Carlton Communications and Granada have today confirmed plans to change the structure of ITV, including a radical overhaul of the jointly-owned digital terrestrial broadcaster, ONdigital. Stuart Prebble will become chief executive of the Network, which will now operate three main businesses – ITV channels, ITV Digital and ITV.com. ITV Digital is the rebranded name for… Continue reading Granada And Carlton Bring ONdigital Under ITV Brand

Global advertising and communications group Omnicom has posted strong financial results, with a particularly good first quarter coming from the US. Across Europe the performance was more mixed. In Europe overall organic growth was 12.6%, with the lowest regional growth coming from the UK at 5%. Germany saw 10%, France 10% and the Netherlands 15%.… Continue reading Omnicom Shows Strong US Growth In Q1 Results

Press reports claim that Vivendi Universal has agreed to merge its loss-making Italian pay-television division, Telepiù, with Stream – a rival broadcaster owned by News Corporation and Telecom Italia. The Financial Times reports that the merged business will retain the Telepiù name and will be owned two thirds by Vivendi’s Canal Plus one third by… Continue reading Italy’s Telepi

A number of recent press reports suggest that the deadline for bids on the troubled EMAP USA business may be this week. So far, Hachette Filipacchi, Primedia and American Media have all been put in the frame as potential suitors of the business. EMAP confirmed that it has received a number of approaches for the… Continue reading EMAP USA Bids Expected Soon

News and information group Reuters has this morning posted a strong set of financial results that show first quarter revenues rising 17% to £970 million. However, chief executive Peter Job warned that growth in the second quarter would be at a “slightly lower rate”. The group says that good performances at its Reuters Financial and… Continue reading Reuters Stock Falls On Slower Q2 Warning

Media group Vivendi Universal yesterday issued first quarter operating results in line with market expectations, which show that the group is ahead of schedule to meet cost savings of €200 million by the year end. Revenues grew by 10% to €5.9 million and EBITDA more than doubled to €900 million, pushed by a €293 million… Continue reading Vivendi ‘Defensive’ Against Ad Slowdown

Marketing spend is on the increase despite forecasts of a recession within the industry, according to the latest Bellwether Report. Twice as many companies raised their marketing spend than cut them in the first quarter of this year. The report, which is published by the IPA and tracks actual client spending intentions within the economy,… Continue reading Bellwether Report: Marketing Spend On The Rise, Says New IPA Survey

Internet advertising in the United States recorded $2.2 billion in revenue for the Q4 2000, bringing total online revenue for the year to $8.2 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Internet Ad Revenue Report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. While the $2.2 billion shows an increase of 9% over the $1.986 billion for the Q3… Continue reading US Online Adspend Hit $8.2 Billion In 2000

In a recent report, the analysts at Ovum claim that the currently unexploited web hosting market is set for a huge boom as companies realise the importance of an online presence and look to hosting companies and ISPs for solutions. “Users are not getting the message about web hosting benefits and are often confused about… Continue reading Web Hosting Will Be Worth $46.9b By 2006, Says Ovum

The Federal Communications Commission in the US has amended its merger rules so that one of the four major television networks can now acquire the smaller, ’emerging’ networks, UPN and WB. The four majors – ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC – could each now take control of one or both of the emerging networks. The… Continue reading FCC Allows Major US TV Networks To Buy ‘Emerging’ Networks