GfK are reported to be in talks with private equity firm Cinven to make a joint bid for TNS. The battle for UK research group is developing following last weeks competing bid from WPP at £1.08 billion forcing GfK and TNS to cancel their planned nil-premium merger last week (see TNS And GfK In Merger… Continue reading GfK Aiming For Joint Bid for TNS

After a bad day in the stock market today, Trinity Mirror shares plunged down 18% in one day, taking the shares down to just 55.5p. According to reports on Brand Republic, the publishing company has lost 90% from its share price during the last year. Shares in July last year were up to ten times… Continue reading Trinity Shares in New Low

ITV’s shares rose this morning by 8% to 41.4p following reports in the weekend papers linking Endemol to ITV. John de Mol, co-founder of Dutch production company Endemol, responded to weekend reports that Endemol might be interested in ITV by saying that a combination with ITV could make sense, but all would depend on the… Continue reading ITV Shares Rise On Back Of Speculation

The Q2 2008 Bellwether Report was released today, with the third consecutive quarter of cuts and to the greatest extent since 2001. Disappointing sales, rising costs and growing economic gloom were cited as reasons for companies cutting marketing budgets and it expects further cuts later in the year. All sectors within marketing have seen cuts,… Continue reading Largest Marketing Budgets Cuts Since 2001

Over two-thirds (68%) of the 60 million television sets in the UK are now digitally linked via cable, satellite or digital terrestrial, according to new figures from Ofcom published today. The Digital Progress Report for the first quarter of 2008 shows that the total number of digitally-linked sets has grown by around seven million from… Continue reading 68% Of UK TV Sets Now Digital

The Evening Standard saw its circulation fall by around 1.5% from May to June, a decrease in real terms of almost 5,000 copies.The title now has a circulation of more than 295,000 copies.Evening freesheets thelondonpaper and London Lite saw their circulations remain relatively static month on month, at almost 501,000 and 401,000 copies respectively.Morning freesheet… Continue reading Evening Standard’s Circulation Down Month-On-Month

CBS Outdoor has made two appointments to its dedicated digital division, Alive. Matt Harris has been brought in to head up the digital delivery team and will be responsible for scheduling content to all sites. Harris has previously worked at ITV, Sky and Channel 4. He will report directly to Nicky Cheshire, sales director of… Continue reading CBS Outdoor Makes Two Appointments To Digital Division

German market research firm GfK has announced that there is no certainty it will be making an offer for TNS. The clarification follows yesterday’s £1.082 billion bid for TNS from Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group. TNS rejected the takeover bid, saying it “substantially undervalues TNS, even on a standalone basis” (see TNS Rejects WPP Takeover… Continue reading No Certainty Of GfK Offer For TNS

Online advertising for retail brands delivers the biggest effect in the media mix, driving 40% of brand engagement, compared with press (31%) and TV (19%), according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) cross-media Brand Engagement study. The fourth study of its kind, conducted by ævolve (formerly Carat Insight), set out to quantify the impact… Continue reading Online Ads Drive User Engagement

Last weekend’s British Grand Prix build up and race saw ITV’s Formula One website grab 1.5 million page views and over 400,000 unique users, according to the broadcaster.Video views were also up, with ITV saying that almost 150,000 F1 fans watched clips across the weekend.Recent online figures announced by Jeff Henry, MD of ITV Consumer… Continue reading ITV.com A Winner For Formula One Fans