The rising costs of fuel, coupled with increases in airfares, helped to push UK inflation to a five-month high during November, according to figures released today by the Office for National statistics.According to the ONS, the consumer prices index was up by 0.3% in November to 1.5 compared with 1.2 in October. Meanwhile the underlying… Continue reading Rising Fuel Costs Drive Inflation To Five-Month High

The US telecom giant Verizon Wireless has won the backing of its partner Vodaphone to put in a bid for its rival company Sprint. Sources close to the deal have said that Verizon has been studying a potential mobile deal for 18 months. The announcement comes just days after industry reports said that US wireless… Continue reading Vodaphone Says OK to Verizon Bid For Sprint

Advertising expenditure in the UK totalled £3,610 million in the third quarter of 2004, according to the Advertising Association (AA), with cinema surprisingly being the fastest growing medium, increasing by 23.1%, despite declines in the first two quarters of 2004. However, results for this quarter excluded the Internet which is forecast to be the single… Continue reading Cinema Surprise Adspend Leader In Q3 2004

Sales of digital radio sets look likely to soar past one million units by January next year, exceeding earlier predictions, according to a BBC report released yesterday. The BBC has asked the Government to extend its plans to review the progress of DAB digital radio for three years, saying that the digital radio market, industry… Continue reading DAB Digital Radio To Exceed One Million By 2005

Three of the nation’s largest commercial television broadcasters, ITV, Channel 4 and BSkyB, have announced plans to create a marketing organisation to boost the profile of small screen advertising, following in the footsteps of the Radio Advertising Bureau and ploughing funding worth £1 million into the new venture.The as yet unnamed organisation will be responsible… Continue reading Commercial TV Giants Form Ad Marketing Bureau

The reality showdown between ITV and the BBC on Saturday night ended in the Corporation’s Strictly Come Dancing final romping home with victory, attracting nearly one million more viewers than the final show of ITV1’s X Factor.Direct comparisons between the two shows are difficult as they were both split into two halves, and screened at… Continue reading ITV Loses Saturday Night Reality Showdown With BBC

A multi million dollar merger between US wireless operators Sprint and Nextel is still undecided despite unnamed sources saying the companies are close to the deal. If the merger were to successfully progress, the combined company would be worth about $70 billion and have around 39 million subscribers, making it the third largest player in… Continue reading Sprint And Nextel Deny Merger

CVC Capital Partners, the private equity group is reported to be in the early stages of plotting a possible take over bid for UK Newspaper publishing group Trinity Mirror PLC. CVC is said to be analysing the company to see how much it would be worth paying for. Recently Trinity Mirror has seen its share… Continue reading Rumours Of Trinity Mirror Takeover By CVC Capital Partners

Merrill Lynch has revised its 2005 US advertising spend forecast downwards to 4.8%, compared to its November prediction of 5.2%. While political spending in 2004 will have certainly created difficult comparisons for 2005, Merrill Lynch believes the slower growth anticipated for next year is only in part due to this. The research group estimates that… Continue reading Merrill Lynch Conservative In US Ad Forecasts

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising council has nominated David Pattison, worldwide chief executive of PHD Network to succeed Stephen Woodford of WCRS as president of the IPA.Pattison is the first media agency chief to be nominated for the position, expected to undertake the two year tenure from April 2005 if elected. The announcement comes… Continue reading Pattison Nominated As New IPA President