Charles Allen, former ITV chief executive, has joined the board of Virgin Media, taking on his second non-executive directorship in the TV industry this week. On Monday, Allen joined Big Brother producer Endemol as a non-executive director (see Charles Allen To Make TV Industry Return). The ex-chief executive of ITV, who resigned from the broadcaster… Continue reading Charles Allen Joins Virgin Media Board

Trinity Mirror is to close seven local papers and nine satellite offices in North Wales and the North West, putting 30 jobs at risk. In the summer, Trinity Mirror warned that advertising revenues were falling faster than at any time in the past two decades. The UK’s largest regional newspaper group said that it was… Continue reading Trinity Mirror To Close Seven Local Papers

Informa Telecoms and Media’s latest forecast predicts that 67 million digital TV households will be added worldwide in 2008. This figure will bring the worldwide total to 343 million, putting digital penetration of TV households at 24% by year-end. The North American penetration rate will exceed 77%, with Western Europe at 63%. A further 62… Continue reading 67m Digital TV Households To Be Added In 2008

After a slower start, the United States has caught up with Western Europe in the adoption of 3G, with 28.4% of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices versus 28.3% in the largest countries in Europe. According to a new report from comScore, the number of US subscribers with 3G enabled devices has grown 80% to… Continue reading US Adoption Of 3G Devices Catches Up With Western Europe

More than 70% of UK digital video recorder (DVR) owners say that they cannot live without their machines, according to a new survey commissioned by NDS. According to the survey, which asked respondents to rank relative importance of a list of household appliances, apart from the washing machine and the microwave oven, no other household… Continue reading 70% Of DVR Owners Say They Can’t Live Without It

Broadcasters are working on an ultra-high definition format called Super Hi-Vision, which has a resolution 16 times higher than a full HD image.The IBC show in Amsterdam is staging the first demonstration delivered by satellite, which is a collaboration between public broadcasters NHK of Japan, RAI in Italy and the BBC in the United Kingdom.The… Continue reading Broadcasters Demonstrate Super Hi-Vision

Charles Allen, former ITV chief executive, is set to return to TV as the non-executive director of Endemol, producer of Channel 4 reality show Big Brother. Allen is to join the board of the Dutch TV producer following his appointment as senior adviser to the private equity division of investment bank Goldman Sachs. He is… Continue reading Charles Allen To Make TV Industry Return

The US Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has sent a letter to anti-trust regulators opposing the online search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo!. The ANA claims that the deal will give the two companies control of 90% of search advertising in the US. Bob Liodice, the president and chief executive of the ANA, said… Continue reading US Advertising Body Opposes Google/Yahoo! Deal

The latest analysis from Screen Digest reveals a TV industry in a downward spiral of economic slowdown, advertising recession, deflated prices and audience fragmentation. Three of the big markets are suffering the most. In the UK, despite outperforming a sluggish advertising market in the first six months of the year, ITV’s full year guidance points… Continue reading New Report Looks At Challenging Times For TV Markets

Following on from Magic 105.4’s user-generated content (UGC) ‘Magic Good Mood Film’ TV advert, the station is launching a new ad using photos of the station’s listeners.Airing from September 7 to the end of October 2008, the new 30-second advert taps into the massive response by listeners to upload personal photos that make them smile… Continue reading Magic 105.4 Launches New Ad Featuring Listeners’ Photos