BSkyB has completed the acquisition of British Interactive Broadcasting Holdings (BIB), the company which owns and operates the Open interactive TV service. Sky has bought out BT’s stake in BIB, after the telecommunications company decided to exercise its option to exit the group, following Sky’s acquisition of HSBC and Matsushita’s holdings last week (see City… Continue reading BSkyB Completes Open Acquisition

Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) this morning said that it has discontinued offer talks for the group, at least ‘for the time being’. The announcement comes as the group completes the Goldman Sachs-led strategic review which began in December last year. In recent months, the Board has been in discussions with a number of parties which… Continue reading Scottish Radio Ends Takeover Talks As SMG Declines To Reveal Its Intentions

The latest radio audience figures, for the three months to March 2001, showed BBC Radio notching ahead its lead over the commercial sector quarter on quarter. This is a continuation of a trend that began around a year ago when then BBC stations took their share over the 50% mark and commercial dropped back to… Continue reading Insight Analysis: BBC Radio Continues To Build Advantage

The divide between the strongest and weakest Internet companies in Europe is widening according to the latest edition of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Internet 150, a rolling quarterly analysis of cash burn rates and share price performances of the top 150 publicly listed European internet companies. The top 25% of companies in the index are, on average,… Continue reading European Internet Market: Divide Grows Between Rich And Poor

According the first National Internet Study by Scarborough Research, 23% of online consumers said that they watch less television now than they did before they started using the internet. Although 50% of internet users reported that a tv was on in the room where the internet was used most often and 91% said that they… Continue reading TV Viewing In Decline As Net Popularity Increases

It is thought that talks will be initiated this week regarding the integration of Carlton and Granada’s new media divisions. Simon Shaps, managing director of Granada Broadband and Duncan Eaton, marketing and strategy director at Carlton Interactive are expected to meet with Stuart Prebble, chief executive of ITV to discuss the structure of ITV.com. Plans… Continue reading Carlton And Granada New Media Departments To Plan ITV Web Presence Boost

Stock in BSkyB dropped heavily yesterday following the group’s interim financial results (see BSkyB To Cease Analogue Broadcast This Summer), to end down 52p (6.1%) at 804p. Shares continued to fall as trading opened this morning; they were down a further 11p to 793p by midday. Whilst Sky’s figures were in the main strong, with… Continue reading BSkyB Financial Results – Reaction

The costs of investing in internet development are showing at Chrysalis Group, as interim financial results for the six months to 28 February, show a group-wide pre-tax loss of £5.6 million. Chrysalis spent £9.1 million on new media activities, giving an operating loss of £4.8 million (compared to a £1.1 million profit for the same… Continue reading New Media Costs Push Chrysalis Into The Red

News Corp, parent to News International and BSkyB in the UK, released its financial results last night, showing a net profit after tax of $127 million, down slightly on the $193 million of last year. The fall was principally due to a weaker Film market, according to analysts at ABN Amro. Newspaper revenues, however, were… Continue reading Newspapers And BSkyB Strong For News Corp

Cable group NTL has this morning announced a quarterly revenues increase of 6% to £622 million, for the three months ended 31 March. At the same time EBITDA increased by 32% quarter on quarter to £86 million. Earlier in the week the group’s wholly-owned subsidiary, NTL Communications Corp, placed $1 billion worth of Convertible Notes;… Continue reading NTL Raises Cash For The Future