Ofcom has officially announced an inquiry into the use of premium-rate telecoms services (PRS) in television programmes.The inquiry will be lead by Richard Eyre, non-executive member of the Ofcom Content Board, and will include input from ICSTIS, the premium rate phone line regulator, which is already investigating some cases (see ICSTIS Outlines Plan To Tackle… Continue reading Ofcom Announces Phone-In Investigation

Virgin Media and Setanta Sports are in senior level talks about launching a rival channel to Sky Sports News, according to reports in Broadcast.A source at Setanta told the publication that talks had begun between the companies and that teaming up would be an obvious strategy.“It makes a lot of sense,” said the source. “Setanta… Continue reading Virgin And Setanta Join Forces For Sky Sports News Rival

The recent Simultaneous Media Survey, conducted for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association by BIGresearch, showed that consumers in the US were most motivated to begin an online search after viewing ads in magazines (47%), with ads on TV (42.8%) and reading articles (43.7%), also scoring highly. The survey also showed that women were more… Continue reading Search Motivations Of US Consumers

The UK could lose between £4.1 billion and £15.6 billion in private and social value if high definition channels on the Freeview platform are not developed, according to research for the BBC. Consultant Indepen said the loss included the cost to viewers in switching to other platforms to get HD as well as the impact… Continue reading UK To Lose Billions If HD Channels On Freeview Not Developed

National TV networks and local broadcasters are increasing their use of addressable advertising products, and are also expanding their plans for addressable advertising on their internet portals, according to new research from In-Stat. In-Stat said that with the explosion of video, especially broadcast TV programming, flooding onto the internet, national networks and local broadcasters have… Continue reading Addressable Advertising To See Growth

The market value for massively multiplayer online games in the West hit $1bn for the first time in 2006, according to a new report from Screen Digest. Screen Digest says that the North American subscription market was worth $576m, while Europe was worth $299m. Subscription services dominate in the West, accounting for 87% of the… Continue reading Multiplayer Online Games Market Sees Value Grow

Online research firm eMarketer estimates that online ad spending will reach $36.5 billion in 2011. Emarketer says that at varying points over the next three years, Forrester Research, JupiterResearch, Oppenheimer, PricewaterhouseCoopersn and Borrell Associates actually see positive growth slipping into single digits for the first time since the dawn of internet advertising in the 1990s.… Continue reading Online Adspend To Increase

Telecoms giant Vodafone has admitted that 11,500 text votes for Saturday’s Dancing On Ice final on ITV1 were not counted due to a technical error.The votes were not delivered to ITV until Monday morning and customers involved will be refunded the cost of their texts this week, the company said.ITV has said that these delayed… Continue reading Dancing On Ice Finale Misses Out On 11,500 Text Votes

Consumer awareness of digital switchover is still low, with a “drastic boost” needed, according to the head of communications at price comparison website uSwitch.com.Steve Weller’s comments follow last week’s announcement by Ofcom suggesting that less than half of Britons are still using the traditional analogue technology on their televisions.Research carried out by uSwitch suggests that… Continue reading Consumers Not Switched On To Switchover

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, stood up at 12.30pm to reveal his tax and spending plans for the next year, in what is likely to be his last budget presentation. Key points of Iron Gordon’s eleventh budget are as follows…Inflation will fall to 2% this year. In 2008 and 2009 inflation will also be… Continue reading Budget 2007 Coverage – The Chancellor’s Speech Live