The media market in June saw a number of forecasters analysing advertising expenditure, in both the US and UK, with online shown to be surging in popularity both in terms of share of adspend and the growth of the number of homes with access to the internet. Early in the month, figures from JupiterResearch predicted… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – June 2005

Revenues for residential voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in North America are predicted to expand considerably over the next few years, increasing to over $4 billion by 2010, up from $295.1 million in 2004, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan. The research group estimates the number of residential VoIP lines to increase… Continue reading Residential VoIP Revenues Forecast To Increase To Over $4 Billion By 2010

British publishing firm, Pearson, has made upbeat predictions for its performance throughout 2005, stating that pretax loss for the first half of the year was lower than expected, leading to confidence in the company achieving “strong growth” in 2005 as a whole.Pearson, which publishes the Financial Times and Penguin books, recorded a pretax loss of… Continue reading Pearson Delivers Confident Predictions For 2005

Omnicom’s pooled buying arm, OPera Media, has announced the departure of its radio director Jonathan Gillespie, who leaves the firm with no new position to take up, ending his relationship with the company he joined at its launch last year.The radio chief’s departure is believed to have been amicable, with Gillespie now taking a break… Continue reading OPera Radio Director Steps Down

A new channel, dedicated to combat sports, is set to launch on Sky at the end of January, giving viewers easy access to boxing, wrestling, kickboxing and martial arts.Fight+ will feature a mix of live fights, lifestyle programming, films and documentaries, available for a monthly subscription of around £3 per month.The service also plans to… Continue reading Dedicated Fighting Channel Set For January Launch

The Guardian has dropped its yearly subscription charges for digital editions of the newspaper, instead allowing customers to pay for content in one-off payments, with some access packages costing as little as £1.50.The move, which also sees annual subscription costs to The Observer abandoned, is designed to make the newspapers’ online editions more easily accessible,… Continue reading Guardian Drops Subscriptions For Digital Edition

GMG Radio’s Smooth FM is to begin airing football coverage from August, with the station’s first sports-coverage provided by a deal with Chelsea FC to carry full commentary rights for the next three seasons.The deal marks the first time that all of Chelsea’s games will be broadcast in London on FM, and signals the first… Continue reading Smooth FM Signs Up For Chelsea FC Coverage

British publishing firm, Pearson, has made upbeat predictions for its performance throughout 2005, stating that pretax loss for the first half of the year was lower than expected, leading to confidence in the company achieving “strong growth” in 2005 as a whole. Pearson, who publishes the Financial Times and Penguin books, recorded a pretax loss… Continue reading Pearson Makes Upbeat Predictions For 2005

RTL’s acquisition of a 100% shareholding in Five earlier this week has sparked rumours of a takeover bid from the company for Telewest’s programming arm, Flextech. RTL secured complete control of Five after agreeing with United Business Media to acquire the outstanding 35.4% shareholding for £247.6 million (see RTL Seizes Full Control Of Five). The… Continue reading RTL Buyout Sparks Five / Flextech Bid Rumours

The latest estimates from internet research specialist, Point Topic, suggest that over 11 million people now use retail voice over IP (VoIP) services for at least some of their phone calls, marking an increase from just over five million in mid-2004. Point Topic’s figures are based upon the publicly available number of total VoIP subscribers,… Continue reading Worldwide VoIP Subscribers More Than Double