The private equity firm Apax is understood to be favourite to buy Emap’s business-to-business publishing business as bidding moves to the second round. Guardian Media Group is involved with the Apax bid, with the second round also seeing bids from private equity houses Cinven and Candover, joint owners of German publishing group Springer. According to… Continue reading Apax Now Emap Favourite

All-star period drama, Cranford, was a winner once again for BBC One last night with an average adult audience of more than 7.1 million.The programme, which stars big names like Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton, gave the channel a 28.1% viewing share between 9pm and 10pm, whilst BBC Two screened the final episode in Charlie… Continue reading More Than 7m Tune In To Cranford

Jay Hunt, Five’s director of programmes, has been appointed controller of BBC One.She replaces Peter Fincham, who resigned following the Wyatt Report into the ‘Crowngate’ affair (see Fincham Quits Following Queen Doco Shocker).Hunt, who only took up her job at Five in September (see Five Announces New Director Of Programmes) was previously BBC controller daytime… Continue reading Jay Hunt Appointed BBC One Controller

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) have drawn up a new set of guidelines for advertisers who use celebrities to endorse products.The two watchdogs said firm evidence was needed to back up any claims, even if the celebrity is an expert on the subject.Earlier this year, an… Continue reading Ad Practice Committees Draw Up Celeb Endorsement Rules

Ofcom’s Consumer Panel has raised “urgent, practical issues” about how digital switchover is being publicised, saying that a better promotional campaign is needed to inform consumers about the help they can get to go digital.The report says that Britain’s most vulnerable TV viewers are not getting the information they need to make a smooth switch… Continue reading More Publicity Needed Around Switchover To Help Consumers

ITV has reportedly suffered a 50% fall in phone votes for its hit programme The X Factor following the premium-rate phone-in scandal.A report in the Daily Record claimed that voting levels had fallen by half since last year, with a resulting loss in revenue of around £10 million.A Deloitte report published last month found that… Continue reading The X-Factor Suffers 50% Fall In Phone Votes

ZenithOptimedia has predicted that global ad expenditure will grow 6.7% in 2008, up from 5.3% this year, thanks to the Olympic Games, elections in the US and European football. Developing markets have taken over as the main contributors to global advertising expenditure growth, said Zenith, compensating for slow growth in developed markets. The media planning… Continue reading Global Ad Market To Grow In 2008

Europe still leads the world IPTV market, according to (Multimedia Research Group) MRG’s new biannual forecast, while Asia and the “Rest-of-World” see emerging markets like China, Eastern Europe, Korea and Russia taking larger steps to growth. Growth for IPTV Subs projected from 13.5 million in 2007 to 72.6 million in 2011, roughly a 40% compounded… Continue reading Europe Still Leads World IPTV Market

US Ad expenditures for newspaper websites increased by 21.1 percent to $773 million in the third quarter versus the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). This is the fourteenth consecutive quarter of double digit growth for online newspaper advertising since the NAA started reporting online… Continue reading US Online Adspend Grows 21.1% In Q3

Last night saw Welsh songbird Cerys voted off I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, with the first instalment of the show, on ITV1 at 8pm, picking up a peak of 6.1 million adult viewers (a 28.1% share).The second instalment, at 10pm, did even better, with a peak of 6.4 million adults (a 32.2%… Continue reading I’m A Celebrity… Pulls In The Viewers