The launch of Celebrity Big Brother gave Channel 4 a ratings boost last night, with 5.8 million adults tuning in on average to see this year’s contestants enter the famous house.The programme beat off competition from both the BBC’s terrestrial channels, as well as Five, but was topped by ITV’s Doc Martin, with an audience… Continue reading Big Brother Launch Sees Success For Channel 4

BSkyB and Microsoft have announced plans to forge a deal, allowing the broadcaster to launch a video-on-demand (VoD) service for computers and furthering its reach into the broadband marketplace.The partnership will give BSkyB subscribers who own PC’s with Microsoft’s Media Centre software the ability access VoD through Sky’s new Sky By Broadband Service, with service… Continue reading BSkyB Signs Deal With Microsoft To Provide VoD

Media regulator Ofcom has awarded a new FM licence covering Warwick, Leamington Spa, Kenilworth and the surrounding areas to CN Group, allowing the company to begin broadcasting in the area.The new licence covers an area with an adult population of around 100,000. However, the exact coverage will be determined by the location of the station’s… Continue reading CN Group Scoop Warwick FM Licence

Highbury House Communications is expected not to receive more than £5 million for the sale of its magazines, according to sources close to the publisher. A report in this mornings Times claims that the proceeds of the sale of the titles would only pay back a small portion of the £30 million debt that crippled… Continue reading Highbury Magazines May Raise Only £5 Million

Specialist business publishing and information company, Centaur Holdings, expects to see a rise in overall revenues of 7% for the six months ended 31st December 2005, compared to the same period last year. According to the company’s trading statement, the growth has been led by increased advertising revenues, in particular from magazine display advertising and… Continue reading Centaur Predicts Revenue Rise Of 7%

In November, Government watchdog, Ofcom, released shocking figures detailing the expected cost to the consumer of the digital switchover, scheduled for 2008 to 2010. According to the regulator, late adopters of digital technology will have to pay a collective sum of up to £572 million in order to prepare themselves for the impending digital switchover.… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – November 2005

In December a number of key industry bodies released forecasts for the state of the advertising industry over the next few years, with the Advertising Association (AA) getting the ball rolling, predicting a substantial rise of up to 43% in advertising expenditure between now and 2017. The AA’s report, compiled by the World Advertising Research… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – December 2005

October saw different technologies emerging in the television marketplace, with the MediaTelINSIGHT TV Technology seminar bringing the issues associated with these to the forefront of a heated and topical discussion. The seminar identified six main technologies transforming the television arena; personal video recorders (PVRs), video on demand (VoD), high definition television (HDTV), interactive TV (iTV),… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – October 2005

The majority of younger adults now use picture messaging and the mobile internet, with the latest findings from the UK Mobile Media Monitor study showing that 36% of mobile phone owners now use their phones to send and receive picture messages, up from 21% at the same time last year. The study, conducted by global… Continue reading UK Mobile Users Embrace Picture Messaging

Paid Search is predicted to generate more than $14 billion globally in 2006, enjoying an increase of 41% from the estimated $10 billion that it made in 2005, according to a new report from Piper Jaffray. Leading the way in the paid search arena is Google, expected to grow its net revenues by more than… Continue reading Paid Search To Reach $14 Billion Worldwide In 2006