ABN Amro has upgraded its rating on satellite broadcaster BSkyB from Add to Hold this morning, saying that it has ‘excellent fundamentals’ which are offset by potential technical and regulatory risks. This, says the broker, positions Sky as an ‘interesting dilemma’. BSkyB’s shares have underperformed the market by around 13% in the year to date… Continue reading ABN Sees ‘Interesting Dilemma’ In BSkyB

Digital Broadcasting Company (DBC), parent group of the u>direct pay-TV service, has gone into liquidation, according to reports. It is thought that financial backers, which include Pearson and News Corp, were unwilling to put any more cash into the business. U>Direct, which launched in June 1999, broadcast a range of sport and movie pay-per-view services… Continue reading U>Direct Parent Goes Into Liquidation

NTL has confirmed that it now has 1m digital subscribers and is on track to meet its target of 1.25m by the end of the year. The announcement establishes NTL as a serious contender to ITV Digital which recently rebranded from ONdigital in an attempt to attract viewers. NTL recently announced it expects to achieve… Continue reading 1 Million Now Subscribe To NTL Digital

Global advertising and communications group, WPP, has acquired Forward, a UK contract publishing company which specialises in direct customer communications programmes, for an undisclosed sum. Forward’s clients include Tesco, Egg, British Airways Holidays and Halifax. It reported revenues of £23.2 million in the year to 31 March 2001 and had net assets of £2.1 million… Continue reading WPP Acquires Forward

United Business Media (UBM) announced that Bernard Gray, previously the group strategy director, has been appointed as chief executive of CMP Information, UBM’s UK-based professional media business, with immediate effect. He will be responsible for the next phase of CMP Information’s development, the company said. United’s profits were hit in the first half by falling… Continue reading UBM Appoints CMP Information Chief

ABN AMRO has downgraded its full year forecast for UK media from 0.4% to -1.6%, following the release of data from AC Nielsen MMS indicating that in June the market slipped 13.7% year on year. The broker says its revised forecast reflects “the increasing likelihood that there will be no significant second half recovery.” At… Continue reading Insight Analysis: ABN AMRO Downgrades UK Media Forecast With No H2 Recovery

The global m-commerce market will grow considerably over the next four years according to new research by Cahners In-Stat Group. M-commerce in 2000 represented $264 million, generated by 9.2 million wireless subscribers. This figure is due to grow slowly between now and 2005 with the exception of the Japanese market which is set to rocket.… Continue reading ‘Generation Y’ Key To M-Commerce Success, Says Cahners In-Stat

Whilst recent RAJAR figures reveal a continuing upward trend in UK commercial radio listening (see Forecasts), this has not been converted into revenue as figures for Q2 show a decline in ad revenue of 14.5% when compared to Q2 2000. National advertising fell by 18.6% but this drop was offset slightly by a fall of… Continue reading UK Radio Q2 Ad Revenue Falls By 14.5%

By 2006, there will be nearly 250 million mobile subscribers in the United States, according to “US Cellular Market Forecast 2001 – 2006”, a report by Strategy Analytics. Handset purchases are forecast to top 154 million by this date and penetration is forecast to reach 50% of the population by 2002. New equipment and services… Continue reading US Mobile Users Will Top 250 Million In 2006, Says Strategy Analytics

New research from Jupiter MMXI reveals the value of online teens to European marketers. Currently, teenagers represent 12% of the European online population and are spending a significant and increasing amount of their time online. In June 2001, 12 – 17 year olds in Europe spent nearly 8 hours online representing an increase of 2… Continue reading European Teens Are A Valuable Audience For Online Marketers, Says Jupiter