s annual meeting in Adelaide, Australia, he told shareholders: “Advertising is going through a very uncertain time. We have been in a recessionary period for the last… Continue reading News Corp Loses £69m Following Attacks

According to press reports this morning SMG has offered all of its employees voluntary redundancy as part of a cost-cutting exercise following a drop in profits for the first half of this year of over 30% (see SMG Profits Stung By Ad Slowdown). In order to avoid forced redundancies, SMG has given its employees until… Continue reading SMG Offers All Employees Voluntary Redundancy

After months of negotiation, global media group WPP has now announced that it is seeking the consent of the Takeover Panel to invoke the material adverse change condition in relation to its offer for Tempus Group (see WPP Poised To Make Counter Bid For Tempus) In a statement issued this morning, WPP said that it… Continue reading WPP Seeks Escape From Tempus Deal

The majority of advertisers do not feel that the UK is facing a recession and marketers are fairly upbeat about the outlook, according to the Advertiser Survey 2001 conducted by Media Audits. However, the survey was conducted several months before the attacks on the US on 11 September and was originally published the week before.… Continue reading Most Advertisers Remain Positive On Outlook, Shows Survey

Jack Myers, chief economist at Jack Myers Reports, has today set out his predictions of the impact of technological developemnts in the television industry, claiming that interactive TV (iTV) is extremely important to the future of media and advertising. In this morning’s report, Myers says that investment and education in iTV technologies and capabilities is… Continue reading Interactive TV Is Vital To Advertisers’ Future, Says Myers

Despite the unstable state of the US economy, eMarketer forecasts a healthy outlook for for online shopping in its new eCommerce: B2C Report. The report analyses forecasts from over 100 researchers and, from this, eMarketer estimates that US B2C ecommerce revenues will grow from $38.3 billion in 2000 to $156 billion by 2005. US B2C… Continue reading B2C eCommerce Forecasts From eMarketer Shows Continued Growth In Online Shopping