BT has announced the appointment of Steve Norris as head of BT Vision Sport, with effect from April 1.Norris was previously vice-president of operations and production at TAJ Television, a Dubai based sports TV channels network. He will report to Marc Watson, BT Vision’s commercial directorHe was joint founder of TAJ Television in 2000, when… Continue reading BT Vision Appoints Head Of Sport

The ongoing merger talks between SMG and UTV have come to an end, with SMG abandoning the talks and appointing Rob Woodward as its new chief executive.SMG said that talks ended as a result of differing views over the level of SMG’s pension liabilities.SMG also appointed Richard Findlay, former boss of Scottish Radio Holdings, as… Continue reading UTV/SMG Merger Talks Abandoned

Former Virgin Radio presenter Martin Collins has been lined up as the next presenter of GMG Radio’s Smooth drive-time show.It is expected that Collins will begin broadcasting on Smooth on March 26, as part of a major revamp of the station’s daytime line-up.Last week GMG announced that Graham Dene had been recruited to front the… Continue reading Collins Goes From Virgin To Smooth

Virgin Media lost 37,000 customers in the last three months of 2006, according to a financial statement released by the company today.It telephony service had 64,300 net fewer subscribers, with Virgin Media putting this down in part to competitive pressure.Broadband saw strong growth in the number of subscribers, with net additions of 78,100 in the… Continue reading Virgin Media Loses Customers

Virgin Media saw its revenue increase to £1,081.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, up from £1,024.9 million in Q3. Year on year revenue growth in Q4 was £597 million, which Virgin Media says is due to the merger with Telewest and the acquisition of Virgin Mobile. Consumer revenue in the fourth quarter of… Continue reading Virgin Media Records Q4 2006 Revenue Increase

The imminent restructure of Emap’s consumer business will see jobs cut, according to Emap Consumer Media CEO Paul Keenan. Speaking at today’s MediaTel Group Future of Magazines seminar, Keenan said that the changes would see Emap stop doing a number of processes, which will in turn lead to job losses. However, Keenan stressed that the… Continue reading Job Losses To Come At Emap’s Consumer Business

All future episodes of the BBC cookery programme Saturday Kitchen will be broadcast live after the Corporation admitted that viewers were asked to phone in for a show they had no chance of appearing on.Viewers were asked to call in for a chance to appear on the next week’s show. However, the show was being… Continue reading Saturday Kitchen Goes Live After Phone-In Mistake

The BBC Trust has provisionally approved the launch of the Freesat service, which would give viewers free digital television via satellite.The Trust said that the service would create significant public value by giving licence fee payers an additional way to access digital television.The Trust decided that a Freesat service would have a positive impact by… Continue reading BBC Trust Approves Freesat Service

Emap, owner of Heat and Magic FM, has in the past few days been surrounded by rumours concerning an imminent restructure, with many at the company fearing job cuts.Emap is holding meetings with its staff over the coming days to discuss matters which arose from its operational review, announced in November, which examined the consumer… Continue reading Emap Restructure Could Face Seminar Spotlight

Virgin Media has disputed Sky’s claims that it has offered significant concessions and a new annual price of 90 pence per subscriber for the carriage of its basic channels.The two companies are negotiating over the price paid by Virgin Media to carry the basic Sky channels, which include Sky One and Sky Sports News (see… Continue reading Virgin Media Disputes Sky Price Claim