European advertising growth is expected to grow by over 4% in the next year and overtake the US, according to a revised outlook from ZenithOptimedia. The media agency has today announced that it has updated its European advertising forecast to 4.2% from 3.7%, after its 2003 Europe-wide prediction of 1.8% was beaten when growth reached… Continue reading European Ad Market To Grow By Over 4%

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has earmarked £600 million worth of non-core businesses to sell off, including its 5% share in French multimedia company, Thomson SA. According to a report in the Sunday Independent, ITV plans to sell numerous assets from Carlton Screen Advertising, which sells adverts shown at cinemas, to stakes in top Premier League… Continue reading Sale Of ITV Businesses To Raise £600 Million

The UK’s two cable TV giants, NTL Europe and Telewest, are being urged by shareholders to begin merger talks to form a single company with a market value of $7 billion. According to a report in the Observer, shareholders are pushing for the talks to begin this autumn to bring together more than 1.5 million… Continue reading NTL And Telewest Shareholders Urge $7 Billion Merger

This morning, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a statement to the London Stock Exchange stating that ITV’s proposed acquisition of Scottish Media Group’s 25% stake in GMTV may be referred to the Competition Commission for investigation. The statement invites feedback about any competition or public interest issues to be sent to the OFT… Continue reading GMTV Acquisition May Be Referred To Competition Commission

City stockbroker’s have added further fuel to the rumours surrounding the alleged consolidation between Capital Radio and GWR Group, after a meeting with the finance director of Capital, left the team convinced ‘the two companies are far into negotiations’. The media team at stockbroker Panmure Gordon caught up with Peter Harris on Wednesday and said… Continue reading Capital And GWR In Merger ‘Negotiations’

ITV is planning to create new versions of several classic drama series in an effort to increase ratings and win back viewers.The broadcaster has confirmed its intention to create the new programmes, with Inspector Morse, Sharpe and Rumpole of the Bailey understood to be in the planning stages.A spokeswoman for ITV said: “They are very… Continue reading ITV To Rescue Ratings By Resurrecting Classics

In a new report, Point Topic estimates that spending from businesses on broadband value added services (BVAS) helped push the worldwide broadband market through the $50 billion barrier early this year. The report, Broadband Money-Makers Service, says that value-added services, which include both broadband applications and the platforms which enable the applications to work, have… Continue reading Extra Broadband Services Help Push Market to $50bn

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has predicted that faster broadband connection is set to fuel growth in the video games market, which is expected to generate a staggering $55.6 billion revenue by 2008. Gaming will see a 20.1% annual gain globally by 2008 thanks to fast broadband and wireless expansion over the next few years, which will act… Continue reading Broadband To Fuel Video Games Growth

Following several recent turnarounds on the outlook of radio advertising revenue, Merrill Lynch has today announced that it has also revisited the US TV revenue forecast and now expects this to outperform all previous predictions to grow by 8.3% this year. The global analyst group said, several factors contributed to its boost in confidence, including… Continue reading US Political Spending Boosts The TV Outlook At Merrill

Although the number of video-on-demand (VOD) users continues to rise, a new report from In-stat/MDR says, consumer interest remains lukewarm due to pricing and content concerns. A recent survey from the research group revealed that although 80% of US households were familiar with VOD services, the take-up rate was only 8%. In-stat said that this… Continue reading VOD Interest Lukewarm But Uptake To Soar By 2008