Big stories in radio in 2008 included the uncertain future of DAB, Global Radio’s takeover of GCap Media and the birth of Absolute Radio.The year began with GCap rejecting a bid from Global Radio, thought to be worth about £310 million (see GCap Turns Down Global Radio Takeover Bid DAB Dealt A Blow As Gcap… Continue reading 2008 round-up: Radio

British consumers pay more attention to print ads rather than online ads, according to Deloitte’s new Media Democracy survey into the media consumption habits of Brits aged between 16 and 74. The study found that 59% of consumers pay the greatest attention to print ads in magazines, while 56% pay more attention to ads in… Continue reading Consumers pay more attention to print ads than online ads

Daily Sport publisher Sport Media Group has posted a pre-tax loss of £18.2 million for the year to the end of July, after stripping £20.7 million off the value of its assets, due to the current market conditions. SPMG was forced to write down the value of Sport Newspapers, which it bought for £50 million… Continue reading Sport Media Group records £18.2m pre-tax loss

Cross-media audience measurement is a better indicator of newspaper reach than just print circulation, according to a gathering of media measurement organisations from around the world.At a meeting in New York of the Media Measurement Integration Task Force participants acknowledged that advertisers and agencies continue to rely on print circulation as a measure of a… Continue reading Newspaper task force examines cross-media audience measurement

Samsung has signed a landmark deal with Yahoo! which will see the companies launch a series of flat screen HD TVs this spring allowing users to access the internet while watching TV.Thanks to the Yahoo Widget Engine, UK users will be able to surf the internet and access services such as Flickr, YouTube and eBay… Continue reading Samsung and Yahoo! to launch internet enabled TVs

US internet users viewed 12.7 billion online videos during November, representing a year on year increase of 34%, according to a new report from comScore. Google sites again ranked as the top US video property, with nearly 5.1 billion videos viewed (representing a 40% share of all videos viewed) in November, with YouTube.com accounting for… Continue reading American online video viewing rises

Annual revenues from the global mobile market will top $1.03 trillion by 2013, when the number of subscriptions worldwide will have risen to more than 5.3 billion, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. From end-2007 to end-2013, the global mobile market will see huge growth, increasing in size by over half (56%), according to the… Continue reading Global mobile revenues to top $1 trillion by 2013

The US market research firm eMarketer has released a new report outlining its key predictions for 2009, predicting that the internet will be a buyers’ market this year. According to eMarketer, US marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. Besides the internet’s accountability and targeting, which permit… Continue reading Internet to be a buyers’ market in 2009

Lord Carter, the new minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, is expected to recommend the relaxation of rules on local media ownership in order to stop further job losses. One of the main recommendations in Lord Carter’s interim Digital Britain report, due to be published this month, will focus on helping newspaper groups by allowing… Continue reading Local media ownership rules expected to be relaxed

A merger of Channel 4 and Five would not be approved by competition authorities, according to a new report by Enders Analysis.The report says that if previous rulings are taken into account – such as those on the merger of Carlton and Granada, BSkyB’s 17.9% stake in ITV and Project Kangaroo – it is unlikely… Continue reading Channel4/Five merger “would not be approved”