Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, has signed an agreement to sell its French newspaper Les Echos to LVMH. Staff at the paper had opposed the €240m (£167m) cash deal, arguing that there were inadequate guarantees of editorial independence. There were also concerns that Bernard Arnault’s ownership of LVMH could create conflicts of interest for… Continue reading Pearson Agrees To Sell French Newspaper

Private equity firm Cinven has pulled out of the race for Emap’s consumer magazine division, apparently unhappy with the £700m price tag. This weekend’s Times reported that Cinven was not willing to pay anywhere near the £700 million asking price in a “challenging” magazine market. However, the report also says that the American media group… Continue reading Cinven Pulls Out Of Emap Consumer Magazine Bidding

Sunday night saw ITV1’s A Room With A View outperform the new drama from Stephen Poliakoff, Joe’s Palace, on BBC One.The adaptation of the EM Forster novel had a peak of 5.2 million adult viewers in its 9pm timeslot, a 22.2% share of the audience.Joe’s Palace, on BBC One at 9pm, had a peak audience… Continue reading 5.2M Adults Flock To A Room With A View

Freesat, the BBC and ITV backed free to view satellite service, has made key senior appointments ahead of its launch.Simon Winder takes up the finance director role after joining from Chrysalis, where he was group finance manager, and will be responsible for the finance, HR, IT and company secretary departments.Joining him is the Digital Television… Continue reading Freesat Makes Senior Appointments

The recent airing of television’s dirty laundry with phone-in scandals and declining audience trust has considerably damaged the industry, according to new ITV MD of global content, Dawn Airey.Speaking last week at the Promax Branding and Marketing Conference, Airey said: “This year the media spotlight shone into the darkest corners of the industry and what’s… Continue reading Airey Says TV Viewer Trust Can Be Restored

The Mail on Sunday is set to relaunch in the New Year, with the paper breaking in to two main sections in a bid to attract a new crop of younger readers.The Associated Newspapers title will distribute the two sections alongside its magazines You and Live!. There will be a main news section, and a… Continue reading Mail On Sunday Set To Relaunch

More than 4.8 billion text message were sent during September 2007, an average of over 1.2 billion each week, according to the latest figures released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). Britons are demonstrating an increasingly voracious appetite for the medium, as this equates to the same number of messages sent during the whole of… Continue reading More Texts Sent In September 2007 Than The Whole Of 1999

Business broadband value-added services (BVAS) are making an increasingly important contribution to overall broadband revenues, according to a new report from Point Topic. By the end of the year, value-added services were adding 42% to basic business broadband access revenues, up from 31% the previous year. Proportionately, therefore, business BVAS revenues make a larger contribution… Continue reading Broadband Value-Added Services Making Important Contribution To Revenues

A new forecast from Canalys predicts that worldwide IPTV subscriber levels will increase more than tenfold by the end of the decade, growing from fewer than 4 million in 2006 to almost 40 million in 2010. Europe, the Middle East and Asia accounted for two-thirds of global IPTV subscribers at the end of 2006, said… Continue reading Worldwide IPTV Subscriber Levels To Increase More Than Tenfold

Sky has announced an 11% increase in group revenue for the six months to the end of September, to £1.19bn. The satellite broadcaster added that its adjusted operating profit of £150m reflects very strong Sky+ customer growth, of 323,000 to 2.7 million. Sky also reported operating profit of £143 million, including a full first quarter’s… Continue reading Sky Reports 11% Increase In Group Revenue