Channel 4’s plans for a racing channel were revived today when it announced the submission of a £750m bid for the broadcasting rights to Britain’s 59 racecourses, as part of a consortium with BSkyB and Arena Leisure. Under the name of Go Racing, the three have this morning presented a rights proposal to racecourse executives,… Continue reading C4’s Racing Plans Back on Track

The battle for Express Newspapers moved up a notch yesterday when the Hinduja brothers formally submitted a bid of more than £120m for the group. Described as “aggressively priced”, it was lodged in response to a similar offer from the Daily Mail & General Trust, and it is believed that a full-scale auction for the… Continue reading Hindujas and DMGT Go Head-To-Head For Express

Trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers has cleared all three bid proposals for regional newspaper publisher Regional Independent Media. Byers said that a transfer of RIM’s newspaper titles to either Gannett, Johnston Press or the Guardian Media Group would not operate against public interest. The three put forward bid proposals for RIM, which owns the… Continue reading Byers Clears RIM Bid Proposals

Trinity Mirror has today announced the acquisition of Southnews for £284.6m. The combination of the two regional newspaper groups will increase Trinity’s presence in the South East of England, a lucrative area for advertisers. Under the deal Southnews shareholders will each receive £12.00 per share in cash, a premium of 57% on yesterdayÂ’s closing price.… Continue reading Trinity Mirror Buys Southnews For £284m

A new report by Jupiter Media Metrix indicates that America’s dominance of the Internet industry may be slipping. The study, which covers markets in Australia, the US, Germany, France, and the UK, estimates that 245 million households worldwide will be online by 2005. It also predicts that the vast majority of growth, as well as… Continue reading US Dominance Of Net May Be Slipping

The number of visitors to online retailers has jumped by 72% since the beginning of the year, according to research by MMXI Europe. The study shows that the number of unique visitors to retail sites has increased by almost two million from 2,533,000 in January to 4,366,000 in September. Despite a small number of high… Continue reading Traffic To UK B2C Sites Grows

According to IDC, Western European banks see mbanking as a top priority and, as such, are beginning to make major investments in it. IDC estimates that banks in Western European will spend up to $43 million in the next year developing mbanking services. “Recent improvements to wireless technologies are paving the way to further development… Continue reading Mobile Banking Is Top Priority for European Banks, Says IDC

Broadband internet users are likely to spend more online than those using modem dial-up connections, according to a new report by the Gartner Group. The research predicts that by 2006 a quarter of US households will spend more than $10,000 each via the Net – 75% of them will use broadband access. Broadband connections are… Continue reading Broadband Users Will Spend More Online

Consumers continue to use old media to find information about the internet, according to new research from the Telegraph Group. More than half of respondents said that they were as likely to ask friends or consult newspapers to find out information on the internet as they were to use the net itself. Newspapers were the… Continue reading New Media Still Relies On Old Media, Says Survey

The Advertising Association released its latest adspend predictions yesterday and warned traditional media owners that the threat from technology would be felt imminently. Although overall increases in spend are expected, the breakdown of expenditure for different media is set to undergo its most radical change. Newspapers, in particular, are thought to be at threat from… Continue reading Press And TV The Greatest Casualties Of New Media, Says AA