ITV has axed its high profile Celebrity Wrestling after just three weeks, citing an ever declining audience share as the reason for its demise.The show, pitted against BBC1’s Dr Who, suffered from the offset, with its debut appearance drawing a peak of 3.8 million although the programme’s audience regularly waned, dipping below the 3 million… Continue reading ITV Drops Wrestling As Ratings Hit The Floor

Reports this morning suggest an imminent consolidation of the UK’s cable TV industry, with operators Telewest Global and ntl believed to be preparing a £5.5 billion merger.The move would create a more unified rival to BSkyB’s dominant digital satellite service, with ntl employing Goldman Sachs to advise on the planned merger, according to today’s Times… Continue reading Cable Giants Mull Merger To Tackle Sky

Ulster TV (UTV) has made an official bid for the Wireless Group (TWG), offering £98.2 million for the company, equating to 91 pence in cash for each Wireless share.UTV directors believe that the acquisition of TWG will strengthen the company’s position as a TV and radio broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland.Commenting on the offer,… Continue reading UTV Offers £98.2 Million For Wireless Group

GCap Media formally began trading this morning, following the merger of Capital Radio and GWR, creating a single broadcaster with combined airtime sales accounting for almost 40% of the UK’s commercial radio market, based on total listening hours.The High Court cleared the way for the two companies to merge at the end of last week,… Continue reading GCap Begins Trading As Chrysalis Snaps Up Century

Ulster TV (UTV) has made an official bid for the Wireless Group (TWG), offering £98.2 million for the company, equating to 91 pence in cash for each Wireless share. UTV directors believe that the acquisition of TWG will strengthen the company’s position as a TV and radio broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland. Commenting on… Continue reading UTV Offers £98.2 Million For Wireless

GCap Media formally began trading this morning, following the merger of Capital Radio and GWR, creating a single broadcaster with combined airtime sales accounting for nearly 40% of the UK’s commercial radio market, based on total listening hours. The High Court cleared the way for the two companies to merge at the end of last… Continue reading GCap Media Begins Trading

Reports this morning suggest an imminent consolidation of the UK’s cable TV industry, with operators Telewest Global and ntl believed to be preparing a £5.5 billion merger. The move would create a more unified rival to BSkyB’s dominant digital satellite service, with ntl employing Goldman Sachs to advise on the planned merger, according to today’s… Continue reading NTL And Telewest Consider Merger

Mobile service providers are looking to increase the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of existing subscribers by convincing them to pay for mobile content services such as ringtones, game downloads and mobile television. The mobile video service arena is predicted to be invested in substantially by service providers, with research company Frost & Sullivan forecasting… Continue reading Mobile Service Providers To Deepen Mobile Content

Advertising expenditure is expected to rise by almost 5% this year and by nearly 4% in 2006, according to the latest figures from the Advertising Association (AA) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC). These estimates are more optimistic than previous figures released by the AA in its Advertising Forecast, which predicted advertising expenditure in… Continue reading UK Adspend Forecast To Rise 5% In 2005

The Middle East and North African region is starting to fulfil some of its long-held potential with a current digital television penetration rate of 56.2%, predicted to increase to 67.7% by 2010. According to Informa Telecoms & Media’s new Middle East and North Africa TV report, out of the region’s 52.5 million television homes, 29.5… Continue reading Middle East And North Africa Sees Growth In Digital TV