Confidence in the European media industry looks set to continue this year, indicating that the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) arena will be worth watching in 2005, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report released yesterday. PwC, the audit and corporate finance group, is anticipating in excess of 110 transactions in 2005,compared to the number of deals… Continue reading Confidence In European Media To Fuel M&A

The Advertising Association’s (AA) forecasting skills have today been criticised by IPC Media, warning that the industry body’s advertising expenditure predictions could be misleading. Questioning the Association’s ability to make accurate forecasts, in a letter written to Media Week, Christina Hartley, IPC’s group ad marketing director, says: “The latest 2005 figure for the sector [consumer… Continue reading AA Forecasting Criticised By IPC

Media and communications group, Aegis has announced the appointment of Robert Lerwill as chief executive, taking over from Doug Flynn who has held the position since 1999.Lerwill, who will take over the role in late March, is currently a non-executive director of Aegis, joining the Group’s board in 2000. Prior to working at Aegis, Lerwill… Continue reading Aegis Announces Successor To Flynn

Golden Wonder is teaming up with the leading provider of SMS marketing services, Text Marketer, to launch one of the biggest ever prizes via an on pack SMS competition, offering Golden Wonder customers the chance to win one of 25 Beetle convertibles.The competition called “Crack the Keycode” will see consumers play to win one of… Continue reading Golden Wonder And Text Marketer Team Up To Offer SMS Competition

Cable and Wireless owned broadband provider, Bulldog is introducing the first pay as you go 4 Megabits per second broadband plus service, enabling users to pay only for the time they spend online.Bulldog has introduced two new services, Start@ctive and Call@ctive, which are specifically designed for the budget conscious home user, offering the benefits of… Continue reading Bulldog Introduces Fastest Pay As You Go Broadband Service

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) has awarded its BOB awards (Best of the Best) to five agencies for producing consistently outstanding work throughout 2004.Bartle Bogle Hegarty was awarded Best Creative Agency for a large company, while Wieden + Kennedy was awarded the Best Creative Agency for a small firm, after its work on… Continue reading IPA Announces BOB Awards

Guardian media group (GMG) owned radio station, 100.4 Smooth FM is launching on Sky Digital later this month, giving it a country-wide broadcast reach. The station, which currently services the north west of England, will be available on channel 878 from Valentines Day, 14 February.The latest audience research, released last week, reveals that quarter four… Continue reading Smooth FM To Broadcast Nationally

Media and communications group, Aegis has announced the appointment of Robert Lerwill as chief executive, taking over from Doug Flynn who has held the position since 1999. The current chief executive of Aegis, Doug Flynn, will be joining Rentokil Initial as chief executive. During his time at Aegis, Flynn proved instrumental in developing the management… Continue reading Aegis Announces New Chief Executive

The start of 2005 saw independent media communications specialist, Carat, releasing its global advertising growth forecasts for the coming year. The agency group predicts that global advertising expenditure will grow by 4.9%, as advertisers show few signs of cutting media budgets. However, Carat cautions that while the market is currently healthy, the price of oil,… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – January 2005

BT unveiled a set of proposals to stimulate the UK’s telecoms industry, claiming that lower wholesale prices, faster broadband services and transparent, highly regulated access to its local network will provide faster and more exciting services to consumers and businesses.The proposals have been made in response to the latest stage of Ofcom’s Strategic Review and… Continue reading BT Proposes Transparent Broadband To Avoid Break-Up